money MONEY IS THE ROOT KNOT

[dattaswami]

MONEY IS THE ROOT KNOT

 

 

It catches your throat. Therefore the Veda says “Dhanena tyagenaike …” which means that money alone decides your love on God. Real love can be expressed only by money and work (karma sanyasa and karma phala tyaga). Without these two, other ways are only hypocritic. If these two also exist, then, other ways get life. Otherwise, they are dead items only. ‘Guna’ is theory. ‘Karma’ is practice. Theory should lead to practice. Otherwise, mere theory is only hypocrisy. The four castes in spiritual path are decided by theory and practice only (guna karma vibhagasah – the Gita).

 

Saktuprastha is the real Brahmana (or Brahma Jnani), who sacrificed all the fruit of his work for God. Dharma raja is kshatriya, who could only do partial sacrifice of wealth in doing Asvamedha. Dhritarastra is Vysya, who has good theory but zero in practice. He recognized the Lord Krishna but did not give even five villages, even though the Lord is asking. He has full power to give but escaped nicely by pleading his false incapability in going against his son.

 

 Duryodhana is a sudra, who did not even recognise the Lord and was greedy for wealth of even his own brothers. Thus caste is not by birth, but it is by the qualities and practice (guna karma). Swami Dayananda, who is also human incarnation preached about this valuable concept. Every great preacher is incarnation of God because the Gita says the same (Yadyat vibhutimat…).

 

The goal of material life ends when you have earned or acquired money from forefathers, which is sufficient for your minimum standards of life. But, the ambition in defining the minimum must be also controlled. Money earned more than minimum requirement is not only useless, but also, harmful as said by Shankara (Arthamanartham…). Excess money gives also ego, which is the fast path for downfall in the worldly life itself. Once required minimum is achieved, it is always better to concentrate on spiritual path. In doing so, God will certainly protect your minimum achieved by you and will see that no problems of wealth and health generate requiring more than that minimum. If God’s grace is obtained, not only worldly life here and not only further life in the above world (hell) are protected, but also, your permanent spiritual life that continues throughout your future lives is also protected. In the spiritual effort, sacrifice of money is said (by the Veda) to be very important step to identify real love through practical devotion, but not earning the money in unjust ways.

 

 

Real love is proved only in money and this is the truth in the worldly domain also. The Gita makes lot of stress again and again on the sacrifice of fruit of work or Karma phala tyaaga. The Veda says that sacrifice of money alone proves the real devotion. The Yogavaashistha also says the same. We should not hesitate in projecting the unclothed truth fearing that somebody will misunderstand us. We shall not alter the basic truth. Rich and poor are not differentiated because the sacrifice of percentage of total possessed is the criterion in giving value and not the magnitude of the sacrifice.

 

 The practical philosophy is important than theoretical devotion. Rich shall donate to the poor without analyzing deservingness as emergent justice. The poor need not be discouraged in this setup since poor is benefitted by the donation from rich. You can’t alter the practical truth. You can alter the theoretical concepts that side and this side. Rising of Sun on East can’t be altered based on likes and dislikes.

 

A poor person is also doing the sacrifice of fruit of work (karmaphalatyaga) to his issues in his own level of earned money or wealth. Hence, you cannot restrict this concept to rich people only. In fact, greediness increases as the wealth increases. Hence, Jesus told that even a camel may pass through the eye of the needle, but a rich man can’t get salvation. When all the devotees were sacrificing money for God in a Church, a poor widow sacrificed just one coin whereas several other rich people sacrificed coins in hundreds and thousands. Jesus told that the poor widow is the highest donor to God!

 

Hence, the magnitude of the sacrificed wealth is not at all the criterion whereas the percentage of the sacrificed money in the total possessed wealth is the criterion. The poor lady has one coin only and she sacrificed that resulting in 100% sacrifice whereas, the sacrificed money by rich people is not even 1%. Lord Krishna also blessed Kuchela with infinite wealth since that poor person gave a handful parched rice brought from neighbor as loan. When he was returning, Lord did not give a single paisa to him to test whether the sacrifice was done with an aspiration for any fruit in return or not. Both these examples show that God honored only the poorest soul and not a rich person.

 

The attitude to sacrifice is proportional to theoretical attitude, which is nothing but digested spiritual knowledge and not possessed spiritual knowledge or possessed wealth. One eats a lot but digests very little of it. One eats very little and digests it fully. Both these examples apply to east and west respectively. The reason for poverty in our country is due to more possessed knowledge and least digested knowledge, which alone results in practical sacrifice. The fruit of any sacrifice to God must be only to please God and not to aspire even the grace of God. One rupee of a poor person earning 10 rupees is equal to 10 rupees of a rich person earning 100 rupees.

 

 

Service and Sacrifice Benefit the Soul; not God

Your friend has made God out to be a helpless person requesting the help of others to do His work. As if God cannot do His own work! Why would the omnipotent God need the help of powerless human beings? Your friend’s wrong thinking is the result of his ignorance of God’s omnipotence. In fact, God never asks anybody to help Him in His work. Even if He advises devotees to participate in His work of propagation of spiritual knowledge in this world, it is only for their spiritual welfare. The propagation of His spiritual knowledge strengthens the concepts in the devotee’s mind due to repeated revision. It leads to the reformation of the devotee who is propagating the knowledge. By advising certain blessed souls to participate in His work, God is only providing an opportunity for them to rise higher on the spiritual path. This progress on the spiritual path is a permanent attainment that follows the soul in every birth. On the other hand, pravṛtti is the work related to one’s worldly bonds and is confined only to this birth.

In fact, God never advises souls to proceed on the path of nivṛtti, which is establishing a strong personal bond with God. Nivṛtti is the path discovered by the devoted souls themselves. It was not introduced by God. In fact, God discourages the path of nivṛtti by creating several difficult hurdles which serve as acid tests to prove the deservingness of the soul. The only path introduced and encouraged by God is pravṛtti. It is the path of protection of justice and the rejection of injustice in worldly life. His entire focus is only on pravṛtti. He introduced worldly and heavenly benefits for following justice. To discourage sins and injustice, He also introduced punishments in this world and in the upper world. God descends into this world in the form of Incarnations for this very purpose of establishing pravṛtii. In that case, how can anybody blame God for supporting nivṛtti at the cost of pravṛtti?

In fact, God created this world having all the souls and gave them the commandments to strictly follow pravṛtti. Souls are supposed to strictly follow justice and avoid injustice in their worldly life. God remained as the unimaginable domain, aloof from this world, which is the imaginable domain. It is just like parents staying aloof from their grown-up children after helping them settle down in life and giving them proper instructions on leading a happy life through discipline. Had these souls followed the instructions of God and maintained the balance of society perfectly, God would never have had to visit creation. He would have been happy simply to see all souls living together happily. This point answers the question of atheists, who ask why it is even necessary for human beings to think about God in their worldly life. If souls could have lived happily following the discipline necessary to maintain the balance of the society, there would have been no need for souls to think about God.

Old parents, staying aloof from their grown-up children, are not interested in unnecessarily visiting the homes of their children as long as the children are leading a disciplined and happy life. When the children break the discipline and create havoc in their own lives and in society, the parents rush to their homes to set things right. They come to the homes of their children to solve the crisis created by the children and not to get free food or service from their children. Now, human parents are ignorant and they are not omnipotent either. In fact, they themselves might be in need of financial and other help from their children. So, it is possible that they might visit the homes of their grown-up children expecting some help. But God is omnipotent and does not require any help from souls either in terms of service or in terms of money. The service rendered by a devotee to God is called karma saṁnyāsa and his hard-earned money offered or sacrificed to God is called karma phala tyaga. Both service and the sacrifice of hard-earned money together are called karma yoga. Karma yoga or service and sacrifice of money are not needed by God at all!

In the case that the parents are strong and healthy and are also financially well-off, they need neither service nor money from their children. In spite of that, if the children serve the parents and give money to them, it is due to the children’s love for their parents. The service and the money given are the practical proof of the mental love they have for their parents. God is like these strong and rich parents who do not need anything from their children. Unfortunately, some clever children exploit this point, saying that they do not serve their parents or give them any money since the rich and strong parents do not need any of it. These grown-up children are missing the point. The service rendered to the parents and the money offered to them is not because of the need of the parents. It is the proof of the real love that the children have for their parents. Many people in the world also think in the same manner about God. They too must understand that service rendered to God and the money sacrificed to Him is only the proof of one’s real love for God.

Your friend’s comment is like that of a son, who says to his poor and dependent parents living with him in his home “If I serve you and spend my money on you, how can I look after my family towards which I am duty-bound?” The comment is completely out of place for the context of God and souls. The case of God and a soul is similar to that of rich and strong parents who have been caring for and financially supporting the son and his family from the beginning. So, whatever service the son renders to such rich and strong parents and whatever money he sacrifices to them, is not because they need it. It is only the practical proof of his real love for them. Thus, your friend’s thinking, which is also the thinking of a lot of other people, is based on an illusion and ignorance. It is God who has been helping and supporting the devotee in all possible ways. He needs nothing from souls! The love that the devotee has for God is in the mind. It is theoretical. It cannot be seen. A person may falsely claim that he loves God. Therefore, proof becomes necessary. Service and sacrifice of one’s hard-earned money to God are the practical proof of real love for God. They are called karma saṁnyāsa and karma phala tyaga respectively, and they are the proof of devotion. They can be said to be practical devotion.

Of course, the devotee can practically prove his theoretical devotion either through service or through the sacrifice of money. Service is work done for God. It is the sacrifice of one’s energy for God. Money is said to be the fruit of one’s work since we earn money in return for our work. Offering money to God is the sacrifice of the fruit of one’s work to God. Service or karma saṁnyāsa represents the sacrifice of energy. Karma phala tyāga represents the sacrifice of matter since money stands for matter. Since both energy and matter are mutually interconvertible, service and sacrifice both constitute karma yoga. Both are equivalent and a person can do any one or a combination of both as per one’s convenience. Service is convenient for a renounced saint who does not earn or possess money.

For a householder, a combination of the two is usually convenient. Since he earns and possesses money, he can sacrifice some money. In addition, he also has some spare time in which he can serve God. The extent to which a devotee should do this karma yoga is told as “yathā śaktiḥ, yathā bhaktiḥ”. This means that it can be done as per one’s capacity and as per the depth of one’s devotion. In this regard, it is very important to realize this essential truth and keep it permanently in one’s mind: God never needs any service or from souls, He never forces anyone to sacrifice anything to Him and He never has any intention to cheat any soul. The service and sacrifice are entirely voluntary from the side of the devotee who is totally free to choose.

 

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