• Gifted to do things other people can’t do…

• Heart, some things turn you on & others don’t care about…

• Abilities to work with people, or animals, or numbers…

• Unique & different Personalities…

“Parenting is easy.”

“High School was fun.”

“Crime doesn’t pay.”

Shaped by Experiences

• Family & relational

• Educational

• Spiritual

• Painful

• Some from choice but many beyond our control

William CowperGod moves in a mysterious wayHis wonders to perform;He plants His footsteps in the seaAnd rides upon the storm.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;The clouds ye so much dreadAre big with mercy and shall breakIn blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,But trust Him for His grace;Behind a frowning providenceHe hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,Unfolding every hour;The bud may have a bitter taste,But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to errAnd scan His work in vain;God is His own interpreter,And He will make it plain.

“You intended to harm me, but Krishna intended good.”

Uniquely designed experiences which are both personal and purposeful.

1. They are intended to teach me to trust God.

2. They are intended to build my character.

3. They are intended to accomplish Krishna's purpose.

1. To Teach Me To Trust GODYou're never going to know that Krishna is all you need until He's all you have. Sometimes Krishna knocks out the props from underneath and everything falls flat.

My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who are materially exhausted. One who is on the path of [material] progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence,

high education and bodily

beauty, cannot approach

You with sincere

feeling. SB 1/8/26

“Why should you trust in God as faith? No, you understand what is God and let it be a fact by scientific understanding. There is a way to understand why God is trustworthy. It's not the question of faith. It is a fact. Like trusting in a bank.”

“How can you trust God if you don't know anything about Him? First you have to know something about God before you can trust Him.”Prabhupada: “Yes. That is sense. If you do not know about somebody and you trust him, what is this?”

Young popular devotee dying of cancer: "I want you to know that I've been to the bottom and it's rock solid."

Our God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Our shelter from the stormy blast,

And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne

Thy saints have dwelt secure;

Sufficient is Thine arm alone,

And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,Or earth received her frame,

From everlasting Thou art God,To endless years the same.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,Bears all its sons away;

They fly, forgotten, as a dreamDies at the opening day.

Our God, our help in ages past,Our hope for years to come,

Be Thou our guard while troubles last,And our eternal home.

Experiences teach you that Krishna is trustworthy.

“He quickly becomes righteous and attains everlasting peace. Declare it BOLDY O Arjuna, My devotee will never perish.” Gita 9/31

Sons of the Brahmana

vipadah santu ta sasvattatra tatra jagad-gurobhavato darsanam yat syadapunar bhava-darsanam

“I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.” SB 1/8/35

2. To Build Your Character

“The highest achievement of perfect civilization is to work with valor but at the same time depend completely on the Lord. The Pandavas were the ideal executors of this standard of civilization. They were completely dependent on the good will of Lord Sri Krishna, but they were not idle parasites. They were all highly qualified both by personal character and by physical activities. Still they always looked for the mercy of the Lord because they knew that every living being is dependent by constitutional position.”SB 1/8/29

After the student studies the Vedas under the master for some time—at least from from age five to twenty—he may become a man of perfect character. Study of the Vedas is not meant for the recreation of armchair speculators, but for the formation of character. Gita 8/28 Brahmacharya

"We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character, hope.”

Build Integrity

Build Endurance

Build Responsibility

Brahma

Pain• Sometimes it

takes a painful experience to change our ways

• Don’t touch fire, every generation learns

3. To Accomplish Krishna’s Purpose

Brahmananda: ...and you were trying to get that house...Prabhupäda: Yes, and she took away.Brahmänanda: ...and you were prevented.Prabhupada: She took away. Because I was trying to organize a League of Devotees from that house, and Krishna wanted, "What is this nonsense? You are stick here, in Jhansi? You come here, in open field." That was Krishna's intent. But I thought that "Even Krishna took away this?" This Lilavati Munshi...

How to Use the Experiences of Life

• Bitter or better

• Difference is the

letter ‘I.’ Up to you.

1. Examine your past2. Extract the lessons you learned3. Exploit the experiences of others4. Employ your experiences to

encourage and Help others.

1. Examine

• Don’t just live your life, think about it

• That job was a good experience

• I really enjoyed that class

• Look behind the good and the bad

• Unexamined experience is wasted

Failures Important

Why didn't it work? What went wrong? Look for a pattern. Don't waste the hurt Don’t waste the pain.

Failure to Inquire

“Out of so many human beings who are suffering, there are a few who are actually inquiring about their position, as to what they are, why they are put into this awkward position. Unless one is awakened to this position of questioning his suffering, unless he realizes that he doesn't want suffering but rather wants to make a solution to all suffering, then one is not to be considered a perfect human being.”Intro Bhagavad Gita

“Athato brahma jijnasa. Every activity of the human being is to be considered a failure unless he inquires about the nature of the Absolute. Therefore those who begin to question why they are suffering or where they came from and where they shall go after death are proper students for understanding Bhagavad-gita.”

All living entities within the material creation are conditioned by material nature because of their forgetfulness of their relationship to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of

Godhead.

Repeated History

The fool never learns from mistakes. Why? He's not teachable. Experience does not teach everybody. Experience only teaches the teachable. Experience only helps those people who stop and examine the experiences they've had.

2. Extract the Lessons You Learned

• Insights, principles, truths• Not ‘why’ but ‘what.’• Experience is an educator• Grow up & mature & see lessons in everyday life.

HARIBOLOOOO

yajnarthat karmano 'nyatra

loko 'yan karma-bandhanah

tad-artha karma kaunteya

mukta-sanga samacara

Work done as a sacrifice for Krishna has to be

performed; otherwise work causes bondage in

this material world. Gita 4/9

Two Rules in the School of Experience

1. If you flunk the test the first time you just keep taking the test until you pass it. If you flunk it Krishna will give you another chance.

2. Just about the time you think you've graduated Krishna makes up a new course. Just about the time you think, "I've matured and I've got it all together" Krishna says, "No, you've got a whole lot more to go."

We experience happiness and distress according to the moral and spiritual quality of our activities. We are responsible for what we do. Dhrtarastra was falsely and obsessively attached to his evil-minded sons, forgetting that he alone would have to suffer for his imprudent behavior.

3. Exploit the

Experiences of Others

Get yourself into a network and learn from other people. The average person in life learns from experience. The wise person learns from the experiences of others. The fools learn from neither.

Ask the right questions

• Krishna brings people into your life to pull wisdom out of them

• From some we learn what to do and others what not to do

tasyaiva me 'nuraktasyaprasritasya hetainasaùsraddadhanasya bälasya

dantasyanucarasya ca

“I was very much attached to those sages. I was gentle in behavior, and all my sins were eradicated in their service. In my heart I had strong faith in them. I had subjugated the senses, and I was strictly following them with body and mind. SB 1.5.30”

These are the necessary qualifications of a prospective candidate who can elevate to the position of a pure devotee. Such a candidate must always seek the association of pure devotees. He himself must be plain and gentle to receive the instructions of such a pure devotee. A pure devotee knows the Personality of Godhead as the supreme proprietor and all others as His servitors. By the association of pure devotees, one can get rid of all sins accumulated by mundane association. A neophyte devotee must faithfully serve the pure devotee, and he should be very much obedient and strictly follow the instructions. These are the signs of a devotee who is determined to achieve success even in the existing duration of life.

Golden Advice

• I’ve been there, made the same mistake

• Recovery groups, 12 steps

• The richest source of human experience is the Scripture. • Biographies slanted for or against• Scripture truth..thoroughly honest men• Good, bad, & ugly

tad-vag-visargo janatagha-viplavoyasmin prati-çlokam abaddhavaty apinämäny anantasya yaso nikitani yatsrinvanti gäyanti ghrnanti sädhavah

"On the other hand, that literature which is full with descriptions of the transcendental glories of

the name, fame, form and pastimes of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a transcendental

creation meant to bring about a revolution in the impious life of a misdirected civilization. Such

transcendental literatures, even though irregularly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by

purified men who are thoroughly honest."SB Introduction

Only by devotional service

• Arjuna was a great devotee, impetuous

• Bhima - angry

• Yudhisthir - rigid

• Droupadi - prideful

Experience can be misleading

• Magician, beautiful

woman disappear

and lion come

• Elevator joke

• Sadhu, sastra, guru

Subjectivity

Experience can be caused by all different kinds of things -- drugs, personality, slight of hand. What you need is a standard rather than just say, "I felt it, therefore it must be right." What is that standard? Krishna's Word. It's always the truth.

Whimsy

"I think Krishna wants me to run out from my wife and marry this other woman." "Why?" They say, "I feel it's the right thing to do. Krishna wants me to be happy and therefore it's the right thing to do." Let's look at what the Gita says.

“He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination.” Gita 6/27

4. Employ Experiences to Help Others

• Extended families no longer• Fragments society, no network

New Network

• The temple older men & women• Critical need today• Who are you sharing your experiences with? If you've been alive more than ten years you've got some experience.

There is an untapped wealth of experience sitting in this room right now that is going unused. Incredible talent, incredible experience. Krishna's brought us together from all different kinds of backgrounds. He's shaped us all differently. Krishna brought you to this church family because you have something needful to offer. God made you for a purpose and He's given you experiences for a purpose and you have something to offer. You need to offer it for your own emotional health, physical health, spiritual, mental health.

You need to offer it and Krishna expects you to offer it. Some of you have experienced deep hurt in your lives -- the death of a loved one, a painful divorce that ripped your heart out, an illness, cancer, you got laid off at work, you went through a bankruptcy, your kids flipped out and went off on drugs, you had a major crisis, you experienced some kind of hurt. Krishna expects you to use that hurt to to encourage and help others who are going through similar crises.

• What good is holding inside

• Don’t waste hurts

Examine, learn, extract, employ, and encourage

For 11 weeks we've looked at how Krishna has made you unique and shaped you, how He's given you spiritual gifts and a Heart and Abilities and Personality and Experiences. You are unique! God's shaped you to be unique, but why? He didn't put forth all that effort just so you could keep it to yourself. He did it so you would be shaped for significance, that your life would matter, that you would make an impact with your life that nobody else could because your experiences are unique. He's saying, Use them to help other people.

“Krishna, I give You all that I am. I owe it to You however great or little; it belongs to You. I want to give You the experiences of my past good and bad. I want to give You the schedule of my present. And I want to give You the potential of my tomorrow. I want to be available to be used for the purpose you created me for. Help me to discover my significance for the glory of God & upliftment of mankind” Om Tat Sat