Rendezvous with Rashmin

A Yes!+ advance course in Rishikesh would not be complete without river rafting in the Ganga on the last day.

The stillness of the huge mountains on one side silently witnessing the soft caresses of the ever flowing water of the holy ganga keeps your mind captivated throughout the exciting journey. Wherever you look you see beauty and as you are engrossed in admiration and have already started planning your next visit you wonder where is the noise coming from? Yes!..one more rapid ! A rapid means nothing but basically water misbehaving. Its a place where the river tries its best to pull you out of the raft and makes your adventure a bit more adventurous.

Just as in life we have a Guru, in the raft you have a guide, who keeps directing you so that you make best use of the oar in your hand to stay inside the raft while the rapid lasts. Actually its the guide who does most of the job but somehow you feel you too are contributing a lot ( 'Gyanees" who are reading this are welcome to draw " meaningful" analogies)

Its fun .. its exciting. something really really worth experiencing.

The day ends with the guide parking the raft at a spot where the water has calmed down. You are introduced to the traditional "Jumping point". A small cliff with a rock protruding out. One is supposed to climb up and jump into the super cool water, that too with a life jacket. Your mind goes " whats the big deal"?

Well .. things are quite different when you get there. From the edge of that rock ganga suddenly stops looking holy.. the stillness of the mountains scares you. You feel all alone. Why the hell am I standing at the edge of a cliff jumping into a flowing river GOD knows how deep. I can swim .. I am wearing a life jacket too ... so what?! what if the life jacket decides to desert me while I am in mid air? I jump, I go down into the water and what if I just stay there a bit longer? Actually I think i should not jump. I mean I want to But I should not..may be later .. let this guy go first..

All sorts of rubbish went on my mind when i stood there and then I heard a few shouts " common jump its just water.. whats wrong with you". I told myself "I am not going back .. no way" I took off and then all the laws of physics obediently followed its own course and I was back on the shore. The trauma was over. The adventure was complete and there was a huge relief.

The rest of the time I entertained myself watching other people standing up there and getting scared of virtually " Nothing".

Every time in life when a decision needs to be taken I have a choice either to Jump in or to succumb to my own baseless fears. The more I give in to the fear the more indecisive I become forcing me to step back. Its then when I hear a voice saying "Jump in, you fool! whats wrong with you?"



Every time I have listened to this voice I have learnt something valuable in life.

Love
Rashmin

PS: I hope you find the analogy "meaningful".

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