>>>>>(and believe me, this is no 1st April joke :-)).

Amazing! Yesterday I was in Gulbarga. We have started introducing the Vedic culture & philosophy of Bhagavad Gita in few local colleges of Gulbarga.  Me & my friend Deepak we had gone to MRM medical college in Gulbarga.  Its very good medical college in that area. We thought of introducing ourselves with the celebration of the Ramnavami in the college. We reached in afternoon 3'o clock. We got permission from hostel warden who himself was a MBBS Dr. to conduct program in the college mess. We started invirting students room to room for the program. For that was the instruction of the Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to go to door to door & request people to chant the holy names of the Lord. At around 5:30 PM I thought of starting preparing for the class I was going to speak today evening. When I came to one students room, he was MDS student. He looked very interested in spirituality. He had big pictures of Vivekananda in his room. He welcomed us inside his room. I wanted to use internet. He was happy to allow me to use. When I saw below mail of Prof. Ganesh & read below line.

>>>>>(and believe me, this is no 1st April joke :-)).

for a moment Question came to my mind, why he wrote that line?

I mean, we have this regular program & there was little or no chance of the students taking invitation as April fool messge.

Anyways I continued. Meanwhile my friend Deepak was inviting students from other hostels.He told almost 40 students confirmed to attend the program. When progrma started there were 4 students present. In few minutes totla count went to 13. We started discussing & we had japa, kirtan& obviously Prasadam in the end. I was wondering how few students only came. After some time my friend deepak told me the he came to know that many of the students thought our invitation as a April fool trick & the count was less. One of the participant informed him that.

Whack! I never thought in my dream also that student will take our invitation as Apil fool trick. We had told them we are comign from Pune & we personally invited them unlike some mail.

Just few hours ago what semed funny thing to me, I was ridiculed with same thing.

But there was a message :

Whenever devotees speak with the blessings of the Lord & His empowered representatives there is always potency in their words, their words actually carry message of the Lord for the hearer, which is most relevant to him.

That words can actually transform the life of the person if he takes them as personal instructions of the Lord to him by the medium of the speaker. Many times the words are realised in different contexts & situations and we never know how it will show path & guide us. And One who has faith in the Lord, for him actually it is a personal dialogue with him by the Lord.

So devotee can learn in any situation & circumstace. He actually feels the Love of the Lord for him when he understand the arrangement. But for a non believer everything is just a chance & he can never learn because he cant perceive any love in anything. And he can't see the hand of Krishna.

Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.11 says........

tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavo
yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api
nāmāny anantasya yaśo 'ńkitāni yat
śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ
TRANSLATION
On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc., of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world's misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.

Srila prabhupad writes in purport..........

We know that our honest attempt to present this great literature conveying transcendental messages for reviving the God consciousness of the people in general and respiritualizing the world atmosphere is fraught with many difficulties. Our presenting this matter in adequate language, especially a foreign language, will certainly fail, and there will be so many literary discrepancies despite our honest attempt to present it in the proper way. But we are sure that with all our faults in this connection the seriousness of the subject matter will be taken into consideration, and the leaders of society will still accept this due to its being an honest attempt to glorify the Almighty God. When there is fire in a house, the inmates of the house go out to get help from the neighbors who may be foreigners, and yet without knowing the language the victims of the fire express themselves, and the neighbors understand the need, even though not expressed in the same language. The same spirit of cooperation is needed to broadcast this transcendental message of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam throughout the polluted atmosphere of the world. After all, it is a technical science of spiritual values, and thus we are concerned with the techniques and not with the language. If the techniques of this great literature are understood by the people of the world, there will be success.

http://vedabase.net/sb/1/5/11/en

 Ram Navami celebrations & Beginning of discussions on Chapter 3 of Gita (YOGA OF ACTIVITY) on Sunday, March 30th evening

Mar 28 02:40PM +0530

Dear Friends

Sunday, 1st April is the most auspicious day of Lord Ram's appearance --
Ram Navami.

We will celebrate Ram Navami on Sunday evening 6 PM instead of the
discussion on Friday evening. Lord Ram served as the perfect example of
Bhagavad Gita 3.8 (http://vedabase.net/bg/3/8/). Thus, taking advantage of
this auspicious occassion, we will continue our journey through the sacred
texts of the Bhagavad Gita and begin our discussion on YOGA OF ACTIVITY
(karma yoga, chapter 3, verses 1-9).

All glories to Lord Ram!! All glories to his most glorious example!

I will send out more details in a subsequent email.

(and believe me, this is no 1st April joke :-)).

Thanks and regards,
Ganesh

Coincidence is Gods way of remianing anonymous- Part II

Yesterday, I had planned to go to IIT once my office was over. I started
from my office at 6:40PM. I had planned to discuss beautiful stories of
Lord Rama with my friends in IIT, stay back overnight & start next morning
after meeting all my previous roommates & after greeting the deities in the
morning. I hitchhiked twice from my company to reach to Pune-Mumbai highway
from my company & boarded a cab on the Pune-Mumbai highway. On the way, I
was engrossed in reading Ramayana stories in the dim light of the vehicles
coming from behind. I told the cab driver that if he doesn’t make me reach
Bombay in 2 hours, I won’t pay him full. He was sure of his driving skills.
I had to reach IIT well before 10PM unlike last time, when I somehow made
to go inside campus with lot of anxiety. I was in high spirits. Meanwhile,
I left in hurry. I didn’t wear my shoes very properly & one of that was
little loose.

We touched Bombay 9:10PM. I got down at Mankhurd and went to the local
railway station there. The local was running late than its scheduled time.
I was feeling every second very, very long. Finally, it came & I boarded
the local. Then I reached Kurla. As soon as train halted at Kurla, people
just started jumping inside without waiting for us to go out. The influx of
the people boarding the train was so great that somehow I barely managed to
come out. But my shoe came out of my leg in the rush, and I had to wait
next 45 seconds to get my shoe back.

I hurriedly changed the platform just to see my train for Kanjurmarg
speeding away. I was startled. Just an hour ago in the cab there was clear
inner voice had spoken to me that ‘Tushar, wear your shoe properly you may
get into problem’. I was engrossed in planning & reading so I didn’t pay
any hid to that. Now, on the platform I could clearly distinguish that was
not my thought, it was from somebody different from me. From the authority
of Bhagavad Gita, I can say that it was Lord within my heart as Paramatma
instructed me as he instructs us time to time – "this is not good or this
is good, bla bla bla…", when we are doing something & people call it as
conscience.

I had to wait 7 more minutes to catch the next train. My friend Nirmal
called me, I requested him to wait for me at the IIT Main Gate. It was
10:53PM & I was at Ghatkopar station in the train. I had a mad hope that I
will reach before 10PM. Finally, after catching rickshaw from Kanjurmarg
railway station, I reached the IIT Main Gate at 10:05PM. When I went to do
entry in the register for visitors, the guards said politely but sternly
that I can’t go inside. They won’t allow anybody after 10PM.

It was completely different when I posted last post about my journey to
Kota. At that time, I had followed the inner call & I had miraculously (it
was miraculous to me) caught train when it had just started moving. This
time I didn’t follow & I was unable to taste & share nectar from Ramayana
in company of my friends.

Lesson: Perhaps, above incidence was very small & damage was almost none
but I got good lesson that, Krishna will interrupt in our life in the form
of divine instructions of the scriptures, in the form of his devotees who
are trying to spread his message & in the form of our conscience. But if we
are too busy in our work or thoughts there won’t be any option other than
lamenting at the end for not being able to follow the divine call of the
Lord.

Scriptures say that human form of life is so rare & short that any
negligence on our part may ensure our stay on this mortal planet for 10 or
100 or 10000 or 100000000 more or many more lifetimes to come.

Srimad Bhagavatam says:

"matir na krsne paratah svato va
mitho 'bhipadyeta grha-vratanam
adanta-gobhir visatam´ tamisram´
punah punas carvita-carvananam"


which means: "For those who are too busy in one’s own plan forgetting the
God, the inclination towards God doesn’t come by efforts of self or that of
others. Then they have to take pleasure in something which is available in
any other form of life also than that of human being."

So I decided to be more careful about following the instructions of the
scriptures, of the mentors of scriptures & of the paramatma in the heart
after conforming with the mentors & holy books.

Coincidence is Gods way of remianing anonymous- part I

Last week, I was told to address few students in Kota on the

philosophy of Bhagavad Gita. In particular, my talk was on how by
depending on God, we can do our best, while staying aloof of the
anxieties about the results. In other words, how can we do our part
despite knowing that ultimately we are not the controllers and accept
the result of our actions. One of the points that I had planned to
include in my talk was about how at times we are possessive about the
result of our actions or want something to happen in a desired manner,
but find that God orchestrates the events in a strikingly different
manner for our own good. For a short span of time we may feel broken
hearted & find it difficult to deal with situation. but over period of
time when complete plan is revealed we are left with this special and
indescribable feeling that we are always loved, cared and looked after
by God. Little did I know that I was about to have a practical
realization of the same myself!!
One such incident took place when I was just about to start my journey
to Kota last Saturday. A friend of mine had volunteered to book my
Mumbai-Kota train ticket a couple of days prior to my journey. I had
handed him a chit listing Mumbai-Kota trains with respective departure
times from Mumbai. By mistake, for one of the trains (namely, Golden
Temple Express), I wrote an incorrect departure time of 09:45PM from
Mumbai Central, instead of its scheduled departure time of 09:25PM. My
friend happened to book my ticket on this train and when I asked him
the departure time of my train, he quoted 09:45PM, recalling from the
chit that I had given him.
On the day of my journey, I felt I would easily catch the train. As I
was climbing down the stairs on platform no. 2 at Dadar railway
station on the Western Railway, a Churchgate-bound slow local train
left the platform in front of my eyes. I had no option but to wait for
the next one.
That day also happended to be Varah Dwadashi viz., birth anniversary
of Lord in the form of Varah. While waiting for the next train, I felt
like reading some pastimes of the Varah Incarnation from Srimad
Bhagavatam, which I was anyways carrying in my bag. As I started
reading, I got so absorbed in it that I failed to notice the arrival
of the next train on my platform. Only once it blew the horn, while
picking up speed, I came to my external senses. Alas! I missed yet
another train. As I was cursing myself as well as my destiny, I saw a
Churchgate-bound fast local train on platform no. 4. I felt it’s
impossible to change the platform & catch that train. I was thinking
anyways in 5 mins next slow train will come & I can board that. But
next moment a strong calling came from inside that I have to catch
that fast train. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me and somehow
boarded the train as it was about to speed up.
As I reached Mumbai Central railway station, it was already 09:23PM. I
asked a passerby, “From which platform will the Golden Temple Express
depart?” He replied back “It’s leaving from platform number 1 in a
minute”. My heart was in my mouth. I headed for another sprint, and
barely managed to board the speeding train. After I located my seat, I
finally breathed a sigh of relief and reflected on the sequence of
recent events.
I wondered had I boarded that Churchgate-bound slow local train from
Dadar to Mumbai Central, I was bound to miss my Kota train by a close
margin. And I would have been lamenting like anything. This reality
shuddered me. I realized Krishna orchestrated everything to help me
catch my Kota train because he wanted me to share his sublime message
of Bhagavad Gita. Some may argue that it was sheer coincidence. But to
quote Einstein, “Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.”
Sometimes, we get morose in our life, but if we are chanting holy
names of the Lord and are putting our best, although things may not
turn out the way we want it to be, but rest assured it is for our
better. God has the perfect plan for each one of us.
There were 80 students present for the talk. As I shared this incident in my talk, few from the audience expressed
in the post-talk discussions that this incident really inspired them
to accept the reality and depend on God. And it made my day.

Idle Curiocity & cure

In my company there was a lady. when I saw her, I found a kind of aristocracy in her dealings. She was behaving carefully & had good sense of dressing to cover her body. Although it may look like very usual but its getting very rare in the modern world specially software industry. So I felt a bit of more respect for her , But I found next 2/3 days when I would come to company I was unnecessarily curious about it. It was definitely was not a carnal but I was reminded idle curiocity is dangerous. Specially for the for one in pursuance of absolute truth &  he has to be careful about the patterns flowing in his mind.

Curiosity is the human tendency to know everything, good or bad, about a person or thing.
Few example of idle curiocity are to read the letters of other persons without permission, to examine the contents of the drawers or closets of a person, to look at, read or peruse someone’s papers or notes left on the desk or atop a work table.
Actually for many people the idle curiocity leads to many pitfalls in the life.

For many people the idle curiocity leads to smoking of cigarettes, watching pornography movies, to indulge into impure habbits. Later then they have to lament for the mistakes they have commited. Even idle curiocity which is not sinful but beyond perview of ones work is is not very good becuase scriptures say that Human form of life is very rare & even the life span in this form is very little so one should be careful to utilise his time. The cause of the idle curiocity is when mind is not occupied with fixed goal or purpose. When there is no definite direction in the life then we tend to experiment.

When I was writing this article I found Catholic manual of civility says something very nice related about curiocity

"Curiosity is bad, when it is scandalous. It is scandalous when one looks at what is indecent, be it at the theater or movies, or in photographs, books, magazines, and so on. Today we must include at the top of that list the obscene pictures plenteously found on the Internet. Looking at such things is morally sinful.
Curiosity is bad, when it suggests purchasing pernicious books containing doctrine against the Faith and good customs. Love romances are also dangerous traps by which the Devil snatches uprightness and purity of customs from souls, especially women.

Curiosity is bad, fourth, when it is idle. Idle curiosity consists in the blinding desire for novelties of all types: from political news to the latest scandals or romantic entanglements of neighbors or movie stars. It is idle because the person obsessed by such things looks at everything without seeing anything, without fixing his attention on immediate, proximate things. The only aim of this curiosity is to offer new information to others who have the same defect. Their conversation always starts with the eager question: “Did you hear the latest?” Then he pours his futile information into the ears of his companions. "

The idle curiocity is propelled by provoking advertisements, erotic films which overpromises or many times deludes the people about happiness which they can get by lavish lifestyle , uncontrolled indulgence in the gratification of the senses
superficial display of one’s status  in the society.
But one can immediately curb it by the strengthening the intelligence by the words of the scriptures. Like BG says
ye hi sam´sparsa-ja bhoga
duhkha-yonaya eva te
ady-antavantah kaunteya
na tes?u ramate budhah

"An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kunti, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them."
So scriptures work 2 ways they expose the false promise of happiness through sense gratification & they guide us to inquire about something higher which will make us actually happy.

When we direct our curiocity to know about the Lord, Scriptures say its perfection of the curiocity. Because its beneficial for all the living entities.

munayah sadhu prishto 'ham
bhavadbhir loka-mangalam
yat kritah krishna-samprasno
yenatma suprasidati

"O sages, I have been justly questioned by you. Your questions are worthy because they relate to Lord Krishna and so are of relevance to the world's welfare. Only questions of this sort are capable of completely satisfying the self." (Bhag. 1.2.5)

The way to come out of idle curiocity is to follow the path shown by great people. Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprubhu, Srila Prabhupad these personalities clearly
show a Actually material things although they may be very new but the experience is always old and dull over the period of time but the nature of the spiritual practices is although the things are very old but the experience is always fresh.

tad eva ramyam´ ruciram´ navam´ navam´
tad eva sasvan manaso mahotsavam
tad eva sokarn?ava-sos?an?am´ nr?n?am´
yad uttamah?sloka-yaso 'nugiyate

"Those words describing the glories of the all-famous Personality of Godhead are attractive, relishable and ever fresh. Indeed, such words are a perpetual festival for the mind, and they dry up the ocean of misery."

Finally, by this time I am fully busy in projects inside company & outside of it. And demeanor of that motherly lady also hardly can be compared to that of Lord Ram even when he was in forest since recently I have read Ramayan.