Spiritual Journey Part-2

Visit to Siddhar JeevaSamadhis in Pondicherry on 8th & 9th September 2018

“It is by God’s grace that you think of God.”

Ramana Maharishi

Ït was the last hour to register for the Siddhar Samadhi Spiritual Journey. Not only I wanted to participate in this journey, I wanted our 7yr old daughter to join me as well. My husband looked at me in utter disbelief while I was still contemplating on my decision to take her along. Although my inner voice was telling me that I should take her on this journey, I had my doubts on how she will cope with visiting temples for two whole days. I contacted Priya and Divya (our beloved SWP group admins) for guidance. They encouraged me to bring along my daughter, and mentioned that there are couple of kids joining the trip. Since my husband had project delivery deadlines during that travel weekend, I had initially registered only for myself and my daughter. Later on, my husband agreed to join us. Hurray, its the divine calling!

Our Spiritual Journey Whatsapp group was buzzing with activity- for coordinating the travel arrangements, list of things to pack/bring from personal items to pooja items, room booking updates, and through instructions from Velu anna for must do procedures prior to taking this spiritual journey.

We travelled from Bangalore to Pondicherry by overnight train. 4-5 families travelled by this train, there was a 30 mins delay to reach Pondicherry station on the 8th morning. We were already running behind schedule. We checked-in our rooms and hustled to get ready. Velu anna and team had arranged for breakfast to be served in the hotel. We were the last bunch to arrive at the breakfast table. I was pleasantly surprised and absolutely delighted to see Poongar Idli, Millet Sweet Pongal, Vada, Sambar and Chutney dished out on my plate. YUM, YUM, YUM! I was thrilled to know that it was all homemade. Reusable steel plates, cutlery, and bio enzymes to clean the plates were used throughout this journey.

Post breakfast, all of us assembled together to begin our Journey. It was a beautiful feeling to witness 60 aspirants gathered here from different locations within and outside India, ready to board the Bus and a Minivan. We had around 20 kids, incredible:)!

Under the guidance of Velu ji, we started our Spiritual Journey Part-2.

Day-1 : Saturday, 8th September 2018

  • At 11.05AM- Bade Saibu Siddhar JeevaSamadhi in Chinnababusamudram, Villupuram

Brief Introduction on Bade Saibu Siddhar by Velu Anna:

Bade Saibu was originally an Islamic follower. He comes under Agasthiyar lineage. He sits under a Mahilam (Bakula) tree and heals people of their incurable illnesses by checking their nadis. This great healer had mastered the art of healing people by playing the Veena instrument to identify the blockages in the nadis. Apparently there are 24 divisions in Veena which equates to 24 divisions in human back bone/spine. As he plays his veena to heal people, the blockages in the nadis are released and the diseases are remarkably cured.

Paramahansa Yogananda said “Hindu Music is a subjective, spiritual, and individualistic art, aiming not at symphonic brilliance but at personal harmony with the Over-Soul”.

Today is Ashlesha (Aayilyam) nakshatra day, which is all the more special to visit this Siddhar. Special mantra for praying to Sri Bade Sahib Siddha was shared to all the aspirants prior to visiting this temple- “Om Sri Jagat Purushaaya Vidhmahey, Bhoomi Roga Nivarthyaaya Dheemahi, Thanno Vaidya Linga Prachodhayaath.”

Also, Velu anna demonstrated to us the right way to kneel down to god to open our Astral cord in order to receive the Divine blessings. He also mentioned that when we visit temples, first we should offer money to the needy and poor, then kneel down to god, before we begin our prayer or offerings to God. Velu anna had arranged for a bag full of Vilvam/Bael leaves, which were kept ready to distribute to all the 60 aspirants to offer in all Siddhar Samadhi Temples. Vilvam, the sacred herb has been part of religious rituals and used in Folk remedies, Siddha and Ayurveda medicines from time immemorial. Offering Vilvam in Siddhar Samadhis is considered very auspicious, hence Velu anna had ensured that we follow this simple yet effective ritual. The Mahilam Tree which Bade Saibu had sat under is inside the temple premises. His soul is in the tree, and the jeeva samadhi is inside the temple. This particular temple has to be revolved in the opposite direction- anti-clockwise, and not the usual clockwise direction. After the brief introduction we offered our prayers and offerings to Bade Saibu Siddhar and meditated near the Mahilam Tree.

  • At 12.20 pm- Thavashree Guruswami Ammaiyar Jeevasamadhi, Kandamangalam, Villupuram.

Brief Introduction by Velu anna:

The locals say that a little girl was praying to lord Shiva since the age of 5yrs. Shivam is visioned by the soul in 3 forms- with form, formlessness, with and without form. Through the grace of Shivam she had been meditating in a nearby forest for 80 yrs without food. A localite found her meditating amongst the bushes and the village people offered her a place to stay, which is now the Jeeva Samadhi Temple. The siddhi of this siddhar is Rasavadham- the art of conversion of base elements into gold with mercury. She healed everyone who visited her, and also donated food and money to the needy. Every Full Moon day she would apply paste made of chillies all over her body before bathing. She did this to help her devotees to be free from pain and disease. This ritual still continues now, there are ammis (hand grinder made of stone) inside the temple premises where men and women may come to grind chilli paste and offer it to the Jeeva Samadhi during Full Moon Days, to get their prayers answered.

We meditated for sometime here. The Lemons that we carried on behalf of other SWP members, and our individual ones, were offered here to light the lamps in the Samadhi. All of us received Vibhuti (sacred ash) and few red chillies to tie near the entrance of our homes. The money donated in this temple is used for feeding the school children.

  • At 1.50 pm- Sri Dhakshinamurthy Swamigal Jeevasamadhi, Pallithennal, Villupuram.

Brief Introduction by Velu anna:

Siddhars enter into samadhi at their own will in other words they know the day and time when their soul attains jeeva samadhi to merge with the Divine. This siddhar was alive during the construction of his samadhi. Next to him a large Yantra was erected, which had ancient scripts (possibly about healing). The elements of the siddhar- thiruvodu with vibhuti, stick/staff, where also placed in the samadhi. The locals say that he had lived for 200 hundred years and attained Jeeva samadhi on 09/07/1909. The location of this temple was previously a burial ground.

After spending some time in the temple, we headed to a nearby farm just few yards away for Lunch break. We were served delicious home made food- Tamarind rice, millet curd rice, millet rasam rice, papad, ginger thokku. All of us settled down under large canopy of trees and greenery all around, a much need break from the scorching sun, and the healthy home cooked food filled our hearts, yes. After a much need break, we headed off to our next destination.

While travelling to our next destination, my daughter is busy playing with other kids or engrossed in drawing and colouring. She loves free hand drawing, and draws random things that interests her. She showed me her latest creation, I was amazed to see that she drew Bade Saibu Siddhar. And the next page had another drawing which I didn’t understand, when asked for, she explained to me that it was Velu anna delivering his speech to us all. Oh my!

My daughter’s freehand drawing-

Image on top left is Bade Saibu Siddhar,

Image on top Middle is Velu anna (wearing black kurta with white dhoti) delivering his speech on Siddhar Samadhi to us aspirants,

Image on right is her imagination on kids playing in the beach (our beach trip happened the following day).

  • At 4.45 pm- Sri Azhagar Jeeva Samadhi

Brief Introduction by Velu anna:

There are multiple types of Samadhis- Bhoo Samadhi, Jala Samadhi, Fire Samadhi (followed by Buddhist Monks), The body left to be consumed by birds or wild beasts (followed by Parsis), Mummifying (As in the Egyptian pyramids), The body is subjected to Deep Pain (Jesus). Sri Azhagar(beautiful) Siddhar was known to be very handsome with glowing skin. He went inside the well and attained Jala Samadhi (sitting inside water). The locals saw a bright light emanating out of the well. When we entered the temple premises, we were astonished to see hundreds of statues in all sizes, placed in and around the temple premises depicting various events in people’s lives like- wedding, childbirth, statues of different occupations, animals, prosessions, and many more. The superstitious belief is that when a person erects a statue, its like him/her is praying and witnessing the siddhar near his Samadhi. The legend is that the Samadhi is always wet to touch due to the Siddhar in Jala Samadhi. And also the top portion of the temple structure housing the Samadhi has a small opening, which is always open to sun or rain due to the power emitting from the Siddhar Samadhi. In spite of the local people’s efforts to close the opening, the roof structure splits open the following day. The strange phenomenon is that the rain water never falls on the samadhi through this opening.

Post our darshan of the Siddhar Samadhi, while children were engaged in fun and frolic, we formed human-energy circles around the trees in the temple premises and did grounding meditation, to release and balance out our excess energies which were gained by visiting many Siddhar Samadhis throughout the day. It was an exhilarating experience to sense the energy from the huge Banyan tree and the energy of the human-chain…so peaceful!

  • At 6.50 pm- RamaParadesi Jeeva Samadhi, Villianur

Brief Introduction by Velu anna:

Ramaparadehi swamigal was a Vaishnavite. Most often Siddhars are Shaivites. If a Vaishanvite had attained Siddhi through Kriya or Kundalini Shakti then the samadhi is placed below the ground; if attained through Bhakthi, the samadhi is placed above the ground. RamaParadesi Siddhar attained JeevaSamadhi in 1868 and is placed above the ground. He is known by the locals as a happy person. He sees God in everything. He is always in a blissful state. The legend has it that his meal is Snake poison. When hungry he would stick out his tongue and a snake would come by to deposit its venom on the Siddhar’s tongue.

  • 7.20 pm- Thengai Swamigal Siddhar Jeeva Samadhi, Villianur

Brief Introduction by Velu anna:

The Siddhi of Thengai (coconut) Swamigal is that he can predict the future of the devotee by reading the contours in the flesh of the broken coconut. Devotees bring the coconut to this Siddhar to solve problems in their life.

Day 1 Spiritual journey concluded here. Our plans to visit the Pondicherry Beach had to be stalled because it was past 8.00pm, and all of us were tired, hungry and ready to hit the bed after a long day of travel. Despite the fact that children seemed to have all the energy on earth to visit the beach, us adults opted to go to hotel. Tonight’s home cooked dinner arrived at the hotel. Dinner was served- Steaming Millet Upma, Roti, Dhal, Chutney, and a sweet dish made out of the left over Poongar idlis (from the breakfast), ohhhhhh it was scrumptious. I felt my physical exhaustion slipping away with every bite of this dainty food.

As I was lying down in my hotel bed, my daughter and my husband fast asleep, I couldn’t help but reflect on the events of the day, I felt Bliss!

Day-2 on Sunday, 9th September 2018

Sundays are special days to visit Siddhar Samadhis, and also today is New Moon Day so all the more auspicious, which is one of the deciding factors for Velu anna to choose this weekend for the Spiritual Journey.

Today, we were hoping to start our journey early, nevertheless, we got delayed, managing such big group is definitely a challenging task. We relished our home cooked breakfast, and our lunch was already packed and stacked in our vehicles.

  • At 9.00am- Mother Mirra Samadhi, Pondicherry

Mirra Alfassa, later known as The Mother developed the Integral Yoga and was the driving force behind manifestation of Auroville.

When I was around 14yrs, a close friend of mine offered a picture of Mother Mira and said “Pray to her to get good marks in exams.” From then on I prayed to her whenever I needed something or the other. When I entered my adult phase, I never needed anything, so I quit praying to Mother, God, or anybody. I believed I was an atheist, for some years. Nevertheless, God had better plans for me. Just 2 years ago, when I was in depths of despair, only the Divine light pulled me out of it. I am truly thankful for all the experiences which helped me grow.

  • At 9.45am- Arulmigu Manakula Vinayagar Temple, Pondicherry

In Tamil ‘Manal’ means sand and ‘Kulam’ means pond near the sea, hence people called as Manal Kulathu Vinayagar [means God near the pond of sand]. Later it is named as MANAKULA VINAYAGAR. This temple is grand and is more than 500 yrs old. Many forms of Vinayager is in this temple. My favourite is the Nardhana (dancing) Vinayagar and the Vinayagar with his concerts Suddhi and Buddhi.

A siddha named Thollaikathu (ear lobes with big hole) Siddhar attained samadhi in this temple.

← Piping hot Sweet Pongal Prasadam served in the Temple to all its devotees. Sooo delicious!

  • At 10.50am- Sri Sakthivel Brahmanandha Swamigal

Brief Introduction by Velu anna:

Sri Sakthivel Brahmananda Swamigal saw god in every object. He shared his insights about the future to his disciples.Intuition is the 7th Sense and is the gut feeling, whereas Insights are the 8th sense and arises in Shiva Varmam which is located at the back of the head.

  • At 11.30am- Sri Guru Siddhanantha Swamigal

Shiva Lingam is placed on top of the samadhi of Guru Siddhanantha.

Near the entrance of the temple there is huge tree, it is actually two divine trees intermingled together, a rare occurrence.

← The Intertwined Peepal and Neem tree- The Union of Shiva and Sakthi.

  • At 1.20pm- Sri Kambaliswamigal Samadhi, Thattanjavadi

Sri Kambaliswamigal Samadhi is located in a 5 acre property. Near the entrance of this property is a unique statue, unlike any other, it is a statue of Shiva-Shakthi Thandava The cosmic dance.

Sri Kambaliswamigal is an ancient Master of Ashtanga Yoga. He attained Jal Samadhi on a New Moon day in 1873. The Samadhis of eight Gurus of the lineage are also located on within this property.

They are:

  1. Srila Sri Kambliswamy Swamigal
  2. Srila Sri Ambalavana Swamigal
  3. Srila Sri Manikka Swamigal
  4. Srila Sri Shanmuga Swamigal
  5. Srila Sri Velu Swamigal
  6. Srila Sri Subramanya Swamigal
  7. Srila Sri Shankara Giri Swamigal
  8. Srila Sri Gitananda Giri Swamigal

Yogacharini Meenakshi Devi Bhavanani popularly known as Ammaji was present in the temple during our visit, all aspirants took blessings from her.

Lunch Break: We took a short Lunch Break in the temple premises.

We had come to the very end of our Spiritual Journey-2 in Pondicherry. Velu anna mentioned that he received help from many of his near and dear ones, including his family, friends, SWP team, Greenhands Team, to make this Journey a big success. Room booking for 60 aspirants, travel arrangements, Siddhar Samadhis information on routes and temple timings, and most exceptional attempt is the preparation of Home Cooked food.

We were overwhelmed to learn that the food was prepared by Velu anna’s friend’s wife with the help of their neighbours. Preparing traditional food for such a huge group is an olympian task. Our sincere gratitude to all the kind souls for their time and effort. God is Great!

AT 4.00 pm- The Surprise Element

Velu anna had arranged for an unforgettable surprise element. An hour of Group Laughter Therapy session by Mukesh Ji.

Mukesh Ji is a professional Laughter Therapist and an Yoga instructor who has a clinic in Vellore, Tamil Nadu. He travels widely to deliver many such Laughter therapy sessions.

Laughter Therapy / Therapeutic Laughter aims at reducing stress, anxiety, depression, induces good feeling and overall well-being, and is also effective in pain management. Mukesh Ji took us on serious of carefully orchestrated techniques to keep us all engaged bursting with laughter for the entire hour: Warm ups, breathing exercises, awareness exercises, loud repetition of soul kindling thoughts, jokes,  jumping with joy, the essence of life, breaking our inhibitions, joyful dancing and many more. Mukesh Ji brought with him his friend- A 60yr old young women, who taught us how to heal through simply letting go and through voluntary laughter. As the saying goes “Laughter is the best medicine”; Liberated Laughter releases the feel good hormones in our body called endorphins, which is an immunity booster, and a stress buster. Thank you very much Mukesh Ji for taking us through this exhilarating experience.

Our sincere gratitude to Velu Anna and SWP team for giving us an opportunity to learn and grow. The Spiritual journey has been truly an awakening experience, looking forward to many more under Velu anna’s guidance. We would like to thank each and every one who were part of this journey for the experience and the energy.

I am sure many of you are wondering…What is the outcome or benefit of this Siddha Samadhi Spiritual Journey?

A quote by Mother Mirra helps us to introspect… “When you open to the Spirit within you it brings you a first foretaste of that higher life which alone is worth living, then comes the will to rise to that, the hope of reaching it, the certitude that this is possible, and finally the strength to make the necessary effort and the resolution to go to the very end. For one must wake up, then one can conquer.”

With Gratitude,

Madhuri

The essence of Spiritual Parenting – Second ‘Wisdom Nest’ Meet at Bangalore

Nowadays, there are so many parenting styles and terms that one comes across that it can turn out to be pretty confusing pretty soon. For new parents or for that matter even old ones, we are always assailed by the doubt and question if we are doing a good job of raising our children.

Am I being too harsh, am I being too lenient, should I chastise my child if he/she pushes others to get his turn on the slide or should I just brush it off as childish behavior which he will outgrow soon enough? Should I discipline in public or should I wait for a more private time? So many questions and so little time really to contemplate all of them and find our own best solutions.

All of us are looking for answers, the “tips & tricks”, the right way to parent our child right – from sources outside of us in the hope that we will hit the jackpot. Unfortunately, nothing can be farther from the truth. The answers all lie within us. And that is what Spiritual Parenting is all about.

A group of 16 parents from the SwarnaPrashana parenting community came together this past weekend to explore and discuss this very topic and find deeper answers to the questions they have been looking for. Led by Velu Jayaprakash, soul coach and founder of the community, while the 4 hours long session gave many insights and much more common guidance, it also neatly made us shine the torch back on ourselves to explore how “spiritual” and “holistic” we are as individuals before we even attempt to find out how to parent spiritually.

For truth be told, children cannot be “instructed” or “advised” or even “taught” to do things – they simply observe us parents and just mimic us. If we want them to stop demanding junk, we first need to push it out of our lives. If we want them to sit quietly and read, then we need to first show them by doing it ourselves. If we want them to meditate, we first need to do it. But hardly any of us do what we demand from our children – instead, it’s easy to fall into the trap of labeling them as hyperactive, restless and so on and so forth.

While these are the basics that we need to remember, it will also help to understand the different stages of a child’s life so that we may align our approach to their differing needs accordingly. In the first four years of a child’s life, the child is said to be living its mother’s karma and is under her influence the maximum. The next four years, the child is under the influence of the father’s karma and is watching him closely to imbibe his behaviors and characteristics. By the time the child reaches 8 to 10 years of age, the child’s own karma from past lives start coming alive and the child’s soul starts orchestrating different events and behavior in tune with the child’s own planned life path and purpose.

As a parent, if we want to make any kind of positive impact on our child and “guide” them as we seem to think we can, then the first 8 years is the only time we have (give or take a few years). As mothers, we play a crucial role in shaping their character in the first four years and as fathers, we knowingly or unknowingly hold the power to change them in the next four years. And the only way we can bring about any of these changes we may desire is to first bring it on ourselves during these critical years. We need to take a hard look at our own actions and reactions and alter them accordingly.

And that, parents, is also one of the most important things to understand in parenting. Every time your child behaves in a certain manner, you can be rest assured that he or she is doing so only because you yourself have been a cause of it. If your child is throwing a tantrum and demanding your attention, then perhaps you have not been spending enough quality time with him/her. If your child is really testing your patience, then perhaps they are simply being your teacher to help you to cultivate more patience.

For, as much as we think we need to parent and teach our children, the children are as much our teachers and guides in this life. The crux of spiritual parenting is to simply realize this essence – that parenting is an opportunity that the child has given us to make ourselves into better individuals, the rest of it all including our ideas of shaping and molding our children is just – our ideas!

These are but some of the wisdom that we shared in the Wisdom Nest meeting along with going into the basics of holistic living (If you have been part of the WhatsApp community, you will be knowing most of it by now. If not, do peruse through some of the other blogs to read about it in detail).

We also went through a wonderful soul meditation session at the end of the meet, thanks to Velu. It was a very sublime and deep experience for many of us. We all unanimously wished we could extend the meeting some more and spend more time with the other like-minded parents but alas we had to move out of the venue.

Do attend or take the initiative to organize the next Wisdom Nest meeting in an area near you, I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy coming together as a community physically.

About Wisdom Nest Series:

In an endeavor to share more of the ancient wisdom and knowledge, we will be organizing more such events at different places across Bangalore and other cities in India in the months to come. As more parents come together to take part in these meets, our aim to increase the collective knowledge we hold as a group and in turn publish these findings and discussions for the benefit of all. This was the second Wisdom Nest meet organized at South Bangalore. The first Wisdom Nest meeting happened in North Bangalore at Kalyannagar. Read more about the first meet here. If you would like to organize a similar meet in your area/city, open to both Swarnaprashana parents as well as others outside the community, please do contact Velu Jayaprakash.

Author: Vaijayanthi

Vaijayanthi is a freelance business writer and full-time gardener. She coaches people on adopting a chemical-free lifestyle through her initiative called the Kaustubam for Sustainable Living Practices. She also conducts various physical workshops and training sessions on sustainable living and Gardening for children in Bengaluru through the initiative The Happy Child.

Enhance your life with the knowledge of ancient Samskars

It is amazing to see the community in action again. The plan was to start at 10 AM today. There was an unexpected technical glitch, Mic was not working. By the time we got to fixed, it was around 10.30 AM. After that when we started to add people, YouTube showed up 500 error! It was a dead end for us, we could not do anything. There was few wrong email ID’s given by parents that were creating issues, we found this and fixed it. But later again google started to throw some unknown errors. By the time when I was ready to start, it was almost 12 PM.

Parents patiently waited all the time, many parents quickly started to join to lend their hands. Though we could not get their help since everyone was at the different location. Usually, when we do webinars (a couple of times in last five years) we used to use my ex-office, so we had a team of parents to support. Now this time, I wanted to do at home in my own space, as we plan to do more this year.

With few parents added, we started, in parallel @Devika @Sindhuja @Divya tried their best to add the missing parents. Since the recorded version is going to be provided I went ahead and started. One thing I wanted to make sure that I do not want to miss the knowledge coz of time. So the target was 3 hours, but the webinar went well smooth and lasted for 3.45 hours.

Shared the detailed spiritual, scientific and common sense point of view to 16 key samskaras and the remedies that we can do, if we missed the bus. Including me, where I missed most of the time when I was one-sided with science alone and following atheist. Good to see parents shared their feedback, some emotional moments did rise, some touchy and emotional topics might be the trigger, I myself was in tears during the session, as a parent I too have missed many moments of life. At that time I neither had the knowledge nor was patient to learn. Now I know and I am trying my best to go for remedies and reap the benefits.

For the parents who enrolled and who could not make it to webinar can now watch it. I plan to have this live for a while. So do not worry. We will close the dedicated group soon I am planning to keep it open for a week. So if you have doubts you can ask.  I will answer at my free time. Later we will close the group and we will use the open group to discuss.

Avail the recording of this past event: https://www.hlp.world/challenge-page/samskara

Recordings

https://youtu.be/YGT_T4-Htrw

If you have trouble seeing the video, please click here

Knowing is not important, practicing is important so please implement the learning, only then the time and efforts of the community will be benefitted. And this is the only way we can show our gratitude to our ancestors.

End of the day we are doing this for our own self and for the next generation to build a healthy society.

As said during the webinar, the next session will be a 24 days practice of Sacred Sleep and Dream therapy (SSD therapy) will start soon. We will share the details later.

Feedback from the parents

  1. It’s was very useful session and looking forward for more information like pooja rituals how to teach kids out tradition and please throw light on spiritual meditation and on healthy food habits 
  2. Have only partially seen the video. But everything I saw was very informative…Thanks a million for the efforts you have put in. 
  3. Please continue the good work. Vaazhga valamudan vaazhga Vaiyagam.
  4. Mind blowing and I was in total awe. Amazing wealth of information. Hats off for such webinars
  5. Great knowledge, happy to be part of this knowledge sharing
  6. I got the knowledge about the Sanskaras which I would have never known. The best part was that everything was explained by giving scientific reasons, the kind of theory which I agree on. Once again Thank you, Velu Anna, for giving us such a vast knowledge.
  7. The session was amazingly great as the contents shared were very deep and long lost in current culture.
  8. A session was very informative with good stuff to learn, highly appreciate the efforts to make such a video
  9. Yes, most of them are known to every website, but slightly in-depth info, but could have been better if more insight added,
  10. Amazing and detailed program. We don’t have so many traditions in our community. Its good to understand the significance of each such traditions right from birth to death.it makes our life easier when we align with nature and our energies. The father’s role part during the birth of the child was particularly interesting to know as otherwise the fathers are kept away from the mother during that time. Its good to know how the father bonds with the baby. So much of our wisdom lost in superstition definitely needs to be channeled back into our society. Looking forward for more such programs
  11. Not watched completely
  12. Whenever Velu Anna uploads a video definitely I will get knowledge from it.. I am very happy that I came across such good people..
  13. Amazing information.. Thanks for sharing..
  14. I am so happy that I have learnt many unknown facts in our life.
  15. Have not watched the video completely yet
  16. Amazing to know the reason behind it. I feel guilty that why I get this info so late. My since thanks and gratitude to Velu Anna.
  17. Yet to complete the video
  18. Yet to watch the video completely, have seen only a part of it
  19. Webinar was really great  It has given us in-depth knowledge of our samskaras. Remedy for each samskaras to balance it, if we missed doing anything. Spiritual and psychological reasons behind each samskaras are explained well. Thank you so much Velu!!!
  20. I have gone through half of it. We were almost following samskaras from seemandham not before that. I was not aware these many rituals exist in India.. thank you so much Anna for bringing it up
  21. Wonderful. I learnt a lot from this webinar. I am sure it must have been a lot of reading/research for this webinar. Grateful to the committed group!!
  22. Wonderful session…. much needed for this generation (for me)… Thanks so much for sharing knowledge about ancient holistic living. Gratitude and Pranams. Also I’m eagerly waiting for 24days online program…details about it.. as I live in US.
  23. Even though we have heard about the samsakaras the reason behind those were always unanswered by all elders at my home. It was really so informational and surprising to understand those samskaras and the fact behind it. I am really looking forward for more info about the spiritual world.
  24. Hello Velu I am yet to watch the full video as I was traveling since last week with poor data network connection. Request to grant access to your wisdom shared
  25. Never knew so scientific samskara we have . Can we start face to face interaction where all parents can meet and have so great sessions not only in Bangalore but in Pune also
  26. Really valuable ancient sanskaras remembrance and explanation of those use in nowadays life
  27. Good. High content. Very tough to follow. Could be done in 2 days. How do we ensure that, maximum people try this? Don’t use plastic carry bag will reach less people. Introducing eco-friendly/comparable plastic bag is the solution. Our people needs a kick-off and easy start. How r we going to help? Knowledge sharing is great, because we don’t know these information. How can we help the society to practice and come back as original form of ancient living?
  28. So much I missed, I was not aware… each n every action in life… deeds we do have so much meaning… this knowledge makes me ask myself “We are living a meaningless life, life without meaningful samskaras”… after watching the video… being part of 48 days holistic and 27 days program extension, i want to be a small stream of change, incorporating as much that I can in my life… making them part of my life.. Pls keep sharing such wonderful and meaningful videos Velu Anna as you give light of hope with such knowledge to depressed and lost souls like me… Gratitude 
  29. The meaning behind each samskara is very well thought by our ancestor is refreshed again. And I think the effort that Velu took to pass this on to this generation is imperative and appreciated. The meaning behind each of the samskara is very well presented.
  30. I really appreciate your effort in taking this initiative. The webinar was very informative and an eye opener regarding our ancient wisdom on Samskaras.
  31. Have seen it partials and yet to complete
  32. Thank you very much.. Learnt many new information
  33. It was a fantastic program
  34. I want to be journey with all great persons, want to learn more.
  35. Very informative video. Happy that I registered for this program.
  36. Excellent, glad to see we’re discussing deeper spiritual topics than primary Heath and wellness.
  37. Thank you very much for all the info.
  38. Very informative and in depth info.
  39. Have not seen completely
  40. It was Interesting and elaborate. Suggestion, references can be included.
  41. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this expansive subject. Enjoyed the webinar so far. Yet to complete.
  42. Viewed only half of the video. Unable to view offline. Mobile data empty.
  43. useful information and very much necessary for all to have good and well balanced family
  44. It was very informative, could have been more elaborate.
  45. I dent watch n I wish to try with new id Amr*****848@gmail.com
  46. The session was fabulous. It was so informative that one viewing is not enough. Need to view it so many times to understand all the different meditations.
  47. It is such a detailed video on the samskaras.. Thank you for sharing the in-depth knowledge…
  48. It was very interesting, informative program, an eye opening session .. look forward for many more such sessions.
  49. Very informative session. Thanks Anna for all your effort to make it happen and sharing worthy knowledge..
  50. Very informative
  51. Loved the 16 sanskar video, the efforts made behind the research
  52. Samskaras gives a systematic and disciplined way of living. I am really happy to know these and change living style at least a bit and carry forward our rich culture to the future generations. I could say this is a kind of GEM knowledge. Thanks Velu Anna from the bottom of my heart.

Topics parents requested.

  1. Spiritual meditation class, classes on eating habits to be healthy and few class for kids on tradition and how to teach them and parenting tips
  2. Ashtanga yogam by Thirumoolar
  3. Science of breath
  4. More meditation, self realization, knowledge about spiritual growth
  5. Meditation
  6. Would like to learn more about Sidhas and their life
  7. Siddha stuff , which is very untapped topic , i know it revolve around occult stuff , but as saying goes astrology is for millionaires and occult is for billionaires , just kidding , on a serious note siddha stuff is needed to come out of illuminati And help us to come out mind control business that rothschild and rockfellas do to commonman ,
  8. Astrology, holistic parenting, holistic. Living
  9. Want to know about olden days food culture.. And benefits behind it
  10. About siddaras, pranayama so on. .
  11. Parenting and child mentality. It differs from kid to kid. How to handle in a right way.
  12. Effects of planets on us. Ex: shani
  13. Why special children born? How to correct them spiritually. What to do to make them more lively.
  14. Decoding mythological stories and significance of different gods and goddesses to understand the meaning and logic behind them.
  15. Garbhsankar, swarnabhasma – how it helps adults for health and other benefits
  16. Would like to hear more on karma’s and the hereditary diseases, how are they related. Some complete family itself suffers from diabetes including my mother, perima and all her daughters (one daughter died too coz of diabetes) and sons, maternal mama, chithi. Pls throw some light on this
  17. Can there be a seminar on daily lifestyle and must do spiritual/ ancient practices in daily routine.
  18. Yet to complete the present webinar
  19. Birth stars …how to raise children to be on spiritiual path . how to know their creativity , how to increase the decision power of children.
  20. Intuition and telepathy and dreams comparison and understanding those
  21. *just one-to-one with kids :). Would be a different experience for you and they can give lot of ideas and will share their opinion. *Special topics only for women. For example, we really struggle at home to bring back holistic living. Lot of opposition and struggle. Women r in high pressure in our society. How to help? For men- giving them a proper direction and stress free living. They r direction less or addicted to technology (just my opinion). Shall we help? *Separate program for elders. :). To overcome their fear, worries, sadness about their children etc.,
  22. Has anyone actually seen spirits??? Do they exist??? Is there god, where??? Question asked frequently but I still don’t have the answer….
  23. I am not sure if this is the forum for this question. But here goes…” Can you please tell me worshipping procedures to be followed at temples especially navagrahas? There a lot of books and you tube videos, but contradict each other…I am confused as to which to follow.
  24. I am not sure if this is the forum for this questionBut here goes…” Can you please tell me worshipping procedures to be followed at temples especially navagrahas? There a lot of books and you tube videos, but contradict each other…I am confused as to which to follow
  25. How to overcome negativity that world throws at you both tangible and intangible
  26. Would like a webinar about our ancient food.
  27. What happens to the soul after it leaves the physical body
  28. Mudras and breath, reading omens from nature
  29. Regarding spiritual and need know about athik related things
  30. About saatvik food – how and what to eat !
  31. Astrology, the importance of rituals in daily life, significance of powerful, energetic locations for social growth, connecting with ascended Masters, the spiritual significance of deities, mastery of internal functions, expansion of our brain function, to name a few.
  32. No
  33. Similar ancient wisdom
  34. Stress related discussion
  35. Mind and Breathing inter-connectivity
  36. Indigenous medicine, Raising girls, on Mantras /Mudras,
  37. Ways of attaining enlightenment by being a family man
  38. Astrology related
  39. Specific meditations. I try to follow the full moon, new moon and cycles meditation and it’s so fulfilling.
  40. All the topics you pick are unique and detailed.. would love to know about anything 🙂
  41. Horoscopes and believes
  42. 1. Astrology
  43. Child raising day to day psychological challenges
  44. Detail approach to carry the pregnancy, Detail steps of parenting right from how to give bath for new born baby and other details in a step by step manner, How to take care of the parents even if so many internal disputes going on , Daily worshipping, Spiritual knowledge to children, How to consider Astrology, Vastu….these are the some of the topics I would like to hear from your wisdom

with heart and soul

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

Fireless Cooking Session with Maran G and Laughter Therapy

Fireless Cooking Session with Maran G and Laughter Therapy – Workshop at Bangalore on 22 July 2017

Participants of the workshop

The fifth-year anniversary celebration of the Swarnaprashna Parenting Community, which happened in June with over 40-50 parents and their family and children, was a one of a kind meeting of like-minded parents who share a common vision for health and spirituality alike. One of the super hit sessions at this celebration was the session of Dr. Maran G, who is a raw food activist and a firm proponent of Naturopathy. All of us were so bowled over by his enthusiasm and his super helpful attitude towards knowledge sharing, that it is but inevitable that we will all demand for a repeat (this time, more detailed!) session with Dr. Maran.

So, with the stars aligning, we were fortunate enough to enjoy two wonderful sessions with Dr. Maran in the last month – one in Chennai (organized by parent Priya) and one in Bangalore – which happened this past Saturday. I was part of the session at Bangalore and feel honored to share the knowledge gained at the session which Dr. Maran so gracefully shared with us all. But before we dive in straight to the learning, let me write a bit about Dr. Maran.

Dr. Maran getting ready to wow the audience

Maran G or Maranji as we liked to call him, is what you might call a food and health revolutionary. Hailing from Tamilnadu, Dr. Maran, who must be about 60 or so years old, has been tirelessly working the last 20 years (or perhaps even more) with a single motive to help families avoid expensive medical costs and realize that they can cure themselves of all diseases with a simple belief that Food is Medicine and Medicine is Food. A very humble soul and a great orator, Dr. Maran, who is a Naturopathy doctor, also runs a small all natural food restaurant at Sivakasi. One of the notable achievements of this restaurant is that they don’t use any of the five whites (Sugar, Salt, Maida, Milk and White Rice/Wheat) – and yet, over 250-300 people regularly visit this restaurant every single day in search of healthy and safe food. Dr. Maran regularly travels across South India to talk about healthy food habits and healthy lifestyle practices to lead a healthy and happy life. For all his wonderful knowledge and status, he might be one of the most humble men you might ever meet. The world certainly needs more of his kind.

As you might have guessed, any time we spend with such a person is bound to be filled with so much learning and so much realization of the simple truths about life. So it was the session that happened in Bangalore. Dr. Maran spent about 5-6 hours addressing all of us non-stop with not a single pause or break – that itself can be the proof of how the right food and lifestyle habits can help someone face all the demands of a day without breaking a single sweat! Dr. Maran, nonetheless to say, is a man who practices what he preaches and is an inspiration to all of us – if we can be half of what he is at that age, I am sure that will be a great achievement given the rush and mindlessness that we live in.

Participants listening attentively

As I sit now and try to pen down what I learnt this weekend, my mind simply boggles at the task before me! Every single second of the session was so useful and so full of information, that it would be impossible for me to capture every single one of it here without being confusing or overwhelming. So I will try to share the essence of what I learnt (given that I have about 15 pages of hurriedly scribbled notes to decipher). I am going to write it down as we covered it during the session without putting my own wrapper or inference around it though I will try to bracket it into categories wherever possible so that it is easy for you to read and remember. If you are unclear about what a certain point might mean, do comment and I will see if I can recall and try to elaborate it out for you.

Before the day’s session began, as has become our usual practice, Velu did a guided meditation for all parents gathered around. Few peaceful moments where we were called into recognize our own consciousness and its power to go far and beyond our immediate comprehension. By the end of this meditation, all of were feeling so centered and calm – just the right mindset to receive the downpour of wisdom all of us got from Dr. Maran! One of Dr. Maran associates, Mr. Mukesh Jain, who is a laughter and yoga therapist, joined us soon after to kick start the day with a quick laughter session that will set the trend for the day – a fun and jovial mood to break the seriousness and magnitude of the topic at hand. And then, it was time for Dr. Maran (many thanks to Parent and healer Anand who helped translate).

Meditation session in progress

Bhastrika Pranayama – one of the most easy ways to cleanse your lungs and detox

So, without further ado, here are some of the pearls of wisdom shared by Dr. Maran:

The Basics:

  1. The basic premise is that we are what we eat. One must understand that Food is Medicine and Medicine is Food. So, if we want a healthy body, all we need to do is look at our food habits.
  2. All causes of diseases and the many symptoms of the many diseases are just one – which is Morbid Toxin Accumulation in the body. So what are these toxins? It can be the polluted Air we breathe, the contaminated water we take OR it can be the bad food we consume – that is all.
  3. With that understanding, it will be easy to know that if all diseases are a result of one root cause, however different the disease or its symptoms are, all of them can be dealt with the same treatment – i.e. Complete Detoxification and a return to healthy food habits and lifestyle giving the body time and energy to heal itself.
  4. While Modern Medicine has been a great life saver (in the case of emergency surgeries, accidents and such), it has not been very kind to humans in its very quick recommendations for synthetic-chemical based medicines (more toxins to the already toxic loaded body!), operations and unnecessary amputations and eviscerations. So before one turns to this option, one must firmly look at one’s own lifestyle and food habits and identify the root cause of the disease instead of asking for quick-fixes from the Doctors of modern medicine.
  5. So how can we avoid toxin accumulation due to food? How can Food be medicine? How can our food habits help us live a healthy life and help our body heal itself? The answer is very simple – It is just about consuming food straight from the greatest kitchen in the world, without any secondary processing. That’s right, the greatest kitchen in the world is that of Mother Nature’s and the best kind of food is the one that comes straight from her – raw and clean of any contamination (including pesticides, fertilizers, etc.)
  6. One must understand and go back to our elementary school lessons that all of us have forgotten – Cooking takes away the essential nutrients in our food. Cooking is an unnecessary wastage of energy. Cooking is not required for a man to consume food. The early man might very well have been a fruitarian and if he could have in that harsh environment, we very well can be now.
  7. But given that we have got used to eating cooked food in the past few generations, how can we go back to this basic healthy way of living? Where do we start? Simple – Just switch 30% of your food intake to raw and clean – that should be more than enough to see you through. This roughly translates to a minimum of ONE COMPLETE raw meal (consisting of fruits, vegetables and plain juices/milk extracted from millets/grams/grains) per day.
  8. It doesn’t, however, stop at only food. We must also look at our overall lifestyle and make sure it is healthy. For instance, our good food habits must be complemented by good eating habits – i.e. for instance, giving complete attention to what we eat, biting each morsel minimum twenty or times till all the saliva is mixed with it (which is what helps digestion – as digestion starts right from mouth and not just in stomach as we believe).
  9. Physical Exercise is also mandatory as is cultivating a good mind.
  10. Finally, you can reverse most if not all diseases if you are totally willing to commit to a raw and clean food habit. Dr. Maran has cured many a people with his simple diet plans and lifestyle modification recommendations.

Our wholesome food getting ready – helped by kids!

What we must remember and most importantly practice:

  1. Replace the five whites mandatorily. Sugar can be replaced by Jaggery or Plam Sugar. Salt can be replaced by Sea/Rock Salt or Himalayan Pink Salt. Maida and White Rice can be replaced with traditional millet or unpolished rice varieties. Milk can be replaced with Milk alternatives such as Coconut Milk or Sprout’s Milk.
  2. In addition to nutrients, Cooking takes away the natural taste of the food as well which is why we need to add extra spices to dishes. If we get used to eating raw for a minimum one week, our taste buds will stop asking for “spicy stuff”. So start by consuming at least one raw meal a day. Every meal must begin with fruits or raw vegetables (30-60 minutes before the meal itself).
  3. Consume plenty of water. Look at detox waters to help detoxify and restore body balance.
  4. Water must also be consumed like solid food. Sip by sip mixed well with saliva.
  5. Practice Bhastrika Pranayama to detox your lungs and handle pollution in the air we breathe in.
  6. Assimilation and Elimination must happen smoothly for the body to function well. Pay attention to both these processes.
  7. Chew completely to ensure food is mixed well with Saliva. Saliva is the one that helps in digestion and it is also an insulin balancer if you will.
  8. Never control body urges including the urge to urinate and defecate. One must defecate at least twice a day. This will automatically get streamlined if one switches to natural/raw food at least once a day.
  9. Eat only when hungry and never go by the clock. Eat slowly and without distractions such as TV or mobile. Try not to talk as well while eating. Pay complete attention to what you are eating.
  10. Physical exercise and body activity is a must for healthy living. One must walk barefoot at least for half an hour a day outdoors. If not possible, at least walk in the shape of eight inside the house.
  11. Get up before sunrise. Do “Angapradikshina” and super brain yoga to keep your digestive system and nervous system active and healthy.
  12. Be childlike and cultivate a happy mindset.
  13. Dressing is also important for a healthy body – avoid tight and clingy dresses made out of unnatural fibers such as polyester and such.
  14. Help others and derive mental satisfaction. This, in turn, will help you reach a feeling of satiation and happiness.
  15. Never have a physical relationship with your partner within 3 hours of eating. All the blood will be re-directed to the physical act and food will turn to toxins. The best time, thus recommended by our elders probably keeping this in mind, is in the early morning well away from the last meal of the deal.
  16. Never eat after 7 pm.
  17. Practice Oil Bathing regularly without fail. If your lifestyle doesn’t allow it, at least do oil pulling.
  18. Have seasonal fruits. Consume desi (non-hybrid only) and organic fruits only as much as possible. For all other food, wash with salt and lemon to get rid of chemicals as much as possible before consuming.
  19. Don’t consume too much water just after a meal. Give at least 30-60 minutes gap. You may consume Detox water if you feel thirsty during this time.
  20. Finally, practice fasting as well to complement your healthy food habits.

A complete meal of the day – totally fireless cooking (all raw and natural)

Recipes:

So, all of us might have the same questions in our mind the minute we hear we must switch to at least 30% raw food in a day- how can we survive without any spices and simply eat just fruits and raw vegetables every single day? Well, it need not be that way. We can definitely create some wonderful recipes with spices such as dhania, jeera, and pepper and create some lip-smacking raw recipes. Do lookout for the English translated publications of Dr. Maran’s recipe books. For now, here are a few recipes Dr. Maran shared during the meet (he shared some more as well – but I haven’t been able to blog them all). We also had the great fun of eating all of these items (and more) prepared by Maranji’s assistant/cook Mr. Ramesh (who was helped by many parents as well including Divya, Nandhini and others).

Here are some of these items/recipes:

A healthy alternative to Cow’s Milk and Morning drinks:

  1. Curry Leaves Kheer
  2. Carrot/Beetroot Kheer
  3. Greens Kheer
  4. Sprout’s Milk

A healthy Starter/Snack:

  1. Sweet and Raw Ladies Finger Starter (or alternate with Snake Gourd)
  2. Raw Ground nut / Till Laddu Snack
  3. Sprout Salad

Sweet and Raw Ladies Finger Starter

Sprout Salad

Main Course:

  1. Mix Vegetable Kootu (or stew)
  2. Gourd Salad
  3. Lemon Aval (Flattened Poha) Rice
  4. Sweet Aval (Flattened Poha) Rice (Flattened Poha)
  5. Coconut Chutney
  6. Ridge Gourd Chutney
  7. Curd Aval

Mixed Veg Salad

Sweet Avalakki

Ridge Gourd Chutney

Lemon Avalakki

Kootu

Curd rice (avalakki)

Desserts:

  1. Aval Payasam
  2. Stuffed Snake Gourd Sweet Treats/Cutlets

Aval Payasam

Stuffed Snake Gourd Sweet/Cutlet

Never knew Snake Gourd can be so yummy eaten raw (Of course the Jaggery filling helped 😛 )

Other Accompaniments:

  1. Beetroot Pickles
  2. Ginger Pickles
  3. Detox Waters

Beetroot Pickles

What I have shared is probably just 50% of what Maranji shared or even lesser. I hope you get a chance to attend his session yourself and get to learn as we all did this time.

Before I wrap up, I must also thank Mr. Mukesh Jain – who spent well over an hour making us all laugh – the only thing we didn’t do was ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing). We did everything else laughing – yoga, exercise, talking, moving, dancing, the formation of an energy circle….and what not. My god, Mr. Mukesh never let his smile or laugh dim even for a single second – such was his commitment to giving us all a memorable day of laughter. As they say, a day without laughter is a day wasted. Though it will by no means be a day wasted, Mr. Mukesh’s child-like enthusiasm in engaging all of us left us all grinning ear-to-ear well after the day was over.

As an ending note, let me express my gratitude to Dr. Maran, Mr. Ramesh, Mr. Mukesh Jain, Velu, Mani, many parents and volunteers who made this event happen (Devika, Divya, Nandhini, many more I am sure ). God bless them with a happy, healthy life!

Author: Vaijayanthi

Vaijayanthi is a freelance business writer and full-time gardener. She coaches people on adopting a chemical-free lifestyle through her initiative called the Kaustubam for Sustainable Living Practices. She also conducts various physical workshops and training sessions on sustainable living and Gardening for children in Bengaluru through the initiative The Happy Child.

A meeting of Kindred Spirits – Part 2 of 3

5th Year Anniversary Celebration of Swarnaprashna Parenting Group

The second day dawned bright and early. The first session of the day was Yoga – guided graciously by parent Bhooma. Though Bhooma did not have any indication that she will be called on to conduct the session (as the other person who was supposed to do it had to drop out due to unavoidable reasons), she enthusiastically stepped in and ensured the parents were not disappointed. I heard the Yoga session was very energetic and rejuvenating. Unfortunately, I missed it! The early morning chirping of the many birds on campus and the peacocks from the nearby fields compensated a wee bit for missing such a wonderful session though (or so I consoled myself!).

Yoga session by parent Bhooma

After a quick breakfast, all parents gathered at the pyramid room with much anticipation and glee for the day’s program.  We were not disappointed. The formal program kicked off with a small recognition ceremony to honor the core parents who have contributed their time and energies over the last few years towards the growth of the Swarnaprashna parenting group. Without these do-gooders, our community will not be what it is today. Many thanks to these kind souls who continue to dedicate their efforts to the cause of holistic living and parenting.

Parent Nandhini and core member of Swarnaprashna Parenting Community getting honored (one of the many parents who have tirelessly worked over the last few years towards the cause of holistic living and parenting)

Parent Team honoring Velu Jayaprakash, the man behind Swarnaprashna who is making all this possible (through the guidance of his Guru as he likes to acknowledge)

After the recognition ceremony, Ranjan Mullaratt, a Kalaripayattu expert with 30 years experience in the art form, spent over an hour with us sharing his knowledge about the most ancient martial art of the world. Kalaripayattu (Kalari meaning an enclosed space and payattu meaning practice), which is said to have originated from South India, is believed to be taught first to Sage Parasurama by Lord Shiva.  The art form was eventually spread world-wide by Bodhirama including to China. Today, it is practiced widely in Kerala, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh in India. Placing a high importance on the guru-shishya parambara, Kalaripayattu is extremely beneficial for both physical and mental health. It follows the principles of Ayurveda and incorporates traditionally guarded secrets on vital nerve points to disarm the opponent in a fight.

Ranjan Mullaratt, a Kalaripayattu expert talking to us about the age-old martial art form

Next up was the super fun, super powerful, super thought-provoking session on Natural Foods by Dr. Maran G. A raw food activist and a firm proponent of Naturopathy, Maran G is what you might call a bomb of energy and traditional knowledge. Dr. Maran runs a tiny food joint in Sivakashi, Tamil Nadu named “Thaivazhi Iyarkai Unavagam” (translated roughly as Traditional & Natural Food Restaurant) – it serves over 300 people each day with completely wholesome, raw and uncooked food and helps them fight many diseases and illnesses with food as medicine.

Dr. Maran G – A raw food activist and proponent of Naturopathy with Parent Gayathri (who helped translate Maranji’s priceless talk to English for the benefit of all parents who did not understand Tamil)

Known for his selfless and passionate work on spreading the wisdom of consuming raw and natural food, Maran G is a wonderful human being who has dedicated his life for the betterment of the health of his fellow beings. An hour or so with him was just not enough – his enthusiasm, deep knowledge, jovial nature, literary skills, and caring attitude made us all wish he could spend the entire day with us talking! WE just couldn’t get enough of the many tips and recipes he shared with us all so generously. God bless Maran G and his kind – we were in turn for sure blesses to be part of his session that day. Though I am planning to cover the tips/recipes given by Maran G in another blog post, here’s what he really wanted us all to take away that day, if not anything else:

Pearls of Wisdom from Maran G’s talk:

  1. Drink plenty of water
  2. The more flour/starch you consume, the more pain you will suffer. Avoid plan starch food.
  3. Follow the Natural way of life – have more fruits and vegetables (raw). Consume Amla/Guava/Dates/Fig in plenty.
  4. Walking for 10 mins barefoot is equal to walking 1 hour in shoe. Try to walk barefoot as much as possible and stay connected to Mother Earth.
  5. A lifestyle without physical work and filled with bad food habits is sure asking for trouble.
  6. One must do the super brain yoga (thoppukaram as it’s called in Tamil, usually performed in front of Ganesha with both hands on the ears) at least 21 times a day to stay fit, young, and healthy.
  7. At least one meal a day must be Fruits only. Once in a day at least, you must do fireless cooking!
  8. For Thyroid, Diabetes and improving memory power, soak 2 Ladies Finger in water overnight and have that water in the morning.
  9. Try to have a wholesome and raw breakfast. You can always add spice to it in the form of pepper, jeera, ajwain. Replace Coffee/Tea with Dry Ginger Tea.
  10. Physical exercise a must for a healthy body. If you don’t have time to do exercise, you can at least walk in the form of a 8 shape right at home
  11. Most importantly, pls ensure your children inculcuate the good habit of eating raw and healthy food – enrich their water bottles and tiffin boxes with the best food Mother Nature herself has prepared lovingly.
  12. Do not watch any TV, mobile or other devices while eating.
  13. Never eat after 7 in the night!

The above is just barely scratching the surface of what he shared. You must definitely attend one of his sessions if possible in the future.

Standing ovation to Dr. Maran – one hour with him is just NOT enough!

We all proceeded to lunch – thinking if we should start practicing all Maran G told us right away – unfortunately, bad habits formed over decades of lifestyle needs at least a few days of convincing one’s own mind and self before making the switch. Maran G, however, did not think so. He liberally shared his meager lunch of 2-3 fruits with everyone at the Lunch hall. Indeed, a very selfless Samaritan he is.

Usually, any session planned right after lunch will turn out to be boring (even if it is not really so – thanks to our full stomachs!). But we had a surprise coming for us. The team from Kreedaa Kaushalya, who came all the way from Mysore, enthralled us the next one hour with the traditional games of India. Right from Indian Chess, Pagaday, Aliguli Manay to Adu Huli Ata, it was a fun session where the children and adults even got to play a game or two.

Traditional Games that transported us to our childhoods

The team of RG Singh, Raghu Dharmendra, and Dileep Gowda have done extensive research on the traditional games, their use and their importance in our culture and have made their knowledge freely available to anyone who is willing to pay attention. In this day and age where children are glued to mobile screens for hours together, traditional games offer a hope and promise of getting them back to an engaging form of play which are also designed to make them more mentally agile and fit. Do check out the Kreedaa Kaushalya team at their shop opposite Mysore Zoo or catch them at their blog here: http://kreedaakaushalya.blogspot.in/. And don’t forget to introduce your children to the rich game culture of India.

Children getting lost in the wonder of Traditional Games, thanks to the session by Team Kreeda Kaushalya

The next session was on Karathandavam, another martial art form of India. It was very interesting to learn about this ancient art and appreciate the beauty of many practices that were part of our culture.

A quick demo of Karathandavam – another ancient martial art form

A quick water break later, all of us assembled again for another one of the most interesting sessions of the meet – Yoga point of view from Thirumoolar by Siddha Dr. Selva Shanmugam. A very deep subject, with profound wisdom and insights, Thirumanthiram and its teachings on Yoga and Medicine is not very easy to be discussed in just a few hours. But Dr. Selva Shanmugam did fantastic justice to it, while still keeping it absolutely relevant and informative, by sharing his decades of research and knowledge of Thirumoolar’s text. The following lines from his presentation stand out strikingly clear even today in my mind:

Andathil ullathae Pindam,

Pindathil ullathae Andam

Meaning what’s there in the Macrocosm (the Universe) is what’s there in the Microcosm (The Body) i.e. man is a universe in himself. These lines were said many thousands of years ago by Siddhas (ancient Tamil Sages) – and it is being discovered to be true by modern scientists even as we read these lines today. Whether one views these lines literally or with more spiritual intent, it is certainly not something one can just understand in a day and gain mastery (in fact, nothing in life is like that, but these kind of topics definitely need their own time, effort and dedication to really understand, let alone start practicing them).

Dr. Selva Shanmugam sharing his decades-long insights from Thirumanthiram

After that intense session, parent, healer and acupuncture therapist, Anandji did a light and simple session on Body, Mind and Soul – he gave us a very good understanding of the these three realms and even shared an easy way to meditate. Thanks Anandji – it was indeed a new way of looking at meditation (where one just lets the thoughts flow without getting too attached and instead focus on “who” is having these thoughts).

Healer Anandh talking about a simple meditation technique

Post that, it was time for little Ishita’s first birthday celebration!! A celebration where everyone wanted to get as close to the birthday cake as possible!! Joking aside, I am still in awe of the parents’ clear commitment and conviction towards holistic living (they sacrificed the usual first birthday celebrations and instead chose to attend the outing and celebrate the little one’s birthday with us). Anyhow, again on a lighter vein, thanks to dear Ishita and her parents, we got to taste one of the yummiest Millet based cakes made by parent Sharanya (again proving the power of parenting community coming together for the benefit of each other). God bless you, Ishita dear!

Little Ishita’s birthday celebration at Swarnaprashna’s fifth-year anniversary celebration 🙂

Someone called for a quick group photo before Maranji takes leave. Check out the cute little guy striking a pose in the front!

The day wound up with Dinner and another meditation practice session by Velu. This time, the meditation was focused on building a positive aura around ourselves, an energy ball of protection and good will. Suffice it to say, it was one of the most intense moments of my life! Beyond that, it is very difficult to write about what we all experienced – a mild sense of liberation, lingering joy and the thrill of having discovered our own mind power – definitely something to be experienced rather than heard from someone!

Children being very much a part of the day’s proceedings – thanks to all the parents who came together to keep them entertained

Author: Vaijayanthi

Vaijayanthi is a freelance business writer and full-time gardener. She coaches people on adopting a chemical-free lifestyle through her initiative called the Kaustubam for Sustainable Living Practices. She also conducts various physical workshops and training sessions on sustainable living and Gardening for children in Bengaluru through the initiative The Happy Child.

A meeting of Kindred Spirits (Part 1 of 3)

5th Year Anniversary Celebration of Swarnaprashana Parenting Group

It was Monday morning. I woke up with a strange and wonderful sense of peace and calm – very unlike other Mondays – in fact very unlike most other days as well! A quick recollection, and it all came flooding back – a weekend full of learning, unlearning, joy, celebration and a sense of time standing still. And yet, it all got over so quickly! Yes, I am talking about the fifth year anniversary celebration of the Swarnaprashna holistic living and parenting group.

Held on 10th and 11th of June 2017 at the very picturesque The School of Ancient Wisdom at Bangalore, the event was a meeting of kindred spirits and parents who became quick friends. Though packed tight with learning sessions on everything from Yoga & Meditation to Parenting & Healthy living, the two days were as relaxed as one can ever hope to get. For me, personally, it was a total treat, like a surprise package of all things that are on my “most liked list” – as if someone had gone through my mind map and picked the choicest of favorites and come up with an agenda that I would never miss for the world. I am sure it was the same for almost every parent who came to the meet! Now, that is not a small feat to achieve – but achieve it they did, the organizing team of Velu, Divya, Mani, Priya, Ananth, Nandhini and all the others who worked hard for more than a month to pull together this beautiful event for others. There is a reason I have emphasized the last word – I will elaborate more on it later.

The lush green and peaceful School of Ancient Wisdom

The beautiful environment of The School of Ancient Wisdom

All of us were to arrive by 5 – 6 PM on Friday evening. But as luck would have it, the rain gods decided to give us a shout! It started pouring delaying some parents from reaching the venue before 6.30 – no problem, said the kids who had arrived by then….We will just take our time getting to know each other so that we can hack our plans for the next two days! And that set the tone for the next two days – something you would never have seen in any other meeting of adults in your life am sure – a free rein of the meeting room for the kids to play, run, fight, sleep, eat and what not – amidst very serious discussions!

So while the adults listened, talked and took notes (pretending they don’t hear the noise!), the little ones had the time of their lives as well. This itself can be one of the best highlights of the meet – a highly tolerant and relaxed huddle of parents where every single parent took the disturbance (adventure for the kids!) in their stride and kept a watch on the kids collectively. Reminded me of the long forgotten huge joint families of yesteryears. Yes, I know, we are a parenting group and some might say this is expected but well, I can only thank the organizers and all the parents for proving we can have a productive meeting with our kids 🙂

After a quick round of introductions of all the parents and how they came to be part of the Swarnaprashna group, we came to know that one of the child had her first birthday the next day – and the parents have decided to spend it with us, in this retreat, instead of the usual party and merry – a awe moment of their dedication and interest to the cause of holistic living for sure.

It was soon time for Dinner followed by the Negativity removing mediation session by Velu. The day was also perfect for it – being a Friday AND a full moon day – a great combination to rid oneself of negative influences and disturbing feelings. If you have been following the discussions on the WhatsApp parenting groups, you will know that removing dhristi is one of the suggested weekly rituals one can follow to maintain emotional health and well-being for the entire family for those who believe in it. It is usually done with salt/chilies/mustard/eggs or any combination thereof (some also use natural straw/camphor and burn them after the cleansing ritual). Scientifically, we are using these high pranic energy filled items to “absorb” the negative energies around us, helping us keep a clean energy space around us. However, our meditation session focused on removing the negative energy within/around us in a different way by using a combination of visualization and self-suggestion. Each of us was also asked to hold a metal coin in our right hand (or a Lemon) which acted a medium to capture all the negativity – this was thrown into the fire built specifically for this purpose at the end of the meditation session.

One of the main things that we learnt during the pre-session discussions was on the importance of discarding the materials used for removing the dhristi (like the coin/salt/chillies…etc.) safely – without letting it affect another person (i.e. not throwing it in a public place where another person is bound to walk over it). As important as it is to get rid of our negative energies, it’s equally important to ensure we don’t pass it off to another person, knowingly or unknowingly. So it’s always best to discard any items we use in a space where another person/animal will not get exposed to it – for at least 24 hours. After that, the energy will get dissipated naturally. The meditation was a very soothing experience for me (not what one might expect out of a Dhristi removing ritual aka Black magic removing meditation!) – and helped me slip into good sleep in the calm and safe environment of The Ancient School of Wisdom.

Author: Vaijayanthi

Vaijayanthi is a freelance business writer and full-time gardener. She coaches people on adopting a chemical-free lifestyle through her initiative called the Kaustubam for Sustainable Living Practices. She also conducts various physical workshops and training sessions on sustainable living and Gardening for children in Bengaluru through the initiative The Happy Child.

5th Year Celebration of whatsapp group

It is a long journey from where this group of parents started 5 years ago, with 6 parents. Today, as we stand, this group of like-minded people committed to nourish their kids and live a holistic life with ancient wisdom gifted to us by our ancestors, has grown strong with 6500+ parents and continues to grow on a daily basis.

After the past Sathuragiri retreat, the community’s energy was so high and determined to meet each other and celebrate this 5th year. Happy to see parents in our community took ownership of this event, felt like a family get together. Some highlights of our WhatsApp post.

Out Station Parents

The plan was to start, at 5PM on Friday, the unpredictable weather took over, many parents were stuck in traffic. So we had to delay, all kids found their ways to keep them busy. We started to introduce all the parents and their journey of how they ended up in our group. It was finally good to put a name to face. Gratitude to @Ananth who took a day off on Friday to make sure out station parents reach the venue safer. In parallel he took care of posters, banners, etc. @Ananth @Rajasaker @Mani made sure all the banners were fixed on time. Really glad to see @Nikitha Jain flew all the way from Delhi for this event, @Yoga Jothy from Hyd, @Saranya from Chennai, @Vijaya from AP.

At the resort, we made a solid demand to replace 5 whites. Due to operations and financial issues, they could not do it. So from our community, we estimated the use of 2 poisons, white sugar, and white salt and replaced with jaggery powder and pink salt. In the last min, we came to know from our team that jaggery powder was not available, @Ananth took charge and arranged 25kgs to the event. To make the check-in smooth, @Divya and @Priya planned meticulously to allot rooms in such a way that parents have their own space. Unfortunately, the resort management wanted to fill block by block not random rooms at different rooms. It was the time when most of the parents are stuck in traffic. Then we took help of the resort management and tried to rearrange the rooms. The SoAW was kind enough to offer to upgrade the rooms to accommodate for kids too. So all kids were given same coats, some even had extra beds.

We made a history by planting Birth Star Trees

In parallel, we had plenty of issues to source 27 birth star trees, we had to refer back our blog to get alternative trees. @SriNandhini did multiple follow ups with them to make sure we have all the plants. Finally when the plants arrived, none of the plants had a name tag. We had no idea which plant was referring to which star. @Divya and @Srinandhini spent nearly 3 hours to figure out while the session was happening. Luckily Dr. Shankar was of handy help, he was able to help us spot some plants.
@Srinandhi also make sure all were given a small tulsi as a return gift.
@Priya also sourced seed balls from chennai as an additional return gift.

@Srinandhi @Divya – did an amazing work on getting those toys, stationery. They and other parents made countless shopping time for this events.

Parent Monika celebrated her daughter Ishitha’s First Birthday at the event.

The first birthday is always very important and special to parents than kids. We are honored to see when parents decided to celebrate with like-minded parents and seek blessings. @Sarayna our Nala group active member (and Admin) took charge and experimented with Ragi and millets to make a healthy cake. In spite of her daughter’s health issues, She personally baked and delivered the cake as a surprise. As the principles of reciprocity continue, @Monica arranged healthy sweets for all parents.

Shloka Time


Within 10 mins, @Roopa took charge of all the kids and made them practice shloka. Along with her, kids did a decent job of chanting.

Maran Ji – the showstopper among all speakers

Though all experts share their in depth wisdom, It was this humble healer, who stole the show! Though he is not fluent in other language than Tamil. His true intention, sincerely reflected in his voice and attitude. All our parents were breathless with his sense of humor and able to make his strong point in everyone’s mind. This is one of the reasons I wanted him to be the first speaker. (but have to make a switch in plan due to logistical reasons) @Gayathri did an amazing job to catch up with Maran ji’s high velocity speak into English. But many parents was able to make sense from his talk. His simple and effective solutions was an eye opener. After his talk…Few parents immediately made a commitment that they would translate his recipe book into multiple language book.

Laughter Therapy

On request of Maran ji. He handed over a small book about laughter therapy, he wanted some parents to quickly learn and do a session, @Vaijayanthi jumped into action and did a session (I really missed it, have to see the video to comment, heard it was good)

Wedding Anniversary Celebrations

Though we know about the birthday we planned it well. But one of our parent @Divya was celebrating their anniversary, came to us as a surprise. In the mid of chaos at events, handling guest, kids, other running issues, the core parents really hacked a plan to at least arrange a flower bouquet. All parents showered flowers over the couple with their blessings. and gifted Darbai grass meditation mat. Yes @Divya it was a small gift from our community.

Darbai Grass Meditation Mat

We wanted to give something ancient but spiritual for the guest. One side we have a negative budget to work on and another side, time was limited. At this junction, I was  suggested this idea. But I strongly suggested standard size would not be really useful if you are really a meditation and seek to benefits from the grass. So he had to work his way to find a lengthy grass from Haridwar to make this custom size, I demanded. The extra mat was sold to few parents at the end of the event. (Yes, we will launch this mat on demand)

A Parent almost skipped a Wedding function to attend our event


@Priya known as a please use reply button admins, really skipped her cousin’s wedding reception to hand hold our event, late in evening, @Saranya took charge of her to reach the wedding at night and @Priya ran back to the event after the early morning wedding.

First Preview of Sathuragiri Footage

It was nice to see the energy of parents clapping and making notice like a movie experience. The first draft copy of the footage of our recent Sathuragiri retreat. Personally, the video has some elements like swp talk, and my long thank you note etc.. I felt this is not in context with the motive, so we will edit it and add some more footage of parents and publish it in few weeks.

Some notable gestures
  • Bhooma Balaji supported us in conducting the amazing Yoga session in the morning, since our Yoga expert could not make it at the last moment.
  • Roopa engaged the kids in one of the session by interesting Origami. Along with Vaijayanthi Roopa performed the role of time keeper
  • Pottery session was enjoyed by both kids and adults.
  • Nadiyan Divya’s hubby, took the initiative to take a child to the hospital due to unexpected emergency.
  • Shilpa’s mother was so thoughtful by sharing her homemade Marmalade pickle to our parents (Sunday lunch table had that).
  • Efforts of Raja by running multiple times for all the physical work.
  • Mani and Raja at the second day, gave their rooms to the camera crew and adjusted in a hall.
  • Healer Sangeetha Shah, only member outside the group who listened to her intuition and took part of our celebration.

Awards

We identified nearly 40 parents from the 1000s of parents who did the little things that mattered to the community. Parents who made it to the event received their awards. For parents who did not make it to the event, once we have enough budget, we will post it to your house soon. A detailed post is on the way about this tomorrow.

There are many untold stories to share about this landmark event of our WhatsApp group. I tried to bring that I could recollect quickly. I might have skipped some, this does not mean their work is unnoticed, it is just my memory (RAM space is limited).

Moving forward, As core group is restructuring, we decided to be more of quality focused and removed parents who do not follow group disciplines. The idea is reduce the group size and keep only like minded people who are serious about holistic living.

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

Ancient Wisdom Transformation Survey 2016-17

Our whatsapp group grows bigger day by day. Yearly once, We conduct a survey to understand each other and realign our focus, so that we as a community can gear up for next year.

Important reason are

  • This helps identify the inactive parents who block the space in group. They do not respond to the survey, We know they do not read the message. So we move them broadcast group and make space for new parents. We can not keep new parents waiting to join us.
  • It is always good to push ourselves out of comfort zone. So we reshuffle the group so new parents, new friends, new ideas.
  • Parents in our group for more than a years know this ritual. So please fill the survey there are hardly 5 questions. Be honest and share our thoughts..

Happy to share the survey results in public.

Which areas would like the group to focus on?

Health
Home remedies
Parenting
Na
Healthy living
Healthy lifestyle
No comments
Ancient practices
Spiritual practices, Food practices
Devotion
Meditation
Child development
Ancient wisdom
Home Schooling, Parenting depends on Child’s Age
Inspite of lifestyle changes, some people tend to have some or other ailments. Would be great if we could have a team of ayurveda, homeopathy doctors who have history of treating common diseases successfully
Ancient herbal knowledge Home remedies Healthy living
Am still a learner… trying to understand the practices and applying into everyday action.
Art forms too
Meditstion and spiritual practices in general
Website can include more details
Organic in house (read flat) farming. Material supply like seeds, mud etc..,with appropriate write up on how to grow depending on the location eg Hyd is a hot PLC vs Kerala humid, so the method of growing n watering varys so we need to have all this written in our database to help next set of new parents or generation. Involving n meeting up of each city parents n helping increase production through the ancient ways to help reduce cost so that products are affordable.
Parenting/grooming for toddlers thinking…Ancient techniques of grooming socially the kids. Guidance for how we can keep our kids away from bad habits they learn in schools. Training to the parents to become a healer like reiki etc….Art of healing…
Need more posts on ancient knowledge
Adolescent health
Child food recipe with month and quantity Women health benefits Growing vegetables at home
Healthy recipes for kids and adults, pregnancy tips diet plans, day to day life.
Spiritual aspects like meditation,how to teach kids to meditate ,at what age to start teaching them, how to implement it at schools for better behavioral development.
Natural way in building the immune systems
Continue to revive the ancient wisdom, parenting tips for raising healthy kids with healthy minds, more about siddha and ayurveda as a way of our living
I think group is already doing a wonderful job..but few areas would be how to make perishable organic products available locally at cheaper rates thru a trustworthy source..HLP is doing an amazing job…but for us to move into fully organic lifestyle this is a must.
Vedic way of rearing children
Parenting, Reviving ancient practices, Motivating parents to keep on track and keep trying, holistic living, growing our own food, being a community that supports each other, child development, spiritual practices we can adopt
Providing information about how to replace bad practices
Parenting. Ancient remedies. Indieginious food.
Holistic parenting. Child behaviour. How to inculcate our culture and beliefs in our children.
Cooking oil
Still more on how to increase the mind power and how to manifest positive vibrations.more and aura science
Ancient rituals
Everything natural
The current focus on immunity and holistic parenting are my need.
Would focus more on ancient practice’s which we aren’t aware off;
traditional cooking
Preventive remedies
Natural ways to reduce weight
Healthy lifestyle. Food as medicine
Building immunity in children Using products grown naturally for better and healthy lifestyle. Eleminating allopathic medicine to natural n safe cure… treating issue from the root. Holistic approach towards living a healthy life and a constant in achieving the same… and spreading the knowledge for betterment.
I am happy the way the group is going ahead.
Parenting issues like bringing up the child in this competitive world
Home remedies for kids, weight loss and cholesterol management for adults. General mental and physical health management.
to focus more on kids overall devolpment
Yoga postures and pranayama, and a detailed list of do’s and don’t for bringing up kids and an ultimate list of foods to begiven to them with timing and season wise.
All the areas which are currently covered.
On matters relating to childbirth and pregnancy.
Siddha medicine and ancient agriculture
Holistic practices, reasons behind festivals. To know more about ancient practice and reason why our ancestors followed it so that we can implement in our life and educate our kids. PARENTING.
Ancients way of living and helping others.
Child care, Ancient practices, coping up with current lifestyle changes
More on parenting
It would be helful in child upbringing in a holistic way
Changes in food habits and lifestyle; Parenting; More sharing of experiences by others on changes they have adopted and difference they have seen.
In a general sense – Ayurveda, Siddha knowledge, interesting temples and culture and maybe some relevant astrological insight
Ancient wisdom, Spirituality, Science behind the belief, Positive motivation. Need weekly updates as posted in early days by Velu sir i.e based on each day what can be do’s & don’ts.
Childcare and general healthy habits
Parenting workshops if possible
Ancient healing methods /ancient recipes
Availability of products for remedies/ holistic products to tier 2 cities
More Focus on issues with Adults as well
Overall holistic development
Ancient way of life , organic food , health
Healthy food
Physical , mental and emotional growth of children and must have foods for everyone to avoid deficiencies.
Parenting and health
Children’s immunity development, ancient holistic methods for treating various disorders
Preventive measures Emotional n spiritual wellbeing
The topics currently being discussed are good.
Food and holistic practice
The current focus of the group is fine
Ancient food and natural healing of health
Focus more on lifestyle ailments and their cure through ancient remedies
Home remedy organic products
Holistic, we can continue the topics which are folowing
Home remedies and self awakening through ancient ways
Children’s health, Pregnancy care
Ancient wisdom- healthy practices which can be adopted regularly..and ofcourse home made remedies for kids and adults
On health issues and general knowledge
Traditional methods
Enlighting us with traditional way of living
i think focus should b all over human development…
It gas focussed on everything
Conduct workshops/meets regularly
Would like to see More on meditation,yoga and more about the importance of good food(both recipes and veggies)
Mental Development
Herbal remedies for babies
Immunity,healthy foods
The group is heading in right direction and needs to focus on ancient texts alittle more

Please mention few things you like about the group?

Everything
Ancient remedies
Knowledge
Ancient wisdom
Focussed,Authentic info,Genuine people
Home remedies
Immediate response
Immediate response to queries
1. Wealth of Knowlegde, 2. Helping other parents, 3. Different views on Holistic approaches
Ancient knowledge and Parenting discussion
Interactive. And good suggestions
Home remedies/ holistic approach towards traditional practices
Knowledge base and the groundedness of the team
Very organized and organic. Lots of very helpful informatuon
People are ready to share their knowledge and help fellow group members
People are happy to help. Admins are excited to answer. Sharing of knowledge.
Love the blessing part.
Team effort
Holistic wellness
Caring and trust among the members Experienced parents Instant help when required Incline us to move towards natural remedies and food
Avoiding the medicines and antibiotics for small problems like cold and cough.Going for home remedies. Oil bath importance. Everything, everything.
I like the group for the wealth of knowledge that one acquires be it food, lifestyle, spirituality,help when needed(in form of suggestions) ,basically everything is done with good intention.
Immediate solutions given by parents for our speedy recovery
I have come to know so much about the meaning of our rituals, why we need to follow them, about the influence of nature on us, etc. Also i have come across the precious swp with arka which is so effective. I have been introduced to the world of organic living which i can blindly trust. I have come to know a completely holistic way of living and sharing regarding food, medicine, practices etc. In a nutshell this community has literally opened a new world and a new way of living to me for which am very grateful and thankful.
A big learning process of ancient practices, holistic approach to our routines..
Honest discussion
Ancient wisdom, spiritual knowledge sharing (like Saduragiri travel coming up), parenting and child development tips, support
Focused, helping, act as a vast knowledge base, motivating towards healthy living
I like the knowledge shared. The explanation of why and how. Ancient remedies. Holistic parenting. I am awe for the knowledge shared here. It makes me immensely happy and blessed that I am part of this community. It’s a blessing for my children also.
It is very supportive. I have found answers to many of my queries without even asking. And i have also learnt so much about our own traditional system
Helping others to lead a healthy life
Very caring,helping to widen knowledge about our tradition and ancient customs,remind us about healthcare and ancient safe methods.
All admins r very talented n co-operative
It is very focused
Immediate response to doubt raised by any member, irrespective of how New they may be.
Anytime parents are ready to help; got to know abt the ancient practices; learnt lots and lots of home remedies; parents positive words which motivates other parents which I liked to the core.
All are verfy friendly and answers query very promptly.
Holistic approach, consistent response from admins and experts
Giving importance to holistic practices, oil bathing concept, homemade solutions for everything, most importantly I like we get genuine reasons for things like y we tie hip thread, y ear piercing is important, annaprashan etc.before knowing to this group I thought it just rituals now I came to know the importance of it.
I like the way people help each other with ancient wisdom. Also I love the immediate response for the queries.
Prompt response to the queries. Constant approach in sharing the ancient wisdom through simple procedure for better future Easily approchable and warm nature of admin towards other parents. Vast database of knowledge… which shows pure, dedicated and hard working people… who have put together the entire wisdom in such a beautiful way on website and through blog… that all questions in mind to particular issue is penned.. all questions are answered completely at all forums.
Very helpful parents and getting to know out ancient traditional food and following it. Helps to inculcate clean habits.
Queries are answered instantly
The motive of every individual to get back to living like ancient days is really encouraging.
the ancient knowledge the admins got
Amazing participation, getting new infos, the amazing effort to bring back the traditional foods back into our community..
I like to be part of this group as it shares the details about the roots of everything connected to our original, ancient practises. It helps my logical mind to believe the advices given by elders. This year, it really helped me to grow as a mother in breast feeding as well as home remedies for sicknesses in children. Heart filled gratitude to the founder and the group!!
Very nature friendly holistic and spiritual outlook on health matters. Velu sir takes special interest on queries that do not have a definite answer and provides expert opinion.
Helping each other, gained many holistic information which I have never heard before, great platform for learning. Overall its agreat group which gave me lots of idea about parenting as I have intoduced many holistic things in my kids life. Right time I have joined this group.
Quick response for needed people
You get to clear all your doubts on ancient practices and food, smoothing words from the parents
Various topics discussed, introduction of unique things like subhasitas, A2 milk, home grown herbs, dedication of the people like Velu Anna, Nandhini, Yamini, saranya and priya in helping others parents in the group.
Holistic approach towards life. Enlightment towards natures way of living. Very importantly simple home remedies.
Members are so willing to help and guide you.
The wealth of information, but mainly the drive and helpful nature of people I have had the opportunity to interact with. Thank you 🙏
Parents are well connected to help each other at any time. Learning more valuable things from every message.
Inputs of parents for any problem
Instant home remedies.. Discussions on parenting
Interactive, active,valuable suggestions
Very supportive
Utterly helpful; taking effort to make lives of others heathier
Parents being very supportive and responsive to queries of everyone
Ancient wisdom about our food, knowledge about how to cure ailments with the things easily available at home
Everything but most important is lifestyle change & adopting better practice
Really appreciated , so many are replying for queries with home remedies
Very informative, interactive and giving the right knowledge about food
Unity and admins dedication
Active participation, following rules with no junk messages Details about the blog articles
Parents helping each other
Selfless knowledge sharing
It covers all aspects of the daily routine and health.
I like home remedies, use of traditional food and traditional practices.
I just joined the group and I have been liking the health-related discussions most of all
It’s absolutely providing knowledge in aspects of health and food.i have practised few methods for my 11 months son and got great results. Even I shared those msg with my friends who are not in group and found good results.
Holistic views on health related issues
Group member’s response
Co operation of members, ready to help nature, proactiveness..
Focussed approach and readiness of Members to help each other
Immediate or late I got answers for my queries.. Many things I was not aware.. Group gave me clearity about things like milk, wheat, Swp etc. I like the products too.. They are really pure like ghee, honey et..
Velu sir’s Reinventing oil bath, eliminate 5 whites, sri ram organic farming
Scientifically reasoning ancient beliefs and an endeavour to reintroduce it in todays world
A parent when i need and messages in the group the immediate response and care from other parents is awesome
Its very organised and I has helped me aand my family friends to the core
Everyone tries to help one another with their knowledge / practices, when there is a need
Community work
Bringing closer to using traditional/holistic living
Prompt reply
sharing knowledge is one of the most appreciating aspect of this group…this is really v helpful in day today life.
Everthing .helpful knowledgeable ppl.and an eye opener for me to be in the group.feels like my holistic family of friends
Helping/ knowledge sharing nature of people in group
all are ready to help
The selfless helpful tips and solutions offered by all that too instantly.
Ancient recipes Focused
Informative group and everyone help eachother
Traditional remedies,fast response
Dedicated group where parents are benefitted with ancient knowledge and better life style advices.
The contribution each parent gives to the group and the effort taken to implement it
Being always there for the help with answers to our queries based on parents personal experiences

What are the areas we should improve in the group?

Reducing Home Remedy questions
Suggestion of good experienced knowledgeable doctors, healers etc across India.
I consider myself a learner thus will not be able to comment on this question. Kindly excuse.
Nothing, as of now.
We need to see if we can store these amazing information so we here other than just whatsapp messages because it gets lost. Akso nee parents don’t have access to previous messages. Just classifying and putting these messages in somewhere like Google docs or blog would be surely helpful
Website , infornation passing to the group
Should inform d parents to look into remedies already there in website before posting, n we need Sunday gap
Just joined the group so can’t suggest. It seems to be good now. May be the rest of the 3 whites be addressed and the products be our in the site soon.
More ways/ methods to adopt to protect oneself from negative vibes, how to get rid of black magic, training on parenting.
Avoid repetitive queries
Need age appropriate group for adolescent children.
More information needs to be updated on the site so that repetitive questions can be avoided and we can use those information without interrupting the group unnecessarily…
I like the group and giving the response to people in need is great. Thank you so much for taking time and educating. So much effort and good heart. God bless you all.
There is already a plethora of information exchanged regularly.So, I am happy with the way the group in functioning.
In my point of view, we are sailing in the correct path of finding the ancient widom in the holistic way.
Nothing i can think of
The group is becoming more like a remedy helpline, which is corrected to a great extent..but grouping parents as per kids age category with few worthwhile admins would tackle the case…my opinion
Nothing much
May be more webinars of knowledge sharing.
Please make the website more user friendly. It is a little difficult to find relevant articles in the website.
NA-i am new to the group
Areas of healthy body mind and soul.How to obtain the same.
I think I ppl covered each n everything
Nothing as yet
I want this group to continue the good work. Thank you
Some questions which parents ask are unattended sometimes. And they keep a remainder saying plz respond to my query which I asked yesterday…I’m very sure that we all are busy.. But at end of day we should make sure there are no unattended queries..
none so far
I won’t say improvements just a suggestion we should get Community Store products whenever we want instead of only 5 days. This will help us to use more of natural products.
Food recipes I guess
To early for me too answer as I am a new parent recently joined the community… but going forward will keep sharing my views on areas of improvement… if felt the need so for any particular issue.
Not mature enough to suggest such holistic group.
Answer queries of inactive parents like me. I do not respond but read all the conversations.
Nothing in specific.
it will be better if the group provides weekly bulletin of health
Find a solution to send the healthy foods and medicines outside India also, so that the numerous helpless Indians who are living without any support to live a traditional Indian life can also get the benefits.
Right now, can’t think of any.
As this is a diverse group, I think everybody is doing their best.
Availability of products in site
Other than always discussing about remedies for few illness, it would be useful for us if you share many ancient practices. This group has many gurus who have lot of knowledge in holistic and ancient things… so would like to hear many things from you all and enlighten ourselves and guide our kids in right path.
Child Development and Care
More webinars…
Its improving gradually in a positive way. Nothing as such.
Too early for me to comment. But maybe taking backup of previous discussions and posting it online for all community members to access (like an archive) will help a lot of new members and maybe reduce repeat questions. Also an app for the website would be great to easily browse blogs etc. on phone.
Having not been around for very long I trust the direction is in good hands.
When new members are added attach the Swarnaprashana blog address, so it might avoid repeated question regarding remedies. Weekly choose a topic for healthy discussion.
Lengthy conversation thread
Group is doing great..
Focused topics can be discussed on particular days,regular introduction of people and what they do.
Spoc on case of emergency or for certain areas
Improvising and adding more products .. which u are already doing so it’s natural that group shall improve
I am new. Should take sometime to provide any improvement areas.
If any topic is discussed in detail,then it would help if you put the update on the blog so everyone can refer it. Sometimes it is difficult to go back and search in whatsapp.
More approachable to new parents …feel lost at times
NA,iam very new to this group..just joined 1 week back
Making one page with all items and easy to order
Maybe a monthly periodic email summarizing all the important discussions will be better.
To keep the group more focused, connected and dedicated .
Collating all the information.
Pregnancy and post delivery
As I m very new to the group, I don’t think something is missing here. I m satisfied alot with the areas you have been covering here.
Every month one topic should be discussed as topic of the month….and we should have some experts discussing it….it can be notified before hand so that those who have any queries they can put it forward
Tracking payments of swp
Not required .. it is the best .. and topics come random as per need which are best answered.. also to organise the meetings in north region
As per my knowledge I am very satisfied with what group is going on.
Website to include discussion of common remedies in whats app group…it has been done partially, but sometimes when needed we cannot recollect chat and cannot find the same in website
Sometimes the topics are re discussed many times.
Feedback be given for products bought
As of now nothing..
Ignoring questions from people in need, importance of day to day ancient practices
Team is doing the great in improving our lives.cant ask for anything more but SAY THANK YOU
Liking it this way
repetition of queries should be avoided
As u have mentioned the remedies for cold n cough..please separate for child and adults as it gets confusing about the dosage.secondly if you could take money yearly for swp.
Nothing as such now as most of things/current issues are covered.
all herbs r not available …try to help with familiar herbs
Sharing the knowledge mostly via site. If possible why can’t we publish a newsletter say monthly for a beginning. It can include a short study or personal experience, feedbacks, who is who (behind the screens), can keep a quiz (tracking answers might be a nice issue). We can include so many good articles too.
Documenting all the practices
Nothing according to me.
To record the sessions that happen so that the parents who missed it can be benefitted
Not focusing on same things repeatedly
It’s perfect for me.
Right now doing good
N
I think everything is going well
This group is beyond my expectations. I’m still in learning curve . Would like to grow with the group and explore and go hand-in-hand.
More knowledge on Siddhas
About being inter-dependent and once in a while have a theme of writing letters

Sathuragiri – Season1 – Random Clicks.

Author: Velu Jayaprakash

Velu Jayaprakash is a social entrepreneur, product manager, techy, photographer, meditator, father of two angels, ancient wisdom seeker, holistic adviser and Soul coach. You can reach him at velu.jayaprakash AT gmail DOT com

Saturagiri – An unforgettable journey.

It starts from a message being floated in the holistic group saying “the first ever outstation trip being arranged for our parents community’’. Prior to this I had never heard about Saturagiri at all. But the messages said that it a very holistic place and lot of healing and blessings one receives with the visit. Don’t know what triggered me, I cancelled the flight tickets booked (for the same time frame as that of this trip) for my Mom’s place to and fro, both for myself and my daughter. The airlines told me that I won’t be getting back any money if I cancel these, but still I went ahead with it and booked tickets for train to and fro for Virudhunagar. They say, one can visit Saturagiri only when there’s a calling and now i can vouch for it.

I remember those preparation messages floating on the group asking the parents community to walk some distance everyday barefoot, one to increase our stamina and second to get used to walking barefoot. Neither myself nor Hubbiji was able to, due to our workload. Nevertheless, all three of us myself, Hubbiji and daughterji were very excited about the trip and the trekking. Since the day the train tickets were booked we were waiting for this trip to start. Fortunately our journey’s start day was falling on the same date as the last day of my daughter’s school.

After a restless wait of close to a month came the D day. Majority of the parents travelling from Bangalore to Saturagiri had booked train tickets, a couple of them were coming by car and few came from Chennai. The train tickets were from Majestic to Virudhunagar and return via the same route. The former train was at 5:15 p.m. from Majestic and the later at 10:42 p.m. somehow, it was in my mind that the former train was at 10:00 p.m, I got confused with the return train J. Morning we all three went ahead with our routine of going to our respective offices and daughterji going to the last day of the school in party wear :). She was all exited for the double bonus, school ending and trip starting :).

Hubbiji said we will come back from office at around 1:00 p.m. and we will get ready accordingly, since the train is at 10:00 p.m. or so (at times he does not bother to re-check and takes my word and it puts us in soup). As usual hubbiji got busy with his meetings and we managed to start from office only at 2:00 p.m. Hurriedly we picked-up daughterji from her daycare. When were about to reach home I checked the train tickets and was surprised to find the train is at 5:15 p.m. !!! The first thing that came to my mind was to board the train from Hosur instead of Majestic and it will give an additional one hour 15 minutes time, but Hubbiji was of the point of view of that let us not take the risk as we have not boarded any train from Hosur station till date. He also said that the cabs will not take us to Hosur as they mostly won’t have the interstate permit. So the plan was to reach Majestic.

The cook was supposed to come at 5:00 (that day being a Friday we were supposed to have dinner at home as we cannot eat anything outside due to Santoshi Mata pooja at home), immediately called-up the cook and asked him to come right away, fortunately he was at his home and not cooking at some other house so he came down. Started cooking and we started packing. The plan was to put things in the bag only on Friday once we were back from office. Also rather than packing the food we thought we will quickly gulp it down, it will save time we thought. So finished with that. But daughterji is a person who will not eat under pressure. Kids observe all that goes around in the house, she understood the complete scenario and was concentrating only on the fact that we should make it for the station. For her this break was all the more required. By the time we finished all this it was already 3:45 p.m.

The cab arrived at 3:50 p.m. types and we rushed for Majestic station. While in the cab, I posted messages on the messenger about the current state of affairs, parents on the group started praying for us so that we should make it to the station and also suggestion started coming-in, one of them was to board the train from Hosur instead. Till that time we were of the firm belief that we would board the train from Majestic station itself. One of the reason was we had checked with the cab driver, he said he will not be able to go to Hosur. We were also hoping that the train might get delayed by few minutes which will give us a cushion of making it to Majestic. But thanks to the Bangalore traffic we managed to reach Kormangala’s Forum junction only by 4:40 p.m.types. In the meantime, messages starting flooding the communicator’s inbox with other parents saying we have reached majestic, we are about to reach, we have boarded the train etc. Now that people had boarded the train and train was on platform (it starts from Majestic) we were sure that the train is on time. That was the time when we asked the driver to take a U-turn and drop us at the Hosur toll gate, we thought let us take a chance. Fortunately the moment we got down at Hosur toll gate we saw one ST bus waiting on the toll gate, since we were not sure about the destination of the bus, I rushed to the bus and checked with the Conductor if it will go to Hosur. The moment the Conductor said yes, we hopped on it. Fortunately, in the bus met one person who was also going to Hosur to board the same train J. We got down a little prior to bus stop, took an auto and nicely managed to reach station at 5:50 p.m. itself, safely having a buffer of 20 minutes. After reaching the platform we waited there for one and a half hour J, as the train got delayed in between Majestic and Hosur.

By the time we boarded the train we were so tired with all those stunts that we had performed some time back and daughterji was also too bored with the wait time. We boarded the train, fed a bit to my daughter and within few minutes we three went to sleep. Had set an alarm for morning 3:15, the designated arrival time of the train was 3:30 a.m. As soon as the alarm rang I jumped off the berth and called-out hubbiji to get down the berth. While I was calling him another person jumped from the upper berth and walked with me to the door to check if the station had come. But the train was running late and we were still around 45 kms away from Virudhunagar, thanks to GPS and mobile data for giving us such accurate information and being available in between stations respectively. When we walked back to our berths, that time only we came to know that we were going for the same trek J. A round of introduction went for some time and then we sat back again on our seats waiting for the train to reach its destination.

And in some time we could see Virudhunagar the long waited station. As soon as we reached the platform mapped the faces with all the messenger names, especially the ones which were virtually part of our Hosur stunt. As soon as we came out of the platform we were welcomed by the volunteer group. We were briefed about the further plan of ladies being dropped at the Kalyan mantapam for getting ready and gents to be taken to Mango farm for the same. In close to an hour we reached the Kalyan Mantapam, a neat and tidy place for us to get ready. We all, with a mix of ladies, one aunt and two kids quickly got ready. By the time we got ready, the bus also came back. The bus had gone to drop those few gents (who were also seated in that bus) to the Mango farm. We boarded the bus and it took us to the Mango farm. Mango farm was too good to describe in words, huge mango trees laden with mangoes, some of the mangoes were at the reach of a six year old kid. The sizes of the mangoes were truly in proportion to the size of the trees. We walked over the mud road of the mango farm to reach the middle of the farm where breakfast was arranged for us. Once we reached the place we found the Indian style chulas were lit and big big vessels sitting atop busy in cooking stuff for us. Within no time we were served with healthy, organic and delicious spread of breakfast. The taste was just yum. There were few local people who were cooking, serving and arranging for the breakfast along with the volunteers. No doubt Volunteers were serving with all their grace and humility, not less were the local people. They were truly enjoying the serving part of it. Each one of us had a lofty share and was still relishing the lingering taste of the food, suddenly came our team volunteers asking us to get ready for a shoot with the drone camera J. In a little time, we were able to see the drone camera flying on our head capturing each and every movement of ours. Some of us, who were very eager to see the other side of the technology, went and peeped into the tab which was displaying the video being captured by the drone. The clarity was very good.

With that note we embarked on our trek, we were dropped by a bus to the starting point of the trek. So we were a mix of men, women, one aunt and two kids each 2 years girl and 6 years girl. It was a little hot by the time we started; the earlier plan was to start before 7.00 a.m. but got delayed due to Chennai train being delayed. It was around 10:30 a.m. when we started. At the gate we saw one old man selling some drink kinda, our group members explained us that it was palm juice and very good for keeping the body hydrated. It was being served in the palm leaf. Myself and hubbiji had one each and it was very sweet. As soon as we entered the check-in point all of us started with a very good speed. But within 1.5 kms few of us got tired J. Then only we realized how lethargic lifestyle we are living L. But this tiredness continued, the more we went ahead the more it was a problem. The couple with 2 year old girl were forced to pick the baby after 3 kms or so, but kudos to the Mom she managed to climb-up the hill carrying the baby. Moms are really great, she carries the baby for complete 9 months in her womb and if need be she can carry a two year baby to such a trek also. Our kid is 6 years and managed to climb all by herself. In between she was getting tired and a little irritated but after listening to some of the stories she would again start with the same enthusiasm J. Babies at this age are really very innocent you can fool them around for all these things. Though at the age of 6, it was not something impossible for her but given the life-style they lead with all the comfort and luxury around, it was really something to be praised about.

On the way our group people tried supporting us, by offering our daughter to accompany them so that we can relax a bit, they tried things like chocolates etc. J but all in vain. Baby preferred to stick to us, needless to say she eat all the chocolates offered to her without agreeing to the later part of the deal. The trek was amazing with a mix of big rocks, small rocks, uneven road, cemented stairs, sandy path etc. There were small stalls around at a distance of 500 meters, offering cold drinks, lemon juice with some herbs, tea, munching stuff like peanuts, chips etc. At places they were making hot pakoda, ragi-puri kinda. During our in-between breaks we enjoyed a lot of these things along with Glocondine (some local made glucon-D). But that was a life-saver in that burning sun. For parents like us who do not promote all these soft drinks, this was the best way to keep ourselves hydrated. We kept on walking with in-between stops for drinking, eating, resting, clicking photos and asking how far are we from the destination. Best part is, each time we asked someone on his way back to the foothill, we used to get a different answer. Someone would say it is 2 hours, someone would say it is 3 hours from here someone would say it is 4 kms and someone would say it is 5 kms. None of them revealed the exact distance just to make sure we are not discouraged by the distance. Somewhere around half way the volunteers arranged for lunch, we had a nice curd-rice for lunch. The place that we chose for lunch had a lot of monkeys around. So we had lunch in groups, one group of say 5-6 members use to have lunch and the other 2-3 members would shoo away the monkeys. The monkeys though were very smart, they were climbing the small branches on top of our head and were trying to lean from there. Still we managed to somehow finish the lunch.

At around 4:00 p.m. types we reached the first temple of Lord Siva named Sundara Mahalingam. As soon as we reached we had a nice lunch with rice, sambar, rasam, buttermilk and payasam, it was being served as AnnaDhanam (i.e. free food). The best part I noticed there was, each person was supposed to wash their own plate that too with water alone. No soap was being used for washing; only a big vessel filled with water was kept there. We were supposed to pre-rinse the plate with hand and then rinse it in that vessel and the plates were shining crystal clean. What a blessing for the environment – no soap and very minimal water usage. While we were seated outside the temple we noticed one bull coming towards us, the mandir-sevaks asked us to give way to the bull. It seems the bull prefers that particular route, though full of stairs it has been taking that route for its commute and prefers that route itself. Temple was very crowded thus we were not able to take Darshan. So we bowed our heads from outside and started walking for the second temple (its name was Santhana Mahalingam), which was like 164 steps ahead.

By the time we reached the Santhana Mahalingam Temple it was kinda getting dark. Herbal tea – called sukhu was being served (again for free), people who drink tea had it. I tasted it, it was good – aromatic and piping hot and very soothing. By the time we had tea the volunteers made arrangements for us to have a look at the room where we were supposed to sleep at night. One room was arranged for ladies and one for gents. It was not a very hi-fi room but a decent one to give us shelter at night. Then we went to take the Darshan of the Santhana Mahalingam temple, some 15-20 steps from the place where our room was located. It was so calming, people were nicely taking Darshan, no pushing, no shouting, and no rush – nicely took Darshan with calm mind. By the time we came back from the Temple dinner was ready, our group quickly took the dinner as we were instructed to start at 5:30 a.m. next day morning. Each one of us had only one goal in our mind, that was, to go to bed as quickly as possible, sooner we go to bed more time we get for sleep. We entered the room, chit-chat went for some time and then all of us were fast asleep. Morning we woke-up at around 5:00 a.m., there was a group photograph session, though some of us preferred to start walking to save time. We climbed down those 164 stairs to reach Sundar Mahalingam, Abhishek was going on in the Temple, and we nicely took Darshan. People were generous enough to give us way so that we can get a glance of the holy shrine. With a satisfied mind we started our journey back to foothill.

Again with the same zeal we started walking back, since our feet and body got used to that walk previous day, the down run was not that difficult. On the way back we took a stopover at the half way through Siva temple. We did not go inside the Siva temple, but there was a small water pond with thousands of tiny fishes, something that attracted my daughter’s attention. She was very excited to see those many fishes. People were actually enjoying fish spa. Myself and my daughter also put our feet inside the pond and kept it for some time without a slight movement. If done so, the fishes will come to eat the dead-skin of your feet. But the moment they touch your feet you get a tickling sensation and we both were moving our feet with that sensation. And zoom they run away, again we need to wait for like seven-eight minutes for them to come back near your feet.

By the time we reached the foot hill it was close to 11:30 a.m., we reached and relished a glass of chilled sugarcane juice, it was such bliss. By the time we could have finished our juice Aunt also followed us. We took an auto arranged by the volunteers and reached our Mango farm. When we reached the mango farm Aunt received a round of standing ovation for completing the trek without the help of a Doli at this age. There we went directly to freshen-up. In some time the session that was arranged with Dr. Selva Shanmugam started. At the very beginning we all introduced ourselves and my daughter got a big round of applause for making it to and fro all by herself. Though my daughter is six years and the trek was not a very big deal for a six year kid, given our lifestyle and the level of comfort that we throw to our kids, it was really a big achievement. Myself and hubbiji were on the eight cloud on our daughter’s achievement. There were couple of our friends who did the trek bare foot, they also got a big round of applause. And then started the sessions by the knowledgeable Doctor, we all were engrossed in the kind of knowledge and revealing facts those were being shared by the doctor. The session continued for close to 4.5 hours with a gap of 45 minutes for lunch. We got a lot of doubts clarified during the session.

As soon as we were done with the workshop, there was a round of ‘bye’ and ‘see you’ for people who were not boarding the return train to B’lore. It was such a superb experience to have so many like-minded (people believing in our ancient holistic way of leading life) people around. We all boarded the bus which took us to the Virudhunagar station. While in the bus few of our friends were still very enthu and were cracking a lot of jokes and revising the workshop stuff, but we three were very tired to even speak a single word and preferred to take a nap. Once we reached station we parked ourselves in the waiting room till the time of the train. Boarded the train around 11:15 p.m. Next day morning we reached Bangalore at around 9:00 a.m. Wow what a relaxing, stress-buster, rejuvenating, refreshing and blissful trip it was.

Author: Amita Pasari

She is a Senior Technical Manager with a reputed IT company and a mother of very cute six year daughter.