Written by my dear friend Mahatma Prabhu
http://www.mahatmawisdom.com/
LETTER FROM KRISHNA
My dear devotee
I wanted to send you a note to remind you how much mercy is always available to you.
I saw you yesterday as you were talking with your devotee friends about Me. This gives Me great pleasure, and the bliss you were feeling was just my way of reciprocating.
I saw you sleeping last night and I know how tired you are from working so hard for me (I saw you staying up late to chant your rounds). I just wanted you to know that such service is never forgotten.
I am so much looking forward to you coming back to Godhead. I know how hard you are trying to get out of the material world, and if you follow My instructions and the instructions of your gurus and Srila Prabhupada, I will always be helping you. I miss you and want to be with you.
When you are in trouble, you can talk to Me. I will listen. I am always there for you and I will never let you down.
I have given you My holy names as My special gift to you. It makes it easy for us to unite even while you are still on the earth. Please value it deeply. You will come to know our relationship by chanting without offence. You will get everything from My name.
Love
Krishna
GITA COACHING
Send me your questions or comments to akrura@gmail.com
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
YOU CAN HAVE ALL THE SUCCESS YOU WANT IN LIFE … BUT...
GITA COACHING: YOU CAN HAVE ALL THE SUCCESS YOU WANT IN LIFE … BU...: Have you ever heard that one of the main principles to attracting more fortune, have more happiness, and having the freedom to design the l...
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
THE MIND ALONE
The brahmana said: These people are not the cause of my happiness and distress. Neither are the demigods, my own body, the planets, my past work, or time. Rather, it is the mind alone that causes happiness and distress and perpetuates the rotation of material life.
SB 11.23.42
SB 11.23.42
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
SUPPORT, GUIDANCE AND CHALLENGE
GITA COACHING: SUPPORT, GUIDANCE AND CHALLENGE: We help devotees to build strong pillars for their success, like steady and serious chanting of japa every single day. For this we provide ...
Monday, May 13, 2013
YOU WILL FIND
If something or someone is important to you, you will find a way. If something is not, you will find an excuse.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
BUSINESS GURUS AND SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA
Tatjana Stankovic, PXD
System International interviews Aleksandar Akrura Todorovic, Gita Coaching
T: Many questions have been asked on the
topic of personal realization from different business gurus, very famous ones, and
realization of their names, principles by different people and businessman.
Many questions were answered and also many questions remain unanswered by the
most brilliant minds and business gurus. Some of the crucial points have no
crucial answer and bring people in confusion. Me, as a long year reader,
attender and follower of all new business trends make me ask some questions for
resolving certain dilemmas.
Today we will compare mighty
principles by Brian Tracy, Robert Kiyosaki, Jonas Riderstrale, Steven Covey,
Frank Battger, Jim Rohn, Tom Hopkins,
Robin Sharma and others with the principles from the Bhagavad Gita.
We have an honor that
on those questions answers Mr. Aleksandar Akrura Todorovic. Gita Coaching is a
spiritual life coach, success teacher, lecturer and a seminar leader.
So the first question
goes like this. Each of the business gurus has its own characteristic area,
which is developed to perfection by them, and by which they are recognized or
they have certain unique style for which also they are known. So let us start
first with Bryan Tracy. This is the first guru I was listening and I was on
seminar. What I remember most, to be honest, is his …. seminar
in Skopje called “Strategies for success
in the 21st century”. And the main points were on competitive advantage
on the market, the way of doing the sales and so on. But one interesting thing
happened when a friend of mine asked him directly, “How would you create great
sales euphoria?” he didn’t know what to say and his question remained unanswered.
So my first question is, “What Bhagavad
Gita says about this? How would you create euphoric sales?”
A:
First of all, to make a few comments about Bryan Tracy in general and then I
will answer your question. I have read several books of Brian Tracy and have listened
to audiotapes and he is a very prolific author. He wrote a lot about success
and he is definitely a very diligent reader, he learns, he knows so much. He’s
read so many authors and learned from so many people. So I was curious about
his spiritual use and then in the book “Focal Point”, in one of the last
chapters, I think the last chapter of that book, he explains some of his
spiritual views. And I don’t know if he is, like, a religious person but in his
books he doesn’t reveal very much. Sometimes he mentions…actually in one audio
program he said that: “Prayer is the highest form of affirmation.” and that was
something very surprising for me to hear because he very rarely even mentions
God or something related to God or religion. And, of course, all religious
people will kind of “cheer up”, I say, cheer for that and they would really
agree that prayer is the best affirmation. And the spiritual views that he has
expressed in “Focal Point”, again, are not directly speaking about our
relationship with God. Now, I have sometimes e-mail exchanges with him and he
speaks about “super conscious mind” and I told him that actually in the
Bhagavad Gita it is explained that, actually, the “super conscious mind” is
actually the “Super Soul”.
T: Super Soul.
A:
Super soul. Yes. And we didn’t discuss it or we didn’t debate on it, he just
agreed with what I wrote…that this is, actually, the source of our, all our
intelligence and this kind of intelligence that when he speaks of some higher intelligence,
that when he speaks about the “super conscious mind” and a very strong
intuition is coming from the Super Soul which is described in the Bhagavad Gita
as the expansion of God, which is accompanying us throughout the material life,
this experience in the material world and helping us, giving us knowledge,
inspiration, even forgetfulness, remembrance, ideas, creativity. And…so he
himself and many other authors, they actually avoid discussing God and religion
and some of them like Kim Blanchard, author of the “One Minute Manager”, he
speaks more directly and he has even teamed up with a pastor or a minister and
they have a project called “Lead Like Jesus”. So Steven Covey speaks that the
principles he teaches come from God. And in his audio program “First Thing’s
First” he says “the top priority, my first duty is the deity”. So some mention
God and some don’t. And other authors, they make distinction between religion
and spirituality and then they then present some kind of impersonal
spirituality where you don’t speak about God, you speak about divinity, or
divine, or the universe. But you don’t acknowledge that behind the universe or
behind the universal intelligence there is a person.
T: And Joe Vitale, he speaks about
divinity?
A: Yes, they will speak about divinity
and about many things but they don’t mention God. And, of course, people have
been disappointed with religion and religious people, because many of them are
not very “saintly” and don’t show always high character, but it doesn’t mean
that one should dismiss the science of God. And this science of God is
described in the Bhagavad Gita. So it has to do with success because if there
is a Creator, He knows the laws of the universe, He knows the laws of success
and all this things come from Him. Many people speak about principles of
success, laws of success, but they don’t speak about the lawmaker. So Bhagavad
Gita explains this in more detail and there is actually a universal management,
where there are higher beings. They are called demigods and they also can help
us with our economic and other kinds of pursuits. This is described in the
Gita: how if you cooperate with this higher intelligence people, actually you
can be better off spiritually and materially.
T: But in the
bottom line is it to cooperate with God?
A: Yeah,
or his representatives, if you want real success and lasting success. And later
we will discuss about success beyond this lifetime. And I also had some
exchanges with Bryan Tracy about that. Like, I said, “You are teaching success
which is only within the limited time span which is fifty years or hundred
years, but it’s actually very short. What about… what happens after that? And he
said, “Oh, we don’t know, therefore we can not discuss it.” So I think he has
maybe a policy to not discuss with religious people because you can’t argue
with them and they are always right, they are very self-righteous and they want
to impose on you some Biblical truth or some Buddhist truth or Hindu truth or
whatever. And he didn’t want to discuss with me, but I told him that: “How come
you didn’t hear about Mr. Stivenson who is a scientist, and who has proven, who
did a research and he has actually proven reincarnation. He has found people
who remember their past lives in detail and the places where they lived and the
people although they have never been there in their life. And many such examples,
I mean incredible examples. So this doesn’t have to even necessarily be scientific…some
tangible proof. And he didn’t respond to that. So I was wandering maybe he
keeps this, like, private thinking, private reading. He doesn’t…because in the
business world you don’t speak about religion very much. But in the Vedic times
there were four principles: dharma, artha, karma and moksha. And dharma means
religious principles. When you follow them you get artha or economic
development or wealth. And then when you have these things you can have kama or
sense gratification, all kinds of facilities and enjoyment. And when you get
fed up with all this you look for liberation. So, you know, there are teaching
principles to attain success and success mainly means money and money means
enjoyment. And this formula has been there in the Vedas for thousands of years
but they don’t have the complete formula. There is even a fifth dimension. I
mentioned these four but there is a fifth dimension, which we can speak about later.
So your question is how to create… euphoric??
T: Euphoric
sales force…
A: This has to do
with motivating people to work, how to work. And then if you find out what
motivates people and if you understand that there are various levels of
motivation. You can motivate them on a superficial level and you can motivate
them on a deeper level. So if you understand every person, every employee and
speak to them personally and see what motivates them, you can even ask them –
it’s not always money. You know “If you do this you will get so much money.”
People want recognition, people want development opportunities; they want to be
able to grow, they want to feel accepted in the community, appreciated…
T: You are
talking about employees in the company?
A: Yeah,
sales force, employees in the broadest sense… but sales force is also
employees. If you want to motivate them...
So you understand what motivates them. If you have sales people you can ask
them: “What motivates you?” Some of them will say maybe money, but not only
money. There is so many studies and surveys done that shows that it’s not only
money that motivates people. So if you want to create really, like a fired up
sales force, another aspect of that is that your sales people use the product
they sell. This could help, because they are convinced that this would benefit
our clients.
T: Yes, this is
very important.
A: Yes.
And then if they are not doing it just mechanically, just to make money but
they enjoy selling this because they know that it’s not only about selling and
making money. It’s about benefitting our clients, our customers long-term. And
that can inspire them. Then… you can do some things with money, like some
incentives and you can… I mean…Jay Abraham explains if you understand the
life-time value of a customer you can actually reward your sales force much
more if they bring in customers which will continue buying from you over longer
periods of time like years or a lifetime. And these people will bring you more
customers. So a lifetime value… If you can calculate the life time value of a
customer you are not afraid to be generous with you sales force in rewarding
them for their bringing in customers.
T: This is on the side of the sales force. This
is a very good point. This is not what I meant to ask, actually. But it is a
very good point. His point and his question was, “How to make clients buy like
crazy?” This is what he called euphoric sales.
A: Ah,
euphoric sales, not euphoric sales force.
T: Euphoric
sales, yes, with clients buying like crazy.
A: Oh,
okay.
T: What
motivates our clients to buy like crazy? Maybe this is a better question…
A: I
think more important than them buying like crazy is that they buy for their
whole life. Because if they buy for their whole life this means they trust you
and this means also they will direct other people to you. They will bring more
customers. So, they can buy either more of the same product or they can buy
combinations of products. They can buy the product you sell and something that
will help them. Like if you sell laptops than also a bag for the laptop would
be helpful. And if you’re selling them together give some discount or whatever,
or give it as a gift. So clusters or combinations of products…this can increase
their purchase, this can increase sales. Then you can inspire your clients to
buy more from you or they can bring more clients and you can give then discount
if they bring more clients. So these are some of the ways… and if you have…I
mean Kim Blanchard he calls them “raving fans”
T: Yes, this is
the question, “raving fans.”?
A: Yes. So raving
fans are people who really trust you, so you have to build trust. And how to
build trust? By showing that you care and that you know something. You care for
them, you want the best for them but you are also an expert, you have good products,
you have good services, you are giving them the best advice. And I think then,
you know, they will never actually leave the company. They will never stop
doing business with you. Because, still, after so many seminars on sales, on
success, on customer service- customer service is poor.
T: It is so
impersonal actually.
A: Yes.
T: Okay. Brian
Tracy is from the old generation and I got a chance to go to another seminar in
Skopje and this is a new wave guru, a business guru, and he was very
interesting and I want to ask a question about him and his philosophy. Actually,
I remember him as a person that turned a new wave of so-called innovative
explanations on the business and gave a definition that I remember very well.
His name is Jonas Ridderstrale and he is from Sweden and he is a PhD.
His book is called “Funky Business: Talent Makes Capital Dance”. He is rather
young compared to other business gurus. He is a professor in University and so
on. Many titles he has. I went to his seminar also and I remember a few points
from him and especially one that he gave was very interesting. He said that
this world is full of copies and millions of samples of the same product exist.
What cannot be copied is a man’s mind that will think of a new idea, not a
copied one. The new fresh idea will allow the company to temporarily have a
monopoly on the market. So the main question is who got these ideas? He says
mind, a man’s mind is one that cannot be copied. But my question is who got the
idea. Is it the mind or the soul, or the Super soul?
A: I
heard an interview by Kit Richards, the guitarist of the Rolling stones. And,
you know, they don’t speak very much about God in their music, here and there,
interviews also. Mick Jagger and Kit Richards. But he says that the songs come
to him… and he says that if the songs wouldn’t come to him he wouldn’t do
music, he wouldn’t play music. So any intelligent person will ask the natural
question “Where does it come from?” So if you say it comes from somewhere then
you should be grateful to somewhere, ha hah(laughs)… But I say it comes from
someone not from somewhere because intelligence cannot come from the empty
space. It comes from a person.
T: And there is
no logic in that…
A: Yes.
So the Vedic literature, the Bhagavad Gita explains that inspiration and ideas
come from the Super Soul. Bhagavad Gita says: “ mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam
ca”, from the Super Soul in the heart of every living being comes knowledge,
forgetfulness and remembrance. And knowledge is also synonymous for ideas, for
creativity. And this is something that authors who try to explain… they don’t
know this. And Bryan Tracy speaks about “super conscious mind” as I mentioned
and then, I mean I wrote him: it’s not a super conscious mind it’s actually a
Super Soul, which is an expansion of God within your heart and He gives you
intelligence and ideas. And he helps you remember things also. So there is this
distinction that in the success literature of many modern gurus we are credited to be the only doer. But
in the Bhagavad Gita it says, “You are not the only doer. There is somebody
else who is helping you all the time. You don’t recognize him and you are not
grateful enough.”
T: Okay. You mentioned this before but this
is one more good point. So the question is that if everything is copied, now
again about copying, I think nowadays the world doesn’t miss anything on
impersonalism towards the customers and with the customers. And personalism,
because I was also reading Bhagavad Gita, is a spiritual principle from
Bhagavad Gita. What will you say about this?
A: One
question about the purpose of products or the purpose of services is… what they
are meant for, what is their purpose? You can create so many products that will
just help you eat better, ha hah… and animals also eat vey successfully. Then
you can create so many products that help you sleep better. It may be better
beds, it may be better bed sheets, it may be round beds, it may be a bed with
music or a stereo but it’s all meant for sleeping. You can adjust the
temperature in the room where you sleep, you can have a video… you have so many
things to help you sleeping, sleeping pills, but it’s the same activity as, you
know, the animals are sleeping too. Then you can have so many products to
improve your sex life. So many arrangements and hotels and brothels; then you
can have so many products to protect yourself to defend yourself, to shelter
yourself. But what about products that will help us raise our consciousness.
Now you may say, “Yes, I like that! (laughs) I‘m taking LSD because it will
raise my consciousness.” But actually you can’t raise your consciousness with
chemicals, you can only agitate the mind and get some hallucinations, and in
order to raise your consciousness you need different kind of products. You need,
actually, spiritual products. So market is not only about satisfying our
material needs. It’s also about satisfying our spiritual needs. So I think
future markets will be full of spiritual products. And in one sense it’s
happening, like there is books which helps you to live a more happy life and they
speak about spirituality and there are different products that help, like, you
know, meditating music. There are products, it’s an industry. It’s a business.
Now, sales help or success is a multi billion dollar business today. It’s a big
business. On seminars you pay a few thousand dollars, you buy books, you buy
tapes, and like that. So already there is things that are helping us to develop
higher consciousness. But an innovative person will find ways to make all these
products interesting and to make them relevant. Actually if you…I think that
the essence of marketing is that you show how something is important and why
they should use it or buy it. And when people see that “this might help me,
this person understands my needs” then they will get interested…
T: And this is a personal approach?
A:
Personal approach also means that you talk to a person and see how they can use
your service or product in the optimal way. So personalization of business is
very important. And again, as I said, still, the customer service is quite low.
If you take the overall, you know, like, planetary survey you will see that
it’s still on a very low level. Some companies are doing better, some companies
are doing worse but there is no… high culture. And those companies that are
distinct, they actually have adopted a culture of service more seriously.
T: There is one topic that I’m always
personally interested in and I will mention now Robert Kiyosaki. I was really
amazed, actually, by him and I took a personal course from him and from his
trainers and he is very famous for his quadrants. He says people are divided into
four groups. They are either employed or self-employed or businessmen or
investors and the…is very rich. And he mentions the knowledge that could change
your life. This is very important because knowledge can change your life,
nothing else, not money. First you have to have knowledge and then you can make
money. And now the main question I always have: okay, if you are employed you
will do this, if you are a businessman you will do that and then you will
become rich, and ok, this is an okay explanation, he is very popular. But, for
example, I had this dilemma. He was teaching me what should I do and he was
teaching my friend what he should do. And he was teaching the same principles
and we did the same things at the same time in the same way, no difference. And
I succeeded and my friend didn’t. So, why is that so. The same business
principles, two different people, the same time, nothing avoided. But the
result was brilliant with me and with my friend it was not. Why is that so?
A: There
may be two reasons. One is karma. By your karma… you had better karma, so by
your karma you’re entitled to better results. And another thing is that there
is a higher control of the results that we achieve. This is also a big
distinction between the Bhagavad Gita as a success book and the teachings of modern
success teachers. They say if you do like this and if you are determined and,
you know, persistent you will achieve results. But actually results are not
completely in our hands. We can make our best effort, we can follow certain principles,
we can do what successful people have done and still we won’t necessarily get
results. Because there is a higher approval needed from higher authorities.
Whatever you call them. You can call them nature, you can call them demigods, you
can call them the Supreme God, but we are not the only ones who are in control
of our results. And, therefore, what Bhagavad Gita suggests is to cooperate
with these higher beings, with these higher authorities and that will help your
success, both material and spiritual.
T: What is confusing for many people is
this word karma. What that has to do with the results? I mean, for me it’s
obvious and normal to understand but how can we explain in the easiest possible
way to the people what karma means?
A:
Karma is very simple. It’s the law of action and reaction. So you create a
certain amount of good karma and bad karma. And even while you are creating
some good karma by your hard work or by your good deeds, then still you have to
pay for your bad karma. So the man who was working hard to develop a business,
he may have accumulated some good results, depends how he was developing it.
But, still, if by his karma and by the arrangements of the higher authorities
the time has come to suffer a loss then this will happen. So this means that we
are not completely in control of the results. And we can do… we can follow a
thousand principles of success and still not be successful because it’s not
completely in our hands.
T: Okay. Now, I remember Steven Covey, we
mentioned some authors but let us talk about Steven Khalil. I think that Steven
Covey touched the point of spirituality more successfully than others because
some habits he has are still very strong spiritual principles as well. So his
seventh principle is totally holistic- body, mind and soul. Still I would add
the quote by Srila Prabhupada Swami, a very spiritual and a very special
person. He says, “Religion without philosophy is sentiment or sometimes
fanaticism while philosophy without religion is mental speculation.” We have a
very strong business based philosophy in Covey’s books but there is no religion
behind that as Prabhupada says. What would you say about that? What does Bhagavad
Gita say?
A:
Steven Covey, l I think he has done a lot of...favor to spirituality and to,
even, religion because he has thought people humility, he has thought people…
he calls it “the humility of principles”. This means that you can control your
effort but you can’t control the results. Results are controlled by principles.
Or consequences, consequences are controlled by principles. And principles are
natural laws and principles are something outside of view. So he gives an
example of a ship that sees the light in the distance and then gives a sign to
that light to move because the captain thinks it’s a ship, another ship. And then
after some time, after a few exchanges with these signals the light signs say
that, “I am a lighthouse, I can’t move.
You have to move.” So similarly the natural laws are like lighthouses.
If you follow them you can find your way but if you don’t you can just break
yourself. You can’t break then. You can break yourself against them. So if this
sheep wouldn’t agree to avoid the island where the lighthouse is situated no
matter how big it is, it would just break. So Covey speaks about these
principles, these natural laws and he also says that these are… actually the
origin of these principles is God. And then he was a highly moral person, I
mean he had his wife and he was a very responsible family man. He was teaching
about this and also very charitable and… he was working so hard to help people.
And sometimes he would quote some very spiritual persons and give examples. But
still, again, they don’t give the whole picture, they don’t give the whole
truth and also these people, these teachers, they don’t speak about the next
life. They don’t speak about success beyond this lifetime. And that’s what is
missing and what Bhagavad Gita gives.
T: Where is the religion part in the
philosophy? They give philosophy but where is the religion part? This is what
Srila Prabhupada mentions.
A:
Right. They give principles, they give philosophy, they give systems, they give
ideas and religion is missing, it’s missing quite a lot because religion has to
do with God and they are kind of neglecting, sidelining God. Putting him on the
side, mentioning him very shyly, very rarely. Which is actually not fair
because He is the One who gives success. He is the One who gives opulence. He
is the One who gives money, the One who gives wealth. And those people whose
consciousness is higher… they actually recognize this.
T: And one very, very provocative question…
And it’s connected to the book I read by Frank Bettger. And the story I read
from his book is very interesting. His most famous book is called “How I Raised
Myself From a Failure to Success in Selling”. Actually he was illiterate, he
didn’t know how to write because he was an ex baseball player but he is one of
the most popular and best- seller of insurances. Now what is the question? The
question is about the story about Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln’s story, I
have to say before I ask the question, says that after many defeats he had had,
he lost one election, another, his wife died, again he lost another election,
he had so many defeats. But still he marked the history and became one of the
most famous presidents at that time in America. Now the most provocative question,
the ego question actually is, “Was he responsible for his success because he
was persistent? Whose credit is his success? He did one good shot and he succeeded
but is he responsible for that?
A: This
is an excellent question. Who is responsible for our success? Again I go back
to my previous point that we are not the only doer. So we are responsible for
our success in a sense that we have to make an effort, a sincere effort and
also this effort has to be intelligent. Not just work hard but also work smart.
So persistence is one of the important principles of success but if it’s not
meant to be, if it’s not your karma or if higher authorities don’t agree to
give you results, you will not have results. You can do anything you want- you
will still not have results. So this understanding of the cooperation with
higher authorities, higher beings, is very important for lasting success. And
again, his success to become a president of the United States is… I don’t know
how long… if he had one term of four years or two terms but this is also temporary.
And to be the president of the United States is actually very difficult. And
also when you become president of any country you take on like one sixth of the
karma of the people whom you are leading, so it’s not actually a very
confortable position. You may have some facilities for some time but… So the
view, the perspective of the Bhagavad Gita is not only short term like a few
years, four years, eight years. It’s actually looking at your whole life. And to
me that’s much more intelligent.
T: I had an intention to ask a question
about Jim Rohn but it’s almost the same like the previous one about Khalil. I
had a chance to see him alive in Munich, to listen to him and he was talking
like a real preacher. But actually, again, in all his preaching something was
missing. There was a deep philosophy in all that but religion was missing. And
because we previously said about Srilla Prabhupada’s quote, I think that we
don’t need to repeat this again, but there is something else that I would like
to ask. I remember Tom Hopkins, he was also in Skopje, he is a very, very good
writer and guru and a very famous one and one of his most famous books is “How
to Master the Art of Selling” and very practical advise he has…and one of his
most famous sentences is …Is it not an alternative question… not to allow the
customer to say no and so on and so on, then from “a very small yes to one big
yes” techniques and other type of techniques. Now my question is, “Can you name
some sales techniques, if I can ask this kind of question, from Bhagavad Gita?”
A: Bhagavad
Gita might not give direct sales techniques but it gives principles of
interaction of dealings where it explains the values. So what is worth your
buying? So if we understand what kind of value we want, what do we want to buy
then we will try to buy it and try to pay the price. And on the side of a sales
person if we want to sale something to anyone I think we should be convinced of
its value by using it ourselves, as we mentioned. And then we want the best
benefit for our clients. And as you said- “personalize, seek”. Maybe some
product or service that suits me will not suit you. We have to see what suits
you. So, therefore, I have to see you first to understand you… understand what
is your need. Therefore I have to listen carefully and deeply. And then
understand…and then when you see that I understand you I think you will tend to
trust me, and you will tend to do business with me for a long time.
T: There is one more author that has a
splendid book. He is called Robin Sharma and the book is called “The Monk Who
Sold His Ferrari”. And it’s a very famous book. But unfortunately…and there are
a lot of spiritual principles because the person in the book went in India and
thought in which way to live, so he came back and tried to do the things and he
made money again and, unfortunately, everything is splendid, the book is nice
to be read, but, again, he talks only about success through the prism of money.
So the center of their universe is money connected to what the business is
doing. And what Bhagavad Gita says about that?
A: Bhagavad Gita explains that we are
not one-dimensional beings. So we are spiritual beings, we also have a mind, we
have intelligence, we have emotions, which are part of the mind; we have
physical needs, we have spiritual needs. So focus on money as the main basis
for success is actually not very intelligent. Because even Beatles were singing:
“money can’t buy me love”, and we know that love is a great source of
happiness…everybody wants some love. You may buy sex but you cannot buy love.
So if we understand that people have more than one need and that different products
and services should fulfill all these needs especially the spiritual ones then
we will have a different look at the business. What kind of needs your business
fulfills? And in which way? And one thing about success teachers in general…they
are actually like preachers who are not fair. What I mean is that they take so
much from God and don’t give him credit. There is so many success teachers who
use even examples from the Bible. Sometimes they mention the Bible sometimes
they don’t. So my point is that whatever you teach give enough credit to the source.
Be fair…instead of taking just great credit for yourself as a great thinker and
innovator in the field of business. Because there is nothing new under the sun!
The principles of success have been here from the time of the creation and from
the time of the Creator…ha hah. And…so…it’s just very...It would be a fair
thing to do-- to give credit to the person who deserves the credit.
T: Okay, so a
few days age you were mentioning Eckhart Tolle, to be honest I haven’t read his
book much but the title is very famous. So everybody that reads the title knows
what that means or they don’t know. But what is the connection between this
title: “The Power of Now” with Bhagavad Gita? Why power of now? Why not the
power of yesterday or power of tomorrow?
A: I also…ha hah…it’s a little bit
strange to comment on that book. I can comment on the title and the kind of…how
do you say…the pictures that it initiates in my mind. My friends were telling
me about that book, and they say like “be here now”, “be happy now”, and
similar things. But, actually, from the point of view of the Bhagavad Gita I
have to question this. My question is “What is it that you are doing in ‘the
now’? What is it that you are thinking in ‘the now’?” And if…you may be aware
of the power of now and you may concentrate on the now but if you are thinking
nonsense and doing nonsense then your “now” is nonsense….
A: It doesn’t seem. It is nonsense. But
if you are doing things that are beneficial for you and for others, if you are
acting according to the eternal or timeless principles of success in the now
then your now is high quality now. So it’s not about now, it’s about what is in
the now.
T: Okay. And
now, ha hah…again… because I have asked all the questions I had on my mind I
would ask, “Do you have something to add, and you think it’s important that the
people that will hear this will need to hear?”
A: I invite all our listeners or
readers of the interview to actually read the Bhagavad Gita. This is a very old
book, but very relevant. It’s not meant for the old age, the past. It’s meant
actually for all times. It’s very fresh even today, especially “Bhagavad Gita
As It Is” by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad. The Gita has not been changed and
when you read it you will understand why. And if you don’t understand why it’s
a special, exquisite version of the Gita you can contact me and I can answer
all of your questions. You can contact me on my e-mail, my blog, my facebook,
and the links are below. So this is the wisdom that has been given to us to
attain success and to improve the quality of our lives. This afternoon I have
collected from the Vedic teachings about over two thousand pages of quotes on
success from a higher point of view. So this all can be relevant to our readers
and I can share it. I just have to tidy up and sort out the categories and the
quotes but these are amazing. This is the success philosophies of highly
developed human beings. These are the success philosophies that stand beyond
this lifetime. It’s not only about this short lifetime, thirty years of
success, fifty years of success. It’s about building our capacity to enjoy
eternally.
T: Okay, this was a
great way to finish …I will thank you now for all this time that you spent
explaining these things and I hope that we will have a chance to talk to you on
some other interesting topic next time.
A:
It was my pleasure.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
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