Happy Birthday!

Today is Guruji, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's birthday. Once someone asked Guruji in a public talk "When is your birthday Guruji?" Guruji smiled and without a moment's hesitation said: "Mai Tera!" :) For those who don't understand Hindi, "Mai tera" translates into English as both "13th of May" and "I am yours/ I belong to you" :)



On the birthday of an enlightened master, all the disciples of the master wish each other "happy birthday" - for on this day it becomes certain that the lives of people around the globe will change forever - and for the better. The day we choose to walk onto the spiritual path, misery born out of ignorance is replaced by joy and gratitude born out of the dawn of wisdom in our lives. Dullness and lethargy are replaced by creativity and enthusiasm. All feelings of lack are converted into a feeling of abundance leading to ever increasing joy and generosity.

As a teenager, I remember reading a prayer ever so often in school - "Lord, make me an instrument of thy Peace." A child must go to her parents to ask for tea cups, water, milk, cookies etc. to organize her small toy "tea party." After arranging everything that she gets from her parents, she invites the parents themselves to the tea party! :) This is the way we all are - for everything we need in our lives, we need to go to nature - or to the Divine. Once we get what we ask for, we give it back to the society, to nature to people who are all part of this creation, part of Divinity, part of nature or God. On this day, my Guru's birthday, with a heart so full of joy and gratitude, I pray to the Divine to give me strength, faith, courage, skills, health and prosperity so that I can be a better instrument of His peace. That I may serve society better and bring about any change that would make the lives of people around the globe better and happier.

And I wish you all a very happy birthday!

Vegan Birthday Muffin Recipe

Dry Ingredients

1 cup white flour
1 cup Buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp egg replacer (if you dont have this, you can increase the quantity of baking powder and baking soda by 1/4th spoon each)
1/3 tsp salt

Wet ingredients

3 or 4 tablespoons almond butter
1/2 cup cooking oil
2/3 cup sugar (you can also use brown sugar or sucanat - but you'll need 1 full cup)
1 very ripe banana
1 apple (peeled and cut into large pieces)
1 pear (peeled and cut into large pieces)
1/3 tsp vanilla (powdered)
1.25 cups oat milk or almond milk or soy milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Put muffin cups into the muffin baking tray or grease the muffin tray. Set aside.

Mix all the dry ingredients using a wooden spatula. In a large high speed mixer, blend all the wet ingredients until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well using the wooden spatula so that no lumps remain. Pour out the batter into the muffin cups. Bake for 22-25 minutes. Let cool a little. Serve while warm but not hot with herb tea or hot chocolate and other birthday goodies. :)