Meerut-Delhi visit

Finished an excellent YES+ at Radha Govind Engineering College Meerut and reached back home (Ashram) today... All stress and strains of last 8 very hectic days (two visits to Delhi, family meetings, missed flights, cancelled flights etc etc) just disappeared in last few hours :))…

Ankur prepared a nice course collage...

Very well organized course by Monika, Ankur, Anuj, Kriti, Aradhana, Himanshu and the team and equally well participated by the bunch of sincere Radha Govind Engineers.

Love,
Anurag

The best speech ever...

On 15th August, I was lucky to witness one of the most moving speeches of my life. Swami Brahmtej ji was invited to address around 2000 people in Ashram from all over the country. He took mike in his hand and said "This is why I did not want to come here to speak because today is the day every year I have tears in my eyes". He said this and his throat was chocked and the drop of tears started flowing from his eyes. 

Swami Brahmtej ji (we call him Bharat bhaiya with love)

Sorry for poor quality picture but I this is the only picture which can be arranged quickly

Most of us present in Ashram Amphitheater had their heart full and eyes wet. He did not say anything further and he communicate everything what had to be communicated!

amphitheater picture for some of you who have not visited the ashram

So many of our ancestors sacrificed their everything for us to celebrate this day :)... and he reminded and inspired all of us to work with double force to create the country what our ancestors had dreamed of!

-love Anurag

Meditation for world peace in Art of Living Bangalore ashram

Meditation for world peace in Art of Living Bangalore ashram Saturday 17th 6-7PM. Thousands are getting together for a peaceful mind and injustice free society. I invite all my dear friends in Bangalore and near by areas to be part of this noble event.

 

Please inform all your friends and relatives in Bangalore and near by areas. Also inform that they have to be seated at venue (Ashram yagnashala) by 5:45PM.
With Love,
Anurag Arora

Call for Software Development Seva in Ashram

Jai Gurudev,

We at NTC office Ashram are developing some very interesting web based software to automate some of the Teacher's Desk Coordination task. We'll be using latest ASP.net as development platform and SQL server as backend.

If you are .Net developer and wants to do 4-6 hours of SEVA every week or wants to be in pure,serene, divine environment of Asram for few weeks. Get in touch with me.

With Love,
Anurag Arora

happiness is spreading...

Set of happy people in Agra spread the joy and happiness to 60 more. Such a complete feeling of joy and gratitude. Completed the nicely organized 3 day part-I course, excellent work done by the team Agra.

Before that. team YES+ Meerut also pitched in with yet another (small but very effective) YES+ course in Subharti. My second course at Subharti YES+ was an amazing experience. Every youth on this planet MUST experience this course. Here are some pictures:

With Love,
Anurag

Happy anniversary to...

No posting from last few days, reached Agra yesterday for a part-I course. Here I will surely have some time to post the happenings in last few weeks, here comes the first:

Our anniversary (Monika and mine :-)) on 28th April, we had no absolute plans for any special celebrations. Were quitely meditating after the day-long activity and suddenly Shardha came and shouted "Papa uppar tumhra cake dekha maine" (gave me a hint of some surprise). 

Himanshu and company surprised us with a party. We had a nice dancing-singing celebration in our YES+ Meerut headquarters (our home's top floor hall)...

...fresh baked black chocolate cake was really really yummy!

love
anurag

The solution...

Wrong understanding of oneself is a major cause of pain and misery in life! 

The answer of the question “who you really are?” is something really worth searching for. 

 

If you have started your search in this direction, you have taken a meaningful step towards real growth in life. Otherwise your life a going waste!!! 

Every Art of Living course takes you to the answer of this question only :-)...

Happy Searching.

Love Anurag

Good Cartoon Jokes!

Life stock exchange

I see myself in a huge stock exchange around me. Where individual souls are constantly trading. Mind constantly calculates and ask "what is in it for me"? Okay if i give this what will I get back? Will I be getting benefited or not? Even in relations minds are trading. This person is better or that is better for me? Okay if I do this to my brother, I may get this from him! If I do this to my friend this is the benefit! or If I don't do this, may be I loose her, so let me just do this. Oh my teacher was giving me this only, this one looks better, let me be with this one now. Even in service, this way more credit can come to me.

This business is there, transactions are constantly happening in everything and with everybody. This exchange is inevitable, even in purest of relations like of mother it comes, I am growing up this son will he take care of me at my old age? It is fine to do this in businesses and that is how you earn in business but this business is not stopping at shop, it is coming to home as well, it is happening in relations as well, it is happening with master as well. The lustiness in mind constantly looks for more in return. Wherever I see more of this, the minds are unhappy, life is miserable.

Love is giving more and taking nothing or very less in return in these transactions. I see the spirit grows in such transaction, love flows in such transactions, beauty glows in such transaction, heart touches heart in such transactions and my heart wants more and more people to operate in such a exchange of giving more.

with love
Anurag

तड़प

In lucknow advance course, I got time for one of favorite activities.
Writing some poetry, these lines dawned in hot (:-) 43 degree C) but soothing
silence of the course.
 
तड़प

सब कुछ कर लू, सब कुछ पा लू.
     ये भी हो जाये, वो भी हो जाये.
कुछ मैं खोजू, दिल कुछ चाहे.
    मिले बिना जिसे एक सुकून न आये.

दिल में खोजू तो एक तड़प है तेरी.
    तू मिल जाये तो सब मिल जाये.
इस तड़प में रमकर एक सुकून में पाऊ.
   घर आ जाऊ, खुद को पा जाऊ.

ये तड़प ही है बस मंजिल मेरी.
   जहाँ पूरा हो जाऊ, मैं गुरु को पा जाऊ.
ये तड़प ही है बस चाहत मेरी,
  जहाँ खुद को खो जाऊ और तू ही हो जाऊ.

with love,
Anurag

Guru ji on Negativity and Sadhana

Many years ago, Guruji sent us a fax (this was before email was popular) to be read out on the Thursday evening Satsang. It was a Knowledge fax (as He called it). And the first line was, This begins a new practice…

For 7 years, every week there would be a Knowledge byte from Guruji. These were always profound, and many times very funny too. The satsang groups all over the world would eagerly look forward to reading the few paragraphs of Knowledge from Him… and magically for most of us, it would be that exact thing we needed to hear that week…

I will be sharing Guruji's knowledge sheets in this forum, time to time.

NEGATIVITY NEEDS AN ANCHOR

Negativity cannot remain without a support.

Positivity, happiness can be without any reason.

The mind goes on trying to find support for its negativity. It looks for a hook to hang its negativity on - if not this person, then that thing or that person and so on.

This perpetuates the maya!

The creeper of negativity needs a support in order to grow. But negativity or aversion for even one person can guarantee a one-way ticket to hell - you need nothing else!

All negativity is a pointer to move to the centre and broaden the vision to the cosmic intelligence.

Instead of focusing your attention on support for your negativity, look at the seed of negativity.

With meditation, silence, Sudarshan Kriya, the source of negativity is nipped at the root.

------------------------------------------

So if you are not doing your Kriya, start it today itself!!!

--
With Love,
Anurag
The Art of Living Faculty
09319862299

The Real Rama

A generation that is ignorant of its origin and history is bound to face problems.  Today we are told that Rama is only a story, a myth…

There are archeo-astraunomical researches, historical records and geographical evidences of real existence of Rama. Two researchers Dr. Hari and Dr. Hema Hari along with their team have done research over the last 9 years and have collated over 300 hours of authentic and specific information on 64 different subjects of India to understand the culturally rich India with a non religious, non political scientific temper. The information is available on the site www.bharathgyan.com . This is a site that one must thoroughly browse to know the real historical facts about India. The historicity of Rama is one of those 64 subjects. This is published in detail on the site www.historicalrama.org.

The archeo-astronomy is a branch of archeology where the given planetary positions are mapped to a certain time in history. This is done with the help of Planetarium softwares that are known for its high precision and are used for launching the long distance spacecrafts. So if we know a particular planetary chart, e.g. the planatory chart at the time of your birth, then with the help of the Planetarium software we can accurately calculate the date and time of your birth. Lets have a look that how this has been very useful in proving the historicity of Ramayana.  

As per Ramayana Rama Navami is the birth day of Rama. Rama was born on the Navami tithi of Shukla Paksha of Chaitra masa  (i.e. 9th day of the increasing phase of the moon in the lunar month of Chaitra).
At that time, the nakshatra was Punarvasu, and Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus were in Aries, Capricorn, Libra, Cancer and Pisces respectively. Lagna was Cancer and Jupiter & Moon were shining together. -- Ramayana 1.18.8,9 

The above planetary information from Ramayana, when entered into the Planetarium software, it gives us the following DOB of Rama

Sri Rama Navami - 10th January 5114 BCE - Birth Day of Rama

Then there is an incidence in Ramayana, when Laxman cuts the nose of Suparnkha in Panchvati (Nasik). Suparnkha sends his brothers Khar and Dushan to take revenge. Ramayana mentions a very rarest of rare solar eclipse during this war.

"When Khar moved with his army towards Rama for the battle, a red coloured evening appeared to be descending all over."    - Ramayana: 3.23.1
"The sun was covered by a dark coloured disc that had red coloured corners."    - Ramayana: 3.23.3
"Although it was daytime, it started appearing to be evening."    - Ramayana: 3.23.9

The Solar eclipse on 7th October 5077 BCE reached maxium coverage for Panchwati at 15.10 hours.

With the above two dates the age of Rama during Solar eclipse is coming out to be around 37yrs that is in chronological consistency with the events mentioned in the Ramayana. There are many such archeo-astraunomical evidences throughout Ramayana text that matches with the actual astraunomical caculations.

Then there are very strong Geographical evidences. Every site on Rama's route is still identifiable and has continuing traditions in the form of temples to commemorate Rama's visit. Be it Dunagiri or Devaprayag in Uttarakhand or Panchvati (Nasik), Kishkinda in Karnataka, Rameshwaram in Tamilnadu, Ram-Setu and Lanka.  All the places visited by Rama still retain memories of his visit.

There is a convergence in literature, archaeology and local tradition. Rama actually walked on this land in flesh and blood 7200 years ago. This is the history of this land which every child born on this land has a right to know.  Then why were we not taught about this in our school history books? The reason is very interesting. The History of India that we read in schools today was written by two Britishers, Mr.James Mill & Mr. Charles Grant from Helebary College, In 1813. They in their own colonial understanding listed most of the literature of India as Mythological. For details read at http://www.historicalrama.org/IndianTextMyth.html

Why are we still teaching the History of India written by colonial Britishers to our children, is a big question that every Indian should ask. We are teaching our children that Alexander defeated Porus, but the modern historians state it vice versa. Isn’t it the time when we should wake up and rewrite the history of a culturally rich India in a fresh light and with a scientific, non-religious and non-political temper?

Jai Guru Dev

Monika

Renouncing...

When everything in life looks to be going haywire, the thoughts of renouncing everything comes to this mind. There seems no meaning in relations, even closest of people around, even in seva projects. A thought of leaving and running away from everything comes, changing this and that and the confusion of doing what then. But what do I renounce and where do I go, wherever I go this mind is going to be with me, what work I take these people, situations and events are going to come, the world is like this only.


If it’s in my mind I have to renounce everything here only. Not by running away from it, facing every bit of it, looking it from a close corner and knowing that there in absolutely nothing in it. Every pain is empty, people, relations, name, fame, my doings, undoing and wrong doings, all are empty and there is nothing in it. Not hiding away from even a bit of it, facing all of it with courage and smile. Letting it dissolve, sets me free and renunciation happens. I return back to my center, I return back to my source, my strength and inspiration. No complains, no explanations to anyone, this is where I have been longing to be. Only desire now is to be firmly established in here, such a connection that nothing whatsoever can shake it!

With Love,
Anurag Arora

Video Presentation of MIET YES+ course

Here you go...

Video Presentation of MIET YES+ course

With Love,
Anurag Arora

MIET Meerut YES+

MIET Meerut is experiencing a superb and rocking 100 people YES+ with ever charming, charismatic and dynamic Rajesh Bhaiya and V'r getting to assist this YES+ WOW!!!

Superb work done by the team Monika, Himanshu, Aradhana, Kriti, Praveen Sir, Sudhanshu, Prateek, and Rohit and Me. Here is the link to the video presentation of the course. The team has now taken a target of 500 people YES+ in April, need your blessings and support.

With Love,
Anurag

Stress Free Teaching in Muzaffernagar...

13 Feb-2010

Doing service to this divine’s world gives immense satisfaction to my heart. Happiness and bliss in my true nature. My meditation and sadhana makes me realize this but it’s the selfless service which makes me feel like a worthy candidate to dive deep into my meditation. It makes feel like being a worthy candidate to meet my divine guru dwelling deep in my heart. It reminds me the state of mind of my childhood days when at times I used to be very first in a long waiting queue for prasad in our neighborhood temple. The state of being very confident that I will definitely get it and will get the best!

                Sonia organized Stress Free Teaching sessions in two schools in Muzaffernagar . First one was of around 30 teachers at Morning Glory school at 9:00am. Finished my Kriya at 7:30AM and started driving from Meerut at 7:40AM, 50kms drive, highway is in half cooked state, and my passed record of reaching in the programs in Muzaffernagar was actually poor. Sonia called me twice to make sure that I reach in time, don’t know how but to the surprise of Sonia and Vidushi, I was there on venue at 9:05AM. I shared many ideas on student handling from Murli Bhaiya’s presentation (which teachers found very practical and useful) plus some sukhsham yoga, pranayama and finishing with a 15 minutes meditation which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. After the session we had (some) herbal leaf tea with school owners Mr. and Mrs. Swaroop in the big lush green garden of their mansion. Mr Gautam Swaroop is a very interesting person, he is running a business of making artistic furniture and home utilities goods from the dead tree woods. He gifted me some of his creations. He has many others business, but this he is doing out of his love and interest.

 

This picture actually is of washbasin in their garden which he has designed from dead tree trunk.

Second session attended by around 70 teachers of Girdhari Lal Memorial Public school also left everyone inspired. I had to rush back from Muzafffar nagar at 3 PM as I had to reach Modinagar  before 5PM for a meeting and then back to Meerut  to consolidate on YES+ work, which I could not because of a tire puncture on my way back J… Writing with heart filled with gratitude for my Guru for blessing me with another beautiful day to meditate, serve and sing.

With Love,
Anurag!

Bindi and India

12  years back while walking in New York, an American lady called me and said that my son wants to ask you a question. I looked apprehensively towards that small boy. He asked,” Why do you put this mark on, he was pointing towards my Bindi. The lady looked more curious than the son, “Is it a mark of marriage, “Is it a mark of Hindu”. Unaware of any conventional reasons I simply said that I put it because it increases my face value just as you put lipstick on. I knew this much only in those days although today I know many cultural, scientific and spiritual reasons also to do so.

For the uninitiated, Bindi is a round mark put on the forehead, in between the eye brows, very commonly seen in the Indian subcontinent The male counterpart of Bindi is called Tikka. A Tikka can be round or like a small vertical line in between the eye-brows. The conventional ones are made up of Kumkum and Chandan (Sandlewood powder). The Kumkum bindi is a mark of auspiciousness for married Hindu woman whereas a Chandan Bindi is known for its good fragrance. This is also considered spiritual and has a cooling effect on the forehead. The great fragrance of Chandan also keeps the mood elevated. In south India there is a convention of putting ashes on the forehead in the shape of a horizontal line.

One of my south Indian friends shared that this ash Bindi is a daily reminder that one day you are going to be in ashes any way. All the Indian Pooja and Havan ceremonies start by putting a Tikka made up of ‘Roli’. ‘Roli’ is a red colour powder substance cosidered auspicious. Tikka is also a mark of welcome when someone special comes in Indian houses, and also a gesture of see off, when you send your special someone for some great task.

On the scientific note, the Bindi stimulates the Pituitary gland that is behind the forehead. The Pituitary gland is a master gland that secretes hormones that stimulate other endocrine glands.  Spritually, the eye brow center is the seat of ‘Aagya Chakra’, also called the third eye. This is the awareness center of the body.

The modern Avatar of this conventional Indian bindi is a sticker Bindi. It comes in jazzy designs of various colors, shapes and sizes. Women generally put a matching bindi with their dresses. So many Bollywood songs are there to appreciate the beauty of a woman with Bindi on.


So happy bindi putting...


Jai Guru Dev

Monika

Story of a big YES in St. Peters Agra

One of the highlights of Art of Living Agra in 2009 was a big YES course of 210 students in St. Peters Agra. Many of you have been asking me to share the story as this can lead you to initiate more such mega courses in Schools in your area. Here are some pictures (Not very high quality as taken from a mobile camera), may be Shradha (one of the organizers of the course) will post more high resolution pictures:

Father John who assisted me in many of the sessions of the course is a Yoga practitioner and a trainer, .

Schools has a beautiful Yoga hall with cotton mates where around 350-400 students can meditate and do yoga. These students are practicing their daily Sudarshan Kriya in this hall.

Let me know if you are interested in knowing more...

With Love,
Anurag 

Anurag Arora wants to keep up with you on Twitter

Anurag Arora wants to keep up with you on Twitter Twitter connects you with everything you want to know, right now. Short bursts of information are readily available from news organizations, corporate entities, politicians, celebrities, local businesses - even your close friends and family. Also, if you have something to share with the world, Twitter makes it super easy. To join for free, click the link below. http://twitter.com/i/ffaf12cb87dcafde70dfacb165265beb8223513b Thanks, @twitter About Twitter, Inc. Founded in 2007, Twitter Inc believes the open exchange of information can have a positive global impact. Every "Tweet" is limited to 140 characters of text or links which means they are easily written or read on a wide variety of services and devices including any mobile phone, social networks, television, Macs, PCs, and the Web. This message was sent by a Twitter user who entered your email address. If you'd prefer not to receive emails when other people invite you to Twitter, click here: http://twitter.com/i/o?c=ZlcdvHvNDMwXFBJw0zg8qQUPWA90rM1PrCgw6ni2Jl8%3D Please do not reply to this message; it was sent from an unmonitored email address. This message is a service email related to your use of Twitter. For general inquiries or to request support with your Twitter account, please visit us at Twitter Support.

3 intelligent idiots

Movie takes one back in memory lane of collage days (if u r not already there). The story of 3 room mates of Imperial Engineering Collage, joins the collage driven by various factors. Ranchhoddas Shamaldas Chanchad i.e. Rancho  (Amir) because of his deep love for machines and engineering didn't even bothered being a proxy to oblige his father's employer (its a very interesting twist in the story that you discover around interval time only). Farhan Qureshi (Madhavan) because of his father stamped him to be an engineer within few minutes of his birth. God fearing Raju Rastogi (Sharman) for being the only hope to uplift his deep in crisis, surviving of pension, a really poor family.

        Very serious and 'not so interesting' (rote pitate) aspects of their life were portrait-ed with lightness and humor. The burning issues of suicide because of stress in collage environment, rat race for marks, ruttafication vs.studying for knowledge, true friendship, true success and real love are the central themes of the movie. Very inline with mission statement of YES+ 'accelerating excellence' movie inspires one to chase excellence, as success follows excellence. Aamir as usual is excellent in his role play, fundoo humar, lot of pranks, good dialogs. A worth watching movie symbolizes the victory of love over fear and greed.

Love,
Anurag

Spanking Vs No Spanking

"Spare the rod & spoil the child”, 5^th Jan’s Time of Indian published this article advocating the spanking of children at early age.  The article is based on the study which found that kids smacked up the age of six were more likely as teenagers to perform better at school.

           The Indian spirituality has given this revolutionary tool for mind handling, simple yet very profound concept, “The opposites values are complimentary”. Where coexistence of opposite is to be very artistically accepted, where loving and slapping go hand in hand, challenging situation and learning coexist. In subtle creations of nature it is there. Like in our breath, there is energy and activity associated with in-coming breath and relaxation and rest with out-going breath, opposites do coexistence. Coexistence of alertness and calmness together leads to high productivity. It is a method and as well as result of many meditation techniques here in India. Without imbibing this sutra in life the handling of this ever so tricky, canniest of all, entity called human mind is not at all possible. This applies to the child handing as well, spanking and at the same time elevating them love and care has to coexist.
          The article does touches upon the opposites “Spanking at early age and better performance at teen age”. There is definitely a chance of parents and teachers missing on the subtlety into the message and justifying their violent at home and at school towards their wards. Many schools of thoughts mainly in western world stuck to their rightist or leftist ideology. Which is why they are struggling not only at human mind level but also at countries level. The net result is these result-less wars and killings!

With Love
Anurag

Jan 2nd Shradha turned 5!

She is been really waiting for her birthday celebration (more because of all the
gifts she gets :-)), making Monika count days everyday from last more than a month
at least. She couldn't even wait till evening to wear new lahnga.


Monika tried (very successfully) her hands on baking a fruit cake, with lots of desi cow milk
and malai and fresh fruits into it. It wasn't that spongy but was really really yummy
in taste (you know she is also going to read this posting ;-)).


I also chipped in with my favorite tomato sauce pasta with butter topping. This time
preparation was influenced by an online recipe video (from Manjula aunty) on YouTube.
In which the corn-flower was also used in preparation of tomato gravy.


We started with our daily evening pooja at home, where all family member get together
for chanting om namah shivaya in Guruji's voice (12 time), 3-4 bhajans and a knowledge
sheet discussion (from celebrating silence). I played "Come here my dear" from Oorja
and some Avtaran bhajans mainly to get the bunch of Shradha's friends into it, which
most of them actually enjoyed. We made them play an AXL game (Zip-Zap) followed
Pasta, Chaula-Puri, Rasogulla dinner and a dance party.

With Love,
Anurag Arora

This new year!!!