Rally For River - An initiative to save our rivers

#RallyforRivers

Today i accompanied the #RallyforRiver team in greater noida and gave multiple intro talks in buses and people around. Autowallahs looking for customers, contacted me asking where i wanted to go, i told i want you to Rally for rivers :). This initiative was to generate awareness for the dwindling water flow in Indian rivers.

The water flow in Indian rivers has reduced over the years and this is specially true for the peninsular rivers. Our life depends on water and while we want excellent education and amenities for our kids, most of us pay not much attention to the environment around. Rising population and dwindling water resources are panacea for a future havoc.

Its high time, we need to plant trees which will lead to seeding and regulate rainfall across the country. This will ensure our sustainable existence on planet earth.

Please plant trees on your land and also ask the government to plant on public land. You can give a miss call on 8000980009 which will serve as your vote prodding the government to take plantation more seriously.

Full support and gratitude to Sadhguru Jaggi vasudev for the vision and efforts of his volunteers.

https://youtu.be/OQCiULlQhJQ

Bahubali 2 : The conclusion

Bahubali 2: The conclusion is a fantabulous movie and expectedly it has become the biggest Indian blockbuster of all times. Bahubali is unique because after a long time some movie has portrayed the beauty and richness of Indian culture. Story of Bahubali is engaging and graphics are simply marvelous and i am not surprised to hear that Bahubali might cross the 2000 crore earning mark unheard till date by any Indian movie.

SS Rajamauli garu has painstakingly given his best and come up with this gem. Even youths of my age have gone crazy like a teenager for Bahubali and in the hall where i watched the movie there were extra chairs to increase the capacity.

Bahubali 2 will have following positive repercussions.

1. Women empowerment : It portrays women in strong and powerful roles. The age old patriarchal mindset is gradually diluted with such picturisations.

2. National Integration : It has brought North India and south India closer. Prabhas aka Bahubali is my favourite actor and SS Rajamauli ji my favourite director now. Infact i messaged my friend from Andhra to ask what Sahore Bahubali means :)

3. Tourism : Portrays India in a very positive manner to the western audience and proudly portrays the cultural heritage and values. Certainly many will be curious to visit India.

4. Values : Gandhi ji credited his values to the stories like Mahabharata, Ramayan and Raja Harischandra that he read in his childhood. Bahubali 2 extolls virtues and hence gives our kids a right direction. Bollywood lately has even produced biographies of criminals and underworld dons, this is certainly not desirable from values perspective.

and many more...

I wish success to S. S. Rajamouli garu and his team. His decision to make Mahabharata is exciting me. If it can even match the level of Bahubali (film), i am sure Rajamauli garu will become immortal in India. More power to you SS Rajamauli ji.

Sahore Bahubali..!!

Prison smart course in Aligarh Jail

“If people get sick, we take them to the hospital and give them the right medicine to get better. If people’s behaviour is sick, we bring them to the prison, but we forget the medicines.” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

For the past 6 days i was conducting a prison smart course of Art of living in Aligarh district jail. Course was organised by Parul saxena ji and she requested me to teach to the inmates. 

There were around 50 inmates and juveniles and teaching them was an interesting experience. On the first day there were some inmates who were perhaps caught up with  something going on in their mind and had difficulty in following the instructions.  Most of them though were sincere and wanted to learn. Juveniles were a bit tricky to handle but i reminded myself if teenagers (around 18 yrs age) will not be naughty then who would be ? And i accepted them with smile. 

 

However with each passing day, i could sense the improvement in their condition. Many reported that there sleep quality has improved and they are feeling light. Yoga is best way to remove stress and ensure that not just the body but even mind is flexible and light. 

Thus inspired them each day to practice yoga and later seek even a career in yoga. Told them how to manage anger and taught them how a calm mind is essential before taking any decision and decision taken in haste often leads to repentance later. I was aware that most are inside due to some wrong decision that they took in anger. 

Touched by Sudarshan kriya and teachings, an inmate on his own started keeping flowers everyday near the image of Guruji. His gesture of gratitude touched me and i was not surprised when on the last day of the course he has tears of love in his eyes.

Also during my Art of living sessions, i was noticing that one prisoner had torn shirts and wore them daily, today while his eyes were closed i kept a shirt near him that i took from my home. Seeing this  love he started crying before me and i was happy at the transformation for the tears of gratitude are very precious. They purify the one who has them. .

Today on the last day of the course , all the inmates profusely thanked us for conducting the course and most had tears in their eyes. Though i don't allow people to touch my feets but a juvenile before i could stop came to me and quickly expressed his gratitude. Their transformation was a transformative experience for us too.    

Teaching and volunteering in Prison is a unique experience and must to have atleast once. So i request all the Art of living teachers spread around world to experience "going to prison" atleast once :P :) 

Jai Gurudev

A short introduction to Yoga vashistha

Yoga Vashistha

Yoga vashistha says that individuality does not exists and presence of an independent identity apart from paramatmaa is an illusion. Lets discuss finer details of it.

You mean i dont exist ?

You exist, but your existence is not seperate from the things you see. You see variety in nature but it exists only at surface level. All objects have one soul and are not different from Paramatman. So you exist as paramatman will be more appropriate thing to say.

So why do i feel pain, when i get hurt. Paramatman should feel pain.

Find out the one who feels pain. You dont feel when your nails are cut but feelings are there when other part of body is hurt. Its because you are conscious of some parts of body and unconscious about some. Doctors perform operations on body under the effect of anaesthesia which make you unconscious and you feel nothing. So feeling of pain is dependent on consciousness. 

A mother attached to her child will feel pain if the child is hurt though she cant experience his/her pain.

So do you mean to suggest that we feel pain for those things which are related to us ?

Yes. You didnt suffer when the recent floods in Uttaranchal killed thousands. However the presence of someone you know in Uttaranchal would have changed the scenario.

Ok, If i am paramatman. Why am i limited in this body? Should i not be omnipresent ?

You are omnipresent. You are limited to this body due to attachment to it. You are watching this body since time and you have started to believe its you. 

Wait, Are you saying that i am merely watching this body ? I am acting too. I can lift my hand whenever i want. I can move. Thats my body as i control it.

Seasons come , Rivers ,Sun and Planets move on account of that power, they do nothing. Complex process of digestion of food happens on its own. Everything is happening on its own. When you watch a movie with full attention ? Do you exist then. A person feels at height of his work that he is not existing and is completely absorbed in his work.

Poets experience this and say that nature spoke through me. You work is an illusion, everything happens through gunas (nature).

Ok. I have experienced that i dont exist when i am fully absorbed in work. But why  am i conscious when i am partially absorbed ?

So you experienced that you were nowhere when you focused completely on your work. At that moment just the work existed.

When you are partially absorbed, you are focused on many objects at a time , world being one of them. Hence you are conscious of world and things that you have long identified as yours. Their presence leads you to imagine you are present too. That's why many scriptures advise practice of discrimination and detatchment, so that you dont see world then.

When i see the world , the world rises on account of me seeing it

... to be continued 

Why Yogi Adityanath is a gamble with BJP's national expansion on stake

Appointment of Yogi as CM of UP is a very bold decision and i never expected BJP to be able to take it. Infact when someone told me that yogi is CM, i did not believe and regarded it only as media speculation. In my opinion BJP has played a big gamble and performance of Yogi in UP will affect  course of its success in India.

This decision will have following repercussions

Negative

1. Yogi ji is known for bold statements and a chief minister belongs to all citizens and   is expected to be a statesman, while yogi's perceptions is that of a reactionary. This does not sends good signals to the world.

2. Yogi ji is founder of Hindu Yuva Vahini and as such will not be acceptable to many.

3. BJP has frittered away the opportunity to win hearts and ensuring that veto voting that happens for  is halted after winning hearts.

4. Yogi is good answer to reactionaries among minorities but 90 % of population should not be alienated for the sake of 10%.

5. If yogi continues his pre-election rhetoric and forgets that he has to abide by the constitution, it will sully the image of BJP in India and peace-loving image of Hindus globally.

6. If yogi's herald leads to hooliganism of his supporters, it will be a disaster for the country.

7. For halting terrorism and radicalisation support is needed from amongst the community. Yogi's herald has made those inroads more difficult.

Positives

1. Strict law and order and hooliganism which has become the hallmark of UP, is expected to come down.

2. UP off lately has been witness to many communal clashes and appeasement policies, certainly these incidents will come down because people will understand that swift action without appeasement will be taken. This will bring down both actions and reactions.

3. There are many areas where electricity officials are shooed away and people don't pay bill. We should not be surprised if those people themselves start paying bills. Hence one can expect 24x7 electricity soon.

4. A saffron clad sanyasi at the helm of power is a good retort for those media professionals who have made Hindu bashing their profession.

5. Yogi is incorruptible and also a renunciate and hence top level corruption and  nepotism will come down.

6.   Since most will be expecting Yogi to take parochial decisions and if he goes against that perception, this will lead to long lasting effects. This also gives an opportunity for Yogi to work and break negative perceptions. Surprisingly he has won hearts in Gorakhpur even among muslim community.

7. The agendas for which BJP has fought since its inception like Ram temple, UCC, Abolition of triple talaq, closing of illegal abettors etc can be implemented by him.

8. There are many madrasas which are funded by Saudi money and preach doctrine of wahabism. Such thoughts in young minds  can  corrupt the entire generation and have led to radicalisation. Only a decisive CM can take action against these activities and choke the fund supply. Yogi is fit for the job.

9. Finally past 60 years have seen caste based politics and division among hindu community. Yogi who is a renunciate and beyond all castes can perform good job in uniting the hindu community. Modi should ensure that his direction of "vikas, vikas and vikas" should be adhered too and no deviation is permitted because it will heavily cost him and destroy the goodwill that BJP has made in India.

BJP could have balanced both the positive and negative by having a more acceptable face. If this decision is due to Yogi being the tallest leader of UP then it might be okay, but if its due to hardline image of Yogi then we are doomed.  BJP has played a big gamble and performance of Yogi in UP will affect  course of its success in India. In my opinion BJP should have chosen a more acceptable face but i will be happy to be proved wrong.

Countering Radicalisation through removing victimization

Frankfurt Airport 2nd March 2011 : Uka a young man, walked up to a waiting airman, asked him for a cigarette, and asked whether the airmen were bound for Afghanistan. After hearing a positive reply, Uka waited for the airman to turn away and then shot him in the back of the head, killing him. Shouting “Allahu Akbar” Uka then entered the bus, shooting and killing the driver, and continued to fire three shots at two other airmen, wounding them.

This was shocking as was the first terrorist attack in Germany. World was surprised at what would have led to this young man in early 20s to attack American soldiers who were bound for Afghanistan. It later turned out that he was watching radical content since some time and what motivated him to kill american solders was a video of American soldiers raping Muslim women. Later on investigation revealed that it was actually a clip from Redacted an American anti-war film. Uka, on learning later that he has been conned, cried with tears and said “If only i would have known, my life would have been saved”. However his tears were of no avail and he will spend rest of his life in prison.

The case of Uka is a case of self radicalisation where person was radicalised only after watching youtube vidoes and no direct training was involved. Very recently in America, a  couple who were described as peaceful and nice by friends,  invited people and later killed them to seek revenge for perceived crimes against muslims. It is opined that they too didnt had any link with some terrorist organisation but committed the task on their own.

Once i was enroute to Berlin and by chance our bus developed a problem and we waited for next one, this offered co-passangers opportunity to interact and noticing a young man of asian origin i approached him. He was from Pakistan and after some discussions, he bemoaned young childrens being radicalised with hate by terrorists. Their pliant minds make them easy targets to be radicalised and are some end up being suicide bombers to even target people of other sects. Sadly many terror attacks in Shia mosques of Pakistan have happened and were conducted by children.

In all the cases radicalisation happened either online or offline but ended up having the same effect. The sense of victimhood was used as a bait to attract and later on this sense was maximised by a series of false stories. True incidents were presented in a manner to promote radicalisation. For e.x a lot of people believe that America 9/11 twin tower attacks, was an inside job done by America itself to be able to attack Afghanistan. Another one is that, ISIS has been created by Israel. These are created with a view to promote victimhood amongst muslims.

Something similar has happened in India too, While most remain free from this false propoganda but for the sake of politics sense of victimhood is being promoted by political parties. I believe they are playing with fire by doing this. In 2002 when some terrorists burned a train bogey a false story was planted that this was done after a girl was mistreated.  Investigation later proved that it was a well planned attack and petrol was procured last night. Similarily when political program of current PM of India suffered a terrorist attack in Bihar, it was claimed by certain groups that it was done by PM aspirant himself to blame terrorists. Again both above stories had an agenda to promote victimhood.

Wars are created in the minds of Individual and in a tensed atmosphere even a small incident may later become incendiary fire. Ist WW was started when a small duke was murdered and almost all Europe was soon under conflagration of war. The democratic civilized world would do well to identify misinformation campaign through knowledge and should ensure that all radicalisation efforts be monitored and  countered through proper channel. It should also be tracked that places of worship do not end up being used as indoctrination centres.

I strongly believe that if only indoctrination of young pliant minds are stopped and misinformation replaced by correct and reliable information, lone wolf attacks will come down by as much as 90% and sympathetic support to these groups will decrease drastically. Under victimhood person refuses to see the truths and begins to justify the unjustifiable and is easy target for indoctrination. Kajakhstan incensed at increasing radicalisation within its borders has banned all teens from entering mosques as they fear it is being used for radicalisation. The world while effect of London attacks is still in air. should shed political correctness and state the problem. Monitoring what children are being taught and fighting misinformation are really low hanging fruits and small prices to pay for ensuring that our children inherit a peaceful earth.

Asato  Ma Sadgamaya : Lets move from darkness of misinfomation to Light of reason.

Power of intention: Butterfly effect

It has been said something as small as flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.- Chaos theory

Some days ago while I was riding on a motor cycle and there was an auto in front of me also moving along. I had no mood of overtaking the auto and was riding leisurely. Two village boys who appeared to be less than 10 years age were sitting in the back side of auto facing me and caught my attention. One of them was smoking Bidi  (Cigarette of rural people) and the looks told that he still had some innocence and has perhaps started smoking recently. I was shocked and at watching such a young boy smoke but decided to act in the situation and not react to it. Looked and the boy who was smoking and smiled and with one hand raised a question sign asking “What are you doing dear”. Then I looked straight in his eyes and acted like a coughing man to portray that this act will lead to bad health.  I was light all the while and was smiling while communicating. I do not know whether my this small act will make a difference in his life but one such look helped me years ago.

Around 11 years ago, fresh in college, i picked up a wrong habit of smoking. I smoked cigarette and with many classmates to act cool. However i soon started analyzing changes in my life and was wondering what joy is the alcohol or smoking giving to me. I realised that there is no joy in it but I am simply too hurt to face my real self and am merely smoking to avoid looking inside.

While these questions were going on in my mind i went to mussorie along with a friend and his family. I bought a havana cigar and soon started smoking it. I was trying to act cool and perhaps was cool in the eyes of my friends. As i was smoking and talking loudly i got the attention of a middle aged woman of the age of my mother. She was astonished at seeing a young boy of 19 smoke and had compassion in her eyes. I could read her thoughts through her gestures and knew for certain that i am on wrong path. Within few hours and after finishing the cigar :) realised something is not good with my life and decided to quit everything that I had accumulated recently. I realised that joy is present inside and not in alcohol or cigarette. My life took a u-turn only through look of the aunty whom i had never met. If you are the aunty who looked at me years ago, I just want to know that I am very thankful to you.

I pursued on the path and increased my knowledge gradually through self awareness. Today 11 years later after this episode , i have become a yoga teacher and have been teaching yoga and meditation since last 7 years part time. (My profession is of software engineer :P though and I teach yoga for public good) . Many friends in Germany credit me for their health and know stories of dozens of friends/students who have quit smoking or cigarette. Today I have seen 17 countries and travelled India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. I spent one month recently in Himalayas cycling and am having real fun and an amazing life today. I like writing poetry and reading good books and experience the bliss of life.

My advice to you, keep spreading goodness. One never knows how even a small incident can bring about a vast difference in someone's life.

(Written: Jan 2016)