Mc'Donalds and with dear Anju on the Janeu Ceremony



Am in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. The place where I grew up. I studied here until the age of 13...The place is still beautiful. Attended family Janeu Ceremony. It is good to see Hindus striving to keep their identity and remain in touch with their culture, Met friends...who remember me. Saw the spot where my maika shop used to be. Today it is a Macdonalds. It feels good to come back and reminisce about old memories and make new ones...

Went to Salzburg. In the above picture you see the garden in which 'Sound of Music was shot. Salzburg is famous for the fact that Mozart was born and died there!
The way to Salzburg was literally out of this world. It was heavenly. I have traveled extensively but I have never seen the reflection in a lake so crystal clear! It was like a mirror.This is the way Vrindavan should look!
saw the steps which were filmed in the Sound of Music as well as the garden.
The abbey was far from the place so it would require another day of excursion.The gazebo was also 12k out of town.
The house of Baron van Trappe is occupied by people and is rather humble compared to the one they show in the film...it was actually filmed in 3 more palaces...have to go now...shall tell you many more interesting things. Keep visiting...

Photograph alongside shows the birthplace of Mozart!
ok so I am going today for the Sound of Music tour to Salzburg. You know I am still living on Bombay time. It suits me. Here we are 3 hrs behind, so I am going to bed very very early like at 6pm and getting up at 3am Vienna time. Most tours pick me up at 6 am from the hotel. So it is fine!
Life is made up of happy moments that one can pick on when one is feeling blue...So lets stock up on them!

Today explored the city on my own...saw the opera house...do look it up on the internet...walked around the beautiful lanes...the houses are so well kept and beautiful...it is like taking a walk through time...did I tell you that I also saw the yellow palace....there is a room there with Indian miniature paintings...and yes the Opera was frequented more to gossip and see who is there with whom...in the olden days they could eat while opera was on...and the lights were on through the recital.

Am in Vienna!
Beautiful city
In the photograph you will see the famous Opera House in the background!
Tomorrow going to Salzburg to see the Sound of Music sights!
Computer in lobby of hotel so here I am and here you are!

Sigmund Freud worked in Vienna? You think that I should visit? Maybe not...going there to listen to the 'Sound of Music' and see the museums and that should put right whatever may be wrong with my mind!
The hills are alive with the sound of music...When I visited Gangotri the pujari said that I should sing because my voice will vibrate in those mountains forever...Wow!
Keep visiting my blog and maybe you will be with me in spirit as I enjoy the joys of traveling...why is it such fun to see new places? because maybe it fills one with wonder seeing the beautiful planet and what man has achieved...and now he is destroying it...sad is'nt it?

People are hesitating to get married now-a-days and also to have children.
I understand their arguments with my intellect...but not with my heart...anyway...for me I believe that this is the best time in my life...Have done my best bringing up my children. I know that my 'Social activities is what I was meant to do...My children are good human beings and we feel blessed! In the above photograph celebrated my husband's birthday again, this time with my married daughter and her family while she was visiting us and my younger daughter. If you look at my earlier blogs we celebrated my husband's birthday while my son and his family were visiting.
Nazar mat lagaana...Send blessings my way...I will receive them!

(Excerpts from) Jagannath (Lord of the Universe)
Rath Yatra (Chariots of the Gods)
By Damodara Pandita Dasa


Jagat means universe
Naath means Lord
Rath means chariot
Yatra means journey

(During the Rath yatra,)Why is the Lord of the Universe pulled around by ropes, balanced on 12-foot wheels, in a primitive fashion?

Because Lord Jagannath is bound by the ropes of His devotees’ affection. He goes wherever they take Him.

Why does Lord Jagannath have such big round eyes?
Because He is staring wide-eyed at all of us showering everyone with His Love.

One day Krishna’s brother Balarama, and sister Subhadra rushed off with Krishna to Vrindaavan.
When they reached Vrindavan, Balarama and Subhadra are wonderstruck at the deep intense love of the Brijvasis for Krishna…and the latter weeps inconsolably when He sees Radhika lying lifeless and burning with the fire of separation. The siblings’ hands and legs retract into their bodies…Their eyes widen with awe!

Attended a session where the speaker, Rajiv Malhotra claimed that:
some Eminent American academicians are saying that:
Bhagvad Geeta is a dishonest book...
Mantras are moans (sexual)..
Swami Ramakrishna molested Swami Vivekananda...

I felt very disturbed hearing the above...and so much more...
But why hurt feelings when the knowledge is so obviously distorted?
What is the ulterior motive?

The sad situation is that once we (Indians) were knowledge producers, today we have become consumers...eg Yoga...

We, can become modern but retain the best of the Indian way of Life...

We need to feel pride in the fact that we are Hindu Indians and for that we need to understand our culture and experience the richness of our heritage.

My contribution to the cause:
The books that I have written namely Hindu Customs and Beliefs, Symbolisms in the Ramayana, In touch with Masters, Dadi Nani ki kahaani...amongst others are up on my website: Dalsabzi for the Aatman www.dalsabzi.com
Link to books:
http://www.dalsabzi.com/Books/books.htm
They are free for perusal...you may also print them and distribute the knowledge...
Also click on link:
www.invadingthesacred.com

Happiness: a stroke of luck?
Excerpt from 'Eat Pray Love'
Elizabeth Gilbert


…People universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will, maybe descend on you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough. But that is not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.
You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don’t, you will leak away your innate contentment. It’s easy enough to pray when you are in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.

A reader wrote to me, to say 'I wish all these spiritual gyaanis would target the mothers and sons In India to help make them grow up...

I personally feel sorry for the Indian men. If they side their wife they are labelled 'joru ka gulaam'...if they side with their mothers, they are called mama's boys... men are a confused lot between the eastern and western beliefs...A man has to keep a balance if he wants a peaceful household...

It is sad, but, because it is relatively easy to get married one cannot assume that one knows how to be a good spouse...learning to nurture a marriage is an art which requires learning...read on:

ThankGod, I have a husband who did not supress my stories/songs
Go, tell the story, sing a songMarguerite Theophil

…Our grandmothers were our link with the world of story, but these days with the decline in inter-generational living, we lose out on that as well…Many cultures believe that if you have a story to tell-and don’t tell it-strange things will happen. Stories have unique and startling ways of making sure they get told.

A Kannada story narrated by A.K. Ramanujan:

There once lived a woman who knew a story and a song. The story and the song got suffocated inside so they got out so they got out and turned into a coat and a pair of shoes. Seeing this made the husband furious…When the husband’s suspicions were cleared, he woke up his sleeping wife and asked her about her story and her song.
“What story? What song? She asked. She had sadly forgotten both of them.

Among the Cree of Manitoba, there is a similar belief that stories when they are not told, live in their own villages where they go about their own lives.. Every now and then however a story will leave its village and seek a person to inhabit. Some person will abruptly be possessed by the story, and soon will find herself telling the tale, singing it back into active circulation.
Go, tell the story; sing the song
To read my stories, Click:
http://www.dalsabzi.com/Books/kids_kahaani/kahaani_intro.htm

Am in the process of reading an interesting book: 'Eat Pray Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert...
As you read my blog...for those who do, you might be thinking 'What a doing woman, she is' and I know that a lot of people say that I 'have accomplished a lot in my life' Truly? I dont know...I have just flowed along and things came along and doors opened and I walked through...do do I do it all? I dont think so...I read today 'Life's in the Being...not in the doing...Must think about it...or maybe not...Just be!