Motivation

Motivation is an important feeling. It helps us to decide what should be chosen and how to do it even though there will be sacrifices along the way. Powerful motivators make us think that we can things that we are sure that we cannot. Motivation helps a person realise their goals and how badly they want them. In the Mahabharat Lord Krishna kept saying encouraging words to Arjuna and was saddened at the state of the war. Kanha said that we should remember Him as often as we can. Jai Shri Krishna!

Tough love

Have you ever heard the phrase 'tough love'? It means that when someone loves you they sometimes have to be mean to you to show you the right way. Kanha does that to us sometimes. He sends us persons who give us constructive criticism to help us become better persons. Sometimes we may think the persons are being unduly harsh. But, at the end of the day when we assess our behaviour, our work, ourselves we may find that we do need to alter those things that they said they didn't like. Kanha also sends us disappointments to teach us a more subtle lesson. He does this so that we can reflect on our own shortcomings and mend them. We should remember that He is not doing this because He dislikes us, quite the contrary, He is doing this because He loves us and He wants us to do our very best. Let us all thank Kanha for sending us some tough love sometimes. Jai Shri Krishna!

Kanha answers prayers - but, be careful what you wish for! You just may get it...

Prayer is an extremely powerful thing. Kanha listens to all of our prayers and He answers some while He suggests better things for us with others. If our prayers are persistent though, and Kanha knows that we are asking for something that will harm us or hurt us, at first He will disagree and refuse. But then if we continue to ask He may relent to teach us a lesson about what we ask for. We should always bear in mind that Kanha knows best and He is able to take care of everything. He can guide us to do what is right. He alone knows what is best for us and that's why when we pray we should ask Him to grant our blessings if it is the right thing for us. He always takes care of us and keeps us safe. Why would that ever change? Jai Shri Krishna!

Knowing your limits

We all have to stop and define our limits at some point. There are several limits that we will meet - in our actions and in our thoughts. We may create the limits ourselves or we may have them imposed by society or the legal system. Most of the time our conscience guides us about what is acceptable and correct and what is not. Sometimes we are unaware of limits that others have placed because of a lack of communication and we may end up breaching those limits. If it happens unintentionally then we must apologise still and continue. Kanha realised the importance of limits - He preserved Draupadi's honour by replenishing her sari so that she would not be disgraced in front of her elders, He was forced to punish Kans when Kans breached the limits of proper behaviour. He knew that limits would be placed of His and Radha's interaction and He dealt with it. We must recognise our limits and stay within them so that Kanha will be pleased. Jai Shri Krishna!

Balance in our lives

We must find a way to strike a healthy balance in our lives - we should not work too hard or play too hard because then we become dull either way. A healthy balance is exactly what Kanha's example teaches us - He played hard an had fun with His friends but then He also worked hard to save those who placed their belief in Him. Even now, He tries to take care of us and help us to feel better but He also teases us a little from time to time and we have to learn to accept that this is how our Kanha is - He loves us no matter what and we must learn to accept the manner in which He shows His affection. In the end He will take care of everything and keep us safe always. Here are some ways in which we can strike a balance: go out with our friends sometimes, take the time to do something that makes us feel better about ourselves, visit our relatives. Jai Shri Krishna!

Trying new things

Trying new things helps to broaden our experiences and expand our horizons. We try new foods, new activities, new places to socialise. If we were not open to new things then maybe we would not have found Kanha. I know that its true for me because all along I learned the stories from Hinduism but I never had a real connection to Kanha until I listened to new bhajans, watched new tv shows and researched Him in a new way. Then, I found Him and my life has never been the same. Sometimes trying new things is scary and we feel afraid. However, we have to merely assess whether we like those new things or not and in the end Kanha will take care of us - He will help us to overcome our fears and to bravely be able to say whether we enjoy the new experiences, food or activities. Jai Shri Krishna!

Using our time wisely

As the day wears on do you ever feel like you have wasted time? Well it happens to all of us but we need to remember that time is a precious commodity. Once lost, it cannot be regained and we should try our hardest to use it wisely. Kanha is with us to help us to learn to use our time wisely and if we look carefully at His little lessons, we will see that He understood the importance of time also. When He was a child, He lived with Nand and Yashoda. But He knew that when He grew up He would have to leave to go back to His biological parents. When He was with Arjuna on the battlefield and Arjuna was hesitating to kill, He picked up the weapons Himself to do so since He felt that Arjuna was wasting time. Let us all try to use our time wisely and not waste it. Let us be able to say at the end of the day that we did everything we should have and spent the day well. Jai Shri Krishna!

Kanha looks after us

This fact is always brought to my attention in little ways but sometimes when I stop to think about how much Kanha really cares about us and looks after us, I am blown away. He takes care of every little detail in our lives and ensures that we are safe, happy and healthy. He understands our deepest fears and assuages them by His actions in our lives. He boosts our self esteem when we are down. He cheers us up when we are sad. He comforts us when we are scared and lonely. He helps us to enjoy life fully and truly. He answers our prayers. And the thing to remember is that if He doesn't answer a prayer - it is because He knows what is best for us. He always does. We just have to trust Him. But, given how much He looks after us, that should not be hard to do at all. Let us try to look after others in the same way that He looks after us. Jai Shri Krishna!

The importance of love

Love is the most powerful force in the universe. It is something we hear every single day. But, do we really stop to ponder what it means to love and to be in love? Often we do not. Can we survive without love? I don't think that we can. Think of a crying baby - when we pick them up, they stop crying. Think of yourself when you feel sad or angry or happy, you want to hug someone, hold them, touch them, kiss them. Because of love. Think of how hurt you feel when a friend or someone you care about has rejected you. Love is what made Kanha come to us- He loves us so much that He came as a baby, a child, a teenager, an adult, as one of us. He came here to show us how to live and to enjoy life. He loved many and He helps us to love even now. Let us all show love to others and let them know that we love them today and in the future. Jai Shri Krishna!

Happy Maha Shivratri

I just realised that my post for Shivratri was never sent so here it is: By now we know that worship to Kanha is worship to the supreme. He is the only God and worship to any other results in worship to Him. At the mandir every year I hear the katha about the hunter and the deer and him doing service on Maha Shivratri to Lord Shiva without knowing it. As a part of the story the pundit talks about the sins that are the worst and he says that someone who loves Kanha but 'hates' Lord Shiva is committing a sin because worship to all the forms are equal to service to Kanha. He even points out that Kanha Himself asked Lord Shiva for boons and was given as asked. He tells that we should be able to understand that different forms were created so that we can focus our worship on certain aspects. Shivratri is one of the most important nights for Hindus and worshipping Lord Shiva is especially important to women who want a good husband or who want their husband to have a good relationship with them forever. Let us all join in worshipping Lord Shiva today and remembering that service to Him is equal to service to Kanha. I love the picture I chose today - it shows baby Kanha in an older Lord Shiva's arms. Jai Shri Krishna!

The importance of being pleasant

Being pleasant or 'a nice person' is important. Some prefer to be mean and angry at others all the time but in the end they are only harming themselves. Happiness is a state of mind, I have often written on that. Not just me, many others write on the importance of being happy. There is even 'laughing therapy' that some do when they attempt to laugh for a certain amount of time each day to maintain their good mood and be healed and healthy. Being in a good mood helps us to learn better, to function better and to be more at ease with ourselves and those around us. While being angry and mean and shouting at others may get us the things we want - ahead in a line, a discounted price, 'better' service, a quiet room, things on time we are in the end only harming ourselves because others end up doing things to please us not out of love, but out of fear and many times they will not look out for us when things get difficult because they know that they don't have to. They take care of us out of obligation not out of love. This is harmful to us in the end because we will not understand the value of true interpersonal relationships. Others will not want us around. They will not tell us about get togethers, they will not include us in any social events. Being pleasant and kind and good to others helps us to truly understand to be patient and to make an effort to be nice to people even when we don't want to. We should learn to be good and do good so that we can truly follow Kanha's teachings and make the world a better place. When we read stories about Kanha, do we ever read anything where He was unnecessarily rude or angry to His loved ones? He loved everyone and His good mood and infectious spirit helped everyone around Him to also be in a good mood and love others. He came here to show us how to live, how to deal with strife and unhappiness - He did not kill the great snake in the Yamuna, He tamed it. Whenever He killed a demon they attained moksh because they were killed by Him and He allowed them to repent for the sins they committed. He gave His uncle ample time to change His ways, but when Kans did not, Kanha did as He had to. Kanha always paid respect to His elder brother, His parents, His aunts, uncles and other relatives. He showed us to use other avenues to master our emotions - He played his bansuri often. He danced often. He laughed often. Let us all use His example and try to be pleasant and good people. Jai Shri Krishna!

Happiness

There are many ways to be happy. Happiness is a state of mind. That is the most common definition of it. However, what does it mean to be truly happy? How can we achieve that state of mind? Well, we have to be able to visualise ourselves as achieving the things we wanted to achieve in life. But you may wonder why I say that we have to visualise it? Why can't we actually experience it? Well the truth is that if we learn to accept and understand what Kanha's will is for us, then we will truly appreciate everything in our lives and be happy at all times. Happiness can be achieved by truly accepting that everything in our lives is due to Kanha. He alone has given us everything and our lives are all miracles. His love is always with us and everything that happens to us is due to His will. When we truly accept that, then we will understand that we can be happy all the time. Let us all be thankful to Kanha for His will and His love in our lives. Let us all make an attempt to be truly happy. Jai Shri Krishna!

Help in unexpected places

Kanha gives us help when we least expect it and from persons we least expect it. There are many times in life when the people we care about and consider our dearest friends are the ones who let us down. But we should not only think about negative things that happen to us. Instead we should think also about the times when people help us unexpectedly. Many people help us without us thinking that they would - acquaintances, not-so-close friends, strangers, neighbours, enemies even. Kanha gives us all compassion and the compassionate nature of some shows us at the least expected times. Only then do we truly begin to appreciate how amazing Kanha is and how much other people can surprise us. Kanha offers us help and little surprises throughout our lives to remind us to focus on good things and to be good people in return. How about we all try to do as He wants? Jai Shri Krishna!

Emotional health

People all have different personalities - we would not all be unique if it were not so. This was explained to me by a very dear friend after I complained to her that another friend acts oddly when upset. And I immediately realised that it was true - we are all different and we react in unique ways to circumstances - fear, anger, worry, happiness, love. There are general reactions that we can pick up on but sometimes persons we usually get along with act oddly when faced with extreme situations and emotions. Emotionally healthy persons do not keep their emotions hidden. Instead, they show their emotions in a healthy way. They also learn that if their personalities make them react violently or in an extreme manner when they are angry, how to control or limit those negative reactions. Emotionally healthy persons are able to find happiness every day and they are able to talk to Kanha about their feelings. Emotionally healthy people understand that others may not always be in a good mood and so they will try to cheer up their relatives, friends, acquaintances. Emotionally healthy people need to work on being emotionally healthy, just as we work on being physically healthy because emotional health may be the key to physical health also. Let us all talk to Kanha about things that are holding us back from becoming emotionally healthy persons. Let us ask for His help and guidance to becoming emotionally healthy now and in the future. Jai Shri Krishna!

Focusing on the good

Sometimes we tend to focus on negative things that have happened or are happening in our lives. When this happens we should consciously take a step back and try to focus on the good. Our lives all have both positive and negative things happening. But, we should try to focus on the good and trust in Kanha that in the end things will be alright. We should trust that He knows our whole life plan, after all He is the one who created it, and we should trust that He will always help and protect us and keep us safe and happy because He loves us so much. Don't we love Him enough to trust in His judgement? Sometimes trusting Him is difficult because it feels like we are letting go of our own control. However, He is always in control no matter what and we must remember that. Let us all make an effort to focus not on the negative but on the positive things in our lives. Jai Shri Krishna!

Loving God

I know that I have written on this topic several times before but I want to do so again as today is Valentine's Day. What does it mean to love God? How do we know that we truly love Kanha? Well there are different types of love, just as when we are considering love within relationships among humans - there are many different ways we can love Kanha because we can see Him in many different ways. He knows that and when we think about His life here on earth, we can see manifestations of the different kinds of love we can feel for Him - we can love Him like a son - as Yashoda and Devaki did. We can love Him like a significant other - as Radha and the gopis did. We can love Him like a brother - as Balarama did. We can love Him like a friend - as Arjuna did. Some people can love Him in many different ways because they can distinguish among His different roles in their lives. Kanha knows that we can all love Him in different ways and He accepts that. I want to draw your attention to a verse in the Bhagavad Gita - Chapter 9 Sholka 26 says: "If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it." So He truly does understand and accept our love for Him. Let us all express our love for Kanha today as well as our love for others in our lives. I included two of my favourite pictures - one of Kanha with Radha and another of Him with Yashoda. Enjoy! Jai Shri Krishna!

Falling in love

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day - a big day for those who are in love. For those who are not in love or are not in a relationship, the day may turn sour. However, it is up to each of us every day to make a decision to be in a good mood instead of a bad mood so we should try our very best to be pleasant at all times. Kanha will help us with learning to deal with love. We may laugh and scoff at this but love is not such an easy thing to be understood. We need His help to understand why we fall in love, how we fall in love and sometimes how to fall out of love with unsuitable persons. Kanha is watching over us and taking care of us always. He will always love us and always keep us safe. If we know that without doubt, then why are we scared when we are supposedly alone? Do we feel that we cannot handle our own company? Do we feel like others have friend, relatives and significant others around them but we do not? Its okay to feel like that but also ask Kanha to help You to come out of the negative emotions - talking to Him helps and He will help us all to fall in love when the time is right. Jai Shri Krishna!

Doing what is right

It is not always easy to do what is right. Sometimes it is a lot easier to do the wrong thing than it is to do the right thing. But Kanha made it that way on purpose - He wanted to test us to see if we are capable of fighting temptation, calling on Him and knowing that in the end we should do the right thing. There are many times when we can let our emotions get control of us and do the wrong thing - hit someone, yell at someone, say something about or to someone that we shouldn't. We may not feel like we will even regret it. But deep down we are aware that it is entirely the wrong thing to do. At times like these we should remember Kanha and our vow to love Him and not hurt Him. When we do wrong things we hurt Him because He trusts us and loves us and He expects us to do the right things. He understands that we will fail sometimes and make mistakes. But those mistakes should be few and should not be done intentionally. Overall our goal is to live good and honest lives grounded in our faith in Him. It doesn't matter if others hurt us or want to encourage us to do wrong - we should always do what is right and love Him with all our hearts. Jai Shri Krishna!

Taking care of yourself

Of course we all know that we should take care of ourselves, our health, our bodies, our minds, our souls. However, do we really and truly understand what it means to take care of ourselves? Do we understand how to do so? Living healthily requires not only a healthy body, but also a healthy mind. Healthy minds are due to Kanha being with us and helping us through difficult times. He takes care of us in the best and worst times. He always wants us to remember to take care of ourselves so that we will be healthy throughout. Taking care of yourself is easy with His help because He will help you or me have the willpower to disregard certain foods and consume others. He will show us our progress in the gym, in school and in the read world. But that is because He helped us to become good people and He wants us to take care of those around it in order to be healthy in spirit also. Jai Shri Krishna!

Understanding love

Many people think that love us an easy emotion to understand. But it's not. Love is complicated. It makes us happy and sad. Love cannot be fully understood. It grows so easily and hardly fades. Loveis Kanha Jai Shri Krishna !

Self-soothing

I read about a technique that some parents were trying to teach their young children called 'self-soothing'. I found the methods to be slightly cruel to leave a newborn baby crying on his/her own until he/she learns to find self-comfort. But surely, as we get older we can see the benefits in soothing ourselves. We are not always able to call on our significant others, relatives or friends to take care of us and help us to feel better. We can always call on Kanha to help us and take care of us. In itself that is self-soothing because He is always with us. He is a part of our very souls and He will always be there to take care of us. We can turn to Him to soothe us and to take away our sorrows. We can turn to Him to teach us how to deal with things ourselves instead of asking others for their opinions and assistance. Sometimes others may think we are too dependent on them and they may try to manipulate us. If we are turning to Kanha more frequently than to others then we will learn to become more independent and to self-soothe. Trusting Kanha helps us to become more independent about our own actions and lives. He takes care of us so that we can take care of ourselves. Jai Shri Krishna!

Blessings in disguise

Many times in life we do not see the blessings for what they are. Little blessings come to us but we do not see them - instead we see the negative side of things only. When we are late for work, do we think of the accident that Kanha just allowed us to avoid? Of course not. When we get ill do we think about how much worse we would have been sick if we had gone out? There are so many scenarios that I can put forward but we all know that it is true and that at some point we tend to think that things are not the way they should be but Kanha knows best and we have to trust in Him and in the meantime learn to thank Him for His blessings in disguise. Jai Shri Krishna!

Differences

Our personalities all have difference - it is what makes us unique. However, this also means that sometimes our friends' and relatives' actions may upset us or annoy us. We have to learn to deal with such things because we must understand that everyone is not the same and Kanha created us that way. He wanted us to learn to live with others who are different in personality to us. He wanted us to understand other personalities and learn from others - cowardly persons learn from the brave ones, angry persons learn from the happy ones. He did this so that we would learn while we are forming bonds with others. He wanted us to learn to love each other in spite of our differences, not to change ourselves and others. Kanha understands our clashes with others and He wants us to learn to deal with them. He keeps us all safe and takes care of those we love because we ask Him to. He knows what is best above all. Jai Shri Krishna!

Friends

Friends are the relatives that we get to choose. They are the people who will take care of us when we are acting silly. They can be the brothers or sisters we never had - older or younger as the case may be. Friends give us advice, they feed us, they take us out and the love us unconditionally. They fight with their parents for us and they keep us on even after they get married and have kids. Friends who are true really are a precious thing Kanha and thank You for that. Thank You for sending us all friends to take care of us and help boost our self esteem. Kanha, I know that You valued Your friends highly, as the picture indicates. You spent Your time in their presence, You took care of them, saved them from evil, even duplicated Yourself to act like them so that their parents will not be alarmed or upset by their behaviour. Thank You for friends Kanha. Thank You for Your love. Jai Shri Krishna!

Milestones

As I talk about milestones I notice that I myself have achieved two in quick succession - yesterday was my 600th post on this blog and today I see I have 8000 page views thus far. To me that is a great accomplishment. This brings me to the topic of how we celebrate accomplishments in our lives. Sometimes we privately celebrate and praise ourselves for our hard work. That's okay. Other times we include family and friends. Also okay. But I think that most times we forget to include Kanha and that's NOT okay. We should include Kanha in our celebrations of milestones and accomplishments first. He is the one who gave us those accomplishments and we should never forget that. He is always with us and He is always taking care of us. He gives us things that are right for us and we should never forget that whatever happens in our lives is due to Him and we should always give Him the first acclaim for our accomplishments. Let us try to remember that in the future as we continue to celebrate milestones - He is always with us and we should respect Him and thank Him before we do anything else. Kanha, thank You for the 8000 page views and the 600 posts. Thank You for inspiring me to write this blog. Please help me to continue with it faithfully. Jai Shri Krishna!

Confidence

Words in the English language are well-reputed for having multiple meanings. For today's post I want to focus on the word 'Confidence'. What does it mean to you? To me? To the rest of the world? An individual who displays confidence is one who knows how to act and handle every situation. Confidence comes from within. It is a state of mind that allows us to conquer our inner fears and perform to the best of our abilities. Another meaning is when we say something was told to us in confidence. This shows that the teller was confident that we would not tell anyone else. They expect us to keep the tale a secret. What have you done in confidence today? Have you confided in Kanha? Have you told Him about your secret desires, fears, hopes, dreams? Have you displayed confidence to others that Kanha will take care of you and provide you, guide you, protect you? Let us all show our confidence in Kanha today. Jai Shri Krishna!

Rest

We all are guilty of working too hard and burning the candle at both ends. However, Kanha says that we need time to rest and He tells our bodies to give us resting periods. But rest is not only physical. We also need mental rest from life's stresses. Kanhaji indicates to us when we need to rest and He does it because He loves us. We should take his cues to decide on when we need to rest and when we should revert to stressing and worrying about our studies, significant others and life in general. Kanha tells us when to slow down and absorb life and its benefits. Kanha keeps us safe by making us rest sometimes. Jai Shri Krishna!

Being happy

Being happy is something that we can all achieve. People generally tend to have an innate desire to want to achieve more, earn more, do better than they did before. Happiness is subsumed within that need and the desire for achievement of something better. Well, at least we think so. But is it really? Will we really be happy if we achieve whatever the thing is? Sometimes not because after we have achieved it, we move on to another goal, something else to accomplish. And that is fine. Life is like that. However, to truly be happy we must be happy with the way our life is right now. We should be thankful for everything that we have and the blessings that Kanha gave us. Only when we think about Kanha and how happy He has made us, we will be able to hold on to happiness and enjoy every step of our lives. Kanha, thank You for Your blessings on all of us. Please help us to appreciate You and love You better. Jai Shri Krishna!

Reconnecting

Sometimes we fall out of touch with old friends and sometimes one person sends an email to the other, just to say hello, they may send a text message, call on the phone or come to see you and the reconnecting begins. Kanha sends us His love always, even when we we don't think we deserve it or when we are not certain about how we feel about Him. He loves us in a way that takes our breath away when we are truly able to recognise it. Kanha sees all and knows all and He definitely loves us all. He will help us to reconnect to those who are important to us and He will take care of us always. If we are not allowed to reconnect with a person, it is because He does not want it that way. Jai Shri Krishna!