Good Day

Yesterday was a good day.
It was Maha-shivratri. It is considered to be one of the biggest festivals in North India. Almost all Gurus value this day highly. Millions of people meditated yesterday. It created enormous amount of positive energy in the world. I hope that things look better for all beings.
For me the day was definitely good. I was supposed to go to Sri Sri Ravishankar ji's meditation session opposite Akshardham temple complex in the morning. The bus to the venue was supposed to leave at 4:45am. I had set an alarm for 3:30 am. I actually woke up at 5:15am. I felt bad, but then I looked up and decided to meditate from home nevertheless.
I sat down to meditate and do reiki healing at home at around 6:30am. The same time that the session was supposed to have begun at Akshardham complex. I was doing full body touch healing after a long long time. And it was absolutely fabulous. In between the healing, I also meditated for a while. The 2:30- 3 hrs that I spent working on myself were not only refreshing but also reassuring - that the Divine is with me at all times :-)
As I was meditating, the Divine asked me to have a havan at home. I asked mummy if we could do it, and she readily agreed. We did the havan just after I completed my meditation. This too went better than many times that we did earlier. Things were going great :-)
Then all of us got ready (myself, mummy and papa) to go to Pankaj bhaiya's place. It was the ceremony to give a name to his newly born baby. We reached there much later than the scheduled time - 11:00 am - the time when havan was supposed to start there. However, even there havan's agni was prajwalit after we reached there. It was surprising and also a happy moment. I wanted to attend the ceremony from its beginning and even though we got late, we were there just in time :-)
So, we met all the maternal relatives - cousins, their children, uncles and aunties. Almost all of them showed concern about my marriage, but we had loads of fun when my cousin brothers and their spouses assured me that I need not worry - one can wait to make this mistake ;-)...
We saw Pankaj bhaiya's home for the first time. He also took us to the new complex where he has purchased his own home. It looks good - albeit costly :-)... Property prices have sky-rocketed in NCR region over the past few months. Where did people get all this money from?
We left that place and I went to Dilli haat to bid farewell to our earlier Volunteer Coordinator, Anirban (http://delhi.aidindia.org). It was lots of us volunteers there. I was happy to see that so many people turned up. After all, Anirban has touched so many lives so closely that he deserved a very warm farewell. All of us wished him the best in life. All the best Anirban :-). I am certain that you will make a great positive statement wherever you go and whatever you do in your life :-)
It was a great get-together there at Dilli Haat. All of us talked about how important Anirban has been to all of us. I was slightly shy and talked mostly on the professional (AID Delhi) platform, but I know that any words that I speak will be insufficient to express my gratitude to him for being with me and being instrumental in realizing my dream of stabilizing AID Delhi as a flourishing chapter. Without him, I am not even sure where AID Delhi would have been today.
I, Somendra, Sambit and Naval ventured out to look for a farewell gift for him. Something that will not let him forget us - even if he is terribly busy in his work or his personal life. We came across a beautiful photo-frame and a stationary stand. But things looked incomplete. I wanted God's blessings to be with him at all times. We looked into a shop where stone idols were carved and painted into different manifestations of the Divine. Anirban is a Bengali. So, I was interested in finding an idol of Kali mata for him. There was none. But there was a beautiful Krishan ji. He had one of his hands in a matka of butter and another one in his mouth - eating it. It was colorful and painted really well. I asked Somendra and we selected it for him.
When stall wale bhaiya was packing it, I noticed another idol. It looked like a meditating Shiv ji. The thought in itself motivated me to look closely at it. I had at once decided to purchase it - even before looking closely at it. It was Maha-shivratri and I was getting an opportunity to get this beautifully colored Shiv ji for myself. I was not going to miss this opportunity.
I looked closer, and I noticed a flute by his side. I was perplexed. I had never seen Shiv ji with a flute. I thought that I must be an ignorant fool. But then I carefully looked at the idol again. It was not Shiv ji. The idol was of Krishan ji - in the Yogavatar pose. Meditating. Serenely. With all his ornaments on. I was exhilarated. This further reinstated that the Divine is with me. That Krishan ji is taking care of me at all times and loves me as his child.
Thank you God, for being so good to me :-) For blessing me with a great family, absolutely wonderful friends, and most importantly your presence.

Valentine's day and Love

I have thought over it multiple times - how important is Valentines day in the scheme of things when you love someone.

This day motivates people to express their love to the loved ones. However, love can not end at that. Love is not a day's phenomenon, it is a life-long commitment. I read about a story which had a old couple who had been playing a kind of "find it out" game for past 40-50 years of their marraige. They would write "I love you" somewhere and ask the partner to find it. They did this daily. And this added spark and excitement to their lives.

This is what love should be about. Sharing the feelings with your loved ones on a daily basis. Valentines day should remind us of this kind of daily expression of our love. That this reminder comes just one day a year is the sad part of it all.