"I am interested to eat four chapatis, which can be very easily available. So why I am working so hard?" But that sense does not come. He is working, working, working, "More money, more money, more money, more money, more money."
[Posted
July 22, 2009]Make a Life, Not a Living
Just add Krishna!
Daniel Suelo at home - photo by Mark Heithoff
COULD YOU SURVIVE WITHOUT MONEY? MEET THE GUY WHO DOES
DANIEL SUELO LIVES IN A CAVE. UNLIKE THE average American—wallowing in credit-card debt, clinging to a mortgage, terrified of the next downsizing at the office—he isn't worried about the economic crisis. That's because he figured out that the best way to stay solvent is to never be solvent in the first place. Nine years ago, in the autumn of 2000, Suelo decided to stop using money. He just quit it, like a bad drug habit.
His dwelling, hidden high in a canyon lined with waterfalls, is an hour by foot from the desert town of Moab, Utah, where people who know him are of two minds: He's either a latter-day prophet or an irredeemable hobo. Suelo's blog, which he maintains free at the Moab Public Library, suggests that he's both. "When I lived with money, I was always lacking," he writes. "Money represents lack. Money represents things in the past (debt) and things in the future (credit), but money never represents what is present."
...HE WASN'T ALWAYS THIS WAY. Suelo graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in anthropology, he thought about becoming a doctor, he held jobs, he had cash and a bank account. In 1987, after several years as an assistant lab technician in Colorado hospitals, he joined the Peace Corps and was posted to an Ecuadoran village high in the Andes. He was charged with monitoring the health of tribespeople in the area, teaching first aid and nutrition, and handing out medicine where needed; his proudest achievement was delivering three babies. The tribe had been getting richer for a decade, and during the two years he was there he watched as the villagers began to adopt the economics of modernity. They sold the food from their fields—quinoa, potatoes, corn, lentils—for cash, which they used to purchase things they didn't need, as Suelo describes it. They bought soda and white flour and refined sugar and noodles and big bags of MSG to flavor the starchy meals. They bought TVs. The more they spent, says Suelo, the more their health declined. He could measure the deterioration on his charts. "It looked," he says, "like money was impoverishing them." go to story
Sri Guru and Gauranga
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How many chapatis can you eat?
excerpt from lecture on Bhagavad-gita 1.23, London, July 19, 1973
PRABHUPADA: This is the Vedic instruction, that "You accept only what is given to you. Don't encroach upon others' property." This is peaceful. Everything belongs to Krishna. So whatever Krishna gives you as prasadam, as His favor, you accept it and be satisfied. This is the basic principle of peace in the world. But because people are not educated in that way, everyone is wanting more and more and more and more. There is no satisfaction. So that is durbuddhi [poor intelligence]. The Vedic culture is that "You be satisfied with your position." There is no question of starving in any position of life. People are trying to make economic development, but according to shastra, it is not possible to develop your economic position simply by endeavor. You are destined to have some portion mixed up with happiness and distress. That is the nature. ...
In the Bhagavad-gita it is plainly said, mudha. Mudha means asses, rascal. He does not know his own interest. He is called mudha, ass. Just like ass. Ass is whole day working with tons of cloth on his back, but he does not... Not a piece of cloth belongs to him. This is ass. And he is working so hard only for a morsel of grass, which is available everywhere. But he is thinking that "This gentleman, washerman, is giving me food." This is ass. Such food can be available anywhere and everywhere, but he is thinking like that and working so hard. So karmis are like that. He will eat two chapatis or four chapatis, but he is working day and night. If you want to see him, he will say, "Oh, I have no time." He does not think at any time that "I am interested to eat four chapatis, which can be very easily available. So why I am working so hard?" But that sense does not come. He is working, working, working, "More money, more money, more money, more money, more money." The Bhagavata says, "No, no. This is not your business." The four chapatis is already destined to you; you will get, any circumstances. You don't waste your time simply under some false impression of economic development. Don't waste your time. You cannot get more, you cannot get less. That is already there. So you utilize your time for understanding Krishna. That is your business. People will not accept it. "Oh, this is a waste of time. Attending the class of Bhagavad-gita, this is waste of time. By this time I could have earned hundreds of dollars." That is their business. That is called durbuddhi, not very intelligent. All mudha, asses.
Real intelligent person is he who is satisfied what Krishna has given him: "If Krishna wants, He will give me more. Let me become Krishna conscious. Let me study about Krishna. Let me chant about Krishna. Let me hear about Krishna. Let me see with my eyes Krishna, the Deity Krishna. Let me engage my hands in worshiping Krishna, in cleansing the temple, my hands. Let my legs be engaged in going to the temple." In this way all our senses should be engaged in the service of Krishna. That is our real business.