Money can buy many things and some believe anything in this world. And so people work hard, extremely hard, to earn a lot. But can money buy everything? Let us try to see what money can buy, and what it cannot.

Money can buy…

• Machines but not meaningful relationships
• A wedding ring but not a loving spouse
• Servants but not friends
• Bungalows but not home
• Sleeping pills but not sleep
• Medicines but not health
• Entertainment materials but not happiness

It is said if you want to know how rich you are then count how many things you have which money can’t buy.

Money is indeed needed to take care of the essential necessities of life. And if we earn some extra money then we can lead a comfortable material life too. But many times people get so obsessed with amassing wealth that they do not shy away from using unscrupulous means to earn riches. For e.g. billionaire Nirav Modi, luxury diamond jewelry designer who figured in Forbes India’s Richest People List 2016 with a net worth of $1.74 billion has been recently accused by India’s Punjab National Bank of committing fraudulent transactions worth about INR11,400 crore. When such people are exposed they not just lose their wealth but also their dignity.  And if the law of the land fail to nab them the law of karma eventually punishes them.

Srimad-Bhagavatam (4.22.33) warns us, “For human society, constantly thinking of how to earn money and apply it for sense gratification brings about the destruction of everyone’s interests.”

Wealth of this world has certain limitations, it cannot solve all the problems of our life. Most importantly it can never satiate our thirsty heart. Shankaracharya in his Bhaja Govindam prayers says: “Give up your thirst to amass wealth, devote your mind to thoughts to the Real.”

Instead of being mad after the wealth of this world we should invest our time, energy and consciousness in searching for the real wealth. Real wealth is not about filling our coffers with unlimited paper currencies but it is about values, inner love, contentment and ultimately happiness, which is not subjected to external circumstances.

As spiritual beings, we are pleasure-seeking entities, anand mayo bhayasat. Pleasure is not in accumulating things, seeing things, feeling things but it is within our heart. And our heart is now starving. Even wealthiest people’s heart is starving. Heart can only be satisfied by loving and feeling loved. Nothing external can touch our heart. Only God’s love can touch our heart.  We experience greatest happiness when we start making inner connection with the Supreme Lord.

The Supreme Lord, Krishna, is the reservoir of unlimited bliss and as we start getting connected to Him we start experiencing unlimited joy, unlimited inner fulfilment and deep satisfaction within our heart.

This is why the holy books and wise sages always advise that while being in this world, while performing our daily duties we should also invest time in amassing real wealth, in developing relationship with the Supreme Lord. This will guarantee supreme perfection and bring unlimited eternal joy.

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(Purushottam Nitai Das is a member of congregation at Iskcon Kolkata. He works in IBM as an Advisory Consultant. He blogs at http://krishnamagic.blogspot.in/)