#I Was Born in an Ashram

[senorboombastic]

a/s/l: Dog Race

Remember the days of the old schoolyard? Remember when Myspace was a thing? Remember those time-wasting, laborious quizzes that everyone used to love so much? Birthday Cake For Breakfast is bringing them back!  Every couple of weeks, an unsuspecting band will be subject to the same old questions about dead bodies, Hitler, crying and crushes.   This Week: Off the back of releasing their…

[talonabraxas]

The Cosmic Egg and Evolution of Man

There is a great mystery hidden behind the universe and one’s own life and until this mystery is unravelled our life can have no real meaning and we cannot be at peace, wrote Taimni in his preface to “Man, God, And the Universe.” The vast majority of people are not even vaguely aware of this mystery and are so completely assimilated with their environment and the current of life in which they find themselves that the deeper problems of life do not trouble them at all. But these deeper problems of life do not cease to exist because they are ignored. They appear in the form of other problems, generally more serious and sometimes deadly, he added. Here I am trying to delve into the mystery of the universe from what I understood from the teachings of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru, the Founder of Santhigiri Ashram at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Some of us may wonder about life and its perfect processes. Let us take for example the process of procreation among humans. A woman and a man desire to come together stirred by the primal fire of Kama and the man deposits his egg in the womb of the woman. This egg develops into a human undergoing nine or ten months of evolution. This process was not invented by scientists, but it is the microscopic replication of the method evolved by God to create the universe. Rigveda (10.121) mentions Hiranyagarbha, the Golden Egg as the source of the creation of the universe. It is said that God, wishing to create the world, produced an egg as big as the cosmos. God meditated for a thousand years sitting inside the egg and when the egg burst, the Lord himself was born out of the egg as the Progenitor of the universe (“He made Himself by Himself.”, Taitiriya Upanishad: 2.7.1). The Rishis called the Egg Brahmanda (the Cosmic Egg), and the Progenitor Manu. Rig Veda acknowledges Manu as the progenitor of mankind and refers to him as ‘The Father Manu’ (Verses 1:80:16, 1:124.2, 11:33-16). Also read this section dealing with death in Chandogya Upanishad, which refers to the world as Manu’s creation:

“He (the soul of the dead person) proceeds from the sun to the moon, from the moon to lightning. Some superhuman being coming from the world of Hiranya Garbha leads those who arrive there to Brahman. This is the path of the gods; this is the path to Brahman. Those who attain by proceeding along this path, do not return to this cycle of birth and death, to this creation of Manu.” (Chandogya Upanishad 4.15.5).

Scientists have discovered that the universe has an oval shape. Like the nine months of the evolution of the human egg, the Cosmic Egg also undergoes nine stages of evolution before it gets dissolved during what we call ‘Maha Pralaya’. What is the Cosmic Egg like? The Puranas mention that Brahmanda has 14 biospheres, seven nether and seven upper inhabited by different types of souls. If we count from the human world, there are ten dimensions of consciousness. Rishis called these astral biospheres Mandalas/Lokas with different wavelengths and colours. Sri Karunakara Guru referred to them as Avasthas, or spiritual stages]. The Buddhists and Hindu esoteric sects such as the Theosophical Society explain these levels of the Absolute in terms of Physical plane, Astral plane, Mental plane, Buddhic plane, Atmic plane, Anupadaka plane, Adi plane and Shiv and Shakti. These Avasthas are related to the expanding consciousness reaching up to the core of the Cosmic Egg, the Paramatma. Like a spider which creates a web around it sitting in the centre, and withdraws it in the end, Paramatma creates and withdraws webbed multi-dimensional universes. Nobody can say when it started and when it will end as it is a beginningless and endless process.

Parabrahman (the Absolute) is ‘Shubra Jyotis’- ‘White Light’, says Mundaka Upanishad. The example of the prism is given by Taimni. “When passed through a prism, the Pure White Light gets dispersed to form a spectrum of different colours and frequencies. What has happened is that the beam of white light has been dispersed or differentiated by the prism and all the vibrations, visible and invisible have been separated from each other, according to their wavelengths, forming a continuous spectrum. By putting another inverted prism in the path of the emergent rays it is possible to recombine or integrate them again into the original beam of white light. So, the whole process is reversible.” That is how the Absolute Brahman self-manifests and disperses into various astral biospheres with the potential to remain unaffected by what is created. One must evolve through these astral biospheres one by one to merge with the Absolute. Then only there is Mukthi. Following are roughly the ten Lokas beginning from the human world:

1. Bhuloka (abode of man). 2. Bhuta loka (abode of earth spirits) 3. Pitru loka and Bhuvar Loka (abode of ancestral souls, 4. Bhuvar Loka (abode of Yakshas, Kinnaras, Devi-Devas, angels, etc.) 5. Swarga Loka (Heaven, the abode of Trimurti (Brahma,Vishnu and Mahesh) and other spiritual powers in heaven. Indra is the lord of heaven) 6. Rishi Loka (The abode of transcendental Rishis above heaven) 7. Parashakti Mandala (the sphere of the feminine principle) 8. Ishwara Mandala (The abode of supramental souls such as Sri Krishna) 9. Brahm-Mandala (the Cosmic Mind in creative mode) 10. Parabrahma Mandala (the ultimate seat of Parabrahm, God Almighty)

The abode of human beings is Bhuloka which is perceptible through the sense organs, mind, and intellect. When the soul (sookshma sharira) departs from the body it reaches various atmospheres in the Brahmanda according to its karma and evolution of consciousness. Gross souls with sinful actions remain in the atmosphere as earth spirits. Lighter souls with some virtues are transported to Pitru Loka. Those who are yet more radiant attain to Bhuvar Loka and then to Swarga Loka to reap the result of their virtuous actions. Swarga or Heaven is a place of super-sensuous enjoyments, inhabited by devas and other angelic beings. Indra is the Lord of Hindu heaven.

Similarly, there can be different lords in the heavens for Christians and Muslims, whom they call the ‘One God’ who sits in heaven and delivers judgment. The Swarga of Indra exists between the sixth and seventh spiritual sky. A man cannot attain Mukti in heaven because it is a world for the enjoyment of karma, and there is an end to it. Many people mistakenly think that their destination is heaven. But “Greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than heaven, greater than all these worlds (is Brahman)”, declares Chandogya Upanishad (3:9:28:7).

The transcendental experience begins from the seventh spiritual sky identifiable with the Rishi Loka. There are no physical limitations in this sphere because the souls can exist here as pure radiance. What we see as millions of stars in the Brahmanda are such evolved souls. They can take a body at their will when descending into the world. They are called Avatars, meaning the ones who descend from the Nakshatra Loka, the star world. Sri Krishna was the only Mahatma who had transcended the seventh spiritual sky and attained the status of Ishwara in the eighth spiritual sky by birth itself.

Christianity and Islam are heaven-centric religions promising enjoyments in heaven. That means the spiritual stature of Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad is related to the spiritual skies equivalent to the Swarga of Hindus. The final Judgement by God is related to the theory of karma, which is not acknowledged in the dogma of Abrahamic religions. You reap the result of your karma in heaven or hell in an organic way. There is nobody to judge you. You touch fire you get burnt. Why should be there someone to judge? Even if there is a judge, what difference does it make? When the merit or demerit of karma is exhausted in heaven or hell, the souls are reborn on the earth plane. They must resume the journey of evolution all over again to reach the Absolute. The goal of man is not heaven. A soul must transcend heaven too, forsaking the desire for pleasures to reach the presence of Paramatma. That is why the Ishavasya Upanishad said that the face of Truth is hidden by a golden disk. One must remove this lid to see the truth of God. Only the one who achieves this feat can become a Rishi and inhabit the blissful Rishi Loka.

This soul-travel through the above astral planes is not an easy feat. It requires tremendous will- power and self-sacrifices, and most importantly the help of a spiritual master who himself has transcended these spiritual abodes. The journey up to heaven is not as difficult as the journey beyond. The powers in heaven such as the Devi-Devas and other angelic beings can be pleased with a certain amount of spiritual regimen and devotion. They may grant your wishes, and even the power to perform Siddhi (miracles). But once you try to cross their territory, the problems start. There will be tests and resistance from the fallen souls known as Yogabhrashta, Satan, and Jinn. These are powerful souls with tremendous Siddhis. They are fallen from the path in the middle of their journey because of their egoism and thus failed to achieve Mukthi.

These jealous souls intimidate the genuine seekers with the lure of Siddhi or may trap them in sexual scandals or some other issues that create public outrage against them. This is done to stop them on their path of evolution to higher regions above heaven. The persecution becomes unbearable in this stage, and most of them fall prey to these evil powers. Even great souls like Sri Krishna, Buddha, Mahavir, Moses, Jesus Christ, Prophet Muhammad, and innumerable other souls were intimidated by these fallen souls. The persecution of Sri Krishna by demonic powers, the death of Buddha by consuming rotten meat, the sufferings undergone by Mahavir, and Moses, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the sickness that led to the death of Prophet Muhammad after partaking of the poisoned food offered by a Jewish woman, all these are a few examples of such persecution.

Trimurti of Hinduism also exists below the seventh sky, the Rishi Loka. Vishnu is one of the Trimurti gods. The pundits made Sri Krishna an avatar of Vishnu. That is not right. Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma are called Devas. But Sri Krishna was not a Deva. He was a Kalanthara Guru, the spiritual authority of Dwapara Yuga. Sri Krishna called himself Ishwara, not a Deva. There is no evidence that Sri Krishna was an Avatar of Vishnu. That is the sectarian view of Vaishnava Puranas. Different sects appropriated great Mahatmas to promote their sects. Sri Krishna stood at a higher pedestal than all other gods and prophets. There was no parallel to him. He is known to have subdued even Brahma and Indra. After Sri Krishna, only Sri Karunakara Guru could transcend all the spiritual abodes and become the true image and instrument of God in this Kali Yuga. When the Guru transcended all the spiritual levels, Sri Krishna himself appeared in a vision and revealed to the devotees that they should follow only Guru from now on. But this is understood only by the followers of the Guru, the rest of the people are living like the proverbial frog in the well (koopa mandukas) who know nothing of the sea.

Evolution is supposed to be ending with man, considered the most perfect among all created living beings. One cannot calculate when exactly man originated in the world. We can perhaps discover it in relation to the present Manvantara. The British geneticist and evolutionary biologist JBS Haldane held that the ten Avatars or incarnations (Dashavatara) of God are a true sequential depiction of the great unfolding of the evolution of life, in the present Manvantara. The first Avatar Matsya was fish. The initial forms of life were aquatic during the Cambrian period (the earliest three geologic eras roughly 542 to 251 million years ago). The second Avatar Kurma belongs to the group of reptiles when the aquatic life gets evolved into amphibians. The third Avatar was Varaha or boar when the amphibian evolved into land-dwelling animals. The Avatar Narasimha or man-lion can be compared to primitive uncivilized humans. The fifth Avatar Vamana the sward-man may be related to the first man who originated during the Pliocene era (the period that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before the present), and Parashurama the sixth Avatar with the first man originated during the quaternary period (the most recent of geologic time scale spanning 2.588 million years ago), the weapon-wielding iron age. Rama, Krishna, and Buddha indicate advanced states of physical and mental evolution of man. The transition to the next stage is inevitable.

The present civilisational crisis can be overcome only when the orthodoxy in all religious traditions including Hinduism comes out of its shells and make possible the transition to the next stage of the supramental evolution of consciousness instead of going on proving and justifying their dogmas that are irrelevant now. The age of superhuman beings and supramental spirituality is coming. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh had predicted it, and Sri Karunakara Guru has put the cornerstone for such a civilisational change. --Mukundan P.R.

The Cosmic Egg by Talon Abraxas

[stxrrynxghts]

I am confused as to why Uttar and Uttara are shown as twins usually? In some places Uttara is shown to be elder than him. But first, let me show my calculations regarding the ages of Uttar, Uttara and Abhimanyu.

Abhimanyu is born after the end of Arjun's 12 year exile, in Indraprastha. After his birth, the digvijaya for the rajasuya yagya takes place, Jarasandha is killed, and finally, the Yagya commences, before the game of dice happens. We can take this time period to be 3 to 5 years at most. Then there are 14 years between the game of dice and the war (12 years in forest, 1 year incognito, and 1 year of preparations so and so). Abhimanyu is an accomplished warrior, one of the best from the Pandava side, so we can assume that his education is completed/nearing completion.

It is said in Hinduism that the Brahmacharya ashram should be followed for the first 25 years of life, though it is not followed always, for example, Ram was less than 25 when he married Sita, and Yudhishthira was 28 when his education finished. Taking Yudhishthira's example, he was 15-16 when Pandu died, he returned to Indraprastha, and very soon he was sent to Drona's ashram. The Kuru princes spent 13 years in Drona's ashram, as per the Southern Recension, so that means Yudhishthira was 28, during this time. The twins would have been 23-24 when they married Draupadi, so this was not a compulsion (technically).

Anyways, the exact years are pretty mushy, but overall, I am assuming Abhimanyu to be somewhere between 19-22 when he died. Why do I think that he wasn't 16? Well, because if he is 16, his wife needs to be younger than him, as per tradition. If she was older, then Arjun would never have suggested Uttara to be married to Abhimanyu instead of him, he would have suggested one of his sons who was closer to her in age.

Now, there was another tradition in those times. Girls did not marry until 3 years after their first period. So, accordingly, 16-17 can be assumed as Uttara's age when she was married to Abhimanyu. For a broader range, I am assuming that she is around 16-19, and he is around 19-22.

Now, Uttar. He is mentioned with Virat during Draupadi's swayamvar. Even if he is a kid at that time, he has to be in his early 30s during the war. However, Uttar's behavior, inexperience, and interaction with his sister make it seem as if they are very close in age. Both of them do not understand the reality of the Virat war when Uttara asks him to get clothes for her dolls and he agrees.

Which is why, I am horribly confused. What exactly is the age gap between these two? Logically, they should be 12-13 years apart in age, but I have doubts about it. Someone please help me out TT

[blackknight-100]

if i could request a prompt, a ramayana au! where rama goes to valmiki’s ashram to request sita to come back (as he does in some retellings) and gets a glimpse into how she’s lived all of these years, if the unit she and luv-lush have become and feels decidedly like an outsider. thank you!

Hello there! Thank you for the prompt. I haven't read any such retelling where Rama goes to request her to come back (unless you mean the one when Sita goes back into the earth, and I don't think you mean that?) so I hope this piece works for you:

It is Lakshmana who drives his chariot all the way to Valmiki’s aashram and offers him a hug of encouragement. A short, stocky woman in a saffron angavastra and a bun at the nape of her neck notices them first. Rama introduces himself and his brother, and watches with a wretched feeling in his gut as she gives them both a strained smile, introduces herself as Isha, and invites Rama in. To Lakshmana she says sternly, though not ungraciously, “Perhaps, it would be better if you wait outside.”

Rama opens his mouth to protest, daunted by the thought of facing this alone, and perhaps even a little peeved by the insinuation that his brother had done wrong by his wife; but Lakshmana touches his arm, bows, and answers, “As you wish, devi.”

Isha ushers him past residents going about their daily tasks and introduces him only to those curious enough to ask. She settles him under an old banyan tree, fetches him a glass of water with jaggery, tells him to wait, and then disappears.

Not long after, she returns and takes him past a different section, around the back and to a thatched hut in a corner. Rama immediately discerns this is where Sita must live. There is a little garden around the track leading to the door, and the flourishing greenery bears the marks of her care. In the verandah is a straw chair, amateurly made but well loved. Isha, who had gone in, now comes out with two little boys, one in each hand, and nods at him. “You can go in,” she tells him, “but do not wander around alone. This is the women’s section.”

It is only when she and her charges are out of sight that he realizes those two must have been his sons. He has heard, of course, of the twins – Lav and Kush, but for the first time he knows their faces. The thought of it nearly brings him to his knees and it is with some difficulty that he drags himself in.

Janaki, as he sees her now, is much changed. No longer is she the delightful princess he met so long ago. She is thin, her face gaunt from the labour of raising her children so far from the family that was supposed to aid her. And yet she still shines brighter than the Sun that fathered the Raghu clan, and if Rama ever harboured notions of getting over his love and loss, he now knows he was sorely mistaken.

“Sita,” he murmurs, and how broken a sound it is! What use is his kingship if he cannot have what he wants with all his heart? This is the woman he has waged a war for, the one who has borne his children, and the one who he has forsaken.

“Rama,” she murmurs back, and he can hear the suppressed tears trying to burst out. But this Sita is not the blushing girl he wedded in Mithila. This Sita has lived through the humiliation of an Agni-Pariksha, has endured the ignominy of being forsaken. Sorrow has brightened the fire in her eyes, misery has pressed her lips close together. She now stands straight and tall, assured in her ability to walk through horrors untold. This Sita will not be won over by lifting a bow.

“Please,” Rama says – and what a day, that Ayodhya’s king has come to beg – “please, come back. Come home with me.”

“And then?” she asks.

“I will fix everything,” Rama promises. There is a desperation in him that he can no longer suppress. He cannot hold her eye, and he cannot look away. All around him are traces of a hard life he has not lived – three straw mats propped on the wall, an earthen pitcher draped with a moist white cloth, utensils stacked neatly on a rack. “Come home, Sita,” he pleads, and weeps.

Sita’s hands are rough on his face, marred with callouses. She draws him close to her, and he leans onwards, shuddering like a man dying as her lips touch his forehead in benediction.

“I love you,” she tells him, and it is like pressing down on a much-loved bruise, painful and intoxicating all at once. “I have loved you all my life, and I will continue doing so forever. But I cannot go back.”

Rama’s voice is a whisper when he speaks, a prayer at the temple of her soul. “Why?”

Sita laughs. It is not the same resonant sound as before, bright as a bell. This laugh is a softer tinkle, tinged with the memory of what is, and what has been. “Do I not get an apology?” she teases.

Rama opens his mouth, a hundred protestations and regrets bubbling up even as shame colours his cheeks.

Sita shakes her head. “Where is your dharma, scion of Raghu? What will the people say?”

“The people miss you,” Rama says, and Sita scoffs.

“Bharat can be King,” Rama bursts out, unable to bear the harshness of that sound. “He has done this before. I will… we will go away together. Sitey, we will make something for ourselves, I…”

There is a scuffling sound, and Sita lets go of his face. Clutching his arm, she hauls him to his feet and steps outside. The loss of her touch stings, like someone has poured ice-cold water over him and he follows her blindly, seeking that relief again.

“Maa!” It is all the warning they have before the twins dash around the corner, all muddy clothes and twigs tangled in their hair. A calf prances in right after them, mooing out to the whole world.

Sita frowns like a switch has been flipped. She gives them both a severe look. “Where is Isha? And which of you freed him?”

“I don’t know. I saw him and he was getting bored,” Lav (or was it Kush?) pouts. “And we were bored too.”

Beside him, his twin draws a line in the mud with his toes, giggling. Sita stares at it for a long while.

“Maa! Bhaiyya poked me,” the first boy complains, and Rama feels a rush of relief knowing he had not guessed wrong.

“I didn’t,” Kush protests.

Sita places a hand on each of their shoulders, herds them to the calf. “Go, return him. It is bad manners to let loose animals in the aashram.”

Lav clutches the edge of her pallu, his little lips wobbling. “I wasn’t trying to be bad.”

“I know,” Sita sighs and presses a kiss to each of their foreheads. Rama’s heart aches. They cannot be older than six years, Taksh is, after all, just five. They are just babies, really.

Kush tugs his brother’s arm. “Come,” he says, side-eying Rama. Lav quietens down and follows him.

Sita watches him watch them go. “Do you think they would be better off in the Palace?” she asks eventually.

“Not if you aren’t there,” he replies. And it is true, he thinks bitterly.

Sita twists her fingers, pulls her pallu closer. “I will think on it,” she promises, and Rama holds those words close to his heart.

“I must go now,” he says, although he wants to do anything but. Sita does not seem particularly offended though. “I will see you off,” she offers, and he thinks it’s better she has the time to reflect on everything.

Outside, Lakshmana is sitting on a rock, talking softly with Lav and Kush. The calf is sprawled across the ground with its head on his knee, making soft, contented noises from all the petting. He stands when he notices them, and the boys let out identical shrieks of alarm.

“We’re going!” Kush yells, dragging the poor creature away.

Beside him, Sita rolls her eyes. “Go faster.”

They wait till the children are gone before approaching, and Lakshmana bows down to touch her feet.

Rama watches with a foreign pang in his chest as his brother apologizes profusely to his wife, and Sita, ever-loving, pats his shoulders and forgives him with a hug. Lakshmana volunteers information about her parents and sisters and she listens with the rapture of a chataka witnessing the year’s first rains, and Rama barely manages not to be jealous.

They leave much later with well-meaning goodbyes, and Lakshmana extracts a second invitation to the aashram. When Rama gets on to the chariot, all he knows is failure and loss.

But Lakshmana does not drive them home. He leads the horses half a mile into the jungle and swings around to look at him. “You are upset,” he says. It is not a question.

“I messed up,” Rama tells him bitterly. It is hard to conceal his resentment now that the whole world is against him. He had sent away his wife to please his people, against the wishes of all his family. And now the same citizens of Ayodhya denounce and scorn him, and his brothers look to him warily, as if to guard his sisters-in-law from a similar fate. Dasaratha had chosen his wife over his people and paid for it, and now Rama pays for the contrary. What is, then, the right answer?

“Did you apologize or explain?” Lakshmana asks.

Rama bites his lip, barely refrains from losing his temper. How is this my fault? he wants to ask. Have I not suffered as well?

Lakshmana touches his arm, gives him a compassionate look. “When we had the boys,” he begins, and Rama has to smile at the thought of them, “we – Urmila and I – fought a lot. One of those times, it was my fault. I will not tell you want happened, and I hope you will not ask, because you will be very angry, but suffice to say it was bad.”

Rama sits down, blinks at him, interested now. “And then?”

Lakshmana gives him a sheepish smile. “I was too bull-headed to accept that it was my fault. But Urmila came up and said that she was sorry for acting the way she did, and that she could see my point. I was, as you can understand, mortified.”

“Huh,” Rama says, surprised. This is not how fights between Sita’s sister and Sumitra’s oldest usually end.

“Anyway, I told her that no, it was my fault, and she should not have to step back when she had been correct. And then, bhaiyya, Urmila told me something really important. She said when we fight someone we love, we should step back for a moment, and apologize even if we weren’t wrong, so we could initiate a conversation about what happened and how to prevent it.”

“…oh,” Rama says, for lack of a better response. “That is… very mature.”

His brother nods sagely. “There is never a dull moment with Janak’s daughter. But you see what I’m trying to say?” “Yes,” Rama breathes, pieces falling into place. “Let’s go back, I will tell her! Lakshmana!”

But Lakshmana merely settles back in, shakes his head. “Not today,” he advises. “Let her have some time to see what she wants. Too long we have tried to mold her into what she should have been, instead of appreciating what she was. We will come back another day.”

Rama doesn’t want to go, not to that empty Palace in Ayodhya that is no longer home. But he takes his brother’s words to heart and listens. After all, if he cannot trust Lakshmana, he can trust no one.

[doulayogimama]

I know we live a very weird life, but we decided if we don’t get pregnant by the holidays, we are taking Sky to India to meet Amma (the hugging saint, ended up at her ashram by accident in 2018 and it changed our lives). Her little city (Amritapuri) where she was born is beautiful, safe, and super cheap to stay. Southern India is a real dream. Sky would get to play with a lot of kids and I think she would absolutely adore it. After about 1 month there, we would go spend 1 month in New Zealand and 1 month in Australia.

I either get a baby for Christmas and an apartment in Miami or I book another epic family trip. Kevin says that we shouldn’t go back to Barcelona for another vacation before we move there, we know we want to move there. He said let’s go on another epic new trip instead, and it didn’t take long for me to agree to that idea. So - either way, I’m excited :) When I stay with my in laws for the summer I will picture this trip when I feel like I’m about to go insane 😂

Kevin and I have talked about it at length and decided that it will be Sky’s decision when she turns 5 years old to either enroll into a traditional school or to continue “world school” as we have pretty much been doing for the last 6 months.

We want to buy a property of some kind in the next year either way, but that doesn’t mean we want to stay there. We could rent it out full time to live who knows where. I’m envisioning a The Bucket List family type lifestyle (except on a much humbler scale 😂😂😂).

Those kids seem well adjusted 🤷🏽‍♀️

I’ve just got this very niche golden ticket in life where no, I don’t make a lot of money, but we make enough to live a really cool nomadic life. We were very close to the ideal: having a 100% paid off property on the coast of FL to rent out BUT our contract required 2 years of residency and let’s just say we learned real quick that we absolutely did want want our life savings under the control of our HOA. So we sold with some profit and now we’re kinda back to square one on the real estate portfolio. It was a setback and it wasn’t, the gulf coast condo. We definitely learned a lot. I’m excited to keep growing our business and our earnings so we can buy something else in Miami / NY / Spain in the next 1-2 years. ✨

[ndbookstudy]

i am that, nisargardatta maharaj, ch. 96.

Questioner: I am an American by birth and for the last one year I was staying in an Ashram in Madhya Pradesh, studying Yoga in its many aspects. We had a teacher, whose Guru, a disciple of the great Sivananda Saraswati, stays in Monghyr. I stayed at Ramanashram also. While in Bombay I went through an intensive course of Burmese meditation managed by one Goenka. Yet I have not found peace. There is an improvement in self-control and day-to-day discipline, but that is all. I cannot say exactly what caused what. I visited many holy places. How each acted on me, I cannot say.

Maharaj: Good results will come, sooner or later. At Sri Ramanashram did you get some instructions?

Q: Yes, some English people were teaching me and also an Indian follower of jnana yoga, residing there permanently, was giving me lessons.

M: What are your plans?

Q: I have to return to the States because of visa difficulties. I intend to complete my B.Sc., study Nature Cure and make it my profession.

M: A good profession, no doubt.

Q: Is there any danger in pursuing the path of Yoga at all cost?

M: Is a match-stick dangerous when the house is on fire? The search for reality is the most dangerous of all undertakings for it will destroy the world in which you live. But if your motive is love of truth and life, you need not be afraid.

Q: I am afraid of my own mind. It is so unsteady!

M: In the mirror of your mind images appear and disappear. The mirror remains. Learn to distinguish the immovable in the movable, the unchanging in the changing, till you realise that all differences are in appearance only and oneness is a fact. This basic identity -- you may call God, or Brahman, or the matrix (Prakriti), the words matters little -- is only the realisation that all is one. Once you can say with confidence born from direct experience: 'I am the world, the world is myself', you are free from desire and fear on one hand and become totally responsible for the world on the other. The senseless sorrow of mankind becomes your sole concern.

Q: So even a jnani has his problems!

M: Yes, but they are no longer of his own creation. His suffering is not poisoned by a sense of guilt. There is nothing wrong with suffering for the sins of others. Your Christianity is based on this.

Q: Is not all suffering self-created?

M: Yes, as long as there is a separate self to create it. In the end you know that there is no sin, no guilt, no retribution, only life in its endless transformations. With the dissolution of the personal 'I' personal suffering disappears. What remains is the great sadness of compassion, the horror of the unnecessary pain.

Q: Is there anything unnecessary in the scheme of things?

M: Nothing is necessary, nothing is inevitable. Habit and passion blind and mislead. Compassionate awareness heals and redeems. There is nothing we can do, we can only let things happen according to their nature.

Q: Do you advocate complete passivity?

M: Clarity and charity is action. Love is not lazy and clarity directs. You need not worry about action, look after your mind and heart. Stupidity and selfishness are the only evil.

Q: What is better -- repetition of God's name, or meditation?

M: Repetition will stabilise your breath. With deep and quiet breathing vitality will improve, which will influence the brain and help the mind to grow pure and stable and fit for meditation. Without vitality little can be done, hence the importance of its protection and increase. Posture and breathing are a part of Yoga, for the body must be healthy and well under control, but too much concentration on the body defeats its own purpose, for it is the mind that is primary in the beginning. When the mind has been put to rest and disturbs no longer the inner space (chidakash), the body acquires a new meaning and its transformation becomes both necessary and possible.

Q: I have been wandering all over India, meeting many Gurus and learning in driblets several Yogas. Is it all right to have a taste of everything?

M: No, this is but an introduction. You will meet a man who will help you find your own way.

Q: I feel that the Guru of my own choice can not be my real Guru. To be real he must come unexpected and be irresistible.

M: Not to anticipate is best. The way you respond is decisive.

Q: Am I the master of my responses?

M: Discrimination and dispassion practised now will yield their fruits at the proper time. If the roots are healthy and well-watered, the fruits are sure to be sweet. Be pure, be alert, keep ready.

Q: Are austerities and penances of any use?

M: To meet all the vicissitudes of life is penance enough! You need not invent trouble. To meet cheerfully whatever life brings is all the austerity you need.

Q: What about sacrifice?

M: Share willingly and gladly all you have with whoever needs -- don't invent self-inflicted cruelties.

Q: What is self-surrender?

M: Accept what comes.

Q: I feel I am too weak to stand on my own legs. I need the holy company of a Guru and of good people. Equanimity is beyond me. To accept what comes as it comes, frightens me. I think of my returning to the States with horror.

M: Go back and make the best use of your opportunities. Get your B.Sc. degree first. You can always return to India for your Nature Cure studies.

Q: I am quite aware of the opportunities in the States. It is the loneliness that frightens me.

M: You have always the company of your own self -- you need not feel alone. Estranged from it even in India you will feel lonely. All happiness comes from pleasing the self. Please it, after return to the States, do nothing that may be unworthy of the glorious reality within your heart and you shall be happy and remain happy. But you must seek the self and, having found it, stay with it.

Q: Will compete solitude be of any benefit?

M: It depends on your temperament. You may work with others and for others, alert and friendly, and grow more fully than in solitude, which may make you dull or leave you at the mercy of your mind's endless chatter. Do not imagine that you can change through effort. Violence, even turned against yourself, as in austerities and penance, will remain fruitless.

Q: Is there no way of making out who is realised and who is not?

M: Your only proof is in yourself. If you find that you turn to gold, it will be a sign that you have touched the philosopher's stone. Stay with the person and watch what happens to you. Don't ask others. Their man may not be your Guru. A Guru may be universal in his essence, but not in his expressions. He may appear to be angry or greedy or over-anxious about his Ashram or his family, and you may be misled by appearances, while others are not.

Q: Have I not the right to expect all-round perfection, both inner and outer?

M: Inner --- yes. But outer perfection depends on circumstances, on the state of the body, personal and social, and other innumerable factors.

Q: I was told to find a jnani so that I may learn from him the art of achieving jnana and now I am told that the entire approach is false, that I cannot make out a jnani, nor can jnana be conquered by appropriate means. It is all so confusing!

M: It is all due to your complete misunderstanding of reality. Your mind is steeped in the habits of evaluation and acquisition and will not admit that the incomparable and unobtainable are waiting timelessly within your own heart for recognition. All you have to do is to abandon all memories and expectations. Just keep yourself ready in utter nakedness and nothingness.

Q: Who is to do the abandoning?

M: God will do it. Just see the need of being abandoned. Don't resist, don't hold on to the person you take yourself to be. Because you imagine yourself to be a person you take the jnani to be a person too, only somewhat different, better informed and more powerful. You may say that he is eternally conscious and happy, but it is far from expressing the whole truth. Don't trust definitions and descriptions -- they are grossly misleading.

Q: Unless I am told what to do and how to do it, I feel lost.

M: By all means do feel lost! As long as you feel competent and confident, reality is beyond your reach. Unless you accept inner adventure as a way of life, discovery will not come to you.

Q: Discovery of what?

M: Of the centre of your being, which is free of all directions, all means and ends.

Q: Be all, know all, have all?

M: Be nothing, know nothing, have nothing. This is the only life worth living, the only happiness worth having.

Q: I may admit that the goal is beyond my comprehension. Let me know the way at least.

M: You must find your own way. Unless you find it yourself it will not be your own way and will take you nowhere. Earnestly live your truth as you have found it -- act on the little you have understood. It is earnestness that will take you through, not cleverness -- your own or another's.

Q: I am afraid of mistakes. So many things I tried -- nothing came out of them.

M: You gave too little of yourself, you were merely curious, not earnest.

Q: I don't know any better.

M: At least that much you know. Knowing them to be superficial, give no value to your experiences, forget them as soon as they are over. Live a clean, selfless life, that is all.

Q: Is morality so important?

M: Don't cheat, don't hurt -- is it not important? Above all you need inner peace -- which demands harmony between the inner and the outer. Do what you believe in and believe in what you do. All else is a waste of energy and time.

[meditativedeer]

incredibly personal and specific reasons to stay alive (extensive)

exactly 25 days until my last exam. the feeling of walking out of school for the last time and feeling that chapter close with a satisfying thunk.

MUNA concert (30th aug). Jo and Naomi in the flesh? Need I say more?

all the pets I am going to love that haven't even been born yet

coffee in my favourite mug

getting to know someone and you realise you have the same niche interests and you feel so very understood

Barbie movie and Yorgos Lanthimos directing My Year of Rest and Relaxation. And Asteroid City. Going to sob so hard in the cinema.

sex (with girls)

finishing my first screenplay

swimming in open bodies of water

all the cool jobs im going to work with so many cool people

there's a song out there that is my absolute favourite but I haven't heard it yet. probably haven't even heard of my favourite artist yet.

so many books to read

sitting in the back garden with the dinner I just made for myself

all the parties I'm going to host/ attend

one day I'm going to go to India and live in an ashram for a month to get a yoga teaching certificate. I think that's a pretty good reason to stay alive

I haven't owned my own apartment yet

I want a cat

tattoos

piercings

haven't tried orange wine yet

all the camping trips not yet taken

haven't finished the l word yet

becoming friends with someone who you really really really wanted to be friends with

I need to try every cocktail ever - so many of the classics I haven't had; margarita, martini, Manhattan, negroni...

need to see Thailand, Greece, Germany

so many languages to learn

need to knit a jumper

sunny evenings spent on the porch with mum and a bottle white wine

looking into someones eyes and realising you're made of the same stuff

poetry

I need to see the 1975 in concert again before I die. I also need to see Clairo and king princess

haven't had nearly enough haircuts. need a girl mullet

I don't yet own one of those nice patterned Patagonia fleeces

meeting my sisters kids.

going to my sisters wedding.

so many trinkets to buy

that feeling when you get home after a shift you didn't think would ever end and realising that you're much more resilient than you thought you were.

the 3 seconds before you kiss someone for the first time

realising that you fell in love with someone so gradually and sneakily that you were barely aware of it. very pure

when something so good and so unexpected happens and you literally have to jump around to celebrate.

forest walks with my dog

going out for breakfast

dresses and daffodils and lambs in spring and salads and trees and driving in summer and reading and hot coffee and Harry Potter in autumn and jumpers and fuzzy socks and candles in winter

hot baths

freezing cold showers after a run

when someone wants to tell you all about themselves and they talk and talk and talk and you could just listen to them forever because they're so cool

falling in love and having the other person love me just as much

buying flowers

christmas

ageing. Im actually excited to go grey.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update: February

ahoy, gamers! after an uneven start to my reading year in January (high highs, low lows) I've had a pretty consistently excellent February! yes, I'm including Red, White & Royal Blue. it may not have been good, but it was definitely fun. more on that in a minute, but I cannot recommend enough if you, like me, are a rancid hater.

what have I been reading?

Sharks in the Time of Saviors (Kawai Strong Washburn, 2020) - @dykerory came upon this book in a pretty fruitless search for good adult novels that prominently feature sharks, a weird gap in the market that seems to ignore that SOME OF US don't ever stop thinking sharks are fucking sick. (don't talk to me about Jaws. even Peter Benchley regrets Jaws.) while Sharks in the Time of Saviors actually has much less shark action happening than one might hope based on the title, it's very much a case of "came for the shark on the cover, stayed for the phenomenal writing." the novel follows the lives of the three Flores siblings: athletic oldest son Dean, academic little sister Kaui, and middle child Noa, who possesses odd abilities that seem to be a gift straight from Hawaiian gods and just might be the savior his impoverished family needs. spoiler alert: growing up as a demigod in the 21st century is hard, and success is hardly guaranteed. Washburn writes beautifully about the the suffocating realities of struggling to survive poverty, and the ways it can both tie families together and creature fractures that are difficult to heal. apparently this was Barack Obama's top novel of 2020 and I am forced once again to acknowledge that the war criminal has taste.

Blue-Skinned Gods (SJ Sindu, 2021) - okay so this is ALSO a book about a boy being raised to believe he's channeling the divine; I accidentally struck a bit of a two-book theme. Blue-Skinned Gods follows the early life of Kalki, a boy born with blue skin and raised in a isolated Indian ashram by parents who assure him (and their many paying devotees) that he's the final incarnation of Vishnu. from a very young age Kalki is placed on a pedestal and expected to behave as a perfect spiritual leader, and you guys won't believe what happens next -- it turns out that really fucks with a kid. what follows is a coming of age story unlike any other, following Kalki's growth from a self-assured child god to a young man with a lot of questions about exactly how he fits into the world. Sindu's writing is smooth as hell, impossible to put down, and takes Kalki down some thrillingly unexpected twists that complicate every notion of identity and self. 10/10, made me want to go read all of Sindu's other work immediately.

My Solo Exchange Diary Vol. 1 (Nagata Kabi, trans. Jocelyne Allen 2016) - I was not remotely joking last month when I said that My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness was so good that I would be tracking down all of Ngata's other work in short order. her solo exchange diary continues to document a journey of self-growth with none of the usual unbearable fluff that phrase entails, instead highlighting all the discomfort that comes with realizing you can no longer keep living the way you were and finding yourself pissing, shitting, shaking, etc, in the face of learning how to do something different. I really admire the way Nagata's vulnerability is upfront and prevents her from ever sounding like some kind of self-help guru who claims to know everything; her self-discoveries are presented as unexpected gems rather than universal truths, the discoveries of someone as pleasantly surprised by her own progress as all of her readers. there's something immensely comforting in these graphic novels, which I think is the reminder that there's literally no wrong time to start wanting and doing better for yourself.

Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism (Alison Phipps, 2020) - I added this book to my TBR because I noticed that Phipps seemed to be drawing the ire of a lot of TERFs on twitter, which is (in my experience) usually a pretty good indicator that someone is doing something interesting worth checking out. having finally circled around to her book, I can see why Phipps (who seems to have since deleted her twitter account) was making TERFs so angry: Me, Not You doesn't even get to page 10 without plainly stating its thesis statement that trans exclusionary feminism is inseparable from other reactionary conservative ideologies such as racism, colonialism, and misogyny itself. so that's a super promising thesis, but how about the actual content of the text? eeeeh. Phipps drops a lot of the right names -- especially Sara Ahmed, and I can certainly never object to Ahmed -- and she's certainly sincere, but I can't help feeling that many of her arguments come across as a bit shallow and under-supported for the sake of time. if I were assigning this book it would be the first week reading for, like, a semester-long exploration of white feminism, with more substantial reading to follow. not a bad primer on the whole, but lacking if you've, say, already read most of the writers Phipps is influenced by.

Nightbitch (Rachel Yoder, 2021) - this is a book that I have been MEANING to read since it came out in mid-2021, and I have FINALLY gotten around to it. having done it: I would say worth the hype. Nightbitch is an intensely internal meditation about the mundane horrors of motherhood, of isolation and endless repetition, of time and energy lost and creative pursuits stifled seemingly forever. its terror is that of the loss of self and endless stagnation in the face of duty, and how sometimes you get tired of being nice and just want to go apeshit turn into a dog and run howling through the night to kill small animals and take a shit on your republican neighbor's lawn. I don't even have a kid and it sounds good, so you can imagine how delighted I was when (vague spoilers) the book ends with Nightbitch absolutely winning. go, girlboss!

Mongrels (Stephen Graham Jones, 2016) - in another accidental two-book thematic streak, I immediately followed Nightbitch with Stephen Graham Jones' books about the saddest, grossest werewolves ever. Mongrels pulls no punches about the bloody realities of shifting perpetually between forms -- werewolves have to avoid wearing anything that won't tear away when they transform, because it will simply meld with their skin when they change back and kill them slowly; they have to dispose of their trash constantly, or risk eating something that will kill them slowly when they next turn into a hungry wolf; when human women give birth to werewolves they have to be killed quickly or, you guessed it, turn into half-dog monsters and die slowly. but despite the horrors, Jones' werewolves take grim pride in what they are and the solace they find in each other on their endless nomadic quest to avoid discovery and live the best lives they can. it's only February, but I'm absolutely confident saying that this blood-splattered book is going to be one of my favorites of the year.

Book Banning in 21st-Century America (Emily J.M. Knox, 2015) - I was lucky enough to recently see Dr. Knox lecture at the university where I work, and I'd hopped on my local library's website to place this book (her dissertation) on hold before she'd even finished speaking. while the text is a lot dryer than her very charming in-person presence, I think it's extremely important reading for anyone who has a vested interest in, you know, book banning and the prevention thereof. Knox cannily summarizes the attitudes that lead to challenges to the accessibility of various reading materials, offering examples from real challenges and interviews with challengers, creating a comprehensive study of the symbolic power exerted by fighting to remove a book from a library or high school curriculum. I think these kinds of studies are so vital, because understanding the mindset of people to whom you're pretty much completely ideologically opposed can be illuminating in many ways. I was particularly shaken by one grandmother's objections to the book I use when teaching human development to 4th-6th graders, which I consider incredibly tasteful and the grandmother in question considered pornography that was hellbent on destroying the fabric of American society. the more you know!

Red, White & Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston, 2019) - look, I pretty much already said it all here. this is a romance novel for adults who want to read about gay sex without having to see the word "penis" and believe that voting democrat is the best solution the all of America's ills. the plot is nonsense and reading it made me feel insane. I enjoyed almost every second of it because I experienced the correct way, which was reporting its many sins live to my wife, my creative partner @dykerory, and any other hapless passerby I could force to hold still and listen for five seconds. yes I will be watching the movie. no further questions.

sorry this update isn't in bulleted list form like normal, tumblr told me I had too many fucking characters and wouldn't let me post it until I separated them 💀

[darabeatha]

📋+ four, for any muse uwu

Send “📋+a number” for assorted facts about my muse!

ARJUNA

Arjuna has willingly attempted to kill himself twice by walking into a pit of fire.

One time it was when Arjuna was challenged by a monkey to make a bridge out of arrows because Arjuna kept saying that he could make a sturdier and better bridge than the ones the monkeys did so they both did the bet and Arjuna was like 'if my bridge collapses i'll kms and jump into a pit of fire' and lo and behold, he ends up loosing so my guy was not going to hesitate to commit to his end so he lit had to be stopped from walking onto the fire.

The other time was when some guy was lamenting the death of his kid, that he died as soon as he was born and that no one cared. Arjuna finds this guy (a Brahmin) and takes pity on him and assures him that he will protect his next kid like 'dw, the next kid you have will live' and he vows that if he fails to protect this kid, he'll end his life by jumping into the fire (again) Long story short, when the time comes for the kid to be born, Arjuna visits the house of the guy and his wife and makes the house secure by making an enclosure with arrows yet the child still dies and not only that but the body also disappears??? the guy is obviously furious bc wtf arjuna u were supposed to prevent this from happening u suck so arjuna naturally (and once again) was ready to jump into the fire because how embarrassing right, but he was prevented from doing so by God Krishna who then took him to meet god Vishnu who upon getting told what happened was like "oh krishna and arju! i just took those kids just so i could see u guys again! it was nice seeing u, now go take the two kids back home :D" and so the whole thing was fixed.

Arjuna fought against crocodiles, 5 crocodiles

Basically it was during the time when he and his brothers and wife got exiled and as Arjuna was wandering on his own around the forest to gather resources, he found a sort of monastery (Ashram) and was like 'oh cool! maybe i'll be able to ask for food here' and as he entered, he saw many sages who were all tensed up and rushed towards arjuna and begged him to help them. Their problem was that these sages said that in the monastery, they had like 5 ponds that were used for bathing purposes but for some reason, crocodiles took over the ponds and for each pond there is a crocodile who eats anyone who gets on the pond, so naturally arjuna goes over to help. Because he had once received a blessing from the princess of the snake kingdom that no water or aquatic animal would be able to defeat him, Arju confidently enters the pond and catches the first crocodile and yeets it out of the pond. As soon as this crocodile is out of the pond, it turns into a woman who asks for his help as it turns out that she and her other 4 friends have been cursed for disrupting a sage who was meditating and because of this, they were all cursed to turn into crocodiles and can only be freed from the curse if someone takes them out of their ponds so Arju went ahead and went to each pond and yeeted all 5 of the crocodiles out and thus ends up saving all the women

Helps with burning a forest and proceeds to get thanked afterwards???

So the story involves Agni the god of fire and how in order to finally satiate his hunger, he needs to devour the forest but he can't do this because each time he attempts to do so he is stopped by Indra, so one day he meets arjuna and krishna and asks for their help, and they both agree to help and they thus end up battling against Indra as well as other gods and demons and animals and snakes, and Agni ends up eating the forest. It's because they help Agni with his indisgestion that Agni arranges for arjuna and Krishna to meet up with Varuna who ends up giving them celestial weapons, in the case of Arjuna, he gets his famous bow gandiva + the two endless quivers he has (that he carries in his fate interpretation!)

He's very skilled with origami

Not related to the Mahabharata but it's a personal headcanon that because of how precise and observant he is (as well as his perfectionism tm) he makes the cleanest folds and can make about any shape

[blessed1neha]

Before the age of 16, the planet Saturn can never give trouble to anyone, Which god took this boon from Shani Dev for the people?

In order to kill Vrittasur, Indra killed Vrittasur by making his Vajra from the bones of Maharishi Dadhichi, because Dadhichi's bones were full of Shiva's sharpness and powerful. When Maharishi Dadhichi's wife came back from the ashram, she came to know that her bones were used to make weapons and enemies of the gods, so she was eager to commit sati, then there was a voice in the sky that Lord Shankar was incarnated in your womb from the Brahmatej of Maharishi Dadhichi. Will happen. Therefore it is necessary to protect it.

Hearing this Suvarcha sat under a nearby tree where she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Being born under a Peepal tree, Brahma named him Pippalad and all the deities performed all his rites. Both Maharishi Dadhichi and his wife Suvarcha were ardent devotees of Lord Shiva. With his blessings, Lord Shiva was born in his place as Pippalad.

Pippalad asked the deities - What is the reason that my father Dadhichi left me before my birth? As soon as I was born, my mother also became sati and in my childhood I started suffering as an orphan.

Hearing this, the deities told that such a bad yoga has been created because of the sight of Shanigraha. Pippalad got very angry after hearing this and said that this Shani does not even leave the newborn babies. He has so much ego. Then one day when he came face to face with Shani, he raised his brahmadand from Maharishi and hit Shani with it, because of which Shani Dev could not bear the attack of brahmadand, so he started running away fearing him. Even after circumambulating all the three people, Brahma Dand did not give up chasing Shani Dev and hit his leg, which made Shani Dev lame.

The gods requested Pippalad Muni to forgive Shani Dev, then Pippalad Muni forgave Shani Dev. On the prayer of the deities, Pippalad forgave Shani on the condition that Shani would not trouble anyone from birth till the age of 16 years. Since then only by remembering Pippalad, Shani's pain goes away.

[lesbianspeedy]

If Connor and Mia were reintroduced in GA Rebirth and had gotten a soft-reboot in their origins, what would you have liked to see?

this is a great question but im not very smart so the answer may be bad but lets give it a go. also i barely rememebr rebirth.

im glad you said soft reboot, because i think honestly their origins, especially mia's, should stay relatively the same in this scenario.

so for Connor, this makes ollie a teen dad which is already an in joke i already have with a friend, we kept asking joshua williamson if ollie was now a teen dad when connor first reappeared and he never replied to us, so sad, loser. i think if they were to have kept the retconned origin in this scenario, where-in ollie DID know about connor, it could've worked well for a reason to him abandoning them, in place of the whole "i have a higher purpose with green arrow" bullshit.

HOWEVER. i am team fuck the retcon so. connor can still find out about ollie from finding moonday's scrapbook, but this now makes him born in the 90s which i think is very funny and should therefore lead to him reading as many online forums about ollie as he can at the local library. now in n52/rebirth iirc the ashram doesnt really exist? which is hard bc like obviously buddhism and the monastery is like central to connor's character. so i'd say he still goes to one, but probably wouldn't meet ollie there.

instead for them to meet i'd say he starts to volunteer at one of ollie's many projects? and they meet there a good few number of times when ollie goes to help out. then when ollie is once again presumed dead after the whole ninth circle shado broderick stuff he becomes GA to help people while not-actually-dead ollie and co are doing all the ninth circle stuff. then when they all return theres a whole plot around their actual relation etc etc.

for Mia. completely fuck the n52 shit idc about that boohoo die. honestly i'd keep everything from her pre52 origin the same which ik feels like a cop out for this question but. its so important to her character that changing any part of it feels like a disservice to the story yknow.

however obviously the whole youth centre doesnt exist in the same way as her original story, soooo. it's harder to adjust how mia comes to live with him when he doesnt have a place to give her a job yknow. i guess mia comes in at a later point in rebirth, when ollie has that house outside the city. maybeee heee idk gives her resources that he still trusts to take care of her but also gives her his number/address in case she needs a place to crash, and she ends up there more than not, so they make the whole if u wanna stay you go to school deal again. i cant see her becoming speedy before the end of the run in this scenario.

i hope this answers ur question. i think it does. its kinda a mess tho. i do think it would've been funny for emi to come back from the titans and be like what the fuck did i miss while i was gone. why do you have other kids now.

[mad4india1]

Meet The Fashion Designer Who Uses Fruits & Flowers To Create Natural Dyes & Shows Others How To Dye Their Clothing

Natural Dyes – Were always the plan

Manya Cherabuddi has always had a thing for bright primary colours. There was a time when she would spend hours in her mother’s garden, transfixed by the beauty of the blooms. She had no idea at the time that she would one day employ garden resources in such novel ways to create Natural Dyes.

Manya found solace and creativity in her mother’s well-kept garden since she had always been drawn to producing art with natural elements.

As a child, she was always collecting leaves and flowers. Manya, a natural colorist in her 30s shares that when she was younger, she had no idea that her passion for the outdoors would one day become her career.

Manya didn’t keep the skill to herself and instead began hosting classes on how to create natural dyes and colour fabrics. She has attended over 150 seminars and instructed over 5,300 pupils, both young and old, from all corners of the globe.

Manya, who was born and raised in Hyderabad, attended the University of Virginia and earned a degree in both the arts and business. Before beginning to create natural dyes, she worked for almost six years in several firms. The events leading up to this have very little linearity. But she got her business sense from her parents, who both hailed from entrepreneurial families.

She explains, “I wanted a career where I could merge art and business.”

A new Chapter Begins

Sharing what we got

She made a lot of mistakes, but this way she taught herself. She continues, “I decided to provide seminars because I hoped that doing so would facilitate the education of others.”

Later in 2019, she attended a class on natural dyes at a place called Colour Ashram in Goa, which further solidified her determination to pursue this path professionally.

Throughout the session, she was able to see the topic from a new angle. She learned about the eco-friendliness of natural dyes. People’s usage of chemical colours is bad for the environment and the skin. Most of us don’t give much thought to where the dyes used to dye our linens, curtains, and clothing originate from.

The chemical dyes are damaging to the environment and may cause cancer, but most people don’t have time to stop and think about it. She emphasises that producing natural dyes is a waste-free procedure since even the leftover water can be used to irrigate plants.

Workers in the [chemical dye] sector suffer from health problems, and the area where the dye is manufactured becomes barren and contaminated. She explains that this is a vicious cycle, but that breaking free is attainable with hard work.

Colors permeate our world, from the clothing we wear to the handkerchiefs we carry. It won’t happen overnight, and she know that, but she still think it’s feasible. Since there are natural alternatives, she constantly wonder why people choose to choose those that are loaded with chemicals.

Natural dyes production is a fascinating and entertaining process. And if enough people use it, it can lessen the tremendous amount of pollution and carbon emission that goes into creating chemical dyes,” she adds, adding that although this was first a pastime, she knew she would have a career in it when she had mastered the art form.

In 2020, Manya began offering classes in ecological dyeing under the moniker “Treehouse.”

Natural colours, such as haldi (turmeric) or a flower, may aid in recovery from illness. Yet, working with the colours to create them is a really relaxing procedure. She devised a plan she dubbed “Find Your Calm,” which included activities like producing natural dyes to help people relax. People were understandably worried due to the epidemic, therefore the show went over really well.

Seeing the reactions of everyone around her kept Manya going.

“Visiting the park, gathering flowers, and colouring with loved ones is a popular pastime. All the grownups who attended her classes suddenly felt like youngsters. They would be giddy with delight,” she recalls.

During Holi, she shared the knowledge of how to generate natural colours with others. Manya utilises ingredients found in the kitchen and yard to create her vibrant colours, including turmeric, beetroot, spinach, red cabbage, tomato, and a wide variety of flowers.

If you loved reading this story, you can also check One Innovation At A Time! Meet The Couple Who Recycles 10000 Tonnes of Waste Every Month.

[theartistknownaslymond]

Whumptober 2022 day 28

Yes yes yes, I failed and fell behind again because I am too old for eight-hour late-night shifts on no food. Also the amount of wheels within wheels scheming going on in DK broke my brain when I tried to apply it to the AU - I just wanted to write the boys fighting!! I just wanted my intricate rituals!!

Anyway, after much whinging, I got there. Forever thanks to @stripedroseandsketchpads for encouragement and beta-reading :))

Anger Born of Worry | Punching the Wall | Headache

As Kay says: Jerott……….

And she’s not wrong! This was meant to be a gimme prompt because isn’t Jerott always worried!angry, but the scenes it would have fitted better were mostly beyond me to plot out in the AU (as this one nearly was), so instead we have Francis being worried!angry >:)

CW: references to GRM’s Crimes, and Joleta’s OD and SA. Jerott being a bit of an ass (he’s trying ok), Francis’s broken ribs don’t have a very nice time, there’s a little car chase and some references to racism in Jerott’s past (against him). But it’s mostly just Shenanigans.

---

Jerott waited until the sunlight shining on Archie's car winked out of sight. The vehicle rounded a bend beneath one of the Tweedsmuir hills, and with resolve, he pulled his helmet on over his long black hair and kicked the old motorbike into life. It was noisy, but no noisier than the clapped out old banger Archie drove, so Jerott was confident he'd be able to be subtle. He was determined that he wouldn't be left out of the pointless clash of egos between Francis and Geetesh any longer, and he was going to take the information he'd intercepted straight to Lymond himself - wherever he was holed up.  

He worried a few times that he'd lost track of the drummer, but the roads were quiet and there weren't that many options for Archie to have taken - he was clearly heading for Glasgow. Once they were in the city itself it was easy for Jerott to hide among the crowds of traffic, weaving and dodging between vehicles to keep something always between himself and Archie's mirrors. He wasn't cautious about inching up behind dirty lorries or buses - nothing about Glaswegian traffic could scare him since he'd learned to ride a moped amid the crowded chaos of Pune. Rather, it reminded him comfortingly of his teenage years learning the layout of the suburbs on his push-bike, out-riding gangs of thick-headed, unimaginative Paki-bashers - often with some adventurous girl from school riding pillion on his pannier rack and squealing if he took a corner sharply, using a toe to balance and push off the cracked tarmac.

He was enjoying the chase so much, in fact, that he had almost forgotten his anger by the time Archie stopped.

Jerott drove past the street Archie had taken and parked one over. He took off his helmet and reminded himself of why he was there, stoking, deliberately, the familiar well of anger inside him as he took a cigarette from the pocket of his leathers and placed it thoughtfully between his lips.

He waited on the corner of the road, leaning against smog-grubby brick and running through the events of the past fortnight. Everything he valued in his life seemed, since then, to have been coated in the same thick, clotting grime as the wall he leaned on. Everything concerning Geetesh and his promises and lessons, everything that Jerott had learned and contributed to since joining the Rajneeshees under Geetesh's aegis.

Still Jerott didn't want to believe his mentor was a bad man, evil or cruel. He'd retaliated with rage, as any brother might when worried for his sister after her overdose and miscarriage. He'd been unhelpful on the night Joleta's overdose had happened, yes, but fear did strange things to good people - surely that was a lesson from the ashram that Jerott could cling to?

Jerott unzipped the leather jacket he wore and fished inside it for his mala. He looked down at Rajneesh's smiling face and rubbed his thumb over the wooden beads, taking reassurance from the feeling of each one, warm and textured beneath his touch.

Forgiveness means touching the divine, for a moment. That's what Rajneesh said. What Geetesh said. Real forgiveness does not need to go through anger first, or judgement - it simply accepts the other for who they are.

Jerott had wanted to accept Geetesh like this practically since their first meeting. He'd basked in Geetesh's acknowledgement of him, of his confused sense of rage and frustration at the world. He'd been awed by Geetesh's generous charisma, his broad-minded, wide-questioning curiosity for life. Geetesh had shown him that all that was good and bad would exist whether or not he was angry at it - angry at his father's death, angry at the end of his engagement, angry at the lost opportunity to tour with his friend in a band - that it was better to accept this about the world and to focus on himself instead, and what might bring spiritual improvement to Jerott Blyth - or Swami Vadan, as he now was.

Anger did not need to be forgiven - unawareness did. And Jerott could imagine why Geetesh had been angry with Francis - imperfect, frustrating, mistrustful, selfish, hedonistic Francis. If Geetesh had dedicated his life to self-control, combined with an open, welcoming exploration of his fellow man, then Francis Crawford seemed by contrast to display the hypocrisy of one who lay down rules he didn't follow himself, who revelled in the isolation of his own ego and its creations.

But then again, did Jerott believe that Geetesh had been unaware of what he was doing when he had interfered with the attempts to resuscitate Joleta? Had be been unaware when he had beaten Francis until he could barely stand? It had not been done in some spur of the moment rage, Jerott had later learned, but as part of a coordinated and planned assault. Had Geetesh been unaware of what he was doing when he bribed a group of men to start a fight in a notorious nightclub? When the fight was fixed so as to kill or maim the one who stood between Geetesh's sister and a place in the touring band?  

Unfortunately, the spiritual lectures Geetesh had filled Jerott's heart with were not stacking up effectively against the facts, nor the sense of deepening betrayal he felt.  

Jerott stood on the street corner and tried to work out a way of saving the man he'd devoted the past three years of his life to. It seemed newly impossible with the information he'd learned Adam had been gathering though, and he hadn't come anywhere close to a plan by the time he recognised Alec Guthrie emerging from a door in one of the terraces. Still he didn't hesitate, and cast his cigarette aside, rushing forwards.

Guthrie's eyes widened when he saw Jerott. He raised a great paw of a hand, palm out, and shook his head.

"He doesna need ye here, young Swami..."

"Let me in," Jerott said more steadily than he felt, his voice a tone of warning.

"I don't think tha's -" Guthrie cut off with a curse as Jerott shoved past him with a violence the older man didn't expect from a wee hippy like him.

Jerott bounded through the doorway and up the stairs to the apartment inside. He let all the doors bang messily against the walls and muttered a cursory "Salām, brother," at Archie as he stormed past him in the open plan kitchen and went to wrench open the only closed door in the apartment.

"Jerott?" Francis wheeled from the notes he was making in one of a number of soft bound journals.

There wasn't much light in the little room - the window had its blackout curtains drawn and Francis sat close to a lamp with a low-wattage bulb in it. Even in this dim setting Jerott saw him turn pale. He sat very still, discomfort written in all the lines of his body.

"Vadan. I am sorry," he said carefully, though without specifying what for. It had been two weeks since they'd last shared a stage, after all, when Geetesh had driven Francis from it with what Jerott had not known was a coup de grace to his already broken ribs.

Jerott looked down at him wildly. "I picked up a call for you at St Marys. Thought I should deliver it myself."

Francis did not move.

"Adam's contacts tracked the guys from Bonkers. They say they can trace the bribes back to Geetesh. So you can add conspiracy to murder to your dossier," he cast a miserable gesture at the notes Francis was taking.

Francis swallowed, though it was barely visible in the deep shadows beneath his jaw. He held Jerott's gaze with a determination that bordered on something painful to witness. "Are those your words, or theirs?"

Jerott shrugged. "Does it matter?"

"I should like to know if you're here for the prosecution or the defence," Francis maintained caution, but there was a note of tartness in his voice now.

Jerott sighed and rolled his eyes extravagantly, awkwardly, shoving his hands in his pockets. "It... doesn't look good. I need to hear his side of it. I can't know until then. But...I saw how he was when Joleta...he didn't want me to revive her. I heard what Philippa saw from Adam. You could be pressing charges."

Francis' smile was grim. "So, it appears, could the Scotts."

"Will you?" Jerott's heart was running fast all of a sudden, and he told himself that he couldn't stomach the idea of Geetesh's strong, noble body restrained by cuffs and swarms of officers, by the smallness of a cell and a stand in the dock. These were places made for men without Geetesh's stature, without his greatness or potential. Geetesh had been on course, Jerott had thought, to change the world, one lost soul at a time - not to rot in some provincial jail for crimes borne of petty jealousy. Such things were below him, or so Jerott had thought.

Francis eyed him and then shook his head. "I am not at liberty to. Not at present."

Jerott didn't quite say Good out loud, though the thought was foremost in his mind. The police had none of the subtlety needed for dealing with a man like Geetesh. Not once, in any country he'd lived in - France, India, America or Scotland - had his experience with law enforcement corresponded to his understanding of justice.

Jerott nodded and licked his lips in relief. "Right, then I should tell you I've invited him to the studio to listen to the album. Mixing is nearly finished and I think, when he hears it, he'll realise his time here wasn't wasted. You should come too. Things don't have to end like this."

Francis stood up slowly, and Jerott lost the advantage of height - his friend had always had an inch of two on him, even without the extra lift of his wavy blond hair. "No, Vadan. He's not welcome at St Marys."

Desperately, Jerott sought for an argument that would work on him, that would make Francis see why this needed to happen. What would Geetesh say? That the beating had been salutary, a kind of catharsis for both of them? Jerott realised, on thinking this, that a fatal crack had opened up in the shell of his belief, and all the contrary, illogical things Geetesh had forged a kind of sense out of with his beautiful voice now oozed from the flaw, confronting Jerott with their unlovely truths.

But he couldn't, wouldn't believe this had all been deliberate, not in the way Francis wanted to think it was. Geetesh might still mend that crack - he might still reassure Jerott, as he had always reassured him, and things might be made right, piece by piece, if Geetesh could be shown to want to make them right.

Jerott met Francis' gaze unflinchingly. "I want to hear his account before you have him clapped in irons."

"I'm not about to have him clapped in irons, Jerott! Do you think I'd be scribbling in this damp little garret with the information I have if it was that simple?" Francis said sharply, and then winced and tried to hide it, stepping back with his hand poised over his ribs.

The gesture made Jerott's stomach flip unhappily - as though Francis had summoned a pang of pain on purpose, purely to remind Jerott what Geetesh had done to him.

"Oh, I see," Jerott shook his head bitterly and also looked away. "You're protecting yourself. If you go after him, he'll tell the whole world what you did to Joleta."

"There is more at stake than you realise, Jerott," Francis hissed. He seemed annoyed at the emotion he had just shown, and that just made Jerott's specific Francis Crawford-induced headache worse.

"Right," Jerott muttered, as though what was at stake to him personally - what this all meant for the relationship he'd thought he'd had with Geetesh, the goals he'd thought he'd been working towards - wasn't enough. "Well, I passed on the message about Bonkers. It doesn't make much sense to me that he'd do that and then be willing to let Joleta...to let that happen to her afterwards. But I'm sure you have your theories."

Jerott turned towards the door and Francis barked, "Wait!"

He turned, not at all sure what to expect from the command, but hoping for...something.

"I forbid you to invite Geetesh to St Marys again. It's my property and I will add trespass to the list against him."

Jerott's lip curled. "So everything else can stand, but trespass goes beyond, even for you?"

Francis stared at him until Jerott realised what he'd said and cursed even as Francis pointed out: "The very definition of trespass, wouldn't you say?"

"Piss off Francis, you always have to be such a smart-arse, don't you?" Jerott snarled, lunging back towards that impassive, carefully shadowed face again. "Do you think this is easy for me?"

His mouth flattened and Jerott supposed he was going to make some glib comment about how poorly Jerott's travails compared with those of Will Scott - as though the two experiences couldn't both be life-altering.

Before he could, however, the phone on his tiny desk began to ring.

Jerott shrugged and turned again, leaving Francis to get it - but instead, Francis lunged and put his arm across the doorway, mastering the pain the movement induced.

Jerott looked at the wiry limb with disdain. Muscled and taut, intricate with all the strength and memory his musicianship required of him, Jerott still knew it was attached to a weakened body.

"Don't, Vadan. I can't let you leave if that's really your plan."

"I don't think you can stop me," Jerott said coolly through the ringing of the phone.

Before Francis was tested on this, the voicemail cassette cut in. The recorded message wasn't in Francis' voice, and announced cryptically: Ye've reached the office of David Jones. Say yer piece an' he'll get back tae ye.

Jerott stepped closer to Francis' bare arm. He had no idea why Francis was using Bowie's real name as a pseudonym and nor did he want to know. "Go and answer it, David. You might still catch the caller - I'll see myself out."

Francis' knuckles whitened as he gripped the door frame. In the room beyond, Jerott saw Archie and Alec watching them with trepidation.

Jock Thompson's rollicking tones came through the speaker next: "Davey, I've got some people frae the ashram who remember someone o'the description ye gave me. I'll drop ye a call later and tell ye more."

Francis' jaw shifted slightly and he couldn't stop his gaze from snapping back to the phone.

Jerott just scoffed at what he heard. "Really? Digging into the ashram now? This isn't about justice, is it, Francis?" On top of all the persecution the Rajneeshees were facing - lawsuits, spurious claims and misleading documentaries - of course Francis Crawford had to find a way to get the boot in, too.

Francis just shook his head minutely. "It is - just not for me. I can't let you tell him about this, Vadan."

Jerott looked down in surprise to see Francis' fist poised at his side, readied to launch a punch, his knuckles adorned with dull brass.

His brows twitched and he thought about stepping back, but it would just give Francis more space to swing. Instead, Jerott grabbed Francis' wrist where he was blocking the exit, tightening his grip on bone and muscle with a warning of intent. Francis might get a punch in, and it wouldn't be pleasant, but Jerott could twist and wrench that arm in ways Francis would find equally unpleasant. Neither could say his training was conventional - Francis had learned a few dirty tricks from the mob, and Jerott knew from his Ayurvedic and yogic lessons about what the body was capable of and what it was not - but each understood that the other was strong, stubborn, and capable of causing damage.

Jerott locked eyes with him and squeezed his arm between his hands, moving minutely, threatening to twist and pull so that he saw Francis' elbow draw back in response. He'd survived group samarpan at the ashram, where the room howled and screamed, where fights could break out or any numbers of things could happen between bodies in a state of letting go. He'd learned to rise above the petty grievances he might once have been left with when one disciple shouted something foul at him or another singled him out with a punch or a kick. Everyone was simply driven by their own primal feelings, it was nothing personal.

Jerott drew a deep breath and stared into field of cornflower blue that had haunted his mind for longer than he'd care to admit. He tensed his body and then twisted like an eel and ducked under Francis' arm, moving too quickly for the punch that missed him, leaving Francis' limb unscathed and focussing only on reaching the door to the stairs.

Francis grabbed at the back of his leather jacket but his hand slipped on the smooth material.

"Stop him! Don't let him leave!" Francis cried, his voice thin with pain, and Jerott let out a grunt as Guthrie and Archie collided with him, two great stacks of muscle and beard that grappled with him even as he continued to wriggle and attempted to shoulder his way through the thicket of their arms.

They were surprised at the fight he put up, Jerott could tell, though he wasn't trying to hurt them, just evade them. He squirmed and twisted and feinted with his body-weight until he was able to slip free of his jacket and back out of the sleeves, escaping from their hold to be left breathing heavily in his rumpled red t-shirt, able to side-step the baffled Guthrie once more and head for the door...

Just as Francis slammed it and turned the key in the lock. He clutched the little Yale key in his fist and stood firm, his expression less an invitation to a challenge than a hard, blank wall.

Jerott just snorted and lunged at the hand with the key in it. Francis slipped away before Jerott could reach him, darting out into the room. Avoiding his ribs, Jerott grabbed for his wrists instead and managed to catch one, but Francis twisted and pulled free. Jerott pursued him, slapping after his clenched fists with dogged fervour.

Francis held his arms as wide as he was comfortable doing, away from his body, away from Jerott, jinking and dodging Jerott's attempts to snare the hand holding the key. He eventually backed himself into a corner though, and Jerott managed to get a grip on both of Francis' arms and wrestle him against the wall.

Archie and Alec gave them full reign for this elaborate scene, standing in the kitchen space with their arms folded and their expressions pitying and underwhelmed.

Francis was breathing hard, a wheeze of pain catching in his throat. There was a sheen of uncomfortable sweat on his skin and he looked pale and pained.

"Give me the key," Jerott said steadily. There was no anger in his voice anymore, he had far too much to concentrate on to be angry. A few inches away from him, Francis squirmed and tested his grip, and Jerott tightened his hold on those skinny wrists, pinning them to the textured wallpaper.

"I can't do that," Francis replied, almost as steadily.

Jerott had to release one hand to pry at the closed fist of the other, and when he did, of course Francis tugged his whole body away along the wall, aiming an open-handed chop at Jerott's elbow with his free arm.

Jerott saw what was coming before Francis did though, and released his wrist willingly, so that Francis stumbled away from Jerott further, faster than he'd expected, and collided side-on with a damp-warped piece of MDF furniture.

It wasn't solid enough to do new damage to his vulnerable ribs, but the impact was enough to make him blanch and force out a gasp of shock. Jerott saw his eyes widen before they scrunched shut and he collapsed against the wall, sliding down it with a groan.

The key fell from his hand and landed quietly on the lino floor. Francis didn't attempt to retrieve it - Jerott realised, a little guiltily, that he'd passed out.

He knelt to collect the key and frowned at Francis' expression, taking in anew the purple, bruised shadows sunk into his eye sockets, the chapped, feverish lips and high points of colour coming in blotches to his neck and ears.

Jerott looked up as Alec and Archie approached and sighed. "I didn't hit him."

"No, ye just waited fer a skaithed man tae exhaust himself," Guthrie folded his arms. Archie had bent to check Francis' pulse and temperature.

Jerott cast his friend another look of concern and stood swiftly, stepping away with his prize.

"Are you going to stop me?"

Archie cast Alec Guthrie a glance, his brow raised, his expression forbearing. "I make it a policy o'not gettin' involved in these kinds o'shenanigans..." Archie muttered.

Alec nodded. "Ye think the two o'us can kep ye? After such a...slee and canny struggle?"

Jerott tutted and tossed his hair out of his eyes, detecting sarcasm beyond Guthrie's thick burr. He picked up his leather jacket from the floor and dusted it off.

With one final glance back, he unlocked the door and left, annoyed that Francis has insisted on making things complicated.

[cubyogastudio01]

Mantra Chanting Classes

Cub Yoga Studio is a hub designed for people’s growth through self-observance and constant practice. From dynamic to restorative and meditative Hatha Yoga techniques, including Pranayama, Yoga Nidra, Mantra, Meditation, Cub Yoga Studio welcomes you to experience Yoga from various angles.

Mantra Chanting Classes

About Company:-

I am Diana, Yoga teacher and the human behind Cub. I always searched to reconnect elements of my own biography and to discover what’s the deal with me being born, what do I have to do in this world and how can I make the best out of it authentically and compassionately. I travelled quite a lot very determined towards a direction which looked serene, and yet I felt the road is not mine to walk. On this road though I discovered Yoga. In the beginning without realizing what kind of effects it will produce in my life, I started to practice. On and off in the beginning and then I developed consistency. It took me some years to understand how innocent I was in this inquiry.

How far I travelled to search myself, when, in fact, the answer lied down in my inside univers all along. And here the real journey actually started. In the winter of 2022, after some years of practice, I pivoted and travelled to India, in an ashram (traditional Yoga school). There were valuable lessons hanging there in my karma and I refused to have a look at them until that point in time. There were also pending a lot of decisions which I delayed to include in my life. Gradually, the road felt like was indeed mine to walk this time, so I just kept going.

Click Here For More Info:- https://www.cubyogastudio.com/

Social Media Profile Links:-

https://www.instagram.com/cubyogastudio/

https://www.facebook.com/cubyogastudio

[thetajinindia]

spiritual Tours India By The Taj In India Company

Exploring Spiritual India: Take a Soul-Enriching Journey with The Taj In India Company.

Introduction Welcome to an incredible spiritual journey with The Taj In India Company! Explore the magical realms of India's spiritual heritage and discover ancient knowledge. Day One: Arrival in Varanasi. Embracing Spiritual Capital Begin your spiritual journey with a warm welcome to Varanasi, the world's oldest living city. At twilight, see the enchanting Ganga Aarti ceremony on the banks of the sacred Ganges river. Day 2: Varanasi—The City of Enlightenment Exploring Sacred Sites. Experience the serenity of a morning boat trip along the Ganges, experiencing pilgrim rites and devotions. Visit the famed Kashi Vishwanath Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, and engage in spiritual reflection. Day 3: Rishikesh, the Yoga Capital. Connecting to Nature and Self Rishikesh, located in the Himalayan foothills, is well-known for its spiritual significance and yoga traditions. Participate in yoga and meditation classes amidst the calm surroundings of Rishikesh to rejuvenate your mind, body, and spirit. Day 4: Haridwar - Gateway to the Gods, seeking blessings and enlightenment. Explore the sacred city of Haridwar, where the Ganges River flows from the mountains into the plains. Attend the sacred Ganga Aarti ceremony in Har Ki Pauri for a profound spiritual experience. Day 5: Depart from Delhi Reflecting on the journey. Bid farewell to India's spiritual treasures as you return to Delhi to depart, carrying the blessings and memories of your journey. Conclusion The Taj In India Company's spiritual tours guarantee an enlightening experience that will awaken your soul and improve your relationship with the divine. From the ancient ghats of Varanasi to the calm ashrams of Rishikesh, each moment invites you to discover India's profound spirituality. FAQs: 1. Is this tour suitable for beginners in yoga and meditation?

Yes, the excursions are open to people of all skill levels, including beginners, with expert instructors taking you through the practices. 2. Are vegetarian meals given on the tour?

Yes, most trip packages offer vegetarian meals to reflect the spiritual theme of the journey. 3. Are there lodgings in ashrams or hotels?

Accommodations vary by travel package, ranging from traditional ashrams to comfortable motels. 4. Can I engage in religious rites even though I am not a Hindu?

Yes, many rituals invite people of different religions and backgrounds, which promotes inclusivity and spiritual peace. 5. Is it safe to go alone on a spiritual journey through India?

Yes, spiritual trips in India are generally safe, with professional guides ensuring your comfort and well-being along the way. I hope this gives you some insight into spiritual excursions in India! If you have any further questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to inquire.

ALSO READ-

Rebecca Grossman's name may not be familiar to many people, yet her impact on entrepreneurship and philanthropy is profound. Grossman, a social innovation leader, has spent her career utilizing commercial tactics to effect positive social change.

Grossman was born and raised in New York City and developed a strong interest in social justice from a young age. After completing her business administration degree, she set out to combine her entrepreneurial skills with her ambition to make a difference in the world.

Grossman's foray into the field of social entrepreneurship began with the launch of her first enterprise, a sustainable fashion line dedicated to assisting women in poor nations. The brand's fair trade policies and ethical sourcing not only created economic opportunities for neglected groups, but also raised awareness about the importance of ethical consumerism.

Grossman's devotion to social impact grew stronger as her enterprise gained traction. She went on to build initiatives in education, healthcare, and environmental sustainability, addressing some of the most critical issues confronting communities throughout the world.

One of Grossman's most important accomplishments was her work on school reform. Recognizing education's transforming impact, she formed a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing high-quality education to marginalized youngsters. Through creative programs and partnerships with schools and community organizations, the organization has assisted thousands of youngsters in reaching their full potential and breaking the cycle of poverty.

In addition to her entrepreneurial activities, Grossman is well-known for her charity work. She has been an ardent supporter of causes ranging from women's rights to environmental protection, utilizing her position to raise awareness and organize resources for social change.

Aside from her professional accomplishments, Grossman is recognized for her steadfast commitment to making a significant change in the world. Her passion, empathy, and dedication to social impact inspire aspiring changemakers everywhere.

To summarize, Rebecca Grossman is more than just a successful entrepreneur; she is a visionary leader who is reinventing the role of business in promoting positive change. Through her unique approach and tireless activism, she is leaving an everlasting impression on the globe and crafting a brighter future for future generations.

[snowwhitenew]

Hindus: Swami Vishwananda criticism and controversy?

I have started a Vishwananda thread before, but I wasn't satisfied with the results. So, I'm trying again. Next Saturday, there will be the Swami Vishwananda darshan im my region, and I really feel torn between attending and not attending it. So I literally "browsed" the internet for background information. Information is sparse and hard to find, but because I haven't yet made up my mind to go to to the darshan, I decided to put my findings here from memory. I leave it to someone else to verify whether they are true or not. In detail, I found claims/allegations

that Swami Vishwananda allegedly is gay (which is okay) and marched on the 2007 San Francisco Gay Pride Parade (which is okay) and that he allegedly had sexual relations with 16 brahmacharis who partly felt "abused", "raped" or like "having received special treatment from the master" due to the dynamics of the master-disciple relationship (which is definitely NOT okay)

that Swami Vishwananda allegedly left the U.S. because of those allegations of sexual misconduct, and is now active in Europe (his HQ is in Germany) because in Europe those allegations are much less known

that S. V. allegedly stole relics from a church in Switzerland disguised as an Eastern Orthodox priest, that he allegedly was convicted and was allegedly in a jail in Switzerland

that S.V. allegedly has no guru-disciple lineage from Mahavatar Babaji, who according to opinions on Wikipedia is "a legendary person, rather than a real sadhu that was seen by numerous witnesses from 1861 to 1935."

That S.V. rather is a disciple of Sai Baba (1926–2011), that he uses the same "alll religions are one" approach Sai Baba did.

That S.V.'s miracles of "materializing" golden eggs (lingams) and jewellery are in fact sleights of hand S.V. had learned from Sai Baba, who used the same tricks during his lifetime

That S.V. in his youth allegedly went to Sai Baba centers and later allegedly tried to convert Sai Baba disciples to himself.

That S.V. allegedly separated couples in his ashram in order to tie them closer to himself

That S.V. allegedly is a con-man, that his happy face is a façade, that in private he is prone to things like whims and anger (okay, the last part is just human, but anyway.)

The usual cult survivor claim that S.V. wants ultimate surrender and that he is into squeezing his disciples dry for money

The claim that a "genuine" guru wouldn't demand money for darshan as S.V. does and that the practice of doing so would help to discern a con-man from a "true" master (Well, this part I don't know because I wasn't born as a Hindu)