Ha! Spirituality and money are inversely proportional?
By Vivek Sharma
It is the question in every mind. The answer is you are stupid if you think so. Why do you want to see a spiritual seeker struggling for money? I don’t know when the idea that spirituality means ‘no money’ came to India. It has never been there in the Bharat of the yore.
Dharma arth kaam moksha were taken as the four pillars of social and individual life. They are a step-by-step process of leading a meaningful life. They can be crudely translated as ‘adopting a spiritual idea first, acquiring with that wisdom wealth, putting it to the best use by fulfilling your and people’s needs, reaching the terrace and walking free.’
Misquoting Ramkrishna
Who really planted the idea that spirituality means ‘no money’? I would like to meet that person and give him a few lessons in life skills. Ha-ha-ha….One stupid logic coming from a stupid mind is Ramkrishna Paramhamsa said, “Give up Kaamini and kaanchan, woman and wealth if you want spiritual growth, God.” I would say that they have taken it literally. What He is saying is a psycho-physical reality— A scientific reality. Kaamini outside is just a neural trigger to evoke sensuality, the most powerful distractor, in you when it stays. Kaamini will go away, but that triggered emotion will keep you off-the-goal always. This entire process —kaamini, the object outside triggering kaamini the subject in you had been referred to by Ramkrishna as kaamini—inside and outside. If you know how to handle the trigger, you can handle the object too and will not be distracted. But, how can that be? Ramkrishna says rub the oil of spiritual love and dispassion before cutting the jackfruit. This will save you from the ‘stickiness’ which otherwise will keep you rubbing your hands to get rid of it! Ha-ha-ha. Ramkrishna Himself says first love God and then seek wealth. You will then put it to good use. That wealth is not harmful for you and society. Now I ask the stupid minds, who often misquote Ramkrishna, what they get out of it all. Isn’t Ramkrishna saying dharma arth kaam moksha? Well, only truly spiritual persons can put wealth to good use.
Wealth Is Energy
Wealth is required to run things in the world as is energy transaction to run your body-mind system. It is because, we have assigned money the value for day-to-day transactions! Earn money like a spiritual giant and put it to the right use! Don’t shut yourself out of it and call yourself a sannyasi! Don’t go after it before attaining right spiritual attitude either! Because, that would only mean you have not attained right spirituality. But, of course, you should make right efforts to earn it. Swami Vivekananda doesn’t want “sannyasis now to go out with a begging bowl”. Think Why?
What Krishna Says
एवं प्रवर्तितं चक्रं नानुवर्तयतीह यः।
अघायुरिन्द्रियारामो मोघं पार्थ स जीवति।।
It means—‘The one, who doesn’t act in accordance with the wheel of transactions set in motion, that sense-bound creature lives uselessly.’
He is referring to the gross econo-ecological wheel which starts from the cosmic transactions of energy from Intelligent Energy to Creator to cause-effect (neurones) to sun’s heating up water, water raining down from clouds, helping food grains grow and sustain life cycles. If you are not acting accordingly in your life, you are then living worthlessly. That means gain- to-give-to-gain, receive-to-transmit-to-receive yagya. That simply means if you are doing something, you cannot do it usefully if you don’t follow the wheel! Money is manmade value of transactions. It has to be used in worldly transactions which are required to sustain bodies—institutions!