I got this beautiful mail and could not resist putting it over here. Its worth seeing again and again.

When we see our own life in the context of space and time all the tiny little botherations just fall of.

Just have a look at this



Thats a huge planet we live in right?



oops...not that big!







THIS IS A HUBBLE TELESCOPE ULTRA DEEP FIELD INFRARED VIEW OF COUNTLESS

'ENTIRE' GALAXIES BILLIONS OF LIGHT-YEARS AWAY.




Now just have have a look at that one thought thats been bothering you. How big is that? How big is our life? and How big is our God?

Keep life in perspective..Be happy!

Love
Rashmin

Just finished a nice little cozy Yes!+ course in Skovde and now I am off to Gotenburg for another Yes!+ starting day after.

Love
Rashmin.

Whenever I watched Hindi movies where the pot bellied corrupt politician was one of the villian I quite unconsciously thought "Yes, these are the guys responsible for the present state of affairs - dishonest, corrupt politicians". But think about it. Are you sure? saying that gives us the license to passively accept things the way they are and move on continuing with the blame game. Lets have a peek into our own lives and our own minds. Lets first search for the seed of corruption in our own self otherwise how would it manifest in society. If you can see it around its because its in you!

A few days back someone told me about how his Indian friend finds it difficult to buy the bus ticket here in Scandinavia. For more than a month now I have been traveling in local buses, trams and trains and not a single time the ticket has been checked. Since there is also no conductor it seems that this guy gets tempted to save money being quite assured that for a few days he is here, he will not be checked.In fact he feels quite pointless buying a ticket when you know that its not going to be checked.

Dont you think in this very mentality lies the seed of corruption. Because when he does that he travels and someone else pays for it. Is nt that what we call corruption? But he is thrilled and I am sure He would go back and proudly tell his friends about his extraordinary smartness and they would be thrilled too.

If the seed is in us waiting to sprout, all that it needs is an opportunity and look how it clings on and thrives at the slightest opportunity. Lets leave alone the politicians and stop this blame game because they are anyway a part of the same society. We elect them and that is why its we who need to take responsibility.

Love
Rashmin

Everyone breathes and everyone wants to be happy. There is nothing more common and universal than these two things on this planet. I just finished my 2nd course here in Malmo, Sweden. As of now we could manage only small courses.

10 in Malmo for part 1 and 7 in Oslo for yes!+. Today I am starting the third course (YES!+) course in Skovde High school in Sweden with another 10 people but I am quite sure these numbers will at least double the next month.

A broad vision, good intention and persistent efforts are all that it takes to bring about a transformation. In this effort of spreading the knowledge I realised that we need to carry intense joy in our hearts and continuously drop expectations as and when they arise because "Expectations reduce Joy".

A happy presence gets all work done. Even if it may seem to go slow but a happy ending is guaranteed.

One more pic of my first course in Oslo.

If you are one of those late goers. Read this. It may help.

1. When you enter the bathroom while you are already running behind time, DO NOT SING.Just take a bath and get out of there.

2. If You wake up listening to your alarm at 6:00 and decide to sleep exactly for another 5 mts ,when you wake up again its likely that the time is 7:30.

3. DO not think about replanning your schedule when you are still in bed and finding it incredibly difficult to get out of it. It would be rather better to think of a new excuse for being late and continue sleeping.

4. Forget about discovering new short cuts to reach the place where you have to go. Even DO Not ask people who claim to know all the roads. you will only get confused.

5. Every time you press the snooze button the chances that you are going to be late get multiplied.

6. In the night before you sleep let go of all the doership that you carry for the work you did all throughout the day. The more you think about how hard you have worked till late night the more are the chances of you getting late the next morning.

7. Watching TV in the morning is a SIN. Watching TV at other times is just foolishness.

8. When a babe/dude you just met a few days back calls you in the morning, DO NOT convince yourself of the importance of the conversation even when you know that you are just plain flirting.

9. "oops I need to iron my clothes" this realization generally happens at the last moment when you dont have any other things to drop and compensate.

10. Before you sleep the last night and you are calculating the things you need to do the next morning, so that you will reach on time, keep aside 6 minutes for "searching".

11. BE ON TIME.

"Chess is in its essence a game, in its form an art,and in its execution a science"(Baron Tassilo)


There are people who hate chess and there are people who are obsessed. The former wonder how can anyone love something like chess and the ones who are obsessed are too obsessed to think about anything else.

"There must have been a time when men were demigods,or they could not have invented Chess"(Gustav Schenk)

"We don't really know how the game was invented, though there are suspicions. As soon as we discover the culprits, we'll let you know".

Most of them are like me somewhere in between. I learned the game when I was four and I started beating people around me and later on played competitive chess for 7 years. These 7 years I experienced all the emotions in their extreme.Intense frustration after squandering a completely won position, Absolute joy of discovering the most original winning moves, Ecstasy of winning a tournament and reading your name in the newspaper for the first time. Egoistic satisfaction of ruthlessly beating someone doubly rated and utter humiliation at the hands of someone who has just started going to school.

Playing chess I understood a lot about myself. Chess can reveal a lot about you and its quite possible for someone who understands the game to know his basic nature, attitude and the way one thinks.

"The way he plays Chess demonstrates a man's whole nature"(Stanley Ellin)

Logical, scientific, organised way of thinking and yet being creative is the greatest ability one can learn from this game. Its amazing to see how disorganised is our thinking and how much it is governed by baseless emotions that cause impatience resulting into disastrous choices of moves.

Amongst other things, what Chess has given me is patience and a lot of it for which I would always be grateful to this wonderful game.

"You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you (often the hard way) is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether thats really a good idea and whether there are other better ideas."

As I write this we are just 15 mts away from knowing who is this years Noble peace prize winner. Its really a weird feeling bothering about a so called prestigious award. May be if I was not in Oslo, Norway I would not have been so concerned about this. I am just a few minutes away from the Peace prize Auditorium.

Since the last 3 weeks that I am here I feel HE getting this award would really help the speeding up of our AOL work in the west (I am teaching a course with 7 people, the smallest course I ever taught). The world at least will look into what has been happening on this planet with the grace and love of Guruji and what they have been missing all these years. Otherwise its kind of funny to even imagine anybody judging about the work of an enlightened Master and awarding him the Peace prize and we getting really excited over it!

I will be back after 10 mts...

oops.. not again.

Former Finnish president M Ahittasari gets it for his conflict resolution work in Iraq, kosovo and Indonesia. So what does this mean? may be this just means that get on and move your ass. The blessing and grace of the master are more than enough and nothing else is practically "needed" to further the cause.

I get back to work and so do you.

JaiGurudev
Rashmin

You may be sitting close but you may be galaxies apart. Actually there are no break ups. Break up is just a realisation that you were never together. You may be smiling, laughing and joking around but there may be loads of suppressed negativity hiding beneath. Our minds have an extraordinary capacity to resist/suppress. While resistance is absolutely necessary, only with acceptance or letting go, one can ever experience the real thing. Even before letting go you first need the courage to confront it. Spirituality is the path of the courageous.

The last two days I had a few talks in Sweden. I had an interesting observation in Sweden. I met three Indians! Pallavi and Rasika from Dombivili and Manoj from ulhasnagar. Pallavi and Rasika have already taken the Yes!+ course. I met them for the first time except for Pallavi whom I had a brief meeting before she left India.

All the three are having a absolutely fantastic time. So it was not that they were frustrated/bored like most of the Indians living/working abroad and neither were they really desperate to hang out with Indians just because they are missing India. I was amazed at the speed. The speed at which the connection happened and the speed at which breakfast, lunch, dinner, short visit, long stay, please come now and other such invitations started pouring in from all sides. The Innocence and excitement in the eyes..said it all, breaking through all the artificial barriers of formality and directly connecting with the heart.

Amidst the mechanical "thank yous, I am sorry, you are welcome" and other such crap I could suddenly feel vibes of absolute authenticity and a deep sense of caring and sharing. Everyone wants to share but if the desire is not that intense, concerns of ones own comfort or welfare stops one from doing so. Most of us have mastered the art of saying " I dont have time".When I do not bother so much about my own welfare or convenience only then can I share.

India is a true representation of "Sharing". India is the spirit of the whole world, its life and its Heart beat. We have a huge responsibility. We definitely need to learn a lot from all parts of the world but we also need to live what "WE" really are so that the whole world gets inspired and learns from us the true essence of spirituality, the meaning of humanness and its very purpose of self realisation.

Love
Rashmin

"We need to first find peace within ourselves and only then can we make others peaceful". How amazingly simple to understand and how incredibly difficult to implement.

Its past 12. I cant sleep. Since the past few days all that I see around is people work, smoke, drink, and eat cows, goats, chicken,turkeys and fish, sleep, wake up and continue completely oblivious of the fact they are directly responsible for ruthlessly destroying the environment. This is what most humans do on this planet? Its said that if all the insects in the world get wiped out, in another 50 years life on the planet would cease to exist. If all the Humans/morons from this planet are wiped out, in another 50 years all other life forms would flourish!

What the hell are we up to?

I am totally amazed at my Guru. Being so intensely concerned about the welfare of every single being and also the future of the whole world how does he manage to smile every moment of his life. Especially when people who are aware and experienced also are so completely caught up in absolutely mundane activities that they cannot see beyond the tip of their nose! Even they are welcomed , accepted, Loved and respected by this ever flowing fountain of compassion called Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. I cannot even wonder at HIM. Words fail me.

Love you Guruji..

Love
Rashmin.

Either you seek pleasure or come to me - Sri Sri RaviShankar.

These words really shook me and even more when HE once personally looked straight into my eyes and said "tu free ho ja" ( you become free). Though he said this in response to a personal query, it has really made a deep impression on my mind. It was a blessing as well as an order.

Since then life changed. Here is something I have been thinking of late.

What comes after the Peak?..... Its the free fall, down into the valley, a little further down from where you started. Its makes you feel like a dumb ass completely fooled yet again by the lure of getting at the peak. Either through some kind of emotional gratification; wanting to be loved and respected or through the five senses the mind is constantly seeking a peak experience. Have you observed this? Its amazing to watch its consistency.

A few moments of pleasure is what binds us. Bondage is painful. I heard a beautiful tip given by Guruji. He said " To every craving there is a beginning, middle and the end. When the craving arises and you remember the end, it elevates your awareness to a higher level and then that which seems uncontrollable to resist, does not seem so".

Otherwise life is just a series of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.... thud!!!!" all along and then you come back and continue! Remembering the fall brings peace and serenity.

Guurji says things in such a simple way but we need to be really aware because every word he speaks, he is directing us towards the highest state of consciousness.

Love
Rashmin