So What !!

A close friend of mine after reading my earlier Post exclaimed.."SO WHAT? WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT A CATERPILLAR TURNING TO A BUTTERFLY, IT'S NATURAL!! How is that related to your Art of Living and your Guru?"

I could see that 'Nature' did not hold any great magic for my friend. I thought about this a bit and the following came up:

I asked him, " Have you heard of this phrase: Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya?" ( a line from an ancient prayer in Sanskrit ).

He: "Of course, it was part of a prayer I used to recite in school. It literally means - Lead me from Darkness into Light."

I: " What does it mean to you?"

He: (after a little thought): " It is like asking a bigger power to show me the right way. This world is anyways full of negativity (darkness), therefore please bless me with some brightness in my life"

I (reminded of an email i had read earlier) : " Does darkness have an independent existence?"

He: " What?"

I: " I mean, can you make something more dark, can you add darkness to an existing darkness?"

He: " What do you mean? I don't get what you are saying."

I:" Darkness is not a physical substance. It is just the absence of light. Right?

He (slowly): "Y..e...s"

I: "When you extinguish the light then what you get is darkness and not the other way round."

He: " Yes. Of course. That is known to any child. But what are you getting at?"

I: "To me, the prayer means, help me get over the darkness within me (Tamas) and realise the (Jyoti)/Light that is within me, the Light that I am. Thus what the Prayer is hinting at is that You are the light."

He: ""hmmm"

I: " Nature doesn't just leave it at abstract prayers, it shows this truth to us practically when the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. You see and realise that within every caterpillar is a beautiful butterfly!"

To take it one step further Sri Sri says (not verbatim) " Everyone is inherently good. If someone does something 'bad', it is because of stress".

Thus this prayer could also mean - Please help me get rid of the stress in me... and thats what The Art of Living does - Breathe out the stress and know that you are the Light.

The biggest secret however is that this is just the beginning.... To know more you have to ask Dadasaheb Khatar, a farmer in Maharashtra....

More on this later...

A butterfly emerges, Durvasa Junior disappears

Most of us know that IIT refers to the Indian Institute of Technology, India's premier Tech schools. I worked really hard, I count myself lucky to have earned a seat in IIT Mumbai in the Department of Computer Science.

Many of us may not know IIT also stands for Intense Inner Transformation. In IIT Mumbai, my life changed dramatically. I didn't just graduate with a B.Tech in Computer Science, I had my first introduction to The Art of Living and my dearest Guru; Poojya Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji.

Recently, Sri Sri was saying (Not verbatim, I have paraphrased based on my understanding) -
" Being with a Guru, is like being in a cocoon. You are protected. There are restrictions on the caterpillar inside the cocoon. It can't move as it wishes, it can't eat what it wants. All for a purpose ... to transform into a butterfly, that is beautiful to look at, that can fly around the garden! The cocoon enables the transformation"

This analogy struck a chord in me.

I recalled the time before I came to my Master - I was A shy, coarse, intense, angry, self-centred IITian who believed that life was unfair, that hardwork and honesty had no place in the world's scheme of things. I had a very short fuse. This led to my parents calling me 'Durvasa Junior' . (Durvasa was a powerful and learned sage in ancient India, who was known for his short temper and was more feared than revered).

I WAS angry...with myself, with my professors, with friends, with classmates, with the Mumbai locals trains for being so crowded and inefficient,. with the cab drivers and rickshaw drivers who never went where I wanted to go. ..... until I stumbled across The Art of Living course.

This was in early January 1993, when Mumbai was rattled by the communal riots in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition. A small group of 6 would travel each evening from Powai to Dadar for the course by bus, train, cab, whatever and return late at night. Each day, I would return refreshed, smiling and happy. The Sudarshan Kriya was a revelation. Never before had I experienced anything like this!! I dilligently practised what the teacher instructed.

Slowly but surely, the anger melted, the inhibitions dropped off, the intensity sharpened, a smile appeared on my face ! I found that situations that earlier caused me to blow my lid didn't do that anymore. People whom I used to despise earlier, were suddenly more acceptable (not totally). The cab drivers and rickshaw drivers - I could smile at them irrespective of what they said or did. I was at ease with myself.

I observed that when my mind was calm and pleasant, the world also appeared beautiful, I realised for the first time ' Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder'.

What happened to Durvasa Junior ? Well, he start taking longer vacations when he found out that the Guru was working His magic.

Sattva Rocks!

Thanks to my Master, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, my Life IS Beautiful.

This will be a blog with The Real Good news thats out there in this world.

The texts of Ancient India say that The World is a play of the three Gunas (qualities) viz. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.

Sattva for positivity, calmness.
Rajas stands for activitiy , restlessness.
Tamas stands for inertia, dullness.

From the media, its quite easy to believe that there is no Sattva and that the world is ruled by Rajas and Tamas. My experience is totally the opposite.....

According to me Sattva Rocks!! Love rules the world... Join me on this journey and see for yourself.