What are the consequences of running for money?

People are always running for money but the chase for more and more money turns a person into a labourer. The amount of one’s earned money one donates to charity, that much punya (merit karma) they earn. But most people spend their entire lives restlessly toiling only to accumulate wealth. It’s like they don’t even care about their wife and children; all they care about is making money. They have no time to give to their family. Chasing money drives a person mad and senseless. Such a person loses all awareness of what is good or bad for one’s ownself.

People are caught up in a racecourse. Just like in a race where all the horses run, but only one finishes first while the rest tire and collapse. Similarly, people in this world keep running in the race to earn money, panting and exhausting themselves, yet true happiness never comes into their hands. So, one should run only as much as one can, fulfilling all duties peacefully, but not get caught in competition. If the whole world goes to sleep at eleven at night, we too should sleep peacefully. Don’t keep running alone, spending sleepless nights toiling uselessly in the obsession of earning more money.

If you think about it, when income is less, life is actually more peaceful. There is time to spend with family, to instill values in children, to visit the temple for God’s darshan, and to engage in religious or spiritual practices. As income increases, so does work-related stress, and peace decreases. Running for money robs the family of its values, ruins one’s health, raises blood pressure, and slowly paves the way toward heart failure.

Where there is money, there isn’t necessarily inner peace. We often get dazzled by the grandeur of wealthy people, but if we look closer, almost all of them are burdened with some worry or sorrow. Even a lavish apartment worth crores feels like a graveyard when only two people live in it. Then, happiness can’t be found even in that bungalow. In fact, the real peace in such a big house often belongs to the cook and the servants as they spend more time there and enjoy its comforts more than the owner does. Sleeping on a bed made of money doesn’t guarantee a better night’s rest.

All day long, people work hard for money and in doing so, knowingly or unknowingly, they hurt or deceive others, binding themselves to karma of a lower life-form. Through their merit karma, they may be earning wealth today, but they are accumulating new demerit karma. On the other hand, some people are so fortunate that with just half an hour of work a day, everything in their life runs smoothly. Moreover, when their wealth is given in charity, they create new merit karma. Param Pujya Dadashri says that the one who toils and labours all day to earn money is merely a worker, but the one who enjoys wealth with ease is truly blessed with punya (merit karma).

People in this world are all running for money! Yet, no one seems truly surrounded with it. Those who have money are unhappy, and those who don’t are also unhappy. Whether it’s a big leader or a beggar, a wealthy businessman or a servant, everyone spends the entire day surrounded by sorrow, sorrow, and more sorrow. The owner of two mills runs after money, the owner of one mill runs after money, the mill’s secretary runs after money, and even the mill worker wants money. So, who among them is happy? This shows that lasting happiness doesn’t come from wealth, but the fault isn’t with Lakshmi; the fault lies in our own beliefs.

Most people are miserable for no real reason. If the money in their bank account decreases a little, they say they’ve become poor. But oh! There’s still some money in the bank, enough to afford two meals a day. There’s no debt, and everyone at home is healthy and well. Not just that, our hands, legs, and eyes, each worth billions are all intact! So when we already possess such priceless wealth, why worry unnecessarily about money?

In reality, those who have earned enormous wealth and risen very high carry heavy risk. Their minds are constantly occupied with how to save on income tax. Big businessmen often walk around all day with worry on their faces. Their sole purpose in life becomes earning money, and as their focus remains fixed on that alone, they end up running for money and binding karmas of a lower life-form.

When more money comes, more restlessness follows. Constantly calculating and counting money dries up the mind, memory weakens, and uneasiness fills the whole day. Having attained a human body, people die like animals in the mad race for wealth. Out of greed for money, through states of aartadhyan (adverse internal state of being that hurts the self) and raudradhyan (adverse internal state of being/meditation that hurts the self and others), they end up wasting this precious human life.

In this dark age, an era dominated by sorrow, people spend their entire day in restlessness and inner turmoil. Every morning, conflict is served right at the breakfast table. No one seems to find inner peace. And when they can’t see any other way out, they start believing that happiness lies in money. Gradually, this belief becomes deeply rooted but even then, it only brings more agitation.

The whole world considers Lakshmiji to be the most important! In everything people do, Lakshmi is placed at the centre. That’s why humans have such deep affection for Her. But the rule is as long as one’s love for wealth remains strong, love for God cannot arise; and once love for God awakens, attachment to wealth naturally fades away. One can truly love only one-either Goddess Lakshmi or Lord Narayan, and it is up to us to decide where we wish to dwell. If we place our love in Lakshmi, then when She is here today but gone tomorrow, the time will come for us to weep. But if we place our love in Narayan, we will experience unbroken joy and a sense of freedom. If wealth comes naturally, let it come but do not rely on it. If we take comfort in that support, who knows when that support might slip away?

Those who spent their entire lives earning and counting money, all that money stayed right here, while the ones counting it passed away! Even intellectual people would agree with this truth. Once we truly understand this, there remains no reason for worry at all.

Both wealth and sensual indulgence can make a person forget everything; they don’t even let one remember God. Nothing else in the world has such a powerful effect that it can make one forget all else. The law is that wherever your interest lies, your concentration naturally follows. People are more interested in money than in God, and that’s why their focus stays there. To reduce attachment toward wealth, one must decide what truly holds more value in life. If peace and happiness are more precious, love for God will remain; but if money is considered more valuable, the attachment will stay there.

In this world, people live for two purposes: one for the Self (Soul) and the other for wealth. Very few live for the Self; rest all live for wealth. All day long, it’s just running for money, money, and more money! People believed that happiness lies in money, and so, we believed it too. In this way, the disease has spread through popular belief. Beyond material pleasures, there should be a higher, spiritual happiness, the kind that brings true contentment. Worldly pleasures, on the other hand, only increase restlessness! When one attains Self-realization and true understanding from a Gnani (the One who has realized the Self and is able to do the same for others), the real bliss of the Soul is experienced and only then is this disease cured.