Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Last evening was spent hunting for the perfect cassette player for the Kriya Tape. I have seen most of the teachers having a philips player and was wondering if that was the preferred brand of Art of Living teachers. I personally have always preferred Sony. After walking up and down many a store, did I realise why!!! Philips is small in size (perfect for my backpack when I travel, and can play tape, CD and DVD)!!! Sony on the other hand is powerful, but the one that plays VCDs and DVDs is not portable. The one that plays only tape is super compact and powerful, but obviously does not play anything else!

So, after walking up and down, I realised I needed a philips player which wasn't available in any store at that moment. I need to wait for another ten days. Mum is also looking for a player! She has officially been announced as the second teacher for the Vidyaranyapura center. Happy days!

I have got my relieving letter from Kennametal and settlements have been made. I am yet to collect all my books and other stuff from there. I should go there today and settle that! My car is up for sale. So, anybody who stumbles onto this piece, let me know if you are interested!!! Picture of the car and details will come up soon...

JaiGurudeva

Monday, August 17, 2009

TTC

Wow!!!
What a perfect finish to July and what a perfect start to August. The last 25 days were spent at the ashram! 21 days of training. Commando training as one of the TTC participants put it. But it was far far away from that. It was 21 days of mind blowingly high energy and divine love. Everything that I saw, smelt, felt, tasted and heard resonated with Love. The padma- sadhanas ensured that sleeping half my regular quota gave me twice the amount of energy! Even though I was in the dorm, I actually had a fantastic time! Plus, no communication with the outside world meant I had so much more time just for myself. The daily schedule was packed. Right from day one, we were on our toes! Prasannaji was the best during the first week! What an amazing time we had with him. Creating our own anthem, making fun of everyone and ourselves and not to forget the seva!!! Wow! What an amazing time we had at the kitchen! Seva at the kitchen would almost go on into the wee hours of the mornings. I really 'wonder' how Sundar Bhaiyah (as he is popularly known) manages the entire show with his committed volunteers. Those guys are the best. I personally believe that there is no next life time for those guys who work at the kitchen full time. Come Phase 2 and 500 more entusiastic people joined us and we were sent under the broad caring wings of Swami Brahmatej, aka Bharath Bhaiyah! The next 15 days were basically party time! Party in the morning, Party during the day and Parte` during the evenings!!! But there was an element of Divinity in the party! Not just an an element actually. In the true sense, there was an element of Partying in everything we did. We enjoyed everything. Right from waking up to brushing our teeth to bathing ( I chose to bathe in cold water everyday and that was the best thing ever), to Sadhana, breakfast, the sessions, lunch, satsangs and not to forget the Yoga Nidra!!! Everything we did was packed with energy and we did it one hundred percent! We even slept one hundred percent!

Guruji came in now and then and just shook us up like we were trees with dry leaves. We laughed so much and learnt even more! Cifra, Mikolava, Swamiji, Haathi, Ra'Chana'dal, Meena'akshi' and everyone and everyone ensured that we weren't just participants, but members of one big family. I could just see Guruji's vision for the world unfolding in the 120 of us. We were complete strangers, yet we trusted our lives in the hands of each other. Guruji's vision of a One World Family was being lived out right there.

I started out writing, thinking this was going to be a long and big blog, but I really have nothing more to put down. It was a fantastic experience. But its only the first step that has been taken. The journey has begun at a wonderful note! With His Love, Guidance and Grace, the rest will unfold, one day at a time...

JaiGurudeva