Get Ahead: Mantras for Investment Banking Professionals
A difficult time
Bankers face a difficult time at the moment. The global economy is under pressure and world is against them!
Banking, in the public’s eyes, has grown into a culture of distrustful, deceitful behaviour based around a never-ending thirst for greed and power. Yet it has also been the backbone of global trade and attracted the best and brightest individuals to strive to better themselves and test their limits. In short we need bankers! But not the negative associations.
This post is not intended to be party to playing the blame game, but will attempt to be part of the solution: to encourage the simultaneous development of character along with ability.
So how can we derive the positive benefits without the negatives?
The solution is surprisingly simple! Pray to Maha Lakshmi!
But isnt Lakshmi the Goddess of Wealth? Surely, bankers are all already rich!
The downturn has undoubtedly highlighted that a culture of excess is prevalent in banking. But wealth should not be equated to just money and greed. The abundance one attracts through the Divine is much greater than just the material kind: Lakshmi is also the Goddess of Virtue and wealth of Character!
More than Money
There are 16 kinds of wealth one can attract through praising the Divine. They are enumerated in a prior post (click here to see it), but they include: Courage and Strength, Morality and Ethics and Higher thinking.
The mantras
The wisdom locked in ancient mantras is relevant even in today’s complex world. Here are a set of mantras that may prove helpful to banking professionals at a time of great uncertainty and difficulty:
- Ganesha Gayatri – click here. For foresight to aid us in understanding the longer term repercussions of our actions than the short term effects.
- Lakshmi Gayatri – click here, or simply Shreem. Invoke Lakshmi to grant you the character required to acquire and sustain wealth.
- Narayana Gayatri, or simply: Rama. Why praise Vishnu as Narayana or Rama too? In the opening verses of the Vishnu Sahasranama, Vishnu is extolled as the King of Dharma (righteous conduct and behaviour). Such valour and knowledge of what’s right and wrong is a natural complement and pre-requisite to wealth accumulation. In his incarnation as Rama, he established a powerful precedent of how the ideal King (or any person of significant responsibility) should behave – in virtually every test. Understanding this by meditating on the name of Rama is therefore also an excellent method of character development.
Navaratri 2011: Make your Life Shine! Worship Surya through Gayatri
Illuminate your Life - pray to the Sun
Sun worship is not primitive
Sun worship is as old as time. From the very origins of mankind, people realised that the Sun is the controlling and sustaining principal on planet Earth.
Worshipping the Sun is by no means a primitive technology. The Sun emits a multitude of rays; some seen, but the majority of which lie well beyond the visual spectrum of humans – beyond infrared and ultraviolet.
More than light
Beyond these still are the spiritual rays of illumination emitted by the being powering the sun itself. Although this is a crude metaphor, the point is the Sun embodies the very spirit of the Paramatma (The Supreme Soul).
How so? To understand this, we must ask – what is Godliness? Giving and never taking back, unconditionally nourishing and lighting the path for all of us perhaps? Is that not exactly what the Sun does daily for us?
Let us give thanks
The deity behind the Solar disc has many levels of interaction with humans. We have already covered the physical attributes (warms our bodies and the earth plane, lights our path during the day, illuminates our night by reflection off the moon etc) and the highest level (Paramatma) , but there are many gradients in between.
In puranic lore, and indeed the Mahabharata, the Sun appears as one of the Devas. In the Ramayana interestingly, He is worshipped as so much more! One can search the term ‘Aditya Hrudayam’ to read about, hear and understand the prayer that Rishi Agastya initiated Rama into to help him bring the battle with Ravana to a gripping finalé. I would recommend this site: http://www.agasthiar.org/a/ah.htm (click here to access).
Drink in the attributes of the Sun!
The Gayatri Maha Mantra is the supreme salutation of the Sun. It is said that one who fully understands the 24 syllables of the Gayatri mantra is on par with the Brahmarishis (The highest classification of Rishi, or holy person, in Hindu cosmology).
One such attribute is the ability to shine. Not just in physical terms (although this is also possible as one of the siddhis of the Gayatri Maha Mantra is to control prana and cause a physical glow or tejas to appear around oneself), but also in terms of your speech, actions and thought.
Navaratri is the ideal time to start chanting the Gayatri
The essence, embodiment and energy or shakti (power) behind the Gayatri Maha Mantra is the Goddess Gayatri. Worshipping the Divine Feminine over Navaratri is conducive to multiples of mantra japa over any other part of the year.
Give yourself this gift and start chanting today!
Supercharge your Wealth Creation
Pick up jet speed on the path to your goals
Inject some momentum into your Life with the Gayatri
Adding the Gayatri Maha Mantra to your daily routine is a powerful technology to enhance your mantra sadhanas.
As detailed in my post here (click for details) the Gayatri is the root of all Vedic knowledge, as embodied by the force behind the Sun. Knowledge is power; chant the Gayatri to gain ground on the path toward your goals.
Time rich, money poor? Its the Attack of Lack!
Unless you are already on your perfect career path with a role you love, a fulfilling purpose and more than satisfactory salary, you’re one of the many who feel the Attack of Lack. What is this? Quite simply, its the mental effects of never feeling as if your needs are taken care of in terms of material abundance.
Praying to Laksmi through her Gayatri Mantra (click here for details), or the Shreem mantra has its own benefits. But what if you combine it with the Gayatri Maha mantra? A multiplier effect occurs.
Sadguru Sant Keshavadas of Bangalore recommends such a combination to bring prosperity and auspiciousness into your career or business.
Transliteration:
“Om Bhur Bhuvah Suvaha
Tat Savitur Vare-enyam*
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyoyonaha Prachotheyaa-aath^.
SHREEM.”
Notes:
* and ^. It is vital that there is correct pronunciation on these two words. They are not chanted as read!
As seen above, Shreem is tagged onto the end of the mantra. Sadguru Keshavadas recommends chanting this version with devotion and focus every Friday for 3 months to see success. The number of chants is proportional to your own level of need; there are no limits.
The Original Mantra: the Pranava - OM
Swami Mantra Yogi 