Hindu Gold Rush Day – Akshaya Tritiya

The most auspicious time to by gold! Usher in
prosperity with Akshaya Tritiya collection. Prosperity and wealth will
increase manifold if pure gold is bought and worn on the auspicious
occasion. Come let us welcome prosperity….These are advertisement
captions by jewellery shops which can be found on television,
newspapers and magazines. All meant to attract customers on Akshaya Tritiya – the Hindu Gold Rush Day.

Majority
of the Hindus are ignorant about Hindu scriptures, especially the
Puranas which talk about auspicious days and events. Hindus are again
confused by astrologers, who make a living by it!

Ten
years (even five years) back few devout Hindus performed pujas and
chose the day to conduct marriages and begin new ventures. Majority of
the Hindus even did not bother about Akshaya Tritiya. In fact, very few
people knew about it.

But the clever managers of jewelry shops made use of the word ‘Akshaya.’ In India, nothing sells like spirituality. We might debate but Hinduism is truly a way of life in India and anything associated with it has a market.

Hindu
scriptures, ideas and terms are open to interpretation as there is no
final authority in Hindu religion. So, clever media managers of various
consumer goods will find new days in a year to sell their products with
help of Hindu religion.

Hindus
have always associated prosperity with gold. Idols of deities are made
in gold, pictures and paintings of gods and goddesses portray them
wearing gold, marriages are made and broken on gold, etc etc.

But is not Ardha (wealth) an important aspect in Hinduism and is it not among the purushartha aims of life – Dharma, Ardha, Kama, and Moksha.

But Ardha is not alone there is Dharma, Kama and Moksha. Even when dealing with religious scriptures we are choosy, we twist them according to our mindset like Ardha and Kama is okay but not Dharma and Moksha. ‘Yep, when I am in my old age, I might think about Moksha.’ But the first and most important purushartha, Dharma is not at all agreeable.

In
fact, our seers had cleverly placed Dharma first because when Dharma is
there Kama, Ardha and Moksha will be normal and ideal practice.

When Dharma is practiced there is no hoarding and there is Dhanam (donating). Akshaya Tritiya too gives importance to Dhanam. Sanatana Dharma teaches to prosper by giving.

Puranas
and epics clearly mention about the importance of alms giving,
donating, Anna dhanam (donating food) on the day. But we never see
advertisement about this aspect of Akshaya Tritiya. All advertisement
talks about buying and hoarding.

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