AOL Banglore Ashram

16 hours pune –banglore journey seemed like nothing when we reached Banglore’s Art Of living Ashram . I felt as if the atmosphere around the Ashram had this unique capability of absorbing the fatigue and injecting a smile and a feeling of awe on your face .

A beautiful hoarding of Sri Sri Ravishankar jee (Gurujee) with as usual beautiful, divine smile greets you warmly and pushes you inside the Ashram.

As you enter ..Shades of green ..right and left makes you wonder about existence of a term called global warming :) :) . The ashram doesn’t appear to be 21 km away from the city but appears to be 21 light years away from the normal life and daily routine.

As I looked around..

The far away mountains appeared as if they were into deep into meditation.

The breeze hummed ‘Om’ ..
The trees appeared to be doing Ujjai continuously ..
AND
The beautiful structure Of Vishalakshmi * stood right there in the centre like Guruji as if examining all the above activities.

As I moved on with curiousity…. I saw those two lucky chaps - Maheshwar and Indrayni (Guruji’s Elephants with whom he plays daily !) and cows and buffaloes (Sorry..I dint ask their names )

Formalities for accomodation were done and then finally we were compelled to serve the rats which ran like crazy inside our stomachs so we hurried to the Ashram’s Kitchen – ( a testimony to self service and also selfless service) where we had delicious lunch served by the devotees.

Then we had meeting for approx 2 hrs where I met these highly dedicated, focused , sincere,ever smiling, warm,polite ,wonderful people about whom I’ll be writing later (This blog alone cant do justice. )

I never felt that I had met them first time.

And @ the meeting –it should have been for surely been recorded as an exemplar for an ideal official meeting .

And then the most exciting part of the tour for which I was fervently looking forward to ..Guruji’s Darshan ..We had to meet him and tell him all the statistics of the YOGA site .

First we went to Bhadrivishala where there were at least 300 people and we 15 were wondering how will guruji wait …and listen to our statistics . Changing places dint make any difference for sure

Then suddenly I dont know how ..we we were taken to Ganga Kutir (Place where Guruji meets select few if I am not wrong..coz I am new :) )

As soon as we entered Ganga ,

Time surrendered !
Atmosphere changed its composition with more of his warmth and divinity than the nitrogen and oxygen
Gravity had loosened her hold on us and we felt as if we had already surpassed the escape velocity :) to leave this earth !
Neurons and sensory motors were totally out of our control.
I felt as if my facial muscles has been frozen with that smile on permanently ! I just couldn’t stop smiling :) .
His presence ..his radiance ..his smile …his look ..his aura …his warmth..had just shook me !!
He looked at each one of us ..and said that we were doing a good job (;) )…said that we were a dynamic team..
He listened to all our statistics very calmly ..asked some doubts and the doubt showed that he dint hear us just for the heck of it..he was interested ! He gave us blessings for the next site on meditation and told us to come back on 20th June ! He looked at each one of us and kept on saying very good !!


And then guess what he gave each one of us a silver pendant an gave us loads of imported chocolates !!
When he noticed that some of us were silently trying to capture those rare moments …He said in a very very cute manner “You want a picture ??? ..Wait ” and he stood up..came forward and we all very excitedly gathered near him to click a snap !
Wondering ..whether I deserved to be there or deserved for whatever I had felt ..I left the Ganga kutir with an awe and with that unique Sri Sri coating around me :)
(Sounds like sugar cookie right ?)

It took me some moments to come back to my senses. I felt as if I happiest and luckiest person on the planet that day !!!

We then very fairly ,justly and loyally distributed the chocolates amongst ourselves and again had meeting for couple of hours and

Then we attended the satsang .I litrally experienced “ love in the air” around the auditoriam ..people were so enthu,excited and happy ..they were singing with joy ,dancing with joy ….leaving all their feelings behind they were there just for him.
The questions were amazing and interesting and @ his answers I need not tell !!! Its implicit

I would like to share with you one Q-A

Q-”Guruji..you feed us with delicious food and you treat us so well in the Ashram ..how will we go home ?”

A –” What ???Go home !! I thought you consider this as your own home.” (I dont know whether you understood it or not coz it made more sense in hindi :) )

Next day was spent in venturing someparts of Ashram and in the meeting .We also witnessd video recording where in weheard some great experiences from experts from AOL who were working on terrorism,insurgency,militancy and naxalism .

Then we again saw guruji in Satsang and with a realllyyyy heavy heart we left for Pune.

The whole journey back home I was wondered about these two days …My destiny ..My Luck .and of course …Guruji !!! To tell you people ..I have surely built up a firm conclusion that Guruji surely has a secret magnet with him which attracts people …infact all the beings towards him !!!

Those two days were really best in my life ..hope you all experience the same soon !!