Sri Adi Sankaracharya answers the questions of students, and when it comes to questions, they are galore. Who is the one afflicted by poverty? The answer is mind-blowing. A poor person is not the one who has no money, home or land. The person is considered poor if he has an ever-expanding craving for something or the other.
Even the richest person is indeed considered poor if his stock of desires never knows an end. Desire is quite a strange phenomenon. It can never be quelled by indulgence. A Sanskrit proverb says that to imagine that a desire can be satiated by indulging in it is to try to put off fire by pouring fuel and ghee into it.
The next question follows. Who then is a wealthy person? One who has complete contentment is wealthy. When a person is happy with whatever material situation that befalls him in life, then he is indeed very rich. Contentment is true happiness. Even Goddess Lakshmi, who is called Shri, does not mean wealth or money. She is the form of contentment. Wherever there is contentment, wealth will come and finds its place there. In contentment, the mind is calm. When the mind is free of agitations in its quietude, there is clarity in perception. With a clear perception, the thoughts, words and actions do have clarity too. When decisions are made in a field of intelligence and clarity, they are bound to be the right decisions. They will in turn produce only brilliant results.
Who is considered dead even while living? A person who puts in no effort to rectify, change, modify or uplift an existing situation or circumstance is almost dead. There is no expression of life force of movement and change in such a person. Contentment and lack of industry should be understood in the right perspective.
When we talk of being contented, it is only about what comes to us in our life that we can exercise contentment. Contentment has got nothing to do with refraining from improving my own nature, qualities and uplifting my skills. Lack of effort or laziness means the faculties are completely dead to situations in life—material or spiritual. At the material level, it is alright to desire for more, but it should be backed up with the right effort to improve my lot and not wait for someone to give it all on a platter. At the spiritual level, laziness is a refusal to be shaken off the comfort zone of my own ideas and emotions. When our knowing equipment of mind and intellect gets a good shake, there is a lot of fresh energy, like shaking a water bottle well to clean it thoroughly.
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