Happy Diwali & Prosperous New Year!

Diwali is the biggest and the brightest festivals celebrated by families around the world. Deepavali (actual name of Diwali) means "a row of lights." This auspicious day is also known as the "festival of lights. There is a saying “A Happiness can be found from darkest of dark if one knows how to switch on the light”! 

The evil need not necessarily come in the form of demons, it can come as depression, desperation, and frustration which can cause more damage. Diwali is a reminder to slay all that is negative to our life. 

There is so much happening during this whole week, people start preparing for Diwali, shops (e-shops J) are full of sales and there is light all over. People celebrate Diwali with many other things like firecrackers, visiting friends and family places and having lots of sweets! Well, I miss those days celebrating Diwali with lots of firecrackers and lights on streets with friends. A lot of regulation here, but still we manage to celebrate with some of the crackers in our patio J One of these years, I am going to take a vacation to celebrate Diwali back hometown to renew my Diwali spirit. On Diwali days, people use to do colorful rangoli at their house. We have got a Solar system rangoli this year. This thought came from our little master Aarav. Lisa and I were talking about which rangoli should we do and Aarav gave us an idea of doing Solar System Rangoli. We were so impressed by his attempt of making Solar Rangoli. Here is a photo from his rangoli. 

Diwali is one of the biggest and brightest festivals in India and we do celebrate it with full of enthusiasm and happiness. I would like to celebrate this Diwali by expressing thanks to all my friends, family members, near and dear ones! You all are awesome and I am lucky to have you all in my life. 

Diwali is the last day of Gujarati Year, Today, Vikram Samvat 2075 begins. So wishing you all a Happy New Gujarati Year. May this new year come with lots of happiness in your life. Few messages on this new year… that I would wish we all can follow to start this new year with lots of positivity.

• Hashmuk Sweekar - Acceptance with a smile
• UBANTU - I am because we are !!
• Some are blessings and some are lessons - અમુકે પ્રગટાવ્યુ... અને અમુકે સળગાવ્યું …!
• Life is like "Sugar Cane", learn to avoid sugarcane bud and enjoy its sweetness... "મોજે મોજ રોજે રોજ..!"
• Pain is inevitable while suffering is optional !
• તું "એકલો" નહિ "એકડો" છે... હજારો મીંડા તારી રાહ જુવે છે... !!
• Life is too short to worry about stupid things, Have fun, regret nothing and don't let people bring you down.
• Make your parents happy and be the reason for their happiness
• Stay focused and motivated in life.
• Spend more time with people whom motivates you.
• Help poor and needy people whatever way you can

May This Diwali be as bright as ever and brings joy, health, and wealth to you and your family. May this Diwali bring you the utmost in peace and prosperity. We wish you all a Happy Diwali and a prosperous new year!

Happy Diwali & Happy New Year!
💕LisAnk-Aarav

UBANTU - I am because we are !!

I read this South African word called “UBUNTU” somewhere and was reading this on different media to understand this world and the philosophy behind it. What I found is amazing…! A very strong and inspiring message for everyone!!  The word UBUNTU in South African language is “I am because we are”

An anthropologist one day proposed a game to the African tribal Childers, He placed a basket of sweets near a tree and made the children stand 100 meters away. Then announced that whoever reaches first would get all the sweets in the basket. When he said “Ready.. Steady…  Go……!!”

You would be surprised to know that what these children did, They all held each other’s hands, ran together towards the tree, divided the sweets equally among themselves, ate the sweets and enjoyed it together. When Anthropologist asked them why they did so, they answered… “UBUNTU”

Which meant – “How one can be happy when the others are sad” UBUNTU meaning “I am because we are” The philosophy matches with the one we believe in India as “वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम” which means the world is one family. Live together, enjoy together and stay together with a piece on this beautiful Earth! Shree Narendra Modi, India’s Prime minister also used this phrase in a speech at World Culture Festival at Davos, Switzerland on 23rd Jan 2018.

We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.

Let all of us try to build this attitude within us, lets all spread happiness wherever we go! This one is really inspiring and very strong message! 

Love💕

LisAnk-Aarav

Thank you for uplifting lives and showing wings to fly - Happy Guru Purnima!

This day holds a significant place in Indian and Nepalese tradition as they thank the ‘GURUs’ in their lives – be it spiritual or academic and even parents. In Nepal, this day is celebrated as the Teachers’ Day. The word ‘guru’ came from the Sanskrit word ‘GU’ which implies darkness and ‘RU’ which means eliminating the darkness.

Guru Purnima celebrates India’s tradition of ‘GURU_SHISHYA’ – a bond that binds a teacher and a student, which has now become a part of India’s culture. But since time immemorial, traditional knowledge and teachings have been pass down from one generation to another through the shrutis and slokas. In ancient India, parents used to send their children to the Gurus.

Those all are Gurus from whom you learn something to lift your life up, those all are Gurus who showed you how to eliminate the darkness, those all are Gurus who teaches you how to be better being. Those all are Gurus who showed you the wings to fly.

I believe, a quick path to find the right Guru in your life is to find the right spiritual friends around you, if you can find those friends around you, you are blessed because your first hard effort has been taken care. As I always mentioned in my precious blogs let’s all push ourself to spend more time with those spiritual friends who helps push you with positivity and inspiration and not let you go down in your effort.

We all have Spiritual friends and Guru’s around us it just that we don’t have that eye to visualize and strength to consider them as Guru’s. Lets all wish that we get those strength and positivity to find one around us from whom you learn and pump the positivity with lots of inspiration.

Some people come in life and make you a better being,

All these people are Gurus who give you wings to fly.

Let's be grateful to the one who made you meet yourself.

Happy Guru Purnima!

Love 💕

LisAnk-Aarav

Some are blessings and some are lessons - અમુકે પ્રગટાવ્યુ... અને અમુકે સળગાવ્યું …

અમુકે પ્રગટાવ્યુ... અને અમુકે  સળગાવ્યું …

Everybody has a reason for coming into your life. Some come in your life as blessings and some teaches you and make you realize that you need to improve yourself and change something.

If people won't come in your life to teach you something, you would not appreciate the importance of good people. So that is how we start counting our blessings. As a human nature, we won't appreciate the importance of something until you don't have it anymore. I think, we all should be thankful to those who come in our life as lessons and taught us something.

Some people will test you, some will use you, and some will teach you; but most importantly some will bring out the best in you. I believe we should be in search for people who can find the best out from us. Each one of us has some qualities which makes us a unique personality, we just need positivity around us to make best out of those qualities.

So many people loves you, so let’s not focus on the people who don’t…  Let’s let go of those who keep bringing you down, we shouldn’t force connections with people who constantly make you feel less than amazing. It makes no sense to force it with people who are the wrong match for you.

Some people will better your life by being in it, while others will better it by staying out. I believe, maturity is learning to walk away from people and situations that threaten your peace of mind, self-respect, values, morals, and self-worth!

If you feel emotionally drained after hanging out with them or get a small hit of anxiety when you are reminded of them, listen to your intuition.  There are so many “right people” for you, who energize you and inspire you to be the best. Let's all have spiritual friends in life who can push us and pump in lots of positivity to learn and move forward with more and more force within us. Let's all pray for all of us and wish that we all have some spiritual friends who can help us lift up!!

એક જેવી જ દેખાતી દિવાસળીઓ…..

અમુકે પ્રગટાવ્યુ ….

અને અમુકે  સળગાવ્યું ….

Love 💕

LisAnk-Aarav

Life is like "Sugar Cane", learn to avoid sugarcane bud and enjoy its sweetness... "મોજે મોજ રોજે રોજ..!"

દુનિયા શેરડી જેવી છે.. જ્યા મોજ આવે તયા સાંઠો આવી જાય...

પણ જો અેને કાઢિ નાખો તો પાછી મોજ ચાલુ રે..  -  મોજે મોજ રોજે રોજ..! 

We grow, time moves, life changes and with all these changes one thing remains constant and it is "learning" !! You learn in any case -  A blog post I wrote early last year!

Everybody expect life to have smooth way, nobody expects their life to have painful bumps like a 'ROLLER COASTER'! In reality, life is like a Sugar Cane, when you really start enjoying its sweetness, SugarCane Bud comes in between and disturbs your taste and stops your enjoyment. To be able to continue enjoying its taste you need to work on it to remove it so that you can continue enjoying its sweetness! Remember, it requires your effort to remove them to be able to enjoy the sweetness !!

Life is exactly like this.. You start enjoying your life and its sweetness and these bud comes in between and disturbs your happiness,. In a situation like this, you need to work on it to remove it from your life to be able to continue enjoying your happiness. Don't let some sugarcane bud disturb your life. We all are intelligent enough to identify things which are sugarcane bud and disturbing our life.

જરુર હોય ત્યારે ફોટો પાડે... કામ પતે અેટલે ખોટો પાડે !

We all do this, it just that we don't know because we are so habituated doing this for many many years! If you think your life is getting disturbed by these type of buds, just avoid and remove them from your life. You don't deserve anyone who only wants you when they need you but rather someone who is always by your side when they know you need them. God does not make everything for us, So just let it go.

You don't deserve anyone who makes you sad and makes you cry but rather someone who makes you happy and makes you smile! Let's all introspect and try to find sugarcane bud from our life and work on it to remove to be able to continue enjoying life at its full with real sweetness! Just be happy and Have fun and Enjoy the life! 

મોજે મોજ રોજે રોજ...
💕LisAnk-Aarav

Fine is Mine or Mine is always Fine?

You could literally change your life overnight just by changing the way you think, and your attitude. But we mostly think negatively – it seems to be human nature. Thinking positively involves being optimistic, or positive, even in the most dire situations.

"Fine is Mine". This statement is very small in length but it is a very powerful statement for an individual. If you think that all fine things are mine or all fine things should be mine, then you motivating yourself to make it happen. So by making your attitude motivational, you are motivating yourself. You actually don't need to attend any motivational lecture :)

"Mine is always Fine"  This one is also a powerful thinking and an attitude to follow in many situations in our life. People who follow this attitude at right time and required situations are satisfied a person, they feel that whatever with them is fine! No eagerness to achieve more, satisfied with things whatever belongs to them. This way they are happy in most situations in their life. They don't care about the others, they won't compare themselves with others.

Some of my friends and I, we all were just talking on our past about how much our parents and we all struggled to reach at the level where we are today. Some friends were kinda complaining that we could have achieved and could have been better today if our parents and family were reached so that they could have done more for us. Here, even after having piece and nice life with them today, they are kind of in complain mode due to their past, which does not take them to feel real happiness. 

If you just think the same situation this way: It's nice that God gave us a tough time in past because of that we had to struggle to reach here. Due to this, we learned a lot during our struggle time and we pumped spirit about not going down at every level of our growth even in a dire situation. Same situation with a different attitude (Mine is always fine), you are not comparing your self with others and expressing thanks to your past to make you best from whatever it was. In a situation like this, "Mine is always Fine" attitude will be a source of happiness!

We all can do self-analysis and can find out in which one we should do and in which situation in our life. Let's analyze ourself and to keep the motivation up. 

It's the way you think to make yourself motivated and be happy. If you find yourself in the first category keep up the momentum to achieve the goal and be happy. Feel happy if you are in the second category! :) !! Just choose the right attitude with appropriate situations and be happy in either condition.

Enjoy,
Inspiration With Ankit

આ દરીયો અને અેના વમળો તો જુઅો...

Thousands of thoughts in mind to say thank you to a very kind and smiling person who is our music teacher also. Music is one of the best ways to feel and connect with your soul. Prabodh Uncle, You are so nice, so kind and so energetic and very down to earth person. We all are learning lots of things from you, Thank you for everything.

The video is also available on my youtube channel, click here

You carry sweet smile always on your face and you probably won't know how much it inspires others! I am sure "A Smile you Sent will always return".

We all pretty much new to music and did not know anything about music, you started teaching us with your full of energy and more importantly created environment very friendly and interactive that nobody felt tensed or had had no fear. I remember you told each of your students that "Music is to release your stress not to get stressed" First important lesson we all learned.

I have written a small Kavita for you, Mr. Prabodh Vora, to express all of music class students feeling. This is for you


આ દરીયો અને અેના વમળો તો જુઅો...
નાની નાની નૌકઅો ના બળ તો જુઅો...

ઉમર બમણી છે છતા શક્તી તો જુઅો...
થાક વગર નુ જીવન, મુખ પર સ્માઇલ તો જુઅો..

કહુ છુ લોકો ને અેમના સંગીત નુ ફળ તો જુઅો..
છે તમારી આંખ પર જે પડ છે અે પડ હટાવી ને તો જુઅો..

લોકો કહેતા, શુન્ય છો તમે, આગળ અેકડો લગાવી તો જુઅો..
પ઼બોધ ગુરુ નો સાથ છે હવે, કોઇ આગળ બોલી ને તો જુઅો..

અમુલ્ય સંગીત અને નિદોઁશ સલાહો નો પ઼બોધ છો તમે...
અને આ લાભ અમને..! અમારા પુન્ય ના ઉદય તો જુઅો...

-અંકિત ગોપાણી

http://inspirationwithankit.blogspot.com

Thank you very much for all your effort with full of energy and giving us not only music lessons but very important life lessons too! Thank you for giving us an opportunity to be part of your team. Looking forward to learning lots and lots of things.

Regards & Love,
LisAnk-Aarav

બહાનુ કાઢવા પાછા બીલ ફાડી કોઇના નામે.... !!!

Click on this video to listen this Kavita 

From the very first conversation about the drama, story or skit to the final moments of the performance, there have been many moments that have made us a family. We had our sine-wave moments, we mostly saw far more upside than any downside. As mentioned in the very first line of the Kavita 

કરતા અમે ભુલ કયારેક, પોચતા નોતા ટાઇમે

બહાનુ કાઢવા પાછા બીલ ફાડી કોઇના નામે
 Copyright © 2019 InspirationWithAnkit  -અંકિત ગોપાણિ

We most of the I never reached on time for practice, and when someone ask the reason I always blame someone or something... After I learned that "The time we lose will never come again". We pretty much do this in our daily life also... If we just do some self-analysis for our self we would realize that we always keep blaming something for our wrongdoing and justifies what we do irrespective of whether its right or wrong.

Kavita is written in a funny way of whole play we performed together to show how "Keval Gyan" can be achieved and what are our main enemies which are not letting us go on the right path for the liberation of our immortal soul.

This Kavita was written in just few minutes, dedicated to and belongs to each and every person of our team including backstage performers and on-stage performers, writers, director, helpers... 

Copyright © 2019 InspirationWithAnkit  -અંકિત ગોપાણિ

કરતા અમે ભુલ કયારેક, પોચતા નોતા ટાઇમે

બહાનુ કાઢવા પાછા બીલ ફાડી કોઇના નામે

બાહુબલી ની ફાઇટિંગ ને રેખા બેન નો લહેકો

તરંગ નુ મ્યુઝિક અને નેરેટર નો ટહેકો 

અશોક ભાઇ આવે પછી જતીન ભાઇ મહારાજ

ભરતરાજા ની દોડાદોડી તોય બેસે ઉપર ગજરાજ

૯૮ ભાઇઅો ની ચિંતા અને સ્વેતાંક આપે બોધ

બાહુબલી ને સમજાય નહી અેટકે આવે અેને કો્ધ

બાહુબલિ ની જોરદાર ફાઇટિંગ, તોડી દીધી ઢાલ

ભરત રાજા સાથે બાજે છે છતા લાઇલે છે કેવલ જ્ઞાન

ગજરાજ ને કલર કરતા, કરંયો કલર વ્હાઇટ

આપે બધા સુચના કે ઉપર બેસજો રાઇટ

પો્પ્સ મા રાખ્યા ગુકાબ ને સિક્કા ખોટા ખોટા

તોયે બધુ ઉપડી ગયુ નાટક જોતા જોતા..

સ્વાતિ બેન ની જિંદગી ને પાડોશી ચલાવે ડ્રોન

ટાઇમિંગ ખુબજ જરુરી તો, પડદો બંધ કરે કોન

કોકી બેન નો મોહ ને સ્વેતાંક ભાઇના ડાઇલોગ
ડાઇરેક્ટર ને કીધુ તુ કે, અમે કરી લઇસુ બધા ભાઇલોગ 

Copyright © 2019 InspirationWithAnkit  -અંકિત ગોપાણિ

Keep smiling... Spread Smile.... Be happy and just do good things... Fantastic time together and what a learning experience it was! Looking forward to work and learn more and more!

Love you all Khatarnak Mirtros!

With Love 💕,

Ankit

Khatarnak Mitros, Great Experience, lots of learning, Thank you !!

Life does take you to some turning points somewhere sometime, and provide you an opportunity to accept it or pass it by. A few months back, on 26^th November last year, I met one person who gave me ride from San Diego to Los Angeles as we both were traveling to India and had flight almost at a same time in the evening. Airlines were different though (wish we could have traveled on the same flight), We had brief chat on the way to Los Angeles and that was it. Those few hours we almost get to know each other I found him a real source of inspiration in many ways. We departed from LAX. That was our first meet.

We came back to San Diego after our vacation time, He also came back almost similar time frame. We were chatting over the phone and were in touch with. Couple months passed and there was one more opportunity in front of me. He was looking for people who can participate in his drama that he was preparing for “Mahavir Janm Kalyanak” celebration at Jain Society of San Diego. One day I received an email to check if I would like to participate. Immediately, I replied, YES! didn’t want to lose the opportunity to work with such an inspiring person. We started meeting more frequently for drama practice and discussion. I got to know many new people who were participating in the same drama. What an amazing team we have. Each and every person are so enthusiastic and with full of positivity that I never saw in past. He thought us “Respect Time”, “The time you lose, never comes again”, “If you cannot respect time, you can’t respect anything” What a powerful and inspiring statements. Looking at his enthusiasm, we all agreed that he holds more than double energy than we all participants. He is a wonderful personality, such a down to earth person, and a lifetime friend.  His name is Mr. King Uncle. My son Aarav has a story, why a very first time he called him a “King Uncle”) He actually deserves this title.

He invited everyone to his house,  and read the drama story and explained to us what he is looking for and about the plan. We started practicing as per plan, the first step was recording, we had to record each and every characters’ dialogues. Then we had to practice with lip sync with emotion and expression, nobody was a professional artist but King Uncle made us all performed like a professional.

One of my colleague  Shvetank shared his feeling about our experience on Drama which exactly expresses everyone's feeling and I would like to share here with his permission :)

From the very first conversation about the drama, story or skit to the final moments of the performance, there have been many moments that have made us a family. We had our sine-wave moments, we mostly saw far more upside than any downside, if there was any.A family always have one path maker and we are fortunate to have King Uncle as our path maker along with Queen Aunty, guiding us, supporting us, teaching us, going along with us, laughing with us and above all, lifting all of us up. We will always be their students and we feel proud and fortunate in saying that. This show is dedicated to and belongs to the backstage performers, whom crowd didn't see doing what they did. To begin with, someone had a VISION from the story, someone THOUGHT of making a drama visualizing and CRAFTING characters, someone took the TIMEOUT from the daily routine spent TIRELESS hours in reaching out to each and every one, finding alternatives, CONVINCING on what-if scenarios, and making us BELIEVE that we can do it. Someone lost their sleep and spent nights and STOLE every moment from the work-day that they could to keep the momentum up and doing what was needed to be done. Someone spent and drove many places to find the right PROPS for each character. Someone WROTE each line of the dialogs on the blank paper, knowing nothing what word was going to come next. Someone had piles of rewritten papers before anything presentable came along. Someone spent hours with each character in making sure the dialogs were accurate and suited each character. Someone corrected, someone memorized, someone learned to deliver, someone brought emotions from the very first dialog, someone came along and put all the pieces together and artistically converted raw sand into a sculpture. Someone happily accepted the role that was given, Someone came to all practices just for one dialog, Someone helped behind closed curtain or AV systems, showing no pictures, no videos, no wows (what a selfless act!), Someone Crafted, Painted, Decorated (...again no direct-wows from the crowd, what a selfless act!), Someone made "What?-Really?-Is-This-possible?" to real life Elephant and Samosharana "Refuge to All". Someone showered the Petals showing another dimension was possible. Someone joined us with their unique expertise and no relation to our religion or show and yet didn't hesitate to help. Just imagine the hours from thoughts-to-real life props, This is YOU, This is you Someone, who made it all possible.

The expectation was high from all of us because This was not the first drama that he directed, He had a long successful history of making wonderful plays and he has been making these types of play from last more than around 20 years. He has a proven history of raising bars every year by giving best out of best plays with a nice and inspiring message. This play was on Lord Rishabhdev, his son Bharat Raja, his mother Marudevi Mata, and his younger brother Bahubali Raja. The drama was on how they achieved “Keval Gyan” and what are our main enemies which are not letting us go on the right path for the liberation of our immortal soul. The name of the play was “Khataranak Shatru” (Dangerous Enemies). The play was compiled so nicely that each and every word had a deep meaning.

We all were so tensed just before our play and we were not sure whether we are going to deliver right and met audience and his expectation. There was a huge expectation from this play. Everyone was hungry, tired and ready to call it a day. In spite, pin drop silence throughout the play...and everyone listening to every dialog and every scene, It was amazingly performed a play together by every one of us. We received lots of compliments and have been still receiving it… What a great teamwork and success, Guys! I am really blessed and fortunate to be part of this team.

ભુલી જવાના છે બધા લાખો કીતાબો સામટી..

અમે નથી ભુલવા ના કાઇ આપેલી શીખામણો આપની... 

You, the someone, who is a visionary, thinker, creator, dreamer, maker, laborious worker, teacher, helper, leader, speaker, artist, performer, dancer, and a lifetime friend. If you heard "wows!" yesterday, those all belong to you and your hard work. This was indeed a great opportunity given to us and what a lifetime memory it has become! Very fortunate to be a part of it.

Thanks and Love to all, "Khatarnak Mitros" :)

LisAnk-Aarav

Happy Mahavir Jayanti !

Happy Mahavir Jayanti Everyone.

Let's all know a little bit about Mahavir Jayanti, why it is one of the most important religious festival for Jains and how they celebrate this auspicious day?

As per the Hindi calendar, Mahavir Jayanti is celebrated every year on 13th day of the month of Chaitra, however, as per the English calendar, it is celebrated in the month of March or April (date and month varies every year)! This year the day is 29^th March 2018!  Mahavir Jayanti is also called as “Mahavir Janma Kalyanak” most important religious festival for Jains.  

According to Jain texts, Mahaveer was born on the thirteenth day of the bright half of the moon in the month of Chaitra in the year 599 BCE (Chaitra Sud 13). Mahaveer was born in a democratic kingdom (Ganarajya), Vajji, where the king was chosen by votes. Vaishali was its capital. Lord Vardhaman’s (Mahavir’s) expecting mother had 14 dreams. When astrologers interpreted these dreams, they predicted that the child would become either an emperor or Tirthankar, a person who achieves spiritual enlightenment. The prophecies of the astrologers came true and later he became the 24th Tirthankar.

Lord Mahavir was believed to be a proponent of non-violence, and preached love and respect of all kinds of living beings, from the tiniest micro-organisms to the largest multi-celled creatures. These values then translated into a religion that he found – Jainism

Celebrations on one of the most auspicious day for Jains vary between communities across the world. Usually, an idol of the founder of Jainism, Lord Mahavira, is carried on a chariot which is then taken on a procession popularly known as a Rath Yatra. The devotees chant a variety of religious rhymes or Bhajans in praise of Lord Mahavir and his contributions. The idol is then given a ceremonial bath or an Abhisheka. Since the day is considered to be special, people who belong to the community indulge in a number of charitable work in an attempt to give back to the society and do good. They also get together and visit temples that are dedicated to Lord Mahavir and conduct prayer meets. Monks or priests of the community also hold lectures so as to preach the path of virtue that defines Jainism. Many Sanghs across the world celebrates by playing dramas, performing stavans, giving lectures to the community from Lord Mahavir’s story to pass the Bhagavan Mahavir’s path which defined Jainism!

On this day, Let's understand few simple things Lord Mahavir has given us, An understanding of these things could be a life-changing experience and will definitely help us uplift our life with a true understanding of Soul. 

1. The most important principle of an environment is that you are not the only element
2. Live and allow others to live; hurt no one.
3. Anger begets more anger and forgiveness and love lead to more forgiveness and love
4. The soul is the central place of spiritual discipline.

One of the important thing that I learned recently after reading lots of material on Lord Mahavir's Karma theory is “How to get rid of Karma?”.

જીવન મા જે ઘટના બને, એનો પ઼તિભાવ મન મા ઉઠે, ત્યારે  એને  વય્કત કરતા પહેલા, એનુ નિરીક્સણ  કરી લેવુ તો આ સમજણ કમઁ નીરઁજળા માટે મદદરુપ થાય છે… !!

Before reacting to any incident in your life, if you first understand why it happen.. that would help get rid of Karma.. !!

Let's Pray for Peace and Harmony for all the humankind on this auspicious day Let your Spirit fill with Ahimsa and Truth

Happy Mahavir Jayanti !

Love,

LisAnk-Aarav

Pain is inevitable while suffering is optional !

There is no suffering if you can simply let go the Pain. Pain becomes immaterial in the absence of suffering!

Just learned this yesterday from my spiritual friends, “PriAm”. The knowledge and the positivity they have within is fabulous; they are a source of inspiration in many ways, you guys are awesome!! Learning many inspiration things from you both! Thank you for pumping this positivity and encouraging us to do more and more Purusharth to achieve our final “Goal”!!  I could not hold my thoughts from our last session and couldn’t stop myself writing this, “Pain is inevitable while suffering is optional”. What a profound statement!

To understand this, let me give you a very simple example from our regular life. Say, you’re running and suddenly you hit something on your way and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘HURT’ part is an unavoidable reality here, but the optional part is the ‘feeling’ of suffering. What we choose to feel from inside is in our control - whether we feel miserable & keep blaming (god, karma or the Nimit) or we accept it gracefully & move on!

The best example we could take to understand is from the story of Lord Mahavir (also known as Vardhamāna, the 24^th Tirthankara of Jainism)

While he was meditating in a forest, a cow herder came there with his cows. He wanted someone to look after the cows so he can go somewhere to finish something else he wanted to do. The cow herder asked Lord Mahavir to look after his cows for a few hours. Lord Mahavir was in deep meditation and did not reply to the cow herder. However, the cow herder went away thinking that Lord Mahavir had heard him.

In a few hours, the cow herder returned and found that his cows were missing. He asked Lord Mahavir, "Where are my cows? What did you do with them?" Lord Mahavir was still in meditation and did not reply. The cow herder got very angry at Lord Mahavir and he picked long nail like thorns and pierced the ears of Lord Mahavir deeply by hammering the thorns in. Even such excruciating agony did not move Mahavir from his meditation. Even bhagwan Mahavir calmly meditating while the pegs were removed. He was so deep into his meditation that he just let the pain go which was inevitable, this helped him to separate himself from a body and concentrate on the liberation of his immortal soul.

Pain could be in any form physical, mental etc.. The “Karma Theory” in Jainism tells that Pain is always inevitable and is not optional, one has to go through it. The thing one can control is the suffering! We should use our mind and the power of our soul with full of positivity such that we could let the pain go and control suffering for any situation!

Love,

LisAnk-Aarav

The joy of today, Hopes of tomorrow, memories of yesterday, Happy Anniversary 💕

I was standing in the greeting card section of the grocery store a couple of days ago, I just couldn't find a card that could adequately express the love that I feel for you Lisa. After a 7 years of marriage, I just can't believe how happy I am!

From last couple days I have been thinking that how often I express my appreciation to you for all such things that you have been doing for me. Today, I could not stop writing myself. “Thank You” for your all support and being with me during my bad and good time. I would like to express thanks for all your support and care that you have been doing for myself and family from last 7 years!

1st March, 2011 was the day when the new chapter of our life started, since then we have been writing lines by lines and paragraphs by paragraphs. Each page of these chapter has memorable moments and it gives us happiness whenever I go back and open any page of this chapter and read any paragraph. Each and every paragraph has one or more reasons to make us happyJ I would like thank for writing such a wonderful memory on one of the best chapter in my life, I wish we keep filling up the contents for coming years and years!

Last year we had few challenging situation in front of us that we together took care of very well and we learnt many inspiration things !! Major one was your surgery and your recovery, I was really tensed before your surgery but I must admit that you have very strong willpower and I should learn to improve mine! As someone says, a good time is always waiting for us, we just need to pass some hurdle to get there. Thank you for helping us pass those hurdles and get all of us there to have a fantastic life!

It's been an incredible ride and looking forward to what the next many many years have in store for us. Thanks to all family and friends for supporting and celebrating with us all these years.

Love,

💕 LisAnk-Aarav

Love you to the moon and back, Happy 4th Birthday, Aarav !!

Four!!!! Four years old! Where in the world has the past four years gone? It just seems like yesterday. I find myself wondering where the time has gone. It must have been just yesterday that I first gazed into those newborn eyes and held his warm little body close to my heart for the first time. We are feeling like we are in some sort of speed time zone where the years actually melt away every time you blink !! Lots of memories this last year, games we play together, song we sing together dance we do together, fighting we do together (pretty much every night) before we go bed, Your million dollar HUG when I came back from office, you won't let me enter into home and run and jump on me and welcome me with HUG. 

We can’t believe that you are 4-year-old now, honestly, don’t know where the time has gone. These years came and went too quickly! You have brought us a pure joy since that very first moment. Watching you grow, absorbing things around you, learning new things every day every moment,  You are no longer a baby, but a boy who is an impressive, passionate and loving person who God created and chose to be part of our family.  You are outgoing with mom-dad and also with friends J. You are confident, brave, strong, passionate, loving and funny too. You made us laugh many times with your sweet KATHIYAVADI Gujarati language. You have a great sense of memory. I have been watching you how you co-relate things from your memories no matter how old you saw and sensed in past. Many times you proved us wrong on something that we did not remember but you do. You are exactly who God wanted you to be, and I am so grateful that I get to watch you grow each and every day.

You LOVE your school MLC. Well, actually it took couple months. Initially, you didn’t want to go school but after couple months you started asking us why can’t I go to school on weekend J It makes us so happy that you love going to school and that you have a love for learning. You LOVED your teacher, all of your MLC school staff. You LOVE all your friends. Thank you, MLC staff for letting us visit a school and celebrate Aarav’s birthday with his classmates. It was really nice watching you do circle time with 4 (because of you turned 4 today) round of circle. We had a nice celebration with delicious cake. We had cake with your favorite Hot Wheels theme. Thank you once again to MLC (Montesorry Learning Center) staff and teachers. This will be an unforgettable memory in our life. We left you to school after a birthday celebration. We knew you were going to have blast today. In the noon we came to pick you up from School and teacher informed us that you had a nice day. Aarav, remember you had your first reading book from school today.

Your favorite toys are still cars and trains. Disney Cars, Hot Wheels, police cars, Matchbox Cars, PJ Mask Car, Thomas the Train, and any other random car or train you LOVE. I’ve always thought you would start liking something else, but you haven’t. You love to watch how the wheels turn, how mechanic repairs the car and how the trains connect. You get down eye level to watch how the wheels stay on the tracks or how the cars shoot through your Hot Wheels track. You always try to get me to buy you a car. We did not know that you have around 110+ toy car at home until we started collecting it for your 4^th birthday photography with cars. Interestingly you know and remember each of your cars.

I can do nothing to stop the time from passing, but I know that I can cherish every moment you are learning, growing, loving, caring, playing, exploring, and smiling. Every day we count our blessings and we are so blessed to have you in our lives. You truly are amazing and have shown us what it means to love unconditionally. Keep being awesome and bringing joy to everyone who is lucky enough to know you. Please keep filling our book of life with lots and lots of memories and happiness as you have been doing so all these 4 years.  Best wishes on your birthday. Keep smiling and be the reason for someone’s smile too!! Remember "A Smile you sent will always return"

Love ❤

LisAnk-Aarav 💕

હું વસ્તુ સૌથી મોંઘેરી ને જાજરમાન વહેંચું છું, ઓલ્યા ઇમાન વેચે છે ને હું મુસ્કાન વહેંચું છું.” - શાહબુદ્દીન રાઠોડ

Dear Readers, 

25th December 2017 was and will be the greatest day I can never forget in my life. I was fortunate enough to have spent some moments with very well known and highly reputed Gujarati Humorist, philosopher and performing comedian artist, Shree Sahabudding Rathod !!

@Aashiyana, Thangadh with Sree Sahabuddin Bhai

"શાહબુદ્દીન રાઠોડ" આઠ અક્ષરનું આ નામ સાંભળતા જ સૌના ચહેરા ઉપર હાસ્ય ફરી વળે કારણ સમગ્ર વિશ્વમાં ભાગ્યે જ કોઈ ગુજરાતી એવો હશે જે શાહબુદ્દીન રાઠોડ અને ‘વનેચંદના વરઘોડા’ થી અજાણ હશે. 

Shree Shahabuddin Rathod was born on 9 December 1937 at Thangadh (now in Surendranagar district, Gujarat, India). He was born and raised in a Gujarati. He was a teacher from 1958 to 1971 and a school principal from 1971 to 1996 at Municipal School of Thangadh, Gujarat.

જીત પર હસતો રહ્યો ને હાર પર હસતો રહ્યો... ફુલોની શૈયા ગણી અંગાર પર હસતો રહ્યો... એ મુસીબત એટલી જીંદાદીલી ને દાદ દે... તે ધરી તલવાર તો હું ધાર પર હસતો રહ્યો..... 

I have been listening to his recordings, videos of his programs at various places and read books written by him, I have learned and continue learning lots of inspiring things from his humor and philosophy on various topics of life with his simple and easily digestible examples. I always wanted to meet him since 2008 (time since I started following and listening to his speeches, programs, CDs, online videos, his books), We (few like-minded) tried meeting him in the year of 2009 and approached her to personally thank him but at that time Sahabudding Bhai was out of country and we could not meet him. Since then I had a wish to meet him one day! 25th Dec, 2017 was the day!

How I got an opportunity to meet him? My mother in law was a student of Mr. Sahabuddin bhai and was studying at Thangadh municipal school during the 70s, In our last India trip they found out that I am a big fan of Sahabuddin Bhai and have a wish to meet him. They immediately approached few people in Thangadh and helped us meet Sahabudding bhai. We found out that he is available to meet on 25th Dec, They told us to come around 4:00pm at his house as he wanted to leave to Rajkot to attend some social event. This was a dream come true, so I was so excited for this meeting. We all reached at "Aashiyana" @ sharp 4:00pm. He requested us to come to upstairs, we went there, he then requested us to take a sit. We introduced our self, he was happy to know we especially come there to thank him, and he said "હું વસ્તુ સૌથી મોંઘેરી ને જાજરમાન વહેંચું છું, ઓલ્યા ઇમાન વેચે છે ને હું મુસ્કાન વહેંચું છું"  I firstly thanked him for giving such a nice Gujarati literature and positive philosophy on many important topics of life with nice humor. He is very down to earth person discussed few important things on human life with a simple philosophy.

There are thousands of important points from his great literature but here are few important that inspires us a lot to think for self-realization:

• Troubles start only when people start comparing themselves to others!
• Irregular life is ugly life, we should live life with certainness!
• Humor is the shortest distance from human to God!
• You should write something which is worth reading or you should live your life which is worth writing about
• ગંભીરતા વગર નું હાસ્ય અને હાસ્ય વગર ની ગંભીરતા, બન્ને વ્યર્થ છે. (Laughter without seriousness and Seriousness without Laughter, is Waste)
• હું નથી જાણતો એટલું બોલવા પેહલા તો ઘણું જાણવું પડે
• Simplicity, More spoken, very less Implemented
• 
  

We tried to fetch some interesting treasure from his knowledge bank. Many people know him as a Gujarati humorist but his personalities has few other corners too. He himself is a good reader and a painting is his another hobby. He showed us some of the painting drawn by him, How beautiful it was. We also came to know that he visited 25 countries to spread Gujarati literature with his Gujarati humor. He pretty much visited all the country where Gujarati people live. Afterall, જ્યાં જ્યાં વસે એક ગુજરાતી; ત્યાં ત્યાં સદાકાળ ગુજરાત !!

Very few people would have an idea that Gujarati movie named "Shahabuddin Rathod no Hasya Varghodo" was released on 10th Dec 2010 was written by him. He has also played a small role in the movie. This is also a fact that approx 70 percent of the shooting is done in Thangadh, Devsar, Rupavadi etc.. nearby villages.

We requested his autograph for my memory and he gave us his photograph with an autograph and also gave me a priceless gift, a book written by him "Ame Mahefil Jamavi Che" !! We took a nice family picture with him.

@Aashiyana, Thangadh, Gujarat

શાહબુદ્દીન રાઠોડ વિશે એટલું જ કહેવુ છે કે ગુજરાતી ભાષા માં કોઇ હાસ્યકાર નથી થયુ જેમની હ્યુમર આટલી ઉંચી હોય. એમને મળવાનું જે સૌભાગ્ય મને પ્રાપ્ત થયુ છે તે માટે હું પોતાને ખુબ જ ખુશ નસીબ ગણું છું !

💕 LisAnk-Aarav,
Inspiration With Ankit