Spiritual Economics is an Exchange of Love

Spiritual Economics in its highest sense is an exchange of love between all living beings, but including the Supreme Being as well. If we stop and consider things for a brief moment we can understand that God has given all of us everything that we require to live our lives. First of all He has made the amazing creation in which we live, with the sun, this wonderful earth with its seas, clouds, fresh air, and fertile soil. He has given us the seeds with which we grow the food that sustains us, He waters that food with the rain of the clouds.

Isn’t it then fitting that we reciprocate with Him? Every other economic system that I am aware of totally ignores reciprocating with the Lord. Some such as Time Bank, or Pay-It-Forward teach the principle of taking care of each other, but they leave out the most important person of all—the One who loves us all. So why not include Him in our economic exchanges? This is what Spiritual Economics teaches, and the Vaishnava’s learn to do this doing everything for the Lord in the consciousness of pleasing Him. Thus all of their activities are spiritual and not material. We can do this in many ways, and one of the most common is by cooking exclusively for the Lord. Then before eating it, we offer it to Him through His representative, the spiritual master.

The reciprocation continues since Krishna doesn’t just eat the food, but enjoys it with transcendental senses while at the same time leaving it for us. Food thus offered to the Lord is said to be ‘prasadam‘ or the Lord’s ‘mercy.’Krishna prasadam has great spiritual potency and we purify our consciousness by eating Krishna prasadam.

But the reciprocation does not end there—the devotee doesn’t simply eat the prasadam, but honoring it, offers it back to the Lord in the form of the fire of digestion. In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna explains His many opulences and ways in which we can see and understand Him, one of which is as the fire of digestion by which our foods are transformed to nourishment. The devoted soul offers the prasadam back to the Lord, which He accepts, and He then further reciprocates by converting it to our life’s energy which we use to further serve Him. This form of ongoing loving exchange with the Lord is known as devotional service, and service of this sort is very satisfying and fulfilling. Satisfied in the Lord’s service the devotee does not hanker for more and more new stuff, and various forms of sense gratification. Being satisfied by the Lord’s service they do not make unnecessary demands on the environment allowing for harmony in nature.

According to the Isopanisad (text 1), our sustenance is provided by the Lord automatically. Of course we must work for it, but by the Lord’s perfect arrangement there is sufficient food in this world for all living things—irregardless of what the population may ever become. The idea of overpopulation is a form of atheism. There is no such thing. However, if we attempt to take more than our due, then others will be forced to go without. This is what we see being played out today on the world stage. Many organizations, such as Food First of San Francisco, studying the food shortages, have concluded that there is plenty of food in this world. The problem is greed, politics and mismanagement—qualities of tamo-guna, or the economics of ignorance.

I want to end this piece with a short excerpt from Srila Prabhupada’s KRSNA Book. Krishna is accepted as the Supreme Lord and He visits this earth periodically to establish the principles of religion. He did this a mere 5,000 years ago and appeared in the town of Mathura, some 200 km south of New Delhi. His pastimes have been narrated in the Srimad Bhagavatam, and summarized in the KRSNA Book. This except demonstrates how Krishna reciprocates with those who serve Him with love:

“Sometimes mother Yasoda used to ask Krishna to bring her a wooden plank for sitting. Although the wooden plank was too heavy to be carried by a child, still somehow or other Krishna would bring it to His mother. Sometimes His father, while worshiping Narayana, would ask Him to bring his wooden slippers, and Krishna, with great difficulty, would put the slippers on His head and bring them to His father. When He was asked to lift some heavy article and was unable to lift it, He would simply move His arms. In this way, daily, at every moment, He was the reservoir of all pleasure for His parents. The Lord was exhibiting such childish dealings with the inhabitants of Vrindavana because He wanted to show the great philosophers and sages searching after the Absolute Truth how the Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead is controlled by and subject to the desires of His pure devotees.

“One day, a fruit vendor came before the house of Nanda Maharaja. Upon hearing the vendor call, “If anyone wants fruits, please come and take them from me!” child Krishna immediately took some grains in His palms and went to get fruits in exchange. In those days exchange was by barter; therefore Krishna might have seen His parents acquire fruits and other things by bartering grain, and so He imitated. But His palms were very small, and He was not very careful to hold the grains tight, so He was dropping them. The vendor who came to sell fruits saw this and was very much captivated by the beauty of the Lord, so she immediately accepted whatever few grains were left in His palms and filled His hands with fruits. In the meantime, the vendor saw that her whole basket of fruit had become filled with jewels. The Lord is the bestower of all benedictions. If someone gives something to the Lord, he is not the loser; he is the gainer by a million times.”