Sudarshan Kriya Course - Day 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.