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Arthamanartham Bhaavaya Nithyam
Naasti Tatah Sukhalesah Sathyam
Putraadapi Dhanbhaajaam Bheetih
Sarvatraisha Vihita Reetih (Verse 29)

"Wealth must always be regarded as potentially harmful. That you can never derive even a little happiness from it is an unquestionable truth. A wealthy person sometimes becomes afraid, even of his own son. That is what always happens in this world."

Pavitra Atma Swarupas, students! Man is respected because of his good qualities, and not because of his material possessions. It is in this context that Samuthi, youngest disciple of Shankara, gave this particular verse. Normally man gets so entangles with the world that he mistakenly hopes to derive peace from it. He forgets that he has to pay attention to the four purusharthas namely, Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Artha and Kama will attain their correct significance if we regard Dharma as our primary basis and Moksha as our final destination. These days we forget the basis and the destination and retain only that which is in the middle and all our life is spent in thinking of Artha and Kama. By neglecting the foundation that is, Dharma, and the goal, that is, Moksha, we are concentrating only on Artha and Kama. In fact we should put Dharma and Artha together, and Kama and Moksha together. By doing so we shall use wealth for good purpose, and desire only to attain Moksha.

This country depends on our Mathas or Mothers. They are the Bhoomatha or EARTH. Vedamatha or the VEDAS, the Dehmatha or the PEOPLE and the Gomatha or the COW. These four mathas are like the four pillars of our country. These four pillars can also be referred to as SATHYA, DHARMA, SHANTI and PREMA. These four cardinal principles are such that with Sathya or Truth, you have to safeguard the world: with Dharma you have to safeguard the Vedas: with Shanti or Peace, you have to look after the Gomatha or the Cow: with Prema or Love, you have to look after the people or your fellow human beings. We should regard truth and Right Conduct as the two eyes of our country. It is only when our motherland, our great mother has two eyes, Sathya and Dharma, that she can look after the country and care for her children. If however, by our behavior we make her blind and remove these two eyes, how can she look after her children? What is being referred to, as righteousness, must be promoted in our country with full mind. We should also help people to put it into practice. When we look at poor, helpless or weak people, we should be prepared to give them help with all our strength and effort. The reason for adopting such an attitude is that all human beings are brothers and are children of one mother - the universal divine mother. Therefore, we must develop this feeling of brotherhood and try to help everyone. As a result of wealth, man is changing into a demon. Possession of money makes one very proud. When one has wealth, he is not inclined to follow the righteous path. He will also lose his capacity to distinguish right from wrong. Poet Vemana has described by saying: "With the increase in your wealth, you will be arrogant, with that your bad qualities will increase too". Adding further he says: "As your wealth diminishes, your arrogance will diminish too and along with that the bad qualities will also disappear". This does not apply to all people. We know as a matter of common knowledge that there are many people who with their wealth do many good things. In our country, there are many sacred places, there are places of pilgrimage where people go and have a holy bath, places where there are temples, places where poor people are fed, many of these, have been established by rich people. In this country, which has acquired such sacred reputation, every one should make good use of his wealth. Such was the clarion call given by the disciples of Shankara in the verse, which I am explaining to you today.

By the possession of wealth, some people will develop crooked ideas in their mind. Those of you who are students of History will understand this. Queen Victoria was ruling over the British Empire for a long time. She had a son who was rather impatient to sit on the throne himself. In an open meeting he went and asked the queen when she would die so that he might occupy the throne. She found that her son was very ambitious, ordered that he be imprisoned at once. Even if he was a son the desire for money and position made him greedy and as a result, he had no respect for his mother.

There is a small story in our Upanishad, which tells us how the possession of wealth changes the qualities of some people. A mother had only one son and a lot of money. The boy had lost his father early in life. As the boy grew older, he developed bad habits because of his wealth. He got into bad company and did things that he should not have done. In fact he looked like a mad fellow. He was wasting his life. The world is such that if there is a large quantity of water in a tank, many frogs come and gather up in that tank. But once the tank dries up, all the frogs will disappear and they will not even tell you where they are going. In the same manner, many friends will gather round you, as long as you have wealth. The moment this wealth disappears, the friends will also disappear without telling you. In this manner the son of that wealthy person accumulated a large number of bad friends and in due coarse of time this had crossed all acceptable limits.

As some of you know, many people spend their lives in this manner and waste it without any purpose. The son used to come to the mother day after day demanding large sums of money, with the result that the mother's affection towards the boy began diminishing and she developed a positive hatred towards the boy. The mother was feeling sorry and as days went by, the respect for the mother in the boy also completely disappeared. The boy lost all attachment for the mother. She thought that it is much better, that such a son who brings down the honor and reputation of the parents, dies rather than lives and therefore, she worked a plan one day. At the same time the son had his own plan as he thought the mother was coming in his way of fulfilling his desires and using the wealth for herself. He therefore thought it is better that such a mother dies rather than lives. One day the son was to kill his mother with an iron rod as the mother came to serve him food. The mother also decided that to kill the son on the same day by poisoning his food. When the mother came to serve him the food, the son hit her with the iron rod and killed her. A few minutes later, the boy also died after eating the poisoned food. So both the mother and son died and this is what their wealth had done to them. Because of the wealth, the mother and son lost affection for each other. Is wealth int4ended to bring such bad results? One should never regard wealth as the important thing in life. One should regard Dharma as the most important thing in life, whereby one should earn the Grace of God. One should have enough money to meet one's essential requirements. Any wealth more than that should be used for charity and such other good causes.

Divyatma Swarupas! We have a saying 'Matrudevo Bhava, Pitrudevo Bhava'. You must remember that the mother and father are divine and each of them is like God. You must put these sacred ideas into practice in your life. In India the most sacred thing is respect for one's mother and father, who have not only given their blood in giving birth to us but also starved them-selves on many occasions to give us what we need. If you respect your parents today, your children will respect you in the future. If in future, you want happiness, pleasure and bliss. Even now you must be good, do good and see good. This is the way to God. Do not forget God and do not fear death. You should in this manner be a heroic son of your country. Our wealth is the wealth of righteousness, of knowledge and of wisdom. This is the reason why Arjuna was called Dhananjaya. This name does not refer to ordinary wealth. This simply means that he had the wealth of wisdom in an ample measure. Arjuna had several other names to describe his great qualities. There are three words of which we have to take note. All the three words begin with the letter 'W'. They are Work, Worship and Wisdom. Work here stands for sacred work which one should do for promoting the prosperity of the country. You should always do good work. You should worship with a pure mind. Wisdom is the superior knowledge and you should aspire for acquiring knowledge with wisdom. These three things will enable you to lead a proper life.

There are three other words, all of which also begin with the letter 'W' and you must avoid them. They are Wealth, Woman and Wine. They will, if one is after them, take you to the barbarous depths of human living. You should avoid them. Students! Some of you must take to this sacred path. Like the disciples of Shankara who had proclaimed the importance of truth, those of you who follow this path, will resuscitate Indian culture and will enjoy bliss and happiness. I bless you that you may realize such a state of bliss.