Honest

Meaning: According to the stanza of Rigved 2/13/13, we can explain as - only the income earned justly and with labor gives happiness to man, it goes on increasing and always keeps the mind cheerful. With it the soul remains clean and pure, a person's manliness increases and he is inspired for good acts. The money earned through theft, deceit and treachery also causes sorrow.

Message: The importance of money in life can never be ignored. It is necessary for man's and society's development for a limited sphere, but if that limit is broken, that money causes unwanted trouble and destruction instead of development and becomes the reason for exploitation and conflicts. As long as money remains confined within religious limits, it is called 'arth' (i.e. meaningful) but when it enters the field of 'adharma' (i.e. on-religion or immorality) it becomes 'anartha' (i.e. meaningless because it causes harm and destruction).

It is true that the material progress achieved by mankind today is incomparable and its main reason and basis is money only. Never before had money the importance that it has today. In the ancient times, spiritualism had the topmost priority and money came second. Today, the reverse is the matter. People are running like mad persons after earning money and have completely forgotten spiritualism. Today when they do not have the time even for a superficial show of worship, then what to speak about real worship and real spiritual Endeavour (or spiritual discipline). The only philosophy today is that of materialism in the entire society.

Both spiritualism and materialism are necessary for ht society and it is also necessary to maintain a balance between the two. In the ancient times, people believed in spiritualism as the be-all and end all. The society has never suffered by only one sided progress of spiritualism; the only difference was that man was not able to get the benefit of several material facilities. But today with the one sided progress of materialism, instead of benefit the people, more and more harm is caused to them. The prevalent anarchy throughout the society is because of the root cause of materialistic outlook. The wealth earned by stealing, looting, dishonesty, lie, treachery etc destroys man in every way. First of all peace of mind gets destroyed. The money earned through immorality and unjust means sucks away the juice of life and makes man hollow.

The current economic system is not able to find out the difference between morality and immorality and gives importance to accumulation of money by fair means or foul. The root cause of all types of material troubles is this only. We cannot be indifferent to material progress but at the same time we cannot ever oppose spiritualism also. We will have to create a balanced viewpoint by harmonizing both. We will have to understand very clearly the difference of earning the money morally and immorally. We will also have to condemn as well as despise immorally earned money and gibe maximum praise to the money earned by just means.

Money earned by proper means and earned through labor gives happiness, peace and satisfaction, increase the strength of the soul, makes the soul clean, pure and free from blemish, and with it creates a divine atmosphere in the society.