Effects of wealth

“The ego swells, the head becomes stiff, not caring to look around and the gait assumes an affected stateliness,” says an ancient proverb, describing the effects of wealth on human beings.

It is quite natural to be carried away by the comforts, adulation and luxuries conferred by wealth. This human trait has been the object of criticism and disdain for many writers, poets, playwrights and men of spiritual leanings. The seventeenth century scholar Neelakantha Deekshita in his work ‘Kalividambanam’ highlights this human failing with his witty barbs.

The   noteworthy point mentioned here is that wealth affects not only the one who acquires it, but also those who surround him, like family, friends, relatives and neighbours. The first thing to happen when a man acquires wealth is that he starts behaving as if he knows everything and is superior to all others. He then starts mocking and ridiculing at other men, even those who are learned and far more knowledgeable than himself.  His ego bloats and he gradually becomes insensitive to the comments of others. Opportunists, cunning flatterers and greedy friends and relatives flock around him, singing paeans to his ‘admirable and noble qualities’.

“Fooled by the praises of these wily men, deluded into believing that he possesses godly qualities and considering all other fellow humans as lowly insects, forgetting the capriciousness of the goddess of wealth - these are the results of newly acquired wealth,” says the poet. When their wealth declines and they find themselves in dire straits, these men become objects of ridicule. In fact, as the poet says, these rich men are so immersed in their wealth that they even take mockery as praise. They act as if they do not see and recognise others and pretend to authoritatively talk and ask questions.

Where there is honey, can ants be far away? Those who are around these moneybags come to an unspoken, unwritten understanding - Nod in agreement to all that they say, laugh at their juvenile, asinine jokes, ascribe the highest qualities of head and heart to them and cater to their whims and fancies. All for those crumbs scattered by those closed fists!

“Wealth is intoxicating, it makes man delirious. He does not feel a twinge of shame when people elder to him or more knowledgeable than him quietly stay in the background, preferring to stay humble,” says the poet. One can only but smile and nod in agreement when Neelakantha Deekshita says, “Possession by ghosts and supernatural phenomena lasts only for a few moments, after which the possessed one comes out of the trance, wine’s intoxication lasts but for a few hours, but pride of wealth lasts for a lifetime in the case of fools. The goddess of wealth is restless and keeps moving, but the perversion started by wealth is like the odour of garlic; it stubbornly clings to man. It is transmitted down generations, like a hereditary disease. Even the wives and offspring exhibit this superciliousness.”