“You, Yourself, are the Banker
Whose wealth cannot be measured,
And You bestow Your capital upon us.
Eating and drinking,
We use it for our pleasure.
Then, Banker, from the deposit You made,
You take something back,
Causing the ignorant mind
To become angry.
Because of that anger, we lose Your trust
And then our own confidence disappears.
Whatever your capital, place it
Before the One.
Trust and accept
The order of the Creator
On your forehead.
By doing so, you shall flourish
Four times over.
Oh Naanak,
The Master’s kindness extends forever.”
Guru Arjan, Sukhmani Sahib. 5th Ashtapadi. 2nd verse.
When people ask me about prosperity from the perspective of the Guru, this passage by Guru Arjan in Sukhmani sums it up perfectly. We only have what the Creator arranges for us to have. Nothing comes to us just because of own efforts. Everything comes as a gift.
Sometimes in life, there is loss. We had something. Then it is gone. The mind can get very confused in those moments. It can get angry. Guru Arjan sees this, but then explains that the anger we feel is the source of poverty. The anger makes us forget who the Real Giver is. When we get angry, we break the trust with the One who gave us life. And when the trust between the soul and the Creator is broken, then that creates a backlash. We loose confidence in ourselves. Like a child who gets angry with a parent but ultimately knows it needs the parent to survive, our mind knows deep inside we cannot live without having a trusting relationship with the Creator.
What is the solution, then? Guru Arjan speaks very beautifully about this. In Gurbani, the Guru explains that we are each born with certain things written on our forehead. In yogic terms, we say that whatever is destined for the soul is pre-recorded in the arcline. Those things that are written for us include a wide range of experiences. Yogi Bhajan, for instance, went from being born as a prince, to being a refuge after Partition. Then when he came to the West, he lost everything in the plane ride over. But by the time he reached his older years, he lived a consciously prosperous life. Gain and loss is not in our hands. It is in the hands of the One who made us. The trick is to surrender to it.
Guru Arjan gives a practical way out of the mind’s anger when it experiences loss. Take everything you own, place it before the One who gave it to you, and completely accept what is written in your arcline. The irony is, in that total surrender, you shall prosper four times over. As long as the mind is trained to trust and flow with hukam, with the will of the Divine, it opens the doors for incredible blessings to flow to you.
Ek Ong Kaar Kaur Khalsa
Originally published in the November 2012 Sikh Dharma Minister Newsletter
