We often equate poverty with a lack of money. And that’s true at one level. If we don’t have food, if we don’t have clothes suitable for hot or cold weather, it’s miserable. 

Simultaneously, it’s important to understand that purity is essential for satisfaction. If we have the impurity of greed or lust or envy, then no matter how much money we may have, we will still look at all the people who have more money than us and feel that we are poor. A millionaire will feel poor as long they fixate on billionaires. 

Of course, this is not to say that we shouldn’t work adequately to earn money, but if we think that earning money alone will free us from poverty, we are seriously mistaken. Analyzing this in terms of the three modes of material nature, Gita wisdom explains that insatiable craving characterizes the mode of passion (14.12). And such craving keeps us perpetually dissatisfied, no matter how much we slave and how much we gain. 

Only when we purify ourselves by rising to the mode of goodness can we start gaining the clarity to understand that our happiness depends more on our inner world than on our outer world. Then, we can start cultivating and cherishing the purity that will enable us to be satisfied. Beyond goodness, when we raise our consciousness to transcendence by practicing bhakti and connecting with the supreme spiritual reality, Krishna, then we can relish the highest satisfaction internally. In that state of spiritual prosperity, we become enriched with whatever we have materially, a little or a lot. Simultaneously, we become enthused to work diligently at the material level to do justice to our god-given abilities and make worthwhile contributions at a practical level, thereby increasing our satisfaction in this world too. 

Think it over:

  • How can impurity keep us forever impoverished?
  • How can we purify ourselves?
  • How can purity enrich us?

***

14.12: O chief of the Bharatas, when there is an increase in the mode of passion the symptoms of great attachment, fruitive activity, intense endeavor, and uncontrollable desire and hankering develop.

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