Goodbye 2008

One more year goes down the memory lane. Reflecting back on it ... now it seems to be a long dream - so many events took place some good, some bad, some big, some small, some highs, some lows, some compliments, some criticisms but nothing could be held on to! Started off with some New Year resolution finally ended up with some thing else in hand. Wanted to achieve something and achieved some thing else :-)

I remember in Yoga Vaisistha, Vaisistha tells a story to Rama - There was a villager in Vindhya hills. Once he was walking in the forest he lost a copper coin (one cent). He was a miser so he began to search for it in the thick bush. All the time he was calculating "With that one cent I shall do some business, it will become four cents then eight cent and so on". For three days he searched unmindful of the taunts of the spectators. At the end of those three days he suddenly found a precious stone! (It was a philosopher's stone.) Taking with him he returned home and lived happily.

Looking back, it's the same realization! A student comes to a Guru looking for a penny goes with a 'cintamani' (wish fulfilling stone) in whose presence and grace...

Lack turns into Abundance,

Misery into Joy,

Tears into Laughter,

Anger into Awareness,

Dispassion into Liveliness,

Restlessness into Restfulness,

Seriousness into Sincerity,

Feverishness into Contentment,

Complaints into Compliments,

Ugliness into Beauty,

Hatred into Love,

Thoughts into Meditation,

Expectations into Acceptance,

Arrogance into Innocence,

Gossips into Satsang,

Ignorance into Knowledge,

Ego into Love,

Thorns into Flowers,

Duty into Seva,

Steams into Teams,

Doer into Hollow and Emptiness,

Greed into Generosity,

Jealousness into Belongingness,

Strangers into Family,

Matter into Consciousness,

Problem into Challenges,

Doubts into Faith,

Darkness into Light,

Complains into Gratitude,

‘Me’ into ‘We’,

'Why Me?' into 'Who Am I?'

Disciple into Devotee,

Bondage into Liberation,

Hell into Heaven,

Silence into Celebration.........

I am sure for all of you too, however this year has been, it will go down the memory lane in Gratitude for the Master!

Wishing you a happy and peaceful New Year!

Love,

Satyajit

Silence, prayers and gratitude to all those people to fought to prevail peace in the world…

Love is blind

Story time...I don't remember from where I got this from :-)

A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it for the first time, Virtues and Vices wandered bored, not knowing what to do. One day they were all gathered and bored more than ever.

Suddenly genius had an idea and said "Why don't we play hide and seek?" And all of them liked the idea and immediately the mad Madness shouted "I want to count, I want to count!" And since no one else was crazy to seek for Madness, Madness leaned on a tree and started to count 1, 2, 3... And as Madness counted, the vices and virtues went hiding.

Tenderness hung on the horn of the moon.

Treason in a pile of garbage.

Fondness curled up between the clouds.

Lie said he would hide under a stone but he lied and hid at the bottom of the lake.

Passion went to the center of the earth.

Avarice entered a sack that he ended up breaking...

And Madness continued to count 79, 80, 81, 82. All the vices and virtues were already hidden by then except for Love, whom as undecided as he is did not know where to hide. This should not surprise us because we all know how difficult it is to hide Love. And Madness was already at 95, 96, 97 and just at the moment when she arrived at hundred, Love jumped into a rosebush and there he hid out.

Turning back Madness shouted "I'm coming! I'm coming!"

The first one she saw was Laziness, thrown to her feet because he didn't have any energy to hide.

Then she saw Tenderness in the horn of the Moon.

Lie at the bottom of the lake.

Passion in the center of the earth...

She discovered them one by one, finding all of them but one. Madness was getting desperate, unable to find the last missing one until Envy, envious with love for not having been discovered whispered to Madness "You are lacking Love and he is hiding in the rosebush." And Madness took a wooden pitchfork and stabbed at the rosebush and stabbed and stabbed until a heartbreaking shout made her stop.

After the shout, Love came out covering his face with his hands and from between his fingers run two threads of blood out of his eyes. Madness anxious to find Love, had took out Love's eyes with the pitchfork.

"What have I done? What have I done?" she shouted. "I have left you blind! How can I repair it?" And Love answered, you can't restore my eyes. But if you want to do something for me, you could be my guide.

From that day on, Love is blind! And is always accompanied by Madness!

Have a great day!

Satyajit

Learning Straight from the Master

Saturday 6, Dec more than thousands of devotees were waiting for Guruji anxiously.

Guruji was supposed to land in Mumbai at 11:00 AM, but His flight got delayed and finally He landed around 3:00 PM and reached the venue (Panvel - Shanti Kunj Ashram) at around 5:00 PM for ‘Vishwas Shanti Yagya’.

No sooner He reached the venue the whole environment changed. Something happened. I could see there was chaos - people stood up, running to have His darshan. It seemed like some powerful magnet was pulling everyone towards Him. At the same time there was sense of peace and contentment all around; I remember Guruji saying in some talk (Astavakra Geeta) when Mahavir used to walk - 20 KM area around Him would get cleansed and violence ceased to exist.

I could sense hearts of all the devotees racing like a jet engine waiting to have a glimpse of Him, I myself haven't seen Him for so many months. He was escorted directly into the mandap in a Mercedes car with all the music and trumpets blowing around, it seemed as though a King was being welcomed, well no doubts :-)

All the devotees were standing to have His darshan. To my astonishment, as His car came I realized He was going to walk through our seating arrangements, well I never expected this was going to happen, a pleasant surprise though! As He was being escorted by Police up to the stage I had a chance to have His darshan. And there my mind went blank... Yes it's nothing new this happens with everyone and somehow He does this magic on everyone even if doesn't looks at them :-)

Finally after lots of hustle bustle - with devotees pushing around, shouts of 'Jai Gurudev!', 'Guruji Guruji!', police shoving the devotees aside helped Guruji reached the stage. A big moment; big relief for the organizers and security police.

Voila, Guruji stood on the stage in His white robes, with a radiant face, twinkling eyes, mischievous smile, long hairs flowing onto His shoulders and head covered as a mark of respect for the holy place looking fresh as ever. He asked everyone to settle down, which devotees were not in a mood to listen as usual. Then He started emotionally blackmailing His devotees saying, those who are sitting in last row are my only devotees, only they love me. Those who will be sitting in last row will get double blessing, people sitting in front will get less and people on the stage will get very very less! But I guess this didn't work either :-)

Finally everyone settled down. I was really amazed to realize how the masters’ life is an example for His devotees. All the while with so much of pushing and chaos going on, Guruji was still smiling and joyful looking at the devotees, not to forget He had been from long journey from Calcutta in plane that was almost 3 hours late then 2 hours drive to the venue. I have heard and read so much about acceptance but seeing Him doing that it really hits the target - no words required to explain acceptance.

Yesterday we were having a knowledge session with Balvinderji, he said earlier the only way of learning was observing the Master, living with the Master, no books were used, and even knowledge was transferred from Master to disciple through listening not in writings. He further said 'You can only teach who you are!'

And Guruji does it so simply, He just teaches us who He is and learn to live like Him! No doubt in His presence everything falls in place soo naturally.

As everyone settled down He realized there was a sofa arranged for Him, but the seating arrangement for the Heads of the organization who had arranged this 'Vishwa Shanti Yagya' were placed down in front of stage. He immediately asked those chairs to be kept on the stage. It was so amazing to see His presence of mind and humility that He made the all the chairs to be arranged such that even on the stage they were kept at same level that of the sofa!

As the chairs and sofa was being moved around, up and down, Guruji said looking at the movement 'Yehi jeevan ka sabhav hai, jo uppar hota hai woh niche ajaata hai, jo niche hota hai woh uppar chale jaata hai!' as He said this there was a big applause. Then He said I will tell you a story, that very moment everyone was all ears to Him, suddenly there was silence like never before, I started recording His voice on my phone.

Guruji continued, once there was a King, looking at the world that everything was happening on its own He got a question 'Then what is the work of God?’ He started asking all his ministers, friends, pandits but no one could satisfactorily answer his question. Finally he asked this to his vice minister and said 'If you cannot find the answer to this question by tomorrow morning, you will be sent to prison.' This minister ran around, went through books but could not find any answer. By the evening he started fearing for his life.

In the evening as the minister was moving back and forth in the garden worrying thinking about his faith, a little boy in torn clothes - the gardener asked him, why he was looking so tensed and troubled? At first minister ignored him, but with due pestering from this young one he gave up and told him the whole story about the King gone mad with this question. The little boy immediately said this is so simple I will answer this for you. At first minister said he didn't believe that such a young boy could answer this question as even all the pandits have failed to answer. But the boy pleaded and minister thought anyway he had no choice, he would be meeting his fate tomorrow and there was no harm in listening to this boy. At most they both will be thrown together into prison if something goes wrong :)

Next day they went to the King's palace at first the king got more angry with this and said, how can this little boy in torn clothes can answer my question? But the boy pleaded to just give him 5 minutes to answer his question; finally king agreed and asked him to answer. The young boy said this was not the right way to ask the question. A question should be asked with due respect. The boy said he should be made to sit on his throne first at a higher pedestal than him and he should be sitting down near his feet’s. (Remember Guruji said this is the way Astavakra gave knowledge to King Janaka in Astavakra Geeta).

As the young boy sat on the throne king waited for the boy to answer. But the boy would not speak anything. Five minutes gone, ten minutes gone, fifteen minutes gone and king ran out of patience and asked the young boy to answer him immediately. Finally the boy smiled and said ‘Meine to jawab kaab ka de diya! Aap ko samaja nahi? Yehi to bhagwan ka kaam hai, jo uppar hai usko niche leyata hai aur jo niche hai usko woh uppar uthata hai...jo vinamr hai usko uppar uthata hai...jo ahankari hai usko niche leyata hai...ye kaam bhagwan nirantar karta hi raheta hai!'

There was a big applause following this J

Guruji further said the knowledge that does not makes you humble is no knowledge at all; with this He stressed to be humble in life. But I felt words were not necessary at all as He had already taught us this by His own example practically then and there on the stage itself!

Have a wonderful day!

Love,
Satyajit

Guruji further talked about importance of mantra jaap and taking responsibility, becoming warrior of peace. He stressed everyone should read Bhagwat Geeta also Guru Granth Sahib, Sukhmini Sahib and Dyaneshwari. He also pointed out conversion happening in lots of places in india due to lack of knowledge and respect for our own culture.