Never before entering this place had I thought that the kali Maa could be bewitchingly beautiful and would create an instant aura of faith and surrender. After Guruji departed Kolkatta, I wanted to fill the void with this temple visit where Sri RamKrishna Paramhans had broken all the traditions of bhakti from the intellect to igniting it in the heart. He was a non-conformist who constructed sensitivity in love, unfathomable faith, senseless simplicity and the great Vivekanada.

The story goes that Ramakrishna through His bhakti swam through the ocean of karmas, but something still had not completely blossomed in His Being. And the reason was that He didn’t have a Guru. When the aroma of fullness was spreading the Guru came to Him and one touch of His Guru, enlightened Him. The knowledge was given under a Kalpvruksh which stands tall being the epitome of that silence. He continued as a priest in the temple utterly immersed in the love of the Devi.

The Devi quietly asserts Her presence in this place and the incense of bhakti pleasantly tantalizes the temple.

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The beautiful couple of Meerut, Anurag and Monica organized the first Campus Yes+ here and hosted me at their cosy cottage. The stay became mesmerizing with a Guru Pooja attended by the Meerut teachers and the enigmatic ensemble of food which was produed by Sujatha ji.

Her careful composition of hand grown veggies made a new constitution in the symphony of salivitating food. The performers had taken center stage and the music produced by each one of them sizzled my senses. The Mexican tacos (the outer layers of which were composed and directed at home), the potato salad stringed with the mayonnaise, the fresh veggie salad which delivered tangi-ness to the tongue harmonized with softness, the masala idli, the beetroot uttapam clicking the right tones and octaves, and finally the strawberry tarts (the outer covering completely done at home) orchestrating the final notes.

What an afternoon, I overate after overeating  :)

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The mind has been defining and re-defining its definitions of pleasure and pain. It wants to drown in these self defined pleasures or drive away from its sign posts of pain. More than going into these results I have been looking at its definitions that it constructs, dwells and resides in, again and again. It wants to exploit and ‘I’ want to experience the experiencer. The concepts it cooks for self pleasure and pain are experiences which I endure or enjoy time and again. As Guruji says ‘You re not the doer’. Detaching oneself from these episodes of experiencing, from the reels of pain and pleasure, and looking into the experiencer is freedom…effort being a vital ingredient.

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Am Not sure if Guruji had said this in a satsang, if yes, you can certify it for me.

A plum once said, just because a banana lover came by, I converted myself into a banana. Unfortunately, his taste changed after a few months and so I became an orange. When he said I was bitter I became an apple, but he went in search of grapes. Yielding to the opinions of so many people, I have changed so many times that I no more know who I am.

How I wish I had remained a plum and waited for a plum lover.

Just because a group of people do not accept you as you are, there is no necessity for you to strip yourself of your originality. You need to think good of yourself, for the world takes you at your own estimate.

Never stoop down in order to gain recognition. Never let go of your true self to win a relationship. In the long run, you will regret that you traded your greatest glory - your uniqueness, for momentary validation. Even Gandhi was not accepted by many people. The group that does not accept you as you is not your world.

There is a world for each one of you, where you shall reign as king /queen by just being yourself. Find that world… in fact, that world will find you.

What water can do, gasoline cannot and what copper can, gold cannot.

The fragility of the ant enables it to move and the rigidity of the tree enables it to stay rooted. Everything and everybody has been designed with a proportion of uniqueness to serve a purpose that we can fulfill only by being our unique self. You as you alone can serve your purpose and I as I alone can serve my purpose. You are here to be you… just you.

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HE entered the kolkata stage with windless waving to the massive crowd which had gathered at the Rabindra Sadan Stadium to participate in the night of the Shiva. He said “The intellect has to be content and finer feelings awakened.” The intensity of the Shiva with His presence can be felt like sun rays piercing the blooming lotus and blossoming it to fullness. The fullness within was experienced and felt by thousands of people who graced the night in devotion, love and gratitude. One cannot but be grateful on this night when the Guru forged an alliance for everyone with themselves. The connection concreted and the gratefullness glowed when the winds of the Shiv tattva touched each one, drenching us completely.

PS:- If you were not part of it this time, dont miss it for anything in the world next time.

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It was the DSN at Ranchi and the journey was arduously  adventurous as nature played spoil sport. First, the train didn’t arrive for 28 hours and then we no longer expected it to arrive. Then a flight to Delhi from Lucknow took off and returned when it was five minutes away from its destination, back to Lucknow due to excessive fog. Next flight delayed, a flight missed and finally I reached Ranchi from Kanpur after 3 long days. It was a DSN happyning for me, also for Parmanu the teacher who organized it, while the participants frolicked their time as it was delayed by a day.The journey directly keyed itself into my servers of memory, while i write this after many many days.

The last day of the trip was unexpectedly enlightening. I went to visit a fully organic farm, based on the techniques of drip irrigation. The mountainous regions of jharkhand soil is least fertile to grow fuel for humans. Here one man our AOl teacher Praveenji has taken the yagna on land to convert filth to food, garbage to gold. It is a humungous task to even venture yourself into farming an infertile useless piece of land and the project looked imprudent and quixotic.  But a deeper look demonstrated differnt results.

Drip irrigation was recommended by Gurudev to him. Drip Irrigation is a matrix of valves, tubes and the water is directly sourced to the root zones of the entire plantation. An area of two acres which requires approx 1000 litres of water with the conventional land irrigation techniques requires only 100 litres with drip irrigation. With water tables tumbling in India this is the best way to save water. The process is the most valued innovation and is a practical alternative to surface irrigation. Drop by drop the entire land graces the roots of the freshly planted seeds, and the seeds with few drops will become saplings and mature into trees, ready to overflow with fruits and veggies.

The farm will produce vegetables and fruits and the net profit in 3 months is going to be 1.2 lakhs in a land of 2 acres. I, being from a concrete jungle gets overwhelmed when I see fresh broccoli getting ready to be surrendered. Fresh Chinese cabbage, earthworms swarming in the vermi compost pile ups and bio-gas being readied to produce electricity.

The farmers in the land cannot fathom the idea of using traditional techonological methods to make land fertile and our yuvacharya Sonaram has readied his land for farmers to tour and make this a reality in the state of Jharkhand. He has toured 1600 villages and formulated Sri Sri Kissan Samiti under the guidance of the teacher Praveenji.

Drop by drop there is divine intervention flooding the lives and farms of India…are you part of it ?

PS:- No excuses for being insincere with all of you and not posting regularly, will become more active and key in more frequently

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The religion of the movie is nonsense and the commandments are fooling the viewer, concluding him to be ignorant and unintelligent. The guys (Read girls) at IIT-Kanpur took me for this obnoxiously distressing insincere film and I don’t remember how I agreed and why ? Ten of us jumped into the unknown not knowing what waited for us at Rave-3 and I now remember the smirky look on the face of the ticket seller.

The movie starts with Shahid Kapoor a struggling actor wanting to make it big in the Bollywood bonanza without thriving on subterfuge and fibs. The senseless story, the amateurish camera work, the abhorrent acting of the leads makes the movie extremely distasteful.

Even if you get it for free, stay at home and enjoy a meal with karela and lauki, be grateful for this chance.

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Pandora’s moon, which is a giant mass of connected energy and emotional synapses where the entire plot unfolds, dia-abled mariner Jake Sully whose twin brother is killed is aided to lead a mining expedition as his DNA will bond with the alien hybrid body named Avatar, which allows humans to breathe the toxic air in the jungles of this land.

The movie quickly gets into action without any lapses and Jake soon finds himself on two islands, one of love, the other of ‘his race’. Which one will he finally select or find a balance is to be seen in the this James Cameron’s movie which will define the new avatar to technology for years to come. The similarities between the twin towers and the massive tree, Iraq, Afghanistan wars are so evident and the verdicts of the director are more towards the live and let live.

The scenes are so advanced that it is difficult to differentiate between the animation and the real, and simply droll over them. Drop the differentiation and the movie is a love letter to human race and mother nature.

Surely watch it and do say ‘I see you’ !

PS:- I watched the Premiere and blogged about it It releases today.

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India - what makes it so seemingly special around the world, everywhere? Its people, its spirituality. Today the world is  made up of two dimensions on the material plane, people and money. If you had to rule America you would be controlling a quarter of the world economics. What makes India so unique here is to rule India you would be ruling a sixth of the minds of the people and their lifestyles. A Billion people and more! So who rules India, draws the demographics of change to be or not-to-be.

The ‘Madame’ family has ruled the country for almost 40 ludicrous long years. The concentration of citizens into few cities, the poverty of the poor and the abysmal performance of the country in International radar have immodestly increased. To carve a prosperous path for one billion people, to roll out new solid businesses, to reinforce research, to get the country closer with distances in hearts and travel, have never been initiated. The fear of an internal attack, the security at the borders, the protection of our own people in SriLanka, Australia have never taken center-stage at Janpath where it should have mattered most. Why is it that the people of this enormous nation are easy, docile targets for the world-over in terms of internal disharmony(Australia) or terrorism? Indian people who are remarkably peaceful have died thousands of times by bombs, bombers and brutality. Does “Madame” care?  Does she feel?

How is it that the common man is lamenting, limping to make an existence, while the monarchial party has ruled us for 40 long years. The saas-bahu which was resented by most of us block-busted the small screens for six years. The directors here knew what makes India come back to them time-and-again and how? The patterns in the formula of politics are well understood and applied time and again to roll out regular victories. The sharp strategy in ruling India has worked by deeply understanding the internals of Indian Politics and the insides of the human mind. The pitching of the people is perfect for a winning combination. As the party has got stronger, will India get stronger? The answer is obvious and you and i don’t want to believe it though. This is what gets the same party to power all-the-time. A hope in the future,sometime, somewhere, somehow! For forty long years, yet things have been alarmingly the same for the kissan, jawan, vigyaan in the country. Roti, kapda, makaan are our main issues till date and this is what makes a victorious formula. To keep the mind yearning for basic needs and showing them light which fades away in the horizon.

With the recession setting itself, India needs to rise and demand deliverables which are measurable and proliferate development for the country, more than the personal pockets or the party.  Inducing intelligence with innocence, injecting it with a dosage of robustness with resilience, self-reliance with security, spirituality with skillfulness, idealism with practicality, dynamism with devotion. The schizophrenic existence of all of us wanting change but never reaching out to the ballot and loathing about the politicians post-victory needs a think button on the mind of India. Get to know who rules you, ask for his perfomance, let people around in muhallas, flats know about him/her and this should be part of the monthly meetings. Be flexible to change, judge the performance with Arjun’s focussed eye for growth, Yudhistar’s resolve to righteousness, Bhims’ strength to protect and Nakul and Sachdev’s beauty to enhance and protect the earth. And Krishna’s grace and vision to farsightedness. This will be the Mahaan-Bharat then!

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One of the very amusing moments that life has offered, has been at the airstrip of IIT-Kanpur. Shubham and I, made our flights of imagination real and stopped by at the flying club. Flying has always thunderstruck me, the science and the technology behind it, bringing back the promise of tremendous potentialities. Seeing the world from up there is not just interesting to my view but also mystical. Seeing the big become small and smaller and smallest, is like meditating for solubilization of strenuous situations.

We stood by for our turn to arrive and when it did happen, the pilot agreed to do one round only, and it had to be me I loaded myself in the cockpit of this ancient era plane and it took the pilot three concentrated attempts to get us into air. While we were rising up there, the anticipations of swaying insecurity dawned. I had to whiff them away and wriggled my mind from them to enjoy the luscious green IIT-Campus and the farms of Kanpur below me. The softness in the scenery, the sun setting far away from us, the smooth steadfastness in motion set my mood back to lively curiosity and cheerfulness.

The pilot announced the call for climbing down and I confess that I tightened my grip on the sides, but he yelled back to free them, since I was holding the key to opening the window The nose was slanting downwards and we were gliding down in no time and the thrill had multifarious dimensions. i conjectured that the emotion was a sense of stimulation rising up my spinal chord.

Soon the runway loomed closer and closer and some bumpy air wobbled the plane and the pilot desperately wanting to take control lost direction and soon I knew we were not going to land on the runway. The runway was away from us and raw land was getting nearer. The first bump, one more and more until we came to a secure stop. The adventure which was missing in the entire flight now impregnates the entire episode.

Take the wings otherwise you are missing a great store of unsuspected pleasures of precariousness.

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