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Showing posts from November, 2014

The Hills Are Alive….

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No, I am not referring to the song from ‘The Sound of Music.’ This weekend, I had two conversations both pointing me towards The Hill. First, let me take a step back about two other hills. Growing up, Phantom comics were a big part of my life. There was something quite amazing about the aura around the Phantom. Phantom took me on a journey to exotic lands – one such being Walker’s Table in the Mesa desert in the US. Walker’s Table was quite an exotic location – bare and isolated. And then there was the famous hill made out of mashed potatoes. Yup, am referring to Richard Dreyfus maniacally replication an image stuck in his head in Spielberg’s ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’ Yup, these two hills indeed look very very similar. Not sure why, but these images have stuck in my head. So, over this weekend, when my uncle Madhurai GS Mani and Prof. Muthukrishnan both referred to their strong association with Shri. Ramana Mahari...

Swami Sivananda - The Long Arm of Grace!

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Swami Sivananda - The Long Arm of Grace!  If the success of one’s student is the yardstick to measure success as a teacher, then Swami Sivananda is arguable India’s greatest spiritual teacher over the past 100 years or so. In addition to being a spiritual giant, he also encouraged his students to form separate institutions focused on different aspects of spirituality. Some of them are: ·        Chinmayananda Saraswati , founder of the   Chinmaya Mission ·        Satchidananda Saraswati , founder of the Integral Yoga Institutes, Around the world ·        Satyananda Saraswati , founder of Bihar School of Yoga Sw. Sivananda’s mandate to his students to ‘serve, love and give’ continues to inspire so many across the world. There are two important ways in which this great man has intrinsically influenced my life. The first – by birth. But, let me come to this later. The more r...