Visited my ancestral village and home
I visited our ancestral house located in a village named 6M in district Sri Ganganagar of Rajasthan. The 2 acre piece of land is more of a khandar now with all boundary walls almost broken. One room, a baithak is still intact though. As my cousin opened the room, and we entered the unlit room at around 530 in the evening, it didnt feel like a room which is rarely opened. The room had a light energy of a place inhabited by someone. On the wall infront hung the photo of my great-grand father whom my cousin respectfully bowed to. I was not accustomed to it and hence just bowed in my mind seeing him bow down. He once owned 1000 acres of the land the village comprised of.
The village has similar houses, all of our relatives. Almost all of them are deserted now with almost everyone having shifted to different towns and cities in Rajasthan and Punjab. It is a quiet place with hardly any activity around. I then visited the fields and walked around the 15 acres of land left in my father’s name. The sun was setting on the village side. I had never seen a sun as big as the one I saw settting in my village. I fell in love with the quietness of the place.
If things work out fine I shall get the house repaired and make it an occasional place of seclusion and meditation for myself. Lets see !!
love,
Ramnik
The Immortal U – II
Its almost 5 months now and the memories of what happened have faded away into the background of my past. Yet the sharing remains incomplete and I owe it to all of you. As I start typing am sure I would be teleported back into the moments that were.
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We sat on floor in the horizontal part of the L-shaped hallroom, the vertical part was where lay the body. Chantings of Om Nama Shivaya and bhajans filled the air which was silent otherwise. After a while we started discussing about the funeral. Prayag’s Swamiji’s mother who was at Bangalore ashram,wished that the cremation be done at Ahmedabad – his home town. Taking the body to Ahmedabad required more planning. The alternate option was to cremate at Nabha, the town he breathed his last. After much deliberation and discussions it was finally decided that cremation be performed at Nabha the next day. By this time deadbody-preservating glass-box had arrived. It had the technical capability to preserve a human body below freezing temperature. The box was new and was covered with paper glued to its glass walls on all sides. While I was removing the paper from the box walls to allow visibility, there was an unusual feeling of doing it for the first and final time for Prayag. The box was kept in the room next to the hall and once it was ready, the body was transferred into the box. We moved out of this room and now it was time to leave to come back the next day for cremation which was decided at 11am. Or was it 12, I dont remember exactly but it was one of these times. I had a course scheduled at Kotkapura about 200 km from Nabha. Another teacher was arranged for the first two days of the course and I went back to Patiala where I spent the night with Amitesh and Tanu. Weather had changed. It was cloudy and rains were on their way.
Next day, Amitesh and I got ready to head for Nabha while it rained heavily making Amitesh’s car wet inside leaking through its repair-hungry front left door. As we reached Nabha there was a sea of cars parked and moving on the street which housed Prayag Swamiijs remains. Cars and various vehicles had started heading towards cremation grounds. Rains gods were lashing away to the fullest to pay their final homage. We turned around and followed a local vehicle to the cremation grounds which were flooded with feet deep water in most parts. The place was full of people. This was a sight to see. In the rain, far far away from home there were hundreds who had gathered to bid good bye to their loved one from far off lands who had won their hearts with his selfless service. Swami Paramtej had arrived from the ashram along with Swami Prayag’s mother and brother. I saw Prayag Swamijis mother for the first time. I had no courage to go and stand near the lady. I inquired with Swami Parmtej about she was. She was calm and poised. The remains were brought to the shed where they would be offered to fire and gone for ever. We all lend a hand setting up the pyre with dry woods kept under the shed. After a few more rites, the remains were set on fire. This is the only time I saw the mother loosing her silent calm demeneour. All she said was ‘Tu bhi chala gaya’. (you are gone too.) . She had lost her husband many years ago when her sons were very young and had single handedly brought up two amazing boys.
What courage what dispassion what strength it would require to be a mother who was poised even in final moments with her son’s remains. All this while I was just narrating it from my memory but as I remember the mother, am affected emotionally. My eyes are wet at the thought of her. How amazing this whole world is. A soul gets liberated in death and others mourn it.
The rains continued nonstop. Everyone had by now settled under some shed. Flames engulfed the remains on all sides and all that was visible was fire under the shed and water outside.
As fire finished most of its job, we started moving out of the grounds. There I watched the mother from a distance while everyone met her one by one. She talked about her son’s seva projects and those which now remained incomplete. O what a brave mom. Here was a living example of dispassion and sacrifice infront of me. She was not an Art of Living teacher or an activist with an NGO, a simple Indian mother who exuberated immense spirituality and seva attitude in her speaking about her son. Not for a while did she look dependent or miserable.If India and the world has more such moms, our planet would be heaven in no time.
Well, thats it. We have very short time here on the planet. Our bodies would be consumed by fire one day. The more we spend our time serving, smiling and spread universal love and wisdom of Gurudev, the better for all of us and the humanity.
Love
Jai Gurudeva…
Ramnik
The Immortal U….
Happeningz on 9-Nov. The DAY!!
luv
JaiGurudeva!!!
Ramnik
Guruji Visits Chandigarh !!!!! SEVA Activities
Jai Gurudeva !!!!
Ofcourse you know that Guruji visits Chandigarh on 9th November !!!!!!!!
All seva team details are below. But today we need to put up visit-posters in shops, distribute event passes and send people for YES!+ begining today. Read details below.
As of today we have following seva teams:
1. Event Publicity (Mainly Outdoor)
2. Event Funds Collection
a) Direct Donation to the organisation for the event
b) Sponsorships for different publicity material
c) advertisement in Souvenir Magazine being printed for this Historic visit of Guruji.
3. Venue
4. YES!+ and Other Art of Living Courses
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DETAILS
3. VENUE
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Our venue is Kalagram on panchkula chandigarh road for Gurujis event. Contact person will be updated.
This activity will require work towards the end.
4. YES!+ and Other courses
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We have a YES!+ starting today 27th october at C.C.E.T , sector 26, Chandigarh for everyone in tricity. I would be teaching it. This might be the last one before Guruji’s visit. So get as many youth as you can to experience it before Guruji’s visit. Contact Dr. Nishi at 9872669032 or Dr. Meenakshi at 9815617939.
You may also contact YES!+ Team numbers 8146959595, 9915770555. btw we also have a GCG-11 exclusive YES!+ starting today for the GCG hostelers. Contact the same team for this course also.
For all other courses please contact our Art of Living centre number 0172-2727272. Would update more numbers later but this is the easiest to remember and so was handy in my memory.
Have a Great Time doing Seva !!!
Love
Jai Gurudeva!
Ramnik
Illayaraja – How to name it. Music I loved & would keep listening to
Jai Gurudeva!
As I was updating my FB profile, the question ‘music you like’ reminded me of my most listened piece of music ever. It is Illayaraja‘s ‘How to name it’, immortal violin music, I would listen to it in the liby or my room on my walkman. Those of you in the ipod generation who dont know what a walkman is, it used to be the latest music gadget that allowed you to listen to music while walking!! The mode of music storage was audio tapes called cassettes! I dont know who gave it to me first or where did I listen to first time. I think it was Myla.
I ended up searching on the net for the link, have downloaded it and now its playing on my Mac !!!
Music has strong memories. I am pulled back to 153/H5 IITB days !!!. My room had a beautiful tree outside the window. Study time meant Illayaraja ‘How to name it’!!
Here is one of the songs from ‘How to name it’ form youtube.
luv
Jai Gurudeva!
Ramnik
Monsoon Special YES!+ for students of Punjabi Univ Patiala
The course with about 200 participants was on roll from right from the beginning. The volunteers had publicized it as a monsoon special course and the rain gods obliged!! Showers welcomed beginning of the course and then it became a regular feature during course hours daily. Sunday, as the session was about to end, it started pouring heavily. A slight hint of rain dance and next moment the whole group was in the venue grounds dancing, playing, splashing in the rain!!! These students have now started working for the next big course scheduled from 27-30 August in Patiala city!!
luv
Jai Gurudeva!
Ramnik
Lalita Sahsranama by TS Ranganathan
Download the file and rename it to mp3. Remove the .jpg extension. You have the Lalitasahsranama by TS Ranganathan for you!!
Hello All :-) This time I am back to blogging for sure:-)
I remember the craze blogging had created for me when I first created my blog about 2 years ago. Or was it 3? I dont remember. After initial posts about anything and everything that was going on in my life (which btw is Art of Living Only! ) I got bored to be honest. I used twitter for sometime and found that also going the same way for me. What has really been working for me is twitter-like SMS group named ‘RBLife!’ I’ve created on my cell. I prefer sending smses to my dear ones. With perfect-competition and market forces at work, national smses, atleast on my service provider, cost 10000 for a mere Rs 75. So if you are not getting these smses frequently and you want them, just sms me @9872628183. The only hitch is the time taken for delivery, given every sms takes about 4 seconds of my cell ( an E63 – I would highly recommend the fone for smsing).
O wow! This post brings me back to writing. I’ve shifted back to wordpress from blogger as the craze for customizing the template has died and am happy with the templates wordpress offers.They are simply put – more elegant.
I’ve been super busy atleast in the last few days running errands like searching for a super quality whole-day-comfortably-sitting chair, attending meetings regarding Guruji’s visit to Chandigarh, taking courses, installing new stuff on my Mac, experimenting with installing Mac on a PC,and so on.
What has changed @home is throwing out the Reliance Broadband Datacard and getting an airtel wifi with unlimited download option. 276 has become a cyber cafe for volunteers ever since!!
Ok more later. I shall rush for a meeting regarding fixing venue for Guruji’s visit.
Love
Jai Gurudeva!
Ramnik