by
H.H. Sri Swami Chidananda
World President
The Divine Life Society
The Human Being as Viewed by the Indian Masters
How to Eat to Keep Fit
Self-control and Preservation of the Life-force
The Mind and the Body � Vyadhi and Adhi Vyadhi
The Ayurvedic Theory of the Tridoshas
How to Attain Prosperity
The Spiritual Law of Prosperity
Some Valuable Clues to Prosperity in the House
Beloved Immortal Self! Glorious Rays of the Eternal Light Divine! Salutations to you and crores of adoration to the Supreme!
Today, I speak to you a few words from the wisdom of the ancients � the great seers of India � on a subject which, though of that part of your being which is perishable, which is unreal, which is not the Ultimate Truth of your being, is important in its own way in as much as it is a means to the realization of your True Self, and in as much as the body, its well-being and health in this life, and the happiness and prosperity in this life, both become helps and instrumental factors to you in fulfilling the true and only lasting purpose in your life, which is to know who you are.
Knowing the truth of who you are, you become free, free forever from the bondage of this terrestrial existence, free forever from the vexing limitations of this body-mind bondage, free forever from all the fetters of desires, cravings, fears, and the basic ignorance which has made you forget your true Self and dream of yourself as something which you are not. Forever immortal you are � unborn, birthless, deathless, unchanging and undecaying. Immortal you will always be, for this is the eternal Truth, the Reality of your existence, and even at this moment, this is the splendid Truth of your being. You are immortal even now. You are the very essence of Bliss Infinite and Peace Immeasurable � right now, at this moment in time. You are That in all Its fullness, in all Its perfection, in all Its unblemished, untarnished splendour. To realize this is the great meaning of life on earth.
The great ancients, though illumined with this vision of man's glorious inner nature and fully filled with the great spirit of this unfoldment, were in their own way, realists regarding man's body-bound condition. Thus we have, side by side with those four great repositories of ancient wisdom which contain declarations of eternal truths � the Four Vedas � a fifth scripture which in India is called "The Fifth Veda", and which is known by the name of "Ayurveda". This is a very significant word. "Ayuh" means the span of your life here and "Veda" means knowledge or science. Thus, "Ayurveda" means the science of life or the science of living.
That secret, the science of human life, of how to preserve this life, of how to keep in comfort, of how to live in well-being, is the significance of the Ayurveda; and that secret has been given to the Indian system of health and well-being (both physical and mental) from the great bosom of spiritual wisdom reposing in the other Vedas. Thus, the Ayurveda tends to base itself upon the fundamental truths that have their residence in the four great Vedas.
Indian thought evolves from within outward so that the first task and the most important thing is to know yourself � for you are the prime factor of all knowledge. There must first be a seer to see things, and there must first be a thinker to ponder over matters, to ponder over all things seen. There must first be a knower if any knowledge is to be at all. Therefore, the knowledge about the knower, the science of your own Self, who forms the pivot of this universe, who is the basic factor in all knowledge, was placed first. Know Yourself � and then start knowing all else that is other than yourself.
The great knowledge, which the ancient seers of India arrived at, about the truth of the individual was that he was no material being, that he was no being of this earth, and those parts of his personality which were material and partook of the nature of the material universe, viz., mutability, change, destruction and decay were but appendages or sheaths or coverings which enfolded and held in bondage, as it were, the true splendour of his essential Self (Soul) and, as such, they were outside of him and not essential to him, and the essential being was the spiritual Consciousness (Soul) within.
Nearest to this spiritual Consciousness (Soul) is the mind, and to the Indian Masters, the mind is as much matter as the physical body. They do not give a higher place to the mind than to the body in as far as the mind's relationship to the soul is concerned. In relation to your true Self, mind is no better than a clod of earth or this flesh-and-bones body. Mind also is matter, but it is matter in a very fine state. It is subtle material. It is only the spiritual Consciousness that is truly of the Divine Nature, and compared to it, mind is matter, the body is grosser matter, and the external stuff is the grossest of all.
The entire view of the human being, as held by the Indian masters, is that the conditions of the body depend upon the interplay between the innermost Self of man and the various sheaths covering it. If full and unhampered play of the soul-force is allowed through the mind, through the intellect, through the feelings, through sentimental thought, through the vital energy within, and through every cell and nerve fibre of the body, then the body would be in a perfect state of health. If this free play of the soul-force is blocked, is vitiated, then a condition of sickness arises in all the enfolding sheaths.
How does this blockage come about? In two ways. If your consciousness becomes so clouded that you totally forget your eternal link with the spiritual source of your life, which is God, and you become totally engrossed, enmeshed and entangled in the desire-personality of the mind and the intellect, and in the passion-personality of the senses of the body, then your link, your channel, with the Supreme Being is "cut off" and you cannot have fullness of life and abundance of well-being � for all well-being, all abundance, stems from the Eternal Source of your life. It is from God that we get all well-being in all the different aspects of our nature, and in all the different levels of our nature, and if we cut ourselves off from this source, then, like unto a branch that has been cut off and hanging loose from the parent tree, we tend to wither. The very source of our life being cut off from us, our life tends to partake of illness, disease, weakness, imperfection, sorrow, suffering and misery.
In the same way, if through the misuse of our body and its physical energy, of the inner vital power that is expressed through the form of subtle Prana (vital-force or life-force) within the physical body, and of our own thoughts and emotions, we make them so gross and totally unsuited to the expression of our essential Divine Nature, then these levels, being deprived of the benign and beneficial influence of our own soul-force, tend to become sick. Therefore, the whole of Ayurveda is built upon this theory, viz., that instrument which is pure and perfect, which is in a state of fineness and thus permits the true Divine Nature full and unhampered scope for expression through itself, tends to progress in health. And so, where this free play is vitiated by our misuse of the various forces at the different levels of our being, our entire being tends to get into a state of ill-health and suffering. The theory of Ayurveda also says that even the suffering is just a reminder to the individual to correct himself and once again regain a clean and fine state, a refined state; and if he learns the lesson of the disease and ill-health immediately and changes his habits and sets right the error in living � both physically and mentally � then that health which is the inherent state of the human body, which is the natural state of the human body, will prevail once again.
You are now familiar with the four levels of your being. There is your true being, your true nature within, and YOU (the Soul) are seated at the centre of this body chariot � existence, consciousness, bliss, peace and purity, of the nature of perfection. Secondly, around YOU is the mind-matter � the mental sheath, where all intellectual activity, mental activity, emotional activity takes place. And still further outside, there is the vital sheath holding the energy that animates the body and makes it live. And you then have the external form, which is made up of gross flesh, bones, muscles, tendons and the various organs, which make up the physical body. In the three levels of the mind, the Prana (vital sheath) and the body, one has to maintain a certain standard of purity and a certain standard of refinement.
The refinement of the body, the purity of the body, is ensured mainly through diet, through food. If the proper food is taken and it is properly taken, and taken at the proper time, then the health of the body is ensured. One of the great sages, Athreya, said: "Proper food taken in moderation, at the proper time, in the proper manner, goes to ensure one's good health". What did he mean by 'proper food'? Sattwic food, fine food, in a pure condition. Taken at the proper time? Well, all health authorities will tell you that at certain periods of the day our body powers are on the ascent, food taken during those periods becomes beneficial, and when the body powers begin to ebb, food is not to be taken. Food is not to be taken when one is in a state of agitation or when one is emotionally disturbed.
Properly taken? Properly taken means taken with a devout attitude, with mind attuned to God, taken unhurriedly, without too much haste, and taken with calmness and chewed thoroughly and, above all, taken in moderation. If all these conditions are fulfilled, then food goes to purify the body, increase its powers and keep it in a refined state, for food has a very unique definition according to this science of Ayurveda in India.
Food is called "Annam". Anything that is eaten is called "Annam". Annam has a two-fold meaning. One meaning of this word is 'eat or consume'; and another equally valid meaning is 'that which consumes'. This latter meaning is very deeply significant in Ayurveda. Diet is consumed; diet is also that which consumes. If you will reflect upon it, you will see how true this two-fold definition of the word diet is. Food, if it is taken in moderation, becomes the giver of life; if it is taken in immoderation, it becomes the destroyer of health and the destroyer of life, ultimately.
Even if taken according to law and rule, food is the greatest devourer of the energies of the human individual, because a great deal of the energies of each individual each day, and day after day until the very last day when he enters the grave, is just devoured or consumed by food for its digestion, assimilation and excretion. More than eighty-five to ninety per cent of the energy that is produced in the body each day is consumed for the process of digestion, assimilation and elimination. So, you can see how food consumes your vital energy, how it consumes your very life-energy.
When food is eaten, the entire blood supply is taken to the stomach and the entire system has to go all out and work to digest and to assimilate this food. As the system goes on doing this day after day through childhood and youthhood, middle age and old age, a time comes when food can no longer be taken, because the body has not the energy to deal with this consumer of energies, and one may find he has spent all his life's energies in digesting tons of food. Perhaps, the food taken since childhood, if it were heaped, would cover a big barn or a large storage tank. Thus it is that food is both what is eaten and also what eats through your life and consumes it.
I have given these broad views to commend moderation, the root principle of health, according to the science of Ayurveda. The proper type of food, when it is taken at the proper time and in the proper way induces good health. This food, which is converted into energy, pervades the entire body in the form of the physical force, the inner Prana; and if Prana (also known as vital force or life-force) is misused, then life is destroyed, health is shattered. In what form is this Prana present in the human being? It is present in the human being as sex energy, as the vital power, as the life-force; and the misuse and waste of this life-force is the greatest destroyer of health, of well being, and of life itself. We have the great declaration: "Life is the preservation of one's vital energy; and the loss of one's vital energy is destruction".
Indian doctors lay the utmost emphasis upon the preservation of one's life-force. Great moderation in one's sexual life is the one note upon which they perennially harp. A physician, after examining a patient and enquiring and advising about his diet, will then stress the fact that while the patient is under his care, his treatment, he must live as a single being, and it is only when the patient is completely well that the physician will consider advising him that he may live a normal physical life; and a normal physical life, according to Ayurveda, is not indulgence. It is taken for granted that normal physical life is characterized by two factors: restraint and moderation. The entire Ayurvedic science of health rests upon this basic principle of conserving one's life-force, one's vital energy. Without this, there can be no health. If you neglect this factor, not all the drug factories in this world can bring you any health; not all the doctors and physicians of this world can bring you any well-being, any strength, any vitality. It is something which is within you and which you have to preserve, and if you are a profligate, others cannot give it to you, because it is something which is not given from outside. It cannot be obtained from bottles, from pills, powders or potions. It is impossible. It is something, which is a part of you, and it is to be increased only by conservation and moderation in living.
The science of Ayurveda rests upon this one principle, and to this end, from the very beginning of life, the student is taught the importance of self-control and the importance of the conservation of one's vital energy. If that is lost, if that is vitiated, then the Pranic sheath is thrown out of balance. Just as an error in food vitiates your body and makes it impure and gross, so an error in this life-energy vitiates your Pranic sheath. The vital energy is the very quintessence of the energy the body assimilates from food. If that energy is not conserved, the Pranic sheath is thrown out of harmony and the Prana begins to vibrate in a discordant manner. And all disease springs from the discordant state of the Prana within.
And if the mind, instead of becoming a field of expression for your inner perfection, becomes a field for the play of thoughts, emotions and sentiments which arc totally unspiritual, which are totally animalistic and gross, which are full of lust, anger, passion, greed, hatred, jealousy and envy, and if these thoughts begin to flood the mental level, then health cannot be achieved by the body.
You cannot have a diseased and unhealthy mind and have health of the body at the same time. The blood, which the food forms in the body, will become poisoned. The body will not be able to assimilate the maximum energy from the food taken if the emotions that fill the mind are destructive and impure and gross, if they are not of the soul-nature, not of the spiritual nature, but partake of the body-nature, the gross, flesh-nature. Carnal passions and animalistic emotions like hatred and jealousy and violence make the mind totally unfit as an instrument for the expression of your true being, since such a mind becomes the hotbed of disease seeds. The inner state of such a mind becomes the fertile source, the prolific ground for the springing up of disease conditions. The Ayurvedic Masters gave out this truth more than three thousand years ago; and now, during the past hundred years, the Western psychologists have "suddenly" begun to find that more than fifty to eighty per cent of actual physical ills in hospitals have their cause in the mind and only manifest in the body.
That physical illness stems from the mind has been realized only very recently in the West through the work of a few European psychologists, but this knowledge made up the very foundation of Ayurvedic science. The Ayurvedic Masters said that unless the moods of the mind were serene, full of calmness, full of love, characterized by love and purity, disease could not be cured. The physician would also tell the patient to observe silence to conserve energy.
Jesus gave to one who wanted to approach Him the advice: "If you want to draw near to the altar of God and if you bear ill-will, if you have not forgiven your brother, first of all go and forgive him and then draw near to God's altar in worship". Likewise, the physicians of ancient India said: "If you have hatred, if you have envy, if you have hostility towards anyone, I cannot treat you; I cannot give you this medicine, for my medicine is something spiritual, my medicine is something sacred and holy. First of all, you must make your mind free from all undivine thoughts, and then come to me and I shall treat you".
The theory of Ayurveda is that the root of disease is not in the body, but in the mind. This disease in the mind is the cause for the outward physical disease. The disease of the body they called "Vyadhi"; and the mental cause, the root of the physical disease they called "Adhi Vyadhi". "Adhi" means prime or the first or the beginning; and the inner emotional state is referred to as "Adhi Vyadhi", meaning first disease. A first disease comes and from that springs a second disease; thus, the actual effect of the wrong moods, the wrong passions of the mind, and the misuse and abuse of one's own vital energy, the vital life-force, bring about certain conditions in the body which cause disease.
The ancient seers of India interpreted these body conditions in a very unique way, and not in the Western way. They had the theory of "Tridoshas". The Ayurvedic science of diagnosis of the disease conditions (which manifest as a result of malaise in your mind and in your vitality) was based upon the "three humours" of the body. The Ayurvedic scientists said that such upsetting of the purity of the mind and the fineness of the vital energy brought about a state of disturbance in the balance between the three humours that characterize the normal condition of each human being. The theory of the three humours was not entirely unknown to mediaeval medicine in Europe and in England. In Europe, I do believe, they had something similar to Ayurveda, and perhaps, it had come through Arabia and Greece.
The three humours are the "phlegmatic humour", the "bilious humour" and the "windy humour". These humours are found in a certain proportion in a healthy body, and when there is an upset in the vital force due to abuse and misuse, due to over-indulgence, and there is an upset in the mind due to wrong thoughts and emotions, there comes about an imbalance in the three humours (wind, bile and phlegm), and then disease conditions begin to manifest. If due to this imbalance, there is a predominance of the phlegm condition, then all sorts of phlegmatic diseases come about � bronchitis, lung trouble, coughs, colds, toxins. If this imbalance brings about an excess of wind, then rheumatic diseases manifest in the body � aches, joint pains, rheumatism, lumbago, flatulence, etc.
It is the imbalance of the three humours which is sought to be set right by the actual medicine which the Ayurvedic physician gives, but he says, "I can, with this medicine, but try to bring about once again a re-balancing of your three humours, but you have to work from the inside". So the first necessity is, of course, complete self-restraint; and secondly, come the emotions. Get rid of all bad emotions. How? Here, the Ayurvedic seers were of real help. They did not know 'psychology' as the modern psychologists know it, yet they knew what ought to be known. They said: "If you want to calm your mind and free it of all emotions, arouse in it a spiritual wave". And to this end, a physician always prescribed the uttering of such and such a Mantra, or a particular mode of worship to some particular aspect of the Deity, to be offered in a certain way, in a certain shrine.
Worship, you know, is such a powerful instrument in your life, and when you once again lift up your mind to God, when once again you attune your spirit to the Higher Being, that Source from which you have cut yourself off � which cutting off is the root cause of this great disease called worldly existence, this human birth � the mind is completely overhauled. When once again, in worshipfulness, you attune yourself to the Divine and start repeating His Mantras, start chanting the Divine Name, then the whole of the mental stuff is put into a state of purity and fineness and the gross condition which had given rise to the disease symptoms in the physical body is corrected. So the physician on the outside and the patient from within co-operate and once again the body is restored to its healthy condition. This, in short, is the theory and system of health according to Ayurveda � the Fifth Veda � the Science of Life.
Based upon the first premises that man is Divine, that health is his natural condition, and that purity and fineness are the prerequisites of health, Ayurveda has a very interesting declaration to make. In the Hindu view of life, the individual is supposed to live and work for the four great attainments � Dharma (Righteousness), Artha (Wealth), Kama (Desire) and Moksha (Liberation). Dharma is fulfilment of the ethical norm. Artha is the earning of wealth in order to live comfortably. (Wealth is not left out in the Hindu scheme of things; that is, the earning of wealth in an honest way in order to live comfortably.) Kama is the fulfilment of all legitimate desires that are necessary for dignified and honest living, that are necessary for one's well being, and also, for the well being of all others with whom one lives. Kama is the fulfilment of all legitimate desires that are not opposed to the welfare of others. Moksha is, ultimately, liberation in the Divine, eternal freedom in the Divine.
Ayurveda says that for these four attainments, our health is the supreme and excellent root or basis. Without health, none of these four can be achieved and, therefore, the proper care of the body is one of the most important duties to be attended to, and this can be done only through (i) the conservation of the vital energy through moderation and restraint, (ii) the refinement of the mind through right thinking, right feeling and worshipfulness, and (iii) the proper care of the physical condition through pure food taken moderately at the proper time and in the proper way - thoroughly chewed, taken when you are calm, with a little rest after eating.
If thus, through the proper care of your health, the proper conservation of the vital energy, and the right attitude of mind, you are in a state of good health � how shall you try to attain also, a prosperous condition of living? How to have a fair level of prosperity? Which, of course, does not mean the fulfilling of cupidity, of avarice, of greed, or of inordinate desire; but which means, within legitimate bounds, to have a comfortable life permitting calmness of mind, freedom from worry, freedom from agitation and restlessness, so that you can give mind and thought to the service of your fellow-men and to the worship of God, in order to be of use on the outside and to be of the utmost use to yourself. What are the laws of prosperity? I am not telling you the secrets of becoming prosperous, but I am telling you the laws of prosperity.
The secret of prosperity, of course, would be to live within your income, to spend less than what you earn. And, do not go into debt! That would be the greatest wisdom in a nutshell! How to be prosperous? If you earn a hundred and fifty dollars, spend a hundred and forty-nine; then you always have one dollar left. If you would have me comment on it, I would say: "Never get into the instalment system". If you have cash, then all right, purchase things. If you do not have cash, go without them.
Yet, there are certain laws of prosperity, which also stem from eternal spiritual truths. If you begin to feel and think lack or want, you experience lack. If you assert your abundance, then, as the shadow follows a person, abundance follows you. If you begin to desire, immediately you admit poverty. Desire is poverty. Desire is a feeling of inadequacy, and when you begin to desire, you are a beggar already. The secret of the ancients of becoming prosperous was to live in conformity with this law of prosperity and also to live with common sense.
Once one unconsciously begins to affirm poverty by desiring, then poverty only becomes the law. To get free of desire is the secret of setting free the law of prosperity into motion. Why? All plenitude is within you. There is nothing that you lack, for you are of God who is all. He is all-in-all. He is the source of all. In Him there is everything, and if you know that you are in Him, you have everything; you are in everything. And to affirm this knowledge, to affirm this fact of your ever being in Him is the master-key to make prosperity follow you like a dog following its master.
After all, you are the master of the whole creation, for you are heir to the One who is the master of everything. You lack nothing. All-plenitude, all-abundance is your Self. Your true nature is plenitude. The more you begin to assert that, to affirm that, with perfect confidence, not as a thing to be, but as a fact that is � prosperity is yours.
Want, or a feeling of poverty, is an attitude of the mind. If you have so much and you feel "I have everything", then you do not want anything else; but if you have so much and yet you feel "I do not have it", then you have not anything. A millionaire, who always wants to make ten million or twenty million, is really a beggar. A cab driver or a porter who is getting, say three or four dollars a day, and says, "That is quite enough for me; my pocket is always full", is always greater than the millionaire. He is richer than the millionaire for he has not the nagging feeling of lack and of want and the beggarly attitude of desire.
So, the inner secret of the true law of prosperity is to affirm your plenitude, to affirm your abundance and live in that ever-present condition of lacking nothing, of having God and, therefore, of having everything. This is the only way. This is the only secret, and the moment you start affirming it, you will find conditions changing, for your conditions are the product of your own thoughts. The ultimate vital factor that goes to make up all your life is constituted by your thoughts. They are as much tangible and substantial as the bricks that pile up and become a mansion. They can build your whole life. They can create any condition in your life. They can even create the conditions of your own health if the proper thoughts are thought. Just as a human being catches hold of something and mounts it, even so, proper thought has the power to build up, and cell by cell, broken cells can be built up. Anything that has been destroyed in you can be built up by the proper thought and, in the same way, the wrong type of thought can destroy whatever is whole and make it diseased.
The power of thought is something that stems right from you, that stems right from the soul, because it is nearest to you; and the soul-force is beneath and behind all thought-force, and the affirmation of your true condition overcomes all conditions that are foreign to you, that are not natural to you.
To this end, contentment is the true secret of affirming your abundance. Whatever comes, feel full. If it is one dollar, feel as though it were a million, and if it is ten dollars, feel as though it were ten million. Once you have contentment, there is nothing that can make you unhappy; and if you do not have contentment, nothing can make you happy.
The secret of prosperity is to affirm your true, abundant nature, the true fact of your plenitude. Be contented and put a notice on your mind: "No admission for any desire". The moment a desire arises, just reject it. Say, "Desire! Get out!" And then you will begin to experience that the desired object comes by itself to you. As long as you run after a thing, you cannot get it. The moment you turn away from a thing, it follows you by itself. This is an Eternal Law. This is a law which has been proven in the lives of all those who have discovered it and applied it to themselves. The more you desire, the more your want increases. Let this theorem be in your mind; let it be in your heart.
There is something a little higher than even this. The Hindu believes that whatever there is in this universe is all the Divine Essence. Everything is God. Every force is God. Every phenomenon is God. Every being is God. Every name and form is God. Everything you experience is only the Divine Essence in various manifestations, and prosperity is one of the direct manifestations of "the Divine Power as the sustaining force in this universe". The Divine Power in this cosmic process expresses Itself first as a projecting power, a power that brings into being, and then It acts here upon the threefold time continuum of past, present and future, as the sustaining power. That which has been brought forth It sustains, nourishes, protects, and takes care of. You see, it is God again at the other end of the cycle. The same power once again dissolves all that has been brought forth and reabsorbs projected phenomena into their original state of non-manifestation.
It is the central portion, which is the most important to us � that aspect of the Divine Force which protects, sustains, nourishes, takes care of. And this It does in various ways. The Divine Force is present as food. It is present as the seasons. It is present as the clouds and the rain. It is present as the abundance that comes out of the earth, the fertility of the earth. And It is also present within us as the gastric fire that digests the food and nourishes us. It is also present as all prosperous conditions.
In this way, food is God; everything that keeps us going is God. Food is a manifestation of God, outwardly. Within you, the vital force is God. All things that sustain life are expressions of God. The great life-force is God, and in your innermost being, the light of intelligence, with the consciousness it is derived from, is God.
You must not insult food. You must not treat food in a contemptuous way, in an angry mood or in a mood of displeasure. No. When a Hindu takes food, first of all he takes a morsel of rice and lifts it up to his forehead reverentially, bows down, and then puts it into his mouth to eat. He first of all salutes the food, and then he eats it.
So, food should not be eaten with disregard, or in a huff, or in a criticizing manner: "What is this food you have put upon this plate?" You must not be in a temper when you eat food. Eat your food in a worshipful manner. And you must not waste food. A waste of food is another insult, is another misuse of food, and he who wastes his food will not have prosperity.
Food is assimilated into your body as energy. Therefore, the vital force of your being is also called God. It is the manifestation of Divine Power. It also has to be treated with honour, treated with respect. It should not be insulted. It should not be misused, and it should not be wasted.
To such a one, prosperity comes. In the ultimate analysis, all your thoughts and moods, they too have to be pure. Prosperity follows truth. Prosperity follows purity. Prosperity follows compassion and kindliness, and prosperity follows goodwill. If you always wish for the welfare of others, if you always wish for the prosperity of others, if you always wish for the good of others, you automatically draw to yourself prosperity. Prosperity need not necessarily mean that you will have millions, but you will never lack. You will never suffer. God will look after you and see that no want of yours is not met. At every moment, whatever want comes will be met by God.
We have to know, we have to realize, that the whole human life is being directed by God. He is the inner guardian of the whole universe. He is the inner director of the entire cosmos, and He is the one who is guiding your life too. In every moment of your life, if you fulfil the conditions of honouring the law of prosperity, of honouring the manifestations of God in various forms � in the form of food, in the form of your own energy, in the form of money, in the form of your own talent and thought, and in the form of your intelligence and put them to the highest and noblest use, and do not waste them, and make use of them respectfully, with reverence � there, prosperity is assured; there, prosperity cannot but take its place at your feet. It will fill your house. That house will always be full of radiance, cheerfulness, charity, and goodwill where there is honouring of food at the table and where there is always even temper.
I have four or five things which, as a Hindu, I wish to tell you. Where elders are respectfully honoured, there prosperity prevails; and where elders � father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, uncles and aunts � are treated with contempt, with harshness, with scant respect, there is no prosperity.
These things are not known. So when people are miserable, when people are unhappy, when people lack prosperity, it is not known why it comes about that way. It is brought about by oneself by a total breaking of these laws. And then you try to find out the consequences of the bad situation by looking at the diary, or statistics, or expenditure and income account. Perhaps you blame economic conditions. But, no � you create your bad conditions by breaking the spiritual laws. Where elders are treated with respect and honour, are treated with reverence, there, in that family, in that house, prosperity will abide. In the life of that person who honours his elders, prosperity will always rest.
Secondly, where the women of the house are treated with reverence, where they are put upon the pedestal that they deserve, there is prosperity. Where are we all, where is humanity if it is not for the women? It is the Supreme Mother who is the very source of the whole universe, and where the mothers, the women, are treated with the reverence that is due to them, in that house, there is prosperity. And where women are treated with disrespect, unkindness, harshness, prosperity cannot come. Prosperity does not abide in that house where the wife and the mother are made to weep, where tears of women fall. Prosperity takes wings and flies away from that house where the woman weeps.
Thirdly, for the womenfolk themselves, modesty is the magnet of prosperity. For a woman, modesty is the highest ornament. The ornament of a woman, the beauty of a lady, is not in the jewellery she wears or in the type of material or the dress she wears � no, that is not beauty. After all, what is the beauty of the body? The moment you take leave of the body, it is just a useless thing here. So the true beauty and the grace of a woman is modesty. If a woman is modest, if she is chaste, she becomes worshipful; and prosperity becomes the servant, the handmaid of that family where women are adorned by the ornaments of chastity, modesty and gracefulness.
Sometimes it is very pitiable to see women getting unsexed in some of the modern, highborn societies. They are losing their feminine quality. After all, the thing that makes a woman a woman is her feminine quality � her tenderness, her grace, her kindness, her forgiving nature, her forbearing nature. These are the things, which make a goddess of a woman. If these are not there, if women are sharp-tongued, if they are caustic, if they are bitter, if they are full of hostility, there prosperity cannot come. It cannot come where a woman wants to be, in all respects, like a male. No! She can claim a certain type of equality, but not equality in all ways. If in this craze for being equal with man, a woman loses her grace, her modesty and her chastity, then she has lost the most precious thing that God has given to her.
A Vedic declaration says: "Where women are worshipped, there indeed, the gods dance with joy". And where a woman loses this right of worship by her own immodesty, there prosperity cannot be.
And, last but not the least, where God is worshipped every day, there the whole house becomes blessed with the highest prosperity. All joy, all blessedness, all prosperity comes to that house where God is worshipped regularly. Say thanks when you get up in the morning, for your health, for your body, for a clean mind, for energy in the body to live a life of usefulness to yourself and to all, and in the evening, thank God again for the bounty of a good day, for clear weather, fresh air, good health and energy, opportunity to serve and be useful to yourself and to others. If every day there is thanksgiving and you always worship God in your home, there is bound to be prosperity. Where there is worship, in that place, there is the tangible presence of God, and where there is this tangible presence of the Deity, what to say of prosperity? Everything that is good, everything that is blessed, will pervade that house, will fill that house.
Where God is, all auspiciousness, all blessedness, all prosperity is there as a matter of course � just as luminosity is there, radiance is there, where there is light. So, if you wish to fill yourself with prosperity, be worshipful. Do not make the church alone the place of prayer and worship. Let every house be a place of worship. Let every house be a centre of prayer. Let every house be the abode of God. And let women be the repository of such virtues as modesty, chastity, purity and graciousness; and let the male members of the family give due respect to the ladies and treat them with kindness, treat them with courtesy, treat them with the dignity that is due to them; and let the children revere their elders. If these things are followed, if these things are fulfilled, prosperity will become an axiomatic condition. There can be no want, there can be no difficulty, and there can be no lack in such a house.
This is the ultimate wisdom of the ancients. They say: "Prosperity is created by the behaviour of the human being". Outside factors are secondary factors only. They are not the main factors.
Footnote
This article has been extracted from the book "The Path Beyond Sorrow" which is a compilation of a series of lectures delivered by His Holiness Swami Chidananda in Canada in the year 1960.
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