DSN, in the Art of Living world, is sometimes
jocularly referred to as "door se namashkar" or "Don't
say no!", and that is not
without reason.
The course is a 4 day, 16 hrs a day, hard core
course to accelerate your growth as an individual, and hence help the
society you live in, to grow. The course is tough, to say the least, and
is intense hard-work. It challenges some of the very assumptions we come
to the course with, and causes significant shifts in the thinking and
perspectives of the participants. It brings you face-to-face with some
of the unpleasant aspects of your life, your fears, your
relationship-troubles that you had chosen to suppress.
The course is not lectures! In fact, lectures
are very small part of the course. The intense yoga and pranayama
sessions are physically challenging, leading the way to mental and
emotional awakening. And the real-world situations created and discussed
in the course, the role-plays, the requirement to consider other better
(but not necessarily comfortable) alternatives, takes your growth to a
new trajectory.
Most participants come out of the course
physically and mentally rejuvenated, committed to their goals and the
upliftment of the society they live in. The courage and motivation they
have thus gained keeps them going full-throttle for months to come! They
feel the "bliss of the Master" everywhere.
One of the primary strengths of the DSN course is the social and
networking element. I am surprised at how many of the DSN alumni
continue to be in touch with each other years after the course is over
and reminisce about the course and Anandji. I can recognize most of the
participants I did my DSN with, and invariably comment about the great
experiences we had during the course.
Notes
The following are some of the points that I
could recollect from Anandji's DSN course that we attended in Dahisar,
Mumbai (DSF, Anand Nagar), between 13 - 16th Nov 2008.
They have been recorded here in a very concise
form, at times intentionally cryptic, so as to be useful as a refresher for the
participants of Anandji's DSN program. Care has been taken not to make
this page a self-contained alternative to the DSN course, since the
author firmly believes that you cannot get even minuscule benefit from a
third person account of what the DSN course is all about - you have to
undergo the course to be able to change your life!
Dr Ching Pong
Zak.zak..zak...zak....zakkaasss!!!
Got it?!?!
You can get down only before the plane
takes off. Once the plane takes off, you can only get down at the
destination.
Extension of an individual is the family.
Extension of the family is the society. Extension of the society is
the Divine Society (the Divya Samaj)
Rock Solid
Share karo, sher bano
Share with EAF
Circle of comfort/courage
Pressing the "buttons" and distributing
"remote controls"!
Label
The simple question to be used when making
any difficult decision - is it good for me in the long run?
waain-waain waain-waain
sochne ka nahi...bas karne ka. Munna
Circuit example. Pappu log bas sochte hain...winner log karke
dikhate hain.
Pappu log excuse dete hain, winner log
results dete hain
Bhai ne bola hai na, toh dimaag nahi lagane ka!
bina charge ka cellphone!!!??? :-)
Smiling person - product complete.
Non smiling person - work in progress.
Sad person - manufacturing defect.
andar YES hai to baahar bhi YES hai...andar
NO hai to baahar bhi NO hai.
Madan Mohan Malviya - Sharm to mujhe is
baat ki aati hai ki woh marne wala bhi jaate jaate kuchh deke gaya...aur
is jinda aadmi ne kuchh nahee diya!
A question mark becomes a hook in your
mind. Once you replace the question mark with an exclamation mark,
it becomes a pillar, of strength! So the 6th Sutra of AOL is "Oho!
Aise bhi log hote hain!!!!".
Before DSN - Oh God, why me?? Why not my
neighbour??
After DSN - Oh God! Try me!!!!
3 tips for losing weight
Thinking of past brings tears, Thinking of
future brings fears, That is why present is so dear
Guruji's explanation on the reason for
depression
Importance of seva / service
Sadhana gives energy, energy makes more
seva, more seva makes deeper sadhana, which inturn gives more
energy...
A course that gives you Padma, Sadhana, and
Shanti - what reason to not do this course!!!
Importance of Ashtavakra Gita, and the
right procedure for its study
Take over a role, give 100% and let go
LG = LG
Engine or Bogie?
Knowledge should be taken in the way it is
conveyed; Not in the way it is convenient
Results are 1% technique, and 99% grace of
the Master
If you respect the technique, the technique
will respect you
Case study of the person with Trigeminal
Neuralgia
Power of "Om Namah Shivay" - Ravan's throne
was on a dias, which could be reached by climbing 9 steps -
each step indicating one of the navagraha.
The concept of collective intelligence
(which comes into play when you had made your 100% efforts, and then
you
surrender)
Guru stories:
- tujhe dekha to yeh jaana sanam
- are those models more beautiful than me
- 25th silver jubilee celebrations - awesome!
- Guruji, will you sleep with me?
- Guruji, will you marry me?
- Oh ho! Now people are using me as a transport coordinator also!
- India in 2016
Mahesh Giriji was Peethadheesh for 20
years, and his experience on the first day of Kriya!
Mahesh Giriji's accident on the Mumbai-Pune
Expressway - dekho, bacha liya na!
The architect knows his design well!
The story about the cruise
The most amazing thing about Guruji is his
level of consciousness! A devotee experienced this on his request
and by Guruji's grace, and later explained the experience as that of
being a very busy telephone exchange where all lights are constantly
flickering and you are frantically busy patching the connections!
Having is one thing, realizing what we have
is another!
Yeh dharti kisi ka rin naheen rakhti - tum
ek daana doge, woh 100 dana waapis degi. Tun 100 dana doge, woh 10
hazaar
dana waapis degi!
Very innovative use of the Durga invocation
prayer:
Jaago jaago maa
Jaago jaago maa
Jaago jaago maa janani
Jaago jaago maa janani
Jai Durga devi, Ranchandi devi
Jai Durga devi, Ranchandi devi
Shiv-ramana jaago maa
Shiv-ramana jaago maaaa...
Aska lakdi lakda lakda. Hupta lakdi lakda
lakda
The following photo is one of my most prized
possessions - the picture of Anandji, with my then 10 month old
daughter, on an off-classroom visit to the Kanheri caves in the Sanjay
Gandhi National Park, Mumbai, on 28th Dec 2008.
A beautiful video - which essentially is just a
collection of some wonderful photos of Anandji - on and off his Art of
Living courses - is also worth a viewing:
The following is the snap I took of Anandji
conducting his DSN session:
Anandji can be reached on his mail id anand@artofliving.org
Anandji's birth date falls on 17th Feb, the
exact date when AOL commenced its 3-day celebration of its 25 year
anniversary in 2006. Video giving a glimpse of the scale of this event
can be found here.
A devotee has also created a
personal website for Anandji, the
most important feature of the website being Anandji's schedule tracker.
You can know when and where Anandji be at any point of time, and what
course he is conducting.
