Earn your blessings

The British once ruled over India during the era of British Empire. They have done a great harm to our psychic attitude. Since their time, we run after free offers and gifts. We feel that this is the only way to make our life better. They did not teach us the basic fact that a livelihood is to be earned by hard work. Instead they gave us freebies and kept us dependents to their mercy. We undermined hard work and believed in the false notion that blessings are either a free gift from a foreigner or a thing grabbed through illegal means. We believed that all rich people have amassed wealth through treacherous acts.

Now, though bit late, we are learning the fact that wealth is earned and not received as a gift from a merciful man or mythical god.

Every blessing is to be earned. In another sense every true blessing that goes from generation to generation is earned. All money amassed through other means is not real blessings.

The lowest worker in our country is the daily worker who does tilling o the ground and other miscellaneous jobs. He is not a skilled laborer but knows how to do many untitled jobs in our farm land and around our house. His daily wage is fixed by the Government and Trade Unions. He comes for work by 8 A.M. and leaves by 5 P.M. we are bound to pay his wage by 5 P.M. as he leaves us. We cannot postpone the payment for the next day, for he may not come to us on the next day and there is no written contract between us. So we pay his daily wage. What are we actually doing by this act? He has been working form morning till evening. Even if he is not paid, all his works are done. He cannot take back what he has done.

By paying the daily wage, we are actually buying his physical work for that day.

Another example is purchasing things from a super market. We walk around the shop and pick whatever we like to buy and put them all in a basket. After picking up everything we need we go to the cash counter and make the payment. We have already picked up all products and have been carrying them in our basket. Still it becomes our own only when we pay the price of them. The fact that we have been carrying them in a basket for such a time does not permit an ownership over them. We become the owners only when we pay the price at the cash counter. To own them we have paid the price and bought them.

In both the above two examples, whether it is human work or products in a store, to own them we have to buy them by paying their price.

It teaches us that we can claim an ownership over something only after we have bought them or earned them by giving a price.

The principle is extended to all blessings in our life. Earn the blessings by paying an equivalent price unless, though we carry it, we are not their true owner.

Charity is not gift. Charity is lesser than gift.

We conclude from the above two examples that only those products for which we have paid a price permits our ownership over them.

So pay for the daily/weekly/monthly salary. Do not accept it as a charity.

Pay the price for your wealth; do not accept it as a charity (not even from your father).

Pay for every coin that is in your pocket; let it not be a charity.

Pay for success; it must not be a thing conferred on you by chance.

Pay even for all your spiritual blessings.

Be a proud owner of all that you possess and enjoy.

Further reading:
Sustainable Wealth

Professor Jacob Abraham

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Sustainable wealth

 

Sustainable wealth is that sustained through happy and ill days passed from generation to generation.

Wealth is not richness. Wealth is not money alone.

Wealth is richness added with perspiration and time. Time is an associate of perspiration or hard work. Perspiration need quality time spent.

Thus wealth is richness and perspiration or hard work.

Wealth has an important part of a man. Wealth contains the man himself.

Richness is just money. It is money made somehow. Richness demands no perspiration. Hence it is not sustainable wealth.

Richness may not pass from generation to generation. Richness has no permanency.

So rich people lives in constant fear of losing it. Rich people are anxious of the future.

Richness does not contain its master. It has no personal relationship with the master.

Wealth has an individuality of a person. It has an attachment to its creator. So it cannot leave the master. In a sense, it cannot leave the master at any circumstances because it contains the master himself.

Wealth is a faithful slave saved by the master and hence it works always for the master to increase itself. Wealth increases even while the master sleeps and is away.

Wealth is not created by lucky. Luck is not the secret of wealth. Luck may bring richness not wealth. Luck does not contain hard work. Luck does not contain the individuality of the master. Luck is a passerby that favors one at a time and another at another time. It is not a faithful ally and hence richness granted by luck is not a faithful servant.

There no story of any man created wealth out of the money he got from a lucky draw.  There are many lottery draws conducted worldwide. People are declared lucky to get the first prize. Where have they gone with all the money of the first prize?

Luckt has only a short story to tell. Everything happened unexpectedly and immediately.

Look at the wealthiest persons in this world. They have a story of perspiration or hard work to tell. They all agree that their wealth contains a part of themselves. Their wealth contains the hard work, despair, humiliation, frustration and all sorts of struggles in life. Wealth is a reward for their hard work and perseverance against failures, humiliation and frustration.

Wealth has a long story to tell. Wealth was not created unexpectedly or immediately. It was created little by little by a long time. It is a grain added to another to fill the granary.

Wealth is richness mixed with hard work.

The sustainable part of wealth is perspiration. Money comes the second only.

Wealth belongs to its master and has a personal relation with the master.

It cannot run away even if it gets a chance. It is its master’s.

Sustainable wealth is richness that contains perspiration.

Professor Jacob Abraham                                                                            

http://professorjacobabraham.blogspot.in

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Taste of hunger

Poverty is the most painful experience in human life.

The pain of poverty cannot be compared with anything else.

Pain of poverty is both physical and psychological. One is mentally and physically tortured. Everybody and everything around him seems to inflict pain on him because he is poor.

Who has the best knowledge of poverty?

Hunger is incomparable pain. Hunger is an associate of poverty. If I ask who has the best knowledge of hunger, many of us would raise hands. But it is not true that we have tasted real hunger ever in our life.

Only those who suffered hunger because of poverty have ever tasted hunger.

As a religious practice, I used to observe fasting for two or three days. At occasions, I have observed fasting for more than three days. I have not eaten any food during those days. I surely felt hunger. I tasted hunger.

But was it the real taste of hunger? NO.

It was a religious observance.

The great saint Sree Budha of India was a prince. He later renounced everything and sat in meditation for many days, without food and drink. He was said to be enlightened with the knowledge about the secret of suffering. He proclaimed that craving is the cause of suffering. So he renounced his kingship, riches and luxuries in life. He took the life of a beggar and advised his disciples to live like beggars.

His life is a good example for renunciation.

But has he ever tasted real poverty? NO.

Real poverty is not caused by renunciation of richness that we already have. It is lack of a livelihood in spite of hard struggles.

Real hunger is not renunciation of food; it is lack of food though one suffers to have little.

There is the pain. There is the real want. There is the torture and suffering.

You wish to have, suffered to have, struggled to have; but have not.

While others are eating stomach full, you wish to have at least the left out. But you are chased away even from the left out.

It is real hunger. The pain of hunger is incomparable.

It is not the hunger felt by the religious practitioners who renounce food for a short time.

It is not a part of religious practice; it is not a religious observance.

It is not missing a meal while you are away from home busy in the works.

It is not getting late in a journey.

It is the lack of food; it is denying food; it is a fruitless craving for food.

Have you ever tasted real hunger?

I am sure, most of us do not.

Feed the poor, at least one in a day. Give food to a beggar.

If you are busy, trust someone to feed a poor person each day for you.

There is nothing comparable with the pain of poverty and hunger.

Further reading:

Help the poor without a thick pocket 

Purpose of life 

Professor Jacob Abraham                                                                            

http://professorjacobabraham.blogspot.in

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Help the poor without a thick pocket

There is a legendary figure in our land called “Kayamkulam Kochunnoonny”. “Kayamkulam” was his native place and “Kochunnoonny” was his name. I do not know when he lived; but he lived before so many years, even before the British rule in India. Some say that he is only a legend and some others affirm that he really lived.

Kayamkulam Kochunnoonny was a robber. He robed only rich people. If he was convinced that the person though rich was good hearted towards the poor, he spared them.

That is the key to his character.

He was a lover of poor people. He himself was not rich. He was troubled by the plight of the poor around him. He was angry at the cruelty of the rich. The wide gap between the living conditions of the rich in his place and the poor disturbed him to a point where he dedicated his life for providing for the poor.  But he was a poor man. He was not wise like Karl Marx to write a thesis on the class struggle. He was not a rich king to order his rich citizens to feed the poor in his country.

So he turned to robbing the rich and distributing the bounty among the poor.

He went on robbing the cruel rich and took the rich goods to the poor. He threatened the cruel rich masters and asked them to behave properly towards the poor.

Thus he became a savior to the poor and a class enemy to the rich. The poor prayed for his long life and rich cried for his blood.

There are a lot of stories describing his adventure and charity. Stories present all good qualities of Kayamkulam Kochunnoonny towards the poor and towards the kind hearted rich people. He was a man of sense and humanity.

The end of his life was tragic. The rich influenced the King to arrest him and kill him. Still he lives a hero and a savior in the heart of hundreds of poor people.

As I wrote in another blog, I find immense joy in giving gifts to poor people. But I am not Kayamkulam Kochunnoonny and I cannot go on robbing the rich to feed the poor. I myself am not a rich man now to distribute a portion to the poor regularly. I may be able to extend a helping hand now and then. But I want to do more.

Before three or four years, one of my old relatives presented a black saree to my wife. (saree is our traditional dress for women). We do not use black colored dresses. Black is good, but that won’t suit to our complexion. There are fairer people in India, for whom a black saree would be beautiful. So our first impulse was to reject the offer politely telling the discomfort we have with the color. Suddenly an image of a poor lady came to our mind. Without any hesitation we accepted the gift with thanks and smiles.

We saw in it an opportunity to help a poor lady. It is an opportunity to become a modern Kayamkulam Kochunnoonny.

We took the black saree from there and gifted it to the poor lady. She was extremely happy, because she wished to have a black saree for a long time. She was fairer than us and it would be fine with her.

We have done an act towards the fulfillment of our life. It is happiness than anything else.

One day, before a year, one of my friends came on leave from USA. He presented a beautiful shirt to me. It was violet in color with wide white stripes. The collar of the shirt was white, the hand cuffs were white and all rest in violet with white stripes. It was a good shirt. My friend bought it from a store in USA with me in his mind. He brought it down to India to gift it to me and me alone. I accepted it with thanks and a word of blessing.

I have been an introvert from my childhood and my favorite color was white. Still I used to wear color shirts, but only light colors. I never wore dark colored shirts in my life. This violet is not my color. It is darker than any light color. Moreover, I have taken a decision to wear only white colored shirts from the age of 50. So I knew that I am not going to wear this shirt. But friend had bought it with a good price just for me. I was pleased with his love and care.

I decided to extend his love and care to a poor young fellow who live in a suburb. The poor young fellow looked at me as if I have gone insane to gift such a costly new shirt to him.

I lost nothing and gained a lot.

At another occasion I got a new peach colored shirt as a gift. I was extremely happy. I knew I was not going to wear it. But I was thinking what I should present to a young man for his wedding. He was poor and I must give him something. Here comes a new shirt, beautiful, elegant and costly. Proudly I presented it to the young bridegroom.

I have a hundred experiences like this to tell you about giving money, wrist watches, shoes, food, clothes, calculators, digital organizers and vegetables and so on….

My role is similar to that of a postman.

This is how I collect gift for the poor. I accept anything as a gift from anybody who likes to give, whether I like it or not, whether I need it or not, whether I am going to use it or not. I am thankful to the giver, for he has given me an opportunity to bless the life of a poor person.

I am not a Kayamkulam Kochunnoonny. I cannot go on robbing the rich and distribute the bounty among the poor.  I do not like to ask people to donate to a charitable fund. Still I can do something to improve the life of the poor without spending any money from my pocket.

To help the poor we do not need a thick pocket, we need only a kind heart.

"I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (The Bible, Acts 20:35)

Further reading:

It is more blessed to give

Professor Jacob Abraham                                                                            

http://professorjacobabraham.blogspot.in

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