Building Long Term Wealth. The Real One.

We often talk about building long term wealth, planning for retirement and rainy days. I find a lot of people talking about investing in property, having rental properties, stock investments and similar things. Having personally done these things, there is no doubt in the rationale, it offers financial stability/independence/freedom which is one of the pillars of modern day living. 

I first heard of the term “karmic account” in one of Swami Ji’s videos and it immediately resonated with me. Eventually, the only account that we take with us is our karmic account, everything in our bank account stays on planet Earth. So I started thinking, shouldn’t making deposits into the karmic account also very important? Everyone by default works towards making deposits in bank account but it takes deliberate intent to accumulate good karma. The RAK stories (random acts of kindness) on the black lotus app are so inspiring that every time I read one, I am able to think of some little act that might be of help to someone. 

 In one of the recent blogs, Swami Ji gave an insight that has been very potent for myself. He suggested asking the question, ” What else can I be thinking now?” Over past few weeks I have caught myself in not so positive thoughts and its been very effective to ask this question and pivot to another thought. My favorite thoughts to shift to are chanting the Gayatri Mantra and some devotional hymns. Sometimes I think about what is a random act of kindness I can do, what can I write about to share on this blog – this one is little tricky because either I struggle to get ideas or I get too many ideas. I am a big sports fan so I like switching to watching some soccer, squash or cricket amongst other sports. And if I am able to step outside for a walk, I will do that and it clears my head. I think our mind is incredibly powerful, and the beauty about asking this question that Swami Ji suggested is that it directs our thinking to access the part of our brain where we are then able to come up with different ideas, at least that’s been my personal experience so far.

I digressed a bit from the topic of building that long term wealth, one that carries on with us beyond this lifetime, given you subscribe to that philosophy of course. I have read on many occasions that even thoughts and words create karma, not just actions. If we think of someone’s well being or harbor negative thoughts about someone, they create karma. 

There is a story about Alexander the Great that when he knew he only had limited time due to being very ill, he instructed that his hands be kept hanging out from his coffin. It is said that he meant to give a message that we don’t take anything with us, not even the most powerful man on earth at that point of time could do that. Its a great reminder so we may understand what really matters, what really is valuable. Material wealth anyways is valuable in relative terms, on demand & supply.  Dollar worth more or Euro, it depends on economics behind who are a group of human beings.  Whether its gold or bitcoin, its the same thing – rules that are made up by us human beings.  Beyond these man made rules, is something far more valuable. 

One thing the human race can largely agree is that we all have free will. The freedom to choose. Choosing to build our karmic account(read karmic relationship stages), through good deeds. By being of use to others as Swami Ji says, and that is a worthy proposition.