Usually these four:
1. Love
2. Fear
3. Gain
4. Pain
When you need to motivate yourself, use any of them.
Translate
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
REAL ATTITUDE
Real attitude of devotional service is, whether I am here or there, whether I am doing this or that, it doesn't matter, just give me little prasada, little service, or if you make me big leader, that's all right - that is devotee, satisfied to serve Krishna in any circumstances of life.
- Srila Prabhupada, Letter to Satsvarupa, Vrindavan 5 November 1972
- Srila Prabhupada, Letter to Satsvarupa, Vrindavan 5 November 1972
EPITAPH
Joe J. Jones 1942 – 2003
HE WOULDA DONE SOME REALLY COOL STUFF BUT …
... HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!
HE WOULDA DONE SOME REALLY COOL STUFF BUT …
... HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!
EXPAND YOUR OPTIONS
There are always many more options than you see at any particular moment. That's why you need a coach and you need to read more.
WE LEARN FROM MANY
Modern success teachers have great ideas that we can use in Krsna's sevice, but neither of them has ALL ideas. Therefore we learn from many. That's practical yukta vairagya.
Monday, December 29, 2008
FIVE AREAS
Here are few quick tips for five areas of your life.
Health
Eat less, dance more (in kirtana if possible).
Sadhana
Chant 16 rounds in one go first thing in the morning.
Service
Do what you love to do.
Relationships
Judge less, help more. Instead of being interesting, be interested.
Finances
Always spend less than you earn.
Health
Eat less, dance more (in kirtana if possible).
Sadhana
Chant 16 rounds in one go first thing in the morning.
Service
Do what you love to do.
Relationships
Judge less, help more. Instead of being interesting, be interested.
Finances
Always spend less than you earn.
PH.D. IN LEADERSHIP
"Ph.D. in leadership. Short course: Make a short list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don’t do them to others. Ever. Make another list of things done to you that you loved. Do them to others. Always.”
— Dee Hock, VISA Founder
— Dee Hock, VISA Founder
Thursday, December 25, 2008
LEADING @ GOOGLE
Here's my friend executive coach Marshall Goldsmith at his best:
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=3WBeGAAYWg8&eurl=http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?q=brian+tracy&emb=0&aq=f
A one hour free video leadership seminar at Google.
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=3WBeGAAYWg8&eurl=http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?q=brian+tracy&emb=0&aq=f
A one hour free video leadership seminar at Google.
NOTHING MORE POWERFUL
One famous author said: There's nothing more powerful than the idea whose time has come. We say: There's nothing more powerful than something that God wants done.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Did you ever stop to think that everything you are or ever will be is completely up to you?
Just imagine!
You are where you are because of who you are.
Everything that exists in your life exists because of you, because of your behavior, words and actions.
Because you have freedom of choice and because you have chosen each and every circumstance of your life, you are completely responsible for all of your success and failure, your happiness and unhappiness, your present and future.
That thought is like a parachute jump: It’s scary and exhilarating at the same time.
It’s one of the biggest and most important ideas that can ever occur to you, or anyone else.
The acceptance of personal responsibility is what separates the adult from the child.
It’s the great leap forward into maturity.
Responsibility is the hallmark of the fully integrated, fully functioning human being.
Responsibility goes hand in hand with success, achievement, motivation, happiness and self-actualization.
It’s the absolute minimum requirement for the accomplishment of everything you could ever really want in life.
Accepting that you’re completely responsible for yourself and realizing that no one is coming to the rescue is the beginning of peak performance.
There’s very little that you cannot do or have after you accept that “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!”
The opposite of accepting responsibility is making excuses and blaming people and things for what’s going on in your life.
And since everything we do is a matter of habit, if people get into the habit of making excuses, they get into the habit of evading responsibility at the same time.
If they set a goal or objective for themselves, they immediately create an excuse that they hold in reserve just in case the accomplishment of the goal is too difficult or requires more self-discipline and persistence than they had thought.
As soon as things start to go poorly, irresponsible people trot out their excuse and let themselves off the hook. But that won’t get them anywhere in the long run.
A basic law of human life was first espoused by Socrates more than 400 years before Christ.
It’s called the Law of Causality. We call it the Law of Cause and Effect.
It states that for every effect in your life, there’s a cause.
If there’s any effect that you desire, or desire more of, you can trace it back to the cause, and by duplicating the cause, you can have the effect.
For example, everyone wants to be healthy.
If you set a high level of physical health and energy as your goal, or the desired effect, you can have it simply by finding out the cause, by finding out what other healthy and energetic people do with regard to diet, exercise and rest, and by doing the same thing.
If you do, you’re likely to get the same result.
This is no miracle.
It sounds simple, but in many cases, it’s one of the hardest things in the world to do.
Unhappiness is an effect as well.
If you wish to be happy, the first thing to do is to decide for yourself the kind of life situation in which you would feel wonderful.
Think of the very best times of your life, and think of what you were doing, where you were doing it, and the people you were with at the time.
Then write out, in complete detail, a description of your ideal lifestyle.
Now you have defined the effect that you desire.
Next, look at your current life and ask yourself, “What are all the things in my life that are inconsistent with the lifestyle that would make me happy?”
In other words, look at the causes of the effects that you don’t like.
Then make a decision to begin alleviating or removing those causes, one by one, until what you have left is the kind of life you want to live.
Your thoughts are extremely powerful.
They have the power to raise and lower your blood pressure, your pulse rate and your respiratory rate.
They can affect your digestion.
And if your thoughts are strong enough, they can even make you sick or healthy.
Your thoughts tend to trigger images in your mind, and the feelings in your body are consistent with them.
If you think or read happy, healthy thoughts, you will have happy, healthy pictures and experience happy, healthy emotions.
As Deepak Chopra points out in his audiocassette program Magical Mind, Magical Body, every part of your mind is connected to every single part of your body in a complex web of messages and impulses that affect everything you feel, say and do.
Only you can think your thoughts, only you can decide what you’ll dwell upon, what you’ll read and listen to, who you’ll associate with and the conversations you’ll engage in; therefore, you are totally responsible for all the consequences of all those behaviors.
It’s unavoidable.
Perhaps the most important part of the subject of self-responsibility involves your happiness and your peace of mind.
There seems to be a direct relationship between responsibility and happiness on the one hand, and irresponsibility and unhappiness on the other hand.
Let me explain.
First of all, the key to happiness is having a sense of control over what’s going on in your life.
The more you feel that you’re in control, the happier you’ll be.
Men and women who have risen to the top of their organizations tend to be far happier than people further down.
This is because they feel far more in control of their destinies, far more capable of making decisions and taking action.
The more responsibility you take in your company, the more power, authority and respect you’ll receive.
One of the smartest things you can do is to take responsibility for the most important concerns of your boss.
The more you accept responsibility for getting results in the areas that your boss considers most important, the more valuable and indispensable you’ll become in your organization.
People who want more money and more respect often think that they can get it simply by asking for it or by politicking.
The truth is that it will accrue to you rapidly as soon as you “step up to the plate” and undertake responsibility for results in your organization.
The most respected people in any company are those who are the most capable of getting the most important jobs done on schedule.
The more responsibility you take, the more in control you are. And the freer you are, especially in your own mind, to make decisions and to do the things you want to do.
So there’s a direct relationship between responsibility, control, freedom and happiness.
The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their lives.
At the other end of the spectrum, there is irresponsibility, or the failure to accept responsibility.
Each person is somewhere in between, moving toward a higher level of responsibility or irresponsibility with every word and every decision.
In fact, a good definition of insanity is total irresponsibility, to the point of needing a straitjacket and a padded cell.
Thomas Szasz, the great psychoanalyst, once wrote, “There is no such thing as insanity. There are only varying levels of irresponsibility.”
A person who is completely irresponsible is subject to anger, hostility, fear, resentment, doubt-all sorts of negative emotions.
And here’s why. All negative emotions tend to be associated with blame.
Fully 99 percent of all our problems exist only because we’re able to blame someone or something for them.
The instant we stop blaming, our negative emotions begin disappearing.
What’s the antidote to blaming?
It’s simple!
Since your mind can hold only one thought at a time, either positive or negative, you can override the tendency to blame and become angry simply by saying, firmly, “I am responsible!”
You can’t accept responsibility for a situation and be angry at the same time.
You can’t accept responsibility and be unhappy or upset.
The acceptance of responsibility negates negative emotions and short-circuits any tendencies toward unhappiness.
The very act of accepting responsibility calms your mind and clarifies your vision.
It soothes your emotions and enables you to think more positively and constructively.
In fact, the acceptance of responsibility often gives you insight into what you should do to resolve the situation.
Here’s an exercise: Look at the most common problems and difficulties that people have in life. Apply this simple remedy of accepting responsibility to each one, and see what happens.
People have problems with other people-their spouses, their children, their friends, their coworkers and their bosses.
Someone once said that almost all of our problems in life have hair on top, come on two legs and talk back.
So think of the people in your life who cause you any stress or anxiety and ask yourself who is responsible.
Are they responsible for being in your life, or are you responsible for having them in your life?
According to the Law of Attraction, you’re a living magnet in that you invariably attract people into your life who harmonize with your dominant thoughts and emotions.
The people in your life are there because you’ve attracted them by the person you are, by the thoughts you hold, by the emotions you experience.
If you’re not happy with the people surrounding you, you’re responsible.
You’re attracting them, and you’re keeping them there.
Let me give you an example.
I have four beautiful children.
For a long time, when my children were behaving in ways that I felt were inappropriate, I had a tendency to blame or criticize them.
However, the more I studied child raising and learned about the subject, the more I found that children are almost totally reactive.
Their behaviors are almost always responses to what is going on around them and to their relationships with their parents.
So I began asking the question, “What is it in me that is causing my child to act this way?”
As soon as I turned the question around, and looked to myself for the reason-in effect, accepted complete responsibility for my children’s behavior - I was able to see what I might be doing, or not doing, that my children were reacting to.
Perhaps I wasn’t spending enough one-on-one time with them.
Perhaps I wasn’t listening to them when they wanted to talk. Perhaps I was too quick to question their report cards.
I began to apply that simple principle to every other part of my life as well.
I began asking, “What is it in me that is causing this external situation?”
If the Law of Correspondence is true (and it is), and everything that is happening to you on the outside is due to something that is happening to you on the inside, then the first place to look is within.
As soon as you do that, you begin to see things that you had completely missed when you were busy blaming others and making excuses.
You begin to see that you’re responsible in large measure for the things that are happening to you.
If you’re in a bad relationship, who got you there? You likely weren’t marched into the relationship and kept there at gunpoint.
So it’s largely a matter of free will and free choice on your part.
If you’re not happy, it’s up to you to do something about it.
As Henry Ford II once said, “Never complain, never explain.”
If you’re not happy with the situation, do something about it.
If you’re not willing to do something about it, then don’t complain.
There’s the story of the construction worker who opens up his lunch box at the noon break and unwraps his sandwich to find that it contains sardines.
He gets really upset and complains loudly to everyone around him about how much he hates sardines.
The next day, the same thing happens: a sardine sandwich.
Again, the construction worker shouts and complains about how much he hates sardines for lunch.
The third day it happens again.
By this time, his fellow workers are getting fed up with his loud complaining.
One of them leans over and says to him, “If you hate sardines so much, why don’t you tell your wife to make you some other kind of sandwich?”
The construction worker turns to the fellow and says, “Oh, I’m not married. I make my own lunches!”
Many of us get into the same situation as the construction worker’s and complain about circumstances that are almost entirely of our own making.
Is this true for you?
Look over your relationships and ask where this might be true in your life.
Are you happy with your job?
Are you happy with the amount of money you’re earning?
Are you happy with your level of responsibility and your activities each day?
If you’re not, you need to accept that you’re completely responsible for every aspect of your job and your career.
Why?
Because you chose it freely.
You took the job, you assumed the responsibilities, and you accepted the wage.
If you’re not happy with any of them, for any reason, then it’s up to you to do something different.
You’re earning today exactly what you’re worth-not a penny more, not a penny less.
In life, we tend to get exactly what we deserve.
If you’re not satisfied with the amount you’re getting, look around you, at people who are doing the kind of work you would like to do and earning the kind of money you would like to earn.
Ask them what they’re doing differently from what you’re doing.
What are the causes of the effects they’re getting? Once you know what they are, accept complete responsibility for your situation, apply your wonderful mind and abilities, back them with willpower and self-discipline, and get busy making the changes you need to make to enjoy the life you want to enjoy.
Your great aim in life is to develop character.
Character is composed of self-esteem, self-discipline, the ability to delay gratification, and the willingness to accept full responsibility for your life and everything in it.
The more you say to yourself, “I am responsible,” the stronger, better and finer a person you become.
And every part of your life will improve at the same time.
Brian Tracy
Just imagine!
You are where you are because of who you are.
Everything that exists in your life exists because of you, because of your behavior, words and actions.
Because you have freedom of choice and because you have chosen each and every circumstance of your life, you are completely responsible for all of your success and failure, your happiness and unhappiness, your present and future.
That thought is like a parachute jump: It’s scary and exhilarating at the same time.
It’s one of the biggest and most important ideas that can ever occur to you, or anyone else.
The acceptance of personal responsibility is what separates the adult from the child.
It’s the great leap forward into maturity.
Responsibility is the hallmark of the fully integrated, fully functioning human being.
Responsibility goes hand in hand with success, achievement, motivation, happiness and self-actualization.
It’s the absolute minimum requirement for the accomplishment of everything you could ever really want in life.
Accepting that you’re completely responsible for yourself and realizing that no one is coming to the rescue is the beginning of peak performance.
There’s very little that you cannot do or have after you accept that “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!”
The opposite of accepting responsibility is making excuses and blaming people and things for what’s going on in your life.
And since everything we do is a matter of habit, if people get into the habit of making excuses, they get into the habit of evading responsibility at the same time.
If they set a goal or objective for themselves, they immediately create an excuse that they hold in reserve just in case the accomplishment of the goal is too difficult or requires more self-discipline and persistence than they had thought.
As soon as things start to go poorly, irresponsible people trot out their excuse and let themselves off the hook. But that won’t get them anywhere in the long run.
A basic law of human life was first espoused by Socrates more than 400 years before Christ.
It’s called the Law of Causality. We call it the Law of Cause and Effect.
It states that for every effect in your life, there’s a cause.
If there’s any effect that you desire, or desire more of, you can trace it back to the cause, and by duplicating the cause, you can have the effect.
For example, everyone wants to be healthy.
If you set a high level of physical health and energy as your goal, or the desired effect, you can have it simply by finding out the cause, by finding out what other healthy and energetic people do with regard to diet, exercise and rest, and by doing the same thing.
If you do, you’re likely to get the same result.
This is no miracle.
It sounds simple, but in many cases, it’s one of the hardest things in the world to do.
Unhappiness is an effect as well.
If you wish to be happy, the first thing to do is to decide for yourself the kind of life situation in which you would feel wonderful.
Think of the very best times of your life, and think of what you were doing, where you were doing it, and the people you were with at the time.
Then write out, in complete detail, a description of your ideal lifestyle.
Now you have defined the effect that you desire.
Next, look at your current life and ask yourself, “What are all the things in my life that are inconsistent with the lifestyle that would make me happy?”
In other words, look at the causes of the effects that you don’t like.
Then make a decision to begin alleviating or removing those causes, one by one, until what you have left is the kind of life you want to live.
Your thoughts are extremely powerful.
They have the power to raise and lower your blood pressure, your pulse rate and your respiratory rate.
They can affect your digestion.
And if your thoughts are strong enough, they can even make you sick or healthy.
Your thoughts tend to trigger images in your mind, and the feelings in your body are consistent with them.
If you think or read happy, healthy thoughts, you will have happy, healthy pictures and experience happy, healthy emotions.
As Deepak Chopra points out in his audiocassette program Magical Mind, Magical Body, every part of your mind is connected to every single part of your body in a complex web of messages and impulses that affect everything you feel, say and do.
Only you can think your thoughts, only you can decide what you’ll dwell upon, what you’ll read and listen to, who you’ll associate with and the conversations you’ll engage in; therefore, you are totally responsible for all the consequences of all those behaviors.
It’s unavoidable.
Perhaps the most important part of the subject of self-responsibility involves your happiness and your peace of mind.
There seems to be a direct relationship between responsibility and happiness on the one hand, and irresponsibility and unhappiness on the other hand.
Let me explain.
First of all, the key to happiness is having a sense of control over what’s going on in your life.
The more you feel that you’re in control, the happier you’ll be.
Men and women who have risen to the top of their organizations tend to be far happier than people further down.
This is because they feel far more in control of their destinies, far more capable of making decisions and taking action.
The more responsibility you take in your company, the more power, authority and respect you’ll receive.
One of the smartest things you can do is to take responsibility for the most important concerns of your boss.
The more you accept responsibility for getting results in the areas that your boss considers most important, the more valuable and indispensable you’ll become in your organization.
People who want more money and more respect often think that they can get it simply by asking for it or by politicking.
The truth is that it will accrue to you rapidly as soon as you “step up to the plate” and undertake responsibility for results in your organization.
The most respected people in any company are those who are the most capable of getting the most important jobs done on schedule.
The more responsibility you take, the more in control you are. And the freer you are, especially in your own mind, to make decisions and to do the things you want to do.
So there’s a direct relationship between responsibility, control, freedom and happiness.
The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their lives.
At the other end of the spectrum, there is irresponsibility, or the failure to accept responsibility.
Each person is somewhere in between, moving toward a higher level of responsibility or irresponsibility with every word and every decision.
In fact, a good definition of insanity is total irresponsibility, to the point of needing a straitjacket and a padded cell.
Thomas Szasz, the great psychoanalyst, once wrote, “There is no such thing as insanity. There are only varying levels of irresponsibility.”
A person who is completely irresponsible is subject to anger, hostility, fear, resentment, doubt-all sorts of negative emotions.
And here’s why. All negative emotions tend to be associated with blame.
Fully 99 percent of all our problems exist only because we’re able to blame someone or something for them.
The instant we stop blaming, our negative emotions begin disappearing.
What’s the antidote to blaming?
It’s simple!
Since your mind can hold only one thought at a time, either positive or negative, you can override the tendency to blame and become angry simply by saying, firmly, “I am responsible!”
You can’t accept responsibility for a situation and be angry at the same time.
You can’t accept responsibility and be unhappy or upset.
The acceptance of responsibility negates negative emotions and short-circuits any tendencies toward unhappiness.
The very act of accepting responsibility calms your mind and clarifies your vision.
It soothes your emotions and enables you to think more positively and constructively.
In fact, the acceptance of responsibility often gives you insight into what you should do to resolve the situation.
Here’s an exercise: Look at the most common problems and difficulties that people have in life. Apply this simple remedy of accepting responsibility to each one, and see what happens.
People have problems with other people-their spouses, their children, their friends, their coworkers and their bosses.
Someone once said that almost all of our problems in life have hair on top, come on two legs and talk back.
So think of the people in your life who cause you any stress or anxiety and ask yourself who is responsible.
Are they responsible for being in your life, or are you responsible for having them in your life?
According to the Law of Attraction, you’re a living magnet in that you invariably attract people into your life who harmonize with your dominant thoughts and emotions.
The people in your life are there because you’ve attracted them by the person you are, by the thoughts you hold, by the emotions you experience.
If you’re not happy with the people surrounding you, you’re responsible.
You’re attracting them, and you’re keeping them there.
Let me give you an example.
I have four beautiful children.
For a long time, when my children were behaving in ways that I felt were inappropriate, I had a tendency to blame or criticize them.
However, the more I studied child raising and learned about the subject, the more I found that children are almost totally reactive.
Their behaviors are almost always responses to what is going on around them and to their relationships with their parents.
So I began asking the question, “What is it in me that is causing my child to act this way?”
As soon as I turned the question around, and looked to myself for the reason-in effect, accepted complete responsibility for my children’s behavior - I was able to see what I might be doing, or not doing, that my children were reacting to.
Perhaps I wasn’t spending enough one-on-one time with them.
Perhaps I wasn’t listening to them when they wanted to talk. Perhaps I was too quick to question their report cards.
I began to apply that simple principle to every other part of my life as well.
I began asking, “What is it in me that is causing this external situation?”
If the Law of Correspondence is true (and it is), and everything that is happening to you on the outside is due to something that is happening to you on the inside, then the first place to look is within.
As soon as you do that, you begin to see things that you had completely missed when you were busy blaming others and making excuses.
You begin to see that you’re responsible in large measure for the things that are happening to you.
If you’re in a bad relationship, who got you there? You likely weren’t marched into the relationship and kept there at gunpoint.
So it’s largely a matter of free will and free choice on your part.
If you’re not happy, it’s up to you to do something about it.
As Henry Ford II once said, “Never complain, never explain.”
If you’re not happy with the situation, do something about it.
If you’re not willing to do something about it, then don’t complain.
There’s the story of the construction worker who opens up his lunch box at the noon break and unwraps his sandwich to find that it contains sardines.
He gets really upset and complains loudly to everyone around him about how much he hates sardines.
The next day, the same thing happens: a sardine sandwich.
Again, the construction worker shouts and complains about how much he hates sardines for lunch.
The third day it happens again.
By this time, his fellow workers are getting fed up with his loud complaining.
One of them leans over and says to him, “If you hate sardines so much, why don’t you tell your wife to make you some other kind of sandwich?”
The construction worker turns to the fellow and says, “Oh, I’m not married. I make my own lunches!”
Many of us get into the same situation as the construction worker’s and complain about circumstances that are almost entirely of our own making.
Is this true for you?
Look over your relationships and ask where this might be true in your life.
Are you happy with your job?
Are you happy with the amount of money you’re earning?
Are you happy with your level of responsibility and your activities each day?
If you’re not, you need to accept that you’re completely responsible for every aspect of your job and your career.
Why?
Because you chose it freely.
You took the job, you assumed the responsibilities, and you accepted the wage.
If you’re not happy with any of them, for any reason, then it’s up to you to do something different.
You’re earning today exactly what you’re worth-not a penny more, not a penny less.
In life, we tend to get exactly what we deserve.
If you’re not satisfied with the amount you’re getting, look around you, at people who are doing the kind of work you would like to do and earning the kind of money you would like to earn.
Ask them what they’re doing differently from what you’re doing.
What are the causes of the effects they’re getting? Once you know what they are, accept complete responsibility for your situation, apply your wonderful mind and abilities, back them with willpower and self-discipline, and get busy making the changes you need to make to enjoy the life you want to enjoy.
Your great aim in life is to develop character.
Character is composed of self-esteem, self-discipline, the ability to delay gratification, and the willingness to accept full responsibility for your life and everything in it.
The more you say to yourself, “I am responsible,” the stronger, better and finer a person you become.
And every part of your life will improve at the same time.
Brian Tracy
4 STEPS TO SUCCESS
1. Set clear, written goals and make plans for their achievement.
2. Learn everything you need to know to be very good at what you do.
3. Back your goals and plans with persistence and determination and refuse to quit when the going gets tough.
4. Pray to Krsna.
2. Learn everything you need to know to be very good at what you do.
3. Back your goals and plans with persistence and determination and refuse to quit when the going gets tough.
4. Pray to Krsna.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
SOUMYA
Soumya’s Chanting
I would like to share with you a couple of incidents in my initial days of Krishna consciousness. Krishna's holy names are not different from Krishna. It has great power in strength ... sweet in taste. Everybody enjoys it if they attentively chant. It even attracts little kids to become Krishna conscious without parents' intervention.
I started practising Krishna consciousness three years back. By the mercy of Radha Mohan Prabhu who was my colleague in the office, I came to know about Hare Krishna movement and Krishna consciousness.
Radha Mohan Prabhu brought beads for me from Vrindavan and I started my chanting at home. My daughter Soumya who was five years old at that time used to observe me chanting daily. Once she asked me that she wants to chant on beads. I discouraged her and told her that she is too young and she can't hold the beads properly. Also I tried to convince her that once she grows up she can start chanting.
The next day I observed that Soumya drew 108 boxes on the white paper and marking each box while chanting Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. I was very surprised with her idea and strong desire to chant Maha Mantra. After completing her round of chanting I asked her how she got that idea. She replied, “Dad, you told me that since I am just five years old, I can't hold the beads properly. So I got this idea of drawing 108 boxes and marking each box while chanting. In this way I can count 108 times without holding beads. I think you have no objection now.”
I then realized the power and taste of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra.
I still remember, that day was Friday and we had a Bhagavad-gita class at Dinabandhu Prabhu's house. I told Dinabandhu Prabhu about Soumya's chanting and asked him whether it is ok to encourage kids to chant at this age. Dinabandhu Prabhu told me that we should encourage kids to chant if they have that desire and he gave beads with bead bag to Soumya. By the blessings of that great devotee, from that day my little daughter started chanting and practicing Krishna consciousness for the past three years.
This is really a wonderful experience in my life to realize that there is no age limit and everybody enjoys Hare Krishna Maha Mantra once they taste it.
Soumya’s Preaching
Soumya used to prepare gift cards in MS Word or Paint Brush with Krishna’s picture and the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. When I made a printout of those cards at my office, she used give these cards as gifts to her friends. When I asked her why she is giving them, she said, “This is one way of preaching. My friends who are Muslims and Christians and don't know about Krishna will see Krishna's beautiful face and read the Maha Mantra written on the card at least once. It gives them some spiritual benefit.”
I was quite surprised by her answer. We never taught her to do like that. I think that is because of the mercy of great devotees and the Supreme Lord.
(Written by Bhakta Radha Krishna Murthy, ISKCON Manchester, UK)
SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM AUDIO ONLINE
Here you can listen to a free Srimad Bhagavatam audio (translations):
http://prabhupadavani.org/Bhagavatam/SB_index_I.html
THE NARRATOR: Amala-bhakta dasa is a direct disciple of Srila Prabhupada and an ordained minister of ISKCON. He has been teaching yoga in general since 1958 and Bhakti Yoga in particular since 1976 and has recorded many of Srila Prabhupada's books.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Translation from Sanskrit and purports
(first 9 Cantos and partially the 10th)
Disciples of His Divine Grace
Translation from Sanskrit and purports
Rest of the 10th Canto plus the 11th and 12th)
Sriman Amal Bhakta Das
Narration and special audio effects.
© 2004 Krishna Productions Inc.
http://prabhupadavani.org/Bhagavatam/SB_index_I.html
THE NARRATOR: Amala-bhakta dasa is a direct disciple of Srila Prabhupada and an ordained minister of ISKCON. He has been teaching yoga in general since 1958 and Bhakti Yoga in particular since 1976 and has recorded many of Srila Prabhupada's books.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Translation from Sanskrit and purports
(first 9 Cantos and partially the 10th)
Disciples of His Divine Grace
Translation from Sanskrit and purports
Rest of the 10th Canto plus the 11th and 12th)
Sriman Amal Bhakta Das
Narration and special audio effects.
© 2004 Krishna Productions Inc.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
WHAT IS A STRENGTH?
The ability is a strength only if you can see yourself doing it repeatedly, happily and successfully.
Monday, December 15, 2008
THE BEE AND THE FLY
The difference between a devotee and a nondevotee is this, just like the bee and the fly: the bee always is attracted by the honey and flies go to the open sores.
So the devotee is only attracted by the good qualities in other people and does not see their faults.
He is friend to everyone and in this way he finds his life sublime.
- Srila Prabhupada
So the devotee is only attracted by the good qualities in other people and does not see their faults.
He is friend to everyone and in this way he finds his life sublime.
- Srila Prabhupada
ANXIETIES WILL DISAPPEAR
Of course we are not ourselves perfect, so sometimes there may be something, and we may lose our enthusiasm to do something - but these things come and go and you should not bother very much with them.
Just be attached to Krishna and try always to think how to please Him, and He will personally rescue His devotee from all kinds of unfavorable situations.
Even we may not like to do the work, if we work very hard for Krishna soon we lose our attachment and become satisfied just to be serving Krishna, and as long as at least 16 offenseless rounds daily are being chanted, know it for certain that our anxieties will disappear very soon.
- Srila Prabhupada
Just be attached to Krishna and try always to think how to please Him, and He will personally rescue His devotee from all kinds of unfavorable situations.
Even we may not like to do the work, if we work very hard for Krishna soon we lose our attachment and become satisfied just to be serving Krishna, and as long as at least 16 offenseless rounds daily are being chanted, know it for certain that our anxieties will disappear very soon.
- Srila Prabhupada
SRILA PRABHUPADA’S SUCCESS SECRETS
These 11 secrets, if you take them seriously and apply them, can change your life.
(For all these points in his books, Srila Prabhupada said: “This is the secret of success.”)
1. Related to a spiritual master:
a. Accepting him as one's guru
b. Receiving the sound from him or hearing from him (“from the right person”)
c. Taking shelter of him
d. Offering him all the respects one would offer the Supreme Personality of Godhead
e. Being faithful to both Krsna and him
f. Serving him with heart and soul
g. Satisfying him and thereby getting his sincere blessings
h. Completely faithful execution of his order
i. Being very serious to execute his mission
j. Achieving the seed of devotional service by his mercy and then by the mercy of Krsna
k. Having faith in his words and in the Supreme Personality of Godhead
l. Having firm faith in his orders
m. Following his instructions
n. Accepting his words to clear the path for spiritual advancement
2. Related to pleasing Krsna:
a.Understanding that real self-interest ends in pleasing Lord Visnu
b. Satisfying the Supreme Lord by any activity - social, political, religious or philanthropic
c. By pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we please everyone, and there is no question of scarcity
3. Remaining pure by chanting the holy name of Krsna, the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.
4. Staying in the association of devotees.
5. Offering the results or profits to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and thus not becoming entangled in the results.
6. Learning how to dovetail everything in the service of the Lord.
7. Having a higher taste for spiritual enjoyment.
8. Knowing the mystery of bhakti-yoga.
9. Becoming free from bodily attachments.
10. When put into hellish conditions, accepting them as Krsna's mercy.
11. Following the instructions of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
(For all these points in his books, Srila Prabhupada said: “This is the secret of success.”)
1. Related to a spiritual master:
a. Accepting him as one's guru
b. Receiving the sound from him or hearing from him (“from the right person”)
c. Taking shelter of him
d. Offering him all the respects one would offer the Supreme Personality of Godhead
e. Being faithful to both Krsna and him
f. Serving him with heart and soul
g. Satisfying him and thereby getting his sincere blessings
h. Completely faithful execution of his order
i. Being very serious to execute his mission
j. Achieving the seed of devotional service by his mercy and then by the mercy of Krsna
k. Having faith in his words and in the Supreme Personality of Godhead
l. Having firm faith in his orders
m. Following his instructions
n. Accepting his words to clear the path for spiritual advancement
2. Related to pleasing Krsna:
a.Understanding that real self-interest ends in pleasing Lord Visnu
b. Satisfying the Supreme Lord by any activity - social, political, religious or philanthropic
c. By pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we please everyone, and there is no question of scarcity
3. Remaining pure by chanting the holy name of Krsna, the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.
4. Staying in the association of devotees.
5. Offering the results or profits to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and thus not becoming entangled in the results.
6. Learning how to dovetail everything in the service of the Lord.
7. Having a higher taste for spiritual enjoyment.
8. Knowing the mystery of bhakti-yoga.
9. Becoming free from bodily attachments.
10. When put into hellish conditions, accepting them as Krsna's mercy.
11. Following the instructions of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
BEING PROACTIVE
1. We can decide within ourselves how all that happens to us is going to affect us.
2. Between stimulus and response is our freedom to choose our response.
3. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.
4. The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.
5. I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.
6. It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.
7. What matters most is how we respond to what we experience in life.
8. It is inspiring to realize that in choosing our response to circumstances, we can powerfully affect our circumstances.
9. Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation. It’s not what they’re not doing or should be doing that’s the issue. The issue is our own chosen response to them and what we should be doing.
10. We are responsible for our own effectiveness, for our own happiness, and ultimately, for most of our circumstances.
2. Between stimulus and response is our freedom to choose our response.
3. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.
4. The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.
5. I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.
6. It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.
7. What matters most is how we respond to what we experience in life.
8. It is inspiring to realize that in choosing our response to circumstances, we can powerfully affect our circumstances.
9. Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation. It’s not what they’re not doing or should be doing that’s the issue. The issue is our own chosen response to them and what we should be doing.
10. We are responsible for our own effectiveness, for our own happiness, and ultimately, for most of our circumstances.
THAT IS WHY ... I SUCCEED
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot - and missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why ... I succeed.
— Michael Jordan
— Michael Jordan
BUSY
It is when you are most busy that you have to stop, think and draw upon your inner wisdom.
When we are most busy or under pressure we tend to make our biggest mistakes, so we need at least a few minutes to think, reconnect to our conscience, and make a wise decision - in a difficult moment.
I like this life management credo:
"I will not be governed by the efficiency of the clock. I will be governed by my conscience, because my conscience deals with the totality of my life. And since I have learned - by study, prayer and experience - to connect with my conscience, it will help me make wise decisions."
When we are most busy or under pressure we tend to make our biggest mistakes, so we need at least a few minutes to think, reconnect to our conscience, and make a wise decision - in a difficult moment.
I like this life management credo:
"I will not be governed by the efficiency of the clock. I will be governed by my conscience, because my conscience deals with the totality of my life. And since I have learned - by study, prayer and experience - to connect with my conscience, it will help me make wise decisions."
INTELLIGENCE AND SINCERITY
In order to be successful, we need two things: intelligence and sincerity.
Intelligence is needed to understand what needs to be done and how, what is the best thing to do in any given situation and what is the optimal way to do it.
Sincerity is needed so we can do things in a way that builds trust.
That means being honest and taking into consideration other people's needs interests and concerns, not only our own.
Intelligence is needed to understand what needs to be done and how, what is the best thing to do in any given situation and what is the optimal way to do it.
Sincerity is needed so we can do things in a way that builds trust.
That means being honest and taking into consideration other people's needs interests and concerns, not only our own.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
EGONOMICS
We will not be able to be happy until we give up false ego of "I, me, mine" and "I am the doer" (ahankara).
Thursday, December 11, 2008
PROFOUND THOUGHTS
Watch for big problems, they disguise big opportunities.
A true handicap is what we don't do with what we have, not what we can't do with what we don't have.
Success comes in cans; failures come in cant’s.
It's nice to be important, but more important is to be nice.
You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.
You will never leave where you are, until you decide where you'd rather be.
Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.
The highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.
- Various
A true handicap is what we don't do with what we have, not what we can't do with what we don't have.
Success comes in cans; failures come in cant’s.
It's nice to be important, but more important is to be nice.
You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.
You will never leave where you are, until you decide where you'd rather be.
Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.
The highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.
- Various
Friday, December 5, 2008
GITA COACHING
Gita Coaching helps devotees in three ways:
1. Communicate to devotees their worth and potential so clearly that they start to see it themselves.
2. Discover new options, opportunities, possibilities and advantages.
3. Find solutions that exactly meet their needs.
http://vedicilluminations.com/gitacoaching
A MUSIC GIFT
Here you can download songs that we made with Bhakta Simon in Slovenia:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ckys2m
Lyrics available on request.
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