Kripa

Another amateur attempt at poetry....somehow it flowed in Hindi this time...

Its true that poetry flows. It comes to you. This came to me as I was just falling asleep contentedly one night last week. Hope you enjoy reading it.

कृपा की चादर ओढ़ के सोई मै 
दुनिया की सब फिक्र छोड के सोई मै

ज़िंदगी  का दस्तूर  है मेरे यार 
ऊपर-निचे हो बार बार ''

कभी ख़ुशी, कभी घम, कभी राग, कभी द्वेष 
हटा दो ये उलजने, ये विनाश रूपी क्लेश

विचलित मन को स्थीर करे गुरु ज्ञान
उन्होंने राह दिखाई है, सत्संग सेवा और ध्यान

बस वर्त्तमान का क्षण है सच्चा 
भूत बीत चुक्का और भविष्य है कच्चा

स्वीकार कर ले सब परिस्थिति और लोग 
वर्ना नकारात्मक विचार से भर जायेंगे शरीर में रोग 

लोग क्या कहेंगे इसकी परवाह ना कर  
खुद से सच्चा रहे येही धारणा धर 

जब सबके प्रति हो प्रेम और सदभाव 
मिट जाएंगे सारे मन मोटाव 

सारा ब्रहमांड सुंदरता से खिल उठेगा 
जब अंतर मन सुन्दर और शांत हो जाएगा

Love
Alpa

In the same breath - read this awesome book yesterday- 'Siddhartha' by Hermann Hesse. A must read for spiritual seekers as well as non-seekers.

Happy Guru poornima!

Happy Guru poornima to you all. This is the day dedicated to all our teachers. It's the day of gratefulness and fullness. To count out blessings for all the knowledge we have gained and the love we have received.

I bow down in gratitude to all my teachers, and most of all to my spiritual master, and embodiment of compassion and unconditional love, Sri Sri. He truly has made every moment after I did the art of living course magical and so full of love meaning and purpose. Not once have I felt emptiness since 2001. He's filled life with the most fragrant blooms...

No words are adequate to express gratitude for you in my life. I just know that without there is nothing, without you, I am nothing.

And this love is reflected not only on my eyes but the eyes and hearts of millions and millions of people across the world.

Thank you for choosing me to be a vessel of your infinite grace!!!

Loads of love
Alpa

This is an outstanding article by Tim Urban, which my husband sent me- it echoes a lot of what i think and have tried to share in different posts on this blog. It is a little longish - but worth it - its very well articulated.

Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy

By Tim Urban

Say hi to Lucy.

Lucy is part of Generation Y, the generation born between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s.  She’s also part of a yuppie culture that makes up a large portion of Gen Y.

I have a term for yuppies in the Gen Y age group—I call them Gen Y Protagonists & Special Yuppies, or GYPSYs.  A GYPSY is a unique brand of yuppie, one who thinks they are the main character of a very special story.

So Lucy’s enjoying her GYPSY life, and she’s very pleased to be Lucy.  Only issue is this one thing:

Lucy’s kind of unhappy.

To get to the bottom of why, we need to define what makes someone happy or unhappy in the first place.  It comes down to a simple formula:

It’s pretty straightforward—when the reality of someone’s life is better than they had expected, they’re happy.  When reality turns out to be worse than the expectations, they’re unhappy.

To provide some context, let’s start by bringing Lucy’s parents into the discussion:

Lucy’s parents were born in the 50s—they’re Baby Boomers.  They were raised by Lucy’s grandparents, members of the G.I. Generation, or “the Greatest Generation,” who grew up during the Great Depression and fought in World War II, and were most definitely not GYPSYs.

Lucy’s Depression Era grandparents were obsessed with economic security and raised her parents to build practical, secure careers.  They wanted her parents’ careers to have greener grass than their own, and Lucy’s parents were brought up to envision a prosperous and stable career for themselves.  Something like this:

They were taught that there was nothing stopping them from getting to that lush, green lawn of a career, but that they’d need to put in years of hard work to make it happen.

After graduating from being insufferable hippies, Lucy’s parents embarked on their careers.  As the 70s, 80s, and 90s rolled along, the world entered a time of unprecedented economic prosperity.  Lucy’s parents did even better than they expected to.  This left them feeling gratified and optimistic.

With a smoother, more positive life experience than that of their own parents, Lucy’s parents raised Lucy with a sense of optimism and unbounded possibility.  And they weren’t alone.  Baby Boomers all around the country and world told their Gen Y kids that they could be whatever they wanted to be, instilling the special protagonist identity deep within their psyches.

This left GYPSYs feeling tremendously hopeful about their careers, to the point where their parents’ goals of a green lawn of secure prosperity didn’t really do it for them.  A GYPSY-worthy lawn has flowers.

This leads to our first fact about GYPSYs:

GYPSYs Are Wildly Ambitious

The GYPSY needs a lot more from a career than a nice green lawn of prosperity and security.  The fact is, a green lawn isn’t quite exceptional or unique enough for a GYPSY.  Where the Baby Boomers wanted to live The American Dream, GYPSYs want to live Their Own Personal Dream.

Cal Newport points out that “follow your passion” is a catchphrase that has only gotten going in the last 20 years, according to Google’s Ngram viewer, a tool that shows how prominently a given phrase appears in English print over any period of time.  The same Ngram viewer shows that the phrase “a secure career” has gone out of style, just as the phrase “a fulfilling career” has gotten hot.

To be clear, GYPSYs want economic prosperity just like their parents did—they just also want to be fulfilled by their career in a way their parents didn’t think about as much.

But something else is happening too.  While the career goals of Gen Y as a whole have become much more particular and ambitious, Lucy has been given a second message throughout her childhood as well:

This would probably be a good time to bring in our second fact about GYPSYs:

GYPSYs Are Delusional

“Sure,” Lucy has been taught, “everyone will go and get themselves some fulfilling career, but I am unusually wonderful and as such, my career and life path will stand out amongst the crowd.”  So on top of the generation as a whole having the bold goal of a flowery career lawn, each individual GYPSY thinks that he or she is destined for something even better—

A shiny unicorn on top of the flowery lawn.  

So why is this delusional?  Because this is what all GYPSYs think, which defies the definition of special:

spe-cial| ‘speSHel |
adjective

better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual.

According to this definition, most people are not special—otherwise “special” wouldn’t mean anything.

Even right now, the GYPSYs reading this are thinking, “Good point…but I actually am one of the few special ones”—and this is the problem.

A second GYPSY delusion comes into play once the GYPSY enters the job market.  While Lucy’s parents’ expectation was that many years of hard work would eventually lead to a great career, Lucy considers a great career an obvious given for someone as exceptional as she, and for her it’s just a matter of time and choosing which way to go.  Her pre-workforce expectations look something like this:

Unfortunately, the funny thing about the world is that it turns out to not be that easy of a place, and the weird thing about careers is that they’re actually quite hard.  Great careers take years of blood, sweat and tears to build—even the ones with no flowers or unicorns on them—and even the most successful people are rarely doing anything that great in their early or mid-20s.

But GYPSYs aren’t about to just accept that.

Paul Harvey, a University of New Hampshire professor and GYPSY expert, has researched this, finding that Gen Y has “unrealistic expectations and a strong resistance toward accepting negative feedback,” and “an inflated view of oneself.”  He says that “a great source of frustration for people with a strong sense of entitlement is unmet expectations. They often feel entitled to a level of respect and rewards that aren’t in line with their actual ability and effort levels, and so they might not get the level of respect and rewards they are expecting.”

For those hiring members of Gen Y, Harvey suggests asking the interview question, “Do you feel you are generally superior to your coworkers/classmates/etc., and if so, why?”  He says that “if the candidate answers yes to the first part but struggles with the ‘why,’ there may be an entitlement issue. This is because entitlement perceptions are often based on an unfounded sense of superiority and deservingness. They’ve been led to believe, perhaps through overzealous self-esteem building exercises in their youth, that they are somehow special but often lack any real justification for this belief.”

And since the real world has the nerve to consider merit a factor, a few years out of college Lucy finds herself here:

Lucy’s extreme ambition, coupled with the arrogance that comes along with being a bit deluded about one’s own self-worth, has left her with huge expectations for even the early years out of college.  And her reality pales in comparison to those expectations, leaving her “reality – expectations” happy score coming out at a negative.

And it gets even worse.  On top of all this, GYPSYs have an extra problem that applies to their whole generation:

GYPSYs Are Taunted

Sure, some people from Lucy’s parents’ high school or college classes ended up more successful than her parents did.  And while they may have heard about some of it from time to time through the grapevine, for the most part they didn’t really know what was going on in too many other peoples’ careers.

Lucy, on the other hand, finds herself constantly taunted by a modern phenomenon: Facebook Image Crafting.

Social media creates a world for Lucy where A) what everyone else is doing is very out in the open, B) most people present an inflated version of their own existence, and C) the people who chime in the most about their careers are usually those whose careers (or relationships) are going the best, while struggling people tend not to broadcast their situation.  This leaves Lucy feeling, incorrectly, like everyone else is doing really well, only adding to her misery:

So that’s why Lucy is unhappy, or at the least, feeling a bit frustrated and inadequate.  In fact, she’s probably started off her career perfectly well, but to her, it feels very disappointing.

Here’s my advice for Lucy:

1) Stay wildly ambitious.  The current world is bubbling with opportunity for an ambitious person to find flowery, fulfilling success.  The specific direction may be unclear, but it’ll work itself out—just dive in somewhere.

2) Stop thinking that you’re special.  The fact is, right now, you’re not special.  You’re another completely inexperienced young person who doesn’t have all that much to offer yet.  You can become special by working really hard for a long time.

3) Ignore everyone else. Other people’s grass seeming greener is no new concept, but in today’s image crafting world, other people’s grass looks like a glorious meadow. The truth is that everyone else is just as indecisive, self-doubting, and frustrated as you are, and if you just do your thing, you’ll never have any reason to envy others.

_________

parda hai parda!!

Isn't it amazing that the more social networking sites and apps we have to connect with friends and family, the more alone and lonely we have become. We have 700 friends on Facebook, but talk to barely 4-5 of them regularly, and those people you anyway wouldn't need to interact with over Facebook. 

The more you connect, the less you connect.

It seems we have all built a bubble around ourselves. We show what we want to show, we hide what we want to hide behind that profile on the website or app. Anyway no one is looking you in the eye or hearing your voice on the phone to figure out whether your words are true and in line with your eyes and voice, whether you really are as happy as your DP or Facebook status suggests.

Its a comfortable state : we are socially connected, as men like to be, and yet our space is protected. Its funny how we yearn for a loving hug or touch or a good laugh..and yet we are so scared

and apprehensive to open up ourselves to other people...I mean REALLY open up ourselves....not just posting the well edited good stuff on Facebook, or the general superficial banter over coffee or drinks or meals. We have all become so averse to being vulnerable.

No wonder then we don't really "know" people these days. No one shows their real side. 

Sheher mein itni roshni hai ..magar phir bhi

logo ke chehre saaf saaf nazar nahi aate..

(There are so much light in the city, yet

we are unable to see the faces of people clearly)

As our society has evolved, we have got all our basic physical comforts in place,

but our challenges have now become more mental than physical.

THE SINGLE LARGEST PROBLEM IN THE WORLD IS INSECURITY!!

We are not secure about ourselves, hence the need to put on myriad masks. We don't love and accept ourselves unconditionally. So we flaunt what we do have, material possessions, luxury homes, holidays, cars, diamonds, designer bags, gourmet experiences, designer clothes etc etc. We drag our children into this competition too, they go for more exotic classes, go to a more expensive school etc. In fact this seeps into our closest relationships too.

These are all games we play to substitute real living and real intimacy, elaborated in great detail in the book, Games People Play by Eric Berne.

These games of love, one-upmanship, war and sex all stem from INSECURITY. This in turn leads to disturbances in your mental framework which in turn disturbs your body and causes all sorts of diseases, both mental and physical.

The much hyped Yoga day has just passed. Sri Sri as well as all other Yoga Gurus have emphasized how Yoga brings contentment and skill in life. It is through Yoga, Pranayam and Meditation that we are able to look inwards and slowly feel contentment within ourselves, of course with regular practice. We slowly learn to love ourselves and learn to see how society is a reflection of us. 

This feeling of expansion and belonging-ness will enrich our lives and make it fuller, more loving, happier and constructive. Speaking from experience!! :):)

It all starts from authenticity - BE AUTHENTIC!! Be Yourself -Love yourself! 

Amazing Q&A with Sri Sri on 10th Jan - Mumbai - full transcirpt

Had the good fortune to be in the divine presence of my spiritual master, Sri Sri, after a year, and the chance to hear him live in person after 2 years. So was really looking forward to it.

Ofcourse with live updates everyday now, post each satsang, the presence is constant, but being in his physical presence is life-changing. So here is a full version of Q&A with the master. Pretty much every word he spoke. The Pearls of wisdom... Hope they open some knots you maybe having trouble unraveling. 

This was an intimate chat with only teachers and volunteers at MMRDA Grounds. 

Harshal crooned – “tum aa gaye ho, noor aa gaya hai”…was blissful..set the mood immediately.

:) :)

Guru ji sat and then he immediately said – “chalo sab thoda dhyan kare.”

The meditation was wonderful….it’s amazing how every day he does some new meditation so effortlessly…

After meditation…he said

“How does it feel, how many are feeling fresh. Meditation is our fuel…It’s like battery recharge. Without this whatever you do has no juice. The centre of our Art of living philosophy is meditation and self-knowledge. It’s very important

How many of you have done Sahaj Samadhi Meditation??

Who all have not done? Oh…first thing you have to do now is learn sahaj. Put everything aside and learn sahaj first.

Sometimes it may happen that the situation is not favourable to do Sudarshan Kriya, but any situation is good to do Sahaj. You can definitely meditate anywhere.

You know what scientists are saying now, that within 8 weeks of meditation the whole brain structure can be altered. The grey matter present in the brain increases.”

(Someone threw him a red heart pillow). He caught it and said. “Your heart is already with me then how can you give me this? This is duplicate or what?”

(Someone took his photo), he said keep my photo in your heart.

(Someone said smile…) he said – “you are asking me to smile??? I am telling the whole world that…”and laughed gleefully….

“Meditation has many benefits – you all know that and have experienced it too. Benefits of meditation also come with us to next lifetime.

When you meditate, you give out positive vibes, which will also make it a pleasure for others to meet you. That is the sign of an Art of Living person – that others are happy to see you. They may not know why…but they are happy.

Now all over the world – people are meditating. Argentina, beyond which only dolphins stay and extreme tip of the North Pole, now people are meditating. Art of living is now in every corner of the world. We have a one world family. Lord of the world is ours anyway. (wink)

Don’t keep crying over your small problems and things. Everyone will have some. Jesus had them, Lord Ram had them and Krishna had them. That is going to be there in life.

In fact you’ll are lucky, you have the least. Problems don’t really touch you, do they? You sail through it – isn’t it?

Just know that the best thing will happen for you. Have this faith and give it to others too. Then light will spread in the society.

I am very happy with the work that is happening in Maharashtra. In villages such amazing work is happening. All those who say Art of Living is an urban phenomena don’t know everything.  5 rivers have been rejuvenated. You all can go on the internet and see the work that is happening.

Now Venunaad is going to happen in Nashik, 5000 flutists will play together. On the birthday of Swami Vivekanand as well as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. But in the photos I’ve seen all the flutist are holding the flute straight, like a shehnai, please tell them they have to hold it slanting.

Anyone wants to say anything?

Someone said – I love you Guruji!

Guruji – Now that is an old story. And there is going to be no change to that ever!!

Some people shared some ideas – I didn’t find them so interesting so I don’t remember. But Guruji said – now we are going to keep a botheration basket and an idea basket.

Someone asked about PK.

He said – “This is not a new phenomenon, in every profession there are few black sheep. It is important to expose them. Doesn’t mean everyone is bad.”

You know in the US, some fathers misbehaved with their v small daughters. The media blew it so much out of proportion, some girls started perceiving that their fathers must have misbehaved with them in their childhood. Even in Bollywood, They portray saying, if anyone puts a tilak, they are badmash! Since they have started showing that I put tilak every day. I will be a badmash. Earlier I didn’t put tilak so regularly, now I purposely put. Let them find a flaw with me if they have the courage. Show me a blemish if you have the courage. Your glasses can have spots – but not here. I have always been like that – bedaag.

Q – My family is not into Art of Living, how do I get them? It is easier to get 40 people for a course than to get my parents.

A – Get their closest friends into the course. When you have to pluck a mango, you should aim at the branch, then the mango will fall. Or when they are in a good mood, ask them for a gift. Tell them to do the course. Or you can tell them that In Stanford University the AOL course is actually a credit and World bank also everyone has done the course.  In Harvard Business school all are doing. The intelligent people are doing it anyway and if you do it you become intelligent. So say a few things like that.

Q – Is there are hierarchy in AOL teachers. That Advance and DSN teachers are more senior than other teachers?

A – See here we don’t compare. At a consciousness level, we all are unique and equal. In terms of experience, it definitely varies. They have been teaching part 1 for a long time that’s why they are now teaching Advance. They are also following what they are teaching. So their experience is solidifying.

If you see flaws in any teacher or don’t like the way someone is doing things. You just keep that flaw aside. There are flaws in every prophet also. I can tell you all the flaws in Ram, Krishna, Jesus, and Mohamed. If you think someone has ego or thinks too much of themselves etc. you just keep it aside. It is my job. When someone’s ego get too big etc, I know when to deflate, when to tighten the screws. That’s my job. You do your job. Work for the nation.

Even in the same house, 4 people cannot be the same or have the same opinion on everything. Mother and daughter also have fights. My mom used to shout so much at Bhanu. I used to tease her that you are her Mother in Law. My mother, she wanted perfection in everything and Bhanu was very slow. She used to shout at me also. That you don’t know how to run the ashram. This keeps on happening. Husband wife also fight. This whole world is a dream. Don’t give so much importance to all this and spoil your mind. “

Q – In which yug were devotees better?

A – You’re trapping me with such questions. (Laughs). Everything is unique.

See – When you leave your body – 3 things will come in front of you…We all have left our bodies many times, I remember and you don’t remember ,that’s the only difference.

1 – How much knowledge have you gained?

2 – How much love have you given?

3 - How large was your life?

Were you stuck with the same 4-10 people? Lived with them and troubled them and was troubled by them the whole time?

There is a Sanskrit quote – (didn’t get it) it means – chote daire mein sukh nahin. There is no happiness in small things and people. What is big – brings happiness. You will never get happiness from small hearted / minded people. When we are small we have big hearts and minds. As we grow older, the mind becomes rigid and heart withers.

Knowledge is what brings progress. Spend more time with people who have large hearts. Our volunteers should be ideal. Large hearts and mind and full of dynamism. Not lethargic.

Q – Can you say something about Power of attraction/Visualization?

A – They are all words. They are making you play with your own thoughts using these words. You cannot go beyond thoughts through your own thoughts.

Meditation takes you beyond your own thoughts. In that state whatever sankalpa you take, gets fulfilled. Our consciousness has such amazing power.

If you visualize every day, it gives rise to doubt. I tell you the people who have started these seminars on visualizations are in depression themselves. I won’t give names but it has happened.

You only try 10 days you visualize everyday – I am in Mumbai, I am in Mumbai. After 9 days only you will be in a mental hospital. Then you will think am I really in Mumbai?

Q – Someone mentioned please guide us how can we stop killing of cows.

A – Earlier cows were 120 crores and we were 30 crores. That’s why there was enough for everyone. The scriptures say na – dudh ki nadiya behti thi. Now we are 130 crores and cows are just 20 crores. Everyone should get enough nutrition.

Q – How to increase my patrata?

A – Be with the question. The question will guide you to the answer

Q – Earlier when we used to do the part 1 course – there were 40 people on the course. Now even to catch 8-10 people has become a challenge.

A – It will happen. People get happy and satisfied and go away. Then when they get into a problem they come back. They will always come back. People who have done the course 10 years ago also come back. I can tell the teachers one thing – make the follow ups interesting. Involve everyone. Don’t follow hierarchy there. Everyone is as close to me. Each one has a right on me.

Q – (Some knowledge question)

You know there are so many movies made on Yog vashista in the West, and here people don’t read only. Read the Yog Vashista, Ashtavakra gita.

Q – Guruji ever since I have seen you today I am crying only, not able to control my tears.

A – That happens. They say when a heart blossoms, tears come.

Q - Guruji I am a zorastrain. My community is diminishing. You know past present and future. What is the future of the parsi community?

A – Parsis are the pride of India and Mumbai. They have done such amazing wok. The pride will flourish – don’t worry. They had the worst time in Iran, but ever since they have come to India, it has only been uphill. We need such communities that have such amazing integrity and values.

Q – I want to be in your physical presence always..

A – Always is tough. But connect with me through twitter, I keep sending knowledge. Who all don’t have a twitter account? Open one and follow me ok, I will see tonight how many of you have joined. Connect through Facebook. You know people ask me so many follow you but you don’t follow anybody – why? You know I can’t follow only selected people others will feel bad. I am always there with you in Meditation, personally, I am there with you in Seva.

We will have a world family reunion in 2016  – in New Delhi. (Someone said why not Mumbai). He said don’t forget Delhi is the capital of the country. Is that a good idea? What do you’ll say?

We’ll have lot of interesting things ok. Festival of food and agriculture. Art of Living is doing great stuff in Agriculture. You know few months ago 3000 farmers came to Bangalore. After that 2000 sarpanch had come. They were so happy you know, they learnt so much. We are doing great work to take care of the health of the nation, in protecting seeds etc.

Whatever ideas you have for the reunion you send to us ok.

Every district that is complete Art of Living I will come there. Where each person knows how to smile and serve.

Do happiness surveys in every building. Ask people if they are happy and make them happy. Teach some meditation there. Take 1-2 hours session.

Just know that the absolute best will happen for you. Only one condition is there. Don’t have non-veg and alcohol. If you have these things, there will be a hole in my promise. No Art of Living volunteer should have. If you really feel the urge to have – and cannot control – just come on an advance course. I will intoxicate you such, you’ll forget any other intoxication.

Do this and the path ahead will be very bright, Be assured!"

Then couple of bhajans and he left…after uplifting the hearts of all 10000 people gathered there. ….

Blessed,

Jai Gurudev

Alpa