Let caste and community reach abysmal regions! Let courage and daring meet the same fate! Let
character be totally spoiled! Let warrior like qualities be destroyed! We are
not at all worried about the absence of these qualities! What we want and
cherish is money only! That is our ultimate aim and goal! It is because without
MONEY all other qualities are good for nothing like the broom with dry grass!
That is why we reject all noble qualities and are passionate about money! After
describing Self respect and heroism, Bharthruhari
points out the significance of Money which
is the root cause of all things. Fist he speaks of people who are worshippers
of Mammon, the god of wealth!
One need not
have character, scholarship, erudition, capacity for comprehension, eloquence, and
even beauty! But if he is rich and possesses fabulous wealth, he acquires all the
afore said qualities! You may wonder how with money alone he can have those
qualities. All the qualities mentioned above are solely dependent on money
only! Hence, if money is present, all other qualities are present ! How money
is destroyed in four ways is clearly recorded by the poet later. The King and his riches are destroyed by
hearing the advice of an evil minister! A yogi or an ascetic is undone by evil
company. The son is spoiled through over
indulgence. The Brahmin loses respect by not having scholarship in the Vedas.
The clan is destroyed by a bad son. Evil company destroys one’s character.
Modesty is lost by drinking alcohol. The field and produce
is destroyed through neglect and not over seeing. Love for wife and
children is lost through travel in foreign countries. Lack of affection spoils
friendship. Absence of morality destroys riches. Through charity and lack of
caution Money is totally destroyed!
There are three stages for the use of
money viz the worst, the medium and the best. The first stage is offering money
to the richly deserving. The second stage is to enjoy one’s own money. The
third and the worst stage is money robbed or stolen away by thieves and
robbers. Money should definitely have one of these three stages. The person who does not offer money to the deserving or
enjoy it himself, is robbed of all his money which is the third stage. Though
the benefactor or the philanthropist loses all his money through charity his
greatness is unaffected.
There are
a number of things and people who are unaffected by their defect or loss of
money through charity! A polished precious stone does not lose its value; an injured warrior on the battle field is considered a hero; An elephant with the
flow of ‘madajala’ though emaciated is respected; river with dry sand dunes
during ‘ saratkala—(September- October) is loved though not with much
water; the Moon with a single phase is
adorable nevertheless; a lady lost in conjugal
bliss is not disliked; and those who
have become poor by offering charity for others , though lean and poor, are
really rich!
What is
the nature of the rich when they possess money and when they lose it and become
poor? If by misfortune the rich lose money and suffer poverty, even a small
amount of food is considered as good and great! But the same person, after he
becomes rich again, looks down on the same thing! He becomes arrogant and does
not care for the world! He does not maintain the same point of view on
things! Once he considers it great but
the next time he thinks it is nothing! He feels the small as big and the big as
small!
How does a king earn money?
The poet tells the king that the earth is like the sacred cow! If he wants to milk money from the cow, he
should consider people as the calf and protect them! It is only after the calf is fed, the cow
yields milk! Therefore when people are properly ruled and looked after, earth
will yield money and other produce like the wish
yielding Tree—Kalpataru!
What is ‘Raja Niti?’ How should conduct himself! The Poet says that the
king’s morality is similar to that of a
prostitute! He should speak the truth sometimes and falsehood at others! He
should kill at times and show mercy at other times. He should exhibit
miserliness sometimes and do great
charity at other times! He spends much
money and at the same time earns more
money! The ways of the king are different at different times!
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