Vasudha Jhunjhunwala

After 15 years of my daily spiritual practices, I have finally been initiated to the Gaytri Mantra through the sacred ceremony of Upanayan. They said “Upanayan is like a second birth”. I did not quite comprehend the meaning of this statement, until I experienced the depth of this sacred ceremony.

On the first day at the time of initiation as soon as the 1st word of the mantra was chanted in my ears by Kashi Bhaiya, tears started to trickle down my eyes. It felt as if a switch was pressed and I got connected to the infinite universe, instantly.
What’s the science behind this? How does this work ? How did the Rishi’s know so precisely?
Many such questions have filled my life with wonder after the initiation ceremony of the Upanayan.

The next few days of the course was experiencing the infinite energy which got released, from somewhere I don’t know! As if a nuclear reaction had happened inside me, I could not fathom where so much energy was being experienced throughout the day. I was barely sleeping for 4hours still all daily chores were being completed effortlessly. In fact much more was accomplished than regular days.

The thoughts of the past and future are not troubling the mind.The mind is naturally being in the present moments. As if some fine tuning has happened and now the music of life is flowing more smoothly.

Something has changed for sure, what it is, I will only discover as I move ahead with this beautiful new friend, the Gaytri Mantra. I look forward to building a strong relationship with my new friend and look forward to exploring the possibilities of this new alliance in future. Because as they rightly said “I am twice born now” 🙂

I have been here too,

                                  standing TALL just like you.

Winds of change have blown and gone

facing them all, this form was born.

No avalanche, no storms could ever touch me

freezing cold and burning sun made me stronger, couldn’t crush me!

I have been a witness to them all,

                                                      to be here now, is a divine call.

I have seen kings and queens come and go,

                                                                      to no pomp or show did I ever bow.

Will continue to stand here for a million years and more,

 Holding the weight of responsibilities on my robust shoulders, that I bore.

  Offering my strength to the weak,

providing shade and shelter to the meek.

I rise above every cloud,

my strength makes me humble and proud.

My form may change as millenniums go by,

they may call me with different names, standby.

But I am here too to stay forever,

to die isn’t my destiny, never-ever. 

I will be here too

Standing STILL just like you.

We encountered unexpected traffic while returning on the Western express highway this Sunday evening. It seems some flyover is being constructed because of which such heavy traffic was there. Cars were moving bumper to bumper and I was having to use the break every minute. We were in acceptance and peace inspite of chaos around us. Thanks to the Art of living course which has trained us to accept the moment as it is 🙂

 It was around 7.30pm when we were passing by from under Malad flyover(at a speed of around 20km/h) in a flash of a second a BEST bus came in full speed and almost sandwiched our car, with the flyover on one side and the bus on the other as it wrongly over took another bus. I applied sudden breaks (God’s intervention), if there had been a one second delay, our car would have collapsed into the moving bus. Om namah shivaya, thinking of it still gives me goosebumps!
I felt a surge of anger at this foolish act of the careless driver. Who had just proved with his rash driving that he does not care for the lives of common man.

Instead of letting go (like most of us do, since we are so habituated to take unjust in our country) I followed him. He stopped outside Dindoshi bus depot to drop passengers. At that moment, I took my car ahead and parked it right in front of the bus, so that he could not escape or move.
We were 4 girls in the car – Mrunal, Mamta, Ranjeeta, myself, along with Shashwat. 3 of us got down and demanded an apology from the driver.
Did the driver respond respectfully and admitted his mistake? Forget about an apology, this guy had not slightest of regret about what he had done. He was in complete denial and looked into our eyes as if telling us , ‘What you girls can do to me..do what you like..I don’t care.’ 2 officials came from the bus depot and instead of supporting us they started asking me to remove my car and instead file a complain in the police station.

I was adamant not to move. In the mean time, I called the traffic Commissioner and requested him to intervene. VBI had done a project with the traffic department which was very appreciated by him.  He was kind enough to call the ACP who immediately helped us by sending a traffic cop to help us. The message was posted on the group and in no time 5 of our Hero volunteers came to help -Mandar, Monish,Pratik.. (Pratik was at the celebrations of his parent’s 30th anniversary and was kind enough to drop everything and come).

I could clearly see divine’s intervention at this point .We were only girls with a child but help came in from all directions in no time. The bus depot officials called for police too. A flood of people surrounded us now. The traffic cop was very supportive and helpful. And even the police. Both bashed the driver and did not give in to his stories. By now the driver had realized that he won’t be able to get away with this and he may even loose his job.
He came to me and resentfully apologized.I patiently explained him that his job needs him to be very responsible as lives are at stake. The traffic cop took his licence and filed a complain. As a punishment the driver will not be driving for atleast 15 days.

I sincerely hope that after this the driver and his other colleagues will get a learning and they would be more careful on the roads. Every citizen’s life is important and cannot be taken for granted!
We in India, have started giving up very soon to the unjust that happens around us, we have made ourselves believe we are the chickens in the truck – helpless and unaware! And that is one of the reasons for the state of affairs in our country. We should come together and create pressure groups and stand by each other in times of crisis. Like is said ” Sanghe Shakti Kalyuge”, VBI gives us that platform.  Every wrong action needs to be reported and demanded for justice. When more and more citizens do this we can have a JUST India .

For all of us who witnessed this incident it got further reaffirmed -“Bhakt Kabhi Haar nahi sakta “, a devotee can never lose:)) . As a devotee we are bestowed with infinite strength by the divine. Prayers at the feet of Gurudev, who nurtured us on this path and made us recognize the infinite strength in us.

Jai Hind
Jai Gurudev

– Vasudha

Shashwat and his friends appealing to all parents and elders to make India win by voicing their opinion through VOTE!