Gurudev

Size Matters….

Ensures24 Comments

Preface:

Those who belong to this unique club, personalize it yourself – Think of you as “I” wherever used in this blog. This Biographical account is a Matter of FAT…Ooopss Matter of FACT. Take offense at your own risk – remember you will be ticking off a 100 kg+ mass.

Body (No Pun intended)

I am a guy (all my friends vouch for it) whose weight in Kgs almost matches (or exceeds) number of friends I have on Facebook (over 5K).

The website of Art of Living founded by His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar ji popularly known as the Guru of Joy says, it is spread over 152 countries. I also have have matching number to claim some fame – I have 152 kgs of force acting on me towards the centre of the earth.

I cannot but help be reminded of that skeleton hanging from the hook in the Biology lab, when I see some skinny friends who call themselves fit – Baaahhhh.

As I grew up they also reminded me of those skimpy clothes that move around on FTV . I always thought it was just those 2-3 pieces of rags moving on stage till some one said there are humans inside it. I love when these people give me those very adorable admiring looks 😉 **Blush…blush**

I had this “Fats-Challenged” Size Zero poor soul who tried to poke fun about that lovely little paunch. Reader, tell me if a paunch smaller than that Hill where Sumeru Mantap is situated is a Paunch especially an on a lovely chiselled physical structure?

I challenged her if she has as much muscles in her entire body? (a friendly Doctor – Swami Hardik of my club asks me to refer it as Muscle, I have to agree that it is medically appropriate too). And she wears clothes that are as costly (if not more) though she just was wearing 1/10th of what I was wearing.

And here is an open challenge. I can hug anyone single handedly. Those Size-zeroes need to assemble ten of them in a Sam-Gachatvam circle to get around me. So who is more enviroment friendly? What a single person like me can do, needs 10 to do. HUGs… and I tell you, when we Hug, it indeed is a real HUG they get!!!

Some advantage (those skinny ones call it is unfair and envy me for this) – I never suffer from what some Not-Obese starlets refer to as “food-martyrdom” I mean I dont belong to those folks who say (or atleast think) Oh! No I should not have eaten that extra topping of cheeze on my Pizza, or Which devil had taken over me that I ate that slab of chocolate.

As my Guruji …err Gurudev (after an earlier blog by Aparazzi, I have to say Gurudev, BTW! she very nearly belongs to my club and empathises with my feelings here) HH Sri Sri Ravishankar ji of Art of Living Foundation says – Serve to your capacity and a bit more. I follow it to the “T”. I serve … to the brink of the capacity of my plate and more… Very Obedient follower, Am I not?

Why I am popular with the kids. Kids never have to worry about getting bruised by the bones when they sit on your lap, like they do when they sit on laps of say Sumathi or Ashwin. What they experience is a royally cushioned unbeatable comfort on my lap – and as a bonus a reclining cushion (others call it a paunch)

Another  reason why I love every gram of my bulk because my Obesity acts as a “Friend Filter” – Do I need to be friend with someone who cannot ACCEPT ME AS I AM?”

I am mortally scared of Tattooing (rather getting Tattooed) On a trip abroad, while everyone in the team was being forced by the gracious host (yes, Size Zero guy) to get a body Tattoo done at his cost, I was excused – because I had a large body surface to Tattoo (read – the host to dig his pocket into an abyss)

And now, instead of fighting my bulge (did it for so many years successfully – fighting it I mean) I decided to indulge. Only way to fight bulge is to indulge 😉

Another great part – I get tailored dresses not those run-of-the-mill stuff that you guyz/gals pick up as Readymade from local shop.Trying to find clothes to fit me is like a treasure hunt for my wife 😉

Evolution from Laptop to Belly-Top – Now how many of you have this luxuy?

I could go on and on about why being Obese or fat is a virtue, but Editors don’t allow the luxury with Words that I take with my weight. So signing off…. with my LAST (BUT ONE) WORD! (I always keep a reserve of Capacity + More)

I can eat what I want, when I want and how muchever I want (the very reason I got here in the first place)

And Final Final Advantage of being FAAATTTTT!!!! Beat this…

Long Love Obesity!!

PS: Copyrights of the Pictures/Video with Respective Owners – If in violation please let us know and we would promptly take it off. (However, read the preface – you will do it at risk of offending a 100kg+ bulk)

Guru Poornima – Day of Great-Fullness

Ensures12 Comments

HH Sri Sri Ravishankar

 ध्यानमूलं गुरुर्मूर्तिः पूजामूलं गुरुर्पदम् ।

मन्त्रमूलं गुरुर्वाक्यं मोक्षमूलं गुरूर्कृपा ॥

Dhyana Moolam Guru Murti, Puja Moolam Gurur Padam,
Mantra Moolam Gurur Vakyam, Moksha Moolam Guru Kripa

The very form of Guru is the root of Meditation, Guru’s feet, the root of worship. Guru’s words forms the root of Mantras and Grace of Guru the root of Liberation ,says Sage Vyasa

Today, July 3rd 2012 is Purnima, the full-moon day in the month of Ashada, the fourth month in the traditional Lunar Hindu Calendar observed as Guru Purnima. This day is dedicated to Maharishi Ved Vyasa, who has rendered invaluable service to Humankind by writing down four Vedas, Eighteen Puranas, the Mahabharata and Bhagavata.

Sage Veda Vyasa
Photo Courtesy: http://www.sringeri.net

The Supreme knowledge that was being passed on orally from the memory of the great Masters was for the first time compiled and written down by Maharishi Ved Vyasa. He had retired to a secluded place, inaccessible even to his closest disciples, and entered into deepest possible state of meditation. From that space of consciousness, he wrote down the great teachings of the Saints of yesteryugas. After recording the Supreme Knowledge on Bhoja Patra (Birch Tree bark and leaves), Maharishi Ved Vyas emerged out and appeared to his disciples on this auspicious day of Ashada Purnima. Hence, this day is dedicated and celebrated by Spiritual Seekers as Vyasa Purnima.

The greatest form of gratitude any Sadhak (spiritual seeker) can offer to a Master is by constantly studying and practising the teachings of such enlightened souls.

His Holiness Pujya Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar ji Founder of The Art of Living Foundation says,

Guru Purnima is the day when the disciple wakes up in his fullness and in the wakefulness he can’t be but grateful. This gratitude is not of dwaita (you and me), but of advaita. It is not a river moving from somewhere to somewhere, but is the ocean moving within itself. So, gratefulness on Guru-Purnima symbolizes that fullness.

For a seeker, Guru Purnima is a day of significance, is a day of New Year. It is the day to review one’s progress on the spiritual path and renew one’s determination and focus on the goal, and to resolve what one wants to do in the coming year. As the full moon rises and sets, tears of gratitude arise and repose into the vastness of one’s own self.”

You can read more on this on the official HH Sri Sri ‘s blog page here :

As Saint Kabir says:

Guru dhobi Shisha kapada,sabuna sirjana hara;

surati sila para dhoikai, nikasai joti apara.

Master is the washer man, disciple the garment, and Creator Himself is the soap; when the clothes are beaten on the stone of divine reflection, they shine out bright and clean.

Sri Guru Gita describes Guru as follows

गुकारस्त्वन्धकारश्च रुकारस्तेज उच्यते । 

अज्ञानग्रासकं ब्रह्म गुरुरेव न संशयः ॥

Guru is that which leads from darkness to light represents Guru. Gu – Darkness and Ru = Light. Guru thus is one who dispels darkness of ignorance with luminescence of Knowledge.

Gu refers to ‘guna teetha’, which means ‘beyond attribute’, i.e with any Gunas (qualities, characteristics, attributes, tendencies or traits). A classic example for understanding this was given by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar.

Electricity when supplied to a fan results in breeze, when supplied to a motor results in rotation, when supplied to a bulb results in light, when provided to a stove results in heat and when provided to air-conditioner results in chillness. Can we now call electricity as breeze, heat, chillness or light? No way.

If you call Electricity as heat, the Refrigerator may not concur and if you call it light, the Fan may not concur. While Electricity is in all these appliances, the reverse is not true – the appliances are not in Electricity. It is the same with Guru tatva (Principle). It is present in all the attributes and yet is beyond the attributes – “Guna teeta”

Today is the day, when we express our gratitude to all the Masters of the past, present and the future ones – who walked this planet. Not Master in HIS physical form but the Guru Principle that transcends the form.

||Jai Gurudev||

AUM/OM – a beginner’s narrative

Ensures2 Comments

This is in response  to two of my fellow bloggers on another discussion forum (which is not functional now) – Ved Vahan and Subash. Cross posting it again to share it with the audience here. While I don’t have access to those blogs wherein those 2 loving souls had brought out concept of OM, I humbly submit that this is an amateurish attempt to complement their indisputable explanations. Wherever relevant, I have made any reference to their writing,I have specifically reproduced for relevance.

So here I go….

For our ordinary minds (and true for almost all beginners on the spiritual path), it is not so easy to conceptualize or comprehend an idea without expressing them in words. If it cannot spoken about or if not expressible we somehow get a  feeling of surreality or unreal.

So this idea of God or Divine, has to necessarily be associated and expressed with Words. Another condition is that since God/Divinity is considered fundamental fact of the Cosmos, the word expressing It needs to be fundamental too. The ancients saints, seers and Rishis struck upon and agreed that this word “AUM” is a fundamental word that can truly express the Divine.

Why is this word fundamental? Here let me begin by exploring deeper purport of one of my fellow blogger on another site – Sri Subashji’s explanation. Representing the “G”enerator, “O”perator and “D”estructor – nature of GOD.

“A” the creative force originating at the lower part (Step on a thorn or when you get hurt on your legs or feet, the natural sound that emerges out is “Aaaah”)

“U”, the maintaining force originating at the middle part (someone punching on your abdomen, the natural sound that is expressed would be “Uuuuuu”).

“M”, the destructive force – of evil tendencies originating at the top part (ask
someone to give a sharp knock on your head, the sound that emerges would be “Mmmmm”).

Sum total of these forces represents the entire universe and hence lends a legitimate expression representing God representing the Trinity – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, considered as the Creative, Maintaining and Destructive Forces.

The very construct itself renders AUM a fundamental WORD.

“A”, the root sound is pronounced without touching any part of the tongue or roof of the mouth,

“M” pronounced with closed lips representing the last possible sound.

“U” rolls from the root to the end of the palate, right upto the lips. So the three
syllables together forms the PRIMORDIAL expression called “AUM”, which represents the whole phenomena of sound production (“A” + “U” representing “O”).

Next why 3 times? As Ved-Vahan ji rightly said, “it represents three dimensions of our existence and a honor to all the three dimensions representing the
divinity in us. More importantly someone said, “It is Gurudev’s bidding (referring to His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar ji of Art of Living) , HE knows why :-)” (personally the most important and favourite reason for chanting it 3 times).

It is pertinent to remind here that chanting of 3 times is an aspect specific to Sudarshana Kriya and many Art Of Living processes but not mandatory – it could be more. (As HE keeps saying in various forums, in these busy times,
it is good enough if someone can chant 3 times – anything more and people would simply cite lack of time and discontinue Sadhana). 108 time chanting is quite popular too (9 Grahas x 12 Rashis).
My personal experience (not to do with numbers, but the very act of Chanting OM) – it clearly demarcates the activities on either side of my chanting. Prior to starting with a Sadhana, I disconnect the pre-Sadhana life with OM. As a rule, our group of AOL’ites whatever be the spiritual practices we embark on (viewing Knowledge Videos, beginning of AOL meetings, beginning satsangs)we chant OM, which clearly separates (mentally and physically) the mundane things from our mindspreparing the ground for our subsequent activities.

ॐ ॐ ॐ