MY OCCUPATION & ASHRAM:

We can’t run society only by focusing on internal or spiritual development…we also need our fully furnished houses…😂, luxurious vehicles, expensive gadgets, strong 💪 defenses, health care, science, entertainment…😂. 

MY OCCUPATION & ASHRAM: Every Occupation & Ashram (orders of our life) is valuable and it has its own importance & contribution to society. In the Gita, Lord Krishna has mentioned VARNASHRAM society. Varna means Occupation and Ashram means orders of life; they both are necessary for our material & spiritual development. In order to run a systematic, smooth, prosperous & peaceful society, we need varnashram model. Consciously or Subconsciously every one of us is following this Varnashram model. Human society all over the world is divided into four kinds of occupation and four orders of life. Let’s look deeper into it. 

Four Varnas or Occupations: Varnas system is about choosing our occupation based on our passion, personality to support our family, society & the nation. Yes, they are chosen as per our psycho-physical nature and are required to run the society.

1. Intelligent, Advisory & Teaching services.

2. Administrative & Defense services.

3. Business & Trading services.(Mercantile & Farmers). 

4. Manufacturing, Health Care, Construction and other Public services.

Bg 4.13 -- According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me. And although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the nondoer, being unchangeable.

Four Ashram or Orders of our lives:

1. Brahmachrya ashram— Student life: In this ashram, the primary focus is education (both material & spiritual). No other responsibilities or burdens…. but plenty of time to chill out. Have all fun in the world while parents are paying your bills…… 😂 

2. Grihastha ashram— Family/Householder’s life: No more studies & exams...LOL 😂. Yes, it is time to enjoy fully with our family & friends. At the same time, we have financial & many other responsibilities towards our family, society & the nation. Out of the four, this is the most important ashram, supporting the other three ashrams. In this ashram we are supporting our children’s needs when they are students and our parents when they are retirees. We are also supporting the volunteer, philanthropy and religious/spiritual organizations.

3. Vanprastha ashram— Retired life: It is a time to contribute our skills & efficiency to society, volunteer & philanthropy activities. We have more free time to pursue our hobbies, passion, improve our physical fitness and advancement towards spiritual development. 

During Grihastha Ashram (Family Life) we have to adjust ourselves to please our family, friends & society. Many times we get agitated, angry, greedy, have silly arguments with spouse, family & friends ...😂 and sometimes we compromise our ethics, morality or principles in order to maintain or fulfill our and our loved ones’ needs. Our Consciousness degrades further while dealing with society. Vanprastha ashram--Retired life is the time to bounce back and recover from those agitated & unpleasant moments and uplift our consciousness to upgrade ourselves spiritually.

4. Sannayasa ashram— Devotional life: The focus is more towards spiritual development & contributing to society’s spiritual advancement. 

Our overall internal development depends on what we do in our free time.

All humans irrespective of their varnas (occupations), religions or nationalities, have to pass through these four orders of life. We should utilize them rightly to build material & spiritual lives wisely.

It is easy to say, but difficult to follow…. 😃 

TEXT 63: 18.63: Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do. Vedabase.io

These are general guidelines in our lives as mentioned in Srimad Bhagavad Gita, but we have the free will to live our lives the way we wish and imagine.

Jay Shree Krishna 

Thank You….. 🙏 

I am inspired to read the Vedic Scriptures by regularly listening to Sri Pandurang Shashtri Athvale and the association of Swadhyay Parivar every Sunday in Swadhya Kendra. 

I also hear and read the discourses & literatures on Vedic thoughts from Srila Prabhupada & his disciples… ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness). 

THE EVERLASTING GIFT:

While celebrating good occasions (birthday parties, weddings, housewarming parties, retirement parties, festivities….) we have received many gifts 🎁 from our families & friends....(or bought gifts for someone) starting from toys 🧸 , bikes 🚲 , candies 🍭 , sweets, books 📚 , shoes 👞 , clothes, gadgets, cars, furniture......a long list. Unfortunately, each & every gift we have received or bought for someone gets used up, broken down or outdated over time. Whatever we have in our possession now is temporary; nothing lasts forever. 

Is there any valuable gift we have bought or have in our possession which is useful forever & never gets outdated? Yes, there is one Everlasting Gift--Bible, Quran, Torah, Tripitaka, Agama, Guru Granth Sahib, Gita or any other Scriptures...we should have in our lives. 

I am happy to share a few lines of wisdom from my Everlasting Diwali Gift-- Srimad Bhagavd Gita.

1. Regulate the Lifestyle: It is healthy for us & our family to live a regulated life meaning balancing our eating, sleeping, recreation and work. There is happiness in the Mode of Goodness lifestyle. Yes, we should work hard & stretch our boundaries to do more & achieve more, but at the same time, pay attention to our limitations & health. Bend yourself, but don’t break your self. Don’t sacrifice your family, friends & health for power, position, fame or wealth.

Bg 6.17 -- He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.

2. Duty without Expectation: We should do our prescribed duty either as a parent, child, spouse, student, teacher, friend, colleague, employee, employer....etc, but don’t expect anything in return & remain detached from the result. When we expect anything in return, we set ourselves up for misery.

Bg 2.47 -- You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.

3. Be prepared for miseries in our lives: All life on Planet Earth 🌍 wants to be happy & peaceful all the time. Unfortunately happy moments can not last for long time due to duality nature of the material world meaning everything rotates in a cycle like.....Illness-Recovery, Birth-Death, Success-Failure, Praise- Criticism, Winter-Summer, Happiness- Sorrowness....etc. The material miseries are unavoidable, unstoppable and sometimes come unexpectedly. Spiritual wisdom will help us to swallow & digest the Pill of Miseries..LOL... 😂.

TEXT 14: 2.14: O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

4. Don’t Compete with others: Don’t compare & compete with others. Every one of us has a different mindset & passion to do good for our family & society. Be yourself but continue to improve yourself. Don’t expect a fish to climb the tree or a bunny to swim. Everyone is a genius in their own way.

Bg 3.35 -- It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.

5. Sweet & Encouraging Speech: Our relationships, enthusiasm, success and overall direction of the life shape up by the sweet, beneficial & stimulating words we hear from our loved ones or we speak for our loved ones & others. And of course have some LOL 😂 😆 moments with friends/family/colleagues. 

Bg 17.15 -- Austerity of speech consists in speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature. Vedabase.io

Out of 700 verses from Gita, by implementing only these 5 verses in our lives, we can be on the right track. 

It is easy to say, but difficult to follow. 

Jay Shree Krishna

Thank You 🙏.

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I am inspired to read the Vedic Scriptures by regularly listening to Sri Pandurang Shashtri Athvale and the association of Swadhyay Parivar every Sunday in Swadhya Kendra. 

I also hear and read the discourses & literatures on Vedic thoughts from Srila Prabhupada & his disciples… ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness). 

A LONG LASTING RELATIONSHIPS:

Besides health and good thoughts, our happiness is also dependent on relationships. If you have good friends/family (spouse is one of them… 😊) in your life with whom you can open up your heart, share your feelings, joy & distress….…you become more content, fulfilled & cheerful personality. If you open your heart to your family/friends then the doctor doesn’t have to open your heart….😆 😂 

A beautiful understanding about relationships/friendships based on Sastra/Scriptures.

1. In this material world, which advances like a river that carries away living entities, all people become friends, relatives and enemies in due course of time. (bandhu-jñāty-ari-madhyastha-mitrodāsīna-vidviṣaḥ Śrīmad-bhāgavatam 6.16.5).
2. You can’t be friends with thousands of people. mṛgāḥ mṛgaiḥ saṅgam upa-vrajanti

   gāvaś ca gobhis turagās turagaiḥ

   mūrkhāś ca mūrkhaiḥ sudhayaḥ sudhībhiḥ

   samāna-śīla-vyasaneṣu sakhyam

   Translation: Deers roam around with deers; cows with cows; horses with horses and intelligent with intelligent. Friendship is between individuals of similar disposition and habits (Pañcatantra 1.305). We can have long lasting relationships with like minded people. We can be (we can have) fans, followers, encouragers, well wishers or admirers, but we can’t build the good relationships/friendships with everyone we come across in our lives.

3. Who’s a friend in the truest sense? Someone who makes our heart experience sneha which means affection. What is sneha?....when the inner self melts on seeing, touching, hearing or conversing with an individual, one is said to be experiencing sneha, affection. Śāstra says that success in the domain of friendship is attained when we have such intimate friends.......one should frequently converse with them, travel with them and/or stay with them, open up your heart to them, thereby avoiding all distress. (darśane sparśane vā ’pi śravaṇe bhāṣaṇe ’pi vā yatra dravaty antaraṅgaṁ sa sneha iti kathyate Subhāṣita-ratna-bhāṇḍāgāram). 
4. Don’t try to win an argument against a friend/family, especially in public. If possible avoid any financial contracts/business deals with the friend. Share your happiness & sorrowness with your friends/loved ones and give them mental support while in distress. Pṛcchati means asking for the friends opinion and also giving opinions when asked. Bhuṅkte means eating food offered by the friend. Bhojayate means offering food to the friend. Express the good qualities of the friend in front of others. Have LOL 😂 😆 moments with your loved ones. Laughter is the shortest distance between two.
5. Don’t expose faults, weakness of your loved ones to others. As a good friend, we should know how to keep secrets. These secrets are something which can cause immense public embarrassment to our friends if revealed. These are weaknesses that have been confidentially confided in us. Whatever the fault it is, we must hide it. A good friend will stand up to defend their friends in need. We should publicly protect them, but privately we should reveal our honest thoughts to them without worrying. It is the duty of an individual to rescue a friend who may have gone astray.(pāpān nivārayati yojayate hitāya

   guhyaṁ ca gūhati guṇān prakaṭīkaroti

   āpadgataṁ na ca jahāti dadāti kāle

   sanmitra-lakṣaṇam idaṁ pravadanti santaḥ)

Make a commitment to maintain the unconditional relationships with your friends/families…. ❤️

We can’t be a good friend to everybody but we can be well wishers to everyone in this world.

It is easy to say, but difficult to follow. 

Have a Wonderful Day. 

Thank You…..🙏 

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I am inspired to read the Vedic Scriptures by regularly listening to Sri Pandurang Shashtri Athvale and the association of Swadhyay Parivar every Sunday in Swadhya Kendra. 

I also hear and read the discourses & literatures on Vedic thoughts from Srila Prabhupada & his disciples… ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness). 

UNPREVENTABLE TRUTH:

 

Since childhood everyone of us has many dreams & plans to be successful in as many fields of our lives, but there is no guarantee that we will be successful....

Fortunately or Unfortunately, there is definitely one certainty or guarantee in everyone’s life and that’s Aging, Disease & Death..…. 😔 100 % success rate for everyone—the Unpreventable Truth of the life.

Lord Krishna’s counseling in Gita starts with the introduction of Distress & Death while he was offering guidance or counsel to Arjuna (his friend, family member and loved one) at the time of Mahabharata War. How strange & bizarre is it that the person you asked for advice at the time of emergency/helplessness, is now talking about your & your loved one Death? Indirectly, this Unpreventable Truth & many other truths of the life was spoken by Lord Krishna to us. He is preparing us by giving the worst news 1st, so that we can tolerate the any other situation that comes in our life. At least once in our lifetime, everyone of us has been tormented by the Disease & Death of our loved ones or even the thought.

This inevitable truth was recorded by Lord Vedvyasa in 20 slokas from Bg 2.11to Bg 2.30 .  Here is the few slokas….

Bg 2.11 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead.

Bg 2.13 — As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.

TEXT 14:     Bg 2.14: O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

Bg 2.22 — As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.

Bg 2.30 — O descendant of Bharata, he who dwells in the body can never be slain. Therefore you need not grieve for any living being. Vedabase.com

Thank You.

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I am inspired to read the Vedic Scriptures by regularly listening to Sri Pandurang Shashtri Athvale and the association of Swadhyay Parivar every Sunday in Swadhya Kendra. 

I also hear and read the discourses & literatures on Vedic thoughts from Srila Prabhupada & his disciples… ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness). 

EIGHT TRUTHS To Live a Satisfactory Life….😃

Good morning, 

Audio: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dktkpukdmq8yk5y/EIGHT%20TRUTHS%20to%20LIVE%20A%20SATISFACTORY%20LIFE.m4a?dl=0

1. One truth is to understand my identity as an eternal soul not a physical body. I have chosen my birth, body & parents to fulfill my desires. No one else but I am responsible for my own birth, suffering, happiness & death. There is struggle & danger at every steps in our life. No one is immune from day to day problems of life mainly related to family, work, health & wealth. These issues are not permanent, they come & go like summer & winter and we must learn to tolerate them. You are not alone, everyone is in the same boat. 

2. I should know myself where am I standing in terms of my mentality, nature or consciousness (Mode of Ignorance, Passion or Goodness). What is my defect? How do I raise my standard or consciousness? There is always room for improvement. Consciousness has no religion or nationality.

3. Perform your prescribed duty with a good consciousness & without expectation either as a parent, child, spouse, teacher, student, friend, employee, employer, citizen of a nation...or any other role given to us. Which indirectly will improve individual, family, professional, socioeconomic and nation’s lives....A Win Win strategy. 

4. Pay attention to your health: In the long run, food plays a major roll in our mental & physical health. Eat foods (fresh, juicy, wholesome and healthy fat) which can purify us, give strength, satisfaction and increase our longevity. Perform yoga or any exercises to improve your physical fitness. Regulate your eating, sleeping, recreation and work. If we are healthy, we are benefiting ourselves, our family, friends & society. There is happiness in the Mode of Goodness lifestyle.

5. Become involved in welfare work: Welfare activity at material platforms by distributing food, clothes, shelter, medicine and money. Welfare activity at spiritual platform by sharing the spiritual knowledge for mental peace & internal happiness ….the most essential things in our lives irrespective of our degree, position, wealth, power, fame, religion & nationality. 

6. There is one more truth to resolve the many problems in our lives either in family life, in friends circle or at work while simultaneously giving advice and making people laugh....at anytime & anywhere, just pay attention to our Speech/Writing. Speak/Write the words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others. Don’t be too serious…. 😂, there is always room for joking, teasing & laughter 😂 with friends & family.

7. Non violence: No physical or mental harm (or as least as possible) to any living entity or environment. Instead, facilitate them to live pleasantly & peacefully which includes your spouse also...LOL. 😂 😆. We as humans with higher consciousness have higher responsibilities to look after other species and nature included. 

8. One step further up to non violence is Love. Unconditional Love towards God & His creations which includes every species on the face of this planet and nature itself. 

We won’t need any Human, Animal & Environmental rightist or Government Laws to save the Culture, Life & Nature in this world once we implement these EIGHT TRUTHS in our lives.

It is easy to say, but difficult to follow. I am in the same boat with everyone else, or I may even be behind, but thinking in the right direction will help us to go in the right direction. 

These above mentioned fundamental truths & principles of human life are described in the Twelve Slokas from the Gita below.

Bg 2.13 -- As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. Vedabase.io

TEXT 9: Bg 15.9: The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, eye, tongue, nose and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects.

Bg 2.14 -- O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O son of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

Bg 3.38:  As fire is covered by smoke, a mirror is covered by dust and the embryo is covered by the womb similarly the living entity is covered by different degrees of consciousness. (vedabase.com).   

TEXT 5: Bg 14.5: Material nature consists of three modes – goodness, passion and ignorance. When the eternal living entity comes in contact with nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he becomes conditioned by these modes.

Bg 2.47 -- You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.  

Bg 6.32 -- He is a perfect yogī who, by comparison to his own self, sees the true equality of all beings, in both their happiness and their distress, O Arjuna!

Bg 6.17 -- He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.

Bg 17.8 -- Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart.

Bg 17.20 -- Charity given out of duty, without expectation of return, at the proper time and place, and to a worthy person is considered to be in the mode of goodness.

Bg 17.15 -- Austerity of speech consists in speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature. 

Bg 18.42 -- Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousness – these are the natural qualities by which the brāhmaṇas (sober person) work. Vedabase.io

With respect to everyone’s values & beliefs, whichever SCRIPTURES ( Bible, Quran, Torah, Tripitaka, Agama, Guru Granth Sahib, Gita or any other...), METHODS or WAYS work for us are all good. 

THANK YOU. 

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I am inspired to read the Vedic Scriptures by regularly listening to Sri Pandurang Shashtri Athvale and the association of Swadhyay Parivar every Sunday in Swadhya Kendra. 

I also hear and read the discourses & literatures on Vedic thoughts from Srila Prabhupada & his disciples… ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness).