WEALTH (May 1976)

Our modern concept of wealth is bank balance, gold, silver and landed property; but can we imagine of the time when money was not known ? Yes. There once was a time when the coins were not in existence. If a man wanted cloth and if he had enough corn left over, after satisfying his needs, what he did in those days was, that he gave his corn and exchanged it for cloth. Similarly if someone, who had a cow, had surplus milk with him, he bartered it with the potter for a few pots. It was in this fashion that the transactions in the world of those days went on simply by barter of goods.

In that age of barter, the chief occupation in the world was agriculture. In those primitive days, the plough was the only means of tilling the land. The cow-dung was the only manure that was being used in the fields. Both the aforesaid purposes were served by the cow. It was. therefore, no wonder that the cow came to be known as a sacred animal and also as wealth. At the time of Mahabharat, we know that kings had thousands of cows with them as they were known as wealth.. In the Mahabharat we are told that the king Virat had herds containing thousands of cows. It appears that the cows were also classified in those days, as we are told about a cow known as Kamadhenu, a cow who satisfies your desires.

Slowly and slowly the mankind came to know about metals like copper, silver and gold. It was with this new discovery that the society came to know about coins. The metal like copper, which was available in abundance, was naturally cheap and hence coins of small value came to be manufactured from that metal. As silver and gold were rare metals, the coins of higher value were manufactured out" of those metals, it was after this introduction of the coinage that the barter system stopped and the people started buying things after paying money. With the introduction of the coins, the criterion 'of measuring wealth also changed. The possession of certain commodities did not then amount to wealth. The possession of gold, silver or landed property came into prominence and a man came to be known as wealthy person only when he had the aforesaid things. As money could bring you anything in this world, all persons well-versed in worldly affairs started advising people to earn and hoard money at all costs. These people became so much money minded that even in the sound of the "Mridang" they felt that there was an order to earn money.

says one Sanskrit Shloka. In the keertan which is meant for diverting your attention from the worldly life to God, the sound of the Mridang was construed by one poet as an advice for earning money. Of course, the present day world has become so very money minded that we get the, experience of the following Shloka at every step :

The above shloka says that when a person has money he is said to belong to a high family, he is called a learned person, he is also said to be well-read, appreciater of virtues, a good speaker and even a good looking person. In short all virtues accompany gold (wealth or money). Because of this attitude of the world towards a monied person, everyone in this world is hankering after earning money. A saying in Sanskrit says which means that a man is a slave of wealth. Of course, the Word man in the above saying means a person in general; but it clearly lays down the general attitude of the people at large in this world towards money.

When money or wealth achieved such great importance in human life, one science cropped up for governing the production, distribution and expenditure of wealth. Economics, which is a science entirely devoted to monetary matters, would not perhaps have been born at all if there was no wealth in this world. The main income of the state is by way of taxation on its subjects. Hence the wealth has also created several taxes to be paid by the citizens. The state is always trying to extract money from the subjects, in general and the rich in particular, in order to gather utmost money by way of taxation for being spent for public well-being. Wealth has achieved so much importance in modern days that even when a person dies, leaving a vast amount of wealth his heirs have to pay a wealth tax on the dead man's wealth.

Because of this abnormal importance attached to wealth, there has been too much greed for money in some people. They never worry in which way they acquire it. Their only aim is to become rich. Looking to this nature of wealth* the saints of all the countries have warned the people to guard against it. They have always advised the people not to hanker after -it; because when that becomes the aim. the balance of the mind of a person is lost. He then tries to acquire wealth even by any means, however foul they may be. In the Bhagdwadageeta, Lord Krishna also describes his real devotee as one who treats the earth stone and gold on par.

The saints have not only advised the public to treat wealth with scant respect, but they have themselves followed that advice to the last letter of the word. If we start calculating the personal belongings of saints like Gadgebuva, Vasudevananda Saraswati or Saibaba, we will find that they hardly had anything as their own. The clothes that they had on their body perhaps only belonged to them, but they also were always donated to them by somebody. Shri Gadgebuva and Shri Vasudevananda Saraswati wore very scanty clothes. Shri Sai Baba also had tattered clothes in the beginning. :He was never worried about them, but later on certain devotees thought it bad and they would give him new clothes to wear. Some people might remember his habit of asking for Dakshina and they may say that he had greed for money; but this is not correct. His idea in asking for Dakshina was to teach people to give liberally in charity for the well-being of other people. It was an accepted principle of the Rishies and old sages that after using that which was just sufficient for you, the rest was to be distributed to others who needed it. It is told about the kings of the Raghu dynasty that they by their valour carried out expeditions in all the four quarters and captured wealth; but what was that used for ? Not for decorating I the palaces of those kings ! It was used for performing sacrifices ' and for giving as Dakshina to the poor, it is told about Shri Sai Baba that though he asked for Dakshina, he was liberal in giving the money to the poor and needy. In the Sai Satcharita frequent mention has been done about it The speciality about the money given by Shri Sai Baba was that he was found to be giving much more money than what he got by way of Dakshina.

We the common people have many desires and expectations. We are therefore hankering after money because "the money makes the mare go" to quote a very common saying. In the modern world we want to fulfill our desires by the money we want to acquire, but what happens to a person who has no desire or who has very few wants ? Such a person is careless about the favour or disfavour even of the king. A very interesting story is told about the great philosopher Socretes- Once when he was sitting basking in the Sun, the king came to meet him and inadvertantly stood in such a manner that the rays of the Sun falling on the body of Socrates were obstructed. When the king came, Socrates was fully engrossed in his own thoughts. He had no desire which was expected to he fulfilled at the hands of the king. Hence he was not at all keen to welcome the king or do him honour. On the other hand when the king started talking to Socrates and he found that he was shutting off the rays of the Sun from him, he immediately said, "Well Sir, will you please, move a bit away and allow me to-bask in the Sun ?" Such is the behaviour of persons who are no slaves of wealth. One Sanskrit saying

describes the psychology of these people very clearly. To one who has no desire, the whole world is as valuable as a blade of grass ! Shri Sai Baba's attitude! towards the world can now he understood in proper perspective. He had no desires and hence he was neutral to everyone who* came to him. We the Sai devotees have to follow Shri Sai Baba and know' the proper value of wealth in this worldly life and to give only that much importance to it, so that we do not become its slaves.