Life: Living in freedom and enquiry.

* breep breep breep* Uh-oh. I forgot to switch my phone into Outdoor once again. Its vibrating vigorously in my pocket, and I took the call. It was sulekha auntie, the only woman on earth to understand me, and catch the exact meaning of what I am talking(My mom still thinks am a kid, so she's pretty possessive.). So, we got chatty and all, and suddenly she tells me about this workshop, to be conducted by Swami Sukhabodhananda. OK. Don't give the *uh. Bowrrriinnng* look. Half of the time, I was wondering why should I be doing this work-shop and the other half , my mind ate me up with curiosity. On the day of the work-shop, I mentally prepared myself for facing it.The *khat kaht* auto sound, added to the background music of my thoughts, made me much more irritated. Sitting beside two aunties, who kept talking on why the terrorists wanted to kill people in mumbai, and blah blah is one pain in the neck believe me, if they don't let you express your ideas. No, seriously. After reaching the place, I got down, gave a big *yawn* and stepped inside the hotel. Whoa! What am I seeing? Grandparents, Parents, everybody above 20!!! A little while later, we had to assemble outside the hall, for a quick get-to-know-your-neighbour session. And that was when GOD took sympathy on me, and a guy just 4 years elder to me walks into this session.At least I was not alone now. Phew! May be 20, bah, he looked like a teenager at least!
Pratheek, down to earth,simple,loves being sarcastic especially to me(I hate you for that!) Loves shades. Lol. OK OK ..back to the gathering. We had to meet as many people as we could and introduce our-self. We did this 3 times till everyone felt they knew the whole group. It was a real nice way of opening up to the crowd. I never felt the Stomach-full-of-butterflies symptoms later. Oh yeah. You should have guessed by now. I was the youngest of all..And, Thanks to my obsession of losing weight even though I am under-weight for my age, I was pretty OK compared to the people there. So I was the lean sixteen kid, in between the "Old is gold" people. oh, without considering Pratheek that is.
While we met the crowd, had fun, and got back inside, I had to settle down in the second row and wait for Swamiji to start. Meanie pratheek found himself a friend and got cozy with him. :P Lol. Didn't mean the other way.
Swamiji, began his session with the Navarasas. And how one could lead a balanced life, having all these rasas(Qualities.). The best part about him is that, unlike all other swamiji's of his age, he's really a playful swamiji. Really modern, updated person, and immediately caught my attention.
As he went on about spirituality, my thoughts went deeper, and clearer. All we are supposed to do is have a bucket list. And work on it.
The first day, went on like this. Spirituality, Life, meditation and question and answer session.
One thing that worked tremendously is, how can one control their negative emotions?
He gave a short story. One day, a man came running into the 15Th floor of a building, yelling, "Sharma! Sharma! Your daughter ran away!"
Close by in one of the houses, was a man drinking his coffee. As soon as he hears it, he gets very angry, and jumps off the building.
As he jumped, when he reached the 13Th floor, he realized, he didn't have a daughter!
At the 8Thfloor, he realised he didn't get married to have a daughter!
At the 4rth floor he realized the man was yelling to sharma!
At the 1st floor, he realized HE WASN'T SHARMA!!
Now, when he jumped off the building, it was a reaction. A senseless reaction. Most of us, react that way in life. Either by being provoked or by giving the other person permission to hurt you easily.
Someone once said, "You are hurt by some-one insulting you, only when you give the person full permission to hurt you!"
True.
Throughout the day, he spoke about, how we can prioritize things in our life, and how we can stop being so judgemental and serious.
I was dying with boredom in the breaks. I wanted to stay back and talk to swamiji, but I had to get out, cause I was supposed to MIX around with people. Whatever! I hardly spoke to anyone after that. And Lunch time! Ah. I met one of the two best people, I met at the workshop. One i already met, pratheek. Another Anna, Vijay, 24,got along well with me. He was a great source of info. I literally chewed up his brain and he was really patient. :P, and we 3 hit it off really well. People who were around us, asked curiously, "So, kiddos, which school are you guys from?"
yes, they didn't look their age, neither did i. :D
The day went on. Got exposed to real great stuff. Felt great by the end of the day, and came home enthusiastically. The uncle who offered to drop me and auntie home, asked me, "Snneegdha! How come you have proooblleeems? You are still a baccchi, hain na?(you are still a kid right?)"
I gave him a straight face, and tried explaining it to him that, every being has a problem. The level of problems may vary, but when you round up, it still is a prob.What may look like a problem for you, might not be a problem for me! He finally gave up convincing me. Lol.
Today was the second day. As usual, met both the guys, headed to the hall, and fullswinged into spirituality. Today was entirely on meditation and how one can benefit with it.
My legs ached, went numb, and got back to normal again. It was a wonderful experience. That was the first time I meditated without being interrupted. :P
Pratheek literally slept. I died laughing . When I shook him up, he got up with an expression of a ghost chasing him! And argues," I haven't slept. I was just too involved." After two mins, asks again, " have I really slept?" with a straight face.:P
Me and vijay anna burst out laughing. Oh, and we have so may other activities. One of the activities I loved was to spread love. While we were meditating, somebody came and placed flowers in front of us. After waking up, we were supposed to exchange that flower with as many people's flowers as you can. Lol. And I still have three now. :)
By the end of the day, we were bursting with energy. We danced on Britney spears, (OK. Nothing great but, imagine "old is gold" people dancing on a ENGLISH song. Its a one in a million moment when you watch them dance.) We went mad. Swamiji himself was dancing. I did the moon walk, and stopped it immediately when both my friends gave me the " this is a carpet OK?" stare. :P
Anna was really nice. He gave me full counselling when I asked him about applying for foreign universities. Real downtoearth, quick witted :P, and has an amazing way of tackling things and problems.Looked peaceful.:)
The workshop was fun. I've learnt a lot from this. I bet, nobody in the world wouldn't have had as much fun as I had! Learnt about Kundalini, the chakras in the body, how one can activate them etc. Life program is a once in a lifetime experience! Awesome, amazing work-shop. A great motivator, swamiji is. Loved his stories.
At the end of the day,I got out, got hugged by people I cared for. Promised them I'll meet them the next time too, and me and my new gang, :P, went to a better place to celebrate our "get together" :p.
But seriously, unless you don't get into the comfort zone of a person, you never get to know them well. But we got along really well. 2 of the best people I spoke to, here. :) exchanged numbers, spoke about our future, and laughed aloud when there was this lady who was being reaaal nice to Anna, and me and Pratheek trying trying really hard to make anna and that woman to talk, lol, weird i know, but fun! Teased each other, rolled down laughing. Ah!
We've got lots to share now. It will continue, no matter what. Swamiji conducting work-shops, and me attending them, and finding both these people there too. Yep. Fun and spiritual well-being.
One lesson I learnt here is, Love is the music of life. Don't pretend or be a loner. be open. Be positive. And learn to accept things the way they are. You are nobody to decide how things should turn out. And above everyone of us, there is a supreme power acting, the God almighty himself. And, that power is undamageble. :)

( I was supposed to share the whole thing I learnt actually. I know. Most of the people i talk to run away, on hearing the word Spirituality. Or, they consider themselves to know everything. I thought I'd write my experience there and how I loved each an every moment I spent there, wit h swamiji, with the people, and with myself. Truly an enlightening experience. Thank you auntie for introducing me to this. Owe you loads.)

HARI OM!

What's going on?

I haven't seen anything as worse in my life. I am still stuck to the google-news while posting this. Mumbai has been under the attack for 24hours! And the Mumbai police is supposed to be the best in the country! 120+ have died.300+ injured! What's is happening? Apparently, these terrorists, call themselved the Deccan Mujahideen, came to the city through a smuggled boat from Porbandar. Now, last night when we sat in front of the t.v watching what was happening, one question literally chewed up my brain. What do these people want? What's the whole point of the attack? Indian army vs a puny group of millitants? Either they could break away from the security cover and escape(Impossible!) or they get killed. So what's the whole point actually?

They got into the Taj hotel, killing the security guards, before that, they were at CS terminal and leopold cafe where they killed a score!

And oh! The way they bombed Taj! And then got into Oberoi.Its pretty scary. Sometimes, attacks like these will get you thinking about your own safety. Infact, the world itself is such an unsafe place! We can't escape can we?

Firing continues. People are killed. Hostages are under the threat. No food for them. Smoke filled hotels. Several attempts are made to save them, but every half-an-hour you hear a gun shot. Man! Am tired. The last time I got so curious about an attack was the Virginia Tech one.

From 7'o'clock in the morning, I have watched each and every news channel, claiming to be the first channel to broad cast live pictures. I have seen people run helter-skelter. Relatives crying.

Why is all this happening? Oh, the silliest part. They have attacked, to stop the Muslims being insulted! And for that they attack the 5star hotels of the city?

They've demanded a ransom. Bloody sure it would be more than 10 crores.
Seriously, I have asked a million questions since morning! Won't they ever feel hunger pangs daddy? Won't they feel sleepy? Aren't they scared they will be killed, nanna? Why have they targeted Mumbai? Ma,what's the whole idea actually?

I am surely not tired of asking questions. But my parents have threatened to throw the T.v and the computer into the hussainsagar, if I continued asking questions. I then realized, I love my computer more than anything else.:

I am shocked actually. Look at the guts! Ak-47s and loads of ammunition, and killing people like you were playing one of those games, Condition zero and Counter-strike!

But, Hope's left.

"We live by chance,

Love by choice,

Kill by proffession."

Indian Army. They have an action ready for every thing. They are slowly, closing in, surrounding the hotels. If the situation can be changed it's only in their hands, and guns ofcourse.

I hope, its all over by tonight. Even though I am miles away from that city, its like as if its happening at one of the parts of my city. Yeah. Weird.

"Forgiving a terrorist should be left to GOD. But fixing their appointment with GOD is entirely our responsibility!"

-The Indian Army.

Got it. Its your job guys.

Sometimes, you can't resist posting stuff like this, even though there are people reading it and cursing.

Ok, like "Who cares!" ha!

Let peace prevail!

ATlast!

Ok. I know, it really weird of me typing this, but...seriously. I've been waiting for this day. Obama is the first black president elected, of the United states of America! I was really over-joyed.( gah.I expected him to win anyway!).

:-)A new ray of hope, to The U.S.A..uh whatever! But am really happy, for god knows what reason.

Peace.