What is the importance of Money and what is the extent of its importance?
Necessity of money lies at the base of our every work. Importance of money gets established from the simple fact that almost no religious activity can be carried without money except sweet-speaking et cetera, by which we can give happiness to others. For this reason, poverty is considered as a vice in our culture. When, it is true that for all works of welfare, money is needed, it is also true that the power of money to attract vice is inexplicable. This problem has been resolved by our culture through the idea of ‘detachment’. We must gather the means of achieving good health, to meditate to fulfill our goal of life, to do welfare activities for others et cetera with the help of money but we must use money with a feeling of renouncement and detachment. Now, what is the meaning of enjoying all worldly activities through a feeling of detachment? It means to keep the purpose, for which a particular mean has been gathered, in sight while making use of that particular mean. And as soon as the purpose is accomplished, no attachment whatsoever, should remain for the mean, so gathered. Use of a thing with a feeling of renouncement and detachment can be understood through another example. Suppose, our goal is to go to Delhi. Then, it is natural that we feel attached towards the concerned train, which is to take us to Delhi, our seat et cetera. But this attachment remains only up till the period we reach Delhi. In the way, if that train develops any problem and if we are given the option to travel up to Delhi by another train of equal standard, then, we won’t refuse that option. In this context, the knowledge of fifth Yam -Aprigraha is desirable. The more money we have, the more we will be able to help the needy. As such, in our culture, desire for money is not at all considered bad.