Is Acquisition of Money a Sin?

It is one of the greatest anomalies of life that what concerns us most, something without which life does not tick, does not figure in our social conversation. My reference is to money. Money is the pivot round which the whole world revolves. Yet people do not want to talk about it. Perhaps the means adopted for the acquisition of wealth are always suspect. Alberto Moravia, a famous Italian novelist, hit the truth when he made this observation in his novel ‘Women of Rome’: “Even those who earn money by recognized means do not generally talk about it even to friends.” He goes on: “probably money is linked with a sense of shame or at least modesty which prevents it being included in the list of ordinary topics of conversation and places it among those secret and inadmissible things which it is better not to mention as it is always wrongfully earned, no matter what its origin may be. But perhaps it is also true that no one likes it to show the feeling money rouses in his soul since it is a most powerful feeling and hardly ever dissociated from a sense of sin.”

No religion exalts the accumulation of money. All religions lay stress on sharing the money by helping the needy. Hindu scriptures speak of ‘Daridra Narain’ or God, the poor. According to the Buddhists there are three forms of the craving that life takes and all of them are evil. One of them is the desire for prosperity. There should be craving for Right Livelihood instead. The Bible says that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. One of the five cardinal principles of Islam is the practice of ‘Zakat’ i.e. setting aside a part of one’s income for charity so there is a strong case for keeping away from the clutches of Mammon. No wonder that everywhere in the civilized world it has sunk in the consciousness of the people that there is no virtue in the possession of money. But at the same time they are aware of its absolute necessity.

In his novel ‘Of Human Bondage’ Somerset Maugham says: “I have nothing but contempt for the people who despise money. They are hypocrites or fools. Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. Without an adequate income half of the possibilities of life are shut off. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer.”

In the Preface to his play Major Barbara, Bernard Shaw is equally forthright in stressing the importance of money: “Money is the most important thing in the world. It represents health, strength, honor, generosity, and beauty as conspicuously and undeniably as the want of it represents illness, weakness, disease, meanness and ugliness.” Shaw does not stop at that and advises us “that our first duty, to which every other consideration should be sacrificed, is not to be poor.”

The acquisition is not possible without the use of unfair means. The captains of industry and the men in power often adopt unscrupulous ways to exploit and fleece people to gather more and more gold. It was this lust for money that many powerful men in many countries including a Prime Minister succumbed to the lure of money offered by an American business magnate, Lockheed to promote the sale of his aircraft. In our own country Parliament has been rocked on many occasions, by numerous scandals like Bofors, bribery, sugar, telecommunication and more recently Armsgate or Tehelka exposures, are all telltale examples of how people go after unholy money to get rich and richer. In the Bengal Famine of 1943 three million people died chiefly because the hoarders had their godowns full of food grains while people starved and the streets were littered with the dead. It was a man made famine. Racketeers thrived while the common people died like rats. So many underhand tricks are adopted to accumulate wealth. The Mafia around the world wields power chiefly because it has gathered muscle power as well as money power through smuggling of drugs and indulging in other immoral activities. Such people are worse than Judas who betrayed Christ.

Those who are captains of industry and others who are in power always want more and more wealth. It is a puzzle to me when I see millionaires who can fulfill all their desires and fancies are not content with what they have acquired but go all out to build up monopoly in their field for no other reason than the lust for more money and power. Formerly the kings wanted to extend their empire and constantly waged wars against the weaker nations. Today the powerful states, largely under the influence of moneybags are perpetuating financial imperialism instead of direct military rule.

The rich often indulge in philanthropic activities, which show their concern for the welfare of the society. But actually they spend a very small fraction of their wealth in public service to ease their conscience and to earn the goodwill of the people at large.

Businessmen, often in varying degrees, befool the masses by doling out sub­standard goods. In our country they even adulterate things like ghee, milk, pulses, spices and other edibles for swelling their coffers.

Almost all money is tainted. Since our very existence depends upon money people are driven to adopt even the worst of professions whose only justification is that they fetch gold. You have to choose between a life of abject misery, dependence and a dark future to a life of luxury and independence. You find it well nigh impossible to wriggle out from such a vicious situation. You may be well intentioned but, may be unknowingly, as bad an exploiter as a very direct one, even when you know that “in your Christian clothes you are no better than a Shylock.” Samuel Butler was right in regarding property as robbery.

There is much of hypocrisy in our feelings about money and what we say about it. They used to say, to a lesser degree now, that money is nothing. It is like dirt of the hand. It comes and goes. What matters is the integrity of character. People are neck deep in the rat race but pretend that they do not work for money. People are now more realistic and such idealistic talk does not impress anyone. In real life stress on character is less and on acquisition of money much more. Phrases like “Poor but honest” and “holy poverty” are intolerable. Poverty cannot give you any respectability. Instead if you have money, however earned, you’ll enjoy power and prestige. You will be able to avail yourself of all the opportunities that life offers.

Our leaders never tire of telling us that they work for the service of the public and not for money and power. Rubbish. All of us know that once in the saddle they forget all their promises and become arrogant and, generally, are unapproachable. They live in luxury and money and power makes most of them corrupt.

The concept of Truth has changed much. Truth is no longer absolute. According to William James “Truth is the ‘cash value’ of an idea.” “Truth is one species of good, and coordinate with it. The true is the name of whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief.” Seen in this light we can easily understand why people can talk about everything under the sun but avoid talking about how one makes money. There is a tacit understanding that the topic of money is taboo.