First of all there are a few presumptions there. Though Sri Aurobindo has appreciated Shakespeare and Goethe his appreciation of them is part of a general appreciation of all that is good in mankind. He has, for example, appreciated many other poets and thinkers. But in terms of deep meaningful appreciation he has mainly appreciated Vyasa, Valmiki, Kalidas, Poetry of the Upanishads, the Gita and few others. Besides different people may appreciate the same person for different reasons. Some may appreciate the character of Shylock and Karna, others may appreciate Cordelia and Arjuna in their respective authors. That is why perhaps the phrase ‘devil quoting the scripture’ has been aptly coined.
Secondly, what is important for one may not be so important to another. Neither the Upanishads nor the Gita speaks about money. That doesn’t mean they are not able to perceive the human problem or are ignoring the gigantic mysterious force. But the yogi may not, in fact, does not see it as the average thinker sees it. In my view Karl Marx does not even qualify for being a profound thinker, and is certainly very far from any yogic vision. A yogi gives importance to other things which he considers as far more important than what the superficial thinker apprecoates. Thus, for example the yogi sees money as the manifestation of a part of the cosmic vital energy that connects all things. He sees a deep interconnectedness of all creatures, perceives the subtle interchange and exchange going on in this creation and based on this deeper understanding of a give and take he derives the laws that man should follow with regard to this deeper law of cosmic interchange.
That law is explained in the Gita is Yagya. It exists independent of man as this interchange and interconnectedness goes on all the time in creation. Though this exchange is going on at several levels, from the deepest spiritual to the most material, money is only a tangible sign or symbol of this vast cosmic interchange at the most outward level. But to say that it is so very important is the sign of an intellectual depravity. It is the equivalent of saying that man is only the body led by his hunger, nothing more than a beast who ignorantly dreams of a perfect society by redistributing money! But the most important ingredients of life, things that make it truly rich and worthwhile, love and wisdom, spiritual aspiration, even moral strength can never be weighed or measured in terms of money.
Finally, money is only a word for the most visible outer means of interchange of this vital force. The real term is wealth and you will find quite a number of references to it in Savitri. Elsewhere Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have written plenty on money itself, for example, there is a whole chapter dedicated to Money out of 6 chapters in one of Sri Aurobindo’s most important work The Mother. Reproducing the chapter below for reference.
‘Money is the visible sign of a universal force, and this force in its manifestation on earth works on the vital and physical planes and is indispensable to the fullness of the outer life. In its origin and its true action it belongs to the Divine. But like other powers of the Divine it is delegated here and in the ignorance of the lower Nature can be usurped for the uses of the ego or held by Asuric influences and perverted to their purpose. This is indeed one of the three forces—power, wealth, sex—that have the strongest attraction for the human ego and the Asura and are most generally misheld and misused by those who retain them. The seekers or keepers of wealth are more often possessed rather than its possessors; few escape entirely a certain distorting influence stamped on it by its long seizure and perversion by the Asura. For this reason most spiritual disciplines insist on a complete self-control, detachment and renunciation of all bondage to wealth and of all personal and egoistic desire for its possession. Some even put a ban on money and riches and proclaim poverty and bareness of life as the only spiritual condition. But this is an error; it leaves the power in the hands of the hostile forces. To reconquer it for the Divine to whom it belongs and use it divinely for the divine life is the supramental way for the Sadhaka.
You must neither turn with an ascetic shrinking from the money power, the means it gives and the objects it brings, nor cherish a rajasic attachment to them or a spirit of enslaving self-indulgence in their gratifications. Regard wealth simply as a power to be won back for the Mother and placed at her service.
All wealth belongs to the Divine and those who hold it are trustees, not possessors. It is with them today, tomorrow it may be elsewhere. All depends on the way they discharge their trust while it is with them, in what spirit, with what consciousness in their use of it, to what purpose.
In your personal use of money look on all you have or get or bring as the Mother’s. Make no demand but accept what you receive from her and use it for the purposes for which it is given to you. Be entirely selfless, entirely scrupulous, exact, careful in detail, a good trustee; always consider that it is her possessions and not your own that you are handling. On the other hand, what you receive for her, lay religiously before her; turn nothing to your own or anybody else’s purpose.
Do not look up to men because of their riches or allow yourself to be impressed by the show, the power or the influence. When you ask for the Mother, you must feel that it is she who is demanding through you a very little of what belongs to her and the man from whom you ask will be judged by his response.
If you are free from the money-taint but without any ascetic withdrawal, you will have a greater power to command the money-force for the divine work. Equality of mind, absence of demand and the full dedication of all you possess and receive and all your power of acquisition to the Divine Shakti and her work are the signs of this freedom. Any perturbation of mind with regard to money and its use, any claim, any grudging is a sure index of some imperfection or bondage.
The ideal Sadhaka in this kind is one who if required to live poorly can so live and no sense of want will affect him or interfere with the full inner play of the divine consciousness, and if he is required to live richly, can so live and never for a moment fall into desire or attachment to his wealth or to the things that he uses or servitude to self-indulgence or a weak bondage to the habits that the possession of riches creates. The divine Will is all for him and the divine Ananda.
In the supramental creation the money-force has to be restored to the Divine Power and used for a true and beautiful and harmonious equipment and ordering of a new divinised vital and physical existence in whatever way the Divine Mother herself decides in her creative vision. But first it must be conquered back for her and those will be strongest for the conquest who are in this part of their nature strong and large and free from ego and surrendered without any claim or withholding or hesitation, pure and powerful channels for the Supreme Puissance.’
Affectionately,
Alok Da
