The money-mantra

Once there was a spiritual Master who had only ten or twelve disciples, and among those there were only two or three who were really aspiring. He had one particular disciple who used to talk a great deal. She used to tell the Master how he could become very rich on the material plane, and she was always crying for money and material wealth herself.

She also cared much for physical beauty, although she was on the wrong side of fifty. She wanted to show others that she was not old, but quite young. She sometimes wanted to surpass her own daughters in beauty, and she used to compete with them. The daughters were shocked that their mother was competing with them in beauty, and all the time they either laughed at her or showed sympathy to her.

The girls had a brother who had been sent to war, for the country was fighting against another country. The mother used to cry and cry to the Master, "Please, please, save my son! My son is in the war. How I wish he would come back safe!"

"Well, the day I accepted you, I accepted all your problems," said the Master. "So don't worry. Your son will come back safe when the war ends."

The war ended, and the son did come back safely. The mother was so grateful to the Master. The Master was happy, not because she was grateful, but because he had been able to keep his word: the son had come back safely.

Now this lady wanted to become rich, richer, richest. She wanted to compete with her friends, who were really rich, so she begged the Master to give her a special mantra. Another disciple who happened to be there at the time said, "If the Master really had a special mantra, do you not think that he would have used it to make himself rich? He is so badly in need of money and material things."

The Master gave her a smile and said "Yes, yes, you are right."

Another disciple stood up and said to the woman, "Oh no, no; it is beneath his dignity to pray to God for money. God has given him inner wealth, and inner wealth is more important. Outer wealth is not necessary for spiritual Masters. That is why he does not ask for it. Although he himself does not need it or care for it, he can give it to someone else if he is pleased with that person. If someone needs and wants material wealth, perhaps the Master will give it."

The Master gave her the broadest smile and said, "That is absolutely true. I know certain mantras which do have the power to give material wealth. If it is the Will of the Supreme, I will give these mantras. They have been used by many people, and these people have all achieved success, provided they repeated the mantras sincerely and devotedly. And also, the Masters themselves put added spiritual power into the mantras; otherwise people will not have faith in the mantras and will take them as mere words without any power. The Masters give life to those mantras with their own spiritual light. So, if they give the mantras, people can become very rich. In my case, if God wants me to give those particular mantras, I can give them. If not, I will never, never be able to give them."

The lady in question immediately folded her hands and said to the Master in front of the others, "Master, Master, I am so grateful to you. You have brought my son home safe. Now, you know I have been praying to you inwardly and outwardly to make me richer. And I am so sincere, you know. I never feel ashamed of asking for these kinds of things in front of others. Look at my sincerity, look at my need!

"Now you know, Master, I give you only five dollars a week. I make fifty dollars a week, and I give you five dollars. You know that when I become rich, I will give you the same percentage. I will always give you ten percent of my income. So, Master, make me rich, make me rich, and I will also make you rich, I know you don't feel like working in the outer world, and why should you? But I see you need material things to lead a decent life. So, Master, please make me rich, make me rich. I am a secretary and I am fond of decorating houses. Some people call me an interior decorator, although that is not actually true. But by your grace I can do many things. If you will give me the mantra, I will definitely become rich and give up my secretarial job and decorating work. I will become totally spiritual. I will always pray and meditate."

"Then why do you need money?" asked the Master.

"I need a big house full of many things so that I won't have to worry," replied the lady. "To get money now, I have to work very, very hard. If I had a lot of money, I wouldn't have to work very hard and I could devote all my time to the spiritual life, which is the only thing I need. I really want God. But before I can think of God and pray to God, I need some time. And if I have money, then only will I have time."

The Master said, "All right, come with me, and I will give you this mantra."

She said, "I am so grateful to you, Master, for what you have already done for me. But when I become really rich, I will be extremely and eternally grateful to you."

Some people laughed and laughed, while others became very jealous. The Master said, "My inner being is telling me to give you this mantra, so I am giving it to you. Let us see what happens."

So she got the mantra in private, and in three weeks' time she won $23,000 in the lottery. Then she spent six months travelling around the world, thinking about what to do with her money. But when she thought of giving ten percent to the Master, she was literally ready to faint.

Her daughters had come to know of her promise, and they reminded her of it. They said, "Please give the Master some money, at least, because you repeated his mantra."

"What is this mantra?" said the mother. "It is just one or two words. Do those words have any value?"

"All right, the words do not have any value. But perhaps it was the power he put inside the words that made you win the money."

"No, no, that is wrong, absolutely wrong! It was my fate. God was kind to me, so I got it. It was just luck. It had nothing to do with the Master, nothing to do with his mantra."

The daughters said, "You are so ungrateful!" She gave them a slap and said, "You are going to teach me about gratefulness and ungratefulness? I know what he has done for me. He saved my son; it is true. He was nice to me, kind to me. He used to console me when you girls created problems for me. At that time I was grateful to him. But this time it was not his mantra which brought me the money; it was only God. So I don't have to be grateful to him. I am grateful only to God. And I am grateful to the people in charge of the lottery, who have given me the money. It is they who deserve my gratitude, not the Master. I don't have to be grateful to him at all."

Needless to say, she left the Master, and she left her son and daughters as well.

September 16, 1974