If you thought you succeeded because YOU put in the effort, because YOU were brilliant, because YOU deserved it, THINK AGAIN!

My friend had questions concerning this title. Well I am amazed at the how well I expressed my thoughts regarding fate/ destiny/ karma. I have a great run so far- everything that one possibly wants in life + some more; Only to realise the effect is not always equal to cause or even related to cause. Things have hapened not because we wanted them to but because it was time for them to happen (and a small part of me hopes that we deserved them). I have been humbled enough to think and know that the end results in my life have never been 'result' of my efforts/ hard work. Things could have always swung the other way.
I work in a great organisation and have a dream job, but there are more able candidates than me but I am the one in this role- why?
I am surrounded by people I love and who love e back (this is more important) but there are a million people who are better individuals but do not not enjoy the presence of such people- why?
There are people who work 10 times harder than me but earn 1/10 of what I do- why?

There are people out there who deserve every bit of happiness, contentment, joy and all other positives that life has to offer but are denied their share- why?

Questions like these have effortlessly defeated my ego which says that I worked hard for it therefore I deserve to be happy and successful. But my inner voice knows that success or failure is beyond my control and that things happen because they are destined to.

How am I better, why do I deserve more, what have I done differently?
I do not know but I know better than to pat myself on the back for everything I have.
I cannot say anything more than this. It is for each of you to find for yourselves.

Art of Living: No thanks I will stick to unbranded Yoga- Part II

Tomorrow is the last day of the ar tof living course. This course has 150 participants and something special has been planned for the last day. What is this 'something special'? Well its like potluck and each one gets something for the other. Since the aol guys pride themselves on their organisational effectivenes, 15 groups have been formed and each group has been assigned the task of chipping in with Rotis, sabzki, dal, chawal. My mom-in-law's group has to get fruits. Now get this and I am not kidding- each person in that group has been asked to get 1.5 Kg of 5 varieties of fruits. So it adds of up 7.5 Kg of fuits per person so a total of 112 Kg of fruits will be distributed by that group. I love it. Look at these guys, I mean, just look how the aol folks are burdening people by this demand. Many of them are people who have saved money just to attend the course and now the extra cost that has to be borne just so that the aol principle of share and share alike can be fulfilled. I am speechless.
On sunday I am going to accompany my mom-in-law to the ashram when SSR (Sri Ravishankar) is going to grant special audience to the participants. If I can, I will definitely raise this question where aol has asked people to spend out of their own pockets for organising a shared meal. This is a load of CRAP.