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Guru Story - An Inmate's Tale

"There are only selfish or bad moments; there are no bad people in this world. They are ignorant. Inside every culprit is a victim crying for help. Feel compassionate for such people."

--- His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

My name is Veeru and I am 42 years old hailing from Thanjavur District of Tamilnadu. I am undergoing imprisonment for a 10-year term from 2002 and prior to this I was just a misguided youth pursuing the wrong goal.

It was in September 2002, an Art of Living Teacher came to conduct Prison SMART course at this Vellore Prison and I was in the batch of 30 inmates who participated in it. After the course I did my sadhanas and Kriya regularly and was able to realize the positive changes both physically and mentally. I gradually understood the meaning of human values, sense of belonging, love, compassion and care for the World. My anger and negative attitudes were getting erased from my system and I had the awareness about my ego and learnt to control it. My approach towards other inmates drastically changed and I started helping them in whatever possible way that I could. For a long period of more than 6 months there were no Prison SMART courses in Vellore Prison even during this period I was continuing with my daily sadhanas.

With Guruji's blessings and the help of Jail Superintendent Sri.Ramachandran the courses were revived. The Jail Superintendent, who takes keen interest in the welfare of the inmates, encouraged sports, education and of course made it compulsory for everyone to undergo the Prison SMART course. With his efforts courses were conducted continuously for 16 weeks and out of the 2300 inmates nearly 1600 took the course and are enjoying the benefits. The teachers were so humble and affectionate that on the last day of each course they left an indelible impression in the heart of the inmates. They gave us details about Gurudev's mission of bringing inner peace and transformation and his vision of seeing the smile on every face in this World. The various seva projects of the Art of Living and how it has reached people in 142 countries going beyond barriers of religion, caste, color, creed and nationality. The organizer of Vellore Centre was very much instrumental in coordinating with the teachers and the Prison authorities.

He along with the AOL volunteers of Vellore white washed the entire Dhyana Manatap inside the Prison.

At the end of each course all the participants unanimously without exception appreciate the course and share their healing experience with others. Some of the changes that were noticed in the Prison after every SMART Course were.

1. The number of People going to Prison Hospital has decreased.

2. Many of the Inmates who had taken the course and after their term in

prison had not come back again to the prison. We came to know most of them

have taken up good occupation and started living a good life.

3.Petty quarrels and violence inside the prison have drastically come down.

4.The sense of belonging and friendliness between the Inmates has been

bonded.

5.Most of the inmates have given up smoking and are looking healthy.

6.Creative talents like Artwork, drawing & painting, singing bajans, dancing

and writing poetry have all been developed.

7.Last but not the least everyone seems to be fresh in the morning after the

sadhnas and very energetic throughout the day and sleep well in the night.

Now coming back to myself, I had been attending all the courses without fail and the daily sadhanas and Kriya gave me so much of happiness that I could throw away all my bad habits. A smoker for 21 years I quit the habit effortlessly and I am a now a complete vegetarian. I had a worst enemy inside the prison who has become my best friend now thanks to this wonderful knowledge. Taking responsibility of keeping the course hall clean and helping the teacher with the audio systems etc makes me happy. My hobbies are mainly reading Guruji's books like "Sri Sri as I know him", "God loves fun" "Wisdom for the New millennium" and lots of stories from Pitaji's page in the Rishimukh Magazine.

When I sing "Hari hari hari hari Naryana OM Govinda Naryanan Om" other Inmates join me in singing. I have become a person liked by one and all and they call me Jai Gurudev. I owe this entire new life to Guruji. People visiting me from outside are astounded by my development and that gives me an opportunity to spread the awareness about AOL courses. My wife who used to visit the Prison every week noticed the visible changes in my attitude, which reflected in my smiling face, and it prompted her and her sister to join the AOL course happening near our house. I am fortunate that in spite of my bad deeds and misfortune leading me to prison Guruji has come into my life to liberate me from my negative bondage and show me the light.

Jai Gurudev

Veeru.

Note: If you want to share your Guru story with everyone... you may mail the same at feedback.aoluniverse@gmail.com

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Guru Story - Our Art Excel student is now 13 yr old CEO

Dear All,

Couple of months after he took the ART Excel, Anshul Samar who was only 11yr then, called me one day to ask, What is the purpose of Life ?

Never before did I hear that question so sincere from such a young one. and his purpose already unfolding at 13yr. Anshul is the 13yr old CEO who launched his company

along with his sister Shailee (11yr) & 2 other friends.

Yes, You read it right ...

read about their company at http://www.elementeo.com/aboutthecreator

and their Success Story at ...

http://venturebeat.com/2007/05/19/elementeos-13-year-old-ceo-highlight-of-tiecon

Anshul & Shailee are one of the most dedicated of the ART Excel kids, I have seen them move with faith keeping the practices with them through so many situations

in the last 2years.

Our kids are indeed blessed to blossom in Guru ji's grace.

And it is wonderful to see them grow up with truly All Round Excellence in Life ...

Our Best wishes to the Samar Family. Vipin & Pratibha have been the incredible support & guiding force in making choices as Parents for these kids.

Below is a poem I would like to share that Anshul wrote for Guru ji and sent as Christmas Gift to me.

In Every Breath

Anshul Samar, 7th grade, 25th December 06

Always besides me

Right there

Next to me

Embracing me, bringing me

Close to his heart

Picking me up

Holding me

And walking me

Through the

Sadness of my life

Making every moment

Of my life

Full of essence, peace

Love, joy

And Gratitude

Giving unconditional love

To each one of my cells

And with a smile

Lifting my soul

Letting it fly

Always teaching me

The true meaning

Of Life, the true meaning

Of Love, and the true meaning

Of Bliss

Opening a whole

New world for me

And showing me

Happiness and joy

Beyond measure

The one whose presence

I can feel

In every moment

In every heartbeat

And in every breath

My GURUDEV!!!

From: Uma Ammagari <uma_aol@yahoo.com>

Note: If you want to share your Guru story with everyone... you may mail the same at feedback.aoluniverse@gmail.com

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Guru Story-Sujatha Finds Independence

Nebulisers are medical equipments most commonly used to treat acute attacks of asthma and wheezing in Hospitals or Nursing Homes. Most of the patients need not use a nebuliser at home. Their inhaled medication is best delivered by an inhaler. However, sometimes people who have very severe asthma, wheezing or other lung diseases find that normal reliever inhalers do not work for them. To help open up the airways or to deal with an attack that comes on very quickly, a doctor may prescribe nebulised reliever medication to use at home. A very small number of people with asthma/wheezing also need to use a nebuliser to take their regular preventive medicine.

Now, I have an interesting healing experience of an young lady who went to buy a Nebuliser and landed up in an Art of Living Part I Course, finally, getting herself cured of a nagging wheezing problem. Ms. Sujatha of Tenkasi near Madurai in South India. shares with us the Divine Grace of Gurudev relieving her from the dependence on Nebuliser and Inhaler.

I had suffered a lot with wheezing problems for the last 14 years especially during the last 6 years, I had totally become an addict to inhalers. It is dangerous to use it more than 3 times per day. As my condition was such, that I had to use it nearly 8 times a day ignoring the warning given in the leaflet.

Due to persistent family problems, leading me to depression and the treatment for it only resulted in my gaining 15 kg weight rather than acquiring peace of mind. I was physically and mentally exhausted taking a lot of medicines like
Deriphylline, Rantac , Emosolone etc.

During January 2004, I was admitted in a Hospital in a coma stage. I was unconscious for nearly two days. It was rather a surprise for the Doctor as very rarely one in a thousand get affected in the brain due to wheezing and considering my age it was exceptional. Even after getting discharged from the hospital very frequently I had to go and inhale the preventive medicine through the Nebuliser. The Doctor seeing my plight asked me to buy a Nebuliser to use it at home.

On April, 19th 2004, I went to Tirunelveli to buy a Nebuliser, but my good fortune I met a relative who suggested that I take the Art of Living Course before buying the equipment. This landed me in the Art of Living Part I Course.

On 22nd April which happened to be my birthday, I got the wonderful Gift of Sudarshan Kriya from Guruji that totally changed my whole life. For the first time in several years I felt my mind becoming totally free, I was in a leisurely mood. I had been longing for this peacefulness.

After my Part I Course I joined the Advanced Meditation Course at Kanyakumari in May 2004 and enjoyed the inward journey from head to heart. It was a memorable experience with Sri.Arunji 's Satsangs and beautiful knowledge sessions.

I continued my regular sadhana and within a few days I was free from Nebuliser, vein Injections and Inhaler. Now I can walk long distances, could climb stairs and sloppy terrain very easily. To convey our Gratitude to Guruji our family went to the Ashram and had Guruji 's darshan.

With Guruji 's blessings, we arranged a Part I Course in our Tenkasi town during end of June 2004. Again in July, 2004 I was fortunate to attend the Advance Meditation Course in the presence of Guruji at Bangalore Ashram. I enjoyed the Peranandham (Pure Bliss) which I could not even dream of a few months back. I do not have words to express my gratitude to Guruji for transforming my life in this short span of time.

It is said that the most unselfish love in the world is Mother's love. But no mother will be able to tell her child, leave your problems to me and be free of your mind. Our Divine Master just wants us to leave all our botherations to him and free our minds and therefore to me his love is more precious than mother 's love.

Guruji showered his divine grace on me and all my problems have vanished within the 5 days of my stay at the Ashram.

I feel Guruji 's presence with me always and this gives me the strength.
It is now my responsibility to spread the awareness of our Divine Master's efficacious knowledge to as many people as possible.

Jaigurudev.
Sujatha.

Note: If you want to share your Guru story with everyone... you may mail the same at feedback.aoluniverse@gmail.com

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Guru Story - Amazing Grace

I have read and heard a lot about miracles happening in the part-1 course. I myself experienced the greatest miracle of inner transformation and drastic changes that happens in life since the days I did my part-1 course. But I did never witness a miracle right before my own eyes before 22nd of March 2007. Something happened just before my eyes, which was another instance of His amazing grace.

It was my third course as a teacher. There were 24 people including the assistants at the community hall of the Sree Ayyappa Temple, HAL, Bangalore. There was one participant, who met with a motor bike accident some days before the course. His name is Shyam. He works for TCS at Bangalore. On day one, he could not reach the course venue of his own. He was very badly injured. One of our volunteers, Rahul had driven to his house and brought him for the course. He was really injured. I could find a lot of scratches, wounds and cuts on his body, especially on his hands and legs. Even there were wounds on his palms! He could not even hold a pen. Our volunteer was writing for him.

Throughout the sessions he was sitting on the chair. I could see the pain in his eyes. He had severe headache too as an effect of the accident. He could not do anything properly, neither pranayams, nor bhastrika. Even ujjayi breath created headache for him.

Next day I was a bit confused; whether to allow him do kriya or not. He was having problems with his eyes too. Anyway, finally I decided to allow him to do kriya. He was pressing his head, forehead and showing signs of pain during Kriya. Towards the end of the kriya, he became unconscious and fell down from the chair. But surprisingly, I was not at all worried. I allowed him to lay there. He told about severe pain after the kriya, while sharing the experience.

On the second day also same things repeated. He was showing signs of pain. He could not breath the fast cycles. I just advised him to relax for sometime. Still he was giving his 100%.

On third day, when he came for the course, his eyes were sparkling . could do Pranayams, Bhastrika and what not.. He came to me, shown his hands and told. "I don't have any pain now!! It's gone. I am not even using medicine. I came on my bike driving. Even there is no pain on the palms." His eyes were sparkling with wonder. He said "I have a slight pain on my knee. that's all. It's amazing!!". Still I could see the red color of flesh; but he had no pain. I just looked at the photograph of my master. I had no words to utter.

He became a different person. On Saturday the session was at 04:00PM. He told me on Friday, that he could not come for the session, for he had to attend the first "call" of his career. But he was there on Saturday, sharp at 04:00 PM. He told. "I don't know how. The call got postponed.."

On Sunday we conducted the sessions at Sumeru Mandap at Ashram. I could not believe my eyes. He was running, jumping dancing..like a kid... Even he fell down on the floor during one of the games. But according to him, there was no pain in his body. He shared his experience. "What shall I tell? It's visible before you. I came here in such a condition that I could not move, I could not sit properly.

My body was aching so much. Now there is no pain at all. Now I will come for the next course also (to assist)." I asked the crowd. "Did you know that your breath could heal you?" Nobody opened mouth. They nodded their heads. Shyam told, "YES." "with grace of the master."

- Reshma Kurup gkreshma@gmail.com

Note: If you want to share your Guru story with everyone... you may mail the same at feedback.aoluniverse@gmail.com

Jai Gurudev :)

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Guru Story - Gracefullness

For quite some time I wanted to share my experiences being in The Art of Living with all of you. Finally I'm penning it down. It all started in Korba, Chattisgarh way back in 1998. Their was a sudden craze among all people in our township regarding a "Course", somehow Ma & Baba also got going with it. And then the sun started coming out from west from the next day. The first time ever in Mukherjee family's history we were having Bhath (Boiled Rice) & Aloo gobhi (Potato & Cauliflower preparation instead of the trademark Kosha Mangsoh (Bengali Red meat preparation) a Sunday lunch duh !!!!

But who knew that this was just the glimpse of what was about to pop up. Many sort weird/ scary sounds started coming out with mantra chanting and om chanting from their room every morning. And within a weeks time my lovely scenery picture in living room got changed by a life size frame of a "dadhi waale baba ji's pic" (Can't translate that) and on top of it every morning the torture session gets started with the stereo playing bhajans at the top of its voice. Man only I know how I survived through that tough changing times at home.

I used to be a Bronchial asthmatic patient (It was a heredity disease from my mothers side). I had 44% lung blockages, every now and then I needed to get hospitalized. My best friend used to be my bunch of inhalers, puffs & tablets. I didn't even used to talk free flow forget about singing. When my parents came to know that AOL even has courses for kids, they got me enrolled into Art Excel. But due to some rifts with my classmates I got an attack on Saturday (2nd last day of the course) in school and needed to get directly hospitalized from there resulting me not being able to complete the course. But my teacher Priyajit Raju sir told me that I can repeat it next time and that's what I did. After practicing the ha ha hu hu (miniature version of the Sudarshan Kriya) for about 3 months I started coughing out like anything.

By the end of 4th month my coughs color got changed into pinkish-red and by 6month it turned to black. Even though it scared the hell out of me, my teacher told me to continue with it and said," It's the toxins your body has accumulated over the years, let it flush out". My doctor said," I don't know what sort of treatment you are availing outside my knowledge, but whatsoever it is, its doing wonder for you and showing drastic change on your body".

My doctor's & my teacher's words came true. By the end of 7th month of doing the course I was completely free of Asthma and my stamina was turbo boosted. The very same year I represented my state in National Swimming Championship and even won the Gold medal in 100 m sprint race. Breast stroke setting a new record.

I think it must have been the good karma of me & my relatives in my last birth that have made me eligible for His blessings in this lifetime or its just that He wanted me to get offloaded so as I can as a better instrument. Whatsoever it is all I can say is :-

इतना मधिर इतना मधुर, तेरा मेरा प्यार
लेना होगा जनम हमें कई कई बार !!!!

Deepan Mukherjee
Fusion Satsang Star
Art of Living Foundations