Ram Rajya

I remember the old days when a dear friend used to often comment that Sunil you are talking of 'Ram Rajya'.

His comment was not on the stories that I would tell him of Lord Rama's time but on the discourses and talks which I shared from Sangat. I could understand his psychology which was based on how the world was around but fortunately I was shown another world too.

I'm glad that over the period of time he has been able to appreciate the message of the Mission. On a recent trip to Delhi, the above old conversation between friends came back to my mind. When? Here it is when....

I was standing in a long queue to get some eatable from canteen at Nirankari Samagam. As soon as I reached the counter I was told that the item that I was standing to get was to be bought in coupons of Rs.12. However I was only carrying coupons for Rs.10.

Since the queue was long I could not understand what would be the appropriate action at that point of time. Should I go and purchase additional coupons for Rs. 2 and stand back in the long queue again? Or should I request the saint to take Rs. 2 change in addition to the Rs. 10 coupons and give me the item?

Before I could decide on any appropriate action this saint himself offered to give me the item in exchange of Rs. 10 coupons and asked me to get Rs. 2 coupon from the coupon counter. As soon as I heard this  I became a bit relaxed, and started to think that I would come back and hand over the Rs. 2 coupon to this Saint. Caught up in my own thoughts I failed to realise that his instruction was not yet complete he was further adding that 'buy Rs 2 coupons from the coupon counter and tear it off.'

I was totally surprised by his sentence he was not asking me to bring remainder coupons to him but was trusting me that I will get the remainder coupons and also tear it off on my own. I was really glad and also thankful at the same time that such an atmosphere existed where people trusted each other however this is only because Guru stood in between.

While it was kind of him to think in this way and also the amount involved was not too big but it also reminded me that I have a responsibility to be able to fulfil the trust other people keep in me because of Guru. May God bless that there are more and more pleasant experiences in everybody's life so that trust in each other gets strengthened.

I myself could not go to get the remainder coupons but I asked another saint to go and get it for me and tear it off. She was not able to understand what I meant by tearing it. But when I shared the rationale behind, her surprise came to an end....with smile on her face.

Smile because of 'Ram Rajya'.

What should be my question?

Few years ago, we got the news of Puri Sahib's tour in Bangalore. As an act of encouragement to the youth, we were offered a session where Puri Ji would answer any questions young children would like to ask. I could notice how excited friends were, who wanted to ask so many things from an experienced elder who was like a mentor to each one of us. 
I too wanted to use this opportunity to learn from this soul be it through a Q & A session. However there was a problem.

The problem was I didn't know what to ask - despite spending time in thinking, I could not get hold of any question that would be 'just' appropriate to ask Puri Ji. Most of the questions made no sense, some questions I wasn't sure if were appropriate for the gathering - I was just "question-less". 

I could not decide what would be better in this situation? To ask some question for the sake of asking or let go this wonderful opportunity. In this state of indecisiveness, I rang up a saint for consultation. I explained the situation to her and then asked "What should be my question?".

In her usual composed state she started, " Sunil Ji, You know now instead of thinking what to ask anyone else, I have started to wonder on what could be asked of me. I don't know how to answer if asked that Love was taught to you, why didn't you follow it? You were reminded that forgiveness is important, why did you ignore it? I get worried on what would I reply...."

Our phone conversation continued for another few minutes before call was disconnected.

She didn't suggest a question, neither did she discourage me from asking one but gave me another frame for looking at the same situation. Needless to add that I dropped the idea of asking any question.

I wonder if some day some one would ask me the same question, "What should be my question?"....but definitely this is how I would like to answer.

Coming from ST is Ok

(Drafted in 2012)

With bit of time at hand, these days I often sit with friends who are located in SZ building. Although its a 5-7 mins walk from ST building, and its difficult to walk in shining Sun but still the motivation to spend time with friends and opportunity to hear new things from them takes me to SZ Food Court area.

Quite recently on one such occasion, I was sitting with two friends who were discussing about existence of God. As per their understandings both were keeping their individual views and I was witnessing their interactions. It so happened that at one point of time, both had little difference in opinions. They tried to explain their own views by supporting arguments, but it didn't dissolve the difference. Because of the affection with own's view point, no one wanted to give up. Discussion on that single point continued at least an hour from then, and amidst this one hour period I kept silent. 

When one of them realized that the discussion was going no where, he looked at me. Perhaps with an expectation that I would support him, he asked me to give my opinion on the same matter. Realizing that no one was ready to give up and they had already wasted an hour by just denying the possibility of other side of coin, I just said " I don't know, I have come from ST ". Both of them looked at me with open eyes. What had God to do with me coming from ST?

The discussion some how ended.

And so have ended many other discussions, where I have given absurd statements. I haven't been like this always. I would credit Vivek Ji for this. Vivek Ji hasn't given me a list of such statements but has indeed given direction that purpose of life is not to get into trap of becoming an answering machine. Often in spiritual arena, people assume that one who answers all the questions is more knowledgeable but actually it is one who has transformed his own life.

Perhaps this shaking from Vivek Ji helps me to keep myself aligned wherever there are temptations to jump into such discussions.



Anyhow - the whole point is bhaiya, that your coming from ST is Ok :)

(Unasked)

Whenever news of any relative visiting from US flashed, I used to get really excited. To be honest excitement was not as much for seeing them as it was for getting a chance to visit Airport. That four walled building in Delhi with white lights and sounds of planes always fascinated me in childhood days. Be it exams or holidays, I wanted to be part of the team that went to receive or send off the visitors.

This was in 80s 90s. And then years changed to 21st century.

For job reasons had to travel to UK in Year 2007. The place of work was far off from the nearest mission quarters. To attend Sangat would travel every weekend to Hayes. And most of the times it was road transport - the national express bus service to Central Bus Station. On one such travel, I was caught up in various thoughts when it clicked where I was traveling. The destination was no different from every weekend's travel but perhaps I had given a thought for the first time. London Heathrow Airport !!!

I couldn't resist being astonished on what time had unfolded - that (unasked) wish of visiting Airport was transformed into a fulfilled wish of every week visit to one of the world's busiest Airports. More than astonishment, feelings are of gratitude that I hadn't even asked of something like this but was given. Something that I had actually forgotten with time but He hadn't.

Other day on occassion of Ram Navmi, I had posted a message from Babaji's discourse that "Ram Nav Mei"  which perhaps was read by one mp as "Ram Knows Me". We shared smiles after he mentioned his reading to me. However to be honest there can be so many examples in life such as mentioned above that this seems more true that Ram Knows Me....!!!

Not only I Know Ram, but Ram Knows me ... arre wah!

(Although He knows us all :) )

And the award goes to...

Just finished watching Film fare award distributions. As usual, there were awards for categories - best debut actor male, best debut actor female critics, best film, best director and lots more. There was a round of applause for every award winner, nothing unusual about it but there were also occasions in between when someone walked onto stage and complete audience stood up to listen & clap in respect. It is "these occasions" that kept me thinking and brought me to look back at one of the experiences I had shared few years ago.

I recalled the quote that was recently and earlier heard, "Some demand respect but some command respect". It felt nice to see how everyone stood up for these living (with or without body) legends. I wondered how much effort and time they would have put to make people stand for them. Remarkable!

As it usually happen, a thought follows by another and by another...

One more similar incident happened when we were signing a send-off greeting for Stefan. After we came back to our desks after signing cards, Nav and I started to discuss his card which was full of wishes from colleagues. Literally there was no space left for more people to put their wishes. Nav very rightfully at that moment commented, " When you have it in you, people would like to put words for you..". I understood what he meant by that. Stefan's work - Remarkable and more remarkable was his conduct full of sweetness and kindness. Years have passed since we last worked together but it is always pleasure to look back and remember those projects.

Since we are talking of projects, Stefan and awards - I recall at end of some project together, there were nominations opened for few categories (mostly comic but one). This category was called "Most popular person by virtue of need award". Needless to say Stefan was one of the winners for this award.

On one side it seems little odd to live for appreciation - rather one should focus on improvisation without worrying about how others appreciate it. But for the moment, when it comes to making a contribution, making an impact, giving efforts - one cannot rest until efforts are that will make others stand. There needs to be effort for excellence. Equally important is also to realize and accept what field is for you to excel. 

Excellence should drive you (and me)!!

I know what happened

Work has been really hectic these days, late evenings and weekend working - days seem to be running so fast. All I hear is - defects, retesting, scripts, execution. 

On one such day, we were working till late evening waiting for a fix to arrive for retesting. Since everyone in the team was so tired, I offered for them to leave for home while I alone stay back to retest the fix. It wasn't that I wasn't tired but I didn't mind staying back a little late. Everyone but one more friend left for the day. 

In some minutes, fix arrived and we began to retest. During that piece of retesting, I noticed something else broken. I didn't believe at first look because that bit seemed to be working during the day - and fix was no way related to the now broken area. Chances of these two issues being related were so low - I tested again but same results. So I raised a new defect and called it a day.

After reaching home, the mind got little relaxed and I started to think about the new defect. Suddenly it clicked that I perhaps might have used wrong data and hence the wrong results. May be there was no defect at all. I texted a friend that perhaps in hurry and tiredness, I hadn't analyzed the issue properly and by mistake have raised new defect. I couldn't be sure of the data, but somehow became uncomfortable with the thought that next day everyone would come blaming that I had made silly mistake and impacted timelines. Build team would reject the defect next day - this looked more obvious, and my friend too instead of comforting said something on those lines that I felt more guilty. 

I got really upset on how things had turned - and in those thoughts, for a moment I did ask for God to intervene and somehow correct things.  As time passed, I convinced myself to face the outcome next day. 

Next morning when I opened the defect - it was indeed rejected as I had expected. But what I hadn't expected was that Build saying they hadn't delivered the functionality for testing - therefore we shouldn't be testing that area.

I couldn't believe my eyes. I re-read what they were saying - the functionality was working last morning and now they were saying it was never delivered.

Although defect was still rejected but there was no blame game - everyone's attention drew towards the fact that certain functionality was never delivered. Whole day meetings went on - but to talk why was code not delivered?

And btw - next day I also checked what data I had used. That also seemed to be correct  - perhaps I was worrying for no reason at all. 

After a week since this incident - yesterday I got a chance to speak to build team members about same defect, where they requested to retest again and also said that the functionality should have been delivered - and perhaps they had by mistake put comments that functionality was never delivered. There was something wrong which they didn't understand - they were really confused over how things had turned up. 

As we continued to talk on that defect, I couldn't resist thinking about the rescue operation that God had done for me. I was worried about the mocking that people would do, and here same people were making apologies for putting wrong comments.

These days at work, whenever the same defect is talked of - everyone is surprised on what actually happened but I smile because I know what happened. 

Thankyou Huzur!

What day is it?

One day at work, I received meeting invite from a friend for her leaving lunch. It was such a busy day that I acknowledged the invite without really going through all details such as venue or the day. After a day or two I opened the invite and figured out  the day and venue. Day was the upcoming Monday and venue some popular Asian restaurant known for its Indian cuisine. 

On the night before I informed at home that I wouldn't be carrying lunch on Monday since there was a planned lunch meeting. As the day began, I started to look forward for the lunch as I was excited to do an outing with the team and also because restaurant was well heard but still untried. Just before we all started for the restaurant I was informed that menu for the lunch was "Chinese". As soon as I heard "Chinese", my excitement faded away. It isn't that I dislike "Chinese" but perhaps I haven't been able to develop any taste for any cuisine other than "Indian" or "Italian". I was excited in the morning because I thought menu was going to be "Indian" but all excitement went away with the word "Chinese". 

I definitely didn't want to miss the opportunity of thanking this friend but was somehow getting uncomfortable of being odd man out when everybody around would be enjoying meal. I somehow convinced myself on reasoning that I will spread rumor that - my stomach is upset and I cannot afford anything heavy so will company others by taking just soup. All uneasiness started to ease when I thought of taking refuge of this lie - which even though was a lie but would have saved any hurtings unintentionally. Taking pride on my cunning reasoning I started to speak to a colleague - "I have upset stomach since morning, I don't know what will I have there, don't want to take anything heavy, may be some tomato soup...something really light on stomach.." Listening all this, colleague felt sorry for my health and we kept walking towards the restaurant. 

Inside me, I did feel sorry for talking this lie but didn't know what else to do. Perhaps for a moment, I also did ask ( in prayer ) - isn't there a way out? some miracle? something what I can't do, but you can? But without waiting for an answer started to walk along the hostess. Just before I could open my mouth to tell her the same lie, she asked me - "what day is it?"  I said - "Monday". 

"Oh!!! how can I be so stupid? Restaurant is closed on Mondays" Feeling sorry about the goof up, she started to apologize to everyone. She apologized even to me but my mind was elsewhere - as if I was taking a sigh of relief as soon as I heard word "closed". Next action that everyone took, standing on the same road, was to decide " where can we now go for lunch? " All started to pour in suggestions but I kept silent, internally thanking God for doing the miracle. Suggestions started to arrive at a consensus, this time again for some Chinese restaurant but finally I threw a suggestion for Indian restaurant. After-all, I didn't want to miss the ball that had been thrown in my court by God :) In the last all agreed on the same Indian restaurant.

Minutes after that we all were sitting in the Indian restaurant where the hostess was again and again apologizing for goofing up the scene. And I was sitting there thanking God again and again for coming to my refuge. 

Well, a short story kept long - It was yet another lovely experience to cherish and share. 

But before I conclude, I would like to mention the order I placed - poppadums with mango chutney, mint raita & pickle, followed by samosa, lemonade, paneer, chole, lachha paranthas * 2.   While I enjoyed the meal thoroughly, and grace of Almighty, I also occasionally thought for the colleague, to whom I had mentioned about my upset stomach. I hope he wasn't wondering, if this is what Sunil eats with an upset stomach, what will he eat with a healthy and empty stomach ?:)

 Anyhow, Thx God for your care.