The Monk's Mindset And Holistic Approach To Genuine Success with Madhuri Pura Dasa

Speaker: 00:00:02

FN Intro/Outro: Welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast with Jeff Kikel. On this show, Jeff shares his expertise in financial and retirement planning from a different perspective. Planning for Your Freedom Day, which is the first day that you wake up and have enough income or assets and do not have to go to work that day. Learn how to calculate what you need, how to generate income sources, and listen to interviews from others who've done it themselves, get ready to experience your own Freedom Day.

Jeff Kikel: 00:00:37

Hello, Freedom Nation, and welcome to the new year 2024. I believe this is our second interview of the year. And I'm super excited today to introduce you to Madhuri Pura Dasa, you're going to hear a really interesting story about how he began his life, or his we'll call it working career as a Buddhist monk. And then has moved on from there to help more and more people get a little bit of inner peace along with business success. Samadhi Welcome to the show, but

Jeff Kikel: 00:01:11

Madhuri Pura Dasa: So grateful to be here getting to actually talk about stuff with you that's relevant and helpful. Yeah, yeah. Other things to talk about in this world. But these

Jeff Kikel: 00:01:19

People kicking off the new year here thinking, well, it's going to be different this year, and then probably giving up a week or two into it. So let's, let's give them some encouragement to move on. So why don't we start off, let's talk about your story. How did you get off to where you are today?

Jeff Kikel: 00:01:35

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Well, long story short, on my 18th birthday, I shaved my head and became a celibate monk. And, you know, not exactly what all 18 year old young men decide

Jeff Kikel: 00:01:44

Sometimes. Yeah, that's not the usual path unless you grew up in a Buddhist country.

Jeff Kikel: 00:01:50

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Yeah, yeah. And you know, there's various types of monks out there, the particular type of monk the lineage they came in, it's called bhakti yoga, which is a, it precedes various types of religions and traditions that are out there, at least five, only 5000 years old. That's it. And I had searched various types of traditions and whatnot. And I found this one that was able to answer a lot of questions for me that I had been asking him from a young age, who am I, why am I here? What is my purpose? What is the world around me? What's the nature of spirituality, divinity, et cetera? And I finally found something that could answer my questions in a very satisfying way. And I was going to college and I thought I could keep doing this or I could go What did they say the take the path less traveled left for sold? Yes. And spent. Yeah. And spent half a decade as a student monk living mostly in India, six months a year in India, and then the other six months of monasteries in the West. And after five years of that I graduated, the monastery became a normal person, hence the the hair, non roast. Howard Domi normal. And then I, the last seven or eight years is when I ventured into being an entrepreneur, and helping people ultimately with their health and their wealth.

Jeff Kikel: 00:03:04

I love this. So how do you go from monk to coach basically, that's it's an interesting travel. Yeah,

Jeff Kikel: 00:03:13

Madhuri Pura Dasa: It's, you know, I never in my life would have thought Yeah, I want to be a business owner. And like, you know, anyway, is very crazy. But going for a month, no possessions? I mean, we had one size fits all orange robes. staatlichen what color Am I gonna wear today? Oh, orange, what's what's my hair Dubs. Very simple. Why stop, and no possessions, sleeping on the ground, etc. And so what happened was I got a taste for renunciation for a simple life, there's a satisfaction and having minimal responsibilities, frankly. So after graduating the monastery, I realized, okay, get don't want to sleep on the ground anymore. I don't want to live off enough and anymore. And so I realized, I have to do something. You know, money is such a beautiful thing. Because money is not good or bad. It's, it's an energy just like a knife isn't good or bad. And I can be used as surgeon to save somebody's life. And surgery can be used to kill someone stabbed someone. The thing isn't good or bad. It's just how you use it. So when I realized that, okay, money isn't good or bad. It's something that can be engaged to not only help improve, improve my quality of life, but improve the quality of life of other individuals. At that point, I started to figure out how can I do teach the mindfulness in the meditation I learned for many years, as well as the holistic health that we learned as a being a monk. And I did that for years and failed terribly at first for the first couple years. But then eventually, after getting the proper education, I created first a six figure business and that doubles and that doubles and it became seven. And like that, it it kept expanding. And then before I knew it, all I want to do is help other people do that. And so the last two years I spent just helping other mostly in the wellness space as well like holistic health and wellness helping them create sustainable businesses is a way to really try to contribute because helping people individually was great, but I can only help so many people at a time. So better is to help a bunch of people who are then going to go health a bunch of people. And in this way, that's, yeah, that's how it slowly but surely manifested into what we are blessed to get to do to know.

Jeff Kikel: 00:05:09

I think it's really interesting because, you know, we, those of us that have been in the business community, I mean, in most cases, you go to any type of a situation and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a consultant or a coach. But I, you know, as I was reading your story, I could see how you have more street cred, let's say with somebody that's in the wellness space, because most people that are in the wellness space that are in that kind of self help space, will let's make it simple. They're not typically great business people, they want to help. I mean, they're good at helping people but they, it's almost like they feel bad about taking money as a result. So you kind of have more street cred going in that, hey, I mean, you can't be more, I want to help people and not get anything from it than a monk. And if I can do it, you could do it.

Jeff Kikel: 00:06:01

Madhuri Pura Dasa: That I mean, that's my saying, it's like, if a chumps from you know, and I grew up with it, not exactly poverty. But you know, my parents are paycheck to paycheck every week, and they did their best. And I'm outrageously grateful for the life they provided me, I have nothing but appreciation. And I, you know, and then I became a monk with nothing. So I spent my whole life the first 20 something years of my life without knowing money and having money. And I remember what the first time in my life big in my mid 20s, having more than, like, $1,000 to my name and feeling like this is crazy. So yes, I you know, if I who went from nothing to do it, without a doubt, somebody who has much more, other gifts and talents is for sure, they can do it as well. That's my motto. If I could do 100%, you could do it too.

Jeff Kikel: 00:06:50

So let's talk a little bit about the process. So let's say I am a wellness coach, I'm not as successful as I want to be. What's what's the process of you working with?

Jeff Kikel: 00:07:04

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Yeah, yeah, so most of the people nowadays, like I mentioned, working with this, we call wellness entrepreneurs. So it's every one from like wellness professionals to Yeah, wellness coaches, to a couple of relationship coaches as well. But you know, coaching consulting, space, as well as like professionals. And it's always the same protocol, we always start with the mind. So we have a system called the monk mindset method, which is how to actually be in control your mind. So it doesn't control you because without effort, it will control us, there's 100% chance it will control this. And fascinatingly, the mind is the only thing in this life that we can actually fully control. There's the body, there's so much that goes on. I mean, you can't control a sneeze, you can't control. You know, evacuation, like there's so few things you can actually control. But the mind is the one thing you can't. And so we first and foremost for anyone, no matter where they are in their life is create a proper mindset and mindset can be kind of kitschy. And it's like what does that even mean? It really means you are able to befriend the mind and work with the mind in such a way. So that you can actually do in practice the habits and behaviors that will amount to a successful life. In other words, do what you want when you want to do it, as opposed to just fighting with the mind. And so we have a whole protocol with how to do that we can maybe break into some of those tools and practices today. And then we get into the systems because it's growing business and making money. It's just knowledge. It's just like learning anything else. You can become a great snowboarder, you'll learn all the techniques, you want to become a great learner learn all the techniques. And so once we develop the mindset, then we actually get into the strategies of how do you create your services and package them in a way that people feel bummed saying no to they go, Oh, my God, of course, I need this. How do you find the people that want your help? How do you actually sell them in a way that's conscious? We call this conscious closing system means never using manipulation tactics or coercion? Just how do you sell people who want to be sold? And then how do you scale that it's a fairly simple system. But, you know, always start with the mindset, then you get into the knowledge. And we also help people still with mindfulness and meditation and holistic health, all that stuff, because who cares? You can have all the money in the world, but if you feel like garbage, who cares? You know. So anyway, these are kind of a small taste of some of the types of things that we'd like to use to help and serve.

Jeff Kikel: 00:09:20

I love it. Love it. So I start working with you. We start with the mind we start then working on the business. What are you know, as I as I'm moving on, how do I know that things are moving in the right direction?

Jeff Kikel: 00:09:36

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Yeah, so it really comes down to how you define success because right direction means the direction that I want to be moving in, in order to know what direction you want to be moving in. We must have some idea of what I value like what is it that's important to me, what do I actually value and amongst our values, we will consider success differently. So for some someone, when I get the car, I'm successful for someone when I have the time I'm successful for someone it's when I can be with my family. Like we all have these different versions of success that we give. But what I like to do as a centralized, what do we absolutely know? What could we unanimously decide, is success. And if we boil all our values down, we'll find that relationships always seem to be at the top relationships and health over money. Because you again, if you, if somebody says here, here's a trillion dollars, and you get anything you want, whatever you want for the rest of your life, you have it, you're on an island, you cannot see anyone that have any pets, any humans, no relationships, rest of your life, no one's taken that deal. Why? Because relationships, we value more, or Vaizey, here's all the money in the world, but you, you're not going to think straight, and you're gonna feel like garbage all the time, no one's gonna take that. So in the same way, we can, we can deductively see that improving the quality of our relationships and the quality of our health are really the Quintus quintessential focuses in life. And you know, with that, there's obviously purposes, there's nuance to this. But I mean to say that if we look through, we'll see what's actually important. So the way I like to define success, or the way that we know we're moving in the quote, unquote, right direction is that you're doing the things you want to be doing when you want to be doing that. In other words, you're doing your values in the priority, you want to be doing them consistently, I don't believe that success is something you achieve, I believe success is something that you can build to have on a daily basis, because tomorrow is never promised. It's certainly most not guaranteed. So a successful life isn't something that you get to a successful life is something you create in the present. And what that means, in the most simple form is, am I doing what I actually want to be doing? little caveat, a little asterix above one. And I would say it's like what the soul the real you with wants to be doing? Not just what my mind whims? Do I want to be getting 30 cupcakes? Yeah, sure. My mind wants to do that sometimes. But like, the real you, am I doing? What the real highest potential core centered version of me wants to be doing? That is success.

Jeff Kikel: 00:11:59

Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, so many people measure that success by that car, or that watch or that house or whatever. But, you know, I know a lot of really unhappy, rich people that have made their life completely focused around possessions and everything else. And not about those things that, you know, it said at the core. And I know a lot of unhappy business people that don't really feel like they're, they're getting to that core part of things. But there's always that that little, the way I always see that there's always kind of that little fight that goes on in there that, okay, well, I want to do what feels right. But then I'm not making money. So I've got to do this other say, I like what you do, of balancing that out to say, Okay, well, you can be here. But you can also make money doing it at that point, and probably you'll make more money, I would assume.

Jeff Kikel: 00:12:50

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Yeah, if you can, the way we like to say is if you can monetize what you're going to do with or without making money. And you're you're living a successful life, because you're doing what you're going to do. You know, your hobby, your vocation, your gift, your dharma, your purpose, whatever term somebody get your iki guy, there's tons of terms that tons of different languages we might use. But the idea is, if you're doing what you're meant to be doing, and you figure out a way to monetize that, then of course, you'd be successful. And then yeah, have the, you know, I'm grateful for our tests, I'm grateful for our watch, I'm grateful for the house, they're great. But things never equal happiness is a completely different category. Happiness is that inside job as you so eloquently alluded to, and so therefore things can you can have as much as you want, as long as there's a clear idea that this thing is only going to provide me a few moments of satisfaction. And really, we use things to help more people, because that's where real happiness actually comes from, is from service and contribution. Because no one's actually happy. Just taking and consuming, we are only happy in the sense of giving. So use those things, to use your car to go to places to help people use the house, he can use all your things to actually contribute to society in a valuable way. And that's where happiness will actually go.

Jeff Kikel: 00:14:05

That's awesome. So what type of programs do you deliver it? So is it all individualized coaching? Or do you deliver through a group settings or workshops, all that kind of stuff?

Jeff Kikel: 00:14:15

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Yeah, all of the above. So primarily, we have retreats that we do around the world. So in two weeks from today, we're bringing 45 people to India, for India pilgrimage, which every year we bring a bunch of folks there to have a transformational experience. And we got something coming up in Bali, and we did Greece a couple of months. So I love retreats. I'm big fan of taking people and having an in person experience. But yeah, we have group coaching where we support lots of individuals at the same time in community. We have one on one, one on ones much more for those who are doing the dang thing as really say like people who are really a meshed in it and they're just needing support with their mind as well as how to scale that. But we have groups and we also have we give everything for free actually on our platforms. We just give all our content away for We're free with the hope that anyone who will do it themselves can. And we just sell implementation people who don't want to have to figure it out in itself and recreate the wheel. We, we do it with them. And so that's more our approach and art, which is a little different than the coaching, which is like, you had the knowledge, your pain, which I don't have an issue with, but that's different than our style. Yeah,

Jeff Kikel: 00:15:19

Yeah. Well, but I mean, that's what makes you happy. And, you know, like you said, if somebody can figure it out on their own, then Okay, hopefully, I've helped you along the path. And we're always here, if you if you get down the path and figure out that that's not the path you wanted to be on. You're always there. So I see the value of that all the time. I mean, the more you give, usually, the more you get in the end. Well, what's new in your world? What are you working on for the future here? Well,

Jeff Kikel: 00:15:46

Madhuri Pura Dasa: One day, I'm, uh, you know, with our community, we've had a community for a long time, but we recently moved to a super dope platform. Many people who are entrepreneurial know that, for Camino, you have this system for communicating, you have this place to host your content, you have this place for your calendar, you have everything's all over the place. But there's a platform we recently started using, that we're moving our community on to, which is just like, Oh, it's so cool. It's called school, SK O L, some people might be familiar, but we have that. And we have an integrated with some other cool things we're doing. And it's such an amazing community that not only do we have the community, in meetings, meaning the members are there, and everyone's like supporting one another back to back because there is no competition, we're all here to help. There's too many people that need to be helped, then, you know, then we have the time to try to fight who's going to help them we all got to be helping together. And then we also have all of our free courses hosted there everything from the monk mindset method to our closed systems, how to sell without using manipulation tactics to holistic health through Eastern medicine to our I mean, tons of different stuff that we how to host your own retreat, etc. It's nice to have all that in the same place where members can engage, they can consume contents that are so I'm stoked about that new update that we're, we're getting to do because

Jeff Kikel: 00:17:04

Yeah, one of the guys I follow that's in the Amazon space, he's actually his stuff is hosted on school, but I had never come across before I was like, as I usually know, all these things. And I hadn't seen that one before. But I like that approach of let's get put everything in one spot. Because I think you know, the challenge that we face today is we're relying on social media a lot of times to be that place where your community gathers, but you know, the more that you separate your community, from your content and everything else, the harder it is for people to interact. And then you're playing, you know, the Facebook game of, okay, well, yes, this is your community, but it's on our platform. So we're going to limit who can actually see what's going on and everything else. So that's really it's interesting. I, I haven't had a chance to play around with it enough to really know, you know, the benefits of it versus some of the other platforms. But yeah, I do agree with you. It is fantastic.

Jeff Kikel: 00:18:04

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Yeah, nice to not have an algorithms we like to say it's like you have a community without now rhythm. So you see what you want to see. You don't see the work? You don't? Yeah.

Jeff Kikel: 00:18:12

And if you don't want to see it, you can just move on to the next thing. Don't worry. All right. Well, let's switch gears here a little bit and talk about the Fast Five questions. Now. You're ready? Ready? So this one's not it is gonna be a breeze for you. You wake up in the morning business is totally gone. You have a laptop computer a place to stay 500 bucks in your pocket, and food and clothing. What do you do first?

Jeff Kikel: 00:18:39

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Yeah, it's very easy. I if I have a phone, I'm gonna grab my phone if I don't have a phone or find a phone. And, you know, the simplest way is called everybody you know, because the cool thing is, if you can provide value to someone and value can be very small, you know, it doesn't have to be anything crazy. I find some way to provide value. If you call everyone you know, the cool thing is they themselves say they're interested and then you make them a deal they can't refuse. Or number two, they know someone who's interested in you make that person to do they can't refuse. And this is what we believe when it comes to sustainable business. If you just talk with enough people, remind them enough value, you're gonna get enough yeses that you will have more money, they know what to do with it, and then I probably take that 500 Give it to charity, and then make a bunch of money.

Jeff Kikel: 00:19:23

People tell him some guy that the age 18 That became a monk yo, hey, you've got a laptop and 500 bucks that's like holy crap. I could live for a year on that. That's enough. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not living on the floor. So that's a good start. What is the biggest business mistake you've ever made?

Jeff Kikel: 00:19:44

Madhuri Pura Dasa: I drink the Kool Aid of what I like to call the call it like a false abundance mindset. I see in the industry. This idea pushed that it's pretty much people saying you should buy what I want with the hopes that you'll make as much money as you under the guy, they use it under the guise of abundance mindset. I kind of drink this Kool Aid of misunderstanding thought, you know, I could also do as much as I want. And, you know, the universe has my back. Yeah, of course, the universe has my back. But the universe gives me what I need not necessary what I want. And so the biggest mistake that I really made was leaning into just unabashedly spending on whatever I wanted, and this, that, this, that the other, and then having repercussions of that not only in my own experience of materialism, because again, things don't make us happy. And I forgot that for say, night everyone forgot it. But you know, I had this idea of, like, okay, maybe this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And what happened was, it's, we're okay. But then what happens I keep I taught that idea to others, which it's such a, it can be such a poison in one's mind. Because again, it leans one towards materialism that, oh, if I get whatever I want, I'll then I'll have x, then I'll be happy, then I'll be successful. That mistake and that I mean, we had a lot of challenges that came out of that, that we had to pivot on. It ultimately, stifled my ability to just serve unapologetically. And so that that really was the biggest mistake that I made and that I shared and talk with others

Jeff Kikel: 00:21:19

below it. What's a good book to recommend for our audience?

Jeff Kikel: 00:21:23

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Yeah, it's slightly counterintuitive, because it's not directly about, say, business or money, but it's about it trains the perspective. He's a it's a philosophical book that trains the perspective around money, and it's called the Bhagavad Gita. And there's various many translations of it. The few that I love is there's the comprehensive guide to the Bhagavad Gita BHAGADG it a Bhagavad Gita. I mean, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mahatma Gandhi, Einstein, Martin Luther King, you name it, they read it. It's the book is 5000 year old literature Ching on the philosophy of self and nature around us. There's the comprehensive guide to Bhagavad Gita. Bhagavad Gita as it is, Gita wisdom, there's a ton of great translations out there that are authentic. And what that does is it helps us understand our deeper purpose so that we can act from that place. And that is sustainable fuel as opposed to act of motivation, which is not always there.

Jeff Kikel: 00:22:26

It's first time I've heard that one on the show. So I think it's awesome. And this was the one your dad bet $100 with you, right?

Jeff Kikel: 00:22:33

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Yep. When I was 16 years old, I because I had been studying philosophy and theology and but it was all Western philosophy as just what it was available in schools. So I was curious, but I was always like, Yeah, this is okay. Like, this is cool. And it was like a little unsatisfying, because I still had so many questions unanswered. And then my dad, he was eased my parents kind of into spirituality to a certain degree. I remember he was like, you read the Bible. He doesn't God Dad, I don't want your weird Eastern stuff. I'm I don't want woowoo. But then he said, I'll give you 100 bucks to realize, oh, say, say less than I read it. And I felt simultaneously so dumb that I had to rejecting it. And then so happy, like I so many questions that went unanswered. Just immediately, one time through, I got answers to questions I didn't even know I had. I didn't take the money. I said, I was so excited. I said to keep the money you changed my life to

Jeff Kikel: 00:23:25

That is awesome. That is awesome. What's a tool that you use in your business every day that you might recommend for our audience?

Jeff Kikel: 00:23:33

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Yeah, hi, we really like this school platform, SKOOL. And it's really relevant for community. If you host courses content community, like we've found it to be so beyond helpful because it gets to have some one place for all people to go to, without an algorithm. They can make his settings however they want. And then you can really nurture and really serve and empower people, we found school to just be a total game changer. And there's a bunch of other systems we use, but the school nowadays, we're having our clients just do school, like they don't even need CRMs like go high level, which are you anyway, bunch of tech that we use, we don't even need anymore, we could just use the school platform. So that's something I think people can check out. And, you know, when we have actually discount stuff that we could send people if they want a discount anyway, details,

Jeff Kikel: 00:24:24

but yeah, that's fantastic. Final question. What is your definition of freedom?

Jeff Kikel: 00:24:32

Madhuri Pura Dasa: Freedom goes back to what we were alluding to before, which is doing what you want when you want that's the simplest way to put it. Freedom means doing what you want, when you want to do it.

Jeff Kikel: 00:24:44

I love it. Love it. Well, Madhu. So where would someone get a hold of you or learn more about you? Where's the best place?

Jeff Kikel: 00:24:53

Madhuri Pura Dasa: You know, on all platforms? It's Madhu.life That's Madhu.life that's on all of our socials, that's our website, you know, our emails info at Moto dot live it pretty much anywhere you want to find me look at mighty dot life. And then what I'd like to do just out of great pride and gratitude for you hosting such a labor of love of this podcast that just makes it so accessible for us to get to talk about these things. So accessible for us listeners to actually be able to learn together, what I'd like to do is I have a little gift for anyone that is listening to this. And what we'll do is if you send me the word, how about freedom that seems relevant. If you send me the word freedom on any platform, not only will I give you access to all of our free courses and community, which I'm gonna audacious to say, but it's like better than a lot of these, you know, 20 30k masterminds that are out there, and we just give it but we have a specific resource that I think will be really relevant to your people around how to create a Freedom Day lifestyles, we call it. So if you send me the word freedom I will get, I'll get you access to pretty much everything as well as this little extra gift. Pro

Jeff Kikel: 00:25:59

Will man I appreciate that. Thank you so much, and audience. You heard it, the man has given it to you for free. So just anywhere on Madhu.life wherever whatever platform you're looking at, I would encourage you to go to his website. But I learned a ton about him today on this website. He's just a great guy. And I love his mission. And I want you to I want to encourage you guys to go there because the most important part, it's not about the money. It's not about the I can stick it to my boss. It's about having a an abundant lifestyle, that you get to live, do what you want, when you want how you want, and you have someone that's willing to share his information with you. So make sure you go there. And as always, make sure that you subscribe to the channel. Make sure that you give us a little upvote if you can, and make sure if you're listening, you give us five star if you can share your comments. We'll share anything that that comes up with Moto as well. And thank you for always being here. Looking forward to another great year with you.

Jeff Kikel: 00:27:14

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