Money-making honestly and industriously to serve God’s work is the next greatest art after the art of realizing the Self. All the good and philanthropic works of the world, all noble successes, have to be accomplished through money. No saint lived who directly or indirectly did not use money. But the great paradox and riddle of life lies in judiciously acquiring money.
To love money is to be lost. That is the snare. You must use it rightly. You must use the right voltage of prosperity in the bulb of your life. If you have a mad desire for prosperity, the bulb of your life will burn and become dark with money-lust.
Money is the source of infinite evil to those who rely on it as a lasting means of happiness. To them it promises much until they have it. When they have it, they find themselves spent out—realizing too late that they have served a false god.
Yet money gives power. If held with non-attachment, one can use it to bring happiness to many and, in the process, outgrow the desire for material happiness.
To earn money unselfishly, honestly, and quickly for God and God’s work and to make others happy, is to develop many sterling qualities that will aid one on the spiritual as well as the material path.
2 Comments
Is this a direct quote from Master?
Hi, Kshama. This is from Clarity Magazine, noted as “excerpted from East-West magazine, July-August, 1928.” It’s possible that the Clarity Magazine editor made minor changes to the original writing.