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!!!