10,000 feet above the ground, I see the California mountains from my window seat as I’m headed home. My new home as of 3 months ago. I left Chicago, the city that raised me for all 29 years of my life (this is when all the people living downtown cringe and make sure I know “Aurora is not Chicago”). No one who knows me – including myself – could have pictured me leaving the greater Chicago area (happy?), much less for the state of Indiana. “Why don’t you and Bhumi go somewhere nice?” asked Naitik, my younger brother who had just returned home after grad school in Berkeley. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have similar thoughts about the location to where I was about to move to. (more…)
Category: Spirituality & Happiness
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6 Reasons Why You Should Visit Zappos When You’re in Vegas
My wife and I had the privilege of going on a Zappos Tour on our Vegas trip last month, and I’m so glad we did! I knew I wanted to make it out there ever since I finish reading Delivering Happiness, the story about their company & how they built a great culture written by their CEO Tony Hsieh.
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4 Pieces of Content About Happiness That You Shouldn’t Miss
I’ve been posting a lot about business, marketing and entrepreneurship lately, so I thought I’d change it up and go back to happiness for a bit. Here are links to a few great videos and books about the subject of happiness that I’ve watched, read and listened to (audiobooks are the greatest gift to commuters in the world – and your local library has so many… for FREE!!!) recently. I’ve started jotting down takeaways from each of them, but I figure I should share them for the people who want to actually go and experience these pieces of content about happiness for themselves.Why Happiness is the New Productivity (The Story of Mindvalley)
This video features a talk by Vishen Lakhiani, the founder and CEO of Mindvalley. If you haven’t heard of him and the company yet, you will soon. He offers 10 tangible takeaways to help you make your life and the lives of everyone at your workplace happier. (more…) -
The People of Taco Bell Versus the People of the DMV in Aurora IL
Several times over the last couple years I have experienced something so rare that each of these experiences have nestled themselves into my memory. What are these experiences you ask? Excellent customer service at fast food restaurants and the DMV. No not just any fast food restaurants – specifically the Taco Bell in Aurora, IL near me (1000 N Farnsworth Ave Aurora, IL 60506) and the McDonald’s in Oak Brook, IL by my workplace.
So where does the DMV come in? We’ll get to that later [shudder]. (more…)
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28 Reasons Why I Am Lucky As I Turn 28 Part 2
I’m glad you made it all the way through part 1, the second half is a wee bit longer than that one… enjoy:
- I grew up a little oblivious to what people thought, and later realized how nice that was. Until someone blatantly (and condescendingly) pointed out that I was the only boy playing the flute in our band I didn’t think much of it. I feel like I lost something when I started taking those kinds of things to heart. I literally wore sweatpants under a flannel button-down shirt in middle school without thinking twice. I was damn lucky that I still had friends despite of myself… but really it’s a nice state to be in to not have to worry about what others think – and I like to think I’ve finally gotten back to that state and now: (more…)
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Birthday Reflection: 28 Reasons Why I’m Lucky As I Turn 28 – Part 1
Saying the number “twenty-eight” kind of hit me today. I’m 28 years old. That number seems immensely greater than any other number that has been associated with my age before. For most of these 28 years of my life, I like most other people have spent my time either: A) doing what my parents told me to do, B) getting an education so I can earn money, or C) doing what I think is fun (why I celebrated my 20th birthday at Chucke Cheese’s… see below). Well, A and B have been becoming a smaller part of my life over the last couple of years, but C is definitely still a huge motivator and will continue to be for the rest of my life. (more…)
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10 Experiences That Made My Life Better in 2012
1 – Best Motivational Speech I heard in 2012 goes to Eric Thomas – Watch this for some ENERGY:http://bit.ly/VpVkhX2 – Best TED Talk I heard in 2012 goes to Sean Achor (The Happiness Advantage) – Watch this for a SMILE: http://bit.ly/RZm2Cx
3 – Best New Music Artist I discovered in 2012 goes to Arjun from the UK – Listen to this guy to SWOON:http://bit.ly/VNRqhV4 – Best Travel Destination w/in driving distance of Chicago I discovered in 2012 goes to Grand Rapids, MI – go ENJOY: http://bit.ly/TqiA23 (more…)
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Remove Laziness From Your Life on Kali Chaudas this Diwali
Diwali 2014 Dates:
Dhanteras (10/21) | Kali Chaudas (10/22) | Diwali (10/23) | New Year (10/24) | Bhai Beej (10/25)In 2014 Kali Chaudas is on Wednesday, October 22. This 14th (“chaudas”) day of the month Ashwin reminds us to get up and make use of our strength to overcome the evil and darkness (“kali”) in our lives such as laziness, jealousy and negativity. We worship Kali Mata, the Goddess of Strength (“shakti”), on this day to give us the strength to overcome our own weakness and to for the courage to help others. (more…)
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On Dhanteras We Worship Lakshmi The Goddess of Wealth
Diwali 2017 Dates:
Dhanteras (10/17) | Kali Chaudas (10/18) | Diwali (10/19) | New Year (10/20) | Bhai Beej (10/21)In 2017 Dhanteras is on Tuesday, October 17, and this day marks the beginning of the most exciting Hindu festival of the year: Diwali! “Dhan” means wealth and “teras” refers to the 13th day of the lunar calendar month Ashwin. This day is a time to reflect on our wealth, and a tool prescribed to us by our sages to help us do this is Lakshmi Puja. The family gets together to thank Lakshmi Mata, the Goddess of wealth, for all of their blessings and to ask for continued wealth in their lives. (more…)
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Promoting The Gita
Last Sunday in a pravachan (discourse/lecture) about the Gita, Dadaji stated how we promote and advertise good movies that we’ve seen, but we don’t do the same for the Gita. It’s true, how often have you seen a trailer on the tv or a giant sized poster marketing the benefits of the Gita? This was one of those recurring moments in pravachan where I felt like he was speaking directly to me. Who else besides a graphic designer was going to bother taking that statement at face value? That statement is what inspired this post and this:
I’m sure many people have seen the original Pass It On ad and this quote before. Have either of them moved you to take action in any sort of way? Apparently, this supposed quote from Einstein has:
I say “supposed” because there is an on-going debate about whether or not Einstein ever said this, and there don’t appear to be any sources for it. I found it ironic though that someone might have created a false advertisement for the Gita in the 1970’s by fabricating this quote AND that it actually works! This opens up a whole new can of worms though.
One of the most important lessons from the Gita is that the motive behind an action is paramount, not the actual action itself. With that idea alone the Gita explains how to turn every action – even the routine, mundane ones – into an offering to God. So the dilemma here is that we have a positive result occurring by the creation of false quote – more people are reading the Gita. Is that okay? Well, that depends…
- Scenario 1: Bookstore owner has an overstock of Gitas in his inventory, “How do I get rid of these and make some money off of them?!”
- Scenario 2: Gita devotee who genuinely wants to share its message, “How do I get the Western world to even know that this book exist, much less read it?!”
Would you feel better about the quote if the person in scenario 2 created it? In the end isn’t it the same result? Why should it matter?
Perhaps you’re curious about my motives as I write this post and ask you to share the ads below too. That’s fair. Here are my some of them:
- I saw a design/marketing challenge that related to my interests so I had to accept it
- I fully believe in the awesomeness of the Gita and want to try a creative approach of promoting it
- I want to grow my personal brand (that’s why my site is in the corner of each ad)
- I like messing around with social media
There may be more, but I guess that’s between me and HIM.Now if those motives are alright by you and you share any sort of affection towards the Gita, please humor me and change your Facebook timeline background image to any of the following banners (or pick Einsteins from above).
In the comments below, please share a quote, lesson, verse or anything you want to about why you think it’s worth sharing the Gita!
Oh, btw here’s a link to the Gita, go explore!
