How to recognize the fortunate and unfortunate?

[Jahnu]

By seeing how much people suffer or enjoy in life, you can recognize
their fortune or lack thereof. So your luck or fortune depends on your
karma. Any success depends of karma. Actually, there is no such thing
as luck. Luck is what we call good fortune.

For example, one may be very lucky, playing poker and winning a lot of
money. But that so-called luck is dependent on a person’s karma. If
it’s not a person’s karma to win in gambling, he won’t win no matter
how lucky he is. In fact, he won’t be lucky at all, if it’s not his
karma.

BTW, the English word lucky comes from Laxmi. Laxmi is the goddess of
fortune and the consort of Vishnu. The Bengalis for some reason, don’t
pronounce the ks sound. In stead of kshatria, they say katriya, in
stead of riksha they say rikka, and instead of Laxmi they say lukki.
In Bengali a is pronounced as u in but.

So the Brits, when they were in India, their headquarters were in
Kolkata. They must have heard the locals referring to good things
happening as Laxmi (goddess of fortune), but what they heard was the
Bengalis saying lukki. and that’s how the English word lucky came
about.

Cool, eh?

That being said, one can recognize the most fortunate people in the
univerese, the minute they become Vaishnavas. But that is very rare,
especially in the present age of Kali, which is ruled by ungodliness.

King Pariksit says:

"In this material world there are as many living entities as there are
atoms. Among these living entities very few are human beings, and
among them, few are interested in following religious principles.'

"O best of the brahmanas, Sukadeva Gosvami, out of many persons who
follow religious principles, only a few desire liberation from this
material world. Among many thousands who desire liberation, only one
may actually achieve liberation, giving up his material attachment to
society, friendship, love, country, home, wife and children. And among
many thousands of such liberated persons, one who can understand the
true meaning of liberation is very rare.'

"O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in
knowledge of liberation, only one may become a devotee of Sri
Narayana, (Krishna). Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are
extremely rare."

--Srimad Bhagavatam 6.14. 3-5

[EXLEX]

Post by Jahnu
By seeing how much people suffer or enjoy in life, you can recognize
their fortune or lack thereof.

Basicly the only thing that made any sense.
...but hardly worth the time of writing it, since it's obvious.




--
EXLEX

[Jahnu]

Post by EXLEX
Basicly the only thing that made any sense.
...but hardly worth the time of writing it, since it's obvious.

Nothing is obvious to you, farmerboy.

Humans, due to their developed intelligence, and thus freedom of
choice, have the power to turn the world into paradise, or, as is the
case right now, turn the world into hell. Animals don’t have freedom
of choice, they are forced to act according to the dictations of
nature. Humans have more freedom to act according to their free will.
With this greater freedom of choice, comes also greater
responsibility.

Humans basically have the choice to act according to the laws of God,
which are clearly defined by Krishna in Bhagavad Gita, or they can
invent their own culture, making up their own rules as they go along.
God has given them that freedom.

If human society as a whole act according to the directions of God,
they can make heaven on earth, and if they act whimsically according
to their own set up, they will make hell on earth. It’s that simple.

Most people will say, they live nice lives in middle-class suburbia
with their own house, car and dog, how is that a hellish life? Those
same people should ask the cows and pigs in the meat-industry if they
like their lives, being fattened up for slaughter?

I just saw on the news - an alarming number of species are becoming
extinct every day. Especially insects are having their habitats
destroyed by chemicals and pesticides used massively by humans in
their cultivation of land for food-production. Bees, which are so
important for the proper balance of nature, are disappearing from the
land.

So it is safe to say, that humans and their artificial life-style, are
the main problem of the world. In fact, they are the only problem.
They have created hellish conditions for nature and her inhabitants,
due to their modern, so-called global life-style.

Even now, as we speak, their suburban lives are being disrupted by
miseries inflicted on them by nature - gigantic fires, violent winds,
floods, and what have you - driving them away from their homes.

Krishna says:

He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own
whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme
destination. --Bg 16.23