Premonitions are the first type of dream — related to the future. We sometimes get these, don’t we? The second type is from impressions of the past that we’ve gathered in our consciousness; this must be familiar to all. The third is related to our desires and our fears; Guruji says in his talk that these two are both the same thing really. The fourth is related to the energy of the place we are in. When we travel to foreign lands, sometimes even our dreams are strange and foreign. The fifth type of dream is a mixture of all the other four types.

Since the fifth type is the most common, says Guruji, interpreting dreams is usually a waste of time!

I shared all of this with Shraddha and proceeded to tell a story from Guruji’s talk. A saint once told his disciple early in the morning, “I had a dream last night, can you help me interpret it?” The student remained silent. Again the saint asked, “Can you help me interpret my dream?” The disciple then brought a cup of tea from the kitchen and set it in front of the master. Once again the saint posed the question, “So can you help me interpret my dream?” The disciple, without a word, pushed the cup close to the master so that the aroma of the tea wafted into the Master’s nostrils.

Guruji says fools try to find meaning in dreams. Wisdom is in realizing that this reality itself is a dream. The disciple was answering the master without words, that the dream is over, wake up to the reality now; drink your tea! The master was pleased. The disciple had passed his test.

Upon hearing this, Shraddha said, “Will you interpret my dream?” I said of course not, didn’t you hear the story I just told you?” Again she said, “So will you interpret my dream?” With a tinge of annoyance I said, “No.” Again she asked, “Please, will you interpret my dream?” with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Then I realized — all she wanted was for me to go to the kitchen, make our morning tea and bring it to her!

“Oh my goodness, how do people handle such crazy traffic?! Why can’t they be more disciplined on the road?”

That was my mental reaction on the day I landed in India after the first year and a half of living in the US… notwithstanding that I was born and raised in India.

Fast forward to July 2011, after a decade of living and driving in the US. I arrived back in Austin after a family vacation in Switzerland and Germany. Over ten days, I had driven 2,400 kilometers on European highways. Particularly in Germany I was impressed with how disciplined the drivers were. The very next day, all I could think of during my commute to work was:

“Oh my goodness, why are these slowpokes blocking the fast lane? These guys should learn from the Germans how to yield to faster traffic on highways.”

Isn’t it amazing how fast our mind gets used to something and takes it for granted?

Here’s a viral video from a couple of years ago from comedian Louis CK that’s worth watching, if you haven’t already. It’s titled Everything’s Amazing, and Nobody’s Happy, which has a lot of truth to it. Enjoy! (Those on RSS readers, click through to the post for the video, it’s worth it.)

I always run out of ideas about what to cook during the Paryushan week. As you may know already, Jains do not eat potatoes, onions, and garlic. In addition during Paryushan, they also avoid green vegetables and even other vegetables such as cauliflower or corn. So what can we eat? Here’s a list that may come in handy for future Paryushans.

Breakfast and Snacks:

• Pita bread and hummus
• Moong
• Papdi Chaat with Moong and Chole
• Paneer pinwheel
• Khaman
• Upma
• Vermicilli Upma
• Plantin banana puff
• Poha (pouwa)
• Chundal

Sabji (Vegetable/main dish):

• Tofu stir fry
• Paneer Makhani
• Shahi Paneer
• Chole Masala and Bhatura
• Pav Bhaji
• Misal
• Ragda Pattice
• Stuffed Tamatar
• Lal (Red/black) Chana with gravy
• Moong Daal Khichdi
• Pizza home made with pineapple/jalapeno/olives
• Dahi Vada
• Besan Puda
• Kathi Rolls
• Quesidilla (tomatoes and bell pepper) / Black bean and corn dip (some folks don’t eat corn)
• Handvo
• Dal Bati

South Indian:

• Plain Dosa, Jaggery dosa, Rava dosa
• Idli
• Mendu Vada
• Adai
• Pongal

Soup/Daal:

• Gujarati daal, Moong daal, Masoor daal, Daal Makhani
• Minestrone soup
• Rasam
• Sambar

Rice:

• Lemon Rice
• Yogurt Rice
• Tamrind Rice (Puliodarai)
• Plain Rice
• Jeera Rice

Desserts: I can go on forever on this list being a Gujju so I better leave it for your fancy!

And btw, if you need recipe for any of the above feel free to ping me/leave a comment. Enjoy

First stress release. Second much better concentration in study. — Keya

They’ll learn why it is important to be vegetarian. I believe this is the unique thing about Yesplus. In none of the other courses do we have a debate about being a vegetarian or not… recently I have been reading so many books about connecting meat and cancer, that I believe that Yes!+ has awesome knowledge to be offered on this front. — Ramkumar

E-N-E-R-G-Y. One would realize his/her true potential with this course. — Geetha

My top most reason will be Sudarshan Kriya. — Nitin Satarkar

To get the right directions to solve everyday problems. — Shreya Joshi

To observe the self deep within and develop skills for handling people and situations in a positive frame of mind along with breathing techniques that help in achieving the above. — Uthra

Following are my reasons: 1. For rejuvenation 2. To understand how one should control his emotions (esp. temper) 3. For teamwork 4. Giving importance on helping the needy 5. To learn different techniques of yoga 6. This one is for you and Anoop. You guyz are one of the big reason as you were really good teachers. — Kareem Fazal

Because it can be an AMAZING experience for you that can help you change your outlook on life and help you lead a more positive, stress-free life! — Arjun Adapalli

Snippet of First Yesplus of Austin September 2009

Yesplus brings more fun in your life,opportunity to see the world in a different perspective and lets you experience and understand what SEVA is… — Sandhya

To become more aware. — Blaine

Raj had more then a sentence to share.

I’ve to say more than one reason.

Do you want to be more enthusiastic in life?
Do you want to have a clear mind?
Do you want to be successful in career or school?

If YES then do Yesplus. — Raj

My top most reason why someone should do Yesplus – soul searching process. — Nancy Ng

I feel deeply relaxed with Kriya which gives me lot of motivation. One more fact I liked about YesPlus course, few things though we are aware of, but we will never follow, YesPlus brings us to a whole new level of understanding. — Sowjanya

Yesplus is a fun course and meant for anyone who wants to learn knowledge without being said. — Mamta

I think the top reason to do Yesplus would be to take an AOL course with people who are facing similar challenges in life that are common to a narrow youth age group. — Kieran

With the new knowledge and techniques you are able to quiet your mind which helps reduce stress and anxiety. — Elizabeth Draughon

The number one reason that I feel someone should do Yesplus is to unlock the deep sense of belongingness, peace, joy and freedom that exists in all of us, whether we realize it or not. Yesplus allows you to brighten your inner light, embrace your ideal Self and make lifelong friends. — Katie Walsh

Ritesh had more then a sentence to share.

I would say that the top most reason to take YesPlus is for happiness! The happiness derived from the Sudarshan Kriya and knowledge / activities shared during the course is like a kick-start to being happy, joyful, and energetic. With your distractions clear from your mind, you can help others and achieve so much more from life with greater concentration &/ focus.

Since the course, I’ve become a Big Brothers Big Sisters Volunteer and feel like I’m making an impact in my “little’s” life. Such a wonderful gift for the both of us!

– Ritesh Sheth

Stress reduction. — Kishore Paidimarri

1. Its one of the funnest courses. You will have a blast.
2. Experiential so you know what the course point means.
3. Can’t get the concentration breath in any other course.
– Lakshmi Damerla

Yes plus infuses you with positive energy and helps you explore your life in a way that makes you a stronger, happier, and more capable person. — Vishaal Sapuram

In my opinion, Yes+ gives people the perspective of being mindful of every moment. — Bhawna Sharma

Once again, Thank you to everyone for responding and sharing your experience.

Join us and experience Yesplus for yourself. We have a Yesplus workshop in Austin Sept 15-19. To find a course near you, visit http://us.yesplus.org/

To explore inside. Kriya definitely boosts prana and immunity. Purely physical aspect. — Kalpesh Soni

To get back focus. — Mazhalai C

To realize one’s own internal/personal power and the ability to understand situations and be calm if things/people are not in control. — Niharika Nidhi

Apart from experiencing a glimpse of spirituality, learn and practice simple techniques for learning to live a happy and content life. — Sucharit Ghate

To appreciate life fully. One should take it just for the Kriya. But, I think the whole package of life lessons is much more than any book/talk could offer. My key take away was a simple thing – Be happy no matter what! I’d recommend it to anyone who wants more out of life. — Vinodh Kumar

Different experience. — Kilol Shah

Brings dynamism in that person in form of openness, confident… all comes through surge in energy due to practices in workshop. Everyone knows about these good qualities, read somewhere but only practices/kriya makes it reality.  — Manisha Soni

Hmm… I think I learned how to have clarity from the course. Now, nothing really holds me back when before I would let the past bring me down. — Sumuk Raja

To get back in touch with how to live life with confidence and enthusiasm. — Ambica Ashok

To me in this busy world, doing yes plus is a special time with yourself, you get to know yourself better, more like a guided introspective experience. — Rangakrishna

I think a course of this sort helps you become more aware of yourself kinda forcing yourself to take the time to think. — Sindhu

People should do it for the kind of awareness and enthusiasm it brings in their young lives and also because it will change their life forever. — Deepika Akella

Makes a person more active/dynamic. — Mathura

I would say to join Yesplus is the greatest honor to yourself because it helps you see how capable your body is, especially when your mind becomes open. — Sarah Lovin

Brings confidence and dynamism. — Shalini Batra

It is endless fun from start to finish. — Manjunath

Ben had more then a sentence to share.

The top reason…hmm that’s not easy.

I believe in today’s society we are constantly bombarded via multiple angles and mediums with information that negatively influences our perceptions of each other(cultures and societies) and ultimately how we interact with each other as individuals. YesPlus creates an environment of unilateral acceptance of our diverse backgrounds and cultures. Through YesPlus’s teachings on breathing and meditation individuals attain improved clarity of thought and peace of mind. Provided a clear and balanced mindset we are able to better frame our emotions, understand our thoughts and act in accordance with the wisdom of Guruji and the YesPlus instructors.

An old Chinese proverb(via a fortune cookie): “For the things we have to learn before we do them, we learn by doing them.”

YesPlus facilitates an environment to learn how to be a better person, both to ourselves and to each other.

Articulating my statements above to someone that does not understand humanity’s predicament and it’s individual impacts is difficult.

– Benjamin Block

Thanks to all who responded. We will continue to have fun Yesplus courses in Austin, as well as in many others places around the world. Do tune in if you haven’t already!

More sharing from Austin Yesplus-ers in the next post.

The ceremony is done with the guidance of a priest in the local temple. Our local temple offered the ceremony in a group setting on Friday for followers of the Rig Veda. And on Saturday for Yajur Veda families. What’s more, on Saturday I had three timeslots to pick from: 6 am, 7 am and 8 am. Isn’t that amazing, considering that this isn’t Chennai; it’s Austin, Texas!

Our priest explained one aspect of the ceremony that I did not remember from prior years: this day is also an occasion for vidyaarambham, or the (re-)commencement of our education in the vedas. After wearing the new thread, he led us in a few verses from each of the four vedas as a symbolic vidyaarambham.

On this day many Indian families also celebrate Rakshabandhan, the festival that honors the brother-sister relationship. Sisters pray for the well-being of their brothers, who in turn give gifts and pledge to protect their sisters. The relationship is cemented by the tying of the rakhi by the sister on the wrist of each of her brothers. In the Indian context, cousins are counted as well.

Shraddha’s family on her dad’s side drove from Houston to our home in Austin to celebrate. Numbering twenty in all, for the weekend they ensured that our home was overrun with Gujju talk, Gujju food and Gujju humor. We had hide-and-seek, poker (which I slept out), the rakhi ceremony, lots of amazing food and home-made desserts, tree-climbing, picnic lunch in our backyard, movie-watching, and more amazing food.

A slideshow of a few pics is below (click through to the post if you can’t see it in your RSS reader).

Before the trip, I wanted to remove a big dust spot on the sensor of my Canon DSLR, and at first I was looking at either cleaning it myself or having it wet-cleaned at Precision Camera (for about $70, I think). The guy at the service desk there took a look at it through a magnifying loupe, blew some compressed air on the sensor, checked it out again with the loupe, and pronounced it good to go. Thirty seconds, no charge. Talk of great service!

My Sigma flash also suffered some damage some months ago, so bounce flash has not been on my list of techniques in recent shooting. Available light is enough for now, thank you. Kinda refreshing, actually. Less equipment to mess with.

This week I bought a Corsair F60 SSD from Fry’s, in an attempt to speed up my thin-and-light wonder laptop, the HP dm1z. The transfer of my existing Win7 image to the new SSD went very smoothly. However after two hours of use, the drive was dead. The BIOS couldn’t see the drive any more, and moving it over to a different system didn’t help.

This is a well known problem with this drive. Current ratings of some Corsair and OCZ SSDs on Newegg show that between 15 and 20 (!) percent of all purchasers reported a similar failure in short order (look for the 1/5 user ratings). That’s a ridiculously high failure rate. Rather than deal with RMA from Corsair, I wanted to return the drive to Fry’s. I went back to the store with the receipt. The guy at the customer service desk ran a few tests on the drive. He came in a few minutes and reported that…

The serial number on the drive didn’t match the serial number on the box! The last two digits were different. Seriously, Corsair?

After four Fry’s employees and managers looked at the discrepancy in turn, they called the “cage” to find out if other drives of the same kind had a serial number mismatch. They didn’t. Finally one of the managers came back to the customer service desk and apologized for the delay, and explained what had happened. He said that they’d accept my return and refund my money but Corsair probably wouldn’t take the drive back, so Fry’s might have to bear the loss. I do appreciate Fry’s standing behind the products they sold, but no more Corsair products for me, I think.

I am now back to using a plain old hard disk on my HP dm1z laptop. I have enabled full-disk encryption using TrueCrypt on that system, after years of using encryption only for my data partition. More on drive encryption some other time.

My excellent Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 lens sold on eBay a couple of days ago. I hope the new owner puts it to good use; it was a great performer on my camera. My “plastic fantastic” 50mm f/1.8 prime lens is also up for auction right now, and the reserve price has been met; so it too will leave my hands early next week. The cash from both these transactions will fund a Tamron 18-270 super-zoom, which will be a one-lens solution. Let’s see how well that lens works out for me…

Above all, humbled that an initiative from one great soul, Guruji, could lead to a worldwide movement that could bring about such a big meeting of hearts and minds for the most noble cause possible — love, peace, humanity, divinity. And last but not the least, grateful for the opportunity to be present at such an occasion!

A slideshow of some of my pictures is below. (Click through to this post if your RSS reader doesn’t show it.)

In addition to the usual activities, we did Yoga in the park on Sunday, and it was open to anyone who was around in the park. That was a lot of fun, and we also got to introduce some folks to Yoga and pranayama for the first time.

Shraddha and I were glad to be back on the yesplus circuit after a somewhat extended break. Even better, this week Shraddha is on another yesplus course, and there will be another collage pretty soon!