Happy Ram navami..to our Eternal Role model...!

In the 19th century, Indians started being educated in English. And they were exposed for the first time to European literature. This was the literature of the colonial master and was presented as the standard: how literature should be.Naturally, when Indians started retelling the epics of India they modelled their

writing along the lines of the Bible and the Greek epics. They wanted to tell the master that India had its own share of Achilles and Hector and Odysseus and Moses.The idea of the hero was not alien to Indians. Their  tales are found in the many ballads of the land. There was the valorous Alha of Bundelkhand, the love songs of Heer-Ranjha and Soni-Mahiwal from the Punjab. But these were raw, earthy, and parochial narratives, in a language of the common man. The writers sought a pan-Indian hero, one who emerged from the classics that appealed to the sensibilities of the elite, from a refined language approved by the master: the ‘Latin of the Indies’ – Sanskrit. So role models were sought in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata

But the protagonists of the Hindu epics were very different from their Greek and biblical counterparts; they were not answerable to gods or God,they were Gods themselves, albeit mortal forms, playacting to bring enlightenment to humankind. Attempts to transform Ram and Krishna into heroes to satisfy the rising tide of  nationalism created issues. It was difficult to make a role model of Krishna who was prankster and a romantic rake, surrounded by milkmaids who swooned to his music. Shiva, with his ash-smeared narcotic-smoking indifference, was tough too.  Ram seemed to fit the bill, as he was a good son and an obedient prince, and faithful to a single wife. He had raised an army of monkeys and bears to rescue his wife from the demon-king. Ram could easily serve as a model to nationalists seeking to liberate ‘Mother India’ who had been chained by the English rulers of the land. But social reformers and feminists cried foul. Ram had beheaded Shambuka, a member of the lower/oppressed classes for attempting to be a hermit. Ram had banished his wife following street gossip about her reputation. Ram was not good enough to be role model. Who then? Maybe Arjuna, the great archer of the Mahabharata? Or maybe Bhima, the mighty Pandava? But had these men not kept quiet when their wife Draupadi was being gambled away like chattel? Asceticism and celibacy had long been valorised in India.  Role models who were remotely sexual were out rightly rejected. The romantic was barely tolerated and the homosexual not even acknowledged. Some scholars trace it to the popularity of Buddhist monasticism. Others trace it to Tantrik lore where retaining semen grants humans magical powers to the jogis. Still others trace its contemporary popularity of the Jesuit missionary of the 19th century who took the vow of poverty and obedience for the good of the people. Historical figures like Chanakya and Shivaji were constructed along these lines – social reformers with no personal life. Naturally many national leaders modelled themselves along these lines. So we find the rise of sage-nationalists like Vivekananda and Rajagopalachari and of course, Gandhi, whose experiments with truth in relationship to semen retention in the company of women raises many ethical questions today, but which we brazenly edit out from all textbooks preferring to focus only on his doctrine of non-violence that created a nation out of India. Those who were not so celibate, downplayed their sexuality by choosing to project themselves as avuncular statesmen.

Bollywood changed all that. Market forces revealed a very different role model. We began with the socialist Balraj Sahani, and the tragic Guru Dutt, but quickly moved to the dancing Shammi Kapoor, and eventually to the bare-bodied Salman Khan. We wanted role models who reflected the age: the angry young Amitabh of the License Raj, the irrepressible romantic called Shah Rukh Khan. At first we wanted earnest Zanzeers and Deewars who reined in criminals and outraged Singhams who bashed up corrupt politicians. But  eventually we wanted powerful, even cunning, winners, not noble losers. So much so that even anti-heroes rose in popularity, preferably slick underworld dons, who cock a snook at the system. Cricketers followed suit with unabashed captains who take off their shirts in full view of the stadium to mock the erstwhile rulers of the land, and powerful captains who made cricket less about gentlemen, and more about glamour. No one spoke of bedroom habits of the icons. Bookie conversations were hushed up. Only victory mattered, nothing else.

In many ways our quest for the perfect role model failed us because life is not perfect and humans are not perfect. This is what the timeless epics of India sought to communicate, a truth that we chose not to hear as we sought alignment with European ideals. God who walks the earth as Ram and Krishna does not strive to be perfect. He strives to do the best he can under the circumstances, sometimes upholding rules, sometimes bending the rules. But we are so desperate for role models, someone we want to idolise if not emulate, that rather than understanding their actions and learning from them, we preferred judging them, either placing them on pedestal, denying them their shortcomings, magnifying all their actions, getting violently outraged at any criticism directed at them: in effect, denying them their humanity. We imprison them with our expectations. Such is the terrible fate of all role models.

-By DevDutt Patnaik, Published on 17th November, 2013, The Speaking Tree, The Times of India. 

A Self Made Leader And King.

Bharat were under the rule of Mughals in 17th century. People were distressed, going through unimagined torture, conversion, our culture was under threat of getting destroyed. Suffering had become a common day-to-day lifestyle. People had lost faith in their abilities and became servants and mute spectators. Volumes can be written on this account of state of suffering and torture which is still unknown to common readers.

A 16 year old boy stood against all this in 17th century.  He took an oath of “Hindavi Swaraj” – the land to be ruled by our own people with a just system. The dream of this young boy was looked upon by the people as a joke. Many laughed at him. Why wouldn’t they! The situation of India – a legacy of 5 Sultanates, an ongoing 400 year old tyranny and Mughals had the best army in the world. Taking on to such an onslaught was obviously looked upon as madness. But this child chose the madness for his own countryman. His readiness was result of teachings and values nurtured by his mother through spiritual upbringing. He was inspired by our culture – Ramayana, Mahabharata .

He started from zero and rose to a phoenix making people wonder. Fight was against one of the best armies of the world. With him – determination and abundant grace!  Every fight he fought has become a legend. His army did wonders. He lead from the front sometime entering into army camp of 50,000 with just 400 soldiers and making enemy leave the city in a weeks’ time. Many such happening happened around him.

Later he even lost his 70% of the hard earned kingdom to Mughals and had to give up the fight. He was arrested in enemy stronghold in Agra. He escaped and came back with a bang – regrouped, regained and established more than before within a short period. This feat in history is unmatched, unimagined and unparalleled. Even in this consistent war period he kept his people happy with perfect administration. Besides a perfect warrior, he was a skilled administrator, statesman and the best leader ever.

 He was a visionary who dreamt and created leaders. He raised peasants, farmers, downtrodden and poor people to glory and instilled confidence which changed the course of our history. He turned the mice into lions. And for generations to come those lions were ready to die for the cause of country even after he left his body.

Yes you might have guessed the name of this superhero .
He is none other than Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj!

He managed from the age of fifteen to free his small jagir of Poona and based his future greatness on that small beginning, entirely relying on his own effort and initiative.He welded the scattered elements of his people into united body and with their help accomplished his main object.
He established an independent kingdom of his own stretching from Salher and Ahiwant in the West Khandesh to Tanjore on the Kaveri, with unchallenged supremacy, erecting for its defence hundreds of forts and several sea bases with extensive market places.
He created his own regiments of 40 thousand paid troops, in addition to about 70 thousand shilledars or hired troopers and an infantry of some 2 lacs, a treasure which could be counted by crores, choice jewelry and material provision of every indispensable article.Thus he elevated his Maratha nation consisting of 96 clans to an unheard of dignity, crowning the whole achievement by occupying an exalted throne and assuming the title of Chatrapati. He plunged the most powerful Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb into an ocean of grief.

काशीजी की कला जाती , मथुरा मस्जिद होती |
शिवाजी ना होते तो सुन्नत होती सब की ||
(Had not there been Shivaji, Kashi would have lost its culture,Mathura would have been turned into a mosque and all would have been circumcised.)

A Person who won’t stand for something will fall for anything..

In Zig Ziglar’s world, the morning alarm rang on the “opportunity clock.”
And “if you aren’t on fire” when you get to work, “then your wood is wet.”
And you have to remember that “money’s not the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen.”

And there will be setbacks, but “failure is an event, not a person.”
Few messengers of prosperity have been able to sustain a relentlessly upbeat and lucrative career for as long as Mr. Ziglar. Zig Ziglar! A human exclamation point! The world’s most popular motivational speaker, as he was often described, was always excited because “you never judge a day by the weather!”
He was a presence at corporate retreats and conferences for firms such as IBM and J.C. Penney. For the general public, some people paid $49 to hear him live or $1,595 to buy his complete written and audio package. He won over crowds with his faith-filled proverbs and earnest metaphors about setting goals and facing down adversity.
“If you’re going to have to swallow a frog,” he said in his Southern drawl, “you don’t want to have to look at that sucker too long!” Or
“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want!” Or “Have you ever noticed that people who are the problem never realize it? They’re in denial. They think denial is a river in Egypt!” Or
“The more you gripe about your problems, the more problems you have to gripe about!”
What his words lacked in depth, they made up for in conviction.
“I’ve asked myself many times how Zig can say the same things people have been hearing all their lives, and instead of getting yawns he gets a tremendous response,” his friend Fred Smith, the former FedEx chief executive, told Texas Monthly in 1999.

“I think he’s a little like Billy Graham, who has never really departed from the same sermon he was giving back in his 20s yet who’s never lost any effectiveness,” Smith said. “After all these years, Zig still devotes every day to living this life he talks about, to applying some eternal truths about character, commitment, hard work and self-determination.”

For his most fervent admirers, Mr. Ziglar was an inspiring leader who every morning leapt out of bed to the opportunity clock, bussed his wife (“Hey, Sugar Baby”), and willed himself into a positive mindset by seldom lingering on crime stories and celebrity gossip while scanning his morning newspaper. Texas Monthly described Mr. Ziglar’s love of comic strips, stories about sports teams and human-interest tales. He clipped them out and stored them in a file cabinet brimming with anecdotes about people who overcame disabilities and poverty and made it to state championships and the executive suite.
“Isn’t it amazing,” he told Texas Monthly, “how we are designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness?” Advancement in all its forms appealed to Hilary Hinton Ziglar, who was the 10th of 12 children born in rural Coffee County, Ala., on Nov. 6, 1926. He was raised by his widowed mother in Yazoo City, Miss.
He described his mother as the foremost influence on his life; she was a strict and devout woman whose mental storehouse of adages (such as “The person who won’t stand for something will fall for anything”) remained a cornerstone of Mr. Ziglar’s speeches and writings.
After Navy service at the end in World War II, he was married in 1946 to Jean Abernathy. He attended the University of South Carolina, but he was a middling student and left school to work as a door-to-door cookware salesman. As he was promoted through the ranks of the company, Mr. Ziglar became drawn to the power of self-help speakers and their ability to influence others. He began giving talks at church and Rotary Club meetings, often reprising his mother’s advice and relating his own experiences of smiling through setbacks and grief.
He settled in the Dallas area by the late 1960s, initially for a job training workers at a direct-sales company. The business soon folded, but the demand for Mr. Ziglar’s speaking had intensified. He launched a business called the Zigmanship Institute, now simply known as Ziglar Inc.

His first book, “Biscuits, Fleas, and Pump Handles,” published in 1974 and later retitled “See You at the Top,” urged readers to re-evaluate their lives with a “checkup from the neck up” and to quit their “stinkin’ thinkin.’

“ Mr. Ziglar, who sometimes earned tens of thousands of dollars per speech and other times waived his fee, kept up a rigorous touring schedule until retiring in 2010. He adapted his maxims to every aspect of his life, not least the golf course.
Every day, he sought to break 70 but never did.
“Yesterday ended last night,” he liked to tell himself. “Today is a brand-new day. And it’s yours.”


- Courtesy The Washington Post.

Success is 99 percent failure!

Like most other countries, Japan was hit badly by the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1938, Soichiro was still in school, when he started a little workshop, developing the concept of the piston ring. His plan was to sell the idea to Toyota. He labored night and day, even slept in the workshop. He was married by now, and pawned his wife's jewelry for working capital. Finally, came the day he completed his piston ring and he eagerly took a working sample to Toyota. But he was told that the rings did not meet their standards! Soichiro went back to school and suffered ridicule. Was this the end point for Soichiro ?  ------  No!

 He refused to give up. Rather than focusing on his failure, he continued working towards his goal. Then, after two more years of struggle and redesign, he won a contract with Toyota. With the contract in hand, Soichiro needed to build a factory to supply Toyota, but building materials were in short supply due to war. Still he would not quit! He invented a new concrete-making process that enabled him to build the factory. With the factory now built, he was ready for production, but the factory was bombed twice and steel became unavailable, too. Was this the end of the road for Soichiro ? -----   No! 

He started collecting surplus gasoline cans discarded by US fighters. He called them "Gifts from President Truman." It became the new raw material for his rebuilt manufacturing process. Finally, an earthquake destroyed the factory. Did he felt defeated? ------  No!
After the war, an extreme gasoline shortage forced people to walk or use bicycles. A novel idea flashed in his mind. Soichiro attached a tiny lawn mower engine to his bicycle. He went on rides with his motorized bicycle. He found that other people were interested in his strange new idea. Sadly he didn‟t have money to produce and supply to the market need. 

Did he blame the situation?  ------ No!

Rather than giving up, Soichiro dug deep and sought out a way to get the finance he needed to continue with his project. He wrote an inspiring letter to 18,000 bicycle shop owners which asked them to help him revitalize Japan through innovation.A huge number of the shop owners he wrote to responded by giving Soichiro  what little money they could to help him. Soichiro battled away with several redesigns before finally producing the Super Cub‟ which became an overnight success. By 1963, Soichiro Company  was the top-selling brand of motorcycles in the United States

Now As you might guessing Soichiro company's name , It's  " HONDA!" Yes you read it right Honda Motors......!!  Soichiro Honda is his full name!

HONDA now employs more than 100,000 people in the USA and Japan and it is now the leading brand in two wheelers and cars. Despite suffering more failures than most of us will see in a lifetime, Soichiro  persisted and never once allowed himself to give up on his dreams.

Soichiro Honda once said: “Many people dream of success. I believe that success can be achieved only through repeated failure and self-analysis. Success is only one percent of your work, and the rest – bold overcoming of obstacles. If you are not afraid of them, success will come to you itself”. Today’s prosperity of Honda Motor Co., Inc. proves the truth of its founder. 

 “Success is 99 percent failure!” is the famous quote of Soichiro Honda. It is not considered as a preaching, but it is revered as the essence of his life story. 

Man Is The Master Of His Own Fate !

Long ago (around 600-500 BC), there lived a great scholar and astrologer  by name Pani, on the banks of the river Indus. Pani's wife delivered a healthy son.The son came to be known as Panini, the offspring of Pani.

One day, a great scholar, astrologer and palmist visited Pani. He was a  great friend of Pani. Pani and his family treated the great man courteously. He was served the best food and was treated with the best services. After lunch, the great man called the child Panini and asked him to sit with him. Panini readily agreed and sat with the great man.

The great man looked at the right palm of the child. He sat there gazing  at the palm for several minutes. The expression on his face changed  from that of cheerfulness to that of concern. Looking at this change, Pani inquired the great man about what was bothering him.

The great man looked at Pani with pitiful eyes and said "Oh Pani! My  friend! You are such a renowned scholar and people around the world come to you for advice. Alas! Fate has it that this child of yours will remain illiterate. He has no education line on his palm."

Pani asked his friend- "Please forgive me. I am not saying this because I doubt your expertise, but would it be possible that you haven't checked my son's palm correctly?"

The great man looked at Pani, whose eyes tried to hold their grief back, and said "My friend! I have checked the boy's palm thoroughly, not once but twice and there is no education line here. He is bound to remain illiterate."
Pani could no longer hold his grief. He closed his eyes and muttered under his breath "If the lord wishes it to be so, so be it!"
Panini, who was listening to the conversation, gently asked the great man "Sir, could you please tell me where on my palm would the education line be, if it had been?"

The great man showed the child the location of the education line on his  own palm. He felt sympathetic towards the child, who was so well  mannered and soft spoken.

The child ran out of the house and returned back in a few minutes. He held out his right palm and asked the great man "Will I be a scholar  now? Will I be able to uphold my father's name?"

The great man and Pani looked at the child's hand and were shocked.  Blood was oozing out of the palm and where there had to be the education  line, there was a deep line which was etched with a sharp stone. The  two men had no words.

As he grew up, Panini was educated by his father and Pani was astonished  by his son's insatiable quest for knowledge.

Panini is believed to have formulated the rules of Sanskrit morphology,  syntax and semantics in fourteen verses, and called them Maheshwara Sutrani.

These Sutras are also known as Aṣṭādhyāyī, meaning eight chapters, the foundational text of the grammatical branch of the Vedanga. 

Forget all the reasons why it won't happen and believe in the only reason why it will. Afterall, man is the master of his own fate.

With self-confidence & Perseverance, you can never, never give up...!

I had an opportunity to interact with the readers of a famous Magazine. It was a two-day program. At the end of the program, a young man asked me:
'Swamiji! I am a postgraduate. It is more than ten years since I completed my studies. So far, I have not received even a single interview card from the employment exchange. So, I am working as a cashier in a restaurant.

This job has no connection whatsoever with my educational qualifications. Last month, there was a shortage of cash at the counter. I do not know how it happened. The shame of being accused loomed large in my mind.
I thought I could pawn one of my wife's jewelry and replace the missing amount. But my wife refused. I asked my mother. She only fired me, but did nothing to help me! In this world, my own mother and wife were not ready to save my honor!'
I told him, ‘Leave alone the fact that your mother and wife not trust you. Do you trust yourself? Think deeply! You lack the confidence to take risks in life. So, you are stuck in a job that you dislike. Since you dislike your job, you are unable to do it with full involvement. Because of this, you are not able to remember how that money was missing! So, your problem is not your wife or mother. It is you, yourself ! Lack of self-confidence is your problem. First try to overcome it.'
Reflect on this.
A person from New York visited my ashram and asked, 'Swamiji, I am so depressed because my wife left me the moment I reached USA. Now I am divorced. I am 29 years and feel my whole life is wasted.'
hen asked for the reason, he said, 'Who will marry me, as I am already 29 years old?'

I told him, 'Even cockroaches have multiple partners in life. Are you less than a cockroach to feel that you cannot get another woman in your life?'

Just see how poor was his self-esteem. It is a fact that his wife had left him. Poor self-confidence is killing his life. But he has to develop self-confidence so as to get a partner, as he is still 29 years young. In order to foster growth of self-confidence, three qualities are absolutely essential.

Firstly, we should never give into worries, sadness and self-pity. Instead learn to feel good and build self-esteem.

Secondly, we should learn new skills. If we do not acquire new skills, we cannot develop self-confidence!

What I mean by skill is, expertise in some field, which is of interest to us. It could be carpentry, gardening, painting, cooking, plumbing…. Select any field, learn it and train yourself in it!

Finally, the ability to take on responsibility and be accountable.

You, would have seen some employees in Government Service. When you ask them a question, they will never give a definite answer of 'Yes' or 'No.' Their replies are either vague or incomplete. If an issue is to be resolved, they will listen to the whole narration, only to say at the end, 'Well, why don't you go directly to the higher official and tell everything?' This behavior is dubbed as 'cautiousness'. They would pat themselves with pride for having such a sense of cautiousness'!

This is definitely not cautiousness ... it is just passing the buck! Passing on the responsibility to someone else. It is a very disgusting thing to do. Persons with self-confidence take responsibility on themselves.

Look at the history of successful people.

There are many who have succeeded in life, without education, money and why, even arms or legs! There are such achievers; but no person has succeeded without self-confidence.

In Olympics, why do only a few countries win gold medals repeatedly? Many reasons can be given for this-availability of training facilities, professional coaching, basic infrastructure... but there is one very important reason. This is known as sports psychology. The Russians discovered it, but it has been well understood and developed by the Americans.

Sports psychology indicates that heightened physical activity is not sufficient to win any competition; but mental toughness is also required. That is to say, when an athlete is participating in a race, even if he thinks just for a moment that he might lose, it is enough to make him lose. He would not be able to perform with his full strength in the race after such a thought has entered his mind. So, not only while participating, but also while practicing, he must tell himself repeatedly with a strong belief- 'I am going to win!'

Go on playing the mental video of you winning and position yourself powerfully. This is known as 'Mental Rehearsal'.

Recently one of my students asked, 'Swamiji! I am not like others. I did not depend on a government job; I invested all my money in business. I faced a huge loss and now I am broke. Tell me how I can fill myself with self confidence ?'

There were umpteen failures in the life of this person .

When he was 7 years old, his family was forced out of home on a legal dispute.

At 9, his mother died.

At 22, he lost his job as a clerk.

At 25, he was defeated in a legislature election.

At 27, he had nervous breakdown.

At 28, he lost his beloved.

At 30, he lost the election for the post of a speaker.

At 35, he lost the Congress election.

At 46, he lost the Senatorial elections- around the same time he lost his son.

At 47, he lost the Vice Presidential elections.

These failures could not shake his self-confidence!

At 52, he became the President of USA. And he is Abraham Lincoln. So, please do not allow the past to damage your self-confidence!

The essence of one of the letters I received goes like this, `Swamiji, I will be completing 35 years of age. I have changed many jobs such as an insurance agent, a cosmetics salesman, a field representative.... When I look back, I spent more money than I earned. I have become very depressed. What shall I do now?' Anything material, money, car, house, position, etc. can be gifted to another, but there is only one thing that cannot be gifted to someone on a silver platter 'Success.' One can achieve it only if one works hard with smartness. I think it would be appropriate to share the life history of Colonel Sanders.

The fast food outlet of KFC has made its appearance in many Indian cities too. There are hundreds of such outlets all over the world. The yearly income of this fast food chain runs into several millions of dollars. The person who laid the foundation for this successful chain was one Colonel Sanders.

At an age when he should have been enjoying the relaxed lifestyle of a retired person-at sixty three-he could not live his life without a goal. He was neither a Harvard graduate nor came from a very rich family. He knew how to fry chicken that was juicy inside and crisp outside. He took the recipe and approached many restaurants. Several hoteliers turned him away, without even reading his recipe! But did not lose heart. He did not give up his efforts. He went to many cities and gave his recipe to other hoteliers. Aged as he was, he climbed the steps of many, many restaurants. The total number of restaurants he approached was 1,006!

He was the personification of perseverance. For two long years, he continued his relentless efforts and finally one hotelier evinced some interest in his recipe. The rest is history.

Today, the world over, Kentucky Fried Chicken- KFC is famous! Attitude is more important than mere dry facts. Colonel Sanders had an attitude of 'I can' rather than 'I can't'.
‘Cans’ create Success, 'Cants' create Failure.
Sir Winston Churchill had delivered a number of energizing orations. Once he was invited to deliver a speech to a youthful audience. He spoke only one sentence. That sentence today has become a quotation used by many others. He said -
‘Never, never, never give up !'
-- Swami sukhabodhananda.

Why Walk ? When You Can Fly !

Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons from Arabia . They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.Months passed and one day the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.  

The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. He presented the task to the member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace window that the bird had still not moved from its perch. Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, "May be I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem." So he cried out to his court, "Go and get a farmer." 

In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, "Bring me the doer of this miracle."

 The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, "How did you make the falcon fly?"

With his head bowed, the farmer said to the king, " It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting."

We are all made to fly -- to realize our incredible potential as human beings. But instead of doing that, we sit on our branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us. The possibilities are endless, but for most of us, they remain undiscovered. We conform to the familiar, the comfortable, the mundane. So for the most part, our lives are mediocre instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling.

So let us learn to destroy the branch of fear we cling to and free ourselves to the glory of flight…..!!!!!