Why Wealth Is Good For Your Spiritual Growth!
by Asoka Selvarajah, Ph.D
Spiritually oriented people, and even many secular people too,
feel that the pursuit of financial wealth is a negative thing; a
heart-hardening cynical process that distracts you from following
the true calling of the spirit. Not only is this incorrect, but
the exact opposite can actually be true. Once you understand the
processes by which wealth is created, and the benefits it can
provide to many people, it is possible to pursue wealth creation
in a way that is entirely wholesome; benefiting you and others
simultaneously.
First of all, you should realize that there is no intrinsic merit
in being poor. As Abraham Lincoln once said:
"You can't help the poor by becoming one of them!"
Indeed, the equating of poverty with spirituality is a common
mistake. If poverty itself was sufficient, then a homeless person
would be a saint! It is neither wealth nor poverty that relate
directly to spiritual potential, but rather the degree of mental
ATTACHMENT present. This is why Jesus said it was harder for a
rich man to get to heaven than for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle. It is a matter of what you put your attention on;
what matters MOST to you; what you obsess about.
Why is it better to be rich than poor? One simple reason is that
it frèes you from focusing continually upon survival needs. Your
mind is enabled to pursue higher things than merely how to feed
yourself or keep a roof over your head! It's better to just "get
it handled", and then move on to concern yourself with more
important issues.
It is the nature of life to expand itself and do the best it can.
This is true of trees growing ùp to the light, cheetahs running
as fast as they can, and it should be true of human beings to
become the best they can be in every conceivable area. So why
earn far less than you are truly capable of? Who does this really
satisfy?
If nothing else, being wealthy gives you far more options for
your òwn life AND far more capability to help other needy people.
Certainly, there are many ways to help other people that do not
involve mòney or material things. However, if you do wish or need
to help others in this way, how can you do so if you have no
mòney yourself? Andrew Carnegie is remembered for giving away
the hundreds of millions of dollars he made in his career.
Billionaire George Soros is currently doing the same thing. The
point is that your capacity to help others, even your favored
spiritual causes, incrèases if you have spare càsh.
At the very least, you will have the mòney needed to help your
own family! When your parents are old, and in need of expensive
health care, would you not wish to be in a position to provide
it? Shame on you, if you have worked all your life and are unable
to do even that!
The truth is that mòney is nothing more than a flow of creative
energy from one person to another. You exchange your creative
energy for mine, and the medium used is mòney. The universe is a
place of abundance, and it is certainly not the will of the
creator of this abundance that YOU should remain poor!
Moreover, the healthy pursuit of financial wealth has many
positive merits. Jim Rohn, one of America's leading
motivation trainers, tells how his mentor, a multi-milliònaire,
once advised him to work hard to become a milliònaire too; NOT
for the mòney, but rather for the kind of person it would make of
him to achieve it.
This advice reflects a crucial point. The best way to become
financially wealthy - in fact, the ONLY real way - is to give
other people far more value than you ever receive from them. One
famous marketer calls it "giving dollars for dimes". In other
words, you have to give the customer far more value than that
customer gives to you in terms of mòney. In its most positive
sense, wealth creation is about improving the lives of other
people so much that you cannot help but become wealthy in return.
That is the ethical way to extract the dollars from their
pockets; in fact, they will queue ùp to give them to you!
It's obvious if you think about it. Would you EVER part
with mòney for something that you perceive to be worth LESS than
the mòney itself? No. Even if you bùy a spiritual book, you
perceive the value that you will receive to be worth far more
than the mòney you parted with. Therefore, the key to becoming
wealthy is actually to find a way to give people something they
really want, and òffer far more value than you receive back in
càsh.
Jay Abraham, at 5,000 dollars PER HOUR, is America's highest paid
business consultant. What does this man, who has worked with over
10,000 businesses of all sizes in his career, say about this
matter? He advises businesses to be far less concerned with their
own self-serving profit motivations, and instead become totally
obsessed with their customers! Find out what the customers'
greatest needs and aspirations are, what keeps him/her awake at
night, how they can be best helped by the products they are
providing, how to give the customer even more value than they
have already, and so on. By literally falling in love with the
customer, you cannot fail to become wealthy yourself.
In fact, the greatest exponents of this art become wealthy beyond
most people's wi*ldest dreams. Yet, curiously enough, they often
remain uninterested in mòney itself. Sam Walton, the founder of
Walmart is a classic example. Right ùp to the day he died, he
drove an old pick-up truck, and stayed in the same middle-class
neighbourhood he had always lived in. Yet, as a
multi-billionaire, he was one of the wealthiest men in America!
He simply followed the rule, and learned more about the retail
store business than anyone else, and was obsessed with providing
what his customers wanted and needed the most. The giant Walmart
began with one tiny little store, and a very ordinary man -
certainly no genius in the educational sense - who did one thing
brilliantly. He cared more about the customers than he did about
his own needs.
The lesson is that you do not necessarily have to be mòney-mad to
become incredibly wealthy. Often, the opposite is true. Caring
about other people more than about yourself is often THE way!
The reason most people do not achiève wealth is simply because
they do not believe they are capable of it, or because they have
negative psychological issues about mòney; e.g. they believe they
would have to become twisted people in order to be rich. Others
are too busy being trapped in wage slavery to ever raise their
heads, and form a clear determined wealth creation strategy. As
Joe Karbo said,
"Most people are too busy earning a living to make any mòney."
So, begin to think about this issue. More importantly, change
your thinking from negative to positive. If you have a dream
about getting into business for yourself, start to give it more
thought. Research ways that you can do something your really love
and believe in, and òffer it to others as a product or service.
The key is really to get started and persist in learning all you
need to learn until you finally succeed. Becoming financially
wealthy is definitely possible for you, but it begins with
changing your mindset about what wealth and mòney really mean to
you. Do it, not only for yourself, but for all the people you can
benefit through your abundance.
Copyright 2001, Asoka Selvarajah. All Rights Reserved.
Dr. Asoka Selvarajah is the author of "The 7 Golden Sècrets To
Knowing Your Higher Self" course. Asoka's work helps people
achieve their full potential, deepen their understanding of
mystical truth, and find joy in their true soul's purpose. You
can find out more at: http://tinyurl.com/3ca3x
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