• What has been happening on our planet in recent decades? What is the reason for the cataclysms and crises that have descended upon the Earth, and when will they come to an end? What is the meaning of the Great Transition of 2012 foretold in the Mayan calendar?

• Why is there so much injustice and suffering, and why are there so many unhappy people in the world?

• Is it possible to find harmony in family relations, and how exactly can this be done?

• Why are believers’ prayers not answered, and how does one need to pray in order to ensure that they are?

• Is it possible to change the world around us and the people we are close to? What is our conscious mind capable of, and is it possible to harness that potential?

• What is the “Formula for Happiness”?

This book contains many simple and beneficial recipes for improving one’s life. All recommendations are based on deep scientific research and backed by years of practice.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of the copyright owners.

Author’s email: v.dubkovskiy@gmail.com

© Vladimir Dubkovskiy, Valeria Dubkovskaya, 2011.
© Tatiana Ivanova, cover design, 2011.

Nectar for Your Soul – A Russian bestseller

Nectar was published in June 2011. By October of the same year it had already become a bestseller among the one million plus books sold by Russia’s number one online megastore – Ozon.ru. Since then and up to date of publication of this edition (March 2013) Nectar has been in the top three best sellers in Ozon.ru.

Nectar’s English Facebook page can be found at:

https://www.facebook.com/nectarforyoursoul

Nectar’s Russian Facebook page can be found at:

https://www.facebook.com/soulnectar

On December 30, 2011, the International Nectar Fan Club was established in Kyiv (Ukraine). Its Facebook page is located at:

https://www.facebook.com/nectarclub

The reviews¹ from Nectar for the Soul’s² first readers

Andrei Aleksandrov, 29 years:

Hello Valeria and Vladimir! I read Nectar for the Soul. Thank you very much for your effort! The book didn’t just broaden my horizons in terms of how I relate to the world: I’ve also been struck by the feeling that I too should make my contribution to the development of humanity. Thank you so much! Your work should go through millions of print runs in all the languages of the world.

Larisa Ivukova, 45 years:

The appearance of this book is an event for all intellectual people on our Earth. The moment this book fell into my hands, I could immediately feel that this is an endless source of knowledge, energy and strength. It goes far beyond what is generally understood to be a “book.” I can confidently say that Nectar is not only a tool for development and an enormous depository of knowledge, but also a powerful source of strength, love and inspiration. It is a universal book: it is accessible for the understanding of any reasonable person who is discovering this information for the first time and is an enormous personal development engine for all of us who have already long been studying these topics. The enormous base of evidence; the logical sequence of all the chapters, which proceed “from the simple to the complex”; and the authors’ clear and precise position on many complex questions give readers the opportunity to construct a personal understanding of the meaning and value of their own lives. And for myself I’ve made the following conclusion: Nectar is a singular KEY for understanding the most important questions for humanity and is a “tuning fork” for future development. In particular, I’d like to note Valeria’s distinctive and miraculous “presence” in the book. Each word is filled with light, love and grace and “goes down smooth,” just like nectar! An enormous “thank you” and deep bow to our Teachers and this, their Great Labor!

Irina Atarbaeva, 31 years:

I RECOMMEND that EVERYONE have this book in their library!!! It answers all the questions that one accumulates throughout live! An ENORMOUS “thank you” to the Dubkovskys for this excellent nectar for our souls!!!

Aziz Atarbaev, 44 years:

Our Dear Vladimir and Valeria, thank you so much for this book! I am an air force reserve officer and have seen and endured much in my life, and it was very interesting to find out that I chose this all for my own growth. I personally read many of the authors that you made reference to and I say that with you everything is simpler and more accessible! Everything’s become peaceful and serene and my goals have become more vivid and understandable! I’m going to recommend the book to all who want to understand earthly life!!! WE THANK YOU, OUR SPIRITUAL TEACHERS!!!

Vladimir Betin, 41 years:

Nectar for the Soul is the book of life. I call it the Bible of the Soul. In it are answers to all the questions that are important in life: Who am I? What is my purpose? What is the meaning of life? How do I find these things out so that I can travel my path and not fulfill someone else’s program? and many others besides. I am sure that this book will broaden the consciousness of millions of people; it’s simply a matter of time. And so I would like for everyone to open themselves up just a little bit to understanding and allow light into their souls. Having studied this book, you begin to value every day of life, every minute; you understand that it depends on you alone, what is going to happen down the road and how your life will be set out. You reconcile your life goals with that which you do and don’t allow your valuable time to be stolen away. Why is it necessary to toil in this life and do good rather than awaiting Heaven? In this life, we have everything that is necessary for resolving these issues: all that’s necessary is to act. Having studied this book, you will receive a powerful motivation to act. The time for doubt and indecisiveness has gone. Now is the time to act! Thank you Vladimir Evgenievich and Valeria Aleksandrovna for the years of life you’ve saved me in coming to an understanding of these materials. I really value this and am glad to be one of the first to have the opportunity to read NECTAR FOR THE SOUL.

Elena and Aleksei Tkachyovy, 36 years:

It’s a great honor for us to be among the first to read this unique book! Nectar for the Soul is a Holiday for the Soul! The information therein is deep, important and very interesting. We read it in one breath. Elena: Having read this book, I experienced a pleasant “shock”: I found answers to a multitude of questions about life: where to find happiness, what the meaning of life is, how to achieve family harmony, life after life and an array of others. Finding everything that’s written about in Nectar for oneself would require years of intense searching. But now all of this can be grasped in a few days’ time. This book is an excellent tool for developing one’s consciousness and understanding of the Truth. I have two degrees of higher education, I am open to new information and nevertheless Nectar was, for me, a revolution in the brain, in my Consciousness. Our company includes several hundred people and we are putting every effort into ensuring that every person has this amazing book in his or her library!!! Vladimir and Valeria, I give you great thanks for your efforts!!!³

A Parable of the East

[An] Eastern King […], desiring to know the history of man, was brought by a sage five hundred volumes; busy with affairs of state, he bade him go and condense it; in twenty years the sage returned and his history now was in no more than fifty volumes, but the King, too old then to read so many ponderous tomes, bade him go and shorten it once more; twenty years passed again and the sage, old and gray, brought a single book in which was the knowledge the King had sought; but the King lay on his death-bed, and he had no time to read even that.

(From Somerset Maugham’s book Of Human Bondage)

We know full well that modern people, world leaders and simple mortals alike, are burdened with just as many cares and worries as the eastern lord mentioned above. They also don’t have the time to read even fifty books that reveal the meaning of life. For this reason, billions of people live in suffering and die in ignorance, not even suspecting that this is reflected on the eternal life.

As such, we undertook the task of tying together if not “all the world’s wisdom” then at least a very large part of it and of fitting it all into one book, which we offer you to read now, rather than waiting until you’re on your death bed. We have named it Nectar for Your Soul, though other names would have fit just as well, names like The Encyclopedia of Everything and A Travel Guide through Life: Both the Earthly and the Eternal. We hope that, having come to the end, you’ll agree with this assertion.

The Authors

About the Authors

Vladimir Dubkovskiy was born in 1953 in Leningrad (modern day Saint Petersburg). After graduating from law school at Leningrad State University, he served with the Military Prosecutor’s Office as a Captain of Justice. He then worked as a prosecutor in the Investigations Department of the Leningrad Public Prosecutor’s Office, was a member of the International Bar Association, a reporter for the newspaper Leningradskaya Pravda, an employee of the Soviet-American joint venture “The Hermitage”, and a screenwriter for the first two documentary films about prostitution in the Soviet Union. From 1989 to 1999 he switched to the business world, and was the founder and head of a number of commercial companies which focused on manufacturing, commerce and insurance. In 1999, together with Valeria, his wife and business partner, he founded the School, and then the Academy, of System Business. Branches of the Academy successfully operate in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Kazakhstan, and tens of thousands of managers from various commercial companies have studied at them. For their achievements in this field, Vladimir and Valeria received 15 awards from the Eurasian Academy of Business including best business-trainers, authors of the best training program, and authors of the best books, of which they have written more than 50, with a total printing run of one and a half million copies.

Vladimir was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Memphis,” (Tennessee, USA) for his contributions to the development of Russian-American cultural relations (during his work at “Hermitage”). His literary and scientific activities served as the basis for his election to the position of Associate Academician of the International Informatization Academy (in General Consultative Status of the United Nations).

Valeria Dubkovskaya graduated from law school at Leningrad State University, where she studied with Vladimir, to whom she was married in 1975. For twelve years she worked as the Head of a Section of the Civil Registry Office before becoming Vladimir’s partner in all his endeavors.

Since 1999, she has headed the School and Academy of System Business together with Vladimir. She holds both Russian and international seminars. She is the author of many lectures and psychological training programs, and a brilliant orator. An active member of the Eurasian Academy of Business, she has been awarded many prizes and diplomas for her contributions to the training of managers from a large number of companies.

Valeria is also a mother of two children: a shining example of womanhood in the business world. She is referred to as “Soul of the Academy” and “Guiding Light” by her thankful students. She has received wide recognition from participants for her musical training programs “House of My Dreams,” “Person of the New System” and many others. But Valeria has been carried to legendary status by her “prophetic” blessing-autographs, which are inevitably fulfilled.

e-mail: valeria53@mail.ru

Chapter 1.
Where is happiness hiding?

Napoleon’s confession on the island of Saint Helena. The private tragedy of Abraham Lincoln, 16^th President of the United States. What have great people suffered from, and why are the majority of families unhappy? The collection of knowledge necessary for achieving happiness. The formula for happiness. Who believes in God and how do they practice their faith? An ancient Sumerian recipe for success. How a 43 year-old woman overcame infertility.

Ignorance is the source of all suffering.

Socrates

Napoleon Bonaparte gloomily walked on the shores of Saint Helena. The year was 1818, the third year of his exile after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and his abdication from the throne. Like all those doomed to a life of imprisonment, he now lived only on memories, reliving in his mind, day by day, his eventful, turbulent life. For what was already the tenth time, he recalled all the episodes of combat and romantic exploits, faithfulness and betrayal, accomplishments and mistakes…

“In my life there were but three wonderful days: Marengo, Austerlitz and Jena, if you don’t count a fourth, when I granted an audience to the Austrian Emperor, in a ditch on the field of battle,” he unexpectedly broke the silence.

Napoleon’s companion on his walk, the Count Emmanuel de Las Cases, stopped and produced his notebook.

“This, I cannot believe, Your Excellence!” he cried, hastily making a note, fearing to miss even one word.

Las Cases, who had been an officer in Napoleon’s entourage and a faithful servant, had agreed to voluntarily share in his vanquished emperor’s exile. He was Napoleon’s most regular companion on his short daily walks, during which he meticulously recorded all Napoleon’s remarks in his notebook.

“Nevertheless, it is so,” Napoleon sighed sadly.

“But even Alexander the Great did not achieve fame such as yours!” objected Las Cases “and his glory burned brightly for many years!”

“If you consider the essence of fame, you will come to the conclusion that it amounts to very little,” responded Napoleon, “It is no reason for pride, no matter the words of the ignorant, praises of fools, or the approval or vilification of the crowd.”

“I remember well what honors you were given by your soldiers and the people after your great victories. Were you then not happy?”

“Such honors were pleasing only at the beginning of my successes,” Napoleon sadly shook his head, “Those who strive for honors are like lovers: the conquest devaluates the prize.”

“But you were the richest monarch in Europe, your wealth was envied by kings!” Las Cases refused to yield.

“Those who search for happiness in luxury and extravagance are like people who prefer the glow of candles to the light of the Sun,” Napoleon noted philosophically.

Waiting for Las Cases to finish writing this phrase, Napoleon uttered the following:

“The strong-willed avoid indulgence like ship’s navigators avoid rocks.”

It is difficult to suspect Napoleon of insincerity. All suspicions that the abased emperor was lying when he admitted the unhappiness of his famous life disappear once one has read all his dictums that Las Cases scrupulously recorded in his notebook for posterity. Now anybody can read his words; after Napoleon’s death, Las Cases’s notebook was published in France under the title Maximes et pensées du prisonnier de Sainte-Hélène. Manuscrit trouvé dans les papiers de Las Casas [1].

What did Napoleon lack that he needed for happiness? He achieved all those things which people usually strive to attain: fame, power and wealth. Perhaps love? In the letters of Las Cases there is not a word about this, but history has been preserved in Napoleon’s letters to Joséphine, which were written twenty years before his exile and which shine a bright light on their relationship. There were many such letters, but two are sufficient to understand who loved and who was loved in their marriage.

Letter of April 3, 1796:

“My one and only Joséphine, apart from you there is no joy; away from you, the world is a desert where I am alone and cannot open my heart. You have taken more than my soul; you are the one thought of my life. When I am tired of the worry of work, when I feel the outcome, when men annoy me, when I am ready to curse being alive, I put my hand on my heart; your portrait hangs there, I look at it, and love brings me perfect happiness, and all is miling except the time I must spend away from my mistress. By what art have you captivated all my facilities and concentrated my whole being in you? It is a sweet friend, that will die only when I do. To live for Joséphine, that is the history of my life I long….

“To die not loved by you, to die without knowing, would be the torment of Hell, the living image of utter desolation. I feel I am suffocating.My one companion, you whom fate has destined to travel the sorry road of life beside me, the day I lose your heart will be the day Nature loses warmth and life for me.”

There were many such letters, but few replies.

Napoleon’s letter from November 13, 1796:

“I don’t love you, not at all; on the contrary, I detest you – you’re a naughty, gawky, foolish Cinderella. You never write me; you don’t love your own husband; you know what pleasures your letters give him, and yet you haven’t written him six lines, dashed off so casually!

“What do you do all day, Madam? What is the affair so important as to leave you no time to write to your devoted lover? What affection stifles and puts to one side the love, the tender constant love you promised him?

Of what sort can be that marvelous being, that new lover that tyrannizes over your days, and prevents your giving any attention to your husband? Joséphine, take care! Some fine night, the doors will be broken open and there I’ll be.

“Indeed, I am very uneasy, my love, at receiving no news of you; write me quickly four pages, pages full of agreeable things which shall fill my heart with the pleasantest feelings.

“I hope before long to crush you in my arms and cover you with a million kisses as though beneath the equator” [2].

We will return to Napoleon later, but for now let’s return to one of the phrases from his letter to Joséphine, dated June 8, 1796: “I never believed in happiness.”

Two more of Napoleon’s phrases, recorded by Las Cases in his notebook, will be useful to us later:

“It seems to me that the ability to think is tied to the soul: the more reason achieves perfection, the greater the perfection of the soul.”

“Great foolishness is written concerning the soul. We must strive to know not what others say about it, but what our own reason can reveal to us, regardless of others’ opinions.”

Do you believe that Napoleon ever had a chance to find happiness in his marriage to Josephine? We maintain that he did, and after having read this book, you will find the reason for our certainty. We are convinced that every person who has the ability to reject false notions and to open themselves to new knowledge can become happy, regardless of the circumstances of his or her life at the present moment. In this book we will set forth this new knowledge, but for the moment, let us acquaint ourselves with the story of one more great person: Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865) the sixteenth president of the United States. He was a man possessed both of a great mind and great masculinity, who made massive contributions to the unity of his country. He earned the respect of both his friends and enemies, of everyone but his wife, who was a great source of suffering for Lincoln. American psychologist Dale Carnegie speaks of them in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People:

“The great tragedy of Abraham Lincoln’s life also was his marriage. Not his assassination, mind you, but his marriage. When Booth fired, Lincoln never realized he had been shot; but he reaped almost daily, for twenty-three years, what Herndon, his law partner, described as “the bitter harvest of conjugal infelicity.” “Conjugal infelicity?” That is putting it mildly. For almost a quarter of a century, Mrs Lincoln nagged and harassed the life out of him.

“She was always complaining, always criticizing her husband; nothing about him was ever right. He was stoop-shouldered, he walked awkwardly and lifted his feet straight up and down like an Indian.

“She complained that there was no spring in his step, no grace to his movement; and she mimicked his gait and nagged at him to walk with his toes pointed down, as she had been taught at Madame Mentelle’s boarding school in Lexington.

“She didn’t like the way his huge ears stood out at right angles from his head. She even told him that his nose wasn’t straight, that his lower lip stuck out, and he looked consumptive, that his feet and hands were too large, his head too small.

“Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln were opposites in every way: in training, in background, in temperament, in tastes, in mental outlook. They irritated each other constantly.

“Mrs. Lincoln’s loud, shrill voice,” wrote the late Senator Albert J. Beveridge, the most distinguished Lincoln authority of this generation—“Mrs Lincoln’s loud shrill voice could be heard across the street, and her incessant outbursts of wrath were audible to all who lived near the house. Frequently her anger was displayed by other means than words, and accounts of her violence are numerous and unimpeachable.”

“To illustrate: Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, shortly after their marriage, lived with Mrs. Jacob Early – a doctor’s widow in Springfield who was forced to take in boarders.

“One morning Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln were having breakfast when Lincoln did something that aroused the fiery temper of his wife. What, no one remembers now. But Mrs Lincoln, in a rage, dashed a cup of hot coffee into her husband’s face. And she did it in front of the other boarders. Saying nothing, Lincoln sat there in humiliation and silence while Mrs. Early came with a wet towel and wiped off his face and clothes.

“Mrs. Lincoln’s jealousy was so foolish, so fierce, so incredible, that merely to read about some of the pathetic and disgraceful scenes she created in public – merely reading about them seventy-five years later makes one gasp with astonishment. She finally went insane; and perhaps the most charitable thing one can say about her is that her disposition was probably always affected by incipient insanity” [3].

You could say that Lincoln, like Napoleon, was simply unlucky in his marriage. But if we take a look at the research of sociologists, we see that 90% of people are “unlucky” in marriage. This distressing statistic is tied to the fragility of family unity in the world around us. On average, almost every other marriage in the world officially ends in divorce, and of the remaining half of marriages three fourths of wedded couples can be found in the category ranging from “habitually-indifferent” to “it can’t get any worse.” Those marriages in which it “can’t get any worse” retain their legal status for a number of reasons: lack of desire to divide possessions, complex legal procedures, fear of judgment on the part of society…

“Unplanned” or “unlucky” marriages don’t exist, and in the pages of this book it will be revealed how any marriage can be transformed into a happy or, at the very least, peaceful and comfortable marriage. But don’t rush to thumb through the pages in search of this information; our recipes work only if you study the contents of each chapter attentively and in their proper order.

Familial disarray is not the only reason for suffering. People suffer from injustice and the knowledge of their inability to combat that injustice, from fear of impending old age and from poverty, from pain after the loss of loved ones, from creative failure, and from loneliness and disease…

While researching the boundless theme of “Human Suffering,” we found deeply unhappy people in all historical eras and in all circles of society. Torturous suffering affects not only average people, but also kings, presidents of countries and corporations, top models, and the stars of Hollywood and show business.

The dream of many young women to be a supermodel seems appealing on the glossy covers of magazines. But the famous German beauty Claudia Schiffer revealed what goes on “behind the covers” in her interview for the magazine Fivetonine: “Top-models are going extinct like mammoths, their lives are completely thrown into disarray, they turn to alcohol, debauchery and narcotics” [4].

It also turns out that almost all famous artists and wealthy people are unhappy.

Nikolai Gogol (1809—1852), the famous Russian prose writer and dramatist, wrote in a letter to his friend: “Hanging or drowning appear to me as medicine or relief.”

Lev Tolstoy (1828—1910), the great Russian writer, author of novels known around the world such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina, admitted in a letter in 1878:

“I am hiding the rope in order to stop me from hanging myself from the rafters in my room at night when I’m alone. I don’t go hunting anymore, so as to avoid the temptation to shoot myself. It seems to me that my life has been a stupid farce.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), a French writer, complained in his journal: “Everything seems loathsome to me. I would hang myself with joy, but only pride prevents me…” [5].

Flaubert kept himself from suicide, but many of his famed peers were unable to do the same.

In the eyes of many readers the great American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899—1961) resembled the hero of his well-known story “The Old Man and the Sea,” whose slogan was “Do not surrender under any circumstances!” He was a Nobel laureate, succesful fisherman, first-class hunter, frequenter of pubs – in general, a real man: smart, strong and warmhearted. But this was all merely a mask, behind which hid a deeply suffering soul.

Hemingway repeatedly attempted to kill himself. Even on the way to the clinic, where he planned to get help for his depression, Hemingway tried to throw himself from an airplane, and then on the ground, after landing he tried to kill himself on the blades of a spinning propeller. Having returned home after treatment, Hemingway all the same went through with what he had earlier attempted and ended up shooting himself with his favorite rifle on July 2, 1961.

The writer’s granddaughter, the beautiful Margaux, was at one time the highest paid model in America and then a successful actress; but she too could not escape depression, fell into alcoholism and marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of her grandfather’s death in a most peculiar way, by ending her own life.

The tragic story of Hemingway immediately calls to mind the tragedy of another great American author, Jack London (1876—1916), who killed himself as the result of prolonged depression, exacerbated by alcoholism.

London also extolled the will to live; the heroes of his novels and stories, who were able to overcome any difficulty, became images of strength and masculinity for generations of readers around the world. At first the author himself resembled his heroes, enduring many hardships and blows of fate. On the surface he always appeared as a cheerful, energetic, strong-willed man and displayed unbelievable work ethic; in the course of fifteen years, he wrote so much that the full collection of his works constituted forty volumes!

But he too lived behind a mask his entire life, even suffering from depression in his youth.

Since childhood Jack had been subject to bouts of depression, but none of his many friends and comrades knew of this. He was always filled with barely contained energy and life, smiling and supporting others even in the most difficult moments of his life. At the age of 37, London became the highest paid author in the world and owner of an enormous tract of land, on which were planted 140,000 eucalyptus trees.

The great author was well acquainted with the many sides of life, but that which he saw during his time on earth stirred up in him first ennui, then deep depression. London began to drink, which was the beginning of the end. At first he became disillusioned with the people around him, then with his beloved eucalyptus trees and then with literature itself. Having driven himself into a corner Jack London ended his life by drinking a fatal dose of poison on November 22, 1916.

Noted Japanese writers, too, are not set apart by their optimism.

Mishima Yukio (1925—1970), the most famous Japanese writer of the twentieth century, killed himself by committing seppuku.

Kawabata Yasunari (1899—1972), Nobel laureate, killed himself by releasing poisonous gas into his study.

This list could go on much further. Just a roster of famous people who have commited suicide would take up dozens of pages.

There are those who claim that great and wealthy people simply “act out of boredom,” that if they needed to think more about their immediate needs they wouldn’t have time to fall into such deep suffering. However, further down the social ladder one finds that ordinary people do not suffer any less than kings, top models and creative geniuses. The only difference between the first and the second is that the tragedies of each star comprise a story in and of themselves, sufficient for a novel or loud headlines in the media, whereas the suffering of billions of average people is simply a statistic for sociologists.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), stress and depression have become an epidemic which affects all of humanity. The world has seen sharp increases in suicide rates: according to the WHO, around a million people commit suicide each year (that is, one suicide every forty seconds). The number of people who commit suicide surpasses the number who are killed by war or crime. In China alone the number of suicides yearly exceeds 250,000 people.

1. These reviews were taken from Prostobook’s (the Ukrainian publisher of Nectar) website: http://prostobook.com/product/11-298242/

2. The Russian edition of the book is entitled Nectar for the Soul.

3. More reviews (over 130) can be found on Ozon.ru‘s website: http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/7237324/

12 3 4 5 6 Järgmine

Nectar for Your Soul

About the Authors

Chapter 1.Where is happiness hiding?

Selle raamatu lugejad loevad ka

Chapter 1.
Where is happiness hiding?