Tag Archives: Life

Why you should be in New Delhi this March!

03 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Art Of Living, General

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There I go – taking a hiatus again and this time it was only 6 months! I haven’t been into blogging for some time – maybe a writer’s block or something. But there is something that is to happen in New Delhi, INDIA this coming March which brings be to blog again. That is the World Culture Festival that is hosted by the Art of Living Foundation in New Delhi on March 11, 12 and 13th. I am going to be in New Delhi and I thought – wouldn’t it a good idea to let the know the world know why? And while doing that why not invite the whole world to it too?

| 3.5 Million people |

| Guinness Record for Largest stage ever |

| People from more than 15o countries |

| Former & Current Presidents of Countries |

| Business leaders from all over the World |

| Musicians and Dancers from across the Globe |

| Grandest Cultural Extravaganza in the WORLD |

| HISTORY to be MADE |

You getting the Picture?

Check out this Introduction to the World Culture Festival in New Delhi, INDIA this March 11- 13th.

The World Culture Festival is the largest interfaith gathering for peace! – Sri Sri

There have been many events which have changed the face of the earth through history. If you take a look at the last few decades, it has mostly been disasters, incidents of violence like gun shooting, political crisis, etc. There has not been any event on an international scale to celebrate peace, for love, for happiness. The World Culture Festival is JUST THAT.

This is a celebration of goodness. Good people from more than 15o countries are coming together to celebrate goodness, celebrate love, celebrate peace and celebrate humanity. In this time, where there are so much horror and violence are happening on our planet.

Good people, who are the majority in the world, do not make noise. This is a chance for good people to make noise. What better than all of us,good people, coming together to celebrate PEACE, LOVE, FREEDOM, HAPPINESS and LIFE. New Delhi in March 11-13th, 2016 is where meditation and celebration comes together to make a deafening noise for peace! An event to celebrate the diversity in cultures and unity in humanity.

What is the purpose of the World Culture Festival? In the words of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar himself-

1. To give a message to the world that the whole world is ONE Family.
2. That We can all co-exist with our differences together.
3. Opportunities for religious leaders, business leaders and many more to come together.
4. To let the world know that we care for the environment. We care for the rivers, mountains, plants, trees.
5. To encourage to traditional musicians and dancers. To give them a world platform to relish and enjoy that. This will be brought to the fore front.
6. That good people are there and are dynamic and active and care for LIFE.

Just Imagine 3.5 million chanting OM and meditating together. Regardless of whether you have learnt meditation or not, just being that space of so many meditating and chanting would be out of this world!

It is going to shift the consciousness of the whole world! Towards Peace and Love.

So what are you waiting for? The moment I heard that there is going a gathering of 3.5 million coming together to celebrate peace, I just knew that I cant miss this one! I booked my tickets straight away! More over, you might have an idea to visit INDIA some time in your life right?. What better time to visit INDIA than this March!

More information about the World Culture Festival here –  http://www.artofliving.org/us-en/world-culture-festival

All information for booking your travel to New Delhi this March can be done through this website – IwillBeThere.us

Now there might be some of us who really really wants to be there but genuinely can not make it for various reasons. Well, if you are one of these good people – you can still be a PART of this historical event by making a donation. Here is my crowdrise link where you can donate.

DONATE to be part of WCF – http://tiny.cc/wcffund

Whats more – March 7th is Maha Shivaratri! The day when universal divine energy comes closer to the earth. What better place to be than in the spiritual land of INDIA.

Please take this as a personal invitation from me to come to New Delhi this March! It is going to be historic, fun and an experience like you never had before! I want to end with saying this – Chalo Delhi! (meaning – Lets Go to Delhi!) See you there!

P.S. : – Share this with your family and friends and invite them too!

UPDATE : Just got the news that the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate the WCF and President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, will be at the closing ceremony!

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3 Types of Dhrutis by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

29 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in General

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This is a question that was asked in the satsang with Sri Sri in the Bangalore ashram. Enjoy!

Q: What are the three types of dhrutis that Lord Krishna mentions in the 18th chapter of Gita?

Sri Sri: Dhruti means that which upholds or sustains life. For many people, the mind goes hay wire, They cannot even sustain or tolerate a small insult. A little bit of imperfection they cannot tolerate. Sattvic dhruti is that which sustains the mind, life energy, and activities of the senses. That which helps you to be steadfast in your yoga. Not like one day you do yoga and next you go for bhoga. Not like that. That which upholds your senses, your life is sattvic dhruti. Rajasic dhruti is of the type when I get results then I will deliver. This sort of mindset where your enthusiasm is related to some little reward is rajasic dhruti. It could be related to Dharma or it may not be related. Any work that is taken with the intention of getting results, such as fasting to achieve some results. What is God going to get is you fast? 
Tamasic dhruti is one who sleeps a lot. That is most important for them. Nothing else. Very fearful. You look at their face, they are always down, depressed.
If you cannot get married, you are upset. You get married, you are upset. This is tamasic dhruti. Always regretful. That should not have happened. I should have had like that. After 40 years of marriage, they think they should have married someone else. And arrogance. And one is unable to get of this negativity in the mind. Some people try to get out of it, but they are not able to get out of it. Lazy people, who can sleep anywhere, any time. In Kerela, I heard about a person that he can sleep at the dining table while he eats. Once I stayed at such a person’s home. That person’s servant, told me that my Master falls asleep while talking! Doctor said lets do a scan. A few years ago, the CT Scan was a new machine. He went for the scan. The doctors were wondering why is the machine making so much noise. He slept in the scanning machine and was snoring!
This happens when you do not have any aim in life. Often Ashrams are the base for lazy people. But we do not have this issue. In Ashrams, there is a issue about how to keep people busy. If you keep doing some activity, then you will not get lazy. 
One who is lazy, gets scared easily. Then behind fear, comes negative thoughts such as who will cremate me when I die, who will take care of me when I grow old. Some one will complete the cremation rights. Man is mad. If you do not want to leave the madness, then be mad for that which has made all these things not for the things made by Him. Then after this comes vishaad: they think about what happened many years ago and get upset. People will reach Mumbai from Bangalore, and then they will continue to say we should have booked another ticket. Vishaad has become a habit. A person who is enthusiastic and happy, they will not go into vishaad.

Then comes ego. People are in vishaad, often walk with arrogance. Have you seen the people who lost the elections? A wrestler falls and then he says there is no mud on my mustache, where have I fallen? One who cannot come out from a negative mindset. 
Now we have to see what type of dhruti we have: sattvic, rajasic, tamasic.

How to get out of this? 
Do seva, sadhana, satsang. 
Tamas gets converted to Rajasic and then to Sattva. 
If you are surrounded by Tamasic people then you will have more of that type of dhruti. Often kids say, throughout my life, no one has done anything for me. The way you behave in front of kids affects kids also. If you are in Tamo guna or rajas guna, then kids catch on to it very fast. Similarly, when four people get together, and one person says something negative and everyone else contributes negativity, then after half an hour when people go home they are so tired.

How to transform from Tamasic dhruti?

This path: Seva, Sadhana, satsang, right company.
Like dhrutis, doers are also of three types. Sattvic doer is happy whether work happens or not. 
Rajasic doer is happy if work gets done and unhappy when the work does not get done.
Tamasic doer is one who does not know what they have to do. And they are in vishaad.

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The Mahabharata inside you – Part III

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Knowledge

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Even though the Mahabharata symbolism series of posts has generated a lot of interest from the readers, I promise this is the last post in it :). I have surely enjoyed researching and writing this series of posts and I hope you readers have to. I would love to write on all the major events in the epic and how they are related to each one of us but it would take too long and most of them would be abstract. We saw the symbolism of Kauravas and Pandavas. Now that you guys have the picture, I wanted to bring a closure by taking your attention to some of the major events in the Mahabharata. With these

The Game of Dice – represents the Game of Delusion. In childhood, the senses, and the development of the body, are governed by the soul’s powers of discrimination. As youth approaches, the strong sense desires are awakened, by temptations in this life and Samskaras (habit tendencies) of past lives. The game is very charming, and the princely faculties of discrimination are enticed into a deceitful game with the sense desires, and man stakes his entire bodily kingdom. He is overpowered by them, and the pure discriminative intelligence of the soul is ousted from the throne, and sent into exile. The Pandavas are lured into the game by Duryodhana which is how the mind deludes its own energies into playing this whole game which we call life. Yudhisthira and the Pandavas lose the game and are banished from the kingdom and sent into exile for 12 years, with a further 1 year in total anonymity.

12 years of exile – A spiritual aspirant, who is armed with the grace of his Guru, and the knowledge of Kriya Yoga, and with all faculties intact, can with perseverance, evolve spiritually within twelve years, to the point where he can wage a battle with the senses to reclaim this body kingdom. This is a known fact to Spiritual aspirants. It is written in many yogic texts that a aspirant has intensely practice for 12 years before he can completely win over this senses which in turn control the mind. In the 12 years that the Pandavas are banished, they had to go through various events where they grow spiritually.

The One Year in Anonymity –  refers to the period when the aspirant, having attained a lofty height of spiritual evolution, i.e., he has attained Yudhistira’s calmness, Bhima’s Pranayama, Arjuna’s nonattachment, Nakula’s adherence, and Sahadeva’s power to resist evil, he is now ready to immerse himself in states of Samadhi. In the state of Samadhi, the Sadhaka is withdrawn from the world, and all that is worldly, immersing him in states of consciousness. In the State of Samadhi, one’s consciousness is not in the material world, but in the supreme consciousness, hence, why the Pandavas were incognito, to the people around them.

Kurukshetra – the Land (field) of the Kurus, is the symbolic representation of the body. Kurukshetra is formed from the Sanskrit roots, kri meaning work, material action, and ksetra means field. So this Field of Action is the body, on which all activities of life, take place.

Bhagavad Gita

Bhagavad gita – In our  inner conflict when we lose peace, it is the aspect of  knowledge in us that is confused needs clarity. This aspect in us that seeks teaching represents Arjuna. As we already discussed Arjuna represents bondage it seeks freedom to attain the kingdom of Peace. It seeks Krishna the manifestation of pure Consciousness. We seek for clarity a teacher, a Guru. What we seek outside is already in us. The external teacher helps us to seek our internal teacher Krishna, the pure consciousness. The dialogue between the Krishna and Arjuna is Bhagavad Gita.

KRISHNA – Lastly, who is Krishna? Krishna the manifestation of pure Consciousness. Consciousness is the “being” of every form and formless in this universe. The reflection of that Consciousness  is awareness. Krishna is the cousin and brother -in-law of Arjuna and interestingly Krishna is the father-in-law of Duryodhan’s daughter, that is , Krishna’s son married Duryodhan’s daughter Lakshmana. So Krishna is related to both the positive and negative groups of  brothers. This is why Indian God’s are represented with three faces. The two faces on the sides represents the pair of opposites of the same body. Explains that both positive and negatives qualities resides in us. I can go on writing about Krishna.

So here are the symbolisms of the characters and events in Mahabharata. It is not just another long story that happened long time ago. It is happening right now right her within you. If you believe in these allegoric events, then read the Mahabharata again. Only this time see if you can relate to these characters for they lived and died(mortally) to relate to us.

It is “About Time” you ….

29 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by in General, Inspirational Quotes

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[Spoiler alert : About Time is a movie directed by Richard Curtis and was released in 2013. This post will be discussing the plot of the movie and giving away its main theme. If you haven’t watched it yet then do your self a favor and go watch it. If you are one of those curious types that cant hold on and want to know why I did write a spoiler and what is in this post….. Wait for it….. ok.. read on :)!]

Lets say you have the ability to travel in time. Only to the past and not to the future since you haven’t yet seen what the future is. You can travel back to any place or moment in your life that you remember and have been there. You can still remember the things that have happened until your current life(which is the future for you since you have travelled to the past). And you can come back to the current life again(what an oxymoron!). The thing is if you dont disturb anything or change anything, your life will play out the same way until your current life. But if you change things then it might play out differently. The point here is what would you do if you have this ability.

Now I want you to close your eyes and think of some of those moments or places you would want to go is to imagine the places or people or the situations where you would time travel back to.

CLOSE your eyes!

It is all about LOVE for me!

It is all about LOVE for me!

You still havent??!! How do I know? because you are still reading this…

OK. Now, think about the places or situations that you went back to. IF there were happy situations or places which you wanted to relive again. Good for you.. you have so many happy things in your life that is worth going back in time for. But if you did go back to not so happy times. Situations that you wanted to handle differently like “maybe I would not have said that to her/him or I would npt do this…”. Situations in which you change things to make it better for the future. Do you have any of those? Ok have them for now. Lets talk about the movie.

The movie is about a ordinary guy,Tim, who has this extraordinary ability to travel back in time. The first time he hears about this ability from his father, his instant reaction was to use this ability to make more money. His father advises against it because his grandfather had done the same and died with no friends or family. His father says a quote which I paraphrase here.

I have never bumped into a genuinely happy rich person.

Tim uses it to get a girl friend, help his friends and sister and to relive many happy moments. There are these funny moments where he goes back to the same events multiple times because he doesn’t know how to handle women(sounds familiar?). Then comes those which act like markers in his life. Like having kids and his father’s death. Tim deals with these moments by going traveling in time and sometimes not. The whole movie is about how Tim deals with his ordinary life with this ability and the lessons he learns. The movie ends with Tim implementing a two part plan his father gave him about traveling back in time. The plan forms the core of  the message for the viewers. The plan touched me and transform me(I like to think so) in a big way.

First part of the plan is to live this ordinary life, live it day by day just like anyone else. The movie shows scenes of Tim’s normal day filled with his daily emotions. A feeling of insecurity with his boss, his sense of triviality with the vendor girl over the counter, his hurriedness to the court room, his sad senses of relief and his frustration over a commuter playing loud music, wanting to be alone.. just a normal day in anyone’s life. A life full of tensions and worries that stop us from noticing how sweet the world can be. Then comes the second part of the plan – to travel back in time and to live those same moments again. Only this time noticing the same events and to see the beauty in it and taking the time to relish in living in all these moments. The scenes shows Tim traveling back in time and re living those moments but this time taking it lightly and with humor. He smiles a lot, makes fun of himself. Enjoys every moment of it. Smiles through each one of them and lives them as though it is his last day. Now comes the point in story that I really loved. Tim furthers his father’s plan and does one thing and shares his lessons from his travels in time. He doesn’t travel in time anymore and tries to live every day as if he has deliberately come back to this one day to enjoy it as if it was the final full day of his life. The first time I heard that some thing inside me melted. I was wondering how would life be if I could live everyday like Tim did. As if I have come back in time to relive this particular moment again. I went through a series of moments myself and saw how differently I would have handled them.

Some of you might be thinking that Tim, on second living moments, could do those things because he knew how the moments had played out the first time. That is true but in our lives don’t we see this pattern – same mundane things happening again and again and again. Would we really have to travel back in time to relive those moments or can we see these moments happening to us everyday only in different places and situations with different people? I will leave that to you to figure this out. There is this beautiful quote the movie ends with.

We are all traveling through this time together. All we can do is to do our best to relish this ride.

Now lets come back to our moments that we had collected at the start. These moments came back to you because you have attached a strong sense of emotions to it. It could be a happy emotion or a sad emotion. If it is a happy one then relish it without reliving it. IF you keep holding to these moments, it creates expectations in you and you are going to compare all the moments that are lying in front of you with this particular one and in the process loose the beauty in it. If it was a sad one, the moment is in the past and if you are lucky, you will be given a chance to correct it. When your chance comes, go through it as though you have traveled back in time to live this all over again. Only this time you are not going to feel those sad emotions again. Keep practicing this.

Live every moment of your life like as though you have traveled back in time to relive it again. You will see that Life is beautiful in ways you have not noticed before.

Happy living!

Donkey and Dirt

20 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Katha Vidya, Stories

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Here is a beautiful story that I read today! A story on how nature helps one to grow and pull oneself from any pit!

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him to bury the donkey. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

MORAL

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest pits just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up. The more you get up – the faster the dirt will come but the dirt is only help you come out of the pit faster! If you can remember this, nothing will stop you from growing!