A SEED = EMBRYO AND ENDOSPERM vEDikly A SEED =  PuruSH (male) and pRkRUti (female) ....TODAY'S INSPRIATIONAL LIFE ANECDOTE FROM YOU.... The Seed = your karma  .......what you plant today..... and how you nurture it tomorrow....  is the way you will reap your future.... (Submitted by Sneha Suthar from Gujarat, India who is Singapore raising two toddlers children and taking care of her husband who is a senior engineer on a contract. Sneha is a patron of PVAF.) A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together. He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO.I have decided to choose one of you. "The young executives were Shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a SEED today - one very special SEED. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO." One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by -- still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - He so wanted the seed to grow. A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful -- in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him! When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives. Jim just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the CEO. "Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!" All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!" When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed - Jim told him the story. The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Behold your next Chief Executive Officer! His name is Jim!" Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. "How could he be the new CEO?" the others said. Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow. All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!" Please continue reading on the next page by clicking on the line at the end of this page....about the morale of this inspirational life anecdote.....and as each of us do plant our seeds of future.... find out what you get if you plant honesty, goodness, humility, perseverance, consideration, hard work, forgiveness and faith in God...... And also read about as your daily seed planting is your daily karma....read about the MEANING OF KARMA in the western civilization by John W. Cargile, Msc.D, D.D. is a licensed pastoral counselor and a graduate of Samford University (1969) and the University of Sedona (1993 & 2006).......

.....THE FRUITS OF YOUR KARMA.... If you plant pan style="color: #0000FF"> honesty, you will reap trust If you plant goodness, you will reap friends If you plant humility, you will reap greatness If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective If you plant hard work, you will reap success If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation If you plant faith in God , you will reap a harvest So, be careful what you plant now;  it will determine what you will reap later.. "Whatever You Give To Life, LiLife Gives You Back" UNDERSTANDING THE MEANING OF KARMAr /> (ByBy John W. Cargile, Msc.D, D.D. is a licensed pastoral counselor and a graduate of Samford University (1969) and the University of Sedona (1993 & 2006). He is a member of the National Educational Association and Alabama Educational Association. E-books, reference material and study programs are now available at his website www.21stcenturyministries.com You can contact him at jwcargile@charter.net. All conversations are confidential. From GAIA COMMUNITY WEBSITE)

In trying to comprehend the meaning of Karma as used in the eastern world, we can understand the meaning in Christian terms by the words, "You shall know them by their fruits or actions or works." The idea behind karma is not only relegated to Buddhists or Hindus, but the Bible conveys the same essence. "Don't be misled; remember that you can't ignore God and get away with it; a man will always reap the kind of crop he sows." - Galatians 6:7. Or, "Do for others what you want them to do for you. This is the teaching of Moses in a nutshell." - Matthew 7:12. (The Living Bible). The Sanskrit word karma has entered the lexicon of the western world, and even appears in most dictionaries. But sometimes it is misunderstood to be synonymous with "fate," as if we have no control over our karma - someone's car breaks down and they think, "I have bad karma." Someone wins the lotto and we think they have "good" karma. The word karma itself means "action" or "deed" The real philosophy of karma is, in essence, the law of cause and effect. It isn't about luck; it is about our actions, our mental habits, and the motivations that drive us. Karma is a word to describe our interaction with the properties of this world. Everything you choose to do or not do has karmic repercussions. This idea is reassuring because through practice you come to realize that you are in control, that you can change your karma. Buddhists and Hindus both believe in karma: they believe that some karma is accumulated due to our actions in a past life. The families we are born into, our individual physical being, the relationships we have with people, are all a result of past-life karmic connections. With a consciousness that is so full of potential, we have a precious opportunity now, in this life, to refine our karma. This is what separates us from other sentient beings that cannot make choices. Approaching the world with this way of thinking is immensely empowering and can bring great benefit to yourself and others. Every day is filled with opportunities to balance your karma. Helping others and living virtuously is favorable for your karma, but you can also aid in healing your karma simply by adjusting your intention. Making a concerted effort to rejoice in the happiness of others, even your worst nemesis, is a very powerful antidote for jealousy and anger. At the same time, do not cling to your good karma. For example, if something good happens to you, take a moment to dedicate this happiness to others. The Dali Lama, the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, was awarded the Congressional Medal by President George Bush last year. He toured the United States and thousands of people, Christians included, listened to this great spiritual leader. He describes himself as Indian in the truest sense, and his thoughts and actions are Buddhists in nature. "Some people misunderstand the concept of karma," he says. "They take the Buddha's doctrine of the law of causality to mean that all is predetermined, that there is nothing that the individual can do. This is a total misunderstanding. The very term karma or action is a term of active force, which indicates that future events are within your own hands. Since action is a phenomenon that is committed by a person, a living being, it is within your own hands whether or not you engage in action." In his book, "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying," Sogyal Rinpoche, describes what karma is: "It means whatever we do, with our body, speech, or mind, will have a corresponding result," he writes. "Each action, even the smallest, is pregnant with its consequences." With the advent of books on the secrets to living, and the laws of attraction, cause and effect, it's easy to become confused with the words uttered from people outside our realm of understanding. But whose fault is it? No one's in particular! We are born into a certain culture and inherit certain spiritual principles from that culture. We are encouraged to live a Christian life, maybe a Buddhist or Hindu life. Whatever spiritual path you might be on is decided by you. The 21st century is bringing all the good karma from various philosophies around the world and integrating it into something more fruitful and of good works. As a unique, dynamic creation of God, I experience my Creator in many ways: as comforter, pillar of strength, confidant and friend. In every moment I experience God as divine law, a fundamental principle of truth expressing good in my life and in my world. The spiritual principle that underlies all of life is one of reciprocation, of giving and receiving, of attraction. Holding thoughts of abundance, I change my way of speaking and acting, which attracts to me what fulfills and sustains me. As I focus my thoughts on wholeness and serenity, I naturally act in wholesome and peaceful ways. Healing and tranquility arise from within me, completing the cycle of spiritual principle. I attract all I need through my awareness of God. I know we try hard to understand why good things happen to some, and bad things to others. What is the cause of the inequality that exists among mankind? Why should one person be brought up in the lap of luxury, endowed with fine mental, moral and physical qualities, and another in absolute poverty, steeped in misery? Why should one person be a mental prodigy, and another an idiot? Why should one person be born with saintly characteristics and another with criminal tendencies? Why should some be linguistic, artistic, mathematically inclined, or musical from the very cradle? Why should others be congenitally blind, deaf, or deformed? Why should some be blessed, and others cursed from their births? According to Buddhism, this inequality is due not only to heredity, environment, "nature and nurture", but also to Karma. In other words, it is the result of our own past actions and our own present doings. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate.