Prosperity, peace and profundity

Michael J Duckett, Dannion Brinkley and collective wisdom from native Americans to help get the best of life

‘Flying Your Golden Bird to Riches’. On first glance, this title might seem almost frivolous, except that this 140-page book ought to be made compulsory reading for every student. Dr Michael J. Duckett, the author has written this book keeping an Indian audience in mind, though the principles spoken about in the book, go far beyond national boundaries.

I particularly like the first principle which says that to embark on the road to prosperity, you have to reach a point wherein you are fed up with your current situation. Most people go through life in a rather placid manner, accepting their economic status as their fate. Look around and you will find that unless you place a high price on yourself, most employers would want to pay the most minimum wages possible. It’s up to you to stand up for yourself and demand what is due to you.

The funny part is, most of the time, most of us don’t even realise we are being exploited since we are all conditioned to be worker bees putting in twice the work for half the pay. The queen been of the hive is the one for whom all the honey is being made, never mind if the presiding bee hardly does any work at all. That’s another thing. I used to associate getting rich with working hard, when in fact it’s all about working smart.

Robert Kiyosaki, the world renowned financial expert, spoke about the concept of leverage and every successful business person has made use of the skills of others to get ahead. Before I begin to sound like a ruthless capitalist, I would like to add that the goal of life is not just to earn financially, but to grow as a person. And being an entrepreneur helps you do just that. The courage to take risks, the self discipline to exert oneself and the perseverance to plod on, all these are hallmarks of someone destined to be wealthy. Not just monetarily, but in body, mind and spirit. I am beginning to sound like a self-help book myself, except that it is fact a of life that it is a combination of mind, body as in good health and indomitable spirit that helps one scale the peaks of achievement.

Moving on, we have ‘Saved by the Light’ by Dannion Brinkley which deals with near death experience (NDE). Dannion Brinkley, the once American soldier deployed to North Vietnam was struck by lightning after which he was declared dead and sent to a morgue. In the interim period, Brinkley saw himself travel through a dark tunnel and into what he describes to be a ‘crystal city’.

It is here that Brinkley met with a being of light who had a rather simple message to deliver. Only a verbatim reproduction would do this message justice, so here it is “Human’s are powerful spiritual beings meant to create good on the earth. This good isn’t usually accomplished in bold actions, but in singular acts of kindness between people. It’s the little things that count, because they are more spontaneous and show you who you truly are. The amount of love and good feelings you have at the end of your life is equal to the love and good feelings you put out during your life”.

I don’t know, but a part of me almost got emotional reading these lines, much like the feeling one gets when one goes through the book ‘In Beauty May I Walk…” which is basically a compilation of the words of wisdom by native Americans. The book is mostly a collection of quotes, my top two favourite one’s being “Listen! Or your tongue will make you deaf” and “Be careful when speaking. You create the world around you with your words.” Indeed.

Amrita Raj