Home - a personal mandala

Flowers are natural mandalas. Speaking of which, our homes can be our personal mandalas too. Read the following excerpt from Juliet Pegrum's book The Vaastu Home.

(even if you don't keep vastu shastra in mind while while doing up your home or office space.)

"Accordinly, if we design our homes in line with Vastu principles, they become our personal mandalas, in tune with both our true selves and the world that surrounds us. Whenever we enter our homes, we become aware of our intrinsic place within the universe, a sense of connection with all things that bring happiness and fulfilment to our lives"

It would be amazing if one arranged their home with the above philosophy in mind, even if only guided by intuition, everything would be so sacred, every corner so loved!

Love & light!

Towards becoming people of "presence".

Last evening I was at my girl-friend Harsheet's place, and I borrowed from her book-shelf, Dr.Judith Orloff's Guide to INTUITIVE HEALING. I took it along with another book simply thinking it will be good to go through not realizing what powerful statements the doctor makes.

I wanted to share this paragraph for today,

"It's important to grasp that intuitive healing begins with the individual but is not simply personal. we become catalysts for something beyond the self. as we turn to love more and more, we generate energy others can feel. I am talking about "presence," being able to radiate love without saying a word. just standing next to a person with this quality brings enormous comfort. Our goal is to become people of presence. The love each of us generates radiates into the world, expanding ripples on the pond, not limited by time and space. Love has a voice. It has compassionate arms that reach out from you to your family, your community, the globe."

I will leave the message to sink in with no further discussion. For me it confirms so many things I read, felt and knew were true.

Love & light :)

Peace

Landscaping my balcony

I don't know if I have a green thumb, as they say but I love having plants around me. Blessed is a home that is full of vibrant plants. My yoga teacher's balcony is so organic, it is like a miniature jungle, and I was not surprised when a pair of purple-rumped sunbirds made a hanging nest among her creepers. Each class we could see and hear the chirpy little ones until one day the egg hatched and the baby flew away. Such positive energy!

May more and more people in cities fill out their windows, balconies, terraces and building compounds with helpful plants and trees!

wooden bird chime


ficus in a ceramic pot

happy little corner with pudina/mint in a polka-dot ceramic pot, money-plant which I intend to grow like a screen, small jade with a little Buddha scuplture which is not visible here and a hanging plant with three diffrently coloured flowering plants. It will be fun to see them grow :)

Love & light!

From my library- Rumi's Daughter

image taken from sufibookstore

Lately i've been getting this urge to read voraciously. I have been looking around in bookstores for material to read read, if you know what I mean, to be transported to another time and space, to live in a world populated with ideas and people that make you feel as if you changed after turning the page. And so I quickly finished reading (need to slow down sometimes!) the first book that came my way, Rumi's Daughter by Muriel Maufroy.

Kimya, as she was called really did exist, she was adopted by Rumi and married Shams, his spiritual friend. The story is set in Anatolia at the time when the Byzantine Empire was at its decline and the threat of Mongol invasion loomed. Here is a link to an extract fromt the book

http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/catalog/extract.htm?command=search&db=main.txt&eqisbndata=1844135837

Why did I read it? The reasons are the same for me to recommend it. I feel a call to such places that remind me of fountains, turquoise, poetry and tea, to be in the world of Jalalud'din Rumi and whirling dervishes for a while. Rumi was a mystical poet, born in 1207 on the Eastern shores of the Persian Empire. Altough the book itself does not carry his verses an interest in Sufi philosophy is enough to draw one to read about the girl-woman Kimya's burning journey towards the Infinite.

Love & light!

getting started

Finally! I joined my hands and thanked the universe when the technician left. I could not believe that I could now surf the net, blog and check my mails once more....ever since I moved I have been living without the internet, at first I barely missed it but soon, I started feeling deprived at not being able to blog, post pictures on flickr, simple things like that. Contrary to what some may say, I don't think having a cyber life is addictive or leads to poor social skills, true, there are some who overdo it, to me it is just another mode of communication suited to this age and I know that sharing in this way through my blog leaves me with a feeling of 'expansion' :)

love & light

Blessed

view of the hills from home and the sea of concrete which I have come to see simply as homes of many many

families....every morning is beautiful with the sky, clouds and hills, there is a watefall too in the distance!

Dear friends apologies for a long blog absence, I hope these last two months have been good for everyone. Life in Bombay is as they say has been, "same same but different" (ha..ha)....in my earlier posts I had mentioned that I recently moved to a part of the suburbs that was until now unfamiliar to me. I will simply say I feel blessed living near Filmcity in Goregaon east, I enjoy the morning sunlight and view of the hills. We now stay near Aarey Milk Colony, that lush green expanse. It is tranquil there and I love to go there for early morning walks and my greatest delight is to be able do some bird-watching on my own :)

Soon I will be sharing more of my explorations, of the feathery kind and of the arty kind too. For instance I've been meaning to share the poetry of a dear artist and friend Sarita Chauhan. It will be my pleasure to share her writing on my next post.

Till then love & light! (literally Diwali is just round the corner!)