Rich People and their funny Attitude towards Money

Throughout my life I have told people that money does not make you happy and that it is not everything in life. Already in my time as a guru I could notice that especially a lot of rich people have difficulties really understanding this concept – be that because of their habits and thinking patterns or maybe due to an insecurity that only those have who have something to lose. Such incidents happened as well in India as during my travels abroad.

In 2005 I was once with a quite rich organizer. It was a woman who had, if I remember correctly, inherited well. I was quite busy when I was with her – many people came, the whole day I was busy giving individual sessions and in the evenings there was always some program. Sometimes I gave yoga workshops or lectures for which there was a set price but mostly it was meditations which were on donation basis, with a box at the entrance into which everybody could put whatever they wanted. I was happy that I was thus going to be able to support our children charity projects in India more.

I knew of course in that time that the woman was not short on money. I noticed the first sign of her funny attitude towards money when she kept on counting along the money that people gave me – for sessions, for workshop and even as donations. There was nothing to hide about it but the way how she got happy and proud and with which feeling she handed the money over to me was just a bit strange – after all I came to her place in the first place because I liked her and thought she liked me, not because of the money!

But well, I didn’t think more about it until a certain incident. There were a few young people who had attended every of my meditations in that place. They did not have much money but they gave a little bit of change as a donation each time. She seemed to dislike them and expressed this feeling several times in front of me. I felt the opposite however and so we did not talk any further about it. A workshop was announced for the next evening and some of those young people told my organizer that they wanted to come but that they did not have the money for the entry fee.

When we talked in the evening, after the meditation, they told me that they would not be able to come – because my organizer had told them to stay at home if they didn’t have the money to pay. I saw that they were really eager to come and I liked them. I absolutely could not understand my organizer why she would do this to someone! In such a situation you have the possibility to show love, to give to someone who needs it! So I took these young people aside, gave them as much money as would be needed for paying the entry fees and told them to come.

On the evening of the program, my organizer was at the door, collecting the entry fees as usual and was very surprised to see them arrive, pay and enter!

Although it was a little bit a funny moment to see her in that time, I decided that this would not happen again – in the future I would not leave such a decision for a discount upon the organizer. From that day on, I told each of my organizers that they should let people join a program, even if they did not have enough money.

No, money is not everything and you cannot express the value of everything in Euros, Dollars or Rupees!