Gurudev's Chhattisgarh Visit: Last

After blissful rain-satang in Bilaspur next morning Gurudev flown in his chopper to Devi temple in dongergarh and Rajnandgaon thereafter. Missing on twice his chance to fly with Gurudev, Jigish bhai finally got a chance to be with Gurudev in chopper. We joined Gurudev in Rajnandgaon and missed on Rajnandgaon satsang as we reached at 3:30PM by car. Guruji was playing (hide and seek) in chappan bhog party (56 dishes prepared by Rajnandgaon devotees) surrounded by devotees, everyone was impatient (to the extend of my annoyance) to get prasadam from his hands. Even volunteer placed to manage the crowd was first to bend down and touch his feet so it was all chaotic rush around him. A car rally moved from Rajnangaon to Bhilai, every few kilometers there were devotees waiting for getting a glimpse of the master and offer flowers.

A ten minuet break in Bhilia Steel Plant Hotel before Gurudev had to move for a corporate talk. As people were throwing flowers on him, I thought it’s a good we should remove those flower petals from his hairs. We could remove only few as he asked to move for the meeting. He unsnarled his hairs little bit and moved out with the comb in his hand. 500-600 odd corporate people in meeting, he stood up in his usual graceful style and said “I’ll talk to you while detangling my hairs, when bal(hairs) get longer (bigger) they get entangle and that is when the comb is needed, same is with bal(child) also when they get entangle the comb of knowledge is required”. What’s an opening of a talk!

First time I was playing the secretary of Gurudev in this talk (as he asked me to carry his black bag and asana) once this thought crossed my mind in Ashram, how lucky are these people who get do this for Guruji. I was very attentively sitting in one corner of the stage for a moment I remembered what Bhanu didi said in last TRM “THERE ARE NO PRIVATE THOUGHTS IN HIS NETWORK”.

Few of the sutras that Guruji shared in this corporate meeting “MnM i.e. Meal and Meditation for better corporate productivity, less acidic and healthy meal and daily meditation”. He said “Get out of seam (personal likes and dislikes that we develop with time), get into team and take social corporate responsibility”. “What kind of joiners you like in your organization? One who always praises you and does buttering or the one who speaks with courage what is right and beneficial from the team?”

Healthy Meal

and Meditation

“Greed, Jealousy and arrogance, these three things creeping in an organization causes the decay of the organization. That is when Guru is needed who can make everyone sit together on one platform and have a dialog”.

Complete collection on chhattisgarh visit stories is on http://anuragarora.blogspot.com/ !

Love,

Anurag

Pineapple Halwa

This halwa is not very popular in North of India. I ate in Banglore Ashram and tell you it taste simply great. I think it is more populer in south of India. I cooked it first time tonight here in Bhilai Ashram Kitchen and every one loved it (although pine apple was little sour as per my taste but jigish bhia and local team here finished all of it). So specially for north Indians, here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups crushed pineapple

1 cup milk

Half cup rava/semolina/cream of wheat

3-4 tsp sugar (for Meerut and Muzaffernagar 5-6 tsp :-))

1-2 Tbsp ghee

A pinch of powdered cardamom and Almonds or Dry Fruits

Method: Heat the ghee in a pan and add the rava to it & toast it till it is done. (You can tell by the smell when it’s done.)
Add the milk followed by the crushed pineapple. Stir continuously and keep mixing well on low to medium heat for about 15-20 minutes. Add the almonds, sugar & cardamom powder and continue to cook for another 2 -3 minutes.

Serve hot or cold.

Love,

Anurag

Sweet and Straight

Being rude to anyone takes nothing! It is very easy to be rude. Rudeness is a sign of weakness. Sometime a little bit of guts are involved but mostly it is out of anger (again sign of weekness). Strong, stable, centered person does react easily, they hardly give rude reaction.

On the other hand, people are very goody-goody, very sweetie-sweetie and doing nothing, taking no responsibility. Has no straightness in their response. This is also of no use.

The Art of Living is being sweet and taking responsibility at the same time. We can be sweet, soft and straight at the same time. That is when you are at your best!

And this ART of LIVING can be learnt.

Love,
Anurag

Gurudev's chhattisgarh visit: Part III

Bilaspur satsang was really one of its kinds. Guruji was supposed to fly from Jagdalpur to Ambikapur for a 2 hour program and from Ambikapur to Bilaspur for a satsang at 6 in evening. It was raining heavily in all three districts Jagdalpur, Ambikapur and Bilaspur. So his helicopter could not fly because of really bad weather. He cancelled Ambikapur satsang and decided to go ahead with Bilaspur. Jagdalpur to Bilaspur is 8-9 hours by road. Guruji traveled by car to Raipur and by train from Raipur to Bilaspur. On his way from Raipur to Bilaspur in train he decided to go and meet people. People playing cards, eating their food, chit-chatting got surprise of their life by seeing Guruji coming and seeing them.
Three hours before satsang the ground was in deep water, organizers used waters pumps to drain the water out of the ground. We reached satsang ground at 7:30PM and it was an amazing site, around 5000 people with their umbrellas and rain coats on, dancing and eagerly waiting for the master. The backdrop all made of thermocol holograms and a beautiful and ramp was all under water. Somehow I managed to take few pictures it’s not very clear but may give you some idea.

People singing and dancing with their umbrellas and rain coats on!!!
Guruji arrived at around 8:30PM straight from 9 hours of journey by road and by train. The whole environment got electrifying and straight away he was on ramp, more enthusiastic and charged up then anyone else on the ground. Most of the time Guruji was dancing, singing, playing all in rain. Everyone on the ground was dancing and waiting a glimpse from him. He said I’ve done thousands of satsangs but this one is special. It was raining heavily in whole duration of satsang.
People of Chhattisgarh were praying for rains from long time as rice crop was getting affected. During his visit in almost every district in rained heavily. Both water and grace was pouring all over Chhattisgarh.

With Love,
Anurag

Gurudev's chhattisgarh Visit: Part II

In almost every satsang he asked everyone to start doing some sewa (service to the society). He said “You stop worrying about yourself, I’ll take care of you. You worry about the country and society”. On sewa he said “Sewa is something that you CAN DO! It’s not that by doing BIG sewa you get more blessing, more merit. If you can contribute 10 Rs for sewa equal amount of merit comes your way as for someone who can contribute crores of rupees”. He shared some very practical tips for doing sewa “Every household to start taking out small amount of rice or daal and some money and distribute this food in slum areas”. “In this country of 100 crore people no one should sleep hungry”

He asked “Every doctor to take a sankalpa of doing three free medical camps in villages every year. Every teacher to give free tuition to three poor students and every lawyer to fight three free cases of people in jail who cannot afford legal assistance every year”. Most of the districts Guruji visited the jails and in one of the meetings he mentioned that there are so many innocent people in jails today.

In a youth meeting in Bastar(A city where sign of their tribal culture is everywhere, look at the picture below) he was really concern about a Newspaper survey where India was rated very low in household cleanliness. He got all students to commit to start dusting the window and gates of their home everyday. In every meeting and satsangs Gurudev mentioned about taking less acidic food not to take too much of oily, fried and sweet food in lunch time. I'll post more on Acidic and Alkline food tomorrow on my blog i.e. http://anuragarora.blogspot.com/

Love,

Anurag

Gududev's Chhattisgarh Visit: Part I

No posting from last 4-5 days as traveling with Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji is living life at very-very fast pace. You doesn’t get time for anything other then being with pace and flow of events. 1400-1500 kms on road visit to 5 districts, 5 mega satsangs, and youth meets, corporate meets, local volunteer and teacher meets. Next few posting I'll be sharing knowledge and social issues he talked about in satsang gatherings, amazing stories, Life time experiences with Guruji, and pictures etc.

Being with him gives you a glimpse on how he operates, broadness of his vision and simplicity of living. Dynamism in action, swiftness in moment he is One Man Army. In almost every satsang Guruji openly invited Naxalite leaders for a dialog and achieve their goals with peace and not with violence and killing innocent people. He said whatever their motive is, it can be achieved with non-violance. He mentioned that there are states where development is happening even in remote village without naxal violence. Guruji said “These people are not bad people; they are actually courageous people living in deep forests and doing tapas. It’s not easy to live their life. I understand the pain of their heart. I need such courageous youths for the development of this country”.

“I have come here to remind you that God exists and he/she/it listen to you and take care of you, you forget this, which is why I need to come to remind you”.

He talked about household cleanliness, a lot on seva, Voting and corruption in politics, Acidic and alkaline food etc so stay tuned as more postings are on its way…

With Love,
Anurag

What's the time on your face watch?

Three days full time in Zero Budget Farming training in Sarguja District of Chhattisgarh, so no new posting in last few days! Last few days were full of new learnings with 150 odd farmers here. One of my fellow teachers in this course Ajay ji, who is doing a great YLTP work in village areas of Ambikapur, shared a very interesting thing about the hands of the watch and your face expression:

When time is 8:20 in your watch, this is how the arms of the watch looks:

When time on your face is 8:20:

And when time is 10:10, this is how hands of your clock:

And when time is 10:10 on your face:

Whatever time is in your watch make sure it is 10:10 on you face!

From occasional excellence to naturally genius

Being naturally joyful and happy is “your mind generally vibrating at higher frequencies”. Your mind being in the state of purity. Any of the following emotions

Inertia
Too much desire and indulgence in sex
Greed and Jealousy
Fear, Anxiety or Hate
Sadness, Anger or Arrogance

basically means lower frequency vibrations of your consciousness.

Your attention and breath can transform these lower vibrations of your mind to higher vibrations i.e. purer emotions, which means:
Enthusiasm
Ability to create new
Generosity
Love
Gratitude
Alertness

Bliss

Ability to transform negative emotions to positive emotions is great ability to have. There are thousands of ways and technique given by Rishis and Spiritual masters of India.

First step is to be aware that I’m vibrating at lower frequencies and having a willingness to starts living in higher energy vibrations!

Second step is adopting the method or technique which makes you skillful to transform your state of mind. In selecting the technique the source of the technique is much much more important then the technique itself.

With Love,

Anurag

3 Sutras for a Deeper Meditation

Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a World renowned Spiritual Master gave three sutras for meditating effortlessly. Bawa (a very senior Art of Living teacher) has recaptured these sutra's in an excellent way on his blog! Here are the sutra's for you (from Bawa’s posting):

Before you sit to meditate, remember these three things:
1. Achaha: Meaning right now, i don't want anything... Right now, i want nothing...

2. Akinchen: Meaning I am nobody, i am nothing... just ask yourself... who am i? who is ? You will see you are nothing and nobody... dont bother intellectualizing this one... just know and experience that you are indeed nothing and nobody and relax...

3. Aprayatna: Effortlessness... To meditate there is nothing to do. Just be. Like when you go for a massage, you just lie there, do nothing and let the masseuse massage you... similarly, you just sit with your eyes closed and let the Guru Shakti meditate for you!

Before meditating, just relax and remember these 3 sutras (effortlessly)... they will allow you to sink blissfully into Samadhi!

More postings on the meditation on its way!

Love,

Anurag

A real good one!!!

Demon king Ravana was in a court for trail, standing in the witness box he was asked to take the oath. “GEETA PE HATH RAKHO…”. Ravana shouted back “No way!, EK BAR SITA PAR HATH RAKHA TO ITNA BABAL KHADA HO GAYA, AB GEETA PAR HATH NAHI RAKHUNGA”.
:-) :-) :-)
Love,
Anurag

Hitting bulls eye!

As in archery the string of a bow needs to be pulled backward for an arrow to hit the target.
To give speed and penetration to the arrow first act is of pulling the arrow back and then releasing!

Same is with our mind also, for our mind to be happy, sharp, and intense in the activities of this world. It needs to be withdrawn first, needs to be pulled back from the activities of the world. That is where meditation starts. Consciously withdrawing mind from the activities of five senses.
Pulling the mind back means what?

Sitting with eyes closed with a resolve in mind that I’m not interested in seeing anything, I’m not interested in listening anything, I’m not interested in testing or speaking anything, I’m not interested in smelling anything and so also not interested in touching anything for some time.
For few minutes I just want to relax with myself. This is where meditation starts.

Few more sutras on meditation in next posting!

Love, Anurag