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rangOli neigbours

Two neighbouring houses
with a common courtyard
and a mango tree in between

Two friendly neighbours
and two neighbouring rangOlis
decorating their housefronts

The cuckoo on the tree observed
how dissimilar they were!

One rangOli was traditional
with dots and lines in white
and with border reliefs in red

The other was more modern
filled with all sorts of colours
and no dots or lines could be seen

Under a canopy of clouds
and the sounds of wind
the cuckoo began to hear voices --
the voices of the rangOlis!

I am more beautiful than you are --
more colourful, more attractive,
more poetic and more vivacious
You,
you just look plain and simple
dull and prosaic

You may be right
but beauty is in the beholder's eye
beauty is in the creator's mind
beauty is in that divine heart

Suddenly
the winds began to whip up
and the clouds became darker
and the sky began to light up

EXAMPLES GIVEN BY SWAMI TO EXPLAIN THE DIFFICULT POINTS WHICH ARE VERY USEFUL TO ALL OF US:

PEACE-

Those lovely fingers!

You are really beautiful
there is no doubt about it
If I were a classical poet
I would have compared your face
to the lotus or the moonbeams and what not
But in the modern age
that may sound ridiculous

About one thing I am sure though
Love, beauty and everything good
flows through those gentle fingers
They are impressively expressive

When you slide your fingers
on the frets of the vINA strings
and produce those waves of melody

or when you glide your fingers
on the floor with the rangOli powder
to produce those tender artistic patterns

or when you feed our young one
coaxing to eat little morsels of food
showing the moon in the sky

or when you gently run your fingers
through my hair at the end of the day
offering a prelude to unknown joys

it is those fingers,
those lovely fingers
those love-filled fingers
that I think of

J K Mohana Rao

Nice, modern, easy way of putting kolam in front of the house in few seconds, but nowadays youngsters have time only to adjust their cellphone in the ears rather than drawing a few lines in front of their houses.
Even though I welcome these stencil kolams it reminds me of MTR readymade food pockets... what do you say?

Don't you think the Earth is a beautiful rangOli?
with white snows and green forests
with blue seas and orange sunsets
with yellow lamps and indigo nights
and with flowers of all hues thrown around?
Its dots are the islands
and its lines are the rivers and mountains
Who drew this kaleidoscopic masterpiece?
Nature - God - just happened?
We know not!

But
what rich rangOlis are we going to bequeath
to our children and grand-children
and generations of their children and grand-children?
Rivers of filth and oceans of poison?
Nonexistent glaciers and dead coral reefs?
Vanished species and unending stretches of hot deserts?
Holes in the sky and drowned islands?

The dead are buried in the earth
If the Earth dies, where do we bury?
Is our life-giving Earth destined to become
one more lifeless wanderer in the vast universe?

vandE mAtaram!

J K Mohana Rao

Om sri sai ram
We start the class chanting "Omkaaram" for three times. Then guruvandanam "om sri sai ram" for 21 times. We ask the children to sit straight closing the eyes and keeping the hands in the posture of chinmudra [joing the thumb and the index finger while the remaining fingers straight].

We generally divide the teaching time in 3 or 4 parts as per the time available.

The 1st part will be the time for slokam. We teach the slokams with clear pronunciation. We make the children to repeat or chant the slokam as clearly as possible since they are very young. We explain the meaning about which god we are chanting the particular slokam. We further teach as to the special significance of any festival any related special day. If any special occasion coincides, like national holidays etc, we inform them the importance of such occasion with relevant slokam,

Yesterday, very carefully she created me
She was elated, yet quite focussed
Her trained fingers drew lines
and danced around dots
and she waved her fingers
to create waves at the edges
She decorated me as she decorates herself
simply, yet beautifully
She filled me with colour
she filled me with charm
and finally she filled me with life
She was very pleased and so was her God
But today
sadly, yet purposefully
she clears me with her own hands
and I become a heap of dust
No trace of the magnificent symmetry
Alas, I am a one day wonder
Yes, already, she has started
to create another one-day wonder

J K Mohana Rao

By the grace and blessings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba I have been conducting "SRI SATHYA SAI BALA VIKAS CLASS" on every Saturday between 5pm to 6pm for the age groups of 5-9 years.

In these classes, as per the guidelines kindly offered by Swami I teach them slokas, bhajans, and stress the importance of spiritual activities like meditation, health, hygiene and so on. In these classes I am expected to bring out the DIVINE QUALITIES in the students. Stress on the importance and the usefulness of the five elements and the five sense organs is also taught in these classes. They will also learn the DISCIPLINE, DUTY TOWARDS PARENTS, DEDICATION TO WORK AND HELPING OTHERS IN NEED.
Every year before the last session of this class I give some useful holiday homework to the children by concentrating on art, music and so on.

We are in the middle of our spring break. I would resume publishing rangolis from Sunday onwards. Thank you.

Regards,
-Lata

Hope all of you had a nice weekend. I can see that some of you are ahead in celebrating Tamil new year and Vishu! Here is an update on the Chandramukhi drum rangolis:

To begin with, I had placeholder files, files with a plain drum against a background, ready with the author's names in place, for people who had submitted their designs earlier. But, now, I see that there are more designs that are being submitted on an ongoing basis!