New place for south/central Austin II

As we all know, Art of Living Austin is growing and expanding, even though we loved to gather around Shraddha and Anoop’s home for the weekly long kriya, there were times (very frequently) that we were running out of real-estate and had to place yoga mats creatively to make space for more.

So, the thought occurred to move out of the private home and move to a neutral location like a community center (like we used to do) and may be probably find a place few miles north that way it would be equally convenient/inconvenient for every one. 

We combed through churches, schools, fitness studios, yoga studios, Pilates studios and dance studios. Surprisingly a lot of the churches had availability but not at the time we required (Sunday evening) for they were booked for their youth ministries. as for the yoga studios, they didn’t want to entertain us for the conflict we may have with their practice (fair enough, I guess). Schools would have been ideal but the rates were not conducive enough for our operations. While some Yoga studios were willing to work with us, it was either the location or the lack of air circulation (core to our existence)  prevented us from signing the place.

So, Austin we believe we have found the ideal place in terms of size, location, cost and accessibility.

Please do join us every week for long kriya follow ups on

Day and Time: Sunday’s at 5:30PM

Location: 4544 S Lamar Blvd #200, Austin, TX 78745 Studio 1

And help us prove that we made the right decision in renting this studio. 

I would not be fair if I didn’t thank Shraddha and Anoop on their generosity for letting us use their place every Sunday evening for the long kriya.

Thank you Shraddha and Anoop for lending us your space and wishing you luck on the new phase of your journey. 

As with any new thing it would be a learning curve for all of us so please do bear with us for the location is as new to you as it is for us :).

Second International Day of Yoga celebrations

They say everything is big and better in Texas, so why should our yoga day be an exception? you read it right, Art of Living foundation in collaboration with HSS and ISHA foundation along with ~45 partners celebrated the International Day of Yoga on July 30 2016.  Did I tell you there were ~800 people in attendance doing yoga. 

Back in May 2016, when one of our teachers raised the point that we need to celebrate international day of Yoga and it will not be done on June 21st when the rest of the world celebrates but on July 31st, I admit, I was one of the few who was some what disappointed and didn’t want us to sign up to lead the effort for I didn’t see us becoming another event management  organization.

Thankfully they didn’t listen to me and took it up in a stride to organize the event, soon enough we had a Facebook page, a website,  few collaborators and lots of partners which kept on growing over the next month or so. In the end we had over 40 partners and 3 other organizations which were actively collaborating with us.

Within the limited budget we were able to flyer, conduct TV interviews and unlimited sharing and advertising on Facebook.  The only avenue I think we left untapped was Twitter. In the end, all of these created enough awareness amongst Austin crowd that we had ~800 people showed up to do yoga on a hot summer Saturday evening. Needless to say we are thankful to all those who showed up to do the yoga.

The event day truly saw each organization bring out their expertise to the game. We from Art of Living brought our expertise of overall organization and had our hand in every single aspect of the event, be it on stage with yoga, music and meditation or the ground work of  crowd management. HSS and ISHA had the man/woman/student power to handle the masses of people who were heading to the capitol  (on a side note, volunteers of HSS had come from Houston and San Antonio to help out/assist the event), Agni the dance studio handled the whole stage setup, microphones, speakers, the yoga dance and the other logistical side of the event, last but not the least our yoga partners who spread out on stage and all around the capitol grounds leading the Yoga.    

Yes we did it, the second ever yoga day celebrations was a grand success beyond all metrics. We do have a lot of people to thank both inside our organization and outside and more importantly he Counsel General of India, Houston. 

Keep an eye on this area for I will be posting the pics and videos as and when I receive them.

Art of Living center address – update on Google

Some reason, Google believes that our new Art of Living center is located at 13699 Pond Springs Road Austin TX 78729 and it is permanently closed.
You all know our new center address is 13091 Pond Springs Road, Suite 208 Austin TX 78729 and our center is open and thriving. I request your help in fixing this. It is a simple 3 step process,

1. Search on Google for Art of Living Austin and it comes with permanently closed link like below  
   

   
2. Please click on the feedback and suggest the new address 13091 Pond Springs Road Suite 208 Austin TX 78729
3. Hit submit and you should get an email in your account saying that your feedback is being reviewed

I have done my part and few of us have done it too and I am hoping if more people do submit the change then hopefully Google will act on it fast and change to the right address and show us open.
We appreciate your effort.
We have one more issue with Yelp which believes we are still in our Lamar location, if you are the owner of Yelp account for Art of Living Austin please ping me.  

Podcast on Creativity

I am a recent convert to podcasts, turned to them specially after my good friends visit from California. Anyways, off the many things I subscribe to now one thing I am regular with is Ted Radio hour from NPR. The podcast runs for an hour or so in which they combine multiple ted talks on a particular topic, in essence it is a superset of ted talks. 

One such Ted talk that I recently heard were on Creativity, they covered few different aspects for creativity

1. Not being selfish, no me and mine 
2. Ability to fall on your face and make mistakes
3. Frontal cortex of brain or as we call Ego which monitors me and mine to be off
4. Practice a lot of it also helps
5. Creativity needs to be nurtured
6. Showing up every day and being consistent about the process

All good points, one thing I really loved if they had covered was aspect of meditation. For a good meditation more than a few criterion listed above are to be met and in my experience more and more creative ideas flow right after a good meditation. As Shri Shri Ravishankar says for a good meditation, you want nothing, you are nothing and then sit with that attitude and meditation will happen. 

Our Art of Living center here in Austin do offer Meditation courses among others. Needless to say there is the Happiness Program which is also offered on a regular basis which helps one with the awareness of interaction between the different layers of existence.

On other hand people say, meditate on the issue that you want to solve and I believe that is the most useless thing to do.

One world meditation

The title might seem off but no it was an actual event hosted by Art of Living foundation on January 17 2016. The event was a curtain raiser for the bigger event World Culture festival to be held in Delhi, India from March 11-13 2016. As you may already know we in Austin are also planning our own local curtain raiser and our folks decided a face to face meeting to be had right after the meditation.

My mind was completely occupied with the logistics for the event and how best we could make this event a grand success and so on, on top of it somehow we didn’t have the right link and when we tuned in for the meditation it had already started. This I believe was the first time that Facebook was hosting, unlike the previous times when youtube used to host and there were some delays in the audio. All in all when everyone else in the room was feeling wonderful after the meditation I didn’t pack the punch.

It was as though the universe heard my dilemma and on screen Sri Sri started talking again (we didn’t realize then but were re telecasting the meditation event) and out of curiosity the volume was increased and lo behold there was one more meditation to be done and this time with no breaks in the telecast and don’t know however many minutes later I opened the eyes and it was a peaceful and beautiful moment.

In case you missed the meditation and the Q and A that followed, don’t worry you can find it here. 

World culture festival–curtain riser in Austin

Every 4 years there is a Cricket world cup, same goes for Football or for that matter Olympics too but is there a world wide get together for culture and spirutuality?, I am not asking the question but the question is being asked by a great humanitarian Sri Sri Ravishakar.

Sri Sri Ravishankar (fondly known as Guruji), founder of Art of Living and other organizations operating under the umbrella of Art of Living. If I may steal his words, March 11-13 marks one such historical get together with cultural and spiritual events from all over the world, from Japan to South America showcased on a single stage in Delhi, India.

As a precursor to it, we started off with a bang today morning with 1 world 1 meditation event. The event was watched live from over 155 countries.

That said, as a next level in the run up to the festival we plan to do an official curtain riser here in Austin.

Date: February 6 2016
Venue: Art of Living center (13091 Pond Springs Road, suite 208, Austin TX 78729)
Time: 4:00-6:00PM

At a high level the plan is to get community and spiritual leaders from all over Austin under one roof and inspire and inform them about the world culture festival.

We would love your help in organizing and executing this event. There are multiple levels in which you can help (all the way from invites to planning and execution), Please contact Art of Living Austin for more details.

In case you are still wondering what WCF or world culture festival is,

World Culture Festival (WCF) will bring together over 3.5 million people from 150 countries representing different global cultures, nations and faiths as a one world family to celebrate cultural diversity and the Art of Living Foundation's 35 years of service to humanity. The Art of Living is a global movement founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar – an Indian humanitarian leader and peace ambassador.

The three-day celebration will open with a one-of-a kind peace meditation, for 3.5 million people, setting a new Guinness record for largest mediation gathering ever. The concert stage will host more than 10,000 artists who will play 40 traditional instruments in a never before seen symphony collaboration. WCF will also host an all-inclusive inter-faith meeting where international spiritual and religious leaders will participate in discussions on global concerns. Lastly, the Global Leadership Forum will occur on the second and third day of the event and will bring together leaders from varied backgrounds such as business, government, politics, sports, science, NGOs, spiritual and religious organizations, media and academia.

You can find more details by visiting the website

Welcome to the new Art of Living Austin center

Remember the blog post “Bye bye Lamar center”, in that I had mentioned in the last sentence “its time to translate the learning to a newer and better center”, we the Art of Living family are proud to announce that we have to a large extent (in my eyes) have exceeded that expectation and are almost ready to welcome you all to the new center, got to wait a couple of weeks before it will be officially open for business though. For the impatient few the address is 13091 Pond Springs Road, Suite 208 Austin TX 78729

I think that was a good teaser, now to the actual reality of things. We worked for almost 6 months and churned out 3 different Realtor's before narrowing down to Travis Waldrop who I must say almost miraculously found a space, negotiated a good deal and made us set for the next five years.

What did we gain from this new center? a fair question to ask and here is the list

• 2600 SQFT of open customizable space, mind you even in retail spaces it is not easy to come by. 
• A good retail location, there are advantages to it including extra parking spaces and one contiguous self contained space with better visibility 
• Bigger meditation hall (~300 SQFT bigger than Lamar center) with cross ventilation for fresh air
• Recessed lights in the meditation hall
• A break room/kitchen (no cooking though) with counter tops and cabinets
• Wood laminated floors for the whole center
• 3 independent areas for conducting courses and events
• In terms of sheer square footage we are almost 800 SQFT bigger than Lamar Center
• All the above without substantially increasing our monthly operating expenses

Some of us did visit the under construction center today and were blown away the way it looks. Thanks to some of the volunteers who worked tirelessly in the search and planning phase for the new center. Apart from all the above good things that are coming with the center, it is an achievement to close 1 center and open an another one with only 2 months of non availability. 

February 1st is when we will officially get the keys for the new center and that is when we will be officially open for business. 

My Marma Practitioner Journey...

The Texas US Ashram welcomed me in its usual manner with the chirping of the hill country birds and the cool meditative breeze. Run Singh ji had made his customary concoction of Spinach Dal and Sabji. As I sat there enjoying the perfect setup that nature had created for me, little did I realize that the journey that I was to embark upon was more magical than I had ever imagined. I was at the Texas US Ashram for the mystical “Marma” course to be taught by Mrs. Revathi Veeraraghavan.

Simply put, Marma can be described as an ancient Indian system of healing – similar to acupressure. Putting gentle pressure on different points on the body opens up energy blocks and balances the system. I had taken a treatment many years ago from Sage Houston (who also gave a guest appearance on our course and left us with a lot of useful tips). I had been through a very traumatic car accident and had trouble sleeping through the night. One treatment from Sage was all that it took to get rid of my shock. Since then, I had taken a few marma treatments for general well-being. I had always been intrigued by this method of healing and when I saw that this course was being offered at our Ashram, I was one of the first ones to sign up.

The course itself was a treat. Seriously, what’s not to like about giving and getting treatments to each other every day of the course? In addition, we also learned a lot about Ayurvedic principles such as prakruti (nature), doshas (imbalances), how to tailor the treatment according to body type to name a few. It was a nice blend of learning about Ayurveda and doing hands-on practice. Learning the whole routine was nothing short of a miracle – definitely His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s (Guruji’s) grace in the works!

The teacher – Mrs. Revathi was absolutely amazing! She was a storehouse of knowledge and made sure each and every one of us got the positions and concepts right.  She also made sure we got our physical workouts done for the day (did I forget to mention the late night dance parties?!) Throughout the course, I tried really hard to find that one word that described Mrs. Revathi – Loving? Methodical? Beautiful? Striking? Composed? Mystical? Bright? Gifted? All of the above.

The Marma practitioner journey continues as we all came back to our cities well trained under the able care of Mrs. Revathi to become certified Marma Practitioners. We all promised ourselves to bring Mrs. Revathi to each of the Texas cities in the near future in an attempt to bring more awareness around healthier and happier living (and continue the dance parties)!

About the Marma treatment:

Each Marma session takes about 45 mins (+ 15-30 mins rest) and the introductory suggested donation of $50 goes to the Art of Living.

Wear comfortable clothes (no undressing is required) and no heavy meal within 2hrs of the appointment.

If you are interested in getting a marma treatment, contact:  

Priya Vijayaraghavan | treeshav@gmail.com | 512.968.2863

Uthra Mohan | uthras@gmail.com

Manisha Soni | manisha.soni@artofliving.org

Shveta Sharma | chawla.shveta@gmail.com

Priya Jai | priyajaitv@gmail.com

Vyom Kumar | vksmbox@gmail.com

Support your Art of Living Austin chapter

Dear Patron

The thanksgiving dinner fundraiser was a wonderful homecoming time! A big thanks to all of you for opening up your hearts and wallets to enable this noble pursuit.

Your contributions (as little as $30 per month) go a long way to help us deliver the quality service that a lot us value so much.

While the dinner might be over, the season for giving is not. If you have not done so yet, make your tax deductible donations now, here!

Thank you for enabling us to serve Austin.

Click Here to Donate!

With gratitude
Teachers and Volunteers

Bye bye Lamar center

Back in November 2009,  we started our Art of Living center in Austin and fast forward 6 years later and the time has come to say good bye.

Yes we had great run for 6 years which included innumerable weekly follow ups, happiness programs, yoga and meditation programs, knowledge series to name a few along with a few volunteer training sessions, DSN’s and pre-TTC’s.  

As many would know, this was our first effort in maintaining a physical real estate of our own, proud of the fact that we were the first in Texas and amongst the first in nation to have a physical center. The most important one for us was maintaining the finances in order over the last 6 years. Many thanks to all the volunteers for donating and doing donation drives and most importantly to volunteer their spare time in upkeep and maintenance of the center.Yes it is a great achievement.

We did learn a lot from owning and maintaining the center and we have grown leaps and bounds in terms of memberships and the activities we are doing as a chapter. Most of which can be attributed to having a physical space of our own we could use barring the calendar conflicts.  

As with anything long term, we had our ups and downs, I personally like to believe we had more ups than downs. It wouldn’t be fair if I don’t thank our landlord PS business parks with whom we have maintained a very cordial relationship from the beginning to end. 

Now that we have wound up this place, its time to translate the learning to a newer and better center. It is coming and stay tuned for updates on the same.

Deepening Roots

Arjun Adapalli’s experiences from the recently concluded Deepening Roots workshop. 

This past weekend, I had attended the Deepening Roots course along with 7 other participants. The course was taught by Lashanda Greene, who was a wonderful person and a great teacher! I really didn't know what to expect from this course at first. I had been thinking for a while about keeping a healthier diet and taking care of my health, but I wasn't very much into gardening, and I didn't know if I would really have much to take away from this course, since gardening was one of the main focuses. Aravind Krishnan the coordinator, was insisting that I sign up for the course. This weekend wasn't too ridiculously busy so I decided to take it anyway.

In retrospect, I'm glad I took the course. We learned a lot about the harmful chemicals that are put into the food that we eat on an everyday basis, due to the current system of food production. Even though I already knew a bit about the issues prior to taking the course (and so did many other participants), I still learned many things about the environmental issues associated with the food industry that I didn't know beforehand. We also focused on the effects of certain foods on our body, and how they affect things like the pH and energy levels in our body. Lashanda gave us great suggestions on what foods to look out for, and she even taught us some tasty and simple vegan recipes. We had a "raw veggie" feast at the end of the first day, which was surprisingly really good. And after taking the course, I find myself feeling less interested in eating oily junk foods and taking multiple visits to the salad bar during lunch. The contrast in how i feel between eating raw veggies and eating junk food is even more clear, thanks to this course.

And as for the gardening aspect of it, even though I'm not super interested in gardening, it was very interesting to learn the different strategies of gardening. It really isn't as simple as throwing seeds in the dirt and watering, there's a lot more to it than one may think. And who knows, maybe I'll start working with the garden that my parents have at our place, and grow some of my own food to consume.

I hope this incredibly long posting has made it clear to you all that I really valued this experience. I definitely recommend taking this course if you have a desire to improve your health and change the way you eat!

Introduction to Art of Living session at Austin Recovery’s Buda campus

On Thursday January 19th 2012, we had the very first ‘Introduction to Art of Living' session facilitated at Austin Recovery's Buda campus. About 20 people (a good mix of youth to senior citizens)  undergoing rehabilitation from Alcohol/Drug addiction participated in the 1 hour session and reported immense stress relief.

A game of 'Seven Up' served as a perfect ice-breaker, it was followed by a  couple of simple breathing techniques and a few minutes of meditation, during which the participants experienced a state of joy. The highly interactive session that followed the meditation involved participants bringing out the knowledge about the natural tendencies of the mind (chewing on negativity via thoughts about regrettable experiences from the past and thoughts about future anxiety), the 4 sources of life energy and descriptions of various experiences of 'present moment awareness'.

Towards the end of the session, most participants shared that they felt very relaxed with a feeling of lightness within and higher energy level. One of the participants shared that he felt bliss rising from within and another participant brought out the knowledge that if joy is felt from within utilizing these simple techniques and there is no point in seeking it through attachments to external means (alcohol/drugs).

The snapshot of innocence, so palpable through the sharing, and the inner beauty, so palpable through the smiles around, was a sight to behold and will stay in my memory for a long time.

The sketch below was drawn by one of the rehab program participants, which beautifully conveys the crossing the barrier of despair and the kindling of human values.

At the end of the session, the participants recommended Austin Recovery's staff members to schedule an ‘Introduction to Art of Living' session every Thursday to help with their rehab. One participant who was spending his last day on the rehabilitation program promised to seek special permission from the staff in order to allow him to attend next week's session.

-Sanjeev Mathur

Sri Sri Yoga with the best

Every course I have attended with the Art of Living foundation so far, started with a disclaimer “all sessions are mandatory, miss one and you are out”. But here was one course that was a complete exception to the policy. This course had the policy, ”if you feel motivated and would like to come, please do. Else, not a problem (we already got your money :))”. At the same time here was the course that I was so motivated to attend and I wouldn’t mind waking up at 5:00AM on a Saturday just to be on time and not miss a single moment. Wondering what I am blabbering about, it was the Sri Sri Yoga with Dr. Sriram Sarvotham.

If you can, imagine a perfect blend of a yoga practitioner, an Engineer and a gifted teacher with an amazing sense of humor then you will probably get somewhere close to Sriram. A yoga practitioner who can bend and twist his body as though bones only exist for mere mortals, a genius who recites the yoga sutras of Patanjali and offers commentary on the same, a teacher who leads by example and can make you do asanas for nearly 2 hours and in the end you would wonder was it really that long?. I can keep talking about him but can’t do justice. I think Sriram should be called (Dr.)^2 Sriram Sarvotham, one for his PhD in electrical engineering and other for yoga studies. 

Now to the course itself, I was apprehensive when I found it was a “yoga” course and split over 2 weekends. The impulsive reaction and the follow up action so far had been to avoid the same. This time around I acted differently and I am happy I did the same. The course was a complete package and had everything for all the layers of existence (want to know more, do a YESPLUS or an Art of Living course). The postures were not new but what was new was the sequence and what kept it fresh was the teacher. The discourses were very original and I was blown away by the way (Dr.)^2 was putting the knowledge across to us.

By the end of the course, I now have a clear understanding of the Gunas(Rajas, Tamas and Satva) and the Doshas(Vata, Pitta and Kapha). I now know a few more pranayamas I have also become very aware of the importance of rest period after an intense yoga session. I loved the way Sriram led the yoga sessions and how he would indicate that some poses as pre-requisite poses for the next level tough poses. The answers to the questions would come out spontaneously and the knowledge flowed effortlessly. On the last day, most of us had sore muscles but all of us had soaring spirits.

Here is a piece of free advice, next time when Sriram is in town and teaching the Sri Sri yoga course, don’t think twice, free up your weekends and just jump in.

On a lighter note, wonder when will the name of the course will change to “Art of Yoga”, hmm . . . we will wait and watch.   

ps: if you thought yoga does not build body/muscle strength, next time when you are around babies/kids observe them carefully.

The Currency of Time

Imagine that everyone in the world got $1000 to spend. It would be used to do a variety of things. Some would chose to go out and party all night. Some might just deposit it in their bank and forget about it. Some might invest it on a child's future while others might decide to donate it to a worthwhile charity. Some might repay a portion of a loan while some might finally afford basic necessities or have a proper meal.

We label some actions as good, some as wasteful and perhaps some as bad based on an elaborate value system devised over time. However, the essence is that everyone got the same $1000. Most of our time above was spent looking at actions, rather than the basic fact that everyone got some money. Even focusing on the amount of money, or money itself distracts from the essence that everyone got something.

We all really have only one currency and that is time. People do all sorts of things with their time - they serve or laze, entertain or bore, create or steal. Debating about how a person uses his time again drifts from this essence. Everyone just spends time being and doing.

What people do with their time has been the basis of all judgments. It has been ruminated on for centuries. All laws, rules, values, morals and ethics are based on what people should do with their time. There is already enough attention and awareness towards this concept.

For a few minutes though, experience this essence instead - the basis of all existence, this absolute time, free from all judgments.

That is Shiva and experiencing it is meditation.

The world culture festival

Art of Living celebrated its 30th anniversary in the form of world culture festival on 2nd and 3rd of July 2011. Here is a short video of the celebrations.

Also, checkout what Austin's own Anoop Iyer had to say about the memorable event.

Science of Breath

Sri Sri Ravishankar interviewed on Tehelka

Sri Sri Ravishankar, the founder of Art of Living foundation and a humanitarian of the highest order. Recently he was interviewed by Tehelka, a leading independent weekly news magazine in connection with the on going stir in India against corruption.

The interview is worth a read for the balanced and wise answers he has given to the journalist asking questions. My favorite is the last one, “Will you ever join active politics?”,

 

Here is a link for the interview.   

Love, Laugh, Learn and Let go..

If you want a quickie of what last-week's AOL Yesplus workshop was about, the title says it all.

Here is the longer version ...
I took the course because, couple of folks, who I highly respect have been recommending this for a while and boy, am I glad that I did?? I had the most awesome time with some of the coolest people I've ever met.

This would probably be the only "spiritual" course, where you run around trees in the parking lot, dance crazy steps and do impromptu skits. I still wonder how it was possible, to make such a serious course, so much fun. It was a good blend of great breathing techniques, the famed SudarshanKriya and some freakish games.

What I liked most is the philosophy of simplicity itself. I tend to clutter myself with a lot of stale stuff. The forgotten saying - 'forgive and forget' restated:: Life is so short to carry around all the emotional baggage. Shed the weight. Travel light. Simplify life! - good concept, I should try.

The course was pretty deep with pranayamas, kriyas and meditation. But, if you just wanna nibble at the surface, you can takeaway a simple view:: Be happy - no matter what! Keep your mind at peace, at any cost! (Does this seem selfish? May be ..)

The homeworks were eye opening too: Make 3 new friends a day, do a nice thing to your parents. I was kinda surprised to see, how friendly strangers are and how even small actions can make someone's day.

On the whole, I got to reflect on myself and the workshop was hugely helpful in calming me down and I learnt some cool breathing techniques.

Until nexttime, be intensely happy
-Vinodh
 

Experience sharing from participants of Bhagavatam

I felt relieved from my burdens. I felt the love and comfort of my co-students. I became a better Christian. I felt such presence of god, of which I have been void in my life –Elaine Filion

I feel very grateful and blessed to welcome to this home and to receive these stories - Suzanne

Divine love in every word – Satish Kumar

Wonderful, amazing, when we made plans to visit Austin, TX, we never knew that Bhagavatam is going to happen, so fortunate to be part of this program. Thank you all, with great pleasure enjoyed the program and gained the knowledge. Thank you again Rajima – Vaidehi Raghunathan

I had the pleasure of hosting Rajima’s Bhagavatam. Listening to holy scriptures is one of the ways to increase spiritual knowledge, spread bhakti, and induce good character and moral values in the community. Sincere thanks to Rajima for being a catalyst to remind us of our duties and the purpose of our lives. – Chandrika Kaushik

I experienced bliss in all flavors, she herself is divine. It was a magical experience to see how each lesson kindled an emotion, experience and much more right away. Life couldn’t seem be any better than right now, it was a blessing - Anonymous  

It was a wonderful and amazing 5 days. Bhagavatam is interpreted as as if we are totally Bhagavatam ourselves and how each story has the effect on our day to day life and how we can separate the good from the bad.  – K Ramachandran

I thought I knew the story of Krishna from childhood. After this discourse, I realize what I knew was a speck in the whole vastness of knowledge, the Bhagavatam discourse Rajima offered. That god is egoless to help you and if you drop the same, you can reach him is the holy grain of this discourse. How beautiful the scriptures are, thank you Rajima – Geethapriya Raghavan

Knowledge snippets from Texas Ashram

Yesterday was Rama-Navami and guruji gave a beautiful perspective for Ramayana.

Rama stands for light/shine inside us (or as Rajima puts it that which is shining in us is Rama)

Dasharatha is Rama’s father, the name means lord of ten chariots. We with our 5 external senses of 5 senses of perception form the Dasharatha

Kausalya is Rama’s mother, the name means skill (which can be attained by purifying, I will get to this later)

Hanuman is the breath

Sita is the mind

Ravana means the one who does not listen to anybody, he comes up with 10 different types of logic to prove he is right (stands for his ten head). He stands for Ego

So, if we look at the story of Ramayana in a nut shell, we (Dasharatha) with the skill (Kausalya) can give rise to the light (Rama) in us and this light with the help of breath (Hanuman) will rescue the mind (Sita) from the ego (Ravana)

Now the skill, the skill can be attained by act of purification, here are things we can do to become pure.

Seva – Purifies the action, self less action

Satsang – Purifies the mind

Sadhana – Purifies the thought/memory, he mentioned pranayamas, Kriya and meditation

Knowledge – Purifies the intellect, Ashtavakra Gita, Bhakti Sutras, Bhagavatam, Yoga Vasishta and so on

Charity – Purifies the money, guruji said at a minimum 1% of our money should be donated to charity

Fasting – Purifies the body, guruji said to listen to the body and fast 1 or 2 days every six months.

He also spoke about calm with in and action outside and not the other way.

ps: I may have Satsang, Sadhana and Knowledge jumbled, it doesn’t matter just do it all.