When I read about the 8 limbs in The Illustrated Light on Yoga the biggest conflict that jumped up and stayed was that we shouldn´t save.
A yogi must have just enough to live today, maybe also tomorrow, but not much more than that.
Because a yogi trusts on his current and future abilities to get enough food to survive.
So you don´t need to save.
And that collapses with my western mindset, where it is important to save, because we don´t know what the future will bring.
You need to save
Why do I need to save?
Because I am not elevated enough.
Only an enlightened yogi, who doesn´t depend on eating for many days straight, who doesn´t need clothing and is detatched from physical necessities can skip saving.
For the rest of us, saving is normal.
And it is recommended.
Especially if you have a family, if you have people that are depending on you.
Because the purpose of life is double:
- Liberate yourself
- Help others get liberated
Therefore it is your responsibility to save money and food to feed yourself and the people depending on you.
Saving and donating
During our Philosophy class in the Yoga TTC in Nirvana Shala, the teacher told us that the best option was saving a part of your income and donating the rest that you might not need soon.
«But I never know who to donate to» – I said.
That is also fine.
It´s your responsibility to chose:
- The right person
- The right time
- The right place
You cannot just make your donation to anyone and on anytime, because there is big chance of misuse.
It is also recommended to give hand to hand, not through any intermediaries, because you don´t know what is going to happen to the donated resources.
Also it is important to not keep donating forever, because you create a bad habit and don´t help other people grow. Better follow the chinese proverb:
Don´t just give them fish. Teach them how to fish.
So donating once (and more times) is okay. Donating forever is not okay.
Therefore, if you can´t find the right person, right time and right place to donate, it is okay to look for it and wait until you find it.
It is also okay to wait until you can develop your own project, your own donation, your own mission.