From DG's Diary

Finally, a new beginning!

The last month heralded the beginning of my 10th year in the art of living. It was around this time that I become aware of HIS grace in my life-not that it didn't exist before. That's when I stood up for awareness-awareness of all the good things in life and how to enhance it and awareness of all the not so good things in life and how to vanquish them. The Art of Living arrived. It came, saw and conquered me 100% -didn't even leave an atom to myself, to call it my very own. It became everybody's. But it was a fair exchange, because the whole world became mine too. What has the art of living really done to me?! It had taken my life



AOL brought a new love in my life, which reminds me of an ancient tale… Once upon a long long time, in a place far far away, there was a Charming prince called Val: Valiant, strong, mighty, loyal and faithful, devoted. And Tine was a tiny little simple flower girl who loved to laugh and was innocent and playful and had a perennial naughty twinkle of mischief in her sparkling eyes. Destiny free willed itself to let these two meet and cupid did his part of the game and a budding romance flowered which only grew with time. They were complete each by themselves and yet when together, they created magic and complemented each other perfectly. Being strong and sensitive, being tender and loving and yet being firm, being mighty and being humble. To make a long story short, they are living happily ever after. The world celebrates their romance as the Val 'n Tine's Day.




Guruji says the mechanics of love start with an infatuation. Many a times when we look back we think of a person and feel, "my god, how was I ever attracted to THIS person". Well, you can blame it on the angels. And what is at work in this process of infatuation is more than the history of the person or their geography. It’s more than mathematics (calculating how much he earns or adding up his gifts). It is more than simple plain chemistry; it is, let’s call it metaphysics that's at work. More than the matter, it's the spirit that matters most. And that infatuation leads to Loooooooonging and that leads to love and that love when matures becomes Devotion. How many of us can really say 'I am devoted to my beloved'. If your beloved is the divine then it’s so natural to say so. It’s easy in a divine romance. Love sets things in motion (nowadays lots in eMotion). Gurudev says love is not an emotion; it is your very existence. It's the love that makes the world go around - at an inclination of 23 and a half. It's the love of the earth that makes us grounded. We are made by love, we are made of love and we are made for love! Everything is love anyway. Our hate is love turned sour, jealousy if love turned bitter, our fears are love standing upside down, greed is love gone overboard, over attachment is love gone sticky, lust is love gone gross (lust is just 2% love and love has 2% lust).




But I still wonder who came first, longing or love. Love makes you long your loved one or is it the longing that leads to love of the longed one. Speilberg solved the age old mystery of who came first, the chicken or the egg. It was the chicken of course (because the Chicken could Run J). Or some say it was the chicken because God couldn't have laid eggs. Anyway, Guruji says we all have an in-built deep-rooted longing for a love that's so big, so infinite, so beautiful, so blissful, so divine, so like the Guru.. So longing (Radha) comes first and then comes Love (Krishna). Hence Radha is older than Krishna. So it goes Radhe Govind, Radhe Govind, Radhe Govind; the longing leads to love which leads to more longing which leads to more love until you BECOME the beloved. There remains no difference. Devotee becomes God. Till a time comes as that, my highest identity remains that I am part of the divine, a part of Him. Which part? I would like to be His heart. Your choice?!




Dinesh Ghodke

Art of Living International Teacher

Director, YESPLUS.org

(C) Art of Living Foundation