Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Knowledge on Forgiveness -- Sri Sri

Wisdom is knowing that everybody is an instrument in the hands of the divine. When we are just an instrument, then the question of a good or bad action or the question of praise or criticism does not arise. The wise do not criticise the one who does a bad action, nor is he overwhelmed by praise.

Forgiveness is a balm to soothe the mind which is full of hatred and aversion. Normally when somebody has done a bad action its doer ship brings guilt. Asking for forgiveness frees one of this guilt.

Similarly forgiving others frees one from anger and hatred. The person with little knowledge forgives others to save himself while an egotist expects others to ask for forgiveness to satisfy his ego. Those who give or seek forgiveness are not established in knowledge. The wise does not forgive! For he knows that the culprit indeed is not the doer. He realises that he is beyond the purview of causality. What is the need to forgive when there is no other?

When someone's ego is hurt, he becomes destructive and hurts others, justifying his own pain as the cause for his actions and reinforcing his ego.

There are three levels of knowledge.
1 :At the first level, the person thinks ''some one else can hurt me''.
2 : At the second level, a person thinks ''I am hurt''. A person suffering from pain wants to get rid of it and resorts to prayer.
3 : At the third level, the wise knows that he is beyond hurt, stays untainted at all times and recognises the play of karma and stays surrendered at all times.

If you are not surrendered, then you get into the cause and effect of actions and the cycle of karma continues.

The wise will always find good in other people, because he sees them all as instruments of the divine. He sees divinity even in a thief. An average person will sometimes see divinity, sometimes negativity in others and hence stays in conflict. But one who is emotionally disturbed will find fault even in a saint.

In Christianity the emphasis is on forgiveness and not on the cause-and-effect theory. The main objective here is to save the mind and have compassion. In Jainism, the emphasis is on non-violence. While in Jainism, you ask for forgiveness from people, in Christianity you only ask for forgiveness from God. There is a festival in Jainism called Kshamavani (which is held in end August-early September) where one asks for forgiveness for mistakes committed consciously or unconsciously.

Thus Christianity uses forgiveness to calm violence and anger in oneself, while Jainism uses forgiveness to reduce violence and anger in others.

However Ashtavakra (the great sage who is the author of the famous treatise Ashtavakra Gita) uses forgiveness as a tool to free one from bondage. Guilt and anger also cause bondage, and hence forgiveness is used to free oneself from these emotions. Ashtavakra advises forgiveness only for the seeker, not for the enlightened, when he says that ''the seeker should be forgiving, focussed and compassionate''.

Ashtavakra uses forgiveness in the beginning of his treatise, while Jesus uses forgiveness in the end, when he says, ''Forgive them for they know not what they do.'' Ashtavakra begins where Jesus ends.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Yoga beyond religion

Yoga beyond religion - Firoz Bakht Ahmed

I follow all the Islamic tenets in the right interpretation and spirit and so, I can say that there is no such thing as yoga being haram
(disallowed) in Islam. Rather, I have found that Islamic yoga is a reality. It is possible to employ the skills of yoga to worship Allah better and to be a better Muslim.

Issuing fatwa declaring yoga anti-Islamic by some Malaysian and Indonesian ulema is nothing but misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the fact that yoga and namaz are almost identical.

Having practiced yoga during my school days, I found that it can easily be integrated with the Islamic life; in fact the two assist one another. Not only is there no conflict, but Islam and yoga together make a mutually beneficial holistic synergy.

Both are agreed that, while the body is important as a vehicle on the way to spiritual realization and salvation, the human being's primary identity is not with the body but with the eternal spirit.

Maintaining a healthy and fit body is a requirement in Islam, which teaches a Muslim that his or her body is a gift from Allah. Yoga happens to be one of the most potential common grounds between Hindus and Muslims.

The purposes of yoga and Tariqat-e-Naqshbandi (Sufi lifestyle) are apparently similar since both aim at achieving mystical union with the ultimate reality namely Brahma or Allah. Islamic mysticism is undoubtedly impacted by the uncanny Vedic and Buddhist influences desiring to achieve mystical union with the Supreme Being or as one may also call nirvana or fana (a term used by the Sufis).

The Indian Muslims' love affair with yoga is a complex thing, born of many factors. There's the general disenchantment with strict, orthodox Islam of the myopic clerics and the accompanying pull to alternative forms of spirituality.

Yoga, according to Ashraf F Nizami's book 'Namaz, the Yoga of Islam' (published by D B Taraporevala, Mumbai 1977) is not a religion. Rather, it is a set of techniques and skills that enhance the practice of any religion. Nizami writes that in namaz, various constituents like sijdah is like half shirshasana while qayam is vajrasana in the same way as ruku is paschimothanasana.

Even Father M Dechanel wrote a book on Christian yoga recording that practicing yoga is encouraged because it is a way towards the realization of Christian teachings.

According to Badrul Islam, a yoga instructor at a government academy in Dehradun, one of the most obvious correspondences between Islam and yoga is the resemblance of salat (five-time prayer a day) to the physical exercises of yoga asanas. The root meaning of the word salat is 'to bend the lower back', as in yoga; the Persians translated this concept with the word namaz, from a verbal root meaning 'to bow', etymologically related to the Sanskrit word namaste.

Since the yogic metaphysic of Advaita Vedanta is in perfect accordance with the Islamic doctrine of tauhid (God's oneness), there is perfect compatibility between Islam and yoga on the highest level.

The 'Book of Sufi Healing' by Hakim G M Chishti clearly states that life, from its beginning till the end, is one continuous set of breathing practices. However, in Tariqat-e-Naqshabandiyah, the Sufi tradition of Islam, breathing practice has been there exactly as in yoga. The Quran, in addition to all else it may be, is a set of breathing practices.

The enigmatic and most revered Qari (one who melodiously recites Quran) Abdul Basit of Egypt, whose recitation of the Quran is considered the best till date, practiced breathing exercise exactly similar to pranayam and was able to recite a surah by holding his breath for such a long duration that even the medical experts were amazed. However, no one told the Qari that he did it with yoga.

Nowadays, yoga is commercially promoted for health and repel diseases. In fact, less exercise owing to long office hours on computers is one of diseases of modern world. Cars, motorcycles and computers are our main pulse beat of contemporary life. People no longer think about physical and spiritual exercises, which makes a good excuse for Muslims to be offered yoga practice.

Besides, many western societies are materialistic and for limitless monetary gains people would fall prey to rat race and superiority whereas their spiritual sides remain void. Forms of yoga such as Patanjali, Tantra, Sankhya and Dhyana, among others, are non-religious as even the atheists can practice them. Yoga today is a way of life for the followers of all religions.

The place of yoga in the lives of most Muslims will not be shifted by the fatwas of Indonesian and Malayian ulemas. Those who practice will practice, the so-called super-pious will frown. Even in the Middle East and Iran, yoga is a pet with Muslims.

Most Muslims in India are dazed that the all-encompassing credentials of yoga need to be debated. Let's appreciate that at this time, the pro-yoga fatwa by the renowned Darul Uloom Deoband seminary has given it a clean chit and Swami Ramdev has also given the green signal that Muslims can substitute Allah for Ohm, but was it really required?

Quite interestingly, the word Ohm, according to Urdu or Arabic alphabet, is formed from three alphabets - Alif, Wao and Meem. If we consider the abbreviations of these, Alif means Allah, Wao or wa means 'and' while Meem means Mohammed. It shows that Ohm is a confluence of Allah and Mohammed. May be some super-pious will also frown upon me on this word play.

Firoz Bakht Ahmed is a commentator on social and educational issues.

Courtesy - Forwarded by my friend NARESH (This article was published in Times of India)

Friday, February 6, 2009

Do You Know Everybody's Mind?

Q: Do you know everybody's mind?

Sri Sri: You know what happened when we were coming to Surat from Mumbai in train for Mahasatsang. There were two ladies in the same train as we were travelling in. They were longing to meet me. They couldn't meet me in Mumbai and thought it would be almost impossible to meet in Surat.

Few devotees where scheduled to meet me at Valsad station. Before we could finish the train started. Me and Rishi Nityaprogya ji (Nitin Bhaiya) ran and jumped into one of the boggies. It was a ladies coach [Huge laughter]. The two ladies were sitting in the same boggie. They started crying like anything after seeing me. Then I sat with them for half an hour and spoke to them. Longing always increases but never gets completed. Love increases but never completes.

During my agnyat vaas, I asked our driver, to drive the car in some remote village. I asked him to take left and right, here and there.Then I asked him to stop in front of a small house. It was a farmers house. Once I entered the house, everybody saw me. The whole family was so happy to see me. The farmer said he wanted to see me since such a long time but never knew how to reach me. Then I also visited a few farmers near by, they also wanted to meet me since long but would never get a chance due to their duties and work. I spent some time talking to them. They all became very happy. So you never know when I'll go where. I can come anywhere, anytime. So better keep you house neat and clean.

You are the creator of your life and your reality.

Your thoughts become your actions and your actions create the circumstances in your life. You are responsible for everything that happens to you in your life.This is the simple law of as you sow so you reap. It can also be called the law of motion and emotion. Every thought that we send out into the universe comes back to us with accumulated energy of its own kind.When negative thoughts go out of our minds, they will come back to us with redoubled negative energy and give us lot of pain and unhappiness.Positive thoughts on the other hand bring in positive energy and energize us, establishing in the process peace and harmony in our consciousness.

Our actions too yield the same results.Our positive actions bring in positive rewards and our negative actions bring negative rewards. The energy that we unleash, either in the form of a thought or action, always comes back to us with increased force.Thus through our actions and thoughts we are constantly creating our own realities.

Whatever we give comes back to us. We should therefore be very careful about our thoughts and actions as they have a lasting influence on the pattern of our lives.People blame others for what happens to them. Little do they know that if any one is to be blamed it is the person himself who made it happen to himself! Wisdom is when something happens to you. Instead of looking around for excuses and placing the blame on others, look into yourself and ask yourself why you made it happen? Why you invited those conditions and circumstances into your life? Perhaps it was because you wanted to learn something out of that experience. Perhaps you wanted to strengthen some aspect of your personality or resolve some long troubling relationship.When you start accepting responsibility for the events of your life, you begin to learn more about yourself, your inner thoughts, your fears and aspirations.Out of this awareness you also start expanding your consciousness. Become aware of your thought processes and through this awareness you finally learn to change the conditions of your life.

Creating a Stress-Free Mind and a Violence-Free World - Sri Sri

There is strength in peace. There is strength in calmness. There is strength in love, but it goes unnoticed. What you cannot win with a stick, you can win with love.What you cannot win with guns, you can win through love. The most powerful thing in the world is love! We can win the hearts of people through love. The victory that comes out of ego is worth nothing. Even if you win in ego, it is a loss. Even if you lose in love, it's a victory! Making people realise this innermost strength that we all have is the challenge!

You cannot talk about love when a terrorist is at your door, but is there some way in which we can transform the world? Is there any alternative that can bring sense to people who do not listen to anything other than force? We can start thinking along these lines only when we realise that there is enormous power in love and inner peace.When we are peaceful, we radiate that peace to the people around us and they also become calm. In these times of war and disease in the world, it's so important that we all meditate a little everyday. When we meditate, we nullify negative vibrations, thereby creating a more harmonious environment around us. Being peaceful in a meditative,prayerful state, will definitely help. Don't think that you are insignificant when the world is in a problem. You too have a role to play.

Every individual — everyone who is breathing, talking, walking, thinking — has an influence on this cosmos, on this planet. So we can all radiate peace, good thoughts, good vibrations, good wishes and that will definitely make an impact on the planet.

I've seen this over and over again. When there is a conflict and you interact with both the groups involved in the conflict, they soften up. When communication breaks down, it causes turbulence, which in turn causes stiffness and rigidity. But when you re-establish communication through love, through peaceful means, through patience, it helps. One thing that is absolutely essential to avoid fanaticism or religious terrorism in the world is a multi-cultural, multi-religious education for children. It is because a child grows up thinking that other religions or cultures are bad, that he or she is ready to give up his or her life for that cause; but when a child grows up knowing a little bit about all other religions, cultures and customs, then there is a sense of belonging with everybody. I feel that when every child in the world learns a little bit about every other religion, the child will not have inhibitions or hatred towards other religions or cultures.

See, we accept food from every part of the world. We accept music from every part of the world. You don't need to be Chinese in order to eat Chinese food! You don't need to be an Italian to go to Pizzeria and eat pizzas, nor a Danish to eat Danish cookies! One doesn't have to be an Indian to listen to bhajans or sitar music!

Similarly, we need to learn to accept knowledge and wisdom from every part, and this is what has been lacking in the world.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Make this world a better place -- Sri Sri

Bangalore Ashram

Guruji: How are you all? Yes you should be good. Problems? What problems? Listen listen… let me tell you all your problems classified together can be put together into four baskets. Tell me what are your problems? Job,boss..(laughter ) , Promotion…ok Career… What else? Ok so lets put all these problems in one basket. In this basket we have allyour career related problems including jobs, promotions, change in job etc in one basket. Ok what else? Health. The worries related to your health. Oh! This is happening to me that is happening to me. What will I do!?!? Lets put all you health related issues in one basket. All youir unnecessary fear lets put them all in one basket. Then what else? Relationship! ! Yes! You huge portion of worries are related to your relationships. Either it's the mother in law, ordaughter in law…its husband, or marriage in case of the unmarried ones! Isn't it?

You know 60% - 70% of your thoughts are occupied about the relationship issues. About your friends, parents, in laws, siblings, spouse… And by thinking thinking about something so much you get tired!! And when you talk to someone, you talk about nothing but your problems!! But there is one more basket. The spiritual worries. This basket is never full! This should contain worries like, Oh! What will happen to the country after one year? What will I do to reduce pollution for my city? Issues like politicians, racisms, and pollution…Not many people seem to be having these worries! (Laughter). The basket remains pretty empty!! These are Spiritual worries. When this basket starts filling up, just know that the other worries in those other basket are reducing.Or lets put it in this way. When you start worrying about issues in the last basket, then I'll take care of all your worries in the first three baskets! In our life we should have big goals. Like this year this will have 1000 tree plantations by every individual present here. How many of you will dothis, raise your hands, let me see? You know Bangalore traffic is gettingtoo much. To come from places like Vijaynagar and Yelhanka you need almost two hrs!!!

Do you see what I am saying? If you want to make this city a better place to live in, then just know that we have to work together in groups and also as individuals and take responsibility to resolve these issues. Every one should start planting trees.Go to all the shops around and tell them not to use chemical stuff. Yeah,Chemical free soaps. They should just stop it! Tell them it hampers the skin. It is dangerous.And the second thing I would like you all to do is vegetation in your compound. No matter how less is the place
available with you, do some kind of vegetation. That keeps your mind also very healthy. Multiple benefits!!Then respecting the girl child. Education of the girl child. Equal importance to the girl of the house like that to the boy. Please do not have these concepts in your head that only having a boy bay is a matter of prestige and a matter of importance. Don't worry about the last rites!! A girl and a boy are the same and they should enjoy equal rights in the family as well as society.

Last night have you seen that 'Ardhanareshweri' dance performance? So beautiful isn't it? The consciousness is half male and half female. The half of it is Shiva and the rest half is Shakti. One is incomplete without the other. Man is incomplete without the women and so is a woman incomplete without the man. So never have this thought that, Oh! I get Moksha(liberation) only if I have a boy in my house. No. It's not like that at all.So what re the things you should focus on? 1. Plantations of trees. Get together in groups and plant trees.2. Usage of chemical free stuff, products in our regular life.3. Equal importance to a girl child.4. Work together to reduce pollution.Pollution is becoming such a massive issue!! People are getting various diseases due to pollution. We never heard of such diseases before! We have to look into these things. Each time I leave from this any
place there are thirth fourty cars following me all the times!! I tell you it is such a waste in petrol! It s not required. I am at the Satsang, you are seeing me why do you need to see me for just few seconds and come all the way to the Airport. I keep traveling so frequently!! We do our Satsang.

We enjoy at the satsang, have fun, as always!! (laughter) You know recently I went to Bombay. I never told anybody where I was going what time etc.. But there were 1000 people at the airport. I was amazed! I asked someone, "How did you know that I was coming, because I haven't told anyone"? She said, "Oh!Guruji I dreamt that you are coming and just called up a few people and too ka chance, and you came!! (Laughter)!! !What a good networking you have!!! This is Internet! (Laughter)!! You know we should not use vehicle unnecessarily.

We should try and do more and more of car pulling. If you are coming from one place, make sure you have your car full with other people from the same place. Do you understand what I am saying? Very important to be sensitive towards the environment. You know our consciousness is like that of water, only moves down. Till it finds the lowest place it keeps moving.That shows how humble we can be. It is also like the fire.What ever happens its flame only goes up! We need to kindle the fire within us. Spiritual fire brings coolness within, brings enthusiasm and uplifts energy. There are two things: At mouddhara – means, the development of the self. Samajauddhara – means, the development of the society.That much for today!!!( Laughter) !!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The Temple

I often sit in the temple across the street from my house in Mumbai. Not to pray, but just to bathe myself in the vibrations of all those that do, all those lucky ones that so easily believe in the divine power of faith ...

I usually have a space in a back corner on the floor of the temple, a little hidden from sight, where I can be the observer rather than the observed. A lot of young actors frequent the temple asking for divine interventions in their careers. Imagine their surprise when they turn around and see one of India's recognizable directors crouched in a corner. They may read too much into divine intervention !

This day someone had taken my place. A nice looking young man, his mouth whispering a silent prayer, eyes closed. He had a cloth laid across his lap as if he planned to be in meditation for a long time. I just quitely crouched on the floor next to him. A little irritated at having my secluded corner usurped.

His whispering stopped. I turned and he was staring at me. I suddenly noticed his nice looks and extremely wide broad shoulders. An actor I thought. For they spend half their lives in the Gym.

But he sounded more humble and had no self consciousness. He asked me why I had forsaken my fans in India and gone to the West. He spoke intelligently about my films and about cinema in general. He even extracted a promise from me to make my next film in India and in Hindi.

What did he do ? He was an assistant accountant in a small firm in Mumbai by day and was studying computers by night. He had come from a village from northern India and was sending home money monthly to support his parents, who were now too old to work in the fields. Saving money to do that meant certain sacrifices.

like walking to the temple every morning from his shared shelter in a slum 2 miles away. To save bus fare. And then to work.

He suddenly smiled, put a hand out to touch my feet, and said goodbye. As he removed his cloth from his lap and moved away from me, I realized why this young man had such strong shoulders,

He had no legs. They were just small shrivelled useless bone and skin tucked permanently under is upper body. He moved by pushing himself along his haunches.

Two miles everyday to say a prayer.

Shekhar

Courtesy:- Shekar Kapur's blog

Friday, December 5, 2008

Tourist or a Piligrim

What is the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim?

Both are on a journey. Whereas a tourist is satisfying the senses, a pilgrim is in the quest of the truth. A tourist gets tired and tanned,while a pilgrim sparkles with spirit. Every move a pilgrim makes is with sacredness and gratitude, while a tourist is often preoccupied and unaware.A tourist compares with other experiences and places and hence is not in the present moment.

But a pilgrim has a sense of sacredness, so he tends to be in the present moment.Most people in life are just tourists without even being aware of it.Only a few make their life a pilgrimage. Tourists come, look around,take pictures in their mind, only to come back again. Pilgrims are at home everywhere and are hollow and empty.

When you consider life as sacred, nature waits on you.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Conciousness

is there a slipstream
of consciousness
that i can tap into ?

buffeted by currents
so strong
that i completely lose
a sense of myself

in a rush
towards such infinite speeds
that finally there is nothing

but stillness

Courtesy :- Shekar Kapur's Blog

Friday, November 21, 2008

Q n A (Part 4)

Thousands of people celebrate Rakhi Poornima at the Ashram. Several devotees tie Rakhi to Guruji. His hands, right from the wrist to the elbow was full of colorful strings!! The count of which had reached more than hundreds!!

Guruji: Every one has tied me up. I have got tied up by everyone (Laughter!!)

Devotee: Guruji you look like Krishna.

G: I don't just look, I am. (Laughter!!) What to hide!? Why to hide? I am shameless.

How are you all? Love ties you down... beautiful.

These days people are celebrating Friendship all over the world. When is that? Huh? 1st Sunday of August? Oh ho! So only that day you should be friendly is it? 'Raksha Bandhan' is what we celebrate here in India. Raksha means to save, to protect. You tie this, which means everyday you protect me. Sisters tie it to brothers, saying that you protect me everyday.

What else? I think the nations should tie it to each other. So that they are friendly to each other and they protect each other and save each other from destruction. They should not do selective friendship! Isn't it?

Raksha Bandhan means, I am there for you. Like the sister say to the brothers, I am there for you wherever you are, or the brother tell that to the sister? Whatever..

Should we do some meditation now? What is the time now? 8:45? How is the TTC going? The TRM is over... The others are also doing some course?

Q: Guruji thank you for everything that you have given me. I don't have words enough to express my gratitude.
G: Don't tell me thank you. It will be only worth if you can bring more smiles in more number of people's face. That's the way to say thank you.

Ok what else? Someone wanted to perform some dance? Perform it tomorrow. Should we discuss some questions?

You know I want to discuss something today. There is a big difference between the East and the West. In the East, we believe that God takes care of the evil. Men don't have to do anything. But in the West they believe that individuals have to take care of the evil. Fight them. Face them. In Buddhism, Taoism, the Shinto's, the Jains, in all these religions it is said that it is God's duty to protect you from the evil. Whereas in the Middle East, the faith is that you have to guard yourself from the evil. You have to fight them. Interesting? !?!?

Here in India we say God is Love. The whole Universe is made up of a substance and that is called God. The sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the trees, everything is nothing but the manifestation of God himself. These are something that we can see. And the unseen, even that we refer to as God. The space is also God. The pure consciousness, the space, there is no form, shape, the formless divinity; we call it as 'Nirakara' is also referred to as God here. The same formless divinity is present in the one with the form. It is called the 'Sakara'. You see it in the trees, the mountains, the garden, the sun, the moon... everything. This is interesting analysis!! We say God is Love and that is what the whole universe is made up of. Nothing but pure love. That's what we believe here.

When the child is born he experiences love from his mother. Then from the father. Then from the teacher, the Guru... Here in India we refer the trees, rivers and the mountains also as God! The sacredness is all permeating. Even animals, cows, sheep goats,frogs... the same divinity is seen in everything. This is another school of thought. God comes to us in all forms. I met this 85 year-old Catholic nun lady in London. She told me if you don't see Jesus in the first person you meet in the morning, then you will never see him anywhere. It is very unusual. I tell you Mystics have different ways always.

Like in Islam we had Mansoor, he was a Sufi saint. He said this,"What do people know what my relation is with my God?" So Mystics had a different interpretation about God always. They spoke from the heart. Their entire approach was different. Divinity is not oneperson. It is omni-present, omni-potent, and omniscient!!

Love is again personified. Love is not something, which is hanging on the space. It is in all forms.

There is this common question that comes, is God there in the form or the formless?

Can I ask you something? What are you? Are you not both the form and the formless? In Sanskrit we say, 'Appadeepo Bhava'. Be a light to yourself.The mind has no form where as the body has a form. And you are both.The muscles have a form. But the temperature has no form. The formless divinity is present in all. We refer that to as Brahman here in Sanskrit. Like we say, Allah in Islam. Satchitananda, the Paramananda, beyond the self. The consciousness. The whole universe
is like the body of the formless. Even scientists have agreed to the fact that the whole universe has come from a void. It is sustaining itself in the void and it is going to dissolve in the void!!

In Karnataka, there is a custom, I think in a village, to call everyone as God. Like they would say, "Come in God". "Please have food God", etc. They simply see God in everybody. That does not mean they behave crazily. No no... They take good care of you. They serve you food; make you wash your hand. Again divine is perceived in every different way. You become like a child. Jesus said, "unless you become a child, you cannot enter the kingdom of my father". I am sure in Islam also there should be something like that mentioned.

Here God is our friend, (sakha), companion, and child. In all the three forms you see divinity. That's why in Christianity they pray to infant Jesus. If you really look into religion, there was only one Buddha. Today there are 42 sects in Buddhism!! There was only one Jesus, but today we have 55 to 60 beliefs in Christianity. 4-5 different Paigambars. Same with Judaism there are 3 to 4 sects. Hinduism, don't even ask! (Laughter!!) Countless!!

Our work is to unite everybody. Harmony in diversity. We have to move with everybody. Honor everybody. Honour every school of thought. Never condemn anyone. It is only the foolish people who condemn. Honour everybody. Practice meditation, Sudarshan Kriya, and serve everyone. And you know what, honouring everyone itself is the biggest service.

Q: Guruji why is there so much diversity?

G: Tell me why shouldn't it be? It is like that. See there are so many different varieties of vegetables available. Imagine if there was only potato. You had to eat potato all the time!! Morning, evening and night!! How would that be? The nature has provided us with so much of variety!

Q: Guruji, after death the body turns into ashes. The soul finds another body. Where is the scope to see 'Swarga' (heaven)?

G: (laughter!!) I tell you the entire concept of Swarga is how you live your life here, now!

Q: Guruji, why does people desire for Moksha?

G: Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha are the four things that we desire. You have the wealth. How much can you enjoy!?!?! Ultimately you feel Oh enough!! Then you desire for freedom. That is the desire for Moksha.

Q: What is your advice for lazy people?

G: If I tell you what is the guarantee that you will do it? What if even after that you are lazy? So you better find that out by
yourself. (Laughter!!)

Q: Guruji how to deal with the lust, in that moment when it is there?

G: That moment you can't deal with it. That's why you should deal with it much early. Should consume the right food. Right thoughts.. right behavior.. pranayama. Huh..

Q: Guruji, how to deal with fear of sorrow?

G: Do sadhana. If you do Sadhana the veil, the curtain will drop. You will start seeing life from a different perspective.

Q: Guruji, Krishna said 'When everyone sleeps, the yogi is awake'. What does it mean? Are we not supposed to sleep if we want to become Yogis?

G: No no. It is not interpreted correctly. It has a different meaning. It means when everyone is ignorant. The yogi knows and he is aware. Here awaking is referred to as awareness. Got it?

Q: Guruji, please tell us something about Vairagya (dispassion) and Sadness?

G: Maharajji will tell. Maharajji please tell us about dispassion.Maharaji's words are like ghee in the food. Unless he speaks it seems incomplete.It starts drizzling at the amphitheatre and Guruji asks the crowd to disperse saying "Will take it up tomorrow ok? Jai jai radha ramana Hari Bol...".

Kabir Poems

1.

Seeing the gardener approaching, the buds cried out: "Today the blossoms have been picked, Tomorrow will be our turn."
As the woodcutter advanced, the trees sighed and said: "It matters nothing that we are to be cut down,But, alas, the birds will lose their homes."
As the potter was kneading the wet clay, it said: "Today, O friend, thou art kneading me, But tomorrow thou wilt have to make a bed in my lap."
Kabir saw a mill grinding the wheat and cried: "Alas, no grain remains between the grinding stones,Yet those who cling to the pivot are not destroyed."

2.

The night you passed in sleep
And the day in visiting your false friends;
Alas! Thus have you wasted
The diamond of your life on naught.
You will die one day, perhaps tomorrow; Grass will grow on your tomb,
And your friends will forget you.
Therefore know your soul soon.
Whom will the son of a harlot call his father? Worship God in your being
And do not waste your life.
Your body is like a jar of unbaked clay;
It may break to pieces any moment
And all will be over,
Nowhere is there delight except in God.
This world is a house made of wood,
And, lo! it is burning furiously;
He who stays in it dies.
The Yogi withdraws from it in meditation
And he is saved.

3.

Thy birth as man is a ripe fruit
Which is seen only once;
Make the most of the practice of devotion and compassion
And the acquisition of true Knowledge.
O Kabir, there is a way out of this illusory world: Know the soul at any cost.

4.

I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty.
Man wanders about without purpose to Mathura or Kashi
Without the knowledge of the inner spirit,
Like a deer that runs listlessly from forest to forest
In search of the musk which lies within its own navel.
All men of the three worlds, even sanyasis, munis and yogis
Are infatuated by desire and a slave to the mind
Just as a large bee is infatuated by the buds of a lotus in the water.
The immanent and unmanifested 'Hans' is in my heart,
Which is worshipped by Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and 88,000 munis.
God is within but people think that he is somewhere outside.
O! Irony of ironies!

Kabir says: Listen, O Sadhu, this confusion cannot be removed without the help of a Guru.

Steps to Realization

First among the qualifications required of the aspirant for Jnâna, or wisdom, come Shama and Dama, which may be taken together. They mean the keeping of the organs in their own centres without allowing them to stray out. I shall explain to you first what the word "organ" means. Here are the eyes; the eyes are not the organs of vision but only the instruments. Unless the organs also are present, I cannot see, even if I have eyes. But, given both the organs and the instruments, unless the mind attaches itself to these two, no vision takes place. So, in each act of perception, three things are necessary — first, the external instruments, then, the internal organs, and lastly, the mind. If any one of them be absent, then there will be no perception. Thus the mind acts through two agencies —one external, and the other internal. When I see things, my mind goes out, becomes externalised; but suppose I close my eyes and begin to think, the mind does not go out, it is internally active. But, in either case, there is activity of the organs. When I look at you and speak to you, both the organs and the instruments are active. When I close my eyes and begin to think, the organs are active, but not the instruments. Without the activity of these organs, there will be no thought. You will find that none of you can think without some symbol. In the case of the blind man, he has also to think through some figure. The organs of sight and hearing are generally very active. You must bear in mind that by the word "organ" is meant the nerve centre in the brain. The eyes and ears are only the instruments of seeing and hearing, and the organs are inside. If the organs are destroyed by any means, even if the eyes or the ears be there, we shall not see or hear. So in order to control the mind, we must first be able to control these organs. To restrain the mind from wandering outward or inward, and keep the organs in their respective centres, is what is meant by the words Shama and Dama. Shama consists in not allowing the mind to externalise, and Dama, in checking the external instruments.

Now comes Uparati which consists in not thinking of things of the senses. Most of our time is spent in thinking about sense-objects, things which we have seen, or we have heard, which we shall see or shall hear, things which we have eaten, or are eating, or shall eat, places where we have lived, and so on. We think of them or talk of them most of our time. One who wishes to be a Vedantin must give up this habit.


Then comes the next preparation (it is a hard task to be a philosopher!), Titikshâ, the most difficult of all. It is nothing less than the ideal forbearance — "Resist not evil." This requires a little explanation. We may not resist an evil, but at the same time we may feel very miserable. A man may say very harsh things to me, and I may not outwardly hate him for it, may not answer him back, and may restrain myself from apparently getting angry, but anger and hatred may be in my mind, and I may feel very badly towards that man. That is not non-resistance; I should be without any feeling of hatred or anger, without any thought of resistance; my mind must then be as calm as if nothing had happened. And only when I have got to that state, have I attained to non-resistance, and not before. Forbearance of all misery, without even a thought of resisting or driving it out, without even any painful feeling in the mind, or any remorse — this is Titiksha. Suppose I do not resist, and some great evil comes thereby; if I have Titiksha, I should no feel any remorse for not having resisted. When the mind has attained to that state, it has become established in Titiksha. People in India do extraordinary things in order to practice this Titiksha. They bear tremendous heat and cold without caring, they do not even care for snow, because they take no thought for the body; it is left to itself, as if it were a foreign thing.


The next qualification required is Shraddhâ, faith. One must have tremendous faith in religion and God. Until one has it, one cannot aspire to be a Jnâni. A great sage once told me that not one in twenty millions in this world believed in God. I asked him why, and he told me, "Suppose there is a thief in this room, and he gets to know that there is a mass of gold in the next room, and only a very thin partition between the two rooms; what will be the condition of that thief?" I answered, "He will not be able to sleep at all; his brain will be actively thinking of some means of getting at the gold, and he will think of nothing else." Then he replied, "Do you believe that a man could believe in God and not go mad to get him? If a man sincerely believes that there is that immense, infinite mine of Bliss, and that It can be reached, would not that man go mad in his struggle to reach it ?" Strong faith in God and the consequent eagerness to reach Him constitute Shraddha.


Then comes Samâdhâna, or constant practice, to hold the mind in God. Nothing is done in a day. Religion cannot be swallowed in the form of a pill. It requires hard and constant practice. The mind can be conquered only by slow and steady practice.


Next is Mumukshutva, the intense desire to be free. Those of you who have read Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia remember his translation of the first sermon of Buddha, where Buddha says,

Ye suffer from yourselves. None else compels.

None other holds you that ye live and die,

And whirl upon the wheel, and hug and kiss

Its spokes of agony,

Its tire of tears, its nave of nothingness.

All the misery we have is of our own choosing; such is our nature. The old Chinaman, who having been kept in prison for sixty years was released on the coronation of a new emperor, exclaimed, when he came out, that he could not live; he must go back to his horrible dungeon among the rats and mice; he could not bear the light. So he asked them to kill him or send him back to the prison, and he was sent back. Exactly similar is the condition of all men. We run headlong after all sorts of misery, and are unwilling to be freed from them. Every day we run after pleasure, and before we reach it, we find it is gone, it has slipped through our fingers. Still we do not cease from our mad pursuit, but on and on we go, blinded fools that we are.


In some oil mills in India, bullocks are used that go round and round to grind the oil-seed. There is a yoke on the bullock's neck. They have a piece of wood protruding from the yoke, and on that is fastened a wisp of straw. The bullock is blindfolded in such a way that it can only look forward, and so it stretches its neck to get at the straw; and in doing so, it pushes the piece of wood out a little further; and it makes another attempt with the same result, and yet another, and so on. It never catches the straw, but goes round and round in the hope of getting it, and in so doing, grinds out the oil. In the same way you and I who are born slaves to nature, money and wealth, wives and children, are always chasing a wisp of straw, a mere chimera, and are going through an innumerable round of lives without obtaining what we seek. The great dream is love; we are all going to love and be loved, we are all going to be happy and never meet with misery, but the more we go towards happiness, the more it goes away from us. Thus the world is going on, society goes on, and we, blinded slaves, have to pay for it without knowing. Study your own lives, and find how little of happiness there is in them, and how little in truth you have gained in the course of this wild-goose chase of the world.


Do you remember the story of Solon and Croesus? The king said to the great sage that Asia Minor was a very happy place. And the sage asked him, "Who is the happiest man? I have not seen anyone very happy." "Nonsense," said Croesus, "I am the happiest man in the world." "Wait, sir, till the end of your life; don't be in a hurry," replied the sage and went away. In course of time that king was conquered by the Persians, and they ordered him to be burnt alive. The funeral pyre was prepared and when poor Croesus saw it, he cried aloud "Solon! Solon!" On being asked to whom he referred, he told his story, and the Persian emperor was touched, and saved his life.


Such is the life-story of each one of us; such is the tremendous power of nature over us. It repeatedly kicks us away, but still we pursue it with feverish excitement. We are always hoping against hope; this hope, this chimera maddens us; we are always hoping for happiness.


There was a great king in ancient India who was once asked four questions, of which one was: "What is the most wonderful thing in the world?" "Hope," was the answer. This is the most wonderful thing. Day and nights we see people dying around us, and yet we think we shall not die; we never think that we shall die, or that we shall suffer. Each man thinks that success will be his, hoping against hope, against all odds, against all mathematical reasoning. Nobody is ever really happy here. If a man be wealthy and have plenty to eat, his digestion is: out of order, and he cannot eat. If a man's digestion be good, and he have the digestive power of a cormorant, he has nothing to put into his mouth. If he be rich, he has no children. If he be hungry and poor, he has a whole regiment of children, and does not know what to do with them. Why is it so? Because happiness and misery are the obverse and reverse of the same coin; he who takes happiness, must take misery also. We all have this foolish idea that we can have happiness without misery, and it has taken such possession of us that we have no control over the senses.


When I was in Boston, a young man came up to me, and gave me a scrap of paper on which he had written a name and address, followed by these words: "All the wealth and all the happiness of the world are yours, if you only know how to get them. If you come to me, I will teach you how to get them. Charge, $ 5." He gave me this and said, "What do you think of this?" I said, "Young man, why don't you get the money to print this? You have not even enough money to get this printed !" He did not understand this. He was infatuated with the idea that he could get immense wealth and happiness without any trouble. There are two extremes into which men are running; one is extreme optimism, when everything is rosy and nice and good; the other, extreme pessimism, when everything seems to be against them. The majority of men have more or less undeveloped brains. One in a million we see with a well-developed brain; the rest either have peculiar idiosyncrasies, or are monomaniacs.


Naturally we run into extremes. When we are healthy and young, we think that all the wealth of the world will be ours, and when later we get kicked about by society like footballs and get older, we sit in a corner and croak and throw cold water on the enthusiasm of others. Few men know that with pleasure there is pain, and with pain, pleasure; and as pain is disgusting, so is pleasure, as it is the twin brother of pain. It is derogatory to the glory of man that he should be going after pain, and equally derogatory, that he should be going after pleasure. Both should be turned aside by men whose reason is balanced. Why will not men seek freedom from being played upon? This moment we are whipped, and when we begin to weep, nature gives us a dollar; again we are whipped, and when we weep, nature gives us a piece of ginger-bread, and we begin to laugh again.


The sage wants liberty; he finds that sense-objects are all vain and that there is no end to pleasures and pains. How many rich people in the world want to find fresh pleasures! All pleasures are old, and they want new ones. Do you not see how many foolish things they are inventing every day, just to titillate the nerves for a moment, and that done, how there comes a reaction? The majority of people are just like a flock of sheep. If the leading sheep falls into a ditch, all the rest follow and break their necks. In the same way, what one leading member of a society does, all the others do, without thinking what they are doing. When a man begins to see the vanity of worldly things, he will feel he ought not to be thus played upon or borne along by nature. That is slavery. If a man has a few kind words said to him, he begins to smile, and when he hears a few harsh words, he begins to weep. He is a slave to a bit of bread, to a breath of air; a slave to dress, a slave to patriotism, to country, to name, and to fame. He is thus in the midst of slavery and the real man has become buried within, through his bondage. What you call man is a slave. When one realises all this slavery, then comes the desire to be free; an intense desire comes. If a piece of burning charcoal be placed on a man's head, see how he struggles to throw it off. Similar will be the struggles for freedom of a man who really understands that he is a slave of nature.


We have now seen what Mumukshutva, or the desire to be free, is. The next training is also a very difficult one. Nityânitya-Viveka — discriminating between that which is true and that which is untrue, between the eternal and the transitory. God alone is eternal, everything else is transitory. Everything dies; the angels die, men die, animals die, earths die, sun, moon, and stars, all die; everything undergoes constant change. The mountains of today were the oceans of yesterday and will be oceans tomorrow. Everything is in a state of flux. The whole universe is a mass of change. But there is One who never changes, and that is God; and the nearer we get to Him, the less will be the change for us, the less will nature be able to work on us; and when we reach Him, and stand with Him, we shall conquer nature, we shall be masters of phenomena of nature, and they will have no effect on us.


You see, if we really have undergone the above discipline, we really do not require anything else in this world. All knowledge is within us. All perfection is there already in the soul. But this perfection has been covered up by nature; layer after layer of nature is covering this purity of the soul. What have we to do? Really we do not develop our souls at all. What can develop the perfect? We simply take the evil off; and the soul manifests itself in its pristine purity, its natural, innate freedom.


Now begins the inquiry: Why is this discipline so necessary? Because religion is not attained through the ears, nor through the eyes, nor yet through the brain. No scriptures can make us religious. We may study all the books that are in the world, yet we may not understand a word of religion or of God. We may talk all our lives and yet may not be the better for it; we may be the most intellectual people the world ever saw, and yet we may not come to God at all. On the other hand, have you not seen what irreligious men have been produced from the most intellectual training? It is one of the evils of your Western civilisation that you are after intellectual education alone, and take no care of the heart. It only makes men ten times more selfish, and that will be your destruction. When there is conflict between the heart and the brain, let the heart be followed, because intellect has only one state, reason, and within that, intellect works, and cannot get beyond. It is the heart which takes one to the highest plane, which intellect can never reach; it goes beyond intellect, and reaches to what is called inspiration. Intellect can never become inspired; only the heart when it is enlightened, becomes inspired. An intellectual, heartless man never becomes an inspired man. It is always the heart that speaks in the man of love; it discovers a greater instrument than intellect can give you, the instrument of inspiration. Just as the intellect is the instrument of knowledge, so is the heart the instrument of inspiration. In a lower state it is a much weaker instrument than intellect. An ignorant man knows nothing, but he is a little emotional by nature. Compare him with a great professor — what wonderful power the latter possesses! But the professor is bound by his intellect, and he can be a devil and an intellectual man at the same time; but the man of heart can never be a devil; no man with emotion was ever a devil. Properly cultivated, the heart can be changed, and will go beyond intellect; it will be changed into inspiration. Man will have to go beyond intellect in the end. The knowledge of man, his powers of perception, of reasoning and intellect and heart, all are busy churning this milk of the world. Out of long churning comes butter, and this butter is God. Men of heart get the "butter", and the "buttermilk" is left for the intellectual.


These are all preparations for the heart, for that love, for that intense sympathy appertaining to the heart. It is not at all necessary to be educated or learned to get to God. A sage once told me, "To kill others one must be equipped with swords and shields, but to commit suicide a needle is sufficient; so to teach others, much intellect and learning are necessary, but not so for your own self-illumination." Are on pure? If you are pure, you will reach God. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." If you are not pure, and you know all the sciences in the world, that will not help you at all; you may be buried in all the books you read, but that will not be of much use. It is the heart that reaches the goal. Follow the heart. A pure heart sees beyond the intellect; it gets inspired; it knows things that reason can never know, and whenever there is conflict between the pure heart and the intellect, always side with the pure heart, even if you think what your heart is doing is unreasonable. When it is desirous of doing good to others, your brain may tell you that it is not politic to do so, but follow your heart, and you will find that you make less mistakes than by following your intellect. The pure heart is the best mirror for the reflection of truth, so all these disciplines are for the purification of the heart. And as soon as it is pure, all truths flash upon it in a minute; all truth in the universe will manifest in your heart, if you are sufficiently pure.


The great truths about atoms, and the finer elements, and the fine perceptions of men, were discovered ages ago by men who never saw a telescope, or a microscope, or a laboratory. How did they know all these things? It was through the heart; they purified the heart. It is open to us to do the same today; it is the culture of the heart, really, and not that of the intellect that will lessen the misery of the world.


Intellect has been cultured with the result that hundreds of sciences have been discovered, and their effect has been that the few have made slaves of the many — that is all the good that has been done. Artificial wants have been created; and every poor man, whether he has money or not, desires to have those wants satisfied, and when he cannot, he struggles, and dies in the struggle. This is the result. Through the intellect is not the way to solve the problem of misery, but through the heart. If all this vast amount of effort had been spent in making men purer, gentler, more forbearing, this world would have a thousandfold more happiness than it has today. Always cultivate the heart; through the heart the Lord speaks, and through the intellect you yourself speak.


You remember in the Old Testament where Moses was told, "Take off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." We must always approach the study of religion with that reverent attitude. He who comes with a pure heart and a reverent attitude, his heart will be opened; the doors will open for him, and he will see the truth.


If you come with intellect only, you can have a little intellectual gymnastics, intellectual theories, but not truth. Truth has such a face that any one who sees that face becomes convinced. The sun does not require any torch to show it; the sun is self-effulgent. If truth requires evidence, what will evidence that evidence? If something is necessary as witness for truth, where is the witness for that witness? We must approach religion with reverence and with love, and our heart will stand up and say, this is truth, and this is untruth.


The field of religion is beyond our senses, beyond even our consciousness. We cannot sense God. Nobody has seen God with his eyes or ever will see; nobody has God in his consciousness. I am not conscious of God, nor you, nor anybody. Where is God? Where is the field of religion? It is beyond the senses, beyond consciousness. Consciousness is only one of the many planes in which we work; you will have to transcend the field of consciousness, to go beyond the senses, approach nearer and nearer to your own centre, and as you do that, you will approach nearer and nearer to God. What is the proof of God? Direct perception, Pratyaksha. The proof of this wall is that I perceive it. God has been perceived that way by thousands before, and will be perceived by all who want to perceive Him. But this perception is no sense-perception at all; it is supersensuous, superconscious, and all this training is needed to take us beyond the senses. By means of all sorts of past work and bondages we are being dragged downwards; these preparations will make us pure and light. Bondages will fall off by themselves, and we shall be buoyed up beyond this plane of sense-perception to which we are tied down, and then we shall see, and hear, and feel things which men in the three ordinary states (viz waking, dream, and sleep) neither feel, nor see, nor hear. Then we shall speak a strange language, as it were, and the world will not understand us, because it does not know anything but the senses. True religion is entirely transcendental. Every being that is in the universe has the potentiality of transcending the senses; even the little worm will one day transcend the senses and reach God. No life will be a failure; there is no such thing as failure in the universe. A hundred times man will hurt himself, a thousand times he will tumble, but in the end he will realise that he is God. We know there is no progress in a straight line. Every soul moves, as it were, in a circle, and will have to complete it, and no soul can go so low but there will come a time when it will have to go upwards. No one will be lost. We are all projected from one common centre, which is God. The highest as well as the lowest life God ever projected, will come back to the Father of all lives. "From whom all beings are projected, in whom all live, and unto whom they all return; that is God."

Scientists Life

1. Sir C.V. Raman

I thought of sharing with you an incident about Sir CV Raman –a Nobel Laureate in Physics for discovering Raman Effect. Raman gives the view that the color of sky is blue due to molecular diffraction, which determines the observed luminosity, and in great measures also its color. This led to the birth of the Raman Effect. Raman was in the first batch of Bharat Ratna Award winners. The award ceremony was to take place in the last week of January, soon after the Republic Day celebrations of 1954. The then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote to Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, when Raman came to Delhi for the award ceremony. Sir CV Raman wrote a polite letter, regretting his inability to go. Raman had a noble reason for his inability to attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was guiding a Ph.D. student and that thesis was positively due by the last day of January. The student was valiantly trying to wrap it all up and Raman felt, he had to be by the side of the research student, see that the thesis was finished, sign the thesis as the guide and then have it submitted. Here was a scientist who gave up the pomp of a glittering ceremony associated with the highest honour, because he felt that his duty required him to be by the side of the student. It is this unique trait of giving value to science that builds science.



2. Prof. Chandrasekhar Subramanyan

Chandrasekhar Subramanyan's most famous discovery was the astrophysical Chandrasekhar limit. The limit describes the maximum mass (~1.44 solar masses) of a white dwarf star, or equivalently, the minimum mass for which a star will ultimately collapse into a neutron star or black hole following a supernova. The limit was first calculated by Chandrasekhar while on a ship from India to Cambridge, England. The Chandrasekhar Limit led to the determination of how long a star of particular mass will shine. In 1983, Chandrasekhar Subramanyan got the Nobel Prize for this discovery.

Two of Chandrasekhar's students in 1947 were the doctoral candidates Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang in Particle Physics research. Even though Chandrasekhar Subramanyan maintained his office at the Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, he would regularly drive the one hundred miles to Chicago to guide and teach Lee and Yang and others many a times in difficult weather conditions. In 1957, these two of his students won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in particle physics research. This also brings out Chandrasekhar Subramanyan's commitment to science and there by to his students. Science indeed is a life time mission for Chandrasekhar. It is this characteristic which makes youth to become passionate towards science.


3. Prof. Norman E Borlaug


I would like to narrate an incident which took place during a function conferring Nobel Laureate Prof. Norman E Borlaug, a well known agricultural scientist and a partner in India's first Green revolution, with Dr. M S Swaminathan Award, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on the 15th of March 2005. Prof. Borlaug, at the age of 91, was in the midst of all the praise showered on him from everybody gathered there.

When his turn came, he got up and highlighted India's advancement in the agricultural science and production and said that the political visionary Shri C. Subramaniam and Dr. M S Swaminathan, pioneer in agricultural science were the prime architects of First Green Revolution in India. Even though Prof Norman Borlaug was himself a partner in the first green revolution, he did not make a point on this. He recalled with pride, Dr. Verghese Kurien who ushered White Revolution in India. Then the surprise came. He turned to scientists sitting in the third row, fifth row and eighth row of the audience. He identified Dr. Raja Ram, a wheat specialist, Dr S K Vasal, a maize specialist, Dr. B. R. Barwale, a seed specialist. He said, all these scientists had contributed for India's and Asia's agricultural science. Dr. Borlaug introduced them to the audience by asking them to stand and ensured that the audience cheered and greeted the scientists with great enthusiasm. This action of Dr. Norman Borlaug, I call it as "Scientific Magnanimity".

One liners

1. A FOOLish man tells a woman to STOP talking, but a WISE man tells
her that she looks extremely BEAUTIFUL when her LIPS are CLOSED.


2. One GOOD way to REDUCE Alcohol consumption :
Before Marriage - Drink whenever you are SAD
After Marriage - Drink whenever you are HAPPY


3. Three FASTEST means of Communication :
1. Tele-Phone
2. Tele-Vision
3. Tell to Woman
Need still FASTER - Tell her NOT to tell ANY ONE.



4. A man got 2 wishes from GOD. He asked for the Best wine and Best Woman.
Next moment, he had the Best Wine and Mother Teresa next to him.

Moral : BE SPECIFIC


5. What is a BEST and WORST news you can hear at the SAME time ?
It is when your Girl Friend says YOU are the BEST KISSER among all your Friends.


6. Let us be generous like this : Four Ants are moving through a forest.
They see an ELEPHANT coming towards them.
Ant 1 says : we should KILL him.
Ant 2 says : No, Let us break his Leg alone.
Ant 3 says : No, we will just throw him away from our path.
Ant 4 says : No, we will LEAVE him because he is ALONE and we are FOUR.


7. If you do NOT have a Girl Friend - You are missing SOME thing in
your life. If you HAVE a Girl Friend - You are missing EVERY thing in your life.



8. When your LIFE is in DARKNESS, PRAY GOD and ask him to free you
from Darkness. Even after you pray, if U R still in Darkness - Please PAY the ELECTRICITY BILL.



9. "A Ship is always safe at the shore - but that is NOT what it is built for"
- Albert Einstein


10. Divorce: Future tense of marriage.

11. Office: A place where you can relax after your strenuous homelife.

12. Yawn: The only time some married men ever get to open their mouth.

13. Etc.: A sign to make others believe that you know more than you actually do.

14. Father: A banker provided by nature.

15. Boss: Someone who is early when you are late and late when you are early.

16. Love: An obsessive delusion that is cured by marriage.

17. How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on.

18. Marriage is an institution in which a man loses his Bachelor's Degree and the woman gets her Masters.

Express Yourself

Our personality and attitude in life keeps changing with time. It could be for good or for worse.

It could be a moment or a person or an incident that can influence us for the good or bad.

Let me explain to you my the then personality. I was a very reserved in my childhood. I would often withdraw myself in my room, read books (school books, magazines, novels, newspapers anything that I can lay my hands on), listen to music and be in my own world. I was a brilliant student and was praised in my school for my academic talents. I was also good in theatre and writing and had won many prizes. I had an ego and would rather listen than talk. I was friendly but not open with anybody. I would never ask anybody nor would let anybody interfere with my privacy. I would happily take favours and stay PUT. I was different. I would visit my relatives and just smile and stay PUT. I liked the company of people but at the same time would stay aloof.

Two people changed my life:

I was in my early teens in 1993 struggling with college and diploma. I had to travel to V.T. (a station in Mumbai now called as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) for my diploma and that's how I met this girl. We were a group of 10 girls. This girl was very elder to me but we hit off well. She would tell me the deepest secrets of her life, her thoughts and had considered me as her bosom pal. I would listen offer advice (though I was younger – always giving advice to people… used to it), but, I could never open up with her. In fact, I would be bewildered with the thought that how can she tell me so many things. We hardly know each other. I have never told anyone about how many sisters and brothers I have forget telling deep secrets and sharing life.. God…

She would carry food for me, book a seat for me in the train and was all for me. I was happy. I had the habit of people pampering me. I would not do anything in return but would enjoy all the attention that I get. Then suddenly I lost her in the Bomb Blast of 1993. I was very young and this episode shook me up. God, I never told her anything. I was never close to her. I never did anything for her. Now, that I want to do, she is not there with me. Now that I have lost her, I cannot change my past.

But, she changed my life. I was no more a reserved person. I never waited for anyone to say hello to me. I would go out of my way to help people, to initiate a conversation. I had no egos. I had no tomorrow. It is now or never. Till date I live that way and have changed at least 10 – 15 people since 1993. I explain to every one do not wait.. do and say now… now is yours, this moment is yours. I quote this incident to everyone and I do not feel shy to tell people that I was a reserved person. Today nobody believes me, as I am the most wanted person whether it is a party, small get-to-gether or any other occasion. Today I have people around every where.

I am happy for what I am today and happier when few people come and tell me that I have brought a pleasant change in their life.

My first job and my boss was in his early 20's. He was a millionaire but a very down to earth person. The moment he got off his car he would not only wish the security with warmth then the door keeper then the lift man but also drop one liner's that would make them feel happy. He was very friendly and cheerful throughout the day.

I learnt from him however big you are a smile and few warm words can bring light in any person. I follow him till date.