Money, they say, is sweeter than honey! With money everything is at ones beck and call. Hence the inordinate desire of everyone in this material world to amass unlimited wealth, whether fair or foul. However, little consideration is given to the capacity of the body to enjoy so-called material pleasures. Man can only eat as much as his stomach can contain, even if he is the wealthiest man, and can afford the most delicious, sumptuous meal. Similarly man can occupy only as much space as his body can when he goes to sleep, even if he constructs the tallest skyscraper. Sexually, man is so limited that if he is locked up in a room with a hundred beautiful lusty damsels, very soon he would cry for help. Yet man's passion for acquiring wealth is immeasurable.



In Kali-yuga or our modern age, wealth alone is considered the sign of a man's good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. Therefore one is considered high class, middle class or low class merely according to his financial status, regardless of his knowledge, culture and behavior.

From experience however, we can understand that no amount of wealth can quench our intense desires, it can only give some temporary relief. The law of lust works in a converse manner, the more we have the more we want! In this way valuable lives and time are wasted running after this mirage, life after life.

Little do we know that our greatest wealth is devotional service to the Supreme Lord, and that it is this devotional service alone that can fully satisfy our soul. The execution of duties solely for the purpose of pleasing the Supreme Lord, is known as devotional service; and in its maturity such devotional service becomes love of God, the factual goal of life for every living being.

Actually the living entity is not intended to achieve success in mundane religious rituals, economic development or sense enjoyment. The living entity should not even desire success in liberation, what to speak of success in mundane religiosity, economics and sense enjoyment. Because they will cannot satisfy our intense desire for happiness. One's real desire should only be to achieve the stage of loving transcendental service to the Lord.

Concerning man's search for the ultimate goal of life, there is a story of poor man who went to an astrologer, Sarvajna, to have his future prophesized. When Sarvajna saw the horoscope of the man, he was at once astonished that the man was so poor, and he said to him, "Why are you so unhappy? From your horoscope I can see that you have a hidden treasure left to you by your father. However, the horoscope indicates that your father could not disclose this to you because he died in a foreign place, but now you can search out this treasure and be happy."

This story is cited because the living entity is suffering due to his ignorance of the hidden treasure of his eternal father, Supreme Personality of Godhead, known in various religious traditions as Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, Krsna, Rama, Govinda etc. That treasure is love of Godhead, and in every Vedic scripture the conditioned soul is advised to find it. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, although the conditioned soul is the son of the wealthiest personality'the Personality of Godhead'he does not realize it. Therefore scriptures are given to him to help him search out his father and his eternal paternal property.

The astrologer Sarvajna further advised the poor man: "Don't dig on the southern side of your house to find the treasure, for if you do so you will be attacked by a poisonous wasp and will be baffled. The search should be conducted on the eastern side where there is actual light, which is called devotional service or Krsna consciousness. On the southern side there are religious rituals, and on the western side there is mental speculation, and on the northern side there is meditational yoga."

Sarvajna's advice should be carefully noted by everyone. If one searches for the ultimate goal by the ritualistic process, he will surely be baffled. Such a process involves the performance of rituals under the guidance of a priest who takes money in exchange for service. A man may think he will be happy by performing such rituals, but actually if he does gain some result from them, it is only temporary. His material distresses will continue. Thus he will never become truly happy by following the ritualistic process. Instead, he will simply increase his material pangs more and more.

The same may be said for digging on the northern side, or searching for the treasure by means of the meditational yoga process. By this process a person thinks of becoming one with the Supreme Lord, but this merging into the Supreme is like being swallowed by a large serpent. Sometimes a large serpent swallows a smaller one, and merging into the spiritual existence of the Supreme is analogous. While the small serpent is searching after perfection, he is swallowed. Obviously there is no solution here.

On the western side there is also an impediment in the form of a yaksa, an evil spirit who protects the treasure. The idea is that a hidden treasure can never be found by one who asks the favor of a yaksa in order to attain it. The result is that one will simply be killed. This yaksa is the speculative mind, and in this case the speculative process of self-realization, or the jnana process, is also suicidal.

The only possibility then is to search for the hidden treasure on the eastern side by the process of devotional service in full Krsna or God consciousness. Indeed, that process of devotional service is the perpetual hidden treasure, and when one attains to it, he becomes perpetually spiritually rich, and gives up the miserable position of trying to be happy in this material world without God.

One who is a poor hearted and does not perform devotional service to Krsna remains miserable in material existence. Sometimes he suffers the bites of poisonous creatures like wasp and bees, becomes baffled. Sometimes he follows the philosophy of monism and thereby loses his identity, and sometimes he is swallowed by a large serpent, when he attempts to become one with the supreme.

It is only by abandoning all these and becoming fixed in Krsna consciousness, devotional service to the Lord, that one can actually regain ones loving relationship with Krishna, the eternal supreme father of all entities, this will immediately release the living being from all suffering and bring the greatest bliss and satisfaction. This is the greatest wealth and the ultimate goal of life, after achieving this one does not desire anything else, as this gives complete satisfaction to the soul.