Being spiritual does not mean that we have to give up our jobs and
families and become renunciates. Experiencing that subtlest aspect of
creation in our day to day life is spirituality. It is living with that deep connectedness with oneself and others. And Guru brings that experience into a disciple's life. We may read many books, but through the eyes of the
Enlightened, one is able to see that the whole world is permeated by that one
energy, one consciousness, one divinity. Every human being, animal, flower and bird, and all things in the universe springs from the one consciousness, one energy, one divinity!
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Birthday with Sri Sri
With my Beloved Guru
 |
| Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.. Peace, Love, Compassion.. personified. |
Five Signs of a Guru
In the Upanishads five signs of Satguru (True enlightened being) are mentioned.
In the presence of the Satguru:
- Sorrow diminishes (Dukha kshaya)
- Knowledge flourishes (Gnana raksha)
- Joy wells up without any reason (Sukha aavirbhava)
- Abundance dawns (Samriddhi)
- All talents manifest (Sarva samvardhan).
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Come to me, come to me...
A poem by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar..
Beyond the heaven is my abode
come to me. come to me.
Don't stop, come to me.
If you get stuck in the heaven,
you will return back from there to hell.
Don't stop in the heaven, come to me, come to me.
My abode is beyond heaven, far away from here.
Come to me, come to me
All the charming faces, boys and girls, eyes and noses,
hairs and dresses, cookies and sweets and chocolates,
pass them on.
Smiling and dancing, come to me, come to me.
My abode is beyond the heaven.
come to me.
Joyfully move in this direction, a thousand blessings on the way.
walk through them, don't get stuck.
Pass through them.
come to me.
Angels are ready to serve you, and crown you with the highest.
Don't stop before that.
Come to me, come to me...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beyond the heaven is my abode
come to me. come to me.
Don't stop, come to me.
If you get stuck in the heaven,
you will return back from there to hell.
Don't stop in the heaven, come to me, come to me.
My abode is beyond heaven, far away from here.
Come to me, come to me
All the charming faces, boys and girls, eyes and noses,
hairs and dresses, cookies and sweets and chocolates,
pass them on.
Smiling and dancing, come to me, come to me.
My abode is beyond the heaven.
come to me.
Joyfully move in this direction, a thousand blessings on the way.
walk through them, don't get stuck.
Pass through them.
come to me.
Angels are ready to serve you, and crown you with the highest.
Don't stop before that.
Come to me, come to me...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Quarter of a second
Sometime in the spring of 2006, I was taking the Art of Living course for the fourth time. Every time I repeated the course, I had new experiences in meditation, there was a new depth to the knowledge. On the course, we were doing the powerful breathing technique called Sudarshan Kriya, when suddenly I felt a deep longing to meet Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - the Guru of Joy who had created this technique. After a few days, I heard that Sri Sri would be visiting Los Angeles for three days and would be giving a few public talks. So I booked my tickets in the hopes of a chance to meet him in person.
The first talk was titled 'Leading into the Light'. It was organized in one of the convention centers and the hall was overflowing with people. I got a seat somewhere in the middle. One of the organizers made an announcement that He would be arriving soon. After a while, Sri Sri walked in. He was wearing flowing white robes. He looked majestic, bright, radiant, and full of love and compassion. He led us through a meditation and imparted some deep knowledge. But I remember only one thing from that day, he said "Darkness is just absence of light. Once there is light, the darkness automatically disappears."
Once the talk ended, there was utter chaos. People started moving towards the stage, some running out of the hall. As I saw from where I stood, a line was getting formed on its own without any visible orchestrators, and Sri Sri had started walking along that line meeting people one by one.
I quickly made my way to the line, found a little space and squeezed in. I felt thrilled to know it was so easy to meet him in person. As I was waiting in line, I could feel his strong presence, like a powerful field of energy, coming closer. He was exchanging a few words with each one of them and he spoke in length to the lady who was next to me. Infact he held her folded hands and was consoling her about some problem she had. And after he finished talking to her, he conveniently ignored me and spoke to the person next to me and continued. I was stumped. He didn't even look at me. Did this really happen? The line stretched all the way outside the hall and down the stairs, there were people waiting everywhere to see him.
I was not ready to give up so easily, so I tried to get his attention down the line a couple times, my hopes were now to atleast get a look, but to no avail. No look, no talk, nothing. I was a bit disheartened. But for some reason I kept walking with him till we came to the asphalt where his car was waiting for him. Still no luck. Perhaps my time had not yet come. Perhaps I had to become more pure, or perhaps do more service, be more deserving. I was prepared in my mind to go back and start some serious service. Then a thought entered my mind - since He is the Enlightened One, he knows when to look, when not to look, when to talk, what to talk, etc. A judgement was not needed about that. I just needed to trust him completely. At this point I let go.
The car was ready, the door was open, there was a golden yellow shawl on his seat. After waving goodbye to all the people there, just as he was about to get into the car, he looked up straight into my eyes. Just for a brief moment.
As he did that, a huge bolt of energy surged through my entire body. I became completely spellbound. I felt this huge and powerful sense of expansion and I became aware of everything that was happening around me.. the car was slowly inching away.. people were cheering and waving.. there were tears.. but I stood there motionless. Although there was a lot happening outside, inside me I was completely quiet, at peace. A very solid peace. A few moments of absolute bliss..
Then I could hear a faint voice which slowly grew louder and louder and it was shouting 'Ani Ani come lets go'. Was this my inner voice?? No. A friend of mine was screaming and asking me to come along. Next thing I know we were running in the parking lot searching for the car and a few seconds later we were on our way. My friend was making calls to find out where Sri Sri was hosted, it was some hotel, he put it in his GPS, we took some wrong turns but finally reached the hotel where he was staying. We heard he would be in one of the rooms on the fifth floor. We ran towards the elevators and just about to enter one. Who would have thought - Sri Sri himself was in that elevator. There was space available and we got in!! I was standing right in front of him and that made me very nervous. My friend introduced me to him but I couldn't even say a word. Not even a hi.
We followed him out of the elevator and reached his room. I stopped at the door not knowing whether it was appropriate for me to go in. One of the devotees then came out and invited us in. It was unbelievable for me. I sat a few feet in front of him feeling a little awkward. I was trying to think of something to ask him, but there were no questions, nothing to discuss.
After sitting in front of him for about half hour in silence, He smiled at us and indicated in a subtle manner that it was time. He gave us some prasad before we all headed out.
This has been the most thrilling time I have ever had in my entire life. There were no questions asked, no answers given, no words exchanged, yet my heart was full.
The first talk was titled 'Leading into the Light'. It was organized in one of the convention centers and the hall was overflowing with people. I got a seat somewhere in the middle. One of the organizers made an announcement that He would be arriving soon. After a while, Sri Sri walked in. He was wearing flowing white robes. He looked majestic, bright, radiant, and full of love and compassion. He led us through a meditation and imparted some deep knowledge. But I remember only one thing from that day, he said "Darkness is just absence of light. Once there is light, the darkness automatically disappears."
Once the talk ended, there was utter chaos. People started moving towards the stage, some running out of the hall. As I saw from where I stood, a line was getting formed on its own without any visible orchestrators, and Sri Sri had started walking along that line meeting people one by one.
I quickly made my way to the line, found a little space and squeezed in. I felt thrilled to know it was so easy to meet him in person. As I was waiting in line, I could feel his strong presence, like a powerful field of energy, coming closer. He was exchanging a few words with each one of them and he spoke in length to the lady who was next to me. Infact he held her folded hands and was consoling her about some problem she had. And after he finished talking to her, he conveniently ignored me and spoke to the person next to me and continued. I was stumped. He didn't even look at me. Did this really happen? The line stretched all the way outside the hall and down the stairs, there were people waiting everywhere to see him.
I was not ready to give up so easily, so I tried to get his attention down the line a couple times, my hopes were now to atleast get a look, but to no avail. No look, no talk, nothing. I was a bit disheartened. But for some reason I kept walking with him till we came to the asphalt where his car was waiting for him. Still no luck. Perhaps my time had not yet come. Perhaps I had to become more pure, or perhaps do more service, be more deserving. I was prepared in my mind to go back and start some serious service. Then a thought entered my mind - since He is the Enlightened One, he knows when to look, when not to look, when to talk, what to talk, etc. A judgement was not needed about that. I just needed to trust him completely. At this point I let go.
The car was ready, the door was open, there was a golden yellow shawl on his seat. After waving goodbye to all the people there, just as he was about to get into the car, he looked up straight into my eyes. Just for a brief moment.
As he did that, a huge bolt of energy surged through my entire body. I became completely spellbound. I felt this huge and powerful sense of expansion and I became aware of everything that was happening around me.. the car was slowly inching away.. people were cheering and waving.. there were tears.. but I stood there motionless. Although there was a lot happening outside, inside me I was completely quiet, at peace. A very solid peace. A few moments of absolute bliss..
Then I could hear a faint voice which slowly grew louder and louder and it was shouting 'Ani Ani come lets go'. Was this my inner voice?? No. A friend of mine was screaming and asking me to come along. Next thing I know we were running in the parking lot searching for the car and a few seconds later we were on our way. My friend was making calls to find out where Sri Sri was hosted, it was some hotel, he put it in his GPS, we took some wrong turns but finally reached the hotel where he was staying. We heard he would be in one of the rooms on the fifth floor. We ran towards the elevators and just about to enter one. Who would have thought - Sri Sri himself was in that elevator. There was space available and we got in!! I was standing right in front of him and that made me very nervous. My friend introduced me to him but I couldn't even say a word. Not even a hi.
We followed him out of the elevator and reached his room. I stopped at the door not knowing whether it was appropriate for me to go in. One of the devotees then came out and invited us in. It was unbelievable for me. I sat a few feet in front of him feeling a little awkward. I was trying to think of something to ask him, but there were no questions, nothing to discuss.
After sitting in front of him for about half hour in silence, He smiled at us and indicated in a subtle manner that it was time. He gave us some prasad before we all headed out.
This has been the most thrilling time I have ever had in my entire life. There were no questions asked, no answers given, no words exchanged, yet my heart was full.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
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