Balki's Weblog

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Shivratri

2009-02-25T18:51:00.000-08:00

Shiva is not any person sitting in some hill, kailas hill, he is not that. What does Kailas mean? Kailas – 'Las' means what, where there is celebration, happiness. Where there is a festive atmosphere. Where there is frolicsomeness / intoxication. Where there is celebration and only celebration. That is Kailas. Vaikunth is where there is nothing short. Kunth – is shortage. Vaikunth is where there is shortage of nothing. Where there is only celebration that is kailas. So, Shiv ji is seated in such kailas. Aatma only is Shiva.

If you meditate on shivaratri then the power of meditation is 100 times more, it is said like that. At least do it on that day, it's okay if you don't do it on other days, at least do it one day. It's said for the sake of saying. So that which is always(nitya) and which is (shashwat), that is shiva tattva. It's said beautiful in that shloka:

Shivaratri is the day of Lord Shiva. Shiva is the lord of meditation and therefore the lord of awakening. Shiva Tatva means to be awakened. Shivratri is thus an occasion to awaken one's self from all sorts of slumber. Shivaratri is not a night to be slept over. One should try and be up through the night. It signifies being aware of everything you have and being grateful about it. Be grateful for the happiness which leads to growth, and also for sadness which gives a depth to life. This is the right way of observing Shivaratri.

For the pious, the following method of Shiva worship is advisable - sit down in lotus posture, do some Pranayam to stabilize your breath, then indulge in Dhyana, followed by chanting of "Om Namah Shivaya". It is the greatest mantra and the devout should drown himself in its Kirtan. Shivaratri worship leads to fulfillment of a devotee's wishes.

There are certain days and time frames in a year that enhance one's mental and spiritual faculties. In such times, whatever one wishes, materializes. Shivaratri is one such day. All this is very scientific. Going to temples on this day is OK but you should remember that Shiva is everywhere.

The meaning of Kailasa (legendary abode of Shiva in Himalayas) is celebration. So where there is happiness and celebration, Shiva is present. Whether in Sanyasa or Sansara, you can't escape Shiva. Feeling his presence all the time is the essence of Shivaratri. That is the real Sanyasa. No worship is complete without offering something to the deity. Shiva is a very simple lord, he is innocent - Bholanath. One just needs to offer bel-patra to him. But in this simplicity is a deep message. Bel-patra offerings signify the surrender of all three aspects of one's nature -Tamas, Rajas and Sattva. You have to surrender the positives and negatives of your life to Shiva and become carefree! The greatest offering is your self. To offer one's self is the key to happiness in life. After all, why do you get sad? It is mainly because you are not able to achieve something in life. At such times you should surrender everything to the all knowing God. The greatest power is in surrender to the divine. It's like a drop owning the ocean. If a drop remains separate, it will perish. But when it becomes the ocean, it is eternal!

Your true nature is Shiva. And Shiva is peace, infinity, beauty and the non-dual One. Ratri means "to take refuge." Shivaratri is taking refuge in Shiva.

Shivam, Shantam, Advaitam: Shiva means your very Self your innermost core, the purest Self. Shanta is quiet, peaceful, very innocent. Advaita is non-dual, only One. So, Shiva means good, benevolent, Ratri means that which gives rest, takes you into its lap and comfort. Night is always comforting, all activities have stopped, everything is quiet, peaceful, environment becomes quiet, body gets tired, goes to sleep. Shivaratri -- a rest which is so deep. When the mind rests with the Divine, that is the real rest, only in the Divine lap.

Any meditation we do on this day has a manifold effect, for this is the day when spirit touches the earth.

The first sound when creation manifested was Om. The second sound was So Hum. The third sound was Om Namah Shivaya.

By chanting Om Namah Shivaya, it is said that one gets rid of all the sins. Even if one has never chanted the Om Namah Shivaya mantra, it is worth just listening to it and soaking in it. It is called Mantra Snanam (bathing in Mantra). It elevates the consciousness.

SHIVA TATTVA

Guruji, please tell something about shiva tattva and what is the importance of mahashivaratri?

Shiva tattva is something that is total, complete. If you see Shiv ji then, he is sitting in meditation, immersed in meditation and also doing tandav. You won't find this completeness in any other form or gods and goddesses. He is sitting in meditation, peacefully and also doing dance, shiva-tandav. There is innocence and he is having the knowledge of three lokas (trilok gyani), he is a guru also. He is a beggar as well as eshwar, master of everyone. Is it possible that one can be both – master of everybody and beggar at the same time. We can find this in only Shiva tattva. That's why he is called 'Har' – (jo har ek mein hain) one who is there in each and everyone. (jo har jage hota hain woh har hain) - one who is present in every place. Har means everything. Who is pervading every place, who is there in everyone, in all forms. Shiva is not any person sitting in some hill, kailas hill, he is not that. What does Kailas mean? Kailas – 'Las' means what, where there is celebration, happiness. Where there is a festive atmosphere. Where there is frolicsomeness/ intoxication. Where there is celebration and only celebration. That is Kailas. Vaikunth is where there is nothing short. Kunth – is shortage. Vaikunth is where there is shortage of nothing. Where there is only celebration that is kailas. So, Shiv ji is seated in such kailas. Aatma only is Shiva.

It's said in the Upanishad:

"Shivam shantam, advaitam, chaturtam, mannyante sa aatma sa vigyeya." Shiva is, shanta - which is quite, advait - which is non-dual, there is no other of it; chaturth - which is the fourth state - it's not awake, nor dreaming or nor sleeping (shushukti). It's not sleep, not dream nor awakened state. That which is beyond these three is called "Shiva avastha". When you are in meditation, you are in what state? Tell me. Are you awake? You are not sleeping and you are not dreaming also. But there is something pleasant. That fourth state is called shiva avastha, shiva tattva. Shivam, shantam, advaitam, chaturtam, fourth state, it's auspicious state; manyante sa atma sa vigyeya – that is atma and you are that, we have to get known to it, it's the only thing to be known. After knowing that, then you say – "Shivoham Shivoham". The person who says "aham aham" that is "me, me", when that person melts after going inside him, then he stops saying 'I, I' and says "Shivoham Shivoham". So I am Shiva. Shiva is me. The ever new existence (satta) of the consciousness that is shiva satta. You start experiencing that. After experiencing also, you should sit quite. It's not that once you experience shiva tattva, then you should start roaming with a trishul. Then you have some mental problem. Keep the experience in your heart, keep it there only. With your own mind if you start saying shivoham shivoham, put bhasma and start roaming around by putting a snake around your neck and holding a trishul – no. The significance of snake is, that it is the wakeful state. Shiv ji is sitting with eyes closed. One may feel he is sleeping. No. How is he from inside – like a snake, wakeful, the consciousness is wakeful, fully awake. The snake gives the message of wakeful consciousness.

And some days, some special days, the experience of shiva tattva is very easy. Like on purnima and amavasya, the mood of mind fluctuates as the moon waxes or wanes. Does it happen or not. It's said that the mental diseases increase during purnima and amavsya in mental hospitals. So in the same way, on pradosh, or Mondays the wakeful state of Shiva tattva is more, it is said like that, it's a recognition. If you meditate on shivaratri then the power of meditation is 100 times more, it is said like that. At least do it on that day, it's okay if you don't do it on other days, at least do it one day. It's said for the sake of saying. So that which is always(nitya) and which is (shashwat), that is shiva tattva. It's said beautiful in that shloka:

"Namami shamishaan nirvana rupam, vibhum vyapakam brahma veda swaroopam."

Which is in the form of veda, means in form of knowledge; vibhum vyapakam – that is all pervading. So it is said it is nija also, nirgun also, sagun also, all gunas are there in it, everything is there. After saying this then they say "you can't describe it, now keep quiet. How much will you talk? How much will you describe?" "Chidakasham akasha vasi…" That 'chid' chaitanya also, how is it? It's not a flame or not any object also. It's the chidakash, it's the sky. It's pervading all the chidakash. It's the form of chidakash. Akashvat. That's why shivji is always painted blue in picture. It's not that he was blue colour, it means blue like the sky. And moon on the head, and how is the jata like whole digambar all the digmandal is the jata. There, moon is also inside him. Everything is inside him. So all the ghosts, dead, devil, everything was included in his gana. Nothing was left out of him. It's not possible also. They say that Shivaji's procession. All types of people are there. So in this world, there are all types of people, all belong to that supreme soul. There is no one else here. It's said "Sarvam shivamayam jagat". This whole world is Shivamaya.

The soul of Krishna is Shiva. When shiva tattva took the form of body and became Krishna. That's why it is said that, when the Gita was given, Shivaji had given. Means, staying in Shiva tattva, Krishna had given the message of Gita. That time he didn't give Gita while doing raas-leela. He didn't give it while playing, but that time being in his own self, in his vishwa rupa he gave. So there's not a little bit of difference between Shiva and Krishna. The difference is imaginary. Krishna was a historical personality. Shiva tattva – Shiva never came on this earth. But Krisha came, stayed and then went. That's the difference. In Krishna, shiva tattva took a physical body and in shiva tattva there is no body.

Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh are called vibhutis, so if there is no person here, then what is the relation?

Shakti hai vyakti nahin. These are three forms of omkar. That's why it is said 'Ek Omkar'. Everything comes in one omkar. Three different qualities of one parmatma are called as Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. In our body there is place of Brahma – below abdomen, Vishnu – middle portion, Mahesh – head region. The reproductive organs are situated in stomach and below. From the naval to throat - is the place of Vishnu, all organs for sustaining the body and Shiva tattva is above on the head. Any devastation, destruction happens by head only. And also any transformation happens by head only. The strength (shakti) of shiva is called as Devi shakti. Shiva tattva can't stay without shakti.

Gurujis message on Valentine's Day.....

2009-02-23T00:34:00.000-08:00

"Make God your Valentine. We will never be ditched, deceived or deprived,” said Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at a Satsang in Kolkata on Saturday when the city was in the grip of the Valentine’s Day fever. The Art of Living founder said the world is so distraught because of the absence of love. “Even if there is love, the problem exists. Because, there is wrong expression of it. Love without wisdom (gyan) can also bring trouble. If love comes with wisdom, there will be joy, satisfaction and benediction, “ he said addressing a crowd at the Rabindra Sarovar stadium. On the attacks on people celebrating Valentine’s Day, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said: “The extreme reaction comes out of fear. Our culture, heritage is not so fragile that one celebration would destroy it. There should be due respect to decency and decorum. But if you apply force against the violators, they will only increase. Force is no solution. Let it happen, if something is bad, people will reject it automatically. “ The Art of Living Guru prescribed five steps to get out of sufferings. First, you have to understand the time you are in. Secondly, do some Yoga and Sadhana. Yoga will stop bad things from happening in your life. Thirdly, think that you have overcome many a problem in your life and will eventually also overcome the problem causing your suffering. Next, you must understand that there are people whose suffering is much worse than yours. Put yourself in the seva’ of that person. Finally, have complete faith in nature’s law no suffering is perpetual. Suffering will come and go. “There are two modes you can be in participating and witnessing. We apply both wrongly and end up being unhappy. You must participate in joy and witness suffering. Whenever there is happiness, participate no matter whose happiness it is. When there is suffering, observe it. But what we generally do is that we only participate in suffering, whoever’s it is. But when there is real cause of happiness, we become its mere witness,” he said

The March

2009-02-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Founder, Art of Living, has conceptualized this march to awaken and empower citizens in order to create an on-ground structure that will actually effect a change in societal circumstances and situations, in keeping with His vision and mission of a stress-free, violence-free planet where individuals contribute towards the goal of a One-World Family.

The objective of the march is to awaken and empower the people of India, especially the youth, to participate in the democratic process. This march is the first step of a nationwide campaign aimed at amplifying the collective voice of the citizens and propelling the youth of India against Corruption and Terrorism.

The support and ownership of civil society is an important element in eradicating the problem of corruption and terrorism. Under the sensitisation theme of "Make your Country your Valentine", we endeavour to catalyze this movement, across the nation, with a 3 fold solution: AWARENESS, ACCOUNTABILITY & ACTION.

Life till now .....

2009-02-10T19:14:00.000-08:00

Long time since I posted anything. Anyways, the semester began with the usual enthusiasm, with many of my friends taking vows to sincerely study for the rest of the semester to come. And it wasnt rocket science to guess what was to follow a week later.... ;) . Anyways , the curriculum this semester covered many topics of my interest....like Finite Element Method, CAD/CAM , Refrigeration and Air Conditioning and Automobile Engg. This time we have 2 really good teachers taking RAC and Auto classes for us. Learning under them is quite an experience.
Pragyan was scheduled to be held from 12th to 15th Feb and I was supposed to manage the Prelims round of Tux Venture. Prelims were scheduled to be held on Feb 1. Around 2 weeks , before the event we had a wonderful surprise. Gurudev was supposed to visit Trichy during the last week of January . I was thrilled to hear that. The next week we tried to convince the Secretariat to schedule Guruji's visit to our college, but with no success. Guruji suggested us to meet him during the satsang which was to be held in the city. That made sense , since a look at his travel schedule these days can give headache to most of us. Around 5 days before the maha satsang, Dr. Babu who was incharge of the whole event met the director and a few of us regarding the participation in the mahasatsang. The task was to reach out to as many youth as possible and confirm their participation in this event. The catch was we had only 1 day to cover around 50 colleges in the city. Dr. Babu with all his enthusiasm convinced the Vice Chancellors of the 2 main universities, namely Bharatidasan and Anna , to send students for this event . Within 2 days the 10 of us reached out to approx. 50 colleges and around 2 - 2.5K people in the city. The Director guarenteed participation of around 600 students from our college itself. Kshitiz and SK volunteered to ensure participation from our college. A lot more happened , even during the day of the mahasatsang and days prior to them , all that sometime later. However, my event prelims date was right around the corner and with all the time put in the AOL work it was really difficult for me to set even half the target questions for the prelims . We decided to write around 300 questions but managed to gather around 130. Thanks to Sathya,Sanket and Akhil who did a lot of the work themselves for this.... (I managed to set only about 52 questions .... :( ) Anyways , all s well that ends well , the event gathered a nice response with around 130 registrations and participation from a number of colleges. ...
Bye , gtg , class at 920 ...
Jai Gurudev...

Gurujis message for the new year

2009-01-10T01:10:00.000-08:00

"The last hour of 2008. The time on this planet for us is a gift. Time is a gift to ourself. When we consider time as a gift our whole outlook towards life shifts. Like every year 2008 also has offered you many gifts. With it's thorns it has made you strong, with its petals it has given u joy.

Any event has the good and not so good. The not so good has made you strong and realize you can handle it. Good part gives you peace and tranquility. This Last hour is good to reflect how you welcomed 08 when it came and how it swept you and swirled you and passed you on to 09.

08 has made many rich people poor. Those who never thought they could come down from their ivory towers had to smell mud. Many who have cheated got exposed. The flaws of capitalism laid bare before our eyes in 2008, like 20 years ago, in 1989 the bubble of communism burst.

Through all this time we learnt one lesson- we should never compromise on human values. Love, compassion, sense of gratefulness and vision for everyone has to dawn in our life.

08 also saw terrorism, loss of life, Sudan, Iraq, Gaza, India had the worst ever terror attacks.

People have asked me — that they are feeling guilty to celebrate. Barely two months after the economy fell, one month after terror attacks — how to celebrate?

Yes, you will feel guilty when your celebration is aimed at gratifying yourself. But if the intention is to uplift everyone in your area, just do it. Don't delay it. We will never feel guilty if we our celebration takes people out of their gloomy moods. This celebration becomes service and there is no guilt. And when your service becomes celebration, there is no ego and pride in it.

Get this. When celebration becomes service, there is not guilt. And when service becomes celebration, there is no pride.

Let us celebrate with this one intention that let's bring home the (Spiritual) Knowledge to everyone — that life, events are impermanent. What is permanent is our spirit, our consciousness. It has no birth and death. Life at a higher plane is eternal and so celebrate every moment knowing that every moment is a gift to us.

2009 we have a great responsibility to uplift the planet from the ashes of the disasters of 2008. New hope, new creation has to made.

It is easy to get swept away in a negative mode. It takes courage to move out of it. I am sure all those who are here have this capacity … And all those who are listening (and reading this) also have that capacity!

At 11 pm, make 2 wishes
1- Personal - What you want for yourself in 2009
2- What you want for the world (ie: peace in Sudan and Iraq, stronger economy in the US,…)

And if there is no difference between these two wishes, then you are enlightened !!!

Last year there was a concern that there would not be enough food on the planet to feed everyone. This year I feel there will be plenty of food on the planet for everyone (lot of yield will come through). Later this year economically Europe and US will become strong. Don't have concerns. It will become better and better … the second half of the year (2009).

Winter Break 08 - 09

2009-01-07T02:14:00.000-08:00

This was my second YES+ winter break and was one of the most fascinating times of my life. Amit was to do the advance course with me and was supposed to arrive on 29th morning. The reporting date was 28th and the YES+ organizers were refusing to let Amit do the course if he did report on 29th morning. Somehow .... he was allowed to do the course hence stepping into a journey like no other.
Dinesh Dada initiated 800 YES+ graduates into the advance course with the grace of the master always behind us to push us forward towards being more hollow and empty ..... ;) . As Gurudev says about the advance course ," place yourself on the table, just enjoy the massage, & let the masseur take over". Delightful meditations from the supreme self .... :) .
The 3 days of silence was very very powerful. As per the tradition we begin the new year in silence with a GuruPooja and a small meditation. Its really nice.... The whole world makes noise and we were in silence ....
The fun part started when we had our upgrade..... The treasure hunt , puzzles , making castles of playing cards , ..... On the 4th of January Bau challenged us to run the canteen of the ashram . They make an average earnings of 35000 - 40000 thousand on Sundays we were challenged to earn 70000 on the 4th. The entire YES+ team came together to make it successful with every person showcasing their talent be it tatoo drawing , singing , dancing , playing musical instruments , marketing , cooking , etc. Amit and me handled the cooking of the Middle East section throughout the day ..... We cooked Hummus and served it with bread and Sesame salad.
The effort from the entire YES+ team enabled us to make earnings of 70000 ..... target achieved ...... We spent the next 2 days resting in the ashram and left for college on 6th Jan .... A thoroughly exciting and wonderful week at the ashram .....

Jai Gurudev ......
Bye Luv

Cya

Uninstalling Linux on a dual boot Vista

2009-01-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

Thats something I would never do in my wildest dreams. However my dad has a company given HP Compaq 6510 laptop and I somehow persuaded him to install Ubuntu on this laptop. The company sysadmins hated the idea and refused to recover the system when asked . So daddy gave the laptop to me a day before I left for Bangalore and asked me to "Uninstall Ubuntu" (though he enjoyed every experience of working with it..... :) )

So to uninstall Ubuntu without touching Windows Vista you need :

Windows Vista DVD

Ubuntu LiveCD

Procedure:

1) Insert the Vista DVD and restart your computer.

2) Be alert.... Press a key when prompted.

3) Select language , time format , keyboard.

4) Click Repair your computer ... (It will be on the lower left corner)

5) Click the operating system you want to repair.... (The DVD checks for all installations of Windows and enlists all the windows operating systems. If you have just one select it) Click Next.

6) Click Command Prompt

7) Type Bootrec.exe/FixMbr and press enter .

Thats it ...

Vista bootloader has overwritten MBR and now Vista will boot automatically ...

Till now the Linux partitions are safe and since Vista s bootloader doesnt recognize Linux OS you wont be able to boot into Linux. You may have to recover GRUB to do so.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-26T10:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays everyone and Happy New Year too..... This is my last post from Pune and it has been a wonderful time spent with my parents,relatives and friends here.I had a great vacation in Goa and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it . It also awakened a new interest in me , that of adventure sports .... :) . I will be going to the ashram for the winter advance course with Bau and Dinesh and will be further heading towards college for another gruelling sem ..... :)

Jai Gurudev

Fedora 10

2008-12-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

Fedora 10 was released a few days ago and since Fedora 9 for me was a bit of a dissapointment ,I hoped things would smoothen out in F10 .

The installation was smooth .A nice interface welcomes you at installation . I usually create 3 partitions alloting around 700MB for /boot , 1024MB for swap and remaining (around 40GB) for / .

Fedora 10 got widespread publicity and a number of market reviewers praised it for its server stability , faster boot loading ,etc. New users may be attracted to the distro and might be ready to give it a try without knowing Fedora’s and Red Hat’s aversion to proprietary formats like mp3,avi,flv,etc. That means when one first installs Fedora 10 none of ur mp3,avi,flv files will play.PackageKit will simply ignore these files since your software repositories do not contain the appropriate packages.

The solution for this is to install the necessary software from dedicated repositories which host these restricted drivers. RPM Fusion hosts a huge repository containing all these packages. To include RPM fusion packages in the software sources do the following.

su Password: — Your root password rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

The rpm will install in a few seconds and will be added to your software source.

Now if the necessary codecs to run a file are not installed PackageKit will direct you to the appropriate source.

I use a Dell Vostro 1310 with a 2.1GHz Pentium core 2 duo processor , NVidia GeForce 8400 graphics card. For graphics on the system I downloaded the necessary drivers from here .

For installing these drivers you have to :
Kill the X server and then run the package.

For killing the X server boot into runlevel 3 .
To do so :
su Password: — Your root password /*Open inittab in your favourite editor*/ emacs -nw /etc/inittab /*and change the runlevel to 3 */
Reboot your system and as root run the package and your drivers will be installed.

GNOMEs latest version features nautilus with tabs a very handy hack.OpenOffice supports .docx ,etc formats (a huge sigh of relief).

Things I did not like:
KDE appearance sucks. GNOME rocks . However since I am a big fan of VLC and Amarok I was dissapointed with the window appearance for both their GUIs since both are coded in QT .

Mplayer and Rhythmbox might work out as good replacements.

Came across a nice site which serve as personal guides to fedora 9&10 .

Also tried Gnome Do . More on it later

Bye ,

Jai Gurudev.

Talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - 6th December 08 , Napean Sea Road

2008-12-26T09:30:00.000-08:00

It is obvious that when the society is attacked, and we lose our near and dear ones, it causes a lot of sorrow. It also causes fear. But if we keep reeling in this sorrow and fear, and the anger that comes along with, then life moves towards the path to perdition. But suppose we want to channelize this energy and prepare to face this war bravely, we need to first calm the mind and come to a state of equanimity.

We need to become ‘Sam-darshi’ (One whose vision is equanimous). At this Priyadarshini Park, let’s all pray for those who have departed, and let’s take a pledge to be ‘Sam-Darshi’, the equanimous one.

Today we are all angry with the politicians, or with our system. Our police lack the necessary arms and ammunitions. We still find ourselves stuck with old outdated concepts. Entire Mumbai seems angry. I would say in one way this is good, that we at least have woken up. We are no longer ready to take the ‘Chalta Hain’ attitude. For so many years India has seen terrorist attacks in different places, but for the first- time the entire community, especially the youth, have woken up. But I would like to say that changing one person, trading one minister for another, is not the solution. A new minister swearing into some position would take 6 months just to understand the whole system. So we all need to think on how to make our system stronger. Just by reacting out of anger, and targeting one community in our anger is fruitless. We cannot blame an entire community for a wrong.

Firstly, we all need to come together and pledge that we shall work for protecting our country. And let’s also resolve to first examine the qualifications of those who we elect. We need social leaders who are ‘Satya-Darshi’ (Truthful), ‘Sam-Darshi’ (Equanimous), and ‘Door-Darshi’ (Farsighted). We need to protect our country from those who manipulate issues for their personal gains and lead by playing ‘Vote-Bank’ politics.

Secondly, we will resolve to not act out of anger, but instead channelize our dynamic energy for the betterment of the society. We will also expose all those who are supporting violence, no matter what religion they belong to. We will get rid of the mentality which asks us to protect people from our own religion, or community, even if they are doing wrong. This is very important. Sometime we protect the faulty people in our families. We will not do this anymore.

I just returned from Arunachal Pradesh in the morning. We need to send this message to all our neighboring countries that India is ONE. China is asking for Arunachal Pradesh, I would like to tell them, “Why are you just asking for Arunachal Pradesh, ask for the whole of India! We consider the entire world ours, why are you stuck only with Arunachal Pradesh then?” We will never allow this separation to happen! We are not ready to cut one thumb out and give them, but we are ready to give our entire hand to shake! India is ONE and will remain ONE. We might have different religions, communities, languages and cultures, but underneath all this diversity, every Indian is ONE. We need to send this message to Pakistan, Bangladesh or any other nation. We will not allow them to play with us anymore.

Today when Mumbai is attacked we all have woken up, but you go to Assam and see the condition there. 5 districts there are suffering from continued violence. Lakhs of people had to flee from their houses and are living in camps. The situation in Assam is completely hand crafted by politicians. But we never get to see this in our news. Today, we shall pray for not just the victims of Mumbai alone, but for the victims of terror and extremism everywhere in India.

We are proponents of Peace, but we also are the descendants of Guru Gobind Singh. Today, we need ‘Sant-Sipahi’ (The Saint who is a Soldier). We don’t need just saints, we don’t need just soldiers, but people who are both. Every human here shall be a Peace Messenger, and a Peace Soldier. Peace Soldiers are those who have dynamism and a will to stop the wrong. Peace Soldiers are those who expose the wrong deeds and doers in the society, and stand in protest.

Today is Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s anniversary. We all must remember the good work done by him in starting the movement against ‘Un-touchability’. Even today, some villages of India are practicing Un-touchability. This should be immediately curbed. Nowhere in our scriptures has un-touchability been advocated. In India, we have a tradition of worshiping the feet (Paada-Pooja). In fact in the west the feet are considered low and un-holy. Washing the feet, worshiping the feet has always been a sign of reverence in our culture. Just like the body has different organs, the society has different castes philosophies and religions. But all of them ultimately represent that One Divinity. Remember this fact. Never think that our scriptures, our religion is superficial. There is immense depth in our ‘Shastras’. Sometimes we see that there is a huge valley between what is written in the scriptures and what is seen in our daily practice. Islam, what it actually says and the way it is practiced today is completely different. Same goes for the Vedic knowledge. Our Vedas say that all humans are one, and yet we see casteism and un-touchability practiced in places. These practices have no religious significance whatsoever. This should be stopped.

So we need to bring a wave of social transformation, and each one of us here will need to take responsibility for the same. Can we all do it? Raise hands – all those who would like to join hands for this task. Yes, we all can do it. But one thing we need to remember again is that we should not act out of anger. When I went to Iraq and met some ministers there, and told them that by practicing meditation we can pacify our anger, they requested me to not pacify the anger of their people! They want their citizens to stay angry till they don’t take their revenge from America. I was shocked! Anger will always lead you to remorse.

Peace does not mean inaction. We want a revolution, but we want a Peace Revolution. Mahatma Gandhi advocated Peace, but he did not just sit back and let injustice happen. Out of peace, he took action. The essence of entire Geeta is this – Fight with equanimity. Today, this message of Geeta is applicable to Mumbai. Mahabharata, which happened 5200 years ago, is now repeating itself again. We are again seeing a ‘Dharam-Yudha’ (A Battle for Religion). And in this battle, all the nations of the world, except a few, are with us! And even those nations, which are not with us, it’s only select people from those nations who are not with us.

Their own missiles are now shooting back at them. Let’s not make this mistake ourselves. Whenever I have traveled to Israel, I have been told by the Jewish leaders there that India is the only nation in the world where a Jew has never been attacked! India is known for its tolerance and peace. India is the only nation on the planet, which has advocated peace and welcomed people from all religions and countries with arms wide open. But what has happened this time has left us hurt and wounded. However, we shall not let this stain our spirits – We shall overcome. Are you all with me?

We will not let go of our culture, our nature – which is peace, which is non-violence. But with this philosophy of non-violence and peace, we shall teach such a lesson to all the terrorists, that they will not even know what hit them!

And I would like to ask all the media and the journalists to pay some attention towards the North East provinces of India. There is a lot of violence happening there. Our media does not show these incidents at all. Each state there is gripped with violence. People are living in fear. We have completely forgotten those people. They only see Mahatma Gandhi’s name in the currency bills, otherwise there is no reflection of his principles there.

I would like to say to all the families who have lost their dear ones that the soul never dies. Those who have departed us have merged with the divine, and their souls are still with you, with us, with the entire nation. Hence we should not sit and shed tears for them, for they are martyrs. Everyone will die, including us. But they have sacrificed their lives to wake us up and make us realize that others should not need to suffer, that this should not happen again. Know that once you drop the body, there is no more suffering to the soul. However, people who are left behind on the planer suffer for their loss. Now this sorrow that you might feel should be channelized properly. Don’t go in depression. We are conducting Trauma Relief Workshops everywhere. All those who saw these attacks, and are suffering with the traumatic impressions it leaves in the mind, need to learn pranayams and meditation to flush this negativity out. So ensure all those who you know are feeling dejected and scared, even just by seeing these proceedings in TV, attend these Trauma Relief camps and learn meditation, so that they can once again be filled with hope, enthusiasm and happiness.

Jai Gurudev!!!

2008-12-26T08:25:00.000-08:00

Jai Gurudev.My first post on the blogger domain. I have a blog on wordpress here. However I felt that blogger's feature of user being able to edit the CSS free of cost was really cool. Hence the shift.
Anyways I hope you have a nice time reading the posts..... :)