BLESSINGS & BLUNDERS

Journey to GOD....



An experience which I will never forget.Most of the time i will plan and yearn to go and see SWAMI but this time round, to be frank i didn't.I was more focused and concern about SWAMI's work which is the 'Tree Planting Launch'.My wife was doing most of the work and I came in at the very last moment.



Its was 30th September...morning,did some final packing,checking and locking :-P

The flight is at 3pm so we are suppose to move at 12pm, it was at 10am, I realise that I needed a pouch so here you go..last minute shopping, went to giant and bought me a multiple compartment pouch, which did serve me well throughout this journey.It was an excitement start because at this time round, its a family affair.Me ,my wife and my princess Jaisree Sai.



Airport

Only once i reached airport, i realise..the whole group (7 of us) consist if people from 3 generation.Prada's grandma,2 mother + 2 kids..19 month and 4 years,to be precise,Saima...youth and of course...Me.For some reason,I had to take up the lead..as in collecting the passport,boarding pass and etc.Thanks to my pouch that's hold all these things.

And ya...this is my first time flying in AirAsia.



TRICHY Airport

We reached Trichy at 4.30 indian time.It was a new airport..people where quite friendly.I mean they allowed us to go in a group in the immigration and etc.What caught my attention in the airport was the 'patthe & pottu' mark in each of the glass door.They even had mango leaves hanging at the entrance.Quite interesting isn't it.When we are done with the immigration, we went to our taxi and for my surprise the airport had some kind of a 'gopuram' structure on it.Templefied airport building !!!!



Madhurai Meenakshi Amman temple

It was 3 hours journey from Trichy to Madurai.We stayed at Madurai one night (30/9) and the next morning,around 7 am we went to Meenkshi Amman temple.It was one beautiful temple with full of ancient statutes,sculpture and stories.It was an excellent experience but we just didn't have enough time to spend as we have start our journey to Parthi at 9am.



Journey to Parthi

We started our journey as scheduled, and it was a freaking 14 hours journey to reach parthi!!!We got stuck in Banglore for close to 4 hours due to some construction.We reached parthi at about 12am...we couldn't go in so we had to stay outside the ashram.We have asked Kishore,the transport guys, to book us 2 rooms.We reached at our hotel,close to the ashram,i was just about to settle down and here comes a voice from one of our group member.."Sai G ..we are not happy with the roomlah...got cockroachlah..can we go somewhere else"....i was like...what the herc...its 12am..i mean we are gonna go to the ashram the next morning,whats the big deal...????? Too bad...since its a group thingy..we went finding for another room and we paid 1350 RUPEE JUST FOR THAT ONE NITE STAY !!!!Once i got into my room,i started blasting my wife,I told clearly that..we are not here for a leisure trip and we didn't come with a big budget either.Our grandma followed us and she didn't have enough money either so got to take care of her expenses as well.I was quite angry and we are just about to start our stay, we still have 7 more days to go and its not wise to spend in the beginning itself..but hmmm i guess its part of the learning's so



LESSON LEARNT :

1 ) Do not take flight to Trichy is you intend to go to Parthi, though its cheap..the its time consuming and tiring as well.The 14 hours journey in Innova is not so pleasing guys!!



2) If you are going in a group, we should be clear of our purpose of our visit, whether is for spiritual,shopping,leisure or etc.Its not wise to go in a group where all have different expectation on the visit.If you are going to Parthi..then your thought,word and deed should be all focused on SWAMI alone.



PATHI:THE HEAVEN !!
I have heard about heaven but lets face the fact....who actually knows how does heaven and hell looks like,i feel its just its just and imagination of spiritually enlightened soul on our destination after death.Its just to put our thought , word and deed on the right path.For me heaven is here..now..and its Parthi.The whole environment in Parthi is different.Although I have been to parthi 5 times, this time..its the most feeling and fruit full one , i would say.As i have said to many, outside the ashram and inside the ashram is a total 2 different world.Its not for me to explain but its for all of us to experience.....

Well..whats the experience... to be continued tomorrow....

Hey guys.I'm back..as i said the experience outside the ashram and inside the ashram is completely different.

We manage to get a family room inside ashram,where the have 2 room.As i mentioned,i went in a group and not all are in the same frequency of thougts.Actually,this is the place that you can actually experience spirituality which is nothing but internalisation.My thoughts were more toward going for darshan and for some reason i was yearning to go and wait in the queue.Waiting for the LORD was something which I really enjoyed.So much of communication within..imagination which were very very real.Hours just fly like seconds.

But there were lot of things diverted my thought..responsibilities as a father...husband,since i was there with my wife and kid,i felt it is my responsibility to make sure that my wife,daughter and those in the group are fine.In this small group of 7, there were many different level of thought,some were concern about comfort,some about shopping as in what time the bookshop opens,what time the complex open and etc.What I am trying to say is,even in the land of GOD,we tend to think about 'other' things than the GOD himself.That's weird but that's the fact.

LESSON LEARNT :

1 ) When you are going to spiritual places like parthi,in a group..make sure you tell to everyone upfront on the objective the visit.I mean the whole group should be unison in yearning for SWAMI's grace.The thought,word and deed should be around our LORD..NOTHING ELSE !!!

2 ) You can go shopping,site seeing and etc BUT the MAIN FOCUS should be nothing but SWAMI

3 ) BE A MASTERMIND...That's what SWAMI said,which is 200% true.If you are not able to control your mind which is a 'bundle of thoughts',then....even if you stay put in Parthi for centuries..you won't be able to win HIS grace.We should yearn for HIM...internally...and if you do that...you will see and feel HIM everywhere.

DARSHAN
....to be continued...

Mangroving became styrofoaming !!!!

Wow..it has been more than a week I wrote something in my blog...well firstly, out of my surprise..i was actually "busy" after so long , secondly I didn't have anything to write or rather anything useful to write and now here I come....

Last weekend i went for a service activity in Kuala Selangor, we went for mangroving..practically cleaning.The day started quite well, as i haven't been for this service activity, i was as usual exited about getting dirty !!!! We reached there about 9am ++, waited for a while as it was raining.I guess we started our walk to the slump area at about 9.45am..i think so...These tree's along the path was a little different, they were huge but calm...doesn't have the 'mande' look...u know what i'm saying.We reached in our pre destination...i would say...its just before our actual location.We started walking in the mud and picking rubbish.Guess what we found the most....STYROFOAM !!!!!Its was just a strech of..hmmm..5meter..i guess we manage to fill 1.5 sack, full of styrofoam.I really wonder what is so much of styrofoam doing in that area !!!!

Well, that was just the beginning,before we wanted to continue our walk, a drama unfold..hehehe..ya its me....my boots got stuck in the mud, as i tried to take one, another one got stuck...but the feeling, getting stuck inside the mud was cool...it was quite chilling when you put your legs & hand in the mud.I wonder if..this is what they call "mud theraphy"..anyway...after completing the drama of pulling and pushing, we continued our walk.

We reached our destination in probarbly 10 minutes.We all got down from the bridge and walked through the jungle.We were small in number, only 7 of us were there, so manage to cover around 10 meter X 10 meter.The most saddess..dissappointing things is...in that 10 x 10 meter, i guess we manage to get another 2 sacks of styrofoam, 2 sack of bottles and another 3 sacks of plastics and etc.It was just 10 x 10 meter guys and we found SO MUCH OF STYROFOAM.

WHAT ON EARTH IS HAPPENING !!!! WHY IS STYROFOAM EVERYWHERE ???

Something for us to think about, can we change the world outside there ????

Well, we have to change ourselvessss first...and its gonna be tough.Its gonna be really tough as its very very easy to find styrofoam everywhere.Its always in our "convineance" and thats where the problem starts."CONVINEANCE"...We have to move out of it to save mother earth..to save this beautiful earth for our future generation.

We have to do something guys...either you bring your own plates & cups or atleast choose to use the serviette...if its possible....indirectly we are playing a part in damaging this beautiful mother nature for our future generation....

Guys..lets STOP this...we can't go like this...WE HAVE TO STOP THIS !!!!!

SWAMI'S GRACE ON THOUGHTS

A miracle took place,TODAY !!! Well, the story goes like this.For the past few days, for some reason, i was thinking and imagining of having a youth gathering in my house.Most of the time, youth gathering at my home would be ..FOOD..FUN..LAUGHTER.So this round I though of having a meditation session in our house.The benefit of meditation is ready great...i have tried my level best,telling to the youth about this but they haven't shown much interest yet :-(
To be frank..this is not something to be forced so I was just taking it cool...

So, coming back to the point, pass few day, i was imagining and thinking of this scenario of having youths in my house and having a meditation session.Once the 'Thoughts' are clean,here comes the "GRACE"...As usual today I sat for meditation...normally i use to meditate for 25 to 30 minutes....as I was in my father out law's place yesterday,I was sitting at my usual meditation spot..which is right under SWAMI's picture in the hall...So..i started meditating..the feeling was normal...i managed to meditate for 30 minutes and for some reason I was not satisfied..so i meditated again for another 10 minutes.So normally after meditation, i will rub my both palm and place it on my face..I did the same today..right after doing that, once i open my eye.......FOR MY SURPRISE...I SAW LITTLE SPOTS OF 'VIBUTHI' ON MY LEFT ARM...For a second I can't believe it...I really couldn't...Then I start thinking..the mind started its work.."May be its because of the fan..and because of it, the vibuthi from my forehead fell on my arm"...all sorts of thought came in my mind....giving its own logic...well possibly "ÝES"...it might be just the speed of the fan..BUT...I have been meditating like this..at the same spot..and with the same speed of fan..for months..each time i'm at my father out laws's place, I will sit at the same spot and meditate...but i haven't seen anything like this...

Well...if you ask me...i clearly feel that its a "BLESSING FROM SWAMI" on the thoughts of making the youths meditate...so whats next...i have already have my plan...
DEAR YOUTH...WATCH IT...MEDITATION IS RIGHT ON YOUR WAY !!!! HU..HU.HU..HA..HA..HA...

ITS NOT EASY

Well..its close to 2 weeks, after the walk for values event...probarbly one week..me taking the 'No Styrofoam' verdic seriously and here comes a great test yesterday.For others it might sound silly or rather simple but for me it was the matter of preaching and practicing.We had a gathering yesterday in one of our beloved anne's house and we discussed quite number of interesting topic.It was indeed a very fruitful session..and the drama starts after the event, when one of our brother said, "Thanks for coming...(he had a long speech...so i have to cut it short here :-P) ...dinner is served.To tell you guys the truth ,my stomach was already making all sorts of beautiful rythem...from all the keys in the sound track.So, coming back to the point, right after the brother said, 'dinner is served' , without waiting, i straight away went to the dinning hall..menu was cool...curry puffs,vadai, spagetti fry and AND STYROFOAMMMM !!!!

Well, i totally overlooked the 'styrofoam, since hunger was all around my heart, soul and body..i just took the STYROFOAM and start taking the meal...such a culprit isn't it...right behind me was a short bro...i mean ' short' bro...who looked at me and said.."Bro ..styrofoam bro...." At that moment I realised about the STYROFOAM and felt like 'SHIT'...before i could recover from that 'SHITTY' feeling here comes another bro telling.."Bro..in email all you put no styrofoam....." Now...i really feel like a complete "MACHURIAN SHIT"...for those who don't know whats machurian shit...well..its actually defined in the oxford dictionary as the enhance version of 'shit'.. :-P

Somehow I ate...but i really felt guilty to the max...as usual I was abit emo...while driving I was really thinking..how on earth we can avoid these kind of situation..I mean...when we are going for dinner or lunch or party....well, its practically the guts to stand for what you think is right.

Well, i realise i should have....as for yesterday but i didn't.Its a learing curve, i will stand for what I think is right which is "SAY NO TO STYROFOAM"...so the next action plan for me is to get myself a nice green plate and put it in my car...well..skipping the meal never was in the equation but skipping the 'styrofoam' is....

Say 'TAK NAK' to styrofoam

Well guys and garl..to be frank..i'm not a blogger and I don't write often either but i guess blogging seems to be a trend where everyone express themselves and ya here I'm trying to express my self to the public.I use to get involve in sosial activties but I never was a 'nature' person.What I mean is, for me social service is "poor kids"..."building home"..."free education" and all those which are physically involved with human beings.

But recently i realise , there is a greater meaning for social service...is not only for humans...its beyond that...There is one huge,majestic and powerful living idle who is called "MOTHER NATURE", i knew her existance but never did I think of doing something for her..until the recent event called "Walk for Values".10th May is date which marked a new beginnig for me..towards nature...Its not my choice but its "HER"blessing..mother natures blessing.

Well, the theme of this event is "GO GREEN", many activites were executed prior to the event, to create the awareness and importance of saving mother nature.One of it was saying no to plastic...focusing on REDUCE..REUSE..RECYCLE concept.It was fun,being involve in the preparation of this event, doing paperbag...using discarded material to do signages, decoration and etc.Everything to do with the event and the walk was owesome.

10th may is over...exactly after one week..we had another event..and AND...we could see "styrofoam" used massively on this event.Ok NOW..the question is WHERE IS OUR STAND ON SAVING MOTHER NATURE....IS IT JUST FOR AN EVENT...OR ITS GONNA BE A LIFE TIME COMMITMENT...I asked this question to myself...we have to have our stand, the changes starts from within right....so....here is the drill..

This is my first ever blog...am not sure if anyone will read it or not...but am gonna start this 'SAY TAKNAK TO STYROFOAM' campaign to myself first..I need to practise what i preach right...so its gonna be a battle within me...that am no longer gonna use styrofoam....of course if i see it..I WILL HIGHLIGHT IT..wether people follow or not..its chapter B..Its a great challenge but am gonna pick it up....

I HAVE DECIDED..WHAT ABOUT YOU ??????