{"id":210,"date":"2026-04-27T13:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/?p=210"},"modified":"2025-05-03T17:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T03:00:03","slug":"lesson-16-living-with-siva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/lesson-16-living-with-siva\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesson 16 \u2013 Living with \u015aiva"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/LwS-Lesson-16.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Recording: Gurudeva&#8217;s cloned voice<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Debt, Gambling and Grief<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I was asked, \u201cIs borrowing money to finance one\u2019s business in accord with the yama of nonstealing? When can you use other peoples\u2019 money and when should you not?\u201d When the creditors start calling you for their money back, sending demand notices indicating that they only extended you thirty days\u2019, sixty days\u2019 or ninety days\u2019 credit, then if you fail to pay, or pay only a quarter or half of it just to keep them at arm\u2019s length because you still need their money to keep doing what you are doing, this is a violation of this yama. <br><br>There are several kinds of debt that are disallowed by this yama. One is spending beyond your means and accumulating bills you can\u2019t pay. We are reminded of Tirukural verse 478 which says that the way to avoid poverty is to spend within your means: \u201cA small income is no cause for failure, provided expenditures do not exceed it.\u201d We can see that false wealth, or the mere appearance of wealth, is using other peoples\u2019 money, either against their will or by paying a premium price for it. Many people today are addicted to abusing credit. It\u2019s like being addicted to the drug opium. People addicted to O.P.M.\u2014other people\u2019s money\u2014compulsively spend beyond their means. They don\u2019t even think twice about handing over their last credit card to pay for that $500 s\u0101r\u012b after all the other credit cards have been \u201cmaxed out.\u201d When the bill arrives, it gets added to the stack of other bills that can\u2019t possibly be paid. <br><br>Another kind of debt is contracting resources beyond your ability to pay back the loan. This is depending on a frail, uncertain future. Opportunities may occur to pay the debt, but then again they may not. The desire was so great for the commodity which caused the debt that a chance was taken. Essentially, this is gambling with someone else\u2019s money; and it is no way to run one\u2019s life. <br><br>Gambling and speculation are also forms of entering into debt. Speculation could be a proper form of acquiring wealth if one has the wealth to maintain the same standard of living he is accustomed to even if the speculation failed. Much of business is speculation; and high-risk speculations do come along occasionally; but one should never risk more than one can afford to lose. <br><br>Gambling is different, because the games are fun, a means of entertainment and releasing stress; though even in the casinos one should not gamble more than he could afford to lose. However, unlike speculation, when one is in the excitement of gambling and begins to lose, the greed and desire to win it all back arises, and the flustered gambler may risk his and his family\u2019s wealth and well-being. Stress builds. The disastrous consequences of gambling were admonished in the oldest scripture, the \u1e5aig Veda, in the famous fourteen-verse \u201cGambler\u2019s Lament\u201d (10.34. VE, P. 501). Verse ten summarizes: \u201cAbandoned, the wife of the gambler grieves. Grieved, too, is his mother, as he wanders vaguely. Afraid and in debt, ever greedy for money, he steals in the night to the home of another.\u201d This is not fun; nor is it entertainment. <br><br>These are the grave concerns behind our s\u016btra that prohibits gambling for my \u015bishyas: \u201c\u015aiva\u2019s devotees are forbidden to indulge in gambling or games of chance with payment or risk, even through others or for employment. Gambling erodes society, assuring the loss of many for the gain of a few\u201d (s\u016btra 76). Everyone really knows that the secret to winning at gambling is to own a casino. <br><br>Compulsive gambling and reckless, unfounded speculation are like stealing from your own family, risking the family wealth. More than that, it is stealing from yourself, because the remorse felt when an inevitable loss comes could cause a loss of faith in your abilities and your judgment. And if the loss affects the other members of the family, their estimation and respect and confidence in your good judgment goes way down. <br><br>Many people justify stealing by saying that life is unfair and therefore it\u2019s OK to take from the rich. They feel it\u2019s ok to steal from a rich corporation, for example: \u201cThey will never miss it, and we need it more.\u201d Financial speculation can easily slide into unfair maneuvering, where a person is actually stealing from a small or large company, thereby making it fail. The credibility of the person will go down, and businesses will beware of this speculative investor who would bring a company to ruin to fatten his own pockets. Entering into debt is a modern convenience and a modern temptation. But this convenience must be honored within the time allotted. If you are paying a higher interest rate because of late or partial payments, you have abused your credit and your creditors. <br><br>At the Global Forum for Human Survival in 1990 in Moscow, the participants began worrying about the kids, the next generation. \u201cWhat are they going to think of us?\u201d they asked. Is it fair to fulfill a need now, spoil the environment and hand the bill over to the next generation? No, it is not. This is another form of stealing. We can\u2019t say, \u201cWe have to have chlorofluorocarbons now, and the next generation has to face the consequences.\u201d The yamas and niyamas are thus not just a personal matter but also a national, communal and global matter. Yes, this takes asteya and all the restraints and observances to another dimension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>NANDINATHA S\u016aTRA 16: GIVING AND GRATITUDE<br>Those who live with \u015aiva render to those in need help that is loving, selfless and free from all expectation of repayment. They are constantly grateful for all they have, never complaining about what they don\u2019t possess. Aum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Debt, Gambling and Grief I was asked, \u201cIs borrowing money to finance one\u2019s business in accord with the yama of nonstealing? When can you use other peoples\u2019 money and when should you not?\u201d When the creditors start calling you for their money back, sending demand notices indicating that they only extended you thirty days\u2019, sixty <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/lesson-16-living-with-siva\/\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living-with-siva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4623,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions\/4623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}