With money, do good

Sai R Vaidyanathan

The scriptures tell us about the four purusharthas (objectives of human pursuit) — kama (material possessions), artha (money), dharma (goodness) and moksha (liberation). It is recommended that with resources, one should generate money. With money, one should do good and thereby liberate oneself from samsara (cycle of births and deaths).

Build a brand

But how should one go about making money over a long term? Build an institution first. During the churning of the Ocean of Milk (Kshirsagar) by the gods and demons to draw out Goddess Lakshmi and the nectar, 12 products first came out. Then came Lakshmi. She chose Vishnu as her lord.

Finally, surfaced the jar of nectar. But only the gods could partake of it as the demons were distracted by Mohini.In the Hindu pantheon, Vishnu is responsible for preservation of order and the nectar symbolises stability.

The tale illustrates that by going the demons’ way of pursuing results, one may achieve money but cannot achieve stability. The godly way is to first aim at institution-building. Affluence (Lakshmi) will automatically follow.

Plan a long innings

To cut open the goose that lays golden eggs is foolish. A slow and steady approach is preferable in life.

Lord Vishnu’s incarnation of Krishna was over but unrest still prevailed on the Earth. So the gods felt that to restore order, Vishnu should somehow be made to return to Earth. So Vishnu incarnated as Srinivasa near Tirupati. King Akasa Raja of Thodamandalam ruled the place. One day, when Srinivasa was out hunting, he saw princess Padmavati. In her previous birth, she was Vedavati, a devotee of Vishnu.

Srinivasa and Padmavati fell in love and decided to marry. To give the princess a befitting home, the groom decided to take a loan from Kuber, the lord of wealth.

Kuber agreed on the condition that Srinivasa would pay the instalments till the end of Kaliyuga, thereby making Vishnu stay on Earth till that time. This is the legend of the Srinivasa Perumal Temple at Tirupati.

Money is not the end

But there is more to life than money. Once, Satyabhama, Lord Krishna’s wife, was giving away alms when sage Narada came by. “What should I offer you?” she asked.

Narada said, “Whatever is most precious to you.” Satyabhama thought and thought and realised that Krishna was “most precious” to her. But she didn’t want to give Krishna to Narada. “So give me something equal in weight to him,” Narada suggested. Satyabhama agreed to weigh Krishna against the gold that she had and so, a balance was set up.

With Krishna sitting on one side, Satyabhama began putting her gold ornaments on the other pan. But Krishna’s side stayed at the bottom even when she had put all her jewellery.

At that time, Rukmini, another of Krishna’s wives, came there. She removed all the jewellery from the pan and put a ‘tulsi’ leaf in its place after uttering Krishna’s name. The balance was achieved! In the end, nothing else but what you did with your wealth will matter.

The author can be contacted at author.sai@gmail.com