Vipassana: Look within : ) {May all be Happy }

Its hard...one of the toughest time I ever had but at the same time its a great learning experience.

Getting up at 4:00am in the morning, no meal after 12pm (just tea and two bananas in the evening), meditating for 12 hours a day and to practice silence(maun) for 10 days . All this seems tough but getting up at 4am, practicing silence and hunger wasn't an issue at all. The difficult part was mediation where I failed miserably, it was really hard for me to focus for 1hr in these 12 hours everyday. My mind was so unstable, it used to think so much, making future plans, thinking on topics that have bothered me since long.

I used to enter the Dhamma Hall(meditation hall, where everyone used to sit together to meditate) with complete focus that today I will surely meditate. First 5-10 min. used to go well and then again, the planning used to start. It was a good reality check for me, I don't know whether to take this in a negative way. But as the teaching of Vipassana says take it as it is, nothing is permanent, "This too shall pass". Every minute when the music was off, my mind was full on and when music(direction by the Acharya ji) were on I had a great focus. After 4th day there was a rule to sit for 3 hours(in three shifts of one hour each) in a position where you can't move your hands, leg and sit like an idol with eyes closed...ohh this was tough. One hour was like so hard, it seemed a day, I hardly managed to do it twice out of 18 opportunities ; )

All this apart I had planned a lot during these 10 days, streamlined all my messed up ideas, now I have concrete goals to work on, no more deviation, time to deliver. These 10 days have really helped me a lot to know more about myself, to streamline and prioritize the things I need to do, to make some tough decisions and the best part was the scenic beauty(no other beauty to look for :) ), I have never lived in such a beautiful place before. This course has strengthened my belief in "Dharma" and Gandhiji's and Buddha's saying "Truth is God".




On the way back to Delhi, I witnessed beautiful snow capped mountains, it looks just incredible, I have never seen such beautiful mountains before. But I dont know whether my grand children would be able to see this !!!

As from the plane...they just look magical !!!

                                                                             "Bhavatu Sabb Mangalam"




- With Love

"Service before Self"
Prakhar Bhartiya

Freezing Kathmandu !!

As I got down from bus, thoughts were that there would be some checking and all but nothing was there. I just walked through the border and reached Nepal. On the other side I went to the bus ticket counter to take the ticket for Kathmandu, I gave him 1000Rs. and he returned me 1150Rs.(ticket was of 300Rs(NC)), I thought he did some mistake but then realized that INC is around 1.6times NC. Was happy to have more money : )

The bus stopped twice on the way for tea break, it was chilling cold. We reached Kathmandu at around 7am and it was freezing there, had a coffee and then took a taxi to Vipassana City Centre office at Kanthipasth road.

Journey from City Office to Vipassana Centre: 

I am just loving the journey from the city centre to the main Vipassana centre situated at the foothills of Shivpuri National Park. I don't know about the experience but one thing that I surely know is that I will love this place, actually I am loving it. Kathmandu has a chilling weather but hot and decent girls.

We are sitting in a small van with around 20 students, 16 facing one side and four towards other 16. I am in the four and as I look towards their face I feel as if Vipassana has started, none of them have any expression on their face. Everyone is so quite like something has happened to them.

So, we are at our destination and this place is really very beautiful, its so green and the Kanthmandu valley looks amazing from here.

Time to get down : )


- With Love

"Service before Self"
Prakhar Bhartiya

My First ever foreign trip : )

I have been talking to my friends about my first ever foreign trip. They also laughed, when I say "foreign trip". So, finally the day came !!!

My train is from Delhi. Oh! I forgot to tell you where I am going, I am going to Kathmandu, Nepal. I am not very excited about going to Nepal but I am quite excited about my purpose of going there. I am going for a ten day meditation course, famously known as Vipassana. As per the schedule send by them, I had to get up at 4:00am and sleep by 9:30 pm and more importantly no diner only breakfast and lunch would be served. These things were enough to make a hogger(: )) bit nervous. I have heard that it would be freezing cold in Kathmandu, my father has called me several times to remind me of keeping warm clothes. I was finally set with my bag of woolen clothes and my most trustworthy "Lalimli" shawl(it has been in my rescue several times).
I was telling you that my train is from Delhi.

Journey Begins:

As usual after doing all the preparations beforehand, I managed to leave home just on time, then come the Delhi traffic which is always there to haunt you. My train to Gorakhpur was at 8:25pm but I managed to reach station 20 min. earlier. So, thought to have my dinner, went to the Jan Ahaar at platform no 16, ordered to give a packed Veg-Biriyani, he took 5Rs. extra to pack it. As I took it in hand a thought peeped in mind that I have nearly 18 min in hand, did some calculations in mind and started eating there only. Now 10 min left to reach platform no 7, rushed through the ever increasing population of our country and reached the platform.

There was constant announcement since last 10 min that Gorakhdham is arriving on platform no 7 and it went on for 20 more min after I reached the platform.

Isse acha to khana araam se khaya hota... ; )

Finally train came and guess what it reached Gorakhpur nearly 5 hours late. Then I took a bus from there to Sanauli border !!!

Yippee !!! About to step in a foreign nation: )

- With Love


"Service before Self"
Prakhar Bhartiya