Decade with Art of Living

I just had finished my Silence retreat meditation at Art of living centre, Bangalore. It was amazing

Inner stillness & outer quietude. Swimming in deep rippleless tranquility & peace. Not that anything changed in life, but these 3 days silencw meditation was very deeply restful.  Not that thoughts haven't risen but they slowed down considerably. At one point they were lazily sauntering that they hardly registered their presence or was found disturbing. More like droplets on lotus leaf. Well, now back to workplace & daily grind beckons

My connection with art of living & Sri Sri Ravi Shankar goes back to more than decade. As kid, I used to read his articles in news paper though never felt that I would see Him personally or do any of his meditation camps. Decade later I attended his meditation camps & follow up across India, one even ashram in Gawahati (assam) on banks of Brahmaputra.

Though I'm not debating if His techniques work or not as to some it click and to some it doesn't or they don't do it diligently...I continued for a decade & I can vouch 100% it has worked for me. Sudarshan kriya keeps me grounded and handle daily chaos & contradictions & mentally very calm. My first Sudarshan kriya experience is recorded here in link

http://matrixstrikesback.blogspot.com/2010/12/sudarshan-kriya.html?m=1

Entire architecture in ashram is so aesthetic and earthy. Gently merging with nature around. So calm and beautiful. Away from humdrum of city traffic & noise. Waking up to nature sounds like wind & chirpy birds is such a blessing.

I had numerous experiences with Guruji. Mystical & physical. Though physically I saw or came near to him just twice. I was posted to extreme corner of country and was in aol centre. As huge crowds were there to welcome him, I was sitting in  corner of line. Though not really enthusiastic to meet him,I just developed thought "Guruji, iam leaving south India for long time, it would be nice to catch ur attention for a moment ". He actually walked away few steps ahead of me & for a moment stopped, walked back, tapped me with rose & walked away. Wow. It was so surreal.

We hardly appreciate knowledge & wisdom being shared at AOl. In Ancient days, same knowledge would be shared by teacher to students for in decades while everything is available for us freely & easily. Ashtavakra Gita,  Shiva sutra, Naradbhakti sutra etc . Wisdom of these timeless epics make life so smooth & bearable. Even biographies of his students esp Michael Fishman "Stumbling into infinity " is so inspiring & worth reading.

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The ashram boasts of vast stretches of greenery, lakes, wide variety of birds, butterflies & even snakes ( I read that of 20 varieties of snakes only 2 (krait & cobra) are highly venomous (eeeks). Beautiful part of staying in ashram is that we can avoid all hustle & bustle  noises of city. Fresh air, awakening to birds sounds in the field of extreme positivity is break we all need

AOL can boast of worlds maximum volunteers. The kind of service they do is phenomenal. Free schools  food to thousands, environmental sustainability, reviving dried water bodies and ofcourse meditation & protection of ancient dharma.. The Ashram is mini nation of utopia. It's volunteers were first responders to international crisis,  be it to build peace in terror hit areas like Columbia,  Sri Lanka (where LTTE planned to kidnap Guruji), Iraq to temple-masjid issue in ayodhya or kashmir. Truly inspiring.

My last brush with Guruji was when I was lying on hospital bed. Almost dead, body dying, flesh degenerating, doctors confounded & at one point I also gave up. When in extreme miserable condition, I either dreamed/hallucinate or had vision of Guriji who said " don't give up, hold for 2 more days, things will be fine"..well, immediately my confidence soared. Within 2 hours, misery lessened. 2 days I was back home. 30 days later I was on feet (doctors diagnosed it would take atleast 1 year).

Read more here

http://matrixstrikesback.blogspot.com/search/label/death?m=1

http://matrixstrikesback.blogspot.com/2012/10/omg-2-midnight-visions.html?m=1

Just another guru story where I received a mantra in my dream. To this day, that mantra gets automatically emerge whenever I face suddenness, fear or calamity

Walking alone in stretches of nature was such a soothing experience 

Your jeeva is shiva !

....There is some magic in ashram which we won't get anywhere. The moment one steps into it, we feel heightened sense of sweetness & Calmness. Energies go high. We mistakenly often attribute it to people around. But I believe its the field of high positivity & energies that elevate our souls.

I'm ever grateful to Guruji for His wisdom & meditation techniques I learnt. When zillion factors are influencing human from all directions and realms, it's my super lucky good karma that I came across Guruji in this life.

Once I did PLR where we dig into past lives. Either it was my illusion or I actually saw a glimpse where my connection went back to Guruji from.past lives. I actually saw myself as plant in Guruji ashram (yeah, a plant). In other lives I saw myself as Tibetan woman,  artist, fish & desk officer in world War 2. 

Now all those past lives seem to have continued to this life. I was quite an artist till my teenage with magnetic attraction towards Tibetan Buddhism and big fan of world War history and my sunsign is Pisces- the fish.

With meditation group.