17 Aug 2015
Shri Surya asked: It is very difficult to sacrifice the blended bond of issues with wealth for the sake of God. But, the bond with money may not be wrong since money is essential for the service of God also.
Shri Swami replied: The bond with issues and wealth is most strong. Very few Gopikas or Sages only could conquer this bond by secretly giving butter to the Lord or by opening the doors of the house so that the Lord will steal the butter. These few Gopikas were given Goloka, which is above the head of the Lord. These few Gopikas were successful householders. They are like the students facing the examination and coming out with distinction. A saint, who fears for the defeat in overcoming these bonds, avoids the family life itself and is like a student, who avoids the very examination itself. Hanuman is a saint and was made the future Creator by which Hanuman got equal status with the Lord. But, Gopikas were given higher status than the Lord. Even sage Vyasa, the very author of the Bhagavatam failed in this examination. His son, Shuka ran for God and Vyasa ran after him to stop his son from going to God. This incident was mentioned by Vyasa in the very beginning of the Bhagavatam (Yam Pravrajantam...). One in million generations may appear, who has conquered this strongest bond like the case of Shiriyala, Abraham etc.
We do not say that this bond with issues, wife, parents etc., is wrong. This bond is the bond of justice, which rules out the bond of injustice. Your wife is good compared to a prostitute, who shows artificial love on you. Your children are good compared to the cheaters, who show artificial love on you to snatch your wealth. We say that these bonds are good and there is nothing bad in these bonds. These bonds are in the level of good. But, if you aspire to rise to better and best levels of positive side only, the bond with God comes into the picture. Pravrutti ends with good level in which you must take care of your wife, children and parents. If you neglect them and show the same love to cheaters exhibiting artificial love on you, you have fallen to the level of bad or injustice. In Pravrutti, one should vote for the justice against the injustice. In the Nivrutti, one should vote to God against even justice. Pravrutti covers the good level and Nivrutti covers better and best levels. If you neglect your family and get trapped by the artificial love, you are in the bad level, which is below the Pravrutti. If you avoid such bad level with your discrimination and support your family members, you are in the good level. Such good level is awarded with temporary stay in heaven. The good level is Punyam (auspicious), the bad level is Papam (sin) and the better and best levels form the Bhakthi or Devotion. If you come to the better level, which is the beginning of Nivrutti, you are starting with the minimization of the intensities in the justified bonds also for the sake of God. In the best level, which is the top most point of Nivrutti, you are sacrificing all the bonds of Pravrutti for the sake of God. The highest bond is the bond of issues blended with the bond of wealth. It is so strong that people do sins and earn in unlawful ways for the sake of issues. If you minimize your intensity in the issues, you can avoid the unlawful earnings and come to the path of lawful earnings only. Such a path is called as Pravrutti. The unlawful earnings are foolish since such earnings do not give victory or happiness to your issues. This is blind love by which you harm your children instead of helping them.
The bonds with wife and children are directly concerned with living beings. The bond with wealth is the direct love to inert wealth. The bond with wealth becomes minimum in its intensity when the living beings related to such bond get minimized. A saint having no bonds like wife, children, etc., earns very little only to maintain his body. Hence, the bond with the inert money is inevitable in view of your life (Shareera Yatraa picha... Gita). The bond with wealth is special in the sense that it always exists with respect to certain living beings including yourself. If you can maintain your life without food by some God given miraculous power (as in the case of Mummadivaram Bala Yogi), the bond with money completely disappears. Hence, the bond with money by itself has no meaning and significance since money is not a living being. The bond with money is judged by the associated living being, which is its aim. If the aim is simple maintenance of basic needs of yourself and your family only, the bond is justified. If the aim is your luxuries, the bond with money is not justified. If the aim is your child and the path of earning is lawful, the bond with money is justified. In this, if the path is unlawful earning, the bond is not justified. All this is the phase of Pravrutti. In Nivrutti also if the path is lawful earning, God is pleased with your donation. If the path is unlawful, God is not pleased. But, if you have earned the money in unlawful way in ignorance, such money should be given to God only and you should not proceed further in the path of unlawful earning. Like this also, God is pleased. God can digest the unlawful earning but not your issues! A saint gives all his earnings to God and this is not great because he can do this in the absence of the worldly bonds. But, a householder like the Gopika, could donate all her earnings (butter) to God and this is very very great. Anyway, the real love existing in any bond is proved by the only acid test, which is the sacrifice of money or wealth only (Dhanena Tyagena... Veda). The reason is that money is the source of everything in the world (Dhanamulam idam jagat). Hence the sacrifice of money means sacrifice of everything. If the sacrificed money is earned by one's own hard work, it is greater than the sacrificed money earned by forefathers. Hence, the Gita modified the sacrifice of money as the sacrifice of the fruit of one's own work (Karma Phala Tyaga). Hence money is the most important like the answer paper in the examination to test the reality of a bond either in Pravrutti or Nivrutti. The bond of issues blended with money is so strong that even though Dhrutaraashtra knows that Krishna is God, he could not overcome this bond of his son related to wealth for the sake of God and could not donate even five villages begged by the Lord for the sake of Pandavas. This is a test in Nivrutti. The same test in Pravrutti is that Duryodhana tried to amass the wealth of Dharmaraja in unlawful way. The epic Mahabharatam is most important, which deals with the strongest bond and hence is called as the Fifth Veda (Panchamo Vedah).
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