Happy Vijaya Dashami!

Vijaya Dashami is an Indian traditional festival which is celebrated for the win of good over the evil. The story is related to Ramayana and this is the day Lord Rama wins the battle against Ravana.

So, I am sharing my views on how we need to look at and understand these stories that are from our ancient scriptures and are part of our tradition. They are our history and not just mythology. Secondly, let us learn to take things " as they are" in our scriptures and stop interpreting things as per our convenience. Lastly, let us understand "good" and "evil" and how it depends on who we are and what is our "prescribed duty" or "Dharma". Let us all pledge to make an effort to become conscious of life, ourselves, our purpose, our innate gifts and contribute through a meaningful life in making this world a better place in our own little way. Wishing one and all a very happy and conscious Vijaya Dashami. Anyone interested in these topics, may connect up with me through the comments section. Thank you!

 Our Hon'ble Minister of Health, Mr Sudhakar recently made some statements as part of his speech at focusing on mental health and since then he has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Strong reactions have come in the media against him and his statements. Now, since I have not heard his entire speech, my idea here is not to support him or be against him but just pick the 3 statements against which the entire media seems to be reacting against and give my take. My agenda is to request society to wake up and have the courage to look at things as they are and not take it personal and more importantly, do what can be done in areas where we can make a positive contribution for the sake of our community, for the sake of humanity. Let us not get into the habit of rejecting what is not convenient for us to hear. Let us all wake up, be conscious and build a conscious society. My intent is not to hurt anyone's sentiments. If some of you are interested in having a intellectual and objective conversation around this topic, with the objective of finding ways to contribute positively, then please write to me in the comments below and if we have an active group of individuals interested to think through and take action at their own level, we will create a separate group to discuss in private. Thank you.

Govinda Govinda!!

 

The man in the center in the above photograph is Govinda. Every single day, he comes to feed the dogs in the Vontikoppal area of Mysore. Some days he brings a pack of glucose biscuits and some days he can be seen distributing rice in neat bowls to all the street dogs. They obviously love him and come running to him as he arrives. But also, they are very respectful and wait for their turn, as if they are assured they will get their share and they don't have to fear or compete. His love can also be seen in the way he shows his concern for them. Let me explain this a bit more. 

I have been seeing Govinda every day,  as the place he has chosen to do this divine contribution, happens to be part of my walking pathway. Why I call this divine, you will know in a little while. One day I was inspired to speak to him. My curiosity to speak was because by the looks of him, I could make out that he is not very well to do financially. So, I was wondering why does he do what he does and I was curious to learn of his inspiration to do what he does. So, while I was speaking to him, one of the dogs was getting prepared for an attack and even before it could happen, his entire attention was on the dog and a car that was going to come by zooming past us! He knew the dog is getting prepared to chase his favourite car of sorts and he starting talking to the dog and calm it down....nevertheless the dog ran after the car and till the dog came back, Govinda had a worried look on his face and kept calling the dog back...he seemed like a father trying to calm down his young son. It was amusing to see so much compassion and love in his heart, his eyes and actually his whole being!! 

I asked him if I could speak to him. He said "Yes", while he continued feeding his dogs. I asked him what does he do for a living. He said in a very calming tone, "I used to drive auto". I said "oh, so you are an auto driver" and he replied "No not anymore. I was. I cannot drive anymore." I said "Where do you live?" He looked up for the first time to me and said with a slight smile, "here, there, anywhere". I was in awe of this person and was trying to figure him out. I continued, "What about your family?" He said " they have all gone back to Chennai. I was also born there. My father was in Railways. He got posted here many years ago. So, we all came here. Now, after his retirement, they all have gone back. I decided to stay back here." I said "What do you do other than taking care of these dogs now a days?" He said, "oh, I am pretty busy during the day. I repair cycles in a couple of places. You might have seen me in those places actually." I asked him if I could take a picture of his. He nonchalantly said "sure". 

I then asked him the most important questions "Why do you feed these dogs?" To be honest, I had assumed he will give one of the answers I already had in my mind, like 'Because I love dogs' or 'Because they are my family now' or 'Because I like feeding dogs' but when I heard his answer, I found my Spiritual Guru in him or it may not be wrong to say that I found my God in him! 

He said " Because He (with his hands up) gives it to me and asks me to give it to them (dogs). He is the giver. Not me. I only do what He asks of me. I am only a channel for Him." While I stood there almost staring at him as if I was wanting to see his real face and trying to digest the fact that he gave such an enlightened answer, he was busy feeding the dogs as usual. Now you know why I said earlier this was his place and way of his own "Divine Contribution!"

It was as if I lost my words, I forgot how to speak....it did not matter to me anymore what he was doing, I was trying to process what he said and I was trying to see how I was lead to him to learn something so awesome. In my mind I touched his feet and in parting I asked "What is your name?" and he said "GOVINDA" and my heart went Govinda, Govinda!! and I had a smile on my face and tear in my eye and my soul spoke finally - " I knew it was YOU Krishna....you are the best teacher....THANK YOU! HARE KRISHNA!!"

CF Course Intro 2

Dear members of the teaching fraternity and education world, If you are pursuing B.Ed or M.Ed with a dream to be an educator or if you are already a teacher in a pre-school, school, college, University or a Coaching Centre or you are part of the school or college management, this course is meant for you. 6 full day (5 horus) Workshops covering 6 modules and 12 coaching calls of 2 hours each i.e. aprox. 54 hours of awesome learning opportunity. I will be personally facilitating this online course and I have over 30 years of professional experience as a educational consultant, corporate leader, entrepreneur, mentor, trainer, coach and author. All this for just INR 4800/- per head, all inclusive. Register now using this link - https://forms.gle/9QLSqBrQmDaSuuQj9 or whatsapp me on +91-9686036182 for details on course outline, doing in-house program with joint certification or anything else related to this program. Look forward to hearing back from you. Regards, Archana Krishnamurthy, Founder, Conscious Living Center (CLC) - www.consciouslivingcenter.in

Teachers Day Wishes and A Special Gift - 05 09 2020

Conscious Parenting

                

Between birth and death, we go through various stages and there are a few milestones we pass through. To start with, it is the stage of learning, which lasts for about the first quarter of our lifetime. We all go through it formally and informally, consciously and unconsciously. This is what sets the foundation for the rest of our life. This stage has been referred to as ‘Brahmacharya Ashrama’ in our ancient vedic scriptures. 

If we truly understand the objective of education as explained in the ancient vedic system, we will find that we are supposed to learn the following:

• What is life?
• Who am I?
• What is my calling or purpose?
• What is my dharma or duty?
• What is my ultimate goal?
• How does the fabric of society function?
• How do I fit into the society?
• How do I choose my profession?
• What are the different stages of life?
• How do I prepare myself for the four stages of life?
• What are my unique gifts?
• What is the best contribution I can make?
• How do I equip myself with decision-making skills?
• How do I learn to choose and prioritise things in my life?
• How do I prepare myself to retire from this material life?
• How do I live my life optimally?
• What are the Universal values and principles?
• What is the education and skilling I need to excel in my life?

Once we equip ourselves with the above knowledge, we are ready to move to the second stage of life which is the ‘Grahastha Ashrama’ or for family life. When we enter the family life with the right understanding, we are able to go through the ups and downs, the highs and lows of our life with courage, maturity and are able to perform our duties or dharma as a grahastha including the duty of being a spouse, a parent, a care-taker for the elders in the family and establish the family values that lay the foundation for our future generations. Of course, in the midst of all this, we are never to forget the duty we have towards ourselves and most importantly our creator and his creation.

Now, if I were to ask you, how many of the above questions you have answers for in your life with absolute clarity, what will be your answer? Have you charted your life on the solid foundation of real education or is your foundation shaky? Have you made conscious and well informed decisions about life so far or do you feel you have somehow landed yourself where you are? Do you have the right understanding for your future course of action? Do you understand the role of your profession in you life? Is it only a source for earning or is it a vehicle for you to make your unique contribution to the world?

If you are a parent or someone who is intending to become one soon or get married, do you understand what is parenting? or what is marriage? Have you equipped yourself with the required knowledge and skills to be a Conscious Parent or lead a Conscious Life as a family man/woman (grahastha)?

Many of us have whole lot of certificates of education, but are we truly educated? If we ourselves feel ill-equipped to lead a Conscious Life - are we equipped or empowered to guide, mentor or educate our children?

Is it enough for us to blame our parenting, education system, our society, our governments or should we do something about it? Before we march our demanding others to set things right, do we know what is right? Are we right in what we are to do? It may be more sensible to educate ourselves to become Conscious Leaders and see how we can individually and collectively contribute towards building a Conscious Ecosystem for ourselves and for our future generations. 

Only when we are Conscious Leaders can we make valuable contributions towards our family, organisation, community, society, country or world per se. As a parent if we are able to bring up one conscious leader to this world in the form of our child, our contribution will be immense and invaluable. 

Of all the roles we can choose to take up, parenting is one of the most complex and challenging one. As a parent, we not only have the responsibility of another being but also have been gifted with immense ability to impact and influence the life of our children - whether we know it or not, whether we want it or not, whether we like it or not. We have to be at our best at all times for the sake of not only our own children but for the entire generation of children we influence as an adult, directly and indirectly. 

It is not easy to understand ourselves and know what is right for us if we have not received proper education in our early period of life, then we can only imagine how complex it is to take the responsibility for another equally complex yet competent being, who happens to be in our care as our child. We have to equip ourselves with the education and skill necessary to be a Conscious Parent without losing any further time and go through the amazing journey of parenting consciously!

While we are on the subject, I wish to share this important fact that while parenting is important, retiring from active parenting at some point is also critical for your own selves and for the sake of your children adult life. While we have to learn to move on to the next stage of life after we are done with parenting in our grahastha ashram, we have to consciously allow our children to move on from their brahmacharya ashram to grahastha ashram stage of life. If we can live our entire life with one simple understanding that life has to be lived as per these 4 stages and then move on to the next life, we will be able to practice “attachment with detachment” since we will be consistently conscious of the fact that everything and everyone will have to be left behind one day when the right time comes, including what we consider as our own self - our body, our family, our wealth, our status, etc. 

Friends, I hope you found the content of this blog not just interesting but useful for you. If so, please do take the steps you need to become a Conscious Parent and be a Conscious Leader of your own self in every aspect of life. Being a parent is the biggest blessing you have received, however, it is also the biggest responsibility you have to shoulder. You have been blessed with what you need as your capacity, but you need to become conscious of it and use all your parenting faculties consciously to make the most of it. 

If I can be of any assistance in your journey to lead a conscious life and become a Conscious Parent, please do reach out to me over my email - archana@consciouslivingcenter.in or write to me on my whatsapp number - +91-9686036182. 

With best wishes and loads of love, 

Archana Krishnamurthy