The Treasure Within

This is a reprint of an article written in Alan Cohen's July 2011 Newsletter sent to me by a friend. I think it well worth printing again and sharing with you all. Notice taken especially to the areas I have highlighted and italicized.

The TREASURE in YOUR BASEMENT

Earlier this month the nation of India discovered a nearly unbelievable treasure locked in the basement of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum. The cache of gold statues, diamonds, and jewels was accumulated through donations to the temple by wealthy families over a period of 500 years. Locked in six tightly secured rooms, no one has viewed the booty for over 150 years.

The value of the find is currently estimated at a minimum of $22 billion, perhaps much more. Indian leaders are now deciding what to do with the treasure, the sum of which exceeds India’s annual budget for education for the entire nation of nearly 1.2 billion people.

Since what you see outside you, including public news, represents what is happening inside you, the news is good for all of us. You have an extraordinary treasure hidden in your basement. You own a royal fortune of talent, insight, creativity, vision, love, and connection to universal wisdom. Like the treasure at Padmanabhaswamy, your cache has largely been locked away. Yet the day comes when the riches are liberated and put to good use. No one benefits from gold sitting in a dark chamber, especially when circulating it can improve the world. How many people in India can be fed for $22 billion? How many homes could be built for the many impoverished there? How many children could be educated so they can create better lives for themselves and their families?

I think it symbolic and appropriate that the greatest hidden treasure of all time has been unearthed in one of the most overtly poor nations on the planet. No matter the appearance of lack or bleakness the outer world shows us, there exists an invisible gift to offset it. The issues of the world seem insurmountable: the ecological crisis, financial deficit, war, hunger, and social and moral decay. Yet there are answers and healing for all of these pressing issues if we just look below the surface, and go within.

The deity of the Trivandrum Temple, Padmanabhaswamy, represents the Hindu Lord Vishnu asleep. Perhaps Lord Vishnu is waking up as an inspiration for all of us to join him.

To read the rest of the article, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/07/06/137627235/some-22-billion-in-gold-diamonds-jewels-found-in-indian-temple