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Sri Sri Ravishankar speaks about Jyoti Basu

Sri Sri Ravishankar spoke about Jyoti Basu, shortly after his death. Sri Sri Ravishankar said “Jyoti Basu was a fan of Swami Vivekanada”. Then Sri Sri went on to remember his meeting with the former West Bengal chief minister a few years ago.

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By Krishna Reddy – January 17, 2010


Sri Sri Ravishankar’s new year message

Originally posted on my other Art of Living blog.

Sri Sri Ravishankar’s Video message for new year 2010.

Every
excuse to celebrate is good. there are two aspects of true celebration.
one is celebration as thanksgiving, as an expression of gratitude for
the divine. the second celebration is to move forward by dropping the
past, knowing that life is eternal. welcome the new year with either or
both of these true celebrations. Like the christmas tree, life is
evergreen. no storm or snow can weather away its leaves. similarly, our
spirit is eternal and though time and some adversities may try to cloud
the spirit, it still moves forward through personal or social grief and
emerges powerful. The nature of spirit is celebration. celebration is
the best medicine to help you move forward in life - it gets you out of
the gloom after a crisis. in celebration, don’t just concentrate on
having parties. when celebration has a tinge of sacredness and prayer,
it gains depth and dignity. then, that type of a celebration is
service, it is sacred. it is not just entertainment for the mind or
excitement for the body, but nourishment for the soul. in such
celebration, guilt will come nowhere near you. Instead of beginning the
new year with an intoxicant, if it can begin with an act of kindness, a
moment of reflection and even a second of introspection, we can call
ourselves far more civilised. your guilt for celebration is only if
your celebration is for your own pleasure. if celebration is aimed at
uplifting and uniting the hearts and minds of people around you, if it
is to help them to let go of the traumatic past and kindle a ray of
hope for the future, if your celebration is aimed at uplifting society,
then that type of celebration is service, it is sacred. don’t feel
stingy. share what you have with others. turn your celebration into a
sacred offering for society rather than make it a self-centred
pleasure-seeking one. To celebrate life, you don’t have to spend a lot
of money. celebration comes from enthusiasm and joy, celebration is an
attitude and that does not need resources. when things are depressing,
celebration is needed even more. a visit to the slums makes you realise
that one can celebrate even during tough times. look at those people.
they still celebrate. Let time celebrate your presence. when you let
time celebrate you, you are a witness amid celebration. welcome the
year 2010 with a genuine smile from within. that smile comes when you
know for sure that you are loved. if you don’t know you are loved by
the divine, you will not be able to celebrate life. you will live in
insecurity. with insecurity comes greed. with greed comes selfishness.
and with that comes anger. with anger comes lust. and with that comes
sadness and misery, one behind the other, like a chain. In the past
year, check how many days you were entangled in maya? turn back and
remember the whole year. when you do this, do not reject anything. let
your attention be on the self. this is a delicate balance. this is
yoga. this balance is spirituality. spirituality is a harmonious blend
of outer silence and inner celebration, and also inner silence and
outer celebration! celebration that comes out of silence is real
celebration. The year gone by has taught us many lessons: what we
should be doing and what we should not be doing. every pain that we
went through in 2009 brought us some depth, and the joy and pleasure
gave us a new vision of life and hope for the future. difficulties give
you depth and joy gives you width. one thing you must know is that life
will always be better. it moves in the direction of the best. on the
way you may find some rough roads, but it’s for the better. reconcile
with the past and move on to the future with enthusiasm. The wise will
see their past as destiny and the future as free will, and be happy in
the present. the unwise regret the past and think the future is
destined, and become miserable in the present. in 2010, you have the
choice of being one of the two. This new year, let there be sunshine -
both in our lives and in society. let us all have the determination to
create a violence-free, stress-free society. may your life be filled
with peace, joy and true celebration. happy new year! — Sri Sri Ravi
ShankarSri Sri Ravishankar’s previous new year messages:

New Year 2009
An earlier new year

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By Krishna Reddy – January 17, 2010


New Art of Living blog

I have created a new blog artoflivinginfo.blogspot.com on Art of Living. All the posts in this blog are available on this new blog. Also the previous blog art-of-living-blog.blogspot.com has been shifted to the new Art of Living blog.

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By Krishna Reddy – December 12, 2009


New blog on art of living

I am replicating this blog to artoflivinginfo.blogspot.com as blogspot has better features and flexibility than rediffiland. New posts will be posted there. Check it out.

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By Krishna Reddy – September 8, 2009


Does Congress buy votes? Yes it is true!!!!

Does Congress buy votes? Yes, congress is trying to buy votes for Rs 500 each in Anaparti constituency in Andhra Pradesh.
The following is the article that I had posted earlier on my other blog.

We keep seeing news in the media about
the corrupt ways of the political parties to buy people’s votes.
Although the election commission is trying to enforce strict election
regulations, it by and large fails in taking action against those who
violate the regulations.

We keep hearing about political parties
distributing cash and liquor to people to buy votes. Is it true? Well,
it is an open secret that everybody knows. Here is a direct evidence.
Today I was educating our servant on how to vote in the new EVM
(electronic voting machine) system at my home town Anaparti in Andhra Pradesh,
India. My grand mother told her not to sell her vote to any
party/candidate for cash; accept the money if anybody gives it, but
don’t get influenced by it. Then I got curious and asked her whether
anybody has already given her money. She revealed that Praja Rajyam party had given her Rs 250 and the ruling congress party had given Rs 500! This is true and this is what happens everywhere!! Anaparti’s congress candidate is Nallamilli Sesha Reddy
and Praja rajam contestant is D R K Reddy. Well, though the latter is
my relative, I can not support a person or a party that takes recourse
to corruption to win elections. In fact, there is a wide spread news
that Prajarajaym party sold Anaparti ticket for Rs 4 crores to D R K
Reddy. It is widely believed that cine actor and Praja rajyam party
president Chiranjeevi sold most of his party tickets and there are
credible evidences for this. Many of the party internal sources too
acknowledge this.

Why don’t the election commission and the
police take stringent action against these perpetrators of crimes. Why
don’t they cancel the candidature of the candidates? True they arrest
some people here and there, seize some cash and liquor. But how much is
it useful? All this is an eye wash. They should severely punish the
actual contestants and cancel their candidature rather than arresting
chota-mota volunteers. Btw, it is worthy to note the commendable work done by Andhra Pradesh chief election commissioner E. V. Subba Rao, and DGP A. K. Mohanty in checking corruption. But I feel the state election commissioners should be more strict in their action against the corrupt.

In a nutshell, most of the politicians in
India spend huge money for buying party tickets and then they buy poor
people’s votes with cash and liquor. Then what service will they do to
people when they come into power? They will be spending their time and
energies to earn 10 times more money than what they spent. In fact,
everybody knows that this is what congress chief minister (of Andhra
Pradesh) Y S Rajasekhar Reddy did in the last five years. His family
earned thousands of crores during his tenure as Andhra Pradesh’s chief
minister. It is unfortunate congress and its president Sonia Gandhi
supports such a corrupt leader.

As responsible citizens, we
should vote “out” these corrupt parties and individuals and pave the
way for a positive change by electing right candidates and parties.

Tags: Indian National Congress distributes cash to buy votes.
Prajarajam bribes voters for Rs 250.
,



Posted in Politics.

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By Krishna Reddy – April 22, 2009


Untitled


I have taken the following following from L. K. Advani’s website:
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar responds to Advaniji’s letter to spiritual leaders

 

* appreciates initiative to include leaders of all faiths to keep the secular & spiritual character of our country intact.

* lauds Advaniji's move to bring back 74 lakh crore rupees of Indian black money from Swiss banks.
Read more 
Read Advani’s letter to spiritual leaders


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By Krishna Reddy – April 19, 2009


Time to Act! Hard facts about Congress government - vote for change



Dear Ones,

Go through each and every link in my post on classified information about the present congress government in my other blog. Our country’s Future is in our hands! Become Aware of the current situation of our Government and you have the power to bring about change!!

As a true citizen of this country, you should share this information with ALL NOW, only few days remaining for voting!

Vote for Change!

Please share this information with all your friends.



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By Krishna Reddy – April 19, 2009


Power of your Vote by Sri Sri Ravishankar



The Power of your Vote - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

India’s problems are complex. And unfortunately these are compounded by vote-bank politics. Instead of uniting the different sections of society, many politicians divide it to keep their vote banks intact. If people are united, politicians won’t be able to get votes through divisive politics.In such a situation, the only way for them to win votes would be through good performance.

As citizens, we must protect our country from those who manipulate issues for their personal gains and who lead by playing vote-bank politics. Those with vested interests support insensible decisions and oppose sensible ones. We have to steer clear of such leaders. We must encourage broad-minded politicians and leaders to come forward and take charge, and to educate and uplift the society - spiritually, morally and socially.

We need leaders who are satya-darshi (truthful), sam-darshi (equanimous), priya-darshi (pleasant), paar-darshi (transparent) and door-darshi (visionary). So, before we elect our leaders, we should examine their qualifications.

We must elect leaders who will do away with policies based on caste, creed, religion and region; who will ensure that every child gets a multi-cultural, multi-dimensional education.

We need leadership with a mission and a vision, leadership with a spirit of sacrifice, compassion and commitment. We must choose leaders who have a long-term vision and short-term plans to achieve it. They should have great personal integrity, and place the country before themselves.

Unfortunately, most of our politicians lack a sense of sacrifice and inclusiveness. Irrespective of the party they belong to, people perceive politicians as insincere. Today, people are fed up of them. This is when apathy sets in among people. They dismiss politics as a whole and withdraw from their basic duty of voting.

Our votes are an important tool to bring about a change in the system; they give us an opportunity to raise our voice against injustice. But many of us have developed a chalta hai attitude, because we fail to see the power of our votes. This attitude is dangerous for the country. By not voting we are encouraging the status quo. Each one of us must not only vote but also encourage others around us to vote.
When good, intelligent and well-educated people don’t vote, they play into the hands of politicians, who use money and vote bank politics to seize power.

People should not lose hope. Good politicians exist. And they must be given a chance to do the best they can for the country, for its people.

We have seen the shortcomings of capitalism, communism and socialism. Now is the time for humanism and spiritualism. Politics without humanism and spiritualism is bound to be dirty. Many people believe that spiritualism is not for this world, that it is not a practical tool to bring about societal transformation. But that’s a misconception. Mahatma Gandhi was spiritual. He conducted satsangs every day and played an important role in bringing freedom for our country.That is why today we need leaders who have a spirit of sacrifice, and who are spiritual in their outlook, to enter politics.

Posted in Knowledge.

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By Krishna Reddy – April 7, 2009