Weekend Update

Lot of things happened over the weekend. On Friday (May 13) was the birthday of Sri Sri Ravishankar (fondly known as Guruji), so we had a satsang at the Art of Living Center. The satsang had a few firsts, this was one of the few birthday satsang that started off with a Guru Pooja, we did a different meditation than we usually do during satsangs. As usual for any Art of Living activity we ended the session with a lots of food. After the birthday celebration I reached home and saw Guruji’s birthday message in 3 different languages Kannada, Hindi and English.

On Saturday we had organized a volunteering activity at Capital Area Food bank. 11 of us showed up and helped the food bank sort out the donated food (mostly cans and boxes, no fresh produce). There was a lot of learning from the food bank activity.

• To volunteer at the food bank, you need to be wearing closed toe shoes (no sandals allowed)
• Canned foods were kept even after 2 years of expiry date
• Peanut butter, Mayo and Tomato Sauce unless sealed inside the bottle with the aluminum foil, were not kept.
• Mayonnaise was kept if it was within 10 months or so of expiry
• If the can had a dent and it was expired, and the first 3 ingredients are tomato, those were thrown away
• Baby food were only kept if they had at a minimum of 3 months of shelf life
• All food came through donations and I was amazed to see people had donated things that were 5 or 6 years beyond expiry
• The 11 people who showed up had good fun, we plan to go back again in the near future to do it again

And on Sunday I went for my session of Meru Chikitsa, I have already written about it.

Curiosity got the best for me (Meru Chikitsa)

Last week, when we were discussing about Dr. Rachael Murad’s visit to Austin, I didn’t consider myself to be one of her patients. For I don’t feel anything wrong with my spine or my back.

When I picked her up from the bus station and spent some time with her driving to her place of stay, curiosity got the better out of me. I scheduled myself an appointment for today (Sunday, May 15 2011). As though it was a co-incidence, thanks to some wrong sleep posture or some such thing, I was having a slight pain the lower back for last couple of days.

During the appointment, the good doctor did a few tricks on my back and near my head and taught me a couple of breathing techniques. The mind was thinking all the time, how am I going to feel better? for she hasn’t done much and whatever she did is too gentle. But in the end, I was in for a surprise.

After the appointment was over, she asked me to stand up and walk around. The feeling I had was amazing, I felt light, there was no back pain, the energy in my body was much higher than with which I had walked in. The awareness was much more elevated. It was almost the same feeling that I get when I do a good round of Sadhana.         

Dr. Rachael Murad will be in Austin till May 22nd and is currently taking appointments. Make an appointment and show up, for you do not know what's in store for you.