Baba Ramdev, educated society and religion

There are lot of ignorant educated people out in India who think that Yoga is to do with religion. I got one guy commenting on twitter that "I don't have anything do with a man who wears a saffron attire"

Yoga is to do with the body and the mind that leads to spirituality. Dear friends religion and spirituality are not the same. In fact religion is where you follow a book of rules, while spirituality is just about an experience of an healthy body and mind.

I have never been in favor of Baba Ramdev's speeches on issues, not because he didnt have a good agenda in place. He has a very simplistic approach to solve huge societal issues that cannot be done by in manners he executes them. Further his style may also not be very attractive as he isnt as suave an educated English speaking society in the cities would look at it. :P

When Baba Ramdev started his fast, I was not keenly following it but I happened to see the lathi charge late night when we got back home after a happy Saturday night partying. It was certainly shocking and exposed what the government can get at.

While tweeting I didn't see any of the people there really getting together to raise their voice against the police brutality instead they mocked Baba Ramdev, his garb, his escape and the happenings. Mr. Anna Hazaare was not part of Baba Ramdev's fast  but after the Government action through the police, he has shown his support to Baba Ramdev because one can see "Something is terribly wrong" and as responsible citizens we shouldn't act ignorant :)

And when I saw my friend Arul's status, I was happy to know one person got it :)

"Arul (Ta'fxkz) Baliah: Ramdev has said that yoga cannot be limited to physical exercises, that it also a way to cleanse the soul and the society Regardless of his motivations, I have to agree with that sentiment. The ancient paths of the spiritual seers were not a bunch feel good practices but actual revolution, war and great personal risk. (www.tafxkz.info)"

And who wants a revolution, who cares. Arent we so comfortable doing what we do everyday??

Wake up you illiterate educated fools!!! 

Feeling Obliged

Column by Sri Sri Ravishankar
  

Feeling Obliged?    

Belongingness can bring about a host of negative emotions. Like demand, jealousy, unawareness and lack of gratitude. Just look into your own life, you feel more grateful to strangers than the people you feel "belong" to you. Belongingness reduces gratefulness, awareness, and gives rise to demands which destroys love. This is the biggest problem in relationships. People are nice to strangers and give more attention to them. With a sense of belongingness comes carefreeness and lack of attention.

Look belongingness can make you insensitive, dull, and take away the charm in life!


Anyway, who belongs to whom in this world? Here you are a stranger and everyone is a stranger to you!
Blessed are those who feel themselves as a stranger!


You feel more obligation to a stranger than the person you feel belongs to you. Obligation is very good to keep a check on your ego. It makes you humble. There is no greater antidote to ego than humility. Being humble is the beginning of all virtues.


People have such resistance for obligations. They do not realize that they are always under obligations, whether giving or taking! Dull people think that one is obliged only when one takes. The wise knows that even when one is giving one is under obligations, as the person has accepted what one gives. So whether you give or take you are under obligations. And if someone does not give or take, you are still under obligation! For they are freeing you from visible obligations!!


That is to say, you are obliged to all those who do not make you obliged!!! Got it?


Life (you) renews itself everytime by becoming a stranger in this old and familiar world.
You are simply loaded with obligations and you are a total stranger in this world every moment!
How does it feel?


Jai Gurudev!! 

EGO

Column by Sri Sri Ravishankar
  

 EGO 

 When does Ego happen?

1. When you don't get attention.

2. When you seem to be losing attention.

3. When you get attention.

Ego causes heaviness, discomfort. It doesn't let love flow. Ego can be transcended by knowing the Truth; by inquiring "Who am I?" Often, your attitude towards one who has ego is of contempt or jealousy. But rather you should have compassion, or even pity, isn't it?

There is also a positive aspect of ego. It drives one to do some work. A person will do a job either out of compassion or out of ego. Most of the work in the society is by boosting the ego. But in Satsang, work is done out of love. Ego is separateness; non-belongingness. It is wanting to prove and to possess.

And when you wake up and see, there is nothing to be proved and nothing to possess, ego dissolves.

Jai Gurudev!!  

Go away!

It was a hot scorching noon
She held a glass of water
under a cool shaded tree
He was a lost and weak man
She gave him all that she had

He sat next to her and spoke
Forgetting his pain, he smiled
Never had he felt so comfortable
He slept in peace as she looked on
Hearing his breath and the breeze

While she was busy with work
he lost his heart to a beauty
Now he had the strength to leave
He did not need her any more
No longer was he lost and weak

He thanked her for her help
He held his love and walked away
When she ran behind them in tears
He threw her aside and yelled
"Thank you for the water, now go away"

Love is my Form

I was fortunate to study for 5 years in Sai Baba's school in Ooty for my primary education. Till date I remember this song sung by Baba:

================
Love is my form
Truth is my breath
Bliss is my food
My Life is my message
Expansion is my Life

No Reason for LOVE
No Season for LOVE
No Birth No Death


===============

O my spirit, Transcend all boundaries!

Aniketana – Kuvempu

Listen to the song here:

O nanna chetana Aagu nee aniketana!	O my spirit, Transcend all boundaries!
Roopa roopagalanu daati, Naama kotigalanu meeti, Edeya biriye bhaavadeeti, O nanna chetana, Aagu nee aniketana!	Transcend all forms, Transcend all identities, Even as sentiment pierces the heart, O my spirit, Transcend all boundaries!
Nooru matada hotta thoori, Ella tatvadelle meeri, Nirdigantavaagi aeri, O nanna chetana Aagu nee aniketana!	Blow away the chaff of a hundred castes, Transcend the limits of all philosophies, Rise beyond the horizons, O my spirit, Transcend all boundaries!
Elliyoo nilladiru, Maneyanendu kattadiru, Koneyanendoo muttadiru, O anantavaagiru! O nanna chetana Aagu nee aniketana!	Do not stop anywhere, Do not be bound by narrow walls, Never be content in reaching the finite, O be eternal, O my spirit, Transcend all boundaries!
Ananta taan anantavaagi, Aagutihane nityayogi, Ananta neen anantavaagu: Aagu, aagu, aagu, aagu, O nanna chetana Aagu nee aniketana!	The eternal always remains eternal, A yogi becomes eternal, You are eternal, be always eternal: Be, be, be, be eternal, O my spirit, Transcend all boundaries!

This is my daughter’s school song and when I read it in her diary it was indeed an awakening for me.  As a kid at school I read Kuvempu poems but now I see the true greatness of the poet. Learn more about Kuvempu here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuvempu

Gratitude

Have you tried living life by gratitude, every second filled with thankfulness.  It’s a new realm that is devoid of turbulence, anxiety, resentment and reprisal. The being is full of love, the world belongs to me and I belong to the world.

What is gratitude?  A simple "thank you" to our existence, to the beautiful life we have and the awesome human beings we meet.

A few days back I got pretty irritated after an online chat with a friend. She always has this overbearing attitude and trying to be very coaching in her manner. I was thinking of actually blocking her from my chat, just to save myself from getting peeved when I have to interact with her. I reflected over my reaction and was thinking of how bugging she can get. I thought though she isn’t so bad after all and reckoned the numerous ways she has helped me and been such a wonderful friend.  I softened and felt no anger.

I introduced this approach with any person I connected with, even more when I got upset or angry after the interaction. Everybody had something they had given me in life, every single soul I met felt so lovableJ.

The little things in life that we take for granted, the family and friends who are always there are never in our radar of gratefulness.  Ingratitude is the penalty we pay that results out of ignorance and a single focus on our individual advancements. We miss on the miraculous life and joyful relationships that can make our world beautiful.

Practice gratitude and reach out to more. Get abundance within your space and expand your universe to the limitless. 

Passion at Work

Martin Luther King Jr.,, once said "If a man is called to be a street-sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street-sweeper who did his job well.'"

Do we love our job? Do we even like it? Or do we find our work about as interesting as spending eight hours a day watching paint dry?

How many of us feel happy that its Monday? Do you look forward to Monday morning? Are you raring to go back to work? Or are you a TGIF (Thank God it's Friday) kind of person who can't wait to get away from the job for a couple of days? You spend at least 8-9 hours a day at the job. That is almost 25-30% of your week. If you are a TGIF person you are missing something really important in your work life - passion.

Unfortunately, many people don't enjoy their work. What's worse is that they have no expectation that they should. Work is often seen as the means to an end. Work your job, so you can pay your bills.

Being passionate about your job is more than the old adage "do what you love". It's looking forward to going to work. It's time flying by when you're there. It's working past quitting time, not because you're swamped with work, but because you were so intent you didn't notice the time.

How does one get passionate about their job:
1. Putting passion in work: The trick is not just to feel passionately about your job, but to act passionately too. If you act passionately, you won't sit passively through another boring meeting. You can't. You will share that passion with the others in the meeting. Your energy can lift all of them. Even if it doesn't, you will feel better knowing you are doing something to advance the cause in which you believe passionately.

2. Be innovative: To be so involved with your work that once you have determined your goal, be prepared to try different approaches. The method of choice is the method, which will work best, not necessarily the usual method. If the common sense approach does not work, invent a new one. Be adapting and modifying whatever is at hand to solve the problem and to achieve the objective.

3. Self driven and motivated: Its not necessary that we need the organizational environment or the boss’ attitude to drive us or put us down. A person passionate at job can be consistent in his job by his own drive and when situations are bad he continues to work with the same vigor or maybe more. There is no need to search for means of motivation, the work itself is a cause to enjoy it.

4. Sharpen the axe: Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter asks for a job from a timber merchant, and he got it. The pay was really good and so were the work conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.
His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.
The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees down.
"Congratulations," the boss said. "Go on that way!"
Very motivated by the boss’ words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he only could bring down 5 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he only could bring down 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing down less and less trees.

"I must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.
"When was the last time you sharpened your axe?" the boss asked.
"Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees..."

To get optimal results we need to sharpen our skills consistently. Being adept at our job can help us achieve our targets.

Let me summarize the points as to how we can be passionate at our job:
First: Putting passion at work, don’t just feel passionate about your job– act passionately too
Second: Be innovative, Try new and different approaches
Third: Be self driven and motivated: You don’t need to depend on external sources for motivation
Fourth: Sharpen the axe - Keep sharpening your skills more often.

Life is short. Don't waste your life waiting for the weekends. Find something that ignites your passion and go for it. In the words of author H. Jackson Browne, "Find a job you like and you add five days to every week."

[I had written this article in 2004 on www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Sharma4.html. Started blogging in 2005 else this article would have been part of my blog then, taking this opportunity now to add it to my blog :) ]

Sachin Tendulkar - Quotes

With the World Cup this year, followed by IPL and T20 world cup all I can think of is "Sachin" :) A collection of Sachin quotes:

"I want my son to become Sachin Tendulkar." -Brian Lara(WI) 


''We did not lose to a team called India, we lost to a man called Sachin'' - Mark Taylor (Aus)


'Nothing bad can happen to us if we were on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it.''-Hashim Amla (SA) 


''He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also.-Waqar Younis(Pak) 


''There are two kind of batsman in the world. 1 Sachin Tendulkar and 2. all the others .-Andy Flower (ZIM) 


"I have seen God. He bats at no.4 for India in tests.-Matthew Hayden (AUS.)


"I see myself when I see Sachin batting.-Don Bradman(AUS)

"Do your crime when Sachin is batting, bcos even God is busy watching his batting. -Australian Fan

Barack Obama - "I don't know about cricket but still I watch cricket to see Sachin play..Not b'coz I love his play its b'coz I want to know the reason why my country's production goes down by 5 percent when he's in batting"..

Love and Lust

Column by Sri Sri Ravishankar
  

Love & Lust 

Doubt cannot come where there is a sense of closeness. Doubt needs a distance to appear. You never doubt something that is dear to you, close to you.

In love even an object gains life. Stones speak to you, trees speak to you, the sun, the moon and the whole creation becomes alive, Divine. In lust even a living being becomes a mere object. You want to use even people like objects. Here are some salient attributes of love and lust. They are so different yet so close! If you find more
you may add to the list.

• Lust brings tension. ~ Love brings relaxation.
• Lust focuses on the part. ~ Love focuses on the whole.
• Lust brings violence. ~ Love brings sacrifice.
• In lust you want to grab and ~ In love you want to give and possess. surrender.
• Lust says all I want you to have ~ Love says I want you to have is what I want. what you want.
• In lust there is effort. ~ Love is effortless.
• Lust causes feverishness and ~ Love causes longing and frustration. pain.
• Lust imprisons and destroys. ~ Love liberates and sets you free.
• Lust demands. ~ Love commands.
• Lust gets you mixed up and ~ In love you are focused confused. and spaced out!!
• Lust is only dark and monotonous. ~ Love has many modes and colours.

If someone's lust is interrupted they get angry and start hating. Hatred in the world today is not out of love, it is out of lust.

Love is playfulness and in lust there is cunningness and manipulation. Shiva, the embodiment of innocence and love was meditating. His meditation was disturbed by an arrow of flowers from the lord of lust. As soon as Shiva woke up he opened his third eye and the lord of lust, Manmatha (one who churns the mind) was reduced to ashes. Everybody celebrated by throwing colors on each other realising that life is full of colours.

We play many roles in our life. If all the roles get mixed up it becomes dark, like when you mix all the colours. The wise play each role distinctively side by side, like colors displayed side by side form a rainbow.

Jai Gurudev!! 

Insights Of Love

Insights Of Love   

-Sri Sri Ravishankar

Love is your nature.

In the process of its expression, you often get caught up in the object. This is when your sight is caught outside. To return back to your nature, you need insight.

Pain is the first insight.
It takes you away from the object and turns you towards your body and mind.

Energy is the second insight.
A bolt of energy brings you back to your Self.

Divine Love is the third insight.
A glimpse of Divine love makes you so complete and over rules all the relative pleasures.

Trance is the fourth insight.
An elevation of consciousness and partial awareness of the physical reality around is Trance.

Non-dual existence, that all is made up of one and only one, is the fifth insight.

When love glows, it is bliss,
When it flows, it is compassion,
When it blows, it is anger,
When it ferments, it is jealously,
When it is all Nos, it is hatred,
When it acts, it is perfection,
When love Knows, it is ME!

Desire and Duties

Desire gives us pain whatever the desire maybe. The freedom is when we are desire free. Its strength, its power and it happiness.

Desire should not be confused with a goal.

“A goal is not the same as a desire, and this is an important distinction to make. You can have a desire you don't intend to act on. But you can't have a goal you don't intend to act on.”
-Tom Morris


When people are troubled, I tell them to let go of desires and concentrate on your duties.

Whats my duty? I ask myself this question and life is simplified, focussed and responsible.

“Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.”
Teilhard de Chardin

Immigrant Indian

I have been a different Indian from childhood, mostly influenced by my parents I guess. As a child I saw neighbors, Dad's colleagues and friends fight out at the work place to have a trip to "abroad". He would never be part of that race. If it was work he would go and if there were people fighting in the fray he would let them go and just focus on his work. All he cared was to excel in work. He loved to travel but not the kind of "craze for abroad" people had.

When I got to see it in my work place, I too had a similar attitude, it was so natural. Also I have deep sense of awareness and spiritual inclination imbibed from my parents. I do love the fact that travel opens up a different dimension in us and we look forward to it but the craze of going "onsite" as it is in the IT field, was never in me. I focussed on work!

I met my husband who was such, he studied in the US and came back because he wanted to be back in the country. He travels a lot as his work makes him do so....goes too all places around the world but India is home.

US was always the top in the list people would want to go. I did travel many times due to work and happened go to Japan and the experience is unforgettable but very few Indians would want to.

I always wondered why people had this ambitious need to go out of country, more to prove something to their friends or relatives or themselves. I would want to go to know another place, to meet people and have a good time. Thought through the years I understand that most of the Indians are wired to be so, and I have not understood exactly why but accepted that its part of the game here. And if I see that it has helped the country in many ways too!!

Today I had an appointment at the passport office for my daughter's passport application. When we were through the process which took an hour and bit, I asked her "Which is the first country you would want to travel?" To which she answers "America" I was in a dizzy for a moment. I asked her couldn't you think of another country like Japan. She is a 6.5 yrs smart, diplomatic kid and immediately told "yes its Japan" but I began to wonder "maybe its there somewhere in the blood, the genes...the US thing" :D

Change the vision

There was a millionaire who was bothered by severe eye pain. He consulted a galaxy of Medical experts; he consumed heavy loads of drugs and underwent hundreds of injections.   
 
But the ache persisted with greater vigor than before. At last a monk who has supposed to be an expert in treating such patients was called for by the millionaire. The monk understood his problem  and said that for sometime he should concentrate only on green colors  and  not allow  his eyes to fall on any other colors. The millionaire got together a group of painters and purchased barrels of green color and directed that every object his eye was likely to fall on was to be painted in green color just as the monk had directed.                                                                                 
                                                                                       
When   the   monk came to visit him after a few days, the  Millionaire's  servants ran to him with buckets of green paint and poured it on him since he was wearing red. They were eager to prevent their master from seeing any other color lest his eye ache came back.                         
 
Hearing  this the  monk  laughed and  said 'If only you had purchased a pair of green spectacles, worth  just  a  few rupees, you could have saved these walls and trees and pots and all other  articles and also could have saved a large share of his fortune. You cannot paint the  world green.'
 
Let us change our vision and the world will appear accordingly. Instead of trying to shape the world, let us shape ourselves first!

करपूर गौरम

करपूर गौरम करुणा अवतारं 

संसार सारं भुजगेन्द्र हारं 

सदा वसंतम हृदयारविन्दे 

भवं भवानी सहितं नमामि 

Listen it here

Karpur Gauram Karunaa Avataaram,
Sansaar Saaram Bhujgendra Haaram,
Sadaa Vasantam Hridayaarvinde,
Bhavam Bhavaani Sahitam Namami

Meaning: I bow to that camphor-hued, white complexioned (Lord Shiva), who is Incarnation of compassion, who is the very essence of (consciousness; the knowing principle) of life (of the embodied soul); Who wears snakes as garlands, whose eternal abode is in the heart of the devotee, I bow to Him (Lord Shiva) and His consort Bhavani (Uma or Paarvati). Karpur (camphor-hued); Gauram (white); Karunaa (compassion); Avataaram (incarnation); Sansaar (life of the embodied soul); Saaram (essence, the knowing principle or consciousness); Bhujagendra (wearer of snakes or who wields theSerpent power of Kundalini Shakti); Haaram (garlands); Sadaa (eternal); Vasantam (resides); Hridayaarvinde (in the heart of the devotee);Bhavam (Lord Shiva); Bhavaani (Uma or Paarvati); Sahitam (together); Namaami (I bow)

O lord, the tasks of this day, who burden I placed on you this morning, are over. It was you who made me walk, talk, think and act. I therefore place at your feet all my thoughts, words and deeds. My task is done. Receive me; I am coming back to you. Please repair my body and prepare me nicely for my next days journey.

Goes Away...

Yes, the feeling goes away
And so we would say

[Me is still writing...........]

Is being Selfish Good?

To protect one's interests is primary and natural in all human beings. Is being selfish the only way? or being selfless is wiser? Who is more evolved a selfish or selfless being?

My family, my career, my garden and my dog ....my my my and me me me me...

When you meet some people, haven't you observed they cant stop talking about themselves. It can get very irritating and also one cannot connect with someone who is not interested in the other human...

According to me the weak and the fearful are selfish. They are the people one needs to feel sympathy for rather than get angry with.

The brave and the fearless are selfless. They can take risks and pains to help another. They can think beyond themselves, and leave behind the me & myself saga :)

Boy met Girl

My daughter's friend left this note for her. She told we discussed yesterday and to pass this on to her. My daughter is asleep and I read it, you will love it too:

One day a Boy was driving a car. Then a girl dashed his car and she told can't you see. Then the girl went to a good witch and the witch did the magic spell on it and the boy went to another witch and he also did the same thing. The next day the boy again was driving then the girl again dashed the boy's car. The girl told the boy that at the noon meet me at the coffee shop then they lived happily after.


When my daughter woke up, I showed her the note to her. She told this is a script for a puppet show and that she created the story and her friend was the scribe :)

Falling out of love...

A friend got married very recently, I was glad that it happened eventually after a long wait. Lately though he has been seeking advice from me about a marital issue, I told him to meet a counselor. Learnt from experiences to keep away from trouble though I so want to help, I resist the temptation :)

He checked with me another day and well I gave in. He is sad that he has fallen out of love with his spouse and is confused how it could happen

Didn't answer it for a while and then gave some of my thoughts over it, the chat script as is:

love is not just about the initial attraction as most of us think it is..bcos the high levels of energy confuses us..the dizziness of falling in love makes us feel and want only that

but love is about the different phases...just sitting around doing nothing..

and u know

also falling out of love

is part of being in love

just a phase

bcos in marriage its abt falling in love with the same person again and again

its fun actually :)

so just accept it that its fine

how u feel now

just normal hai

:)

Forgetting what we owe another?

Isn't it so common that people forget that they owed money to another? Its not about the money as such, what I find odd is how less aware and evolved some humans are. I wouldn't want to spend more than my basic needs if I had to give back money to someone and all my plans would be to save it up to be able to return it.

I find it strange that people are buying gadgets, spending on travels, eating out at expensive places and no thought about what they have done with another's money. And I want to reiterate that its not about the money, but it does feel weird that people can lead comfortable and happy lives without keeping to their word.

I hate to label people and call someone a cheat or a liar because people are different and that doesn't make them evil for behaving differently. Just a little perplexed that I wouldn't behave so in a similar situation and I guess thats the root of all pain, we want the others to be like  us to be called good :)

Keeping emotions aside, at a logical level I am totally letting go of the hate and "feeling bad". My life has bigger purpose and better focus than to chase someone for my money :)