He shared that people give for many reasons: because it feels good, because they believe it’s the right thing to do, because they are fortunate to have the resources to give, or simply because they receive a tax benefit from giving. I asked David Koravos, and a prior Executive Director of United Way and the current Executive Director of the Amar Infinity Foundation, a fundraising organization for charities, why people give. We often say that whatever you give, you receive back 10 times. The recognized benefits of giving are numerous. A truly prosperous life is when we share what we have with others, when we give of our time and effort to help someone, and when we teach what we learned so that others may be uplifted as well. In all of the practices and teachings in Kundalini Yoga involving prosperity, a key component is the importance of giving. In achieving these assignments, each of these individuals very likely struggled, yet they went far beyond what they thought they could accomplish and, as a result, expanded into a far more ‘prosperous’ state. Or he might tell another to record a song and send it to him in Europe within three days. If another person had musical talent, he might tell him to write a song every day for a week – and to perform each song for him each evening. It seemed that the book was simply a by-product of the effort – the real intention was for the person writing it to expand and grow. If, for example, he wanted a book written on a certain topic, he might assign the task to a person with a talent-that they may not even know they possessed-and give them a very short deadline to complete it. While Yogi Bhajan was living, we also witnessed this approach to prosperity in his one-on-one relationships with students. We experience these lessons every day when we are blessed to stretch beyond the cozy comfort of our beds to arise in the early morning to meditate, or when we practice a 40-day meditation – and think of all the ways we would like to stop but still keep on going, or when we successfully sit through a difficult 62-minute meditation in White Tantric Yoga. In countless personal interactions, in a multitude of yoga sets and meditations, and in lecture after lecture, Yogi Bhajan challenged us to stretch beyond our limited imaginations and stilted perceptions of our capabilities so that we may more consistently relate to our unlimited self.
To command ourselves to that still point of own internal infinity – our ‘Sat Nam’ - requires practice, training, patience, and consistent effort. Yet each of us lives life constantly confronted with the temptations and inputs of the material world as well as the pull of the mind and ego to draw us toward a false sense of limitation. The remembrance that we are timeless, deathless beings has everything to do with prosperity and the fulfillment of our destinies. To such a person, prosperity is as natural as the breath, as unlimited as the mind and as immediate as this moment.” Yogi Bhajan They cultivate endurance, dedication, and awareness. They will always remember the presence and possibilities of the Infinite within each person. That person will not barter the values of their character or identity for any temporary benefit. They act with a constant equilibrium through all pressures and shortcomings. No matter what the circumstance, a prosperous person creates, delivers, and fulfills. A prosperous person does not gather wealth but the wealth of wealths. For that person richness itself is not the basic aim. “A prosperous person has certain characteristics. Rather than ‘go out and get’ and chase after success and happiness, a primary tenant was to be still and vibrate – and that everything that you need will come to you. He taught that the key to prosperity was the nurturance of such essential qualities as personal character, integrity, and nobility. He spoke of prosperity as the complete realization of a person’s happiness, fulfillment, and purpose in life. Yogi Bhajan, however, spoke of prosperity in terms that were far more grand and expansive than any of my prior associations with the concept. Under this definition, ‘prosperity’ was not a high priority for me.
But in looking around me, I knew that financial wealth alone could not provide lasting happiness and true satisfaction. I had always thought of it in terms of financial prosperity and wealth – that if I were to strive to become ‘more prosperous’, my primary intention would be to accumulate more money so I could gather more possessions or have a high net worth. At the very beginning of my time as a student of Yogi Bhajan’s, I remember being stretched and challenged-as well as intrigued-by his concept of prosperity.
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