I have started several small businesses, or ideas in my life. Rather, it was a book I started to create, or a tangible good idea I pursued they ultimately resulted in defeat. It starts out with me having the money to create it, making it launching it, realizing I need more capital to advertise it, then I have to go back to work, or work a second job to sustain my family and the dream dies. In time, I start over with a different idea and the same thing happens all over again. What is this?
—LA, US
Dear LA,
There is a story in the annals of life with Paramhansa Yogananda where he de-jinxed a relative of a disciple so that the relative could finally be successful in business. Another story involves a person who found that he not only couldn’t keep a job very long but the company who hired him inevitably went broke. Yogananda kept encouraging him and gave him an affirmation on success and with practice (and guru’s grace) he dissolved the karmic knot of failure.
Of course, what we are seeing here and presumably in your life is some old karma. While that doesn’t really seem to help to point that out, what it can mean in practical terms is basically this: DON’T GIVE UP. During the 1930’s Depression in America, Yogananda stated that many people in business give up right before the moment when success is “just around the corner.”
So here, too, some inbred negative thought is perhaps surfacing in your mind right when things get especially difficult but which if you were able to hold steady you’d come out of the fog like an airplane coming out of a cloud bank. I suppose one might be tempted to suggest you set your sights and ambitions to the human scale of what is possible for you to do but I’m of doubtful mind on that advice if, for no other reason, it is essentially contractive rather than expansive.
I suggest you locate a copy of Yogananda’s booklet, The Law of Success, published by Self-Realization Fellowship. I think the use of affirmations could be helpful. Do you have a daily meditation practice? Are you by nature generous with time and resources towards the needs of others? Do you tend to fall into dark pits of moods? To sustain to the goal of success one needs to be patient and steady, as well as practical in your idealism. An airplane taking off needs powerful thrust to lift off but then can power through the skies relatively easily after that.
Here’s an affirmation from the book, Affirmations for Self-Healing, by Swami Kriyananda: “I leave behind me both my failures and accomplishments. What I do today will today will create a new and better future, filled with inner joy.” Repeat this twice a day four times: first, loudly; then speaking, then whispering, then silently. End with this prayer:
“O Creator of galaxies and countless, blazing stars, the power of the very universe is Thine! May I reflect that power in the little mirror of my life and consciousness.”
Nayaswami Hriman