Do you think wealth and spirituality are in conflict? Do you feel guilty about becoming wealthy? Do you have problem attracting wealth?
I used to carry a few wrong ideas about wealth due to my past childhood conditioning until I attended an Enlightened Wealth programme in 2011 by my guru, Paramahamsa Nithyananda. It changed many of the wrong root patterns I carried about wealth! Since then I’ve seen an increase in my ability to create wealth. You may ask how can we learn about wealth from a sannyasi – one who does not touch money?! The truth is only enlightened master, who has gone beyond wealth, is fit to speak about the secrets of wealth creation because he can’t be made wealthy by any material wealth in the outer world.
Let me share the 7 deep secrets about wealth consciousness and wealth creation:-
- Wealth is life energy you express. Here is a straight equation – the amount of wealth you create is equivalent to the amount of life energy you express. Your idea about wealth is intimately tied up with your idea of yourself. This is highly influenced by past conditioning from the childhood when you were just forming your identity. So be very clear if you do not have wealth, don’t blame anybody, it means you are not expressing life in you. Life energy is not happening in you due to either wrong concepts about wealth or pure laziness. So creating wealth is intrinsic part of life. Lord Krishna, an incarnation says it very beautifully in Bhagavad Gita “Gahano Karmano Gatihi” – the universe by its very nature works, works, works. Wealth is a natural result of this process. So the more and more life energy starts expressing through you, the greater wealth you create.
- Wealth creation is not sin. Wealth is not sin if it is created. It is sin only if it is stolen or grabbed through cheating, corruption, robbery or burglary. The way we create wealth determines if it is a sin or not. There are 2 ways to gain wealth: a) Creating wealth – for example, through products like cloth, food, shelter, jewellery, art – these are the avenues to attract wealth in a creative way, b) Robbing wealth – Many wealth accumulation are done through stealing, robbing, grabbing, swindling of others’ wealth. Only those unconscious methods which contribute to suffering are considered sin. Otherwise if you are contributing something directly to people, planet earth, the universe which brings abundance, then it is perfectly natural. First step to wealth consciousness is to remove the guilt about wealth from your inner space.
- Wealth creation leads to fulfilment & non violence. If a man decides to channel his creative energy to wealth creation, he will have wealth and fulfilment. This is because his energy will be moved towards creating wealth not destroying others. The conscious attitude which works towards creating wealth makes one non-violent because his whole energy becomes creative. By creating wealth, it brings tremendous interest in life and non-violence; he becomes pro-life because he will be too busy with people, world and life. In the Vedic culture, the first priority in life is Moksha (achieving enlightenment or liberation), till that happens, the second priority can be creating wealth.
- Get out of slave mentality or non worthiness. I’ve seen 2 groups of people with this mentality. The people in the first group are those who have a deep desire to have wealth but they are not having it due to laziness and irresponsibility, they go on justifying their state for not doing the work. Their actions are not focused; they are just cheating in the name of work. The people in the second group are those who use spirituality as an escape mechanism. The mind can be cunning enough to justify one’s poverty for the inability to face life and they add sacredness to their poverty in the facet of spirituality. They need to come out of their hatred for hard work.
- Wealth should be circulated. In the Vedic tradition, there are 2 deities who represent 2 dimensions of wealth. First is Kubera who is famous for hoarding wealth. All his life, he collects and collects and never thinks of spending wealth. Kubera just owns and hoards and finally someone comes to steal it! Hoarding wealth is symptomatic of the deep-rooted insecurity you carry about life. When you are afraid to share your wealth, it means you have a deep doubt in your ability to create more wealth. The second is Lakshmi who represents wealth that is flowing, circulating, current. She uses wealth to enrich herself and the world. She creates wealth effortlessly, uses it freely, distributes it unconditionally. She breathes life into wealth, and wealth into life. Fundamentally, our attitude towards wealth is actually a subtle indicator of our attitude towards life. The truth is we cannot hold on to either wealth or life! Wealth is like water, we should jump into it, enjoy it but never possess it. If you are unconscious, you will not be able to enjoy wealth even when your life is filled with wealth. When you flow with the flow of wealth in your life, you will always be filled with abundance.
- Take responsibility and work hard. We must be ready to take the steps to transform our dreams into reality i.e. plan intelligently and work hard for it. A wealthy consciousness attracts wealth. Remember – Lakshmi serves only those who are wealthy in their very consciousness. Don’t be afraid to try and fail because mistakes are a part of the learning process of gaining wisdom in life.
- Share Your Wealth. The law of nature is this “When it is shared, you are showered with it”. When you are sure that nothing can ever be taken away from you, you will stop protecting your wealth in irrational ways. Then sharing your wealth freely in a form of charity become easy. You will not be exploited because you will have the intelligence to handle your wealth without fear or greed. Charity is a spiritual practice, it means that we are ready to take responsibility for the well-being of others. In sharing wealth, we go beyond our narrow boundary of selfish identity and become a channel for flow of wealth to all around us.
In essence, there is no conflict between wealth and spirituality if it is created from the right consciousness. Our ability to attract abundance depends on our right ideas about wealth, our effort in creating a wealthy consciousness and how we choose to play with LIFE. Wealth can teach us many powerful lessons about life if we are open to it. Wealth is for the high achievers who are willing to become a channel for the flow of life to humanity. Namaste! 🙂