Over the past month or so I have been struggling. I am a very critical person and tend to criticise every thing, animate and inanimate :-D ...including myself. Sometimes it's very difficult for me to live with myself. So I decided to stop thinking so much and not be critical of things and that has definitely made me a happier person. But it is difficult to do....to not think, for me.

Out of the blue, yesterday, I went to a talk by Sadguru Vasudev who happened to be visiting Seattle. I've been to many talks and have heard many sadhu's and saints speak and when I sat down in the hall after a long day in the lab, I was not in a very receptive mood.

Still Sadguru Vasudev was the best I've heard so far in the sense of how he applies yoga practically to the problems of todays world. He talks of uncluttering the mind (which all the great sadhu's tell us to do) ...but somehow he says it in a way that seems more achievable to me. And I slowly began to listen to him.

I have always believed that a persons joy should be independent of all external circumstances. A persons happiness should not depend on their spouse, children or other relatives, neither should it depend on ones job profile, salary or vacation time. While a good personal life and a good work life can bring immense joy, we should not be dependent on these things entirely.

He gave an example yesterday where he asked us to remember how many time we had been genuinely happy in the last 24 hours. GOOD QUESTION! Then he said that when we were little children, we were probably always happy and that somebody had to actually do something to us to make us sad. Joy, was a natural state of being. Then by progression, it means that by the time we are 30, we should have been exploding with happiness......but this didn't happen. Why were the equations reversed? Where did our mind change?

We can be happy whenever we want, wherever we want. This isn't other peoples decision...it should be yours. Choose to be happy inspite of the chaos. Just thought I'd share the thought. He has many videos on youtube also, so check them out and see if you feel the same.

I'm planning on taking his "Inner Engineering" course in April, if I can sort out my commuting issues....otherwise I'll have to petition them to hold a workshop near my area.

Getting to the center isn't a problem but coming back home is, since not many buses run directly to my place(University District) from where it's going to be held (i.e. in Factoria) that late at night.

So people in Seattle/Bellevue/Redmond/Renton area, if you are going or if you know somebody who's going, please let me know. I would very much appreciate a lift just to the nearest transit center and I only need it while going back home.