Is Being Wealthy Much More than Just Being Rich?

The concept of Ashtalakshmi includes eight forms of wealth in a balanced proportion to reach the state of physical and metaphysical abundance as per Indic Philosophy.

There is a short Puranic* story of an old sadhu (monk) in a village, who used to live in the temple premises. Many people used to approach him for advice, guidance and words of wisdom, which he was always ready to share. He used to serve, eat and sleep under a tree in the same compound.

One day, he prophesied that the wealthiest man in the village would die that night. Word got around. The village headman who was presumably the richest man around, barricaded himself inside his house out of fear. He knew that the sadhu always made the right forecasts and it would be foolhardy to ignore him. The village headman deployed a posse of people to protect himself in case of any eventuality. Finally, the night came and then came the dawn. The rich man was still alive. Happy and relieved, he rushed to the temple to prove the Sadhu wrong. But he found out that the Sadhu had died that night under the tree.

When someone says I want to be rich, the retort usually is that being happy is more important. The counter-retort is that we need to be rich to be happy. So there is this running argument as to which is more important. What is lost in the argument is whether happiness is related to riches alone. Or are we missing something here?

There will be some references hereinafter to some Sanskrit words with the corresponding English transliteration (in italics) and translation.

Let us introduce a new word here — Wealth. What is the difference between Riches (धन, Dhan) and Wealth (अर्थ, Arth)?

As per Indic philosophy, the supreme consciousness manifests in the concept-form of Ashtalakshmi to bestow wealth on human beings to guide them towards the goal of liberation. Ashta (अष्ट) in Sanskrit means eight. Lakshmi (लक्ष्मी) comes from the root word “Lakshya” (लक्ष्य) which means goal. This concept form of Ashtalakshmi has 8 form-manifestations. Each of these form-manifestations bestows us with a wealth form.

When one possesses all of these wealth forms, only then it is possible to reach the final goal of liberation from our finite existence. We will use the expression “form-manifestation” at the metaphysical consciousness level and the expression “wealth-form” at the level of human consciousness. Each form-manifestation (in italics), its corresponding wealth form (in bold) as well as a brief description of the wealth-form is given below:-

1. Dhana Lakshmi:- This form-manifestation provides us with material things required for our well-being. These include all material resources like shelter, clothing, money, and gold which we need to lead a good and balanced life.
2. Dhaanya Lakshmi:- In this form-manifestation, she gives us food and nourishment for our body to keep it physically and mentally healthy. One needs not only food but also the power of assimilation properly, to keep one’s body and mind healthy. Dhaanya is distinct from Dhana, as the former denotes the power of assimilation of food to become a part of one’s body and mind.
3. Santana Lakshmi:- We need progeny to keep the continuous chain of succession alive. We need the process of organic creation on this earth not only for human beings but also for animals, insects and the like. The land needs to be fertile and the ecological balance needs to be maintained. This form-manifestation blesses us and nature with fertility that keeps the creation at our plane of consciousness active.
4. Gaja Lakshmi:- Every human being needs a purpose in life that is born out of wisdom and in alignment with one’s strengths. Gaja (गज) in Sanskrit means elephant. An elephant signifies purpose and strength. It has a magnetic personality that has a certain aura that makes it attractive and worthy of respect and dignity. This form-manifestation provides us with purpose and the necessary strength to accomplish our goals.
5. Dhairya Lakshmi:- We need courage in the face of odds and the support of the ecosystem that promotes it. Everyone faces challenges in one’s life. To be able to overcome them with the right attitude, while following Dharma is key. While the line of progeny is a vertical relationship, we need horizontal relationships like relatives, friends, and colleagues that give us the feeling of community. Community gives us the courage and emotional cushion when confronted with obstacles in our life’s journey. This form-manifestation supports us with all the elements that provide us with the courage to face any adverse circumstances like community, relationships and bonding.
6. Vijaya Lakshmi:- This form-manifestation blesses us with victory through the practice of rituals and traditions. Every human has to deal with षड्रिपु (Shadripu) which means six distortions of the mind. They are feverish desires (kaama), anger (krodha), greed (lobha), delusions (moha), arrogance (mada) and jealousy (matsarya). We may have purpose, courage and community. But we still need a sustainable mechanism that can be perpetuated through community and helps us overcome our inner and outer enemies, as we strive towards our purpose. Traditions and rituals from our ancestors are the mechanisms to discipline our body and mind which help us to keep our Shadripus under check and give us victory, internal or external.
7. Vidya Lakshmi:- Knowledge and wisdom are the doorways to evolution. The outcome of knowledge is a better understanding of reality, which is wisdom. Hence knowledge should be coupled with Viveka (power of discrimination between real and unreal) and Vairagya (dispassion for the outcome of one’s effort). We need this knowledge to survive, negotiate the temporal plane, make sense of our lives and evolve towards the spiritual plane. In this form-manifestation, she provides us with knowledge of both the temporal & spiritual planes to have a better understanding of reality through the maze of illusion.
8. Adi Lakshmi:- Finally, she gives us the curiosity and desire to evolve to a higher plane of consciousness. The goal is to go back to Adi (the original source). The earlier 7 form-manifestations will help one evolve beyond mere survival at worst or glorified survival at best. But they cannot take one out of the karmic cycle of birth and rebirth. In this 8th form-manifestation, she blesses us with the desire to act on the ultimate purpose of complete liberation from all limitations.

Look how beautifully are the metaphysical ideas connected!

We need material things (1) which become meaningful to us only if they nourish us towards both physical and psychological health (2). We need the rejuvenation power of nature (3) to make both of them possible through procreation, sustenance and ecology. All these wealth forms are at the level of the physical plane.

At the mental plane, we need a purpose in life born out of wisdom and our strengths (4). As we move along the path of purpose, we will face challenges and to brave these challenges we would need courage, willpower and the support of our relationships and community (5). We need guidance to overcome our inner and outer enemies which are encoded in traditions and rituals (6). Rituals and traditions from our ancestors also serve as a vehicle to pass on our culture to future generations.

At the intellectual plane, we need the knowledge of the temporal world to help us navigate through it and we need the knowledge of the spiritual world (7) to evolve beyond being an animal that just survives.

Thereafter we need to go beyond all these 3 planes — physical, mental and intellectual, to experience the infinite consciousness at the level of transcendental. This desire for spiritual evolution that liberates one from all limitations is the final wealth form (8).

When we possess all of these 8 wealth-forms, only then are we supposed to be wealthy. This wealth gives us meaningful lives that radiate abundance and contentment. It is not the quantity of these wealth-forms that is essential to being wealthy, it is the balanced proportion of them that is key.

As we see, richness is just one form of wealth. Too much of it at the expense of other forms distorts the octagonal structure of wealth to the point of its destruction. When we develop all wealth forms with a fair sense of proportion, then what we have is a well-formed stable meta-structure that will effuse with happiness. अर्थ (Artha, Wealth) in Sanskrit means abundance. It also means “meaning” among others. So the state of abundance that gives meaning to life is Wealth. From this sense of abundance, does a wealthy man considers himself fortunate to give out. In contrast, a rich man gives out of a condescending attitude, that he is on a higher pedestal than the receiver.

To conclude, reducing the meaning of wealth to riches alone would be to debase the concept of wealth. Also one cannot assume oneself to be wealthy unless one possesses all of the eight wealth-forms. Wealth is meant to help us evolve materially, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually through its eight forms. Remember, 1000 years from now, no one on this earth would even know if we ever existed on this Earth. So in our short visit here, let us make our lives meaningful by striving to get wealthy rather than just rich. Shouldn’t this be a message that we pass down to the next generations?

*Puranas belong to the second tier of the Sanatan Dharma’s holy library, the first being Shrutis. They explain the esoteric concepts in Shrutis in a simple way to the masses using the tool of cosmic plays.

Originally published at https://heliumplus.substack.com.