http://www.iskconcongregation.com/node/178
Q: What is Gita Coaching?
A: Gita Coaching is devotee care and guidance in action. Gita Coaching is a process of personal assistance meant to empower spiritual heroes. Within every devotee there is a spiritual hero, but he is now sleeping. Gita Coaching process helps that hero to wake up. According to the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, every soul is amazing (Bg 2.29). That means that especially every devotee is amazing.
Q: How did you start this service?
A: I started 10 years ago when I learned about coaching from the professional books and audio programs. I got professional coach training in England and now I am using it to help devotees succeed. I mainly use the success principles from the Bhagavad-gita As It Is to coach devotees. I started because it was painful for me to see that many of our devotees are not happy, although we have the best process and the best philosophy on the planet. I believed that it is possible to help devotees become more happy and more productive if we provide better support, care, guidance and inspiration.
Q: How would you call yourself in relation to your devotee care service?
A: Devotees' Success Coach.
Q: Why?
A: Because my service is helping devotees succeed in all areas of their lives. It is based on a Vedic principle sarve sukhino bhavantu, that we learned from Srila Prabhupada. He said that leader's duty is to make everyone under his leadership happy. I am not a leader, but I do serve as a spiritual guide and the same principle applies.
Q: Which devotees do you coach?
A: I coach devotees of all ages and genders, from 5 to 95 years of age. Some of them are leaders, preachers, managers, spiritual guides, coaches, and parents. I welcome anyone who wants to stop whining and start winning, or go from victim to victor.
Q: What inspires you to serve the devotees in this way?
A: I think I have been blessed by Krsna to like His devotees, or anyone who is trying to approach Him in some way. I think they are rare on this planet and they are special. So it is my honor and pleasure to assist them on their journey back to Krsna. I also like other people, because ultimately everyone is a child of God, and everyone is dear to Him. But those who are already trying to come closer to Him especially inspire me to serve them.
Q: How do you see the future of ISKCON (The International Society for Krsna Consciousness)?
A: I think it is very bright, because devotee care and guidance is becoming increasingly important in more and more places, temples and yatras. The devotee care approach will create more servant leaders or spiritual guides that we really need in order to have caring communities. I believe that only a caring community can flourish in all respects.
Q: Could you give us some success principles from the Bhagavad-gita As It Is?
A: Srila Prabhupada's Gita is an ocean of success principles, ideas, tools and solutions. I read it daily and use it daily in helping devotees succeed. Gita is a holistic success book. It gives many principles of success for all areas of life. How to attain peace of mind, clarity, and confidence. How to see what happens to you more intelligently and how to react wisely. It gives health, nutrition and balance tips for the body. It enlightens us about quality relationships. It teaches us how to speak and communicate. It advocates uplifiting of our thinking, feeling and willing – the main functions of the mind. There are many, many more.
Q: What is preventing devotees to benefit from these principles?
A: They don't read the Gita enough, or they don't read it in a structured way. You can do a topical study in the Gita and become an expert in the very thing that is your current challenge or a problem. Then instead of having that problem, you will help others with it. This is called a turnaround expert – you turn a problem into an opportunity. Devotees also don't use the Gita to solve their problems or achieve their goals. Either they don't see the connection or they don't know how. Gita Coaching helps you apply the Gita more effectively.
Q: What excites you the most about helping devotees succeed?
A: When I see that they get a new hope, new determination , fresh perspective and a powerful personal strategy to keep moving forward in their lives – closer to Krsna. This usually happens when they stop blaming anyone and start taking responsibility and being grateful for what they have. What excites me the most is when they become caring leaders, preachers, spiritual guides, coaches or some kind of caregivers.
Q: How do you know what to say and what principle or a tool to give them, that will best help them succeed?
A: I learn a lot all the time, both from the sastra and from the professionals. Preparation brings inspiration. The more I know, the more I believe Krsna will inspire me from within to say the right thing. And also, when you love someone, God gives you intelligence how to benefit them in an optimal way. It is a highly intuitive service. Many times they discover what will help them the most, and I just facilitate that process.
Q: Apart from Gita Coaching, what else are you doing?
A: I am teaching common sense that is not a common practice and I am showing the obvious that people do not see. I recommend devotees to choose to be creative instead of confused, and impressed instead of depressed. I claim that happiness is 95 percent your choice and 5 percent circumstances. And I like to ask devotees:
If not you – who? If not now – when?
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