Rendezvous with Rashmin

Dear One,

Jai Gurudev !

My dear, If you are an Indian national, I invite you to fill up the nation-wide Survey on Combating Corruption which will eventually be presented to the policy makers of our country. It may take you about 20 minutes to complete and it would be good learning and great awareness as well. Its ideal to send this to a few of your friends or colleagues or get it filled up by your mom and/or dad and if possible, your maid. This is 'cos we need representative samples from various sections of society. The survey is available online till 15th June midnight, but may I request you to fill it up before it becomes Urgent and Important, which is basically NOW :-) ! Kudos for being proactive and being a part of the solution to the problems of our people!

For the Survey on Combating Corruption, please click on the following link...

http://bit.ly/bYeVAl



Warm Regards,

Dinesh Ghodke
Director, WAYE
World Alliance for Youth Empowerment
The Art of Living Foundation
Blog - www.bawandinesh.name

By now all of you must have heard about the incident that took place in the ashram on Sunday night. That same night everything in the ashram was perfectly normal. As of now I had heard quite a few stories about the extent of the madness that the Indian media channels have subjected themselves to, just for the sake of creating news and edging out each other for the No 1 spot. But for the first time I was a witness to a stray incident and could see the way media and some of the so called responsible Govt leaders reacted to it.

Truth and objectivity does not really matter. What sells is spice. Media will do what sells.

One of the channels reported," There is high level of security around Guruji's Kutir" when there was nobody other than may be a few stray dogs around. " Mr Vinay (the guy who was hit by the bullet) is unconscious in the hospital." this was the time when he was roaming around freely in the ashram! " It is suspected that Mallikarjun could have been the person who shot" its surprising that the channel did not know that Vinay's full name is Vinay Mallikarjun!!

"The bullet was fired after Guruji left" God knows how they reached this conclusion completely disregarding what the people who were inside the car including Guruji had to say.

Mr P chidambaram says," It may be a conflict between disciples"...now that is the Art of irresponsibility! No proof, no evidence but guys you know what, I have to say something and pass the buck right back. The media catches on to it like a bone thrown to a hungry dog to chew on for the next few hours.

India tv , India news and Aaj tak are the most hilarious, dramatazing every bit of it and inspite of all the chaos created by media it was great to see the calmness and composure shown not only by Guruji but also by all the devotees present in the ashram.

More than who shot the bullet the real mystery is why is Mr Chidambaram and the police under playing this event by repeatedly saying Guruji was not the target. What are they scared of?

One of the amazing phenomena to experience is that all this chaos has not in the least affected the celebrative atmosphere in the ashram in the midst of Guruji's beautiful talks every evening on the Ashtavakra Gita!

Aho Niranjana!!

JaiGurudev
Rashmin

When you are feeling good there is no problem. The problem comes when we are feeling low. The more you feel low the more you want to feel high and the more you want to feel high the more the low feeling persist. This is the only problem in life.

Guruji asks a very important question here. The question is quite revolutionary. HE questions," have you ever loved your low feelings?" This exploded like a bomb in me when I read it for the first time. He says,"the day you accept your low feelings you will become the richest person on this planet. When you feel low agree to go low!!!"

This knowledge is quite dangerous. Because if wrongly applied it may lead to a state of self pity or a state in which the mind is seeking attention and sympathy. But what Guruji is talking is something completely different. He is talking about living in total agreement and acceptance of the present moment.

Only with a proper understanding of this knowledge one can ever experience the witness consciousness and realise that I am not the thoughts or my feelings. I am not the mind. Even a momentary glimpse of this truth brings enormous freedom and joy.

I was amazed to notice, almost unconsciously how consistently I keep avoiding and denying unpleasant sensations. From moment to moment there is a tendency to escape and ignore.

Its been a very good sadhana, since the last few days I have been training myself to stare straight into the face of even the slightest unpleasantness.. Stand up, face it and keep watching! however insignificant it appears to be.

Learning to be with what is.

JGD
Rashmin

PS: If you found this post interesting you will definitely like " dealing with feelings" from the book God Loves Fun.

Its amazing to see the universality of the knowledge of the self. In the last satsang I attended with Swami Suryapada, He said that a Rishi was known as Mantra drishtas which means, they used to acquire the knowledge about any one aspect of the universe as a vision during meditations and the knowledge used to manifest in the form of a mantra.

So the entire Sanatana( eternal) Dharma (that which upholds) is basically a compilation of all the knowledge acquired by thousands of Rishis since the last thousands of years. It is not a Truth proclaimed and declared by a single Prophet during a specific time in history.

As an Art of Living teacher I am amazed as to how the experience of mediation and the knowledge has such a profound effect on every sincere seeker who participates with an open mind. As of now I am working in Gujarat and Norway. Two completely different cultures with hardly any similarities and yet its so nice to see the same smiling faces and the same twinkle in the eye after an Yes!+ course. That same feeling of belongingness and a connectedness that cuts across all barriers of religion, nationality, intellectual orientation, family backgrounds, education etc etc.




For the first time I went to a place called shegao, a small village near Akola where my wife, Priyanka was teaching courses while I was in Norway. We had a fantastic session that once again re emphasised the fact that as humnans all that we want is to celebrate life as a one world family.

JaiGurudev
Rashmin

Two thousand five hundred people chanting together, singing together, meditating together and getting soaked in the light of the knowledge of the scriptures delivered by none other than our dear Swami Suryapada (chayanna)is one of the most beautiful experiences you can ever have. It was a satsang with a difference.

Swamiji has immense power in his rendering of the chants and such beautiful softness when he delivers the knowledge of the scriptures. I realized the power of the sanskrit language, the effect of the chants on the whole nervous system and now I am enthusiastic about learning a little bit of sanskrit language.

I remember the days when I used to go to dharavi everyday to conduct satsangs in the Navchetna Shibir. There was a dynamic group of youngsters who had just done the course and given up smoking, drinking and gutka. They used to tell me stories about much money and time they used to spend in all these addictions and the amazing transformation that happened after doing the course. The entire Art of Living family cleaned a huge dumping ground and hand picked 8 truck loads of garbage and converted into a beautiful garden and a gymnasium. Since then AOL Dharavi has come a long way.



It was a great feeling to attend a Concert that was a fund raising event for our own Dharavi school. There is a nice video on You tube. (search for SSRVM Dharavi film.) Also read a fantastic article by the chairman of ORF, M Sudheendra Kulkarni for the Indian Express. (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/clean-inside-clean-outside/613938/0)

Its a great feeling to be part of something that moves on the path of truth and Service completely undeterred by any amount of obstacles.

JGD
Rashmin