Krishna Has Made You UniqueKrishna Has Made You Unique

Krishna Loves Variety

• 100,000 Beetles• 18 million snowflakes in one cubic foot

* 900,000 Aquatics. * 2,000,000 Trees &

Plants. * 1,100,00 Insects &

Reptiles. • 1,000,000 Birds. • 3,000,000 Mammals. • 400,000 Human

Species.

Gita 10/41

Seed Giving Father

Gita 14/4

Broke the Mold None Like You

No Carbon Copy Special You Are

Did You Marry a

Complex Person?

I’m a mystery to myself

What was I thinking?

Why do I feel this way?

What’s happening to me?

You were planned & designed, you’re not random.

• Spiritual Gifts

• Heart

• Abilities

• Personality

• Experiences

Receive at least one supernatural spiritual gift

Brahma SamhitaI adore the Primeval Lord Govinda from Whom the separated subjective portion

Brahma receives his power for the regulation of the mundane world, just as the Supreme manifests some portion of His own light in all effulgent gems.

Have you ever read a saint’s biography and felt guilty? How come I can't chant for 23 hours daily like Haridas Thakur? He’s namacharya, that's why. How come everybody this guy talks to accepts Krishna? He's got the gift of preaching. Don't project your gift onto others. And don't let other people project their gift onto you. It's all important.

Mind = Heart• What do you think about when your

mind is able to think of anything?

• Don’t worry about what we’re not devoted to.

• Causes lot of problems in marriage

“Honey, anything you want to say to me before football seasons

starts?”

• Getting people's approval

• Making money

• Getting married

• Success

• Reputation

“One who sees the Supersoul equally present everywhere, in every living being, does not degrade himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination.”Gita 13/29

There are many, many different kinds of abilities.ComputersMechanicals thingsGood at SpeakingNumbersWork well with peopleMusicAbstract thinking vs. engineersCookDrawResearchLandscape

• You are God’s poem

• Unique Handiwork• What are your

interests, passions?

• What do others say you are good at?

Some babies are born cooing and loving and complacent. They're so much fun! Other babies come chomping on a cigar saying, "I dare you to make me smile!... I'm going to take on the world!" Any of you who are parents of multiple children and have watched the dynamics at the dinner table you think how out of my loins could this diversity come?

18,000 Personality Traits

• There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home. John Stuart Mills

• Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. Aldous Huxley

• Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. Franklin Jones

• A little experience often upsets a lot of theory. S.P. Cadma

What is the ‘intrinsic’

‘inseparable’ characteristic

of a living being?

Fixed. You don’t change, dovetail. “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, & whatever austerities you perform, do them as an offering to Me.”

Irrepressible. “Compelled by the work born of your own nature, you will act all the same, O Arjuna”

Why Must I Understand My S.H.A.P.E.?

1. Reduces Stress

2. Increases Success

3. Deepens Satisfaction

4. Increases Self Esteem

Shape Explains How You…respond to authority

make friends

deal with confronta-tion

handle power and freedom

Handle

criticism

deal with guilt

emphasize what you do

you're popular or you're unpopular

you do or don’t get close to people

get mad

worried

happy

fearful

You stop trying to do what you're not

gifted to do. You build on your strengths.

You maximize

what you're

good at and

don't worry

about the rest.

That's a stress reducer.

What is success? Success is knowing Krishna's will and being right in the center of it. Success is being what Krishna meant you to be. It's figuring out who you are and then being it! Gita says better to do your duty, though imperfectly, than do another’s perfectly.” Finding your niche and saying, "That's me!" That's success.

Karmany evadhikaras te ma phalesu Kadacana

Ma karma-phala-hetur bhur ma te sango’stv akarmani

“You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.”Gita 2/47

Help teenagers discover their shape before they get out into the world so we can help position them for success. "Oh, that's what I'm good at!" Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier if we helped teenagers discover what they're gifted to do and start heading that direction.

“O infallible one, my illusion is now gone & I have regained my memory by Your mercy. I am now firm & free from doubt & prepared to act according to your instructions.” 18/73

My pure devotees derive great satisfaction (tusyanti) and bliss (ramanti) from enlightening one another & conversing about Me. Gita 10/9

Satisfaction

Just as thorns and rocks do not hurt a climber with good shoes on his feetFor one who has found inner satisfaction, outer troubles never bother him.

• Low Self esteem epidemic

Good self esteem built on two principles

1. You matter to Krishna

2. You were created for a purpose

I hope -- my prayer is -- at the end of this series you'll be able to say like "By the grace of God, I am what I am." That you'll not only accept what Krishna made you but you'll enjoy it. And that you will say, “I want to contribute my uniqueness to this world for the glory of God.”