When wealth becomes a god

Sep 08, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

(Kaieteur News) – After my first encounter with the Guru, I had to return for some life lessons. So, on my return to his temple, I went looking for him. I found him sitting in exactly the same state in which I had left him: peaceful, unhurried and completely unimpressed by the frantic movement of the world below.

“Guru,” I said, “I have another problem.”

He smiled. “Only one?”

I laughed. “I have been thinking about money.”

“Good,” he said. “Money is worth thinking about. But tell me what troubles you.”

I told him about something I had been observing everywhere around me.

We live in a time when wealth has acquired an extraordinary power over us. We admire people because they are rich. We seek their company because they are rich. We listen more carefully to them because they are rich. We sometimes overlook their questionable conduct because they are rich. And, increasingly, we want to become like them.

Sometimes it goes even further. We fawn over wealthy people. We laugh more loudly at their jokes. We praise things we would otherwise criticise. We seek photographs with them, invitations from them, and proximity to them. It is as though money has become not merely a measure of what someone possesses, but a measure of who someone is.

The Guru listened quietly. “Is wealth bad?” he finally asked.

“No,” I replied.

“Then what is the problem?”

“The problem,” I said, “is that we seem to worship it.”

He nodded. “In Hindu thought,” he said, “wealth is not evil. In fact, artha, material prosperity, is one of the legitimate aims of human life. A person has a right to work, prosper, provide for a family, build a business and enjoy the fruits of honest labour.”

“But,” he continued, “wealth is a servant. It must never become the master.”

I thought about that. Perhaps this is where we have gone wrong. There is nothing wrong with wanting a comfortable home, a good education for our children, financial security or the satisfaction of building something successful. There is nothing noble about poverty simply because it is poverty.

The Hindu tradition does not ask us to despise wealth. It asks us to put wealth in its proper place. And therein lies the danger. Money can buy a house, but it cannot make it a home. It can buy medicine, but not necessarily health. It can purchase company, but not friendship. It can buy attention, but not respect. It can purchase a seat at a table, but it cannot guarantee that the people sitting around it actually value you. Yet we increasingly confuse the ability to purchase things with the possession of worth.

The Guru looked at me.

“Why,” he asked, “do you think people bow before wealth?”

I suggested that perhaps they want some of it for themselves.

“Exactly,” he said. “Sometimes admiration is simply ambition.”

We don’t merely admire wealth. We often admire what we imagine wealth will do for us. We believe that if we become rich enough, people will respect us, envy us, listen to us and perhaps even love us. But the Hindu scriptures repeatedly warn about attachment. The problem is not possessing something. The problem begins when the thing possesses you. There is a world of difference between having money and needing money to tell you that you matter.

And perhaps this is why the ancient Hindu teaching places artha alongside dharma. Wealth is legitimate, but its pursuit must be governed by righteousness. How we make money matters. What we do with money matters. And perhaps most importantly, what money does to us matters. If prosperity makes us generous, it has served us well. If it makes us arrogant, it has enslaved us. If wealth gives us the freedom to serve others, it has value. If it makes us look down upon those who have less, it has impoverished us.

I asked the Guru how we should know whether we have become too attached to money.

He smiled.

“Ask yourself this: If tomorrow you lost your wealth, would you still know who you are?”

I had no immediate answer.

He continued. “If the answer is no, then you did not possess the wealth. The wealth possessed you.”

Perhaps that is the lesson we need most in an age obsessed with appearances. We should certainly admire achievement. We should celebrate entrepreneurship, hard work, innovation and legitimate success. We should want our children to prosper. But let us be careful about the people we choose as our heroes. A large bank account tells us what someone has accumulated. It tells us very little about what kind of person he or she has become. The size of a person’s possessions and the size of a person’s character are two entirely different measurements.

The richest person in the room may have the largest house, the most expensive car and the biggest bank account. But the most valuable person may be the one whose presence makes everyone else feel valued.

As I prepared to leave, I asked the Guru one final question.

“Then, Guru, how much wealth should a person seek?”

He smiled.

“Enough to fulfill your duties. Enough to live with dignity. Enough to help others. But never so much that you begin measuring your life by what you have and never so little wisdom that you measure another human being by what they have.”

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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God, Peeping Tom, Wealth

One thought on “When wealth becomes a god”

Victor September 8, 2026 at 4:55 pm

Peeping Tom, you were onto something BIG here as in Personal Growth, moreso, in how to become very Financially WEALTHY – with your Guru.
But you did not ask him.

Most People, the majority of Humans reside in Poverty because they do not understand WHO THEY ARE!
The true or real Reason why People live in Poverty, is simply because they are literally DISCONNECTED from GOD.
And they have erronious (how do you spell this word) Beliefs about Wealth and Money.
They want Wealth badly but have False Beliefs (in their Memory) about Wealth.
So, like the EGO SELF who guides your Daily Life, the Dark-Side of themselves come into play when they asks about Money which is only trying to assist them to get what they are after or what they want. (Too much to explain here.)
You have two sides in you – The Light and the Dark. And they are there to serve you – not to trick you into anything. Its is/like The Positive and the Negative Sides in Everything.

“Money is not a static object.
It is a “dynamic relationship” between you and the field of abundance.
Like any relationship, it is shaped by:
– trust
– clarity
– emotional tone
– boundaries
– identity
– intention
– shadow
– desire

If you fear money, it becomes unstable.
If you worship money, it becomes tyrannical.
If you resent money, it becomes scarce.
If you distrust money, it becomes chaotic.
If you chase money, it becomes evasive.
If you embody abundance, money becomes loyal.

Money is not attracted to desperation.
Money is attracted to “coherence”.
One has to understand what is happening here.
Or it stops being a servant and becomes a master.
Wealth becomes the imagined escape from all fear……and therein lies the confronting of the DARK-SELF in trying to help the Individual.

Remember Everything comes from GOD, but our Human Body Contains the Servants of God awaiting to help the Individual when he becomes disconnected from GOD.
The Dark-Side becomes, in a sense, a Barrier to wanting – because Humans do not know who they are!
The Dark-Side is only trying to help the Human towards Getting whatever he asks for, but the Human is in direct Conflicting with his strong Beliefs (negative Beliefs) in place. And so he remains in the Default Programming of not getting what he is after.

You were so very close to seeing the Big Picture and make claim or manifest anything you so desire.

Victor19

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