the dancing flames....

'Twas a serene,cool crisp morning.A tranquil and yet frolicsome zephyr ruffled the foliage of the trees...The great ball of fire started to spill its first scintillating rays on the zenith and the little sunrays traversed the heavens down to earth, illuminating the milieu....The crescent moon was bidding adieu to the skies and getting ready for its siesta....I was in a little world of talking trees and walking houses...riding a cloud through the azure skies...frozen in time..and my eyes futtered open...I transitioned from one paradise to another in a "flutter"...This one had crimson skies... I filled my lungs in with the crisp morning air and sprung out of bed.The dainty little space molecules around me started to do jigs....Excitement?Anticipation?Or just an ode to the divinity and chastity of Mother Nature?I felt the little pool of "emotions" flowing through me play some music....The Bohemian Rhapsody?Aaaah yes....Realization made a grand entry into my conscience...As my boat would sail a little ahead in the stream of time, I would anchor and leave my little realm for a while and go to a different realm with an element of "unknown" attached to it....As the little droplets from the pool of "emotions" traced question marks on my soul,my nerves started working up a frenzy and I could feel little beads of perspiration soak my forehead...."Calm down", say the jittery space molecules to my conscience....Thankfully,my psyche complied and after going through the conventional morning routine,I waited for Akshay to pick me up...The jarring monotony of the morning routine suddenly made me realize what slaves of habit us human beings are! As time flowed a bit farther,I saw a silver streak with a somewhat "meticulous" rhythm approaching my building...The glass doors of my appartment doors frowned at me,but little did they know that their transparence had allowed me to catch a glimpse of Akshay's magnetic smile....Soothes the soul instantaneously....Just like a pat on the head from an older brother..!We picked the ever divine Nityanand up (he surely does justice to his name!) and the mellow Marilyn up....The drive to Columbus was absolutely beautiful....The trees were flaunting their lush green hues and the jagged gray and brown rocks were so synergistic, that the "rhythm" reminded me of Beethoven's ninth symphony....Every note evokes and compels a different entity from the stream of "emotions" to manifest....Every note tells a different tale....The trees were in deep discourse with the clouds...Probably convincing them to let the sun come out and cruise the zenith....The "unconditional love" between the elements of Nature always marvels me....The Sun and the flowers,the mountain and the river, the sea and the sky......Such sublime love stories....Yet even the trees and the clouds share an equally sublime friendship...My mind reeled back in time....from the abyssmal river of "today" to the little tributaries of "yesterday"....A depsondent flavor superseded the moment and I quickly shook it off like one would shake off particles of dust from one's clothes.....The rest of the ride was full of Nitya's jokes, Marilyn's wisdom and Akshay's giggles....aaah bliss! After going for a bit of a roller-coaster ride on Columbus' undulating streets,we finally reached the "spot"...We all got out in a tremendous hurry...Marilyn's feet had gone to sleep,but they quickly woke up...We were greeted in the parking lot by a vivacious gentleman...I kept wondering who he was....I noticed the very geometrical and "conventional" beams and columns of the structure,appreciating the architect's inkling for simplicity.The main auditorium was full of quiet human souls...The "kriya" had started.A powerful and yet enigmatic voice was guiding us through it..All the drops from the pool of "emotion" ostracized motion and its kin...Tranquility made her presence felt...All of a sudden,some uncanny sound waves invaded space..My cognitive faculty took a few seconds to realize that these were the shouts of young souls....For a second,a young,precocious version of me came back to haunt me.... After the "kriya",I noticed that melancholy was in the air and I was surrounded by reticent souls..I heard a loud voice enhanced by a gazillion watts...We were to greet each other AOL style...!"Oh-oh" I thought...My nerves started doing jigs again...But all of the love and benevolent sentiments calmed me down in a jiffy...Some people talked with their eyes..some with their souls...some with words and some with their hearts...This resplendent moment went down in my treasury of memories...I met another Preeti...so beautiful!..Sparkling eyes and dimpled cheeks..made my heart beat with joy!And hallelujah...I met yet another name sharer who sang like a nightingale..Which made me wonder what talents Preeti (me) had..a hard,hard question!!..(I made a mental note in my mind to tell mom how "creative" she was in naming us!!!) The next event that granted time definition was a game of "Fire in the Mountain"...Oh,and Sherlock solved the mystery of the parking lot gentleman too...His name was Paresh..and he was hell bent on rubbing some of his ebullient spirit onto the crowd..We scampered around like little rodents for a while and played a toned down version of tug-of-war!We also played another game which I cant remember the name of (shame on me!)....But I do remember the exhiliration and joy that spread like the pneumonic plague! Everyone was quite hungry by the time we were done with our round of shenanigans...And sure enough,dinner was just moments away..I was thankful to the big,red apple in my bag...I realized that I hadnt tasted normal food in 10 years...As I was about to eat the apple,I felt a hand on my shoulder...and there she was...charming and beautiful as always...Rupa.She had cooked boiled "daal-chawal" for me...I was touched(which made me cry!)..After sneaking in some surreptitious tears,I joined the crowd and relished every bite....Everyone loved the food...Food to satisfy every last taste bud...sweet,salty,sour,stringent,spicy...! After the scrumptious and hearty meal, we gathered in the main room again....It was "Satsang" time....."Yipppeeee" is all I could think of saying!! "Satsang" means "with truth"....I wondered what "truths" would manifest...I looked into the eyes of some people around me...and I could see glimmering pools of mirth and tranqulity; which soothed me...We all grow "up" to defy gravity..we all want to touch the sky and ride on the clouds..we all want buoyancy in our physical as well as metaphysical beings...we all gather immense fortitude during the span of our lives to keep our boats sailing...These are the realms where my mind goes galavanting away when the word "truth" comes around....But "Kirtan Ensemble" took me to yet another wonderland..What mesmerized me the most was the 16-17 yr old tiny soul playing on the "tabla"...I could imagine as he being the heart of the group...His tenacity and dexterity put me in awe...It was as if each beat was singing a note..His fingers and the "tabla" were in perfect synchrony...Preeti started with "Hallelujah"...quite different from the conventional gospel version that I am so used to...but beautiful!The girl is a nightingale!Prasad and Munish made the space molecules very happy...I could see the tiny flames of the "deep"s near Guruji's picture dance with the tiny space molecules..I swear I saw Guruji smile a bit wider which just added to the luminous twinkle in his eyes...Paresh's voice made me as happy as the space molecules...One of the songs was similar to a "Garba" so everyone started to dance...Beautiful hand and foot movements etched pulchritudinous and ebullient spirits in both space and soul....Akshay, Sandesh, Rupa, Nitya and Ishan were hell bent on making me sing...."Thundering typhoons",I thought...My nerves and the pool of "emotions" started to create a mayhem again....But Inshallah,my little treasure box of memories didnt let me down...I thought of my "nanima"..and her soothing voice..I thought of how her songs were like an elixir for me...I would sing as an ode to her...as an ode to every soul in that room...as an ode to "Kirtan" and their talents...And I did!!(clap,clap,clap Preeti!!).Then all of us folks from the Nasty 'Nati rocked the house...I realized that Sandesh and Akshay had marvelous voices... As we neared the end,we sang the "Guru Arati"....I love flames...and my eyes kept wandering off in the direction of the dancing flames on the "thali"...Guruji got his birthday cake,birthday song and birthday sentiments...Nilesh played the role of Guruji..hehe..!It was his birthday too...I exchanged telephone numbers with a few folks...And I fell in love with little Harshita...such a doll!We then decided to have a slumber party at Paresh's house..."Goody goody gumdrops" I thought...We had a blast..We played dumb charades and pictionary...I flaunted my low IQ level by making very,very "Preeti" blunders...!!The nightingale Preeti,Paresh,Rajesh in one team...trust me folks,if u're on the opposite team you DO NOT want that to happen..!We opened the golden gates of our pasts for a while and let each other catch a glimpse of the other side...After gulping down a plethora of laughs and a keg of "masti", we were ready for our siesta..Back to the land of talking trees and walking houses....cruising on the clouds in the azure skies.....with precious moments and lots of love as our priceless souvenirs... As I left the next morning, my spirit was lugubrious...the milieu seemed wistful too! After saying heartfelt good-byes,we were on our way to Cincinnati...I was pensive and thoughtful for a while...The resplendence of the morning before all made sense now...Mother nature was euphoric 'cause she foresaw the moments to come...priceless moments saturated with unconditional love,laughter and ebullient spirits that made every last molecule surmounting us hallow and consecrated....The soul of every being that I interacted with is engraved on my heart....Now I understand what Mark Twain meant when he said "Dance like no one's watching,sing like no one's listening,love like you have never been hurt and live like its heaven on earth....".. Heaven is definitely a place on earth!

Miss Universe Lara Data -- seeks solace in the Art of Living

Lara seeks solace in the Art of Living May 19, 2006

It's a lesser-known fact that Lara Dutta has been pursuing Art of Living courses for over six years now. This former Miss Universe had her first stint with various self-development and stress management programmes as a Miss India aspirant."It was a compulsory module in our Miss India training programme. Gradually, I got hooked on to it after I realised the benefits of the course,"she says.This led her to enrol for advanced courses and now the belle can't think of starting her day without meditation."Over these six years, I have done these advanced courses and now I can't think of life without practising the yogasanas", she says.Ask her about her favourite exercise and the prompt answer is Sudarshan Kriya, a key technique to Art of Living (founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in 1982).

"It's incredible"..."It's an incredible stress-relieving technique that I have learned. I have been into yoga and pilates for years now. But Sudarshan Kriya helps you retain your calm and be aware of everything that's happening around. The past few months have been less hectic. Therefore, I could get more involved in it and am doing a couple of more courses," she explains.

Others followedSeeing her reaping the benefits of Art of Living, a lot of her friends got interested in the popular stress-relieving method. "The benefits are quite visible. My close friends did realise it and gradually for themselves enrolled for it. There are 20 million people around the world who practise Art of Living," she says.

Even Kelly is now practicing the Art of Living religiously, but Lara says she didn't sell the course to him, "I never pushed Kelly into pursuing the Art Of Living. I believe you can't force someone to do anything. It has been a few months since he has started and he is relatively new to the exercise," adds Dutta.

Mahasatsang on occasion of Guruji's 50th birthday - its celebration

Art of Living Columbus events are always planned at last moments. Few people from the whole Columbus family have big enthusiasm for the organizing such events. But still when we are done with the event I get the complete satisfaction, as one gets after doing a service to needy. What is that makes all the events so fulfilling? What turns around these functions from poor start to a great end? I feel there is some magic that happens during the event. People get energized and coordination happens faster. They do not complain and focus on getting things done. I sometimes feel that there is some external cohesive energy that bonds our thoughts together and things fall in place. A guru magic!

Mahasatsang to celebrate Guruji’s 50th birthday and AOL’s 25th anniversary was such an event. Since the idea of organizing this event and first planning step, we changed venues and menus and ended up at Powell City Hall as venue and with Annapurna’s menu. We invited people from all cities in Ohio and from nearby states where AOL had presence and quite a few people did show up. In fact there were comparatively less people from Columbus. I don’t know why not many of them come to AOL events. I agree that after hectic work week they would like to spend time with their family and sometimes it’s hard to manage things when you have kids but such events are not organized every now and then. Frequency of such big AOL events in Columbus is not more than once in 4 months. If I do simple analysis, it takes only 0.14 % of our time assuming we come only for 3 hrs, including travel to venue. Please know that your presence would make any event livelier, bring in more positive energy and eventually help AOL become bigger in its work. We want nice people like you to come, share your happiness, and make this society much better place to live in. We want your love.

We first did Maha Kriya – it was good for me. I think that most people had deep kriya. Hall was big and there was peace amongst all although neighboring hall some children party going on. Later I went to pick up Arun and Mayaji while all other played games. By 6.45 pm we started dinner. Food was good except I found Bhendi ka sabji little oily. Gulab Jamuns were just awesome. Overall, I feel that good food and timely dinner made people happy. It was all well organized by Prasad, Shikha, Nina and all others who were involved in managing refreshments, including egg-less cake

Later we started ‘Satsang’. Satsang in literary terms means ‘company of truth’ and according to me idea behind it is to be in present moment. We sing bhajans, play music, do some chanting, some meditation. I always like satsangs. The AOL bahajans are not typical old typos and that’s what I like the most about it. Anyone can sing these bhajans with ease but in our group Paresh, Prasad and Munish are ‘the’ people who have good voice and have kept the music going and are building it further through ‘Kirtan Ensemble’ music group. But today was special day – Preeti opened the satsang with ‘Aaa le lu ya’ and then Prasad sang ‘Krishan Manohar’ and then he also sang ‘Durge Nandini’ and they all joined in. Dayton people came forward, so did Cincinnati and then Mrs. Nath sang ‘Tu hi’. See that magic – we discovered that Arun invited himself to play table. Man, he is real good. Debu, our master musician plays excellent guitar, although this time we did not give him enough opportunity to show his talents. When all this was happening, I took an opportunity to capture the ‘sat-moments’ in video. People well all drenched in this divine music in serenity. I love this kind of environment, especially in the evenings. Anyone there could feel presence of divine soul - our beloved Guruji.

We ended the function with one beautiful Guru Aarti. Since Kavi was not there I asked Nina to hold my hands as I was praying offering aarti to Guruji. I missed Kavi all along the event. We cut the cake - it was delicious. I liked the spirits of people from other cities who came so long to make this event a success. They are great. They are true guru souls.

Jai Guru Dev

Sharing my experience about the AoL course-I

Although, the Art of Living course touches upon various facets of life such as body, mind, intellect, etc. I will talk about only of them in this short note about my experiences. It is breathing. A primary reason to select breathing for the note is, I personally was completely unaware of the importance of it. All of us know that breathing is most important activity for our life but a few of us know that right breathing can improve one's life. This may not be a surprise given the importance of breathing as I just mentioned. But I learnt it from my own experiences over the 5 days of the course.

Not only was I taught different different forms of breathing but also how to interweave those different forms into various Yoga Aasanas. The culmination point of the experience was Sudarshan Kriya, where one utilizes a combination of breathing, Aasanas, and sacred chanting to take a step closer to the inner Self. The only way to understand this experience is by doing it yourself. I am thankful that I had this opportunity.