transcendental economics

[Guest guest]

Dear Linda,

 

This reply is to you, but I want to address it also to the group at

large because I believe it contains something of general value that

others may profit from as well. Your sorrows are real, and they

touched me deeply. And they reminded me of a great lession that I

learned from an old man whom I knew briefly, shortly before he died.

 

The gentleman I'm speaking of was born in New York, and while he was

still in his teens he had a spontaneous spiritual awakening. The

Indian saint Paramahamsa Yogananda was working in the U.S. at that

time, and somehow the boy found his way to him. Yogananda sent him to

the great South Indian jnani Ramama Maharshi. The Maharishi told him

that he had had the highest possible spiritual realization and that

there was nothing else he could teach him. The boy stayed at

Maharshi's ashram for a time, and then made his way back to the U.S.

where he lived a very simple and unassuming life.

 

Brahmajnanis are supposed to be unconcerned with the relative world,

but I found this man to be profoundly compassionate. At that time, I

was at the bottom of the economic ladder; I was living on food stamps

to survive, and prospects were zero. One day the old man said, "If

someone is in financial need, the most effective thing he can do to

get out of it is to borrow some money from someone, and then give it

all away to others who are in even greater need than himself".

Another thing he said was, "The real meaning of money is love; money

is love."

 

These were things I hadn't learned in school, so I had to think about

them for a while. I am still thinking about them, even as times have

become much better financially.

 

I believe there is truth in these statements. I also believe that

they are needed now. The world is on fire. Millions and millions of

people are living is the upmost material want. And at least that many

are suffering from emotional poverty: lovelessness, hopelessness and

despair.

 

If I were bold enough to follow the advice of my friend the old man,

and I felt a profound lack, either material of emotional, I would take

what I had, or could borrow, and I would start giving it away to

others who had even less than I.

 

The scriptures say that God dwells in our hearts, and that God is

Infinite, Unconditional Love. Many of us have tried all of our lives

to get love--- through meditation, prayer, and worship. I don't know

how many of us have tried to just give love, without even caring

whether it comes back to us or not. Maybe that is the secret; maybe

that is what the world is waiting for. Maybe that would put out the

fire.

 

All we can do is to make the experiment.

 

With deep affection,

 

Tanmaya