Guiding Light

The Divine Wealth – I

The Divine Wealth consists of 26 attributes. These are described in The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter16, Verses1, 2 and 3.

1. Fearlessness : Among the Divine qualities, Fearlessness stands foremost. Fear is an effect of ignorance. Identification with the body causes fear. Blind attachment to the body, wife, children, house, property, etc. is the cause of fear. The sage who has realised the Self is absolutely fearless.

2. Fear can be removed by constant thinking of the immortal and all-blissful nature of the Self. If you lead a life of honesty and truthfulness, if you devoutly observe the precepts of the scriptures without doubting, if you lead a life of right conduct, and if you remember God always, you will become fearless.

3. Purity of heart: Purity of understanding, cleanliness of life or purity of heart. Purity of mind, i.e., giving up cheating, hypocrisy, untruth and the like, in all dealings with the people, and doing transactions with perfect honesty and integrity is purity of heart. A purity of mind cannot be obtained without devotion to the Lord.

4. Steadfastness in Knowledge and Yoga: Understanding the nature of the Self as taught in the scriptures and by the preceptor. Self-realisation through meditation on the Great Sentence of the Upanishad,

5. “I am Brahman” is Knowledge. Yoga is union of the individual soul with the Supreme Being; it is the realisation of the Self by concentration and meditation through self-restraint and control of the senses.

6. Almsgiving : Distributing food, clothes, etc., as far as it lies within one’s power, according to one’s means. A charitable man hastens to comfort the distressed and helps the needy.

7. Control of the senses: Self-restraint, self-control, control of the external senses. The practice of self-control annihilates the union between the senses and the sensual objects. He keeps the senses under the strictest restraint. He is moderate in his diet. He checks the outgoing tendencies of the mind and the senses. He induces the mind and the senses to turn backwards towards their source. As householders cannot practise perfect control of the senses, even moderation or regulated and disciplined life will constitute self-restraint for them. The practice of self-control includes forgiveness, harmlessness, truth, steadiness and patience.