This is true for both your internal spiritual journey as well as the external social journey in life. Wealth is an indicator of greed which is one of the five known obstacles to the pathway of self-realization.
Greed according to the Patanjali is defined as possessing any material wealth more then your need.
Greed in turns is linked to attachment through any of the five senses and uncontrolled desires. Once desires are fulfilled more desires are created which is nothing but the greed. And when the desires are not fulfilled then greed gets converted into anger which leads to loss of intellect and ultimately destruction of the body.
Lord Krishna in the Bhagvad Gita while explaining it to Arjuna has clearly mentioned the pathway of self destruction starting from attachment to loss of intellect and ultimately destruction of the self.
The Hindu mythology has always said that never be after money. When you are after money the knowledge or the wisdom will not follow you. The classical example given is that if you are after Saraswati (God of Knowledge), the Laxmi (God of Wealth) follows you and if you are after Laxmi, Saraswati may not remain with you.
God is representative of your true self and that is your consciousness which is nothing but “Satchitananda” or the triad of truthfulness, consciousness based decisions and internal bliss or happiness. To be in touch with your consciousness you have to control your five senses
through your mind and detach yourself from the egocentric desires.
through your mind and detach yourself from the egocentric desires.
Greed and wealth are representatives of attachment to the material world through one of your five senses, therefore, if you want to be in touch with your consciousness you have to be detached from the
materialistic world and wealth is one of them.
materialistic world and wealth is one of them.
There is a classical description of this phenomenon in Mahabharata in the battle of Kurukshetra when Lord Krishna became the Sarathi of Arjuna and rode the five horses chariot. The symbolic representation
of the whole thing is, Lord Krishna represents your true self or consciousness; Arjuna represents the ego and the intellect; the rein of the horses represents the unstable mind and five horses represent
ever changing five senses. Using your ego and intellect if you can tighten your mind (rein), you will be able to control the five horses (the five senses) and then you will have all the time in the world to
be with Lord Krishna (your own consciousness). On the other hand if you let the rein loose (let the mind wonder) all the horses (senses) will get uncontrolled and wonder here and there (one gets attached to
the materialistic world). The mind and the intellect will then instead of becoming the master will become the servant of the five senses and will get detached from the true self or the consciousness.
of the whole thing is, Lord Krishna represents your true self or consciousness; Arjuna represents the ego and the intellect; the rein of the horses represents the unstable mind and five horses represent
ever changing five senses. Using your ego and intellect if you can tighten your mind (rein), you will be able to control the five horses (the five senses) and then you will have all the time in the world to
be with Lord Krishna (your own consciousness). On the other hand if you let the rein loose (let the mind wonder) all the horses (senses) will get uncontrolled and wonder here and there (one gets attached to
the materialistic world). The mind and the intellect will then instead of becoming the master will become the servant of the five senses and will get detached from the true self or the consciousness.
Electricity is a good servant and a bad master is a well known saying. Something is true for the five senses. They are very good to the life provided they are controlled like servants and never treated like
masters. Once they over power you they will create an umbrella of darkness over the mind and the intellect making you forget about the presence of soul in the body. Once this happen you lose your dharma.
masters. Once they over power you they will create an umbrella of darkness over the mind and the intellect making you forget about the presence of soul in the body. Once this happen you lose your dharma.
Whenever given a choice always choose your consciousness as the master and not any of the five senses, mind, intellect or ego.
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