Nirvana

Yes, there is Nirvana;
It is in leading your sheep to a green pasture,
And in putting your child to sleep;
And in writing the last line of your poem.

-- Kahlil Gibran

The Server and the Served

We need to look at service as not only the one who gives but also the one who receives. For there must be a receiver in order to serve.

God is in the business of service. But in order to be in business, He needs people receiving the service -- and that's us. Looking at service this way, we have to say that both the server and the served are one.

-- John-Roger with Paul Kaye

Another View :

At the beginning, mankind and the obligation of selfless service were created together. "Through selfless service, you will always be fruitful and find the fulfillment of your desires": this is the promise of the Creator....Every selfless act, Arjuna, is born from the eternal, infinite Godhead. God is present in every act of service. All life turns on this law…Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal in life. Do your work with the welfare of others always in mind. It was by such work that Janaka attained perfection; others, too, have followed this path. The ignorant work for their own profit, Arjuna; the wise work for the welfare of the world, without thought to themselves. By abstaining from work you will confuse the ignorant, who are engrossed in their actions. Perform all work carefully, guided by compassion.

-- Hinduism (Bhagavad Gita 3.10-26)

BALANCE SHEET OF LIFE

Our Birth is our Opening Balance!
Our Death is our Closing Balance!
Our Prejudiced Views are our Liabilities
Our Creative Ideas are our Assets

Heart is our Current Asset
Soul is our Fixed Asset
Brain is our Fixed Deposit
Thinking is our Current Account

Achievements are our Capital
Character & Morals, our Stock-in-Trade
Friends are our General Reserves
Values & Behaviour are our Goodwill

Patience is our Interest Earned
Love is our Dividend
Children are our Bonus Issues
Education is Brands / Patents

Knowledge is our Investment
Experience is our Premium Account
The Aim is to Tally the Balance Sheet Accurately.
The Goal is to get the Best Presented Accounts Award.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some very Good and Very bad things ..
The most destructive habit....... ........ ......Worry
The greatest Joy......... ......... ......... ....Giving
The greatest loss..................Loss of self-respect

The most satisfying work......... ........Helping others
The ugliest personality trait....... .......Selfishness
The most endangered species..... ....Dedicated leaders
Our greatest natural resource.... ......... ......Our youth

The greatest 'shot in the arm'........ .Encouragement
The greatest problem to overcome.... ......... ...Fear
The most effective sleeping pill....... Peace of mind
The most crippling failure disease...... .......Excuses

The most powerful force in life........ ........... Love
The most dangerous act...... .A gossip
The world's most incredible computer.... ....The brain
The worst thing to be without..... ......... ..... Hope

The deadliest weapon...... ........ .........The tongue
The two most power-filled words....... .... 'I Can'
The greatest asset....... .......... ......... ...........Faith
The most worthless emotion.... .......... ....Self- pity

The most beautiful attire...... ......... .........SMILE!
The most prized possession.. ........ .....Integrity
The most powerful channel of communication. ..Prayer
The most contagious spirit...... ......... ......Enthusiasm

Life ends; when you stop Dreaming,
Hope ends; when you stop Believing,
Love ends; when you stop Caring,
And Friendship ends; when you stop Sharing...!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"He who wherever he goes is attached to no person and to no place by ties of flesh; who accepts good and evil alike, neither welcoming the one nor shrinking from the other, take it that such a one has attained Perfection".
-- Bhagavad Gita (c. B.C. 400)

Do Not Be A Victim!!

"We focus on the negatives, losing ourselves in the ‘problem.’ We point to our unhappy circumstances to rationalize our negative feelings. This is the easy way out. It takes, after all, very little effort to feel victimized."

-- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Peace of Mind

Beautiful Thought by Lord Buddha:

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. This was in the initial days. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples,
"I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there."


The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that right at that moment,
a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, "How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!"

So he came back and told Buddha,
"The water in there is very muddy. I don't think it is fit to drink."
After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake.

This time too he found that the lake was muddy. He returned and informed Buddha about the same.
After sometime, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back.

The disciple reached the lake
to find the lake absolutely clean and clear with pure water in it. The mud had settled down
and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said," See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be.... and the mud settled down on its own - and you got clear water.

Your mind is also like that! When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don't have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. "It is effortless."


Having 'Peace of Mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If only we could teach ourselves

A lesson old and true -

To let tomorrow wait until the dawn

comes breaking through -

If only we could go to sleep without

an anxious thought,

Instead of a host of unknown

worries getting caught -

If only we could look back every

night upon the past

And measure the anxieties that

came, but didn't last.

If only we could count our anxious

miseries again

And realize how many of them

troubled us in vain.

Why, then we'd rest more peacefully

and let our fears abate

We'd do the best we could each day

And let tomorrow wait.

-- Russ Tyson

Polishing the Diamond

"We plant merit with our minds, and we commit crimes with our minds. With our minds, we imprint images. This one mind is like an artist. It can draw anything, and what it draws is realized. If you surrender your impressions, ideas, thoughts, and so on at the moment they arise without imprinting them on your mind, your minds will not be tainted, just as the lotus flower is not tainted by the muddy water whence it grows."

--Jae Woong Kim

The Supreme Principle

"What good is a man's knowledge unless it prompts him to prevent the pain of others as if it were his own pain? Any actions which a man knows would harm himself he should not inflict on others.

The supreme principle is this: Never knowingly harm anyone at any time in any way."

-- Tirukkural 32: 315-317