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.
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.”
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.
