Wealth is visualised as the goddess Lakshmi - the basic wealth being food. How could understanding your relationship to wealth be relevant to your spiritual practice?
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Lovely comments! I especially like the mention of "living in spiritual abundance".
From a spiritual perspective, I believe that there is basically nothing wrong in having possessions or being rich as long as we know their worth and our true goal in life. For example if you drive a Mercedes, you should know that it is basically a car and not more or not less. Furthermore, you are not a more valuable person if you drive a Mercedes than if you did not own one. Whatever we have should be something that we need in order to prosper so that we can lead our life in a way that we need. We have to take care of our needs. So we need money, food and many of us also feel a great need to beatify ourselves with jewelry and fancy clothing. It is fine to have all these luxuries that are the ornaments of our outer being. However, our outer beauty should also be one with our inner beauty. It is not nice when a person looks great, is soft-spoken but acts cruel. When we see Sri Laxmi Devi's pictorial presentations, then we are reminded of the oneness of inner and outer beauty. I think that is her message. It is not bad to rich as long as you make good use of the money in a way that it serves you, your loved ones, and the family of the humans, the other entities and the world around you. We are all part of the One reality and riches and possessions are items that are given to us to realize a higher implication or Truth. The possessions that we have should be used and not just hidden away for some special moment which often times never comes. I believe in the existence of a substratum of divinity in all existence. All existence is God. It is all a manifestation of divine beauty in all its names and forms. The whole beauty in nature is God’s signature. Therefore, we should treat whatever we have with respect, care, and we should make proper use of it because when we use our possessions properly then we act in a pure or satvic manner. If we misuse our possessions then we create a negative karma that can cause stagnation in our spiritual development. Misuse can also mean not using it. It happens when we just accumulate things and never use them. Then we spend time trying hard to keep things in order. That can be very problematic at times, and we waste time trying to tend to our multiple possessions or spent much energy in being scared of losing what we have. It is a devils’ cycle that we trap ourselves into. Possessions should never be a trap, but things that aid our development and which help unfold our awareness in a positive way. If we cannot use what we have, then we should give it to someone who can make use of it. That way we not only help someone who may need it, but we also pay reverence to the divinity in that object. Whatever we give should be help that leads to self help. There are of course cases where some people like to always get things for free and pretend to be very needy. We should not help them if we know what is really going on. For example when I come across beggars, I do not give money but food. We should not be beggars in life because that is not our dharma. Of course if someone cannot help himself or herself because of some ailment or some calamity then we should help them.
( Please do not misunderstand me, when I say that I do not give money to beggars. I do know that it is not always the fault of the materially poor person for being that way. It is to a great deal a socio-political problem. I just feel that giving money to a poor individual on the road does not help. It causes dependency. Help should always lead to self help. It gives a person also a greater feeling of worth when people can help themselves.)
Regardless of whether we possess much or less, we should live in a spirit of abundance and we should try to help ourselves in order to have what we need to exist. We should never think that we are poor or needy, but believe in our ability to make positive changes than can help us survive well in life. On the other hand, we should help those who cannot help themselves. I feel it is best to have as much as we need and can take care of. Most importantly however, our inner and outer beauty should be one. Ommmmmmm Sri Laxmiye Namaha
you are truly rich" Tao Te Ching
I think that my understanding of wealth has changed dramatically since becoming more spiritually aware. As long as i have food and shelter for myself and children then material possessions are meaning less and less to me each day. The richness of spirit and the health of mind and body are what i value as wealth.