Personal Diary: Message from revered Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Today (July 12, 2014), my happiness new no bounds when I saw a personalized message from revered Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. I am not a direct disciple of Guruji, but I am an ardent follower of His principles guidance. Whenever there is opportunity, I try to associate with His disciples to gain more knowledge on Sri Sri. For the followers of Guruji on Twitter, a personalized message was sent through a link on the occasion of celebration of Guru Purnima festival.

Guruji shared the following link with me through Twitter and it was a sweet surprise for me!

Link: A personal message for you from Sri Sri

The message read as follows:

"Dear Satyaranjan,

On this Guru Purnima,

May wisdom reign over pettiness; Compassion over cruelty.

May you be blessed with gifts to share with humanity.

- Sri Sri"

I feel blessed likes millions who would have received such sweet personal messages from Guruji!

Exhibit: Message from revered Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Personal Diary: Message from Sri Bhakti Swarupa Damodara Swami

Sri Bhakti Swarupa Damodara Swami, an ardent devotee of Lord Sri Krishna is the founder of Bhaktivedanta Institute which promotes the study of the relationship between science and Vedanta. His name before sannyas was Dr. Thoudam Damodara Singh. His Holiness holds a Ph.D. in Physical organic chemistry from the University of California, Irvine. All his lectures are full of scientific jargons like DNA, RNA, Bio molecules, molecular bonds and chemical equations. So, a student of science would definitely appreciate his thought provoking lectures.

Fig: Sri Damodara Swami (Dr T D Singh) with Nobel Laureate William Daniel Phillips in 2005 

Credit: This photo has been reproduced from www.tdsingh.org with permission

The author was fortunate to interact with Sri Damodara Swami on Aug-05-2006 while pursuing engineering in Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, then University College of Engineering, Burla, Odisha.  Sri Damodara Swami was invited as a dignified guest to interact with students on science and spirituality. That was author's first and last meeting with His Holiness. Upon request, His Holiness was kind to write a few lines for the author as follows.

"Life is a journey. You may have to encounter many ups and downs in the journey. But you have to face these challenges with strength and wisdom. These principles you will get from cultivating spiritual knowledge and wisdom. Be brave and face the challenges praying for the blessings of your teachers and of Lord Krishna."

Fig: Message from Sri Damodara Swami

Fig: Dr T D Singh on the day of receiving his Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine

Credit: This photo has been reproduced from www.tdsingh.org with permission

Around three months after his meeting with this great devotee, the author learnt that Sri Damodara Sami left his mortal body at the age of 68 on Oct-02-2006 in Kolkata.

Personal Diary: Message from Prof. Bala Balachandran

Have you heard about Prof. Bala Balachandran - a luminary of modern India? His name is associated with India's great institutions like ISB, Hyderabad, IIM, Bangalore, MDI, Gurgaon and Great Lakes, Chennai. In May 2012 he was selected as one of India Inc's Top 10 Global Indian thought leaders by The Economic Times.

I came to know about Prof. Bala Balachandran (we also call him Uncle Bala with affection) when I applied for 1 year PGPM program of Great Lakes Institute of Management, a brainchild of Dr. Bala. I became a big fan of him when I read about him on various sources on internet.

Fig: Prof. Bala at Hotel Ramada, Bangalore, on Jan-04-2012

It was my privilege to interact with this Padma Shri awardee at Great Lakes Connect program held at Hotel Ramada, Bangalore, on Jan-04-2012. After the program was over we had informal interaction with Prof. Bala, Prof. Easwar Krishna Iyer and other distinguished speakers around 9:30 pm. Afterwards we had dinner together. 

I earnestly requested, "Sir, I am not sure whether I will be able to make it to Great Lakes. But I want a message from you." He was kind to write an inspirational message for me which I have been keeping zealously. The message reads as: 

"My dear Satyaranjan, Keep your goals high and make it higher. Set the goals, exceed that and raise the bar. Let God be with you always. Affectionately, Uncle Bala"

Fig: Message from Prof. Bala Balachandran

I could not make it to Great Lake's Chennai campus. But I was fortunate to be selected for Great Lakes's second campus in Gurgaon. It was a pleasure to know that Prof Bala would be teaching 'Managerial Accounting' at Gurgaon campus.

Further Reading on Prof. Bala:
India's most powerful thought leaders
Bala's profile at Kellog School of Management
From Wikipedia