Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷              Chapter 5               Winning immortality      🌻 Day 40 🌻 ‘What’ – we discussed the Kena Upanishad. It comes in order. First is Isha, then Kena and then Katho – this comes third. Bodh mantra, just the knowingness, not knowledge or the knower. From objects of knowing to knowledge to the knowingness to the knower – these are the four steps to the Self. You can never make the Divine an object of knowing. This is what people are trying to do in the whole world. “Can I see God? Have you seen God?” When people ask these questions, it is so stupid. The Self cannot be an object of knowing. It is the knowingness itself.  It is in death that the knowingness is not there; just like in sleep your knowingness is absent. Liberation is exiting with the knowingness, like witnessing your sleep. You might have had one or two glimpses here and there, maybe in an adva...

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷                  Chapter 5                Winning immortality       🌻 Day 39 🌻 Basically Nachiketa has been instructed two things. One is put in your self-effort. You need self-effort so that you don’t become a slave to your senses, you become the master of your senses. Will self-effort alone work? Yama said, “No, it is only grace that works.” Since everyone is a combination of body and mind, matter and energy, the tangible and the intangible, the manifest and the unmanifest, you need two sets of rules to follow. One set of rules for the body, the tangible, the limited. It works only with effort. Then another set of rules to handle the mind, the abstract, the unmanifest. That works through effortlessness. Often we confuse ourselves and do the reverse. In the mind we put effort and for the body, we say, “Let it be, whatever happens.” You have to exercise...

I am associated and connected to Sri Sri since 12 years now. Since then I have been hearing from all the teachers, devotees and the Master himself – “Do My work and I will do your work.” But I never had this experience all these years and I really did doubt it. I have been travelling for Satsangs and Courses to nearby places while also looking after my business (Manufacturing Paints). Whenever I was out of my factory, there used to be some or the other problem that worried me. I once spoke to Gurudev in Teacher’s Refresher Meet about it, and He asked me to chant ‘Om Namah Shivaya’ and do Ganesh Aradhana (chanting for good luck) . Although I started doing that, the problem still continued and I started doubting more. I was also going through lot of problems in my business and even on the personal front. Due to this I was continuously e-mailing Guruji about the issues but didn’t get any reply. This went on for 2 years. In between, I had recorded my album and had met Guruji t...

My Art Of Living journey began when I was a 7-8 year old kid, and did the Art Excel course. Thereafter, at the age of 14, I did the YES! course, following which, I did not miss the Kriya even for a single day in four years, until one day, when I felt a sudden, gripping pain in my stomach, and within minutes it grew so bad that I couldn’t even move my legs. And before anybody could understand anything, I started vomiting blood. I was rushed to the Doctor and was diagnosed with cancer of the ovary of second stage. The tumour had burst, leading to extreme bleeding. All this happened just a day before I was to appear for an exam, that too of a very difficult subject. Moreover, the doctors said that the only cure was to remove my ovaries. We were shocked!! I was unmarried and was only 22. It meant that it would ruin my future!! I was in a state of severe depression. Somehow, the doctors gave me an injection and a temporary medication which would enable me to give my exam the ne...

It all started about two months back, when my dad, who is a Bank manager posted in Bihar (India) and got stuck in a false litigation case. My dad is a very timid, nice hearted, and soft spoken person. Someone filing a false FIR against him, that too when only a 3 year tenure was left for his retirement, took him into a state of grave panic & sorrow. Every time I would call him, he would be just so sad and surrounded by negativity, that my support would only be like a stream of words that flow in from one ear and flow out from the other. Every time I spoke to him, I would get even more helpless and at the same time, thoughtful, as to what could I do from here (My bread and butter is in Mumbai) to improve the situation. I prayed a lot to Guruji to help me out. One Sunday morning, I gave a routine call to my family, to know if the new day had brought along with it some good news, but to my displeasure, my dad was almost in tears, and for me, this was the peak of my plight...

We all know that meeting Guruji is a great task and definitely an opportunity that we all seek. But He has his own ways. With a magician like him around, miracles are sure to happen and mine too was one such miracle. Meeting my life partner is only Guru’s grace. Ram is a wonderful person but I had made up my mind that I was going to do whatever Guruji said. As I was coming back with Guruji from Amritsar to Delhi in the same flight, I was sure that I would get a good chance to talk to Him. There would be less number of people on board and all would be well behaved and would not mob him. Getting a chance to speak with Guruji, I immediately asked Him whether I should get married. He replied saying “Yes Of course”. I told Guruji that He would have to meet the boy and take his interview. All along, my mind wondered how that would be possible. I also told Guruji my problems and setup. He yet told me to go ahead. Once again I repeated that I would do so only if Guruji met him and...

In the year 2009, I read about Art of Living and finally got a chance to take up Part 1 course in April 2012. Since Sri Sri has walked into my life, miracles have happened in so many ways. I have no words to express my gratitude to him.   In March 2013, during Shivaratri (festival celebrated every year in reverence of Lord Shiva) I took up a Sankalpa (intention) and the biggest miracle then happened to my mother. My mother is from Pontianak, Indonesia. She met my father in the 70’s and and they reside in Malaysia. 40 years have passed since my mother last saw her family, she couldn’t go back to her homeland due to financial constraint and also transportation was not as advanced during those days. Her eldest brother visited her 3 times in those days but after we shifted to a new place we had lost contact with them. My mother helps in volunteering at a local Buddhist association. One day her fellow volunteer friends decided to organize a leisure trip to Pontianak, Indonesia. I had...

It has been quite a while since I’ve been wanting to write about my experiences with Art of Living and having Sri Sri as a Guru. I keep reading other stories and while it fills my heart with immense joy, I kept waiting for the perfect miracle to happen to me, so I could also one day share my experience, my Guru story.   Let me start from the beginning. I did my first course in October 2009. I am an only child so when I was younger, I was pretty shy and had trouble making friends and opening up to new people. Somewhere in my mind, I thought I was lonely, and I wasn’t truly happy. However, I always wanted to change this feeling. I had attended an Art of Living satsang and was mesmerized when I saw just how blissful and happy all the people there were. I did not fully understand the reason for this and was curious to know their secret. I always thought, though, that AOL courses only took place in the Bangalore Ashram so I gave up hope. Luckily, a friend informed me of a course taki...

This is not a very recent experience but it’s my favorite Guru Story so thought to share it. One fortunate day, I rushed from the office to the airport to see off Guruji but he had already entered the gate when I reached so I just leaned on the glass wall waiting for his last glimpse.   I could already feel his presence so strong and intense and as I stopped to look at him, he turned & waved at me and the time froze there and then. I knew that he turned just for me and he started walking, I walked with him. After a few steps, he turned again and to my surprise, he moved towards the exit door and came out. He came out for me, that’s all I know and we walked amidst others. I wasn’t walking just next to Guruji but I could see him all the time and keenly observing him throughout. Guruji looked towards me, pampered me and patted my cheeks. The moment froze and I couldn’t believe all of it while the rest is inexpressible. The way Guruji loves me, only he can do that as he has acce...

Being happy or sad, gloomy or excited, moody or stable… are options that are presented to you every morning. You just have to make the right choice.