India to USA

Hello Everyone,

Its been long. As you all know that am not much of a writer or a talker. So, I had to literally make myself sit, thinking I should write its been long. So, here you go, this post will feature my journey from Manipal University, India to Drexel University, The United States of America.
Actually this post has been much awaited and many of you people have told me to write about this.
For those of you who don't know about me, I was studying at ICAS, Manipal University. It is a twinning program where one has to take a transfer from the there to any of the  colleges in the US. I got into Drexel University, Philadelphia and I am pursuing a double major in Architectural Engineering and Civil Engineering.
So, I left Manipal on June 11, 2011 and I had to start Drexel from Sep 13, 2011. I had like 3 months to spent at home, which were like the best time for me. In those three months, I did nothing but sleeping, eating, working out in the gym and roaming about from one place to another. In three months I travelled from East India to West India, from North to South India, meeting almost all my relatives in these three months and gathering gifts from them, attending farewell parties etc. etc.
I booked my flight ticket for Aug 27th, 2011 to fly to Newark, New Jersey. Though my college had to start from Sep 13, 2011. But my sweet sister living in the States, told me to come like 15days early, so that she could show me around, and get a sight of the US. But apparently, during that time Hurricane Irene struck the city where I had to land. I had already packed my stuff and was ready to leave on the day of the flight and the on the very same day at around 1PM the flight agency calls me and says your connecting flight has been cancelled for now. When I asked them, whats the next step, they were like you should check it online every 15minutes and if your flight shows its flying them you should come to the airport.
Now, I live in Meerut City, and the airport from my place is a 2 and a half hour drive. So, how could I just cheek it till then and not leave for the airport.
On asking them to reschedule my flight, they said we cannot do it now, you have to wait until your flight leaves and you do not board it. I had no clue what to do? After talking to all the senior and more experienced people in my family who have travelled internationally, they advised me to go to the airport and talk to the authorities. So I was there at the airport will all my luggage packed and there was no person to attend to the passengers, or to sought out the problems of the passengers. After calling for the authorities, there was one guy who came to answer the question, who didn't want to reschedule my flight until Sep 10, 2011. Apparently, according to him there were no flights available, but on checking online through my device I found out flights to the US every single day from Aug 27, 2011 to Sep, 10 2011.
Then at last, he did reschedule my flight for a week after on the safer side. So, there I was with all my luggage packed, 4 of my friends, my family all of them came till the airport to see me off and they were informed I wasn't leaving that day. That was one of the weirdest things that happened to me I guess.
So, now I had one more week to do nothing, as all my shopping was done, luggage packed. I spent my week again doing the same things as I did for the last three months i.e. sleeping, eating and getting myself pampered :)

And Finally I left my motherland, which I miss so much on Sep 2, 2011.

More to come.
The Transition from day one in "The United States of America"

Love
Rohit

P.S. "Do not travel on Lufthansa"

It's Time

This is to all the people I met in manipal

Hey, as you all know I am not much of a talker. But last night sitting in the wee hours in my room, I realised this is it. This is the time when I say good bye. So I thought I should write something. Though am not a good writer, but I managed to write something. This is for everyone whom I met here in Manipal.

IT’s Time

Finally the time has come to say good bye,
The times to say meet you again in coming years.
But I would rather say I will be there,
I will be there.

This place gave me so much I cannot express in words,
Let’s just say I am overwhelmed to have met u here,
So here I am, to say a hearty thank you,
For making me a part of your life,
And sharing those memories with me,
That I will always cherish in my life.

So, I would rather not say good bye,
But I’ll surely meet you again.

This is me being Poetic for the first time :P
I am done with Manipal guys. And these two years have been a great journey for me. I will really treasure these years which I spent with each one of you. There are so many things I have learnt from each one of you.
So, here is a BIG thank you to all of you.
Thank you for all the love I got from you all. And off-course the farewell gifts.

Actually wanted to show Off, one of the First things ever written for me:

A Poemmm :))

This sadhak of a businessman,
Is the yes+ daddy of the manipal clan;
beyond his twinkling true eyes,
a clear, soulful heart lies;
icas is a course he studies he claims,
but who cares, his seva will bring him all the real fame.
lot of land he owns in a place called meerut,
in a praise session, did i have to mention this but?
i have said this before and will say it again and again,
he's blessed, he's remarkable, he belongs to a different plane.
- Priya Di. :)


From day one I always used to say that I will not miss this place, but actually I will, because am glad that this place bought you all in my life.
Bas yaar bahut hooo gaya.... :P

Luv
Rohit

Transformation

Get ready to go on a journey past from the first time, I did the first course of “ The Art of Living”.
Here is goes:
My parents did the PART1 course before I did the course. That time I used to study in Kota, u know that IIT coaching and all. I was studying in so called the best IIT coaching center i.e. BANSAL CLASSES. When I was in kota one fine day my mom says “ you know your father did an art of living course”, so I was like ok, I did not pay any heed what this thing is or what the course is all about. But ya I knew there is some MAN WITH THE BEARD behind this course. Then after some days I was talking to my father an he tells me “ your mother is doing the same course which I (my father) did”. I was mmmmm ok, whatever.
Then came the day, I was talking to my mother on the phone and then I said “ give the phone to dad, I want to talk to him”, that was the day I can never forget (you will know later why) to my biggest shock she said “ your dad cannot talk” and I was like WHY?
She said “ he is in silence”. I was like WHAAAT? WHYYY?
She said “ he is doing the Advance course of The Art of Living, so he is in silence”
(those who don’t know what am talking about go for an advance course)
Then I was out of my mind and started “ what are you people doing, every MAN WITH THE BEARD is the same, they just make money blah blah blah blah….I kept on saying.
She said “ keep quite”
I said ok whatever your wish.
Then after completing my studies I came back to my hometown i.e. Meerut.
So, one day there was the birthday celebration of Guruji, by this time I got to know some things about the “MAN WITH THE BEARD” and what happens in the course.
This was the first time I ever stepped into an Art of Living celebration.
I was totally ignorant to go for the celebration, it was a SATSANG. And it was a big NO NO  for me. But you know when you are at home and young, you have to do things according to your parents wish, so I went.
Before I entered the place, a tiny girl came and put a chandan (sandalwood) ka tikka on my forehead. I was like man this is not the place for me, where have I come.
Then there were musicians sitting on the stage and a lady was talking telling something about Guruji (Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji) and there was a photo of his same as my height on the stage.

 Then the lady on the stage said “ close your eyes and we will do a meditation.”
And off course I was expecting this, I wanted to leave the place the moment she said close your eyes, but you know PARENTS
So, I did the thing (meditation) after that everyone around me started discussing, it was soo relieving, soo relaxing, I felt something here, I felt something there. And I was like what is this are these people CRAZY I did not feel anything.
Then started the satsang, then I saw people singing, dancing, going crazy. There was around 80-90 youth of my age and some of them whom I knew dancing like mad people. And I was what has happened to them “ how can a person dance on these spiritual songs man.”
Then this had to happen my parents got me registered for the next coming up course for the youth. YES course (14-18yrs). I never wanted to go for it but again PARENTS. The course to my surprise was total fun which I never expected it to be. I enjoyed all the processes that were done in the course. But, for me it was like ya ok its a good course. The bulb (in my mind) did not glow that much. I did kriya for sometime after the course and left doing it. for those of you who don’t know Short Sudarshan Kriya is taught in YES and not the Long one.
I did YES course in June and then that year in November, there an UTSAV happening in Noida with “BAWA an DINESH”. A 4 day course conducted for masses and in my course there were around 5000 people. So, in the beginning I said I don’t want to do the course. I still remember just one night before the course I fought with my mother, for not doing the course. Actually we (myself and 4 other people) from meerut had to drive to Noida at 5 in the morning for doing the course.
But I don’t know what happened to me when I slept that night. I automatically woke up in the morning and said to my mom am going for the course (she was surprised too). Till I reached the venue I did not know who was talking the course means I had never heard of BAWA an DINESH.
The course started and I knew that Guruji is there in Noida because in the evening there was an event “A symphony of 1200 sitarist named BRAHMNAAD was happening on the 3rd day of my course”.

On the First day I did my First Long Sudarshan Kriya, and I was feeling as if Guruji himself is sitting on the stage and making us do the Sudarshan Kriya. And I don’t know how but when I was doing Kriya I had a strong craving of meeting Guruji i.e. at least touching his feet or getting close to him.
Obviously when we opened our eyes he was not there, means he never came for the kriya. But I wanted to meet him now dunno why? The third day of the course I saw him for the first time but he was far away sitting on the stage. Still that craving was there. The last day of the course we came to know from somewhere (you know from my sources) that in the morning at 6am he is leaving for Bali. So, we all left early at 3:30am that morning (means we everyday used to go to Noida in the morning do the course and come back). We reached Airport and there were hardly 30 people there, obviously waiting to meet Guruji, first Bawa an Dinesh bhaiya came, so got to meet them.


Then after sometime Guruji came, I was the first person to see his car coming and all the others just ran towards the car and it was so crowded. As soon as he came out of the car, I dunno how I caught hold of his right fist . You know I felt so light and his fist was so delicate, I left it in 5sec as it was so feathery I thought it might break.
NOW, that was the first encounter of mine meeting with Guruji.
Till this date i.e. 23nov2008, that “MAN WITH THE BEARD”, turned Guruji for me and I was also a part of those crazy youth who dance on spiritual songs like mad people with full bliss.
So I got to know, yes transformations do happen, which I never ever in my life believed. And certainly everyone doesn't do things to earn but to make people smile and transform the lives. Which surely my Guruji does.

Jai Gurudev!
luv
Rohit

Spread the goodness of the FIRE in you

As rightly said by H.H. SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR (MY GURUJI) – “ Learn to distinguish the different fires. If your senses are engaged in goodness, you will create light and fragrance. If engaged in impurity, you produce smoke and darkness. It is samyama that transforms the quality of fire in you.”
Now here is a story on this:
Once there was this old farmer in a village where the main occupation of the people was farming. Everyone used to work hard on their fields but the yields were not up to the mark every year.
So this one farmer got some high quality seeds from somewhere and grew the crops and that year, his yields were the best. Every single family in the village was getting jealous of this farmer. The day that farmer harvested his high quality crops. 50% of the crops he sold to the processing factories, the next 30% he kept for his family and the remaining 20% he had saved.
So, his family members asked that why has he kept that 20% of the high quality crops aside. He said, “ I am going to distribute this to all the other farmers in the village.” Listening to this the members of the family became very angry and started to blabber “ we got the most profits this year, if you give this high quality seeds to others, our profits will be reduced.”
This farmer smiled and said, “ if we keep these high quality seeds to ourselves and grow them every year, a time will come when our high quality seeds will be affected by the other low quality seeds being sown all around our fields. So the best way to keep the high quality seeds and get this high yield every time is: we should give these seeds to others as well. So that every crop grown around us is a high quality crop and this gradually will increase the high yield every where in the surroundings.”
So, what is the catch of this story?
Give and share the good you have to the people around you. Never hesitate to share the knowledge, rather you should be proud that you have a kind of knowledge, that will benefit others in a way you never know.
For people who have done “The ART of LIVING” workshop. Bringing people to the path, telling them about the course is the best way to spread the goodness of the fire in you. So, bring the people around you to the path and we can obviously change the surroundings.
                            
“You are a burning candle, with the goodness of your flame light the other candles around you and see the difference.”
                            

Jai GuruDev!
Luv
Rohit

Busy for a while

Hello everyone,
I'm sorry for not posting from so long. I was busy working online and had to study as well, so wasn't able to post.
Lately, I have been working on this site www.freelancer.com here you can bid on projects and then you can work according to your wish and earn money depending on the project and its totally free, you get to earn a lot of money if you work just 1-2 hrs daily that's it. These work hours also depends on the type of project you are selected on. The projects are on article writing or article rewriting and these people readily pay 1.5-2$/500 words article and this pay is increased when you produce good quality work.
I have been working on article rewriting and earned a good amount of money. This is a trusted site and you do not have to worry about anything.
I'm having a great time working on this site and earning money. If you want to do the same you can just register for free.
If you have any queries just let me know.

From 9 June to 15 June I was there in our ashram at Bangalore, did another advance course and every evening listened to the discourse on Astavakra Gita ( said to be the highest knowledge on this planet) by Guruji. It was really awesome. And obviously the time spend in ashram is always divine. The ashram fully filled these days and everyone gets to meet Guruji or see him everyday.

I hope everything is going on fine with you people.

luv
Rohit

Live life....Hopeline

As India seen a sudden increase in teen suicides specially in major cities like Mumbai and poona. In Manipal (as I am presently studying here) has also seen a sudden increase in teen suicides and a lot many accidents resulting in deaths, and the sad part is this in never highlighted in news. Here in Manipal these suicides are due to peer pressure, depression, stress, relationship problems and ya a major cause is drinking and use of drugs.

I personally feel people who are stressed start drinking, smoking etc. I advice all of you to just go for “The Art of Living” course and you will be relieved from all your worries forever. This course deals with ever aspect in one’s life and most importantly you will achieve what you want in life in very less time.

Art of Living has swung into action by launching a helpline in association with Just Dial.

Only, we called it the HopeLine

Please spread the word and let many people know about this. you may just save a life.

Meanwhile as it says on the poster, we have started the Better Parenting Workshops for parents, and the Stress Free Teaching Workshops for teachers in schools and colleges. These are free workshops and in less than 10 days more than 5000 people have undergone the training and many lives have been transformed. A father and son who attended the workshop told us later that they had intended to kill themselves the next day and that just being on the workshops had given them hope and that they now felt they had the strength to carry on. Many such experiences made us feel that the Mumbai Angels really need a huge boost in the Sattwa levels here…

ps the HopeLine number is # 69999999 and is valid on 10,000 pin codes, more than 1/3rd of India

Help Our Mother Earth.

The Art of Living and The Times Foundation have mutually appealed to the public to sign their joint petition to airlines to make flights meat free…


Here is the letter that will be going to all airlines…

Global warming has reached alarmingly dangerous proportions and governments all over the world now are taking measures to contain it. It is our collective responsibility to join in these efforts in all our capacities to save our precious planet.

A 2006 United Nations report summarized the devastation caused by the meat industry by calling it “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” Everybody today is aware that the environmental cost for producing a meat-based diet is monumentally higher than a vegetarian one. These costs have escalated to enormous proportions and now pose as very disturbing details.

Additionally, more and more people are increasingly becoming aware of the unhygienic and cruel practices involved in producing meat. Apart from the horrible treatment given to animals reared for meat, they are also injected with harmful chemicals and hormones to add bulk to their bodies, which show strong signs of being poisonous for human consumption. Consequently, health agencies are also recommending people to reduce meat consumption.

It has been established that if a small fraction of the population brings down the meat consumption, by even a little bit, it will do wonders for the environment. Leading researchers all over the world have started recommending a vegetarian diet. Therefore, we would like to solicit your support in declaring all flights meat free. Such a policy change would not only benefit the airline industry, by cutting cost and increasing profit margins, but also the environment and is both economically prudent and ecologically responsible.

It has become imperative that all of us attend to this issue. We, therefore, request all Airways to serve completely vegetarian meals during flights. To increase awareness among people, we have launched a massive signature campaign in support of this drive.

We look forward to a positive response from you.

Warm Regards,

The Art of Living India & Times Foundation.

Please click to add your voice to this initiative
http://www.petitiononline.com/vvki2010/petition.html

Love
Rohit