Pursuit of Welath / What is Wealth?

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavatas,

 

I have been reading the postings on the pursuit of wealth with

interest and would like to augment the posts with a few points

based on my experiences. What

follows is based on opinion to a ceratin extent; because I

am subject to delusion from avidya-karma to a great extent,

it may not be 100% correct. However, I think that there is

some truth in what follows:

 

Being subjected to delusion from avidya-karma we are all

associated with wealth to varying degrees. Anything that

provides pleasure (sensory and non sensory) can be

thought of as wealth. Tangible goods, such as money

and jewellery, that provide transitory pleasure only

constitute a small subset of the universal set of wealth.

Brahmajnanam is also part of the universal set of wealth,

if one defines wealth as anything that provides pleasure.

However, it has a unique property; it is the sole element

of the universal set of wealth which is not subject to

diminishing marginal returns (i.e., the amount of pleasure

derived from each extra unit is always positive and increasing.)

 

It is not easy to shun wealth that is subject to diminishing

returns! Only the great mahans can do that as their mature

set of karma allows them to do so. However, reality is that

such subsets of karma are the result of millions of janmas

of punyas. Given our limitations, we should attempt to

continuously strive to perfect the following. Continuously

keep reminding ourselves that real wealth is the

Brahmajnanam, all else is useless by itself, even mundane

knowledge! A Baddha jivAtman, who aspires for moksha,

should cultivate Brahmajnanam, for that alone helps to

develop the conviction required for unconditional surrender

to Brahman. Wealth in the form of (mundane) knowledge

or wealth in the form of material goods are only helpful

in the sense that they aid in the cultivation of

Brahmajnanam. In isolation both are useless, they only

further misery (that is if one realizes that transitoriness

(cycles of ups and downs) is misery.)

 

Example from my own life:

For instance, not long ago, my level of delusion was very

high that I was leading a purposeless life (i.e., when I say

purposeless I mean only recognizing finite (worldly) goals.)

First I use to crave for money and other tangible material

pleasures. In fact my level of nescience was so high that I

use to tell my parents that contentment is the lack of ambition

and so on. Subsequent to that I became very academically

oriented and began to lose some interest in tangible

pleasures and starting craving for publications in a

prestigious American Economic journal, recognition and

so on. Even this is wealth. Anything from which pleasure

is derived is wealth. Not to say I have no cravings now,

but they are significantly diminished, for the fact that

these elements of the universal set of wealth are transitory

is slowly but steadily manifesting. This knowledge,

manifests through experiences in life (i.e., contact with

mundane objects.)

 

However, the experiences (objects) differ from individual

to individual and so does the speed with which it

occurs (it is dependent on each ones prArabdha karma,

and on how one uses his or her free will to earn the

grace of God.)

 

adiyEn,

Venkataramanan (Venkat)

KrishNarpaNam

 

P.S. Many times we perceive events in life as being negative, in hind

sight every event is positive; if one contemplates on them in the right

spirit, there is a lesson to be learned from each.