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In the preaching of Vasishtha to Shri Rama, it is said that money is the root basis of all worldly bonds (Dhanamulamidam jagat …). The meaning of this statement is that the money is earned due to all the worldly bonds. For the sake of happiness of yourself, your wife, your children, your parents etc., you are earning the money. If all these disappear, you will not have the bond with money, since in such stage money becomes totally useless. Therefore, the bond with money is only indirect and not direct. It means, you are not having any direct love to money. The love to money is only due to love to all the worldly bonds. Your bond with the money is based on the roots of your worldly bonds. As long as your bond with the money exists, it means that your worldly bonds exist. The only proof for the destruction of your worldly bonds is the destruction of your bond with money.

As long as your bond with money exists, you cannot claim that your worldly bonds are cut. One may leave his family and stay in a foreign country for the sake of earning money. He may claim that his family bonds are cut. After completion of earning, he will go back to his family. To prove this, if you catch his earned money, truth comes out. One may stay with his family, but if he sacrifices all his money, it means all his worldly bonds including the bond to his body are already cut. Therefore, money alone stands as the proof for all the worldly bonds including the personal bond with the body. Therefore, Veda says that the detachment to worldly bonds is only by the sacrifice of money alone (Dhanena tyagenaikena …). When all the money possessed by a person is sacrificed to God, it is a proof for the destruction of all his worldly bonds including the bond to self. This sacrifice proves the liberation of soul from all the bonds including the bond to itself. This total sacrifice is the total liberation or total salvation, but such sacrifice should be for the sake of God alone and must be due to love to God only and not for the sake of some other cause.

Salvation without devotion to God is useless. A mentally retarded person may also do such sacrifice and it cannot be the salvation, since the basis here is ignorance due to madness and not God. Some people do such sacrifice for the sake of the welfare of the society and such sacrifice is good, but still it is not the salvation. Such people reach heaven for a specific period of time and return back to the earth. Thus, a good sincere politician with patriotism to society of humanity can reach the heaven for sometime but not God forever. Salvation should be based on devotion to God. Mere salvation is meaningless and should not be asked in the prayer. Gita sharpened this concept of sacrifice of money by introducing karma phala tyaga. If you sacrifice your hard earned money for the sake of God, God will be pleased, because it is very difficult to sacrifice self-earned money. If it is self-earned money through hard work, its value is deeply realized by you and the sacrifice becomes more difficult. Thus, Gita always gave the concept with more clarification and more sharpness than Veda.

If your love to God is full, your sacrifice will be also full. The value of sacrifice depends on the extent of your sacrifice and not on the extent of sacrificed money. In the presence of Jesus, several rich people were donating huge amounts. A beggar donated just one Deenar and Jesus immediately appreciated the beggar, since the total money with the beggar was only that one Deenar. That beggar was granted salvation and not those rich people, who donated hundreds of Deenars. Therefore, salvation is an item to be sold by God, but the rate depends not on the extent of the money, but depends on the extent of sacrifice of money. When your sacrifice is not full, you are trying to purchase the salvation, which can never be purchased. When your sacrifice is full, the salvation is sold.