Avoid being greedy

There once lived a man who had an inordinate propensity for greed. Initially, he was not very well off, but he was ambitious and confident of his skills.

With his meagre earnings, he bought a pot of curd, which he hung near his bed.

He then fell into a deep slumber, his sub-conscious dreams revealing his avariciousness and cupidity.

He imagined that he would sell the pot of curd, get some profit, and then invest the profit in some shares of a company, and in this way go on accumulating profit until he is eventually able to buy a small shop selling merchandise.

So intense was his imagination that he began to build heady castles in the air. He imagined that after accruing a great deal of wealth, many eligible women would vie with each other to marry him. Of course, he would choose the fairest and most beautiful of them all.

As per his imagination, after some years of blissful married life, he would have a whole brood of brats.He then thinks that he’d discipline them and so saying he begins to enact an imaginary scene, whereby he takes a stick, swings it at his imaginary kids, thus thrashing them. As he is adroitly swinging the stick, bang! – the pot of curd comes crashing down – and so do all his feel-good sweet dreams!

The motto: One shouldn’t dream excessively and should be in one’s limits, without being overly greedy and avaricious. This is because heady dreams, visions and fantasies can come crashing down with the speed of lightning. All religious scriptures and teachings espouse lessons on the need to be simple, humble and modest and to refrain from unreasonable and irrational craving for “more and more”. Indeed, it was no less a person than Gandhi who said that, “There is enough for every man’s need, but not for every man’s greed”.

It has rightly been said that “money is the root of all evil”, and history is replete with instances and examples of Emperors and Kings who met their downfall because of their greed. King Midas was excessively greedy and loved gold so much that he wished everything he touched turned into gold. When he touches food, water and even his daughter, Marigold, they subsequently turn into gold, and it is only then that he realizes his folly.

It is a well known fact that wealthy persons will usually always be tense, anxious, distrustful and scared of losing their money. Thus, though gold, money and materialistic objects are important for survival, collecting them should not become an end in itself.

It is evident that people with less materialistic cravings and comforts but with cheerful, helpful dispositions due to their clear and unsullied consciences are usually happier and more content that their disgruntled greedy counterparts. Hence one’s motto should be to be always satisfied with what one is destined to possess.
For remember, money can buy beautiful gold jewellery, but it cannot buy one happiness.