Giri and Hari were neighbors; Giri was a poor farmer and Hari a rich landlord. Giri used to live a very relaxed and happy life and he thanked God for fulfilling his bare necessities. He was always in a happy state of mind. He was relaxed. He never bothered to close the doors and windows of his house at night. He used to have deep sound sleep. Although he had no money he was peaceful. His daily requirements were fulfilled from his small piece of land.

On the other hand, Hari used to be very anxious and stressed always. He used to close all windows and doors of his house every night, due to worry and stress that nobody should steal his wealth; thus, he could hardly sleep. He was always troubled that someone might break open his safe deposit box and steal away his money. Deep in his heart, he envied peaceful and carefree Giri.

One day, Hari called Giri to his house and gave him a boxful of cash saying, “Giri, my dear friend. I am blessed with affluence. I always feel that I should share some of my prosperity with you, kindly take this cash and live in prosperity.” Giri was tremendously happy. He was joyful throughout the day. As night fell, he went to bed as usual. But, that night, he could not sleep. He went and closed all doors and windows of the house. He could not sleep because he started feeling claustrophobic. He got up many times just to see if the money box was safe. Thus, the whole night he was disturbed.

As soon as the next day dawned, Giri took the box of cash to Hari. He gave away the box saying, “Dear friend, I am poor but I enjoy my life and most importantly my good night’s sleep. Your money disturbed me so much; it took away my peace of mind. Please don’t misunderstand me, take back your money.”

Moral of the story is: Prosperity is in mind. 

Most of us connect prosperity to money and affluence. But the fact is we can either be financially wealthy, or mentally fulfilled. We don’t believe there is an inconsistency between different forms of “wealth.” The saddening part is we see them all working together. What good is financial wealth if we don’t use that to seek our own fulfillment as well as the good of others around us? How many times does the feeling cross your mind that you have to do good for your family, your friends and the society? And, what purpose would spiritual and emotional fulfillment serve if it only went hand-in-hand with poverty and struggle? Children of affluent people are generally supposed to be at low risk in most areas of life. People think that the rich and affluent can safeguard their kids from most seen and unseen problems. However, recent studies have suggested problems in several domains; particularly drug abuse, substance use, anxiety, and depression because of two main causes: pressures to achieve and isolation from parents.

To feel prosperous the first thing to realize is that everything around us is a product of our mind.  All that happens in our life is also is a result of our own mind. This has been proven scientifically over and over again……….we don’t need tons of money to attract prosperity. We however need to feel prosperous in order to attract prosperity. Joyfulness attracts more joy. Happiness attracts more happiness. Peace attracts more peace. Gratitude attracts more gratitude. Kindness attracts more kindness. Love attracts more love. You need to work inside in your psyche. So, keep working within your heart to change your world, all you have to do is change the way you feel inside. All said and done, it is not at all easy.  Your feeling will determine whether you become poorer or richer.

The size of the house, its locality, how it is furnished etc does not matter; what matters is people who live in it, how happy they are together. Often, you find yourself lost in a mix of contradictions: beautiful, shattered; refreshing, frustrating; friendly, bitter; inspirational, small-minded; jealous, compassionate. As far as the ending feeling is positive, it should not bother you much. When you are surrounded with happy, cooperative and loving family and friends, the cheap housing, old vehicle, lesser known school from where you studied, unbranded clothes and accessories really don’t matter.

‘Prosper’ means living according to one’s hope. While wishing someone prosperity we are saying that we wish they will achieve the future they are hoping for. Abundance in life is not about what we have and how much we have. It’s not about what we get. It’s not about what we claim. Ultimately, abundant life is about what we receive as a gift from the Lord. Abundance is manifestation. It’s not a sin to be rich. And we should not forget that while dying we are neither rich nor poor. Furthermore, it’s not important to only count how much we have received, but it’s equally important how much we have given. At the end of the day, perhaps that is how we know we have an abundant life; when we have shared our life with others. When we have enough of the blessings of God when we have forgiveness, peace, love, grace, wisdom, etc. to share with our others, and then actually do it; that’s when we truly have prosperity in life.

I am labeling the Lonar Crater Lake mysterious because even citizens of Maharashtra hardly know of this splendid lake. It’s a saline and alkaline lake located at Lonar in Buldhana district in Maharashtra, India. This lake was created by a meteor impact about 52,000 years ago. Geologists, ecologists, archaeologists, naturalists and astronomers have reported several studies on the various aspects of this Crater Lake ecosystem. Lonar Lake has a mean diameter of 1.2 kilometres (3,900 ft) and is about 137 metres (449 ft) below the crater rim. The lake is 150 meters deep.

For all of its exclusiveness, very few people in Maharashtra have heard of it apart from locals and sporadic trekkers. This is the largest lake on earth created by hyper-velocity impact hollow in basaltic rock. Every year about 30,000 – 1,50,000  meteors plunge towards the Earth; but none of them have managed to create a lake like Lonar. It seems Lonar Lake has prompted NASA scientists and officials from the Geological Survey of India to attempt answers to questions like: 1. Why is the lake alkaline and saline at the same time? 2. How does it support micro-organisms which are rarely found elsewhere on Earth? 3. Why do compasses fail to work in certain parts of the crater? 4. What lurks at the bottom of the lake?

The lake is surrounded by jungle spread with Teak trees. A belt of large trees about a mile broad runs all round the basin; this belt is formed of concentric rings of different species of trees. A ring of date-palms followed by a ring of Tamarind trees, another ring of Babul trees, bounded on the inside by a belt of bare muddy space. This space is several hundred meters yards broad, devoid of any vegetation due to the soda content of the water and covered with a whitish slippery soil. During the rainy season, this soil drains into the lake. The water of the lake contains various salts or sodas, and during dry weather when evaporation reduces the water level when large quantities of soda are collected. Two small streams drain into the lake, and a well of sweet water is located on the southern side, close to the water’s edge. Small and medium sized hills surround the lake.

The Lonar crater was first discovered by British Officer J E. Alexander. The Lonar Lake has sky-blue water surrounded by the vast expanse of emerald green forest.  Forget the scientific angle; this destination also has much to offer the wildlife enthusiasts as it is liberally endowed in both flora and fauna. The crater is home to hundreds of peafowl, chinkara and gazelles, which surf amongst the shrubs and bushes ringing the lake. Other residents include egrets, moor hens, herons, coots, white-necked storks, lapwings, grey wagtails, grebes, black droungos, green bee-eaters, tailorbirds, magpies and robins – as well as numerous species of migratory birds that often visit the place.

I recommend readers to visit this meteoric lake at least once; it’s worth seeing with your eyes how powerful the nature is. Winter is the ideal time to visit Lonar. The climate is pleasurable from November to January. We visited Lonar Crater Lake in January 2015. Craters are a rare phenomenon; you find very few on earth. Besides Lonar it seems there are hardly 10 or 11 crater lakes in world. The best route to reach Lonar is from Aurangabad via Jalna.