Happy Guru Poornima... !!!

गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णुः गुरुर्देवो महेश्‍वरः ।
गुरु साक्षात्‌ परब्रह्म तस्मै श्रीगुरुवे नमः ॥

Guru Poornima is the day to pay our deep gratitude to all the great Gurus who have happened on planet Earth. The Guru is the one who dispels the darkness of ignorance and infuses the light of awareness into our lives.

Today, when I look back I realized How Blissful the Life is because of my Guru, Sri Sri Ravishankarji... I remember the day I met him 1st time at Rishikesh during my 1st ever advanced course.. life has been giving me something new all the time.. I couldn't have asked for more..

There are some people who show me the path, hold my hand towards the journey and I cant think about anything else but gratitude for the love they have showered on me..

• Vandana Didi & Venkie, My part one course teachers..
• Rajesh Trivedi, A dear Friend who is a Part 1 Teacher..
• Vishwas Bhaiya, My 1st DSN Teacher..
• Rishi Vidhyadharji, My 1st Advanced Course Teacher..
• Rohini Didi, My TTC Teacher who took care of us like a Mother...

& Yes, Those who contributed to my Academics..

• Atul Sir, who has the credit to teaching me complete syllabus of T.Y. in 14 days flat..
• Vakil Sir who taught me lessons of not just stenography but Life as well..

गुरुकृपा हि केवलं शिष्यपरममंङ्गलम् ।

Only by the grace of the Guru can the disciple attain his ultimate benefaction, that is spiritual progress.

Jai Gurudev..!!!

I Love Rain.....

આકળવિકળ આંખકાન વરસાદ ભીંજવે

હાલકડોલક ભાનસાન વરસાદ ભીંજવે

ચોમાસું નભ વચ્ચે લથબથ સોળ કળાએ ઉગ્યું રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

અજવાળું ઝોકાર લોહીની પાંગત સુધી પૂગ્યું રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

નહીં છાલક, નહીં છાંટા રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

દરિયા ઉભા ફાટ્યા રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

ઘરમાંથી તોતિંગ ઓરડા ફાળ મારતા છૂટ્યા રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

ધૂળ લવકતા રસ્તા ખળખળ વળાંક ખાતા ખૂટ્યા રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

પગના અંતરિયાળપણાને ફળિયામાં ધક્કેલો રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

નેવાં નીચે ભડભડ બળતો જીવ પલળવા મેલો રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

બંધ હોઠમાં સોળ વરસની કન્યા આળસ મરડે રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

લીલોધમ્મર નાગ જીવને અનરાધારે કરડે રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

અહીં આપણે બે અને વરસાદ ભીંજવે

મને ભીંજવે તું તને વરસાદ ભીંજવે

A Note of Thanks :-)

Someone truly said, "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

If comfort, strength and inspiration come from heaven, then this friend of mine is an Angel....


I met him at my 1st ever job at Essar Steel, Surat. I was like a kid for whom this was a 1st encounter with the real world. Away from home, this was a friend, always there for me !!!

Our destinies were different and so were our worlds. He got settled at USA. But he was always there to listen to me, irrespective of how dumb I sounded :-) (I realize it now ;-)

It was this friend who sent me for my 1st Part 1 course when I was going thru a rough phase of my life. He paid my fees and sent me there.. An amazing journey started which is never going to end..

Today, when I became an Art of Living Teacher, I want to Thank Him, who sent me for my 1st AOL course. Of course, this story is a part of my all Part 1 courses now..

Thank You Dear, I am here because of You. I found a Guru, because of You. This has been an Amazing Journey...

You made me Laugh, when I felt I would Cry,
You made me Live, when I wished to Die..

Thanks for being there for me...

Jai Gurudev

I am Blessed...

I was looking at the pictures of Kandivali Advanced Course and this picture brought a smile on my face... Thinking that I am so blessed to have people like him around me.. Yes, we call him Venkie..

My Part 1 course teacher..

I remember my 1st part one course with Vandana Di n Venkie.. I though he is a tough guy.. Kind of person that, as a child you like to hide behind your mother.. n do not want to face him.. but he ensures that you face him ;-)

But as I finished my part 1 course, I was absolutely in love with his voice and counting for pranayams.. All I wanted was to record his voice so that I can do my daily sadhana on his voice.. Last day of the course I had tears in my eyes and he told me that you can come for all my courses.. I wish I could do it.. Life has become really busy and I dont have the good fortune to attend their courses now..

But I still remember those moments when he will understand what was going on in my mind.. I remember the phone calls when I shifted to a house at Thane... Venkie would call and ask "Kya kar raha hai baccha.. " "Have you locked the door properly?" "Have you eaten?" He would serve me food when I go to Kandivali.. He would care for small things like an elder brother...

I miss this warmth n care when I am away.. Venkie, I miss you a lot here.. I wish someday I will shift there so that I can be with this family again :-)

Jai Gurudev..

Hindu Rituals - 3

Why do we do Namaste?

Indians greet each other with namaste. The two palms are placed together in front of the chest and the head bows whilst saying the word namaste. This greeting is for all - people younger than us, of our own age, those older than friends, even strangers and us.

There are five forms of formal traditional greeting enjoined in the shaastras of which namaskaram is one. This is understood as prostration but it actually refers to paying homage as we do today when we greet each other with a namaste.

Namaste could be just a casual or formal greeting, a cultural convention or an act of worship. However there is much more to it than meets the eye. In Sanskrit namah + te
= namaste. It means - I bow to you - my greetings, salutations or prostration to you.

Namaha can also be literally interpreted as "na ma" (not mine). It has a spiritual significance of negating or reducing one’s ego in the presence of another. The real meeting between people is the meeting of their minds. When we greet another, we do so with namaste, which means, "may our minds meet," indicated by the folded palms placed before the chest. The bowing down of the head is a gracious form of extending friendship in love and humility.

The spiritual meaning is even deeper. The life force, the divinity, the Self or the Lord in me is the same in all. Recognizing this oneness with the meeting of the palms, we salute with head bowed the Divinity in the person we meet. That is why sometimes, we close our eyes as we do namaste to a revered person or the Lord – as if to look within.

The gesture is often accompanied by words like "Ram Ram", "Jai Shri Krishna", "Namo Narayana", "Jai Siya Ram", "Om Shanti" etc - indicating the recognition of this divinity.

When we know this significance, our greeting does not remain just a superficial gesture or word but paves the way for a deeper communion with another in an atmosphere of love and respect.

Jai Gurudev...!!!

Hindu Rituals - 2

Why do we have a Prayer Room?

Most Indian homes have a prayer room or altar. A lamp is lit and the Lord worshipped each day. Other spiritual practices like japa (repetition of the Lord’s name), meditation, paaraayana (reading of the scriptures), prayers, and devotional singing etc is also done here. Special worship is done on auspicious occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, festivals and the like. Each member of the family - young or old - communes with and worships the Divine here.

The Lord is the entire creation. He is therefore the true owner of the house we live in too. The prayer room is the Master room of the house. We are the earthly occupants of His property. This notion rids us of false pride and possessiveness.

The ideal attitude to take is to regard the Lord as the true owner of our homes and us as caretakers of His home. But if that is rather difficult, we could at least think of Him as a very welcome guest. Just as we would house an important guest in the best comfort, so too we felicitate the Lord’s presence in our homes by having a prayer room or altar, which is, at all times, kept clean and well-decorated.

Also the Lord is all pervading. To remind us that He resides in our homes with us, we have prayer rooms. Without the grace of the Lord, no task can be successfully or easily accomplished. We invoke His grace by communing with Him in the prayer room each day and on special occasions.

Each room in a house is dedicated to a specific function like the bedroom for resting, the drawing room to receive guests, the kitchen for cooking etc. The furniture, decor and the atmosphere of each room are made conducive to the purpose it serves. So too for the purpose of meditation, worship and prayer, we should have a conducive atmosphere - hence the need for a prayer room.

Sacred thoughts and sound vibrations pervade the place and influence the minds of those who spend time there. Spiritual thoughts and vibrations accumulated through regular meditation, worship and chanting done there pervade the prayer room. Even when we are tired or agitated, by just sitting in the prayer room for a while, we feel calm, rejuvenated and spiritually uplifted.

Jai Gurudev... !!!

Hindu Rituals - 1

Why do we light a lamp?

In almost every Indian home a lamp is lit daily before the altar of the Lord. In some houses it is lit at dawn, in some, twice a day – at dawn and dusk – and in a few it is maintained continuously (Akhanda Deepa). All auspicious functions commence with the lighting of the lamp, which is often maintained right through the occasion.

Light symbolizes knowledge, and darkness, ignorance. The Lord is the "Knowledge Principle" (Chaitanya) who is the source, the enlivener and the illuminator of all knowledge. Hence light is worshiped as the Lord himself.

Knowledge removes ignorance just as light removes darkness. Also knowledge is a lasting inner wealth by which all outer achievement can be accomplished. Hence we light the lamp to bow down to knowledge as the greatest of all forms of wealth.

Why not light a bulb or tube light? That too would remove darkness. But the traditional oil lamp has a further spiritual significance. The oil or ghee in the lamp symbolizes our vaasanas or negative tendencies and the wick, the ego. When lit by spiritual knowledge, the vaasanas get slowly exhausted and the ego too finally perishes. The flame of a lamp always burns upwards. Similarly we should acquire such knowledge as to take us towards higher ideals.

Whilst lighting the lamp we thus pray:

Deepajyothi parabrahma
Deepa sarva tamopahaha
Deepena saadhyate saram
Sandhyaa deepo namostute

I prostrate to the dawn/dusk lamp; whose light is the Knowledge Principle (the Supreme Lord), which removes the darkness of ignorance and by which all can be achieved in life.

Jai Gurudev...

One More....!!!

Good One...