Nick Vujicic

Nicholas James "Nick" Vujicic (/ˈvɔɪ.ɪtʃɪtʃ/ voy-ich-ich;^{[note 1]} Serbian: [ʋûjitʃitɕ]; born 4 December 1982^[2][3]) is an Australian Christian evangelist and motivational speaker born with phocomelia,^[4] a rare disorder characterized by the absence of legs and arms.

Early life and family[edit]

Vujicic was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1982, to Dušanka and Borislav Vujičić, devout Serbian Orthodox emigrants from Yugoslavia.^[5] His parents became active in a Melbourne church. His mother attended nursing school at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne while his father worked in business management. He was born with phocomelia without some fully formed limbs. According to his autobiography, his mother refused to see him or hold him while the nurse held him in front of her, but she and her husband eventually accepted their son's condition and understood it as God's plan for their son.^[6]

Vujicic has two small and deformed feet, one of which he calls his "chicken drumstick" because of its shape.^[7] Originally, he was born with the toes of that foot fused. An operation was performed to separate the toes so that he could use them as fingers to grab, turn a page, or perform other functions.^[8] He has been able to use his foot to operate an electric wheelchair, a computer and a mobile phone. Vujicic attempted suicide but notes that he had an "amazingly normal childhood".^{[citation needed]}

Vujicic thrived in his teenage and young adult years despite being bullied. After his mother showed him a newspaper article about a man dealing with a severe disability when he was seventeen, he started to give talks at his prayer group.^[9]

He graduated from Griffith University at the age of 21 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, with a double major in accountancy and financial planning.^{[citation needed]}

Career[edit]

Vujicic started his speaking engagements at 19.^{[citation needed]} In 2005, he founded an international non-profit organisation and ministry, Life Without Limbs.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, Vujicic founded Attitude is Altitude, a secular motivational speaking company.^[10] He starred in the short film The Butterfly Circus.^[11] At the 2010 Method Fest Independent Film Festival, he was awarded Best Actor in a Short Film for his starring performance as Will.^[12]

Beliefs[edit]

On his webpages, in a self-formulated "Statement of Faith", Vujicic states his adherence to born-again Christianity,^[13] to classically Calvinist notions on sin and redemption and to Biblical inerrancy without specifying what particular understanding of Biblical inerrancy he intends to mean. His tenets of faith also include the imminent Second Coming of Christ. He does not publicly identify with or adhere to any denomination or congregation.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[edit]

On 12 February 2012, Vujicic married Kanae Miyahara. The couple has two sons and live in Southern California

Books and publications[edit]

His first book, Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life, was published by Random House in 2010 and has been translated into more than 30 languages.^[15] He markets a motivational DVD, Life's Greater Purpose, a short documentary filmed in 2005. The second part of the DVD was filmed at his local church in Brisbane. He markets a DVD for young people titled No Arms, No Legs, No Worries!.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey (1954 – ) Influential talk show host, author, philanthropist, actress and media personality. Oprah Winfrey has played a key role in modern American life, shaping cultural trends and promoting various liberal causes. Through her talk shows and books, she has focused on many issues facing American women. She has been an important role model for black American women, breaking down many invisible barriers.

“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.”Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her parents were unmarried and separated soon after conception. Oprah had a difficult childhood. She lived in great poverty and often had to dress in potato sacks for which she was mocked at school. She was also sexually abused at an early age.

“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”

– Oprah Winfrey

From the age of 14, she went to live with her father. Oprah says he was strict, but she was in the mood to be disobedient during her teenage years. After working her way through college, she became interested in journalism and media and got her first job as a news anchor for a local TV station.

Her emotional style did not go down well for a news programme, so she was transferred to an ailing daytime chat programme. After Oprah had taken over, the daily chat show took off, and this later led to her own programme – The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The Oprah Winfrey show has proved to be one of the most successful and highly watched TV show of all time. It has broken many social and cultural barriers such as gay and lesbian issues. Oprah has also remained a powerful role model for women and black American women in particular. She is credited with promoting an intimate confessional form of media communication, which has been imitated across the globe.

In recent years, the Oprah Winfrey show has focused on issues of self-improvement, spirituality and self-help. Diet has also been a big issue with Oprah once successfully losing a lot of weight. Her subsequent diet book sold millions of copies.

Oprah Winfrey has promoted many spiritual books, which have focused on the aspect of taking responsibility for your life – not changing your circumstances, but changing the way you look at your life.

“What I learned at a very early age was that I was responsible for my life. And as I became more spiritually conscious, I learned that we all are responsible for ourselves, that you create your own reality by the way you think and therefore act. You cannot blame apartheid, your parents, your circumstances, because you are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities. If you know that, you can do anything.”

– O Magazine (January 2007), pages 160 & 217

Oprah Wealth

Her range of media enterprises have made Oprah one of the richest self-made women. The Forbes’ international rich list has listed Winfrey as the world’s only black billionaire from 2004 to 2006 and as the first black woman billionaire in world history.In 2014 Winfrey has a net worth of more than 2.9 billion dollars.

Book Club

The Oprah Winfrey book club has become the most influential book clubs in the world. A recommendation from Oprah Winfrey frequently sends books to the top of the best-seller lists. Many commentators agree that Oprah Winfrey exerts enormous influence. Some estimated her support for Barack Obama helped him gain one million votes in the 2008 election.

As Vanity Fair said of Oprah Winfrey:

“Oprah Winfrey arguably has more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, or religious leader, except perhaps the Pope”

Acting career

Oprah Winfrey was also nominated for an Oscar in the film – A Color Purple. Produced by Steven Spielberg, the epic Color Purple told of segregation in America’s deep south. Oprah was widely admired for her role as Sofia.

Support for Obama

From 2006 to 2008, she lent her support to the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Her influence and personal following played a key role in helping Obama to become the first African-American to become president.

In 2013, Oprah gained a unique interview with the professional cyclist, Lance Armstrong. It was on Oprah that Armstrong finally made a dramatic confession that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. “Biography of Oprah Winfrey”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net, 25th Jan. 2013

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi (/ˈɡɑːndi, ˈɡæn-/;^[2] Hindustani: [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] ( listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorificMahatma (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable")^[3]—applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa^[4]—is now used worldwide. In India, he is also called Bapu (Gujarati: endearment for "father",^[5] "papa"^[5][6]) and Gandhiji. He is unofficially called the Father of the Nation.^[7][8]

Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.

Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. Gandhi attempted to practise nonviolence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn hand-spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.

Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism, however, was challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India.^[9] Eventually, in August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire^[9] was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.^[10] As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Eschewing the official celebration of independence in Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to provide solace. In the months following, he undertook several fasts unto death to promote religious harmony. The last of these, undertaken on 12 January 1948 when he was 78,^[11] also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan.^[11] Some Indians thought Gandhi was too accommodating.^[11][12] Among them was Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, who assassinated Gandhi on 30 January 1948 by firing three bullets into his chest.^[12]

Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence.

Lord Mahavir

Mahavira (Mahāvīra), also known as Vardhamāna, was the twenty-fourth and last Jain Tirthankara (ford maker, spiritual teacher). Mahavira was born into a royal family in what is now Bihar, India, in 599 BC. At the age of 30, he left his home in pursuit of spiritual awakening, and abandoned worldly things, including his clothes, and became a monk. For the next twelve-and-a-half years, Mahavira practiced intense meditation and severe penance, after which he became kevalī (omniscient).

For the next 30 years, he travelled throughout the Indian subcontinent to teach Jain philosophy. Mahavira taught that the observance of the vows ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (chastity) and aparigraha (non-attachment) is necessary to elevate the quality of life. He gave the principle of Anekantavada (pluralism), Syadavada and Nyadavada. The teachings of Mahavira were compiled by Gautama Swami (his chief disciple) and were called Jain Agamas. Most of these Agamas are not available today. Jains believe Mahavira attained moksha (liberation from the cycle of birth and death) at the age of 72.

Teachings

Jain Agamas[edit]

Main article: Jain Agamas

Mahavira's teachings were compiled by his Ganadhara (chief disciple), Gautama Swami. The sacred canonical scriptures had twelve parts.^[50] According to Vijay K. Jain, "These scriptures contained the most comprehensive and accurate description of every branch of learning that one needs to know. The knowledge contained in these scriptures was transmitted orally by the teachers to their disciple saints."^[50] According to the Digambaras, Āchārya Bhutabali was the last ascetic who had partial knowledge of the original canon. Later, some learned Āchāryas started to restore, compile and write down the teachings of Lord Mahavira that were the subject matter of Agamas.^[51] Āchārya Dharasena, in first century CE, guided two Āchāryas, Āchārya Pushpadant and Āchārya Bhutabali, to write down these teachings. The two Āchāryas wrote on palm leaves, Ṣaṭkhaṅḍāgama—among the oldest known Digambara Jaina texts. Jain Agamas prescribe five major vratas (vows) that both ascetics and householders have to follow.^[52] These ethical principles were preached by Mahavira:^[53]

1. Ahimsa (Non-violence or Non-injury). Mahavira taught that every living being has sanctity and dignity of its own and it should be respected just as one expects one's own sanctity and dignity to be respected. Ahimsa is formalised into Jain doctrine as the first and foremost vow. According to the Jain text, Tattvarthasutra: "The severance of vitalities out of passion is injury".
2. Satya (Truthfulness)—not to lie or speak what is not commendable.^[54] According to the Jain text Sarvārthasiddhi: "that which causes pain and suffering to the living is not commendable, whether it refers to actual facts or not".^[55]
3. Asteya (Non-stealing), which states one should not take anything if not properly given.
4. Brahmacharya (Chastity), which stresses steady but determined restraint over yearning for sensual pleasures.
5. Aparigraha (Non-attachment)—non-attachment to both inner possessions (liking, disliking) and external possessions like property.

Mahavira's philosophy has eight cardinal (law of trust), three metaphysical (dravya, Jīva and ajiva),^[45] and five ethical principles. The objective is to elevate the quality of life.^[56]Mahavira said an individual or society should exercise self-restraint to achieve social peace, security and an enlightened society.^[57]

Ahiṃsā[edit]

Main article: Ahimsa in Jainism

Mahavira preached that ahimsa (non-injury) is the supreme ethical and moral virtue.^[58] Mahavira taught that no one likes pain and therefore non-injury must cover all living beings.^[59] According to Mahatma Gandhi:

No religion in the World has explained the principle of Ahimsa so deeply and systematically as is discussed with its applicability in every human life in Jainism. As and when the benevolent principle of Ahimsa or non-violence will be ascribed for practice by the people of the world to achieve their end of life in this world and beyond. Jainism is sure to have the uppermost status and Lord Mahāvīra is sure to be respected as the greatest authority on Ahimsa.^[60][61][62]

Anekantavada[edit]

Main article: Anekantavada

Another fundamental teaching of Mahavira was Anekantavada (pluralism and multiplicity of viewpoints)