Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Each Experience Completes

Life and its Experiences... We label experiences as Good or Bad.. Nevertheless they are just Karmic events unfolding themselves with someone as the Nimitta. The Essence is to take the Lesson perhaps and Move On... 

Even the slightest awareness about what happens around us gives us a glimpse of this reality... The most beautiful or the seemingly worst experiences in life lead us to a state of nothingness... A Vaccum !! 

As Gurudev has put so beautifully :  

"Each experience completes. Completion means leading to void or nothing. In the progression of life, you will leave behind every experience saying, "This is nothing." Anything that is completed loses its importance. That is to say it leads you to void - this is nothing. 

A sign of intelligence is how soon you arrive at this understanding. Examine everything in life and say "This is nothing" and what remains after all that, is Love, and that is everything. When "This is nothing" does not come out of knowledge, it comes out of misery.

 Either through knowledge or through misery, you come to the point of "This is nothing, this is nothing". The choice is yours. If you got this, it is really NOTHING, If you didn't get this, never mind - this is nothing. (laughter)

 -Sri Sri

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Want Blessings?

I remember : I was new to Art of Living and had gone to the Ashram.. perhaps the second visit..
And by chance (we all know there are no chances) caught myself face to face with Gurudev on VishalakshiMantap steps with almost noone around....

Completely zapped : The only words that stumbled frm my lips were "Guruji Blessings"
Gurudev replied.. "Blessings Blessings..."

An instant regret of having opened my mouth followed... Coz it seemed meaningless..  :) I have never asked him for Blessings after that... We all know they just flow...

Sharing a Talk by Sri Sri on Blessings..


"Everybody asks for blessings. Usually people say, “Guruji, please give me blessings”. Even if someone doesn’t want anything, they need blessings! Whichever Guru you go to, the only words which come out are, “Give me blessings”. And these are mere words tumbling out of your mouth. But how do we obtain blessings? We have not learnt this.

There is no dearth of blessings. You get more blessings than necessary. There is sunlight, a burning blaze of bright light all 12 hours of the day, but your doors and windows are tightly shut. Then,how is it possible for light to enter? If the sun’s light has to reach you, you cannot sit in a dark room and keep chanting on a microphone, “I want sunlight, I want sunlight!” This will not bring the sunlight in. You have to open the doors and windows, so that light may enter on its own.

When you ask for blessings, you should have an honest and clean mind. When you have a truthful mind, that mind becomes capable of receiving and absorbing blessings. When does the mind become truthful? When there is nothing to hide, no dirt in the mind and the mind is open. Blessings should only be asked with an open mind.


If somebody asks, “How are you?”, you answer saying “I am fine”. You,in reality, will not be fine at that point in time. In spite of that, you say, “I am fine, doing very well and on top of the world” and you are boiling inside! When you communicate without hiding anything inside you, with an open and innocent mind, only from this level will you acquire the capability of receiving blessings.


Now, why are we not honest in this way? That is because we are not communicating with ourselves. We are not living with the real truth in us. We are under the illusion that we may get something in this world of objects. The most common comment that people make often is that politicians are not honest. Why are not many politicians honest? That is because their mind is only outward bound. They are always calculating and keeping watch of how much and what they can loot. If they want to loot people then it is not possible to be honest. Why? This is because they are dependent on somebody else. 


If you have to depend on somebody, then depend only on the divine power. The powerful God is the strength of the powerless.

It is not that we always obtain whatever we wish. Many a times, our desires will not be fulfilled. There are many times when we regret our desires and wonder why we ever wished for them. Isn’t it? You desire something and then you regret as to why you desired it. We live under the illusion that we will live happily when we obtain all objects of our desire. You should keep observing your desires. Only then you will know whether you will really derive happiness from your desire or if
you will land in more trouble because of the desires.


It is said that, “Daivadheenam Jagat Sarvam, Mantradheenam tu
daivatam” which means that the whole creation is under the control of Gods and the Gods are under the spell of mantras. All that you are seeing in this gross world is just a reflection arising from the subtle world. The one who works in the subtle world is known as Devatha or God. Surrender to the Gods in the subtle plane. This is known as “Ishwara Pranidhaana”. God does not mean that you simply visit a temple and break the coconut and come back after offering a prayer.


There is one honest corner in our consciousness. Just go and sit there. The moment you sit in that silent, honest corner of your consciousness, that very moment, you are tapping divine energy. “All the forms in the world reside in my consciousness,” this experience will gradually begin to happen to you. You will realise that you are not only the body. You are that consciousness which is very vast and spread everywhere, on all sides. It is necessary to realise that you are not just the body. “


Who am I? This body is only a small window, that is all. I am really the Sun. When the Sun enters the window, does the window itself become the Sun? No. Sun only enters through the window. Moonlight is entering in, but the Moon is very far away. In the same way, I am far away from the body. In spite of being far away, I am still in the body”. This feeling should arise in you again and again. For that you need honesty. This requires practice.

Then, even if you don’t need, blessings will always be showered on you!"


- Sri Sri 

Salad Bar - Corn Crunch in the Munch !!



I love corn and this is a simple salad recipe I have made very often and usually when we have guests over. Simple, Filling, Tasty and Crunchy. 
 
Corn and Veggie Salad
 
Ingredients

2 cups boiled sweet corn kernels (makai ke dane)
1/4 cup chopped capsicum
1/4 cup chopped  onions/spring onions
1/4 cup chopped beetroot
1/2 cup tomato cubes

To Be Mixed Into A Dressing

1 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (kalimirch) to taste

Method 

·         Combine the sweet corn, onions, capsicum, beetroot and tomatoes in a deep bowl and mix well.
·         Pour the dressing over the salad, toss well and refrigerate for at least an hour.
·         Serve chilled.


Looking forward to sharing some more of my experiments with food and would like to hear from you all on simple and different Salad/Soup and other healthy recipes !! Do Share in Comments ..