salary delusion

If the salary was the same, what job would you be doing right now and why?

If the salary were the same, I would choose freedom of time over the endless pursuit of more money.I would choose a way of working that allows the body to breathe, the mind to settle and life to continue beyond the hours spent earning.What is the meaning of earning more if I must give away eighteen hours of my day to obtain it?

The world tells me to work harder because the cost of living keeps rising. An egg that once cost a few cents becomes several ringgit. Petrol becomes expensive. Food becomes expensive. Housing becomes expensive. Insurance becomes expensive. Even staying healthy becomes expensive.

So I ask myself:If the outer economy keeps changing, can I create an inner economy that allows me to survive within it?

Perhaps this is where I must stop fighting the entire world and begin governing the small kingdom within myself.

I cannot decide the price of an egg.

I cannot decide the price of petrol.

I cannot decide the cost of a hospital bill.

I cannot decide what another country will pay for my country’s resources.

I can decide how I use the money that comes into my hands.I can decide what is necessary and what is unnecessary.I can decide whether every increase in income must become an increase in spending.I can decide whether my body must continually be sacrificed for another ringgit.

I can decide to save.I can decide to learn.I can decide to create.I can decide to build another source of income.

I can decide that my health is also part of my wealth.Working sixteen or eighteen hours every day may increase today’s income, but if the body eventually breaks down, tomorrow’s medical expenses may consume everything that was earned.What kind of prosperity is that?The Bhagavad Gita begins with a human being standing in the middle of a battlefield, confused about what should be done.

“My nature is overcome by weakness; my mind is confused about my duty.”— Bhagavad Gita 2.7

Arjuna’s battlefield was Kurukshetra.Mine may be the battlefield of modern life—money, work, expenses, fear, possessions and survival.Krishna does not tell Arjuna to escape the battlefield.He teaches him to act without allowing the battlefield to conquer his mind.

That is the lesson I want to carry into my own economy.I do not need to control the entire economy.

I need to learn to govern my own.

My time is an economy.My energy is an economy.

My health is an economy.

My attention is an economy.

My money is an economy.

If I spend all of them today, what will remain for tomorrow?The Gita teaches:“You have a right to action alone, never to its fruits.”— Bhagavad Gita 2.47

This does not mean that I stop caring about money. It means I stop allowing the result to become the master of my mind.

I will do my work.

I will earn what I can.

I will save what I can.

I will build what I can.

I will not offer my entire life as payment for survival.

Perhaps true wealth is not having an unlimited paycheck.Perhaps true wealth is reaching a point where the paycheck I already have is enough because I have learned how to live, save, create and grow wisely.

Then my question changes.I no longer ask:“How many hours must I work to survive?”

I ask:“How can I arrange my life so that what I earn sustains me without destroying me?”

This is my own dharma—not running away from work, but learning to work without becoming a slave to work.

And perhaps one day, I will understand that the greatest economy is not outside me.It is the economy of the self:

how I spend my time,

how I spend my energy,

how I spend my money.

how little of myself I need to sacrifice to live.

The battlefield may remain.The prices may rise.The world may continue changing.But if the mind becomes steady, I can stand in the middle of it without being consumed by it.

And that is where the Gita ends—not with the battlefield disappearing, but with clarity returning to the one who must walk through it.

“My delusion is destroyed. I have regained my memory through Your grace. I stand firm, with my doubts dispelled. I will do as You say.”— Bhagavad Gita 18.73

This version makes the “my own economy” idea into a Gita concept: not escaping the world, but becoming the master of your own time, energy, money and mind.