Guru Purnima

Purandaradasa said "Guruvina Gulamanaguva thanaka dorayadanna mukuti ..Paripari shastrava odidarenu, vyartha vayithu bhakuthi..." Today is celebrated as Guru Purnima. In Sanskrit , the word 'Guru' means the remover of the darkness. (Gu means darkness and Ru means the remover ). By translating the above line in English , the meaning gets somewhat distorted. Sanskrit is a complete language and no other language can provide an equivalent or apt translation. However , the above line in general means that until one is a gulama or dasa (servant ) of the Guru ( spiritual teacher ) , he cannot attain mukuthi ( in general, becoming one with the supreme God or attaining liberation from the cycle of life and death )


Guru is Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara as is evident from the shloka "Guru Brahma , Guru Vishnu , Guru Devo Maheshwara. Guru Sakshaat , parabrahma , tasmai shri guruve namah " I salute to my Guru who is God manifested in human form.

Guru Purnima is the day of eradicating ignorance and illuminating our lives with knowledge. On this Full Moon, the Guru can inspire us to overcome our limitations , lethargy and conjure a life of wonderful possibilities.

Wishing all a very happy Guru Purnima !!

Abbur Mutt - Shri Brahmanya Thirtharu

This monday , I had gone to Abbur to visit the Mutt. Abbur is a small village near Channapatna on way from Bangalore to Mysore. This place is very quiet and serene , amidst greenery and on bank of river Kanva. The mutt  has the Mula-Brindavan of Shri Brahmanya Thirtharu and other saints of Vaishnava seers. We were lucky to see the pooja performed by the Swami of the mutt. As there were hardly 15-20 people on that day , we really got a very close look at some of the idols worshipped in the mutt.

visit http://brahmanya-thiirtha.blogspot.com/ for more details and photos

Happy

This is for my dear Lakshmi:

Happy that i am .Happy that u are.
You and me are happier than we both are

Cause its not important that i alone be happy
and so also not that you alone are happy

For if the world is made up of  you and me
and if one is unhappy , how can another be happy ?

Shuddha Brahma Paratpara Rama

Shuddha Brahma Paratpara Rama
(Lord Rama, Who is Pure and absolute Brahman)

Kalathmaka Parameshwara Rama
(Rama, the essence of Time, the Lord Supreme)

Shesha Talpa Sukha Nidritha Rama
(Rama, blissfully reposing on Shesha as his bed)

Brahma Dhyamara Prarditha Rama
(Rama, worshipped by all Gods, beginning from Brahma)

Rama Rama Jaya Rajarama
Rama Rama Jaya Sitarama

Priya Guha Viniveditha Padha Rama
(Rama, Who was worshipped by his friend Guha)

Shabari Dhata Palashana Rama
(Rama, Who ate the fruits given by Shabari)

Hanumath Sevitha Nija Padha Rama
(Rama, Who was served by Hanuman)

Sita Prana Dharaka Rama
(Rama, Who is the support of life of Sita)

Rama Rama Jaya Rajarama
Rama Rama Jaya Sitarama

Happy Ugadi

April 4th (Monday) is Ugadi. Its a very important festival for Hindus and marks the beginning of the New year. This year is called "Khara Nama Samvatsara".

On this day, elders in home distribute a mix of the leaves of neem and jaggery. Neem is extremely bitter to taste and jaggery is very sweet.This actually signifies that we accept equally ,both the aspects of human life – sorrow and joy in the coming new year.Such meaningful and beautiful concepts our forefathers have made for each festival. I feel its very important that our generation retain as much as possible and pass on to our next generation.

Here's wishing all a very Happy Ugadi and little bit more of jaggery than neem in the new year :-)

Shri Raghavendraya Namah

Chanting ‘Raghavendra” actually results in chanting the names of  Sri Rama,Hanuma and Sri Guru Raghavendra. if we describe the word Raghavendra as the most revered person in Raghuvamsha then Shri Rama is “Raghavendra” , if we describe the same word as he who has Sri Rama as his lord, then Hanuma is Raghavendra , and if describe him as the one who cleanses the sins of his devotees and protects them, then we are chanting the most renowned lord of mantrayala Shri Raghavendra. 

Sri JagannathadAsaru says:-

gururajashtaksharam syat mahapatakanashanam |

Ekaikamaksharac chatra sarvakamyartha siddhidam ||

Which means the 8 letters of “ShrI raghavendraya namah”  destroys all the mighty sins, every letter in this name, will result in fulfillment of all the wishes, 

Jagannatha dasaru also composed a separate work named “ShrI Raghavendra Ashtakshara Stotra” which describes the results of chanting each letter of SrI Rayara name as below :

Chanting of “ra” relieves one from all the diseases,

Chanting of “Ga” enhances longevity, glory and strength of the person

chanting of “va”  will result in gain of worldy riches

chanting of “dra” will drive the sins of person chanting

He who chants “ya” will not be troubled by yama

Chanting “na” will bestow higher positions

By chanting “ma” one will be blessed with riches equalling that of devendras.

- from Kalpavriksha Kamadhenu

PMP Certified !

On Jan 10th , I passed my PMP Certification exam on first attempt. I started preparing in Sept 2010 with the 4 day mandatory course at PMI, Bangalore Chapter. But , to be honest, my actual preparation for the exam happened in Dec 2010. The last week being a holiday season, there was slowdown of work and i could take time off to prepare for my exam.

Below are some of the steps which helped me :

1) Attend 35 hour preparation course from PMI,Bangalore Chapter
2) HeadFirst PMP text book- This is the only referance book i used. Some friends recommend other text books , but i didnt bother to check them.
3) PMBok guide provided by PMI - be thorough with this. Go through this as many times as possible.Really , revision of this helped me.
4) Be generally aware of all ITTO - Its not possible to memorize this. So dont waste your time and effort to mug up the ITTO. Instead, I tried to follow each item and ask myself relevant questions which made me think further and cross refer other processes. This actually helped me in co-relating all the processes and get the big picture.
5)Take as many mock tests as possible. Atleast 2 full length ( 4hr ) tests.
Time your mock tests so that you have atleast 30 mins to visit the marked questions.
6)Watch out for tricky questions with words "Except for" , "Next step" , "Including" , etc
7)Questions which involve math are good ones to score. On exam day, write down all the formulae in the 15 minutes instruction time before start of the test.
8)Plan your commute to the exam center in order to be atleast 15 minutes before your appointment time.
9)Being relaxed helps to a great extent.Initially, its natural to be a bit tensed and so the first 10-15 questions took me more time. As the number of questions increases , i felt my confidence level rising.
10) Finally , i didnt take any break during the 4 hour exam.For some people , its pretty difficult to sit for long hours with focus , but this is where the full length mock tests helped me. I could complete all the questions within 3 hrs 20 mins , which gave me 40 minutes to revise the marked questions. Ample time.