I had been wanting to figure out a way to be in touch with my students in the best possible way. Email is just plain text. smses are too short and painful to type. phone calls hurt my ears and pockets in a big way! My website and blogging I figured is the most creative and in thing to stay connected:-). And hence this blog. I will be sharing most of my life’s happenings, viewpoints and stuff around me on this site. So keep reading it.
And do care to post your compliments/comments. It my blog but its 4 U, just U !!
love
Jai Gurudeva!
Ramnik
I first taught my own classmates way back in 1990 when I was in class 10. I taught a few classes on english and geography. All I remember is I had loved it. Maybe teaching was in the genes. My mom used to teach in a school (or was it a college) before she got married and moved from chandigarh to muktsar. Relatives and neighbours sometimes used to come and learn music from my father.
The first time I taught an Art of Living course I still remember the dimension it had opened in me. I had taught a navchetna shibir to the mess workers of IIT. Pragati aunti had organised it. Right into and after the session I felt an immense coolness in the eyes. A very soothing feeling. As I reached back Andheri ashram Bawa took me into a room and was very curious to know how it was for me. He is the one who made me into a great teacher that I am. Seven years since then, teaching has become my life. From teaching my first part-1 courses in Belgaum in 2002 to YES!+ since 2006, life has shaped and refined every day as a teacher. I remember telling Guruji once, “Guruji aur kuch nahi karna hei bas teaching karna hei.” ( I dont want to do anything else, only teaching).
I am lucky to be teaching. And super lucky to be teaching Art of Living. I teach with my heart and soul. My students learn with their heart and soul. I have had some of the most amazing youth as my students in the last two years of teaching YES!+. As the first YES!+ teachers training begins from 23rd June, its a very fulfilling feeling to have 8 of my students on it. Once they become teachers, much more can be done for the youth.
love & Jai Gurudeva!Publish Post
As such this life clearly is mine. its free, its youthful and its wise. But the need of the hour or should I say century is that we revive spirituality on the planet. In this day and age where more emphasis is given to an iron piece stuck on the front middle of ones car and caring about the environment has become a social fad, LIFE inside needs a complete overhaul! We need to know thy neighbour from scratch before God, if he chooses to say it again, says “love thy neighbour”. Athiti devo bhava (Guest is God) will take much longer but we certainly need to get rid of the “Beware of dog” signs on the house doors. A reverse gear from dog-inside to god-outside is needed. But in between there is an intermediate step. Thats “God inside”. And this, the planet seems to be forgetting in its hurry to reach nowhere. Well I was super duper lucky to do Art of Living course way back in 1992. Bawa was my signboard, binoculars, reading glasses, eyes and ears in my search for immense, unconditional love in life. (more on bawa will come in seperate writeups). Guruji had entered this life. Rather His entry made it a life!
Obvious choice, which is a non choice if you are a little intelligent, is to do what Guruji is doing. Knitting the world into one big family. There are a few things Guruji said today in the satsang. He said, “we ( india) got our independence because all the youth including pitaji ( Guruji’s father) jumped into the freedom movement dropping their careers and studies.” I take it this way. its a reminder for us to do something similar to be able to revive the human values, and establish dharma on the planet. we, the youth, need to begin with our country.
When someone asked him what Shiva and parvati must be doing and thinking in this current age, He said, “ They are thinking about the planet, and the foolish people on it”. Again to me this means a lot needs to happen for this planet before its back to its acceptable form/shape for Gods! Anyways Guruji is doing it all. But it would be sheer lazy not to join in!
There was another botheration by someone that he has not done anything worth being proud of this lifetime. Guruji replied “you have already done it. you have come here.” He said if we wait for something big to happen in our life before we start smiling, then we might take too long or it may never happen. A three month old child cannot even take care of itself and still is smiles all the time. what would you say to that. he said, “we need to be humble, simple and natural.”
If anyone who cares about himelf and hence his planet, is to ponder on these three answers, a simple conclusion is – just get involved in the seva activities full speed. do ensure you have good control on the steering and brakes though !! Your life for the planet is the best thing you can do with it, unless Guruji asks you to do something else!
love, JaiGurudeva!
We had a great time at the course here on the 3rd day. its flowing magically smooth!
The course in Patna has started today. gurgaon yes!+ got over last nite at 10:30 and i caught a flight to patna today morning. The course started at 3 in the afternoon. we ( i and the students!) laughed through the next 4 hours. now, will be catching on some good sleep for long hours:-) . Jai gurudeva!
Hi!. So you want to know about me. I live a life focused on spreading the knowledge of Gurudev! I am blessed an lucky to be one of his teachers. It involves quite a lot of travel! I live out of a suitcase. Since I am teaching YES!+, a longer duration course, it means getting to eat dinner after 10 pm almost every week there is a course to teach. Last seven weeks had six of them packed with courses back to back. Teaching courses involves meeting new youth almost every week. It also involves mentoring youth on a long term basis empowering them to shoulder bigger responsibilities, and eventually becoming teachers. I get back to Bangalore ashram almost every few months to rejuvenate myself. Overall, a very fulfilling life.
Prior to being a full time Art of Living teacher, I was a software professional. I worked for iFlex ( used to be called CITIL in those days) and i2 technologies totaling about 5 years. Infact also spent about an year as an entrepreneur. I had started a propriety firm named Shakti technologies based out of chennai. I loved making algorithms, writing code, making softwares. I still do. Just that I don’t have time for it now.
Indian economy and stock markets also interest me equally.
Being a teacher has made me more humane, caring and wise. At the same time it has also taken me back into childhood – total spontaneity and a feeling of freedom & joy thats stays ON!
Love & Jai Gurudeva!!
This unforgettable picnic was decided on the last day of chandigarh Yes!+ at DAV sector 10. Paras offered to host us at manish’s cottage in kasauli hills. Soon volunteers were in action 
, starting from collecting money for the trip, booking the bus, informing everyone to reach on time and finally ensuring that everyone is back in time these guys did an amazing job!! Tanmay, Gaurav, Mohit were among the new course participants who ventured into volunteering for the trip!
The way this picnic went, it was not just a picnic, it was a pilgrimage. We started from MGH at about 6:20 am. starting which bhajans which later moved to hindi songs! Just 12 kms from kasauli the bus was stuck in a traffic jam caused by the locals! this is when fun began! we decided to walk the way! then changed our plan to do short kriya in a house amitesh had taken permission for. just as we were walking to the house I saw an ancient shiva temple!! In the next 2 minutes we were all inside the temple! This is where one of the most powerful satsangs began! midway thru the satsang , Varun picked up the dhol, sajan and a few others some other instruments. there was a time when the temple was reverberating with the sound of these divine satsang instruments!! my knee had started to feel a difference. it had begun to heal! as we finished the satsang and came out of the temple the place seemed to show some signs of progress. the rock got unblocked only to get blocked again in 5 minutes! by now we had decided to walk it all. And thats when the issue got resolved. soon we were back in our bus to kasauli!
The cottage was in an amazingly quiet place. as we stepped out of the bus it started pouring heavily. Paras later mentioned that this was the first powerful rain after a long time! He led us through the long kriya followed by lunch prepared by yuvacharyas. and then everyone danced, and danced and danced!! then it was time to move on. we had a walk on Mall road, and then went up to visit Baba Balaknath ji in His temple! He sits on peacock and is said to be kartekaye’s avataar, shiva’s son!
Again we had a rocking satsang there and were directed to have prasad. Infact we had one shiva bhajan standing outside the prasad room!:-) The person incharge of serving the food wanted us to sing more inside the temple. We were getting late and so promised to come back and sing again some other day.
The return journey was quick all the way to panchkula. thats where he bus ended up with a flat tyre !!. And we then just jumped into autorickshaws, peoples friends, relatives cars and were BACK home!! O what a great day it was!.
love
Jai Gurudeva!!
I left for bombay on 19th Feb, the evening Guruji left for germany. So He was there almost the whole time at the ashram since new year with a few gaps in between. As the yes!+ team meet got over, I went to amravati, Akola, back to bombay where he arrived on 5th march after midnight.
I remember him wading thru a narrow devotees pathway to the elevator at a Ghatkopar apartment he stayed in. He was sleepy yet smiling blessing and eye-contacting almost everyone! As always!
Next morning we rushed to the train at bandra station where He was also supposed to join. But He tricked us all! He went by flight to Surat. I came on a gifted 3-tier AC seat!( I had just bought an ordinary unreserved ticket in the last hour, not just for myself but 4 other friends.Two of them travelled 1st AC on that ticket!).
Surat was my first time on Gujarati soil. Though for some vague reason some people seem to think i am from gujarat when i meet them for the fist time. Infact many sometimes say, “Gujarat mein aapse kaha mile hein?!!!”. Ok… maybe some past karma. On a more practical note I think Ramnik is also a very gujju name. But then to one fellow once i had not even told my name:-).
I think I saw Him very very happy at Surat. Like he was happy to be back home or was it the superb arrangements for mahashivratri, PDS and advance course!! Everything else was great just that his place of stay was little amusing! As bawa puts it, Gujarat meets Europe and has an accident!..It was a huge mansion that took 10 years to complete. My theory is the sindhi fellow would have run out of money building it and so it took such a long time !!
At times we would stand outside and he would wave at us from the other side of the iron-rodded boundary wall seperating us from him. he would take out his hand from between the two rods and devotees would rush to touch it! O what a beautiful site that was!!
He was into special effects even pre-mahashivratri evening! Bhava (not Bawa!) came after the rudra pooja that day. And THE day was simple one in a lifetime days for me. the place full of devotees, lakhs of them maybe. Sea of people. They started dancing at the onset of bhajans and he went into a tandava for few moments. Such powerful moments those were. I too was dancing like crazy.The whole event was a beauty beyond words.
From next day PDS started. mornings and evenings. That was the time to be sleep deprived. We stayed in a house with 60 people and 3 bathrooms between us! and still everyone was comfortable and happy!! Jigish, our gujarat teacher, and his family were at their host best!
Geeta gyan sessions in the evening were very powerful. Infact in the night after first day’s session when he was meeting all the teachers he asked something which meant “tum logon ke liye ye gyan heavy ho gya tha kya?!!”. Last time he gave it only to arjun. this time microphone and big-screen technology makes it possible for him to deliver it to lakhs of people in one go!
As i am writing this i have started missing him. eyes have become little watery. He is in nasik now after his bombay PDS. I have to goto punjab tomorrow.So i stayed back. Will be boarding my train tomorrow. The train goes to both chandigarh and jalandhar. I would first go to jalandhar where a very small team of just 4 people is working on Utsav. They have 800 registrations. Our target is 2000 students minimum. Chandigarh should be on 18th evening or 19th morning. Ok now. Will write more later.
Jaigurudeva!!
I left for bombay on 19th Feb, the evening Guruji left for germany. So He was there almost the whole time at the ashram since new year with a few gaps in between. As the yes!+ team meet got over, I went to amravati, Akola, back to bombay where he arrived on 5th march after midnight.
I remember him wading thru a narrow devotees pathway to the elevator at a Ghatkopar apartment he stayed in. He was sleepy yet smiling blessing and eye-contacting almost everyone! As always!
Next morning we rushed to the train at bandra station where He was also supposed to join. But He tricked us all! He went by flight to Surat. I came on a gifted 3-tier AC seat!( I had just bought an ordinary unreserved ticket in the last hour, not just for myself but 4 other friends.Two of them travelled 1st AC on that ticket!).
Surat was my first time on Gujarati soil. Though for some vague reason some people seem to think i am from gujarat when i meet them for the fist time. Infact many sometimes say, “Gujarat mein aapse kaha mile hein?!!!”. Ok… maybe some past karma. On a more practical note I think Ramnik is also a very gujju name. But then to one fellow once i had not even told my name:-).
I think I saw Him very very happy at Surat. Like he was happy to be back home or was it the superb arrangements for mahashivratri, PDS and advance course!! Everything else was great just that his place of stay was little amusing! As bawa puts it, Gujarat meets Europe and has an accident!..It was a huge mansion that took 10 years to complete. My theory is the sindhi fellow would have run out of money building it and so it took such a long time !!
At times we would stand outside and he would wave at us from the other side of the iron-rodded boundary wall seperating us from him. he would take out his hand from between the two rods and devotees would rush to touch it! O what a beautiful site that was!!
He was into special effects even pre-mahashivratri evening! Bhava (not Bawa!) came after the rudra pooja that day. And THE day was simple one in a lifetime days for me. the place full of devotees, lakhs of them maybe. Sea of people. They started dancing at the onset of bhajans and he went into a tandava for few moments. Such powerful moments those were. I too was dancing like crazy.The whole event was a beauty beyond words.
From next day PDS started. mornings and evenings. That was the time to be sleep deprived. We stayed in a house with 60 people and 3 bathrooms between us! and still everyone was comfortable and happy!! Jigish, our gujarat teacher, and his family were at their host best!
Geeta gyan sessions in the evening were very powerful. Infact in the night after first day’s session when he was meeting all the teachers he asked something which meant “tum logon ke liye ye gyan heavy ho gya tha kya?!!”. Last time he gave it only to arjun. this time microphone and big-screen technology makes it possible for him to deliver it to lakhs of people in one go!
As i am writing this i have started missing him. eyes have become little watery. He is in nasik now after his bombay PDS. I have to goto punjab tomorrow.So i stayed back. Will be boarding my train tomorrow. The train goes to both chandigarh and jalandhar. I would first go to jalandhar where a very small team of just 4 people is working on Utsav. They have 800 registrations. Our target is 2000 students minimum. Chandigarh should be on 18th evening or 19th morning. Ok now. Will write more later.
Jaigurudeva!!
I was searching for some cool widgets for my mac. Also I wished for something that could pop up Guruji’s quotes. I receive a mail from JD just on one such widget!!!
instant wishfulfilling..
Incase you are a mac user here it is-
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/reference/guru.html
