We are at best ‘trustees’ of money. If we have more than we need, it ought to be put to productive use beyond our little selves, and our brief, <100 year transitory lives upon earth.
“You are richer with the wealth you give than with the wealth you keep in your possession.“
Further, there is a great danger of having more money than one needs, and then becoming a slave to it, being governed by it. It is actually in our self-interest, paradoxical though it may appear, to part generously with all our un-required accumulations of wealth. The more disinterestedly one can act in regards to such wealth, the more one is able to stand tall above it.
The opposite image is of a rich, but weak man grovelling slavishly to the money he has accumulated. Slave or Master – this is the choice before us.
“Money is meant to increase the wealth, the prosperity and the productiveness of a group, a country or, better, of the whole earth. Money is a means, a force, a power, and not an end in itself. And like all forces and all powers, it is by movement and circulation that it grows and increases its power, not by accumulation and stagnation.“
Money ought to be used “for something good, to increase the welfare of this world, the welfare and well-being of the world“.
“You are richer with the wealth you give than with the wealth you keep in your possession.”
“It is to the Divine that all riches belong. It is the Divine who lends them to living beings, and it is to Him that they must naturally return.”
“True wealth is that which one offers to the Divine.”
“Greed for money: the surest way to decrease one’s conscience and to narrow one’s nature.”
“It is infinitely more difficult to be good, to be wise, to be intelligent and generous, to be more generous, you follow me, when one is rich than when one is poor. I have known many people in many countries, and the most generous people I have ever met in all the countries, were the poorest. And as soon as the pockets are full, one is caught by a kind of illness, which is a sordid attachment to money. I assure you it is a curse. So the first thing to do when one has money is to give it. But as it is said that it should not be given without discernment, don’t go and give it like those who practise philanthropy, because that fills them with a sense of their own goodness, their generosity and their own importance. You must act in a sattwic way, that is, make the best possible use of it. And so, each one must find in his highest consciousness what the best possible use of the money he has can be. And truly money has no value unless it circulates.“
I have had the privilege of coming into contact with many wonderful people who live an unpretentious life & give away the majority of their excess earnings to causes beyond themselves. Neither the cause, nor the amounts ever matter – it is the act and spirit of giving that does.
Perhaps time we become the example we want to see in the world around us.
{ sources of the quotes above in blue available upon request }