1 world’s major problems 1.political: corruption 2.psychological: stress 3.ecological: climate...

World’s Major Problems

1. Political: Corruption2. Psychological: Stress3. Ecological: Climate Change 4. Familial: Relationship Conflicts5. Social: Poverty6. Economical: Recession7. Religious: Sectarian Violence8. Cultural: Sexual Violence

Corruption Statistics

ACP, pl add pages 2-3 & 26-29 from corruption in India pdf file

Corruption Causes

The Bhagavad-Gita (16.8-15) explains how a materialistic worldview leads to insatiable lust and greed, which impel corrupt actions. Most people feel that, by being moral, they stand to lose a lot (“Pleasure? That’s what life is all about!”) and gain nothing tangible. (“Principles? What are they going to give me?”)

Corruption Causes

Our godless scientific education gives us no knowledge about any higher order natural laws of cosmic accountability. And the fallibility of our human penal system is all too well known.

Corruption Causes

Result? Morality appears entirely dispensable, especially for those who feel they are sufficiently shrewd or powerful. In such a socio-cultural environment, how can we expect mere platitudes to inspire people to be moral?

Corruption Causes

Corruption, Gita wisdom says, has 1. Psychological genesis: “Material

things can give me happiness”2. Spiritual nemesis: “Real

happiness comes by enriching my spiritual credits”

Solution through Lokpal & Gopal

Lokpal –Material Kshatriya measure – use power of fear of human law

Gopal – Spiritual brahminical solution – use power of:

1. Fear of divine law: “I can never get away with corruption”

2. Higher taste: “I will be more happy by honest God-centered lifestyle than by a corrupt materialistic life

Solution through Lokpal

The Bhagavad-gita (3.21) points out that political leaders being default role models for the citizens play a decisive role in shaping the values of society. Social trends seep rapidly from the top to the bottom, so corruption at the top inevitably perpetuates, even multiplies, by the time it reaches the bottom.

Solution through Lokpal

The disciplinary body will help combat corruption at its psychological genesis, curbing the temptation for quick monetary gains with the fear of sustained punitive retribution.

Solution through Gopal’s laws

Spiritual education broadens our vision with the insight that we are accountable to the inescapable cosmic order, which will give us our karmic due sooner or later. Those who recognize that choices are pregnant with consequences naturally become more circumspect about short-term pandering to long-term self-defeating choices.

Solution through Gopal’s bhakti

Spiritual education can become the launching pad for authentic spiritual experience and an eventual re-spiritualization of human consciousness.

Brings the realization that real fulfillment in life comes through gratitude, not greed; through service, not exploitation; through sharing, not grabbing.

Sustainable solution

A socially-supported and individually-motivated redirection of the human quest for happiness from the material level to the spiritual level

Stress statistics

ACP, pl add stats from net

Stress Phenomenon: Hurry, Worry, Sorry

• Hurry: In youth, we are mostly in a state of hurry, having so many things to do and imagining that we can bend the world to our will.

• Worry: In middle age, we are mostly in a state of worry, having learnt through life’s hard lessons that so many things may go wrong and fearing that we may not be able to control them.

• Sorry: In old age, we are mostly in a state of feeling sorry for ourselves, lamenting all the things that we did wrong or all the things that went wrong despite our best efforts.

Stress Main Cause: Change

• In material existence, change is unstoppable, uncontrollable and unpredictable

• Changes: financial, familial, social, academic and physical.

Stress – Spiritual solutions - I

Atma-Jnana (Self-awareness): Understanding that we are, at our core, spiritual and, hence indestructible, fills us with an unshakeable self-security; we recognize that worldly upheavals that affect our material assets have no power whatsoever to hurt us.

Stress – Spiritual solutions - II

Bhagavat-Shraddha (Faith in God’s protection): “Things may not be going according to my plan, but they are not going wrong; they are going according to God’s plan. Understanding that a benevolent God is ultimately orchestrating all material happenings helps us to see order amidst change, plan amidst chaos.

Stress – Spiritual solutions - III

Atma-santushti (Inner happiness): “I don’t have to own & do everything enjoyable to become happy; remembering & serving Krishna bring far better and greater happiness”

Counter Hurry with Hari

• Counter Hurry by clarifying our priorities so that we focus on life’s most important things without trying to do everything that everyone around us feels we should be doing,

Counter Worry with Hari

• Worry by giving us the conviction that the Lord is always in control and will guide us to safety even when things appear to be going disastrously wrong.

Counter Sorry with Hari

• Sorry feelings by showing us how even when material opportunities are lost irrecoverably, spiritual opportunities still remain available inalienably.

Replace Agitation with Meditation

Can I meditate? If we can worry, we can meditate.During worry, we let our thoughts take us away from our circumstances to a problem – real or imagined. And letting our thoughts take us away from our circumstances is the essential ability required for meditation.

Climate Change

• A World Watch Institute report put it poignantly, "Environmental super-disasters are no longer a doomsday prophecy; they are an imminent reality."

• ACP, pl add stats

3 R Formula to Counter Climate Change

• Reduce our consumption, especially of non-biodegradable products,

• Reuse the commodities we have instead of repeatedly purchasing newer ones and

• Recycle the items we carelessly discard after use

Problems with 3 R formula

• Most people are unable to muster the will to implement these measures as the temptations for instant gratification often appear irresistible.

• Moreover, many people presume that as lone individuals they are too small to make any substantial difference in a global crisis and so they neglect the problem.

To make the 3 Rs realizable, we need another preceding R: Raise

• Raise: we need to raise our consciousness from the material arena to the spiritual realm.

• The current environmental crisis originated from a lowering of human consciousness several centuries ago.

Past vision of nature

For millennia before the Renaissance, people worldwide saw nature as a sacred Mother acting in tandem with the Divine Father to provide us our earthly home and bodily necessities. Indeed this worldview is stated explicitly in the Bhagavad-gita (14.4) and echoed in many other wisdom-traditions. Consequently people in the past reverentially took their necessities from nature and scrupulously avoided tampering with her balances, knowing those to be of an intricacy and delicacy beyond human comprehension

Reductionistic Scienc’s vision of nature

When the reductionistic worldview depersonalized nature, seeing it as an inanimate, even inimical, object to be harnessed for human profit, then people started plundering natural resources indiscriminately. Thus began an unfortunate history of what has been euphemistically called "unintended consequences": myopic attempts to exploit nature that snowballed and boomeranged, eventually precipitating the present crisis

How raising consciousness will help & heal

"In a fragile biosphere, the ultimate fate of humanity may depend on whether we can cultivate a deeper sense of self-restraint, founded on a widespread ethic of limiting consumption and finding non-material enrichment.“ - Alan Durning, senior researcher of the Worldwatch Institute


The Gaia hypothesis: The earth is a conscious organism. The current ecological problems can be seen as her defensive responses to our excesses and abuses of her resources.


Nonetheless the earth has a mother's heart; when she sees us reforming, she can save us in ways that we may not yet foresee. The earth, like all organisms, has a healing mechanism, which will promote recovery once the hostile stimuli are removed. So let us do our part by cleansing the ecologically hostile germs of godless materialism from our consciousness and nature will do her part.

Remove inner pollution to remove outer pollution

"The sufferings of humanity are due to a polluted aim of life.“ - Srila Prabhupada

Divorce Stats

ACP, pl add stats

Why relationship conflicts?

• Unrealistic Expectations: “Others are meant for enjoyment.”

• The monomania of 1. Machines, 2. Mechanistic thinking and 3. Mechanical behavior

The “perfection” expectation

We habituate ourselves to watching images of perfect persons in action on the screens - images that do not talk back, images that we can summon, change and dismiss, by the mere flip of a button. These images go deep into our hearts and form our subconscious expectation of others

Hot heads, cold hearts

Whether we like it or not, the real people around us are imperfect, as are we ourselves. When they fail to live up to our expectations, we become irritable and hot-headed. Moreover, when they disappoint us repeatedly, the resulting frustration causes us to constantly dwell on their faults and ultimately makes us cold-hearted towards them.

Spiritual vision: We are cooperators, not controllers

Unaware of our allotted role, we expect people to act as per our own plans. When we succeed occasionally, we become euphoric; when we fail repeatedly, we become devastated. But while struggling to make our plans work, we miss out on the lasting fulfilment that comes by playing our part in the Divine Plan.

Re-envisioning the purpose of our relationships

The Divine Plan has brought us together with others:Not for our material gratification, but for our spiritual evolution.

Cool Heads

When we understand this purpose of our relationships, we develop a cool head in dealing with others' (and our) imperfections.

Warm Hearts

When we notice and appreciate others' struggles to overcome their conditionings, our hearts warm towards them – and theirs towards us.

Cool Heads & Warm Hearts

This combination ushers in:1. Material harmony, 2. Emotional fulfillment and 3. Spiritual upliftment.

04.06.2007 Vedic Oasis for Inspiration Culture and Education, Pune

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Let the facts speak…

To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion - what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year !


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Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358


Billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 % of the world's people.


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• Much of the world’s best land is being misused for the production of cash export crops

• A study of famines in Africa showed that on every occasion the affected nation had within its own boundaries the food resources to feed its starving citizens, but relief was intentionally withheld due to economic or political motives



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• By using all the naturally available land and the best agricultural methods, the world’s farmers can provide a meat-centered diet for population 10 times greater than at present.

• And if people would be satisfied with an equally nourishing but mostly vegetarian diet, a population 30 times greater than at present could be fed.



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Let the facts speak… "I have traveled across

the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief.

Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber..”

Lord McCauley in his speech of Feb 2, 1835, British Parliament


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1. When people become godless, they concomitantly become materialistic and greedy – and so exploit nature and their fellow

humans for their

selfish enjoyment.

Greed causes starvation …


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2. We may feed a few hungry people, but till we remove greed from wealthy people’s hearts, hunger will continue to torment millions.

Greed causes starvation …


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How can Greed be removed When people are offered spiritual

education and experience, they understand that their real happiness is in loving God, not in accumulating material things. Then they give up greed


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Conclusion from the facts… Transforming the heart of one greedy

wealthy person is more effective to tackle starvation than merely feeding a few hungry people.


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The secret of compassion When Mother Teresa was

asked “What is the secret of your compassion?”

She pointed to her rosary beads and said

"By praying, I feel love for God and all His children and so want to help them as much as I can"


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Are good intentions good enough?

If you offer free treatment to analcoholic, do you know what he will do after being cured ?

If you give money to a beggar, do you know what he will do with it?If a person with a venereal disease is cured, what will he do afterwards?


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• The road to hell is often paved with good intention” – George Brown

• E.g. Srila Prabhupada – Giving oily food to a typhoid patient


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• Why are people suffering ?– Due to bad karma

• If our present welfare makes them to do further bad karma, then – we are just increasing their suffering

• E.g. Free relief food given by UN – beef sandwiches?


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Solution to Poverty: Duniya me bhojan ki nahi, bhajan ki kami hain


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Overview Simplify (your lifestyle)

Clarify (the values and goals of life)

Purify (your heart)


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Overview Simplify (your lifestyle)


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Prisoners of success

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to change it every six months

Oscar Wilde


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The consumer industryThe consumer industries produce a variety

of attractive (and expensive) products

Do I need them?


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The marketing industryMarketing industries bring these products

through jazzy showrooms and supermarkets


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The advertising industry

Aggressive TV commercials, roadside billboard and

the like, depicts these products as lifestyle symbols,

vital to maintain and increase one’s prestige


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The credit industry

Assurances that money need not stop us

from fulfilling these media-created desires


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Prisoners of success


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Professionalism in cheating

Joseph E. LevineAmerican film producer

Abraham Lincoln16th president of the USA

You can fool all the people

some of the time, and

some of the people all the

time, but you cannot fool

all the people all the time.

You can fool all the

people all the time if the

advertising is right and

the budget is big enough.


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OverviewClarify (the values and goals of life)


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Where to go?

You know in the west we have

built a large, beautiful ship. It has all the

comforts in it, but one thing is missing:

it has no compass and does not know

where to go.


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Money

Hap

pine

ss

Wealth and Happiness


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SQ - The key to happiness"While computers have IQ

(Intelligence Quotient) and

animals can have EQ

(Emotional Quotient), it is

essentially SQ (Spiritual

Quotient) that sets human

beings apart"

Danah Zohar

Ian Marshall

ISBN 0747546762


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Spiritual Quotient

Ability to solve logical,

mathematical and

linguistic problems

Makes us aware of our own

and others' emotions, judge

the situation we are in and

behave appropriately

EQ IQ

SQ • Self-awareness

• Ability to face and use suffering

• Ability to be inspired by a vision

• Desire to cause as little harm as possible


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Your PrivilegeArise! Awaken! Understand and

avail the great opportunity at hand. – Katha Upanshishad 1.3.14


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Brahma jijnasa


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45-year-old Indian-born

America-based financial manager

Civil engineering from IIT, Madras

MBA from University of California

Worked with several successful financial ventures

An upscale 2,800 ft2 home in Los Angeles

Tragedy of Abused Intelligence

Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.

Mark Twain


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Vedic Program for Balanced Living

As long as one does not enquire

into spirituality, one’s life ends in

a humiliating defeat.

The story of the bumble bees


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Acala OR Cancala Acla ya Cancla


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The billionaire bhakta - Process

EnquireKnow from the

authorized source Prescriptions

Proscriptions


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The billionaire bhakta - Learning

Material wealth does not make one happy A true spiritual teacher points out the futility of material

wealth and enriches the disciples with spiritual wisdom To take up spiritual practices, one doesn’t have to

renounce one’s material possessions or positions It is worthwhile and essential investment of time to

reserve every morning for meditation, prayer and other spiritually nourishing activities

Wealth brings real happiness only when used in service of God and His children.


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OverviewPurify (your heart)


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Our true identity

in contact with matter

Water, originally pure, gets muddy in contact with mud and needs purification

Similarly, we, originally pure, get impure and need spiritual purification


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Choose pure association

The association of the pure-

hearted opens the door to

the supreme happiness,

whereas the association of

the impure-hearted opens

the door to immense misery.


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Spiritualize your relationshipsA greedy father has thieves for children

- Serbian proverb


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Cultivate divine desires

If our endeavor is not to enquire about the Absolute Truth, we will simply increase our endeavor to

satisfy our artificial needs

When money is seen as a solution for every problem, money itself becomes the problem - Richard J. Needham


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The ultimate possession

The cure for greed is not merely to subdue

our desire for possessions, but to re-direct

it towards the supreme possession


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The ultimate possession

Even if one is not utterly selfless and pure like Hanuman,

but has worldly desires, still he can attain good fortune

by rendering devotional service to the Lord


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Rise from Fear to Hope

Robert Burton English scholar and vicar at Oxford University best known for writing The Anatomy of Melancholy

Hope and patience are two sovereign remedies

for all, the surest reposals, the softest cushions to

lean on in adversity.


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Rise from Fear to Hope

In all activities just depend upon Me and work always under My protection. In

such devotional service, be fully conscious of Me.

If you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all obstacles by My grace.

Three Types of Paths

Pluralism:“All ways are right.”

Exclusivism:“My way is the only right way”

Inclusivism:There is one way with various levels on it

Love

Duty

Desire

Fear

Ascending to the

Ultimate Religion

of Pure Love of God

Fear…! “If I disobey God, then He

may punish me for my wrongdoings. So better let me go to His temple and pacify Him by my worship”

“+” Better than atheism.

“-” Based on a very negative conception of God as a stern judge, a cosmic punisher.

Desire

“There are so many things I want; if I pray to God, perhaps He will give them to me.”

“+” The conception of God is more positive, as a potent desire-fulfiller.

“-” A highly utilitarian relationship based on give-and-take rather than love.

Duty

“God has already given me so much – life, body, health, food, clothing, shelter. It is my duty to go periodically to His temple and thank Him.”

“+” Relationship is somewhat steady being based on gratitude and not on greed.

“-” Still, over time duty can become a burden.

Love“Purest level of approaching God, where a

devotee feels, “I simply want to love and serve You eternally and I do not want anything material in return.”

“+” Only this pure love can satisfy our hearts fully, for love is the innermost need of our hearts.

It is very rarely achieved.

Spirituality, a Higher Dimensional Science

Science

Theory

Experiment

Spirituality

Religion

Philosophy

Srila Prabhupada - “Philosophy without religion is just mental speculation”

Spirituality

Philosophy

Religion

Srila Prabhupada - “Religion without philosophy is at best sentimentalism and at worst fanaticism.”

Spirituality

Philosophy

Religion

Curing the Cataract

The defects that have crept into spirituality are like a cataract in the eye. To cure the eye, we must remove the cataract, not pluck out the eye.

Curing the Cataract

Similarly, we have to arrest the decline in spirituality, not reject spirituality itself. Just as plucking out the eye causes blindness, rejecting spirituality will rob humanity of the precious eyes of divine wisdom, resulting in disharmony and disaster.

Curing the Cataract

Authentic spirituality brings peace within and thereby creates the only solid foundation for establishing lasting peace – and beyond peace to love and joy.

STATISTICS• Porn revenue is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, it

is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises.

• Every minute somewhere in America, someone is raped.• 1/6 of all children, boys as well as girls, have been victims of incest. • One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or

completed rape, and 10% of sexual assault victims are men.• Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes, with more

than half still being left unreported..• More children are conceived outside of the marriage than within the

marriage. • UK has become the divorce capital of Europe.• 90% of all teenage girls who give birth are unmarried.

The Original AIDS

AIDS: Acquired Intelligence Deficiency SyndromeThe inability to understand that lust leads not to happiness but to misery.This inability is acquired by association with the current culture

3.36: The cause of sin

Lust perverts men into monsters & women into witches

Real Freedom

Not Freedom for lust,But freedom from lust

Transcend lust by DUST

D: DeterminationU: UnderstandingS: SubmissionT: Training

Determination

1. The first thing: Our spiritual journey begins when we desire to embark on it

2. The main thing: We actually take off in our devotional flight only when the external rituals are accompanied, even motivated, by the internal desire to love and serve Krishna.

3. The only thing: If we don’t become determined, even Krishna can’t help us, for he doesn’t infringe on our free will. Therefore, Krishna’s mercy is always there; the only thing that will enable us to benefit from it is our determination.

Understanding Gita (18.37-38)

Philosophical understanding:1. Material pleasure is temporary and

illusory2. Spiritual happiness is real and

eternal

Submission

We are always servants. If we don’t serve guru and Krishna, we have to serve our mind & senses

Training

Bhaktivinoda T: From imperfection perfection will emerge.Eg. lotus from dirt.

Training

Four stages in progressive training:1. Hopeless defeat2. Struggle & defeat3. Struggle & success4. Effortless Success

Success in one stroke

“For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at its root.”

- Henry David Thoreau

Cultivating & sharing KC is that striking at the root

1 world’s major problems 1.political: corruption 2.psychological: stress 3.ecological: climate...

Documents

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spiritual level slide

corruption causes corruption

sexual violence slide

corruption causes result

india pdf file slide

corruption statistics

spiritual credits