Insights about Money and Wealth:

A person, who is not evolved spiritually and becomes rich monetarily, is more likely to become slave of his money. Arthasya purusha dasah — “Man is money’s slave”, proclaims Bhishma in Mahabharata. But, a person who is spiritually evolved and has seen and experienced money and wealth and remains the Master of his wealth, for such a person it is said, “Wealth is the slave of the wise man; master of the fool!” ~ Seneca (Seneca was the philosopher who happened to be the richest person in the Roman Empire).

In reality a wise man shares all that he has for wellbeing of mankind as he understands that everyone has come to planet empty handed and will go back empty handed only. Hence, “There is no delight in owning anything unshared” ~ Seneca

Q: Guruji what should be the attitude of a person towards money?

A: It depends on who you are! If you are a Sanyasi, you should not think about money. For you there is no need to think about earning. Sanyasi is not supposed to touch money. Are you a Sanyasi? Are you an Avadhoota? Are you an Aghora? Each one of them will have different attitude towards money! But you are none of these! You are a householder or a family man. Householder’s attitude towards money is different. It has to be in accordance with Grahasthashram or Grahastha Dharma. You are supposed to earn money in a right way. Then save money for your family, for your children’s education, for your parent’s medical bills etc. You can also keep aside 10% (or whatever you feel right) for charity and spiritual cause or Guru-karya… whatever is dearer to your heart.

Money has four dimensions. Earn Money, Save money, Invest money, Enjoy Money! Be proficient in all the four dimensions!

Money is energy. It is neither good nor bad! It is like nuclear energy… It is neither good nor bad… It’s just energy! The intention of its usage makes it good or bad. If someone makes nuclear bomb to kill masses, it is definitely a bad use. The same nuclear energy used in atomic reactor to produce clean electricity at low cost and in safe manner is definitely the good use of that energy. Similarly, how you earn and how you use your money will define it. If you earn your money in righteous ways and use your wealth and resources for well-being of humanity, it is the right attitude.

Because 90% of spirituality is promoted by Sanyasi Gurus, many house-holders who follow Sanyasi Guru have dilemma about money. Money and sex are two areas with maximum amount of guilt. I have seen many Indian youngsters with spiritual bent of mind who are not capable of earning money and saving money because they have wrong ideas about money. Many of them think money is bad! This conditioning has come from sanyasis. Yes! Money is bad for sanyasi as it can bring the down fall of a sanyasi. But for a householder the attitude towards money is attitude towards Laxmi. Laxmi is Goddess of wealth. A householder can live kingly life and help others. This is the attitude of an “Enlightened Billionaire”.

Read my note on Enlightened Billionaire here: https://premnirmal.guru/enlightened-billionaire/

See this short video on “Money and Spirituality” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEsXfGKes5I&t=7s

The trouble these days with spiritual Gurus is that they are installing guilt more and more in householders with their Sanyasi or Avadhoota attitudes towards money and sex. This is the root cause of your guilt. The job of a genuine Guru is to remove the guilt! Hence you must understand that your attitude towards money and sex is defined by your present age and social or environmental conditions. As a householder you can inculcate healthy attitude towards money and sex, within the boundaries of your Grahasthi dharma. Extreme attitudes are to be avoided. Balance is the key! That’s the right choice!

Q: Many of us think that spirituality has to be completely free and there should not be any money transaction in spirituality spread by Gurukuls. Is that right?

A: Yes! Spirituality had always been free all along. All great masters and saints had been doing it for ages. Even in ancient Rishi Culture it was free. The Gurukul system was funded by Kings and Gurukul’s education was free for all students. In ancient India, teaching profession was highly respected and teachers were taken care of in a right way. Many spiritual Gurus I had been with, believed in non-commercial spirituality. They never charged any money for Satsangs. They spent from their savings and exhausted all their resources as they did not get any help from a king to fund them! The trouble is there are not many kings or kingly persons these days that can support the Gurukul and its expenses. Hence in the modern world, it is almost impossible for a Guru to run a Gurukul. Hence our Gurukul system has almost died.

Today, we have weekend yogis doing the job of sharing their wisdom on weekends because they have to work during weekdays to survive. Revival of Gurukul system is almost impossible without resources. Full time Gurus meet their expenses by charging some nominal fees to their students or beneficiaries and continue doing their work in low profile. High profile commercial Gurus are running their organizations with the help of MBAs and are caught up in their own web. They are not able to do much help for the evolution of human consciousness. High profile Gurus are not able to meet their students personally! Some of them are not able to meet their teachers as well… and this is because the size of those organizations has grown so big, it is almost impossible for a Guru to meet everyone.

Other new entrants, after losing their jobs have graduated themselves from weekend yogis to ‘mumbo jumbo’ Babas, have lots of hypocrisy about money. The fact is they neither have good stuff, nor the capacity to deliver! But they impress innocent people with statements such as, “My spirituality is not for sale” or “We don’t believe in transactional spirituality” and in the next mail they announce the price-list for their spiritual services such as Mahashivaratri gatherings and Havan etc. This is hypocrisy! Even a child understands that you need resources to build an Ashram or a Gurukul. Such hypocrite pretentious Gurus continue to cheat people through back door for establishing and running their foundations and developing their spiritual villages.

In such a scenario the only way to revive the Gurukul system is to run an organization professionally. Because the days of kings are gone, days of free gurukuls are gone too! As we pay fees for our school or college education, we need to pay fees for our spiritual education as well. It is a natural law; some kind of energy exchange has to be there! And it is for those householders who can afford to pay. Adivasi children always get free education and they will continue to get free education in every Gurukul.

The pole star of Kriya yoga, Sri Lahiri Mahashaya used to charge Rs.5/- (In those days it used to be one month’s salary for a common man) for Kriya initiations. He was very bitterly criticized for this by many. But thanks to this Rs.5/- per person, that we have all the printed Kriya literature available today. Sri Lahiri Mahashaya was a Grihasthi Kriya yogi and had his job in government department. He used all his collection from Kriya Initiations for printing the Kriya literature. Those masters, who did not charge money, either could not do their Guru-karya or were exploited by whims and fancies of rich people who sponsored them.

In fact, we can work out better solutions to such problems. Those who are rich and have their own empires and industries are more like Kings and they can support the Gurukuls. Those who are salaried people can sponsor few students. If you can’t sponsor others, at least sponsor yourself! Hence fees for Gurukul education needs to be decided based on creating the Gurukul setup and the cost of running it. To meet the expenses, each student has to contribute to the kitty so that Gurukul can survive and do the revival of Rishi Culture.

Hypocrisy about money is sin. Pretentiousness is a bigger sin. Being normal and having balanced approach towards money is the key in the modern world. Masters need to awaken the viveka (the sense of discrimination) in their students for revival of Gurukul system. If students have viveka, they understand the way the world functions. With this your question becomes irrelevant!

Those Gurus, who fail to ignite the viveka in their student’s mind, usually fail to do their guru-karya and will be born again and again to learn this major lesson of balanced approach towards money! Read Tripura Rahasya to understand this in detail. Even Sage Ashtavakra had to learn his last lesson from his own student King Janak, only after that he attained liberation!

Q: Guruji, we are all householders. So, would you please share the secrets of becoming rich?

A: According to Rishi Culture, a householder is supposed to be rich so he can support the culture, religion and specially the Gurukuls doing great job of promoting Rishi Culture. For this I extensively studied many scriptures on Swara Yoga, Sri Vidya, Kashmir Shaivism, Das Maha Vidyas, Thirty-two Vidyas and Secrets of Laxmi and Kubera and various Mantras and fire rituals done by Rishis to help Kings to increase their wealth and become powerful. This was necessary in those days for Kings for protection of motherland and kingdom. Kings also protected the Ashrams and Rishi Gurukuls from enemies. I have compiled all the secrets of becoming rich in “Prosperity Yoga Manual”. You can attend Prosperity Yoga classes or Enlightened Billionaire workshop and read the manual to understand and practice those Sadhanas, in a right way.

You also need to understand “21 Natural Laws” governing our prosperity. I have compiled this secret knowledge and made it available at a very nominal cost through WhatsApp workshop.

Money is an important dimension for a householder. Once you are happy financially, you can really focus better on your spiritual dimension and walk the pathless path to liberation with the right attitude!

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