Project Hope- Concluding Post:)

Some memorable moments...






Virat Says-


It was amazing to see so many people commit to one cause! Was amazing to see the new volunteers who picked up the baton and ran with it! So many talents were exhibited, so many barriers were broken, so many barriers were discovered (and shall be broken in the april 8th course ;), so much fun and chaos, so many buttons got pushed - oh what a joyride!

I must say I am very proud of all of you! It not by chance that Bawa complimented our team that day on the stage!
And ya....how can i forget - i had a blast in the play! Suddenly it is cool to be south indian ;)

Love n Light,



At times when everything seems to be going wrong,nothing is working... the body is experiencing excruciating pain, Mind is confused,intellect is doubting "am I going the right way" "will this work" "am I capable enough" that there is a need of guide. One who reassures by sayings" Yes Yes you are going the right way" or "We have just about reached", "Lets do it another way and see", "YOU CANNOT SWITCH OFF" and who carries you all the way to your goal.One who runs with you shoulder to shoulder ,expressing I AM THERE with you.

Yes Bau you have been all that and more. The best mentor in this world. And if I have to relive the past 10 years in the art of living it would ONLY Be you and no one else.Life has not been devoid of storms, but you have been there like an anchor which kept the sail moving steady towards its goal.
I fought and fought and fought ,and i was injured ,wounded and was convinced that I should give up. And that is when your words acted like balm and gave me hope. If it wasn't for you and Dinesh da's confidence and strong support it would not have been possible. That's why Guruji sent you here:)
Today I feel peaceful and rested,and the rest is much deeper than I ever felt before. There is silence in the mind and a sense of gratefulness.So many Smiling faces and filled hearts at the course, what more can one ask for.
Your ability to make the impossible possible is unbelievable. How you make things happen and the confidence you communicate to others when you share them, makes a dream manifest so easily. None of us could have imagined the amazing musical that took shape in such a short time.

Dinesh da you constantly remind me of how a student should be.Completely surrendered and always in a YES when Bau asks for something.

We are so fortunate that we have the BEST,NO NO , BESTEST TEACHERS in this world.
Guruji we couldn't have asked for more.

In service
VJ

There are many more experiences of volunteers (Dhir, Keshav, Hitesh, Neha Khotari etc) which if listed here will require many more posts. In short, this was one of the most memorable course for VNV team:)

PS: Bau's Comment :

good good good!!

everyone did super stuff ... and we had a brilliant course ... here's to many many more :)
And i have got an idea for another play ... but first we will run Anand and benaifer a few more times ... what say? :)
Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa (n dinesh)

"Project Hope"- 22nd March YES!+(Part 2)

Many unique experiences happened. One was that of new participants who had just registered for the course and immediately started volunteering, even before taking the course.They worked neck to neck with our senior volunteers and there enthusiasm was energizing to all who were working hard.

Here is an experience

Sainath says-

Life was going through huge fat problems and I was unable to deal with them with ease and grace.I was worried about things not going my way and was desperate to find a fix to all my problems. My friend Dipti introduced me to the YES+ course and I was given an intro-talk by Neha Khandelwal. I was stunned with her energy, the enthusiasm and her vision towards life. I was overwhelmed after hearing the talk, the immediate taught that came to my mind was,” Why didn’t I do this 2 years back”?

I also felt the need to reach out to other people, as you know Mumbai in the recent times saw a series of suicides committed by youth who fail to manage Stress and Problems in Life.

I felt inspired and started sharing info about YES!+ with many of my friends. And I became the part of Yes+ family, I started volunteering and promoting the course. Things started changing gradually I became more n more happy, started making friends, helping people. My problems became more and more dilute and the not working things started working in my life. I became confident, cool, relaxed and the changes were admired by my friends and family.

Than arrived the day of the course, I was very much excited and was full of energy and was waiting for things to begin, as I had waited for this day of the course for more than 3weeks. After the end of 1^st day I was speechless, I never ever felt so happy in my life, I never felt so confident and stress free.

This is just the first day and only 1% of my feelings I could put down. Please join our YES+ family do the course and experience yourself!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sainath. We are proud to have you in our team.

>

Jainil says

I gave proper 2 hours to sadhna which truly proved to be the strength in all these days where i was almost running all around everytime, i also saw more opportunities to grow as we had a talk at our system or a home intro talk, each n every day.

Handling the parents (their night time deadline problems) was earlier taken as a problem by me, but this time i felt so much responsible for some works that i said 'dekha jayega yaar" and contin

ued the work which guruji somehow sorted! ;-)

The unique of them all was the experience i had last 15 days being the play as THE PIRATE OF ARABIAN..lol

Bawa, i have always loved his attitude of work and fun going hand in hand, and the making of the play was no different.

I hated going to Chembur for rehearsals everyday, but it was his presence that made me do it all..I couldn't help that stupid grin on my face everyday when i met him. His enthusiasm inspired all of us to give our best..It was amazing that whenever anyone of us would forget a dialogue, he would prompt it, he had the whole script on the tip of his tongue!! He is my Hero and he is certainly "The King Of Good Times".We had a blast once we reached for rehearsals everytime.These are one of the memorable days!! I will remember them for really long time.

If ever you get any chance to work with him for anything...dont miss it!!!!

Mihir says

This course has made me do all of this by default

SADHNA

SEVA

SATSANG

SMILE

SILENCE &

SWADHAYA

it has put me through comfortable and uncomfortable situations and yet not shake my faith in any thing.. The best part was to get really crazy applications for the course ... I had a 2 people coming from Rajkot to do the course... Wrong number Application was so damm good. I started observing things with a microscope and yes the best part was to start and give talks !!! :D :D yaaay its so much fun !! and also listening to talks is sooo damm cool ... apart this working with all new people was so nice i was so much motivated by the dedication and commitment. The best part of all is i enjoyed it and that is what really matters !!! . Apart this i would love to include alll those who have worked for this course and thank them ... and for those who feel left out ?? 8th april is waiting !!

Its the Magic of yesplus !!

I am Happified are youu ???

NEHA KHANDELWAL

After this course i have become stronger individual in terms of handling my as well as other emotions.Learned to be a good leader and also attached my happiness,luv,care with my group volunteers whom i was leading.Just being with them ,in their love i used to experience the Goody God in me,used to make me much better,confindent individual .My soft skills like communcication,event cordinating,public speaking were polished amazingly.Felt expanded like a King and very sensitive like a .U knw there was a day actually many days,when i used be out from 6in da morning and was suffering from fever but after giving great talks......not only i use to experience healing but get all the energy to go home shut my door and actually dance alone in da happiness.Thanks to Vasu Di ,Virat Bhaiya and Mamta who r actually behind me being me 2dayMy Gratitude to Guruji has reached the sky.GRACE OF MY MASTER ROCK !!!!!

Its not all captured yet!! Keep reading for more....

VJ

Project Hope "22nd March YES!+"

Ironically most often it is only asked from a participant after a YES!+ course,his/her experience and not to those organizing it.Though for a participant learning happens only 4-5 days when he was on the course but for a volunteer it starts from the day the course is announced.This time it was almost 50 days for us:)

Wow! What an experience....Guruji says life moves from one perfection to the other. Milk is perfect by itself, so is curd and so is butter. All is born out of the same Fullness. So here are some experiences of our journey from one level of fullness to another..

Akhil says

My faith and devotion has increased leaps and bounds and from once or twice a week :) to almost every moment, every day i feel grateful to be on this path...
After an intensive seva day, when i close my eyes and sit in silence with myself.Oh my God! :) i think there is no other better feeling.(& thats when i experienced a strong seva - sadhana connection) :) So many questions get answered when u are in that state...
Every evening on the course i had goose bumps and it felt so special and i thought, yes, we have certainly reached to a different level than before. I have certainly seen growth in myself and others and its such a strong and beautiful feeling.I don't think anything could have been more pleasurable 4 me than being a part of organizing this beautiful course and sitting on it and experiencing it throughout...wow! :)
Also, i want to bow down again :) to my YES!+ teachers: Virat bhya and Vasu di who are always there for us and responsible for our growth in so many ways... "agar aap na hote toh pata nahi kaun kya hota!" :)

Prashant says-

The formula of Smaller talks bigger courses clicked for me. Also how much ever hard work u put in, its going to pay off sooner or later. The most imp thing is doing my sadhana 2hrs daily it became much

easier for me doing any work.

Thanks vasu di for inculcating this habit in me.

Jhalak says-

After my DSN, it is for the first time that i learnt what is working in courage zone. The best part for me is i began giving college introtalks while organizing this course, I never imagined I had this potential. I learnt how to fix

up challenging situations specially with important people like was in case of Dalmia college.I also realized how serious this suicide issue is when i personally met a guy who had attempted killing himself 5 times , yes 5 times he actually told me what all he did each time.I felt sad but also blessed that yes i have a solution to offer the YES!+. I imagine everyone being happy like aol people and world would be such a beautiful place to live in.

Raghav says-

I really loved working for this course and really cherish the time spent on field with all the people in the team. Specially new volunteers and people from the last course they are simply fabulous,and are really inspiring. The most amazing thing i like about working for such courses is the experiential learning which happens and this course was full of that. I would share a few of them precisely.
* Bawa once shared if you are doing seva and you compromise on sadhna bitterness comes. I experienced that :). I was juggling between the job and seva and wen it came to sadhna, lot of times i said myself "i will do it later" (though i never skipped it :)). And because of this couple of times when things did not go right it lead to anger and bitterness. And when i corrected this towards the end, the result would matter less, i was much more relaxed and natural.
* Another thing i observed was how the love for people changes.Whenever i would see people doing amazing work i would feel wow that person is so nice and immediately when the same person screws up i would not feel the same for that same person. This was happening and after one of the meditation i happened to read guruji's knowledge sheet which said - Often we love ppl for their qualities and this kind of love keeps shifting but if we love them because of kinship, simply because they belong to us, then we truly are in love.

* Dinesh bhaiyya often says in advance courses "meditation is relaxing in the self" and you can do that when you are in love with the self.Now when ever we give priority to other things over sadhana that clearly shows that our love for those things is more than the self and obviously when we sit to meditate those things only will cover the mind like clouds. Mind goes only there, where our love lies :).
* I really enjoyed being there on all the sessions with bawa and dinesh on and off the course. I really find it difficult to put it into words how much i love listening to both of them. The experience is so wonderful just listening to them can lead us to meditation.

* How can i forget our musical drama :). love you virat bhaiyya you are superb :). Vibhu's part was mind blowing. Hitesh was the best pirate :) and the live music toh i don't have words :)
I look forward for our next venture "8 April YES!+" :)

One post cannot capture all the experiences so keep reading...for more.. more and MORE :)

VJ

My Father- My Hero

Its a very special day for me today as we celebrate the 61st Birthday of Papa. He is an integral part of me and I take this opportunity to share this beautiful day with all our dear readers.

Few qualities that come close to describing him are, Strength, Sincerity, Righteousness, Intelligence, Kindness, Generosity, Wisdom, Extremely loving, Caring and Spiritual.


He was the first to introduce the spirit of inquiry in me. As a teenager I often found myself discussing subject like purpose of life, human evolution, history, politics etc with him. For any answer that I needed I knew he would have it. His decisions were always right as they were a based on logic and reasoning.
He encouraged us to make our own decisions based on logic and his words conveyed “If something goes wrong I AM THERE” This gave me immense confidence and trust in myself while growing up.

I have two elder brothers and they often said ,He has a soft corner for you (as he supported me in many decisions even when my bro's thought I was wrong) and I never wished to correct them.
Today when I asked Shashank bhaiya (my elder brother) to send a message for him he said “He loves you more than us. Go ahead and put this” ☺


He is a self made man and most of our childhood he was busy supporting our family (It was a big joint family set up then). And he succeeded is giving all of us probably more than he ever enjoyed materially as a youngster. He provided us more than we could have ever imagined.

He says, to earn credibility takes a lifetime and to loose it only one wrong deed. His true wealth is, the respect and faith that he has earned for himself . I want to follow his footsteps and be as honest and truthful as him all my life.

One of his favorite philosophies is that I find very interesting, "at work one should play the role of Krishna, skillful and diplomatic, but at home one should be Rama , sacrificing and giving".


I feel jealous of his Grandchildren as they are getting so much more time and attention from him than we did at there age .
Ritvik and Prisha say “ He is the best grandfather in the world , Very intelligent and creative. We love him very much. I like to do craft activities with him.”
Shashwat says “Nanu you are the best”

To whatever I have learned today I contribute to my Hero, A person who has always lived by his values and never compromised righteousness over small term gains. Without the lessons you taught me Papa, Life would be meaningless. And if I ever have to be born again, I would want you as my father
Here is my first poem, I wrote when I was in my 8th standard, ofcourse! dedicated to him.

He is the only man in my life,
Who since my childhood has been on my side.

He caught my finger and taught me to walk and when I fell ,
I could see his heart cried.

I pray to God to make me like him,
Soft-Gentle-Patient-Wise

I want him to be my father again,
If ever I get a second life,

The mere thought of parting from him,
Brings tears in my eyes.


Ruchi Bhabhi says,
Never came across a gentleman like him. Has always thought others. Always gives the correct advice. He is the best dad.

Rishi says.
It is purely coincidental that I was asked this question from one of my customer that to name one thing that my father has taught me and I was not able to answer, as I told him that I cannot just say one thing that he has taught me because it has been an evolution of his teachings what I am. It is an art to teach contradictory things and finally imbibe intelligence of putting the contradictions of life together and make a purposeful human being if I am one for the family society and the country therefore my true feeling is that he is larger than life individual for me just like a Hero of movie who is capable of performing the impossible.
“ wish you a very happy birthday “
Proud to be your son



Happy Happy Birthday Papa
WE LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH….

(From left mummy,papa,Rishi bhaiya,Shreyas,Shashwat,Ritvik,Tanay,Aarti bhabhi,Ruchi bhabhi,Prisha)


Regards,
VJ