“Wealth brings only delusion; there is no happiness in wealth, and that is the truth.”
— Adi Shankara[commonly attributed] Bhaja Govindam, verse 7 (attributed)
Commentary
This verse contrasts the illusory promise of wealth with the lasting value of spiritual knowledge, and it reflects the ascetic ideal that Shankara's monastic order embodied. The renunciation of possessions was central to the sannyasa life, and the verse expresses the conviction that attachment to wealth obscures the recognition of the Self. Eliot Deutsch argues that Advaita ethics regards desire for external objects as a form of ignorance, and this verse gives that position a popular form. Richard King observes that renunciation is a recurrent theme in the traditional Shankara corpus, which was used to instruct monks and householders alike. Sengaku Mayeda's analysis of the attributed works suggests that such verses circulated in the monastic milieu before being widely recited. Paul Hacker notes that the moral vocabulary of these verses is closer to the Dharma literature than to the technical metaphysics of the commentaries. The verse is a traditional attribution within the Shankara corpus, reflecting a popular rather than a technical strand of his teaching.
Commentary
This verse contrasts the illusory promise of wealth with the lasting value of spiritual knowledge, and it reflects the ascetic ideal that Shankara's monastic order embodied. The renunciation of possessions was central to the sannyasa life, and the verse expresses the conviction that attachment to wealth obscures the recognition of the Self. Eliot Deutsch argues that Advaita ethics regards desire for external objects as a form of ignorance, and this verse gives that position a popular form. Richard King observes that renunciation is a recurrent theme in the traditional Shankara corpus, which was used to instruct monks and householders alike. Sengaku Mayeda's analysis of the attributed works suggests that such verses circulated in the monastic milieu before being widely recited. Paul Hacker notes that the moral vocabulary of these verses is closer to the Dharma literature than to the technical metaphysics of the commentaries. The verse is a traditional attribution within the Shankara corpus, reflecting a popular rather than a technical strand of his teaching.