True
purpose of your belongings
Every gift of God to you is
intended for being used to the best advantage. Hence make the most of every
possession and every situation of yours and make capital out of it. When death
overtakes you, not a moment extension will be allowed if asked for. Hence employ
every single moment of your life to your life to the best advantage. Devote every
breath of yours to some blessed pursuit. The best use of time is to perform
every duty in a spirit of worship or service to God shedding sloth and error
and remaining engaged in His blissful remembrance. To fritter away one’s time
in reading harmful and useless books, in seeing cinema pictures, playing at
cards and taking part in such other games, and indulging in excessive sleep and
idle gossip and so on is to misuse it. To devote one’s time to sinful pursuits
is not only to misuse it. To devote one’s time to sinful pursuits is not only
to misuse it but to antagonize it and court self-ruination.
Mind has been vouchsafed to
you so as to enable you to think of God and to contemplate good to your-self
and others by indulging in salutary thoughts. To do this is to make the most of
your mind and here lies the key to the success of your life. If, however, you
allow it to give way to melancholy, fear, anxiety, animosity, violence, idle
thought, lascivious thought and thoughts of sensuality; if you keep it
engrossed in impure thoughts rather than in sublime thoughts; if you allow it
to wander in wanton and pernicious thoughts; instead of keeping you under
control, you are misusing it.
You have been gifted with
speech so as to enable you to chant the names and using the praise of God, to practice study of the Vedas and other sacred books to utter wholesome, agreeable
and truthful words, words which are conducive to your own good as well as the good
of others and which when diffused in the atmosphere may continue to set holy vibrations
in the air. To do all this is to make continue to set holy vibrations in the
air. To do all this is to make the most of your speech. If, on the other hand,
you utter with your tongue words which are untrue, harmful, annoying, pungent
and unpalatable, if you employ your speech in reviling others’ discussing
others’ affairs, discussing others’ losses, indulging in self-praise,
vilification of good people or idle gossip, commenting on others and replying
to others’ comments and in false chatter, you misuse your speech.
You have been endowed with
movable and immovable property, with various possessions, so as to enable you
to employ them in the service of God. Wherever there is want, the Lord in the
guise of those afflicted with want seeks such wealth and possessions from you. If
you do not recognize these possessions as your own and, appropriating the bare
minimum for your own use, utilize all the rest in the service of God by
respectfully giving them away to those in want, you are using them to the best
advantage and your wealth and possessions are serving their true purpose besides
deriving self-satisfaction you will thereby earn the grace of God to boot. If on
the other hand, you recognize these possessions as your own and press them into
service as a means to your own enjoyment, or if you simply accumulate them and
die engrossed in care to preserve them, you will be doing a great disservice to
yourself. For, claiming as your own the things belonging to God, you commit
theft and you will have to suffer punishment for it. If you fritter away your wealth
in indulging your palate and foppery, your love and luxury and fashion, in
drinking and adultery, immorality and irreligious conduct, eating and drinking prohibited
dishes and drinks or in animosity and violence, you are wantonly misusing it
and sowing the seeds of perdition consisting of endless tortures for you. Therefore,
be forewarned. For from expanding your wealth and possessions in sinful
pursuits, spend them sparingly even on subsistence, leading a most simple life.
Instead of wearing fine and costly apparel put on simple clothes of small value
and, saving money, provide clothing with that money to those in want. Observe simplicity
in your diet and utilize your savings in the service of God in the form of afflicted
and suffering humanity—in providing food to them. Herein lies their proper use.
Even so make the most of the
sense-organs with which you have been endowed, viz., the senses of hearing,
smell, sight, taste and touch, linking them with God and rendering service
through them. When confronted with suffering, calumny, ignominy and distress,
turn them to account by comforting yourselves with the thought that all these
are the fruit of your own evil actions, and by making up your mind not to indulge
in evil acts in any form in future and always to practise virtuous deeds alone.