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- Look at American newspapers and you will see that you are
missing: happiness can be purchased just through money. They create
a feeling that you are missing something; then you start working for
it, then you earn money, then you purchase it. And then you feel
that you have been deceived. But that feeling is not very deep,
because before you feel that you have been deceived some new
deceptions have entered the mind, and now they are pulling you
ahead. You must have a hill station house, or you must have a summer
resort, or you must have a yacht -- something is always there to be
achieved. Only then will you be happy. They will go on pulling you
up to your death. Until you die, those advertisements, that
propaganda, will go on pulling you.
- The materialistic pattern of life is that
where money predominates over everything. The non-materialistic life
is that where money is just a means — happiness predominates, joy
predominates; your own individuality predominates. You know who you
are and where you are going, and you are not distracted. Then
suddenly you will see your life has a meditative quality to it.
- One of the greatest problems that money
creates is that you never know whether you are loved or your money
is loved, whether you are desirable or your money is desirable. And
it is so difficult to figure out, that one would have preferred not
to have had money; at least life would have been simple.
- A real spirituality must be rooted in
earthliness. Any spirituality that denies the earth, rejects the
earth, becomes abstract, becomes airy-fairy. It has no more blood in
it; it is no more alive. Yes, Jews are very earth-bound. And what is
wrong in having money? One should not be possessive; one should be
able to use it. And Jews know how to use it! One should not be
miserly. Money has to be created and money has to be used. Money is
a beautiful invention, a great blessing, if rightly used. It makes
many things possible. Money is a magical phenomenon.
If you have a ten-rupee note in your pocket, you have thousands of
things in your pocket. You can have anything with those ten rupees.
You can materialize a man who will massage your body the whole
night! Or you can materialize food or you can materialize ANYTHING!
That ten-rupee note carries many possibilities. You cannot carry all
those possibilities with you if there is no note; then your life
will be very limited. You can have a man who can massage your body,
but then that is the only possibility you have with you. If you
suddenly feel hungry or thirsty, then that man cannot do anything
else. But a ten-rupee note can do many things, millions of things;
it has infinite possibilities. It is one of the greatest inventions
of man; there is no need to be against it. I am not against it.
Use it. Don't cling to it. Clinging is bad. The more you cling to
money, the poorer the world becomes because of your clinging,
because money is multiplied if it is always moving from one hand to
another hand. In English we have another name for money which is
more significant -- it is "currency." That simply indicates that
money should always remain moving like a current. It should always
be on the move from one hand to another hand. The more it moves the
better. For example, if I have a ten-rupee note and I keep it to
myself, then there is only one ten-rupee note in the world. If I
give it to you and you give it to somebody else and each person goes
on giving, if it goes through ten hands then we have a hundred
rupees, we have used a hundred rupees' worth of utilities; the ten
rupees is multiplied by ten. And Jews know how to use money; nothing
is wrong in it. Yes, greed is bad. Greed means you become obsessed
with money; you don't use it as a means, it becomes the end. That is
bad, and it is bad whether you are a Jew or a Jaina, Hindu or
Mohammedan; it doesn't matter.
- The mind always hankers for more and more.
If you have money, it hankers for more money; if you have prestige,
it hankers for more prestige; if you have knowledge, it hankers for
more knowledge. Mind lives in the “more.”
- Our whole attitude about life is money-oriented. And money is
one of the most uncreative things one can become interested in. Our
whole approach is power-oriented and power is destructive, not
creative. A man who is after money will become destructive, because
money has to be robbed, exploited; it has to be taken away from many
people, only then can you have it. Power simply means you have to
make many people impotent, you have to destroy them -- only then
will you be powerful, can you be powerful.
Remember: these are destructive acts. A creative act enhances the
beauty of the world; it gives something to the world, it never takes
anything from it. A creative person comes into the world, enhances
the beauty of the world -- a song here, a painting there. He makes
the world dance better, enjoy better, love better, meditate better.
When he leaves this world, he leaves a better world behind him.
Nobody may know him; somebody may know him -- that is not the point.
But he leaves the world a better world, tremendously fulfilled
because his life has been of some intrinsic value.
Money, power, prestige, are uncreative; not only uncreative, but
destructive activities. Beware of them! And if you beware of them
you can become creative very easily. I am not saying that your
creativity is going to give you power, prestige, money. No, I cannot
promise you any rose-gardens. It may give you trouble. It may force
you to live a poor man's life. All that I can promise you is that
deep inside you will be the richest man possible; deep inside you
will be fulfilled; deep inside you will be full of joy and
celebration. You will be continuously receiving more and more
blessings from God. Your life will be a life of benediction.
But it is possible that outwardly you may not be famous, you may not
have money, you may not succeed in the so-called world. But to
succeed in this so-called world is to fail deeply, is to fail in the
inside world. And what are you going to do with the whole world at
your feet if you have lost your own self? What will you do if you
possess the whole world and you don't possess yourself? A creative
person possesses his own being; he is a master.
That's why in the East we have been calling sannyasins 'swamis'.
'Swami' means a master. Beggars have been called swamis -- masters.
Emperors we have known, but they proved in the final account, in the
final conclusion of their lives, that they were beggars. A man who
is after money and power and prestige is a beggar, because he
continuously begs. He has nothing to give to the world.
- Everybody is immensely strong because
everybody is immensely divine. Everybody is strong because everybody
is rooted in God, in the very origin of existence. Remember it The
human mind tends to forget it. When you forget it, you become weak.
When you become weak,.you start trying some artificial ways to
become strong. That's what millions of people are doing. Searching
for money, what are you really searching? You are searching power,
you are searching strength. Searching for prestige, political
authority, what are you searching? You are searching power, strength
-- and strength is all the time available just by the corner. You
are searching in wrong places.
- Don't be too much concerned about money,
because that is the greatest distraction against happiness. And the
irony of ironies is that people think they will be happy when they
have money. Money has nothing to do with happiness. If you are happy
and you have money, you can use it for happiness. If you are unhappy
and you have money, you will use that money for more unhappiness.
Because money is simply a neutral force.
I am not against money, remember. Don't misinterpret me: I am not
against money -- I am not against anything. Money is a means. If you
are happy and you have money, you will become more happy. If you are
unhappy and you have money, you will become more unhappy because
what will you do with your money? Your money will enhance your
pattern, whatsoever it is. If you are miserable and you have power,
what will you do with your power? You will poison yourself more with
your power, you will become more miserable. But people go on looking
for money as if money is going to bring happiness. People go on
looking for respectability as if respectability is going to give you
happiness. People are ready, at any moment, to change their pattern,
to change their ways, if more money is available somewhere else.
- You earn money, and one day money is there
-- then life says to you, 'What have you got?' But you don't listen.
Now you think you have to put your money into politics, you have to
become a prime minister or a president -- then everything will be
okay. One day you are a prime minister, and life again says, 'What
have you got?' You don't listen. You go on thinking of something
else and something else and something else. Life is vast -- that's
why many lives are wasted.
- We have been distracted into unnatural
motivations: money, prestige, power. Listening to the cuckoo is not
going to give you money. Listening to the cuckoo is not going to
give you power, prestige. Watching the butterfly is not going to
help you economically, politically, socially. These things are not
paying, but these things make you happy.
- People go on postponing everything that is
meaningful. Tomorrow they will laugh; today, money has to be
gathered… more money, more power, more things, more gadgets.
Tomorrow they will love — today there is no time. But tomorrow never
comes, and one day they find themselves burdened with all kinds of
gadgets, burdened with money. They have come to the top of the
ladder — and there is nowhere to go except to jump in a lake.
- You earn money, you become the richest man
in the world -- you become an Andrew Carnegie. And at the peak, when
you have become the richest man in the world, suddenly you see your
whole life has been a wastage. Money is there, but there is no
contentment inside -- and life has gone down the drain.
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