Today is an auspicious day " Ganesha Chathurthi" ( celebrating ganesha) but we celebrated one day before ! 

We had the most beautiful celebration when we strolled with the REAL LIVING GANESHA & guess where at ?

THE MANTRI SQUARE MALL :)

Our association with this personality has been for over twenty years but in the past few years he has created a huge expansion in our inner being.He has opened out many gates of enlightenment.

After the Natyasashtra class at our studio we were going to drop him off & go to Mantri Mall & he said he had not seen the place & hopped in with us. While we were passing through every stores ( window shopping) he got us into such interesting perspectives on Life & Art that we decided to sit down at the food court with Dosas & Idlis  & as he began talking 

everything started slowly disappearing .... the food ,the tables...chairs...the people , the huge space simply vanished....it was only his voice & our hearts ....we were deep into Ganesh sir's talks :

1. STREAMS OF RIVERS WHEN JOIN IN GANGA TAKE IN THE QUALITY OF GANGA.

SO SURRENDERING TO GREAT PERSONALITIES OF EXCELLENCE CAN TRANSFORM AN ASPIRANT ( IN ANY FIELD) 

it is so important to identify the GREATS no matter from whichever era they belong to or however old or young they are & take note of their ways of work,ways of life .It is bound to reveal many secrets that can act as contribution to the seeker.

Ganesh sir himself when he identifies the GREATNESS of people ,irrespective of their age or field 

the very first thing he does is  TO SIMPLY FALL AT THEIR FEET with loving appreciation of their work.

He had told us told us how when he visited Disney land in LA first thing he did was to prostrate to the statue of Walt Disney for he had offered the greatest entertainment of Animation.

Wonder if anybody had ever done this to Walt Disney....he would have been thrilled :)

When Ganesh sir saw the sculpture of Vishwarupa at the Ganapathi Sachchidananda Ashrama in Bangalore, he wanted to meet the sculptor for the simple reason that he admired the rare combination of  Great imagination & craftsmanship in this person 

& when he met him he did a complete prostration to him.

If an artist confines himself just to his own learning ,school of thought or his field alone how can be open to an expansion within, good energy can bring in good art only WHEN THERE IS APPRECIATION OF EXCELLENCE SPECIALLY IN OTHERS :)

But the human mind can be VERY EGOISTIC to handle this.

He gave one example from his own life :

When Ganesh sir was in his twenties he was very envious of the great poet Kalidasa because How could kalidasa write such excellent poetry & why not Ganesh sir ? 

It seems he used to not whole heartedly appreciate Kalidasa's works & would even argue with other supporters of this poet.

Over a period of time with deep study of Kalidasa many secrets revealed & Ganesh Sir's writings reflected the beauty & glory like that of the great poet , Ganesh sir became so close to this great poet's work is that he became a DASA to KALIDASA.

He wanted to offer his tribute to the great poet & hence wrote a poetry ( in sanskrit) that said something like :

When i was young my eyes were clouded by ignorance & had a poor sight but as i started moving closer to you the clouds transformed into rain which came down my cheeks as tears & has cleared the vision, my tears will be ever flowing as an offering of prayashchitha ( repentance ) to what i had thought about you before.

Even today when Ganesh Sir gives a lecture on Kalidasa's works starts the session with this poetry.

His face looked very gratified & fulfilled.

We were stunned by his greatness ! 

To be continued . . . . .