This Begins a New Practice - Knowledge Sheet 1

Hey all

From today onwards, i've decided to post a Knowledge Sheet every monday on our blog.

These are Knowledge Sheets that have been given by H.H. Sri Sri Ravishankar from the year 1995 on a weekly basis and people from around the world would be eagerly waiting for them. A practice which started off as just a simple note from the Master, has now been compiled into a Seven Volume series named as "An Intimate Note to the Sincere Seeker". Before i did my advance course, i just heard people talking about how deep and profound this knowledge but yet it so simple and you could incorporate it in your daily life. I really could not relate to what they were saying, but once i started reading through some of the sheets that my friend Prasanna sent me, it really striked a chord somewhere and slowly it started making sense. (they say that whenever you are in trouble/depression you just need to flip through any one of the books and you are bound to find an answer to your trouble on that page... :-) )

More than me saying more about this, i would just paste an extract from BawanDinesh's blog which they wrote for the Dvd Cover which more or less sounds like a prologue and sums up my thoughts. So, in their own words, we begin a journey which i am sure would be a one that we will all cherish for a lifetime, if not at this moment, at some point of our life for sure.

"For 7 years, every week Guruji (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) used to send out a page of Knowledge to be read out and discussed at the satsangs happening all over the world. He used to call it the Knowledge fax … This was before email became popular enough for everyone to use

Every week we waited eagerly for what Guruji would say through these Knowledge Sheets, many times we would be with Him while He dictated them out and we compiled them. The atmosphere would always be full of wisdom coupled with big doses of mirth. And the Knowledge sheets themselves are always profound, sometimes quite funny…

Dinesh and i decided to do a commentary on them, reliving those precious moments spent with Guruji, reading them out for you and peppering them with stories and examples of how this Knowledge from Him has come alive for us in our lives.

Re reading them now, after so many years of Sadhana, Seva and Satsang has made us realise just how beautiful and precious these words from Him are … We are throughly enjoying ourselves making these videos, we know you will love watching them too."

Have fun...

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

p.s: This week i will be posting one video everyday, as we have already uploaded six of them, we will have to catch up. And from next week onwards, every monday a video will be up. So i can guarantee that atleast there will be one post on the blog every week courtesy myself. :-) :-) :-)

Shutter Island - A Review

After a long time, finally got to sit down and watch a movie at home. And after watching it, i decided to write rather than talk about it to others(even though i was left spellbound and speechless and was finding a place to bury my head into the couch)

This movie has been in the cans for a long time, and everytime i visited Sir Marty's(Martin Scorsese) profile on Imdb i kept seeing this message that the movie is still in the Post-Production stages. And in the last few months i've completely lost track of the movies that have been coming and in that process this also went away from my mind. And just a few weeks back, i get this mail from my friend in the Pune Film Institute who was saying that this has got to be one of the finest films that has been produced by Hollywood, and if i didn't watch it right away, well i can stop talking about movies. And then two more from the group saw it and gave the same feedback, which just doubled up the curiosity. Luckily one of them was coming to Bombay in two days and i finally got to see it.

This has got to be one of the landmark films in Sir Marty's Career as well as in Hollywood. I mean, from what we've seen from Scorsese's adaptation from Book/Bios to screen (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, The Departed) this one is no where near any of these films. The closest that you can relate this film is to probably Taxi Driver and Cape Fear. But this is a completely new presentation that Scorsese has given us and to keep delivering and exploring at this age is why people keep adoring him and that is the mark of someone who is special.

The movie is about Teddy Daniels(Leo Di Caprio), a U.S.Marshall and his partner Chuck Aule(Mark Ruffalo) who are appointed to investigate the case of this missing patient in Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island, Boston. Teddy has been pushing to get on this assignment for some personal reasons and also to find out more about the how the hospital operates as he has his own suspicions about it. As Teddy begins to investigate the situation, he gets on to some convincing leads but things start getting even more suspicious with people from the hospital including the Chief doctor, Dr. Crawely(Ben Kingsley) refusing to co-operate with him. Finally, he decides to close down the investigations and get back to land but then a storm hits the island, cutting the communication to the mainland and a few dangerous prisoners also escape in the process. Stuck in the island, Teddy beings to suspect if he has been put here as part of the hosptial's experiments, and as things begin to unravel, he begins to suspect everything - His memory, His partner, even his own sanity.

It's been difficult to put what is there on my mind because i did not know how to describe this movie as i still have own interpretations for it and have not yet figured out if it is correct or not. But this is a small gist, and i hope some of you after watching it can help me fix the rest of the puzzle. :-) :-) :-)

Technically, this film has been flawless. The cinematography is stunning(Robert Richardson), capturing the isolated island brilliantly and creating that sense eeriness that was required for the hospital interiors. But the best parts have got to be the hallucination and dream sequences which are a treat to watch. The editing of this film will just go to show that it is the work of two minds(the editor, Thelma Schoonmaker and director) who have been in the field for long enough and have decided to take the film to the next level. I have never seen such an unusual editing pattern used in a Scorcese film ever and probably it is the script that has given them the freedom to experiment this way. The Interior cells/dungeons of the hospital are well created and light up to give the claustrophobic effect that is required. The soundtrack of the keeps running in your head even after your done watching it, haunting,haunting and more haunting that's all i can say. Unbelievable selection of soundtracks which is always a bonus for us people who are watching the movie(for us to go back home and put it on download :-) :-) :-) )

But you cannot go away without talking about the performances of the actors in such a movie(or rather in a Martin Scorcese movie). Di Caprio pulls of one of the most powerful and toughest performances of this year. He takes you into the psyche of the character so much that you will find it a bit difficult to come out of it once the movie is over. Apart from that Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Michelle Williams excel in their respective roles(the less i say, the better it is). And all this credit goes to one man who has anchored the film with perfection, Martin Scorcese. Unbelievable direction, and i really cannot describe in words how much i love this person.

So sit back, and enjoy the ride as Scorcese takes you into the mind of Teddy Daniels.

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

p.s: If this is fantastic, what are we going to say for Christopher Nolan's "Inception"...Looking at the Trailers, i cannot imagine whats in store...or rather don't want to... :-)

Technology of Spirituality - A Talk by Khurshed Batliwala aka Bawa

(the way people reacted after i told i am going to work for Art of Living...hehehehe)

There has been so many things that have been said after i joined Art of Living. Fortunately, (some might say unfortunate), this was what i wanted to do, and i realised that through this organisation the scope of achieving what i wanted to do was immense.

This post is to basically give you an idea as to what i've been doing over the few months. So, to start of with, this talk that i am going to post was actually first given by Bawa at TEDx, Goa. He was previously invited by TEDx Chennai to talk on the topic - Inspiration.(I mean for Yes!+ people, just his very presence would have summed up the topic :-) :-) :-) ). That talk of Bawa was not as appealing(for us) as it is on a Yes!+ course, but nonetheless the organisers loved it and they wanted him to be at TEDx Goa. And this time the topic that was given to the speakers was Innovation. Most us of did not have a clue as to what the content was going to be. But once he came back to Bombay and showed us the presentation that he did for the talk, we were completely blown away.

The talk is about as the heading says - The Technology of Spirituality.

What is spirituality/spiritual practises/meditation, the factors which govern it and how does this damn thing work. Sounds like some economics class but i tell you it is as interesting or rather even more interesting than it looks like. He takes us through our Indian History and Ancient Texts and arrives as to how we can utilise these techniques to enhance and widen our opportunites to grow as an individual. We actually need it more right now than how much our ancestors required it during their times. I can tell you that this talk will give you a completely new definition of what spirituality is(and give you the exact meaning of what it really is), and will break all the existing notions that people have towards it.

This is what i've always wanted to do. To showcase what are country really represents, our culture, traditions and the knowledge that we possess. The things that we show through are media is not what we are, it's just very bad replication of what the west are doing. And what we are giving to our society is the worst from the west. We need to start a revolution of sorts and the people who can really make a difference are people like us who are capable of identifying what is right and what is wrong. I can only offer you what i have to give, but it is up to you to take that step forward if you want to make a difference to the society you are living in. :-)

So, here it is - The Technology of Spirituality

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram

'Why Do We Shout In Anger?'

A beautiful explanation and so true...

Why Do We Shout In Anger?

A Guru asked his devotees, "Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?"

His devotees thought for a while, one of them said, "Because we lose our calm, we shout for that."

"But, why do you shout when the other person is just next to you?" asked the guru. "Isn't it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you're angry?"

The devotees gave some other answers but none satisfied the guru.

Finally he explained, "When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance."

Then the guru asked, "What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are very close.The distance between them is very small..."

The guru continued, "When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other."

'MORAL' said the Guru:

"When you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other more, or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return!"

(image courtesy http://yuki-hoshime.deviantart.com/art/first-Love-110395273)

Jai Gurudeva!!!

Love

Abhiram