Guru Nanak and Sikhism

I got some interest and read about the life of Guru Nanak and the other Sikh Gurus. I learnt a lot about the Sikh sacrifices and stories of their courage. It was heart rendering to read about the Guru Tegh Bahadur and his disciples Bhai Mati Das and others who were brutally tortured in Delhi, Chandni Chowk by orders of Mughal emperor Aurnagzeb just because they refused to convert to Islam. Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur was approached by Kashmiri Hindus to save them from the wrath of Aurangzeb who was forcing conversion to Islam or death. To protect them, the Guru asked the emperor to first convert him before asking the Hindus to be converted. Aurangzeb gave the Guru two options, either convert to Islam or show a miracle like a prophet or face death. The Guru refused the first two options saying every human being must have the freedom to practice the faith and religion of his choice and the Islamic way of living is not the only way to reach God. Neither did he accept to perform miracles as they are a way of disobeying Nature's law of natural occurances. He chose to die instead as he had the faith that he is one with the Almighty and losing his body will not affect him. On the Guru's statement, his Disciples, Bhai Mati Das and others also declared that they will prefer dying than changing their religion. On these statements, Aurangzeb had them brutally killed. Bhai Mati Das was sawed in half from head to waist. Another was fried in boiling oil. Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded.
And all this Aurangzeb ordered only on his personal tyrannical beliefs of Islam which were no where found in the religion.
The brutalities from the Muslim emperors, resulted in the Gurus forming the Khalsa to fight and defend their community.
Then I read about the 1975 emergency and the ordering by Indira Gandhi to attack the Golden Temple to arrest Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, many were killed by that shootout. It resulted in the assassination of Indira Gandhi by two Sikh bodyguards. That was even more heart rendering that it resulted in the riots and attack on Sikh families through North India mainly in Delhi and Punjab on the orders of the Congress Party. 25000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone and I recall I was 6 yrs old in 1984 when our neighbors house was torched and attacked by Hindu mob, mostly government school students paid and aggravated by Congress party members. I saw a documentary on the Sikh genocide of 1984 on video.google.com which depicted how brutal the massacre was, how everyone ignored the whole process, that it was planned and even the Police was deliberately not taking any actions to prevent it. The documentary also showed the widows of the Sikhs killed in that massacre now running small sewing institutions to support themselves. Their life is destroyed with no purpose left and no one to care for them. I understand that is the reason for the alienation of the Sikh community from the Indian soil when they are settling in Canada and England and asking for a Khalistan. The ironical part is the ministers responsible for executing the genocide operation have been reelected in Delhi ( Sajjan Kumar, J.D.Tytler and Kamal Nath) and no criminal action has been taken against them.
The ideals of the Sikh religion are fabulous and must be taken as a higher form of the Hindu religion with its religious superstitions removed just like Buddhism. Still there is so many differences in the Hindu and the Sikh religion.
The same should be said about Islam, that it has been blackened by the brutalities of tyrannical rulers, and the Sufism from Islam has almost vanished.

my confusions

It has been long going in my mind, that I have not been able to sort out my purpose of studies. The time I waited for eagerly for years to go for a Masters degree, came in 2004 when I joined USC. There were so many aspirations, thoughts, excitement and enthusiasm to learn and get a job. It all came to a disaster when I struggled with maths. There was so much interest to learn DSP. It all came down bad when I could not sort out my study method. I could not memorise stuff, could not retain understanding. I kept changing my ways to learn, but did not stick to one. I admit I did not resort to hardwork of solving problems which was one of the main reasons of not able to write exams. After the grades, I was disappointed and decided not to go further in DSP. I resorted to relating it to what I know industrially. But I did not have control over my subjects. I always wanted to take an OS class, but foolishly enough I could not do the projects in C++. I just lost the whole purpose of taking that class. Same thing happened with Multimedia class. It was very interesting, but I could not take control of it. Projects, I did with help of friends, exams I struggled with. It again defeated the purpose to an extent. But in a sense I learnt stuff and had exposure to so many technologies. Same thing happened with EE522. Its an A class, no work to do other than experiments, and a paper presentation, there also I goofed up. Professor was understanding, maybe he was disappointed but he gave me a B, most of the guys got an A. Again, I should have taken advantage of the class to get grades like others. At this stage I must have realised, this place is not meant for testing, take courses only when you are confident you can manage them especially when you know grades do affect your GPA. But even after an internship which was a boon to me, I still took heavy courses. I resorted to this reasoning, that since I cannot take Communications track ( random and other courses) I have to definitely take the computer networks track. I thought I must take CS551 to learn network programming and also had to take ee550. I was aware of my performance in cs402 where I did not work on the projects, still I took the chance of taking 551. It again turned out to be defeat of purpose if I did not do the project by myself. I had to take help from Paresh to a significant extent. I submitted late, was not able to study effectively for papers, and got poor grades. A disaster was ee550, when I just could not tackle the homeworks. It should have made me realise in the beginning that if probability was not my cup of tea in 1st sem, I must not take the same course again. After three semesters at USC, I still cannot say I was able to take control of even a single course. My diversion from DSP to networks track, again questions me if I cannot still be comfortable on software projects. The same fears which were there in my mind at the beginning are questioning me again. I was running away from Maths, but did it solve my purpose?
It looks good on my resume that I have taken very interesting courses at USC, but can I say I know all that stuff, No! I have lost self respect among friends. My GPA is bad and I am at a situation, where I may have to discontinue the MS program. More of all, I am taking extra courses to pass out. Who pays for all that money, my sister, father. Did education really help me? Was I sincere and honest? No, definitely not.
The same question comes back to me, you did not take use of the golden opportunity given to you.
At this stage, I am still perplexed, I always have this problem in taking decisions. I still cannot look confidentally at joining the industry, and still look foolish at academics. I feel guilty of making a fool of myself. On a positive side, I have learnt lot of useful stuff, and am better prepared to face my career ahead. But on principles of sincerity, hard work and truth, I am a failure. If I cannot do a tough assignment why take the course. If I want to accept a challenge, why not make efforts to complete it.
There are thousands who are deprived of such a chance to learn, grow and utilise an opportunity. I wonder, why am I not afraid of my situation at present. When it comes to speaking, I can impress anyone.
Why not then I also demonstrate my work. Why not be fair and honest with your work.

Asking questions from Professors

There are thousands of doubts, numerous insecurities for a student to get his best output from a university experience. It is very critical to understand the education model and the strategy. I have always been confused and bewildered by the right strategy. When we take a class under a particular professor, the first thing which is in our mind at the top is to get the best grade and hence keep a good impression on the prof. Then we personally assess the professor as a person and then rate him whether he is approachable, whether you can ask questions to him what you want to and whether he would be able to give you the key answers to what u are looking for.
But still the important point is to not just keep thinking/deciding and approaching the professor. He may not be able to revert with the precise answer but he would greatly benefit you in clearing your doubts and relieving u off your anxieties.
I have till now interacted with 8 professors and everyone in one or the other way has influenced me and impressed me with his knowledge, his attitude and some have disappointed on certain aspects I had expectations as a student.
Now the question and the reason comes to me how well I was able to channel the professor's work to my benefit, to learn and to grasp the topic. Definitely, homework is crucial and method to find your way out of the jargon.
I put up these questions to myself? How will did I utilize my university experience?
Did I give it my best shot in taking control of my subject?
Did I put up questions properly to the instructor?
In what way did I communicate with the instructor, was it only on my personal internal way, or did I also make the professor notice my thirst to gain knowledge.
Then I get baffled, who all should I contact.
Prof Leahy who taught me DSP in 1st sem, who had been marvellous in his job but I got a poor grade. What questions can I put up to him now which he can answer back. I decided to revert back to Networks as I found DSP too mathematical, and multimedia also interested me. Somehow I could relate to VOIP through this. I have been looking for convergence, where I can learn both aspects of telecom and networking.
Then the second prof I am highly influenced by is Crowley. His style of teaching and his attitude is amazing. He is very genuine, lively and puts in his soul in teaching.
Then prof Havaldar, who taught me something I was looking for as a course, multimedia. It makes the most meaning for VOIP where you can relate the two disciplines together.

Meeting Gurudev

It was the fall of 1995. My father who is a scientist is also very fond of spirituality and religious topics talks about a Gurudev near Delhi where he plans to go. His friend in the colony has been there and tells a lot about his experience in Ramghat, 135kms from Delhi in Uttar Pradesh. My father makes a weekend visit to Ramghat along with Mr. Rajpal. He comes back and tells us a lot about how he felt and what he experienced. Me, my sisters got highly curious to know more as my father told about the miraculous ability of the devotees there to communicate with deities and with spirits. We grow each minute with excitement and become desperate to go there. Since we did not have a four wheeler, the three of us, along with our father went to the Bus Terminal ISBT to catch the 8:30 am bus to Ramghat. The ticket is cheap, a journey a bit uncomfortable due to the miserable roads in UP. The trip took us 4 hours. Ramghat is located near to the famous Narora Atomic Power Station. The road becomes smooth like a carpet as you Narora. The village welcomes us with a storm of mud due to kuchha roads. Bus first goes through a narrow bridge over a tributary of River Ganges. Finally it came to a halt at the bus stop. We had no problems in reaching the Ashram as my father had already been there. There is no proper road in the whole village. Made up of bricks or mud, travelling is very inconvenient but you also get to like the smell of fresh mud. We reach the entrance to the Ashram, and noticed Gurudev is resting on the right with few people around him. He has a magnetic face with white beard, moustache and hair till his shoulders. He smiles when he sees us and people near him chorused Jai Nanua Ki (Praise Nanua). We also replied and our father asked us to touch his feet to show our respect. He welcomed us and gave a warm thumping on our back. He addressed my father as Doctor Saheb, what brings you here again. My father replied, I was grateful to have a chance to meet you and the children also got highly interested in meeting you. Nanua laughed and replied what do you find in this backward village. He asks our names, my sister Aparna, Pragya and me Bhuvanesh. He admires what beautiful names and asks us about what we are doing. Then he gets up and goes inside the room. Meanwhile the people sitting there comment, you have arrived at the right place, he has the solution to everyone's problems.
Nanua returns with steel glasses in his hands. It had tea in them. He distributes tea among us and takes one for himself. He asks one of the men sitting to ignite incense sticks. He asks him to find who is the Ishta Deva of three of us. Istha is supposed to be the Hindu God/Goddess who is responsible for our birth.We must worship our Istha Deva for best results and propserity. The man closes his eyes and starts to concentrate. He replies, Nanua, for Aparna, Goddess Kali has arrived. For Pragya, Goddess Durga and for Bhuvanesh Lord Hanuman. Nanua smiles and asks us who do we usually worship at home. I replied that I have always worshipped Hanuman on Tuesdays and Saturdays. My sisters also replied that not in any particular routine, but they worship Goddess Durga. Nanua smiles, and says very nice and asks the man, ask them why are the children suffering and what reasons are there for there problems. The man replied Nanua, I can see their sins. I can see an old lady weeping and bent due to a back pain for Aparna. Nanua asks what is she saying. Man: she says I was her mother in law and she threw me out of the house and beat me with sticks. I died in all pain. Nanua says, that was a different birth now this child is ignorant of her sin and forgive her. Nanua asks my sister to ask for forgiveness. Nanua asks the man, what is the old lady asking for. Man replied, she wants food in thali and a sari and is pointing to her back. Nanua lifts his hand and says, Nanua please mend her broken back and give her peace. He asks my sister to grab a thali from inside put some food in it from the kitchen and hands her a white saari. When she returns, Nanua asks her to offer this all to the old lady and ask for forgiveness. The man replied, Nanua she is eating, has taken the saari and is going.
Nanua explains, you see how sins are affecting us. That lady from a previous birth has been suffering waiting for her salvation and is causing troubles in Aparna's life to take her revenge.This is all a game of revenge. Give and Take. You harm someone, and it will come back to you. Across births, sins are carried and will not leave you until they find peace. It was a practical demonstration of the immortality of the soul as mentioned in BhagvadGita and our scriptures. Nanua says, Man has fourteen human births to reach his goal, to again mix into God and then a cycle of 8.4 million species. Each birth, is defined by the deeds in the previous.
Nanua asked us to prepare for a bath in Ganges. This was a must for all arrivees. We carried our clothes and walked along with Nanua towards Ganges. The path leads from within the village market where most of the shops are selling either sweets or material useful for worship for River Ganges. There are many festivals throughout the year when people from nearby villages come to Ramghat for a dip in the Ganges and worship. Ramghat is unique in the confluence of multiple tributaries of Ganges. The main Ganges is the Ram Ganga coming from Haridwar. A tributary known as Baan Ganga meets this flow at Ramghat.
We purchased sweets, fresh milk and powdered sugar from the market. On reaching Ganges, Nanua asks us to ignite incense sticks to meditate on Mother Ganges and offer her sweets. She will wash us of our sins of eating onion/garlic. It is believed eating Onion/Garlic is not advisable as it leads to impure thoughts. Nanua also explained that Onion is composed of shells and a vey thin fibrous layer in between which does not get digested in the body. These minute pieces of the fibre get settled on the blood capillcaries and slows down the blood flow. This over long duration gives rise to various diseases. By offering milk to Ganga, we can wash away our sins and find solace. The dip was soothing. We felt very light and relaxed. Nanua teaches us we should not make Ganga impure and never urinate. River is sacred and considered full of life. Upon impuring it, we invite body diseases and pain.
We can also relate this to keeping our water bodies clean as its the lifeline of any civilization.
We returned from the trip back to the Ashram. Nanuaji reminds us to be cautious with our belongings as monkeys are very mischievous. After settling down, we start asking questions from the people sitting around while Nanua gets some barley flour and kneads it. He himself prepared chapatis on a steel tava heated by wood logs. He offers the chapatis to us along with Spicy spinach dish. Food is delicious and I am amazed by his down-to-earth nature and hospitality. After eating we all wash our utensils with sand. Nanua asks us to take a nap to get some rest. After waking up, it is getting dark, there is a distant sound of music in the local village dialect. The birds are returning to their nests on the tamarind tree above us and there is lot of noise from monkeys fighting and running atop us on the teenshade. Nanua is talking to some local villagers and discussing their problems. A man has come from the village on the other side of Ganga and is complaining that his buffalo is not giving milk. Villagers are generally farmers or milkman and that is their bread and butter. Buying a buffalo is costly and he will not get any money if he doesn't sell the milk every morning in the local market. Such problems seem trivial but poor people's lives revolve around them. They are usually illiterate. Nanua asks him to ignite three incense sticks in front of the buffalo, meditate upon Nanua and ask to make it healthy and fit.
Nanua offers him food and sweets for his children. The man goes with hope. Nanua is preparing the havan kund( fire place for worship). He places cow dung cakes and wood logs and ignites. He asks us to come near the kund and take havan samagri( made from cow dung powder, wood, spices) to offer to fire on mantra. Fire is the most sacred forms of matter and is believed the medium to offer food to the deities. Ghee( butter from cow/buffaloe) is also used. Nanua explains, it is not just the Gods/Goddesses that are to be pleased, you also have to please your sins, the unsatisfied souls through this medium. Nanua chants the mantra and we offer the samagri in fire.
After finishing all the samagri we wash our hands, distribute the remaining sweets in between all people sitting and get back to Nanua. Nanua is relaxing on a jute bed and a devotee is massaging his feet.
Nanua says, the world is busy in worshipping all gods/goddesses forgetting that they are themselves one. We all are Gods, we are the characters of Ramayana, Mahabharata. Its that we have forgotten our self that we are suffering. And in the worshipping no one realises the inportance of sins. They are actually to be worshipped. No God/Goddess can come near you, can help you when you have a sin upon you. That dissatisfied soul has the priority to complete its balance from you. That is the law of the nature. As you convict a criminal of an offence/crime, so does the law judges you for the solution/judgement. You may get saved by worship, your saviour God may protect you from complete ruin, but only till an extent. They are also helpless in front of the sin as its the law. So you must also worship your sins as you worship all deities, since if they will be satisfied, peace will automatically come to you.
And what role do I play for you, I am Chaprasi ( peon). Like a peon sits at the door of an officer and a visitor has to ask him to meet the officer, similarly I am the medium to communicate with the higher world. Nothing more. And what does Nanua mean? It means Om, the most common name in Hindus. If you write Nanua in Hindi with the alphabets on top of other, it becomes Om. In the same way, writing Chaprasi makes Shree, also symbolic of divinity. So Om becomes the soul and Shree becomes the Body. It is the combined role of the body and the soul to complete the journey towards the salvation.Myself as Nanua is just a human being, the universal Nanua which exists in all of us, like Om, is the ultimate saviour. All Gods/Goddesses are also limited forms of Om, like all of us, but the omnipresent, the ever vibrant in all life and universe is Om, Nanua.

Spiritual Mysteries of Nanua gurudev

The most amazing thing you experience after meeting Nanua gurudev at Ramghat, Bulandhshahar,UP,India is the practical demonstration of the spiritual mysteries and wealth of India. It is a wonder how can the mysteries and the practices can be undiscovered from the world for so long? Similar places and practices may be found and heard of from many areas in India, but the strong medium to communicate with the divine world and the spiritual entities is unique at Ramghat. Nanua gurudev had an adventurous and interesting path towards his self-realization. He is a Brahmin by birth and born to the royal family at Ramghat as Vishnudutt Dixit. He was born in all the rches and splendor of royalty and had no pleasures far from his wish. Due to the prevalent surroundings, he got astray into the social impurities. That led to his downfall and a point came when he lost all his wealth and family and left to ponder upon his state. At this point, beneath a Tree he got meaning of life and experienced self realization. He decided to find the reason for the life's sufferings, the circle of Maya (illusion). He practiced the toughest path of Yoga, namely Hath Yoga under a banyan tree for 35 years. Of these 35 years, he practiced 9 years in not speaking and only eating leaves. He also got directions from the divine order who his spiritual Guru would be on his path to salvation. It was Udiya baba, a devotee to Goddess Kali and a strong spiritual master. Under his guidance, Nanua had the divine darshans, the tests and the attainments at different intervals in the 35 years. Nanua got the answers from the divine order on the purpose of his birth, the reasons for his downfall and sufferings and the subsequent path towards self realization. Different Gods and Goddesses directed Nanua towards his path at different moments to make him realize himself. Finally Nanua became himself and had the gift of divine sight ( Divya Drishti). He also got the directions from the divine order to guide people in sorrow and in suffering towards their goals and make them self realized. He is openly distributing the gift of Divya Drishti among thousands of children and devotees in India to unravel the spiritual world to them. People come from all walks of life with their sorrows and problems. Nanua instructs children and devotees to look into their problems and see the reasons. They are able to view the sufferer's deeds in the present as well as past births. They see the reason for the suffering some sin or deed which is the cause. That can be killing someone, theft, some action which caused pain and misery to some other being.
The marvel of the Drishti is that one can also speak to any living being be it plants, animals. Its a medium in which the whole species and communicate. It strongly reminds one of the 8.4 million species mentioned in the Bhagvad Gita and the Vedas. The Divya Drishti also resembles the gift given to Sanjay in Mahabharat to describe the events in the battlefield to King Dhritarashtra remotely in the palace.
Nanua says that we all are no different from all those present during the times of Ramayana and Mahabharata. We all are characters from one or the other periods since genes are continuing and humans have a cycle of births.
One strange thing about Ramghat is that the villagers do not believe in Nanua Gurudev and cannot accept the fact that Gurudev attained self realization. They all still relate him to the person he was in his youth when he was involved in all deeds. From their point of view as per their mental understanding, it does not seem wrong since they look at him as a physical being who committed wrong deeds in front of them. But if you try to understand, Nanua had an immense transformation from Kunwar Sahab as he was addressed in his youth to the present Nanua after his spiritual quest and hard practice of Hath Yoga in the woods. Nanua proved the strong principle of transformation all mortal beings, that like Rishi Valmiki, every person can transform himself from whatever state he is in to the true knower. Valmiki was a pirate who killed and looted people in a jungle. He also got a moment which transformed him into a saint and he came down in History as the author of Ramayana, the revered spiritual epic of Hindus.
This transformation is visible in Nanua gurudev, but the people of Ramghat cannot accept that a man can transform himself.
Nanua openly gives solutions, happiness, contentment to people from all walks of life irrespective of their religion, cast, culture. He is also a strong symbol for universal brotherhood of mankind and wishes all people can again bring back the times of Prosperity and Peace by forgetting their religions. As we know of the four Yugas or periods in Hinduism as Satyuga, Tretayuga, Dwapar and Kalyuga; Nanua says we can all transform the world to enter the Brahmyuga.
There is a very strong explanation Nanua empasises on the deeds and practices happening around us due to injustice. For example, we do a wrong karma of killing someone, or depriving someone from his right share. It results in a revenge for justice unless balance is complete. This triggers a repetitive cycle of karma. This continues across births. Nanua tries to solve this continuing imbalances.
We do not attempt to say here that the Justice system of a government is useless, but certain crimes go unnoticed or wrongly judged. The true justice in these cases are life's occurances. Nanua tries to avoid the harsh consequences of a bad karma and makes the doer ask for forgiveness. He mediates between the doer and the sufferer so that both can be at peace. This is the greatest priniciple of Nanua's purpose to give peace. And Nanua gurudev states, its this Ashram which is the unique door to Moksha (salvation) and peace in the whole world.