Discover Your Real Wealth: If Money Is the Means,Then What Is the End?

By Sirshree

A lot of us are caught up in the race of acquiring and multiplying wealth. Often, this comes at the cost of harmony in relationships, health and emotional well-being. We fail to strike the right balance in life and believe that life is meant to be such. Then, there are others who believe that it's impossible to be materially successful and yet have peace and joy-believing that prosperity and peace cannot coexist. Hence, they either resort to the life of a recluse or lose themselves in material indulgence.

Busting these myths related to money, Discover Your Real Wealth guides you to your true wealth of consciousness. It explains how your thoughts and emotions affect your consciousness and provides various techniques to retain and raise it. If you safeguard this wealth everything else will fall into place.

The book explains the art of functioning in a relaxed state, enabling you to assuredly watch how all your wishes come to fruition, instead of struggling and hankering after them. A calming read during cacophonous times, the teachings of Sirshree will help you enjoy all the riches of the world and lead the path to the ultimate state of peace, success, harmony and abundance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9789389000054

Book preview

Appendix

SECTION I

THE REAL WEALTH

1

Beyond Surviving and Striving

Why do I have less when those less capable than me have more?’…‘Why am I constantly struggling to meet my needs?’…‘Do I have to constantly compete with others?’…‘How important is accumulating wealth to lead a secure life?’…‘Is there no place for honest service in the corporate world?’…‘Is life all about struggle and striving?’…‘If I have to choose between an upward moving career or a good family life, which is a wiser choice?’

The answer to several such questions about money, wealth, career and progress can be addressed by how you approach life—from a negativity-based poverty approach or a positivity-based prosperity approach. But is there a third approach? Let us closely regard the two given approaches first.

Poverty Approach

A ‘poverty’ approach to life is based on a feeling of absence. Those who subscribe to this approach are constantly complaining. Their underlying belief is, ‘I don’t have enough.’ They are trapped in a victim mindset. ‘Why am I the only one to suffer?’…‘Why don’t I have enough?’…‘Why is life unfair?’ Such negative thoughts of deficiency further attract circumstances that drain them of what they already have. They are caught between perceiving themselves as lacking in something and further reinforcing that perception through negative thoughts and consequent circumstances. Thus, the more poor they are, the more they remain poor.

Prosperity Approach

A ‘prosperity’ approach to life, on the other hand, is generated from a feeling of aspiration. Those who strive to embrace this approach are constantly looking at how to achieve better things in life. Their underlying aspiration is, ‘I want even more.’ Their conquests arise from a victory mindset. ‘How can I get ahead in life?’ or ‘What can I do to succeed?’ and such similar positive thoughts are what motivate them.

Possibility Approach

What is common between the earlier two approaches is that they are both attitudes towards money and growth. This book talks about a third outlook—a possible approach to life where the underlying theme is ‘abundance and flow’. Those who thrive are the ones who imbibe this approach and let things naturally flow to them. They look at life as a means to express themselves, learning and developing their qualities along the way. Thus, they embody a virtue mindset.

They don’t shun money and growth, but give preference to being happy and flowing smoothly first from where the former naturally occurs in their life. Because of the deep assurance of abundance within themselves, their underlying belief is, ‘Things flow naturally to me.’ They are neither overtly focused on the negative nor the positive, but are intrinsically neutral and meditative. There is an instinctive knowledge that nature will provide for wealth whenever needed. When faced with apparent lack, there is a clarity that the situation has arisen as a challenge—a challenge that will strengthen or develop certain qualities that they had neglected earlier.

Let us look at some examples to understand the differences between the three.

Arun has just begun looking for a job. He prepares for it and gives his first interview. As a striver, he doesn’t carry the anxiety or baggage of bad experiences into it and is confident when he goes for the interview. But, during the course of the interview, he realises that all didn’t go too well and now his confidence is shaken. Then he hears from his colleagues that jobs are hard to come by; only experienced people get jobs. Now he approaches other interviews with apprehension, very aware of the fact that he doesn’t have a job and that it is very difficult to get one. He becomes a survivor with respect to interviews.

Then he meets a mentor who advises him on the possibility approach. First of all, he is told, ‘There are enough jobs for everyone. You already have a job. You have the job of looking for a job. Do that well and you will be rewarded.’ This small yet significant shift removes that feeling of lack and he goes about his job in earnest, paying little heed to all the rumours of scarcity around him. In the process, he learns the nuances of taking up an assignment and seeing it to completion, trains his body to communicate well and identifies all the skill sets he does not possess. While he is yet to become a thriver fully, he is beginning to go beyond surviving and striving.

Let us move on to an example of someone who already has a job.

Bhanu is constantly noticing how her colleagues are getting promotions and increments, and she is not moving as fast as them. So a feeling of lack sets in and she begins to think, ‘There is bias in this company… My boss is favouring others and not me…’ and so on. Now, Bhanu probably sticks around at her present job and complains as well as thinks of changing her job which makes her environment all the more negative. She gets into a cycle of attracting things as per her thoughts.

She decides to take a break from it all and plans a vacation. While on the break, a combination of the right place, right people and right books gets her into a meditative state. ‘Why do I want to change my job? Maybe the same thing will happen to me at whichever company I join next. Is the root problem really my boss? Is my feeling of lack the real issue? Has it arisen by looking at the prosperity of others? I already have a job in place which indicates that I am wealthy. For true wealth, let me look at what virtues I need to develop. When I am truly prepared and ready, nature will manifest something better automatically.’

Bhanu has thus got a glimpse into the third approach that this book will talk about.

Arun’s paradigm shift to ‘I already have a job of looking for a job’ or Bhanu’s shift to, ‘When I am ready, nature will manifest the next level automatically’ are examples of the third approach.

Let’s summarise the key points of what we have seen so far:

The first step to imbibe the third approach is a deep understanding of what real wealth is all about. It is only when this wisdom is truly comprehended that one stops surviving or striving and instead starts thriving. Let us look at this in the next chapter.

2

What Is Real Wealth?

There are various prevalent beliefs about what real wealth is. Some people consider money and riches as wealth, while others consider health as wealth. Some consider the availability of quality time as real wealth. But thrivers go on to realise that consciousness is our real wealth.

Consciousness is present in each and every living being as well as non-living entities. The level of consciousness is lowest in non-living things and relatively higher in living beings. Even among living beings, its level gradationally rises from plants to animals to humans. Thus, it is relatively the highest in humans. But even among humans, some have a higher level of consciousness than others. Let’s understand how one operates differently depending on their level of consciousness.

A man was enjoying a picnic by a beautiful lake. Suddenly, he saw a hunter wearing gumboots entering the lake. The hunter tore through the lotus buds mercilessly and then plucked the large, fully bloomed ones after which he walked away carrying them with him.

Looking at the hunter, the man felt he too should pick some lotus flowers. He cleaned his shoes, washed his face and hands and carefully proceeded to pluck some of the full blooms from the lake.

As he was about to pluck the flowers, the goddess of the lake appeared before him and forbade him from doing so. The man was baffled, ‘Why didn’t you stop the hunter when he plucked the flowers so mercilessly and even trampled over them? I, on the contrary, have washed myself in the right way and am lovingly plucking off the flowers.’

The goddess replied, ‘You can understand me for your level of consciousness is greater than that of the hunter. How can I expect the hunter to be sensitive enough while plucking flowers when he is brutal enough to kill animals? One needs to be sensitive enough to understand this.’

It is possible for humans alone to raise their consciousness to the stature of God and even bring it down to the level of an animal. As your level of consciousness increases, you become more and more sensitive.

Instead of focusing on the real wealth of consciousness as thrivers do, survivors and strivers focus on material wealth with no clarity on the role of money.

The Endless Pursuit of Survivors and Strivers

If we look around, we see everyone is busy doing something or the other. Some are busy fulfilling their basic needs of physical survival and safety while some are looking after their family. Still others run businesses, look forward to settle the next big contract, try to increase their market share or increase their shareholder value.

Those who are employees, look forward to the next successful project delivery, the next pay raise, the next promotion, the next vacation or the next comfort or convenience that they can acquire.

Those who don’t have sufficient work-related skills try to acquire them. Those who lack cordial relations with people, train themselves on human relations.

It’s but obvious that we need money to fulfil these needs. However, with the passage of time and our changing needs, the demand for money changes too. Hence, we find ourselves trying to earn more and more money. Some people, despite having fulfilled all their needs, continue earning money as they don’t know what else they can do. They derive happiness from watching their bank balance grow. These are the survivors and strivers.

So, where does all this start from? What is the basic motive behind their endless pursuit?

The basic motive is to be happy. Are they happy?

A survey was conducted among the elderly and the terminally ill to find out what their most common regrets were. One among the top five regrets was ‘I wish I had let myself be happier.’

Isn’t it absurd? After toiling hard throughout their lives, if they are going to have regrets about this at the end of their life, the whole pursuit is rendered futile, a pursuit undertaken in the wrong direction. So, then, is there something wrong with their understanding of happiness itself? Are they putting the cart before the horse?

The science behind positive psychology suggests putting happiness first and then the action. Yes, you read it right. First become happy and then perform