Here’s a little story from my husband which he loves to tell but can’t take credit for because I’m sure he got the story from somewhere else. It goes like this:

A man who was about to enter the pearly white gates of heaven was greeted by an angel. The angel said, “I will grant you one wish. Anything you want will be yours. What is your wish sir?” The man knew exactly what he wanted and didn’t even hesitate to answer the question. He said, “I want zillions of dollars.” The angel looked at the man and smiled and said, “Your wish is granted.” Then, poof, she disappeared and the man was left all alone in heaven with zillions of dollars for eternity.

Be careful what you wish for. Do you really want zillions of dollars, or do you want what zillions of dollars can buy you. The pursuit of money for the sake of it only will lead you down a dead end street. There’s nowhere to go after that.

The post came at a good time, as we are trying to do some financial planning for our future goals. I used to want to completely avoid thinking & planning, it made me so anxious. My fears have subsided and I’m more able to think practically.

I didn’t necessarily think of money as dirty, but I saw so many really messed up wealthy people and I associated the two as inseparable. Instead, I saw myself as having values which didn’t coincide with the pursuit of money.

The only problem with this is the danger of resentment which sometimes creeps up on me. I can’t understand how some people in India can have so much while most have so little… But this is a global issue which can only be solved through a complete shift in consciousness.

Mr. Geithner has his work cut out for him, economists and policy analysts in both India and the United States say. Reaching economic agreements between the two countries has traditionally been an arduous task.

“On principle, they both agree on everything,” said Jahangir Aziz, chief India economist at J. P. Morgan in Mumbai. “It always comes down to the nitty-gritty and that’s where things get stuck. Part of the problem is neither of them wants to give the other side an inch.”

Shouldn’t the US go a little easier on India, given the size of its market?

It took nearly 20 years for the United States to lift a ban on imports of Indian mangoes, for example, and a deal to allow energy-strapped India access to American nuclear technology, agreed to in principle four years ago, still has not cleared all the legal hurdles that would let American companies sign contracts here. The two countries remain far apart on American farm subsidies and India’s unwillingness to open its markets to foreign farmers, because they both want to protect their agricultural sectors. The countries’ disagreements there helped to scuttle global trade negotiations in 2008.

A funny & relevant tweet from Sadhguru’s public talk yesterday:

When you start thinking only I am right and everybody else is wrong, this is the first step towards madness.

Surely the US qualifies?

Economic activity in the world is as old as humanity. Beginning as a rudimentary activity, it has become more and more efficient, complex and finally disastrous to the planet today.

Until the inner well being is in place, organization of the outer world will continue to be haphazard. We must remember that we are spiritual well beings first and indulge in economic activity to exist in this world. As long as we force our will, instead of doing what is really needed, we will not prosper. In the coming years, economic leaders will be even more influential than the political leaders. It is important that they too work towards the inner well being of humanity-only then can we take control of our outer well being.

Spirituality too has been in the world as long as humanity has existed and the process too has evolved. While spirituality is about organizing your inner being, economics is about organizing your external situation. Cultures that created a balance between their inner well being and outer world did well during their times.

Today the constant buzzword heard is “sustainability”. True spirituality will only happen when people are peaceful and happy and you would think that would be a state in all affluent nations, but that is not so. Instead all economic activity you see in the world is desperate action. People have no concept of what they really need-from a simple matter like how much food they should put in their mouths to how much money or property do they really need. People just do not seem to know when to stop. They are running endlessly in pursuit of happiness.

Only when you are at peace within yourself will you handle economic activity in the way that is good not just for you but for everybody else.

Spirituality has never been as organized as economic activity. Whenever the spiritual processes have been organized it has ended up as religion. All religions on this planet have started as spiritual processes but in the form of religion spirituality has created more trouble.

Economics today is also in a state of dysfunction. Organized economics is supposed to create big opportunities and well being for everyone but the disparity between the rich and the poor is so huge today that it seems as if they are living on different planets.

So both spirituality and economics today do not have the right focus. Today we are not human beings with limitations. Technological advances have greatly empowered all of us, but has it made us happy? It doesn’t seem so.

There seems to be a renewed interest in spirituality, because while economically people have made such huge strides, the inner well being and happiness hasn’t followed. So suddenly there is a great interest in yoga. I hear about 200 million people are practicing yoga in India today and about 25 million people are doing so in the US. This kind of phenomenon hasn’t happened before, and that is because the economic progress has not brought inner well being with it.

Click here for a direct link to Sadhguru’s Keynote Address at TiEcon2007.

Sponsoring a student represents a unique opportunity to dramatically touch the life of a child. Through the Isha Vidhya scholarship program, each sponsor is matched with a student / students and receives updates on the student’s progress, as well as letters and photos. Sponsors can also write back and even visit their student(s) at the school. Over the years, sponsors can become involved in the life of their student(s) and watch as the children grows and blossoms. To find out more about sponsoring a child, please visit http://www.ishavidhya.org/scholarships

Two new Isha Vidhya fundraising initiatives have recently been launched. The annual Mumbai Marathon, to be held 18 January, presents an opportunity for people from across India and the world to come together in support of social change. This year, 125 dedicated Isha volunteers have signed up to run or walk in support of Isha Vidhya. There’s still time to pledge your support! Visit http://www.ishavidhya.org/marathon/ to find out more about the runners, the event, and to see how you can get involved.

Sadhguru recently offered a special opportunity for everyone, from all walks of life, from all corners of the earth, to make a profound difference in the life of another. The Skip-a-Meal program is an invitation for those having three or more meals a day to skip one meal each Wednesday and make a monthly contribution of the amount saved to the Isha Vidhya project. Whatever you would spend on your meal can help change the fate of a rural child. Beyond just the financial donation, skipping a meal each week gives an opportunity to feel a small amount of the hunger that so many millions of children daily experience. The amount saved for one meal a week may seem like a small contribution, but when thousands join together, we can create a huge impact in making quality education available in rural India. To join this initiative, please visit http://www.ishafoundation.org/skip-a-meal.

From the Isha Foundation December newsletter.

The break down of one defined situation is an opportunity to define a completely new situation or possibility. Human suffering is happening because our psychological and emotional situations are not happening the way we would like it. If we are truly enterprising and innovative, this is an opportunity that the Indian business should grab to see how to push their business interest to the international playing field.

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The break down of one defined situation is an opportunity to define a completely new situation or possibility. Human suffering is happening because our psychological and emotional situations are not happening the way we would like it. If we are truly enterprising and innovative, this is an opportunity that the Indian business should grab to see how to push their business interest to the international playing field.

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Closing of a known door could be the possibility of opening many unknown doors.

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How should corporates counsel their employees (especially the Taj, Oberoi, Trident Hotel staff) affected by terror trauma, which is leading to a loss in their well being and company productivity? How should we counsel those who have lost their loved ones and colleagues?

People who have been through that horrific situation need much more than just counseling. They need a much deeper process to come out of it without bitterness, without hatred above all not to be traumatized for the rest of their lives. This needs a much deeper process.

It needs a much much deeper spiritual process for one to come out of this. When I say spiritual I am not talking about a religious process but a scientific spiritual process which cleanses the inner system and releases a person from any kind of trauma that one goes through. A system which is capable of freeing a person from lifetimes of imprints is what is needed when people go through this kind of horrific experiences. So such a spiritual process is possible and our foundation is very much willing to help in it.There is no other solution for this.

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I am glad that at least the financial downturn is making people think in terms of your love, bliss and happiness. The most fundamental responsibility of every individual is that he makes himself into a pleasant human being. Being joyful, being loving, being blissful just means this: mentally, emotionally, internally you are in a very pleasant condition. It is one’s pleasantness or unpleasantness which permeates into the world. Only through individual transformation can there be a universal transformation.

If your work is important, the first thing you need to do is work upon yourself. I believe irrespective of what happens in the rest of the world in about 9 to 18 months, India could be doing very well.

The Washington Post had an in-depth piece on Indian women’s status. It starts off discussing ‘eve-teasing’, i.e. harrassment, but then delves into the whole range of issues from dowry to sex-selective abortion:

For India’s middle-class urban women, the past decade has brought unprecedented opportunities to advance in a social order long dominated by men. But a powerful male backlash has accompanied the women’s revolution, an upwelling of resentment that has expressed itself in sexual violence and harassment.

At the same time, however, the number of reported instances of domestic violence, rape and dowry killings is spiking in South Asian cities, according to women’s groups, demographers and sociologists.

Violence against women is the fastest-growing crime in India, a recent study concluded. Every 26 minutes a woman is molested, every 34 minutes a rape takes place, and every 43 minutes a woman is kidnapped, according to the Home Ministry’s National Crime Records Bureau.

Novellist and commentator Shobhaa De is quoted as saying:

“The latest statistics are terrifying. And it clearly points to male rage. Underneath our incredible social change, the Indian male is experiencing nothing short of a psychological frenzy.”

The article highlights the Smile Foundation for its attempts to address the issues through “self-respect and self-esteem sessions” and street theater.

It’s worth noting that while India ranks fifth highest in reported rapes, the United States ranks highest in the world. Yet I don’t think an article discussing gender dynamics in the US is likely to be covered by the WashPo in a similar manner.