How To Be Happy
As narrated by Kriyaban Shri. Manoj Nair:
An awesome three and half days of spiritual bliss and heavenly atmosphere to celebrate the passing year 2014, and welcoming the new year 2015, full of sunshine and hope. "How to be Happy" is a unique & signature programme conceptualized and conducted by the Greatest Master of all times "His Holiness Sadguru Yogiraj Sri Sri Mangeshda", the entire program has been designed with lots of fun, frolic and happiness with a clear spiritual undercurrent to it.
Each activites is designed by Sadguruji to harness the hidden potential of each and every participant and bring out the best in each of us. The entire programme dwells into our daily life, with a lot of activity that keeps the mind fully occupied in positive thoughts and stops the influx of the constant negative thoughts, that we all are used to.
The pristine and natural surroundings of the Spiritual Ashram, nestled on the banks of the beautiful Amba River, surrounded by beautiful mountains and fresh waves of soft soothing breeze, all add up to the tempo of the programme. Sadguruji in his impeccable style was monitoring the entire event right from the start, a true Kriya Karma Yogi that he is, he was at the Ashram 2 days prior to the start of the event, monitoring each and every minute detail of the arrangements, the comfort of the participants, the cleanliness and giving instructions to the organizers, to ensure that, when the participants come to the venue, they have a smooth transition and are made comfortable from the very moment they step in.
These 3 1/2 days was not only a unique and divine experience in the holy presence of Reverred Sadguruji, but a bountiful of learning from every activity, and from the peer groups, age ranging from 1yr to 80 yrs young. Each of the participant, taught the other some valuable take away, and in return also learnt a valuable lesson for life.
The list of activities was long and very unique, right from the start of the programme, where each of us shared the 1 best thing of the year 2014, which made all of us look at only the brightest side of life that passed in the year, the beautiful nature walk, registering the beauty of the flora and fauna at the beautiful ashram, the musical antakshari, the melodious satsang every evening that charged the energy levels of each participant, the kabaddi competiton for the senior citizens was a surprise package that showed us the aggression and competitive spirit of our seniors.
The candle lighting game was another test of precision and grit for each of us, very interesting and intense, one more unique activity was the needle and thread game, which reminded each of the kriyabaan's, Sadguruji's famous statement "Spirituality is nothing but the eye of the needle",this activity enhanced the focus and concentration of most of the participants,and in the end of the activity,all the participants agreed in unison,to have developed phenomenal focus and concentration.
The other activity that tested team bonding and mental strength was the water ballon game, outstanding would be a small word for this game that Sadguruji had introduced for the first time in HTBH, this game was a perfect reflection of team spirit and the way we hold on to the precious gifts of life with care and precision. Needless to say,The winner of the Game were the pair of Sadguruji and Deepak kumbhar who lasted till the end without dropping the water balloon.
The year was to end with an intense session of the Divine Angel card conducted by Sadguruji, which gave very crisp & clear insight to not only the chosen participants,but also for everyone present in the high energy field that was created by Sadguruji. It was a very intense session with strong messages from the higher energy for each of us to lead a wholesome and enriching stress-free life.
Another activity which tested the strength and endurance of each participant, The "Surya Namaskar Championship". This activity saw most of the participants running for shelter, since it was not easy to dole out 100+ surya namaskars, the bare minimum target set by Sadguruji. This target of 100 was a meager one,compared to the humongous achievement already conquered by Sadguruji of 1008 Kriya Yoga Suryanamaskar, which is minimum 3 times more difficult than the ordinary push up suryanamaskar, that we all do. The competition saw average performance of around 25 -30 suryanamaskar's per participant in the average category, and good category saw more than 80 namskar's being pumped up by Xerxis,and nilesh ambre the reigning champion completed 101 namaskar's. But the entire Surya namaskar competition's crowing glory, were Sadguruji's 2 beautiful angels aged 8 & 5, beloved Mahima and Rockstar Shubham..amazing is a small word for their exceptional feat conquered on the surya namaskar competition.Mahima Clocked 125 neat and clean,perfect 10 surya namaskar, but the Undisputed Champion of Champions was our little angel heart,5 yr old Shubham,who was on and on with his perfect 10 surya namaskars, and went on to create a new record of 211 not out..Yes you read it right 211 not out..not out because, Sadguruji had to literally pick him up& stop him, else he would have gone on endlessly..the spirit of competitiveness was clearly dominant in his actions, when he easily completed 211 namaskar's and later on sat down on the floor cheering Mahima and very innocently motivating Mahima to break his record of 211..that was a very sweet gesture of true sportsman spirit.
A big lesson learnt from our little shubham on the last day of 2014 was, true champions are the ones who totally believe in themselves and pursue their goal relentlessly with seamless passion and commitment. Even though they both are Sadguruji's Children, they never took things for granted, and throughout the last full year, they were devotedly preparing for this competition, by practicing yoga every single day for 45 minutes. This kind of hardcore commitment finally bore fruits and gave us these 2 new champions. Further on it was a delight to say good bye to the setting sun of 2014, amidst continuos chanting of the Gayatri Mantra in our larger than life amphitheatre.
The fancy dress, skit and dance competition added to all the fun and dhamaal masti to the 31st eve celebrations, and Sadguruji rang in the new year by lighting the pyre and burnt all the negativity in it. he also asked all the participants to burn away any negative feeling or thought that they may be carrying along with them, into this pyre that was lit for clearing away all the negativities in everyones lives.we all had the time of our lives as we danced the way into the new year with Sadguruji also dancing along with us.and at the stroke of 12 everyone,was blessed with a sweet Prasad from Sadguruji and a special hug and personal wishes by Sadguruji "HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015".
The 1st morning was even more memorable for every one sitting along with Sadguruji to welcome the new year sun.amidst the continuos chanting of the Gayatri Mantra,when the sun rose but was not visible, due to thick clouds that were covering the sun, most of the participants were slightly disappointed, but as Sadguruji had already mentioned, keep a clear intention and leave the rest to the higher energy, success will come into your lap. The clouds cleared off within minutes and the golden sun was clearly visible to all of us who had stuck to our commitment to welcome the Rising sun in the holy presence of Sadguruji. We all had the beautiful surya darshan and after some time the clouds again covered the sun, as if the clouds were pulled off like a curtain by the higher energy,only for giving us the blessings. It was a beautiful memory full of love, light and hope, that we got on the 1st morning. We all felt truly blessed,because,when half of the world were high in spirits the previous night and were sleeping till late afternoon,there was a bunch of super happy souls like us in the spiritual ashram,who have already done 100 times more celebration,that most of the night owls,and yet we all were up by 6.30am,waiting patiently for the sun god,with continuos chants of the gayatri mantra,ready to welcome the sun god..this is the moment of eternal bliss and estacy,that we all long for..I really pity those poor souls who spend thousands of rupees for just a night of spirit, to get high and miss out on the true meaning of SPIRITUALITY.
The event wound up with the divine dancing meditation,which is an experience of lifetime,that cannot be described in words,and takes one to a different world of bliss and harmony..Heartiest Congratulations to our dearest and youngest dynamic couple of Pankaja & Madhava Kurup, for winning the most coveted title of Miss HTBH and Mr. HTBH. This is indeed a proud and memorable achievement to be cherished for a lifetime and both of you truly deserve this for your highly competitive streak.
Thank you Sadguruji for this wonderful and memorable HTBH programme..we pray at your lotus feet for a continuity to this fantabulous year end celebration with a complete spiritual base of total power packed entertainment.
Happy New Year 2015.
Jai Gurudev