॥॥
In plain words
Give up the thirst for wealth, increase the thirst for God!
Śaṅkara's teachings grew from day to day. One day all the paṇḍitas arranged a great assembly. Wearing great big bracelets, wrapped in great big shawls, with strings of rudrākṣa beads put on, all the paṇḍitas came in state and sat down in the assembly. There was no shortage of pomp of any kind in that assembly. Śaṅkara came without any pomp. He wore a small dhoti down to the knees. He came in with a small towel about him. All the paṇḍitas looked on him with ridicule. ‘Not a single string of rudrākṣa. How grave a paṇḍita ought to be! What can this fellow tell us?’ they thought among themselves. All of them: ‘Revered Śaṅkara! You are very great, it seems! You know everything, it seems, the Vedas, the Śāstras, the Itihāsas and the Purāṇas, the Upaniṣads and the Brahmasūtras! You know grammar and Mīmāṃsā. In the doctrine of Advaita you are like a flawless pearl.’ So saying, they began to mock him. Then Śaṅkara joined his palms:
Do not, do not thirst for wealth, O man; with a good mind give up your desires; wealth is only the fruit of karma, is it not? Find contentment in what you have. (Bhaja Govindaṃ)
And with this he went on rebuking them: this thirst was a great mistake. Wealth is the fruit of the actions we have done. Yadbhāvaṃ tadbhavati. What our labour earns, that alone is wealth. As the saying goes, ‘When the arms move, the belly is fed’: if you work with your two hands, will your stomach not be filled? How compassionate God is! He gave two hands; He gave one stomach. To fill a single stomach, are two hands not enough? Today you are not working with your two hands. So your stomach is not filled. There is no room at all for laziness. Give up the thirst for wealth, increase the thirst for God! Increase the thirst for Dharma! In this way he began a great discourse.