ENERGY: Your sutra for positive thinking

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Lecture ppt

Sat Prerana

I am very happy to be amongst all of you and my heartfelt gratitude to you to taking out time from your busy academic and other schedules to learn some valuable truths, which will help all of us in life journey. The saying our success in life, the altitude to we will rise in life depends not so much on our aptitude as on our attitude. There are three words altitude, aptitude and attitude. Altitude means how high you will rise in your life that depends not so much on your aptitude, how much talents you have, but it depends on how much attitude you have. Two people can look out of the same window and one sees the dirt on the ground and the other sees the starts in the sky. It is a matter of perception. All of us will at some time or the other we face with a challenge of a negative attitude either among ourselves or in others. Positive attitude can tremendously help us to tap and channelize our own talents for our individual and the world’s good.
So, in this seminar, we will be discussing three things. The power of positive thinking, what positive thinking is not, what is positive thinking both on second part, and the third will be six practical tips for positive thinking like what you see E.N.E.R.G.Y. that is actually an acronym, so that is why we have dot dot dot after each of them. There are six tips on how all of us can develop positive thinking.
So, our thoughts can be classified into these four categories. Anytime if we sit back and observe what kind of thoughts am I having? We can find that sometimes we feel peaceful, we feel good about others, so all those are positive thoughts; we feel envy about others, we feel irritation and anger, these are negative thoughts, and there are some thoughts, which are necessary, okay how do I complete this assignment, and if you are travelling in a traffic, how do you navigate your vehicle through the traffic, and then there are waste thoughts. It is said do not let your eyes be covered by tears when you miss an opportunity because you may miss one more opportunity, therefore, waste thoughts. Now, there are these are four kinds of thoughts. Which are the good kinds of thoughts? Positive. Which are the bad kind of thoughts? Negative. Negative is really bad, but waste is also a waste as the word says. So, what we should try to do is replace our negative thoughts with positive and replace our waste thoughts with necessary thoughts. So, people fantasize oh! in the future I will do this and I will do that, and in the present we waste our time. So, if it would be about the past or the future, these are the waste thoughts.
Now, our thoughts grow into words. Watch your thoughts because they will become words. Watch you words because they will become your actions. Watch your actions because they will become your habits. Watch your habits because they will become your character. Watch your character because it will become your destiny. So, it is a simple thing. We think even if I think negative, what is the problem? No, negative thoughts can have ultimately the result of a negative destiny in our life. Destiny means what we achieve in our life. So, now what exactly is positive thinking? Now, what do you see is this glass empty or full? It is empty, is not it. Now, if the glass is empty, if I say oh! do not be so negative thinking, the glass is full. Is that positive thinking? So, positive thinking means positive perception of reality, not imaginary perception of reality, is not it. If the glass is half full and if I say it is half empty, that is negative thinking. But if the glass is empty and if I say that the glass is empty, and you say why are you so negative, that is foolishness, which is factual. So, positive thinking does not mean we imagine things, which are not existing. It is very important to understand. So, if we say it is full, that is not optimism, that is stupidism. It is just stupidity. If somebody says it is empty, that is not pessimism, that is realism, that is the reality. So, we have to understand what is the reality and based on that understanding of the reality, then we can further see how can we look at that reality positively. Imagine a person has cancer. Doctor says you have cancer, if he says I am perfectly fine, nothing has happened to me, will that help? That is not positive thinking. What would be negative thinking is if the patient says that oh! I have got cancer, now I am going to die, what can I do, then even before the disease kills the person, the mind will kill the person. So, yes it is okay I have the disease, I accept that I have the disease, now what should I do, what is the best medicine available and have faith, have positive thinking, have hopes. So, positive thinking has to be based on a positive perception of reality, it has to be perception of reality, not perception of an illusion. So, just at the material level, think positive. Positive thinking is extremely powerful.
In America, in the last century, there was a person, a lady of the name Helen Keller. This Helen Keller as you know she was born physically deficient and further as her age went, she became more and more deficient, she lost her eyes, she lost her ears, but still she went on to become the first deaf-blind graduate in American history. She wrote many books and she gave many lectures. How did he do that? She said I had two choices either I could feel sorry for my deficiencies or I could make the best of what I have. So, it is a dramatic power. All of us have all our limbs and we feel ourselves very inferior, but here is an example and there are many many examples like that throughout the history of the world of people who were deficient, but rather than feeling sorry for themselves, they used their whatever abilities they had for the world’s good, but even this Helen Keller said that actually in the name of positive thinking many people will do imaginative thinking and then they can never improve. So, what is the reality? Sometimes, when people come to the temple, and in the temple you hear this world is dukhalayam asasvatam, this world is temporary, and everything is subject to death. Why are you people so negative? Why should you think so negatively? No, that is not negative thinking, is it? It is not, that is the reality.
Once we had made a diorama exhibition of the different aspects of Vedic philosophy, that we had made of what happens after death. So, actually at one place we had the yamadootas. You know what are yamadootas? They are the messengers of death. So, once I was giving a seminar, I said we say I do not know what is yamadoota, we know what is rajadoota. Yes, that is okay. So, what is the yamadoota, we say I do not believe that. If you do not believe them, you will meet them. So, you do not believe them, you will meet them. So, it is not a matter of imagination or belief, it is a reality that personalities like these exist, they are accountable, but the point here is that the facts are not a matter of belief. If I say the sun will rise from the North, that is not a fact. So, first of all we have to get our facts right. Imagine suppose now from here you go to Mumbai and you have to go to a particular place in Mumbai, and you have map with you, but by mistake the map you have is of Puna and you are looking where is you have an interview in hotel Le Meridien or in hotel Oberoi, and you are searching, searching, searching and you are not finding the hotel, I will think positive. Will that help? First, we have to have the right map, and only when the right map is there, then in case you are not able to find or if you get in traffic jam or if your vehicle gets punctured, then the positive attitude will help. But if the map itself is wrong, then positive attitude will not help us. So, now is talking about death is negative thinking? No, because it is the reality. Why it is the reality? It is the reality. We all have to die.
Once Srila Prabhupada went to America, when he was in America, one person asked him a question, swamiji why is the death rate so high in India? Prabhupada replied, the death rate is same everywhere 100%. Everybody who is born has to die that is a death rate, so there is no exception to that. So, it is just the reality of this world. Now, imaging if I say I will think positive and if say a loved one is passed away, so will positive thinking bring back that loved one? No, it will not. Without spiritual knowledge, there is no long-term sustenance for positive thinking. So, therefore, as I was telling you about the map, we have to have the right map and the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, it offers us the right map, it gives us the right idea. So, as you know our existence is three dimensional. Our body is like a hardware, the mind is the software and the soul is like the user. So, going further, this is acronym called IDEA, which I will come to, IDEA. So, this is the map that we have, who am I. Once a very overweight lady, a very very fat lady, she came for a Bhagavad Gita class, and she was thinking I am so fat and because of that I am not so good looking and all that psychology was going on. She came and the speaker spoke you are not your body, she said thank God I am not my body, very happy. So, actually all of us are subjective to so many negative thoughts, I am dark, I am short, I am tall, I am fat, I am thin, all those thoughts come up, why? Because of the bodily misidentification. When you understand that you are not the body, you are the soul, all the negative thoughts that come in, they go away like that. So, further as I said when we understand I am not the body, I am the soul, then you will understand even if the loved one is passed away, they have gone somewhere else and I can pray for them and I can chant the holy names for them and that person will be benefitted. So, positive thinking is possible when we understand our identity as the soul. It is very important, otherwise even when we are faced with death as we will be later on, if we think positive that is not going to come, not come, but when I understand I have eternal life ahead, then we can always be positive even in the face of greatest negativity.
Socrates was a Greek philosopher and he talked about the existence of soul and when the local people over there, the local rulers did not like this idea, so decided to poison him. They said either you give up your philosophy or we will kill you. He was fearless. He said first you have to catch me, you have not even seen me, how will you catch me and how can you kill me. Fearless in all situations. This is the first thing “I” identity, then there is “D” that is divinity. So, beyond understand that I am eternal, we understand that God is a very loving person and whatever he does in our life is for our ultimate good. So, understanding that God is in control helps us to see positive even amongst what seems negative because the reality is not what we always think it is. It is like a person may have a particular perception like I will give an example of doctor. Now, when the doctor gives an injection to the patient or does surgery of the patient. What the patient feels, I am going through so much pain, I came here to be cured, my pain has increased, but are things going wrong? Things were going wrong according to his plan, but they are going right according to the doctor’s plan. So, when we understand God divine being is there who is looking after me, that helps us to always think positive in all situations of life.
There is a very well acclaimed and well researched book called the Handbook of Religion and Health. So, this book compiled over three hundred studies that were done in different parts of the world correlating religion and health. For example, if a person has more religious faith in God, then is he less prone to heart attacks or more prone. If the person has more faith in God, then does he have less chance of getting depression or more chance? Does he have more chance of falling prey to addictions or less? What was their finding? They said on an average people who believe in God live eleven years longer than those who do not believe in God, eleven years, not one or two. How would they measure the belief in God, they said that you just come once a week for a spiritual prayer meeting, then that is an indicator of belief. That means by coming for the programs you are coming now, you are increasing your lifespan by eleven years, just by investing three hours. This is what scientific research says. This research was published by Oxford University press, and further they said that in general youths who are spiritually minded, they are far less likely to fall prey to addictions, and they said elderly people who are spiritually minded, who have faith in God, they have much more sense of life satisfaction than that nontheistic counterparts, the atheistic counterparts, and the conclusion was that faithfulness to God is one medicine that works for all kinds of people. So, this is not some religious spiritual speaking, this is a scientifically published, compilation of published experiments saying this, that is divinity. Now, of course that divinity God is not just some strange sort of light in the sky, the Vedic scriptures explain that God is a person and he is a loving person, the most loving person.
We see in the Mahabharat, the Pandavas, how many negative situations they faced right from their childhood, their father passed away and their uncle and his sons were always conspiring against them, but throughout what was the belief of the Pandavas? They were completely confident. You know, when Jayadrath conspired to have Abhimanyu slaughtered by the six maharathas, then that night Arjuna took the vow that tomorrow before sunset I will slay Jayadratha or I will enter into fire. Then, Krishna, God himself went to Arjuna and said “Oh, Arjuna tomorrow Drona will arrange the whole army to stop you, you have taken as hasty vow, it will be very difficult to fulfil this vow. Arjuna smiled and said oh Krishna why are you anxious as you know my power and I know your power, what is to fear. This is positive thinking because he knows God’s power and God is omnipotent. We see in the next day what Krishna did to help Arjuna attain victory. So, that is divinity when we understand that God is in control, then we can be positive in all situations of life.
The third “E” is eternity. You know, many times people come to a temple and they think that Krishna what kind of God is he, all the other Gods they are giving us some ashirwad, their hand is upraised and they are giving ashirwad to us, but Krishna does not seem to care for us at all, he is playing his flute, he does not even seem to be conscious that we are present, why is he not giving us some ashirwad, but actually all the other Devatas they can give us ashirwad, but what will that ashirwad do? That will keep us, we may become temporarily happy, but then we have to continue on the cycle of birth and death and we keep suffering, but you know when just like in Vrindavan Krishna would play his flute and in the morning when he would play his flute, all his cowherd boyfriends would come and then they would go out in jungle. When the cows will be grazing, he would play his flute and then all the cows would come running to him. So, why is Krishna playing his flute? Because he does not want us to bless us to just continue on relatively better in this material world. See, what is material pleasure like, it is like somebody is beating us with hundred whips from all side, and in between somebody gives us a little gulab jamoon to eat. Oh, thank you very much. Aah! you cannot even say thank you properly, I will beat you. So, material life is like that. You know, our mind is troubling us, around us people misunderstand us, and sometimes it is too hot, sometimes it Is too cold, and sometimes it rains too much. So, the nature of this material existence is a place of misery. Now, after the tsunami I saw one series of photos. The first photo showed people standing on the coast watching the waves, and second photo showed the tsunami, the big wave is coming closer and the people looking having fun with, oh, this is such a big wave, and then there is a third photo, the wave ride on top of them and they are about to run, and in the fourth photo, wave has caused devastation, people are dead, and the fifth photo was one week later, people are again standing at the ocean looking at the waves. So, what happens is we may create an illusion that everything is wonderful in this world, but actually death can come at any time. So, what the Bhagavad Gita says is that ultimate positive thinking is to have a positive goal for life. What is that positive goal? To go back to that place, which is our original home, which is eternal, which is free from misery, that is the spiritual world. Of course, while we are here, we have to use our talents and abilities for the best possible purpose, but ultimately the goal of life is to go back to the kingdom of God. Why is Krishna playing his flute? Because he is inviting us back. So, his blessing is not that he gives us one gulab jamoon while hundred whips are hitting us. His blessing is that escape those whips and come back to me. So, there is eternal life, which is available for us and that is the goal of every intelligent person.

Then, “A” is activity. That is, positive thinking has meaning only when our activities are positive. Imagine if somebody jumps from a hundred-storey building, he thinks positive nothing will happen to me. Yes, not nothing will happen, nothing will remain, is not it. If we think that we will break the law of gravity and be positive, no the law of gravity will break us. There is a saying we can never break God’s laws, we can only break ourselves against God’s laws. So, our activities have to be positive in life, otherwise if we think positive, that is not going to work. So, there are three kinds of activities that are karma, vikarma and akarma. Karma is activities that brings good results. Vikarma is activities that brings bad results, for example meat eating, intoxication, gambling, illicit sex, all these bring bad results, and positive thinking is not going to help a person. If a person has illicit sex and he gets AIDS, the name is AIDS, but actually there is no aid for AIDS unfortunately. So our activities have to be positive, then positive thinking has some meaning. So, this the basis IDEA. I will summary here, identify, divinity, eternity and activity. So, when have a clear understanding of this based on the Vedic scriptures, then we can think positive. And we know the same incident when Maharaj Yudhishtir came to know that Abhimanyu has been slaughtered, he was heartbroken, utterly heartbroken, he thought that I only instructed Abhimanyu to go into the Kaurav army and I have caused the death of this tender boy, I am such a great sinner, such a great criminal and how will I face Arjuna, what will I tell him? He felt so heartbroken, so distraught. At that time, Vyas dev came there. Somehow Yudhishtir controlled himself and offered Vyas dev seat, and he started telling that after a great feat ofheroism, Abhimanyu has been unfairly slaughtered and all of us are heartbroken by this oh Vyas dev. So Vyas dev in gentle voice replied, “Oh, king man who are of higher wisdom do not lament over that, which inevitable. Everybody in this world no matter how exalted they are subject to the law of death. For a Kshatriya to lay his life down the battlefield is glorious. He will attain a glorious destination in the spiritual world beyond the realm of illusion and temptation, rather than lamenting for one who has attained such a glorious destination, should lament for those who live in this world. Oh, Yudhishtir, the will of the Lord is inscrutable, but it is beneficial for all living beings. If you follow this will, you will understand in due course of time, grief achieves nothing except to sap the energy of those who indulge in it, give up your grief and arise.” In this way, Vyas dev gave him instruction and Yudhishtir maharaj became consoled. So, there are hundreds of incidents like this in the Vedic scriptures where person who is heartbroken by some negative happening, he gets a positive perception to the philosophy.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, the founder acharya of ISKCON. We see what kind of negative things happened in his life. When he was in his 20s, he started a business. For forty years he struggled to do a business, and some of his employees they burglarized his business and they made him financially broke. Then, he tried to write a book and the manuscript got lost. He tried to run a magazine and nobody would purchase it and one day when he was distributing the magazine, a cow came and hit him and knocked him unconscious. He tried to start an organization a league of devotees in Jhansi, and some politicians conspired against him and drove him away from the place that was going to be the headquarters. He tried to go to America to preach and on the way in his ship he got a heart attack. He went to American and tried to build a temple and got a patron, but the Indian government said we will not allow foreign exchange. He went further and he tried to preach some Americans and some Americans became interested students and one of the American students, the most serious seemingly he went mad with drugs and he came to attack his guru and Prabhupada had to learn for his life. So, forty years of his life he had nothing, but failure. But then what was his consciousness, he was not concerned with failure or success at the material level. He knew that Krishna is watching and Krishna will reward me, Krishna will help me as and when he desires. So, from 1922 to 1966, his life was just from the material point of view, a succession of failures. But it is said in the book called Art of War “you never lose till you lose hope.” Srila Prabhupada because he had faith in God, he never lost hope. He had his IDEA with him, clear understanding of what happened. In the last eleven years of his life are the most dramatically successful years of life in the history of any person in modern recorded history. In the last eleven years of his life, he singlehandedly opened 108 temples. In the last eleven years of his life, he wrote seventy books. In the last eleven years of his life, he inspired initiative 10,000 and more devotees. He inspired all of them to live, to give up sinful ways of life, give up all bad habits and live a life of integrity and dignity in harmony with God and service to humanity. He circumnavigated the globe fourteen times in service to God, sharing the message of God. When he departed from the world, at that time he was asked do you have any last desire? He was completely satisfied,” kuch iccha nahi.” So, this is positive thinking, this is real positive thinking. At the age of 69, a person is penniless, but he is penniless, but he is not heartless. His heart is filled with devotion to God. That is the kind of positive thinking that the Bhagavad Gita can offer us. No matter how many difficulties come, even if actually when we have faith in God, everybody may misunderstand us, our boss may fire us, our exams we fail, our friends will misunderstand us, but we know there is one person who never misunderstands us, that is God. The only problem is we misunderstand him, but if we understand him properly, then we know God is always there with us to help us. So, there is tremendous empowering effect this philosophy.
So, now we will come to the title of the seminar the energy sutra, the six principles for realistic positive thinking. Let us go over this one by one. The “E” factor. So, this world is not like a hotel, it is a hospital. Now, what happens in a hotel, when we go to hotel, we command, we choose, we order “hey waiter get this, get that.” When we go to hospital, if we say hey doctor give me that medicine, do not give me this medicine, doctor will say get lost. We cannot say doctor I do not like this injection, you just give me some sweet medicine. No, when we go to a hospital, we do not order, we obey; we do not choose, we cooperate. So, this world is not like a hotel, it is like a hospital. That means, in this world we are not the choosers, we are the co-operators. There is a fundamental difference between the Western worldview and the Vedic worldview. The Western worldview is that you are the controller, you are the chooser, you are the enjoyer, but it leads to tremendous frustration. Just like we are having seminars here, we have seminars all over the world. So, one of our faculty members was doing a seminar in America at the headquarters of Microsoft, and he was very surprised that Microsoft has employees from different countries, but the number one employees are from India, number two are from China, and number three are from America. He asked why is that? He said there is a reason because in America right from childhood people have buttons to control. When you want to have a fan on, tuck, press one button right on your bed only and turn the fan on, and if you want to turn on the television, press one button, it will start; if you want to go to bath in the bathroom, press one button, a sliding chair will come, you sit on the chair, press another button, it will take you to the bathroom, go to the bathroom, press another button, shower will come; you press another button, a towel will come; you press another button, toothbrush will come. So, I am not joking, there are people who live like this, and of course when they die, their relatives press one button and the body gets cremated, it is a pushbutton. So, basically they get used to controlling things with pushbuttons, and then when they go to computer companies and they write computer programs, and the computer programs do not work. The person is telling the computer, cannot you do anything right, and the computer is telling cannot you do anything right, you are not writing the program properly. So, when they write computer programs and the computer programs will not work, they press the button and nothing works. They get frustrated. So, because they are used to the idea that we are the controller, when they cannot control the computer program, they get frustrated. On the other hand, the Indians from childhood are used to things not working the way they want, is not it. When you are travelling by train say from Nasik to Mumbai, Panchavati Express you are going, and sit in the train and you switch on the fan button, and the fan button does not work. Now, every Indian knows what to do. He will take out a comb from his pocket and he will the comb like a warrior’s sword he will move it around and then he will put it inside the fan, and the fan will start moving, and he will look around triumphantly, be proud and then he will sit down. So, sometimes you are going on a bike and the bike does not work. In America what happens, people watch movies, they have what you call it multi-theatres. People watch movies, in movies you see heroic things happening and people identify themselves with the character in the movie, is not it. That is why actually when the hero heroine come together, people whistle because they identify with that person, but then what happens, we are identifying with that person and that person beats someone, and you beat your neighbour and the neighbour beats you back, then you will come to your senses. But actually all the enjoyment is imaginary, that is why when the people go into a movie theatre, they go with some popcorn, everything is imaginary, something should be real. So, they go and watch these movies. In the movies they see a car is coming and a hero goes and stops the car with his hands or he jumps from one car to another car, or he jumps from one plane to another plane, then they come out and they have this fanciful ideas, and they come out and see their phatphati, and when they kick it, it does not start, and the gap between what they imagined themselves to be and what they actually are is so great that their mind snaps. Actually, there is this disease, it is called psychologic, in slang term it is called the wealthy people disease. What is the cause of this disease? Watching too many movies. So, watch too many movies and then you will get such a fanciful idea of who you are and then if it does not work like that in life, get frustrated. That is why in the West, you may be aware just few months ago there was a tragedy in Virginia Tech University. One Korean boy was just went crazy and started shooting, shooting, shooting and then Indian professor and Indian girl also were among those killed. So, after that there was a lot of soul-searching why this tragic event happened. Now, in America, possessing guns is considered a civil right, and the Americans are proud. The way the Germans tortured the Nazis, the way Stalin tortured the Gypsies and the other theistic people, nobody can do as to us Americans because we have our guns. But then what happens, this is just the propaganda of the gun manufacturer, so that their business will go on. America has one of the highest domestic violence rates in the world. Around a decade ago, the first school massacre took place in a place called Littleton where some students went to the school and they started shooting their class teacher and their classmate and they shot themselves also at the end. Many such incidents have happened, and amazingly enough what was the solution that many intellectuals gave? They said more people should have more guns. Why? Because in case somebody goes mad, then before he shoots so many people, somebody will shoot him. But then, what if all these more people go mad, who will shoot them. It is said dukhaushadam tadapi duhkham, this is insanity. So, the whole idea is instead of trying to find out why people are snapping like this, why people are getting frustrated, it is trying to create a superficial solution. So, when we think that we are the controllers, we will get frustrated.
In India, if we are going on a bike and the bike does not start, an Indian knows what to do, tilt the bike, straighten it, it will start. So, actually sometimes people feel India is not so progressed, and once a person came from America, he was communist. He came from USSR to India, and he travelled all over India and one reporter asked him sir, what is your experience. He said I was atheist before I came to India, and I am going back, I have become theist. Really? He said what happened? He said when I went to India you know I saw on the traffic signals there are no RTO officers. In the offices, everybody was watching cricket; in the banks, people are not doing their work. So, in our communist Russia nobody works like this. It seems nobody is working and still the country is working. Certainly God must be working to make this work. So, it is not that everybody in India is an incompetent, but the point is other country’s people cannot understand how Indians are able to go on with life when so many things do not work the way they want. That is because it is in our culture. In our culture, it is deeply ingrained that actually we are not the controllers, we are the co-operators. Sometimes things go our way, and sometimes things teach us on their way. So, it is not that when things do not work my way that means everything is going to be chaotic. No, just wait and watch and you will find how things are going to work the right way. So, when we have the understanding that this world is like a hospital, then that enables us to think positive even when the situations around us seem negative, that is “E” factor.
Now, going to next one, another thing which is called negativity is the comparing mentality. So, once a youth got very frustrated and he decided, everybody seems to better than me, somebody is good with maths, somebody else is good in music, somebody is good in this, somebody is good in that, everybody is better than me, I am useless. He thought let me go and commit suicide. He said before I commit suicide, just once open my heart to God and if he responds, then I may live. Then, he is said Oh God can you tell me one the reason why I should live. God said what happened? He told his story, then God said can you see those trees in front of you, can you see the fern and the bamboo? He said yes. He said five years ago I planted the fern and the bamboo, and within one year the fern grew to a reasonable size, the bamboo was invisible. Second year, the fern grew quite big, still the bamboo was invisible. Third year, the fern was known to everybody who passed through the forest, nobody knew the bamboo. The fourth year, the fern was spread wide over the clearing, the bamboo had just made its appearance. In the fifth year, the bamboo grew to 25 feet and became the tallest tree in the forest. So, what was the bamboo doing before that for the first four years? It was growing its roots. If it had grown beforehand, it would not have been able to sustain its own weight and would collapse. God said I have a plan for everybody, why do you compare? Everybody will grow in their due course of time. Have you ever thought why all of us are unique? It is just as the fern and the bamboo. So, if you imagine three oranges equal to how many apples, they are not equal, may be economically they say this is equal to this much, but they are two different fruits. So, all of us are different and we should learn to nip, the “N” stands for nip the comparing mentality in the bud. So, what should we do? Cherish your uniqueness. You see everyone is unique not just in the looks, but in thoughts, behaviours, personality, nature everything. So, what should we do? Do not compare with others, compare with yourself and take inspiration from others. That means, as a student if you have a capacity to study for six hours, and you have a neighbour in the hostel who studies for twelve hours. You study for six hours and you think my study is useless. It is not useless. It may not be as much as he is studying, but you have some capacity to study, and if you make a plan, from six hours you come to six and a half hours, you come to seven, you are improving is not it. So, you should compare with yourself, you can always be in the self-improvement mode, and when you compare with others, you will always either feel inferiority complex or superiority complex, and both will create problems. So, compare with yourself and keep improving. You know when athletes run, they do not compare with other athletes, they compare with a clock. Last time I took these many seconds, now I am taking these many seconds, so I am improving. That is how we should. Do not compare with others. You may wonder how is it possible, in the classroom it will always be seen who is first, who is second and who is third. We live in a competitive society. Yes, that is true, therefore, we have to understand what is the real success, that is “E,” fix your eyes on real success. What is real success? Again, it is a difference between the Western worldview and the Vedic worldview that this life is not like a 100-meter sprint, it is like a 100-Km marathon. That means if there is a marathon, even if you are behind in one lap, one round, you can always makeup later, but if it is a 100-meter sprint, once it is over, it is over. So, life is not like that. In life, even if you do not do well in one exam, if you do not do well in one interview, if you do not do well in one situation, there are always many more situations that are going to come in life. So, Henry Ford was one of the healthiest persons in American history and he was asked can you tell what have you learned from your life. So, he gave a simple answer, he said three words “Life goes on” no matter how great success we attain, what happens? Life goes on. The next day still we have to wake up, we have to clean ourselves, we have to respond to nature, we have to go to meet the people, we have to navigate the traffic, life goes on. So, we should not take life very seriously especially in terms of ups and downs. Imagine now lacs of students appear for CAT and most of them become rats, most of them fail to pass. Now, is that failure? Yes, if we have a wrong definition of success, if we have a 100-meter sprint definition, it is a failure. But what is the right definition of success? Life is a process, not a product. It is not that once you attain success, okay you have become one topper in exam, and life is over. No, there Is a topper internally. Now, another exam is going to come and the life Is going to go on. So, life is a process of continuous self-improvement, and further the scriptures say that this life is just one flash in eternity, and amazingly what those scriptures say is very interesting, they say that actually when we get good results, then what is happening is our past good karma is getting exhausted. When you get bad results, then our past bad karma is getting exhausted. So, it means that when we are enjoying, whatever is giving us enjoyment is exhausting, when we are suffering, then whatever is going to cause the suffering is getting exhausted. So, that means when we are suffering, then that means we are preparing for the end of suffering. When we are enjoying, we are going toward the end of enjoyment. So, when should we be happy and when should we be miserable. Therefore, Bhagavad Gita says sukhe dukhe same kritvaLabho alabhojaya ajaya, tato yudhaya yujsva Nainam papam avpapasyasi. Let us be equipoised.
What is real success? Albert Einstein , arguably the greatest scientist of modern times, he said strive not to be a man of success, but a man of value. If you achieve value, if you achieve talents, if you achieve abilities, then even if there are ups and downs, you will always have your value, the success will come and go. So, it is very important to understand the difference between external and internal success. Once a person was going through a jungle and suddenly he heard a grey voice “push this boulder up the hill.” He looked around, he could not see anyone. Then he saw big boulder in front of him, boulder is a huge rock, and he said this is God speaking “push this boulder up the hill.” So, he started pushing, pushing, pushing, and it was so huge, he could not even budge it. He thought maybe it is a God’s will, so I should do it, so from morning to evening he was pushing. One day, two day, one week, one month, six months he was pushing every day and he could not budge the boulder. Finally, the person said, Oh God, you knew I could not do this, why did you put me in this situation, why did you tell me to do such thing. God appeared “what happened?” He told him what did I tell you? So, he said you told me to push the boulder up. So, what did you do? I pushed it. Then, what is the problem? He said it has not moved at all. So, God said, I told you to push it, who told you to move it. He said what do you mean, what is the use of pushing if you do not move it? God said “what is the use?” Look at your own body. He looked he had been a skinny fellow and everyday pushing it made him a powerful muscular fellow with strong biceps and strong thighs. God said “I did not want to push the boulder up, I wanted to make you strong.” So, the point here is that there is an external success. The external success is pushing the boulder up. And the internal success is getting the strong muscles. So, the external success will come and go. What is important is the internal success.
If somebody has appeared for CAT, and he may not succeed from the material point of view, from the external point of view, but if he has learned a culture of discipline, dedication, hardwork, then hat itself is a culture that will help him to succeed. Real success means the ability to bounce back from failures. We have seen a ball, throw it down, it bounces up. The harder you throw it down, the harder it bounces up, the higher it bounces up, so that is real success. Ultimately, real success means to live in harmony with God and that will bring us lasting happiness. The satisfaction that comes by living in harmony with God, no amount of external limelight, external success can bring it for us. So, yes if we get internal success, sooner or later external success will come. But sometimes students cheat and they get good marks in the exam. You may get the good marks, but when you go in the company and you do the work, they say it happens that sometimes people give capitation fees in medical colleges and get the admission, and then they become surgeons, and when they become surgeons, they have to operate, they do not know what is what. There are ridiculous stories. In American, the medical standards are much higher than us. In America, the study says that 9000 people die every year because of medical mistakes. They say in India we cannot even count how many medical mistakes happen. So, why does this happen? Because incompetent people. So, here the person has achieved an external success, he has go the MBBS degree, but he did not learn the skill, so he is not benefitting himself, he is not benefitting others. I want to tell you a life story of one of my friends’ relatives. A doctor did the surgery and forgot the scalpel inside the stomach, and pain of the patient increased more after the surgery. So, what is the use? So, we do not want to be a part of the problem of this world, we want to be part of the solution. Therefore, focus on internal success, develop the proper culture of faith in God, dedication, bouncing back from failures, harmonizing with God and his laws, and then external success will follow sooner or later. So, that is important, fix your eyes on real success. We should be clear what is my success whenever I do anything. Yes, the external success is wanted, but the internal success is what is most wanted. So if we choose only external success, that is a wrong way, therefore choose internal success and focus on that.
Then, next is “R,” be resolute. Resolute means that be fixed, be firm, transcend worldly opinions and passions. What does that mean? It means do not try to satisfy everyone in this world. Probably you know this story. Once a person went to market and purchased a horse, and he and his son were coming back on the horse. Suddenly, the passer-by said what kind of cruel people are you, both of you are burdening the poor horse and it is getting crushed. Then he thought, Oh son you get down and walk. Another passer-by came and said what is this, your tender son is walking along and you are making him walk and you are comfortably riding on the horse. He said son you sit on the horse I will walk. Another passer-by came and he said what kind of culture is this, the young son is comfortably riding and making his old father walk, shame on you. Then he said son you get down, and the horse was walking and they were walking. Some passer-by said what foolishness is this, what is the use of a horse if you do not ride on it. So, in this way, the story may appear little ridiculous, but the point is that we all get caught up like this. One person says like this, we say okay I will do it like this. One person says like this, I do like this, and we end up getting confused and messed up. So, now we have a circle of well-wishers, we should take their opinion seriously. Our parents, our relatives, the devotees from whom we are taking guidance, so that close circle of well-wishers, we take their opinions seriously and try to satisfy them, and do not worry about the world. If you try to satisfy everyone, you will be not able to satisfy anyone. So, you have to be resolute. Okay, this is the goal that I have decided, I will focus on that, so be resolute.
Now, another part of the resolute is to live a life of principles. Now, in this world, if you do good, if you are kind, people will say that you are egoistic, you are motivated by selfishness, you wanted to prove your own worry. If you do some good, people may destroy it tomorrow. Do the good anyway. If you work very hard to build something wonderful, tomorrow nobody will be there to care, but do it anyway. If you try to help people, people may think that you are having some ulterior motive, but help people anyway. Like that there is a poem by Mother Theresa, there she says that ultimately it was not between you and them anyway, it was between you and God. So, if we are living a life of principle and we are resolute in that, ultimately God is seeing and he will reward. You know, real success is in the eyes of God. Illusionary success is in the eyes of the people of this world. We see this in the way this world cup cricket takes place. You know, first there was a big world cup and India could make it to even pass the initial qualifier, then what happened, the effigies of those cricketers were burned and after that in the 20-20 world cup India won the world cup. There was a whole queue of people waiting from the airport to the Wankhede stadium to welcome them. So, there are just ups and downs. You see this in the table and lawn tennis, at the end of the match one person jumps up and the other person goes down. This is just so foolish. You are living for the purpose and live for that purpose, be resolute, transcend worldly opinions and passions. Passions means,, okay we will come back to this. So earlier I was telling that this mind is like our software. So, now the mind can be polluted by viruses, just as the computer can get infected by viruses. So, once a person told this is my life story. He said when I was a child, I was longing to go to school. When I was in school, I was longing to go to college and be free. When I was in college, I was longing to have a job and stand on my own feet. When I had a job, I was dying to get married and enjoy. When I was married, I was dying to have kids and have my Xerox copies. When I had kids, I was dying to get them educated. When my kids were educated, I was dying to have them married and have a grandson on my lap, and now I am dying, and realized I forgot to live. That is what happens to life. You know, we always worried about some future goal. That is what is the result of passion, and this passion can affect us terribly. There are many passions, which may affect us. Primary among them are lust, anger and greed. These are like viruses, which come in our mind and they ruin us, and it is not that they harm us only the spiritual part, they can harm us in material life also.
We know that Bill Clinton was the former president of America and he got involved in some sex scandal, he was disgraced and he cost the American exchequer, the American tax payers something to the tune of 50 million dollars just because of his involvement in scandal, and that is because of the virus of lust destroying a person or harming him. Some of we may aware of the soccer world cup final was there and there was a Italian captain Zidane, he is Italian? No French. So, he was leading his team to victory in the final match of his career, he was playing like a maestro and suddenly he head-butted Materazzi. Benjamin Franklin said that what begins in anger, ends in shame. And he was disgraced, so anger did end him. There was a Hansie Cronje, the former captain of South African cricket team. The cricketing team was in top of the cricket world at that time, and all the coaches and captains were studying his cricketing strategies, but then he got involved in match fixing and he was banned from international cricket, and at that time he admitted in his confession and he said I feel ashamed to confess to my fans, the unfortunate affection for the greed that I have nursed. So, these are viruses, and if we are not careful, none of our positive thinking will work if we get contaminated by lust, anger and greed. So, neglect worldly passions and opinions.
Now, “G” that is be grateful for the gifts of God. Actually, we know that every 3.6 seconds one person dies of hunger in this world. If you have your basic needs taken care of, you are among the top 90% wealthy people of the world. If you have some savings on top of it, then you are in the world’s top 5% elite. This is especially the America situation, you know if you have seen your parents live together when you grow up, in America you are almost like an exception in 5% out of 100%. In earlier we had these joint families, and then we had nuclear families, and now we have nuclear fission and the electrons and protons are orbiting around lost. So, why does this happen? This happens because of the materialistic worldview. So, we take this so much for granted. Some of you may go to America in the future. If you go, one social etiquette, do not ask people who is your mother or who is father because most American’s have two mothers and three fathers, not most, but many. It is true actually unfortunately. So, what happens is there are so many gifts we just take for granted. You know, in this world there are 50 million people who have disease with chronic pain. You wake up and you have no pain, you are very fortunate. So, there are so many gifts, which we have, we do not see them, we take them for granted. Why is that? It is because we have seen sometimes a child goes to a supermarket, it says mummy I want that toy, and mother says no beta not now, we have toys, and then he starts crying in the middle of the supermarket, the parent gets embarrassed, then he says mummy, papa you do not love me. Now, the parents are giving him food, clothing, shelter, education, medication, but he cannot see it at all, why? Because he does not get that one toy. So, that is a spoiled child. Unfortunately, if you see, God is providing us everything, food, clothing, shelter all the basic needs are taken care of, but all of us have our toys, is not it? I want this much marks in this exam, I want this job, I want this car, I want this bike, I want this girl, I want, I want, and if you do not get that toy, we say God does not exist, God does not care, we just do not feel grateful. That is because we all are childish, we all have our toys. It is so unfortunate. So, if we are not grateful, we are a great fool. We should learn to be grateful, we should learn to count our blessings, forget the toy, there are so many things that we have. Another reason why we cannot be grateful is the advertising industry. What does the advertising industry do? Grateful gratitude comes by seeing what we have. But the advertising industry specializes in showing us all that we do not have. Have you ever seen any advertisement for rice, dal, sabji, and chapatti? Because they know that as it is you are going to purchase it. The whole advertisement is to create needs where none exist. There is a slogan in the advertising industry that says who is the best advertising agent? This is one who can sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo. That means what no way that the Eskimo going to need a fridge. The whole advertising industry creates wants in us. If we let ourselves be gullible recipients of all the messages sent by the advertising industry, we can never be grateful. So, we have to protect ourselves from this, and then we can all be grateful. So, it is our choice. All of us have problems in life, all of us have blessings in life. If we count our problems, we will be miserable. If we count our blessings, we will be happy. So, learn to count your blessings and learn to associate with those who count our blessings. Then, we can actually think positively.
Then the last is, say yes to God with faith that is “y.” So, now the acronym, it does not start with the first word, but you see that particular letter is made big, so ENERGY, so let us see this. There is a famous prayer, oh God please give me the strength to change the thing that I can change, the endurance to accept the thing that I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference. Once, a mother told her daughter, do you like a cake? She said yes of course. Mother said, here take some maida, daughter said I do not like it; take some oil, daughter said I do not like it; take some baking powder; she said I do not like it. Mother said you do not like these ingredients, but when you cook them together, you will get the cake. Similarly, God is like an expert cook. He is cooking our heart. One by one the events that are happening in our life, you may not like them. But if you wait for God’s plan to act, then we will see that God has a wonderful purpose. God often breaks things to make them better. God breaks clouds to give rains. God breaks the soil to give grains. God breaks the grains to give chapatis or breads. God breaks the breads or chapatics to give us food. Similarly, sometimes God has to break our short-term plans for material enjoyment to give us something better to fulfil a long-term plan for everlasting happiness. So, say yes to God. That means, when things go wrong, then okay as it is said in the Bible “let thy will be done, not mine.” Just surrender to God and cooperate. You will find how things will work our properly for you. So, this is a concept that all of us have many things, which we are worried about, they fall in the circle of concern. All of us have some things, which we can change, which we can control, they are in the circle of influence. That means, say if you have exam coming up, now what kind of paper will come does that matter to you? Is that of a concern to you? It is. But can you do anything about it? You cannot do. But what can you do? You can do your studies properly. So, your studying is in the circle of influence. The paper that is going to come, that is in the circle of concern. So, what most people do is they focus on circle of concern, “kaisa paper ayega, kya hoga, mushkil paper ayato, pichle saal accha paper ayatha, per pichale uske pehle saal bahut kharab paper ayatha.” You just waste time thinking about things, which we cannot worry about. People say that you know America has attacked Kuwait or America has attacked Iraq whatever. So what, what can you do about it. Okay, general knowledge you have to know it, but what is the use of getting worked up about it. Find out what you can do and focus on those things. So, if you focus on the circle of influence, then that circle grows bigger and bigger. If you study properly, the chance of your being able to face the paper and get the marks is better. But, if you do not do your studies properly and keep worrying about the paper, then what happens? The amount of time you have for studying is decreasing, so the circle of influence is decreasing, and when exam comes, you flunk in it. So, the choice is ours. Whenever any problem comes in your life, think what can I do about it. Do not think why this has happened. Think what can I do about it. There are many things, which we cannot do anything about, then for that we need faith in God. The things, which I can control, let me control. The things, which I cannot control, let me have faith that God will control them. If we have this faith, then we can very energetically go on in life. Otherwise, our energy will be sapped away by worrying about things, which we cannot control. So, this is the sutra, ENERGy sutra. So, what has happened, by focus on the circle of influence, the circle has grown bigger.
Now, it is the last part of the talk, when you go to a doctor, the doctor gives two things. He gives us a diagnosis, what is wrong and removes your x-ray. Then, the doctor says take this x-ray and go home. So, what do I do, go and eat the x-ray? Give me some medicine, is not it. So, what we discussed, you may find it in many other books also on positive thinking. The Idea you will not find, the first part, but the six principles you may find, but what is special about the Vedic scriptures is that, they not only give us the diagnosis of what is wrong, they give us a prescription, take these medicines that is what will cure you. So, what are these medicines? This is the PIES formula, four things, it is called “P” stands for PQ that is physical quotient, “I” is IQ intelligence quotient,” E” is EQ emotional quotient, and “S” is spiritual quotient. So, modern psychologists have found out that these are four dimensions of the human personality. If these four are taken care of, then the human being can advance very nicely and be happy in life. So, now it is amazing that there are four aspects of Vedic culture, four activities of Vedic culture, which naturally take care of these four things. What are they? If you want to take care of the physical quotient, take Prasad, take vegetarian food that is not only nutritious, that is not only karma free, but that is very delicious and that is very uplifting. So, generally people will think prasad means some little morsel you get at the end of some religious ritual. No, everything that we eat can be prasad, everything that we eat pray to Krishna, pray to Lord before taking food, chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra three times. If you cannot, actually often alter, but take the prasad like that. You will find that your mind will become much more calm and much more positive. So, we may not think how will I give up comparing mentality, how will I fix my mind on real success, you will get the strength for all that by doing these four activities. I said prasad not just a small morsel of food, it is the mercy of the Lord. So, what the Lord is taking, we get it over here, that is prasad, so take prasad and you will see for yourself, it is amazing.
ISKCON does food for life in different parts of the world. So, in Tirupti, they were doing this midday meal program. Sunday they were doing this in some of the suburban government schools and the children who come there are from the slums and the children were actually very unruly, they were from the slums and they would be very undisciplined, the teacher was afraid to control them because they were like violent, and the teacher said six months the children took prasad and after that children were completely changed. They became soft and well-spoken, and well behaved and the other schools, the other governmental schools, which are not private schools, they said why do not you bring prasad to us also. So, this is the practical demonstration of the power of prasad. It changes a person. His harshness, his rudeness and negativity goes away and the positive qualities come up. IQ is swadhyay. So, swadhyay means study of scriptures. Study of scriptures is not like the study of our academic books. About four years ago, the WHO, the World Health Organization, sent out a circular “doctors please stop smoking” because their survey showed that among the different professional s who smoke, the doctors smoke the most. What is this, doctors know better than everyone else how dangerous smoking is, why are doctors smoking the most. So, that means the doctors certainly have information processing ability to study all the medical books and pass all the exams, they certainly have information processing ability, but that is not intelligence, that is just the intellect. Intelligence means the ability to discriminate “yeh accha hai, yeh bura hai,” “this is short-term beneficial, this is long-term beneficial.” That intelligence we will get not by studying our academic books, that we will get by studying Bhagavad Gita, that is swadhyay. So, if you study Bhagavad Gita, your intelligence will become very sharp and clear. Now, all the things that are bad for us, you will give them up, and all the things that are good for you, you will be able to do them, that is IQ.
Then, there is EQ that is Satsang. So, EQ means emotional quotient. So, there are people who just cannot deal with other’s emotions properly. That means, if somebody gets angry, how should you deal with the situation? If you also get angry, then the whole situation worsens. Then, you have to be calm and later on talk with him properly. So, when we associate with devotees those who have sadachar and we see how they deal with the ups and downs of life. By associating with them, by seeing their example, our emotional quotient develops. We should understand how should deal the situations in life. Our emotional intelligence develops tremendously by Satsang. So, the ability to manage our own emotions and to respond emotions of others both come by Satsang.
The last is Sadhana. So, Sadhana is for our soul. Sadhana is like spiritual discipline just like people go and do bodybuilding. They do bodybuilding for what? To build their muscles. But the big big bodybuilders , they have the strength to lift weights, but then they keep smoking and they say it is cool, you are a hole. So, what is so cool about fire is not it. That means they have the strength to lift big weights, but they do not have the strength to break their bad habits. Nowadays, it is fad to do bodybuilding. So, how many of you are already chanting Hare Krishna? How many of you chant Hare Krishna? Okay, a few of you. So, when you chant Hare Krishna, your friend is asking what are you doing, you tell them I am bodybuilding. What is that? You say this is my spiritual dumbbell, and I am chanting Hare Krishna. What happens by that? The real internal muscles become strong. Now, how many people are going to come and attack us and that sort of danger is not there, but how many times our bad desires, bad habits going to attack us. At that time, the physical muscles will not help, at that time the internal muscles will help. Those internal muscles are developed by chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra. Therefore, this is real bodybuilding, this is the kind of bodybuilding that will help you. In fact, the Hare Krishna mahamantra, the name of God in America in the Florida State University, Dr David Brian Wolfe, an American sociologist did a survey of people. He made three groups. One group who chanted the Hare Krishna mantra, another group who chanted any other mantra or any other sound that they like, and the third who did not chant anything, and he studied them together. He found that those who chant the Hare Krishna mantra, they were less likely to fall prey to stress or depression, and they were able to break free from their bad habits. So, even science has testified to the power of this chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra. So, this is what will help us to deal with the ups and downs of life, and this is a great investment of time, it is not a waste. If you become strong, so how do we think positive, chant Hare Krishna that will enable you to fight off the negative thoughts that when they come, that will enable you to fight off waste thought that when they come. Then, you can your own power. Actually, all of us are like a diamond that is covered by dust. All of us are potentially divine, but now we are cover lover. By the process of Sadhana, by the process of chanting of the holy names what are we doing? We are removing the dust. All the Godly qualities that are our innate nature will come out, and we can become much better person than what we are and we can become much better person than what we can even believe by the power of the grace of God. The Hare Krishna mahamantra, the chanting has the power that even the nuclear weapons do not have. Nuclear weapons can destroy all the people of the world, but they cannot destroy the bad habit of a single person. All the people will be born again and their bad habits will be still there with them. But if you chant Hare Krishna, the biggest bad habit can be destroyed. So, that is why this is our power, that are PIES.
So, I will summarize and we can have question answers. So, I started first with the power of positive thinking. There are four kinds of thoughts. We should choose positive thoughts, but positive thinking has to be based on positive perception of reality. Three examples for that, a glass is empty , the patient who has cancer and the person who has a wrong map, that that is not positive thinking , that is imaginary thinking. Then, we discussed what is the right map, we discussed IDEA Identity, divinity, eternity and activity. So, when you understand you are not the body, you are soul, then you will become free from so much negative thinking that comes because of thinking I am fat, I am thin, I am dark all that. When you understand divinity that God is in control, then even when things are going wrong from the patient’s point of view, still they are going right from the doctor’s point of view. Then, when you understand there is eternity, then there is no fear of death, you know of that, I have positive goal, no negative thing can destroy life and “A” activity. When our activity is positive, then the thinking positive will help us otherwise. We jump from 100-story building, if you break the law of God, if you indulge in meat eating, gambling and illicit sex, then we cannot actually benefit from positive thinking. And then lastly we discussed the sutra. Does anyone remember what is “E”? “E” was cultivate smart expectations. This world is not like a hotel, it is a hospital. I discussed this most elaborately, talked about Western software people and the pushbutton technology and the guns and Indians using a comb to start the fan and tilting the bike. So the ability to go along when things do not work right, that is a great strength and that comes when you understand that okay even if things are not in my control, they are in God’s control. So, world is a hospital. Then, we dissed do not compare you with others, compare with yourself and seek inspiration from others. Nip that is” N” is nip comparing, nip means pierce it. Nip comparing mentality in the bud, cherish you uniqueness. Then “E” is fix your eyes on real success. We discussed the story of the person pushing the boulder up. So, the external success may come and go. The internal success is what will bring us real happiness in life. Then, “R” is be resolute, transcend worldly opinions. We discussed the story of the father and son going with the horse and passions. We discussed examples of Bill Clinton, Hansie Cronje and Zidane, lust, greed and anger. We have to be careful about these passions. “ G” was be grateful for the gifts of God. All our basic necessities for most are taken care of, be grateful . We discussed if we get infatuate with our toys, we cannot be grateful. If we let ourselves see all the advertisements, we cannot be grateful. Otherwise, if you are not grateful, we are a great fool. Lastly, when things go wrong, still how can see positively, that is a plan of God. We discussed the cake story and the circle of influence, circle of concern, and lastly we discussed the PIES. So what was” P”? Physical quotient that is developed by taking prasad. “I,” I was IQ developed by Swadhaya by study of Bhagavad Gita that gives us this is right, this is wrong. “E” is emotional quotient developed by Satsang. We see how devotees calmly respond to different situations, we also can respond to them. Lastly, “S” is spiritual quotient, that is Sadhana. The spiritual body building to fight the attack of bad desire and bad habits. The greatest power in creation greater than the power of nuclear weapons. So, thank you very much. Are there any questions? So those who are not chanting, please take this as an investment of your time. It will benefit you tremendously. Do not say that I do not have time. Because if you say I do not have time, it is like a person working on the computer that is infected by virus. If somebody comes to know you have to install antivirus, you say no time. You keep typing and everything will get deleted in the background, nothing will work. But take the time to install the computer virus, what will happen? Afterwards, you can work efficiently. Like that, all our minds have negative emotions. But the Hare Krishna mahamantra is like the antivirus. So, if you install this antivirus , then we can always be positive and powerful in our thoughts. So, how many of you are not yet chanting Hare Krishna? How many of you are not practicing mantra medication as of now? Ok, many of you. So, I will just briefly tell you what is mantra meditation and how it is done. The essence of meditation, people think meditation means you have to sit in a particular posture and do a particular activity that is not essence. Meditation means to take the mind off the changing and to fix it on the unchanging. Just like, if a boat is there in the ocean, it will always be tossed by the waves. But if the boat is anchored, then it will not be tossed. Similarly, in this world, wavelike events are always happening, sometimes good , sometime bad and our mind keeps getting agitated. But if our mind is fixed on something that is unchanging, this anchor, then the mind will not be disturbed. What is that anchor? That anchor is God, the Lord himself. So, when you fix our mind on God, that is the essence of meditation. In Kaliyuga, in this particular age, God manifests himself as his holy names. So, when we chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra, that is called as mantra medication. This mantra meditation is a very powerful process to calm the mind down and to become very peaceful and powerful in our thoughts. So, now for a few minutes, we will have a demonstration of mantra meditation. So, all of you sit in a relaxed posture, but erect, no need to strain yourself, but relax, and take three deep breaths, now we will chant the mantra together. The mantra is there over here for those who want to see and if the mind goes anywhere else like a child running, like a mother you bring the mind back gently, but firmly, and just focus on the sound, chant softly and clearly. So, when I chant Hare Krishna, you can be at Hare Krishna with me, when we come to Hare Ram, then you can be at Hare Ram. Then next mantra. So, jaya sri-krishna-chaitanya prabhu nityananda sri-adwaita gadadhara shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda. Softly, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Ram Ram Hare Hare…………….. So, this way if you do meditation, it will take just 8 to 10 minutes per day. We have beads available at the stall, you take the beads, they will help you in your concentration, you will find yourself becoming very peaceful and powerful n your thoughts. So, whatever we discussed today in the seminar plus a more detailed description of what we discussed is there in this book, which will be available at the stall. So, this is a systematic explanation of the principle that can help us to think positive. Many times we go for lectures and then we hear good things and then we go back and forget. That is why, I have given this talk over a dozen times, I have given it in IITs, NITs, corporate companies, but many of this corporate executives and students they request us that if we have some written material of the talk, then we can refer to it and then we can actually apply it. So, to apply for their request, I have prepared this book, so this book will be available for those who would like to take this. This talk was only brief, this book gives much more detailed analysis of the talk and then this is another book, which is mentioned by Krishna’s grace I get to write in many reading papers and this is compilation of all the articles and is very good for introducing yourself to spirituality. I will introduce you some friends to spirituality. Each article in this book is two pages. It starts here, ends here. Sometimes people feel that I do not have time to read spiritual books, but you see every article will start here, end here. That way, even if you have five minutes or ten minutes, If you are in a class and your teacher has not yet come or you are sitting in a bus and you have 15 minutes, you can read one one article and you can keep yourself spiritually refreshed. This also contains many good examples , analogies, insights that you can use in your group discussions and your interviews and other places, and bring a spiritual perspective to all those circumstances. So, both these books are available and one more book is coming just now, it will come in 15 minutes. This is spiritual scientist series volume I and volume II. These books are available. Those of who would like, you can have these books.