Europeans

Barefoot - Of human bondage

Behru, a hali or traditional debt-bonded labourer in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, worked hard as an attached agricultural labourer, day in and day out, in the cattle shed, household, and farm of his master. ‘He tended to the cattle, fed them, milked the cows and also attended to many odd jobs like ploughing the field, sowing, harvesting, carting, threshing, stacking the crops in the barn, and transporting them to the Ratlam market. He worked for 16 hours daily, had no overtime and spread over, no holiday and was heavily fined for each day of his absence, which was debited to his wage account. Even when he fell sick, he was dragged out of his hovel to attend to the master. If ever the master gave him some medicine, the cost was debited to his account. This is how his indebtedness increased. The master did not give Behru any food but allowed Behru to arrange to bring the food from his home. The food comprised two makki rotis without any vegetable or dal but only some salt. The earthly possessions of Behru were of an earthen hut with a mud floor, one set of dhoti and turban, a cotton sari for his wife and one set of garments for the children, a tin mug and bucket, a torn mattress, a mat, an earthen pot to store corn and two earthen cooking pots'.

Source: The Hindu

Hindu Scriptures: The Smritis | Swaha International

by nalini.parasram-rajballie

Through the medium of accessible examples, mythology, stories and allegories. The great Vedic principles are encoded in these forms for the general population, as they are easily remembered and disseminated.

One of the most popular Puranas is the Srimad Bhagavata Purana which chronicles the avatars or manifestations of Lord Vishnu. The ten Avatars are: Matsya (the fish), Kurma (the tortoise), Varaha (the boar), Narsingh (the man-lion), Vamana (the dwarf), Parsurama (Rama with the axe), Shri Ram, ShriKrishna, Buddha (the prince ascetic) and Kalki (the hero). These avatars encode the spiritual evolution of man as he moves from a state of ignorance to one of enlightenment. Each story provides the spiritual aspirant with the methodology for overcoming internal negativities and replacing them with positive qualities necessary for eventual liberation.

Source: Hindu Scriptures: The Smritis | Swaha International

How To Win The Whole World! | Namaste Now!

by Manu

Motivating others

How are we motivated to do anything? We do something because we want something, like go for a movie because we want to be entertained. This essential principle applies to everyone else too. And that’s exactly what we can employ to get others to cooperate with us. Of course it has to be a genuine effort not a manipulative one…

Here’s a story from the book:

‘Andrew Carnegie’s sister-in-law was worried sick over her two boys. They were at Yale, and they were so busy with their own affairs that they neglected to write home and paid no attention whatever to their mother’s frantic letters. Carnegie offered to wager a hundred dollars that he could get an answer by return mail, without even asking for it! Someone called his bet; so he wrote his nephews a chatty letter, mentioning casually in a postscript that he was sending each one a five-dollar bill. He neglected, however, to enclose the money. That did the trick. Back came the replies by return mail thanking "Dear Uncle Andrew" for his kind note and …you can finish the sentence yourself.’

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