Pragyopnishad Part 5 (1-7)

Chapter 1 – Karm

There are tow things that come to test a man – sankat and glory. Problems test our patience, humanity and courage, while glory tests our humanity, courage, politeness and control. Anyone who passes these two tests is great human being.

With adulthood comes rights.
With rights the responsibilities.
If one is responsible then prizes are there but not then he is punished.

A cleaner has small responsibility whereas the captain of a ship has a lot more. All karm are accounted for even if humans have the freedom to make choices and take decisions. There are two sides for everything in this world; day-night, truth-lie, heaven-hell, greed-charity. Both are powerful and attractive. We have to decide which one to follow. Man also has both raakhas and dev qualities.

Humans should have the foundation of truth and search for the truth.

Chapter 2

Why does man not take the path of truth and God?

Because he does nto want to. If one really wants he can change himself e.g. Valmiki, Kalidas etc. one has to think right as well as do right – just one does not work. Character and thought are two strengths of humans.

Chapter 3 – Yog and Tap

The five qualities that are a must for a great human being:

1. Hard work
2. Mit vyayita
3. Shaalinta
4. Sehkarita
5. Sangharsh shilta

Be serious by heart, your work and word.

Discipline and love should be balanced, excess of anything is bad.

Chapter 4 – Soul

Knowledge is supreme. Understand yourself – aatm gyaan. Four things hold a person tightly:

• Old values
• Present information/experience
• Love of close ones
• Environment

If environment does not change then it is hard to change the point of view. That is one purpose of teerth yatra (pilgrimage), satsang and meeting and reading about great people. Just reading and knowing is not enough one has to live it, implement in their life.

Atma and body have each their purpose. Just like father wants his son to do his will, god also wants that from his creation. Vaisudev kutumbhkam – see yourself in everyone and everyone in you. The whole world is one big family. If you have a good view on life – then you can find good in everything. Love everyone – bhakti generates love in people.

Chapter 5 – Dharm

These days the meaning of dharm has been changed. Dharm has become religion but dharm really is your duty. Dharm is:

• Truth and intelligence
• Control and responsibility
• Maryadapaalan and discipline
• Saujanya and parakram
• Sekhaar and parmaarth

Chapter 6 – sarvdharm sambhaav

Two kinds of dharm – religious and duty. But if humans do duty with religion then it is the best dharm.

Chapter 7 – upaasna, saadhna and araadhna

There are many things that come in threes:

• World: God – Human – Nature
• God: Bhrama – Vishnu – Mahesh
• Human Body: Sthool – suksham – kaaran
• Goals: Satya – chitta – aanand
• Thathya: Saytam – Shivam – sundaram
• Worlds (lok): Devlok – Dharti
• (3 – gun)

Gayatri is also three –

Nisha	Pragya	Shraddha
exists in sthul	exists in sukshm	exists in Kaaran
Is Upaasna	Is Saadhna	Is Araadhna
Is Brahm	Is Life	Is the World

Sit next to God make life changes seva dharm for good of the world
You get strength from this sun, moon, rivers – they all do seva
Once you give, you will see you have more.

Pragyopnishad Part 4 – Pilgrimage (4)

Chapter 4 – Teerth (pilgrim places)-Devalay

Purpose of temples and pilgrimage: to evoke shraddha (devotion/faith), knowledge and loyalty.

There is only one god. One who understands god will know this. Each place of worship has a charitable place which is to help with human awakening and believe in religion (dharm dhaarana). They are also supposed to make one able and have bhaavna (emotions).

Just like sun gives its rays to everyone, wind blows to everyone to help them breath etc. humans who are devta like will go out and help people with all good heart and intentions. A sadhu person should do pilgrimage journey as it is good yog as well as aradhna of dev. Only good can come out of it.

Sleeping person is kalyug
One who gives up sleep is dwaapar
One who gets up is treta
One who walks is satyug

Going to pilgrimage used to be a huge event and journey.

Even the people who are not very religious should do pilgrimage because it increases knowledge, experiences, change in behavior and helps to network. It also helps with tourism, business, your realize the greatness of yourself and everyone seems to be part of one family.

One should go with pure heart to pilgrimage – just like a fish does not benefit from Ganga water you will also learn anything. Even criminals get peace when they do pilgrimage. One should try to do some sanskaar during the teerth.

True sant (saint) and good human beings make pilgrimage journey meaningful. If one gets good company of a true sadhu then that is equivalent to pilgrimage, e.g. company of Yudhister and Vidur is like going for pilgrimage.

Pragyopnishad Part 4 – Death, Belief and Pragya (5)

Chapter 5 – All about Death

One should think of death as a place of rest rather than end. Think of everyday as a new life and night as new death.

Death is like changing clothes. After death heaven-hell have their own happiness and sadness and punarjanam has its own. In either case one has to deal with their good and bad actions. After human life is devta life. Sometimes humans become nastik because of delay in karmphal, but believe in god and then there is no fear. Just the way people with physical body enjoy happiness/sadness so do sooksham bodes. Our forefathers will benefit from our karm. There was a great explanation of shraadh….

Chapter 6 – Astha-Sankat

Why do cultures fight for religious reasons? It is disgraceful.

Just like you have to wash dirty clothes, clean rooms etc..this way religions also get dirty. Things should be changed because times are different. One should not think old is gold – these things (parampara) should be changed.

Dev sanskriti is like milk – humans bad thinking make it dirty. All sorts of bad habits and rituals have entered religion. There is dirtiness, dissatisfaction, unsafety, disharmony, distrust everywhere. Culture and rituals which were pure have become corrupted. Gangas is pure in Himalyas but becomes salty and dirty by the time it reaches the sea, but then water evaporates and comes back to Himalayas and becomes Ganga again.

Faith is needed to make man devta. In scientific development there was no thought for culture. That is why science has no shraddha. Because of science, faith was lost. One needs spiritual knowledge to get back the faith.

Chapter 7 – Pragya Avtaar

Will the situation change? Or is pralay here?

When situations are like this then change happens itself and situation arises when things start to look bright again. This is because of the avatar.

(description of the 10 avtaars). 10th is supposed to be Kalki. Its main purpose is to change thought – chetna. New thought, beliefs will be established by removing the old ones. The problem now is of whole humanity – not just one person as it was in the earlier times.

Pragya avatar will be shapeless because it is vyaapak. There will be many pragya sons who will bring new thought process to this world.

Pragyopnishad Part 4 - Values (3)

Chapter 3 – Values (sanskaar)

Humans can be:
Animals – only live for eating and reproduction
Devils – terrorists and law breakers, greedy
Human – obey law of karm and is lawful
Divine – focus on responsibility rather than their own rights. They do for others as they want for themselves.

The Divine Human – god appears in human form also. Devtaa is representation of nature (prvritti ka pratinidhitva) i.e. does his duties happily, he is happy from within so he does not need any external stimuli. He does not need anything in return.

Humans are all alike but association and environment makes them one or another. Vidya makes a human cultured. Humans are lucky that they can get vidya. Education helps a person in his professional and personal development. So just because a human is educated, does it mean he can reach the dev level? Because sometimes it does not happen. According to dev sanskriti there are 16 types of sanskaars (ceremonies/rites). All these make humans divine – e.g. Puvsan, Naamkarna, Annpraashan, Mundan, Vidyaa-arambh, Diksha, Upnayan, Vivah, Vaanprasth, Janamdin votsav, Wedding anniversary etc…

There are many parv (festivals). Festivals are meant to

1) energize, bind people, make them cultured and create a sense of community.
2) do yagya on an occasion.
3) have a celebration during change of seasons.
4) for entertainment.
5) to celebrate a hero or literary person etc.

All of the above are part of being in a community. There are ten main festivals: basant panchami, shivratri, holi, ramnaumi, gayatri jayanti, gurupoornima, shravani, janmaasthmi, vijayadashmi and diwali.

All these promote energy, good will, happiness, and there is kirtan-bhajan (devotional songs) which promotes good thoughts in humans. Tell each other stories during these festivals teach culture.

Pragyopnishad Part 4 – Dev Sanskriti (1 & 2)

Chapter 1 – Dev-sanskriti (divine culture)

The gurukul type school was the best of its kind. Gurukul used to be a family like environment, where the teacher was like the father and the teacher’s wife was like the mother to the students. Kids were taught not only content, but culture, behavior etc.

The teacher’s character also plays a big role. Teachers should become what they want their students to be (in character etc.). Teachers should have the heart of a mother.

Difference between shiksha (knowledge) and vidya (education) is that shiksha is just getting information while vidya teaches us the value of life that helps us live a meaningful life. Shiksha is more for material gains while vidya is for self development. Siksha is outward whereas vidya is inward growth. Both have their place and value in a good life. Man has to try himself to get vidya otherwise it is just knowledge and it is like giving a sword to a monkey. Just like iron has to go through extraction proves to become useful, man has to do the same thing. Without developing from inside life is incomplete.

You cannot grow a mango tree from a babuul (tree with thorns) seed. A farmer looks for the best seed to grow. Parents have to do the same with their kids. If parents have high thinking and good character then in their company children become the same way. Parents are the first teachers. By seven years, kids have a good personality development.

Indian culture and dev sanskriti (divine culture), go hand in hand. This is also the Rishi’s way of life. Dev (divine) is someone who gives while devil is the one who takes. Anyone who has given more and taken less from this world is dev. Devil is greedy while dev is charitable. So man has to try to become more dev-like.

Chapter 2 – Aashram of Life and Cast

Basically there are four castes and four divisions of life.

The Caste

Everyone is born the same, but their karm (actions) decides what kind of classification they get – not the other way round. Castism is not a good system now – it has been misused and should be abolished.

Brahmin class is the voice of society. One has to be this quality by character not birth. (Raavan was bhramin and Ram and Krishna were kshatriya). Bhramin works for the betterment of the society – he can open libraries, schools, training places, child care, women centers and etc. so that people can learn and also participate in seva (service to people). He should stand up against injustice.

The Four Divisions of Life

In the four divisions of life ghrasth aashram is the highest one. In this a person has energy and strength to take care of family and society. In bhramcharya and grahastashram: physical, mental, societal and work are prime during this time. The rest half of the life is for spiritual, emotional, character, good nature and selfless work for others.

Vaanprasth is the most important because a person can support himself by this age and can only give back to the community instead of taking from it. People have no more responsibilities by this time.

Upaasna is necessary for all times in life. You should develop like sandalwood – that itself smells good and makes everything around it smell good too. Upaasna is sitting next to god. If you sit next to god you will try to get more god like qualities.

Pragyopnishad Part 3 – Family – Culture and World Family

Chapter 6 – Culture

One should keep improving oneself and create and environment in which good habits are created by themselves. Families should do the some religious activity together daily or frequently. Every home should have a place of worship in the house and should belive in god.

Keep good books in your home library; inspirational and cultural. Just like we clean clothes and utensils, ones hearts should also be cleaned of any bad thoughts towards each other. Good books are for the mind what food is for the body.

The whole family should sit together during puja or katha. Read books that help change your mind about things and also help you learn some good habits and good behavior.

Faith in god keeps emotional, aspirations and actions in control. There is fear of god in doing the wrong thing. One should practice Upaasna (sitting next to God), Saadhna (discipline) and Araadhna (implementing good in life forever).

One should give one part of themselves – either in money or time to community welfare, that is how communities are build and progress occurs. Only those who serve others live a successful life. Give money, food, time or knowledge.

Chapter 7 – World Family

One should not limit themselves to just their families – he will be like frog in the well. He should think about the welfare of his society, country and culture. Teach family members that their work load includes all of the above.

People should have aastikta (believing in God), adhyatmikta (spirituality), dhaarmikta (religiousness) in life in addition to upaasna, saadhna, araadhna. With all of this a person’s thought, character and behavior gets uplifted.

One should think that we are everyone’s and everyone is ours, then only he will get the love and respect of everyone. Whatever is in this world belongs to everyone so learn to take care of it all and share it all. Don’t assume rights on anything. Have a cooperative attitude. Just like you take care of your family – take care of this world. Don’t think just locally – think globally. In the next era, there will be only one type of culture/religion – humanity. There will be just one big family.

Times right now are that of pralay – the world after this will be one world family.

Pragyopnishad Part 3 – Family – Elderly

Chapter 5 – Elderly

Elders should have a new life when they are old rather than just waiting to die.  They can be crucial contributing members of society.  To stop living life is in itself death.

This part of life should go in social service especially after having lived and done only for family, it is time to give back now.  Try to collect some goodwill for next life. 

It is advisable to have a few kids and stop having them soon so you can take care of them.  Teach kids about debt to forefathers and fathers – that way in their golden age kids will be able to repay the debt they have gotten from their parents. 

If you have done any wrong in life try to correct it, keep trying to change your behavior to better, change your environment so you can grow.  If you are healthy and able – go to the aashrams and learn about religion and go on teerth yaatra. 

Expand your family role to other families and community.  Don’t limit yourself. Don’t consider yourself head of the family, only a trustee.  Give advice but don't be disappointed if it is not followed.  Whatever money you have left should be used to uplift community not on your child beccuase he should already be self sufficient. 

Change with the new generation.  Give freedom to the new generation and respect their wishes. Keep yourself happy and love everyone.  Increase your duties but limit your rights and keep decreasing your rights.  Don’t differentiate between family and strangers.  Be disciplined and show control and try to help with good nature whenever you can.

Pragyopnishad Part 3 – Family – Child Rearing

Chapter 4 – Child Rearing

Healthy children should be brought into this world – handicap and mentally challenged children are a burden on the society.   Anyone bearing children without taking on the responsibilities will only be hurt and sad and so will their children.

• You don’t need to have kids to be successful in life. 
• Healthy parents produce healthy babies – physically and mentally. 
• Kids will learn from their environment from seeing their parents.
• Sons and daughters should be treated equally; daughters sometimes better because she is part of two homes. 
• Pregnant women should take care of what they eat, listen and talk during pregnancy as the unborn kid can be affected by it. 
• Give kids good education, love but keep a good discipline. Don’t beat or scold kids but do maintain discipline. 
• Kids should be taken to travel with parents to new places so they can grow to be inquisitive. 
• Make sure kids keep good company.
• Kids should be well rounded regarding their surroundings, education and world. 
• Kids should work at home as members of the family. 
• Kids are affected less by hot and cold and sickness but more by good and bad behavior. 
• Don’t get kids married until they are earning.
• Girls should be educated and self-reliant so that after marriage, if needed, she can work.

Pragyopnishad Part 3 – Family - Women

Chapter 3 – Women

A woman’s role in a family is key for the progress of the family. She is the real maker or breaker, man is only the helper in keeping the family. So a woman, in whatever role she is in – daughter, wife, mother or sister should be educated, happy, healthy and cultured. She should be self reliant as early as possible. 

The woman is the heart and life of the family. She is Bhramvidya, shraddha, skakti, purity, art etc. She is murtiman, kaamdhenu, Annapurna, siddhi, riddhi and is everything that can save mankind from all problems.

Whatever effort is put in developing a female will be returned infinity. In a home:
Man is kanisht – woman is varisht
Man is khanij – woman is khadaan

Whatever woman makes man will take out whether it is iron, gold etc. So woman is the mine of elements whereas man is the miner. You cannot grow a farm in the sand, so woman is the soil where a home grows.

Woman is shakti, that is why she is called devi. If you have to make the world a better place then you have to respect women. If a woman is left behind in any society then she is like a raw diamond – valuable but uncut. It is for the benefit of all men to respect and keep the woman happy.

Make a woman self reliant. She should get educated and also get the self confidence to speak her mind when needed. She should not be treated as a slave.

Man should help out women at home. Woman is the future of the new world. They have been suppressed for so long. They need to be healthy, have a balanced mind.

Because of this suppression mankind has not progressed. Men have to help uplift women. Half the population of the world has been suppressed and deemed useless – this should not be the case. Both women and men have to lead and walk together, woman cannot be behind. If woman were bad then Ram and Krishna would not have come near women. Lakshmi, Kali, Durga would not be worshipped.

Pragyopnishad Part 3 – Family and Couples

Chapter 1 - Family
Family is like a small country. Society make up is dependent on family makeup.  Family members should each understand their responsibilities to make a good family.  They should care for each other.

Small family size is good otherwise woman’s health is endangered and the man also keeps thinking about earning more money to support all instead of other big ideas.  Children will not be able to grow up well if the family is too large.  One moon is enough for the night.  Lots of stars cannot do what one moon can do for a dark night.

Keep the house clean.  Clothes, people etc should all be clean.

Chapter 2 - Couples
As one is growing up he learns a lot from his society, so when he grows up and has a family he should not forget that debt.  Meaning he should give back to the society.

Marriage should neither be too early nor too late.  People who don’t earn money should not marry. Always look for values and character before marrying the person.  Weddings should be a simple affair not flamboyant.

• Couples should be one life with two bodies.
• They should be affectionate, cooperative and respectful of each other.
• They should trust each other. 
• Keep mending mistakes and forget the past ones. Don’t be vengeful.
• They should politely and softly settle any disagreements.
• Neither should be obstinate or take sides.
• They should keep themselves in the other person’s shoes when listening to problems so they can be more thoughtful of each other.
• Don’t get mad if you don’t get your way.

Live a simple life otherwise all the money will go into looking pretty and there will not be enough to live on.

One should not waste too much time on useless friends.  It is waste of time and money.  Chose your friends as the ones who help you grow intellectually.

One can live in a joint family with love and respect.  Because of changing times there is a generation gap.  Just because an elder is telling you to do things does not mean it is always right. Do it only if it is right for the times.

Pragyopnishad Part 2: Dev Maanav

How to become a divine person.

Dharm is only one kind and is the same for everyone – humanity and social responsibility. One should have: rishi chintan, good character and shalinta by nature.

Just like sun has many rays and oceans have many waves – we are all rays and waves from the same source.

Dharm has ten characteristics

• Truth and intellect
• Control and responsibility
• Anushasan and vrat dharan
• Sneh sounjanya and parakram
• Sehkar and paramarth

One has to control the five gyan indriyan and the five karmindriyan.

Chapter 4

• Body should be without disease.
• Heart (man) should be balanced.
• Character should be clean and bright.

Biggest thing to have pride is about doing your duty (karm)

Chapter 5 (Discipline and culture)

Your values should be strong even in the toughest times.

There is strength in numbers that is why culture is important, otherwise everyone will behave in whichever way they want causing all sorts of problems.

Every soldier understands the meaning of discipline. Even the smallest creatures like ants and termites know the benefit of discipline.

It is easy to spot a disciplined person.

Chapter 6 (About civilized behavior)

Your own behavior will echo for you in the other person – just like an echo in the well or a bouncing ball. (if you are rude then the other person will also be rude etc.)

One should not be lazy. Do the work for good, think good thoughts. The more the person is lazy the more he will think bad thoughts and lose everything.

Don’t do injustice and don’t tolerate injustice and don’t ignore injustice.

Chapter 7 (Sehkaar – cooperation)

One can only win and accomplish anything by cooperating with others. One should have charitable habits.

Pragyopnishad Part 1: How to make the world better

Naradji came to visit Vishnuji because he can see that human beings are lost in the business of life and have not been able to understand the spirituality in life.

Naradji asks Vishunji: how can man learn about spirtiurality and sadhna while staying in the comfort of his home? Vishnuji is happy that Narajji asked this question because he was thinking the same thing.

Vishnuji says: it is a Kalyug now, situations are not good. To solve this we have to get to the bottom of the issue. To save a dying tree you have to take care of its roots, not the leaves. There is increase in diseases, crime etc., such that this world is almost at war. Astha is the issue.

Once can find only insects in dirty water, bad blood will only produce boils and pimples, so we have to clean these elements. In such times when all bad things have increased God will be incarnated. This incarnation (avataar) will be “Pragyavtaar”. This incarnation will have to bring idealism, socialism (community feeling) and such ideas to create a satyug type of environment. This incarnate’s work is very tough so it has to come down with all 24 attributes. Because of increase in scientific discoveries and such a widespread of egoism and greed God has to come only in form of consciousness (chetna).

I will inspire people in this incarnation is such a way that they can change the world. God’s consciousness and self-aware souls will make a good combination.

Naradji asks – so what do we do now?
Vishnuji says – souls that are aware will not keep quiet, they will come forward and we will meet.

• Tatvagyaan leads to pragya.
•  An idealistic person then starts to work on his soul cleansing. Whoever can do this can help the world.
• Knowledge is karm.
• Gayatri is kalpvraksh and kamdhenu, it is the amrit of the times.

Self aware souls never miss an opportunity to do things. They will always finish the matter at hand. Later other people wonder – why did I not do that? 

People of courage and ideals bring awareness through sacrifice. They will always have satisfaction, they will always have the respect of all and devi anugrah. They are just like fruit bearing trees, always giving no matter how much you take from them.

Pragyopnishad - Disclaimer

Pragyopnishad is one of the great books written by Shriram Acharya ji. I heard about it in the 9 day shivir and had promised myself that I would read this while I was in DSVV.  This book gives a detail description of how to live your life as a member of your family, community and globally.

My notes don’t do justice to the book and I may not be able to convey all of its meaning because of my poor understanding of Hindi, but I am trying to do my best to give you an idea of what this book is about. Some of the text may not flow into the other and that is all my fault. But I really wanted to jot down some of what I could understand and found important in the book.

As with any “granth” it is divided in parts and chapters.

Shivir - My Views

The shivir was a very good way for me to get to know Shantikunj, if I had not done it I would not have understood Pandit Sharma ji’s philosophy.  Even though I am reading his books, listening to some of the speakers was a great experience.

The speakers were 99% great. Some did not speak loud enough or with enough conviction. But by and large all of them had charisma and had good command of what they were saying.  What was impressive for me was how they all conveyed their message in a nice flow of thoughts.  I don’t know how much they wanted to cover, but whatever and however they had to cover, they did.  No one brought any notes or guidelines.  I got some really good insight into Sharma ji’s ideas and I realized that he believes more in action than just mere words. He is revolutionary in his thought and is all about promoting righteousness in all aspects of life.  His seven pillars of action for the society:  

1.      Self development  

2.      Education

3.      Health awareness

4.      Self reliance

5.      Environmental awareness

6.      Women empowerment

7.      Getting rid of old school of thought and andhvishwas

All these actions have been part of my life also one way or another.  Being in the education field I feel I try to promote not only my discipline but hopefully instill some good habits of learning in my students.  I have always been protecting the environment.  I have worked on programs of women empowerment for the longest time.  I strongly feel that women should be independent and be able to stand on their own before they take responsibilities of others.   Health wise I take care of myself and promote healthy habits in everyone around me.   I have also done all these through all my volunteer activities at my college and also my local organizations.  After listening to all the lectures I feel I am on the right path in life.

One thing that was a little hard about the shivir was the daily 30 mala Gayatri jap.  Initially I had a really hard time with it because of jet lag and my sleep was not set, but later I got with the program.  Getting used to the food was another thing.  Eating once a day is not a problem but the food was not palatable!  I understand satvik food but come on – it can still be made tasty.  Maybe it is hard to cook tasty food for thousands of people.  I don’t know.  In any case eating that for nine days was a challenge but I managed it.  Fruits helped a bit.  After my sleep and food were adjusted then mala was not hard to do. 

Funny thing was that so many of the speakers mentioned about the mala jap. It seems that it is a challenge for everyone and in order to finish the daily jap they will not listen to lectures.  Well, my suggestion is to reduce the jap so they listen to the lecture.  Both are important so give enough time to people to do both things.  Besides they are in Hardwar, they will want to go around so it is granted that they will miss some lectures or jap.  So many times I would see all these people doing jap and not listening to all the good things the speakers were saying. I think it is more important to do things (karm) than do jap in life.  Once one starts to live life in a certain discipline then jap will come automatically.  I don’t think jap comes before self discipline.  But I think most people believe that at least get people to say the Gayatri mantra, that will give them sadbuddhi, and that will make them do good karm in life.  I don’t think it works that way. Unless their mental make up is right no amount of Gayatri jap is going to do anything.  But what do I know?!

I thought that most people who came just came to get energy for something – but definitely not righteousness.  Very few of them seemed disciplined for the kind of life Sharma ji wants for them.  I did not get the feeling of cooperation, helpfulness, kindness, discipline or politeness in many people working or visiting Shantikunj.   It means they have not internalized anything that their guru has asked them to do except for the jap.  What good will that do? Maybe it will in their future lives – not this one.

I still don’t think I understand the concept of yagya.  I attended the first one and got disappointed by the actions of the women in the line.  There was so much line jumping and pushing that it was virtually impossible to really do the yagya peacefully.  Not one of the speakers mentioned the usefulness of daily yagya in life, although they promote it all the time. 

A speaker later on mentioned that life should be yagya and not just saying swaha in a yagya.  True – so now I feel that is what I will do instead of swaha.  Living life is the hardest thing in this world.  So I would prefer to learn how to do that rather than how to do swaha.

My biggest peeves during the shivir:

1.      The ringing cell phones!! Turn off the phones people.

2.      The ladies coming late and then wanting to squeeze in the middle where there is no space to sit.

3.      The young children getting restless and the mothers trying to play with them instead of listening to the lecture.  Don’t come if you have that small children – or sit in the back.

4.      The constant coming back and forth of young kids with their parents, for keys or water or whatever. It is disturbing to other people.

Granted there are so many people and one cannot control such a crowd but my suggestion would be to at least have a concurrent program for the young kids while parents are in lecture.  It should be mandatory.  Kids should then learn about what they can do in their lives or learn how to sing songs or whatever.  Just not play around wasting time and disturbing everyone.

All in all it was a good experience with lots to learn and implement in life.  I had to adjust to sitting on the floor for all the nine days. The first three days were hard….but then I got used to it. As an Indian living abroad, I could enjoy this more because I was in a comfortable housing.  I don’t think I could have enjoyed it so much if I had to share my bathroom with 15 other people daily for 9 days at least.  I was blessed and lucky to have my space and privacy.

10th and 11th June

Ganga Dusherra

The day that Bhageerath brought Ganga on earth.  There was a program in the evening.  Again, very good speakers and totally worth it wait for 2 hrs to sit in the front. 

The messages were:

•  Simple living and high thinking.
• Discipline yourself: your senses (especially tongue),  thought (don’t think, say, listen or talk bad), eating, money, time. 
• Control your mind (buddhi), pride (ahankaar), and thought (chitt).  These all are part of man.  However your decision is made by your buddhi.  So try to discipline  your buddhi by using Gayatri mantra and concentrating on one thing – best is the rising sun. 
• Man is supposed to be the superior species so how did we become so low in our actions? Your man is like an elephant – big and untamed.  To tame it you have to ask God for help.  
• Gayatri mantra is like the universal mother, she will give you what you ask for – so be careful what you wish for. 
• The person who does wrong never thinks he is doing wrong, he thinks he is right and everyone in the world is wrong.

Personal View

I have gone back to my old eating habits: samosas, dosas and jalebis! Shantikunj is full of people!! There are crowds everywhere, people are sleeping under the stars.  But no one cares where they sleep so long they have a mattress and a place to lie down.  Privacy has no meaning in Indian culture. There are public bathrooms everywhere and food is free in the bhojanalay.  Clothes are hanging out to dry everywhere...it is a huge city inside a city.  In a way it is nice to see that everyone is getting along.  I have not seen a single altercation or crime happening.  People may be rude or unhelpful but at least they are not having a full blown fight.   There is no doubt that Sharma ji has done something amazing in this place.

11^th June - Gayatri Jayanti

Got up really early (4 am) to find a nice spot up front to hear Dr. Pandya and Jiji.  I will never do that again –after sitting for 3 hours on the floor I was not in any shape to listen with complete attention.

Dr. Pandya spoke about the importance of Gayatri mantra and meditation. 

• Thoughts – thoughts should be changed for the better. 
• Character – after thinking about what you have done right or wrong, change your character for the better. 
• Action – apply action in your life – don’t just sit and think about things.  Get up and do things. 
• Meditation brings us closer to ourselves so we look inward instead of outward.

Evening program was the deep yagya.  Very pretty ceremony and really nice lecture also.  A lot of it was repetition of the earlier nine days – but still nice to recap.

Personal thoughts

There was a whole list of things to do today  including visiting the “Akhand Deep”…but the line was so long that I did not have the guts to stand with Maya in the humidity and the sun, and besides I was soooo hungry, I had been up since 4 am and now it was 11am.  So I decided to battle the crowd for lunch instead.  Victory was sweet and very tasty.  (For once food was actually tasty!!)

Luckily the other NRIs and I were invited by the Abroad Cell to visit Akhand Deep and get blessings from Dr. Pandya and Jiji separately.  Lucky us!! So I did everything Maya did, only sooner.  The other nice part of this was that I got to meet some of my fellow NRIs.

9th June: Shivir – Day 9

Last day of the shivir! It is not that I am tired of it....I just want to start working at DSVV.  I really liked that campus and want to work there as soon as I can.  So this last day is welcomed. 

I went early for the yagya one last time. Despite getting their early, I was still the last one to enter the in the first group. These ladies drive me nuts! But however it was, as cramped as I was sitting for the 45 mins, I felt good afterwards.

There was only the morning session today, as it is the last day. The speaker discussed Sharma ji’s book, “What am I?” Such an interesting book but speaker was really dull. He could not discuss the topic at all – or maybe I could not understand what he was saying. The gist of the book is that we are all devatma who have been lost, he talks about becoming one with the God again through the power of meditation and concentration.

• Think more about yourself rather than other people – not in a selfish way, but more like what you yourself are and how you behave rather than how the other behaves. So you will concentrate more on your own behavior rather than judging other people.
• Situations in Shantikunj are such that a person’s “man” is tightened by forced discipline. You have to share rooms, bathrooms, get in line all the time – this also a kind of yagya.
• Change yourself from the inside – not just outside. To make your life mission useful light your inner candle and then light everyone eles’s.
• We should become aatmvaadi not sharirvaadi. Think more inward than outward.
• Family should do things together whether it is eating, cleaning, praying etc.
• A family that prays together stays together.
• A family that dines together shines together.

As it was the last speech, it could have been a more charismatic speaker- oh well…..

Personal Progress

As I was attending the shivir for nine days, I had come to recognize a number of ladies. I used to see this lady all the time, she would be writing the jap in her notebook. Once or twice I tried to speak with her but no answer. I did not push it. Well today, on the last day she came and found me and told me she (Maya) had taken a maun vrat for the 9 days. Oh my God! All nine days! And this was not the first time she has done the maun vrat…she does it once a year. Well – good for her. She did turn out to be a wonderful person and went on talking (I guess making up for all the nine days she did not speak). Her two daughters were with her who were also very nice. When a family has good values it shows in everyone. (Maya is the one on the right in the picture below)

Maya became my good friend for the next two days as she became my guide on how to attend all the activities for Gayatri Jayanti (11th June). So I took her daughter’s phone number and sat with them for the events of the next two days. It was kind of nice, for a change, to sit in someone’s company.

8th June: Shivir – Day 8

Morning session

Very boring speaker.  First told the story of Matsya avtar and then Sharma ji’s biography.  I left early as I had already finished reading Sharmaji’s biography on my own.  That way I also got a chance to catch up on my jap.

Afternoon session

Samaaj nirmaan – the seven aandolans (http://awgp.org/WeOffer/SocialReforms/ )

1.       Saadhna – change in personal behavior.  Humans can become great not by their caste or color but only by their behavior. So change your attitude to become better.  Saadhna does not mean sitting for puja and doing jap. It means bringing small behavioural changes in your life.  A saadhak then becomes a stihtpragya person i.e. he cannot be swayed by any one, he has self confidence in his self righteousness. Just like mehndi brings color only after grinding, man becomes devta only after saadhna.

2.       Shiksha – education.  Literacy movement.  Teach people how to read and write, do basic accounting and budgeting.

3.       Swaasth – health.  Prevention is better than cure.  Teach good health habits.  Live a good happy life – do exercise.

4.       Swavlamban – become self sufficient in living.  Learn to support yourself, there is enough in the world to support everyone. 

5.       Naari jaagran – women empowerment.  Women make up about 50% of the population yet they are the least used resource.  If we can bring women in the work force then productivity and society can improve a great deal.  Men have to help with this…it has to be done together.

6.       Paryaavaran – environmentalism.  Protect the environment, save energy, reduce trash, global warming issues.

7.       Elimination of evil customs – be open minded about things.  Stop the culture of dhongi and blind superstition.

Evening session

Value of satsang

·         Satsang can be wih guru, wife, family or friends.

·        What is life? Live courageously, live happily and do things instead of waiting around for things to happen – i.e. get up and take action.

·         Truth will always win.

·         Life is time and time is life.

The talk was focused more on social activism.  Take action – do not just sit around doing nothing.  Don’t be lazy or just say 3 mala of Gayatri mantra thinking about the sun.  Instead make children brave and ideal citizens so they are ready for anything.  Teach them to respect women.  These days parents are overprotective of children so they don’t get hurt, but unless they get hurt how will they learn?

The talk was dispersed with inspirational songs. Very nicely done.

Personal Thoughts

Food is not getting better but I am getting smarter! Yesterday I saw someone take their daal in a glass, so I wizened up too!! From now on I carry a glass with me too.  And I was rewarded with the tasty kadhi today! How sweet are these small victories! Now I don’t have to drink my kadhi from the plate!! How dehaati was that!!

Leaving the session early this morning was also a blessing in disguise as it started raining and all my hard work of my laundry would have gone waste if I had not reached in time to take it down. 

I am up a lot in my jap now. I have to finish 30x9 mala in 21 days now instead of nine.  That is my promise to myself. 

7th June: Shivir – Day 7

Morning session

Ladies today at the songs and for the lecture!! The one and only time ladies presented during the entire 24 sessions.

The lecture today was all on family values and balancing life. 

1. There is a general lack of “dev” values in people.
2. Family should be thought of as a factory for producing responsible citizens.  It is the backbone of any country, without it the country will also fall apart. 
3. Sant Gyaneshwar said, one does not have to leave the family to become a saint or sadhu, one only needs to leave the bad qualities. 
4. When two people marry it is a new life, neither of them should think of their old life anymore.  Start fresh with new ideas.
5. Always think responsibility first and rights afterwards. 
6. Most importantly don’t hurt anyone’s self esteem.

There are a few things to keep in mind

1. Swachata and suvivastha – outside and inside cleanliness.  Make sure everyone does appropriate work and take some days out of busy life to just clean their home.  If kitchen is dirty then the person responsible is also not a clean person – mentally and physically. Maintain all clothes and books etc. in tip top manner.  Usually women don’t think about their soul as their minds are preoccupied with household matters.
2. Shram – what is your attitude towards working? When a jugnu flies then only he lights up. If one is proud of himself then he cannot do work – he is too proud to work.  So if you want to do seva then you have to get rid of your ego.  You have to think of work as seva then you will enjoy it.  
3. Make a timetable for the day/week etc if needed to make sure everyone works.  This can be a smart and effective way of working.
4. Rest only when absolutely necessary.  You have finish your work before you can rest. 
5. Nityavyata (saving) – be a saver.  Save money effectively but don’t be a miser. Give charity but do that only if are able to save money.  There are three things associated with money: daan (charity), bhog (attachment) and naash (destruction).  So better to give charity as the other two options are negative characteristics. 
6. Shristachaar and shaalinta – speak sweetly to everyone.  Be good to everyone, “do unto others what you want for yourself” should be the motto.  Keep a check on what you read and what you watch on TV.  You will become what you read and watch.  Have an environment of aastikta – teach children the values e.g. touching feet of elders, sitting for puja etc.  Do puja and yagya routinely so kids know about God.  Always teach children that you do first for others and then for ourselves. 
7. Swaadhyay – Keep good books at home for reading, and read with entire family for at least 30 mins daily.  Tell stories of good values and culture to kids. 
8. Sehyog and sehkaar – always be together as a family and do things together; whether it is eating, shopping, going out for fun etc.  When you start to do things separately in a family, the family falls apart.

Afternoon session

All on the evils of dowry system.  Some discussion also how caste is destroying the culture of marriage.  Sharma ji promotes the karm theory of life rather than the caste theory.

Evening session

Pragyopinshad was read today also and yet again the speaker did not get very far…at least from my point of view.  Don’t know what he was talking about.

Personal Progress

For once I actually did the 30 mala jap!! Maybe because I had a cup of tea this morning! Haha! But I felt a sense of accomplishment. 

I had started reading Sharma ji’s “Life and Legacy” book in which he writes about how much jap he had to as part of his becoming ready for his life.  So I got some inspiration from that and I became more dedicated in doing my jap.  He wrote that he actually enjoyed the jap so much that he had to set an alarm clock to let him know when to stop! Wow!

6th June: Shivir – Day 6

Morning session

·         Ved are the theory of life.  But God did all the practical things also by coming into this world.  So become a dev and not a rakshas. 

·         Told the Shiv/Sati story of Ramayan – enforced that woman should listen to her husband if he is saying something.

·         Prahalad story – enforces that one should have faith in God. 

·         One business man used to kept all the bad coins with him instead of putting them back out in the market.  So when he was dying he prayed to God that “Please keep this (pointing to self) khota sikka just like I kept the khotta sikka out of the market.” So become the person who keeps the bad out of the society.

Afternoon session

About having sadhbuddhi and doing satkarm

1.       Your God is like who you are for example, whatever you will shout into a deep well, the echo will come back to you.  So your God becomes however you think of him as. So if you want to please him with money as a corrupt God then that is what he will be and that is what you will be.

2.       Explanation of Ganesh’s elephant form:

a.       Large ears – to listen to everyone

b.       Large nose – to do work so well that there is no nose cut (insult) in life

c.       Eats sweets – so speaks sweetly only

d.       Large stomach – to keep anger and all other emotions in your stomach.

3.       Savitri – goddess of matter – the power of nature is all around us – has five elements (earth, fire, water, air and ether).

Gayatri – goddess of sanskriti and thought – is formless and gives power to our being.

Savitri gives physical body while Gayatri gives mind.

4.       In talking about our habits: we have three characteristics prakriti, vikrati and sanskriti.  To give an example of each in one thing we do – eating…
Prakrati is eating right                 

Vikrati is eating more  

Sanskriti is giving your food to someone hungry

So in general you can follow prakriti in your life, that is your God given nature, but you can develop sanskriti also in order to become a better person.

5.       Aaj ke raavan are – politicians, actors, media, priests, professors and scientists who don’t work for the benefit of the society are all part of the evil group of people.

6.       The different yugs and the characteristic that was/is prevalent

Satyug – satya

Tretayug – maryada (Ram)

Dwaparyug – leela (Krishna)

Kalyug – pragya (Kalki)

What should we do in this yug? Take the sword and take action against injustice.  Stop talking in past tense and start taking action now.

7.       Interesting phrase that the speaker said, “Guru ko maante hain lekin guru ki nahin maante”

Evening session    

A young speaker for a change.

1)     A lucky person is one who is

a.       Born as a human

b.       Meets a sadguru

c.       Does jap-tap

d.       Gets varaagya

       2)     Rishi are always happy because their needs are very less.

3)     Pillars of good life – sadhna, swaadhyaay, sanyam and seva.

4)     Pragyopnishad – another text that Sharma ji wrote.  The speaker read part of this but was not able to finish even one subsection of one chapter of larger part.

5)     One has to change himself to change the situation –not try to change the situation because that may not be possible. 

6)     There is a lot of negativity in this world, one has to keep themselves positive and happy.

The lecture could have been more productive if the speaker had stuck to the topic rather than telling so many stories all the time.  He lost his audience as he went on telling his stories, although it is not really hard to lose the Indian audience!

I had to read the Pragyopnishad on my own. I will write my understanding of it later.

Personal Thoughts

Did not even try to go to yagya today.  I will go only on the last day now.  It seems that the number of participants are dwindling.  Maybe they are getting tired of sharing bathrooms or lack of sleep or they are busy doing their jap - whatever.

Some of the thing that have impressed me about a number of these speakers are:

·         Their ability to speak well in English, Hindi and Sanskrit, though most times they are speaking in Hindi.

·         Remembering so many dohas and shlok from the appropriate texts

·         Their general/global knowledge

·         Scientific knowledge

I wish I had the ability to tune off the ladies around me with their kids and their cell phones.