Money is a necessity for our existence, but many make it the purpose of their existence. They equate money with pleasure, possession, prestige and power.
The Bhagavad-gita gives a sobering, even scary, outline of the unmaking of those who are unidimensionally obsessed with money. In its sixteenth chapter, while describing the characteristics of the ungodly, the Gita (16.13-15) underscores how obsession with money can make people stoop to brutality and even murder. When the pursuit of money supersedes the pursuit of other, nobler purposes of life, then making money unmakes the foundation of a person’s life: character. Thus, money unmakes the money-maker.
Of course, money by itself doesn’t make or unmake anyone – it is we who make or unmake ourselves by our choices. Still, we are driven in our choices by our governing conceptions of life. In fact, the purposes and priorities that we set for our lives define and determine us. Greed for money warps our vision and distorts our values.
The Gita (16.22) assures that those who free themselves from such obsession can act in ways that lead to their elevation and liberation.
How does one become free?
By redirecting the craving for money in a devotional direction.
Our longing for possession and power is an expression, albeit distorted, of our original longing for the all-attractive Supreme Person, Krishna. He is the possessor of everything and the embodiment of everything attractive that money promises to provide us. When we connect devotionally with him, we relish a deep inner enrichment that frees us from craving for money and fills us with a higher purpose of sharing and caring, wherein we become not negligent of money, but transcendent to its corrupting influence while still being vigilant to channelize it use it constructively. .
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