Why Honest Earning Matters: Premanand Ji Maharaj on Money

Everyone around you seems to be getting ahead. A colleague takes a "small commission", a relative builds a big house no one can explain, a friend laughs that honesty is for people who can't afford anything better. And there you are, earning honestly, watching the EMI and wondering whether you are simply being foolish.

If that thought has crossed your mind, you are not a bad person — you are a tired one. The Ekantik Vartalap satsangs meet this question again and again, from young professionals, from lawyers, from sons and daughters of people who earned wrongly. The answer they receive is gentle but very firm.

Is it wrong to want money and success?

Maharaj Ji does not pretend money is unimportant. In Ekantik Vartalap he says plainly that we need modern progress, money, clothes and food — these are real demands of human life 26:3726:37 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapलोग पैसा, नौकरी और प्रसिद्धि के पीछे भागते रहते हैं, पर जब कोई घटना होती है, तो लगता है सब मोह माया है। तो फिर सही उद्देश्य क्या है?. The problem, he explains, is today's common belief that money must come by any means. That belief, he says, is deeply harmful 26:3726:37 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapलोग पैसा, नौकरी और प्रसिद्धि के पीछे भागते रहते हैं, पर जब कोई घटना होती है, तो लगता है सब मोह माया है। तो फिर सही उद्देश्य क्या है?.

We need wealth — but not by any means; we will support our family with the earnings of honest work 26:3726:37 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapलोग पैसा, नौकरी और प्रसिद्धि के पीछे भागते रहते हैं, पर जब कोई घटना होती है, तो लगता है सब मोह माया है। तो फिर सही उद्देश्य क्या है?.

He also points out what money cannot hold. If the moment of death came now, neither the body, nor spouse, nor children, nor bank balance would remain ours 26:3726:37 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapलोग पैसा, नौकरी और प्रसिद्धि के पीछे भागते रहते हैं, पर जब कोई घटना होती है, तो लगता है सब मोह माया है। तो फिर सही उद्देश्य क्या है?. Living with that last moment in mind helps us walk with dharma now.

Why does Ekantik Vartalap say dishonest money never brings happiness?

Maharaj Ji uses a memorable image: burn steadily like a small oil lamp, not like a halogen bulb that blazes and then fuses 26:3726:37 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapलोग पैसा, नौकरी और प्रसिद्धि के पीछे भागते रहते हैं, पर जब कोई घटना होती है, तो लगता है सब मोह माया है। तो फिर सही उद्देश्य क्या है?. Those who chase shortcuts may succeed two or four times and even gather something, but suddenly it can all be destroyed — "mixed into the dust", as he puts it 26:3726:37 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapलोग पैसा, नौकरी और प्रसिद्धि के पीछे भागते रहते हैं, पर जब कोई घटना होती है, तो लगता है सब मोह माया है। तो फिर सही उद्देश्य क्या है?.

He also asks what a lot of money is worth if the home is full of strife. If there is wealth but the husband goes one way, the wife another, and trust between family members breaks, what use is that life 26:3726:37 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapलोग पैसा, नौकरी और प्रसिद्धि के पीछे भागते रहते हैं, पर जब कोई घटना होती है, तो लगता है सब मोह माया है। तो फिर सही उद्देश्य क्या है?? On the other hand, if you are eating simple salt and roti earned through dharma, your family loves you and there is peace — there is no greater happiness than this 26:3726:37 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapलोग पैसा, नौकरी और प्रसिद्धि के पीछे भागते रहते हैं, पर जब कोई घटना होती है, तो लगता है सब मोह माया है। तो फिर सही उद्देश्य क्या है?.

In another satsang, a young man shared that his late father had earned through bribery, and that the family had gone through great hardship. Maharaj Ji used the moment to speak to everyone listening: money earned through bribery or cheating does not stay with one person — the whole family feels its effects 35:5835:58 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapपिता जी ने अधर्म की कमाई की जिससे घर बर्बाद हो गया, अब क्या करें ?. Wealth gained through wrong actions, he says, can never give happiness; it keeps burning a person inside for a whole life. Eat salt and roti earned honestly, ride a bicycle if you must, he says — but don't eat the rich sweets of adharma 35:5835:58 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapपिता जी ने अधर्म की कमाई की जिससे घर बर्बाद हो गया, अब क्या करें ?.

The Gita names greed, along with lust and anger, as one of the three gates to self-destruction (Gita 16.21). The satsang shows what that looks like in ordinary homes.

What if my job or profession pushes me towards dishonesty?

A lawyer who had left dishonest earning asked whether he should abandon law altogether. Maharaj Ji said law is not a bad thing — it too is a service in God's creation. What is wrong is using it for adharma: taking money from a guilty party and getting an innocent, poorer person punished 0:000:00 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई छोड़ दी है पर बिना मांगे बहुत धन आ रहा है क्या करूं ?. Keep discernment, he advised: if your client is wrong, don't take their money; if they are innocent, fight fully for them even if they pay less 0:000:00 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई छोड़ दी है पर बिना मांगे बहुत धन आ रहा है क्या करूं ?.

He was honest about the cost. You may not buy the best car or build the finest bungalow, and other lawyers may think you smaller — but in God's court you will be considered great 0:000:00 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई छोड़ दी है पर बिना मांगे बहुत धन आ रहा है क्या करूं ?. Becoming "big" in the world through wrong conduct is only a little moonlight; the body falls away, and the bank balance doesn't go with you 0:000:00 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई छोड़ दी है पर बिना मांगे बहुत धन आ रहा है क्या करूं ?.

The same applies to any job. You don't always have to leave your work to stay honest. Often you have to stay in it — and refuse the one thing that would stain it. You can read more about keeping work clean and calm in how to handle stress at work.

I earned wrongly in the past. What now?

This is where the teaching is most compassionate. A man from Patna said that before hearing satsang he earned money the wrong way, built a house, bought land and paid for his wedding with it — and now he had stopped completely. What should he do with it all? Maharaj Ji told him to keep living in the house. There is no need to bulldoze it; that is not atonement 53:2553:25 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई का मकान, ज़मीन है पर अब ऐसी कमाई छोड़ दी !. True atonement is the burning inside — "I did very wrong; I will not do it again" — and then walking forward with naam-jap and kirtan at home, so that everything becomes pure 53:2553:25 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई का मकान, ज़मीन है पर अब ऐसी कमाई छोड़ दी !.

He was careful to add one point. This forgiveness is for someone who didn't understand and then truly stopped. Someone who plans to cheat for a few years, build a building, and then ask a saint for pardon will have to face the consequences 53:2553:25 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई का मकान, ज़मीन है पर अब ऐसी कमाई छोड़ दी !.

To the young man whose father had earned wrongly, the guidance was similar: a house is only a material thing and can be purified through naam-kirtan, God's katha and aarti in the home — and the next generation must not repeat the mistake 35:5835:58 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapपिता जी ने अधर्म की कमाई की जिससे घर बर्बाद हो गया, अब क्या करें ?. The Gita too offers this fresh start: even one whose conduct was very wrong, once they turn to God with undivided devotion, is to be regarded as good, for they have resolved rightly (Gita 9.30).

If guilt about the past is weighing on you, you may find freeing yourself from the guilt of past mistakes helpful.

A simple practice for honest earning

1. Make one clear vow: "From today, no bribe, no fraud, no harming the innocent for money." Say it before God in the morning 26:3726:37 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapलोग पैसा, नौकरी और प्रसिद्धि के पीछे भागते रहते हैं, पर जब कोई घटना होती है, तो लगता है सब मोह माया है। तो फिर सही उद्देश्य क्या है?53:2553:25 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई का मकान, ज़मीन है पर अब ऐसी कमाई छोड़ दी !.
2. Check each deal or task: Ask quietly, "Would I be comfortable if my family saw how this money came?" If not, walk away 0:000:00 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई छोड़ दी है पर बिना मांगे बहुत धन आ रहा है क्या करूं ?.
3. Accept a simpler life without shame: Choose peace at home over luxury bought with adharma 26:3726:37 · 5 minEkantik Vartalapलोग पैसा, नौकरी और प्रसिद्धि के पीछे भागते रहते हैं, पर जब कोई घटना होती है, तो लगता है सब मोह माया है। तो फिर सही उद्देश्य क्या है?35:5835:58 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapपिता जी ने अधर्म की कमाई की जिससे घर बर्बाद हो गया, अब क्या करें ?.
4. Purify your home: Do a few minutes of naam-jap and kirtan at home daily, especially if past earnings trouble you 35:5835:58 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapपिता जी ने अधर्म की कमाई की जिससे घर बर्बाद हो गया, अब क्या करें ?53:2553:25 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई का मकान, ज़मीन है पर अब ऐसी कमाई छोड़ दी !.
5. Don't punish yourself for the past: Repent sincerely once, stop completely, and move forward 53:2553:25 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapअधर्म की कमाई का मकान, ज़मीन है पर अब ऐसी कमाई छोड़ दी !.

If pressure at work or worry about money is affecting your sleep or health, please also talk to someone you trust or a counsellor. In India, Tele-MANAS (14416) is free and available 24×7.

Honest money may grow slowly, like a lamp's small flame. But it lights your home for a lifetime — and lets you sleep with a clean heart.