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Answer: When bad money is used for a good purpose, the good purpose becomes a bad purpose. A good purpose does not purify the money; on the other hand, the good purpose is rendered bad by the bad money. What is more, there are karmic consequences for those that so use bad money. But, there are numberless Faces of bad money. Some Faces are not so bad as they seem to be, and if that money is selflessly, egolessly, offered at the altar of a Temple Deity, it can help wash away some of the sins of that person. This fact does not give a license to anyone to obtain bad money and give it to the Temple Deity and imagine it washes away one's sins. Badrachala Ramadas robbed the State Treasury, to build a Temple for Lord Rama. Ramadas was imprisoned. Lord Rama paid back to the State Treasury the misappropriated money. Lord Rama made the Bhakti of Ramadas boundless and granted him God-realisation. However, no one can imitate such an example. There can be only one Ramadas of Badrachalam. Valmiki of Ramayana was a robber, he robbed the travellers and fed his family. When wisdom dawned on him, he gave up this style of life and became one of the greatest of the immortal Sages of India. Good and bad are relative. Even in Rama Rajya, there is evil, the bad Kaykeyi and Ravana. You can never separate good from bad and bad from good, by no means, not by governmental, social, ethical, economic, religious means. These means can increase good, but not eliminate evil. Good and bad cannot be severed from one another; they can only be transcended in individual experience of the absolute Truth, God-realisation. Swamiji's central message is: Experience the Truth, or God, but first prepare the ground for such an experience through being good and doing good, by adhering to Brahmacharya, Satyam, Ahimsa. Be a Karma Yogi, Bhakti Yogi, Raja Yogi, Mantra Yogi, Jnana Yogi all in one. Since the birth of mankind here on our planet, bribery has existed in one or the other form. It has numberless Faces. Bribery in India is explainable by some of these factors: poverty, low income, high taxes, growing needs of the people. Bribery is universal in India because of these and several other reasons, but bribery is not absent in Europe and in America. One can see in the newspapers bribery exists in West Germany, Switzerland, Italy and other countries. In Russia now it is as much rampant as in India. It is present in Japan, Korea, in all of the very rich countries. However, bribery should not be encouraged, one has to keep one's hands off from it, under all circumstances. The only real solution to all ills and evils of life lies in the birth and growth of deep spirituality in individual life. A real Ashram is the Home of such deep spirituality; it is the main function of the Ashram to spread it. |
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