What is the difference between wealthy people who live simply and real renunciates?

I have seen some people who own lot of money. They neither use their money for sense gratification nor even for Krishna’s service or for any other. They are just happy to see their fat bank balance.
They live simple do not even try to bring material comforts for living. What is the difference between these kind of people and a true Vairagi?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Question from Pranav Prabhu. Based on what you said in the article, things may be long but for how long? I have seen some people who earn a lot of money. They either use their money for sense gratification or even for Krishna’s service or for any other purpose.
They are just happy to see their fat bank balance. They live simply not even trying to bring material comforts for living. What is the difference between these kind of people and a true Vairagi? True renunciation is not just a matter of outer possessions but it is a matter of inner conceptions.
If one has a possessive mentality, I own this, I own this, I own this and one delights in that possessive mentality, then one is not a renunciate. Even if one is not using those things for one’s immediate pleasure. In fact the kind of people that you are talking about.
Such a person is also mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam 11th canto in the form of Avanti Brahmana. This person would hold wealth and not share it even with his own family members. So the pleasure that one was getting was from the idea that I have so much.
Generally most people when they have wealth, they want to enjoy by splurging, by spending a lot and also exhibiting to the world. I have so much wealth and generally the way they exhibit is by displaying their wealth to others and by spending it luxuriously. But some people, the same possessive mentality may come in different ways where they don’t want to spend wealth but they want to hold wealth.
These kind of people are called as misers, Kripanaha in Sanskrit. So they are delighting in material things itself, in the possession of wealth. So a true renunciate is defined not just by renunciation from the world but by devotion to God and the renunciates are truly renowned to the extent that they are not delighting in things of this world.
So these people who may not be spending their money and may be living simply, if their delight is not in spiritual things, if their delight is not in service to God, not in spiritual realization, then they are still materialistic people. Their materialism may not be gross like those who throw parties and wear obscenely wealthy things and parade around their wealth. Their materialism may not be as gross as that, their materialism may be more subtle in terms of the conception that I own so much, I am the lord of so much property.
But still it’s materialism and what defines a renunciate is spirituality, spiritual consciousness and the aspiration for and the experience of spiritual happiness. So the important point is not that whether one parades one’s wealth or conceals one’s wealth. The important point is that one is not obsessed with one’s wealth, one knows that real happiness comes by one’s connection with Krishna and one focuses on that connection and whatever wealth one owns and one has, one uses in pursuit of that spiritual goal.
So that’s what is the best way to use wealth. Otherwise whether we exhibit or conceal wealth, still we will stay materialistic and we will stay on in the bondage in material existence. Thank you.