Columns by Sri Sri Ravishankar

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar writes weeklyarticles at this url.

Check the previous articles on the same page, there are so many!

Bharatnatyam

Indian Classical Dance is an amazing dance form. Bharatnatyam, a geometrically asthetic dance form, encorporates Natyam:- the play, into the dance. Few days ago I was lucky to go with my parents to see the performance by Vishwa Bharathi Natya Shala students. This is dance academy run by my friend Nirupama's Mother, and they did an excellent performance. Colorful costumes, fantastic beats and rythmic movements. Excellent coordination in the group, and meaninful facial expressions in the solo. Anyone who has ever took part in a dance would know how much efforts have gon in! An audio visual treat.

We did it, we did it!

Its been a while for not writing the post... so here I go!

Last few days have been too fast to add posts, and the story of last weekend is yet to get complete!

This weekend Raghav and I did 108 Suryanamaskars...! Its was so nice to have Raghav's company. His home carries that energy... We did so much group sadhana there. This time I had better control. And I could see that, beyond a point, its all grace...

Rintu, just make sure that you stick to "Sthiram Sukham Asanam":- An asana is a steady and pleasurable posture, while doing every Suryanamaskar... Its important that your breath flows as normal as it would if you were generally talking to someone.

So we have a Club 108 now! Memberships open!

I had made a friend long ago,during a lunch, in Sukhasagar hotel. His name is Neelkanth. He has such a good memory that he recognized me after few months now! He is very good at painting, you can check his paintings here on his blog.

So nice to read all the comments, keep posting them!!

And yes, I will fill up the gap of the posting soon... keep checking for updates!

A Lonnng Weekend : - Part 2

That night my parents came. My mother complimented me for keeping the room clean and shining, which I had done because they were coming! They had got me some nice sweets. Saw their photos in the trip to Ladakh. Its a simply beautiful place to visit...

My father has become such a fantastic photographer! I love this color combination.

A lonely bird!

They went to the highest motorable road.
And to the wagah border....
And to the Golden Temple in Amritsar!

Parents are such a nice gift. First they give you birth, and then for all your life they offer you the best of the things they can give. Hardly anything to take back. What after all, can one give back to the parents. Its amazing, most of my previous visits to parents, I used to have some "other" things more important, the movies, the friends and so on. This time I spent every minute with them, and it was amazing! I didn't have to ask for anything, they were showering things and love! We did shopping, ate out...

Next day we saw "The Black Knight". Good directions, fast actions, too much of sound effects, sometimes scary, not recommended for the weak heart. I liked what the joker said,"I am here to disrupt the plans of the schemers!" So many times we keep planning and planning, and don't actually do something. The Joker who does things without much planning, creates so much havoc in the movie. Of course, the fantastic villain raises the black knight to his best performance!


Next thing on the list was an ashram visit, to see Guruji. However it was too late, and I realised that if one wants to be with divine, one needs to give the divine the highest priority.
What we did instead was another exciting thing, more about it coming up soon!

A Lonnng Weekend : - Part 1

I think there is a movie by that name. The last weekend of my life was also worth making a movie on!
It started with the Independence Day of India, the 15th August. I went to Institute for Flag hosting, but was bit late. I was angry on myself, for not getting up early, but decided to honour the flag and country's benefits in my heart every day, and then relaxed.

Coming back to home, with all that air of patriotism in my head, I started my suryanamaskars as usual. A thought came,"Oh I haven't done 108 suryanamaskars for so long." And then recalled the last time I did it was in Jan, and the whole things that had gone in my mind that time. I recalled that then also I had been planning an preparing myself for long to achieve that target. And Sabari said, "Why not to do it today!" And then I had taken up the task and just did it!
So this time also I decided to do it. 24, 36, .... Should I really do it!? Am I fit enough for it today !? The doubts started coming up. Should I do it next week after some more preparation!? Am I having doshas in the body, is there some vata that is stopping me from it!? Why I want to do it, is it my ego that is propelling, that "yes I can do it", or is it that I want to use this sadhana for some seva. I took a standing break as I always do, and continued. 48,49,....50. Ohh, I am yet to do 58 more!! Voila, but I have done 50 and I am not so tired... That's amazing! Taking more breaks, some water, throwing out the wet t-shirt (even in winter you will sweat if you do so many suryanamaskars!) and continued... 60, 65, 70! YESSS! I can do it, I am going to do 108 today. Yahoo! The mind was already filled with confidence instead of doubts.
75,80. 28 more. That much I do everyday, so I will do it now also. 90, 95,98,100!! I felt amazed, I could feel the kick that a batsman would be getting when he scores a century. I was wondering something about this number 100. Its all psychological you see. Its not a small number, and its not too big a number not to achieve! Did 108 and did 2 more, just in case I have messed up in counting sometime!
The rest after that was really pleasing. Didn't wish to move an inch! Nothing was in my mind.
It seems to me more like an adventurous trek, like climbing a hill... Only thing is most of time here it is with the eyes closed. And the only risk involved is that if you are too tired, you may fall from a height of 3 feet or so! As long as you don't overstretch yourself, its fun.

I know a number of youth now, who do 108 suryanamaskars. Its like 2.5 hours of gym or a long marathon run! When you want to take it up, consult those who have done it before, and do it in their company... Do it with proper preparation for few days beforehand.

That night my parents came... More about the time we spent together, coming soon...!

The King!

This is an artist image of mine, drawn in Forum Mall! Who says Singh is King, Karnataki is King! :)


p.s. This long weekend was quite eventful, more posts about it coming soon!

Past, Present and Future

Past is like a `sent mail' isn't it! Having sent a mail there is no way to edit it. Nor can one go and create a new sent mail in between the old sent mails! So nothing new can be done about the past... It has passed, that's why its past. Also like the mails which you received and read. Some of the mails you have read already, and most of the sent mails (because they were for others!) are not of any use anymore. So you can discard them.

And future is like mails yet to come to Inbox. Now until they come, you can't read them. So no point in worrying about them, or wanting particular kind of mail! You can invite certain kind of mails, set up spam guards and ... wait!

Only present that you have is the mail you are currently reading, and the unread mails in the Inbox, and an option to compose!

Our set of actions or karmas is so similar to emails...! Living in the present moment is like a tight rope balance. One side is past, other side is future, if you bend too much on any side, gone!
To make the life simpler, we need to take help of what is in the present moment always... Like Devang says, "To draw a straight line, you use the ruler, to bring the mind in the present moment, you need to attend to Breath, since it is always in the present moment. " To see a wonderful poem on breath, click here.

Who are your Heros/ Heroines?

Whom do you adore, hold high?
Who are your ideals, the stars in your life?

Kick the ball and be in the goal!

This is what His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar spoke on 04 Jan 2001 in Montreal Ashram Canada. It is revered as weekly knowledge #286.

Kick the Ball and Be in the Goal

Do you know why the earth is shaped like a globe? (Silence)

So you can kick it and it will roll away! (Laughter) From the moment you wake up in the morning you are always with people and your mind is caught up in worldly thoughts. So sometime during the day, sit for a few minutes, get into the cave of your heart, eyes closed, and kick the world away like a ball.

But as soon as you open your eyes, hold onto the ball because you need to kick it again in the next session. (Laughter) During the day be 100 percent attached to the work, don't try to detach yourself. But when you sit for meditation, then totally detach yourself. Only those who can totally detach can take total responsibility.

Eventually you will be able to be both attached and detached simultaneously. Kick the ball and be in the goal! This is the art of living, the skill of living.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is what I like about Sri Sri! His knowledge is free flowing, with humor and deeper insights combined together! When these "Knowledge sheets" were circulated for 7 years in 1990s, people also wrote a news flash, a paragraph on what was happening around Him at that time:

NEWS FLASH (as on 4 Jan 2001)

250 people "kicked the ball" and welcomed the New Year in deep meditation with Guruji. The ashram, deep in snow that sparkles like diamonds, seems suitably decked out to receive Guruji on this first winter visit. The frozen lakes provide great 'skating' on afternoon walks (runs!) through the snow.

The City Council in Alpharetta, Georgia, USA, planned to remove several 150-year old oak trees as part of a street-widening project. The engineering firm, cable company, and phone company made their studies and gave approval. Local people who wanted to save the trees were told, "There's no hope; it's finished." A devotee put Guruji's picture on each tree and phoned the city officials to tell them the trees were protected by a saint. Word spread through the town and 300 protestors, along with full media coverage, showed up at the City Council. Plans were abandoned, and the trees are happily standing.

"Confusion" kept volunteers locked in!

My friend Abhishek has written an excellent account of a drama like situation that happened in Bangalore recently. Check out his article.

Missing you!

Oh my dear one, I am missing you badly.
What did you not do for me.
You were with me in rain, thunder or sun.
You never said no to me, and came with me wherever I wished to go.
You were always there for me, and now, even a day without you, is so much lonely.
You have become so much a part of my life, please come back soon!

See here the one I am missing:- My bike! I have given it to servicing.

One hour day and Half hour night

I always feel grateful for being in a Research Institute. Its this sheer opportunity to meet some of the most brilliant people on the planet. Today we had a talk by the Astronaut Claude Nicollier, "My experience in Space".He showed some amazing pictures of the earth from space, it was simply fantastic to see the entire Himalayas in one picture. Also, the distribution of river Ganga where it meets the ocean.
It was also an absolutely stunning picture to see that on top of one of the desserts, the cloud coverage is exactly on top of the sea, and it ends on the coastline.

Absolutely passionate about his work, he mentioned how he had undergone rigorous training in water chambers. Their first mission was repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. Imagine changing parts of a huge (2 meter diameter) telescope in space! In those water chambers, they make exact replica, with high fidelity modelling, of the space telescope. In space you need to stabilize your body, and move very slowly. They practised it for months before the mission, in the water chambers. Exact and detailed planning, even practise of handling unexpected failures and problems.

When you are in space, you are in a very low air pressure surrounding. Say 1/3rd of that on earth. So the nitrogen tends to get into the blood. There are Air Chambers, where you increase the air pressure to normal ones on the earth, and rejuvenate yourself. Claustrophobia is the fear of enclosed spaces. If you have it, then these small Air chambers are not meant for you! Also the Astronaut's suit can be very cumbersome to get into and carry along.

You can see here a photo of a pair of astronauts repairing the Hubble Space Telescope. Notice that one astronaut has firmly grounded his feet on the robot arm of the space ship,(you don't see the spaceship, the arm is the white rod like thing in the photo), and other Astronaut is freely floating. Whenever the Astronauts are doing such work, doing space walk, they are attached to the space-craft by a thread: they are tethered. This is to ensure that they don't just get lost in space by mistake! As he jokingly said, if an astronaut or a repair tool is lost, it becomes a useless satellite to Earth! So all the repair tools and parts are also tethered to the spaceship.

As you are orbiting, you have sunrise and sunset more often! You get 1 hour of a day and 1/2 hour of a night! Of course, you don't go to sleep in that night when you are in shadow of the earth. So you need to get used to this kind of bright and dark timings. Before the Earth becomes totally dark, and Sun goes behind it, you can see a beautiful cresent of the Earth! The moon also rises and sets quite fast. The sky is absolutely dark, and you can see Sun also as just another, closer, brighter and bigger star.

On Earth, our body has mechanisms to push lot of blood supply to the head. So much supply is not needed when you are in space. Lot of body fluid imbalance and loss of orientation can happen when you just reach the space. So if you are planning to visit and go for a space ride, be prepared for some phisiological unpleasantness! He said its like sea-sickness.

To become an astronaut, he said, you need good physical fitness, sound mental balance, and a sound educational background. After that, its a luck to be selected, as there is lot of competition and few jobs available!

A Physics Graduate, who did research in Astronomy, and took over Air Pilot job, and then worked as an Astronaut, Claude Nicollier is now full time professor in Lausanne, inspiring young students to the thrill of Space research.

Nurture the talent

Its our Founder's day in my Indian Institute of Astrophysics today. We had a public lecture by Prof. C N R Rao, the eminent Scientist. Check more about his excellent research career, the extraordinary awards he has received and other information on his website. The Auditorium was housefull and we had standing audience!

In a fantastic talk on "Science in India, a personal recollection", he spoke with all humor the ups and downs in research. His 50 years of experience in building research institutes, guiding students, was evident. He stressed the need on nurturing and encouraging talent in all possible ways for study of Science. He said the funds are now available, in contrast to 40-50 years ago, and we need to give quality results. He asked us, the researchers, to abandon mediocracy and choose the most interesting, important, problems for research. He said, we need those "nutty fellows", the bright young minds, who don't care what other people think, and get themselves immersed in study. He said, we can't discipline scientist like in military, but we need to bring the best of the young minds by taking them beyond their comfortable capcity.

He cited how, even with limited facilities and funds, even in old days there used to be some scientists who would do their best work, and it would meet the international standards. Talking about our Founder, he said, Vainu Bapu was a very methodical and eloquent speaker, and always insisted on excellence.
More about my Institute, check on the website.
Tomorrow also we have a nice talk on "My experiences in space". A talk by an Astronaut! Come and book your space before time, as I know the auditorium is likely to be housefull as today!

What readers say:

Top comentators and favicon

Just now added the Top Comenters widget from this article:
Add top commentator widget.

Apparantly this is common feature in wordpress, needs to be added separately for blogger.

Also added just now the recent comments widget from the Blogger templates website.

My friend Vivek runs an excellent blog on tech-solutions! Its about a number of technical solutions to many interesting things! He has written an excellent article on favicon change.

Favicon is that little image before the webaddress, on your web-address bar! So if you want some stylish emblem for your own web, then make a 16pixel by 16pixel image, and follow the directions of Vivek!

Green Code

It was memorable event in the history of Lalbagh. People who had come to Lalbagh on the event day wondered on seeing things happened around them. The Lalbagh garden trees and plants were singing and dancing with full of joy. By hearing the songs of the trees, the gushing air added their musical tunes to the songs! Visitors were mesmerised on seeing this Jugalbandhi. Inanimate vintage cars wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

They gathered together and started giving different poses to the photgraphers! AOL leaders/Volunteers have made a difference to the lives of Lalbagh this time. This intoxication will remain forever.

The cleaning drive witnessed thousands of people coming together and participating in the noble cause. After seeing the Jugalbandhi performance, people had gathered to see the painting exhibition by the Green code participants.


The paintings had come alive and it looked as if the trees of Lalbagh were smiling at the visitors. This celebration has spread like wildfire and now Cubbon park wants to have similar celebration. Lets get together and make this a great event!!

p.s. This article is written by Sabari, I edited it, added some photos, so it says Posted by Abhay...!

p.p.s. Tell Sabari how you like his post! Invite more posts from him! Send him an email at sabariram@gmail.com .

Technorati

I have joined a new site that deals with Blogging. It seems interesting, you can rate others' blogs and see where your blog stands on the blogosphere. Here is my
Technorati Profile
More coming soon...

Taboo!

Thanks to my friend Prabha, I got to know of this interesting boardgame called "Taboo!" :)
Lets say you had to talk about the word "Swimming Pool", without using the words water, jump, float, tank and amenity. Then how would you speak!?
If you speak any of those taboo words, you lose point!
And your team has to guess the word you are describing!

Its opposite to dumb-sherads! You are not allowed to act... Only speak, and speak without the taboo words! haha...!

Its so much fun game for 6-8 players...

The game remained in my memory and I started relating it to my life... In life also we have some taboo topics and words... And we circle around them to tell what we want to tell!
An awkward situation in real life, if looked at as a game can be so much fun!
e.g. next time you have to tell about your boyfriend or girlfriend to your parents, and you are... well, not allowed to use the words boyfriend or girlfriend! Then don't feel shy or awkward, take it as a game, and see how easy it is!

Its also a useful way to culture the language... Now a days some of us use the f word as if it is a punctuation mark in the English grammer! No need! Use quality words, live quality life....

love
jaigurudeva
Abhay


p.s. do you like such posts...
p.p.s. drop some comments, your comments inspire me to write more!

New Physics blog opened

hi all,
I was writing a few notes on Physics in this Blog, However, I was keeping equations outside. :) To write without any limitations, I have started a blog totally devoted to Physics! Ask questions, read amusing stuff and so on. Its here. Characteristic to my style of writing, it will be simplistic and readable to most of you!
Cheers!
Love
Abhay.

Love’s in the air

Love doesn’t have to be said or expressed; it’s already there in the air. It’s a matter of recognition. And how so wonderful ways life has for making you recognize that you are… fountain of love!

And once recognized, you don’t have to do anything with it, apart from just being in love. Especially you don’t need to make love; it can’t be made, it’s not like a tomato soup.

What can be done is to uncover the obstacles that stop love.

Come 14 Feb evening and there are more depressed youngsters than happy couples! If you don’t have a valentine you are not cool is an equation that has been fed in heads of youth today. And as long as Love is equalized to a relationship it becomes a heavy thing. Of course every relation is based on love, but not every love needs to culminate in a relationship!

There is Western culture where love is expressed too much, and hence it somewhere, in some sense, looses the depth of expression. Isn’t it, what do you say… And then there is an Eastern culture, where people are so conservative, that they don’t even express the love for their entire life. They feel so stifled inside. What we need is a balance of the two.

When we are children, we go hug our parents so easily. As youth its rare, and so is our behavior towards our best friends. Somewhere, sometime, that sense of touch is left untouched, and hence a craving for that sense arises. If you don’t understand this, leave it. One friendly hug can dissolve all cravings and aversions. Someone has beautifully said this, “ A hug is a wonderful gift, one size fits all!”

Mummy 3

Saw Mummy :- The tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
A huge army buried underground looks for awakening. The emperor who has mastered control over the five elements is looking for immortality. A lot of hidden secrets behind the Great wall of China!
Will our archaeologist friends discover them and fight with the army general to keep the menace under control!?
The film made me curious to see previous films in the Mummy trilogy.
The music and rising skeletons also reminded me of my most favorite movie:- the Pirates of the Caribbean! :)
I liked the scenes in icy mountains.... And yes, there are snow-men-lions! :)
I saw a lot of similarity with Indiana Jones...
I like these movies because they are like reality shows of treasure hunts... excellent trailer on the official website.
What is interesting is, much of the background of the movie, the burried statues of the king is actually true! Read the wiki entry on it.
In both the history of mankind, and inside the planet earth, there lie so many things hidden!

Won a blog contest!!

Yahoo!!

I have won a blog contest:
Check Check:--- Bawa's contest results.


Tttock!
Looking forward for more exciting stuff in blogosphere...

Kung Fu Panda!

It was fun watching Kung Fu Panda yesterday!
Superb Animation and fast actions, and what's more, since its all animated, there are tricks not doable in a real life! Great sound effects. Animation industry is coming so close to real experience.
The director has managed to portrait the human emotions very well in the animation.

Like the Senior Master says, "You need to believe that which you wish to happen." Its interesting to see that when what I need to achieve is aligned with what I need to do, What I wish can become reality!
You can see a trailor here:


Welcome to Awesomeness!
~~~
By the way, I think I enjoyed the movie because I could relate a lot to Poh, the Panda:
He cant see his legs because of his tummy, I cant see it too.
He lives in his dream world, I live in my dream world too.
He can do anything for food, I can do anything for food too.
He doesnt like exercises, I don't like exercises too!