Concert at the Yoga Farm: Jai Uttal

Yesterday evening at the Yoga Farm, instead of the usual discourse following the evening mediation and chanting, there was a concert by Jai Uttal, a Grammy nominated kirtan musician. He was accompanied by Joss Jaffe on the percussions and Dr. Dennis Chernin. The event must have been well advertised as it was very well attended. The Yoga Farm was packed and there were many familiar faces that I have met over the years -- ex-staff, ex-students, etc. I've only seen the Yoga Farm this packed on events such as Thanksgiving.

Jai Uttal's singing filled the room with a lively energy. The format of the songs was call and response. Between songs, he'd tell us stories from Hindu mythology such as the story of Hanuman. At one point, he was in the middle of a story at a really interesting part of the plot and he asked "Should I finish the story or should I sing?" The crowd was unanimous -- "Sing!", they chorused. On the way out, I bought one of his CDs, but I found that it is really not possible to capture the energy of the moment in a recording.

Concert at the Yoga Farm: Latif Bolat

Yesterday evening at the Yoga Farm, instead of the usual discourse following the evening mediation and chanting, there was a concert by Latif Bolat, a Turkish mystic musician. His instrument was the lute, but when he saw the piano at the Yoga Farm, he chose to play one piece on the Piano; he mentioned that prior to becoming a mystic musician, he was an opera singer.

The music was wonderful. And throughout the performance he provided educational tidbits on what the lyrics meant, and the origins of sufism and the music. One of the interesting things that he mentioned was regarding quarreling with God, while he was discussing his book by the same name. He said that one can quarrel with God only if there is true love; if there is fear, quarreling is suppressed.

Concert at the Yoga Farm: Collective Awakening

Yesterday evening at the Yoga Farm, instead of the usual discourse following the evening mediation and chanting, there was a concert by Collective Awakening, a duo of Martin Klabunde and Wing Man Law. They used several interesting instruments -- an adungu, an agokos, and a djembe, a didgeridoo, and tibetan meditation bowls.

Two of the pieces I found interesting were Nomad (part of the album Portal Opening) and Amore (which was done as just an instrumental as in the reprise version in the album From the Heart).

A story about ego

Back in 2006, I chanced upon a group called Charity Focus. I don't recall exactly how I found it. One of the things they offer is Wednesday evening meditation sessions in the South Bay that are open to all. I had met one of the founders, Nipun Mehta, there and he was one of the several people that nudged me very strongly to take my first 10-day vipassana meditation course. But I digress.

I attended a few of these Wednesday sessions. On August 23rd 2006 they had a special guest, Subba Rao. The following story was told to us that Wednesday by him. I wish there was a transcript of the story as he told it, but since there isn't I'm going to tell it in my own words and hope I can convey the message as intended. Subba Rao himself is a very interesting person, and I would urge you to read this interview.

The story is about man who meditates for many years, even decades, without an ulterior motive. However, on seeing the diligence of his practice, God makes an appearance and asks him to request a boon. He can ask for anything he wants and it shall be granted. The man refuses saying he is meditating just for the sake of meditation itself. To which God says, "In that case, I will grant you a boon anyway. I will grant you the power to heal the sick and the power to eradicate poverty. If you see a sick person and will it, the person will become healthy at once. If you see a person stricken by poverty and will it, the person will become wealthy beyond imagination."

Thus saying, God was about to leave, when the man responds, "Now that you have granted me this power, I must ask for something else." God begins to wonder what it might be that the man has suddenly decided he needs, but nevertheless obliges. So the man continues, "If I should ever exercise this power that you have bestowed upon me, please do not let the thought enter my mind that it is me that is making it happen."

American Veda

A couple of weekends ago, on my regular Saturday visit at the Yoga Farm, following the evening meditation and chants, instead of the usual discourse, there was a talk by a guest speaker. The speaker was Philip Goldberg and he talked about his book, American Veda.

The book is about how Vedic philosophy has influenced life in America and talks about many of the early spiritual teachers and yoga masters that were responsible for bringing the teachings of the Vedas to the west.

As a part of his talk, he played the following video to show how Vedic philosophy has made its inroads into mainstream spiritual life in America.

Namaste!

Cars that drive themselves

A few months ago, the Stanford Center for Professional Development sent out an email about a webinar on Design Thinking and the Car of the Future. The webinar by itself is interesting because it discusses innovation in what is considered to be a fairly mature field, but what I found really fascinating was the video of the car that was the result of their work.

This first video shows a self-driven car creating Audi's 4-ring logo in the sand.

The second one is a follow on and shows the climb to Pikes Peak.

We've all heard of cars that can parallel-park themselves, but the reason I found this fascinating was that it brings complete automation to high-performance driving. It makes it clear that the day is not too far when we'll be able to get in a car, program a destination, and have the car drive us there. And in sporty fashion if we so desire.

This could have interesting implications for the world of auto racing. Perhaps in the future, cars will race in competition using computer algorithms instead of drivers.

Update 02/21/13 - Commerically viable autonomous cars?

Just received a related piece of information from IEEE Spectrum -- UK unveils 'affordable' self-driving RobotCar.  Researchers in the UK are attempting to build a self-driving car that will add just $150 to the cost of the base car.

Update 07/10/13 - Smart cars getting hacked

Car with more smarts bring with them another problem -- that of being hacked.  This poses problems in two areas -- break-ins and taking over of the driving controls.  You can read more about these risks in these articles:

• See how car thieves are getting in (CNN video)
• Can your car be hacked? (Car & Driver)

Update 5/28/14 - Google's self-driving car

Google blog recently posted the following article -- Just press go: designing a self-driving vehicle.

Related articles

• CMU's autonomous car

Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm

For the last 5-1/2 years, I have spent almost every Saturday evening at the Yoga Farm in Grass Valley, CA which is a Sivananda ashram. There is so much to write about this place that I don't know where to start or how to structure it, but I figure I'll begin with discussing how I found out about it and what drew me there.

In subsequent posts, I'll write more about some of the things that I have learned there including the diet, asana practice, programs and guest performances that I have experienced over my many visits.

First visit

I first read about the Yoga Farm in the January 2005 issue of Sacramento Magazine. I didn't actually visit until many months later in the Summer.

When I inquired about the lineage, I was told that the ashram was founded by Swami Vishnudevanda, a disciple of Swami Sivananda. I hadn't heard of either of them. I now know that Swami Sivananda was a prominent spiritual master who had many famous disciples including Swami Satchitananda who founded the Integral Yoga Institute and Swami Chinmayananda who founded the Chinmaya Mission.

I got a brief tour of the place. I remember the nice aroma of the food from the kitchen as I passed it. I walked along a few of the trails and had a brief chat with one of the visitors that I happened to run into. I remember talking about the stomach problems I was having back then -- acidity, bloating, etc. -- and he told me he had had stomach problems in a previous life as well, but he was now over them because he had learned to just take life as it came.

I thought the place was very peaceful but I wasn't sure what to make of it. I left thinking I might be back some day. But I soon forgot all about it.

Second visit

In May 2006, as I resigned at my job in preparation for a new one, I went through a lot of stress. (I don't deal well with change, and it felt like life had just been tossing me around.) At that time, I don't know how, but I just thought of this place and aroma of the food from the kitchen. I called them and asked if it was OK if I just stopped by for dinner and nothing else. They said that would be fine. So I went there for dinner. The food was all vegetarian (I was vegetarian even back then) and tasted really great. Their Teacher's Training Course (TTC) was in progress and the place was bustling with activity. I chatted with some of the students there and then left. The next morning, I found that the food had an amazing effect on my digestion. My stomach had never felt as good before. And so I went back the next day.

The next day I decided to stay for satsang. Satsang began with a short meditation (about 20 min) followed by devotional chants to music followed by a discourse. I left after Satsang which was around 10 pm. Despite that being a stressful time for me, I slept better than I had slept in months. The chants reminded me of some of the chants I had learned during childhood, but there were several that I didn't know.

And so I returned for the food and satsang day after day for the next 2 weeks.

Saturdays

I then had to start my new job which was in the Bay Area. I wanted to keep coming back to the Yoga Farm to learn more about the Hindu philosophy, the mantras, and of course to enjoy the food which had allowed me to experience what normal digestion was supposed to feel like. As a result, I decided to maintain a weekly commute to the Bay Area and keep my "home" in Rocklin so that I could keep visiting the ashram. I decided that I would visit the ashram at least once a week (every Saturday), and if the effect wears off, then I'd relocate to the Bay Area. 5-1/2 years of visiting almost every Saturday and the effect hasn't yet worn off. I still enjoy the food, enjoy the discussions that I have with visitors and staff there, and enjoy the meditation and satsang. It helps me maintain a balance in my life between materialism and spirituality. It has taught me that there is more to life than the rat race of material existence.

Other days

I sometimes visit on other days as well. Since the schedule is more or less the same 365 days of the year and since they are open to visitors every single day, it takes little planning to visit. Many a day I have spontaneously decided to go up there to spend the evening. I usually get there by meal time, which is at 6 pm and then attend the evening program leaving at 10 pm.

They also have programs around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve and that is where I usually go to spend my evenings on those days.

It has truly been a blessing for me to find this community of like-minded people in a spiritually uplifting environment. I have met some wonderful people there and enjoyed many interesting conversations on topics such as food, holistic health, and the meaning of life.

Update 03/30/18

I stopped visiting the Yoga Farm around May 2016.  I developed body pain that made the drive up there quite painful.  I also started to feel that if the teaching were really good, then why was I falling into suffering?  At that point, I felt somewhat lost because I thought I had found a path to follow and now I felt rudderless.  Since that I have decided to just simplify my practice to simply watching the breath and then try to follow my own intuition so that the universe may guide me.

Other ashrams

• Yogi Hari's ashram in Miramar, FL