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Prosperity By Richard Kieninger
A discussion of the methods
of securing prosperity always seems to arouse people’s interest as though
they are hoping to learn some well-guarded secret formula by which the
well-to-do got that way. The principles involved in acquiring plenty are open
to all who will listen, and the people who are forever eluded by prosperity
simply aren’t abiding by the rules. There are some homey little
sayings which succinctly describe obvious truths such as, “The first rule of
success is to either make more than you spend or spend less than you make.”
That’s just good management, and it definitely is an element of prosperity.
The very evident observation that “There is no such thing as something for
nothing” is a basic fact of karma. It is essential that a person perform a
service in order to earn his bread. It should be noted that the better a
service is performed the greater the compensation justifiably earned. The
slapdash, inefficient, careless person wonders why he never seems to get
ahead and why the things he buys turn out to be the lemons which are always
being repaired or which fail early. That’s karma quietly performing its
all-pervasive justice. Mental attraction and care in precipitating conditions
into one’s environment is another major factor. The gloomy defeatist
naturally precipitates failure for himself. There is another basic law
which is absolutely essential to prosperity, yet it is the one least
observed. It is the Law of Tithes. People like to regard it as a device
conceived of by the ancient Jewish priests, but it was actually their
observation of one of God’s Laws. God built it into the scheme of the Universe
no less than the law of gravity, and it applies equally and inexorably to
every planet in every solar system and galaxy. I suspect that people
disregard it mostly because they don’t understand it; but because of their
omission, they struggle and suffer needlessly for their whole lives. On the surface, it does not
seem logical that when one has very little he give away a tenth of it to
God’s work. The Jewish people still often refer to tithing as seed money
because it seems to cause the store of money of the giver to increase as time
goes by. This is part of the Law of Increase. To bury good, precious food
grain in the soil when one is hungry seems a waste, but how otherwise will a
new crop of grain come into being? Obviously, we cannot give
anything of a material nature to God, or for that matter, to the Archangels
and Angels. They are the Creators of material existence, and personally they
have no use for things on the physical plane. However, we can give to those
human activities which further God’s Plan for mankind. Whatever uplifts man,
alleviates his fellows’ suffering, or gives him better educational tools by
which to gain further control over nature and himself is in furtherance of
God’s Work. The ancient Jews were slowly and painfully instructed to
“sacrifice” one tenth of every year’s income in grain if one were a farmer,
in fruit if one were an orchardman, in lambs or cattle if one were a
husbandman, in money if one were a merchant. This was collected by the
priests to support the educational and religious needs of the nation. After
several centuries of tithing, sufficient prosperity resulted for Israel so
that they prospered greatly by the time David and Solomon reigned. But the
people did not know how to handle their prosperity morally and emotionally,
and they fell into a cultural decline which ended in the dissolution of
Israel. |
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