Earn by Honesty

Meaning: The line of the Atharvaved 3/24/5 says that - O men, may you earn plenty of money with hundreds of hands through your high profession and others' advice and use that wealth with a thousand hands for excellent deeds. With that you will progress constantly.

Message: Even the Vedas have accepted the important of making money. Man should not use merely his two hands for making money but also earn with hundreds of hands with the cooperation of other classes of the society. He should use all his insight, capabilities and diligence for earning more and more money.

But why should all this is done? Is it for mere personal use only? No, never. All the wealth in this world belongs to God, the Supreme Father. Whatever we obtain by our profession and Endeavour that also belongs to God. Only, God has graced us and appointed us as trustees. We should take only the minimum amount for our requirements, and in fact, we have no right at all to take more. All the remaining wealth, we must spend with a thousand hands for public welfare. Earned money gives us benefit only for a short while, but the praise and fame achieved by donating it is capable of making us happy for many births. Just as one seed planted in the field, is transformed into a thousand grains, similarly the donation given for good works increases manifold and gives fame and good luck.

Regarding the use of wealth, it has been very clearly said in the scriptures, 'dharmaaya yashasearthaya aatmane swajanaayacha' i.e. the money earned honestly should be divided into five parts as follows; one part for religion, second part for fame, third part to be ploughed back into business, fourth part for self and fifth part for relatives. It is necessary to allot the first part to religion. The donation meant for religion means secret donation. Nobody should even get and inkling about it and it should be given to some worthy person for some auspicious work. Donating for fame means to give for construction of a hospital, an inn, to give scholarships to students, for planting and nurture of trees etc. During some calamity people should be helped by full cooperation with total involvement. The third part should be ploughed back into business i.e. in one's own profession or business or farm or orchard. The fourth part should be kept for personal use and the fifth portion should be used for the near ones or the relatives. In this way, we should obtain the means of comforts after satisfying the fundamental requirements of food, clothing and shelter.

In this way, the scriptures have given the maximum importance to 'daan' (donation). Only with that are the blessings of God, the Supreme Soul continuously showered on us. All the men become ours through donation for charity, and enmity also gets destroyed. Money, knowledge, power, joy, and all that may be possible keep in distributing to others. How many things does man have for giving to others? He has at least got the vast ocean of love, the flowers of laughter. Distribute all this too, be cheerful and make others cheerful also.

Man should earn as much as possible through honesty, Endeavour and use it for good deeds.