Krishna prepared ahead what you would do with your life and that's where you'll feel most fulfilled.

You were formed, shaped, created uniquely for a purpose. You're not here by accident. You are His work-manship.

Wired

• Unique in both your strengths & weaknesses• Krishna enjoys seeing birds be birds, etc.• Enjoys seeing you be you.

Maturity is when you're

able to say, "By the grace

of God I'm not what I'm not!

But I am what I am!" Will

Rogers said, "Everybody's

ignorant, just on different

subjects." We need each

other and nobody is

totally self sufficient.

“How does he do that?”

• Thought that thru• Put that together • Made that catch

Some of your abilities are in seed formAnd some you don’t even think about

Showed abilities w/o knowing their extent and then forgot them

Caru speaking, money making

JaduraniJayananda

Keshava Kashmiri was a great devotee of the goddess of learning, Sarasvati, and being favored by her, he was quite confident of his intellectual abilities. Upon the request of Lord Caitanya, he immediately composed one hundred verses glorifying the Ganges, and he eloquently recited these verses before Lord Caitanya and His students.

No Unemployment at Temple

• Help identify abilities & develop them

• Krishna pleased when we fine tune what He gave us.

Sharpen Your Skills

Practice. Develop. Take training. He wants a return on His investment

• Artistic ability, musical ability, thinking, speaking, planning, or physical ability

• Not given for selfish purposes

“Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform -do that, O son of Kunti, as an offering to me.” Gita 9/27

Freedom of ChoiceKrishna gives you the ability to organize. You can organize a rescue or you can organize a robbery. You can manipulate people or you can minister to people. You can use the abilities Krishna's given you selfishly or you can use them unselfishly. Ravana

Lord always has jobs to do

• Government spending billions to create jobs, Lord is better at it.

• Doesn’t take credit - Arjuna but an instrument verse

• Like a yoga teacher goes around & adjusts students, or flower arranger

“Time I am. I have come to engage all people.”

Then Krishna left the earth to return to His own kingdom, and Arjuna couldn’t even string his famous bow. His quiver emptied, and the undefeated hero found himself the loser at the hands of untrained fighters. Arjuna concluded that the Lord had withdrawn abilities that had seemed an integral part of himself.

•Indra insulted•Brhaspati cursed

Brhaspati Graha

Lord Brahma, along with Lord Siva, saw the crystal-clear personal beauty of the Lord, whose blackish body resembles a marakata gem, whose eyes are reddish like the depths of a lotus, who is dressed with garments that are yellow like molten gold, and whose entire body is attractively decorated. They saw His beautiful, smiling, lotuslike face, crowned

by a helmet bedecked with valuable jewels. The Lord has attractive eyebrows, and His cheeks are adorned with earrings.

Lord Brahma and Lord Siva saw the belt on the Lord's waist, the bangles on His arms, the necklace on His chest, and the ankle bells on His legs. The Lord is bedecked with flower garlands, His neck is decorated with the Kaustubha gem, and He carries with Him the goddess of fortune and His personal weapons, like His disc and club. When Lord Brahma, along with Lord Siva and the other demigods, thus saw the form of the Lord, they all immediately fell to the ground, offering their obeisances.

• Vishnu revived demons devas & carried Mandara on Garuda

• Asked Garuda to leave so snake Vasuki could come

• Front - tail debate• Kurma to Support• Entered demons as passion, vasuki ignorance

• Manifested on top of Mountain with many hands

• Caused rain to relieve from Vasuki smoke

• Personally churned

“Lord Vishnu was competent to rectify the situation, but in order to give credit to

Lord Siva, Lord Vishnu did not take action.

Generated from Ocean• Surabhi cow havirdhvani. Brahmanas• Uccaihsrava was generated. Bali Maharaja.• Airavata. Indra • Kaustubha Lord Vishnu Apsaräs, • Lakshmi, Vishnu• Varuni, the goddess of drinking, demons• Dhanvantari part of Vishnu.. Demons snatched pot & ran, fighting among themselves the Lord Himself appeared as the incarnation Mohini, who was selected as mediator.SB 8.8.1

Virtual Woman, Flawless

Impossible in Reality, like Krishna in Brahma Moha

I can continue using my abilities in the service of Lord Krishna. A common misconception is that to become a devotee of God one must give everything up. The only thing that needs to be given up, however, is the mentality of "everything belongs to me." Rather, everything is done as an offering to the Supreme Lord.

Thomas Hopkins“To help people discover what their own nature is, what their own psychological proclivities are, what their natural abilities are, and then to put them to work in some kind of practical way, and to show them how to perform those activities with devotion to God—this is what the devotional tradition is all about.”

Nirbande Krishna Sambande“Bhaktivedanta Swami never tried to construe the teachings of the Gita to encourage some kind of otherworldly religiosity. His teachings were always in practical terms: one can worship Krishna by starting a magazine, one can worship Krishna by producing devotional art, or by cleaning the temple, or by cooking a feast for public distribution, or by repairing the temple car. It is activity performed as devotional service to Krishna that is the practical essence of the devotional tradition and that releases enormous amounts of energy.”

Audience of One

Doesn’t matter if people approve

Marriage Implications

As a couple, enhance each other's strengths and compensate for each other's weaknesses. That's Krishna's plan for marriage. Don’t try making your mate like you.

Family Implications

“Modern societies have misapplied the ideas of equality, they try to educate all children in exactly the same way. As a result, children are forced to endure endless schooling that has nothing to do with their talents and vocations; quite understandably, the students become restive, bored, and empty of all motivation, and they waste years learning nothing. But the Vedic system of education, built on respect for the individuality of the student, tailors education to the student's own aptitudes and abilities.” Dr. Edith Best

Ministry ImplicationsIf you are a

devotee, Krishna expects you to offer your abilities to be used in your temple family. More than taking prasadam and chanting, you are needed. Your talents and abilities are valuable.

Shymasundara: Plato believed society can enjoy prosperity and harmony only if it places people in working categories or classes according to their natural abilities. He thought people should find out their natural abilities and use those abilities to their fullest capacity—as administrators, as military men, or as craftsmen. Most important, the head of state should not be an average or mediocre man. Instead, society should be led by a very wise and good man—a "philosopher king"—or a group of very wise and good men. BTG 1976

Bhisma at once gave up his weapons and stood ready to be killed by the Lord. The Lord was the ultimate destination of Bhisma’s life, and to see the Lord in this mood was the fulfillment of Bhisma’s chivalrous dealings with the Lord. Although Krishna had promised not to lend His fighting strength to either side, He broke that promise on Bhisma’s insistence, just to save His devotee, Arjuna. BTG Passing of Bhisma

“Both we & Bhagavan (God) seek fulfillment in love. Love is the summum bonum for the devotee as well as for the Lord. The Devotee does not seek Krishna directly but pure, selfless, love for Him. Similarly, Krishna does not seek anything but love. He need not seek anything else, for there is nothing which, as the most perfect being, He does not already possess.

But as Love He is never perfect. Love is nothing but incessant yearning for more love. Perfection in love means negation of love. Every fulfillment in love creates a gap which calls for further fulfillment. Love is, therefore, essentially dynamic, a vital upward surge through a necessary downward movement. It is self-fulfillment in self-abandonment, self-realization in self-effacement. BTG The Laws of Bhakti are real

Krishna designed you to make a unique contribution. Without you the picture isn't complete. It shows that you're worthy, that you're valuable, you're needed.

Key to Fulfillment

Krishna wants us to feel the thrill of being used by Him.Real Joy comes from productivity.

Ultimate Question

“What did you do with the gifts I gave you?”