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What “Bhagvad Gita” Teach us about Wealth

Shitanshu Kapadia
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What “Bhagvad Gita” Teach us about Wealth

Bhagavad Gita and wealth creation are still perceived as odd combinations.

In Hinduism, if you want to take the spiritual path, the first advice is to ‘give away all your money and wealth and head towards the Himalayas.’

Who needs money in a Himalayan Cave? But to be spiritually oriented and to live in a society we need money and we need to generate wealth.

Generating wealth through hard work is not a sin. To live a better life money is as essential as water.

Bhagavad Gita helps us in striking a balance. Geeta shows us how to create wealth. To create wealth the brain has to be challenged every moment. We have to make use of it for family, society, market, and business deals.

bhagvad gita arjun krishna

In a simple sense, we need to do Karmas and face the realities of life.

In Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna when faced with the realities of life wanted to take refuge in meditation and spirituality. Krishna scoffed at Arjuna who could not face reality.

Real spirituality is the one that is practiced in society and not in Himalayan caves.

Looking at the profiles of successful entrepreneurs in independent India, the majority of them faced reality and addressed the challenges boldly. They did not take refuge in caves or fate.

Today spirituality is like spending time in the satsang, visiting temples, and donating money in the hope that the Lord will make you rich automatically.

Everyone has their own method of spirituality. But according to me, it is better to realize that God is residing in us, so we should realize our hidden potential and put it into action.

Arjuna was finally ready for action once he realized Krishna was in him.

When we stop searching for God outside of ourselves and realize he is us and we are him and we take action with this knowledge, certainly wealth and success are sure to follow.

When the spiritual strengths are realized inside, this will overcome the physical and intellectual strengths that we may be lacking. This is what “The Secret” is all about. It is not a new concept, just an old concept with a nice new package.

Many of us do not like to work and are forced to do so to make financial commitments.

If we learn to enjoy a type of work, we automatically start to excel in it, and then wealth and success follow.

Quite often instead of enjoying the work, we worry more about what we will get from it.

Examples –

  • Instead of concentrating on cleaning the table, the waiter is more bothered about the tip.
  • The programmer is thinking about bugs or results.
  • The player is thinking about the endorsement.

The net result is that we do the job badly, we don’t enjoy the work or the moment and ultimately all the monetary dreams are shattered.

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita says

Work done with selfish motives is inferior by far to the selfless service or Karma-yoga. Therefore be a Karma-yogi, O Arjuna. Those who seek the fruits of their work are verily unhappy (because one has no control over the results).

हे अर्जुन – निःस्वार्थ भाव से किया गया कार्य निःस्वार्थ सेवा या कर्मयोग से कहीं कम है। इसलिए कर्मयोगी बनो।

जो लोग अपने काम फल की आशा में करते हैं, वे वास्तव में दुखी होते हैं (क्योंकि परिणामों पर किसी का नियंत्रण नहीं होता है)।

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि।।

इस काय का है भाग, भाग बिन पाया नहीं जाता, कर्म बिना नसीब फ़ल,तोड़ खाया नहीं जाता।

Our selfishness is always thinking about the end product and creating wealth without hard work. Put heart and soul into whatever you do because it is more worthwhile than chanting mantras. When you work wholeheartedly, you are indulging in the creation and it touches the spirit in you and you experience spirituality. Wealth, success, and fame will automatically follow.

But what if I fail? This is a lack of self-confidence.

This comes out of unnecessarily thinking about the fruits of your work. Rarely does one achieve success in the first attempt. Each failure teaches us several lessons. Each failure takes us close to success. Every work creates a result, so work without getting attached to results.

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita says

A Karma-yogi gets freedom from both vice and virtue in this life itself. Therefore, strive for Karma-yoga. Working to the best of one’s abilities without getting attached to the fruits of work is called (Nishkaama) Karma-yoga. 

कर्मयोगी को इसी जीवन में पाप और पुण्य दोनों से मुक्ति मिल जाती है। इसलिए कर्म-योग के लिए प्रयास करें। कर्म के फल में आसक्त हुए बिना अपनी क्षमता के अनुसार सर्वोत्तम कार्य करना (निष्काम) कर्म-योग कहलाता है।

दु:खेष्वनुद्विग्नमना: सुखेषु विगतस्पृह: । वीतरागभयक्रोध: स्थितधीर्मुनिरुच्यते ।।

When we succeed we are happy, when we fail we are sad. But what was our state of mind when we were working? Gita is more interested in the state of mind when you were working. Krishna asks Arjuna to enjoy the moment and do the work efficiently. Arjuna should think about the first arrow that he will aim at Bhishma not about the last arrow striking Bhishma.

Similarly, each moment you have to stand up to challenges and take risks and by enjoying each moment, you slowly move towards victory.

A person in steady mind in work Bhagavad Gita calls such a person ‘Sthiraprajna’ – a person of steady wisdom and self-knowledge who cannot be shaken. To create wealth and to enjoy it, you need to be a ‘Shiraprajna’ and then you will realize that your very nature is happiness.

Understanding Shrimad Bhagavad Gita

I do accept that understanding every aspect of “Srimad Bhagavad Gita” is very difficult but you need to find out your own method to understand it.

The simplest way I have for you is just to observe the front photo of the Bhagavad Gita which shows that “Rath of Arjun is driven by Lord Krishna that Rath has Four Horse Dharma, Arth,Kama & Moksha.”

bhagvadgita front page

Similar to this Lord Krishna is also driving Rath of our Life containing these horses if we spoil any of karma towards it (Dharm, Artha, Kaam & Moksha) Lord Krishna beat this horse/us by the whip to redirect us the correct way.

What is your understanding of Bhagwad Geeta?

If you have yet not read Bhagavad Gita, I hereby request you to pick up the “Srimad Bhagavad Gita” and read it and I am sure you will find the answer to all your problems. After reading you will be full of wonderful ideas and thoughts.

Expense Tracker Google Forms

Shitanshu Kapadia
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1
Expense Tracker Google Forms

google docs

Tracking expenses is an essential need to control finances. Each of one uses different mechanisms to track spending, like Excel sheets, smartphone apps, or certain software on desktop, but the bottom line is the same to track where each penny/rupee is going.

I am herewith way to make a simple expense tracker using Google Docs, this expense tracker will take details of your expenses in a simple form. It will allow you to track your expenses not only you can do analysis by using built-in charts anytime. So let’s check out how you can make your own ‘Simple expense tracker” using Google Docs.

Expense Tracker using Google Docs

Step 1:- Create a new Google Docs – Form

Login to Google Docs using your Google account once you are inside click on create “form” tab as shown below.

google form

Once you click this tab it will open a new window where you can create a form. We will use this form to enter spending details.

Step 2:- Create a basic expense tracking form

We will now create a basic form with the following fields:

  1. How much?       – Money Spending
  2. Spends on:-  A description of the spending
  3. Category:- A      list of categories for spending

google spend tracker

The first step is to name the form. I have chosen “Spending Tracker”. You can give your own name. Next, add three basic questions, as shown above, the process is very simple, just try for yourself. Finally, save expenditure tracking form.

Step 3:- Enter Expense in the form

Once you are done, open the link which is marked by the red box in the above figure, or Identified by “You can view the published form here”. Don’t forget to bookmark this link. This is the URL you will access whenever you want to enter a new expense.

The form will look like this:-

spending tracker

Just start adding your expenses once you enter a few expenses the spreadsheet will look like this:

spreadsheet

Google adds the time stamp for each expense made by you. So you don’t have to worry about entering the expense date. You can use this tracker to track your spending. (provided you enter information as soon as possible)

Step 4:- Analysis of Expense

Google docs also give you the facility to analyze your expenses, just use built-in charts in Google Docs to do some analysis of the expenses. I did a bar chart to show what is possible.

chart

So, what are you waiting for just click here to take a test drive for the expense tracker made using Google Docs.

Gold linked investment products – Alternative to Physical Gold by RBI

Shitanshu Kapadia
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Gold linked investment products – Alternative to Physical Gold by RBI

gold

Gold is making record in terms of price every day. It seems it is only asset class growing in value & Indian people has gold mania they are investing in gold like anything. According to world gold council estimate 800 tonnes of net gold is imported by India in 2012 for domestic consumption, This seems to be very high.

To reduce pressure on gold imports and to manage the country’s obsession with gold investment RBI (Reserve Bank of India) is planning to introduce gold-linked products to promote the use of gold as a financial asset.

RBI aim will be to find a way to promote products that people can invest in but which are not dependent on physical possession of gold, said by Subir Gokarn, deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India. Something like dematerialized form of GOLD but are not entirely dependent on physical possession.

RBI may consider modified gold deposit schemes, gold-linked accounts, gold accumulation plans and gold pension plans.

gold linked products

Gold Deposit Schemes:-

Modified gold deposit schemes would be where investors could hold physical gold deposits with banks for a definite period of time. It is kind of fixed deposit in Gold. The customers can deposit their idle gold.

This modified GDS (Gold Deposit schemes), will be suitable for mid-size investors, here interest will be paid in the form of ‘gold’ after maturity.

However, gold will not be returned in the original form.

Gold Linked Accounts:-

They would be non-interest bearing accounts, giving users the exposure to gold markets- where the gold would be purchased and hedged abroad.

As this yellow metal will be hedged abroad and physical delivery of the metal will not arise. At the end of the maturity period, the customer disposes of the gold and gets equivalent of cash. This account will allow easy entry and exit.

Gold Accumulation plan:-

Gold accumulation plans would be in the form of systematic investment plans where small quantities could be bought at regular intervals just like mutual funds.

Though the returns could fluctuate, over time the average cost of accumulation goes down. Physical delivery is quite low.

Gold Pension plan:-

Gold pension plan targeted at senior citizens while allowing reverse mortgage of properties.

According to the plans, banks will open an annuity plan with the insurance companies for definite period. Though banks will not return the jewellery, the high return is expected to attract the gold owners, said Gokarn.

Currently, huge quantity of gold is laying with Indian household which if government assures of good returns with some schemes like this, would come in circulation resulting into lower import of the metal into the country. It would save dollar for other imports and ultimately help the country to use the foreign currency for future. According to this is good step by RBI for country.

Saving for Child education is not child’s play

Shitanshu Kapadia
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1
Saving for Child education is not child’s play

Education Saving

Mr.Rakesh Mishra Mumbai Mumbai-based MNC employee earns a good salary of Rs 60,000 and has only liability in terms of Home loan EMI. Yet every quarter his bank balance drops close to four digits, this is because every quarter amount close to 35000 Rs/- goes to school and tuition fees of his sons Shyam and Ram.

He keeps on praying that no unexpected expense turns up during this time. This could be the case with you A massive surge in education costs in the past five years has stretched the monthly budgets of middle-class families like anything.

According to an Assocham survey of 2,000 families across 15 cities, the annual school education expense on a child has risen from Rs 35,000 five years ago to Rs 94,000 now. It is observed that the cost of education usually rises twice as fast as normal inflation.

If you are worrying about this sharp rise in school education expenses, there’s a bigger time bomb ticking away. Higher education costs are growing at an even faster rate. The average fees of an Engineering course is roughly Rs 6 Lakh today, five years down the line it would be close to double meaning Rs 12 Lakh. In 10 years’ time, it’s likely to cost around Rs 20 Lakh.

Education Cost

The cost of the MBA course has grown even faster current cost is approximately 15 Lakh and is expected to be 40 Lakh after 5 years. MBA is likely to cost 60 Lakh in 2027.

This exponentially growing cost has no dead end. Many of you are planning for your retirement but looking to the future cost of education you must plan for your child’s education.

If the current trend continues then to make your child an Engineer or MBA like you is not child’s play.

You have to save & invest enough money for your child’s education.

Save Education Cost

If you are thinking that you need to save only for fees then you are wrong your child’s school fee is not only an expense related to the child’s education. A lot of other expenses is involved in child education. There are books, stationery, uniforms, transportation, projects, picnics, annual school/college functions, sports, extra-curricular activities etc.

The estimated annual cost for one child is formulated in the below table. You can put your figures and see how much it costs in your pocket.

Education Cost

As we said saving for child education is not child’s play but if you think long term and invest Rs 5,000 a month in an option that delivers a 12% return every year, you would build a Rs 25 lakh corpus in 15 years.

If you can manage to increase this investment amount by Rs 1,000 every year and then your corpus will be almost doubled and you can build to Rs 50 lakh for child education.

It seems very simple, it is but parents should feel strongly that they need to save regularly for child education one of the crucial financial goals.

Remember your Investment amount, discipline & selection of the right asset class will decide whether your child goes to a premier institute like IIT, or IIM for higher studies or ends up doing a correspondence course in a small institute. This education will also decide the career path he plans for himself.

Essesnse of this article is not to increase your worry about the cost of child education but to make yourself aware of the situation so that appropriate steps can be taken.

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