Rendezvous with Rashmin

What if i am nothing but just a part of someone else's dream? and what would happen if that someone wakes up? what if I suddenly wake up to see a whole new world and realise that all that I am experiencing right now "was" just a dream and what if this continues... infinitely.

Since I was a child such weird thoughts would always cross my mind leaving me scared or confused or both. I am sure most of us some time or the other doubt the reality of what we experience.

In one of the satsangs in the ashram Guruji spoke about dreams. (I would not be able to quote HIM verbatim). He said ,"Look at your whole past as a dream. At this moment dont you feel everything you have done and experienced in the past is like a dream? and whatever time you are going to be here, may be another 30 -40 years would also seem like a dream once you have lived through. Your whole life is nothing but a long dream. Whatever you are experiencing right now will seem like a dream just after a few moments. When you realise this you live every moment of your life with such great enthusiasm."

Someone rightly said "One who looks outside, dreams. One who looks inside, awakens!"

Love
Rashmin

Say "So'ham, So'ham" whatever comes. Tell yourself this even in eating, walking, suffering. Tell the mind this incessantly—that what we see never existed, that there is only "I". Flash--the dream will break! Think day and night, this universe is zero, only God is. Have intense desire to get free.

I was quite young when fortunately a book of his quotes found its way into my life. I was greatly influenced. My impressionable mind used to get completely blown away every time i read about His Power packed words. He had depth, dynamism, Intensity, clarity, straight forwardness and something so powerful that i used to almost get hypnotized reading about Him . He entered my thoughts, my dreams and awakened the spiritual curiosity in me. I thought about Him, dream t about him and as i grew up the same curiosity turned into longing. I consciously started looking for a platform through which i could do service because I was convinced that life without service is meaningless.

I was searching for something spiritual and as I heard about the Art of Living course I pounced on it … my prayer was answered..

Some of my favourite quotes...

Truth, purity and unselfishness—wherever these are present, there is no power below or above the sun to crush the possessor thereof. Equipped with these, one individual is able to face the whole universe in opposition.

They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.

Soft-brained people, weak-minded, chicken-hearted, cannot find the truth. One has to be free, and as broad as the sky.

Stick to God! Who cares what comes to the body or to anything else! Through the terrors of evil, say—my God, my love! Through the pangs of death, say—my God, my love! Through all the evils under the sun, say my God, my love!

Love
Rashmin

Here is something that comes straight from a typical bollywood blockbuster. A reel life scene experienced in real life!

One day before the chennai Utsav started something so miraculous happened that reminded me of what Bawa once said," When you spread knowledge, nature will bend to serve (save) you".

One of the active volunteers (Anil…. He is 6ft 6 inches and weighs 90 kgs) was driving his bike on a fly over and a bus dashed him from behind. He flew from his bike and he collided on the railing. He toppled over and fell.... on the other side... 8 ft down on the busy road below. It was amazing to hear the story from Anil himself as we were sitting in the Fruit Shop at Greams road. At this point we were too excited to know what happened next since it was obvious that a miracle had saved him.

Here is what happened. As he took off from the bridge and was fast descending down towards mother earth a fast moving open truck carrying “HAY” was passing by. He fell exactly inside it.. His fall was cushioned!! JaiGurudev!


Love
Rashmin

As I stepped in a school in Mumbai to teach my first Art Excel course I thought I am subjecting myself to be lovingly slaughtered by a bunch of 60 young little monsters. I was scared… obviously. Till then I was very much used to the basic courses that consisted of mostly sane, usually educated, (semi) civilized human beings.

I was not used to seeing course participants running in and around the course hall without any specific purpose. For the first time I had to face people complaining to me about getting pinched, punched, tickled, teased, hair pulled, kicked and other such creative activities being performed at irritatingly regular intervals. Even then I was quite used to giving intro talks but not on the first day of a course to a participant who is crying because his Mom has forced him into the course and feels that she has completely screwed up his precious vacation time.

I gave a break because “I” needed one.

On the last day of the course all the kids had put up a small program to be performed at the parents meet. With minimum assistance it was great to see the Focus and a sense of responsibility they showed to handle the entire show. The most shy kid was roaming about the stage as if its his bedroom, the most mischievous were the most responsible, the rebels were surprisingly co operating and everything had suddenly turned downside up!

We also had a satsang and a meditation (for the parents) at the end of the program. I was quite surprised to see all the 60 kids in absolute silence meditating for almost 20 minutes without opening their eyes!



Only because there was no drastic miraculous experience I failed to notice the unseen hand that was ultimately working even in that utter chaos. As the course ended the parents were happy, volunteers ecstatic and the children were in bliss.

Love
Rashmin

Imagine 127 children from all over the country let loose in a 150 acre ashram and all that you have to do is to gather them together and make them do suryanamaskar, pranayama and meditation!

I was quite sympathetically listening to Ankush Bansal, the Art Excel teacher, as he was telling me about his utter helplessness to get anything going with these 127 little monsters absolutely not willing to listen to any instructions. But then he suddenly got a fantastic idea. On the pretext of disclosing a top secret he somehow managed to gather all the children at one place. He told them that if they do their pranayam and kriya with total sincerity they would be allowed to go the sumeru mantap (one of my favourite place in the ashram) and ask for a wish and all their wishes would be fulfilled.



This was obviously quite appealing to all of them and they did what they were told. As they were enthusiastically climbing up the hill to go to the sumeru Mantap. Ankush was fervently praying to Guruji. He also had one wish... please Guruji fulfill all their wishes.

In a few hours time all the children came back with exciting stories. One child desperately wanted to speak to her mom and her mom called back her friend and talked to her. Another child wanted to eat an Ice cream but they were not allowed to go to the canteen till the duration of the course. As she was coming back from the sumeru Mantap she saw an aunty who had an Ice cream in her hands and guess what?!

One child asked from a hug from Guruji and thats exeactly what he got after the evening satsang.

within a few hours every wish was fulfilled! the Art excel course was a big hit and the teacher could maintain his sanity till the end of the course.

This was the time when i was studying for my final exam in my first year of junior college in R A podar college, mumbai. Since that was the year i had taken up to playing chess full time ( my parents told me " do what you want but see to to it that you dont flunk) I used to hardly study. I needed 36 marks in marathi to get my total to 105 so that i get promoted to the next year. I had even forgotten how the marathi text book looked. Because of my utter carelessness i studied some other subject instead of marathi which i realised an hour before the final exam.

This was the first time I was facing a major crisis situation in life. "jaiGurudevs" had not yet entered my life. I was quite shattered. In that one hour i met 2 types of people . The first category of people who were asking questions like ," why dint you see the time table properly?" added with expressions that would make me feel like an helpless ass. The other category was of people who were finding a way out but couldnt think of and then just gave up

A few minutes later a very dear friend of mine, Abhay happened to see me. He asked what happened. After i told him He just smiled and first made me realize that there is no problem in the first place. I told him that i was thinking of studying for 3 hours and and then writing the paper for the last one hour. He again smiled and told me that 45 mins was enough time to comfortably pass in the subject. His composure and confidence relaxed my mind which was already visualizing the horrific drama that would happen at home if i lost a year because of such a stupid mistake.

He just open the index of the book and in just 15 mins narrated the stories of almost all the chapters and then gave me the gist of all the poetries in another 10 mins. He told me to remember the names of the characters so that i know the chapter from which the question is asked.
In the last 10 mins he asked me to revise the whole thing. For the first time( and also the last time) in my life I revised before an exam.

I just filled up the answer sheets with whatever i had gathered in those 45 mins and of course with a lot of my own imagination.

I always remember this incident as a lesson in acceptance followed by action.

I scored exactly 36. I passed.

Love
Rashmin

HI! I am Rashmin, also known as little pu. I teach Art of living courses. I am happy because i have no choice and as you keep reading this blog you will know more about me. There are thousands of reasons why I have created this blog. I would not like to tell all of them right now in my first post precisely because of two reasons. 1. Would be too long. 2. I dont know any of them.

When you have a Guru Like Sri Sri Ravishankar life is always happening; full of exciting stories and thrilling experiences. Its like living in a fantasy world of almost complete uncertainty. Every new thing that starts happening in life almost always has to take you through a maddening roller coaster and then miraculously culminates into the most incredibly happy ending you ever imagined. Sometimes it just takes time to realise that the way it ended was the best for you. By now i am quite used to the happy endings and have really started enjoying the roller coasters.

This is the place where you will read about the roller coasters and of course also the happy endings. Wow! i got the first reason. 999 to go. Happy reading.

Love
Rashmin