Clearance

When the desks and cupboards get cleared....

What real fun is it to clear desks and cupboards at home and in the office. I am currently on such a cleaning spree. I unearthed quite a few treasures, the poems that I write when I was at school, the literary masterpieces that I copied out from books for my learning and understanding, the long list of proverbs that I was collecting, more recently the notes that I took during my camps with my Guru - Swami Akshara.
Now with this blog site, great possibilities has dawned on me. All those poems of mine and the others that I have copied, I plan to post it here.
As for those lectures of Swamiji on which I have taken down , this site provides me the space for more contemplation with the Sadhana Panchakam, Nirvana Shatkam, Upadesha Saram, Zen, Om, Vignan Bhairav Tantra, Dakshinamurthy Stotram and Chakra Meditation lectures that I have attended and sharing it with those who visit my site - I actually call it my home. In fact, in Tamil - Aham also means Home. So "Adikkadi Enga Ahathukku Vango," (Please do drop in to my home often.) and partake of the joy that I wish to share.

Death

Games that Potter Loves To Play

Life may not be certain
But Death is for sure
Breathing in is Life
Breathing out is Death
Waking up at dawn is Life
Going to bed at dusk is Death
Falling down on Earth
Is a blessing of Life
Rising up to heaven
Is the blessing of Death

*****

Life brings its share of experiences
But for the one who lives
Death is an experience too
For just the one that is no more
All are but dolls on this great puppet show
Made of the same stuff
Walking and talking
Yet none see the strings
Tied to the fingers Divine
Directing this comedy eternal.

*****

The Potter makes these dolls of clay
Paints them with colours many
Gives them to us childrn to play
Play with them we do
Feed them and clothe them
Dote on them and care for them
Send them to school and then for work
There are doll weddings too
Doll families they become and begin their game of house-house

*****

"Enough," says the Potter
Who often yearns for change
Simple job for Him thiough
To mash the doll back into clay
and put it back on the wheel
For some other toy to make.
But what words has the Potter
For the doll Mom and Dad
Who didn't know till then
All these funny games
That Potter loves to play.

***

Swahilya

Zen in an amusement park.

Zen and the Art of Amusement

In my day off, I decided to give up all my notions of wasting money and energy in amusement parks, to take my children Ojasvin and Omjasvin to Queens Land - along the Chennai Bangalore Highway.
I called up a taxi to take us to that place, just an hour's drive from my residence in Mogappair. It was a joy to see them in their best of clothes, all set to bounce with energy. The younger one wanted to take our teddy bear which I named Akshara after my Guru - Swami Akshara.
It was a really hot day and the children let me read Encounter The Enlightened, a collection of speeches of Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, though they told me earlier that I should be talking with them and not reading.
With tickets paid and bands tied on our hands, we walked in to hop on to the toy train that was ready to leave. For me it was like any share auto that I ride in Chennai, but for my children it was something novel to go on.
The next was so wheel - I forget what name it has (that's what happens at the end of the day, going through the rides this way and that, but don't really know what rides they were!)
With my penchant for contemplation, the different rides were but different triggers to my perception of Maya - seeing the world from a top-angle view. Just like the tora-tora, alpen blitz or roller coasters - life is full of twists and turns. Just as the mind which can go hither and thither, the rides go up and down, swing and turn, front and back. It takes just a bit wisdom to know and be with it as the show goes on.
******

In Search of Light

An article from The Hindu.

In search of divine light

Swahilya

Performing yoga regularly helps control one's inner energy While Indian wisdom has touched Western nations, it has not had much impact on the East

*****

Indian youth, at least by the hundreds go abroad in search of lucrative careers, every month. But then the country is also witnessing an onrush of young persons seeking to share India's USP — spiritual enlightenment.
Isha Yoga's Inner Engineering programme has around 300 participants in the United States while the experiential Bhava Spandana attracts around 500 people.
Thirty-five meditators from abroad are staying at the Centre in Coimbatore of which one third are undergoing teacher's training course in yoga. There are also similar programmes in Lebanon and Germany.
Jim H. Broom, a psychiatrist from Tennessee says, "One's intuition and ability to choose what is healthy, steadily increases with meditation. Negative self-defeating patterns and life-long anxieties vanish and is replaced by inherent motivation through the Isha yoga programme". Barry Taylor, an Ohio-based doctor says that most people in the West understand yoga as primarily a physical exercise for the body. But for him, the physical benefit of performing yoga is of supplementary value.
The major achievement is the ability to control one's inner energy and slipping into a deep state of relaxation. Swami Akshara, a yoga guru who visits Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo, has a huge following in Japan and China. "While the Indian wisdom has touched Western nations, it has not had much impact on the East. Not surprisingly, spiritual tourism from the eastern countries to India is negligible."
The inputs traditionally received from India get refined in the presence of a spiritual master. Toshie Sakada, a young entrepreneur from Tokyo, spares an hour every morning practicing meditation. "Master Akshara removed the my psychological fear and guilt. This helped me move ahead in life," she says.
Swami Suddhananda who founded the Samvit Sagar Trust at Uthandi has been taking his teachings to South Africa. In the first international Yoga Teachers' Training Course for Self Knowledge at Tiruvannamalai, 38 students from 14 countries participated...

Read on at The Hindu.

Grace

Grace

This posting is the wish of my Guru Swami Akshara. When I was speaking to him over phone today, I told him that I was able to feel his presence. His reply was, "Grace is not great. But one who is able to receive it is." Receiving grace is so important, he continued. If everybody was able to receive grace, there was no need for so many Gurus, so many masters to land on earth....Rama, Krishna, Christ... But problem has always remained with receiving.
******
I wish to share with you my experience with Grace. Grace, I discovered is present every where. But the human mind has to be reminded often of its presence. The reminder comes in the form of religious symbols, the forms of Gods and Gurus, concepts and ideas, nearly everything, not nearly...just everything. It is there inside me. It is there outside me. For grace, there is no inside or outside. It is. And even when I say, receiving grace, it is only reminding myself that it is there and I know I am filled with it.
*****
And being in grace, everything happens, so beautifully, whether it is cleaning up my home, getting some good dinner ready, managing children, typing a news story, getting to my quitest self and writing a poem from there, collecting myself in silence and going forth on stage with a talk, consoling someone in pain or grief...I can list what all Grace can do, but I can say what it cannot do - that is There is Nothing That is Not Possible By Grace.

Gracefully Yours

Swahilya.

Abhyanga

ABHYANGA

I was away from this blog site for quite some time now as I went on a three day Abhyanga programme at the Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala agency in Perambur.

Abhyanga is all about massage with heated medicinal oil, in my case it was a thick Dhanvanthri Kuzhambu.

During the process of massage, I discovered that ultimately, everything we receive in life is a massage, the beatings from parents, the bumps on the road, the gentle wafting of breeze, the fresh aroma from the trees, the heat from the sun, the cool waters of the sea that washes your feet, or the mud from the floor pressing your soles from beneath - anything you name it.... is a massage.
*****
After the process, people who see me say that I look a lot more brighter. It is all to do with the light within. When the light within shines, and the body is made supple and porous with Ayurvedic treatments such as this, just as a dusty 100 watt bulb that is cleaned of all the grime and dust which shines brightly, the space is given for the light to express itself.
*****

Plashtic Flowersh

Plashtic Flowersh

--------------------

On my table at office, a tiny Ganesha placed against my computer's CPU in front of me. Beside him, I placed few stalks of colourful flowers and leaves made of plastic and cloth. They are held in a throw-away plastic tea cup filled with mud and tightened by plaster of paris.
I am fond neither of plastic flowers nor matching throwaway tea cups, but this one has a little story behind it.
Early one morning when I was sitting at home in meditation, I heard my musical calling bell ring the chant of 'Om Namah Shivaya.' Answering the door, I saw a little boy with unkempt brown hair and soiled clothes. The eyes were bright and shining. He had before him a big round basket of colourful artificial flowers.
I have seen many people selling these flowers and never once was there an urge or a temptation to buy them. As a journalist covering environmental and ecological issues, I had my strong opinions against wasteful uses of plastic. I knew he was here to sell them to me and I told him to get off, with a "No thank you."
But an expert in marketing that he was, he persisted. Madam, please, plashtic flowersh, buy please. "No," I insisted. "Only ten rupees." "Please get going, I'm busy," I told him.
But I melted at the next line: "Madam, please, for my sake, small boy, only 10 rupees."
I thought of my two sons: 11 years and nine years in his place. They have the comfort of a home, education and entertainment. Here is this child, just the same age - bearing a heavy basket and hawking them.
"What is your name?" I asked. "Arjun," he replied. He said he came from Gujarat with his family searching for a job. The plastic materials come from Vellore and the flowers are done here and sold.
That did the deal. I bought two of those vases of red and sky blue flowers with shiny green plastic leaves for Rs. 20 - one for my home and one for my office - the flowers that I am writing to you about in front of me.
Ideas and ideals can change sometimes, just like that - by the look into the eyes.
**********

On Meditation

MEDITATION

***************

By Swahilya

It is the desire of all of us that we have to be happy, healthy, prosperous,wealthy, successful in all that we do and be recognised wherever we go. If there is one key to open all these doors - it is Meditation.

Is meditation sitting in one corner with eyes closed, fingers twisted in some manner and legs locked together? No. Meditation is the easiest activity one can do. A meditative person does not meditate, but lives in meditation. Right from the moment when one gets up from the bed, through each activity of the day till the time to rest has come at night, every activity is done in meditation.

Meditation is a process of keeping oneself in the best state of mind when thebody is at work. Meditation happens when one sees the clouds gently sails through the blue sky, feels the fragrance of the dewy morning rose as it blooms, hears the song of the cuckoo break out of the still silence and fall back into it or seeing the stars twinkle on a purple black sky. Living in tune with your environment is meditation. Being in love with the Universe is meditation. For a person living in such a state of mind, life on earth which is usually fraught with problems, virtually becomes a heaven of bliss, harmony and happiness.

"So what if I meditate?" you may ask. A meditative person finds him orherself in the best of circumstances. Everything that seems to be a stumbling block for the ordinary individual becomes a stepping stone for the one in meditation. In his world there is no conflict, only harmony, there is no hatred, only love, no competition, only progress. In daily terms, all kitchen utensils will lend their hand to help the meditative housewife in getting a delicious meal ready. A meditative boss at the office will find his subordinates listening to each word of his and executing his directions without a single word of protest.

Living in meditation means there are no more tough examinations for the student, no argumentative children for the mother, no problem like tangled noodles to face at office. Just as a student who is strong in the foundations of mathematics will find examinations an interesting challenge, armed with the weapon of meditation, one can look forward to each day with great self-confidence and cheerful energy.

So, meditation is really very easy and it is well within your reach too. SwamiAkshara , my Guru who gave me this name - Swahilya, has just now returned from a tour of the east, with his programmes galore on Meditation. Through his talks and more through his oceanic silence and compassion, Swamiji teaches us to see the bliss of the nature around us.Through his simple meditative exercises, he teaches you the art of dissolving into the inner silence where problems disappear like sugar in milk. Living then brings hope, joy and bliss.

Swami Akshara belongs to the regions of the unbounded self and cannot be defined or confined to limited ideas or beliefs. He transcends region, language, religion and country. Think global, act local is Swamiji's maxim. He is like the boundless sun of knowledge that sheds light and dispels the darkness ofignorance where ever he goes. He is the sculptor who knows the parts to be chiselled out and present before the world a masterpiece of art.

* * * * * * * * * *

I Think Of You

I think of you....

******************

When the cool breeze touches

my face, taking me by surprise

I think of you.

Looking out of the train window

I see lush green trees

On fertile red soil with

Gorges and ravines passing through

I think of you.

Mind loaded with anxiety

For solace I walk toward the sea

Standing on the shore, the water touches my feet

I think of you.

On a sweltering hot day

I walk under a merciless sun

A sudden wind blows away my bother

I think of you.

When I see children at play

Cherubic laughter driving out adult worries

Unmindful, even of their happiness

I think of you.

When I walk, lost in thoughts

I twist my foot with a wrong step

Writhing in pain

I think of you.

When caught in a maelstorm of noise

Trying to keep my head

Above a deluge of unreasonable minds

I think of you.

When I am happy

I think of you.

When I am in company

I think of you.

When I am alone

I think of you.

When I am sad

I think of you.

I think of you

When I want peace.

- Akhilananda Bharati.

New Year

********

When illness ebbs out and vitality flows

With hearts filled with love

And faces bright with sunny cheer

Bodies light with effervescence buoyance

The happy angels drive out the dark gloom

When clanging bells chime in the New Year

A time when nervousness, frustration and anxiety

Hurriedly exit through the backdoor

The salubrious breeze blows in

Ushering in hope and prosperity

Driving out despair

With a bubbling cataract of joy

That hangs around its haunts

In smiling faces and helping hands.

- Akhilananda Bharati