Friday, September 20, 2013

Money matters in life. Does it?

Jai Sai Master!

What is the primary goal of education? What is the primary goal of a vocation? What is the primary goal of starting any work? 

If you take a pause, and answer the question, many of us would answer, earn and save for the future so that we can be happy. Be any such question, and when the purpose is searched, the final point or the frontier on which the whole thing is built would be something related to money. However, none of us can predict what is going to happen next moment. Still, we would like to secure our future and try building castles on the same. And, when we lose, we get shaken with fear. Rarely, people fight back, but most drop out of race and become a burden to whole society.


In the whole game, we forget the environment we are in, how we are tied-up to the cosmos or how tiny we are in the whole universe. Worse, we try to imbibe the same to our kids, from a very young age and love to flaunt their skills to the world, without caring much to the impact of the pressure on the child. Particularly, in an age where-in, we seek, something new every moment, where there is no stability of mind, and mind controlling our thought, we are slowly going down hill.  The whole world is connected makes this fall, much faster. There is an urgent need to address youth, and the children, to enable them to have good thoughts for a better society. The Masters like Swami Vivekananda, Sri Sai Master are very much a need to call a spade-a-spade and to put things in right perspective, and to encourage the seekers.

With regard to money, Sri Sai Baba demonstrated many a time that it has no value. One of the many is below: One day, a rich man came to Sri Sai Baba and asked for Brahma Jnanam. He said, that is the only thing lacking in his life and he has got all. Sri Sai Baba said- I am very happy. Rarely, I find someone asking for this, as everyone is coming to me to seek materialistic things.


Saying thus, HE was sending someone to the shopkeepers to lend HIM some money and they all refused to lend Sri Sai Baba any money fearing that they will not get it back. The rich man, who came to seek Brahma Jnana, was seeing all this, but instead of giving that money, kept quite. Finally he said, give me the Brahma Jnana fast, as I have to leave. Then Sri Sai Baba coolly told him - "I am trying the same. However, if you do not give Rs 5 (in this context, his ego, his buddhi etc.. which means surrendering to the HIM), then only you will get Brahma Jnana. However, you are so fond of it, you can not part with it. Unless you part with it, I can not". (excerpt from Sri Sai Master's Sri Sai Leelamrutam)

This is a subtle way of explaining how much materialistic wants will bind us to prevent us from seeing the purity in everything around us. No one says do not earn. But the purpose behind the earning must be right. The spending must be right. Our role as earner must be understood and we have to act responsibly when using every single paise, as we are answerable to whole society, which is working equally to enable us to live. Just for a minute imagine what would happen if there are peasants, or masons, or weavers. That will give us a picture to understand how intricate the whole society is and why we should be responsible in our behaviour.

As we run up to the big day of celebrating the 75th birth anniversary of Sri Sai Master, let us work consciously to think right and work towards becoming a responsible citizen or work for betterment of a society based on humanitarian fundamentals.

Jai Sai Master!!

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