Saturday, July 30, 2016

Srila Prabhupada's Hare Krishna movement teachings are more than love, spirituality and meditation, they actually work in everyday life and business too

A few weeks ago, I attended the opening of a new Srila Prabhupada Garden at Bhaktivedanta Manor, which is situated just outside London in Hertsmere.

Listening to the inspirational speeches in the beautiful gardens of the Manor House, donated to the Hare Krishna movement by the late George Harrison, I almost could have been at a seminar on how to be successful.




The speakers talked about meditation, love and spirituality, but also about the everyday practical things, like the importance of values, hard work, diligence, persistence, goals, planting seeds and never giving up on your purpose. These people have their feet firmly on the ground, and they know how to run an organisation which is larger than many listed corporations!

As the British sun came out for the first time in weeks, we all joined one of the speakers in a chorus of George Harrison's 'Here Comes the Sun.' It was a truly magical moment.



Bhaktivedanta Manor is the UK headquarters of the worldwide ISKCON movement, started in New York 50 years ago by Srila Prabhupada - with no money, no premises and a handful of disciples. It has since grown into a worldwide movement with millions of disciples. How many businesses last for 50 years? Not many, we were told. In fact the average lifespan of a successful business is falling below 20 years and most fail in the first.



After the dedication ceremony, we move to the George Harrison garden with Joshua M. Greene held a book launch for his biography of Srila Prabhupada: 'A Swami in a Strange Land'.

ISKCON has grown without the aid of massive capital injections, advertising campaigns or publicity stunts. The word has quietly spread through its disciples and volunteers.



No one is compelled to do anything, but there is a special power in the collective movement of people and the coming together of minds, sometimes known as a ‘mastermind’.

There are many other movements in the world today run by volunteers who work tirelessly, without pay, for a cause or collective vision. Some are religious or political groups, and some are not an organised ‘group’ at all, such as the Arab Spring or growing demand for a different, more open form of politics.

Another growing trend is the yearning for a more fulfilled and less materialistic life. People in developed countries are starting to move away from the traditional way of working in a job, with more and more of us opting to work from home or spend more time with the family, even if this means giving up a corporate job with a large salary.

In the last few years technology has made this dream a reality for millions of people who want to leave the rat race and get out of the 9-to-5 daily grind.

Anyone, for instance, stay-at-home mums and dads or home-based entrepreneurs, can now work from home using platforms set up by companies like Upwork.com, fiverr.com, Ebay or Amazon.com. We can even trade stocks and currencies using real-time software linked to trading floors that would have been out of reach for individual traders just a few years ago.

Starting a business online in the multi-billion dollar digital economy has never been easier and does not require risking the huge capital needed for traditional bricks and mortar business, such as a franchise or retail outlet.  

For instance, MacDonald’s franchise will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars and it will take several years before you see a profit. Even a small local franchise will set you back $10-15,000 just for the ‘right’ to sell or provide a service in a geographical area.

In both of the above examples, people are physically tied to the business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (unlike you would be in a digital business). In effect, most franchisees are buying a job.

So what's stopping you making the shift to a different way of life? When I was faced with a similar question a few years ago, having spent most of my life in a job or running a physical business 7 days a week, the answer came down to 2 things:

  1. Education (how to do it) and
  2. Earning enough money to give up full-time work.

I searched for five years and looked at hundreds of offers, get rich quick schemes (which always seems to cost $47, but only if you buy the software today!), various platforms, network marketing and MLM downline selling and affiliate marketing companies. Most of these schemes did not appeal to me, as they either involved selling high priced goods to my friends, or required me to me a technical wizard at setting up websites and online marketing systems.

I finally a company that offered a vehicle for stay-at-home digital entrepreneurs or someone who wanted to start part-time earn affiliate commissions until they had enough passive income to quit their jobs - all without the need to set up websites or possess geeky levels of technical knowledge.





The company has excellent training for their students taking, them through a structured series of modules at their own pace, backed up with webinars and live support and mentoring from real people. What I really liked was the fact that the initial video training, reports and information is downloadable and totally free and without obligation.

Warren Buffet, probably the greatest investor on earth, once said that if you cannot generate passive income, you'll work until you die. The problem is, most people coming up to retirement in the ext 10 to 20 years do not have enough in a pension plan to enable them to retire on a passive income.

To find out more on how to escape the 9-5 life sentence, join the digital, home-based revolution or live the laptop lifestyle, check out the free training by clicking here.

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