Dear Friends,
I remember a meeting we had here in the Sangha Office some years ago. A longtime friend related the following story:
In 1981 she was living in a house in nearby Grass Valley with other devotees of Ananda. Life was very simple, a little too simple. The earnings of the average “Anandite” in those years were very meager. One day she made a list of everything she would like to have: an astrological bangle, a trip to Hawaii, and so on. This was a very comprehensive list. When she was finished she thought she might never have any of these things on the list. She put the paper away and offered all the things she wanted to Divine Mother.
During the next twenty years she became a minister for Ananda and served joyfully. She forgot about the list and the things she wanted. She sought God in meditation and lost herself in selfless service to others.
Decades later she found this long lost list. She had received every item on the list during the past 20 years.
From my own experience of working with my friend, I have found her calm, positive and joyful. She has all her material needs and is a beacon of Masters light. She has a cheerful attitude. This is success.
Swami Kriyananda states in the fourth lesson in his Success and Happiness through Yoga Principles course:
Right attitude is… the most important ingredient in any struggle for success. Right attitude is not merely produced by success: it actually attracts success. Within ourselves we have the power to emerge smiling from the greatest defeat, and to go on to achieve shining victory.
Why be like those social misfits who, even when things go well for them, manage to find something to grumble about? Disgruntlement becomes a habit. A positive attitude depends far less on things going right outwardly than on an inner determination to be happy always. More often, such an attitude is the cause of good fortune, not merely a result of it. A strong, positive attitude, finally, is most effective when it is self-generated.
People whose outlook on life is, by contrast, basically negative can actually attract failure! The stronger a person’s attitude, whether positive or negative, the stronger the magnetic field of energy it generates, drawing good or bad fortune to oneself.
True success is his already, indeed, who clings determinedly to right attitudes, for in the long run success means victory over one’s self.
If you are going to be a true success in life, you need to develop your ability to magnetically draw what you need, when you need it. Selfless service, tithing, a generous spirit, and the right attitude will help you develop this magnetism.
Joy to you!
Dave Bingham
For Ananda’s “Thank You God” tithing
