The ideals

Sudarshan Kriya Course - Day 6

2010-10-11T01:12:00.000+05:30

For the benefit of those who want to read previous related entries : Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5

Day 6 was the final day of the basic course. We were little upset that this beautiful course has come to an end. Nevertheless we were all happy that we had a great course of life. We were asked to bring some fruits and a gift. They had not revealed the reason to bring the gift. This day started bit early as there were few other things to cover this day. We all came on time. They had a small book exhibition where I purchased few books - "Celebrating silence" and "Celebrating love". Both these books are very nice. Turn any page, you will learn something that is worth for your life.

Day 6 also started with some warm up exercises and yogasanas. Then we had a brief knowledge session. The knowledge session started of with asking answers for 3 home work questions asked on day 4:

Who are you?
What are you?
Where are you?

Again very cryptic questions. I will leave it to you to think it over. I am in search of those as well. These are some questions which we all need to think daily to understand our true purpose of life.

After this we all did Ujjayi Pranayama and Bhastrika Pranayama in Vajrasana. These were the prerequisites for Sudarshan Kriya. On Day 6, I had come with the determined mind that I will experience the short kriya with the same enthusiam. Sudarshan kriya started and this time as I had made up mind, the short kriya was equally amazing. I experienced the unique thing in this as well. The energy flow was amazing after the kriya.

We then had a small satsang where we all did some bhajans which was good. Then we were all told to laugh for sometime :). This was very good relaxing stuff. We were all laughing continuously for some 15 or 20 minutes. Whole body was relaxed after this. Then we were asked to take out the gift that we had brought to the class and start running and randomly exchange the gifts with the person next to us and we did that for few minutes and finally our teacher told us that the gift that you got is for you :). By this time volunteers had prepared fruit salad with the fruits that we had got. A small pooja was offered to guruji and the fruit salad was distributed to us. We all ate the delicious fruit salad and thanked others which was the logical end to the course.

All in all a great course. I recommend this to everyone to experience this once in life time. Go to the course with the open mind. You need not have any expectations. Just go with the curiosity to experience something you wouldn't have experienced otherwise. People even with the age of 75 years are doing this daily and getting a lot of benefits. I sincerely thank Guruji for this great gift to the society. I am feeling blessed now :).

Sudarshan Kriya Course - Day 5

2010-10-11T00:33:00.000+05:30

For those who want to read previous related entries : Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

Usually during basic course, there will be one day ashram visit. But for us as Guruji was not in ashram and also as they could not find any vehicle to take all of us to ashram, on day 2 they had told that we shall visit ashram some time later. Fortunately mass guru pooja and group meditation got organized in ashram and a message was sent to our teacher to take all of us to ashram. So they decided to take all of us to ashram on Day 5. We were excited to see ashram. A military vehicle was arranged to pick all of us to ashram which is in Kanakpura road. As it was saturday, we did not face much traffic and reached ashram comfortably.

The ashram's ambiance was simply superb. It was very calm and beautiful. Unfortunately we did not get much time to spend in seeing everything in ashram as it got started raining and the guru pooja was about to start. The full day ashram visit is still pending. I also wish to go there and stay for a week in ashram and complete advanced course. This is also on the cards. Hope everything works out well and I get a chance to do that soon :)

We went inside the auditorium where guru pooja was about to start. It was really cool to see that the auditorium in ashram was full. There were many people who have completed many advanced courses, many teachers who help others to experience these great courses, lots of blessers who are eligible and willing to bless others to come out of their problems. It was really great to see the charming faces who have dedicated themselves to help this society.

All teachers started to perform guru pooja on the stage. I was really impressed with the way the guru pooja was taught in Art of Living by Guruji. He has really reduced the barriers to perform pooja. Although I like to perform the pooja in the traditional way, I appreciate this technique as this attracts more and more people towards spirituality due to less difficulty in learning yet has all the important steps in offering pooja. It was amazing to see the involvement of people in performing the pooja.

After the pooja, group bhajans started. It was good to be part of those bhajans. Once turned around to see how people were performing bhajans. Nice to see that they were all very much involved :). Then group meditation started. Although it was good experience, my mind was still not trained to get full benefit of that. It was a good experience overall to visit the ashram. Hopefully I will visit ashram soon and see Guruji in person and take his blessings :).

Sudarshan Kriya Course - Day 4

2010-10-10T23:56:00.000+05:30

I should have written this blog entry some time back. That time I got busy with some things and thought that this would be again repeating the great experience. Now I realised that the series should not be incomplete.

For those who want to read previous related entries : Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

The fourth day of the course started with some warm up exercises and yogasanas. Then we had a brief knowledge session. The knowledge session started with asking answers for 3 home work questions asked on day 3:

When have you come to this planet?
How long you propose to stay here?
What do you intend to do in the time you stay here?

These were probably very tough questions for me. I could not answer these questions and was not convinced by the answers given. Hence the answers to these questions are still in search.

After this we all did Ujjayi Pranayama and Bhastrika Pranayama in Vajrasana. These were the prerequisites for Sudarshan Kriya. On fourth day they taught us the short version of sudarshan kriya. This was also a good experience. I should agree that I felt that short kriya was not as amazing as the long kriya on that day and was little disappointed. This is something that was taught so that we can practice daily. The long kriya has to be performed with Guruji's voice only and it should be performed only once per week under a guru. On fourth day we basically practiced what should be performed daily.

Sudarshan Kriya Course - Day 3

2010-07-16T01:08:00.003+05:30

At the end of Day 2 we were told strictly that we should not miss the next class of Sudarshan Kriya as it is the continuation of previous one. Instructor explained us that is is like the half surgery is done and you have to come on next day to complete the surgery :-). No one in our batch missed third day of the course.

Again Day 3 started of with some warm up exercises and yogasanas. Then we had a brief knowledge session. The knowledge session started of with asking answers for 2 home work questions asked on Day 2:

What are you responsible for?
What are you not responsible for?

Again these were tricky questions. I thought about them for sometime and had arrived at some conclusion that whatever is in my control I will take responsibility for them and will not take responsibility for the rest. Instructor then told us that we can expand our responsibility circle to whole universe if consider everything as something that belongs to us. More a particular person belongs to you, you will have more responsibility for person. Then some more stories to convey knowledge points.

After that we started the much awaited Sudarshan Kriya. Initially we all did Ujjayi Pranayama and Bhastrika Pranayama in Vajrasana. These were the prerequisites for Sudarshan Kriya. Then the Sudarshan Kriya was guided in Guruji's voice. Then entire process went for one hour.

The experience of third day was a super set of experiences of Day 2. All my body parts were filled with immense energy. My skin was stretched by the power in energy. I experienced a unique thing. My hands were lifted up without any effort from me. I was not inside me for a some period of time. I couldn't remember where I was but was definitely awake without consciousness but sub-conscious mind was following Guruji's voice to perform Sudarshan Kriya. This amazing experience can't be explained in words. I had heard in stories that people used to lift them up in the air during some kind of meditation and now started to believe in that :-).

Sudarshan Kriya Course - Day 2

2010-07-16T00:32:00.005+05:30

The second day of the course started with some warm up exercises and yogasana. Then we had a brief knowledge session. The knowledge session started of with asking answers for 2 home work questions asked on day 1:

When will you be happy?

What do you want to do to be happy?

I had thought of these questions at home for around 45 minutes. It went on and on and came to a conclusion thinking about when will never lead me to happiness as I found one or the other thing bothering at all occasions. So I had decided to say answer as I will be happy Always and I need to do nothing except convincing myself to be happy. I did reply the same and the instructor was exited to hear that answer and she enhanced the answer and told that everyone should say you are happy now :-). Then she explained some of the stories to convey some knowledge points. Overall it was a good learning.

After that we started the much awaited Sudarshan Kriya. Initially we all did Ujjayi Pranayama and Bhastrika Pranayama in Vajrasana. These were the prerequisites for Sudarshan Kriya. Then the Sudarshan Kriya was guided in Guruji's voice. Then entire process went for one hour. It is basically rhythmic breadth control.

The experience was really awesome and I think that place has Guru's grace as it had some divine experience to me. All my body parts were filled with immense energy. My skin was stretched by the power in energy. I literally had lost control on my hands which were feeling so heavy that it was as if a heavy weight placed on it. The vibrations and energy flow in body has no words to explain them. After that my body was completely recharged. It was just amazing to experience such a blissful moment. All I can say in the end is how much ever I explain how is gulab Jamoon you cannot feel it, you should eat that to experience how good it is. In the same way Sudarshan Kriya has to be experienced :-).

Sudarshan Kriya Course - Day 1

2010-07-14T12:32:00.010+05:30

The Art of Living offered a course on Sudarshan Kriya near Sanjaynagar (Close to my residence). I had the desire of experiencing this from quite some time but couldn't make it to the course. This time I decided to attend this course. This course if for 6 days. It started from 13-07-2010 and will continue till 18-07-2010. Yesterday (13-07-2010) was my first day of course. This post outlines the first day's experience.

The course was offered during 3 time slots. One starts from 5.45AM in the morning, the second one starts from 10.30AM and the last one starts from 6.30PM. Each session lasts for 2.5 hours. I had decided to go for 5.45AM and got up at 5AM after loooong time and went to that place but couldn't find that place as it was somewhere interior. Spent some 20 minutes searching and finally got into place at 5.50AM and found that the classes got canceled as I was the only person in that batch :-(. I felt something like "ಪಾಪಿ ಸಮುದ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋದ್ರೂ ಮೊಳಕಾಲುದ್ದ ನೀರು" and I came back home at 6AM. As I was almost ready I decided to leave to office having early breakfast but my nephew wanted me to play with him for sometime and finally left to office at 8.30AM and thought that I couldn't make the course this time. At 5.20PM in the evening I noticed in my office calender that I had no meetings after 5PM entire week and decided to try for the course for evening batch. I again reached that place at 6.25PM. The instructors were happy to see me back and the course started. Felt very happy that finally I started the course.

The course started with a unusual but good introduction to everyone. I was thought to introduce myself to everyone by saying "Sangachatvam (Lets go together). I belong to you. I am Adarsh". Everyone else introduced themselves in the similar way. Then the instructor told us the following ground rules:

Should switch off mobile phones

Should not miss even a single class

No alcohol

No cigarette

No non-veg food

No tea

No coffee

No Onion, Garlic, Brinjol

Have limited food but enough

Have good sleep but not more

These ground rules were not difficult for me to follow as I almost have that food habit. Then instructor gave us some introduction about the course, its benefits. She first demonstrated about the vajraasana. It was not easy in the first shot for me to sit in that posture but got adjusted to it. Then she demonstrated 2 different types of pranayamas and its benefits. The first one is Ujjayi Pranayama. You can read more about this here. The second one is Bhastrika Pranayama. Then we were thought about doing both and we practiced for 30 minutes. Got the feeling of some flowing energy in some parts of the body. It was a good experience. Even though I had got up at 5AM in the morning and had only 4.5 hours of sleep the previous night, I was not feeling tired instead had some more energy left to play with my nephew after going home :-). The session concluded with a good 20 minute meditation guided by guruji's cassette. Overall a good first day of course. Keep watching for my experience on the reminder of the course.

An Enlightening Story

2008-10-05T23:45:00.000+05:30

There was a small family of husband, wife and a child. The child was very sharp in observing the habits of their parents. Everyday she was observing that her parents were going to bathroom and lock the door from inside. After a while they were coming back. She did not know what they were doing inside but she noticed that they lock the door when they go inside. One fine day she went to bathroom and locked the door from inside. She played with water for a while. Her mother was busy in doing some other work. She did not notice that her child is inside bathroom. After a while, the child started to shout that someone has locked the door. Her mother came and told the child that she had locked the door from inside and asked her to open but the child did not understand that. She started to cry louder. Her mother was helpless. She did not know what should be done. She called her husband, her neighbors and they broke the door and helped the child to come out.

Now relating the same story to our life: We are in the same state as that of the child. We have closed the door of the ultimate truth. We have locked ourselves in this materialistic world and everyday we think that we have many problems. We think that someone is forcing us to stay in this locked state. There are many books which tell us to open the door, many saints advice us to do the same but we don't understand that. We don't know how to control ourselves. We are always in the search of happiness but we forget that happiness is within ourselves.

This Kannada quote describes our state more clearly : ಅಂಗೈಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಣ್ಣೆ ಇಟ್ಕೊಂಡು ಊರೆಲ್ಲ ತುಪ್ಪಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಹುಡುಕಾಡಿದ ಹಾಗೆ ಆಯ್ತು. "ಆತ್ಮಾರಾಮಾ ಆನಂದ ರಾಮಣ" - We get the real happiness when we look within ourselves.

I have started reading "Mankutimmana Kagga" and I am very much inspired by the way it is written. It is written in such a way that we can easily relate to our current state. I will be posting few more thoughts in the coming days. Your thoughts are welcome.

My Thunderbird - An Awesome Bike

2008-06-30T00:59:00.000+05:30

I was planning to buy a bike from past 5 months. I always wanted to buy a bike which is a high funda technical bike and have great looks. My first thought was to buy a pulsar 150. My sister suggested me to have a test ride on my brother-in-law's bike - Royal Enfield's Thunderbird which is a 350cc bike. I was initially very reluctant to ride that bike as I had no experience in riding a bike.

I learnt bike from Ashoka who is my close friend, hostel-mate and classmate during my engineering days. I owned a TVS-XL which was less than 80cc :) during my engineering days but had a great experience riding that vehicle for more than 11,000 kms. It did not give me even a single trouble during these 4 years not even a puncture :). Even now I have an immense attachment to that vehicle. I use that during weekends.

After some hesitation I finally decided to have a ride. I did not know how to start that bike also :). My brother-in-law thought me the basics of that great bike. On that day I rode the bike for around 2 or 3 kms. I was really impressed by that ride. The pickup was great. The looks were awesome. It was a sort of love at first ride. After that ride I started looking at the details of that bike. I started reading reviews. Many people suggested me not to buy that bike as it is very heavy but I could not take my heart away from that bike. I went to other bike showrooms to have a test ride. No other bike was an alternative to thunderbird. One fine day I went to Royal Enfield showroom to ask for the onroad price. I then realized that a newer model of thunderbird is coming and hence there is no stock of the bike. They told me it might take a month to start booking of the bike. During that time I read the technical details about this bike and I could not make my mind to buy any other bike. Around 20 days later, they gave me a call to book the bike. I went to the showroom and booked my new Thunderbird twinspark. After a week my new thunderbird arrived. Now my bike's kilometer reading says 300. Really I enjoyed every kilometer I have ridden on this bike except the first 20 km which was my first ride from showroom to my home as I was afraid that someone will hit my bike on the very first day :). Now I am very much comfortable with my new bike Thunderbird - Twinspark.

The Number Seven

2008-02-18T00:52:00.000+05:30

It has been a long time since I blogged last time. This time I thought I would write something different, So I chose to write about number 7. I was always wondering that why Ramayan has 7 sections . Was there some numerology associated with it? I then started reading about the same. I found some of the interesting things so I thought I would share with you. This time I will use kannada to blog about this as I don’t want to dilute the content by translating it to English.

ರಾಮ ಎನ್ನುವ ಶಬ್ದವೇ ೭ರ ಸಂಕೇತ. ಅಕ್ಷರಾಂಕದ ಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ರ=೨, ಮ=೫ ರಾ+ಮ=೨+೫=೭.
ರಾಮ ಹತ್ತು ಅವತಾರಗಲ್ಲಿ ಏಳನೇ ಅವತಾರ.
ರಾಮ ಜನಿಸಿದ್ದು ಏಳನೇ ನಕ್ಷತ್ರ ಪುನರ್ವಸುವಿನಲ್ಲಿ.
ವಿಶ್ವದ ವಿಶ್ವತೋಮುಖವನ್ನು ಒಳಗೊಂಡ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ ಏಳು.
ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಂಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಟ್ಟು ಲೋಕಗಳು ಏಳು: ಭೂ:, ಭುವ:, ಸ್ವ:, ಮಹ:, ಜನ:, ತಪ:, ಸತ್ಯಮ್.
ಭೂಮಿಯಲ್ಲು ಸಪ್ತ ದ್ವೀಪಗಳು; ಸಪ್ತ ಸಾಗರಗಳು.
ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಪ್ತ ಕುಲಪರ್ವಗಳು.
ನಾಮದ ಮೂಲವಾದ ನಾದದಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂಲತ: ಸಪ್ತ ಸ್ವರಗಳು.
ವೇದ ಮಂತ್ರದಲ್ಲೂ ಮೂಲತ: ಸಪ್ತ ಛಂದಸ್ಸುಗಳು: ಗಾಯತ್ರಿ, ಉಷ್ಣಿಕ, ಅನುಷ್ಟುಪ್, ಬೃಹತಿ, ಪಂಕ್ತಿ, ತ್ರಿಷ್ಟುಪ್, ಜಗತೀ.
ಕಾಲವೂ ಏಳು ವಾರಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಭಾಗಗೊಂಡಿವೆ.
ಕಾಲಪ್ರಜ್ಞೆ ಕೊದತಕ್ಕ ಸೂರ್ಯನ ಕಿರಣಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಏಳು ವರ್ಣಗಳು. ಇವೆ ಸೂರ್ಯನ ಏಳು ಕುದುರೆಗಳು.
ಪ್ರತಿಮನ್ವಂತರದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಧಾನ ಋಷಿಗಳ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ ಏಳು. ಸಪ್ತರ್ಷಿಗಳು.
ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಂಡ ಹೇಗೋ ಹಾಗೆ ಪಿಂಡಾಂಡ ಕೂಡ. ಈ ದೇಹವೂ ಏಳು ಧಾತುಗಳಿಂದ ನಿರ್ಮನಗೊಂಡಿದೆ.
ದೇಹದಲ್ಲಿ ಚೈತನ್ಯ ತುಂಬಿರೊದು ಸಪ್ತ ಪ್ರಾಣಗಳಿಂದ. ಐದು ಜ್ಞಾನೇಂದ್ರಿಯಗಳು, ಮನಸ್ಸು ಮತ್ತು ಬುದ್ಧಿ.
ಆಧ್ಯಾತ್ಮ ಸಾಧಾಕನು ಮೇಲೆರಬೇಕಾದ ನಾಡಿ ಕೇಂದ್ರಗಳು ಏಳು: ಮೂಲಧರ, ಸ್ವಧಿಷ್ಠಾನ, ಮನಿಪೂರ, ಅನ್ನಹತ, ವಿಶುದ್ದಿ, ಅಜ್ಞಾ ಮತ್ತು ಬುದ್ಧಿ.

Referenced material : ವಾಲ್ಮೀಕಿ ಕಂಡ ರಾಮಾಯಣ - ಶ್ರೀ ಬನ್ನಂಜೆ ಗೋವಿ೦ದಾಚಾರ್ಯ

Twenty-Twenty-Twenty keep your eyes healthy

2008-01-29T18:04:00.000+05:30

During a recent visit to an optician, one of my friend was told of an exercise for the eyes by a specialist doctor that he termed as "20-20-20". I thought I should share this will all of you. It is applicable to all of us who spend most of the time sitting in front of computer.

20-20-20:

Step 1:

After every 20 minutes of looking into the computer screen, turn your head and try to look at any object placed at least 20 feet away.
Why? This changes the focal length of your eyes, a must-do for the tired eyes.

Step 2:

Try and blink your eyes for 20 times in succession
Why? To moisten your eyes

Step 3:

Time permitting of course, one should walk 20 paces after every 20 minutes of sitting in one particular posture.
Why? Helps blood circulation for the entire body.

Eyes are mirror of the soul, so do take care of them, they are priceless...

Otherwise eye would be like this.....

I have written a small batch file for windows which locks my screen every 20 minutes. I will share the procedure to do the same :

Step 1:
Copy the following contents into a file, say "lock.bat" (Dont miss .bat extension)

@echo off
rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation
cls

Step 2:
Goto Scheduled Tasks
(Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> Scheduled Tasks)

Step 3:

Create a new scheduled task (File --> New --> Scheduled Task)
Double click on that and a dialog box opens.
In the Run option, Browse the .bat file saved.
Check the box "Run only if loggod on".
Goto schedule Tab. Make the necessary changes and then click on Advanced settings.
Check the box "Repeat Task" and fill the values that suits you. (I scheduled for 20 min and duration as 24 hours).

Now your screen locks for every 20 minutes. If you dont want to lock your screen but you need to get an alert after 20 minutes the change the batch file to the following code:

@echo off
echo.
echo Turn your head and try to look at any object placed at least 20 feet away.
echo.
pause

I Know that I wrote a long article but hope it is useful. Comments are most welcome.

Browse without Browser!!!

2008-01-23T16:20:00.000+05:30

I was always under the impression that we cannot browse the internet without the browser but this is not the case in reality. We can browse without any browser!!! and a patent has been awarded for this innovative idea!.

The method uses a telephone device to browse. It begins by connecting the telephone device to the server. The server will have a speech recognition software installed in it which will recognize the user's voice and converts it into command and searches the internet based on the input and it will give back the output which will be read to the user by another software which is able to recognize the content. This method has an option for the user to ask the server to fax a copy of the webpage to him. A detailed description of this method can be find here

Acheivements in 2007 at IBM

2008-01-01T15:19:00.000+05:30

I spent 2 tenures in IBM during the year 2007. The first one was the internship tenure of four and a half months. It was a great experience to start my career at IBM. We were six interns who worked during this period. The problem that we were asked to solve was to find a way to host the eclipse on the server and provide a browser interface to access it. We got a very good exposure to various technologies that were emerging. Initially we did not have any idea about how to solve the problem that was given to us but we gave the name Eclifox (Eclipse on the firefox) to the project. We had no clue how to put the first step but we were quite fortunate that we had great mentors at IBM who really guided us in approaching the problem. We then slowly started to make some experiments. We got some breakthroughs and finally we succeeded in building a prototype to prove that the problem can be solved. We got some great feedbacks from managers and even criticisms but no one expected that interns' project will make so much voice in IBM. Finally our project got into alphaworks. Here is the link to our project. As per today's status it has been downloaded 609 times!

In the second half of the year, I worked as regular employee at IBM. The Internship really helped me in making my life comfortable at IBM. Currently I am project zero committer. I along with my colleague got 2nd place in hackday which is an event that takes place in IBM to encourage the employees to show their talent in various areas. I participated in another contest called Coderfest'07 which is again a programming contest internal to IBM and our team got qualified to quarterfinals which is going to start from 7th jan of this year. Among 1800 and odd participants 37 teams are qualified for quarterfinals. I took part in one of the voluntary projects which had an aim to help the freshers who join IBM and we ended up in building a nice portal which had all the necessary information for the freshers and got some very good appreciation form our directors.

To conclude, 2007 was a good year in my career at IBM. I hope I will do even better in 2008 and will strive hard to achieve that.

Adarsh starts blogging

2007-12-31T12:43:00.000+05:30

Hello World!!

This is my first attempt to blog. I am currently working at IBM India. I am passionate about India and its development. Please stay tuned to my blog and post your valuable comments to my writings.