Power of Music

Certain people (like museys), certain songs, certain words, certain places have unknown inexplicable connections. They take you down uncharted territory. They stir up unknown emotions. They bring forth deep  hidden feelings.
And the profound impact it has cannot be explained by words.

I can attribute them to :
gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ

While spending a rather free sunday, by sheer chance I stumbled upon this gem of a song by Lata Mangeshkar and Hemanta Kumar, composed by Shankar Jaikishen.
The day was spent in falling in love with this song, its melody and the gem of a voice of Hemanta Da.

Aa Neele Gagan Tale Pyar Hum Karen...

It makes you want to fall in love with the assurance of kindness and divine grace that is ruling the world. It makes you want to rise in generosity and service.
Hemanta da is singing in the lower octave and his voice is celebrating serenity, compassion, goodness of the world. It brings faith.

When I like a song, its mostly for its music and all these qualities. I rarely understand the lyrics.
Having grown up on a steady dose of RD Burman, i have been a Kishore Kumar loyalist.

Hemanta da is someone i have been discovering off late. The harmony of Lata and Hemanta takes you to a new height.

This song brought me to Hemanta Da:
Chupa Lo Yun Dil Mein Pyar Mera

Encountered this song while watching the legendary and ethereal beauty Suchitra Sen's movie 'Mamata'. The Raag Yaman-Kalyan is the hero and Hemanta Da with music director Roshan deserve a standing ovation.

Another master piece of Lata-Hemanta duet is the goose-bum raising Vande Mataram from Anand Math ...

Every time you are low or don't know what else to do with life, one doze of this song helps you sit up and 'Volunteer for a better India'. Can you give one hour to the nation? Sign up here: http://www.vfabi.org/

In the glory of my Master - to whom I bow down for having bestowed this gift of Music and its appreciation in my life.....

Life of a Twitterati

Being active on twitter off late has given a tremendous exposure to political thinking, analysis & strengthened my *right*-winged ideology. I was always a proud Sanathan Dharmic but twitter is a whole new universe in itself. And a powerful one at that. There is so much to learn and share.

So.. Everyone has their own “tweet-stories” – either of why/how they got onto twitter or some successful “work” done there.  I too have a few fav ones. Sharing 1-2 here:

Though I had a twitter account since long, I got active only around aug’11.. It was that time of the year when Anna Hazare had started his 2^nd round of fast – to demand for implementation of anti-corruption law “JanLokpal”.

National fervour was at its height & there was this “Inquilab Zindabad” charged atmosphere in the length & breath of the country. I got a chance to witness (modern & mellowed down version) of the azadi fight which my grandparents were part. Gurudev had long foreseen the power of social media. 

Shortly after the fast & its anti-climax ending, I was addicted to my twitter TL (timeline). 

The real scoop was in Nov: when the anchor “S”(wife of the editor-in-chief & a “journo” at that English news channel) did a fake interview with HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji during His UP tour. That unleashed a never-before seen potential in me: to *intellectually* corner a “celebrity”, to motivate the “neutralists” to see thro the facade & finally, to fearlessly take on the powers(we all know who is behind such hit-jobs done by main-stream media). And man! Did I love it!

We coined the term “#C**I**Lies” and trended it the whole day. It had a massive impact on the channel & they immediately issued apologies. And “S” even flew down to meet Gurudev & apologize! Now, Gurudev being the supremely compassionate & the lovable Master, forgave her. And she went back happily & blocked all of us (on twitter)! Ha ha ha. But who cares! It was a promotion for me!

This incident had further implications in my world, which won’t be discussed here :D

So nowadays am busy getting people on to twitter. Am appalled at how the aam admi & his values are being systematically destroyed by the rulers. There are some exceptionally talented & intellectually advanced tweeple who bring out the truth with facts & figures. I see hope for our nation.

Off late a story has been cooking in the mind, screenplay included. Don’t think I’ll ever make a movie but if I find someone who can understand the sensitivity & poignancy of the subject and my story, I’d love to share it. But then its kind of ahead of times. Are we a “modern” enough society ? 

In the glory of my divine JagadGuru, who's love moves the world. 

Charioting the Master :)

Was going thro some archives and found this.. I wrote it in November '06.. and felt like sharing it...:)

Nov 1st - whoa! what a day!

The LORD of the Universe showering me with abundance of his presence! HE arrived from ananthpur in a helicopter at the Jakkur Airfield. Just at the mention of "jakkur", i become nostalgic abt our Silver Jubilee Celebrations and going there after 9 months, the memories of those 3 "wow!" days, came flooding... HE got off the heli and walked towards us in all majesty...smiling and nodding at me, HE took my breath-away ! [thank god i had done the kriya in the morning! ;) ]

HE got into maam's car [maam is Raji maam, ] and whoa! it was the drive of my life - driving the LORD for 25 mins! [though i had driven him before - 9 months back - it was for a shorter duration] HE kept hitting me and i kept laughing all the way.. Esp when HE asked me(in kannada) "namma silver jubilee hit ittu alva?" ... and i actually replied "ofcourse howdu howdu" !! 

HE was surprised when Maam told him that it takes 2-3 hrs from vidyaranyapura to the ashram (now, like he doesnt know all this!) .. HE asked where i stay and how much time it takes from my area to ashram! i was grinning ear to ear! (the next day when i met HIM in ashram, HE asked me,"oh u have come from THERE? how did u come? how much time u took?? - i was laughing as HE only arranged everything for me and HE was asking me now so innocently!)

Anyways, back to the drive, HE started hitting me at a signal cuz i wasn't wearing the seat belt and i just blurted out "Guruji, why do i need seat belt when you are sitting next to me!" Bhanu didi, who was also in the car, at the back, burst into laughter! 

The whole time, I was praying[to Gurudeva ofcourse], that we get red light at both the signals on the way [he he hee] and HE granted my wish! I was stealing glances at HIM and His phone :).. At maam's house, it was an awesome sight to see him sit with eyes closed and a smile on his face, as she did paadapooja... wow! Later, served HIM fruits and was in bliss! :-) :-) :-) :-)

As HE told maam before leaving, "Your sankalpa was there and i have come"...... In HIS gratitude, to my MASTER .. Tasmaye Sri Guravee Namaha - To the Gloriously Radiant Master, i bow down! 

Tears: some unknown and some grateful

For someone who hardly watches movies, the few that i do, leaves quite an impression on my mind. But there was a movie which i'd been searching for, for quite sometime now. But never found it on the net. Thankfully a friend from pune found the VCD there and mailed it to me by 'speed post' .. As i waited for its arrival, was rather curious and eager... cuz it was one of the latest musey movies after all!
It obvi didn't matter to me that it was in an unknown language and that it hadn't done well, with the critics panning it. All that mattered little in front of musey love !

When the CD did arrive finally, I got time only by 11 in the night to watch it. And thats where I did the mistake! With all the anticipation, I opened the cover, got the case out, put it in my Laptop, opened the file on Media Player and took a deep breath in .......... and when i did breathe out, it was a sigh.... a rather heavy one! Cuz the movie was in Marathi(of which i understood not a word) and had no english sub-titles !! wow ! But even this didn't deter me from going ahead with it! he heheee

The movie is 'Samaantar' ("Parallel Folds"), directed by Amol Palekar and features himself and Sharmila Tagore in the lead roles.

I became a 'mute spectator', if you'd like to call it that ... but there wasn't a thing i could understand in that, expect for a hindi word here and there ! But something very surprising happened: I started crying! It had touched me so much: the story, Sharmila Tagore's brilliant potrayal of a wounded deer, the agony of Palekar - everything was so touching, though not perfect !
And i was crying !! The music also played a major role in forcing the tears out of my eye like jog falls (it gushes during monsoons and is dry rest of the year... hence the metaphor!.. ).. It was soulful and tugged at my heart.... Many can relate to the poignant moments of the movie (though it could have been handled better).
Watch the trailer here:

The mistake of watching it late at nite caused a major hangover(of the movie) through the nite and showed its after-effects in the morning... and i kept thinking about people who have been emotionally wounded in life and how it would have affected them... Of course, reaching out to them and bringing in their life, HIS divine grace is what i am here for !

Somehow, the lost love and finding it in the evening of your life was moving. I hadn't expected myself to react so emotionally to it : that too when i didn;t understand the conversations and when the climax was so dumb!

And then it dawned:
Hey life is not just that ! Wake up and realize what are you here for ?! What is this chuttu-muttu life in billions of years that has been and will be.... ? What is this small body in this ocean of Universe ??
Makes me so grateful for the anchor of my Life, who is my goal, my strength and my 'astitva'. For the fact that, there is someone who loves me unconditionally every moment, is guiding me at my every step, is taking care of me in my every breath, gives me hope and keeps my faith alive at every emotional disturbance and makes me aware of the Divine Light that is making this Creation (Universe) move from one perfection to another....

To my gloriously radiant Master, I bow down.

my Guru found me!

Well... I'll start with my mostest favouritest subject : my Gurudev, H H Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji :-)

Was searching for something (on the net, not in my room ;-) and stumbled upon the India Today cover story of Gurudev, which was published in Nov 2001 .. and how distinctly i remember those days !

I had seen Gurudev on TV in oct/nov 2001 and HE had left a deep inexplicable impression on my mind and I was also an avid reader of India Today ..
When I heard that HE was the cover story , i actually ran n grabbed my copy and read HIS story again n again ..

And then it happened... HE came to blore city for one those mostest awesomest satsangs in Dec 21 or 22 , 2001 !! and that too so close to my place!

I went to the venue at 5 pm only, so that i could catch place and see HIM from near... and when HE left the satsang, i ran to the periphery of the grounds to see HIS car leave (Guru Chasing already?! ) and had thought to myself - "oh my god ! WHO is THIS guy ?! ...... JUST who is this? "


And before i knew, tears were flowing down my cheeks - it made no sense to me at that time - i was just another gawky rebellious teenager and "gratitude" or "longing" was more alien than the adjacent solar system !
After that satsang, i immediately went for the course in my area but was sent back as there weren't enough ppl (thank god!) .. finally did the course in Jan 2002 and the rest , as they say, is just DIVINE LOVE (not history!)

Jai Gurudev!
Dimps

p.s: why did I thank god for having been sent back from my 1st attempt to do the AOL basic course ? thats another story for another day :-)