Of course if buying branded cloth, traveling around the world, fulfilling parent’s dreams and material comforts is all that one seeks then surely money may be enough. But is this all that humanity needs? What about true love, wisdom, true knowledge, beauty, courage, aspiration towards the Divine, freedom from fear, anxiety and depression, self-mastery, lasing peace and unconditional happiness? Can money buy these things also?
In other words there is a hierarchy of what we want. For example there is a pleasure that one gets through drugs and pornography but it is temporary, addicting, enslaving and eventually harmful. On the other hand there is a joy that does not depend upon any external object or conditions, or any outer achievement. So the former kind of happiness is temporary, object dependent and brings its rebound or side effects such as enslavement to comfort and luxury trapping one in a vicious cycle of wanting more and more. An excessive dependence upon external objects ties our intelligence to outer life, the life of body and desires whereas our intelligence is meant to soar towards much higher things of eternal value. Yes money can help me travel to the Ashram but it can’t increase my aspiration and surrender or faith and devotion or make my will strong, or open me to wisdom. It will only puff up my ego and lead us to ruin through the path that the Titans take.
Ultimately it is a question of what we value. If we value luxury and pleasure, comforts of the body alone then money and all it can buy is surely enough. But if we value love, wisdom, knowledge, truth, justice, harmony, permanent peace, lasting joy then one has to take another route. One cannot chase money and God, comforts and courage, pleasures of the flesh and the joy of the soul, peace of the Divine and the peace of inertia, lust and love at the same time. There is a limited energy given to man and a choice has to be made one way or the other.
This is not to say that one should not earn money or lead a life of wilful poverty. Money has its own place in the Divine scheme of things such as making our outer life and surroundings beautiful. But to give it an excess, almost exclusive importance spells downfall to the individual as well as around civilisation centered around money and toys of pleasure. A beautiful kingly outer life combined with a life of inner depravity of taste and crudeness of thought, vulgarity of speech and actions, grossness of feelings is like a gold crown on a pigs head. If the pig could he would barter his gold crown for a puddle of mud and mire and consider himself fortunate. But all his gold cannot buy him even an iota of human intelligence or the urge for progress and the aspiration for going beyond his pigmy world. Rather it is quite likely that satisfied with his pig-comfort he never feels to explore the greater life and higher world beyond.
But then to each his own paradise.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
