On greed and Dharma

I am not sure to what extent people all over the world were shocked, surprised, or even scandalised by the recent revelations that one person was accused of defrauding several investors of an estimated $50 billion US in December 2008.

The FBI was told the man confessed that his investment-advisory business was a "giant Ponzi scheme" and that investor losses exceeded at least about $50 billion, according to a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. That figure represents the collective amount that investors believed they had invested with the firm -- not the amount they initially invested, known as principal, according to people familiar with the investigation. This was just one of the symptons of a sick world economy, and the financial crisis which is the result. Greed and corruption in government and business, as well as in society is the rrot cause of the present world economic malaise, which is threateneing to close down companies and render millions of workers jobless. That is the situation in the United States where the election of Baraq Obama may herald welcome changes.

Meanwhile across the oceans, in South Africa, where a lot of hope was generated fourteen years ago with the accession to the presidency by Nelson Mandela in 1994, things are not looking so bright either. In an attempt to clean the country of massive corrution and fraud in public and private sectors, the former president Thabo Mbeki created an anti-corruption squad known as the Scorpions. However, their success in bringing to book even big names in the ruling party and elsewhere, may have led to their own demise. Last year at the ANC's conference in Polokwane the party resolved that the Scorpions must go. Now legislation has been passed to give effect to the resolution.

At the same meeting, at Polokwane, the ANC elected Jacob Zuma, whom the Scorpions had investigated for years and accused of corruption and fraud, as its new party president in place of the country's former State President, Thabo Mbeki. Zuma had been fired by Mbeki in 2005 for alleged corruption from the post of Deputy President in the government. This was followed, after the Polokwane conference, by the party firing Mbeki from the post of President of the country. An interim President, Kgalema Motlhantle, has been chosen by the part while waiting for the outcome of next year's election in March or April, when it is almost certain Jacob Zuma will become the country's President.

The unexpected result of all this has resulted in a breakaway part being created in December, called the Congress of the People, which has seen a sizable number of ANC leaders and members abandoning their party for this new one, and which promises clean government based on morals. The new part has gathered a huge following in a matter of weeks mainly from the middle classes of all races and age groups. Time will tell which way the wind will blow.

Why is the world gripped so much by greed? Is there a way out?

Wherever greed grows in people its twin is right there: the quest for power. And lust.

What can we learn from the Teachings of Shri Mataji on greed, to take but one problem?

Talking at the Shri Ganesha Puja in September 1997, Shri Mataji reminds us of how the Kundalini in us acts builds "primordial taboos" within us which if not followed or respected "something goes wrong"in our lives.

"The Kundalini leaves the Mother Earth as a reflection, and what does she do within us to build us up, in which way? So it is the primordial Power which is coming out of the Mother Earth. Mother Earth itself acts like a Mother. She looks after you, she gives you whatever you want; and another miracle thing is that the highest tree is a coconut tree, and a coconut will never fall on any creature or any human being. That means it’s all thinking, all understanding, all consciousness, all awareness is coming from the Mother Earth. But we never understand it. As it is we take for granted.
Now what does she do for us, for us human beings? She’s the primordial Power. What she does is to build in us a primordial – we can call “restrictions” or “primordial taboos” or “primordial dharmas.” For example, you see the steel is here. It has its own dharma, it cannot behave like wood. Wood has its own dharma, it cannot behave like silver. They all have their dharma and they are bound in that dharma. Everything that is in the nature has its own dharma. ...
We have in the same way primordial taboos built within us which are dharma. A human being has to be like that. If he tries to be something else, something goes wrong with his life. It’s like say if you have a glass, you drop it on the ground, it will break – that is the dharma. In the same way when human beings start deviating from the line of dharma, they get into trouble."

(Shri Ganesha Puja, September 1997)

And in another lecture She touches on the freedom from greed, lust and all the other "nonsense" that comes with Sahaj Dharma:

"This is to be understood very clearly that the Sahaja Dharma is that you are just free - complete freedom from lust, greed and all nonsense. You are above it. You are above - this Sahaj Dharma is above the Dharma established by Shri Krishna or by Shri Rama. Because you have reached that state. It’s in complete freedom you have to be dharmic. Whatever is not good for you, you should not do. I don’t have to tell you that, “You don’t do this or you don’t do that.” Whatever I say may not be acceptable but immediately your vibrations will tell you.
This is Sahaj Dharma. In the Sahaj Dharma, you get rid of all kinds of, as they say: kaama, krodha, mada, matsa, lobha, moha. Means - lust, anger, attractions, then [hindi words] – greed, greed; that’s very important, greed – greed. And attractions."

In his stunning book, "The Confessions of An Economic Hitman" on how the US corporate world colludes with the US government for the control of the resources and the leaders of Third World countries, John Perkins says some interesting and shocking things.
He says that we know in many countries economic growth benefits only a small portion and may in fact result in increasingly desperate circumstances for the majority.
"This effect is reinforced by the corrolary belied that the captains of industry who drive this system should enjoy a special status, a belief that is the root of many of our current problems, and is also the reason why conspiracy theories abound" he points out.
"When men and women are rewarded for greed, greed becomes a corrupting motivator" observes Perkins. He adds that when we equate the gluttonous consumption of the earth's resurceswith a status appproaching sainthood, when we teach our children to emulate people who lived unbalanced lives, and when we ddefine huge sections of the population as subservient to an elite minority, 'we ask for trouble' . And we get it, he observes.
But listen to the Sufi poet from 14th century Turkey, whom Shri Mataji describes as talking like Sahaja Yogis:

"I tie up greed, and release generosity.
I shackle anger, and liberate meekness.
I bind consumerism, and unbind piety.
I tie up ignorance, and unfetter respect for the Absolute.
I restrain passion, and release the love of the Absolute.
I tie up desire, and free fulfilment.
I bind commodification, and liberate awareness".
(Haji Bektash Veli, 1248-1337)

And how does Shri Mataji view the Buddha in relation to Dharma, the antidote to greed?
She says:
"Buddha had dharma. His body was clean, His mind the attention, did not find any joy in the worldly greed or desire. His cup was ready and it emptied when he was tired and surrendered and that was the moment: like torrential rain, the “Shakti” filled His cup and made Him the “Shakta”, the Enlightened One. So, when you are talking of virtue, you are warning them to keep the cup intact and clean".
Is the world ready to listen? Can we move back from the brink of self-destruction? Shri Mataji points us towarss Dharma and its essence:

"This is how I describe Dharma in short. Dharma is the sustenance of all things that are born or created. It is super nature that gives valences to atoms in an element. It is Dharma that is expressed as the quality of these elements. For instance, gold has a quality that it is untarnishable. The human beings are like perfected instruments, like computers. Of course, if their Dharma is in balance, they are the best receptors. You can understand that the divine awareness is like the main electrical current which starts the computer (Self-realization). If the Dharma in the instrument is lacking, self-realization does not give full results. It becomes like a second hand car. Dharma is the fulcrum and the one who is in Dharma never gets into imbalance. So the attention has to be on “ Dharma”, the point where the gravity of sin does not act.

"The information of Dharma comes from the Unconscious but the movement from the fulcrum can take the human attention so much in one dimension or so much like a sea saw that ultimately the beam of life tilts towards one side, either towards hell or towards destruction. Because, if the extreme movements are like a sea saw, the delicate flower of human awareness becomes confused and people suffer from all kind of diseases".

But She does not leave us empty without reference about what we can do here and now. And that is the practice of Sahaja Yoga. She says:

"Sahaja yoga is the proof of all the scriptures that are challenged. But I had to come to explain, to give realization and to tell you the “know how”.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from a Letter to a follower, London, 1976

Perhaps as we move into a New Year with the world hesitating how to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ, it is appropriate to pause and consider how His whole life was to the epitome of compassion, generosity and concern about the well-being of others and for the plight of the poor. Qualities that should be the driving force for the creation of a new society in the world of today. Sahaja Yoga offers the way towards realising this potential for us to become the change we seek to see around us, as Ghandi once exhorted those who call for change.
When you think of the amount of money involved in fraudulent schemes and deals all over the world and the amount of children dying from hunger, preventable diseases, HIV-Aids, the lack of clean water and health facilities, of medicines, education and the ravages of war, producing millons of orphans and neglect, it sets one thinking. Yet there is a solution; and it is not greed for money and power. It is loving each other, as we love ourselves as Christ teaches; and Shri Mataji reinforces and makes possible through Self-Realisation and the pracice of Sahaja Yoga which restores human beings to their original state of sanctity through the healing Power of the Holy Spirit.

Wishing all people of the world a Blissful Christmas in 2008.