By: Maheshwari S Kumar
When I was staying with my Grandmother Sarojini Devarajulu in Calcutta South in the Seventies, we had a delightful neighbor called Hemendranath Banerjee. He was a large-hearted host and wondrous company for friends of all ages who loved to drop in on him. Hemendra Da would often pray, ‘Ae Khuda, kharche badhaa’, Hey God! Increase my spending!’
We needled him by saying, “Hemen Da, you are a Bengal-born Hindu Sai devotee and you call out to ‘Khuda’ as Sai Baba did? Why can’t you say ‘Allah Malik’ as Sai Baba did?” He would reply, “Why do you fools draw this linguistic line between me, Khuda, and Sai Bhagwan? Beyond your narrow conditioning, it is all the same. It is all about being a good human being. That is what I am trying to be.”
Someone would quip, “But at 70, isn’t it a bit too late?” He would laugh and say, “There is always hope. I spend it freely. You guys are miserable. So stingy. Clinging on to all your wealth. You don’t even spend your full quota of hope!” 
Hemen Da was married but had no children and his wife Lathika was a nice lady. Extremely well-read. What he had, he had given away with joy. Yet he kept telling Sai Baba, “Ae Khuda, kharche badhaa!”
One day Hemen Da decided to shift to an old-age home run by Port Trust Welfare Board and we missed the couple very bad, but his catchphrase echoes with deeper meaning. We are like Arjuna. We are so scared to spend our resources. Even when the moment is opportune. Like Arjuna was scared to spend his valor and duty at the start of the battle of Kurukshetra. In Sanskrit, ‘rajju’ means rope. We are all born ‘a-rajju’, without ropes. We are born free. To live without fear. But we believe, ‘life is full of struggle’, ‘it is so unpredictable’, ‘save for rainy days’, ‘don’t trust wholeheartedly’, ‘play it safe.’
In holding on to fears, in holding back on dreams, in not spending our confidence, our potential we have roped ourselves with ‘rajjus’ of so many fears. We have added ‘Na’ or ‘No’ to our a-rajju birth. We have roped children to create human beings programmed to believe that they are ‘Not-Arajju’ of the Kurukshetra of everyday life. People who do not spend selflessly; who do not have faith without doubting; who do not love without expectations; who do not forgive others for their mistakes; who do not know the merciful Sai Baba our Almighty God — the ‘arajju super force that holds together all that one sees — replenishes only that space, that life, that potential, which empties itself joyously.
Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth thrives as chanchalaa, the ever-moving one. She enriches only the ‘dynamic’. At one end of her spectrum is material wealth. Money that lies ‘roped’, that does not move, nevergrows. At the other end is the wealth of knowledge. Only that knowledge has a value that is spent in productive action to benefit someone. Otherwise, the most profound knowledge is just a burden. So, it is not about what one has or how much one needs. Spend this misconception. It is all about how joyously, intelligently, and fearlessly one spends what one has.
No one has little. We are born with Shad-sampatti, six types of wealth: Shamah, control of the mind; Damah, control of the senses; Upareti, withdrawal of the mind; Titiksha, forbearance; Shraddha, unwavering faith; and Samadhan, single-pointed concentration. These six types of wealth are self-replenishing. Success and happiness come to those who spend them lavishly. And, so the prayer…‘Ae Khuda, kharche badhaa!’