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Money
is a sign of universal force, and this force in its manifestation
on earth works on the vital and physical planes and is indispensable
to the fullness of outer life.
In
its origin and its true action it belongs to the Divine. But like
other powers of the Divine it is delegated here and in the ignorance
of the lower Nature can be usurped for the uses of the ego or held
by Asuric influences and perverted to their purpose.
This
is indeed one of the three forces - power, wealth, sex - that have
the strongest attraction for the human ego and the Asura and are
most generally misheld and misused by those who retain them.
The
seekers or keepers of wealth are more often possessed rather than
its possessors; few escape entirely a distorting influence stamped
on it by its long seizure and perversion by the Asura.
For
this reason most spiritual disciplines insist on complete self-control,
detachment and renunciation of all bondage to wealth and of all
personal and egoistic desire for its possession. Some even put a
ban on money and riches and proclaim poverty and bareness of life
as the only spiritual condition.
But
this is an error; it leaves the power in the hands of the hostile
forces. To reconquer it for the Divine to whom it belongs and use
it divinely for the divine life is the supramental way for the Sadhaka.
You
must neither turn with an ascetic shrinking from the money power,
the means it gives and the object it brings, nor cherish a rajasic
attachment to them or a spirit of enslaving self-indulgence in their
gratifications.
Regard
wealth simply as a power to be won back for the Mother and placed
at her service.
All
wealth belongs to the Divine and those who hold it as trustees,
not possessors. It is with them today, tomorrow it may be elsewhere.
All depends on the way they discharge their trust while it is with
them, in what spirit, with what consciousness in their use of it,
to what purpose.
In
your personal use of money look on all you have or get or bring
as the Mother's.
Make
no demand but accept what you receive from her and use it for the
purposes for which it is given to you.
Be
entirely selfless, entirely scrupulous, exact, careful in detail,
a good trustee; always consider that it is her possessions and not
your own that you are handling.
On
the other hand, what you receive for her, lay religiously before
her; turn nothing to your own or anybody else's purpose.
Do
not look up to men because of their riches or allow yourself to
be impressed by the show, the power of influence.
When
you ask for the Mother, you must feel that it is she who is demanding
through you a very little of what belongs to her and the man from
whom you ask will be judged by his response.
If
you are free from money-taint but without any ascetic withdrawal,
you will have greater power to command the money for the divine
work.
Equality
of mind, absence of demand and the full dedication of all you possess
and receive and all your power of acquisition to the Divine Shakti
and her work are the signs of this freedom.
Any
perturbation of mind with regard to money and its use, any claim,
any grudging is a sure index of some imperfection or bondage.
The
ideal Sadhaka in this kind is one who if required to live poorly
can so live and no sense of want will affect him or interfere with
the full inner play of the divine consciousness, and if he is required
to live richly, can so live and never for a moment fall into desire
or attachment to his wealth or to the things that he uses or servitude
to self-indulgence or a weak bondage to the habits that the possession
of riches creates.
The
divine Will is all for him and the divine Ananda.
In
the supramental creation the money force have to be restored to
the Divine Power and used for a true and beautiful and harmonious
equipment and ordering of a new divinised vital and physical existence
in whatever way the Divine Mother herself decides in her creative
vision.
But
first it must be conquered back for her and those will be the strongest
for the conquest who are in this part of their nature strong and
large and free from ego and surrendered without any claim or withholding
or hesitation, pure and powerful channels for the supreme Puissance.
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