I can’t
think of a better way to have celebrated my 60th. In the presence of one’s
beloved Guru everything seemed magical. Having friends, family & business
colleagues was special. Having Bhanu Didi & Anna, Krishanji, Sw Sadhyojata
and others from AOL family was like having the whole entourage of Divinity to
bless you on your special day.
Shashtiabdapoorthi
is a sacred Vedic celebration that is performed upon completion of 60 years in
a person’s lifetime. Rituals and mantras mark the event and a ‘remarriage’ of
the couple is performed.
According
to the Vedas, at 60 a man has reached the halfway mark of his actual span of
life, which is 120 years. The person performs a religious shanti, mainly to
invoke peace, ensure good health, and longevity.
We were
lucky to be given the opportunity to undertake this ceremony @ the AOL
Bangalore Ashram.
The day
started early with the “Upyanam” – sacred thread ceremony of our youngest son
Taran:
Later
that evening our children were blessed to have direct instruction from Guruji
on the significance of upyanam and the 3 threads that signify, responsibility
to oneself, parents & society.
Shastiabdhapoorti
Ceremony:
I had an
inkling that Guruji would come, but one is never sure of these things, given
everything Guruji does is based on spontaneity & his impossible schedule.
That he
stayed to bless the whole ceremony and give quality time and bless all the
visitors was truly overwhelming.
This was
certainly one of the highlights of our life.
Quotes
that have inspired me:
To the
mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders
– Lao Tsu
May the gratitude of my heart kiss all the universe
– Hafiz
The
Sage’s mind is a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but
does not keep
– Chuang Tzu
Be free
minded and high spirited. Put more smiles on the faces of people and give them
the confidence to move on in life. This is
what you can do
– Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Understand
that nothing happens unless it
is God’s will and do what you like. What can
be simpler than that?
– Ramesh S. Balsekar
If ever
in life you must choose between success and character – choose the later!
(Quote
given to Neeraj by Dada JP Vaswani)
“Why are
you unhappy? Because
99.9 per cent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for
yourself — And there
isn’t one” – Wei Wu Wei
Who is a
Guru? / What is a sage?
A sage is
someone who has achieved a remote human possibility.
It is
impossible to say what that possibility is.
I think
it has something to do with the energy of love.
Contact
with this energy results in the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of
existence.
A sage
does not dissolve the chaos; if he did the world would have changed long ago.
I do not
think that a sage dissolves the chaos even for himself, for there is something
arrogant and warlike in the notion of a man setting the universe in order.
It is a
kind of balance that is his glory. He rides the drifts like an escaped ski. His
course is a caress of the hill. His track is a drawing of the snow in a moment
of its particular arrangement with wind and rock.
Something
in him so loves the world that he gives himself to the laws of gravity and
chance.
Far from
flying with the angels, he traces with the fidelity of a seismograph needle the
state of the solid bloody landscape.”
– Leonard
Cohen, Beautiful Losers
