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Sacrifice of Wealth Is The Way

Matthew–6 : 19 to 22
“Do not Lay up for yourselves, treasures on earth. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also”.
Matthew -7: 21
“Not everyone who say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but He who does the will of My Father in Heaven”.

Indians, particularly, are sacrificing words through prayers and feelings through expression of love for the sake of God. When the question of wealth or money comes they sacrifice it for the sake of their families only. This is the reason why India suffers with poverty. Swami Vivekananda wept loudly facing the sky asking; “Why India with such high spiritual knowledge is suffering with poverty?” The foreigners are not so well in prayers and expression of love or meditation compared to Indians but they sacrifice their money for the sake of God with full vigor. Therefore God blesses the foreign countries with wealth and prosperity.

Indians sacrifice words and mind only to God. Therefore Indians are blessed with very good pronunciation of language and excellent knowledge, which are connected to the words and mind. Gita says ‘Ye Yatha Mam Prapadyante’ which means that God gives you result in the same way in which you worship Him. If you worship Him with words (prayers) only He will also appreciate you with sweet words. If you love Him with your mind and concentrate with meditation, He will also love you in turn with high concentration of mind. If you sacrifice practically, He will also do everything to you practically. Indians must learn this practical sacrifice from foreigners as they have learnt the science and technology from the West. Even in the olden days, Indians were always doing exercises in theoretical knowledge of God and in composing lot of poems on God. Therefore the same attitude entered even their education of science. They have become theorists even in science.

The foreigners were less theoretical and more practical in spiritual things and therefore that attitude entered their scientific education also and the foreigners have become the real practical scientists. Let Indians not be proud that they are the masters in the spiritualism if not in science. Though I am born in India, I deny this. The Indians should follow the foreigners not only in science but also in spiritualism by learning the practical aspect of the materialistic as well as divine knowledge.

Today, in the world everybody agrees that the real power is the money only. Money is the fruit of work and Bhagavatgita calls sacrifice of money “Karma Phala Tyaga”. In Bhagavatgita it is said “Dhyanat Karma Phala Tyagah” which means that devotion is greater than Knowledge and sacrifice of the fruit of the work (money) is greater than the devotion. Knowledge consists of intelligence and words. Devotion consists of mind and words. Sacrifice consists of heart and love. The proof of the love is the practical service, which is the practical sacrifice of work or money. For the propagation of the divine knowledge and devotion the money is needed to publish the gospel in the form of books. When you sacrifice your money for the divine work your treasure in the heaven is built up. This means that God will help you after your death and you will enter the kingdom of God.

You are giving your earnings to your family only and so your real love is on your family only. There is no need of any further argument on this point because it is very clear proof. This is the real fire test for your love. You are sacrificing valueless words and valueless mind in leisure, which is valueless time. This cannot prove the real value of God. You must give real value to God. You are finishing your prayers and meditation on God as soon as the time to go to job is nearing. Similarly when some work for the family is approaching, you are immediately leaving the presence of God. Therefore you are not giving any value to God for all practical purpose. But you are telling lies in your prayers that God is everything for you. The money is the final test and it can be the only test also since all the family is associated with you for money only and the family serves you in your old age for your money only. If the money is sacrificed to God your real color of love can be seen.

Sage Vasista told Lord Rama to bring money first as Gurudakshina (pious offering to the preacher) before preaching the divine knowledge (‘Dhana marjaya…’). The preacher tested Rama’s Love to God in the light of the sacrifice of money. In Vishnu Purana Lord Vishnu says ‘Tasya vittam Haramyaham’ which means that he who sacrifices money for the sake of God, is really blessed. This looks quite odd for us to wonder whether even God wants money! No. God does not want money because this entire world is His wealth only as per Veda (Kasyasvit Dhanam…). You have taken the money from His treasure for your needs and God permits this. But you have taken extra money also and you are storing it, which is not permitted by God. You have to return back that extra to the Lord when He comes in human form for His divine work. Remember that you are returning His own money, which was stolen by you since He did not permit you to take the extra money. When you have gone to a friend’s house he gave you a cup of milk. He permitted only the milk to be taken by you but not the cup. You have stolen the cup also as the extra, which was not expected by your friend. You have to return back that stolen cup to your friend secretly.

Holy Jesus says that when you donate the money to God by one hand the other hand should not know about that donation. Since it is stolen money it should be returned secretly. A father purchased some sweets and gave to his child. The father is asking for one sweet from the child just to test the attitude and the love of the child on him. Even if you are not returning back the God’s money to God, you are leaving that money here only and you are quitting this world with vacant hands. That extra money is left in this world only, which is the bank of the God. The devotee who donates the extra money to God for His divine work is also quitting this world alone with vacant hands. The former is going to Hell as a thief but the latter is going to the Kingdom of God because he returned the stolen money of God. When you are returning this extra money, you must be very careful to see that this money reaches God only and not others. God dwells in two places 1) In the body of human incarnation (Son of God) 2) In the heart of a real devotee. When the money is donated to such God man or the real devotee, that money is properly used to uplift the humanity. In such social service the God-man or the real devotee will use lot of discrimination due to their divine knowledge and the money donated by you will be properly spent.

Without the practical sacrifice of money or atleast the work, mere prayers, love and meditation are only the side pickles in the plate without the central bread or rice. When God eats the pickles only which you serve, His stomach is burnt with high acidity and God becomes furious. Due to His anger the extra money stored by you goes waste through diseases etc., Your children may loose that money also and they are also not blessed in any way in their lives. This gospel of Holy Jesus should open the eye of knowledge of all the Hindus to learn the practical sacrifice from foreigners. Holy Jesus referred to such people who do not give up their extra money for God’s work saying that they can never reach God even if a camel passes through the eye of a needle. His Gospel refers to such selfish rich people only who are caught up in the net of their limited families.

It's good to sacrifice wealth for others, humanity and/or God (if you believe in God).  But not everyone is there yet.  Not everyone knows through experience that it is "better to give then to receive".  That is okay.  Reality is truth and I'd like to believe that it's best to cherish the truth.

We're all equal and special in our own right.  Jesus didn't say that "people who do not give up their extra money for God’s work.... [will] never reach God even if a camel passes through the eye of a needle."  He said that it's harder for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle then to reach the kingdom of heaven so it is possible.  And as far as I know, the needle he was referring to was not the needle you sow with but a gate that people would pass through.

I'd love to continue this discussion.  Thanks so much for posting.  I appreciate what you wrote.

God created money or wealth, which is the most wonderful item in this entire creation because all the worldly bonds are condensed in it. It is the essence of all the bonds in this world. Directly, it has no importance, but, indirectly it has highest importance since it covers all the needs of your life of yourself and your kith & kin. You can purchase even the food by which you can maintain the life. Therefore, it is the basis of all the basic needs and other needs of the life. In nutshell, it can be said as the essence of the entire creation. It is said to be the root of the entire tree of world (dhanamoola midam jagat). If the root is cut the entire tree will fall. The tree indicates the world and its branches indicate various bonds of the world. The main stem indicates your bond with your body and your life. Thus, it is the most wonderful item of the creation of God in which the entire creation is condensed.

Shri chakra means the whirlpool of money in which the entire world is revolving. Shri yantra means the money, which controls the entire world. Without realizing this real significance, ignorant people are worshipping blindly the metallic plates on which the shri chakra or shri yantra is drawn. If the concept is not realized, everything is blind deep darkness only. Even if the significance is realized, people reject it because they do not like the inconvenience of the concept. Therefore, Veda says that the sacrifice of money or wealth alone is sufficient for the complete salvation (dhanena tyagenaikena...). Salvation means liberation from worldly bonds.

I believe the important thing is not to avoid wealth or money, but to not be attached to it.  If you are not attached to whether you have a certain amount, then you can trust that you will be given what you need, when you need it, and it may not come in the form of money.  When more money comes to me, I simply look to my inner self as to how it should be put to use, and if I don't have money then I look to be content with what I have in the now moment.  I have heard how some have gone so far as to think money is evil, and I think they just create an attachment and fixation on money in a different way.  We should know that money is simply a tool, it's like energy that flows.  It's like water, as long as you have water to drink when you need it there is no such thing as too much or not enough, it's just something that comes to you to aid your life. 

Many people live for the pursuit of money. I must admit, I was one of these people at one point.  I slowly began to realize that money, in these times, really does not mean much in the grand scheme of things. When we are all judged, the amount of money in our bank accounts will not be important.  What is important is the way we choose to live our lives and the way we choose to serve our God.  Like they say, you can't take the money with you when you die anyway!

I also agree that sacrifice of the wealth is the way. Earn money to spend not only for yourself and family but also for the needy. Having money gives us the opportunity to help people who have much less than what we have. Our life shouldn’t be revolving with our aspirations, friends and family alone. We should be one with the world. We should find ways to help and it shouldn’t be that we have to be approached then we would give support.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son”

There’s no greater wealth to match what God already gave us but He sacrificed Jesus for us to be saved. To live for money is different to living with money to have means to give. Money is seen as evil as it is used for none other than pleasure. Love makes the world go round, money makes the world go round but they aren’t synonymous to each other. Money could be a medium to spread your love if you used it in giving to the poor and the needy.

It's a shame that people are obsessed with money these days. The problem is that money is needed to survive. Without money, you will probably be living on the street with no food.  I don't think it's good to be greedy. As others have said, the money will be left on earth when you die. On the other hand, some amount of money is needed to make it in this world.

The key is to acheive a balance. As Roxanne says, we can't survive without money, so it would not be realistic to give away all your wealth and deprive your own family, who should be your first priority, just so you feel you can serve God in a better way. He would not wish you to help others at the expense of your nearest and dearest. Yes, He gave His only son, but He does not expect such drastic action from His followers, who after all are only mere mortals.

If we live our lives in the best way we can, and use all our talents to help those who need it and live a spiritual life, I do not see that there is anything wrong in having money or other possessions. The days are gone when we could live on absolutely nothing but the charity of others - if those days ever existed at all.