Translated by Sri Ramanan Rajagopalan

Is Wealth a Protection?

We have seen how varios relations and devathas cannot protect us from this samsara. Wealth helps us accomplish so many things in this life. Even an uneducated person is well-respected if he is wealthy. Does this wealth has the capacity to protect us?

Let us dwell into what Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar has to say about this:

"Artham rakshagam endru nirUbiththAl kalvan kolluthal, kAmam kolluthal, kOpam kolluthal, nyAthi kolluthal, vyAdhi kolluthal, pirarOdu ethirittu thannai thAnE vishapakshanam seydhu mudiththuk koluthal seykaiyAlaE, arthamum rakshagamAga mAttAthu..."

Swamy Pilla Lokacharyar discusses various case scenarios where wealth will create a lot of problem to the soul.

kalvan kolluthal
More the wealth we have, more it is prone to be looted . It does not stop just with the case of thieves. In case, the government comes up with the rule that none of the citizen should save more than a stipulated amount of money, then there would be a necessity to surrender the money to the governement. Not just that. In those days, the amount of wealth was propotional to the amount of dhAyam one used to have from the fields. If one tried to store the extra dhAyam, there was a chance that mouse would eat them off.

Swamy Vedanta Desikar wrote VairAgya PanchAsat when he was offered with wealth by his friend VidyAranyar. He points to Varadar as the one and only property. SImilarly, Swamy KUrathAzhwan left all his wealth to join Swamy Ramanujar's gOshti. Our AchArya Purushas considered jnAna, bhakti vairAgyam as the only property from their ancestors.

kAmam kolluthal
kondaattum kulambunaivum thamaRuRRaar vizhunNidhiyum,
vandaar_pooNG kuzhalaaLum manaiyozhiya vuyirmaaydhal,
kandaaRREn ulagiyaRkai...... (ThiruvAymozhi 4.9.3)

kAmam has even worse impact than thieves. Azhwar points to the fact that this person will not even have the strength in his body, but will be a total slave to kAmam. He will get flowers for his lover. He will not be able to enjoy, but the fly that sits on her hair will be enjoying that. Still, he will not stop spending money for this insatiable desire despite the fact that he has become old. Instead, the same Azhwar recommends something else before he gets old:
kiLaroLiyiLamai keduvathanmunnam,
vaLaroLimaayOn maruviyakOyil,
vaLariLampozilsooz maalirunjsOlai,
thaLarvilaraagil saarvathusathirE (ThiruvAymozhi 2.10.1)

He asks all of us in samsara to visit ThirumAlirunjsOlai before we get old. Similarly, Thirumangai Azhwar asks us to visit Badri before we get old.

nyAthi kolluthal, kOpam kolluthal
This aspect to refers to fight among brothers for the property. The consequence of this is very much evident form Mahabharata. Azhwar refers to the wealth as fire, and hence recommends us not to embrace it.

vyAdhi kolluthal
This case is very much relevant to the current age. None of us can get treated for even a small ailment without paying for that. Thondaradippodi Azhwar pleads that his life gets wasted with all the aspects including vidyA, sleep, sickness, age factor and other materialistic aspects, and hence requests RanganAthar to take him away from this samsara.

vEthanUl pirAyam nURu manisar thAm puguvarElum,
pEdhai pAlakanathAkum piNi pasi mUpputh thunbam,
AthalAl piRavi vENdEn arangamA nagaruLAnE (Thirumaalai 3)

Visha paksham Seydhu mudithukkoluthal
This case scenario is also read about in present days in news papers. People sopmetimes get involved in increasing their materialistic lifestyle by borrowing money. Sometimes it might so happen that the person may not be able to pay the interest and hence gets submerged in total liability. To escape from this situation, he tried ending up his life with poison. Here again, Azhwar suggests a way for them:

adisEr mudiyinarAgi arasargaL thAm thozha,
idisEr murasangaL muRRaththiyamba irunthavar,
podisEr thugaLAyp pOvargaLAdhalin nokkena,
kadisEr thuzhAymudik kaNNan kazhalgaL ninaiminO (ThiruvAymozhi 4.1.3)

In fact, Azhwar talks about the distress caused by wealth in all the ten pasurams in this pathikam. Even a king will come to a stage where he will become a dust, and hence asks us to grab the feet of Kannan before we actually get to that stage. Indra, because of his ahamkAra was turned to a beggar by DurvAsa. We saw this story while discussing about him.

Thus, Swamy PL has shown us that even wealth cannot protect us from samsara. The only kadan that we as SriVaishnavas can have is also advocated by Azhwar in the following pasuram.

vEngadangaL meymmEl vinai muRRavum,
thAngaL thangatku nallanavE seyvAr,
vEngadatthuRaivArkku namavennalAm kadamai,
athu sumanthArkatkE (ThiruvAymozhi 3.3.6)