Dearest Luang Phaw, I’ve seen somebody recites the essence of wealth “U, A, KA, SA” believing these words can give them wealth. I’d like to know if these words can really make us rich or not.
Answer
by Venerable Dhattajeevo Bhikku
Actually, words don’t really matter, but it depends how much we follow them; namely, if people don’t try to understand them and follow them seriously, these words definitely mean nothing. Other than that, though they really pay attention and follow the words, but there are still some conditions, i.e.
1. No matter how hard we persevere, but it’s only perseverance of this present time, yet there is another composition that people don’t know, i.e. merits we have from our previous lives.
If we have strong perseverance, but we don’t have enough merit; it means the capital we have is not enough, or even short from previous lives. In this case, no matter how serious we follow the words, yet we still cannot reach what we wish.
But on the contrary, the people who spend strong perseverance and come with merit will no matter how have successes in their hands just like what the words say.
But there is another kind of people. No perseverance, but being full of merits, they don’t have to do many things, but they are still successful because of the merits they have. To say easily, these kinds of people are not very skillful, but they come with luck.
But what we really want is coming with skill and luck, i.e. being full of perseverance and merits, and then we will get success in whatever we do and that will even beget more successes. This is the main thing.
Therefore, the 4 words you just mentioned “U, A, KA, SA” are the abbreviations of 4 Pali words. I will not mention what the full words are, but I will just tell you their Thai translation. These 4 essences of wealth are...
1. Knowing how to gain. If you have no clue how to gain wealth, how can you be a millionaire? So this ability is the first thing.
2. Knowing how to save.
3. Associating to the wise ones only, for they can be our consultant or can protect us.
And 4. Knowing how to spend.
Knowing how to gain, in this case, is having right livelihoods, not running a casino or a night club. The right livelihoods are the careers that are not against virtue. Also you need to be diligent and smart. This is the meaning of knowing how to gain.
2. When you have gained wealth, you must know how to save it. Otherwise, it will be all gone, just like if you dip up water with a woven basket, you will get nothing.
The most difficult part is the third one—associating to the wise ones. It actually shouldn’t be related to the essence of wealth, yet it is. Why? Because if we associate to the wise people, we will have wise and good friends as our consultant and as our fence. Neither the brick fence, the iron fence nor any other fence can be compared to the human one since this kind of fence is really excellent if it’s the fence of good people.
Besides, not only being our consultants or our fence, they can also be our co-workers and that begets a network of good people in our society, also it gives us more profit when we work and have more good friends. It means we will have both noble wealth and worldly wealth in the same time. This is important.
Next, knowing how to spend. It means not spending the asset we earn against the virtue. Since we know how to gain wealth and save it, also know how to make a network of good people and how to spend the wealth we gain, we might be rich. Why isn’t it certain yet? I just mentioned that human wealth comes from 2 compositions, i.e.
1. Perseverance
2. Previous merits
The 4 words in the essence of wealth are related to the present perseverance only and they don’t mention about previous merits; therefore, when we have done all these 4 things and we also have merits, we will certainly be rich; but if our merit is not enough, we will not take the richness, however we will still make enough for ourselves and no need to cause a society’s problem by begging somebody; in this case, these 4 words can be counted holy.
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