The past couple of weeks have been full of speculations and accusations, none of them from our side. I mean, if someone fires a gunshot, and the bullet grazes someone’s thigh in the midst of a throng around a world-renowned personality just as he is boarding a car, then what are we supposed to surmise? That it was a farmer trying to scare away stray dogs? Or friends of ours taking pot shots at each other? No, obviously all attention would be on ensuring that the leader is safe and that the organisation is not under threat.
In this day and age, why should we presume that an ashram is out-of-bounds for a terror attack? Has someone told the terrorists that?
The interesting thing was that more than half the people present at the ashram were in silence, as they were in the middle of an advanced meditation course. The fact that Guruji Himself was totally nonchalant about the incident, and that our ashramites were so calm, has actually been held against us! It must have been an inside job, some said, which is why these people are unfazed. No, you morons, this is the entire crux of Guruji’s teachings — Accept situations as they are (and then act with responsibility!) Maybe we devotees should have held dharnas outside the Vidhan Souda, and picketed the police stations. Perhaps then people would have have understood the righteous indignation that our calm demeanor could not convey. Perhaps we could have called for the Home Minister to be sacked, and raised a hue and cry in the media. But we paid the price for being spiritual, for being educated, for being calm, for being equanimous. What if the same bullet had been fired somewhere around P Chidambaram? Would they presume it was just the ground staff scaring away pigeons? Or would they clamp down on the entire city, fire a couple of IAS officers, shoot a few under trials in fake encounters, and delay flights for a week in the name of security?
And the naysayers had a field day. Shobhaa De, who earlier has been very complimentary about my music and the sense of peace it evokes, went to town with a real sleazy hatchet job on Guruji. I was like, man, is she having a bad day or what! How utterly irresponsible of her to have done something like this. But then I thought, how would she ever know? Somehow an entire class of so-called educated people in India choose to live in a cocoon. They claim to be concerned about the state of the world but will never look deep enough into its problems, much less work towards a solution. And here is one person called Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who has played an active role in so many critical issues; from the conflicts in Serbia, Bosnia, Caucasus to the Sri Lankan issue and the age-old Middle Eastern conflict; from prison rehabilitation to prevention of farmer suicides; from domestic violence in Indian slums to teenage violence in American schools; from personally reassuring riot victims in Gujarat and tsunami victims in Nagapattinam to consoling the survivors of Katrina. Interestingly these are the topics that are not highlighted — as if giving them prominence would suddenly make all the problems go away and make our news channels redundant. It’s high time that we as literate Indians start taking pride in having an excellent education, and start looking at the world around us with eyes wide open.
In our own society we lack basic policies regarding health, safety, integrity and social governance. There are people playing for really high stakes in the name of politics, to whom you and I don’t matter in the least. India is cancer-struck, and it will need an inordinately high number of “healthy cells” to start working in unison if at least our grandchildren are to live in a comfortable society. Yes, I do believe that Guruji has solutions for many of the world’s problems, but I am not under the illusion that a small bunch of Art of Living volunteers can implement such a huge vision. In fact, I shall also be posting about instances where I feel our own people have missed the boat (or the message). An enlightened Master’s life is His message, not just for His own followers, but for the entire planet, for all of humanity. And I am sure there are millions out there who can take this message forward and make a difference for generations to come. Stay tuned!
PS: “Dyslexic” because he aimed at a dog but shot at God 🙂 (Thanks Prerana for contributing that one-liner!)
PS: “Dyslexic” because he aimed at a dog but shot at God 🙂 (Thanks Prerana for contributing that one-liner!)
hi.. this is nikita from mumbai, actually i heard your voice 2 days back in the morning on the radio & immediately woke up. i loved your soulful voice & was somehow touched.but dint know much abt it.. today i somehow got up at 6.30 and hoped that your song would be played. to my surprise it was played, thankfully the rj told who had sung the song. i was really happy & I looked out 4 most of ur articles. it was good 2 read abt u.
good work…
🙂 🙂 🙂
Dearest Bhaiyya,
Simply amazing.. 🙂
I wanted to point out Shobhaa De’s views put up on her blog, really nice to see, you’ve already mentioned about it.
If one can’t get transformed listening to your music he/she must be really spiritually poor.
Love & JGD,
Aditya
Dear Vikarmji,
Jaigurudev,
Wonderful. You have given valuable advice to those journalists. Let us hope they refine themselves after reading this.
With kind regards
M.Gopalakrishnan
http://www.aolcbe.org
Stirring & Inspiring!
JGD bhaiyya
Well said !!! i was mightly surprised about the way the So Called home minister went on blabbering in front of the Tv and the media channels at their all time best in irresponsibly sensationalizing it.As for Shobha de the so called critic i really feel pity for her stupidity.
Avinash
Trust you to put things in perspective
Hi, I love your music. Some of the songs/bhajans move me to tears even after listening to them hundreds of times. On the above topic, in my opinion, we should learn from Guruji who is not frustrated at all and goes about his life’s work as usual. World is not going to change so easily.
….Wrongly educated people….make the task really really huge……i believe that those who are not educated as such are still better….their mind and soul are clean !!
Lovely….
But we, as Guruji’s disciples, are at a fix! Compassion pours over the condition of those individuals who are living in the depths of Marianna Trench of human stupidity. Them, the majority, are just numb by the relentless drubbing by media, almost to the point that they forget that a world outside exists.
When I told one of my curious friends that what we think can be a probable reason for a shooting, he said, Hey! Why don’t you people publish in newspapers such good work Aol is doing in Naxal areas?….I simply told, Even on publishing you would not have noticed and called!
So maybe we keep composure and just try to follow what He is doing and maybe sometimes actually ourselves do a bit and sincerely pray that some of these people just ‘wake up’ and stop living on those news channels’ bandwidth…
I hope our choice would matter in the long run
Jai Gurudev
Sagar
Of course bhayya “our own people have missed the boat!!!” Great way to express a complex situation…It’s sad a major chunk amongst us have lost focus on the master and are stuck with mundane issues. With wonderful personalities like you around i am sure things will surely change.
lots of luv
sunil
Hi Vikram baiya,
Love to see you writing actively on the blog again. Would love to see more of your thoughts (and of course, Guruji’s messages).
Jai guru dev.
Well said Bhaiyya…i was waiting to know what’s your take on this.I have been reading Shobha De’s blog and its really surprising and disappointing to see her twist (maybe moderate) the comments posted by people,benefitted by the course, to add more impact to her slandering of the Guru.She has the ‘freedom of expression’ to baselessly slander someone we love and expect’s that we do not defend ourselves,just because we are spiritual.And this was hillarious…she was abusing and came up with a new name AoA 😀
Jgd Bhaiya,
You have written so articulately. I was feeling the same thing, however didn’t have the words or experience to put it across so well.
Agree completely that most people (surprisingly a Lot of ours as well) don’t understand what HE means, and use/misuse the knowledge the way it suits them, ultimately missing the ‘boat’…
Besides, had they understood Guruji’s vision OR had the ‘patrata’ (competency) to do so, don’t you think HIS work would become easier and the world would be changing at a faster rate? 🙂
hi Tweet by shobhaa de was indeed showing her inner status, I feel sorry for her.
Thank god for this post…..
I was hurt after hearing/reading all this non-sense. This was much needed!
You are equally articulate with the written word as you are with your voice. Maybe you could begin a column. Everything that you have written in this piece gets through. Your writing gets through. If Shobhaa De could do a sleazy job on Guruji you could counter that if you had a space to yourself that caters to a wider readership. True, Guruji doesn’t need to defend himself. But, if there are allegations against the Man or his organisation which is doing the greatest job in the world, we at least have a voice within our circle that can speak/write the truth on the behalf of thousands of followers, and not give a chance to the cynics or the pseudo intellectual brigade to point a finger, or get away with their equally pessimistic and superficial remarks. Begin a Column, if you can.
vikram by any chance do you know or does any one knows that is it possible to hear your morning radio show online??????? are there any links to it? I am in US and i am die hard fan of yours as your voice brings me more and more closer to guruji…
Jai Gurudev,
very well written!
keep up the good work!
what has shobhaa de given back to society?
let’s forget and forgive.
That’s all I can say.
Thank you all for those wonderful comments — that was really inspiring. My next post is ready, I’ll put it up tonite when I get home. And of course the rest will follow soon.
JGD
Vikram
Thank you Vikram for so clearly delineating the situation. As for “dyslexic”, well said. Dog is God spelled backward and their love, devotion and loyalty is unshakeable. Better not to shoot at dogs either for they are the rishis of bhakti.
this spoiled page3 clan needs transformation the most. This filthiness out of Shobhaa De was unexpected and shocking though.
Guruji bless her too !!
Very nice post Vikram..so very rightly said “Cancer struck” !!
This post needs to be published somewhere !
Dirty politics,concoting media and our superficial attitudes has messed everything up
:(..we surely cant expect any change soon 🙁
Apologies for catching up on this post so late. As Gurudev said ‘Everyone has the right to be ignorant’ and we know people remain ignorant if they are not spiritual be it a common man or Shobha De. I should admit I was surprised to see your post long back on her appreciating your music or I should say Divine playing through you. When we sing immersed in our inner selves, and especially for HIS devotees, getting mentioned in someone’s blog who has not even gone within means any significant thing? This has been a wonder for me till date !!!