Category: Non-Fiction
Rights: All rights available
More Than Money conveys powerfully and profoundly one of the most critical and necessary messages for our times – that material wealth, social wealth, personal wealth and spiritual wealth can all be enjoyed together. Indeed, they need to be enjoyed together for a life to be truly rich. It re-evaluates the idea of wealth from a more holistic perspective, including in its scope all the different dimensions that make a life human. It invites the reader to recognise and dive into all the different kinds of wealth that are possible in this life. The wealth of relationships and love, the wealth of passion and purpose, the wealth of attention, presence and time, or the wealth of nature and beauty, to name just a few, in addition to the well-understood notion of money as wealth. The book argues that all these kinds of wealth are not contradictory to each other. One is not at the expense of another. On the contrary, they complement each other.
One of the core arguments of the book is that real enjoyment, even of tangible, material things, comes from a place of clarity and joy within oneself. That merely possessing things does not guarantee enjoyment; on the other hand, when we cultivate all the different possible kinds of wealth within ourselves, our enjoyment of whatever we do possess actually increases.
The book demonstrates, through simple and clearly-laid out analyses and examples, along with occasional stories and citations from world wisdom traditions, that our enjoyment of all that material wealth can give us, even in the conventional sense, can increase manifold if we know how to live. It vividly illustrates the truth that one of the biggest wealths in the world, one of the biggest gifts in life, is knowing what life truly is and knowing how to live it well.
The book adds to our idea of wealth, rather than taking anything away from it. It outlines in great depth how each of the dimensions of our lives – such as time, or authenticity, or love and friendships, or health, or even solitude, suffering and difficulty – can come together to make our lives infinitely more rich than they would otherwise be. Towards the end it goes deeper and examines the more invisible and hidden dimensions of our lives, such as karma and the need for personal and spiritual growth.
This is a book that will have great relevance and resonance not only in India but globally. It speaks to the overriding issue and concern of our times – how to make our lives wealthier, richer and more enjoyable.
The author: Vipul Rikhi