Re: pursuit of wealth
From the Bhakti List Archives
• July 12, 1999
Namo Narayana! In the responses of pursuit of wealth we saw that most bhaktas feel that they can go ahead in pursuit of wealth, till they get the maturity to give it up. Bhaktas here are of different age groups, starting from 20's to 70's. If no body has the maturity, it shows that no body is going have the maturity unless we put in efforts for it. Swami Desika's Vairagya panchakam itself is enough for us to know that we should not go after pursuit of wealth. It is very rare to see people who want to earn just for the sake of doing kaimkaryam. Even if they want to do kaimkaryam, there are so many other ways out. Doing kaimkaryam is just a reason for going after pursuit of wealth. If kaimkarya by wealth is so important Swami Desika, would not have regarded wealth so insignificantly, Alavandar would not have forgotten his so called luxuries on seeing our Lord's feet, ... we have so many incidents showing that we should not go in pursuit of wealth. Our pursuit can be only towards the greatest wealth - our lord. Swami Desika says, he who is devoted to the Supreme Lord has a strong dislike to the objects other than the supreme Lord. If we have complete belief in our Lord that HE had been taking care of us and will continue to take care of us where is the need for us to think or worry about future. >If I am daily thinking about the > value of my investment portfolio, how to join the next > start-up company, or how to pay for the diamond necklace > I need to buy my wife in a few years, can I truly make > spiritual progress? Does this not precisely force one > into the cycle of samsAra, trying to build more and > more wealth? Do we really need to spend so much of time and effort on pursuit of wealth? How much of money do we need? Swami Desika himself gives us the reply in Vairagya panchakam. "silam kimanalam BhavEt ...." "will not the scattered grain in the fields satisfy the fire of stomach (hunger)? Is not a handful of limpid water of a tank sufficient to support the self and body? Is not a piece of dirty cloth obtained accidentally enough to be used as a loin cloth? Still persons of wisdom, for the sake of food unnecessarily resort to mortal kings! Alas! What a tragedy!" > My gut feeling is that the example of Sri Desika and other > gRhastha-s is not an ideal that is to be left merely for saints, > but something to which all true mumukshus should sincerely > aspire. Is this still practical? Could Desika have survived > today? (What few disciples he had certainly couldn't have > given him enough money to pay the rents in San Francisco!) Swami Desika would certainly survive and be a role model for all of us. We see so many of our Acharyas who are very simple. If we have the will we can spend our life by serving them, learning our sampradayam...Children can always join the mutt schools and learn Vedas etc (the real knowledge). We do have so many live examples even today. We should take all measures and spend as much time as possible in bhagavad/ BAgavadAnubavam and limit our wants which in turn will limit our need to pursue wealth. We should try and practice simple living and high thinking as our Poorvacharyas have done. Sita Rama Jayam Praveena nAmni Ramanuja dasi
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