Hi
I have not written for a long time because I am caught up with many happenings in my life..
So I just want to wish everyone a happy new year, and may all the dreams you thought of as impossible,
become possible..
With a little help from the universe..
Lots of love
jo

GOD IN EVERYDAY LIFE

The last week saw me watching alot of films at the Mumbai film festival.

I have also joined a western musical appreciation course, which is every tuesday for 9 weeks..

So I have been steeped in culture the last week...

Watching these movies has been a real eye opener for me...

One got a peek into the different cultures of the world, beautiful panoromic landscapes, and interesting stories..

The music appeciation course started with pictures of churches through the years, and the music assosiated with those time period..

The music filled ones soul..

All these experiences made me realize that we can experience the presence of God in our everyday life...

HOW?

These movies and music were truely inspirational..

Where does inspiration come from..

It comes from that deep presence in us, which we can access when we are at peace.. for then we touch the God within, who then guides us in our work..



For the music , when you closed your eyes..and flowed with it..was pure Bliss.

It was a communication of souls...

When one saw the beautiful landscapes in the movies..one was left with a sense of awe at the beautiful world that God has created..



What do most of us do..

We live our life in our small cocoon..

Just do the same things over and over again..

The same routine... not physical , but mental..

We ars so lost in our mental picture of ourselves..

Of our roles as a parent/child/spouse/employer/employee/victim/ etc..



Its time to get out of this box...

There is so much beauty in this world to be enjoyed, one has only to remove their blinkers of perception...

Feel Gods presence by seeing it in the work of those who have experinced him, and expressed it through their work..

Become more sensitive to life..expand your mind..go beyond the daily nitty gritties and the teribble news you read in the papers..

There is beauty to in everyday life..in front of you. easily accesible...all you need to do is change your focus...

The Cell Phone Connection...

Yesterday I went for a lecture by Swami Brahmanandji of the Chinmaya Mission .
His words were so powerful and simply put.
To get "Shanti", peace of mid, he said to go beyond the mind,
To go beyond the mind, one could do pranayams, or chant , or do japa, or pooja..
Basically anything that helps quieten your mind, and each individual has their own way in which they are comfortable, to reach that quietitude in them selves.
When the mind is thus quiet, you go beyond it, and feel the bliss within you,
This state of bliss is your inherent nature.

We look for it in the outside world, hoping to achieve it from objects, relationships, etc, while all the time it is within us.
We only have to quitien our mind....
The mind, is ever turbulent,
It is its inherent nature , just as waves are the inherent nature of the ocean.
Hard to calm, but it is possible, as explained earlier..

So quieten the mind, go beyond the mind, and experience the bliss..

This bliss is God..

So I asked him about the power of prayers, like ,when one does long distance healing.
How does it work?
(People who have recived long distance healing , swear by its efficacy.)
For isnt the God in each one of us healing the person from within,
So how do long distance prayers heal/help.?

He smiled and said, its like your mobile phone, you have to call the person at the other end to connect to them...
So your prayers awaken the God in the other person..
I got my answer...

Which lead me to think,
When we can connect on the physical level by a phone, then why not use the power of prayer, which is within us, and in our control, and connect with our near and loved ones and send out peace and love..

What if we sent love to people we dont like, have issues with, and thus awaken the God, and therefore the Good ,in them...
Sounds so idealistic and difficult...

But if everybody did that, can you imagine the whole environment /world abuzz with love!!

Isnt this, truly needed in todays troubled world..?

Obsacles are actually Opportunities to learn..

I had often heard/read this phrase and wondered how it was possible, till I experienced it myself...
I had borrowed a dvd of Swami Chinmayanad, Atma Bodha, and had to pass it on to a study group member on Tuesday.
Today was Sunday..and to my horror I discovered that the T.V. was not working, and being Sunday, there was no way it could be repaired , and tomorrow was Dussera, another holiday..

How do i see your dvd ..

I prayed to the Gods, and somehow I had this firm belief that I would see it..so I waited for the day to unfold and to see if my belief would manifest into reality.
The children said that it was not possible on their laptops, my computer was not reading the dvd.
I smsd a friend to see if I could borrow an old laptop of hers, and she replied that hers was spoilt, so now what?

Then my daughter came up with an idea, of using an external drive on our computer, which was fine, but then the mouse was not working..
She then told me to remove the printer and attach the mouse in its place...which I did using my common sense..since I was unaware of how the hardware got attached etc...and hey presto, I had the dvd working on my computer...

Lessons learnt..
1) That I had common sense, and by using it , any problem can be solved..
2) More important, when you deeply believe that God will make something happen, He does..you only have to have the faith and patience...

P.S. I enjoyed myself immensly, watching the dvd on my computer for as long as I wanted, which was a better option than being able to watch it on the family T.V, where I would get limited time to watch , since everbody loves the T.V....

As a friend said, you only have to take the first step in the dance....and then experience Him leading you into the most perfect waltz...which I did!!

Bhajans and the Divine Presence

Yesterday was a very spiritual day for me.

I had my Upanishad class in the morning, in which we were taught ..

"That when we are dreaming, everything seems so real, and when we wake up, we realize that it was only a dream, and so are not perturbed if it was a bad dream, or, if it was a good dream.... are saddened that it was only a dream!
Likewise , this world that we are living in, where our joys and sorrows seem so real, are as real as the dream world, ONCE WE DISCOVER OUR TRUE NATURE, WHICH IS PURE BLISS (Sat Chit Anand)"

I went away, hoping to experience this "Pure Bliss"

Then I went for my yoga class, which futher quietened my mind and made it more peaceful..
And from there to my friends house for Bhajans , which she had arranged , as part of her husbands 50 birthday celebrations.

Well what to say of the Bhajans..
They were sung by a young man from the "Art Of Living foundation
He had the most beautiful voice, you felt surrunded by velvet..
He asked us to close our eyes and become one with the music, and sing after him., and to sway , clap , whatever, with the music.
In other words to let the music take over..
Which I did ...and was slowly transported to the wonderful Blissful state that I was hearing about in the morning..
One felt the Divine within and around.. pure BHRAMAN is what i imagined it to be...
Then the Bhajan ended, and one came floating back...have experienced for a few moments in time " TRUE BLISS.."

I could now understand why people chant in groups, their is a certain dynamism in group energy .
Also when you become one with whatever you are doing , like the music , I was lost in it, one forgets their other problems, etc..

AND
This, I realized
Is what is meant by being in the NOW..

For when is at ONE WITH THE PRESENT MOMENT, our actions become more focused and powerful, as their is greater clarity in our thinking,because our minds are not clouded with anxiety/worry about the past or future actions..

So, live in the NOW !!,
or,
As said in the Bhagvad Gita,
"You have control over your action only, not the fruit, leave that to me..."

MANTRA MAGIC !!

Connect to your inner consciousness and behold the magic!!

Today, I went for my usual evening walk to the race course , and when I reached there, the sky was overcast with grey clouds, and it started drizzling.
I panicked, since I was not carrying an umbrella, and my cell would get wet and spoilt, and as we all know, unfortunately, our cells have become like our life line.All our nos are stored on it(what ever hapeened to the good old fashioned telephone directory)..

So I started chanting my mantra, and what do I see, in a few mins it has stopped drizzling, and the sky is as clear as can be...and a beautiful blue colour..
As I am finishing my round, I look back, and I see the grey clouds begining to gather again, a warning..time to go home..and I bump into my friends, who give me a ride back home...(being sunday, no driver).

The purpose of this little story being, that :
1) when you start chanting a mantra,,any one which you are used to, it quietens the mind, and then before you know it, you have connected to your peaceful inner self..

2) That you dont have to sit in a quiet room, in silence , to deeply connect with your
innerself,and that the peacefulness which is within you, can be experienced when you are out and at one with nature..

3) From that state of peacefullness..you unconsciously connect with with the universe....
And then ..you never can know.. what can happen!!

Your wish may or may not be granted, but that sense of peace which comes when one is in tune with nature is a reward in itself..and if your wish is granted..Hey presto..you have experienced creating magic!!

TRY IT!!

SHADOW BOXING

My thoughts are like a shadow,
Reflecting me on You....
Is the wall to be blamed for the shadow cast on it?

Benefits of Compassion

COMPASSION absorbs
/
Hate
/
Anger
/
Resentment
And distills it into love for your fellow beings
Coccon them in your love
And see the embryo of friendship/love grow

Love and how to get it:
If my cup of life is full to the brim with compassion
THEN
LOVE
Becomes the OVERFLOW

AND THE ANGER OF IT ALL !!!

I see anger as a huge red dark cloud, approaching me at a fast pace, almost sucking me in...as vacuum cleaner the dirt....
I am powerless to resist its force...
BUT STOP, my mind is putting on the brakes, and I do this by invoking the divine with a prayer..
Just as the great warriors in the mahabharth would chant a mantra to invoke the weapon, and then let fly the arrow...
I use it in the reverse, as the arrows of anger come twds me, I chant a mantra, or the easiest ,count ten backwards..
Theres a break, and in that fraction the mind escapes the battlefield... to sit byitself and feel the pain of the words,and to decide, is it the ego that is hurting,and even if it is.. to remember that I am beyond the ego, I am my pure self, and all these interactions are like a movie, which I am watching...and to feel the emotion of the momment for that moment ..and then let go of the pain... should we limit ourselves to being frozen forever in that one frame, the scene playing over and over in our mind...or moove on and enjoy the rest of the movie!!
ROLL ON...
Live in love, giving of yourself, as the rose its beauty and fragrance...
Welcome everywhere, whether to beautify , or used in worship..

WHAT THE TIDE TAKES OUT...THE TIDE BRINGS BACK IN..

I was walking along the beach at Goa, in my newly purchased rubber slippers, flirting with the tide at the water's edge. I'd stand get my feet wet, and then come running out...

Next time I'd go a little deeper into the water,and then a little deeper...

AND... before I knew it, one of my slippers got washed out from under my feet.

When I bent down to pick it, I lost my balance, and the other one went too!!

Patiently I stood, looking out at the sea, hating the idea of doing the long trek back on the dirty beach...

As I stood looking ,enjoying the play of the waves..what do I see?

One of my slippers come bobbing back to me...I pick it up and wait, convinced that the other will come back to, and sure enough it does!!

Which made me reflect...That what the tide takes out, it brings back in..just have the patience to wait to receive.....

And I looked back to instances in my life.....and it was so true..

Things, events ,which when one was so distraught at their going away, were a blessing, because when the universe brought them back, one had learnt so much from their absence..

A simple example:

When one's children go away for higher studies how distraught we as parents get; yet when they return, aren't we happy with what life has made of them?