CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK AND YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR FUTURE!

 A friend of mine is experiencing challenges in discipline and not able to motivate herself to get to work. She is self employed. She was saying that if I am this lazy, I may have to take a job as I may not survive. This conversation with her got me thinking. Is job going to solve her problem? Is self employment or business her solution? Upon reflecting more deeply, I realize that the answer to this confusion is neither job nor business. In fact, it goes to the very core of our existence.

So, what exactly are we thinking when we are trying to survive? Our situations in life are temporary. You are a bachelor today; tomorrow, you are a husband. You are working today for someone; tomorrow someone else may work for you. Today, you are an athlete in all your glory, but after a few years, you may not be able to walk. When we are trying to survive in life, are we looking to achieve a permanent position with whatever we are doing? If you are no longer in that position, are you a failure? Even if you are very successful in that position, you will not be there for long. You may move to a different position. Does that mean you did not survive? Is survival the measure of success?

In contrast, our existence is permanent. Whether you live in United States or Japan, you will exist. Whether you are poor or rich, you will exist. Whether you are white or black, you will exist. Whether you are man or woman, you will exist. You will exist no matter what! Knowing this difference in survival versus existence, we can start looking at things in a different perspective.

What does it mean when we are facing challenges in life? What is the purpose of that challenge? What is the meaning of the struggle? Every situation that we are placed in, is exactly the situation we need for our future. Every challenge that we face is a uniquely designed challenge for our growth. As a child, parents let go of your hand so you can learn to walk on your own. It is a challenge carefully designed for your progress. The purpose of every single challenge is to provide us an opportunity to grow from our current weaker self to a future stronger self. Think of it as the life’s gym to strengthen yourself. When you go to the gym, do you go crying or are you excited to go work out so you can become stronger? So, why is it that when we are faced with the same situation in life to strengthen ourselves, we get depressed with the challenges we have? Can we be excited to work out for our future? Life is full of exciting opportunities to become stronger. The stronger you are, the more fun life becomes, the better leader you can be and the better service you can provide.

Can we stop thinking about survival and start thinking about our chance to become stronger? Sometimes, we choose our situations in life; sometimes life puts us in certain situations. In either case, It is not about the situation you are in, it is about the opportunity that it provides. Remember, no matter what situation you are in, the choice to fight is ours. If we fight, we can become stronger and our future is more exciting. If we don’t, we may dwell in our pain and victimize ourselves. The choice is ours to make. No one can fight the fight for us. These challenges don’t happen to us, they happen for us. How wonderful it is that the magnificent, all glorious divine is giving me, the insignificant, infinitesimal living entity this much attention to create a unique challenge for me, put me in a carefully designed situation so that I can become stronger? How lucky am I? That should be exciting and not depressing. Change the way you think and you can change your future!

Children teach us how to be truly happy

Today India is celebrating children’s day. Children are having fun everywhere. In fact, children don’t need a children’s day to be happy or have fun. It is just another reason for them to be happy.  What is the secret for their happiness?

It is easy to see that children are happy because they have no worries. Whatever they need is provided by their parents. For example, a mother cooks the favorite food for her child. A father buys all the clothes and toys a child needs or wants. In this way, a child is happy although it is completely dependent on the parents for everything the child needs or wants.

Even if a child does not have better material comforts, still it does not matter as much with regards to a child’s happiness. A baby is just happy to be in a mother’s arms whether the mother is poor or rich. Children who are impoverished and live on the street are just as happy as those who are living in nice bungalows.

However, this situation for the children is temporary. As children grow into young adults, they are expected to study well, graduate from college and find a good job. They are expected to start being independent. The young adult is now suddenly filled with anxiety.  They begin to worry if they will be able to take care of themselves, let alone their future families. They carry a big burden on their shoulders. This worry turns into fear. Where there is anxiety and fear, how can there be true happiness? This sense of anxiety now continues for the rest of their life and happiness continues to elude them.

As adults, who have gone through this experience, we should recognize the fact that the secret of our happiness does not lie in material comforts. Material comforts come with it a sense of responsibility to maintain and protect it. It only serves to increase our anxiety and not in any way decrease it.  For example, a house with a nice green lawn needs constant maintenance. A nice expensive car requires us to make higher monthly payments and therefore force us to work harder and earn more money.

The secret of our happiness does not lie in being independent as well. We strive to become independent and achieve higher positions in society or amass more money. However, the higher your position is in society, the higher your anxiety is. A CEO of a company is more worried about the success of the company than a lower level employee. The head of a state is in more anxiety than a clerk in the government establishment. The richer you are, the more you worry about protecting all your money. We wonder, how can I prevent the thieves from taking all my money? How can I prevent the government from unfairly taxing my money? We may even worry that our own family may steal our money.

What then is the secret to our happiness? Can we remain under the shelter of our parents all our lives? If so, we can avoid all anxiety. However, we know that it is practically not possible. They will not be with us forever nor may be able to support us all their lives. The answer to the secret of happiness, can be found in Bhagavad Gita.

In Bhagavad Gita 9.17, Lord Krishna says, “pitāham asya jagato…”, I am the father of this universe. This means that we have a Supreme father. 

In Bhagavad Gita 2.12, Lord Krishna says,

na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ
na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ
na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ
sarve vayam ataḥ param

“Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.”

Here Krishna is referring to us as spirit souls. He is telling us that as spirit souls, we are eternal just like the Him, as the Supreme Lord.

If we make sense of these two instructions from the Lord, it is clear that He is the source of this entire universe.  Therefore, He owns everything. It also means that this same person who owns everything is eternal.  Therefore, we have an eternal father whose opulence is unlimited. There is no question that the Supreme father of this entire universe cannot support us with our daily needs. 

The next question one may ask is, “Even if He can support us and take care of us, will He?”  I remember as a child always wanting to be with my grandfather and grandmother. Today, my son echoes my sentiments. I think we all agree that our parents love our children more than us! Of course, that does not diminish the love and care they showed us in any way. If our parents can show us so much love and our grandparents can shower even greater love on us, imagine how much more our Supreme father, Supreme great, great, great… grandfather can love us! Is it even possible for Him to love us so much and not take care of us? 

Therefore, recognizing that we have a Supreme eternal father who is supremely opulent and who has unlimited Love for us, we do not need to have any fear or anxiety. He will protect us unconditionally. We may call Him Krishna, Allah or just the Lord.  A child may call his father, Dad, Padre, Papa or Nana depending on what language a child may be using, but the person he is referring to is the same. It does not matter what we call our Supreme father, all we need to do is remember Him and reestablish our relationship with Him. By doing so, the anxiety that stems in us because of our forgetfulness of our Supreme father will instantly disappear. Once we are free from anxiety, we are in complete peace and therefore will be situated in true happiness.

Let us thank our children on this Children’s day for helping us reflect on our Supreme father and his Supreme love for us. Happy Children's Day!

Even animals show compassion!

In a world where we see strife, violence and conflicts on a daily basis, sometimes we have to wonder if we are properly educated as a human being. Do we even know the basic values that a human being should exhibit? Doesn't it seem logical that humans are supposed to have higher intelligence? Higher intelligence should mean the ability to control your emotions. However, human behavior all around us seem to disprove that humans have any sort of intelligence or at least show that they are not utilizing their intelligence at all.  Therefore, I was surprised to see that an animal can quickly turn from a predator to a compassionate parent in an instant!  Here is the video:

Krishna played in my head that night

A few months back I developed an overwhelming desire to help build a Krishna temple in Cincinnati.  However, this is not an easy task as you all know.  This caused a lot of frustration as I could not easily achieve it nor even knew where to begin.

A little bit of background about how this came about:

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It has been my lifelong goal and ambition to read Bhagavad Gita, the ancient wisdom and science of the soul, spoken by Lord Krishna on a battle field more than 5000 years ago. Until recently, I have had several aborted attempts at reading this wonderful spiritual text. Now, finally, I have started reading it. I have not yet
completed it, but it has already started transforming my thinking and my life.  Due to this and other spiritual advancements in my life, I developed this overwhelming desire to help build a temple in Cincinnati, OH where Bhagavad Gita will be spoken on a daily basis.
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Once I had this desire, I started to figure out how to get this done. It is a herculean task and I felt perplexed and wondered what Krishna wanted me to do.  No matter what I did, it seemed like it was just not good enough and I wasn't moving anywhere towards establishing a temple. I couldn't figure out what to do next.  Finally, one evening, this desire was so overwhelming and it consumed me in its entirety that I could not focus on anything else. That evening, I kept thinking till late in the night on what I am supposed to do. However, there was no solution that seemed to come to me. At that point, I just sat down and told Krishna that I am not sure what you want me to do. It is your will. Please show me the way. Then, I went to bed. Although I went to bed, my mind seemed like it was racing with so many thoughts and Krishna seemed to be playing all night long in my mind. It didn't seem like I slept at all, although I seemed to be sleeping. By the morning, Krishna had completely painted a picture of what I am supposed to be doing. He had shown me the way!  He had asked me to organize a Bhagavad Gita lecture on a grand scale in Cincinnati.  I was so elated. I started this conversation with my friends and many of them came forward to help in organizing this event. As a result of all their efforts, this event has now come about.  We are so excited at this.

I am now requesting every reader's help in making this a reality. Please spread this word. Call your friends and tell them about this event and ask them to come and have fun. I guarantee that the speaker and the kirtan will enrich the soul, the food will elate the stomach and Rebecca, the classical dancer will enthrall the audience.  I humbly thank you for your help and look forward to seeing everyone there.

Facebook event page:

Pythagoras on vegetarianism

When you see the current diet of human society, especially right after thanksgiving turkey dinner, you would wonder when was the first time that man thought of eating an animal? I came across a quote from Pythagoras, known for his contributions in geometry and mathematics, about being vegetarian which I found rather surprising. I never imagined him to be a vegetarian.

"O my fellow men, do not defile your bodies with sinful foods. We have corn, we have apples bending down the branches with their weight, and grapes swelling on the vines. There are sweet-flavored herbs, and vegetables which can be cooked and softened over the fire, nor are you denied milk or thyme-scented honey. The earth affords a lavish supply of riches, of innocent foods and offers you banquets that involve no bloodshed or slaughter: only beasts satisfy their hunger with flesh, and not even all of those, because horses, cattle and sheep live on grass."

Excerpt from the book "The Higher Taste", The Bhaktivendanta Book Trust

The biographer Diogenes tells us that Pythagoras ate bread and honey in the morning and raw vegetables at night.

If you are considering becoming a vegetarian, perhaps you could try a no meat diet for one week and gradually progress to no chicken and fish; and eventually only vegetarian diet.  Perhaps, you will be a lot healthier and your skin may glow with new energy :)

Lower your LDL cholesterol

Nowadays, I see more and more young people suffering from higher cholesterol or heart related problems. People try different diets to balance it out and some rely completely on medication.  Many south Indians that I meet complain that they have higher triglycerides and it is because of eating a lot of rice.  I am not a doctor, but may be Avocados may help in this matter too.  I came across an interesting article about many of the health benefits of Avocados and lowering your LDL cholesterol was one of them. Here it is:

The Many Health Benefits of Avocados

 

Reaching out is not a weakness, but a strength

Are you macho? Are you too vain to reach out for help or are you just plain stupid? Watch Presiyan Vasilev as he demonstrates and talks about reaching out at a time of need. An entertaining and teaching moment...