Sacred Chants………….

YES!+ Bangalore organized the first ever Mantras workshop, with Bawa and Dinesh, in India. Here is a write-up on it by the organizer, Rehana.

It is said that there is a secret way to connect with the source of strength, courage, unity, peace and love. From ancient times, people guarded these secrets with utmost sanctity and honor. And these precious strings of words are what we call as Mantras.

Mantra is that which takes the mind inward and connects us to that source within from where one experiences peace and love. for every action in life, there is a mantra that one can chant and mantra makes every action sacred. Hence life becomes sacred and when life is sacred, it naturally becomes honored and joyful.

When 112 of us gathered at the Mantra workshop in Basavanagudi, we certainly had very little idea of the what to expect. All we knew was that this workshop had been conducted in London earlier and that it is good to learn mantras.

But from the moment we closed our eyes and Dinesh Bhaiyya began with the chants, the quiet and completeness we began to experience is inexplicable. It is then that I realized that even a mantra is a meditative experience coded open with sounds and with a super short time span.

Bawa was simply amazing(as always… ). He so beautifully helped us, the beings of 2012 era, relate to the most ancient language, through simple and mundane examples. Now none of us can ever forget any of it… ..

As the team that put it together, Priyanka, Rohit, Suraj, Ashitosh, Maithri, Ujwal, Nilanjan & Farrah have no doubt earned the wishes of all in the workshop. Aditya, Asha, Sudarsan, Vinod, Darshan, Crispin too.

Hema di, in all Big mama style, backed us up with guidance all along and did the precious last minute support too.

It feels wonderful to be part of a family that works tirelessly on bringing love and peace to the world. This is ONLY a START!….

I’m glad to have begun 

Love,

Rehana

Yoga Rave @ Taj Vivanta, MG Road, Bangalore

Bangalore YES! + Flash mob dance

The latest in thing was the Flash mob by the YES!+ gang in a dozen different places, welcoming the people of bangalore town to the mega celebrations of Shivaratri this 20 Feb:-

check out the video here:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeoU_cHH1-s

And one more press release: – 

Enjoy!

Stumbling into Infinity- The revolution begins.

How will the Art of Living reach out  to the vast masses of people all over the globe? This question has been lingering in out minds for sometime now. Though we all know eventually it will happen but Guruji has said that there will be a wave of spirituality that will sweep through the whole world. How the sudden wave will come and in what form?

 

Stumbling into Infinity, the book will play a vital role in it, I think. No other Art of Living book , in published history has garnered so much Attention as this one and its important because a large number of people like to be docile, sitting at home and reading rather than doing something adventurous ( like Yes+). This is specially true about the West. This book does not only connect deeply with all the Art of Living people but also gives a glimpse of what goes on inside with a Realised Master. People who have not done the Art of Living will also relate and appreciate it. In short it will open a window of hope for them and basically inspire them enough to do the course.

Written by Mike, who has a vast experience as any , with the organisation and Guruji, the book is like a diary of events starting from the  early 80’s . I don’t want to go into the details as I had written a Review of the book in My Blog , right in August , when the book was not released in India yet.

As far as I know , the book garnered rank #85 in the Best Seller’s list in Amazon and rank #1 in Spirituality category. It means a big deal.

Have you read the book , what are your thoughts, speak your experiences in the comments here !

Art of Living to attempt breaking Guinness record in cooking

The Art of Living Foundation (ALF), founded by spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Maharaj, would be attempting to break Guinness Book world record by cooking highest number of vegetarian food items by an organisation using community kitchens on November 2.

“We at the ALF believe just like prayer helps us connect spiritually with the Supreme being, food is also one of the mediums to connect to God,” Rishi Nityapragya of the foundation told reporters.

“Devotees of Guruji (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) would be attempting to prepare 5000 vegetarian food items, totalling around five tonnes, using over 250 community kitchens here on November 2,” Nityapragya said.

“The present Guinness record is of 4600 food items, and we would be attempting to break it in the presence of Guruji himself who will bless the people during the event which we call Annan Brahm or annakoot,” he added.

The unique thing about this big kitchen would be that all the ingredients used for cooking shall be organic, chemical free and the preparation would be based of ayurvedic principles.

As many as 1.25 lakh people from across the country are expected to participate in the event.

These people are not professional, but common persons from all walks of life, Nityapragya said.

Nityapragya further said devotees would prepare specialities according to their regional affiliation.

The food items prepared would be distributed by Guruji as Prashad to nearly 25 thousand underprivileged children in the city, he added.

Nityapragya said that this was an occasion after nearly six years that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was visiting Gujarat and would be staying for nearly a week.

During his visit to the state, he would also be conducting puja in Rajkot and Vadodara, besides conducting a mega course on Art of Living.

Nityapragya said that according to Guruji, India has seven unique things whose diversity and richness were unparallelled in the world which include music, dance, food, tourism, attire, Yoga and ayurveda.

Source:- DNA.

 

Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory featuring Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Tree Plantation drive in Bangalore

Art of Living (AOL) Foundation as part of its “Mission Green Earth (MGE)” campaign, to create environment sustainability, has joined hands with BBMP. AOL will plant trees in all BBMP parks to utilize the space available to its maximum and run awareness campaign in the areas around parks for people participation in creating green Bangalore and restore its climatic conditions and eco balance.

Date 5 June 2010

keep yourself free…. send your contact details in the comment section, to participate and volunteer in this tree plantation drive.

Trip to Mekedatu

Winter Break 2009-10

1400 Youth celebrated new year eve together on the Art of Living International Center. They had gathered there for the winter break from 26 Dec to 4 Jan. Check out Bawa’s excellent article on Winter break 2009-10.

Happy New Year 2010!!