America revisited third time

Sunnyvale - 11th Aug 2011

 Historic Murphy Street - Sunnyvale, CA

Sylvan Park, Sunnyvale, CA

Roses on the roadside, Sunnyvale

July 11, 2011

I land in US for the third time in Sunnyvale, CA. The transition from a wonder struck Indian loving and appreciating everything American  to a more critically aware and analyzing Indian. But always Indian at heart. loving my country most.

March to May 2007:
My First visit to Champaign, Illinois is still fresh in memory. March 2007  - India underdeveloped , developing nation. few malls. narrow roads, poor nation. Stayed in Champaign in UIUC campus. I am in awe of Walmart - its giant size, I fell in love with the amazing nature that is nurtured everywhere - the trees, the green grass. The weather went from end winter in March - to beautiful colorful spring- to beginning of summer. The transition form leafless trees in March - to trees totally covered in colorful fragrant blossoms - to lush greening of trees - end May. Fell in love with Champaign - the small Americal town, downtown Chicago - the breathtaking architectural beauty of skyscrappers , the drawbridge, the vast lake Michigan. Avid photographer that I am - the beauty of America simply fascinated me -  1500+ photos. Beautiful clean broad roads, cars of all makes and sizes , road descipline, long walks on tree lined sidewalks of self discovery. Simply loved it all. Vivek stayed in a studio apartment barely enough for two. Vidya stayed with us for some days and then moved to california. When I returned back to India, people around me got bored hearing me praise America at the drop of a hat. Everytime I compared problems in India to how they did not exist in USA.

Orchids bloom in Downtown Chicago - May 2007

Draw Bridge on Chicago river

UIUC Quad greens in Summer

 Frozen Lake of Woods - Champaign

Fremont CA - March 2009 to July 2009
My second visit was to Fremont in March 2009- Vivek married to Vidya, a 2 bed room rented apartment in  a gated community - comfortable - pretty landscape everywhere. India progressing nation - more malls in the neighbourhood, the Mumbai-Pune express highway was born and changed the way we travelled in the Ghats section earlier winding thro dangerous narrow roads choc-a-block with traffic - this was just a plain stretch of excellent roads, high speed travel - life was transformed in a certain positive way - My second son Hari too was married, life was looking up for me. I enjoyed walking and discovering the beauty of a residential area, nice houses with lovely lovely rose gardens, trees laden with oranges, a slightly chilly pleasant sunny weather . The huge roses on the roadside always brought a smile, the camera was out, and a sense of joy. Travelled a lot with Vivek, visited Yosemite, LA, Sequioa National park and King's Canyan, Bigsur, Monterey - all stunningly beautiful places. April is fabulous as the snow from winter melts and the water falls are in full force and river are full of rapids. The trees are covered in spring blossoms. Fell in love with San Fransisco and simply loved it each time we visited it Another 1500+ photos added to my portfolio.

But I as a person was changing - more mature, more aware, more experienced in life's ways. India was making good progress too. I was a mother-in-law now and the role was different. Realized  what is meant by "Two is company but Three is a crowd".


Sunnyvale - July 2011 
This time the picture is totally a transformed one. So many historical changes. First and foremost America was hit by financial disaster - many banking businesses declared bankruptcy, laid off workforce, joblessness hit America, the first black President - Barrack Obama was elected . Politically the whole world was undergoing changes. Countries ruled by kings and families were waking up to freedom of the individual and fighting for their rights. Everything in every country seemed to be "Made in China"

Second my own country India ( along with China) was now recognized as an emerging super power with its resilient dynamic young work force, surviving the world economic downturn very competitively. Fantastic infrastructural developments were happening everywhere. Nigdi Pradhikaran where I live for the last 20 years now had  beautiful broad clean roads, several flyovers were getting built to facillitate fast traffic movement, large luxury cars were a common sight. There was hope in the air. Anyone with some skill was doing well. The IT and ITES industry employed youth and brought prosperity to large number of families. Big business houses like Tata, Birla, Reliance had set up large Malls everywhere - so Walmart visit in USA lost its novelty. Everything was now available in India - one need not bring from USA or elsewhere. Now India is gearing up with Metro railways in many cities. A sense of optimism prevails in my country.  Life is Good in India.    

Personally my life has undergone total transformation. For one I was now 60+ years old.  For nearly 2 years I all went thro severe stress due to some family problems. I now lived alone and that requires courage and brought tremendous inner growth. I enjoy my independent single status. I was getting good work opportunities as a corporate trainer in Oracle.  I traveled on work outside Pune, stayed in hotels and enjoyed my work. Life seemed to have come a full circle.

So when I stepped into the USA for the third time things felt different. Vivek and Vidya have their own place - a comfortable home. They are expecting their first child. Many of their friends too. So right now we attend baby showers on week ends, I am a senior citizen (!!!) - or elders- sit in groups of parents visiting children in USA.  

There are so many great things about American way of living. What never fails to amaze me is how America maintains and nurtures nature everywhere. It is trees, trees and more trees lining each and every road and grass and more grass everywhere we go. The cleanliness is something India must emulate. The American one encounters is always warm and caring with an easy smile. Discipline is a natural trait. Everything seems to work in perfection. But the huge use of power, fuel , the gigantic plastic garbage makes me worry for mankind.        

I seem to be cured of my USA obsession of my first visit. May be I will not boast about USA so much when I go back !!

As always I look forward to putting my foot back into my country. 

Moving On

ACCEPTANCE

You accept that you are responsible for all the mess you are in, and look deep within - What is now the best course of action for YOU? That is all that matters.

MOVE ON. This is the beauty of LIFE.

Thought Driven Life and Random Happenings

Goutama Bhuddha suffered many many years ( his biography by Deepak Chopra is absolutely revetting reading. Just loved his way of dramatizing and visualizing such a by-gone era.. ) and went into deep deep self journey and came out with the 4 truths and eight fold path to liberate mankind from its suffering.

Well, I have zeroed in on my own philosophy as a result of endless hours of timepass.

1. Choices we make

Our life is driven by our choices - Every little and big act and turns and twists of our life is the choice we make at each and every moment. We choose to suffer, we choose to enjoy, we choose to feel happy or sad. Our resentment, our loves are our choices - we choose to love someone and choose to hate someone. We choose to react in particular way.

2. Our thought process

All these choices are driven by our thought processes. Every one is justified in his own eyes of all the actions he does because that is the way he thinks. Many times we later realize the folly of our action , we regret that we acted in a particular way or we made a wrong choice. Given a second chance in life, we may repeat the same life - We cannot help that we are this way. When we accepted this of ourselves and all others who cross our path in life, we will be truly liberated.

3. Random happenings

Life is a series of random happenings - there is no such thing as destiny. Many things just happen - there is no reason, no cause . No point in trying to explain why, how, what etc.. Just accept that and move on.

Ha Ha Vats You chose to write this. and you thought of it and it just happened randomly.

Am I Bhuddini?? A new philosophy for mankind??

Excess Baggage

The Monkeys riding on our backs

These days a new enlightenment is dawning on me - the concept of excess baggage. It all started when I saw during my morning walks - so many people having a protruding bloated belly - I thought that is excess weight he/she is carrying. Slowly I became aware of so many other forms of excess baggage that we human beings carry. They are like monkeys riding on our backs.

I am now trying to unload these as I am also a carrier of these loads. I also felt that just like we have to pay excess baggage charges in airlines ( I am always a candidate for that.. ) , life too extracts certain penalty from us for accumulating and letting these excess baggage dominate our life.

Excess Body baggage: Too much fat ( also known as obesity) carried around our body weighs down and stresses the bony skeleton that is designed to carry a certain load. It strains the heart to pump blood in the face of such weighty resistance all over.

The baggage charge : All sorts of health issues, constant guilt of excess weight

Pack it light: Be aware of what you eat all the time. Eat for good health not just to satisfy the taste buds.

Material baggage: THINGS, THINGS and more THINGS. Over years we tend to accumulate lots and lots of things around us. We keep on adding to the pile - loads and loads of clothes, electronics, artifacts, hundreds of random things. Housewives collect even huge number of plastic bags, empty containers, vessels of all shapes and sizes. Some houses have mounds of news papers and old magazines. Some ladies collect shoes, make-up.

All our attics, storage spaces are choked with things.

Greed and desire for expensive jewelery, land, houses, cars etc. rule many who accumulate these even at the cost of their integrity, harming others even their nation.

Most of the things we collect are rarely used by us.

Harshad Mehta who lived in a one room tenement became so rich and had so many houses and cars all thanks to the share scam that he cleverly invented - but the man never lived to enjoy all that he died at the age of 36.

Instead of throwing away, we keep them thinking - "That may be useful someday". Only that someday never happens even once in five/ten/twenty years.

The baggage charge : Loss of precious space in the house, and loss of mental peace that will come by shedding these.

Pack it light: Just throw, throw, throw. Only keep things which you will use at least once a day.

Psychological baggage: So many past thoughts, so many future desires. Opinions about everyone , judgement, resentments, hatred, obsession, addiction fill our mind. Hundreds and hundreds of past events over years, pains and pleasures of the past, so many desires and wants for the future clutter and take up all our mental space.

The baggage charge : Not able to enjoy the light-weight and ultimate bliss and joy that comes by shedding this load off our back - OOPS mind.

Pack it light: This is a tough one as we have to go deep within ourselves. We have to understand ourselves. We have to learn to enjoy the stillness, silence

and expanse of the universe

within amidst all the external noise . We have to come to terms with our impermanence of our existence on Earth. We have to clean sweep our mental space constantly.

Relationship baggage: Some relationships bring us no joy and sit on us like chimpanzees and gnaw the very life out of us. It may be very close relationships like parent-child, husbands -wife, siblings, family relationships or peripheral ones like friends, official ones etc. We know the futility of holding on yet do not wish to unload these off our backs.

The baggage charge : They choke the very life out of us. Most expensive baggage charge - they extract the joy of living itself.

Pack it light: This is the toughest baggage to shed as we human beings are ruled by our emotions. If we can tear this monkey off our back and toss it out, we will feel unbelievably light and joyous within and FREE to live and breathe.

Ah !! All that philosophy BAGGAGE !! I am exhausted ...

Self Realization

Big Sur - There is a water fall into the OCEAN

Understanding Oneself

Well so many incidences have been happening in life - all to a great reward.

Parent and Child think Different

Living with my son and daughter-in-law is an on-going learning process in balancing relationships. I came to realize that the love that the parent feels for the child cannot be reciprocated by the child. It is a different feeling. It is not a 2 way process. They are 2 different processes.

My expectation constantly for reciprocation of love, care, consideration, expenditures all lead me to often feel so disappointed , dissatisfied and unhappy. Till the knowledge dawned on me that my expectations were just not going to be fulfilled because the feelings were totally different and that is just natural. That realization calmed me down and now I feel happy to just be.

We as parents are extremely giving, generous and sacrifice all our basic needs to give the best to our children.

Mama, I did not ask you for anything

First of all, the child did not need all this. It did not ask to be born into this world, it did not ask any sacrifices to be made. You could have fed simple kanji ( porridge..) , dal, rice and govt. milk. The child did not ask Nestle spray, Farex and all exotic food, toys , luxuries. If u did it, you did it out of free will and choice.

Lets us set each other FREE

Second , you have to set them free at some age - preferably by 20 years LET GO !! This freedom has to be a 2 way process - both the child and the parent have to let go of each other completely from within. Then the relationship blossoms and takes a whole fantastic shade. It becomes a rewarding experience to be in each other's company.

When you are a mother and a single parent, you get extremely emotionally entangled with your children and that leads to all sorts of confusion for both.

Be Financially INDEPENDENT

Third and a very important issue for a rich rewarding life journey is financial independence. Every individual should make easy inflow of cash into life from a young age to death. When you are young, all you think of are your children, put them in the best school, clothe them lavishly and make all sorts of sacrifices to make them feel good and may be thus squander away hard earned money. If you dream that your old age will be well taken care of by your well-to-do children, then you are in for a major disappointment. The human child is not programmed that way.

If you observe the animal world nowhere we see off-springs taking care of aged parents. It is always the parents caring for the off-spring till it is strong enough to fend for itself. But in the animal world the parent does only that much and does not cling to the off-spring once it is ready to face the world . The parent moves on with its life.

What sets the human race apart from all the other animal world is the ability to feel emotions, express them. Man's thinking power is so great that he created the entire world so beautiful, so comfortable to help him survive and thrive. His intelligence has been so rewarding to his species, but his emotions have been his undoing.

Self Discovery along the journey

SELF-REALIZATION.

After the advance course at the Art of living Bangalore Ashram, I go for regular morning walk and do 1 hour of breathing exercises ( Pranayam). There is a huge sprawling garden in Nigdi called Tukaram Park - I call it Nakshtra Garden. I am so blessed to be living in such a beautiful area. There are so many lawns, benches, trees - it is just such a beautiful place.

I do Kapalbhati (Thank you Ramdev Baba Guruji), Nadi Shodan Pranayam, Ujjai Breathing, Mudra Pranayam, Basricka and Sudharshana Kriya - for all these I am eternally grateful to Guruji Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

All of them are breathing exercises. Takes me an hour. At the end of it I feel so light - as if I am nothing, my entire body feels one with nature. I also feel the immense vastness and the silence of this universe ( Thanks to Echart Tolle - "Power of Now") - the feeling is so divine. Your thinking simply blanks out and it feels so so good. One automatically slips into deep meditation and become one with nature around.

Sometimes it iis so funny - ON the one hand you feel you are nothing and on the other, you feel everything is within you - God, Guruji, nature ..

When I am returning home, I walk back slowly, feeling so weightless , so good, so peaceful It seems the world is so beautiful. I feel so grateful for everything.

This is the journey of SELF-REALIZATION.

I read recently Deepak Chopra's book - Guatama BUDDHA - His life journey - How he attained enlightenment. This book is a must read - it is written so well - one literally lives with Buddha in that period - The book does not discuss Buddhism - it is a dramatization of Buddha's life Thank you Deepak Ji . Grateful to you.

I now feel blessed that I may be getting there - ENLIGHTENMENT.

Life Transformation

Advanced Course in Art of Living

Bangaluru Ashram with Guruji

Guruji Sri Sri Ravishankar

The Genesis for the course: Antarnad: Jan 12th 2010

I have always been a great admirer of Guruji - Sri Sri Ravishankar - the founder of "Art of Living". I had read some of his books and identified with his philosophies. So whenever he is in Pune and there is a public reception, I make it a point to go and enjoy.

These meets are well organized, the venue is beautifully done up in flowers and lights, there is music ( Satsang) and Guruji is fun to listen and relate to. Even though there are thousands of people, he seems to be communicating to you - "one on One" . He is always answering the question which I have been wanting to ask - this has happened always. He also always guides us through a 10 minute meditation and always I returned home with a pleasant feeling and some message in my head.

This time on Jan 12th 2010, at the "Antarnad" - a musical extravaganza organised by the foundation, a rare feat was being accomplished - 2600+ singers sang classical Hindustani music accompanied by great instruments and led by a lead celebrity singer. It was absolutely divine.

There was crowd of more than a lakh of people . Once again Guruji could communicate with each and everyone on a "One on One " basis. I saw him growing into a gigantic figure, towering into the sky - a Living God.

Carrying this pleasant feeling, I returned home and some day later just randomly googled "art of living". I chanced upon a course - a 6 day "Advanced course with Guruji at teh Bangalore Ashram" . It was just what I had been dreaming all these years - a week with Guruji at the Ashram.

In my personal life I was going thro a tough time and self-realization was dawning on me - the cause of all my suffering was the result of a Giant Sized Ego and negativity and highly emotional personality - this is what I concluded after analysing and analysing....

Now I am not an obsessive follower of Guruji or the Art of Living foundation and very critical and analytical of generally everything and generally a non-believer of so many ideologies. Also reading so many books and working on all those philosophies over so many years had brought lot of awareness and maturity within me. Did I need Art of Living?

Anyway I booked my participation on-line with Rs. 6000 as participation fee and booked my air ticket online for around 5K and set off on 2nd Feb. I enjoy my own company and look forward to all these lonely sojourns. I did not have any great expectation. I just thought let me understand Guruji and enjoy his presence for 6 days.

Went to my cousin Appu's house ( more on that in another blog)

Stay at Aparna

Next day reached the Ashram on 3rd Feb and was put up in "Aparna" the residential complex.

Aparna

Shared a room with 4 more participants. Met Viji and Prabha and we became very close friends. There was an instant rapport with them. Sangeetha who came later had a twinkle in her eyes and all three of us adopted her as our daughter. We attended the Satsang in the evening - Guruji was expected but did not come.

Bangalore Ashram - A hill resort?

The Ashram is on a hilly terrain with lush greenery in some places and lot of virgin undeveloped area. People tell us that Guruji himself has planted with his own hands the sandalwood trees.

Hilly Terrain

We had to walk up a hill thro' steep steps from Aparna to Visalakshi Mandapam (VM) and again VM had a large number of steps. I with my Arthritic painful knee was very stressed out - "Am I going to be walking up and down so much? " But soon I discovered a beautiful pathway ( a bit longer though) where I could almost avoid steps and began enjoying this route. Of course I had to walk this 15 min. path 8 times a day

Walking up and down a hilly terrain everyday

Visalakshi Mandapam

This is the central core venue. It is an absolutely beautiful huge circular hall, built in memory of Guruji's late mother Visalakshi. A smiling large photo of dear Amma welcomes all to the Mandap with love, compassion and a little twinkle in her eyes.

It is very pleasantly done up in cream and pink - tall golden curtains swaying in breeze, circular marble seating steps , completely enclosed in glass from all sides, a central stage which was clearly visible from all points. The ceiling had many pink lotus and chandeliers. There are two large entrances.

Scenic beauty around VM

Stage in front of VM for public Satsangs - Guruji sits here

VM Front Entrance

It had 4 floors, 2 for satsang, 2 large meditation halls - Mahavir hall and Buddha hall . The entire building was surrounded by a lotus shaped water body.

The interior exuded lot of stillness, peace, energy and joy and cool to the touch. It is the home for all activities for all courses.

We were asked to report at 6 a.m next day at Mahavir hall.

Food:

There is a massive kitchen catering to thousands of people everyday . There are several solar power generators and huu..ge steam boilers for cooking. Chapati is multigrained and the making is fully automated. Tonnes of organically grown vegetables in the Ashram were being deskinned and cut by hundreds of volunteers. Cooking is done for 3 meals a day - breakfast , lunch and dinner.

Breakfast : upma, idli or whatever with a cup of hot ragi kanji . Food was limitless - take as much as u want. Sometimes I was saddened to see people throwing away food.

Lunch : Chapati + 1 veg. + dal/sambhar/gravy dana like rajma, moong ete.. Buttermilk or chaas

Dinner : Same as lunch . A soup replaced buttermilk

Organic vegetables were so healthy and so huge in size and so tasty. There were variations in the menu everyday.

Each one had to wash their own plate and cup. The entire massive process of cooking, serving and cleaning was very well organized with most of the work shared by all - a concept called "Seva" . The vessel washing was the toughest job and I was surprised to see that most of this hard dirty work was enthusiastically shared by foreigners - both men and women - many of the cooking vessels were simply massive in size and very heavy to lift.

My First day at the course:

We got up excitedly at 4 a.m. as hot water was available only from 4:30 to 6 a.m. and 5 of us had to get ready using a single bathroom. So we planned a que and were ready by 5:30 a.m. Lot of giggling and laughter - fun time.

6:00 a.m. Mahavir Hall - One very young very smart looking boy ( ? ) called Rahul took our session - Yoga, Pranayam and Kriya . He trained us in a special set of Yoga exercises called Padma Sadana. At 8:30 we were let off and told next session will be at 10 a.m. We had to rush to the kitchen for breakfast and then Seva. It took around 15 minutes to reach from one place to the other. Breakfast was yummy hot tasty stuff accompanied by a hot cup of sweet Ragi Kanji (Millet porridge)

Concept of Seva:

The Ashram's manpower is mainly the guests who come to stay there. All the work like cleaning, serving food, cutting vegetables, sweeping and swabbing floors, gardening etc.. are all happily shared by all the public. It is a very humbling experience .

Seva is very therapeutic and stripes one of all ego. You work hard, but you know in your heart of hearts it does not matter whether you contribute or not - things will go on fine. But you want to do it - just for your own sake. You start feeling that this is your large family and you have to contribute . What you give is absolutely minuscule as compared to the gigantic proportion of the work involved. When you see tons of vegetables being cleaned and cut - what is your tiny share of cutting? The long corridors of all buildings are swept clean and whatever work you do is so little as compared to the whole. I came to realise the sense of belonging that developed in each one of us with each passing day due to this concept of Seva.

Guruji in one of the night Video session explained Seva in detail. He said it has to be absolutely self-less without any expectation not even happiness. like he said "If you do seva thinking this will bring joy to me " then it is not self-less. Seva made me realize how insignificant I truly am in the vast universe. Thousands of people have done self-less Seva to make the Ashram the magnificent place it is today and still the Ashram is steadily growing and evolving more and more beautiful and comfortable. So many youth - highly educated (IIT, IIM... ), well-to-do, professionals from all walks of life, the rich, the poor have all dedicated their life to the service of the Ashram and spreading the message of the Guru.

After 2 days I did not feel like eating till I had done some Seva. I started thinking "This is my home and how can I just eat and go?? So much work needs to be done!! "

10 a.m. to 1:p.m. Session :

We had a very young and handsome Guruji called Akash who conducted the training. He won all our hearts in no time - a very charming and lovable guruji. He was more like Guruji's messenger constantly telling us "Guruji said this and that " . He put us thro deep guided meditations, several well thought out games/exercises of sharing thro' interaction with our co-participants. These were sometimes so effective that several of us were weeping some uncontrollably - some catharsis effect. We generally kept our eyes closed thro' out so I do not know who cried so much.

We were specially trained in a meditation called "Hollow and Empty " by a taped voice of either a lady or Guruji himself. At the end of it, we had to sway and dance to a very meditative, soothening music. I cannot discuss the technique of this meditation - you have to experience it by undergoing the course. We also did lot of breathing exercises - Pranayams.

Guruji Akash Bhyya

Akash was particularly gifted with a clear rich voice, excellent command over English, good choice of words. He is a born story-teller.

Severe headache:

At the end of day-1 I had such a severe splitting headache - any painkiller was of no use. I just hit the bed and could not get up till next day morning. For 2 days I had severe headache. Third day I took a pain killer in advance. But still, when I went into deep meditation, I actually felt the headache coming. This went on on all the 6 days of my training.

Silence for 4 days:

Our Mouna-vrith started from the night of day1 . We should not talk at all - no cell phone. I switched off mine and put it away in the box. This silence was so enjoyable and so communicative too. We all enjoyed it. Silence is not new to me having read and practiced Echart Tolle who says "Feel the silence of the universe all around and with in you "

I simply loved the silence. But we did cheat at times knowingly or unknowingly.

The flowerwalis :

My relatives - "Sister", "Akka", "Amma"

There were several ladies selling flowers - huge beautiful roses - white, red, yellow, pink and Jasmine , rose, pink and white kaneri flower garlands . They would line our routes from morning 5:30 a.m to night11 p.m. They were excellent saleswomen who called out endearingly to us "Sister", "Mother", "Brother" and so on . They constanly beseached us to buy flowers for Guruji. I really admired their 100 % salesmanship at 100% of the time. Ended up buying everyday !!

The Fruitwallas:

3 - 4 fruit vendors manitained a steady suppy of the yummiest fruits - papaya, banana, oranges, watermelon, pineapple - I have never eaten such sweet friuts. We could geta heaped plate of mexed fruits at as little as Rs. 10. We really gorged on them at all times.

Fresh Hot Cow milk:

The Ashram breeds cows in "Goshala" - a special breed from Gujarat. lunch time and dinner time we could get this delicious hot thick milk and yummy ice cream at low prices. Simply enjoyed all that

Evening Satsang and the magician Guruji

Daily there is a satsang - singing bhajans together at VM. b/w 7:30 to 9 p.m. We were very lucky that from the third day onwards daily guruji would come for the satsang.

His presence simply charged the air with energy and joy. What is it in this man that attracts so many people to go crazy over him? love him so much from the bottom of their hearts? feel a soul connection with him? He is totally devoid of any lofty talk . Mostly he cracks jokes, makes us laugh, simply sits and goes into deep meditation or some times breaks into melodious music - Whatever it is his presence is greatly soothening , healing and electrifying. One cannot take one's eyes off him. When he talks, he always seems to clarify some doubt which you have been having for long. Such an unassuming person. The greatest thing about Guruji is "he genuinely believes that all are his family" That sense of belonging to each and every person around is what makes him so endearing !! He creates Magic everytime. He says He surrenders to the Love of his devotees who constantly shouted "Jai Gurudev" . He gives a very patient hearing to any question and answers each one with great kindness and compassion. Is this God? Thousands of devotees sit in pin-drop silence to hear every word he speaks.

The 6 day LIFE transformation course:

We had a packed rigorous schedule. We were all up by 4 a.m and back to the room at 10:30 p.m. Our schedule was such :

6 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. - Morning Yoga, Pranayam

8:30 to 10 a.m. : Breakfast and Seva or the otherway around.

10 to 1:15 p.m. : Meditation, Pranayam, more deep meditation, some dancing, some well designed sharing exercises with co-participants

1:15 to 2:15 Lunch break and Seva

2:15 to 5:30 Meditation, Pranayam, more deep meditation, some dancing, some well designed sharing exercises with co-participants

5:30 to 6:30 We were supposed to go for walks but invariably we ended up in Canteen for the first cup of tea for the day!!

6:30 to 7:30 Dinner and Seva

7:30 to 9 p.m. Satsang

9 to 10 p.m. : Watch Guruji's video.

I really enjoyed every bit of it, except for the severe headache.

Everyday we spent in eager anticipation of meeting the great man himself on a one-to-one basis. Initially I felt frustrated that he was not meeting us or coming to teach the course etc.. But slowly realized it really did not matter. The changes were happening with-in.

But the day he was to meet us, our group went really mad with excitement. First of all , we all dressed in our best. The dancing at the Satsang was so much (with total abandonment ) that the VM hall resembled a DISCO night!!

.

Prabha, Self, Viji Dressed to kill

Guruji had such a hectic day that day and I felt sorry for him - yet we were greedy - all wanted so much to meet him. It was a dream come true for all of us and it was absolutely thrilling and divine.

Lessons learnt:

First and foremost was the regular practice of Yoga, Pranayam and Sudharshana Kriya. Everyone must undergo some courses at AOL and learn these techniques.

Second was the effect of intense meditation on all the days. Seemed to clense my system inside out. I felt so light.

Somewhere along the way, I realized lot of things and the way of life for the future . If the "The Hollow and Empty meditation" concept is understood and practiced it can bring 100% peace into one's lives.

There was also an extremely moving exercise where we had to bless another person with all our heart looking into their eyes and afterwards hugging them tightly. The whole process is so therapeutic and I wept my heart out ( as did most of the participants) . We had to look into the eyes of the participant ; 3 different pairs of eyes ( of total strangers) will always remain etched in my memory. This exercise lingered with me and I blessed everyone whomever I chanced to come across after that. I hope I remain that way my whole life. I felt blessed and so beautiful.

Last but not the least Guruji's kind, soft voice on the following points are etched in my memory :

1. What is true Seva? If your living does not make a difference to another life, then what is the use of such a life? You may die - he said. He also explained in great detail what is true Seva - not donating some money and getting ur name engraved for eternity on some stone. This video was unforgettable

2. Guruji in another video said "You are a pearl - Each one of you - a beautiful one . But a pearl needs to have a hole so it can be strung together - All pearls together make a beautiful mala - What agreat philosophy - I mean What guruji meant was "be absolutely empty without any baggage - you can connect to another human being - all of us can connect with each other" Surely this great man connected with each and everyone he chanced to come across. I was reminded of the movie "Avatar" where the Navi's from another planet Pandora connect with each other. When they connect with a bird, they can fly at their will.

3. Guruji has given a simple principle for living :

Take care of your breathing for physical well being and Serve others for mental well being. Together this leads one to spirituality.

4. Akash Guruji had explained to us the Symbol of Buddha The right palm stretched open and held up and the left palm stretched and held down pointing to the ground - He said the right hand signifies that be alert and aware of each and everything happening to u - your emotions, thoughts, actions. The left hand pointing downwards says "Let go" of all - any emotion - anger, frustration, any thought ... This stayed with me and had a deep impact.

5. Akash Guruji also made us squat like a dog and put our tongue out and said "All ur life you have been wanting this and that .. " It was also a very effective way of making us realize the folly of our endless desires and wants.

After our course we visited some places in the Ashram - The very scenic Radha Kunj facing a serene lake, we meditated and did kriya at Sumeru mandap in the early morning, visited the Veda Patashala, Goshala, some exciting shopping, saw the Panchakarma centre for Ayurvedic Massages

Kalyana Mandapam

Open air Wedding venue at Radha Kunj

Serene Buddha at Radha Kunj

Panchakarma Centre

In Gratitude:

• First and foremost I feel extremly grateful to Guruji for designing such wonderful courses to awaken and enlighten mankind.
• I am grateful to the people who have worked so hard and made this Ashram what it is today out of a barren eerie land.
• My co-particpants were a wonderful lot and the sense of belonging grew day by day . "Sangachatvam - We move together"

Somewhere I felt my ego tree was axed and all my negativity de-weeded . I hope to do kriya, yoga and meditation everyday without fail and Seva whenever an opportunity arises.

My next advanced course will be at Rishikesh with Guruji whenever he gives a call.

Jai Gurudev