Power of Wisdom vs Wealth
What is the power of wisdom? I can say, there is nothing which can't be achieved by the power of wisdom. Anything whether in this world or the other world, wisdom can simply make it happen. Only one thing you need to understand, you need to give little attention to the wisdom.
Lakṣmī and Saraswati stay with you only when you give attention to them. Usually people always say that if you have money, you may not have intelligence and if you have intelligence you will not have money because both of them demand your complete attention. If you give attention to Lakṣmī, wealth, you may not have enough energy or attention to give to intelligence. If you give attention to intelligence, you may not have enough time or you may not even be interested to maintain all this wealth.
An intelligent person, a person of wisdom, after his basic needs are fulfilled, will not be running behind wealth. Somehow he will feel the emptiness of the wealth. See, wealth is for some utility to achieve something like the basic needs of food, shelter and your needs for medical care.
Once you have enough money to buy whatever can be brought through money, if you are still running behind money, surely you are a fool because you are running to expand somebody's ego. You are not running for yourself. You are running creating infrastructure which is empowering somebody else's ego.
As far as my experience goes, it is better to give energy and attention to Saraswati than to Lakṣmī. If you give attention and energy to Saraswati, you will know how much of Lakṣmī you need and how much you can handle, how much you can enjoy, and you will live in an intelligent way.
Wisdom is such that you can bring anything in the inner world or in the outer world. I tell you, many a time just the understanding can transform the way you think and act. Today morning we had a radio show. The host was asking questions about what changed my life and my first experience of Truth and my first inspiration and all such questions.
When I look deeply, to tell you the Truth as it is, the biggest transformation which happened in my life is, the idea of me has changed in me because of my wisdom or knowledge. Whatever I was thinking about me has changed.
I tell you, that is the best thing that can happen to a human being whatever you think about you completely changes. We are constantly working to change what others think about us, not what we think about us. That is where the problems start. You are caught, you are busy, and your whole energy is spent in working on changing the ideas of other people about you. I tell you, when you work on yourself, change the idea about yourself inside you, suddenly so much of energy releases and so much of energy expression happens.
By the end of the interview, he was telling me, 'Swamiji, I have interviewed so many people, so many Masters, so many researchers, so many people, but I can feel some intense energy around you. How can you explain this Swamiji? Such an intense energy!' The thing is, I am very clear about what I know as me.
All you need to do is look at yourself and change your idea about you. Wisdom will give you clear idea about you. The power of wisdom first changes you. There are two views: the materialistic people constantly say, change the world and your life will change. Spiritual people say, change you and your life will change.
Nobody is successful in changing the world and thus changing their life. But there are millions who are successful in changing them and thus the world. You can't cover the whole world with leather. Better wear shoes. Covering the whole world with leather is impossible. Wear shoes, that is the best thing.