🕉 MONK AND MONEY -- A CURIOUS COMBINATION

🕉 MONK AND MONEY -- A CURIOUS COMBINATION 

Unless absolute abstinence from money is made a part of one's being, spirituality is not come by. Money taints the corporeal self and covers up spiritual consciousness. Organised drive for money-making to help bolster organisational strength directed toward social welfare is self-defeating as it degrades the spiritual self, weakens character and degrades even a monk unto material servitude. Swamiji had forewarned that spiritual organisations are ruined the day they hang on to the sleeves of the rich. I, for myself, cannot trust the spiritual proclamations of rich religious organisations in a country that is still overwhelmingly poor. Sri Ramakrishna's words come to mind: "টাকা হলে মানুষ আর মানুষ থাকে না -- আকৃতিটা মানুষের, স্বভাব পশুর ।" ["When a man acquires wealth, he loses humanity. His outer form remains that of a man but his inner nature is now that of an animal."] 🕉 

Written by Sugata Bose