Aug 13 2010

Monsoon Special YES!+ for students of Punjabi Univ Patiala

The course with about 200 participants was on roll from right from the beginning. The volunteers had publicized it as a monsoon special course and the rain gods obliged!! Showers welcomed beginning of the course and then it became a regular feature during course hours daily. Sunday, as the session was about to end, it started pouring heavily. A slight hint of rain dance and next moment the whole group was in the venue grounds dancing, playing, splashing in the rain!!! These students have now started working for the next big course scheduled from 27-30 August in Patiala city!!

luv
Jai Gurudeva!
Ramnik

Aug 11 2010

Lalita Sahsranama by TS Ranganathan

Lalita Sahsaranama

Download the file and rename it to mp3. Remove the .jpg extension. You have the Lalitasahsranama by TS Ranganathan for you!!

Jul 30 2010

Hello All :-) This time I am back to blogging for sure:-)

I remember the craze blogging had created for me when I first created my blog about 2 years ago. Or was it 3? I dont remember. After initial posts about anything and everything that was going on in my life (which btw is Art of Living Only! ) I got bored to be honest. I used twitter for sometime and found that also going the same way for me. What has really been working for me is twitter-like SMS group named ‘RBLife!’ I’ve created on my cell. I prefer sending smses to my dear ones. With perfect-competition and market forces at work, national smses, atleast on my service provider, cost 10000 for a mere Rs 75. So if you are not getting these smses frequently and you want them, just sms me @9872628183. The only hitch is the time taken for delivery, given every sms takes about 4 seconds of my cell ( an E63 – I would highly recommend the fone for smsing).

O wow! This post brings me back to writing. I’ve shifted back to wordpress from blogger as the craze for customizing the template has died and am happy with the templates wordpress offers.They are simply put – more elegant.

I’ve been super busy atleast in the last few days running errands like searching for a super quality whole-day-comfortably-sitting chair, attending meetings regarding Guruji’s visit to Chandigarh, taking courses, installing new stuff on my Mac, experimenting with installing Mac on a PC,and so on.

What has changed @home is throwing out the Reliance Broadband Datacard and getting an airtel wifi with unlimited download option. 276 has become a cyber cafe for volunteers ever since!!

Ok more later. I shall rush for a meeting regarding fixing venue for Guruji’s visit.

Love

Jai Gurudeva!

Ramnik

May 4 2010

Back to blogging

Its been almost 1.5 years since I have done any regular blogging other than a few posts here and there. Starting off once again. Lets me see if I can sustain it this time:) 2009 was the most testing year in my life so far. I guess the only one, life had been on a roll otherwise. I lived a different life in this one year. It was longer than a lifetime. But it has left me rock solid strong. And ofcourse has given me a deeper understanding of life and everything.
I am living in Chandigarh most of the time. 276/II,Sector-15A. A very pretty site from the vehra (terrace). Infact a terrace is the best part of a house. You get to be with the open sky, which brings an amazing kind of vastness in the consciousness. The back of the house has a ground big enough to play cricket with fielding placed on all sides and the mango tree acting as the stumps in the centre!
Behind the ground is DAV school which adds to the fresh site of school children running around raising dust in their playground bordered by Ashoka trees! And further into the distant horizon is visible the Shivalik mountain range,  kasauli hills more precisely. Orange sun rising from behind the trees, birds flocking in all directions, fighter jets creating a straight daunting white trail in morning sky is a daily delight. No other city in the plains can get you this close to nature, none that I know of atleast. Many a times I sleep on the terrace under the night sky! SaptRishi and other constellations winking at you on a clear night. I miss the trees that were in the front of the house though. City MC got them cut off for road widening. I managed to get the media on the spot, involved other NGOs, created enough noise to have them stop it for the rest of the sector until a proper enquiry is done. But my trees are gone. Neighbours wanted them cut to avoid cleaning their homes of the tree-dirt and to comfortably park their cars:( The house had become unlivable after the trees were axed. Temperature shot up by atleast 5 degrees, and rooms lost all their coolness. Now just curtains and closed doors save the rooms from the harsh afternoons. The natural ecosystem has now adjusted to the sudden loss of two huge trees. For atleast a few days after the cutting all the birds had also vanished. Homeless birds and squirrels must have shifted to the nearby trees as they are visible again:) We need more stringent policies about tree cutting and road widening.

Sep 19 2009

Navratris in Chandigarh !!

Navratris, The nine nights and days  belong to mother divine. The whole time since infinity and till infinity belongs to mother divine.  But navratris are considered ( and ARE) the most auspicious and powerful time of the year. Its the time for meditation, seva, silence and celebration.

Every year since more than maybe 25 years the navratri poojas are being organised at bangalore ashram. This is the time Guruji goes into silence every year. Environment becomes charged with divine energy.

I have been lucky enough to be able to sit through the navrati poojas in the ashram every year since last 10 years. This is the first time I am away from the ashram during navratis but  again lucky to be able to sit through the poojas!!
Navratris poojas are being conducted the ashram way in our own city chandigarh !! First time ever!!
For details on the schedule check out www.navratrichandigarh2009.com .
Swami Swatantratanand ji will be present during the poojas conducted by veda boys and priests from our ashram in banglore! We have lalita sahsranama, rudra pooja chantings and satsang  daily from at 5:45pm, 6:15pm and 8pm respectively.
The yagyas begin from 24 sep with Ganesh puja , anugya puja, Sri Maha ganpathi homa, sri navagraha homa, vastushanti homa all on 24th Sept from 8:30 in the morning!!
25th sep is Maha rudra homa and maha sudarshan homa
26th sep, the 8th day is Sri Nava chandi homa , the most powerful homa of the navratris!
27th sep is saraswati pooja. Attend it to get good marks in exams :-)

Ok now take out time from your busy lives and sit in the poojas!

Take a few leaves from office or college!

we have a dancing rocking satsang every night ! Come swing along!
 And one more thing. every day Swami Swatantratanand is conducting Bhagwat Katha  ( 7:30 pm to 9 pm). He is the BEST in the world when it come to bhagwat katha!!!
and ofcourse invite friends, family members , neighbours, and foes for the event!!
 O yes the venue is Sikhya School in Sector 46 of chandigarh.
if you come from another city and want to stay back for poojas we can work out some arrangements!

Jai Gurudeva!
love
Ramnik

Ps: Visit www.navratrichandigarh2009.com for more details

Sep 2 2008

YES!+ in Chandigarh from 10 Sep ! The last at current fee !

Dear All,
Jai Gurudeva!
After the grand success of the last course, volunteers are again totally charged up, working for the next course! This course again is constrained by the venue size. The venue will accomodate no more than 200 people. You dont want to miss out on your friends or enemies doing this course! Do your bit once again. Earn seva points. You know anytime you get someone to do the course you have opened up a pipeline of good karma accumulated thru royalty earned everytime that person does Sudarshan kriya, goes for advance course, applies knowledge point or if you are supper lucky, he/she becomes an Art of Living teacher! You have no idea who will end up going how far! So send people for the course. No excuse is good enough for anyone to miss or postpone the course. Everything else one is doing on the planet is so very temporary. What you do and get on the course is not only for this lifetime, but all the lifetimes to come. You have to have this firm conviction about this extremely precious knowledge! So go out and make people lucky! 7 days of the course fulfills the individual’s purpose for being on the planet as a human being this lifetime. And we never know who is going to last how long. ( No one comes fitted with Amaron batteries. And even they die out :-) ) !
contact smriti 9876577183/ Mehak 9815491475 for registrations!
With increases in hall rents and other costs, the course fee for YES!+ courses increases to Rs 3000 all over the country after navratris. People will be able to register at Rs 2000 , 2 weeks prior to the course date. Rs 1500 will be gone.
Course dates: 10-16 Sep, 2008
Timings: 5 pm to 9:30 pm everday. Sunday Full day. 9 am to 9 pm.
Venue: Saint Kabir School, Sector 26, Chandigarh (To be confirmed).
Registrations on the last 2 days i.e. 9/10 Sep will be strictly at Rs 2500. So all the volunteers if you are holding any registrations please submit them with the Registrations collections co-ordinator for this course i.e. Smriti. We want to use the last 2 days working on the venue and all arrangements for the participants getting the best experience rather than running around collecting registrations. Registrations on the spot will be taken at Rs 6000 only as per YES!+ guidelines.
Love
Jaigurudeva!
Ramnik
Sep 2 2008

YES!+ DSN in Chandigarh !!

So you should all be ready to begin the new year after diwali with a BIG blast of YES!+ DSN in Chandigarh! The course starts on 31st Oct and ends on 3 Nov. Now, only a 108 super lucky YES!+ graduates will get to do this course. First 54 people to register will not be interviewed. By the time you read this, you might have a very slight chance to be in first 54 if you are lucky. Last night we made a list of 43 volunteers who have not yet done DSN. The remaining will be selected after an interview. Recommendations by teachers/YES!+ volunteers, seva activities involved in, number of advance courses done, number of people enrolled for the YES!+ courses will be some of the criteria for selection. But don’t rule out your possibility of getting selected even if you have just finished your YES!+ and are totally new to Art of Living and WAYE. You commitment to your personal sadhana ( sudarshan kriya), future commitment to taking responsibility for social transformation, your personal growth and involvement in YES!+ activities can also get you in. Those of you who are even faintly interested in becoming YES!+ teachers should put in all their best to get selected! 
And what a DSN does to you, if you dont know find out for yourself. You might be interviewed on this! And who will be teaching the DSN, again find out for yourself! All I can say is you will want to do it at any cost!
People who have already done the DSN and want to do it again will have to register with full course fee and undergo the interview to get selected. Your interview will be conducted only after you have completed registration formalities.
Registerations on first come first served basis only till seats last. so register now. no last minute cry babies wanting to get in will be entertained! You can call/sms 9914293433 to register.
Love
Jai Gururudeva!
Ramnik
Aug 30 2008

More about the Thapar course

A vast majority of the students on the course were 1st year freshers! Also there were 8 students from Government Medical College and a few from other colleges. GMC students will now be pioneering YES!+ organising at their college. This would spread to other medical colleges in the state as well. This course was the first time that Thapar volunteers had a venue outside the campus. And the venue was split into two halls and two corridors for 200 people. During surya namaskars and sudarshan kriya, repeating students and volunteers used to occupy one of the corridors. And new students used to settle themselves in the other three regions in turns ! All of them were into total masti right from day one! At the same time they all were very sharp and picked up all the learnings effortlessly.  On the 5th day of the course I went to the 1st year batch hostel and we played a YES!+ game past midnight! a very typical engineering college hostel environment. The night after the course we ( I and some of the volunteers) also watched one of the episodes of Planet Earth, a set of 5 DVDs on the planet made by BBC. Planet Earth is awesome. Its a must watch. a 6-Star for sure!!! We watched it using a projector in my guest room 1 of H-hostel! You must watch it on a big screen using a powerful projector and not merely on your laptop!
Yesterday I came back to chandigarh. I will be spending the week in the city at P.U.
love
jaigurudeva!
Ramnik
Aug 22 2008

Thapar is Rocking!!! Biggest YES!+ in Punjab so far!

The course at Patiala started yesterday with a total of 188 participants and 13 volunteers!! . That makes it a 200+ course!. The crowd is 95% Thapar engineering college with 8 youth from the medical college. They had a great time yesterday! They dont have a choice but to have a great time. They are all very bright and their teacher is the brilliant :-) !!!

I will post more on this course little later.

now its time to get ready for the course!

love
jaigurudeva!
ramnik

Aug 22 2008

YES!+ Patiala 21st – 27th August, 2008. Group Photos

Here are group photos of the YES!+ at Patiala. Group captains please note down the image number of your picture in the sequence here. Email me the name, mobile , and email id of the group members in the sequence as they appear in the photo from left to right.

love
jaigurudeva!
Ramnik