In an age where technology and communications have made life so easy for us, what is it that holds back human beings from being content and happy? Think about the lives your fathers and grandfathers lived. They did not have the convenience of technology and modern health care serving them. So why is it that when the chief sources of human misery and wretchedness have been removed from our lives, contentment still eludes most people in this world?
The proverb ‘Santosham Param Dhanam’ (Contentment is the ultimate wealth) holds a lot of meaning in today’s world where people live in boundless aspiration, haphazard striving, suffering and incompleteness. In a materialistic world, most of you are driven either by your desires or fears. You overlook the fact that your needs will always be met and that you will be taken care of by the Universe.
You forget that all the necessities for your survival are free. The air you breathe every day, the ground on which you rest your body at night, the sunshine that warms you, the water from the rivers, the plants that nurture you. None of them demand a price for what they do. You need to imbibe deeply the lesson of the Muladhara chakra. It says: “It is my birthright to be supported, just because I am born.”
Contentment is a milder form of happiness; it is being at ease with your circumstance in life. A stage comes in every person’s life, when you see that your basic material needs for food, clothing and shelter are met, even though you are still in the rat race for money. Think about where you are placed and ask yourself:
Am I humanly satisfied with what I have and where I have reached?
Do my desires have more to do with exploring my potential rather than actually fighting for survival?
Happiness may result when you give money for material needs, or service or charity but if you believe in hoarding money thinking that money is happiness, you are living in illusion. Contentment is acceptance of one’s state in life and being grateful or happy about it. As a result of this attitude, abundance starts flowing within the individual and contentment attracts more positive outcomes than any desire ever can.
Contentment comes when you start associating happiness with an inner state of being rather than the outer material world. When your basic needs are met in life, money has a very little impact on happiness. This is because happiness is really a state of in-and-out flow of one’s energy.
An attitude of contentment paves the way for opening up of your Crown chakra. This sends a message to the Universe that you are now ready to live the life of a Creator rather than a dependent. As a dependent on mother earth, you earn just enough to satisfy your needs of food, clothing, shelter and day-to-day living. Just as an individual embarks on a career after completing education and thus stops taking assistance from his parents, so too contentment send a message to mother earth that “Now I am ready to Create on my own”. Contentment links you to the Creator within and paves way the way for immense wealth in life.
