“The powerful lure of material accumulation” – scientists document the atyahara principle

“If we become too much attached for getting money, that is the material world. There is no satiation. Idam praptah, that Bhagavad-gita word: ‘I have got so much money, now my bank balance is so much, and I shall get further money and my bank balance will be like this.’ This is the demonic mentality. We shall require money, whatever is absolutely necessary, that much money I must get. That is an order.

“We cannot take more than what is necessary. This is actually spiritual communism. If everyone thinks that ‘Everything belongs to God and I am son of God, so I have got right to enjoy the property of my Father — but as much as I require, not more than that,’ this is spiritual communism, bhagavata communism.

Srila Prabhupada Visits New Vrindaban – June 29th, 1976.

Excerpt from Hari Sauri’s Trancendental Diary.
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Yudhisthira inquired, “What is the origin of all sin?”

Bhisma replied, “Greed, the hankering to posses more than one’s naturally ordained quota is the origin of all sin. The desire to posses that which belongs to another is insatiable and gives rise to anger, lust, loss of judgment, arrogance, miserliness, lack of compassion, enviousness, mistrust and many other evils. Ignorance is made up of the same material as greed, though if analyzed it can be seen that ignorance also comes from greed. As one’s greed increases, his ignorance also becomes more dense.”

—Mahabharata, Shanti Parva
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The Six Unfavorable Principles

1. Eating more than necessary or collecting more funds than required
Everyone needs possessions like food, money and other things in order to maintain his body, but one should not accumulate more than necessary for one’s personal requirement.

Srila Rupa Goswami in Nectar Of Instruction
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You Can’t Take It With You, but You Still Want More

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/business/you-cant-take-it-with-you-but-you-still-want-more.html

All work and no play may just be a result of “mindless accumulation.”

So say scholars behind research, published in the journal Psychological Science in June, that shows a deeply rooted instinct to earn more than can possibly be consumed, even when this imbalance makes us unhappy.

Given how many people struggle to make ends meet, this may seem a frivolous problem. Nonetheless, the researchers note that productivity rates have risen, which theoretically lets many people be just as comfortable as previous generations while working less. Yet they choose not to.

To explore the powerful lure of material accumulation, the researchers constructed an experiment in two phases.

Continue to the full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/business/you-cant-take-it-with-you-but-you-still-want-more.html