Birthday

I missed KN's date of birth but his star birthday is tomorrow 1st Sept. We all wish him a happy birthday and many years of healthy happy life.

Ramakrishnan.

Greetings

Sundaresan and Gayathri

Wedding anniversary, 31 August

Many happy returns!

From Ramu

Our computer at home, has again failed and Koushik is giving it for repair. Do not know how long will it take. I am now typing this from a browsing centre, So I may not be able to check mail regularly for sometime.
Ramu

Greetings

Best wishes to Prasad and Charu on their wedding anniversary, 30th August.

Many happy returns.

Vimala and Jayaraman

Greetings

Best wishes to Hari and Uma on their wedding anniversary, 28th August.

Many happy returns.

Greetings

Birthday greetings to Rama Sekhar. I cannot find her photo in my laptop. Can someone send me one?

Greetings to Lakshmi and Jayaram on their wedding anniversary on 26th August.

Many happy returns.

From Ramu

Best wishes to Rama Sekar on her birthday. Many happy returns of the day.
It suddenly struck me. Vidya got the best gift of her birthday on Aug 14 this year, Ramesh arrived in Chennai, after winding up from Abudhabi.
Ramu

Greetings

Happy birthday, KN. Many happy returns!

To KN

Best wishes to KN on his birthday. Many happy returns of the day.
Ramu Sarada

The cake

Akila, The cake is pretty and the description mouthwatering. Wish you could send a piece through e-mail!

Jayaraman

Wedding

We (Vimala, Mythili, Chandru and I) went To Guruvayur yesterday (22nd August 2010) and attended the wedding of Karthik (grandson of Rukku and great-grandson of Gopala Mama) and Srila. After a fine lunch (with adai prathaman and chakka prathaman) and a short rest, had darshan of Guruvayoorappan before returning to Coimbatore.

Jayaraman

The b'day cake

A very happy anniversary to Arvind anna and Anu manni.

I have to definitely share Vaishnavi's b'day cake experience. We basically wanted a cinderella shaped cake. And this is what we got

That's her barbie in the middle around which the cake was made. The dress is icing too. Cutting the cake required some training and getting used to!! So, that's why the cake was an experience

Greetings

Arvind and Anupama
Wedding anniversary - 20th August

Best wishes from PSC Family

Thank you

Thank you very much for all your blessings and wishes.
Wishing Kumar anna and Mala manni a very very happy anniversary.

From Ramu

1. Best wishes to Arvind & Anu on their wedding day. Many happy returns of the day.
2. Yes, Gaythri. August, there are many wedding days & birthdays.
Janga manni also was born on 12 August and M.Vaishnavi too, 19 August.
Ramu

WA

Arvind and Anu,

Saradam and I wish you a very happy WEDDING ANNIVERSARY and many happy returns.

-Ramakrishnan.

Wishes

Wow! August seems to be teeming with birthdays and anniversaries! Let me also catch up and WISH EVERYONE A GREAT DAY AND A WONDERFUL YEAR!
As Appa said some time ago, I do see the posts and send wishes thru esp, but I guess I must say it too once in a way at least (sheepish grin)!
Gayathri

Greetings

Greetings to Kumar and Mala on their wedding anniversary and to Vaishnavi on her birthday, 19th August. Many happy returns!

Vimala and Jayaraman

From Ramu

1. Best wishes to Maj.Gen.Kumar & Mala on their wedding day 19 Aug. Many many happy returns to them.
Ramu Sarada

GREETINGS

Mala and Kumar, we wish you a very happy wedding anniversary and many happy returns.

Akila, please convey to Vaishnavi our blessings and best wishes for a happy birthday and many happy returns.

Saradam and Ramakrishnan.

From Ramu

1. Many happy returns to Vidya and Vivek. All the best to them.
2. Very nice comments from Ramakrishnan, Gayathri and Akila on Meditation. I attended a week long course, Sudharshan Kriya, in 2007, conducted by Sri Sri Ravishankar's group. There they concentrate on breathing methods mostly and some meditation also. During Kriya practice and meditation, Sri Sri`s recorded thala (timing) and other messages used to be played. As Ramakrishnan says, He also says not to control any thoughts or feelings during meditation but be concious of it.
I feel I have not put in sincere efforts on this and I feel I should become more serious and practice more sincerely. Thanks.
Ramu

Happy birthday

Birthday greetings to Vidya (14th August) and Vivek (15th August). Many happy returns!

That sounds real nice Akila - Adi Sankara's Siva Manasa Puja does exactly that!
Hare Ram
Gayathri

Birthday

WISHING A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND MANY HAPPY RETURNS TO ARJUNA

-Ramakrishnan.

Wishes and Comments

A very happy birthday to Arjun, Shankar anna and Anand anna.

At Amma's ashram, meditation is taught in a slightly different way. It is called Manasa pooja and is very similar to what Ramakrishna Perippa says he does. Imagine your favourite God(dess) is sitting on a grand throne in front of you and do a Pada pooja, concentrating on each step we perform. Finally dress up our God and perform aarathi. If we are able to do this effortlessly, then slowly practicing meditation without concentrating on a form would become easy.

MIND CONTROL

I agree with Gayathri. I cannot say I do meditation but in the middle of the night when varied thoughts keep me awake, I try to keep some image before my eyes like the Siddhar Swami and repeat some short mantra like Om Namasivaya or Namo Narayanaya or Rama Rama and somehow this helps me to divert the mind away from the other thoughts and I go to sleep.

Long long ago I attended some lectures of Chinmayananda Swami and I did learn many things from him then being new to the subject and one of the things that stuck in my mind is: when you feel angry, jealous or something like that, do not try to fight it, just be conscious of it and gradually you will be able to overcome these tendencies. In my experience I have felt that becoming conscious of our negative thoughts will lead to overcoming them, at least to some extent. He called it CONSCIOUS AWARENESS.

-RAMAKRISHNAN.

Seeing Jangamma's picture......does something to me.........
Ramu C, may be you can try to hold this picture of Amma in your mind for a few moments?! I am not joking. When you try to meditate,to control your thoughts, the mind keeps running away as usual. But they say - don't try to suppress or control these thoughts, but WATCH the thoughts, be aware of it.
I think the easiest way is to just LET GO & put the onus on your God or Guru to show you the way and make you think, speak and do the right thing and ONLY the right thing!
Hare Ram
Gayathri

Mother's birthday

Namaskarams to Janga Manni on her birthday, August 12.

From Ramu

1. Wishing Jayashankar and Arjun , a very happy birthday. Many happy returns of the day.
2. Ramakrishnan, (KARMA) : I agree with you. I also was thinking same as you. But , whenever I try to do meditation or conciousely try to keep my mind only on God, my mind will start wandering faster than other times. Then I read that point in Deivathin Kural,........
3. FROM DEIVATHIN KURAL:
If a person is given a stick and asked to hold it for one hour, he may be able to do it without much effort. If the same person is asked to hold his mind for some minutes on God, he will find it difficult. A mad person is looked in a funny way by everyone. But God looks all of us as mad only until we are able to control our mind.

BIRTHDAY

This is to wish Jayashankar and Arjuna a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY and many happy returns.

-Ramakrishnan.

KALI YUGAM

I am reading a book by William Dalrymple, a travel writer and this book deals with India now. I quote below from his Introduction to the book:

"The seventh-century VISHNU PURANA puts it:
The kings of the Kali Yug will be addicted to corruption and will seize the property of their subjects, but will,for the most part, be of limited power, rising and falling rapidly. Then property and wealth alone will confer rank; falsehood will be the only means of success in litigation. Corruption will be the universal means of subsistence. At the end, unable to support their avaricious kings, the people of the Kali Age will take refuge in the chasms between mountains, they will wear ragged garments, and they will have too many children. Thus in the Kali Age shall strife and decay constantly proceed, until the human race approaches annihilation".

-Ramakrishnan.

Happy birthday

Best wishes to Anand on his birthday, 10th August. Many happy returns!
Vimala and Jayaraman

KARMA

This has reference to Ramu's posting just before this. If even the working of our mind and our thoughts are the result of past Karma and we have no control over it, then what can we do by our own will to earn Punyam or Papam.

My understanding so far was that our circumstances including our health etc are the result of past Karma and all we can do is train our mind to avoid wrong/bad things and have good thoughts by which we can earn Punyam.

-Ramakrishnan.

From Ramu

1. Best wishes to Niranjan ( sorry, I am late in wishing ) and many happy returns of the day.
2. Paramacharya in Deivathin Kural:
Many people try hard to keep their mind only on God at all times and try to follow the lifestyle prescribed in vedas. But they fail again and again and their mind wanders over all unwanted things. Even this is only the result of karma. One will be able to do this only after suffering the effects of bad karma.
Ramu

Niranjan

My dear Ravi,

I do not know if you visit the Blog once in a while. Saradam and I wish many happy returns to Niranjan on his birthday though I am late.

-Ramakrishnan.

Celebrities of August

As I am away from Coimbatore just now, I am unable to do the slide show for the celebs of August. Shall try and do it in a few days.

For the information of members, Niranjan who celebrated his birthday on the end August is Rau's grandson and son of Ravi/Srilakshmi.

August celebrities

Here's a list of the celebrities of the month, provided by Ramu:

Kumar - Mala..................Aug 19

2. Arvind-Anupama..............Aug 20

3. Hari-Uma........................Aug 28

4. Prasad-Charu.................Aug 30

5. TSS-Gayathri.................Aug 31.

BIRTHDAYS:

1. Niranjan.........................Aug 02.

2. Anand............................Aug 10.

3. Padma manni.................Aug 11.

4. Jaishankar.....................Aug 13.

5. Arjun.............................Aug 13.

6. Vidhya..........................Aug 14.

7. Vivek............................Aug 15.

8. KN................................Aug 24.

9. Rama Sekar..................Aug 25.

JANGA MANNI ------ 12 August.

Here's wishing Niranjan a happy birthday. Many happy returns!

Vimala and Jayaraman