Rishi Vidyadhar Ji - A Rishi and Disciple in Letter & Spirit!

I have been wanting to put up this blog for quite a while now and now seems to be the perfect moment - I just completed an Advanced Course with Rishi Vidyadhar Ji on Sunday and what an amazing experience it was!

Rishi Ji is simply fabulous! I used hear about him from an old friend and teacher, Bhavesh, when the latter used to work with us in Thane. Bhavesh used to share experiences of advanced courses with the erstwhile Raju Bhaiya (now Rishi Ji of course) and how superb he was. I used to be in awe but never got (rather took! - disempowered speech you see!) an opportunity to be with him on an advanced course.

Finally the opportune moment came when Rishi travelled to Mulund and conducted the advanced course in the Gurudwara hall. Knowledge was simply flowing (it was no wonder having done 361 advanced courses at the time of this post) - What deep insight this person had into life - all of course he contributed to Guruji!


I had then vowed that I will keep repeating courses with him regularly so that I could keep learning lots of newer stuff from him. I kept my promise and recently completed an advanced course with him in Kalyan. Some tidbits from him during the course (Remember though, this is only a sample and you need to be with him to experience his divine presence) -

• Om Namah Shivaya chanting is very powerful - (not the 108 one, the prolonged one which is available on a CD in divine shop) - Om Namah Shivaya chanting has the power to nullify karma dosh and vastu dosh! It reinforced what Guruji had said when he came home. We told him about some vastu abnormalities in the house & asked what to do and he said "kuch zaroorat nahi, roz om nimah shivaya chanting karo, sab theek ho jayega"
• Mind's tendency is to become obsessed then possessed. We want to get something in a hurry, we become obsessed by it and then when we acquire it, we become possessive about it
• Leaders first participate and then contribute; this is a key attribute of leaders; participation is the first step towards effective leadership and then second step is contribution
• MBA = mujhe bohut aata hai :-)
• All of us must memorize all the 365 knowledge sheets given by Guruji! (I have started on that path now.. hope to accomplish by March!)
  
• One who has 50 desires in a day = Bhogi ; One who has 1 desire in 50 days = Yogi ; One who has no desires = Bhakt ; One who works to fulfill other people's desire = Bhagwan (example Guruji) ; Which category are you in?
• Guru se maangna hai to teen cheeze mango - Aseem Bhakti (infinite devotion), atoot shraddha (Unbreakable Faith) and Moksha (Liberation)
• To keep mind in present moment 24 hrs, devote 10% of time in sadhana i.e. 2.5 hrs every day
  
• Mind's tendency is to keep accumulating (sangraha karna) - we keep accumulating objects, peoples and situations - this is a great fallacy
• We face exactly 10 negative emotions not more not less and these are the 10 heads of Ravana - Anger, Regret, Fear, Hatred, Jealousy, Greed, Lust, Lethargy, Moha and Ahankar; The first eight can be experienced within our body at different chakras; the last two are very subtle

I remember, the first advance course I did with him he had said something very profound - Comparison is the root cause of our misery! All the problems in life are because of comparison. Let me elaborate what he said -

• Anger is nothing but comparison of current event with past event
• Regret is nothing but comparison of our existing actions with our past actions  
• Fear is nothing but comparison of current event with future event 
• Hatred is nothing but comparison of someone's current actions with his/her past actions 
• Jealousy is nothing but comparison of what we have with what another person has 
• Greed is nothing but comparison of what we have currently and what we want in the future 
  

Superb na??

That's why he is a Rishi - A river of knowledge!! Gyan Ganga!! A disciple in the truest sense - a thorough disciplinarian - lives by Guru's words - lives the knowledge!



Do take the first opportunity to be with him on an upcoming advance course!

Our Biggest Motivators!

Some wonderful things Guruji said that I loved and thought are really relevant to all of us. One is on changing habits and the other is on Seva. Enjoy!

Q. What is the secret to having a strong will power? Please tell me as I have so many bad habits that I would like to change about myself.

Sri Sri: Now, three things can help you to get over bad habits. 1. Love- If you love somebody or something, then promise them for their sake that you will continue the good habits. 2. Fear - When there is a fear that this bad habit is going to bring great problems to me, then you will get out of it. 3. Greed - If someone tells you that by leaving this bad habit, you will get a million dollars, you would not do that (the bad habit), you want a million dollars in your pocket. If someone tells you, don’t drink or smoke for the next one week, then you will be entitled to one million dollars. Will you smoke, will you drink? No ways! If someone tells you that you will get 10 million dollars or 10 million euros if you don’t smoke for one month or 30 days, they will say, ‘Why only 30 days? I will not smoke for 35 days. I am sure of the number of days, as I want to be sure. Not 29 days. Some months are only 30, some are 31, so let me do for the maximum of 35 days’. Because you know, when you value some thing much more than the habit and you know that you are going to get that, then the habit will drop out of it. So through love, fear or greed you will stop doing it. You know, promiscuity has reduced to a great extent because of the fear of AIDS. After the dreadful disease of AIDS started appearing, then promiscuity came down to a great extent. So similarly, commitment to a higher cause can help you get over small little attractions.

Q. Dearest Guruji, I am so fortunate to be on a path like this with you. I want more people to get this experience and be more happy by living in the knowledge and practicing the technique. But some people are not willing to be approached nor understand when I would like to share. So how to speed this to the people who are in need? Maybe their time has just not come.

Sri Sri: No, no don’t think their time has not come. You keep doing your work. You keep telling, you don’t have to push everybody but gently you have to facilitate people to get into the knowledge. Yes, this is necessary.

Of all things three are really the strongest motivators for any act that we do - Love, Fear and Greed! I looked at this answer from Guruji and looked back at myself and found it to be true. Either we something because we really love some person, situation or things; OR we do it out of fear of something we don't want to happen; OR because we are obsessed about Name, Fame, Money, etc and want to get there in a hurry (Greed)!

Funny part is this keeps happening hundreds of times every day - all we need to do is become aware of it!

For example, writing this blog could have been motivated by any of the following - 

a. i want to add value to your life and bring you the latest knowledge from Guruji and latest insights from my experiences OR

b. i fear that you will stop following the blog hence put a post OR

c. i want more followers hence keep updating the blog regularly so that you keep coming back and invite your friends

It could also be combination of the three and one factor being more dominant than the others.

So, here's an exercise - for an entire day observe your actions and why you are motivated to do it - you'll find a great secret of how to change your bad habits!

Lots of Love!

P.S. I would love to see some of your comments on your learnings & implementations from the exercise

What's in a Name?

II Shree Ganeshaya Namaha II

Guys, this is my first post!

So here goes....

First things first! You must be wondering how this blog came about and I am sure the Title must have intrigued you ...

Well it just happened within a matter of few seconds I would say... Yesterday we had the last day of my first course as a co-teacher and we had 500+ YES+ participants gather at our Vashind Ashram site. That experience itself deserves a post... maybe soon. As we were leaving the venue to come back to Thane and one of the volunteers just handed me a card which had several blog addresses printed on it - Bau and Dinesh da's, Saleel da's, Virat & Vasudha's, and Dipti Unny's. And one of my course participants innocently asked me - "Bhaiya, which one is yours?" For a moment, I hesitated, not knowing how to answer the question, not knowing why I hadn't started a blog so far. That moment the blog got created in my mind first and this morning into being!

Creating a blog was so simple, hardly a two minute job. While registering, I was asked to enter the Title of the Blog. I had not thought of anything until then and suddenly something came up "The Light Within".. and the moment I recited it to myself, I felt an immediate connect with it and decided this was it!

Interestingly, the web address has more than one pun in it -
dlitewithin is not just about "the light within", its also about "delight within" and "feeling lite within" - all of which is possible through Guru's Grace and Sudarshan Kriya!

I hope you enjoy this place and seek the light within!

Jai Gurudev!