Friday, April 30, 2021

Goal, Success, Happiness and Bhagavad Gita

 


Setting goals, which is important to achieve success and happiness; without knowing who we are is an incomplete and incompetent approach. That is why we can see a lot of example in todays' world ; despite achieving huge success , wealth and fame that one has desired , one is not equipped with happiness. 

Gita  remind us that it is futile to think that material advancement will reform our life. The real happiness is in being self-satisfied and in controlling and tolerating the countless demands of mind and senses. We today want instant gratification and is ready to do anything and everything to get what we want. What we need to understand is that happiness and material opulence is not synonymous. 

Gita tells that we are eternal spiritual beings beyond body, senses and mind. Since our identity is not material but spiritual, worldly things can’t bring the soul happiness. The soul requires a spiritual atmosphere to realize their completeness and fulfillment. The above, is one of the central  teachings of Bhagavad Gita.

Only when we know who we are then we can know our purpose, set true goals and achieve success and happiness.

Our ultimate goal should be to seek answers to; the ultimate cause of the creation, our position in the cosmos and what is our ultimate duty to perform. When one seeks answer to these question , one is sure to be exposed to the source of eternal happiness and success.


Individuality (The real self) and Bhagavad Gita

 

We often believe that we can express our individuality, the real us by acquiring particular looks, personality, knowledge, achievement , wealth and other such material things. But do these define who we are?

We are undermining ourselves when we let these things define our notion of expressing our individuality.

The Bhagavad-Gita, teach us that this individuality is present on three different levels: 

 1. The physical appearance of a person 2. The subtle level- mind, intelligence and ego

 3.spiritual level -spiritual identity of a soul 

Gita tells us that our actual individuality is spiritual, not material. Our material individuality is due to internal impressions and external compulsions which are not real. This material individuality obscures the real me, the soul. As souls, we are all individuals with our own unique forms and our unique relationships with the supreme truth. Our true individuality is equipped with eternality, full- bliss and knowledge( Sat-cit-ananda).

To uncover our true individuality, we need to practice on the path that connects us to the supreme truth, which is all- pure. We will be then directed to higher taste and interest discarding the lower. When this happens our individuality thus expressed will be a noble one. Centering our individuality on our spirituality doesn’t lead to rejecting our material side but  to harmonizing our material side with our spiritual essence and purpose.

Question may arise , doesn't  the standardization of activities in spiritual path suppress and destroy our individuality? The Vedic teachings says that the  standardization only  destroys the coverings that block our actual individuality.

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Agricultural and forest business ideas

Here, I have made a small endeavor to compile  practicable and attainable business ideas in Nepal in the agricultural and forest related sector. The list is in no particular order. 


Livestock Feed Manufacturing Company

Reduced grazing resources due to land occupation and land degradation makes livestock increasingly dependent on other feed like concentrates and vitamins. Grain feed used in developing countries increases by 3 per cent per annum. Rs.15.12 billion of money was spent on food industries, animal fodder category recently according to Department of customs. 

Herb Growing and Processing

Herbs like basil, parsley and mint can make for great agriculture products. So you can grow it at your home or farm and sell it.


Vegetable Farming and selling

You can also plant a variety of different vegetables and harvest them to sell or make into different products in market.


Fruit Growing

Or you could grow and harvest various types of fruit to sell or make into other fruit based products.


Field Crop Farming

Soybeans, cloves and other types of crops require a fair amount of field space to grow. But if you have the land, you can harvest specific crops to sell to food producers.


Flower  and plant Nursery

You can also start your own nursery where you grow and sell different types of plants to consumers or businesses.


Dairy products selling

If you have the space and the ability to care for cows or other dairy animals, you could start your own, where you produce milk, cheese and similar products.


Bee Frame and bee selling

Beekeeping is an activity that can lead to a variety of different product-based business ventures.


Honey Production

For example, you can harvest honey from beehives and sell it to consumers or processors.



Food Delivery

If you grow or process food items, you can also build a business around delivering fresh food items to local consumers who want to buy local products.


Bulk Foodstuff Wholesaling

You could also harvest food that can be sold in bulk, like rice or corn product, that you can sell wholesale to food production companies.


Weed Killer Production

Or you could start a B2B business that produces weed killer specifically for farmers or other agricultural businesses.


Fruit Canning

If you grow or process fruit, you can can it to sell to consumers or food companies.


Jam Production

Or you could process various fruits even further to make into canned jam or jelly products.


Juice Production

Juice is another popular fruit based product that you could potentially make and sell at farmers’ markets or other venues.


Florist Business

You could even start a florist business where you grow your own flowers to use in different products and arrangements.


Spice Production

There are also plenty of different plants you can grow that will allow you to create various spices that you can process and sell.


Nut Processing

Or you could grow peanuts or similar products that you can package and sell.


Organic Gardening

You could also specialize in organic gardening practices so you can market your products to health and eco-conscious consumers.


Sustainable Farm Consulting

Or you could even offer your expertise to other farmers or agriculture businesses that want to utilize sustainable methods as a consultant.




Agricultural Equipment Rental

If you have the capital to purchase farming or agriculture equipment, you could start a business where you rent or lease that equipment out to farmers.


Vermi-compost and worm Farming

Compost can be a useful tool for other fellow agriculturists. So you can make compost to sell to farmers and gardeners by starting your own worm farm with red wigglers earthworm. This sort of product has tremendous potential and demand is ever increasing.






Tree Seed Supply

You could also harvest seeds from different trees and sell them to people who want to plant new ones.



Oil Production

There are also various types of plants that you can use to produce oil for cooking or other purposes. So you can process that oil process to sell.



Potted Plant Sales

Or you could grow different types of plants and then sell them in pots to gardeners or consumers looking for houseplants.


Pet Food Production

You could also use a variety of different crops and food products to create pet food that you can sell to consumers.


Planting Service

If you don’t have your own farm but still want to build a business centered around planting crops, you could start your own planting service and work with other farmers or growers in your area.


Farm Sitting

Or you could build a business by providing farm sitting services where you take care of people’s farm or land while they travel.



Agro-tourism and Homestay

You could also offer a whole touristic type of experience at your farm where people can come, visit and maybe even stay.


Vertical Farming


Online fruit Selling 


Mobile cold store vehicles


Vegetarian Restaurant and organic restaurant franchise


Lemon Farming 


Educational Farming visits




Modern Self help and Ancient Vedic Wisdom

 


We all have seen the modern self-help industry with a lot of splendid content blooming the most in this age of social media and the internet. Most of us are definitely actively involved in consuming self- improvement content  or reading trending books. We have learned something from each one of the content and  the self-help gurus that we have come across.I too have learned a lot.


But what we should be aware of is that there are  a lot of exaggerations, false content, overly optimistic, unrealistic and contradictory statements.It has a lot of limitations for bringing out  internal change and queries that we are not convinced about.

For any true internal revolution I believe everyone should give a fair try for learning ancient vedic wisdom as I found out it  to be more richer and nobler.It was imparted by such masters who lived the way they preached unlike todays’ modern gurus who are opposite of what they preach.


Ancient vedic wisdom  is above doubt because it was not a commercialized wisdom, it  is more concise and precise.It teaches us not only how to live but to leave the world also.It may sound pessimistic but it is  far better than those that sound optimistic but cannot help deal with the really big  problems of life like  disease,ageing and death.


So it’s really worth trying them out.To explore I recommend “Bhagavad Gita As It Is”  by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada as a starter!