Food - a very important source of success

Being successful in life is very important. In general, success brings joy and peace. Success is contagious too. Success of one person inspires others to follow that path. And that is why one should take every effort to be successful in life.

Success is about utkarsha. It is about gradually rising to something better than current status - in terms of wealth, in terms of emotion, in terms of satisfaction and in terms of consciousness, till one achieves highest possible state of consciousness.

Success is a journey. If choice of destination and the choice of transportation is correct then the journey assures not only timely arrival to the destination but it also assures that one will enjoy all the pleasures from the attractions along the route.

However, journey of success depends on many factors. First, a good health – mental and physical. Second, blessings from everybody around. That is why success is a collective and cooperative effort.

And that is where importance of food comes in. Good food is a source of many things that help in achieving overall success in life – a good physical health, a good mental health, and even good relationships. To understand why food is important source of success we need to understand three important processes related to food, namely – earning food, preparing food and consuming food and also the difference between human and animal. Why do we need to understand difference between human and animal? Achieving human body after going through many animal births is in itself a step in overall success. So the next expected step is obviously not going back to animal body but rising above human.

As per wise people, there are four instincts which are common to humans and animals – ahaar (instinct to consume food), nidra (instinct to sleep), bhaya (instinct to defend) and maithun (instinct to have sexual intercourse).

The only instinct that differentiates humans from animals is the instinct to follow dharma (eternal code of conduct). If this instinct is missing, then there is no difference between human and animal. Having a physical body, these four instincts cannot be avoided, but only when these instincts are satisfied as per dharma then that consumption qualifies as human way of consumption.

Taking example of food – eating when hungry is an instinct common in human and animal, but satisfying hunger for food after first offering food to God is dharma and that differentiates human from animal. This differentiation is not to indicate that humans are superior to animals, but it indicates the opportunity that humans have to rise and achieve higher status by following dharma.

Now back to the three processes related to food.

Earning food – first, food has to be earned through honest ways. Food earned through dishonest ways cannot bring success.

Preparing food - food should be prepared with good thoughts. Thoughts have great impact on food and it can affect the health of all who consume that food.

Consuming food -And finally food should be offered to God before consuming it.

Saints recommend a very simple way of offering food to God.

Before partaking food just chant the name of God, which is free and does not require much effort. This way, food is offered to God and it automatically helps to perform yadnya which is the main cause of success. In fact, not just when partaking food but one should chant the name of God even while earning as well as preparing food. By chanting the name of God the action gets transformed into yadnya karma.

As mentioned above, success is about gradual rising to higher status. And so, it is very interesting to understand how Gods achieved there Godly status. Scriptures say that Gods achieved their godly status by performing Yadnya. Yadnya is the main dharmic activity.

Every activity can be transformed into yadnya by chanting name of God before and after performing the activity. Yadnya is the way to success.

Character - stays forever

When analyzing human life, one of the important questions that arise is “What does one leave behind when one leaves body?” They say that it is the character that one leaves behind when one leaves body.

That is why they say that the education that does not end in good character is not an education at all. The main purpose of education is building character.

Kirti does not mean fame. It means character. It means good name. All the actions have to be aligned to build character. Damages to physique, wealth can recover over the time, but damage to character is irrecoverable. It stays forever. Don’t we say – first impression is the last impression?

Like for building professional profile one must go through good professional education under good teachers. In the same way for building character one has to go through good education under good Guru.

The scriptures are the best sources to self-educate about building character. They contain important upadeshas that when followed one is assured of building a good character.

Scriptures such as Ramayana and Mahabharata contain characters that indicate dos and donts. Ravana from Ramayana epic is a classic example of donts. Ravana, they say, was very well educated in all vedas and shastras. He was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. But in spite of having all this knowledge he failed to leave a good name. He lost respect even in his own family. Vibhishana, Ravana’s real brother and an ardent devotee of Rama, tried his best to amend Ravana's ways and direct him back to the path of righteous conduct.  But Alas!, Ravana did not pay heed to any of those good advises and he lost everything he earned. He left bad example and so nobody dares to name their child as Ravana.

Whereas Rama, Laxmana, Hanuman left good name. People take pride in naming their children as Rama or Laxmana or Hanuman.

To achieve a good character one should pursue a goal of earning respect among Saints and Satpurushas. Saints are the living Gods on earth. It is not easy to earn respect among Saints. Saints are all knowing people. They know ins and outs of a person who approaches them and so cleverness which helps to achieve respect in society does not work when achieving respect among saints. What is needed is a pure heart. To achieve pure heart the only way is the devotion and dedication. When one develops liking for chanting the name of God, all other likings slowly diminish. In fact, diminishing of all other likes while developing a liking for chanting the name god is an important indication that one is on the right path of building a character.

The goal is to have the name of god in the mind at the last moment on earth. That is the success criteria of the human birth. The slow repetition of name of God in the mind while performing all other mundane activities helps to achieve this goal.

Human birth - a rare opportunity

They say out of all births a soul goes through, the human birth is the most important birth. It is only in human birth that one gets an opportunity to escape from the cycle of birth and death through 84 lakhs of species. Even higher species such as demi gods yearn for an opportunity to get human birth. Though human body is perishable, it is the only instrument to achieve the final goal of the journey and that is – paramatmaprapti – attainment of union with God. By attaining union with God one also attains the moksha – liberation from the cycle of birth and death.

As the money is important for achieving material goals of life, punya is important to achieve main goals of human life namely – dharma (virtue), artha (wealth), kama (desires) and moksha (liberation from the cycle of birth and death).

However, there is a difference between these two earnings. Money is measurable by human whereas punya is not. One can only see or experience signs of punya but cannot measure it. Being born as human, being born with no handicap, being born to good parents are all signs of punya.

Every human is born with mixture of punya (merit) and papa (sin). For availing the great opportunity of human birth, it is important to reduce measure of papa and increase the measure of punya. Like saving of money is consumed through expenditures, punya and papa are also consumed. Punya is consumed through enjoyment and papa is consumed through suffering. Like one needs never ending source of money so that one can enjoy life by spending money and still can have savings of money, in the same way one needs never ending source of punya so that one can enjoy life and still have savings of punya. Like one needs good planning and knowledge to earn money before spending the money, one needs good knowledge about earning punya while enjoying effect of punya. And this is where importance of spiritual guidance and scriptures comes into play. Scriptures contain information about actions that can help earn punya and reduce measure of papa. They indicate signs of punya and papa.

For example having too much desire for material objects is a sign of papa. How can one overcome these desires? It is through earning of punya.

Usually there is a tendency to postpone activities of earning punya. Even to achieve success in material world the successful people advise that one should never keep anything for tomorrow, because tomorrow is always uncertain. So also one should not keep anything for old age or next birth. For example we keep on postponing reading of scriptures to old age. These scriptures contain knowledge about earning punya. Like one can learn and earn money only when one is in good health, so also one can earn punya only when one is in good health. And that is why it is very important to establish practice of reading scriptures early in life. The best way is to be in a company of people who have already established such practice.

Even simpler way is to chant the name of Rama.

Benefits of Chanting Vishnusahasranaam stotra

Phalashruti* of Vishnusahasranaam stotra

(* usually all stotras are followed by phalashruti that describes the benefits of chanting that stotra). Here attempt has been made to understand phalashruti of Vishnusahasranaam stotra.

In this stotra, the great Keshava, who is worthy of praising, has been praised through His 1000 beautiful names. 

One who sings or listens to these 1000 names everyday will never experience any inauspiciousness.

By chanting these 1000 names, Brahmin will become adept in chanting Vedas and will achieve all knowledge, Kshatriya will achieve victory in their duty, Vaishya will gain all wealth they seek for and Shudra will achieve happiness. In essence everyone will achieve success in their prescribed duties.

By chanting these 1000 names one will get whatever they seek for. One who seeks dharma will achieve success in dharma, one who seeks wealth will obtain wealth, one who seeks happy family life will lead happy family life.

One who sings these 1000 names of Vasudeva with utmost devotion, will achieve immense success, will gain knowledge that lasts, will attain best and beneficial, will be always fearless, will achieve valor, will attain all good qualities needed for leading virtuous life. One who is diseased will get relief from disease, one who is bound will achieve freedom, one who has fears will achieve freedom from fears, one who is affected by calamity will be protected.

One who chants these 1000 names of best of best purushas will cross all miseries of life.

One who seeks refuge in Vasudeva will achieve purest mind and at the end will become one with Brahma.

Devotees of Vasudeva never experience any inauspiciousness. They never experience any fear that usually results from birth, death and diseases caused due to old age.

One who such praises Vasudeva with utmost devotion attains all happiness, achieves all good qualities such as tolerance, valor, good memory and as a result achieves fame among fellow beings.

As a result of great merit, those who become devotees of Vasudeva, do not imbibe any bad qualities such as anger, jealousy, greed or desire to perform bad action. 

All this universe – sun, moon, space, directions, earth are born out of valor of great Vasudeva.

All beings, all gods, all demigods and all demons seek refuge in all pervasive Lord Krishna.

The senses, mind, intellect, valor, body and knower of body are all pervaded by Vasudeva.

Righteous action is the basis of life. Virtue is born out of righteous action and by virtue Lord of this universe, the protector of virtue, is propitiated

Sages, departed souls, gods, the five great elements, the movable and immovable, all are born of Narayana.

Yoga, knowledge, saankhya, all arts, sciences are sprouted from Lord Janardana

Lord Vishnu is the one and only great being, yet he pervades all human beings, all lokas. He is the cause of all these and protector too. And still He is not affected by any of these.

One who wants to achieve all happiness in the world, should chant these 1000 names of Lord Vishnu compiled by Sage Vyasa.

The Lord of the Universe is devoid of birth and death. He is the cause of the creation and dissolution of this universe. Those who praise him by chanting these 1000 names will never incur defeat in any of their endeavors.