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

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

2010...........NEW YEAR

A very very happy new year to all people. May this new year turn to be a nice and good one for all of you. May all your wishes come true.
New year is a time to make new resolutions, to leave the past as it was and move to the present, which is totally new and rite there standing for you to explore. So, feel grateful to god that you had this opportunity of seeing another new year coming in your life.Embrace this new year with your open arms and grap every opportunity that falls on you. Do not commit the same mistakes again those you made the last year, make yourself a bit more aware and work to your fullest, make your family, friends and relatives happy with every deed you do.

And those of you who have'nt done any Art of LIving course rush and get yourself registered.
Once again a HAPPY NEW YEAR to you ALL....


JAI GURUDEV

Radiate Happiness

My GURUJI "His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji" has immense knowledge, he is an ocean of knowledge,

So here is one of those for you..

Sri Sri: Being individually happy is not enough. Our wish should be that whomsoever we meet becomes happy and radiates happiness. A frustrated man will create frustration; a jealous person will create jealousy and so on.


You can turn every situation into your advantage. Have you ever thought of this? There is a story in the Puranas of how a saint turned an arrow, which was going to hurt someone, into a garland.


If somebody is shooting an arrow at you, insulting you, realize that they are doing it because they are miserable. Once you are blossomed from within, you can take any insult and turn it into your advantage.

Realize that they are simply pouring out their stress, tension and anxiety. When people shout or burst out at you, you can only feel good that all that was building up inside them is coming out. I am not saying that we should encourage this tendency or justify it.


But when it happens, do not regret it.

What do we normally do? We go on regretting and with regret we commit the same mistake again. Even when someone commits a mistake, he or she is not the culprit; the stress inside is causing him or her to make that mistake. Once we get rid of the stress inside us, there is no culprit; there is no one to be forgiven.
Then we begin to realize that the whole thing is just a game in which there are no winners or losers. It's just a play!


Jai Gurudev.

Lack of Awarness

This is one thing I have been observing in many people since past few months "Lack of Awarness". Just check all your actions throughout the day.
For example: We always say that we are heading towards global warming, but how many of us care to become a bit more concerned on saving the electricity, saving water and other natural resources. Once I was sitting in my mess eating food and one of the tap was leaking I observed that leaking tap for almost 10 min and around 30 people passed that tap and no one bothered to close the tap properly, enevtually i got up and closed that ta properly.
Another thing what we do is in summers switching our AC's before sleeping so that the room gets cooled, and sometimes we don't even bother toclose the lights and fans of the room after we leave. Another thing I saw was many a times the light of my hostel lobby are open during the day and not even a single person is bothered to switch off them, again a lack of awarness.
Next is eating Non veg food, how man of us really eat because we love that food, hardly a few. We give silly reasons like its good for health, full of protiens and  these type of other reasons. We should be aware that this is also a very big cause of GLOBAL WARMING eating non-veg food. Majority of the people who eat non-veg food can't even make out that they are eating chicken or mutton and what piece of the dead animal they are eating, at the same time how much amount of stress and other toxins they are taking in hile eatin that non-veg food. As when an animal is slaughtered it undergoes so much stress and the same toxins are released which are secreted i us when we are stressed.
WE NEED TO BE A  BIT MORE AWARE OF WHAT WE ARE DOING.

And the best thing to be stress free and happy with 100% awareness is to do "THE ART OF LIVING" course.
Its is the best course to bring out the best in you with totally fun filled activities and processes.

Luv
Rohit

Everthing you do just do it for him.......

Hello people,
I hope you all enjoyinn my posts....
Please do comment on the posts after reading....

So,

Once there was this old musician who used to sing the best in the whole of an emperor's territory. He used to sing for the emperor for him entertainment, whenever the king wanted to hear something he used to call this musician and the musician used to sing for all the members of the royal family.
Once the king came to know that the master of this musician sing far better than the musician, so he asked him that if u sing so well and by ur singing you can make clouds rain and winds blow, than your master will be much powerful than you. The musician replied yes that true but my master does'nt sings for anyone he will sing whenever he feels like.
The king told that musician to take him to his master, and they both went and sat in front of the cave in which the naster of that musician lived, they both waited for 2 days for the master to come out and finally the master came out and meet the king. The king said that i want to hear you sing. The master said fine but I will not sing for you because I only sing for the divine. Then he started singing, after completing the king was so impressed he asked the master that would you come to my palace and sing for him and his family. The master replied no, saying that i only sing for the divine.

So what is the knowledge or learning behind this ??

It is that whatever you do just do it for the divine or in the name of the god, and then see how that particular thing flourishes. If you do any work in the name of the divine it will never be a waste and you will master it like anything.
So, next time whenever you do something just close your eyes and say in your heart that this is for you my lord, and see the magic that follows.

love
rohit

A Must Read...Follow Your Dream

There were once 2 brothers who lived on the 80th level. On coming home one day, they realized to their dismay that the lifts were not working and that they have to climb the stairs home.




After struggling to the 20th level, panting and tired, they decided to abandon their bags and come back for them the next day. They left their bags then and climbed on. When they have struggled to the 40th level, the younger brother started to grumble and both of them began to quarrel. They continued to climb the flights of steps, quarreling all the way to the 60th floor.



They then realized that they have only 20 levels more to climb and decided to stop quarreling and continue climbing in peace. They silently climbed on and reached their home at long last. Each stood calmly before the door and waited for the other to open the door. And they realized that the key was in their bags which was left on the 20th floor.

This story is reflecting on our life…many of us live under the expectations of our parents, teachers and friends when young. We seldom get to do the things that we really like and love and are under so much pressure and stress so that by the age of 20, we get tired and decided to dump this load.



Being free of the stress and pressure, we work enthusiastically and dream ambitious wishes. But by the time we reach 40 years old, we start to lose our vision and dreams. We began to feel unsatisfied and start to complain and criticize. We live life as a misery as we are never satisfied.



Reaching 60, we realize that we have little left for complaining anymore, and we began to walk the final episode in peace and calmness.

We think that there is nothing left to disappoint us, only to realize that we could not rest in peace because we have an unfulfilled dream …… a dream we abandoned 60 years ago.



So what is your dream?



Follow your dreams, so that you will not live with regrets.

Post Comments..........

YES+ (Youth Empowerment And Skills Workshop)

Welcome to YES!+, a program that powerfully addresses key issues relevant to the youth of today, and brings about a profound change in their attitude towards life. Confidence, clarity of mind, focus and heightened energy levels become natural to the young people after undergoing this training, resulting in academic excellence, ability to lead and strong interpersonal skills.




They gain the ability to overcome and drop long standing bad habits like smoking, consumption of alcohol and substance and systems abuse. The course also helps combat depression and suicidal tendencies, and has been reported to cure many diseases like asthma, high BP, sleep disorders, etc.



Regular practice of the techniques and knowledge of this course ensures a strong healthy body and a relaxed stress free mind

This is one of the workshop of The Art of Living for the youth.And is presently running in 160 countries.It has become a part of the cuircullum in most of the IIT's, IIM's and many forgien univesities.This workshop is presently running in universities like Cornell University, Stanford University and many more.

Go to your house's roof an jump rather smoke....

Why you people who smoke want to have a slow death....anyways you are going to die then why not rather go to your house's roof and jump from there.


A person who smokes..
1. Has the risk of dying from lung cancer 23 times more in men and 13 times more in women as compared to non-smokers.
2. This Tobacco causes upto 90% of lung cancer cases and is the major risk factor for heart attack and stroke.
What about your family or others in front of whom you smoke....every thought about this...???
Passive smoking is also very dangerous...
Exposure to tobacco smoke in homes and public areas kill thousands of children, foetuses infants and adults.
Because of you smokers, non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke i.e. passive smoke at public places or homes develop a high risk of getting lung cancer by 20% to 30% and heart disease by 25% to 30%.

" Tobacco is the only product consumed that harms every person exposed to it and kills half of its regular users."

Smokers live an average of 15 years less than non-smokers.
You will be surprised to know that persently in our world 10% of the current world population will eventually succumb to tobacco related diesease, as approximately 650 million smokers are alive in this world today.

In india now its a serious offence to smoke in public areas and anyone can stop a smoker from smoking in public without any hesitation.

So why not have a tobacco free healthy world.

Art Of Living International Asharam.....Banglore

This is truely home......just visit feel the energy n every aspect of mother nature.....

This is the meditation hall.....

10 Ways To Build A Better You

CULTIVATE THE HABIT OF READING
Make a habit of reading.Books in many ways have,what writer describes it,a pharmaceutical effect on people.They help us to forget the injustice of men and things,quiet our cares and our emotions, and lay our setbacks asleep.
DISCIPLINE YOURSELF
It is so easy to drift.You will never be able to manage time if you fail to mak a routine and discipline yourself to follow it. Check yourself so that others will not have to check you.
ORGANISE YOURSELF
Try and organise your life as much as possible. Keep a handy schedule and stick to it. Keep things where they should be. Don't keep work pending. Get it done as soon as you can. Why not stop right now and plan out a few things for the next few days,weeks,years.....
BE GENUINE
The moment you feel you have to live up to a certain standard set by others, you will be putting unecessary pressure upon urself. Avoid trying to follow the crowd. Consciously and constantly try to improve urself, without having to copy others. Just be real.
TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH
Maintain your health and keep urself fit.
FORM RELATIONSHIPS WITH CARE
Your friends have the power to influence you for either good or bad in many ways, they can either make you or break you. There are a lot of good people around, mix with folks who encourage you in good things, with whom you or at ease and feel at your best.
HELP OTHERS, BE HAPPY
There will be times in your life when you will have to face the choice of furthering your interests at the expense of someone else's. It is important to realise that you don't need to put out another man's light in order to let your name shine
EFFORT+PATIENCE=ACHIEVEMENT
Achievements are hard to come by you have got to make the effort and continue making it. I do know of dozens of examples of people toiling hard and turning their lives around.
LOVE OF MONEY=ROOT OF ALL EVIL
The BIBLE says that maney is the root of all evils. John Wesley puts it very succincly,"Earn all you can, save all you can and give all you can."
START SMALL, BUILD BIG
It is always wise to start many projects in a small way. Start small and keep it simple. Gradually build up. Start small and build bigg.....