Navaratri Is Celebration Of The Universe

The festival of Navaratri is celebrated with prayers and gaiety in the beginning of autumn and spring. This period is a time for self-referral and getting back to the source. During this time of transformation, Nature sheds the old and gets rejuvenated.

Vedanta says, matter reverts to its original form to recreate itself again and again. The creation is cyclical, not linear; everything is recycled by nature in a continuous process of rejuvenation. The human mind, however, lags behind in this routine cycle of creation. Navaratri is a festival to enable us to take the mind back to its source.

The seeker finds the true source through fasting, prayer, silence and meditation. Night is called ratri because it brings rejuvenation. It gives relief at the three levels of our existence — physical, subtle and causal. While fasting detoxifies the body, silence purifies speech and brings rest to the chattering mind, and meditation takes you deep into your own being.

The inward journey nullifies our negative karmas. Navaratri is a celebration of the spirit or prana which alone can destroy Mahishasura, inertia; Shumbha-Nishumbha, pride and shame and Madhu-Kaitabh, extreme forms of craving and aversion. They are opposites, yet complementary. Inertia, deeply ingrained negativities and obsessions, Raktabeejasura; unreasonable logic, Chanda-Munda and blurred vision, Dhoomralochan can be overcome only by raising the level of prana and shakti, the life-force energy.

The nine days of Navaratri are also an opportunity to rejoice in the three primordial qualities that make up the universe. Though our life is governed by the three gunas, we seldom recognise and reflect on them. The first three days of Navaratri are tamo guna, the second three of rajo guna and the last three of sattva guna. Our consciousness sails through the tamo and rajo gunas and blossoms in the sattva guna in the last three days. Whenever sattva dominates life, victory follows. The essence of this knowledge is honoured by celebrating the tenth day as Vijaya Dashami.

The three primordial gunas are considered as the feminine force of the universe. By worshipping the Mother Divine during Navaratri, we harmonise the three gunas and elevate sattva in the atmosphere.

Navaratri is celebrated as the victory of good over evil. From the Vedantic point of view, the victory is of absolute reality over apparent duality. In the words of Ashtavakra, it is the poor wave which tries to keep its identity separate from the ocean, but to no avail.

Though the microcosm is well within the macrocosm, its perceived separateness is the cause of conflict. For a gyani or a wise person, entire creation comes alive and he recognises life in everything in the same way children see life in everything. The Mother Divine or pure consciousness pervades all forms and has all names. Recognising the one divinity in every form and every name is the celebration of Navaratri. Hence, special pujas honouring all aspects of life and nature are performed during the last three days.

Kali is the most horrific manifestation of Nature. Nature symbolises beauty, yet it has a horrific form too. Acknowledging the duality brings a total acceptance in the mind and puts the mind at ease.

The Mother Divine is recognised not just as the brilliance of intellect buddhi, but also the confusion, bhranti; she is not just abundance, Lakshmi, she is also hunger, shudha and thirst, trishna. Realising this aspect of the Mother Divine in entire Creation leads one to a deep state of samadhi. This gives an answer to the age-old theological struggle of the Occident. Through wisdom, devotion and nishkama karma, one can attain advaita siddhi or perfection in the non-dual consciousness.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

This was posted in The Speaking Tree in Times of India today.

Going down the memory lane - Silver Jubilee

This post is in remembrance of the miracle called "Silver Jubilee".

The photo which you can see is from my mobile (I wish I had a camera during that time :-) ).

The occasion being that it was the last day of the Art of Living Part -1 mega course we had in Bangalore before Silver Jubilee and more than 20,000 people were present in the Ashram that day. We had booked 12 BMTC buses from Koramangala to take the participants to Ashram and Koramangala is one out of thirty odd centers where the course had happened, so just imagine the euphoria in the atmosphere.

The venue being Ashram amphitheater. I still don't believe how so many people fitted in there.

It was just mind-boggling and believe it or not, every one who came was fed till he was full in every sense. Kudos to Ashram team and specially Sundar bhaiya and the kitchen team for managing this spectacle.


P.S. I have lots of experiences to share regarding Silver Jubilee and will keep them rolling in future posts.

Shivoham Shivoham

Mano Buddhi Ahankara Chitta Ninaham Nacha Shrotra Jihve Na Cha Ghrana Netre Nacha Vyoma Bhoomir Na Tejo Na Vayu Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham

Na Cha Prana Samjno Na Vai Pancha Vayu Na Va Saptadhatur Na Va Pancha Koshah Na Vak Pani Padau Na Chopastha Payu Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham

Na Me Dvesha Ragau Na Me Lobha Mohau Mado Naiva Me Naiva Matsarya Bhavah Na Dharmo Na Chartho Na Kamo Na Mokshah Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham

Na Punyam Na Papam Na Saukhyam Na Dukham Na Mantro Na Teertham Na Vedo Na Yajnaha Aham Bhojanam Naiva Bhojyam Na Bhokta Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham

Na Me Mrityu Shanka Na Me Jati Bhedah Pita Naiva Me Naiva Mata Na Janma Na Bandhur Na Mitram Gurur Naiva Shishyah Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham

Aham Nirvikalpo Nirakara Roopaha Vibhur Vyapya Sarvatra Sarvendriyanam Sada Me Samatvam Na Muktir Na Bandhah Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham

Meaning:

1) I am not mind, nor intellect, nor ego,
nor the reflections of inner self (chitta).
I am not the five senses. I am beyond that.
I am not the ether, nor the earth,
nor the fire, nor the wind (the five elements).
I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,
love and pure consciousness.

2) Neither can I be termed as energy (prana),
nor five types of breath (vayus),
nor the seven material essences, nor the five coverings (pancha-kosha).
Neither am I the five instruments of elimination,
procreation, motion, grasping, or speaking.
I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva...

3) I have no hatred or dislike,
nor affiliation or liking, nor greed, nor delusion,
nor pride or haughtiness,
nor feelings of envy or jealousy.
I have no duty (dharma),
nor any money, nor any desire (kama),
nor even liberation (moksha).
I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva...

4) I have neither merit (virtue),
nor demerit (vice). I do not commit sins or good deeds,
nor have happiness or sorrow, pain or pleasure.
I do not need mantras, holy places,
scriptures (Vedas), rituals or sacrifices (yagnas).
I am none of the triad of
the observer or one who experiences,
the process of observing or experiencing,
or any object being observed or experienced.
I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva...

5) I do not have fear of death,
as I do not have death. I have no separation from my true self,
no doubt about my existence, nor have I discrimination on the basis of birth.
I have no father or mother, nor did I have a birth.
I am not the relative, nor the friend, nor the guru, nor the disciple.
I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva...

6) I am all pervasive.
I am without any attributes, and without any form.
I have neither attachment to the world,
nor to liberation (mukti). I have no wishes for anything
because I am everything, everywhere, every time, always in equilibrium.
I am indeed,
That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva...

Act of Benevolence

There is a saying in classical Indian poetry that a lake, a tree, a saint and the rain are all symbols of benevolence, i.e., they are constantly giving to others. If we spend some time to think about this, we can learn much about the act of benevolence from such elements of nature.

You may ask how can we learn to give from a mere tree? There is a wonderful story, which is a true incident that took place in Saurashtra, that best illustrates this.

One day, the King of Bhavnagar was relaxing in the garden surrounding his palace. There was a high boundary wall separating the garden from the outside road. Just at that time, a poor Brahmin and his young son were walking on the road. It was very hot, and the young child was extremely hungry. He noticed a high mango tree from beyond the palace garden wall. The tree had bent across the wall and there were ripe mangoes on the outstretched branch.

Forced by temptation, the boy picked up a stone from the road and threw it at the stem of the fruits. His aim succeeded and he caught a beautiful ripe mango. Unfortunately, the stone exceeded the target and struck the King who was sitting in the gardens. The stone hit the Kings head, which began to bleed. The guards quickly ran towards the road and caught the young Brahmin boy and his father.

When presented in front of the King, the Brahmin, trembling with fear, began to beg to the King to pardon the boy for his mistake. Soldiers and ministers laughed at the Brahmin’s request and advised the King to punish them both.

The King politely asked them both not to worry. He asked the young boy "Did you throw the stone, my son?"
The boy immediately accepted his fault with tears in his eyes.
The King then asked "Why?"
The boy replied hesitantly, "I was hungry. I threw the stone to drop a mango from the tree."
"What happened when you threw the stone?" asked the King.
"A mango fell from the tree. This is what I have in my hand. Please forgive me. I did not throw the stone to hit you."

The King immediately ordered his prime minister that both father and son be released and additionally be given 500 coins! All the ministers and soldiers were surprised and wandered why the King was rewarding them instead of ordering punishment! The King was amused to see their astonishment and explained with a smile, ”When the stone struck the tree, it gave the boy a mango. The same stone struck me. Wouldn’t I be meaner than a tree if I did not give anything? If a mere tree can be benevolent to a young boy, why cannot I, a human being, do the same?

Such are the lessons we can learn from simple elements of nature that constantly give us all we need without any expectation or hesitation. The sun, the mountains, the rivers and lakes, the earth and the wind: they are beautiful symbols of benevolence. Perhaps we too can evolve to become symbols of benevolence.

Happy Onam (ഓണം)

Onam is the biggest and the most important festival of the state of Kerala. It is a harvest festival and is celebrated with joy and enthusiasm all over the state by people of all communities. According to a popular legend, the festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam.Onam is celebrated in the beginning of the month of Chingam, the first month of Malayalam Calendar (Kollavarsham). This corresponds with the month of August-September according to Gregorian Calendar. Carnival of Onam lasts from four to ten days. First day, Atham and tenth day, Thiruonam are most important of all. Elaborate feasts, folk songs, elegant dances, energetic games, elephants, boats and flowers all are a part of the dynamic festival called Onam.

The Legend
Story goes that during the reign of mighty asura (demon) king, Mahabali, Kerala witnessed its golden era. Every body in the state was happy and prosperous and king was highly regarded by his subjects. Apart from all his virtues, Mahabali had one shortcoming. He was egoistic. This weakness in Mahabali's character was utilized by Gods to bring an end to his reign as they felt challenged by Mahabali's growing popularity. However, for all the good deed done by Mahabali, God granted him a boon that he could annually visit his people with whom he was so attached. It is this visit of Mahabali that is celebrated as Onam every year. People make all efforts to celebrate the festival in a grand way and impress upon their dear King that they are happy and wish him well.

Wish you all a Happy Onam!

Bihar Flood Relief - Full Coverage

After first round of collection of RM(relief material), people just kept calling and bringing in more and more, for helping our brothers and sisters in Bihar. So yesterday being a Sunday, the organizing team decided that it was the right time to go to the parcel office (of course we had to collect the RM first in big trucks :-) ).

This drive started in various areas in Bangalore around 9am and continued till evening 8pm.
In Koramangala my friend Ujval got a big truck from somewhere ( he has amazing enthusiasm and also plenty of contacts :-) ). As I joined him, the truck got punctured, not an auspicious start but when intention is good nothing can stop you. Also Gyanesh,an enthusiastic young boy, who came to Bangalore only few days back to start his engineering studies,joined us.
So somehow we (of course driver :-) ) got the truck ready and started to roll and then immediately God decided to sprinkle some water on us, so we waited near SSRVM (Sri Sri RaviShankar Vidya Mandir),HSR Layout, till we got our act together and got hold of a big cover for the truck and with grace, Sun God decided to give his darshan in full glow. One more friend Shankar joined us at HSR Layout in his car. And then story unfolds as follows
1. We went to Belandur on Outer ring road were our friends were ready with the RM, so after putting the RM time for some PR :-)



2. Then we went to Ujvals office on the same road, he and his teammates had already packed the boxes one day back so again ....



3. After that our friend Abhishek also joined us at Marthahalli for next destination which was in Whitefield (it is pretty green area, will go into nomenclature sometime else :-) ). There our other friends Radhika and Arun had already done a superb job, they properly packed collection of RM and so we decided to have some fun in between loading those heavy boxes.









4. The truck got full but our stomachs were empty so we decided that we will eat something on the way to the station and we kept teasing Abhishek (he is very fond of food and food and more food :-) ) that today we wont eat anything till we reach Railway Station and that happened that way only.

And finally we reached Parcel Office at 4:45pm and if had been even late by 10mins we would not have been able to unload the truck, as people from various areas had already brought RM and Parcel office was full. The place was buzzing with smiling and enthusiastic young and old volunteers, people were carrying boxes as if boxes had nothing inside (man they were heavy !)
One thing which I have realized is, that if you are doing selfless service, you are never alone, there is an invisible power which is helping you out.









This is just the beginning, there will be no stopping till we realize our goal. You are all welcome to join us in future endeavors.

Keep looking for more interesting updates !

Bihar Flood Relief

There is a state by the name Bihar in India which is very famous (infamous) for various reasons all over the world, but I have a personal liking for this place for various reasons. There is a river by name Kosi which passes through it and every year floods are experienced in neighboring areas but this year Kosi has spread itself into lots of areas of Bihar, resulting in a national disaster. Almost 30 lakh people have no home, people are not getting much to eat as well, whole situation is in a jeopardy but our politicians are busy in finding out whose responsibiliy is to take care of people who have been left stranded without food and shelter. But there are some selfless people and organizations who have come forward to help provide relief there.

Art of Living as ever is already active in the flood hit areas and volunteers are helping there day in and day out. So this week we started a drive in bangalore to collect some material (clothes, ready to eat stuff, medicine, plastic sheets etc) to be sent across to Bihar and it was an overwhelming experience.
Tuesday night we decided to go to an apartment complex and ask people for RM(relief material), the enthusiasm was palpable, we were just running and knocking doors, waking people up (some people sleep early :-) ). When people opened their doors, first facial expression was "who the hell is disturbing at this time" and when we told about the drive, they were also happily driven into it, we asked them to drop the material in one of our teacher's spare flat and believe it or not, within 3-4 hours in the morning that flat was jampacked with material. Who told human values have dissolved into oblivion, we just need to remove some dirt from the top and you will get ever shining human values.
Wednesday our friends in IndiraNagar caught hold of a truck and started to collect the RM in the nearbay areas, I joined them at Koramangala and then we collected some more RM and went to deposit the RM at Ashram. When we reached there, not many people were there, so we alongwith some Ashramites decided to sort the RM properly so that we could send it to Bihar as soon as possible, meanwhile some devotee came with another truck load of RM which he collected from his apartment and then it was decided that we will use the same truck to take the packed RM to Railway Station, my friend went with that truck.

After sometime we loaded another truck and I boarded the same for Rly Stn. One more friend started from Banashankari in another truck at the same time. We reached the parcel office and even though it was past 8:00pm (Parcel office closes at that time), the railway authorities helped us in all possible manner. So now at this time we did not had enough people to unload the 3 trucks, but where there is a will there is way and from no where some people came and helped us in that situation. So after a super day, we went back physically tired but mentally in a blissful state. Next morning again came to the parcel office, helped in loading the RM into the train and then bid adieu to the train and left for office.

Short Break Excuse and Gyaan !

Hmm .. long time no see. My blog telling me.
So time to get started again.

List of excuses for not writing :-)

Was not getting in a mood to write, the problem being I never liked to write, even in my school days I really had to struggle to write the homework, the problem used to get even worse when I had to write in hindi and the problem worsened when I had to write Social Studies ( consists of History, Geography, Civics and Economics) in Hindi as in KV (Kendriya Vidyalaya) it was taught in hindi mode.
But still somehow, used to take time out of my passions cricket and doing maths, I used to complete homework on time (A Big Accomplishment for me in school :-) ).

The basic problem which I had was that rather than being a mechanical student I was kinda logical type, so when teacher used to ask to do the homework, my simple question was why do I have to write in notebook if it has already been printed in the books, I thought it was a waste of paper, pen, my precious time ( I had to play more cricket ) and I would get tired without getting anything out of it. Also at the same time my handwriting happened to be not so good as compared to my family members, so it was an added challenge to write something.

But when it came to handwriting competitions in the school I got first prize 2 times, so the problem was not that I was bad at writing but only when I wanted to write did I write well. And that is I suppose basic nature of every human being, if it comes naturally to you, you will excel and also enjoy but if something is forced (today's education system) on you, you might excel but never enjoy the process. We need to get out of this routine which has entangled us, let's break all those mechanical rules which dont give us freedom to live a life which is really ours, our life is gone in pleasing others and dancing to others tunes. And usually when we realize it, it has been too late. Take some time out for yourself and go on a journey of self exploration (Art of Living Advanced Meditation Course is there for taking).

Meanwhile some interesting things have been happening around (which I will reveal in coming blogs) so keep waiting for more...