One can gain wealth and distinction by fair or foul means but making proper use of them is another matter. There are many people who have amassed wealth, but those who have made proper use of that wealth are rare. It is an irony that those who are prosperous are not able to use their wealth for noble causes and those who could use the wealth appropriately are not attaining higher level of self-effort. Alas, if the prosperity and noble intentions could co-exist, how happy and flourishing this world would be!
Money not being used properly may be acceptable but when it is wasted in senseless activities, then it is painful to realize that what could have been used for the welfare of the individual and the society has been used for just the opposite purposes, and this could have been avoided.
We often see capable people traversing the path of defiance and committing misdeeds; prosperous people themselves using their wealth towards wrong purposes which bring an environment of torture, downfall, and affliction. The majority of the culprits spreading treachery, deception and betrayal are those who are supposed to be intelligent. We see people in power igniting the rage of war and causing hardships to countless people. It would have been better if such people would not be victorious. What can be said about success which creeps in the guise of glory and makes people insane? In that insanity people lose their discrimination and do all kinds of monkey business.
Hopeless people cannot do any good for others. For them, leading their own life is tiresome.
Caught in the obscurity of their own problems. they can be of no use to others. They do not have a vision for help and service. But it is gratifying to note that unlike the so-called capable people, they do not create a fire which would later get transformed into a wildfire and engulf vast areas.
All the illiterate and uneducated people of the world put together did not misguide humanity as much as the handful of literary people, artists, and religious leaders who were used as puppets by wealthy people. At one time scientists were working to discover the objects of human welfare but now even they have surrendered to the rich and work only to discover what suits their providers. The so-called wealthy people are boasting of buying not only the brains, but even the honesty of the intellectuals. By virtue of their wealth they claim the power to make even gods and goddesses work for them.
It can be understood that a scarcity of resources may cause difficulties, but their misuse can cause even more severe repercussions. If you don’t have a knife you can use some other instrument for cutting vegetables; but if a shiny, sharp, and expensive knife is stuck into your stomach, then you will realize that not having a knife was a better option.
In the past, before the chain of scientific. discoveries had begun, resources were certainly less abundant, but there was so much cooperation and happiness that it seemed almost like a salyug. Sharing was the norm of the day and hence people lived happily with whatever they had without crisis or struggle. How can one feel a scarcity of resources in such a situation? In fact, the needs of a human are very modest, and can be easily acquired with a few hours of simple effort. Desire that fuels an urge for misuse is the troubling factor. If we can overcome this mental aberration, then there will be no problem earning a livelihood. In fact, one can earn enough to help others.
The one and only reason for this increase in immoral practices is the appetite for accumulating wealth and superfluous items of luxury and ornamentation. Fire is not extinguished by giving it more fuel; desire is not satisfied by fulfilling it. The ego swells in the glitter of luxury, so that whatever is earned falls short, and the tendency to grab other’s share by hook or by crook builds up. This leads to amassing a lot of wealth which can never be used properly. In the absence of empathetic approach and the noble virtues, an uncontrolled and purposeless spending remains the only possibility, for which even the wealth of Kuber and power of Indra will not be sufficient. In such a state of mind, where is contentment? Where is peace? Joy and bliss become a mirage in the oasis of life.
Conditions for curing a disease arise only after a proper diagnosis. In the present scenario the problems may appear multifold but the root cause is one the appetite for accumulation and wasteful spending of wealth. People who adopt this lifestyle will toil constantly but can never get an opportunity to do good to them or to the society, or to ever gain fame and respect from society.
A spendthrift eventually becomes a victim of bad habits. If he can meet his personal needs with minimal resources, then what happens to all his extra earnings? In the absence of generosity the money is not used for the welfare of the downtrodden, and thus the only option available is senseless, wasteful expenditure. When the influential classes of society adopt the lifestyle of narrow selfishness, other segments of the society naturally imitate them, and thus it becomes a trend. Lack of ability, lack of effort, and aspiring for enormous extravagance – all these combine to make an ideal environment for building an army of vices to plunder the beauty of the world.
Akhand Jyoti
Jan-Feb 2019