Experience with Inner Engineering by Isha Foundation under Sadhguru

Namaskar !
   From last 2 weeks, I'm feeling great loving-energy flowing all over my body especially my skin, knees, ankles, face, chest, wrists, lower back - sometimes it becomes so much that I have to look at my hands to find out anything visible 😂 ! I think my Shambhavi Mahamudra, twice a day even after more than 80 days of my Inner Engineering Retreat, is helping me achieve ecstatic levels of love-energy all day - it never goes anywhere ! I can feel it flowing all over me, even right now 😇. Many people around me seem to unknowingly notice the energy & seem to respond / behave in unexpected pleasant ways. I also try to consciously help people smile during my daily public commute. I'm just excited that this great feeling always stays now. My days are never the same anymore ! I may keep going on writing about it the whole day - I just hope everyone could realize the immense source of love-energy within ourselves. As Sadguru says, we may have a chance to touch the grace & if it is with you all the time, it is indescribable. I've tried to explain this to some of my fellow IE partners, they are very happy that it happened. My Rudraksh is the live proof in my neck, which moves so violently when I test it over my hands 💪 ! I'm noticing this beautiful world in a new light every day. I am already overwhelmed while writing this right now ! Namaskar !
   Whether you have time or not, it is like saying, I have to go to work, but I don't have time to eat food or I don't have time to fill fuel in my vehicle ! It's time that people notice the life around them - people, birds, insects, trees, animals, inanimate objects - each has a vibrant existence. Can we also harmonize with them ? Sure ! This is why creatures that stay in touch with nature are far happier & free than the ones living in artificial structures !
   Inner Engineering is for everyone. Get your sip of life 😇 !
The next Mega program is also here 

One of the loveliest National Anthems - Jan Gan Man

Bharat ka Rashtra-Geet (National Anthem of the Amazing India) : 
Jan Gan Man (or Jana Gana Mana)
 
जन-गण-मन-अधिनायक जय हे भारतभाग्यविधाता! 
   Oh! the ruler of the mind of the people, Long live, dispenser of the destiny of India!

पंजाब सिन्धु गुजरात मराठा द्राविड़ उत्कल बंग विंध्य हिमाचल यमुना गंगा उच्छलजलधितरंग 
   Punjab, Sind, Gujrat, Maharastra, Drabir (South India), Orissa, and Bengal, the Bindhya, the Himalayas, the Jamuna, the Ganges, and the oceans with foaming waves all around

तव शुभ नामे जागे, तव शुभ आशिष मागे, गाहे तव जयगाथा 
   Wake up listening to Your auspicious name, ask for your auspicious blessings, And sing to your glorious victory.

जन-गण-मंगलदायक जय हे भारतभाग्यविधाता! 
   Oh! You who impart well being to the people! Long live, dispenser of the destiny of India!

जय हे,जय हे, जय हे, जय जय जय हे॥ 
   Long live! Long live! Long live!

Watch the real thing on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77i8kH-Iw8Q

Problem with Naaptol

Objective :
I just wish to write about my recent poor experience with naaptol.

Background :
I wished to buy an exercise machine (a walker). I found it on Naaptol. I also know it as a heavily advertised site in Times Of India. I found out from 1 person that Naaptol had not treated him well.

What I did :
I still took a chance and disregarded the feedback as one-off, hoping that a site encouraged by ToI must be good. I placed the order on 7th Jan, 2011. It was showing the order status as "Payment received" on the website. I called them after placing the order to make sure everything was alright. The customer service rep. mentioned that the item will be with me in 7-10 business days.

Fun Starts :
I waited for 15 days & received nothing. I logged in to check the status : It was still showing the same old order status as "Payment received" on the website. This put me off a little. I called the customer care again.

Pathetic & non-responsive customer service :
When I called, a CS rep. again reiterated - "It will be there in 7-10 days" ;-) . To my surprise, he didn't care when I placed the order. It was already about 20 days after placing the order & this person still wants me to agree to their useless promise of 7-10 days ! I started getting some hints there itself. On this day, they somehow changed my order status to "Order verified" & then sat down it again for next 10-15 days :-) . I also sent a enuqiry / complaint email after my call to their customer care ID (ceo@naaptol.com), only to never receive any response. The mail content were -
"Hi, I've placed this order more than 20 days ago - 1216735 . It's still showing "order verified" ! What are you people doing ? It should have been at my house by now ! Pathetic service. Nobody has even called me or emailed to inform about the delay. What's the delay ? Please provide more information about my shipment immediately. I will not order anything from naaptol again."

Story continues :
After waiting for few more days, the status still remained at "order verified" , UNTIL I CALLED their customer care again ! I was understanding their trend of working here (learnings are never bad ;-) ) - till you call they sleep on it and don't care about any orders; only when we call, they wake up, change status to the next one & sleep again :-) ! Kind of fun, isn't it ? Ah ! One more thing, after 45 days passed, whenever I called customer care, the rep would say "the item is in your area already & should be delivered very soon". That "soon" HAPPENED after 20 days from 45th day :-) !

Pre-epilogue :
Tired of calling and talking to the foolish people who repeat the "7-10 days" line like a parrot, I called them to cancel & process a refund. I raised an official refund request & wrote to customer crae ID (CEO email) multiple times, without any response. They never called / emailed / explained their delay.

The fools finally end it :
Suddenly, on about 65th day from my order and after my official refund request (about 12-14th Apr, 2011), the box appeared at my doorstep & it was from Naaptol ! Now, I can understand the pain of the person whose review I read before ordering , but had ignored. The box had this product shabbily packed, without any documentation - no usage instructions at all. The box also wasn't of this product; PLUS the product also doesn't bear any company's name, no voltage specifications ! Anyway, the product at least works, otherwise I would have to talk to the pathetic people again to return it.

Conclusion :
Remember, the order arrived after I placed an offical refund request, 65 days after I placed the order. I have informed more than 60 friends about this heavily advertised and quite flashy website, which doesn't do what it promises to do. I'm never going to do any business with these people again and all of the people I informed are also doing the same. I hope they tell millions and nobody uses this website. Unless they care about customer's concerns, no business can survive for long.

Why I might just prefer to pay a small bribe than a bigger fine ?

We just wondered today, in the midst of so many scams being discovered everyday in India, we may prefer to just a pay a bribe to get our work done, to a common man, than pay a fee or a fine. Why ? When you pay a bribe, it will go to the common man's pocket & he'd do something for his family, however when you pay an official fine or a fee, which supposedly goes to the government, finally ends up in the pockets of corrupt politicians, who don't think twice pocketing the hard earned public money. When asked & proved guilty, they just resign (sometimes not ;-) ) & even the citizens forget the money the corrupt STOLE ! Cough up the money first you #$%@ - you HAVE to resign later cheater #$@%. No wonder why more than 50% Indian population is still poor & many without bare minimum facilities. Were the politicians honest, we wouldn't change the TV channel at the sight of one !
   'Rich getting richer' is an issue if there's black money involved, however I consider 'poor getting poorer' as a negative projection of the country's economic planning & currency routing. If money was channelled properly, India would have been the world's most developed nation in every aspect (not just IT workforce); villages would have ample electricity, water & food; roads would have been far better than any country; people would care for each other; our GDP would have been double or triple of what it's now (ever wonder why you don't care about another person on the road now ? ... because you are preoccupied, frustrated & have suffered enough at the hands of daily shocks given by every scam that takes a big chunk of your own country's hard earned taxpayers money). An astrologer had predicted India to become a superpower in all aspects in 21st century, however he must have had the earlier LEADERS in his mind :-)
   Do you wonder why we use the word 'POLITICIANS' now-a-days, not 'LEADERS' ? It's the subconscious paradigm of the general populace now that the ones THERE only play political games; who's there to LEAD ? I no more prefer to pay official fine if something can be done with a bribe. We no longer want to fill the houses of the ones whose clear intentions are to only STEAL. We don't want those thieves to exist. Long live democracy.
   I'd love to hear my readers' comments.

How to read & grasp effectively

Have you ever wondered how do some people seem to remember so many stories, ideas, concepts ? This helps many of them become confident speakers, successful presenters & effective counsellors. I was struck by an interesting audio on radio & was trying to remember the bullet points about it, when it came to me that there must be some proven way to recall 'mentally bookmarked' things easily. I did some research & came up with few points on how to read / listen in order to grasp PLUS remember the interesting points about any text, speech or a presentation (I omit meetings for a reason, as the organizer may appoint a note-taker on purpose).

1. First, our purpose is to reduce the amount of written clutter around us (e.g. Notes that we need to take to recall ideas).
2. While we listen to a speech, or read text, make a genuine effort to identify KEYWORDS mentally. We may practice this art in inexpensive ways - read a n article in newspaper & identifying keywords. Then, with these keywords, try to build the body of the article yourself. Compare your write-up with original . You'll soon get better at choosing RIGHT keywords.
3. Now, the actual process starts. Revise your keywords & related ideas mentally, about everything of importance that you read / listen, once at these intervals - an hour later, 3 hrs later, 6 hrs later, 1 day later & if possible - 10 days after. Each revision session should take less than 8 minutes, performed at a quiet place, where you may focus easily.
4. For lengthy ideas, make mind maps, either with help of paper & pencil first & then remembering the diagram or just mental picture of involved entities. A mind map is a simple concept of picturing the main idea in the center, then branches growing out of it, to illustrate salient features, and sub-branches for examples or final points. Include your mind maps in the revision sessions described above. Check out an example mind map in the picture above (click the image for full-size).
   
5. Decide to succeed at your endeavor of learning the art of recalling useful ideas. A decision to be successful can push us to brighter & higher skies quite easily. It can expained scientifically also (See : http://an-shoo-thoughts.blogspot.com/2007/11/science-behind-prayer.html ).
6. An effective way to apply & strengthen this strategy is to target at reducing the number of magazines, lying around your house, waiting in a queue for your attention. Once you remember a useful article, do the same for the whole Mag. & you might have just 4 interesting topics to remember out of the whole magazine. Throw the Mag away once you're done with your 3-step exercise described above (Steps 2-5 ).
   
7. Your feedback is welcome. Please feel free to share your stories through comments on this page.
   

Science behind a prayer

The vibes of a being or a thought have been pondered & commented upon by many .. today I'm trying a different touch to it, to understand the science behind a prayer.
When one prays, one first meditates & concentrates on a thought / supreme being, the concentration being the key, that makes the vibes around us, very strong, about attachment to that entity (thought / being). When done with enough time devoted to a prayer & performed regularly, this attachment becomes so strong that our actions push us towards the realization of the thought (or becoming contented by feeling the shelter of the almighty, as the case may be). All these changes are so subtle that most of us think that prayer does magic; it's really the strength of our conviction & the burning desire to realize a thought. You tell me how better to describe a prayer's science ?

Sher - not a tiger, much better than that ;-)

जब कोई १००० डालर अपने स्वदेश (इंडिया ) दूरभाष पर बात करने में लगा दे ,

समझ जाइए कि उसे अपने देश लॉट जाना चाहिए :-)

(15 Nov, 2007)

प्यारी , फुरसत हो गयी होगी , आशा है

अभी तक जगी भी न बैठी हों , ये भी आशा है

milte हैं phir कभी kisi झील के kinaare

बतीयायेंगे ढेर सारा ... पहले झील तो ढूंढो !
(26th Oct, 2007)