Art of Silence in Sacramento Oct 2010

It was October month which I am waiting from past 2-3 months from the time AOL group announced that there’s going to be an Art of Silence Course here in Sacramento. I mentally prepared that I am going to do this course, but as the course is coming closer I was in dilemma of skipping the course as the price was very high for me as I spent lot of money for my health in the same month. But finally I thought not to give up as this chance will come only once in a year to the local place and soon I registered the course which is going to lead by Swami Pragyapad Ji.

Course started on Oct 22^nd evening, I went to the course venue directly from the office. It doesn’t make difficult to find the venue, after reaching there I took the hotel room pass and a refreshed myself at hotel room and went back to the meditation hall. We had our dinner and course was begun with I belongs to you process. We did a meditation and some other process on the same day, but the two processes I liked a lot are the Death and Birth process which had brought some lightning in me. I thought the course will start with Long Kriya but not happened, so my kriya for the day is pending, when everyone went to hotel rooms I started doing kriya in the meditation hall all alone and went back to sleep.

The second day course was begun with some yoga followed by long kriya, I had a very good experience w.r.t “Sense of touch” during the rest time after the long kriya. I felt that Guruji is trying to wake me up by touching my shoulders and saying the words “It’s your turn to serve the breakfast” and soon fall asleep. After sometime when I woke up no one is there in the hall, everyone went to breakfast. I am the last person having breakfast on that day. Throughout the day there were many Hallow and Empty meditations. After lunch time there are some more meditations and Dinner then Satsang, as we are completely in Silence whoever has some doubts they can write the questions and put into the questions basket whoever and Swamiji will answer those questions.

Third day having some other processes and meditations followed by the most liking meditation called “Meditation in Motion”. Then during the satsang we all sung and danced with full of joy and happiness.

Fourth day, we came out of the silence and the course was ended successfully with Eye gazing process and joyful dance.

This is my second part II (Art of Silence) course and I am very much happy while doing the course and I witnessed the increase of awareness and confident in me.

The only mantra I got from this course is “ACCEPTANCE”, if we do so ultimately we will be Happy.

JAI GURUDEV

Re-coloring curio cabinet

My brother Ramesh Dasari purchased a curio cabinet from craigslist, we thought of re-coloring it as it is oak color when purchased and all the home furniture is cherry color. Google results suggested us to sand the cabinet and apply galssy stain paint. We started doing that resulted in multi colored curio cabinet.

Later did lot of R&D and come to known that there is a specific process in re-coloring like the way the Government re-construct the highway roads.As most of you aware that to re-construct a road one cannot directly construct road on existing road, first remove all the layers of road and start from the scratch.Similarly to our curio cabinet we started removing the existing Oak color, for that we brought Stripper which is a color remover, it took 4 days to extract the actual wood out of it as we tried to remove the color we painted and the Oak color which is already existed and also white color used as prime originally. This process also includes the sanding (using sand paper remove the thin layer of color)

Finally the actual wood is visible on most parts of the cabinet. Now applied conditioner and Prime(Red Morgan color), after two coats of Prime color we can able to make a beautiful dark cherry colored Curio cabinet . After cleaning the glasses with nail remover, the curio shines like a new one.

My life towards spiritual path

The day I started my career in US (Sacramento, CA) I started hearing about Art of Living, but I never put my complete concentration over it.

One day when I am coming back to room after office hours, one of my colleague in the front row in Train discussing about Art of Living that they are having a introductory session. Something in my mind pinch me and I asked them what is it, when is the introductory session going on and where is it going to happen? he said its going to happen on the same day when the discussion is going on. So I just wen back to room and returned back in the next train and attended the Introductory session which was conducted by Deepak Girla. Soon I registered the Course called Basic Course with Neha as Teacher, Since then I repeated the course many times, whenever I repeat I learn something new.

My first course is on May 15th 2009, soon I got a chance to meet Guruji (Sri Sri RaviShankar) who is the founder of Art of Living in LA, I personally took blessings from him and then it strengthen more in mind to drive me towards it. I repeated my course on Aug 20th 2009 with Manik and done my Advanced course with Michale Fisherman at Coloma on Oct 22nd (its a residential course, I dont have words to say its Awsome - you will feel the power of silence - its called Art of Silence course) then did yes plus course with Analies as teacher at Davis, with the continuation I repeated the basic course again with Neha as teacher in December and yes plus course with Deepak at Roseville. I again got an opportunity to meet Guruji as he came to LA to inaugurate an Ashram in LA. After giving a long gap I again repeated the basic course with Neha as teacher in the month of Aug. I completed Ashtavakra I series at Miral and Tushar's residence.
During this period of 16 months I attended many Satsangs. Till now I guess I just missed 3 times of doing short kriya at home every day, hope I dont want to miss it again.

My special thanks to Tushar and Jagan for pulling me into this path.
One thing I experience is "The sense of belongingness will increase in everyone's mind" whoever taken the course" - Vasudeva Kutumbakam

Which direction we should face our head while sleeping

Its been long time since I look into bloggeria.
After along time here is the discussion that "In which direction we should face our head while sleeping" is making me not to sleep until I get some clarity over the discussion.

I surfed the Net and found many suggestions which have there own reasons of what they are talking about.
viz: some people saying we should face our head towards East, so that as the sun raised the energy level in your body raises
some says(Most of the Indians) you should face your face towards West or South as Gods always see towards North or East so we should not keep our feet towards God idols.
some says keep face towards North (Most of the people opposing this statement) its a contradictory statement.
One shouldn't keep his head on North side while sleeping, only the non living bodies or dead people's head faces North.

so we pray the God idols which faces towards North and East, I personally think not keep our feet towards God idols while sleeping that is we should face our head towards North and East.
I guess this will work better for most of the people.

Ideally facing our head towards south will work for most of the people.

My Phrases

1. Rather loving somebody, Love somebody who loves u.

Brief life story of Lord Ayyappa

Lord Ayyappa is the presiding deity of Sabarimala temple. Information on the life and teachings of the Lord are mostly based on legends. In fact, there are very many popular stories associated with Him among the devotees. These differ from one to another depending on the imaginations of the narrator and inherent variations due to the passing down of the stories from generation to generation. However, there are a few events which are common in all the stories and which can stand historical scrutiny. Examples are:

All stories confirm that Ayyappa lived in the Pandalam Palace as the son / savior of the King.
He had had super-human or divine knowledge, wisdom, and courage and had great liking for the King and his people.
He protected the King and the kingdom from the attacks of enemies.
At the end of His life in Pandalam, He vanished into the forests and is ever since worshiped at the Sabarimala temple.

The most popular and widely accepted story goes to say that Lord Ayyappa had had His human sojourn as the son of the Raja(King) of Pandalam. At that time, Raja Rajasekhara ruled the kingdom of Pandalam. During one of his hunting expeditions, the Raja was puzzled to hear the wails of a child on the banks of the river Pampa. He moved in the direction of the voice to find a resplendent infant there. The beautiful baby with radiant face wore a bead ('mani') around his neck. Mythology has it that Manikantan was Ayyappan, born of Hari and Hara. The King, though pious, charitable, just, and God-fearing had no children. He accepted the child as God's gracious response to his fervent prayer for an heir to his throne. Manikantan was given proper education and training and he grew into a boy well versed in academic lore and martial arts of the time.Meanwhile the Rani gave birth to a son. The King regarded Manikantan as his elder son. He decided to crown him as the Yuvaraja. The King's corrupt Minister had had a deep dislike for Manikantan. The Minister made the innocent Queen believe that adverse consequences would befall her if Manikantan was crowned Yuvaraja and that the kingdom actually belonged to her son.

They conspired between them to get rid of Manikantan by hook or crook. They bribed the royal physician into becoming an accomplice of theirs. The Rani pretended to be afflicted with severe pain in the stomach, and the physician prescribed the milk of a leopard as the only cure for the ache. The King was in an agonizing fix. He knew that none could be deputed for a mission that was so patently suicidal. However, the youthful and valiant Manikantan stepped forth and volunteered to fetch the milk. Despite the worried protestations of his foster-father, he set out for the fearful forests.

Days later Manikantan entered the palace precincts riding a fierce leopard and followed by a pack of its cubs. The schemers were frightened into confessing their nefarious plot. They and others now knew that Manikantan was no ordinary being. They were convinced of His divine origins, and prayed to Him to be with them for their own salvation and for the safety of the kingdom. However, Manikantan was now determined to leave the place.

Filled with emotions of happiness, grief, fear, wonder and 'bhakthi' (devotion to God) and self-surrender, the king stood praying for the mercy and blessings of Manikantan. He repented he could not fully visualize the truth of the divine powers of the Lord and repeatedly requested Him to forgive him for behaving as if He were his son only. The Lord lovingly embraced the King who continued to pray: " Lord, kindly bless me by freeing me from my egos and the worldly life of birth and rebirth and grant me ' moksha’ (salvation). Kindly continue to be the savior of my family and stay eternally in my kingdom.” Manikantan then enlightened the King on the path of attainment of 'moksha'. These words of the Lord are contained in ‘Bhuthanathageetha’, which is in the form of conversation between Him and His foster-father. To the King who is by now mentally cleansed and completely immersed in 'bhakthi', Lord Ayyappa told: " I am to free you from all worldly sorrows & worries and to grant you 'moksha'. All those who are and would be born in your family shall have my blessings unfailingly. I am always accessible to 'bhakthi' and only 'bhakthi ". The Lord told the King that he could construct a temple at Sabarimala, north of the holy river Pampa and install His deity there. Ayyappa also explained how the Sabarimala pilgrimage shall be undertaken, emphasizing the importance of 'vrutham' and what the devotees can attain by His 'darshan'.

The Lord further consoled the King saying that the devotees who held him and his descendants in 'bhakthi' shall happen to be devoted to Him as well. Manikantan then blessed the King and all others assembled there, and vanished. The King duly constructed the temple at Sabarimala, dedicated to Him.
There are various lore’s connected with Lord Ayyappa. These relate to discovery of the child at Pampa, Manikantan's youthful days in the Pandalam palace, bestowing the power of hearing and speaking upon the deaf and dumb son of His teacher as Guru-dakshina, His friendship with Vaver, bringing the leopard's milk, accomplishing His divinely destined mission of annihilation of the demoness Mahishi, eliminating the forest-thug Udayanan, bestowing immortality on Sabari, blessing His foster-father with immortality and so on. Legend also goes to say that Manikantan was the incarnation of Lord DharmaSastha. Raja Rajasekhara was in his previous birth a rich and pious 'brahmin ' by name Vijayan who was a very strong believer and devotee of Lord Dharma Sastha. Such was Vijayan's ' bhakthi' towards the Lord that He blessed the brahmin by granting his wish to be born as his son in his next birth when the Lord would offer him "moksha'.

Why do we fast on Ekadashi

It is a common practice in most hindu households to observe fast on ekadashi. What is special about this day?

Ekadasi in Sanskrit means eleven. ‘Eka’ means “one” and ‘dasi’ is the feminine form of the word “dasa”, which means “ten”. Ekadasi is thus the eleventh day of both the dark and light fortnight of each month. On these special days, devotees fast from grains and beans and make an extra effort to be in service to the Divine.

There is a beautiful story about the origin of Ekadasi fasting. Once, in the Satya-yuga (the golden age) Lord Narayana was enagaged in battle with a demon called Mura. Feeling tired, the Lord decided to rest from the long battle. However, mura wanted to kill the Lord while he was sleeping. Suddenly from the body of the Lord manifested a young girl, who slayed the demon, Mura. This girl was the Mahasakti…. Pleased, Narayana gave her the name Ekadasi( as she appeared on the eleventh day of the waning moon). He also granted her the boon that anyone who fasts on Ekadasi will become free from sin and attain His transcendental abode.

There are certain rules regarding fasting on this day. For eg., one must strictly avoid eating grains and beans on Ekadasi. Fasting generally means completely abstaining from both food and drink. If this is difficult, one may eat a single nongrain meal once in the afternoon or in the evening.

According to scriptures, one who observes fasting on Ekadasi is freed from all kinds of reactions to sinful activities and advances in spiritual life. These sacred fasting days greatly help any sincere soul achieve, even within this present lifetime, liberation from the cycle of birth and death, it is said… therefore, Ekadasi gives one a real taste of renunciation, thus helping one give up trying to enjoy illusory sense gratification of this material world.

Both western and ayurvedic medicine recommend fasting to maintain and improve health. Indeed modern medial experts and ancient sages agree that fasting benefits one, both physically and mentally. Even from the economic point of view, two such fasting days in a month will save tons of food.

The basic principle is not just to fast, but to increase one’s faith and love for the Divine. The real reason for observing fasting on ekadasi is to minimize the demands of the body and to engage our time in the service of the Divine.