Rendezvous with Rashmin

Yesterday We had a beautiful evening with Massimo from Italy or Max Ormeo as he likes to be called. We had a Fund Raising concert for Haiti and Chile with Massimo as the main singer. It was a great end to a very nice trip I had in Norway.





Massimo has a very good voice and is a mind blowing guitarist. He has a superb way of conducting a satsang. His light, humble and joyful presence is very easily likeable and he is a great performer with a good mix of professionalism, quality performance and a really warm and welcoming presence.

I have been badly missing the super energetic satsangs back home. So it was the last bhajan and though everybody else were only swaying in their chairs. I could not resist. You can see that here. Of course afetr a few minutes everybody were on their feet.



It was great experience to work with Chris or Kiran as Guruji calls him. FYI Kiran is BAWA's TTC teacher. He is the 2nd AOL teacher in the world and has traveled more than 35 countries spreading this knowledge. He has been around since the pre-kriya tape days. He was also present as one of the participants when Guruji recorded the Sudarshan kriya tape for the first time. He has many interesting stories about those days when he did his first part 1 course with Guruji in 1987. Though he is one of the senior most teachers, he is humble to the core and there is a lot to learn from his super efficient way of working. He is a perfectionist and extremely soft spoken. I tell you its a rare combination.

These 2 months passed very quickly and it was a nice visit with 6 courses and a small but beautiful concert. I heard that the refugee course project has started getting some press coverage.

A few hours and I fly back to India. Though I have had a superb time in Norway the very thought of India puts a smile on my face.

JGD
Rashmin

Our mind has the tendency to swing from one extreme to the other. The most difficult challenge we face in our life is to withdraw the mind from the extremes and stabilise it in the Golden middle path. Becoming centered and staying there without getting carried away by the extremes and the opposite values we encounter in our day to day life is one of the greatest challenge we face.

On one side we have people full of dynamism but are filled with anger and aggression. They speak through violence and most of the times have no idea what are they fighting for? On the other hand there are people who are so calm, relaxed and peaceful but are so completely passive and almost dead.

On one hand we have people over indulging in sex, pornography and other such stuff and on the other we have people who dont even let the shadow of a woman fall on them, lest it pollute the purity of their soul!

On one hand we have spiritual shoppers; people who are totally disconnected with the whole world and keep hallucinating about super natural experiences day and night and another category of innocent people who live only in their heart and are easily fooled by fake Gurus and Godmen. On the other hand we have people who are so completely cynical about anything spiritual that they live only in their heads all their life. They make this super generalisation that all Gurus are fake, ignoring the beautiful tradition of masters all parts of the world has had since time immemorial. Without whom life would be meaningless and without whom the world would not have survived the self destructive tendencies of ignorant minds. As someone in a TED talk said," they are like disembodied beings living in their heads. They see the rest of their body as a mode of transportation for their heads." They miss out on something really beautiful and worth experiencing.

On one hand we have people who believe in the first "hit and then talk" policy and on the other we have people who take non violence too literally. One of my students did not come to a picnic to a water park with us because she thought in playing with water she would inflict death on many innocent living organisms present in water.

On one hand we have religious fanatics creating terror on this planet and on the other we have people who are so anti religious and secular that they completely fail to recognize the seeds of terrorism, and the intentions of ill minded, strongly biased and hateful people. The importance of standing up at the right time and in the right way to anybody and anything that is attempting to take you for a ride.

We need to walk on the golden middle path of SERENE DYNAMISM.

JGD
Rashmin

This is a part of Letter (in bold) to the Editor of The Hindu, from a practicing Christian lady who was Professor in Stella Maris College, Chennai till recently; now settled at Baroda, regarding an Edit in The Hindu in favour of bringing back MF Hussain to India.

"Hussain is now a citizen of Qatar-this has generated enough of heat and less of light. Qatar you know better than me is not a country which respects democracy or freedom of expression. Hussain says he has complete freedom-I challenge him to paint a picture of Mohammed fully clad.

He has a painting of Saraswati copulating with a lion. One’s sexual orientation is each one’s business I suppose. But he captioned it as Saraswati. This is the problem. why use Saraswati and Sita for his perverted expressions? Use Fatima and watch the consequence. Let the media people come to his rescue then. Now that he is in a country that gives him complete freedom let him go ahead and paint Fatima copulating with a lion or any other animal of his choice. And then turn around and prove to India-the Freedom of expression he enjoys in Qatar.


It brings back to my mind an episode that happened to The Hindu some years ago.[1991]. You had a separate weekly page for children with cartoons, quizzes, and with poems and articles of school children. In one such weekly page The Hindu printed a venerable bearded man-fully robed with head dress, mouthing some passages of the Koran-trying to teach children .It was done not only in good faith but as a part of inculcating values to children from the Koran. All hell broke loose. Your office witnessed goons who rushed in-demanded an apology-held out threats. In Ambur,Vaniambadi and Vellore the papers stands were burned-the copies of The Hindu were consigned to the fire. A threat to raise the issue in Parliament through a Private Members Bill was held out. But The Hindu next day brought out a public apology in its front page. Where were you Ram? How secular and tolerant were the Muslims?

May I fervently wish that the media-especially The Hindu does not discriminate goons-let it not substitute tolerance for intolerance when it comes to Rahim and Antony and another index for Ram."


Hussain hates Hitler and has said in an interview 8 years ago that he depicted Hitler naked so as to humiliate him as he deserves it ! HE also showed mahatma Gandhi without a head ( I dont know what that means?)So this is what he himself says he means when he paints someone nude and then he goes on to paint Indian Goddesses not just nude but having animal sex! He paints mother India nude and has another painting which says," Rape of India"! after the Mumbai terror attacks.

I am personally not bothered about what he paints But more than trying to debate about what he has done by those paintings is right or wrong the question is whether was it a responsible thing to do?

Was it so difficult for Mr M F Hussain to anticipate that it would create a controversy after an exhibition of such pictures? if No? then he is plain stupid and if YES then thats being really insensitive and irresponsible. All Indian temples have sculptures of nude women outside the temple and many more places like Khajuraho have sexually explicit carvings but none of them are named as sita or Durga.. and that too why would anyone want to show Godesses having animal sex?? and also put a name tag on their picture,"DURGA". Its obvious that it will hurt people. Even in Khajuraho temple all the sculptures of Durga, vishnu and other deities are fully clothed.

A Hindu takes pride in calling himself secular. I think that is because the whole essence of our tradition and the spiritual heritage is to realise the oneness of the whole universe..is to break through limited identifications.

But we need to realise that we need to transcend identity and not merely deny it. Mere denial is a sign of cowardice. We need to first accept and then go beyond. We need to learn from the past.

By the way I think people like M F Hussain are better in Qatar. Since I am sure in Qatar he will surely not dare to do anything even if he has the slightest doubt that it will hurt someones sentiments.

We are not short of legends, we have Lata Mangeshkar, Bhimsen joshi, Sachin tendulkar and many more who use their freedom of expression in a much more sensible and responsible manner.

Shobha De thinks that its India's loss and Qatar's good luck. I have no idea whats wrong with her. It seems she does not know that he himself said that all that he dreams is of coming back to INDIA. If he is promised security he says he would catch the first flight back HOME since he loves this great country. But may be its too late.

Goodbye Mr M F Hussain.

JaiGurudev
Rashmin

Emily with her teacher Emilio del Rosario.


Search Emily Bear on youtube. Watch at least 3 of her videos( especially "Emily bear compositions part2","Emily on the Ellen show" and "Emily on the Sunday night show") and then continue reading..and then watch all her videos.Do not miss a single one.

Love at first Sight?! I am completely in love with her.

She is the most adorable, the sweetest, the cutest, the most talented, exceptionally brilliant, and a precious little gift to our planet. An angel dropped from Heaven just to add beauty, peace and love on this planet. When you see someone like her, faith in the Divine strengthens. It becomes more obvious that HE knows what the world needs today. A guy commented on one of her videos that if you dont instantly fall in love with her you should immediately get your heart checked.




With her sheer Innocence, joy and unbelievable talent this beautiful little sweet girl has completely captivated my heart and my mind since I heard her for the first time; that was just two days back.

Not just with her talent but also with her joyful and angelic presence I have been totally overwhelmed as I watched all her videos on youtube three to four times.



All her compositions are exquisite. Unimaginable to think that a six year old can make such beautiful music. Her music has such purity and such beauty that it stays with you..it lingers on and on and its impossible to not fall in love with this precious little, adorable child...Gods gift to this world.

Tomorrows wishes, Northern lights, Ellen song, Journey to my heart and the Love in us are all songs composed by this angel called Emily Bear.I heave heard them so many times already.

She is 8 years old now and has composed 350 songs, 2 albums and has a huge fan following all over the world. She is not one of the child prodigies who are made to practice like machines by over ambitious parents. She is like a breath of fresh air..
She does not play the Piano, she plays with the piano.

I would not like to compare her with any other prodigy because I know there are many who can play complex, high speed stuff on various instruments but what makes Emily special is her compositions and the way she conducts them..with such joy and flashes that sweet smile in the end.



As she herself puts it," It just comes out "

May god bless her and may she never ever ever lose her smile...



JaiGurudev
Rashmin