Importance of Planning and Prioritizing

We spend our time in certain ways because we choose to. There is nothing we do without choosing, although our choices are not always deliberate or visible. We have the choice to work or not to work, to write that report or not, to take the phone call or to wait. Each choice is based upon a reward received or anticipated. Rewards are what you expect to gain from undertaking or postponing a certain task. If you didn’t receive rewards, you would not continue that behavior. What rewards do you get for managing time the way you do now? Learning to manage your time better will free up time to do the really important things. Rewards come from good time management habits.

Planning is the most important part of the formula we call time management. Some of you say, “I don’t have time to do any planning,” or “Things change too much to plan!” But this is a fact: research shows that for every 1 minute you spend in planning, you will gain 10 in execution. 1 minute = 10 minutes. 10 minutes = 1 hour and 40 minutes! This may seem amazing because you may feel like you are already doing all you can each day! If you could just gain an extra half-hour a day through effective time management, you would have 22 more days available to you per year.

Planning will keep you on course in achieving your goals and objectives. Abraham Lincoln reportedly once said, “If I had 60 minutes to cut down a tree, I would spend 40 minutes sharpening the ax and 20 minutes cutting it down.” Dale Carnegie told a similar story of two men who were out chopping wood. One man worked hard all day, took no breaks, and only stopped briefly for lunch. The other chopper took several breaks during the day and a short nap at lunch. At the end of the day, the woodsman who had taken no breaks was quite disturbed to see that the other chopper had cut more wood than he had. He said, “I don’t understand. Every time I looked around, you were sitting down, yet you cut more wood than I did.” His companion asked, “Did you also notice that while I was sitting down, I was sharpening my ax?”

“One of the greatest powers in all fields of life is unity.” – Radhanath Swami

“One of the greatest powers in all fields of life is unity.” – Radhanath Swami
The topic of unity has been pondered, reflected, and pursued since time immemorial—how to create unity within this world? One of the greatest powers in all fields of life is unity.
But there is a fundamental problem: there are so many diversified distinctions between living beings. Everyone has their own conception of their identity, and this creates a natural conflict among those who look different, think different, or act different.
There has always been conflict between the castes, not only in India, but all over the world, though the castes may go by different names in different places. There is the educational class, there is the administrative class, there is the working class, and there is the class of trade and agriculture in every society. Also, there have always been distinctions and conflicts between nationalities,
between races, between religions, between generations, between sexes, and between philosophers.
On practically every level of the world, there is reason for conflict. Even within a family, there’s the older brother and the younger brother and that creates conflict.
“As long as everyone has their separate, independent interests, there will be conflicts.” – Radhanath Swami

ADJUST EVERYWHERE : THE MASTER KEY TO BE HAPPY

 One thing that is certain in life is change. Surprisingly, it's also something that people resist the most. This is the main reason why most of us are not living a happy life today. If change is permanent, then shouldn't we know how to accept or get adjusted to change? Well, the easiest way of doing so is to know how to adjust! Right from birth until death, one is subject to several adjustments. In fact, we all have experienced adjusting to disagreeable circumstances many times. For instance, you must have used an umbrella when it suddenly had started raining. In such a situation, the one who is making adjustments never questions, argues, or resist; right? Do you know why? This is because she or he knows that there is no point in doing so, as suffering will ultimately come to her or him at the end in case of objection.

However, this adjustment is not taken when it comes to dealing with disagreeable people. For example, you might start a fight when a front person refuses to do something that you desire. Similarly, you will openly oppose and abuse somebody if she or he speaks something that is wrong from your viewpoint. Well, these are some situations where we forget how to adjust, enter into conflict, and lose our inner peace, irrespective of whether we are right or wrong. So, what can be done? Should you accept all wrong things or tolerate? Should you keep quite when something does not happen as per your wish? Irrespective of what can be done, the desired focus is always on how to adjust or how to retain inner peace in these situations.

This is exactly where Param Pujya Dadashri reveals the master key of 'ADJUST EVERYWHERE' as the ultimate solution to cope up with constantly changing circumstances as well as people. This is certainly an everywhere applicable way to remain happy forever. This simple but very profoundly effective phrase has the power to change your life permanently!

Meaning of life

The meaning of life is a philosophical question concerning the significance of life or existence in general. It can also be expressed in different forms, such as "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", and "What is the purpose of existence?" It has been the subject of much philosophical, scientific, and theological speculation throughout history. There have been a large number of proposed answers to these questions from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds.

The meaning of life is in the philosophical and religious conceptions of existence, social ties, consciousness, and happiness, and borders on many other issues, such as symbolic meaning, ontology, value, purpose, ethics, good and evil, free will, the existence of one or multiple gods, conceptions of God, the soul, and the afterlife. Scientific contributions focus primarily on describing related empirical facts about the universe, exploring the context and parameters concerning the 'how' of life. Science also studies and can provide recommendations for the pursuit of well-being and a related conception of morality. An alternative, humanistic approach poses the question "What is the meaning of my life?" The value of the question pertaining to the purpose of life may coincide with the achievement of ultimate reality, or a feeling of oneness, or even a feeling of sacredness.

2014 GANESH VISARJAN

Ganeshotsav or Ganesh-Utsav, which begins on Ganesha Chaturthi, culminates on Anant Chaturdashi. Hence Ganeshotsav is celebrated for 10 days in the month of Bhadrapada. The last day of festivity is known as Ganesha Visarjan. Ganesha Visarjan is also known as Vinayaka Nimajjanam in Telugu speaking regions.

On the eleventh day the statue of Lord Ganesha is immersed into water body, preferably in a river, lake or the sea. After the final offering of coconuts, flowers and sweets, the statues of Lord Ganesha are taken to the water body through the street procession with much fanfare. Thousands of devotees join the procession and fill the whole atmosphere with chanting of Lord Ganesha. "Ganapati Bappa Morya" and "Ganesh Maharaj Ki, Jai" are few of the famous slogans which are chanted throughout the procession.

MAKE LIFE A CELEBRATION

            “If you approach everything in a celebratory way, you learn to be non-serious about life but absolutely involved”.

             Nowadays, unfortunately, a festival means they give you a holiday, and you wake up only at twelve noon. Then you eat a lot and go for a movie or watch television at home. It wasn’t like that earlier. A festival meant the whole town would gather in a place and there would be a big celebration. A festival meant we got up at four in the morning, and very actively, lots of things happened all over the house.

            If you approach everything in a celebratory way, you learn to be non-serious about life but absolutely involved. The problem with most human beings right now is, if they think something is important, they will become dead serious about it. If they think it is not so important, they will become lax about it – they don’t show the necessary involvement. You know, in India when someone says, “He is in a very serious condition,” that means his next step is you know where. A lot of people are in a serious condition. There is only one thing that is going to happen to them which is of any significance. The rest will bypass them because with anything that they think is not serious, they are unable to show involvement and dedication towards that. That is the whole problem. The passage, the secret of life is to see everything with a non-serious eye, but be absolutely involved – like a game. That is the reason the most profound aspects of life are approached in a celebratory way, so that you don’t miss the point.