Should the vector of human life point toward material or spiritual wealth? We continue talking about wealth and the essence of prosperity.
Where should the vector of human life be directed? Toward material or toward spiritual wealth? What should we invest our energy in? Today we continue talking about wealth and the essence of prosperity.
How do our ways of earning affect our well-being?
The whole material world is under the influence of three forces: tamoguńa, rajoguńa and sattvaguńa. Work that involves causing suffering to other people belongs to the guńa of tamas, the energy of staticity. This energy is extremely destructive for the one who uses it. Whoever engages in banditry, whoever builds a business on slot machines, casinos or drinking establishments, that is, on everything that degrades a person and throws them back in evolution, whoever devises various corrupt schemes, earns money in a tamasic way. Earning money like this, a person is not worthy of that money, not worthy of that wealth; it is not meant for them. It is the same as stealing from the universe. In this case a person loses their truly important riches and, in the end, loses the money as well, since material wealth is short-lived. All actions are weighed by the law of karma. For this reason yogis are strongly advised not to take part in any activity in which tamoguńa is involved.
Work under the influence of rajoguńa, the force of passion and ambition, is also not very favorable for a person. Rajas is an active energy, directed mainly at strengthening personal selfish tendencies, at a personal passion for false self-aggrandizement. Working under the influence of this guńa, one can preserve one's capital, but there will be no happiness. For example, if a doctor strives to earn money rather than to cure the patient, he is working under the influence of rajoguńa.
He will earn the money, but he will not become happy, because only sattvaguńa gives happiness.
Under its influence, a person strives first of all to benefit people. Thus the main guideline in work should be the wish for the well-being of society, and earning money should be secondary. You need to understand that if you take care of the universe, it will certainly take care of you. Any productive form of business belongs to sattvaguńa. Everything that brings good to humanity, everything that potentially conserves a person's energy and gives them the opportunity to develop spiritually, is sattvic activity. It seems a paradox: you do not set yourself such a goal, but in fact you receive more than you wanted. That is why money, whether from your own business or from employment, should be earned using the energy of sattvaguńa. All the other options are a very unprofitable conversion, because a person squanders, that is, spends practically in vain, the riches accumulated over the course of evolution. Then, because they have misused their free will, they are thrown back to a lower evolutionary level, at which there is no right to evolutionary advantages at all.
What are the lessons of wealth and poverty?
When in a state of poverty, a person should understand that they are going through an important lesson that can teach them something. For example, to become austere and learn aparigraha, non-acquisitiveness, when you do not overuse resources for the sake of pleasure. Say you want to buy an expensive car. The principle of aparigraha advises you to be content with buying a cheaper car and to direct the remaining energy and means to Spiritual practice: the daily effort, above all meditation, to move the mind toward the Infinite. and service.
Poverty can also teach the principle of santośa, contentment, when a person can feel happy without money. Passing through these phases of poverty and wealth, a person acquires qualities thanks to which the wealth that comes later will not be able to spoil them.
The next principle for achieving prosperity is tapah (sacrifice). By practicing tapah, you help purify the mind and form the right mentality. For example, you discover a quality such as greed in yourself. It can be overcome with generosity: donate at least small sums. But when, in giving, you overcome yourself and set aside your own interests for the sake of another, that is exactly what tapah is. Tapah is an act of spiritual heroism. It is important to know that one must give very wisely. When you give something to a person or a group of people, you enter into a karmic relationship with them. For example, if the person you gave to used that money for their own development or for serving other people, your consciousness will be elevated. Conversely, if that person bought alcohol and, under its influence, beat someone, you will share their karma with them. The karmic responsibility for their outrageous act is also your responsibility. That is why money should be given to people who follow the moral principles of yama and niyama. You will need to make sure that the money is used for good. In other cases, you should give for things that cannot be misused, for example, giving people food. That is, you need to be sure that your donation will do no harm: no harm to the person, no harm to society, and so on. Helping in the field of spiritual enlightenment is the best one could wish for. If you have inspired even one person to do spiritual practices, it is equivalent to a tectonic shift in objective reality. That is why it is very important to support spiritual people in their spiritual aspirations and in their service.
And the last lesson of poverty and wealth is Iishvara prańidhána. This concept implies the ability to be spiritually happy even if the material sphere leaves much to be desired. Iishvara prańidhána is the principle of realizing the supreme Truth, which allows one to become happy, to have a spiritual goal in life and to take shelter in it, that is, to stop depending on material things. Then in any situation, wherever you find yourself, you will feel happy. The ideal realization of the principle of Iishvara prańidhána is meditation.
Armed with all of the above, you will certainly achieve permanent prosperity. You will be able to live in such a way that from a small seed you become a huge tree, and then infinity. Or you can burn through your life and waste everything you were given at birth, ending up with absolutely nothing. That is often what happens.
For a spiritual person this topic is also very important, because their material sphere is not yet taken care of.
A person gets distracted and spends a lot of energy and attention on the material world, which will not let them live in peace and do what they are meant to do. That is why establishing harmony on all levels, including the material level, is a very important task for a spiritual seeker.
A spiritual seeker lives not only for their own enlightenment; they also have duties in this world: duties toward themselves and toward society. And in order to have more opportunities to serve and to fulfill duties toward a wide circle of people, one needs to have a large amount of resources. You are moving toward expansion. And, moving toward expansion, you are able to care for more and more people.
The vector of human life
Some people believe that one should convert one's spiritual riches into material ones. There is a whole trend of a kind of money esotericism. People try to use their psychic powers for this. Using one's capacity for good meditation to achieve crude aims is, in essence, black magic. At the same time, if as a result of past experience you have accumulated some spiritual potential, you can convert this spiritual potential into physical potential. If you have none of it, you will be seen as an oddball who says strange things about the law of attraction and the like. You will sit for hours visualizing your "Ferrari," but for some reason the "Ferrari" will never appear. You simply have nothing to convert; you have no spiritual energy. Moreover, this process will completely drain the crumbs of it that you have accumulated from the most important source, which in the end will lead to complete ruin in all spheres.
A rational, wise person, on the contrary, will invest in the cause of prosperity, feeding and fertilizing the root itself (the cause), not the branches (the effect). And the cause of prosperity is well-being in the spiritual sphere.
Well-being in the psychic sphere is secondary. It is also important to understand that a person's attitude to life and the vector of their development depend on their mentality. For example, one person can be dropped somewhere in Africa without money or means of subsistence, and within a year everything in their life will be in order. Another lives with a heap of opportunities right under their nose, does not see them and is unable to use them. This happens because the mentality is distorted, and the person is unable to remain in prosperity. A wise person converts physical energy into psychic energy, and psychic energy into spiritual energy. That is precisely the process of spiritual practice.
Money is good only when it brings happiness. And it brings happiness only if it can give development in the psychic and spiritual spheres. On this basis priorities are set for where to spend money. Not setting aside at least some percentage means not investing in your future, staying on the same level. To invest in your future is to invest in your psychic and spiritual development. This is very important. Some people think that spiritual development can be neglected. But the irony is that the spiritual area is the key one; everything depends on it. Neglecting this area is very unwise. Such a person will stay on the same level, because there is no basis for moving to a new level. At the same time, it is important that, regardless of the situation, a person give at least a minimal amount of their income (our Master named 2%) as a selfless donation, which will allow them to position themselves correctly in relation to the universe.
The meaning of existence in this universe is to do sádhaná and to serve other beings. What means are there for spiritual development? Reading spiritual literature, attending retreats, traveling to places that inspire.
It is necessary to give donations and help other people in all circumstances, even if you have practically nothing. It is the right habit, the right positioning. It is very important not to neglect the spiritual sphere and never to begrudge money for development in it. When our basic material needs are met, our main resources should be directed to sádhaná, spiritual elevation and service to people.
Thus the cause of poverty is a wrong ordering of priorities, an orientation toward squandering instead of accumulating.
People with a poverty mentality, on receiving any sum of money, start fulfilling their unrealized desires, investing the money in dead-end branches, that is, in what will not contribute to their development. So the money will simply be spent and will not come back. People with a wealthy mentality think first of all about how best to invest money. They will invest it in their education or their spiritual development and so on, aiming not simply to spend it but at what will increase true wealth.
There is a mistaken approach to money as something dirty and unworthy ("money can't buy happiness"). A person needs money for material well-being, but some complex is present that does not allow them to recognize this need as a necessity. There is a grain of truth in this approach: money really can be dirty. Money is called dirty when it has been earned through the suffering of living beings or by some other dishonest means.
The complex "I don't need money" and the complex "money is something dirty" can be overcome by setting priorities correctly. These complexes go away when there is an understanding that money is needed mainly for one's own development and for helping others. Envy and excess are also among the mental blocks to wealth.
When, as a result of spiritual practices, a person enters the flow of harmony, they act rightly, and the universe begins to feed them properly, provide for them properly and give them more opportunities to serve others. But if a person takes a selfish position, the universe is forced to take resources away from them and to limit them. Thus, if a person lives for the common good, the universe will always support them.
