My first photoshop painting. It is for a small project and the painting is not complete. I feel I need to work more on it. By the way feedbacks are welcomed.

Don’t Let Success Go to Your Head

There’s an alarming trend: People who have had some degree of good fortune and success tend to lose their humility and become at least slightly arrogant. This is very unfortunate for many reasons. First, and most obviously, no one really wants to be around someone who is arrogant or self-absorbed. It’s boring, and it’s annoying! Arrogance implies a lack of gratitude. The assumption is, “I did this all by myself; it’s all about me.”

Factors such as our good karma, Lord’s blessings and so on are forgotten or disregarded.

In addition, when you allow success to go to your head, your stress levels skyrocket and your quality of life gradually disappears. People will stop liking you, and eventually, you’ll stop liking yourself.

Friendships slip away; obsessive busyness and a lack of time take over. Someone who was happy and relatively easy to please is now impossible to satisfy.

There are many celebrities, athletes, and business people who have done really well – their talent, timing, hard work, luck, and all the rest of it kicked in at just the right time. Yet, rather than being grateful and keeping a sense of perspective, they act as if they are somehow better or more important than others simply because they’re good at something and have enjoyed some success.

Don’t let success go to your head!

Haribol

Even the birds in Mayapur chirp the holy names of the Lord. Shot is Mayapur, this photo is from the Pushpa Samadhi of Srila Prabhupada. Shot in 2006.

The Most Attractive

The Utsava Vigraha (Processional Deity) of Sri Krishna-chandra beautifully dressed for the Jhulan Utsava.

Harmony with Nature

A beautiful railing in Pushpa Samadhi of Srila Prabhupada. The depth in the background behind is what which fascinated me. That is holy Ganges. There was a perfect harmony in air being at that spot at that time.

When people come to you to present their problems …

An executive at a large publishing company was sick and tired of boring and unproductive meetings marked by excessive hand-wringing. He enforced a rule that everyone who wished to present a problem to him first had to submit a memo answering these four questions:

1. What's the problem?

2. What's the cause of the problem?

3. What are all possible solutions to the problem?

4. Which solution do you suggest?

He now rarely has to deal with problems anymore and he doesn't worry about them. He's found that his associates have used the system to find workable solutions without tying up hours in useless meetings. He estimates that he has eliminated three-fourths of his meeting time and has improved his productivity, health and happiness. Is he just passing the buck? Of course not! He's paying those folks to do their jobs, and he's giving them great training at decision-making.

A nice small house in the campus of Radha Madhava Mandir, Mayapur. This site fascinated me a bit. Imagine staying in such a house...

Timingila Fish

Scientists Find Skeleton of Timingila Fish

BY: PATITA PAVANA DAS ADHIKARY

Jul 07, 2010 — BLAGOEVGRAD, BULGARIA (SUN) — from 'The Astrological Newsletter' by Mithuna Twiins Astrological Services.

According to an Associated Press news release dated 30 June, 2010, scientists in Peru recently unearthed the skull of a gigantic whale-eating fish, probably a timingila. Ignorant of its place in scientific Sanskrit historical literature, the mental speculators named the "newly-discovered" species leviathan melvillei after Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick.

Shrila Prabhupada was never much impressed with the slow, tedious and imperfect process relied upon by empirical science, which he called the ascending process. Our process, he emphasized, is the descending process; that is, acceptance of shastra as it comes down through the great chain of disciplc succession. Often, shastras reveal facts that lie beyond the purview of our conditioned reason and imperfect analysis. Such shastric wisdom becomes the realized domain of the faithful devotee; this is knowledge that is not meant for the faithless materialists.

The structure of the Universe, as discussed in the previous article, is one such example. Further eye-openers are flying mountains, gigantic eagles that fly from planet to planet andtimingila fish that can eat whales. Acceptance of these scriptural truths rests upon the disciple's faith. The timingila fish is described throughout the shastras. The historical epicMahabharata compares the great generals of Kurukshetra--like Karna, Bhishma, Drona, Arjuna and others--to these giant aquatics.

Shrila Prabhupada was particularly unimpressed by paleontologists who excavate fossils for fanciful clues to life's origins. He once compared such "scientists" to "dogs digging for bones". From a conversation recorded in Bombay on 9 Jan 1975, Shrila Prabhupada describedtimingila whale-eaters:

"There are nine lakh species of fish in the water. Who knows it? The shastra says. One who has seen. Who has seen how many varieties of fishes are there? But there are many, many varieties. From the shastra we get information of the whale fish, timi. And there is another fish which is called timingila. Timingila means he is so big that he swallows up this timi, whale fish, like a small... (makes gulping sound) Finished. (laughter) They are called timingila. So you have not seen. We have not seen. But theshastra says.

"Therefore we have seen because we are shastra chakshusa. You should see through the shastra. Otherwise what can you see with your tiny eyes? You cannot see, say, three yards more than that. Imperfect. Each one of your senses is imperfect. You cannot see. You are seeing the Sun, but what are you seeing? You are seeing it to be just like a disc. But it is fourteen thousand times bigger than this planet. So your naked sense perception has no value. Don't try to gather knowledge through these naked senses. Try to gather knowledge about how creation is made. And that is stated here by the authorities, such as Kapiladeva. And if you take it, then your knowledge is perfect."

The timingila fish are also described in the Shrimad Bhagavatam (8.7.18):

"The fish, sharks, tortoises and snakes were most agitated and perturbed. The entire ocean became turbulent, and even the large aquatic animals like whales, water elephants, crocodiles and timingila fish [large whales that can swallow small whales] came to the surface. While the ocean was being churned in this way, it first produced a fiercely dangerous poison called haalahala."

It should be noted that Shrila Prabhupada disputed the "scientific assumption" that thetimingila or other such creatures are "extinct."

Unveiling the Beauty

This flower caught my interest very much when I was in Mayapur gardens. Although it just rained, the beautiful whorl of the flower was very much safe inside the petals. Inspite of raining, the flower was trying to bloom unveiling it's beautiful existence awarded by the Lord. Shot during the June of 2006.

Stop Worrying Too Much

Recently I saw a survey that says:

• 40 percent of the things we worry about never happen,
• 30 percent are in the past and can't be helped,
• 12 percent concern the affairs of others
• 10 percent are about sickness--either real or imagined
• 8 percent are worth worrying about.

I would submit that even the 8 percent aren't really worth the energy of worry.

Did you know that the English word worry is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word that means to strangle or to choke? That's easy to believe. People do literally worry themselves to death leading to heart disease, high blood pressure, ulcers, nervous disorders and all sorts of other diseases. Is it worth it?

We just need to find a way to keep it from ruling our lives.

Try this:

• Analyze the situation honestly and figure out what is the worst possible thing that could happen.
• Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst, if necessary.
• Then calmly try to improve upon the worst, which you have already agreed mentally to accept.
• You know what you have to do; it's just a matter of doing it. Without worrying.

The point is, you can't saw sawdust. A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work. People get so busy worrying about yesterday or tomorrow, they forget about today. And today is what you have to work with.

Humility

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu represented Himself as a very foolish disciple even though He proved Himself as the greatest scholar and was actually Krishna Himself. So one who feels humble and meek has the door for the Kingdom of God opened for him or her.

- Correspondence, Los Angeles, December 1968

The Pink Purity

A water Lilly in Mayapur Gardens. Photo shot during 2006.

July 2010

Dear Devotees, download this amazing desktop calendar and spiritualize your desktop.

Haribol

The Lord of Mercy

The devotees of Lord Krishna are very much attracted by the sankirtana movement of Lord Chaitanya. This avatara of the Lord does not kill the miscreants, but delivers them by His causeless mercy.

- Srila Prabhupada in Bhagavad-gita 4.8