Living Wisely Living Well | With Asha Nayaswami

Wealth, if it comes to you, should be treated as a sacred trust. It is not really yours, even if you have worked hard to acquire it. Karma (again, it will be good karma only if you use it rightly) has given you riches as a means of helping other people. Use your wealth to make this a better world. Otherwise, riches will only suffocate your finer feelings. If they make you feel superior to others, they are a delusion. Treat all human beings as your equals. Remember, a person may be poor financially, but rich in ways that preclude the possession of money. Appreciate others for what they are.

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“Fame and wealth,” my Guru used to say, “are like prostitutes: loyal to no man.” In the end, those two goals, though all but universal, bring only disappointment. If fame comes unsought, owing to some past karma (I hesitate to call that karma good!), use it for the benefit of others, rather than to bolster your own pride. Fame can be a means of reaching many people and of helping them, but never glory in it. Whether well known or unknown, you are the same person. It is easier to be yourself, however, if you are unburdened by anyone’s expectations of you. Be natural to all: open to their interests, and respectful of their opinions.

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Learn to cooperate with others, even if their interests are different from your own. Never surrender a principle, however, no matter what the consequences to yourself. Your guiding light all your life should be, not egoic self-interest, but God’s will. Were you even to be burned at the stake for your loyalty to the truth as you understand it, remember this: Truth alone, in the end, will free you forever from all suffering.

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Good manners are innate. They are born of respect, dignity, and kindness. Customs vary from country to country and from place to place. For those who travel widely, it is impossible to keep abreast of every convention one encounters. Much more important than trivia like table manners are attitudes that ennoble the spirit.

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What makes a man noble is not land, money, or social position, but character. Be true to your word, generous in giving, kind when faced by any wrong, and courteous to all (even to the lowliest beggar). Always defer to the truth. A truly noble man is one whose character is ever firmly upright.

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Don’t be a social or any other sort of climber, outwardly. I have observed that game played even in the ashrams of saints. Absorb whatever virtues attract you in others, but never try to impress anybody. Move through life like a large ocean liner: serenely passing through heavy seas. Be whole in yourself. If you see some quality in others that attracts you, invite it aboard as a passenger. Divine illumination will finally carry you beyond all human qualities. Seek only those traits which will assist you in your quest for inner freedom.

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The desire for equality with others is a delusion; we are equal only in the fact that we are all children of God. Life, otherwise, is like a ladder. The lower animals are helped upward in their evolution by association with human beings. Relatively unaware people are helped upward by serving those who are more highly evolved. The caste system in India originally recognized these realities: It wasn’t hereditary, and was never intended to be suppressive. It simply indicated the right direction for humanity to develop—from body-bound (kayastha) to freedom from ego-bondage. “One moment in the company of a saint,” it has been said, “will be your raft over the ocean of delusion.” The company of persons more highly evolved than oneself can be uplifting. In the case of the devotee who seeks God, saints are the best company. And best of all is it to be guided by a true guru.

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If people treat you condescendingly, don’t react. Be polite toward them, but reserved. Let them see that, whatever their opinion of you, they have your respect and good will, but not your deference. Never court anyone’s good opinion. Defer to wisdom, but pay no attention to ignorance.

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View challenges as stimulants to your spiritual ascent. Twice when I was a child, bullies much larger and stronger than I attacked and beat me. Both times I won against them by refusing to admit defeat. Afterward, they avoided me. Never surrender your will to anyone. If you can maintain your integrity, others may accuse you of betrayal, but it is to yourself you must remain true. Let people say about you what they will: Be strong in yourself. If you can preserve your will unbroken, you will always, in the end, come out victorious.

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True politeness is not a mask. It is a reflection of the innate dignity of the soul. It enables a person to see in everybody, everywhere, the presence of God. Respect all men as your brothers and sisters in the great family of our one common Father/Mother.

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