Beyond Elements – Restaurant which touches the soul

There are a few people in the world who walk like a king and serve as a servant. One such man moved to Whitefield, Bangalore a few years ago and soon was flocked around with friends and admirers. In order to fulfill his strong desire to serve people, he started inviting his friends over to his home to celebrate and eat on every Thursday (the Guru Day). He would cook single-handed for dozens of people, and re-cook if more people showed up. His friends started saying that they were hungry for his food but hungrier for his love. They could not wait until Thursday and wanted to feel his love every day.

So, he joined hands with his buddies who were also enthusiastic about serving people, to create the same magic of love. The joint vision was to serve and unite people with love and joy. The best glue and formula for celebration and service is food prepared and served with love. And thus the ecstatic restaurant – “Beyond Elements” was born - https://g.co/kgs/EPRifs. As anything else in this world, food is also made of five elements – air, water, fire, earth, and ether. But here one can taste something beyond these five elements and that is love. Have you ever wondered why food prepared by mother tastes so much better? Does she use any special ingredient? Sure, she does. That special ingredient is love.

How many times do we meet someone in our life who is passionate about serving people! Here we have a bunch of them. None of these has a business background but they all are qualified Yoga and Meditation teachers. They are all successful in their corporate careers and have started a restaurant not only for financial gains but for something else. You have to visit the restaurant on the weekends to meet them in person and experience their courtesy yourself.

Wait a minute, did you read the restaurant is opened not only for financial gains? Yes, you very well did. Let's recall some of our age old ancient Vedic wisdom. Vajasaneya Samhita states that one shall not covet the wealth of others. While, the Vedic business ethics encourages and motivates to maximize wealth to take care of one’s necessities (Annam bahu kurveta! Tad vratam! - Taittiriya Upanishad iii-9), they also guide to earn wealth only through deeds of glory (Rig Veda Samhita vi-19-10). They advise taking care of wealth as well as welfare. (Bhutyai nappramaditavyam! Kusalanna pramaditavyam! - Taittiriya Upanishad i-11). The Vedas insist on proper distribution of wealth. Wealth earned by 100 hands has to be distributed to 1,000 hands (Atharva Veda Samhita iii-24-5). Beyond Elements serves you high-quality food which never compromises with your health and wallet. Each customer sitting on the table is a family member and gets that kind of care. The food taste, quality, ambiance, and service – all set a perfect example of a glorious restaurant. A substantial part of the earnings is donated to various social welfare projects by Beyond Elements. Also, Beyond Elements hosts tons of programs for uplifting youth, book launches, kindle intuition for kids, homas, chanting, which adds on the positivity of the environment.

In this land of Rishi (saints) and Krishi (agriculture), we have always been taught to fold our hands and pray before eating food.

Annadata Sukhibhava

Those who are providing me with this food, let them be happy.

Apart from expressing our gratitude, the mantra has a deeper meaning as well - The state of mind of the cooks and the servers is absorbed into the food and eventually gets into our system. This is exactly why food prepared by our dear mothers is so delicious. While we cannot have everyone's mother cooking in the restaurant, we can definitely have a team of calm, serene and happy chefs and servers in the restaurant. It is such a delight to know that the staff here in Beyond Elements, are also regular meditators and joyfully serve a happy treat for your tummies.

Along with using high-quality food materials, Beyond Elements does not stay behind in the method of preparation as well. Aside from cooking your food over an open fire, it doesn’t get more primal than a traditional wood-fired oven. If you have ever experienced pizza cooked in a wood fired oven, you have undoubtedly noticed a significant taste difference. In addition, cooking pizza wood imparts a unique, smoky, flavor that is impossible to replicate with a traditional home oven. A wood-fired oven cooks vegetables and fruits very quickly and helps them retain specific nutrients and antioxidants.

The guilt-free tasty and healthy preparations are endless. Consciously chosen wheat based pizzas and plates of pasta are a delicious treat for the whole family. After all, how many places do we have in Whitefield where we can feed our kids healthy as well as delicious food?

For all the foodies out there, Beyond Elements also offers a special platter which is a mix of five lip smacking tandoori starters including tandoori fruits such as pineapple which are an absolute treat to the tongue.

Hariyali paneer tikka is yet another starter prepared over charcoal tandoor with a deliciously discernible flavor.

For all those health conscious people in town, who are always on a hunt to find tasty salads, the search has come to an end. Beyond Elements offers a variety of continental salads which will nourish your taste buds as well as the health freak mind.

A perfect dining out experience is not complete if we leave out the ambiance part of it. When we go out to eat we would love to be in a lively fresh environment. Beyond Elements have that perfect environment waiting for you with its fresh vibrant interiors as well as fresh open air sit out looking the skyline of the lovely city Bangalore. It is a perfect place for a party as well as for a private set up.

So, next time you are planning to eat out, search no further. Give yourself a happy treat and experience the courteous and gracious dine out at Beyond Elements - http://www.facebook.com/BeyondElements.

Here is what others say about Beyond Elements - http://zoma.to/r/18416534

Motherhood – An Enriching Journey

A sleep-deprived new mom suffering from acute lower back pain is trying to talk to her mom on phone. But she barely could speak, since the baby in her arms is crying hard. Longing to finish one cup of coffee peacefully, tired of changing diapers, wishing to fit back in pre-pregnancy clothes, jealous of non-mother colleagues’ promotions. New moms, does it sound familiar?

Ask any parent how they feel about parenthood. No parent’s reply will be anything less than immense pleasure and joy. Imagine how blissful it could be bringing up your own little version! So, what about the pain, parents have to go through in bringing them up. These cute little bundles of unfathomable love are worth any pain. Howsoever difficult a kid is the pain does not reduce mother’s love. On the other hand, the pain increases the love.

Have you ever wondered what makes this painful journey, a joyful ride? A new born baby is in mercy of her parents. She would never complain how the parents are keeping her. Does that mean any parent will do anything less than his/her best! Is this not selfless service – “Seva”? A mom cooks food which her baby likes, goes to places which her baby enjoys, watches TV channels which her baby likes.

Everyone knows the pain a mom goes through to give birth to her baby. A mom bears immense pain to feed her baby happily. A mom scarifies her sleep, food and what not for her baby. When you bear a pain happily, it is nothing but “Tapa”. A mom is continuously focused on her baby. Her husband, her family, her friends, her job, her interests all can wait but the baby. Have you ever experienced the joy from doing anything hundred percent, when you are totally into it. Well, it’s something same here which continuous for years. And this is the mother’s “Sadhana”.

Mother is the first and the best teacher of a child. But have you ever wondered, how much a child teaches her mom. As Gurudev, Sri Sri Ravishankar says if ever we deal with every person on this planet as we deal with children, we will excel in each relationship. A child is continuously teaching her parents how to deal with situations. She is always testing mom’s patience by her tantrums. She is always testing her knowledge by her undying questions. She is always testing mom’s persuasiveness by her unreasonable requests. If there is anybody other than your child who can teach you these, it can be only a very generous Guru. Never underestimate this enriching “Satsang” with your child.

Gurudev, Sri Sri Ravishankar has already said much about the path of Seva, Sadhana and Satsang. And motherhood is a phase in ones life which is loaded with these flavours.

Being a mother changes her life so much. She is always on run. But I would advise each parent to stop and analyze for a moment how your child has enriched your life. I know as a parent most of the things you do revolve around your kids. Parents may have started eating baby food or bland food. Their home’s beautiful antique décor pieces might have been replaced by a teddy bear. Instead of humming the Hamma song, parents may be singing “Twinkle twinkle”. But just give a closer look to them. Let’s look at the rhymes. They are also so full of knowledge.

Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the stream,

Merrily merrily, merrily, merrily

Life is but a dream

All the wise men are also saying the same that live this life as a dream and just keep doing what you have to do, happily.

The bear went over the mountain

The bear went over the mountain

To see what he could see

To see what he could see

The other side of the mountain

The other side of the mountain

Was all that he could see

What an intelligent thing is being sung here, be happy with what you have and stop comparing your life to any other person’s. Other person’s life is also same as yours - full of ups and downs; just like this side of the mountain is same as the other side of the mountain.

Small kids are a mirror to the parents. If you watch the kids closely, they mimic the parents, teachers, and adults around them. The parents can actually learn how they themselves talk and behave by noticing their kid’s actions. A person develops his/her personality from four different sources – Parents, the environment around, past impressions and own individuality. Each factor contributes 25% of the person’s traits. We can’t do anything about the past impressions and individuality. Probably, we can do a little bit about the environment around our kids by choosing the right school etc. But definitely, we can do a lot about ourselves as parents. The best way to teach kids is to be role models. Before raising kids, raise yourself. Believe me, it is one of the best enriching and enlightening journey. Live it to the fullest!

Computer program – A parallel universe

A baby comes to this world and opens his/her eyes to greet the family. I am sure every programmer’s first program would have come with a similar greeting of “Hello World”. A programmer acts as a Brahma and creates a small universe of a computer program where each entity is programmed to behave in a certain way.

A simple program can display current time and temperature on a widget. Or it can suggest you to book an Uber cab to airport since its time to board your air flight. These are some meaningful interactions to our world.

Now, let’s look at some standalone programs like “Second Life”, an online virtual world. Linden Lab acted as Brahma and created Second Life, a universe of its own. Here people from our world take avatars and play role-playing games. They can interact with other avatars or the programmed characters. The computer characters are programmed to show right emotions. For a moment just think what if these are real emotions. I mean what if when a role-playing avatar pushes a bank watchman character, the watchman feels the anger in his nerves like any real person. Or a different perspective could be what if a real person here is programmed by our world’s Brahma to be angry when pushed by another person! Could that mean that all our emotions are pre-programmed and the whole game of our universe is just to push buttons. And guess who is having fun by pressing all the buttons. Huh! all this time we just knew that the person playing “Second Play” is enjoying pushing buttonsJ.

Many people may not know about “Second Life” but how about “Mario”.  Nintendo Brahma creates different series of Mario games with different story line. Super Mario Bros starts with Mushroom Kingdom being attacked by a tribe of turtles who kidnap the princess. Mario then saves the kingdom and recues the princess. Do you think the princess Toadstool is not feeling the anguish and misery, but is only a mere computer object? How can we be sure that these emotions are real or not?

Yet another program is of FIFA video series developed by EA Sports. You can pick a formation and build a squad to win matches to glory. When your team loses, do you think your team players also feel the sorrow!

When Ethan Winters encounters the ghost in the Resident Evil game designed by Capcom, who feels the adrenaline rush - the player controlling the protagonist or Ethan Winters!

As you may have heard our universe is made up of five elements – air, water, earth, fir and ether. By now you could very well imagine all these computer program universes are made up of only two elements 1 and 0. So, may be thats why our multi-dimensional universe has more interesting things to offer.

Just for fun, imagine the Brahmas of these universes - Ebbe Altberg from Linden Lab, Tatsumi Kimishima from Nintendo, Andrew Wilson from EA Sports and  Kenzo Tsujimoto from Capcom, chatting over a cup of coffee. Now, can you imagine the same coffee being served to the Brahma of our universe and to his buddies in parallel universes?

Group Sadhana – a beautiful bead Necklace

I once read Guruji said observe you breathe for a moment and something amazing will happen. I observed the breath in and out and guess what – a miraculous thought came. The same air I was exhaling was being inhaled by someone else. So, in a room I and my friend were sitting. My friend exhaled and I inhaled the same air, then I exhaled and my friend inhaled the same air. Can we say the air was the thread and we two were the beads!

                              

Group Sadhana - a group of people breathing in and out in same rhythm.  Now, what does that look like?

                    

मत्त: परतरं नान्यत्किञ्चिदस्ति धनञ्जय | 

मयि सर्वमिदं प्रोतं सूत्रे मणिगणा इव || 7||

While you may still be thinking that it’s just a perception, I want to bring your attention to the state of mind of each of the beads here. Recall what happens to your mind when you are meditating – lot of thoughts; pain; discomfort; settling down; feeling peace; what do I need to buy today; how will I reach home in time. Each bead can have its own trail of thoughts. But even if one bead experiences total calm and silence, it is good for everyone. Remember we are all beaded. The moment one out of us stops oscillating, it is just a matter of time, all beads will eventually stop oscillating. That is exactly the reason why Group sadhana is given so much importance.

Now, just imagine when we are beaded with Guruji! I don’t want to say more about that. Happy Meditating! Happy Ashadi Ekadashi!