Why Ganesha ? Why not Allah ?

Jai Gurudev !!

“Why don’t we pray to Allah  ? “

asked a six year old lass to her papa .

“No darling , we pray to Ganesha ,

Who gives whatever we want ! “ said the loving daddy !

The girl  said in a determined tone , “ My friend says

even Allah gives whatever we want  itseems  “,

Confused father exclaimed , “Oh ! My lil’ darling !

               How can  I make you understand ?

There came in time ,Uncle Sam with a clear stand !!

Uncle Sam tackled the question of the girl with his own ,

The sharp little girl responded without any  frown !!

 

Hey  dear ! Which chocolate do you like the most ?

Lollipop is my all time  Favourite out of the whole lot !!

What about your dear friend then ?

Oh ! She likes the Cadbury’s Milk Chocolate wrapped in foil so thin !!

Can you please tell your brothers’ choice ?

“He gulps at one stretch ,numerous  Eclairs and the Nestle’ Coffee Toffees !”

Uncle Sam proclaimed

“Everyone of your choice of brand is different ,

though the chocolate is one and the same ..

Likewise , each one of us pray to different  names of God as per their taste  ,

Though the God is one and the same !!  “

Relief came to the father and the daughter ,

And then followed a spontaneous Thankful gesture  from the father to Uncle Sam later !!

Love & smiles....

What does Death do to you ?

Jai Gurudev !!


Death is one unavoidable thing in our life.
We come across deaths then and there in our life. 
Some deaths have a deep impact on us . Some do not . 
If the person involved is close to us , then more we are affected . 
Some unknown person's death do not have that much effect on us. We just consider it as a part of life and move on.

But , this Death factor , if we closely observe is a Great Master , we can say .
We learn atleast one lesson from a death .
Death  makes us to realise : 

• we all have to leave this world one day or the other .
• Not only that , we'll be leaving behind all the wealth we own  and all the relationships we hold .
• That's the time we start uttering the words "soul " & "Peace" , which otherwise would never come to our mind at all .
• We get to have a feel of the formless feature in a person  , which gets seperated from the physical body on death .
• Atleast for a moment or few , it makes us to think that we should be good to all and not do any harm to anybody either by words or actions.

If we are deeply affected , then more intense will be the lesson it teaches us .
In short we can say , Death gives us something called as *Dispassion * .

And Dispassion (Vairagya )  takes us to a different state of our being .The words of wisdom do come out from us .We somewhat will be drawn to a meditative state naturally .

That's the reason in Hindu mythology , Lord Shiva , the bestower of  dispassion is believed to be dwelling in the burial ground  and is the one who is depicted as staying in the meditative state always .

But once the person is out from the agony of Death , he once again is drawn to the material world , Passion towards earthly pleasures starts off again ....
In tamil , they refer as " Masaana Vairagya " , the Vairagya or Dispassion which stays as long as we stay in the burial ground.




 The  Great Saint AdiShankaracharya has said , " What Joy can dispassion not give ?!"

So, Death which gives dispassion  also gives us  Joy indirectly , by making us to be in touch with our own self  atleast for sometime.

What if , we always remember that,  any moment  Death can occur to us  ?!

Will we not start to live life to the fullest without any ill feelings , hatred , corruption , violence etc ?!

Will we not start to realise that only this moment we have in our hand ?!

Will we not start to celebrate our very existence ?!


Love & smiles...

So, Let's start admiring ............

Jai Gurudev !!

The U.S President Mr.Obama and the Father of our Nation , Mahatma Gandhi - What a Wonderful Chemistry !!

Soon after he became the President , the news of his admiration for Gandhi came as a pleasant surprise , especially to Indians all over the world. 

For a man who used to hang a framed picture of Mohandas K. Gandhi in his Senate office,

it's no big surprise that  President Obama  along with first lady Michelle Obama ,on his recent visit to India , quickly headed over to this city's Gandhi Museum, a three-story home where Gandhi stayed when he was in Mumbai.

Obama described the personal impact of Gandhi's teachings of non-violence and equality on his political career.   

Obama also  payed tribute to Gandhi at Raj Ghat .

 The president, who once declared that the one person living or dead that he'd love to have dinner with would be Gandhi . A stunning statement which emphasises the admiration he had for Gandhi .

He has said , "He is a hero not just to India, but to the world."

Obama described the personal impact of Gandhi's teachings of non-violence and equality on his political career.

"Throughout my life, including my work as a young man on behalf of the urban poor, I have always found inspiration in the life of Gandhiji and in his simple and profound lesson to be the change we seek in the world," he said.

"I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as president of the United States , had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared with America and the world," he added.

The words of Mr.& Mrs.Obama about our Mahatma is really touching , which goes as

"We will always remember the great soul who changed the world with his message of peace, tolerance, of love,"

This clearly implies that how a man of great ideals can influence the world even after generations ...

Secondly it also opens up the simple truth  that " Admiration takes you to greater heights !! "

The height a person reaches is determined by the extent of admiration he has towards a character or an ideal  !!

The admiration towards Great Personalities moulds up an another Great Personality sooner or later , no doubt !!   

So, Let's start admiring ............ 

Love & smiles...

What we know and what we might not know !

Jai Gurudev !!

What we know is ....

We breathe to live !!

But do we  know how many breaths we take in and out per minute normally  ?


And do we know how many breaths we take in and out when we are angry ?


And the frequency of our breath is a varying factor  , meaning our breath rate changes with our emotions . Are we aware of this fact ....our own breath ?!

Do you know my breath rate ?

And can you guess my breath rate right at this moment ?

  

	Average	During the Anger/Tensed moments	During the Deep Meditation
No.of breaths per minute	16 to 17	20 to 25	2 to 3

Is it not amazing ?!

• And what we know is

By breathing , we take in oxygen and leave out Carbon di oxide.

     But do we know  ….

The deeper and longer the breath , the more the amount of oxygen that  enters the  cells and more toxins (CO2) go out of the cells .
This leaves the cells and in turn the body becomes more fresh  , energizing and healthy ;
the mind gets relieved of  tension  and attains a calm and settled state .

And in the calm state , the mind works quite efficiently  .

Not only that , the creativity skills increase , the mind lives in the present moment , does not worry about the past . No fear about the future .And Joy bubbles up for no reason.

• What we know is :

Tired Person -----> Deep sleep  for 8 hrs  ----> Fresh and rejuvenated

And what we don’t know is ….

Tired person  ----- > Meditation for ½  hr ----> Fresh and rejuvenated.

meaning

Deep sleep  for 8 hrs  <-------equivalent to ------> Meditation for ½  hr 
                  

Is it not quite interesting ?




Love & smiles...

Happy Diwali !!

Jai Gurudev !!

 

The name , Diwali has got a magnetic effect  that we will be attracted towards the celebration , it brings with it all along , once a year.

Starting from cleaning the house and workareas , shopping  for new dresses, jewellery , household items, vehicles etc , Diwali keeps us all busy. Kids just love Diwali , for it brings excitement and colours - the Crackers, the Rockets , sparklers  etc along with the mouthwatering sweets and savouries.

It's a time for the Family Get-togethers , Gift exchanges , Sweet exchanges and wish exchanges too .
The companies do give bonus to the employees to enable them to celebrate thoroughly.

In short Diwali brings in enormous Joy to every heart !!

The Festival of lights  indeed lights up the hearts of all , from kids to teenagers to elders to old people .

As the puranic story goes , Narakasura 's boon from the Lord to bring happiness  to all the people in the world on this particular day has not gone in vain .




Happy Diwali to all !!


   Love & smiles...

Which posture are you in , now , baby ?

Jai Gurudev !!



It's quite amazing to note that when we are born , we have been practising the yogasanas naturally without any efforts .

Can you believe it ?

Till the age of 3 , all the kids sport a very enthusiastic and joyous mood always , thanks to the different yogic postures they remain of their own at various points of time unknowingly  .

And they uplift the surrounding environment by their mere presence. The people around the kids simply forget their worries if any and they feel joy on watching the kid.

How do the the kids know the various asanas ? Who taught them ?
No doubt , inherited by birth because that's our very own nature . 

Just having a glimpse of the kids and their poses  would  reveal the truth !!




Bujangasan or Cobra Posture

 





Bhumi Pada Mastakasan





Cat posture



Vajrasan


When the baby starts growing , then it slowly starts to forget the yogasanas and gets engrossed in the otherwise busy , comfort world . This leads to the beginning of the worry , tension etc in the young ones and the baby continues to grow with more tension and related traumas and diseases till it leaves the world.



  



  



Superman posture 




 




Dhanurasan



Pavana Mukthasana

 

Adi Mudra posture



Artha Padmasan



How nice it would be ,
if we get into the streamline of yoga practises again ,
as we were doing as  kids and bring back
the innocent smile back in our face ...
Cheerfulness in our hearts,
Enthusiastic in our action ,
Friendliness in our behaviour
And become joyous by nature !!



Love & smiles...

Negativity only on the periphery !!

Jai Gurudev !!



It's inevitable that we feel so negative at some point of time.
The trigger point may be either personal , official or even social factors. Whatever may be the case , the negative thoughts we develop due to that , pulls us down so much. We don't feel good at all. It in turn affects our actions too. 
Further , as a chain influence , our negative thoughts will move to the environment , which we are in contact with. Other people are also affected.


Oh ! How bad is this negativity ?! How to get rid off it ?  

Having a look at our composition of our self should come to our help , I think. 

Our self structure is somewhat similar to the structure of an atom . The atom consists of positive charged protons and neutrons at the center in the nucleus  and the negative charged electrons at the periphery.

How the atom is positively charged at the center, our self also constitutes of positivity or positive thoughts deep inside. Whatever we feel negative or the negativity is only on our periphery .

No negativity can really reach and touch our deep inside, which is highly positive.

Just knowing this fact , if we take the first step of keeping in touch with our inner self and get to realise the positivity inside , then easily the negativity in the outer periphery drops off its own.  

Then , we can see ourselves overcome the negativity fast and start remaining in our positivity soon.

I think , you also can give a try in your next rendezvous with the negativitity .

 

Best of Luck !!

Love & smiles....