Should spiritual services be charged?

My friend once told me you Urja healers are doing good job but frankly speaking what I feel is your charges are too high. This was absolutely a loose comment. In that month I was hearing such comment from 3rd or 4th person, on top of it, it was totally unexpected to hear that from person like him hence i got hurt and triggered at the same time. I asked him why do you think so. He said it's because you are helping people, this spiritual knowledge is necessary and important now a days and it should not be charged so much or should be offered free of cost.

Trying hard to sound as polite as possible I replied to him I can't give simple and direct answer to your question. You will have to listen to me for sometime and I am sure whatever I will tell you may or may not be able to digest because it is the problem of our society's mindset, deeply rooted beliefs about money.

Offering spiritual services is just like offering any other service like catering, psychological counselling, beauty services, education, medical services etc.

If you believe this is extremely important and people need it hence we must offer free of cost or charge less, then please try to tell this to your doctor or surgeon not to charge in lakhs of rupees because it's their job to save patient's life. Try to tell this to schools to offer their services free of cost because getting education is basic need as well as right of every child. Try to tell this to psychologist because it's their duty to heal their clients' suicidal tendancies or any other abnormal psychological issues. Try to tell this to corporate employees to offer their services free of cost because it is their responsibility to contribute to the growth of the company.

You will not ask this or negotiate in such cases because they are perceived as doing something practical, that is the real work. They can demand money because they generate revenue for the company or they are perceived as experts or professionals doing some real work.

My dear friend so do we. We are professionals, we do have expertise to offer solutions and guide people. We have invested our time, energy and money to acquire those skills. We invest money in buying books, pursuing courses to acquire knowledge or skills, travelling. This eventually help us to serve you all in better manner.

We spend our energy and time to implement newly acquired skills and techniques in our lives, find out what exactly works and what does not, come up with our own analysis and then putting all information together in simplest format while offering counseling session or workshops.

When sessions are conducted in hotel or even at home cost of food, rent, electricity is involved. We spend ample of time and energy with clients just to  understand their issues. Then again great deal of time to teach or counsel.

To add very important point, money that we generate is the result of we following our passion, we doing our job with utmost sincerity. Our desire to contribute in lives of people in meaningful ways has created win win situation for us and clients.

My friend how did you forget about so many initiatives that we run free of cost. Urja whtsapp group, free angel card reading on facebook, wellness initiatives, free meet ups. They are purely driven by hope and desire to spread positivity, joy and awareness.
We never compel anyone to avail our services. Many people have benefited just by being part of our free whatsapp group and it gives us immense pleasure.

Tell me one thing even if your work is your passion will you ever consider not charging money for your services just for one or two days only because the film or TV show that you are directing has social or spiritual message to spread? Will corporate employee ever consider of sacrificing one month's salary just because project has important social role to play?

Now talking about our services being overcharged. I totally disagree, rather all our workshops and services are undercharged compared to value we add in person's life. On top of that we always ensure we offer 1000 times more worth to the client than what we receive from them. Many of our workshops are priced under INR 1000/-, yet we have clients calling us, sending messages on whatsapp that they can't afford INR 555/-. I am sure now a days monthly average mobile phone bill would be around INR 500!

When we charge around INR 10,000 for full day workshop we do kind of offer life long support to our clients. They are free to contact us anytime when they have a doubt. For many clients we have allowed to repeat the class or course free of cost just because they had many doubts.

Few certificate courses are charged between INR 10-15 K. However by availing those certificates they can start their own practice and practically speaking this course fees can be recovered just offering services to minimum 3 clients!

So my point is amount that person can afford or can't afford is totally relative term. We totally understand genuine cases hence we always say, you can pay us later or in EMIs, anytime during this life time but no discounts or free enrollments in workshops.

Coming to how we decide the price of our workshops. It is exactly the chef would decide his or her price, the way you decide your price as an actor and director my friend! Totally based on the value you offers to the project, based on skills, knowledge and confidence.

Another important perspective is, Tell me honestly do we really need television and film industry? Is it really a basic need? Yet actors and directors charge so much for offering their services. Why???

Answer is the mentally of our society. We don't mind paying for anything that entertain us. Instant gratification has become more significant now a days. We don't mind paying at fine dining restaurants, high priced movie tickets, branded clothes, for passes of live cricket matches etc. We hesitate when it comes to paying fees to teachers, healers, coaches, speakers, writers, NGOs or anyone who is doing something for the betterment of the world, Earth or environment. Even corporations those are offering high priced products and services which are really in alignment with environmental, social wellbeing are not exception to this.

How paying INR 1500 for a book or course will help me now? How buying organic vegetables benefit me now and what's the guarantee that it will keep me healthy? It is totally opposite of instant gratification. Results may not be immediate and it requires considerable afford from our end to make necessary changes.

Major percentage of today's society has failed big time to acknowledge the role of self help industry, mind training and spiritual services. They have failed to realize the significant contribution these healers, teachers or coaches are making in the society.

In ancient era Kings used to provide for artists, teachers, spiritual counselors etc. All their basic and material needs were taken care by Kings enabling them to focus on quality of their offerings and services.

In today's time will our clients or society or politicians take our responsibility? Will you all provide us food, shelter, clothes? Will you all sponsor our education? Ofcourse Not. Then how are we supposed to manage our life by charging low fees or offering our services free of cost? How can we offer quality services if we can't afford to invest our time and energy in education, health and providing materialistic support to our families. If I have to give example of your industry, it would be like if actor and actress can't afford to pay for good dietician, gym and to have good support team to cook their food, manage their routine work etc then how will they be able look stunning and meet performance expectations?

He was totally speechless and probably shocked too, perhaps he was not expecting such a straight forward answer from me. Anyways but I felt strong nudge to share this perspective and I followed my heart.