Diwali has just gone by. I really don’t know when a festival that celebrates good over evil — symbolised by the return of Rama and Sita after their 14-year-long vanvaas or the killing of Narakasura by Satyabhama (Krishan’s wife) — turned into a festivity of wealth. When for instance, in Hindu homes, Rama and Sita got replaced by Lakshmi; the dharma of justice and righteousness, replaced by the dharma of money.In tune with changing times, perhaps. As the risk of physical damage in a social infrastructure, where might was right and picking up weapons was the only way to win an intellectually weak argument, has waned, we have moved on to an intangible, unseen and possibly riskier time when money defines existence. It’s not that without money we can’t live; but for most of us, we would cease to be.This civilisation is defined by the currency of wealth — it tells us which country is developed, it tells us who’s got the aspirational nine dollar-zeros to his wealth. A festival like Diwali of course celebrates it like none other. The festival stimulates the economy as PLUs and PLTs buy white goods, gold, sweets, crackers, and so on. It is also a great time to gamble.It is not surprising that when security and sin have been relegated to history and the right to life and liberty is more or less protected, the next struggle in the social evolutionary scale becomes the conquest and acquisition of money. You can’t get that by seeking the blessings of Rama or Krishna; you need the force of Lakshmi or Kuber.Like our aspirations, religion too has evolved. And the new force we see is money. Right now, there is a crude seeking of the outer, material manifestation of a force that really has spiritual bearings. Money is really a transformational force — it converts thought into matter, ideas into products.Most religions, possibly because they haven’t evolved, tend to downgrade the power of this force, glorify poverty, shun it — and term this spiritio-religio-material error noble, religious, godly. As a result, guilt accompanies any expression of wealth. If only they realised that wealth is neither good nor bad, neither pious nor profane; it just is.When we call Lakshmi, let us call her spirit, her essence, her Force, rather than merely a few coins.
