*Miss you Miss universe*

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that is run by the Miss Universe Organization.Along with its rival contests, Miss World and Miss Earth, this pageant is one of the most important and publicized beauty pageants in the world. It is held in more than 190 countries worldwide and seen by more than half a billion people annually. It's started in 1952, so many awards have been given to so many beauty queens of the world. But have you ever thought where are the beauty queens of early 60s, 70s and 80s?

Once Buddha was travelling from village to village for preaching. He came to one village and started preaching about his philosophy. A girl would stay in that village, she was really very beautiful, many kings had asked her hand in marriage but she had rejected all of them. She had little prideful heart of being very beautiful and charismatic. She came to Buddha with intention to allure him and break his vows of renunciation. Buddha asked he to get mirror, she thought,'why do I need to get mirror I am beautiful and everyone including me knows it, there isn't any need to confirm it'. Still she got mirror, Buddha asked her to see in mirror, she started laughing but she followed him, she was seeing her own image which was beautifully decorated. After few moments reflection changed, now there was middle aged lady, after few moments there was little old lady with wrinkles on the face and toothless mouth, after few moments she saw herself as very old lady lying on bed, then she saw how that old lady died and how people are burning her body in crematorium. She realised that body is just temporary and one day it will have end, she surrendered her life to Buddha.

So one has to understand that bodily beauty is just temporary, but the soul has the permanent beauty. Many marriages breaks down because they can't digest the fact that how my beautiful spouse is getting older over the years. Material body is perishable by nature, it may perish immediately or after some years, it's just a question of time. There is no chance of maintaining it indefinitely although one may apply so many body lotions and anti ageing soaps, destruction is nature of this body. So there shouldn't be any proud for being smart or charismatic or handsome, time will show us the reality of body.

The only beautiful person in the world is God himself. He is eternally beautiful with so many attractive qualities. In fact when he took the form of 'Mohini' to distract the demons, not only she distracted demons but some of the powerful demigods like lord shiva and others also started running after her in want of her, he forgot himself and didn't bothered about anything...shiva who once had burned the Cupid, now he was crazily following her, then lord showed His original form of Vishnu and shiva was cooled down. The conclusion is that material beauty is insignificant in front of Lord's. So my appeal to you is that don't just run after the fading beauty of this world but try to achieve Lord's grace which is trillion times more beautiful than any of this world, so when we do that we can go to spiritual world where we also will be awarded with our real beauty to serve the Lord as an eternal companion of Him.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*The main Focus is to remain Focused!!*

One person went to saintly person and asked him,"Maharaj you look self realised please give me some mantra to chant so that I can also attain salvation". Sadhu gave him mantra and asked him to chant this mantra daily on the banks of the river Yamuna. Person reconfirmed,"will this mantra work", sadhu replied,"off course, you just chant sincerely and seriously". Man immediately left for banks of Yamuna to practice his sadhana. He performed chanting for next 6 months but no results, he was frustrated. He came back to sadhu and said,"Maharaj this mantra is not working for me, what should I do now?", sadhu said,"tell me dear child what do you see while chanting?". Man replied,"I see waves of Yamuna, I see rising and Setting of sun and moon, I see birds flying, I see stars in the sky.", "what else","I see swans in water, I see different animals and so may other things". Sadhu said,"while chanting if you are watching birds and waves and stars, sun and moon, trees and animals how this chanting will help you to transform, be focused". Man learned his life lesson.

What to say of spirituality one can't be successful if he is not focused. The main reason for lack of taste and problems in both spiritual as well as material activity is not having focus. People do multiple activity to gain more results but effect is simply opposite better focus on one, focus means follow one course until one becomes successful. It's said when life gets blurry adjust your focus, so when tragedy comes be focused on goal.

I remember we would do an experiment with concave mirror. Mirror was held under sun's rays, the mirror would concentrate the Rays and gave the focused effect that burned the paper. Similarly with mind, when so many things are going inside there is no result, but when mind is focused on one particular activity better results can be obtained. Studies show that person who is interrupted takes 50% longer to accomplish the task, not only this but he makes up 50% more errors. When so many apps are opened in mobile phone, it drains the battery faster, similarly when so many things going in mind, that will only drain our energy faster!!

Lord also speaks about focus in Gita(2.41), "Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched". Distraction is enemy of focus, it's said,'you will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stone at every dog who barks', so one need not to be so worried about petty obstacles in spiritual life and give up it but focus on the goal and strive for the association of those who also have the same goal, that will give us the strength to go on and on. Unless someone is focused he is simply wasting his time. So let's put our heart and soul into the activity(May that be material or spiritual) and be focused to get maximum benefit out of it!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa 
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*Nothing is Easy when you are Lazy*

During my college days, in hostel I would observe some of my classmates and one common peculiar thing among them was nobody could defeat them in sleeping. Some of them would sleep for 18 hours, some 16 hours every single day, then they would have to bunk the lectures which affected their studies and ultimately few of them failed in exams. It's said,'people who are in the comfort of enjoying inaction often pays high price in the end'. They would have the big alarm clock but mind's voice is more louder than alarm, which would say, "sleep for some more time...don't get up early...exam is after 2 months...don't worry...now you take rest".

Unless one is determined he can not go against the demands and proposals of mind, then everything becomes difficult for such person. Laziness may look very attractive and appealing but it's just sucks away our energy and time. Someone has said,'laziness will be the cause of your pain'. When one is lazy he gets into to the mode of postponing the things and loses all opportunities slowly...

When person gets introduced to spirituality due to partial knowledge he feels, now it's really easy I won't have do anything and I will depend upon God fully, But it doesn't work like that 'God helps to those who help themselves'. Even if we observe the examples from our scriptures we can find that every devotee had practically struggled to get the mercy of the Lord it wasn't an easy task. Just take the example of Pandavas, how much they struggled for their rights? Lord was with Arjuna during Kurukshetra battle, but lord didn't say,'Arjuna you rest now I will fight on behalf of you'...no, lord inspired him to fight by speaking Gita. See the example of Prabhupad, throughout the day he would manage temples and preach and at night he would translate the books, such a hard work at such advanced age!! So after coming to spirituality person becomes more hardworking and not lazy(as general people think).

Lord speaks in 6th ch that one has to be regulative in his habits of sleeping, eating, working and recreation. Unless one is regulated and determined he is no more than animal as prabhupad would sometime say. Laziness can be overcomed by practice and staying with those who are not lazy. What to say of spirituality one won't progress even materially when person is lazy.  Lack of the inspiration is main cause for laziness. Bhagavad Gita is the most inspirational song ever spoken, whoever picks it up and follow it he doesn't become lazy but becomes crazy to remain busy for the pleasure of God and humanity. In conclusion give up your laziness and adopt to the craziness to fulfill your material as well as spiritual dreams!!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa 
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*One sided Love Affair*

On Thursday, Mumbai court sentenced 25-year-old Ankur to death for an acid attack on 23-year-old nurse Preeti Rathi at Bandra Terminus in May, 2013. Her eyes, stomach and lungs were severely damaged when he threw two liters of sulfuric acid on her. She died a month later from her injuries in a hospital. Why did he throw acid on her? Because he was having one sided love affair with her, and when she rejected his proposal he raged with anger, followed her till Mumbai from Delhi to kill her. How can lover be the killer?

This is the nature of material world, where satisfaction of own personal senses has prioritised over other's, and if lover rejects the love then there is anger and frustration. One hardly bothers about loved one, but that's not love. Love means sacrifice, service to the lover, Being satisfied in satisfaction of loved one. Love is not force it's a choice of heart. Love is when other person's happiness is more important than our own. What goes on the name of love in today's world is simply lust and gratification of senses.

There is big difference between love and lust. It's like gold and iron both are metals but values are total different. Practically love doesn't exist in material world. Love exist in spiritual world between God and His devotees, whose only aim is to satisfy God unconditionally. There is no limit between their loving dealings. God is so loving that He has given free will to us, He never forces us to love Him. When we abandoned Him and came to this dirty material world He accompanied us as paramatma, He didn't say, "you people left me, now suffer", no... He respects free will, He never demanded surrender.

In fact He provided all necessities to all of us, not only this but those who deny his existence, He is taking care of them too!! He has provided all kinds of pleasure in all species of life, even in the life of pig, He is never envious of anyone but always compassionate and forgiving like true lover. So if we consider all these points we can find that He is the only 'One sided lover' because we never bothered to love Him. Just see His kindness He also never forced us to love Him, He just want to see us happy. This is real lover, not one who just want to exploit us. And when someone starts loving Him, He is ready to reciprocate with him. So it's our choice with whom we should fall in love, the Supreme person who is loving us unconditionally from time immemorial  or person who is after his own sense gratification which is full of conditions?

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*Significance of Lord Ganesha in life of Sadhaka*

Generally 2 kinds of fanatics are seen in religious society, those who are devotee of God(Lord Vishnu) they don't believe in worship of any other demigods and other kind is of those who consider all Gods are same. But the real spiritualist knows the position of the God and demigods, and he knows the art of respecting everyone. What to say of demigods but they don't disrespect even an ant.

1)As other demigods like lord shiva and brahma, Ganeshji's position is also important in spiritual societies. We all know the story when Vyasdev was searching for proper person who can write all the scriptures, he was told by Brahmdev to ask Ganesh. Ganeshji agreed one one condition that when he writes Vyasdev should not stop for a moment, Vyas also made condition asking him to write every word after understanding. Ganeshji agreed. Both continued their work of narrating and writing for 6 years. He contemplated  then agreed and followed whatever Vyas said. Similarly sadhakas also should make a habit of reading, contemplating and following the scriptures.  

2)Ganeshji helps devotees to fight with the difficulties in spiritual life. We find in scriptures even some of the gopis worshipped Ganeshji. Sadhakas also can pray to him for his blessing to overcome difficulties, Ganeshji also sometimes called as incharge of intelligence or understanding, so we can ask from him that thing also so in better way we can understand scriptures written by him.

3)When lord shiva first cut Ganesh's head due to his offence, he was headless, then to please Parvati lord shiva fixed the head of elephant and revived Ganeshji. Generally elephants are called as dull headed, but Ganeshji accepted it without any complaints and made best use of his head(apparently dull headed by used his head in most intelligent way) this shows the his attitude of making best use of bad bargain without getting disturbed by circumstances. So sadhakas also try to convert adversity into opportunity by keeping serving the Lord as the goal.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa

Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*Happy (real)Mother's Day*

Place of mother is very important in everyone's life because none can replace her place. Mother is known for her unadulterated love for her kids, and she is ready to do anything to see happiness of their face. She sacrifices her own youth(which is very dear to her) to have kid. In fact it's said we can find glimpse of God's pure love only in mother.

Mother is very kind in nature by heart she is ready to forgive her child for anything, someone just told me recently a story, there were well settled, cultured doctor couple in Middle East. But their child was evil minded, he got the association of similar people and his disease became worst, he would drink, smoke and did all nonsense activities.he started beating his old mother and father for money, neighbours complained against him to the police and he was in jail. This happened 5-6 times. Father released him from jail each time, son was frustrated and depressed and also realised his mistakes. One day he drank poison and attempted suicide but somehow or other he was saved but whole body below neck was paralysed. Father told his mother, 'leave him here in hospital, people will take care of him, so cruel he was to both of us'. Mother replied with the tears in her eyes, 'how can we do that, he is our own child however bad or evil he may be, I won't leave hospital till he gets cured'. And since past 2 months mother is staying in hospital waiting his son to get cured. This is mother's love. Father by nature is strict but mother is tender hearted, ready to forget all mistreatments given by child.

This is story of mother of one life time, in each lifetime we have different parents just imagine how much our eternal mother and father must be loving us? It's said God has the heart of not one or two but millions of mothers!! When God(Krishna) appears in His most tender hearted feminine(motherly) form, He is called as Radharani. She nourishes the devotee by her own love, spirituality or attaining mercy of Lord is simply impossible without Her grace. She is our real and eternal mother.

She is very merciful as explained by our scriptures, but there are recent pastimes too...Just 400 years before there was a treasurer of Radha Govind Temple, Jaipur named Jagannath Bhatt. He married to the girl named Kishori(one of the name of Radharani). He was very attached to her but by will of providence she died just after marriage. Jagannath was in great pain, he left his job, family, property and everything else, he was just roaming in city shouting in pain, "Kishori, kishori!!", he moved on to next city then next searching for his dear wife. Eventually he came to village called 'Barsana'(holy place of Radharani where she does her eternal pastimes, even today). He was yelling and crying out, "Kishori! Kishori!!", Radharani heard his cries and thought, 'he is calling me'...she appeared in front of Jagannath in her most beautiful transcendental form, he realised his wicked position just by mere darshan of Her. Soon he took shelter of sadhu in Barsana and wrote many bhajans and book on beauty and mercy of Radharani which he actually saw and experienced. So in conclusion our eternal mother still hear our cries perfectly and she is ready to help but the question is are we ready to cry out Her Names and surrender to Her? Today is Her appearance day, She is very happy today why not take opportunity of this golden moment and seek Her blessings!!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

What are you looking for, Fact or Impact ?

When it comes to the spirituality people starts asking the various questions, like what's the proof of Mahabharata actually did happen? What's the proof of Ramayan actually did happen, did Ayodhya, Mithila and Lanka actually exist? How Krishna had 16000 wives, where is their palace now? Did Ramsetu was build by Ram? What's the proof that Krishna's lifting of the Govardhan hill? Did Krishna tell Gita to Arjuna or it's someone's imagination? Vedic literatures are reality or just myth to teach us some lessons? And so many unlimited other questions...

In today's scientific world we have been taught to believe what we see or what has proofs, and everything else which doesn't have any proof is blind faith as they say. But we see many theories which scientists propose they also don't have any proof but are just accepted on the basis of faith. In our education also we learn many things and we accept them as it is. For eg how many of you were present for American civil war(1861-65), then world war I (1914-18), world war II(1939-45)?...none of us, but when asked in exam we write answers as if we were personally present there, because we accept these histories on the basis of faith, off course historians have provided all the facts and proofs of battles and wars.

But as far as my understanding goes I have never heard or seen someone whose life transformed because of studying these histories, although they are full with facts and figures, yes, one may get knowledge, information but no transformation. On the other side we have our scriptures like Ramayan, Mahabharata, Bhagavat Puran and many others are filled with the knowledge and information of God, just because His pastimes mentioned there are inconceivable, we should not reject them but accept on the basis of reasonable faith and not blind faith.

What's this reasonable faith?...I have seen many of those who accepted scriptures on basis of faith and practiced it, what an impact they had on their heart and lifestyle, it's simply unimaginable. I know many those who were meat eaters, gamblers, women hunters, smokers, drunkards before, left everything after coming in contact with God and His words(scriptures), they are totally transformed and living a pure life. Did anyone force them to leave bad habits aside? No...they had the impact on their hearts, when one tastes something higher the inclination for lower things automatically goes down. So scriptures may not provide you the facts and figures or you may get bewildered by seeing contradictions there, due to that your faith may get shaken up, during that time focus on the people who have practiced words of scriptures and observe their lifestyle that will restore our lost faith, off course we have sciences like astrology and all with which facts mentioned in scriptures can be proved. So let's not look for fact proof but focus on impact proof on people's heart.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*Overlook the 'look' but look into the 'heart'*

Most of us get attracted to those who are very beautiful and charismatic. According to many of us most beautiful and handsome people are in cinema industry or in sports like cricket , people get so much fascinated by these star's look that they want to offer their whole life to them. I know some of the women who were the fans of one particular Bollywood hero, when he got married they were all devastated, cried bitterly and fasted for two days. And vice a versa, many men cried when one of the heroin got married(may be they all were expecting she will marry with them).

But after all how many days this 'look' will sustain, time is very cruel, ruthless and he doesn't leave anyone, soon there will be wrinkles, toothless mouth, grey hairs and different symptoms of old age. So one has to understand this beauty is temporary and one should not run after temporary beauty, we often observe in college, boys have girlfriends and girls have boyfriends, on what basis they choose each other?...Simply 'look', he or she looks beautiful and can satisfy my senses nicely, that's all is their criteria. But that's not real beauty.

Real beauty is of heart, which lasts long even body gets old. Beautiful heart is full of divine qualities like compassion, gratefulness and love, it never demands it just wants to serve the others. Bodily beauty doesn't have these qualities and that's why we see those who are in love with others(on the basis of bodily beauty) they soon break apart, their relations are temporary. Again just take the example of superstars of Bollywood, so many times they keep changing relationships, partners and wives, hardly some of them are continuing with their actual married wife or husband, why? Are not they beautiful or handsome or rich? No...they lack the beauty of heart. It's not with only stars but practically everyone suffers from from this problem, people just go on external look that to see internal look of heart!!! Not just see the beauty but see the behaviour and observe the character of person and on that basis decide he/she is having good looks or not? what's the use of beauty when the person is cruel or full of hatred?

In conclusion I am not against the beauty and charisma of physical body but I value the internal beauty more. It's a bit difficult to find a person with both beauties together...but there is a person who is most beautiful and pure and sweet hearted too!! Who is He? He is God, Lord Krishna. In fact whoever associates with Him becomes beautiful both internally and externally too, He attracts millions of Cupid to Him and what to say of compassion He gives mercy even to those who comes to kill Him(Putana), where will we find such a person. So why to run after temporary 'looks' of this world if we have 'Lord Krishna' as the permanent beauty of eternal world!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by www.iskcondesiretree.com

*Why only Temple run, why not Run to the Temple!!*

There is no need to give any introduction of a called a 'Temple Run' because practically everyone has played it. In Temple Run, the player controls Guy Dangerous, an archaeologist who embarks on an adventure to seek an ancient and valuable golden idol from a temple in the Gardens of Bomarzo in Italy. Unfortunately, he does not realize that the temple is inhabited by a family of "demonic monkeys" who want to eat him. As the game is an endless running game, there is no end to the temple; the player plays until the character falls off the temple to his demise or is eaten by the crazed monkeys. Character can turn left or right, jump or slide under an object, while running he collects gold, red and blue coins, and thus tries to complete his adventure. I have practically seen in the midst of the crowd in local train, during lectures in colleges, during serious meetings, people play this game, so much craze!!

But after all game is game and have nothing to do with reality in fact it hampers your real life by distracting you from your work and relations. It only provides some entertainment and no real values. Good values only inculcated in the association of those who have these values, which gives strength to fight with the realities of life, game is just an imaginary journey with some problems but life has more real serious hurdles than games. Just like we practice the game again and again and  we can become master of it but we can't play with life again and again to master over it because human life is very rare, we don't know in next life which birth we will get. So the aim of game of life is to become successful in one attempt, that is to develop love for the God in this lifetime, without taking next chance.

So how to attain this goal of our real game, real aim is not attaining valuable golden idol but much more precious than that, attaining the Prema of God. One of the method as earlier described is to take association of those who have developed love for God, go to them, serve them, learn from them and they will teach you how to win this game. Temple is the best place where we can find such realised souls who have mastered over their game of life. Temple is like a hospital and we are all diseased due to our conditioning and vices of hearts. Doctors gives us medicines and prescriptions of how to take it, similarly the realised devotees will help us by giving their guidance and instructions to get cured of material disease. Temple also means there is deity of God in whose service we can be engaged to purify our senses.

Still in India we find many people visit temple everyday because they know, 'world will give me all information but temple will give me transformation of heart'. In Jaipur in early morning I actually saw many thousands of people running towards the temple to attend the Mangla Aarti of Lord 'Givind Devji'. It was so amazing experience which we can't get by playing temple run but we can get it by actually running to temple to greet the Lord. So let's not only play the temple run but let's run to the temple!!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by www.iskcondesiretree.com

Life Lessons from Game of ladders and snakes

There is no doubt that anyone of you have missed to play this game of ladders and snakes, we all have played...current generation is also playing this game on tab or computers. But one thing many of us have missed and that is lessons from this game, so let's learn that...

Game starts with throwing the dice and according to number moving of a pawn, similarly in our life also we have choice to throw dice(do activity) but we don't have any control over consequences, this is also called as law of karma, you have to move your pawn according to your activities. Throwing of dice in our hand but destiny decides the results, we have seen practically also so many people do the hard work but everyone doesn't become rich. One can't say I won't throw dice it always show less number, One must perform the activity one can't say because I am not getting good result I won't do anything.

There will be sometimes ladders, one will go very high. Similarly in life we will be go high many times without much hard work, that to be considered as God's grace and one should not take credit for himself. One should not be so happy and elated that he will forget throwing of dice, know that it's a part of game and game is still going on.

There will be snakes sometime, which will engulf a pawn, which brings it down again. In life too, we may be good, nice, hard working but we will be brought down. Life has ups and downs. Sometimes we are up and sometimes we fall. We must learn to accept the outcome. Whatever the result (win or lose), accept it with grace. That’s the spirit of sportsmanship. If we lose this time, learn and improve so that we can win next time. Make losing a motivation, not an excuse not to play again. We must learn to manage your emotions when playing. Be it happy, sad, disappointed, angry, frustrated, or upset. Similar thing with life also, we must manage our emotions.

We must be humble and should not  look down on people who are less fortunate than us.. Be grateful with what we have. Likewise, when we fall down, let's not give up and Try again.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com