To the best teachers I knew!

September 5 has come and gone again and for me it's a day to remember and thank the best teachers I have known in my life. This year, I am doing something different - I am going to write a post here about the 5 most special teachers I have known! So, let's start :-)

Swami Sahajananda :
Hmmm - a Swamiji at the beginning of the list? You might think I'm one weird bird! But then, if you really know me well enough, you'll know that I am quite spiritual - and this one person changed the whole course of my life. I spent the first 8 years of my life with Swamiji. He didn't teach me much except for a few basics. But I learnt a lot from him just the same - sort of like etheric osmosis! What I saw of him, felt being in his presence and heard him say convinced me enough that this was a good man with a character more worthy than all the treasures in the world. And I was more than determined to be as strong as him within and as good as him without as a little child. Today, he is with us no more - and I have never missed a person more as I have missed him till now.

Ms. Teresa Nalini Dominique :
Fellow Oxfordians will remember this clear headed lady and agree with my reasons for putting her on this list. She inspired a love for English in me and I still remember the way she taught about Darwin's theory of evolution to us 8th Std students. (That's saying a lot - because I tend to be forgetful at times :-)!). She was always just, taught us to think quite creatively and out of the box - and never had a favourite in class. And she let us play amazing games as well!

Grand Master Choa Kok Sui :
To this great soul, I will be ever grateful. Quite a few scoff at Pranic Healing - but the opinions of a thousand men who know nothing about a subject is worthless when compared to the opinion of one man who does. Pranic healing is to be experienced to be believed - and like many other PHers, I underwent a miraculous transformation at one of the lowest points of my life after just undergoing my Basic course. After that life went from worse to okay to good to better (you get the idea!). But nothing affected me so profoundly as watching GMCKS give a live lecture to a packed audience at St. John's in 2000. A part of me that I had thought I lost when Swamiji passed away came back to life listening to Master speak. From then to now, I have continued to learn and keep learning whatever possible from GMCKS. He is also no more with us physically - but to me, he lives on in his teachings and numerous books that seem to hold so much comfort even in my darkest hour!

Mr. Prashant Wali :
My favourite lecturer from VIT! If I had a love of electronics passed on from Dad and cousins, I learnt to enjoy microcontroller programming under this lecturer. Some lecturers focus on just taking a class without caring if the students understood the topic or not. Some others interest themselves only in the progress of a few brainy ones. But the one lecturer in college who had mass appeal, full classrooms (even on holidays!) and many students doing creative original programming was Wali Sir. He would encourage each of us to write programs, guiding us step by step, challenging us, pushing us to our limits (and over at times ) and still manage to keep the class laughing at wacky jokes if we were about to fall asleep! I had a lot of fun in the class and am now lucky to have Sir as a good friend - someone who can make me look at my life and problems in a whole new light - just like MC programs or MW equations!! Right, Teach? :-) And he doesn't mind me pulling his leg at all because he does the same to me :-D!!

Amma :
To the world she is Mrs. Jeyalakshmi Mahendrarajan (very long name, I agree!) - but to me, she is simply the best mother in th unvierse and one of my spiritual mentors! The one person in the world without whom all of this - spirituality, being a good writer or just being me - would not have been possible! To everyone else who love to criticize, they see all the things she didn't teach me. But to me and a select few, we know and remember the rigourous training I have had from her in my specialities. To this day, if I have my mother by my side, the whole world is mine to own and nothing can beat me or conquer me.

Hats off to these five! May you be blessed with all that your heart desires!!