Costly Lifestyle Limits Your Freedom || AP Neem Candies
Acharya Prashant: Why raise your cost of living to a point where you have to be worried about earning? Why not have a Spartan lifestyle? Remember that in this world, there are no free lunches; free lunches are there only in that world, the world of the Father, the Truth. Here there are no free lunches. If you want money you will have to trade a part of yours, your body, your time, effort has to be traded to get money. The more money you take from someone, the more you have to exchange yourself. Do you get this? This is pure barter. The more you have promised, the more you have agreed to give, the more you have taken.
Nobody would pay you lakhs for nothing. If somebody were to pay you lakhs, he would want to control you, he would want to have you act in certain ways, and he would want you to fulfill his expectations and desires. He would want you to be productive for him. He is not paying you lakhs so that you fulfill your own mission. He is not paying you lakhs so that you are enjoying your liberty and freedom. He is paying you lakhs so that you may fulfill his desires. Right? You feel as if you are earning but, what you don’t see is that you are not earning you are just trading. And you have traded away your peace of mind as well you see. That is what is happening right now. Is it a good deal? Is it a profitable deal to get money and for the sake of money trade away one's peace, one’s composure, one’s freedom? Is it a good deal? It is very simple, very, very basic.
Keep your costs to a minimum, then nobody can enslave you. The other enslaves you using your own greed. Nobody can own you or possess you, or dominate you if you are not greedy, if you are not prepared to sell away your freedom.
You should be very much prepared to survive at the minimum. Even if I have this much it is enough to fulfill my needs. If I have more, wonderful that is a bonus, that is a blessing, grace, I am not going to reject it. But if a situation comes where I have to make do in the least of amounts, I am not going to crib about it. I am okay even if I am making a fifth of what I am currently making. In fact, you should be okay if you are making a tenth of what you are currently making. Your cost structure should be so small. Instead, what do we do? As soon as fortune seems to favor us, as soon as the income flow increases, we unnecessarily, arbitrarily, and artificially raise our cost structure. We say, “Now the income is flowing in, why not spend.” Initially, you spend it as an aberration, initially, you spend it as a celebration, initially, you spend it as a once-in-a-while thing, as a one-time expenditure. Soon that one time becomes a habit. Are you getting it?
You graduate to a more expensive restaurant, you did it because you had money in your hand. Soon going to that restaurant, becomes a habit, a matter of self-worth, a matter of prestige. And you habitually start going there and spending more. Now, when your income level drops, it hurts because you will have to downgrade from that restaurant. What you don’t see is first of all, you have needlessly upgraded, there was no need. Now when you have to climb down it seems like a loss of face. You feel humiliated. “You know, once upon a time I used to rule that shopping mall, I had a membership of that expensive and prestigious club.” That was all any way needless, totally needless. Now you are nervous about losing a thing that is fundamentally needless. Is that not double jeopardy? Is that not foolishness compounded? You bring something unnecessarily into your life and when that thing is about to go you are jittery. Do you see one mistake piling upon the other? What are the two mistakes?
Questioner: Bringing something unnecessary in life.
Acharya Prashant: And then nervous that it would be lost. First of all, don’t bring it in. Secondly, even if you bring it in, don’t be attached to it. You must feel equally comfortable eating in a luxury restaurant of five, a seven-star hotel, and a cheap roadside dhaba. None of them determines your self-worth; none of them should become a matter of self-evaluation. Are you getting it?
By raising your so-called living standard and by identifying with certain goods, you just dig your own grave. And there is no upper limit to how much one can spend.
There are T-shirts available for Rs 200 or Rs. 2,000. If you search you will get a T-shirt worth Rs. 20,000 as well and if you are determined you may even get a T-shirt priced at Rs. 2 lakhs. The Rs. 2 lakh T-shirt is a good fun, have it, and be entertained by it when the time means so. When the game of chance brought that T-shirt to you, have it. But be prepared always to do away with it. Be prepared always like all things, material, this too is going to go away. Even when you are donning that Rs.2 lakh T-shirt you should be equally comfortable in the Rs. 200 T-shirt, equally comfortable. Then money is not a burden. But when money sticks to the mind, when money becomes a part of the mind, when you become money-minded then it is bad, very bad.
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