There was this man called Ramakant who managed his livelihood by begging at the temple gates. He was in his middle age and though he was a carpenter in his younger days, he could not do well in his business as most of his time was spent in attending religious festivals. His wife died of severe jaundice while he was singing paeans to God at the temple. He didn’t have the money to buy medicines for her nor did he make any serious attempt to collect the required amount. Instead, he kept on praying and wishing his wife would get cured by God’s blessings.
Whatever money he could get after selling his house and belongings, he spent all of that in his wife’s funeral and feeding the priests. He was grief-stricken at his wife’s demise but all he believed was that he could do nothing about it as it was God’s will. He decided o spend the rest of his life in God’s service and beg for a living. Money was always an evil for him…..something which diverts one from the path of holiness.
Well, not everyone is a Ramakant. There are people who believe in God, pray regularly and yet earn handsomely. For its money that pulls one out of bad times. Money is not only the source of well-being and health but the means to make things happen. Prayers alone won’t suffice. Hence, it won’t be too wrong to say that if God is present among us, then this existence is in the form of money.
It’s not about being an atheist or a firm believer of God and religion. It’s about being well aware of the fact that money is not something one can do without. We are long done with the barter system and everything today comes for a price. Yes, even holiness comes for a price. You won’t find a single god-man today who isn’t living a life of reasonable comfort and hasn’t amassed a sizeable amount of unaccounted wealth. No doubt, the money might have been channelized through donations and could be very well used for the benefit of the devotees. Yet, you can’t deny that if money were of no importance there wouldn’t have been donations in the first place. None of these so-called holy men and their trusts/organisations could have moved a pebble without substantial monetary help. Baba Ramdev’s sprawling Patanjali Yogpeeth ashram and Sathya Sai Baba’s gold treasure, discovered after his death, speak volumes about how even God’s tasks need money to be carried out.You can't be holy with a hole in your pocket!!
Regarding money being the root cause of all evils, didn’t we fight wars simply on the basis of religions in the past?? And it’s mostly the ones not having a single penny to buy food who tread onto the path of crime. If abundance of wealth can lead to abuse, absence of it is of no use at all.
So I would rather toil hard and acquire sufficient money to fulfil my needs and also save for the future rather than sitting in a corner, blaming God for not being fair or even be ‘pious’ enough to marvel at his wonderful design that left me all screwed up.
If work is considered to be worship, then the God you please through this worship is MONEY…..the God in your pockets!!
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