Amazing Poetry

Some of my favourite and inspiring poems i hope the readers of this blog enjoy this post .
To begin with i had read this poem first in middle school and well the meaning is evergreen. One by Rabindranath Tagore: Where The mind Is without Fear:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Swami Vivekananda's Techings are a great inspiration as well a really good one by Him:
Quest For God

O'ver hill and dale and mountain range,
In temple, church, and mosque,
In Vedas, Bible, Al Koran
I had searched for Thee in vain.

Like a child in the wildest forest lost
I have cried and cried alone,
"Where art Thou gone, my God, my love?
The echo answered, "gone."

And days and nights and years then passed
A fire was in the brain,
I knew not when day changed in night
The heart seemed rent in twain.
I laid me down on Ganges's shore,
Exposed to sun and rain;
With burning tears I laid the dust
And wailed with waters' roar.

I called on all the holy names
Of every clime and creed.
"Show me the way, in mercy, ye
Great ones who have reached the goal."

Years then passed in bitter cry,
Each moment seemed an age,
Till one day midst my cries and groans
Some one seemed calling me.


A gentle soft and soothing voice
That said 'my son' 'my son',
That seemed to thrill in unison
With all the chords of my soul.

I stood on my feet and tried to find
The place the voice came from;
I searched and searched and turned to see
Round me, before, behind,
Again, again it seemed to speak
The voice divine to me.
In rapture all my soul was hushed,
Entranced, enthralled in bliss.

A flash illumined all my soul;
The heart of my heart opened wide.
O joy, O bliss, what do I find!
My love, my love you are here
And you are here, my love, my all!

And I was searching thee -
From all eternity you were there
Enthroned in majesty!
From that day forth, wherever I roam,
I feel Him standing by
O'ver hill and dale, high mount and vale,
Far far away and high.

The moon's soft light, the stars so bright,
The glorious orb of day,
He shines in them; His beauty - might -
Reflected lights are they.
The majestic morn, the melting eve,
The boundless billowing sea,
In nature's beauty, songs of birds,
I see through them - it is He.

When dire calamity seizes me,
The heart seems weak and faint,
All nature seems to crush me down,
With laws that never bend.
Meseems I hear Thee whispering sweet
My love, "I am near", "I am near".
My heart gets strong. With thee, my love,
A thousand deaths no fear.
Thou speakest in the mother's lay
Thou shuts the babies eye,
When innocent children laugh and play,
I see Thee standing by.

When holy friendship shakes the hand,
He stands between them too;
He pours the nectar in mother's kiss
And the baby's sweet "mama".
Thou wert my God with prophets old,
All creeds do come from Thee,
The Vedas, Bible, and Koran bold
Sing Thee in Harmony.

"Thou art," Thou art" the Soul of souls
In the rushing stream of life.
"Om tat sat om." Thou art my God,
My love, I am thine, I am thine.

I'm greatly influenced by the teachings of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankarji and here is an absolute delightful read by Him:
Beyond the heaven is my abode
come to me. come to me.
Don't stop, come to me.
If you get stuck in the heaven,
you will return back from there to hell.
Don't stop in the heaven, come to me, come to me.

My abode is beyond heaven, far away from here.
Come to me, come to me
All the charming faces, boys and girls, eyes and noses,
hairs and dresses, cookies and sweets and chocolates,
pass them on.
Smiling and dancing, come to me, come to me.

My abode is beyond the heaven.
come to me.
Joyfully move in this direction, a thousand blessings on the way.
walk through them, don't get stuck.
Pass through them.
come to me.

Angels are ready to serve you, and crown you with the highest.
Don't stop before that.
Come to me, come to me...

A post after a really long time

my blog has been inactive for a rather long time and im the only one to blame. but i promise to put up some posts now and then...

Writing this out of sheer frustration

We all say that the world is becoming a smaller place to live in. well,i often wonder how true that is with the times we live in :the era of globalisation, digital media, space travel and more avenues that are still in its nascent stages of booming the world..yet we still have a few borders to cross. a few mountains to climb.But who or what are we as individuals or societies??
Take for example in India there are so many different states with different cultural and religious traditions and unique in own way ...yet indian society is still bound together by collectivism..
I was recently at a ceremony of a muslim sufi friend ( a great childhood friend of mine )and asked by a non indian who i am ?,what i am , etc etc.. well so i came out with the usual (being an art of living volunteer )i said i am a human being above all well she was literally like what the hell?because apparently all the other indians had some or the other idientity aprt from being human...(i simply laughed ) and so then i started explaining out to her how actually india is the cradle of humane values it all originated here infact and that its better to be a human being first rather than being a hindu,sikh,atheist ,punjabi , indian ,etc etc... she was so confused that belonging one nation people has so many different ethinicities or rather mini nationalities..while in her country sweden, the emphasis was more on individualism and humanity but having lived in a place like australia for over two years and at the peak of racism against indian students i felt it was quite weird that the caucasian race spoke of humanity.. look at the violence theyve created in the world: the crusades, the conquering and inquisition of their mannerisms and religious beliefs on many nations like india, the recent brutal wars on afghanisatn and hanging an innocent saddam hussein for oil?the spanish inquisition, the portugese inquisition in goa ,india where millions and millions of hindus were burnt alive or forced to convert, the decline of a mildly mystic religion of paganism in their own lands, todays issues of global warming , environmental damage, overconsumption,the economic recession(well it definitely didnt start in asia), the creation of islamic terrorism(it was america who first funded bin laden to fight the u.s.s.r )which has backfired on them, the great talk of being non racist and big wild dreams of world peace...my my the western civilisation may be good but its still not all that great...they talk of indias huge support systems, joint families of japan and fake godmen in india they really have to get their heads set and decide what they want because even with all the problems asian countries have far lower co2 emissions and amongst the worlds largest recycling facilities( the largest being india), we may not be that monetarily rich like the west but we were also under invasion rule for over 2000 years and british rule for 150 before that we were the most advanced countries on the planet mathematics originated here , spirituality, family system, business management (infact in all gr8 management schools people study the bhagvad gita that definitely says a lot about our modernity of 5000 years ago)we shelterd the sufi's, parsi's, syrian christians and jews when they were banished from their own countries doesn't that say a lot about our humane values??asian countries religiously and culturally dominated each other for 20 centuries without ever going to a single war... we believe in non violence maybe thats why today egypt has taken inspiration from our non violent means to topple its corrupt government...we as asians exist as an individualistic yet collective society and we are much happier than those nations where individualism has almost failed...in asian countries like india one can find a hindu, muslim,sikh, jain, christian , buddhist , atheist all socialising together and many religions like hinduism and sikhism often being part of the same family... there is no restrition on anything only we have great support systems as we are collectivist in nature .. we have more friends huge family supports and less divorces we need fewer psychologists because we can share with many and get advice from others experiences, another example is japan where the grandchildren are sent to live with and learn from the experiences of the older generation... we have our spirtual values and yet we as individuals are different from each other...we may have higher stress levels as you sometimes but what the hell as a race we are happy we have lower levels of depression in our society :25% of american population above the age of 18 suffers from depression and 35% of europe according to the u.n report .. well in india only abot 8-10% of the pop. given that we are the 2nd largest pop so we ahve very small numbers...we must look at the positives our culture has instead of aping the westerners blindly :for chrissake we had to have the west endorse our ancient practices of yoga and ayurveda before we could revive them we had to have the western celebrities endorse our graceful and elegant sarees as cool and high fashion before we brought them out of our vast catacombs of clothes...we had to have the brits make chicken tikka masala their national dish and bhangra their music before we could make them cool in india, it took some one like richard gere to make indians sit up and take notice of the plight of the docile,demure and harmless tibetans...why cant we for once turn the tables?? why for once we as a collective society who whine whine and whine about our government do something? vote yes..).Then we whine when our relatives say dont do this and that do it this way or these clothes would suit your figure better or ur talented at this and yet when we are in trouble, a vast majority of us either go running to those relatives whom we winge and whine about or expect them to come 2 our aid... in india we have even strangers from the same community who will come out to support us.. isnt that a strange brotherhood then???so i ask isnt it better to be a human being, an individual, and yet live in a collective society??

.....And so you live ....( a tribute to my late friend gaurav nath)

You taught us how to smile,
you taught us how to laugh,
....how to see a bright spark in every creation,
How to jump,
how to play....

You embodied a divine spark within yourself ,
you spread the light across the darkest hours,
you were an ocean of calmness,
a bolt of lightning,
a spark of electricity,
a bubble happiness
and all things adventurous you were...
... And so you live on in another plane of existence
.... in our hearts, spirits and minds....
we will always cherish those sweet memories,
those satsangs and your beautiful voice....
.... jumping around and being there for each of your dear friends....
.... living each moment ... and enjoying life....
Am sure wherever the powers planned and plotted to send you into another plane you are doin the same......
and making new friends and chershing your old memories.....
enjoying what another plane of existence has to offer...
..... And so you live...
touching the lives of many,
yet being detached...
an expression of humbleness
a ray of sunshine....
and in this way so you live......

Mamma Mia- Another Abbba Fav...

24

WELL , its sunday tomorrow , the 24th of october and im turning 24 a step closer to completing a quarter of a century on planet earth. I cannot even begin to pen down in words what exactly i'm feeling. Am i feeling old?? well not really but i ain't getting any younger physically either- mentally i'm still 14, 15 or 16 or whatever, physically i look like a chubby cherubic high school kid ( well atleast that is what people have been telling me off late ) i guess it is all only because of all the strenuous yogic and meditative practices i but my mind and body through.Well yeah ive been doin thesze kinds of things since i was 10 years old so there goes it.
Hmm, im still wondering what i have achieved in my nearly 24 years of existence?? well it depends what one defines as achievement-according to me its peace of mind, happiness,contentment,success,and an unconditional love for everything that exists.
If its one thing ive learnt and probably learnt the hard way, its to take somethings with a pinch of salt.
In all these 24 years, ive spent every moment learning, exploring and creatively honing my various skills. Ive learnt so much- be it from the Bhagvad Gita or the Sukhmani sahib, ive learnt that human life is all the same- everyone goes thru ups and downs.
ive learnt life is what one makes it out to be- if one makes life happy- it will be full of joy and laughter, if your too serious well ...
ive learnt to just accept somethings and let them be that way....
well id have gone on and on with this post but i have to sign off for now...

One someone who changed my life :)

Writing after so long well just makes me want to write. And what do i write about?
one someone who has completely changed my life.
Since all you readers are wondering who is one someone is , i shall disclose his name a little later in the post.
I was really astonished to see someone so multidimensional in todays stress filled world who lives such a carefree and stressfree life at his age.
A masters in statstitics from IIT yes IIT,
a good dose of anger , albeit short lived and for very good reason - anger out love is not anger he says it is a suggestion to improve your life.
The best vegan cook i know- i mean come on i thought there were no substitues for gelatin until he told me about agar agar.
The one who has introduced me to many organic foods in the last 5 years that i think i have known him.
A teacher and an inspiration to millions of youth across the globe and he still remembers my name , my wild ways - yes i do have some- like drinking cold coffee and sleeping at 4 am sometimes
oh the way he has changed my life - i mean if one could could just listen to this gifted soul even once in their entire lifetime all their problems and dilemma's about life would be solved in a jiffy.
He not only cooks , but plays the piano with mozart like precision.And, despite being a Parsi, knows far more about the ancient Vedic wisdom and meditation i can imagine. I owe all my yummy yummy veggie dhansak making skills to him and his mother .
The one who has taught me that life is what you make it out out to be.
He is one of the wittiest kids and the most mature adult( well i attritube this aspecat of his larger than life personality to being a disciple of one of the Gretest Englintened Beings alive on plant earth- H.H Sri Sri Ravishankar).
The one who still remembers how i love travelling and studying and how rebellious i was at one stage. Infact he went to the extent of calling my change in personality the "Taming of the Shrew".
He has always been oh so inquisitive about all my vfx and 3d works and how animated movies are made.
A big smile, long wavy silvery hair, a long nose, the reddest of palms i have ever seen and the grace of an ethereal presence in him.
I call him bau or bawa ...aka by others as MR. Khurshed Batliwala .
to know more about one of the most inspiring souls i have met this life time do visit
www.bawandinesh.name
Wishing bawa a very happy birthday and hoe he continues to be his merry witty self in the years to come...