ashirvachanBUiLDinG cOUraGE, inTELLiGEncE anD KnOWLEDGE | vOL. 1 issUE 2 | `50

OcTOBEr-DEcEMBEr 2014

caUsaTiOnLOOKinG aFTErELDErs in YOUr

nEiGhBOrhOOD

crEaTinG a cULTUrE OF‘DisrUPTiOn’

hOW TODEvELOP YOUr

LOvEinTELLiGEncE

GarLiccUrEs

cancEr

EMPOWEr YOUr caUsE ThrUashirvachan.cOM

Photo: Tony Fischer Photography

Panel Of advisOrs

artravinder Kalsi

educatiOnshabbi luthravanita sehgal

HealtHashok Khurana

Maria angelica sassone

lawP.K. Ganguly

Mediacol. r.K. Kapoor

shashikant Kapoor

MusicJawahar wattalPreet raj Kwatra

sPiritualityvimla luthra

tHeaterdanish iqbal

welfareJ.r. luthra

rni registration number:delenG/2014/56076

Printed, PublisHed,edited & Owned byshamshir rai luthra

PublisHed ats 350, Greater Kailash 1,

new delhi - 110048, india

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asHirvacHan vOl. 1 issue 2 in tHis dais

LOOKING AFTER ELDERS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD on p.4Voice, Author, Healer SHAMSHIR RAI LUTHRA highlights the increasing strain of construction work, and civic issues on the health and safety of senior citizens in urban colonies.

CREATING A CULTURE OF ‘DISRUPTION’ on p.6Educator, Consultant, Presenter DR. SHABBI LUTHRA reflects on the power of intentionally creating a culture of ‘disruption’ that encourages continuous innovation in a school.

DEFINING TRUE STRENGTH on p.8The mission leader who has spent a lifetime countering violence in different parts of India, K.P.S. GILL shares a motivational insight.

GARLIC CURES CANCER on p.12Welder by profession, and Country-Singer by passion, BARRY W. BITTINGER’S life story exemplifies courage, simplicity, and deep faith.

REWARDS OF GRATITUDE on p.10Creator of International Bhakti Magazine ‘The Bhakti Beat’, BRENDA PATOINE explains how appreciation and gratitude can bring blessings of abundance.

LIFE IN POETRY on p.14Artist VINEETA VADEHRA seems to understand the mystical thread that binds us together with the forces of time andnature.

‘AshirvAchAn MAgAzine’ is A sequel to ‘AshirvAchAn DAis’ - A shAreD-KnoWleDge confluenceWhich eMbrAces vision leADers, eDucAtors, Artists AnD spirituAlists froM Across the globe

cover photo: ©ravindra Kumar tanwar location: Aura valley, pahalgam, KashmiriMportAnt notice: All rights to reproduce, and transmit the ‘contents’ are reserved. You are not permitted to use any ‘contents’ such as articles, quotes, photographs, or graphics without explicit written permission from the authors, artists, and photographers themselves. Most images have been borrowed under the creAtive coMMons license. in case we’ve unknowingly used any image/s without prior consent, kindly inform us immediately, and we shall remove them from our future reprints. DisclAiMer: the views and opinions expressed in Ashirvachan are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher and editors. the publisher and editors are not responsible and liable for any comments, or advice given by the authors, advertisers and content-contributors and will not be liable for any damages. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/ new Delhi only.

ASHIRVACHAN | OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014 p.3

How fair is it to allowbuilders & bulldozers to

take over the sacredsanctums that our

elders toiled all theirlives to make?are sons and

daughterslistening?

LOOKING AFTER ELDERSIN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD by

sHaMsHir rai lutHrap.4 ASHIRVACHAN | OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014

Photo: Mr Hayata

in tHe Garb Of PrOGress and MOdernity, tHere is a race fOr PrOfiteerinG and cOnsuMerisM tHat is causinG uPHeaval and burden On natural resOurces and civic aMenities. and tHe Ones wHO are

bearinG tHe MOst Pressure and anXiety are Our aGinG Parents and seniOr citiZens wHO are QuicKly lOsinG tHeir Quiet neiGHbOrHOOds tO stranGers, and indifferent residents.

sHaMsHir rai lutHra writes tHis insPiratiOnal insiGHt witH tHe intent tO insPire sOns and dauGHters tO Preserve tHe cOMMunities, tHat tHeir Parents Had PainstaKinGly built. tHrOuGH tHis discOurse, He alsO wisHes tO

Persuade GOverninG MeMbers Of welfare assOciatiOns tO actively safeGuard tHe interests Of seniOr citiZens.

aBOUT ThE FOUnDEr

SHAMSHIR RAI LUTHRAshares his light through various mediums such

as writing, social service, education, arts,

and public speaking.His voice and

presence heals.

Where there are strong trees, mountains do not erode.Where there are strong children, families do not break.

The roots of trees are like sturdy hands, firmly clutching the soil.The soil is like the spirit of our elders, giving us our stabilities.

Respect this soil, nourish and turn it constantly.For if it gets coarse and dry, so will your sense of purpose.

The ashes of our ancestors merged long ago with this soil.Their memories live in the clouds that sail above,And their blessings flow through the streams.

Build your own successes, to become the strengths of your elders.Build your own freedoms, to become their vehicles of happiness.

Ask them not to forego their lands, ask them not to let go.For to grow and multiply, who says we must divide.

They once used to climb tall trees, but now they can barely walk.Maybe their children, took all their energies,Which they never remembered to return.

Their bodies now tire quickly, and their muscles and bones grow weak.Their minds hold great memories of pain, and burdens of choices made.

Our elders have learnt to live within their means,So what if, their means are lesser.

Light the incense of love for them, and water their thirsting plants.Fill their ears with songs of hope, and show them beautiful skies.

Phot

o: M

r hay

ata

ashirvachan | OcTOBEr-DEcEMBEr 2014 p.5

Photo: Mr Hayata

p.6 ASHIRVACHAN | OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014

creatinG a culture Of ‘disruPtiOn’ by dr. sHabbi lutHra

HOw tO taMe tHe Mindby darsHan dev sinGH

aBOUT ThE EDUcaTOrEducator, consultant, Presenter Dr. shaBBi LUThra is empowering educators, students, and parents, & building powerful 21st century learning environments. she is currently the Director of research & Development, at american school of Bombay.

aBOUT ThE sPiriTUaL hEaLErDARSHAN DEV SINGH is a traditional Reiki Grand Master, Karuna - Reiki master, Su-jok Expert, Kriya-Yoga Mater of Mahaavtar Baba ji, Magnified-Healing Healer, Crystal-Therapy Healer, Tarot Reader, Horoscope Reader, Acupressure-Healer, Pranic-Healer, and Lama-Ferra Healer.

Let us take care of our thoughts, for they have power.Let us train our minds to nurture this fabulous power correctly. Let us utilise our thoughts to alleviate human suffering. Here are some tips to help you become more self-aware and confident.1. speak little and spend some time in silence every day.2. hear everyone but do what’s true and right.3. spend each minute wisely and well.4. Lead a simple life.5. Do not imitate others.6. spend your energy in the service of the world around you.7. study with concentration.8. Take regular exercise.

I was thinking about something I had read a couple of years back in Disrupting Class. Early in the book the authors explain the difference between sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. They talk about how focusing on the disruption is essential for the long-term viability of organizations — something most organizations on a success trajectory don’t consider or think about.

Organizations (and I believe, institutions as well) are too focused on refining and polishing an innovation or practice or idea that’s worked well for them and brought them success. So they keep doing more of the same thing and getting better at it and sustaining it. In the meanwhile, a disruptive innovation emerges and is fed elsewhere to meet a need no one was providing. This innovation eventually ‘disrupts’ the success of the organization that has been focused on only sustaining.

The value of the sustaining innovation depreciates over time. . . I wonder how this applies to some of our work in education, in K-12 schools. Something we likely would not think too much about – we often focus on polishing and refining and embedding an innovation or an idea that seems to work well. Would that be harmful in the long run? . . . Makes me reflect on the power of intentionally creating a culture of ‘disruption’ that encourages continuous innovation in a school. Imagine the possibilities!

Photo: Joisey showaa

ASHIRVACHAN | OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014 p.7

Phot

o: J

oise

y sh

owaa

aBOUT ThE BUsinEss FOUnDErPREM RATAN RATHI is the Chairman and

Founder of Rathi Industries Limited,a leading Steel Group of Northern India.

aBOUT ThE ThOUGhT LEaDErK.P.S. GILL has spent a lifetime countering

violence in different parts of India, and has contributed to making society safe for the

weak and the deprived.

One has to understand that for all to prosper together, you must stay united and rise above small indifferences and short term gains. You must learn to overlook and forgo ‘apna swarth’ and work together in the larger interests. Truthfulness, Honesty, Selflessness, Trustworthiness and complete autonomy of power to decide in the common interest, are the necessary ingredients for the family business to prosper, or for that matter, for any business to succeed.

Working together is expected of our linguistic, communal or caste identities. It will make us stronger. True strength is fearlessness and belief in our ability to win.

ManaGinG faMily businessby PreM ratan ratHi

defininG true strenGtHby K.P.s. Gill

p.8 ASHIRVACHAN | OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014

Photo: vera & Jean-christophe

HOw tO develOP yOur lOve intelliGenceby MOrne’ venter aBOUT ThE crEaTivE crUDaDEr

Graphic Designer, Spiritual Healer, and Social Activist MORNE’ VENTER is the creative director and owner of Gaia Namaste. He exemplifies in the creative digital media, apart

from being a great energy healer, and therapist.Here are three perfect tips to inspire and ignite love:ThE sEcrET TO inTiMacYListen and speak from the heart. Really listening to what the other person is saying, as if you can see yourself in their being, and feeling what they are feeling. Being able to share a feeling with each other, about each other, is a sign of true intimacy. Opening up a bridge of love and the highway to a honest relationship.

ThE sEcrET TO rOMancEWhat makes sceneries of romance?Is it a candle light dinner at a fancy restaurant with french champagne? Or is it camping in the back garden underneath a starry sky, and as the orange moon silently rises, lovers share their first kiss? I believe it’s not really about what’s happening outside and around you, but what’s going on inside your heart and the heart of your lover. Staying in love is the key, and to stay in love is to hold on to it in your heart, and when you share that feeling in an intimate way, romance becomes magical.ThE sEcrET TO LOvEThis one is simple. Love yourself unconditionally: warts, farts, freckles, cellulite and all, then, and only then can you truly share a love unshakable. Love is to be shared in its fulfillment, not to be given or taken to fill one’s self or each other up. True love is not conditioned to satisfying one’s personal needs. Instead, once you’re filled with true love for yourself, a love that never runs dry in any desert, then you won’t need to give and take love, but you will only want to share it with the world, and of course with that special one in your life.

ashirvachan | OcTOBEr-DEcEMBEr 2014 p.9

© P

hoto

: Mor

ne’ v

ente

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rewards Of Gratitudeby brenda PatOine

Photo: Mr. hayata

Gratitude is rewarding and may be contagious. that is the suggestion from a converging body of research exploring how positive emotions like gratitude and appreciation affect our hearts, our brains, and even those around us.

Giving thanks may be easier on the day we Americans set aside for it, but how do we keep that thankful feeling flowing? How do we maintain an attitude of gratitude on a daily basis, especially in the post-holiday haze and pre-Holiday craze of these longest winter nights upon us? Here are five simple suggestions to flex your appreciation muscles. Once you get in the gratitude groove, you begin to become aware — gradually but inevitably — of the abundance that surrounds us at any given moment. You just might be amazed at how much there is to be grateful for. Try it. 1. THE TRIED AND TRUE GRATITUDE JOURNAL Every day, wake up and think: What Am I Grateful For Today? List 5 things. Keep a notebook next to your bed and write

them down.2. MAKE SOMEONE HAPPY Do (at least) one thing every day that shows another person — be it your life partner or the kid at the coffee shop — that

you appreciate them. “When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.” ~ The Dalai Lama3. WRITE A THANK YOU NOTE And I mean the old-fashioned way. Handwritten. On a simple card or scrap of paper, it’s the message that matters. Tell

someone how they made a difference to you. Find their address, put a stamp on it (yes, they still have those), and send it snail mail.

4. FIND THE GRATITUDE Think about a difficult or challenging situation you are facing. Find something about it that you are thankful for. There’s

always something — a lesson learned, a pattern of behavior revealed, even just the simple knowledge that the situation will pass, in due time.

5. MAKE IT YOUR MANTRA People don’t say thank you nearly enough. Surprise your partner by thanking them for something

they do all the time, like making the coffee. Thank the bus driver or the toll operator. Thank the sun for rising another day.

aBOUT ThE aUThOrBRENDA PATOINE is the creator of the International Bhakti Magazine ‘The Bhakti Beat’. She can be

credited as one of the foremost New Media promoters of the New Age Bhakti Movement in the West.

p.10 ASHIRVACHAN | OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014

Dance is when I amDance iswhen ‘I’ isno more

“

ABOUT THE DANCE VIRTUOSO

GILLES CHUYEN believes that dance forms are for a

choreographer, what colours on the palette

are for a painter. From ballet are for a painter. From ballet to Bollywood and contemporary

to Chhau, Gilles has been performing, teaching,

choreographing and exploring movement for the last

two decades all over India and across the five and across the five

continents. ashirvachan | OcTOBEr-DEcEMBEr 2014 p.11

© Photo: M

ona ibrahim

“hello! i am a welder, but i have been away from welding for a while. i am a cancer survivor; i have had cancer 3 times, but i made a mistake that saved my life all three times. i work on construction equipment: weld, repair, operate, etc. i am also a country music recording artist; my music can be heard at www.myspace.com/kjigsolo sometime back, i composed a song called ‘Obama-rama’, that i hoped would change things a little.

i am now slowly getting back into the swing of things, after a deadly bout with cancer. Thankfully, i can now say that i have defeated cancer by a ‘mistake’ that i made while w.t.d. (waiting to die). i was dying one night and hey presto, was completely alive the following day. actually by ‘mistake’, i ate a whole bulb of garlic, and i believe that cured me completely. i now inspire others to defeat cancer. Though, it’s still hard to convince people that cancer is curable by just eating garlic. anyways... Welder, Mechanic, Musician, cancer survivor, clown, nut, that’s me! Let’s all stay well!”

Photo: Garry Knight

p.12 ashirvachan | OcTOBEr-DEcEMBEr 2014

Having worked as a computer software professional for 5 years, my shift to the path of Healing was purely need-based, as my daughter had been diagnosed with asthma at the age of 3. Beginning with Reiki in the year 2000, I did all levels of learning and teaching the same. My daughter’s health and mine too, became much better. Healing by now, had become a way of life for me. So the move to Theta Healing was natural for me, the moment it was introduced in India. As I started practicing Theta Healing, by and by I was intuitively guided to carrying out the healing differently. It was only in 2010, that I realized that my way of conducting healing has changed entirely, and I could best do what came naturally to me. It is then that ‘Serenity through Surrender’ came into being and also is my way of being now.

In this entire process, my self awareness has deepened greatly, and I have learnt to take complete responsibility of my life. This not only means owning up my faults, but also acknowledging the inherent potential inside myself to start re-creating myself and my life, the way I now want it, and I am very happy with the results. My daughter, too, leads a healthy life now. I live in a much better awareness and acceptance of myself and things around me. People and situations don’t appear to be controlling me, as they used to earlier. I naturally welcome each day with joy and happiness, and a sense of peace and calm prevails my mind as I go about my day-to-day activities. I wanted to share this understanding of life and the power each one of us has within to recreate our life as we want it. It is with this intention, that I write, teach, and heal.

aBOUT ThE sPiriTUaL TEachEr

author of two books ‘Let The Power

Be With You’ and ‘Let Go Mom...

i Will Be Fine’ shivi DUa is the founder of the healing technique

‘serenity surrender’. she conducts

various workshops,and

healing retreats.

Phot

o: G

arry

Kni

ght

ashirvachan | OcTOBEr-DEcEMBEr 2014 p.13

If self-expression is an art, then whatever we say, think, or do, is art itself. Vineeta Vadhera seems to understand the mystical thread that binds us together with the forces of time

and nature. This poetic creation, emanates the artiste’s passionate persona. In colors of compassion, vitality, and courage, this painting conveys a deep self-realization and

a bold promise. All in all, a commendable work of art by Vineeta Vadhera.

p.14 ASHIRVACHAN | OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2014

© Photo: vineeta vadhera

aBOUT ThE arTisTSoon after completing her B.F.A. Degree, from Bharati

Vidyapeeth College Of Fine Arts, Pune; VINEETA VADHERA began showcasing her paintings in leading exhibitions and

art shows across India. Vineeta is currently busy with her corporate gifting collections this festive season.

byvineeta vadHera

ASHIRVAANIis a Knowledge Circle Of

Thought Leaders, Educators, and Spiritualists

If you’re an Artist, Author, Educator, Photographer, or Spiritualist, you’re entitled to a free membership to

ashirvaani.com

DR. SHABBI LUTHRA is empowering educators, students, & parents, and building powerful 21st century learning environments.

Yoga Guru SUNEEL SINGH has perfectly integrated traditional forms of yoga with newer forms of exercise to suit urban lifestyles.

DR. MARIA ANGELICA SASSONE is a medical practitioner who’s mission is to spread physical and spiritual wellness across the world.

Engineer by profession, ADITYA PATHAK composes music, makes films, conducts workshops, enjoys photography, and writing poetry.

Award-winning photographer RAVINDRA KUMAR TANWAR encapsulates the essence of life, in all its myriad forms.

Ashirvaani is now a bilingual audio capsule, which is created and presented by

SHAMSHIR RAI LUTHRA

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Photo: Mr hayata