RAW for Week of April 14, 2022
1.Maintain a simple altar in the same room that you sleep in. Observe your general mood throughout the week and record your observations. 
This was a hard RAW for me. i have a photo of Ganesha in my bedroom but to set up an Altar, gave me mixed feelings. But since i have given up so many rituals, this one became comfortable after a few days. I thought of this as having to stay in a hotel room with my parents. So the feeling was:

• Be disciplined in all ways, go to bed early and wake up early to serve them.

2. Contemplate on the following questions: Does God Exist? Who or what is God? Can God be known?

• God does exist as i go to Him(no one else can solve some of these problems!) for solutions to problems – He looks after me and at me.
• I feel this Great Power that is always protecting me and guiding me in the right direction- i have given the reins of my life to Him to take me on my life’s journey.
• When nice things happen around me, people see me for what i am, then that i feel is Him – i know He exists through these events.

1. Listen actively. Allow others to speak freely.

• Followed this with Mother first and then to some at work place(been doing this for quite some time) and sure enough, the improvement is they understand me more and appreciate me.
• made me see deep inside them.

2. Go to a local park and pick up litter for an hour. Go by yourself and be with yourself. No technology.

• i was indeed surprised to see no to very less trash in 3 parks near our place. I managed to find peanut shells on the path way although that is bio-degradable. Had never done this by myself so wondered what the passers by would think but put myself in the shoes of a dasi of Bhagavan and collected a few other trash. This RAW really humbled me.

RAW for Week of January 13, 2022-1. Count how many people you talk to face to face. Observe how you interact with different people. 2. Pick a good joke and tell the same joke to a new person each day.

• Every day on an average i was talking to about 5 people. Mostly work related and sometimes asking them about their family.
• This telling the same joke to a different person everyday made me tired inside and feel artificial – so was this RAW to remind me that if i lived the same way as earlier, i would not be evolving? i should feel tired of acting in this world so i can make time for BEING.

RAW for Week of December 30 to January 5, 2021-Pick a food or drink that you consume too often or excessively, and fast from it without exception.

• my snack after work was a small cup of bhujia, which i got hooked onto and it almost became a habit. When this raw came up, was wondering(cringing inside) what to refrain from and my son Anish suggested bhujia. i thought twice about this as i can usually keep away from As and Bs for a RAW but this time wanted to fast from it from then on.
• And thanks to this raw, i have never had the feeling that i needed to go back to it.

RAW for Week of December 16 to 22, 2021-Go for a 30-minute walk or run by yourself, without use of any electronic devices during this time

• Definitely enjoyed the cool walks and natural sounds – although the sounds of big machines ploughing through Mother earth to make homes made me sad.
• Thoughts were going in all different directions, but was able to bring them back to asking the ‘why’ questions.
• Found that the reasons and answers are in me and not outside and i need more reflections to get clarity and be established in these answers.
• Then again, am so thankful for all this guidance.

RAW for Week of November 11, 2021-Sit down and practice keeping your body still for 5 minutes. 
i observed that keeping the body still was hard several months ago, especially during the silent retreats even though it was usually for only 20 to 25 minutes. But the practice there helped make this RAW easy. i feel that if the body is still, then it is easy to observe the mind and chant to quietude.
My daily prayer rituals used to take 40 minutes, but now i spend 5 minutes to clean up place and do rangoli and then instead of rituals, i close my eyes and go thru the sequence in quietude. The noise around me do not bother me. my next step is to remain quiet for 20 to 25 minutes of contemplation.

RAW for Week of October 21, 2021-Write down one act of service that you performed and why you did that particular act.
Did not want to think of the service i do for others and only remember that done to me. But this being the raw:
My very close friend, diagnosed with cancer had her surgery last Thursday. Came back home on Saturday. She has a 12 year old and they all love south Indian food. So cooked for them and also made pakoras as the weather was cold and rainy.

RAW for Week of October 7, 2021
Refrain from speaking any negative words.

Hari Aum to everyone. I had shared the reflections for this RAW during class but was encouraged to post it here. My observations from applying this RAW can be summarized as follows –

1. Negative words came from negative thoughts when the situation was not according to my expectation. Catching myself to respond rather than react – i realized that adding more negativity to a negative situation isn’t going to help anyone. i am not the doer or deserver of this situation so simply accept, adapt and move on..
2. When engaged in inspiring and meaningful work, there is no room for negativity because there is a lot of natural absorption in positivity. Most of the past 5 weeks I spent in crowdfunding campaign for Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth 🙂
3. The negativity arises as a habitual response due to past conditioning. One can only give what one has in them. When one snaps out of the past conditioning and comes into the present moment – one realizes that there is no negativity in the present moment. The present moment just is.

Aum Shanti