Noble Use of Money

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Mahavideh Foundation

Page 18

Noble Use of Money
Noble Use of Money
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and to care for others, is considered relative dharma. One binds merit karmas by doing this. And by stealing, fighting, and hurting people, one binds demerit karma. Wherever there are either merit or demerit karmas, there is no real dharma (the religion of the Soul). Real religion goes beyond both these dualities.
A Fifth Portion is For Others! Questioner: What should we do in this life to earn merit karmas for the next life?
Dadashri: Donate a fifth of your earnings to the temples or spend one fifth of your wealth for the happiness of others. At least this much of an 'overdraft' will carry forward into your next life! In this life, you are enjoying the 'overdrafts' from your past life! Merit karmas of this life will carry forward to your next life. Whatever you earn as merit karmas in this life will help you in your next life.
Customary To Give To God The Marvadi people are businessmen and they have found the key to profits in their business. They have a custom of donating twenty-five percent of their income to the darasars and temples every year. Do they need to be told to do anything? You can only harvest what you sow! How can you expect fruits without planting a seed? The Marvadis customarily give towards religion, gnandaan, and other charitable causes. They do not give to schools or individuals. Should One Donate To Temples Or To The Poor?
Questioner: We had visited a temple where millions of rupees were spent on a stone idol of God. The Lord has said that the pure Soul resides within all living beings. But here people abuse and hurt living beings, within whom God resides and yet they go around spending millions of rupees for a stone they carve into an image of God. Why is that so?
Dadashri: Yes they hurt and abuse each other, but they do so out of ignorance! They do so because of their inherent weaknesses of anger, pride, deceit, and greed.
People go out to earn more money even when their household is running comfortably. Is it not clear that they are trying to acquire more than their allocated quota? Everyone in the world is allocated the same quota but those with greed take more than their share, depriving others of their share. Nevertheless what they do acquire is not by stroke of luck, they acquire it because of their merit karma.
You acquire wealth because of your merit karmas but you should also spend it. It will begin to accumulate and it will only be deducted if you spend it. It accumulates because of your merit karma but should you not also know how to deduct it?
So even by building temples, people are doing the right thing. They are looking for a key to their dilemma. They want to have a place where they can pray or do darshan without any inhibitions. They are embarrassed to do so in front of the living Gods, but here in front of God's idol, they will even dance. They will jump and dance around because they are alone, and no one is there to point out their obvious errors! However they cannot do so in the presence of a living God. If they were to do all this in front of a living God, they would acquire salvation without doubt. They would be liberated. But they lack this inner energy. They do not have such merit karma.
When people make an offering to God, it is with the expectation of a reward. "Dear God! Please give my son, a son of his own! Help my son pass his exams! Help my old husband recover from paralysis!" Then he leaves 201 rupees. But who does that here in front of me? (The Gnani Purush with the fully awakened Lord within)? Do we have such transactions here? Besides who will even leave or accept anything here?