Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Tag on book

I am relatively new in blogspace and hence it is a pleasure to take my first tag from Shiva. That he also had to teach me what to do with it is another story! Thanks, Shiva.

So, I was tagged by Shiva
kodaihills showcases his talent as well as his popularity.
The book I am currently reading is Celebrating Silence, a collection of short speeches by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in India and abroad. The speeches are grouped under three chapters - The You that you want to change, The path of the goal that is you & You, God and Beyond.

The paragraph(last one as there are only three) on page 123 is from the section ‘Surrender’ under chapter ‘The path of the goal that is you.’

Often people think that surrender is a way to escape from responsibility so they end up blaming the Divine for all their problems. In fact, true surrender is taking full responsibility for everything. How? Take full responsibility and then pray for help. Surrender eventually leads you to self reliance because there is nothing other than the Self.

The preceding paragraph sets the tone for this.
Self-reliance requires enormous courage but surrender takes less courage. A person who cannot surrender cannot be self-reliant. Just as fifty dollars contain ten dollars, so self-reliance contains surrender. If you do not have a hundred dollars, you cannot have a thousand dollars. If you do not have enough courage to surrender, then it is impossible for you to be self-reliant. People who are afraid to surrender are simply fooling themselves, because even a little fear is detrimental to self-reliance.

My first exposure to Sri Sri Ravishankar and the Art of Living was while I was working in Pune. We had the Art of Living basic course in office premises and all of us started off in a fun way. The program changed a number of paradigms, to say the least. It had a huge impact on me and a number of my friends.. by the end of that week I was so alive.
The level of self awareness and sense of peace with myself were at the peak and even now, while writing about it, I can feel the raw energy... Ten days later we found ourselves in the vast police grounds of Aundh meditating amoung thousands of AOL enthusiasts. And the next day, we learnt later, he had a session with top CEOs at Symbiosis campus in about Corporate Governance!
Whenever I feel a bit low, a session or two of pranayam and meditation is all it takes to get back the peace within. And this book really connects.
I guess that would do for now or else I would go on and on. Now the sad part. At this point of time I don't have anyone to pass this tag onto. Guess I will have to wait out till my friends take my bait to enter blogspace.

7 comments:

Priya said...

A beautiful tag well done Kumar.

Surrendering yourself to something differs based on situations. If you surrender to your mind and body which controls you, then it is a big gift of life being content. When you try to do for others, you lose your individuality and your rcognition or you yourself become submissive.

I have come across his site and they have organizations all over the world.

Surrender can be discussed in many different ways.

Kumar said...

Priya - That is a really encouraging feedback. Thanks :)

You have a knack of looking at things from a unique perspective! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Anonymous said...

U too playing with your templates.
I tell u, you will get addicted to it.

Shiva said...

Kumar - Thanks for doing up the tag. A nicely written tag with a much needed mesage from Sri Sri Ravishankar. Yes, AOL always insists on the willingness to take up responsibility is a source of power and the first step to fulfill them would be to surrender to the Supreme. Thus we are able to unburden ourselves and our responsibility becomes the responsibility of the existence as a whole.

Like you have mentioned, AOL, through its Sudharshan Kriya, has helped zillions discover peace. Silence is always a celebration and Thanks for sharing it

Shiva said...

Hey, it's not mandatory that you should pass this tag.In no time, you will have a wide zone of bloggers. Just write what makes you happy:)

Kumar said...

shiva - Great! About Sudharshan Kriya,. the most relaxing & lively feeling I have had yet! There is just no parallel to that... the first time I broke into a sweat and drifted off into a deep sleep :) Later, they told me it is the sign of high stress levels getting relieved!

Thanks for the encouraging remarks on the tag too...

Kumar said...

Priya - Yes, it is really getting addictive...actually I find myself returning everyday to the blog...by the way, your template is really beautiful and hitech too.
Shows you have done a lot of research :)