Love

Prem gali aati sankri ja main do na samaye 

Main hu to wo naaye wo hai to main naaye

The street of love is very narrow and two won't pass through

If I come then he can't and if does then I can't

Love, I can't believe that I have met you. That I ever did something so good that I deserved to meet you. To see you, to touch you and mostly to love you. From the time I saw you, something changed inside me. Something transformed. Something blossomed. With each growing day i want to become more and more like you. Become more you. I don't think it will ever matter if you love me back or not. I love you and that the universe chose me to love you is the most sacred thing to me. Who won't love you? But you grace me, overwhelm me. You acknowledge my love. 

Words will never do, but let me try again. I love you

On Meeting The Beloved

I close my eyes and you are there
I open my eyes and you are there
Oh Beloved! You are such a tease
Tell me where are you closer?

Ana Gupta

Jan 2010

Angels in my Garden

Hey! This is a picture of my garden in India. And the angels in it.The pictures were taken during a rainy night with a flash camera. If you don't know what the angels part means read this.

And now, as a spoof of 'Which one is the angel?',I present to you

Where is the angel?

Satvic Burritos

Hello everybody! Today was my last day of Ayurveda Cooking Course. And we had a cooking competition. We had to make any dish prepared with ayurvedic methods and keep it satvic. So I made these burritos with red beans and Pico de Gallo. Guess who won the competition! :) So here is the prize winning recipe for all of you.

You will need:

For Pico de Gallo

½ cup fresh coriander

2 large tomatoes, chopped

1 tsp garlic, minced

1 green chili

Juice of ½ a lemon

Salt

For the Beans

I cup red beans, soaked overnight

1 cup tomato puree, made by steamed tomatoes

Oregano

Salt

For the tortillas

1 cup Whole wheat flour

½ tsp Chili flakes

½ tsp Oregano

Water

You will have to:

1. Take all the ingredients of Pico de Gallo and put them in a mixer. Mix till it becomes thick, chunky paste. Check the taste. If it is too sour you can add a bit of crushed jaggery.

2. Take your soaked beans and add salt. Steam till cooked. Add tomato puree, salt and oregano and run in the mixer for a few seconds, just to have the beans and puree mixed well.

3. Take the flour. Add chili flakes and oregano. Add water and make dough. Now, make balls of the dough the size of balls of chappatis. Roll out the balls as thin as possible and prick it with a fork to prevent inflation while heating. Cook them like chapatti.

4. To serve,take the tortilla. Put a layer of Pico de Gallo. Add the beans. Roll the tortilla. Put a toothpick to secure it into place.

The recipe ensures satva as it is steamed and not pressure cooked or fried. Also you may have noticed we have used NO oil at all.

Ayurvedic Cooking

Today is my Day 4 at the Ayurvedic Cooking Course. The name being a misnomer, for cooking is only the tip of the iceberg. The workshop is about cooking, eating, thinking – basically living the Ayurveda way.

But, for me this course was actually about being amazed. Firstly, at the recklessness and disregard we show for our bodies. Next, at our absolute ignorance or neglect of fundamental principles of healthy living and eating. Then I was amazed in a good way when I witnessed the most hideous (my personal prejudice against pumpkin, okra etc) being transformed into the most delectable of dishes. The wafting concoction of flavors and aromas has never been so sensuous before. And yes, at the most unconventional, the most healthy and by the mysterious ways of God the most easy methods of preparation and cooking.

At the level of learning, the course illuminates the basic principles of Ayurveda so as to enable out of (good) shape people like me to become healthy.

The Guru of Joy

A few days back I read The Guru of Joy. It is Guruji’s biography penned down by Francois Gautier. Well first things first – it has the best cover jacket in the world. There is a picture of Guruji and it just compels you to pick the book up and read it cover to cover. Second thing that really impressed me was how well Mr. Gautier wrote. Unlike the disdaining francophone, Gautier writes English effortlessly (I would like to think he thinks bilingually.)

Now coming to the book, it is amazing. It is a biography but only of sorts. It really has no more than one out of its 13 chapters on Guruji’s life. Rather, it narrates personal experiences, anecdotes from other teachers, and other Guru stories from devotees far and wide. It’s actually a delicious melting pot of devotion.

His prologue is excellent. Further into the text, he maintains the tenderness of new love, respect of an oriental student and yet the mind of a modern critic. Gautier weaves yarn after yarn of tales of Guru love, miracles and faith. And also the tooting of his own critical somewhere in the background. I believe that is what makes The Guru of Joy such a fine book. The ‘Testing the Guru’ Stage is part of every disciple’s life. And that is why any devote can relate to Gautier.

The book is mostly enchanting, especially when Guru Stories are being related. Also, my heart was overwhelmed with joy at the idea of little Guruji and his divinely cute mischief. But at the end, I found it a little dawdling when it spoke about all the AOL courses at length.

All in all, it is a great handbook for any devote.

Rating- 4 / 5

A STORY ABOUT DEVOTION

This is a story I heard from Pankaj Bhaiya at the Punjab AMC in the Bangalore Ashram.

Nizam ud-Din Auliya, a great Sufi saint was being visited by a man whose daughter was getting married. He asked Nizam ud-Din for gifts for his daughter's marriage. The Nizam said he had nothing to give, but whatever offerings any devote brought, the Nizam would give it to the man. Thus, the man started waiting, waiting for a devote to come by with gifts. A day passed, but no gifts came by. Disappointed, the man asked the saint for the permission to leave. The saint asked him to wait some more. Yet another day passed and there was no sign of any gifts. The man finally told the Nizam that he had to leave now, for otherwise he would be late for his daughter's wedding. It did not matter if there were no gifts. The saint's blessings were enough for him. But the Nizam said that he could not send the man home empty-handed. Saying that his slippers were all he had, the man could take his slippers. The man felt less than excited at the sight of Nizam ud-Din's old tattered slippers. Nevertheless, he took them along for he wished not to disrespect the saint.

On the way home, the man saw a huge caravan with queues of camels, laden with gold and jewels and riches. The caravan owner came up to the other one and asked for the slippers. The man refused saying that these slippers were given to him and thus he would not give them away. The caravan owner was desperate and kept on persuading the other one for the slippers. Finally, the caravan owner offered his entire caravan, loaded with wealth in exchange of the slippers. The man instantly agreed and was overjoyed to be taking home such riches for his daughter's marriage.

The caravan owner took the slippers reverently and went to the Nizam. And he placed the slippers down and said, "My beloved teacher, someone was taking away these slippers of yours. I gave him all I had and have got them back to you."
And you know who was the caravan owner. He was Amir Khusro.

And you know what did the Nizam say? "Still, it was a bargain.

Ah!

July 03


One of my most loved poets is Jelal-ud-din Muhammad Rumi. A 13th century Persian sufi poet, he has written the most beautiful potry. He wrote his poems for his Guruji - Shamsuddin Muhammad of Tabriz. Since I can not read persian, I have to settle for the English translations by Coleman Barks. Below is a small poem which sometimes comes to me when I think of Guruji.



"I am so small I can barely be seen.
How can this great love be inside me?
Look at your eyes.
They are small, but they see enormous things."

THE SUMMER FEAST

June 28
Banglore AMC


I went to Banglore Ashram for a four day advanced meditation course. It was a Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, J & K special AMC but that’s really besides the point. The point is how much I enjoyed it. It was pure, concentrated bliss. Absolutely amazing!
As soon as I reached the Ashram the joy started running through me. We took a few pictures that day of the VM and all but nothing much. Now you come to the ashram and are tottering around, feeling at home and smiling away to glory and then- you see GURUJI in his car going past waving at you! Now that’s like joy raised to power infinity. After that you see him in the satsang- beautiful and divine. Of course, not forgetting accompanied with a dash of the most innocent sense of humour.

Next morning our course started. God save these Punjabis! It does not matter that I was one myself, but we are superb at making noise, distracting sincere participants, doing bhangra at all the wrong times and most importantly saying ‘Jo Bole So Nihaal- Sat Sri Akal’ for absolutely any or no reason. And the frequency of all these things only increased as the course proceeded. Well, to my most pleasant surprise our teachers were Bharat Bhaiya and Pankaj Bhaiya who kept smiling through the painful ordeal of making out of control Panjabis meditate! JJJ First day was great.

The same night we went into silence. (I have no pictures for that period as Dinesh Bhaiya said no photography once we start our silence.) The days in silence were the most beautiful days of my life. There was a nerve in my body which wasn’t relaxed. Each atom of me was smiling! Ah! The delightful sessions with Pankaj Bhaiya, Bharat Bhaiya and Akash Bhaiya. And the lovely meditations in Guruji’s honey voice. He even came personally to take one meditation session with us. Needless to say, it rocked my world.
I loved the satsangs every evening. I wholly followed Dinesh Bhaiya’s advice of only looking at Guruji during the satsang. The greatest darshan is when with your eyes open you see Guruji and as you close your eyes, you see Guruji inside them.
Before I knew silence was over. We had met him in our darshan lines once, and many more times before, during and after the satsang. I had barely any time to complete my long list of shopping I had prepared but managed to scrape through somehow without money and time.
Next morning as our flight took off for back home, the sun started rising. As soon as we we were in air I sat in Sahaj Samadhi. After 20 minutes when I opened my eyes, there was an endless expanse of white clouds, shimmering in the sun’s glow before me. Heaven is a place just a little above the earth.

MY FIRST EVER YES! +

September 14 2006
AOL Day 5, 6 and 7
it gets harder to distinguish events daywise
yeah but on the whole what what n what fun we had:):):)
im still in the same state
it doesnt feel like i dont have to go n meet those 100 people and my dear bhaiya today
oh yeah bhaiya.....i made him a card ....painted n stuff
but felt so shy while giving it that i asked him to open it later
that doesnt happen very often ....me feeling shy
and then ajit has got me hooked to the song bidi jaleile (omkara)(http://www2.dishant.com/search/omkara-in-ALBUM.html)
by singing again n again n making rajat n dhirwesh do a bips on it
lol
sigh! what fun!
while we did the final 'i belong to you' s.... everyone was just so happy and so in love, no hestitations no barriers
ah!
but yes what i really did learn is that its only fun outside with other people, when its fun inside alone with yourself .
JAI GURUDEV

September 10
AOL Day 2, 3 and 4
Jai Gurudev!
hehehhehehe
yeah thats more or less what i want say
its amazing.....bhaiya, participants and guruji!
:):):):):):):)
v all r just crazy happy all day long
rajat, eklavaya, manvir, manit, dhirwish, me....
yeah tahts all!


September 08
Art of Living YES+ Day 1


I finally have myself enrolled in a youth course....The part 1s were fab but it is a nicer feeling( u know what i mean by nice here, dont u) to be with 104 youngsters
my chaddi buddy( or you could say chadha badda) manvir is there, besides him manit, ajitraj, himanshi and rajat, and ofcourse akash is there but as a volunteer
our teacher is mindblowing, has a degree from iit and iim to his credit and still so chilled out he is
:):):)
hmmm....besides that i saw a lot of pairs of beautiful eyes while ' i belong to you'
and yes after the pranayams i felt as if i was flyyyyyyiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnggggggggg!!!!!!!!
yah man who needs dope! lets do some oxygen
hehe

yeah thats it for day 1, except have homework....make 3 new friends and come......where in the hell from???????