The Wealth of Life

[Guest guest]

Light and Love

 

Not surprising, our dictionary showed us how much the idea of “wealth” is

wrapped up in material considerations – defining it in terms of “an abundance

of valuable material possessions or resources; all material objects that have

economic utility”.

Yet spiritual literature from around the world goes beyond this, saying that

wealth includes wisdom, love and health. The universal spiritual teacher Sathya

Sai Baba says:

"Artha does not merely mean wealth of money. It means wealth of wisdom.

Seeing unity in diversity is the true wisdom. All wealth and prosperity

cannot confer true happiness. Without Love, no object can give you real

happiness. Hence, the primary wealth for man is Love." There is no greater

wealth than health. What is the origin of this word 'health'? It is derived

from the Anglo-Saxon word 'Heilig ', meaning that which is sacred and pure.

Even the original Middle English root of wealth (“weal”) was much more

expansive than our current definition; weal means welfare – the state of doing

well, especially with respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being or

prosperity . It's as if in our consumer-hungry fervour we've become absorbed

with well- having rather than well- being !

Moving further in our exploration about wealth, we went through the

interviews which we had conducted with spiritual-based business executives, and

found some provocative statements about both personal and corporate wealth. For

example:

Deependra Moitra, an executive with Infosys, talked about wealth in this way:

"Something that is spiritually fundamental to me is creating the wealth of

joy and being balanced. I think that peace and joy are a form of wealth that

businesses can create. Wealth is about protecting everyone's interest, creating

joy, and growing."

NS Raghavan, Joint-Founder of Infosys, broadens this notion of sharing

wealth to the employees as well:

"I think it is important to help the employees create their own wealth so

that they can help others who are not in a position to help themselves. As a

result the community as a whole benefits."

" Dr AK Chattopadhyay, Executive Director of Tata Refractories, brought all

of this together for us when he spoke of wealth in terms of manifesting our

spiritual perfection:

"Spirituality is the manifestation of the perfection that is already there

within you. If we as business leaders can manifest this perfection, we will

create good things for the society."

When leaders start working from the mindset that, “Yes I love society, I

love my colleagues and people,” then this will be transmitted to all levels of

the organisation and society. Then our actions will definitely bring prosperity

to all of us.

What surprised and pleased us about these executives' views on wealth was

that these themes applied equally to our personal and work lives as well as to

the purpose of business.

When we tap into our spiritual roots, we can manifest true wealth, we need

not split ourselves with one attitude towards our personal wealth and another

towards the world of business.

 

So, ask yourself: What is “true wealth” for me in my personal life? How can

I apply that understanding in my work as well?

 

Briefly from, 'indiatimes' Spirituality, Cection: The Basics "The Wealth of

Life"Thursday, March 17, 2005.

http://spirituality.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1054675.cms

 

Namaste - Reet

 

 

 

Attachment: (image/gif) spacer.gif [not stored]