Poverty, Wealth... (Excerpt from a article from RKM)

Poverty is a curse. It saps all energy, enthusiasm and higher aspirations of human beings. If a man is worried about his daily bread he cannot do any good to others. Material prosperity is only a means and not an end. It sets free people from the constant struggle for survival. But if it becomes an end then it becomes a curse. It unleashes all the animal instincts in man. Eat, drink and enjoy only such hedonistic ideas will prevail. Satisfaction of the physical cravings and no other higher ideal will dictate life. The purpose of evolution is to lift animal to man and man to divine. Here spiritual wisdom steps in. Secular life without spirituality is blind and spirituality without secular life is lame. Therefore the emphasis of the Vedas on both – from the stage of an active life one must move onto the life of spirituality. Our eternal soul is encased in an impermanent physical body. This covering of matter or the body is not everything. It has to be well looked after, taken care of but it should not become an object of worship. It should help us to discover the immortal soul inside.