On the eve of the festival of lights when we welcome Goddess Lakshmi into our homes, Pujya Swamiji shares his wisdom on the power of sharing wealth.
One rises above the psyche of a survivor when one contributes something to the world. This contribution need not be to human society alone. If you have to live your life positively and not just get by; if you have to rise above being a mere survivor, you need to act at a deeper level.
This is a level which not only includes the significant others in your life, but is one in which every other person becomes significant to you. For this, you need to enjoy a certain depth within yourself, a certain strength or intensity with which you respond to the world and the entire environment; every plant, every tree, every organism. It is then that you become a true contributor.
You do not become a contributor just by being an earning member of the family, or just by being a parent. As a parent, you cross the line between being a survivor and becoming a contributor only when you have the leisure to enjoy your child, so that he or she can grow to become a contributor.
Suppose you educate your children and bring them up with much care and attention so that each one becomes a contributor, you are then a contributor because you contribute a contributor. You need to have a certain maturity or growth so that you can convert another person into a contributor. But this is not the only form of contribution.
There are varieties of contributions. All that counts is whether you have reached the level of being a contributor. To reach that level your entire psychology, that is, your way of thinking, your way of looking at yourself, others, and at the world, has to undergo a change.
- Excerpted from –Living Versus Getting On