" Bachhe raho ge toh, bache rahoge....bade raho ge toh, pade raho ge (hospital mein), sade raho ge" - Attended a power packed session with Maheshgiri ji and deep knowledge sessions with Rishi Nitya pragya ji.....no won't share it here :-) if u weren't there, u missed it !! Look out for next opportunity :-)

Also visited Jyotirlinga "Grishneshwar" in a village called Verul near Ellora. Legend goes that Parvati was to fill her hair parting with vermillion and saffron.She kept them in her left palm and mixed some water from Shivalaya in it(when Parvati was thirsty Shivji pierced earth with his trident and got the water of Bhogavati from patal (nether world).This is the shivalaya)Then a miracle occured.Vermillion turned into a Shivlinga and a great light appeared in it!

Since Parvati created this linga with the friction of her thumb, She called it "Grishneshwar"(ghrishna means friction)

All in all, had fun...

Like Gurudev says "When you follow fun, misery follows you..When you follow knowledge, fun follows you " ;-)

Guruji's Talk on 26th Jan

Spiritual bonding holds India
Despite rising threats of religious terrorism, Naxalism and natural disasters,India is moving ahead. What makes India tick? India was born in the midst of religious strife, violence and trauma. Religion has never been a unifying force in the world. What accounts for India's continued strength in the midst of such religious and cultural diversity?
In this century, China has been held together by force while India has been held together by cultural and spiritual bonding. Though religious fundamentalism, caste violence, Naxalism and natural disasters have rocked India in recent decades, the country's resilience that is anchored in her spiritual values has become far more visible in the world.
India is married to its principles: Liberty, spirituality and a nationalism that honours universalism. It is one of the oldest civilisations on the planet.When America was not yet discovered and Europe was in its Dark Age, India's glory was widespread. It was famed for art, architecture, spirituality and trade.
Over the centuries, the country has faced and survived many challenges. On the one hand, India has touched pinnacles of justice and equality, on the other hand, the dalits have been oppressed. India is a country of non-aggressive, humane people, yet practices such as sati have prevailed. It is very difficult to judge India. There is no midway: either people have a high opinion or low opinion about India because it is full of opposites.
For centuries, India's negative aspects have been projected over the good ones.Fortunately, that's changing. As a country, divided by language and caste and subjected to centuries of humiliation, it continues to reel in low self esteem.Like an elephant that can uproot trees but is scared of the mahout's small stick, India can be timid at times. Even the West has called it a sleeping giant.
With one sixth of the world's population, she could have already played bigger role. She now needs to take her rightful place on the world stage. For this to happen, her people need to become more confident and take greater pride in their cultural and spiritual roots. We have to harness our spiritual values to fight terrorism and other social evils and to prevent our young minds from turning to violence. The issue of Naxalism has to be addressed at its roots and the misguided youth should be brought back to the mainstream. We have to remain open to learning and innovation, rather than simply imitating Western consumers and material values.
Today, we need to take steps towards:- Providing Job-oriented education.- Eradicating politics of corruption and malpractice.- Encouraging the educated and the youth to take interest in social development.- Attending to the agricultural sector. While industry has flourished,agriculture has been totally neglected.- Improving basic hygiene- Providing AIDS education- Preventing female infanticide- Ensuring judicial use of water resources
As the population continues to grow, solutions to these problems are still along way away. The wisdom, which was India's glory, has been almost forgotten and needs to be revived.
We should work for an India where there is no place for violence and terror,the poor have both relief and justice, the middle class is free from fear and frustration and is able to dream and to dare, and the affluent take social responsibility and uphold human values. Let us hope for an India which is able totake the best of its wisdom and traditions into the 21st century, both for the benefit of ourselves and for the whole world family.


P.S. When ever people sms or email me saying HAPPY Republic day/Independence day/Diwal/New Year etc etc....i wonder what have they contributed to make it HAPPY...when i ask this to myself, I know what i have done or am doing for it.
....You can ask yourselves too ...get an honest reply and act on it :-)

Green pea and cottage cheese tikki..

Take 2 handfuls of green peas (mutter) . Grind it in a mixer.

Take some oil in a kadai and heat it. Add the mixture to it. Put little red chilly powder, roasted zeera (cumin seeds)powder about 1/2 teaspoon,salt as per taste, dried mango powder (amchur-1/2 teaspoon), and little chaat masala. Saute it in kadai for about 2 mins.Keep aside.

Now grate some cottage cheese. Add little chopped coriander leaves, salt as per taste and little chaat masala.

Take the pea mixture and flatten it like a small pancake with a rolling pin. Fill it with the cottage cheese and close it. Cook (roast ) in a non stick pan or griddle (tawa) with very little oil.

Goes well with mint chutney.

I eat it with some curd and chutney over it :-)

Satyam Asatyam !!

Spirituality is needed in every sphere of life and every strata including individuals, society as a whole, politicians,ngo's,government and even corporates !

P.S. Click on the picture to see it clearly

Nice story ....

-- Monica married Hitesh the other day. At the end of the wedding party,
Monica's mother gave her a newly opened bank saving passbook.With Rs.1000 deposit amount.
Mother: 'Monica, take this passbook. Keep it as a record of your married life. When there's something happy and memorable happened in your new life, put some money in. Write down what it's about next to the line. The more memorable the event is, the more money you can put in.I've done the first one for you today. Do the others with Hitesh. When you look back after years, you can know how much happiness you've had.'
Monica shared this with Hitesh when getting home. They both thought it was a great idea and were anxious to know when the second deposit can be made.
This was what they did after certain time:
- 7 Feb: Rs.100, first birthday celebration for Hitesh after marriage
- 1 Mar: Rs.300, salary raise for Monica
- 20 Mar: Rs.200, vacation trip to Bali
- 15 Apr: Rs.2000, Monica got pregnant
- 1 Jun: Rs.1000, Hitesh got promoted
..... And so on...
However, after years, they started fighting and arguing for trivial things. They didn't talk much. They regretted that they had married the most nasty people in the world.... No more love...Kind of typical nowadays,
Huh?
One day Monica talked to her Mother: 'Mom, we can't stand it anymore. We agree to divorce. I can't imagine how I decided to marry this guy!!!'
Mother: 'Sure, girl, that's no big deal. Just do whatever you want if you really can't stand it. But before that, do one thing first. Remember the saving passbook I gave you on your wedding day? Take out all money and spend it first. You shouldn't keep any record of such a poor marriage.'
Monica thought it was true. So she went to the bank, waiting at the queue and planning to cancel the account. While she was waiting, she took a look at the passbook record.. She looked, and looked, and looked. Then the memory of all the previous joy and happiness just came up her mind. Her eyes were then filled with tears. She Left and went home.
When she was home, she handed the passbook to Hitesh, asked him to spend the money before getting divorce. The next day, Hitesh gave the passbook back to Monica. She found a new deposit of Rs.5000. And a line next to the record: 'This is the day I notice how much I've loved you through out all these years. How much happiness you've brought me.'
They hugged and cried, putting the passbook back to the safe.
Do you know how much money they had saved when they retired? I did not ask.I believe the money did not matter any more after they had gone through all the good years in their life !!

Nagar Trip

Well attended Pranayam Dhyan Shibir in Ahmednagar with Guruji :-) So couldn't post for a while.

The volunteers had really done great work...Approximately 10,000 people did the PDS ! The ground was a sea of people as remarked by Guruji.

More on the trip later

In love and gratitude,

Kanchan

hehe.....

Received it on email ...it says don't let women watch Ghajni

A wicked shortform..

While writing the previous post, a funny incident was coming to my mind.

Once in accounts class (in my teens), our teacher appreciated a student by saying "This person has business in blood ! "

Some of us nick-named the remark as "Bloody Business" :-)

We would always mention this in that professor's lecture .

Do not follow suit :-)

Luv

Kanchan

Why is the term "blue blood" used for Aristocrats?

It was not uncommon amongst members of European nobility to have skin that appeared to have a blue cast. The bluish (or sometimes greenish) discoloration of their skin was often caused by a condition known as "Argyria "

Argyria it the result of ingested silver particles that are not able to pass through the body being deposited under the skin. Historically this was caused by particles from silver eating utensils being swallowed along with food or silver being taken for medicinal purposes. Since aristocrats were the ones who could afford medicine and who enjoyed the daily privilege of eating off of silver plates, drinking from silver vessels and as the saying goes being born with "a silver spoon in their mouth" it was a condition that was more common among the upper class.

However Argryia has certainly been more noticeable among individuals with untanned skin. It is also thought that the term may have come about simply because veins were more noticeable among those with pale complexions even if they weren't plagued by this condition.

Well I have no medical claim supporting it...however it seems sensible.

Psst ..heard somewhere that green colour converts unawareness to awareness !

LOL

An Arab was admitted in the Lilavati Hospital at Mumbai for a heart
transplant, but prior to the surgery the doctors needed to store his blood in case need arises. As the gentleman had a rare type of blood, it couldn't be found locally. So the call went out to the neighboring states.Finally a Gujarati was located who had a similar type blood. The Gujarati willingly donated his blood for the Arab and the surgery went through.After the surgery, the Arab sent the Gujarati ,a new BMW, diamonds, jewellery and half a million US dollars as appreciation for donating his blood to the Arab.Once again the Arab had to go through a corrective surgery. His doctor telephoned the Gujarati who was more than happy to donate his blood again.After the second surgery, the Arab sent the Gujarati a thank you card and a box of almond halwa (sweets). The Gujarati was shocked to see that the Arab this time did not reciprocate the Gujarati's kind gesture as he had anticipated.He phoned the Arab and asked him "This time also I thought that you would give me some thing like a Toyota Prado, Diamonds and Jewellery. But you gave only a card and a box of almond sweets.To this the Arab replied "Can't help it, Bapu..... Now I have Gujju blood in my veins!!"

Disclaimer:
1> No offence meant to any particular person, caste, community or race.....just laugh it out.
2> Author anonymous

My Inspiration

H H Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji's peace mission to Iraq
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=yCMAXClXmAY

The commitment of Sri Sri or Guruji (as we lovingly call Him) towards ' Vasudev Kutumb - One World Family' is a source of inspiration to many around the world.... He says "deep se deep jalao "

It's said that if your are absolutely non-violent, then even in your surrounding ...in your vicinity, ...violence drops . Or should I say that you start radiating peace !!

Getting to spend, even a fraction of second in His presence is an experience of lifetime in itself.

Well what I have experienced I will not write , You have to experience it for yourself...! I cannot do it for you !

Lucky ones (should i say intelligent ones ?) will come to know it sooner :-)

In Gratitude

Kanchan

P.S. : More on Guruji in further posts :-)

Received a sms from my student Diptesh...

I want to go back to the time :

when "getting high" meant "on a swing"

when "drinking" meant "apple juice"

when "dad" was the only "hero"

when "love" was "mom's hug"

when "dad's shoulder" was "the highest place on earth"

when your " worst enemies " were "your siblings"

when only thing that could "hurt" were "skinned knees"

when the only things "broken" were your " toys"

AND

when "goodbyes" only meant "until tom morrow"......

INTERPRETATION: The above lines somewhere denote

Journey from being an adult to a child again..

Journey from arrogance to innocence..

Journey from head to heart..

Journey from the Ugly "I don't know" to the Beautiful "I don't know"....

And the only way to achieve it is through SADHANA, SEVA and SATSANG....

Sadhana transforms your "Potential talents" into "Manifested talents"

Seva polishes your "Manifested talents"

Satsang celebrates your "Manifested talents"

Another way to look at it is

Sadhana polishes your Skill to be with YOURSELF

Seva polishes your Skill to be with OTHERS

Satsang is a mix of both the skill sets

Happy sadhana ,seva & satsasng

Creative Leadership by former President Kalam

Former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam today called upon the youth to work towards building a creative leadership in different disciplines and achieving new goals for the country.
Delivering his convocation address at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Hamirpur, Dr Kalam said the time has come for a drastic change in the traditional roles from a commander to coach.

He also highlighted issues of infrastructure development, energy generation and the need of safe drinking water for the masses in the country.
Kalam asked the institute to focus on emerging as a technical human resource provider for the state.

The NIT, he recommended, should adopt all local 20 senior secondary schools for quality education and also create a 'energy independence plan' for the district through micro-hydel plants, solar energy systems, bio-mass plants and wind power, besides dense afforestation to make it fossil fuel free.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who also spoke on the occasion, asked the engineering fraternity to respect the environmental requirements and come forward to help find quality alternatives for development of the country.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090104/804/tnl-youth-must-develop-creative-leadersh_1.html

Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today .~Herman Wouk

Really liked the above quote....though wouldn't comment on its authenticity !

Gurudev's message for the year 2009 from Germany...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D3Z5H-H_QY

Enjoy

Luv

Jai Gurudev

PS. Your comments for the previous posts are most welcome

Banana Topping

Well my culinary skills not being very refined ( nor that i am inclined to also) would like to share a quick receipe with you...

Cut a moderately ripe banana into small pieces. Heat some butter in a non-stick pan and add some sugar to it. Now let the sugar melt and turn brown. Add the banana pieces to it and let it be over the flame for a minute or two....Have with vanilla ice-cream. (U can wait for it to cool also) This adds a nice flavour to the plain old vanilla ice cream ....yummm

Disclaimer : Definitely not for the calorie conscious

Oops ...

Oops ...I created a blog ! The idea had been playing on my mind since quite sometime but wasn't sure....Today it just happened !! Its a surprise to me too :-)