The Creed of Greed

“There is no disaster greater than greed” is a well known oriental proverb. One of my friends is a government servant. He was once afflicted with this ghoul called greed. Many of his colleagues at work used to borrow money from him. If he denies, they would press him saying, “Its truly urgent. We are willing to pay any interest rate you demand! Just please don’t say ‘no’! if you don’t have the money please get it from the people you know.” This set my friend thinking a bit.He thought this could be a great side-business model – Get money from his acquaintances at a lower rate of interest and lend this to his office colleagues at a higher interest! This, he thought would effortlessly ensure a steady source of additional income! He started approaching many of his acquaintances. He promised them higher returns, if they could hand over the amount they had in fixed deposits in their banks. They started giving him the money which he lent to his office colleagues for a higher interest rate. It started well and payments also came in regularly; this created a swell in volume of money lent also. A few months passed. Some people who borrowed money from him got transferred; some changed jobs; some simply retired and left for their native towns. Many told the person point blank, “I cant return the money you lent. Do what you can or want to!” On the other end people who lent my friend the money started pressurizing him for returning the money. He being a honest straight-forward person, started channelizing his salary, fixed and liquid assets to get funds to return the money he owed to his acquaintances. This created a great problem in his family. In desperation he contemplated running away to be in hiding; many a time he even contemplated ending his life! Not finding a solution to this
tremendous crisis, he was reduced a bed ridden state of mental sickness.

Another friend of mine was employed in private sector with a nice well paying job; he was well educated; came from a decent family; had loving wife and a lovely child- his was like a lyrical picture perfect joyous household life. He was also possessed by the demon of greed in the form of real estate investments. One of his friends told him, “I have invested in real estate! See! Through this I am living a great life – latest car, a big bungalow, many frequent tourism trips to overseas – in short a cushy joyous life!” My friend was naturally curious! “if you invest your money in just bank deposits, you are working for your money! If you invest wisely in real estate the money will work for you! The value of your property shall appreciate incredibly over time. Sell it and buy land elsewhere. Once you keep doing this you can grow this business. I have earned huge money just by doing this. You are seeing its impact in my lifestyle!”
Hearing this my friend also got infected with this greed! He withdrew his total savings and invested it in a land in the outskirts of the city, through his friend himself. He was now riding on the horses of day dreams where he saw himself as an effortless millionaire! One fine day, he noticed that some people were unloading bricks and cements in ‘his’ land. He was shell shocked! He managed to find out the
address of the person who had sent these people for construction. He approached them and went into an argument as to how they can encroach ‘his’ land. They simply furnished the document which clearly showed the land to be entitled to them. He took a copy and approached a lawyer. The lawyer studied the documents and told in no uncertain terms that the land was ‘indeed’ theirs. When my friend
furnished his documents the lawyer didn’t take long to figure out that they were fake papers. Someone had fraudulently sold them someone else’s land. Even if this one takes this to court, it wont stand a chance of success. When my friend heard this he felt ground under his feet shaking. Now he must have understood how his wealthy friend got his latest car, huge bungalow and his overseas tourism trips.

Another acquaintance of mine came from a very humble family, worked hard to establish himself as a good lawyer with a reasonable practice to lead a good life. He had saved up little by little and it grew to a substantial amount. Soon a person belonging to film industry became his acquaintance. He said, “A friend of mine is producing a movie; for his movie to be released he needs a ‘small’ amount urgently.
That movie is going to gross millions. Great profit can ensue to the one who gives that money as a portion of profit shall be shared with this investor.” The lawyer thought the fairy of fortune is knocking his doors! Opportunity seldom knocks twice- so he thought! He rushed to give all his savings to that producer through his friend. The movie did get released; it ran packed houses; it earned applauses of audiences in many a place. But the money promised to him never actually came. It was then that he realized fortune fairy didn’t knock the door, but it was goblin of grave times who has knocked him down!

“Alright! Why are you – a spiritual speaker dwelling on these mundane tales of deceit?” You may ask! Let me come to the subject matter. Only if we elaborate on a subject matter, would it be properly understood. This prologue is purely presented for that purpose alone.
The eight limbed yoga (Patanjali Maharishi’s Ashtanga Yoga) has yama, niyama, Asana, pranayama, prathyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi as its limbs. Pure life, sustained celibacy, ahimsa (non- violence0, satyam (truth), desirelessness, tolerance and forbearance etc are not the only requirements to progress in this path; along with them the aspirant also needs proximity and guidance of a master who is adept in this field; he also needs to practice for hours together every day. If one does all this diligently, he/she may find its fruition before the completion of his lifetime or in the future lives. This is the incontrovertible truth. But what do we do? If someone promises that he or she can arouse the serpent power of kundalini in an year or a month or in a just a day (!!) we trust them and go behind them. What is the reason for us getting duped? Like in money matters ‘greed’ rules the roost, this is also ‘greed’ for our ‘express’ spiritual progress. The wishful thought of finding a shortcut for immediate results is the underlying cause. When there are such gullible people, there are always some who are
ready to prey on their ‘gullible greed’. Of the millions aspiring for salvation, one or two only manage to destroy their mind to become a Jeevankumtha. To get to the ultimate state of realization we need to live an austere life of penance, dispassion, celibacy, be recipient of a master’s upadesha. All these are absolutely essential. With tremendous detachment, and with the desire of aloneness, ceaselessly- day and night- enquiring of truth (Brahma vichara) should be practiced. Only to these people – Jeevan mukthi state is really possible. If someone promises to give this state instantaneously, and that he or she is capable of giving this, many fall for the trap and rush there! Isn’t the cause of this greed? Is it not because they wish an effortless shortcut to attain something big?
Well, the path of divine love (Prema bhakti) is no different. Attaining a satguru, being in a satsang, listening to pravachanas day and night, chanting the divine name incessantly, doing selfless service to divinity, showing love to one and all, surrendering our worldly and divine life related needs to the divinity- in short living a pure divine devotional life alone leads to prema bhakti. That too in due course of time. Instead of all this, seeing people singing and dancing in fast beat with varieties of musical instruments can create a false sense of ecstasy especially to those who are weak minded. They would also start dancing forgetting themselves; tears may well up in their eyes; they would be seen with an
emotional high. But this is not true devotion. Sometimes we see in pop music or rock music shows – the audience going into frenzy, crying and dancing. We need to remember this too to really differentiate devotion from some experiences of false rapture due to provocative music etc. Is not greed the cause of this too? Only people who wish for an effortless path to a grand spiritual goal shall tread a wrong path
and attain a false guru.

With all this in mind, one thing is clear. In these times, given the circumstances around which we live, leading a simple life of a householder and chanting the divine names of Hari as much as possible is really sufficient. And this is the unshakable conclusion of Srimad Bhagavatham.

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