One of the biggest challenge facing us and the future generations is that of global warming & limitless plundering of natural resources by mankind. All this is due to excessive consumption on part of all of us.
In a recent Kaya Kalp retreat at Katarkhadak, Guruji Rishi Prabhakar praised the virtue of a simple life. He even attributed the economic recession in the world to the excessive greed of the people of USA. I chose to investigate into this aspect of excessive consumption.
In our basic SSY class, we have all seen the importance and usefulness of operating from ‘acceptance’. I could always see ‘acceptance’ work miracles in my life but could never fully establish the principles of nature which made it work.
SSY, as discovered by Pujya Guruji, is a science along the lines of Adwaita-Vedanta as propagated by Shankaracharya and Maharshi Raman. Along the lines of the same Adwaita philosophy, here is the reason as to why acceptance works :
What attracts abundance? Life has a simple rule. Like attracts like. Abundance attracts abundance. What does that mean? Can this law also have tragic implications? Yes, Here is one. I can’t be materially abundant until I am materially abundant to begin with.
Assuming I don’t have enough money, it makes a vicious circle for me; it’s a trap, an unjust one. It’s like saying that money builds on money. That’s what our fore fathers told us too. But well where do I get the first chunk of money to begin with? Who will gift me the first chunk, the seed money? If only I had a rich father…
The moment money becomes a measure of how worthy you are, you have dug your own grave. Now you size your self‐worth in proportion to the moolah raked away in your bank account. Well, this is a trap, also a catch 22 of sorts. You can’t feel good about yourself until you have made enough money and you can’t make enough money, by and large, until you feel good about yourself. Why should money be good to somebody who isn’t good to himself? You attract all goodies only when you are good to yourself.
Prosperity is a beautiful state, a great accomplishment. It’s also a beautiful word, albeit narrowed and watered down in its colloquial definition.
Genuine Prosperity is not so narrow, it’s all‐encompassing. Though it has typically come to be narrowly defined as material abundance. Material abundance it is, but it’s just a part of prosperity; a major part of it.