I tell you, poor man is a man who has never seen poverty even once in life, understand.  I am defining who is poor man, poor man is a man who has never seen poverty even once in life.  Because this country has already suffered in poverty, we are not understanding the richness it can cause, please listen, I am not promoting poverty, all I am trying to tell you is even once if you have not realized poverty you will not have the free space in your being to re-invent yourself, that is why in the science of enlightenment at one point you have to break, renounce everything, be in the street empty handed, till that you don’t own anything, nothing can be the reason for your cognition of  “I”, your “I’ has to be just dependent on “I”, the mind cannot be the foundation ground for “I”. 

For that understanding to sink in, at least one year in your life you should have been empty handed, nothing, without anything, no relationship, no friends, no money, nothing. I tell you, that one year will give you the strength to re-invent who you are and I can tell you nine years of my accepted poverty, self-imposed poverty, not imposed on me forcibly.  I may not want to say my Purvashram (pre-ashram) family is rich, but they are decent, they were able to provide food and clothes and shelter for me, that much they are able to do, but when I renounced all of that and family, friends, all the known contacts, everything, that nine years of self-imposed poverty gave me tremendous space to re-invent myself and re-build the new “I” from the space of completion.

I tell you, man who has never seen poverty in the life at least for one year, is the poorest fellow, he is the poorest fellow because just recently I was reading an article, the research paper in Facebook, just fasting can re-kindle and awaken your whole immune system.  I was shocked, I thought how can fasting re-kindle, reawaken, strengthen you immunity system.  When I sat and consciously started scanning, when I started analyzing, I found the truth. 

If you allow the body, see I have seen so many Jain monks fasting left, right and center, means living just with hot water for one year, I have seen, please understand, believe me, I have seen Jain monks who live just on warm water, one year, but I have not seen a single Jain sadhu dying unless they decide to give up the body, and Jain sadhus are the most healthiest long living sadhus in all monastic orders, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, in Sufism one sector has monastic order, so many tradition monasteries, monastic orders I have seen. The long living, most healthy monastic Sannyasis I have ever seen are Jain sadhus.  Whether it is a length of life or the quality of activism, nothing can be compared to Jain Sadhus.  So please understand, the secret is, fasting rejuvenates the immune system, there are tons of research in the facebook, fasting rejuvenates the entire immune system because when there is no load on the system, it gets space to re-invent itself.

Sometimes wealth becomes stinking load on your consciousness, please listen, the word I am using, sometimes wealth becomes stinking load on your consciousness. It does not let you re-invent you, at those moments charity is the best solution, charity is the best solution. I am not asking you, you should live in poverty forever, no, at least one year in your life, be away from everything, friends, family, contact, wealth, what you yearned, whatever is a stinking load on you, suddenly you will see so much of natural completions, spontaneous completions happening in you, you just know how to re-invent yourself, how to re-invent yourself.  If you are feeling stuck, confused, disturbed, like Vajashravas, I give you the solution, one year be away from everything known to you. I know it looks very risky, too difficult, but anything great has some price, you have to pay for it.  I paid and I found it is worthy, I tell you, I found it is worthy, the very “I” gets altered.  Because of “Mine” you built “I”, when that “Mine” is taken away the “I” can just be rebuilt.  Many people come and tell me, rich guys, filthy rich guys, Swamiji there was a time I declared bankruptcy, I did not even have food, this scene which I am describing will be a typical part of all big rich guys.  There was a time I declared bankruptcy, I did not have anything, there was no friends to help me, nobody to support me, I was homeless, I was begging and eating in the streets.  I tell you, that part of the life is a blessing, they may not know but that is the blessing because that is the time when “Mine” is taken away, “I” melts down, all the incompletions disappear, you will have an inner space where you can re-invent and rebuild yourself from the space of completion.

Blessed are those who experienced utter poverty at least once in life. Listen, blessed are those who experienced utter poverty at least once in life.  You will have a space to re-invent yourself.  This is the context for which the charity has been prescribed by the Upanishads, with the Vedas, they say very clearly, whatever you really like, give them away, whatever you really feel as your wealth, give them away, but unfortunately Vajashravas is thoroughly confused, he did not understand the context, maybe he would have read the Vedas on his own or heard from some trekker gurus who are sitting with the jeans pant and trying to talk on yoga and meditation and Upanishads and Vedas.

Understand, I read a research report, I don’t know how much is true but it’s really convincing, any average millionaire in US goes bankrupt at least three times in his lifetime.  Please understand, any average millionaire goes bankrupt at least thrice.  There is a book called ‘The Millionaire Next Door’, the surprising secrets of Americans wealthy, where they are explaining, I do not know how much it is true, but it is very convincing.  I really believe this, understand, the context why the Vedas prescribe charity was not understood by Vajashravas.  He thinks if he gives now, he will get something called punya, merit, that he can use it as exchange offer in heaven and get all the suit room, spa access, swimming pool access, or the food he wants, he thinks he can use it as a currency. Because he is confused, does not have patience to look in and understand the context, reason why the Upanishads prescribe charity, he is thinking giving away charity is a moral lesson.  When you miss the context, you mess your whole life.  Vajashravas misses the context and does charity like bargain.  See when it comes to bargaining, naturally who cheats is the brilliant guy, successful guy, so here when the context is lost, he started cheating.  Cheating means he started giving the cows which already gave enough birth, drank enough water, ate enough grass and gave enough milk, now no way it can, it is going to be useful other than giving the cow dung and cow urine, he started giving out those type of cows.  He started doing charity with things which is no more useful to him, which is not useful anymore for him, giving away things which is not useful for, anymore for him.

I think today I have introduced too many important concepts, go and sit and contemplate and do Vakyartha Sadas on it.  Poverty, self-imposed poverty, way to re-invent yourself, this is the title for today’s Vakyartha Sadas, self-imposed poverty, the way to re-invent yourself.  Do Vakyartha Sadas on it, I will continue to expand further on this Upanishads.