Triple Stream

TRIPLE STREAM
Money, Money, Money

“It is easier to write about money than to earn it, and those who acquire it make fun of those who only know how to write about it”, said Voltaire, the great philosopher.  Moneyless authors will say “After all it is only a medium of exchange on the basis of which the value of things is assessed”. “No man but a block head ever wrote except for money” said Samuel Johnson.

Poverty makes us strangers to our own house but money brings us friends and relatives from all over the world. Money makes many things and covers a multitude of defects and sins. The best tribute made to money was by Somerset Maugham, the famous writer who said: “Money is like the sixth sense and you cannot make use of the other senses without it”.  Even William Shakespeare made Iago say to Roderigo in ‘Othello’, a great play: “Put money in your purse, fill thy purse with money……therefore make money”. Mammon is the god of money and without his blessings nothing is possible in this world today. Why do all our godmen and ‘spiritual’ leaders go to America and establish their Asrams there? Why don’t they go to Africa where there is greater need on account of poverty and ignorance? The answer is obvious.

Every coin has two sides–the obverse and the reverse. Sankaracharya said “Ardhamanardham” (Money is an evil).  What he meant was, pursuit of wealth leads people into temptation and blinds them to ethical values.  There is a pointed reference to money even in PANCHATANTRA:

‘Money causes pain in getting
In the keeping stress and fretting
Pain in loss, pain in spending
Damn the trouble never ending’.
Money can only buy what money can
- not happiness, sleep, wisdom, etc.
Amusements but not peace of mind
Books but not wisdom
A clock but not more time
Companions but not friends
Cosmetics and finery but not beauty
Food but not appetite
A house but not a home
Medicine but not health
A ring but not marriage!

Jesus said “I have nothing at night. Nothing in the morning. Yet there is none on earth richer than I.”

Francis Bacon said “Money is muck – not good except it be spread.” Money can buy only things that have face value but not depth and character.

Jesus Christ said “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to pass through the gates of heaven”. When a rich man wanted to know what good things should be done to get eternal life, Christ said “Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor”.  Disappointed, the wealthy man went away, because he had many possessions!

On another occasion Jesus denounced the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capermaun and was bitter against the scribes and the Pharisees. He drove the money – changers from the temple with a whip and cast out all those who sold and bought.

Every one knows the story of Midas who obtained from God a boon that every thing he touched should turn into gold. He thought that nothing could hold before gold! What happened was a great tragedy. His own daughter had turned into a statue of gold. Thomas Hood, the poet, wrote ‘Gold! Gold! Gold! Bright and yellow, hard and cold’. Horace, the Latin poet said “Money is a hand maiden if you know how to use it, a mistress, if you don’t know it”.

Demos, a research organisation of London surveyed fifty five countries in the world to find out in which country people were happy. To their astonishment they found that in affluent countries like U.K. they were not happy and in poor countries like Bangladesh, Azerbaijan and Nigeria they were happy.  They concluded that money does not make people happy. Attitude to life, philosophy of life and faith will work as shock-absorbers and bring life-transforming readjustment to the changes and obstacles in life.

Rockfeller, the billionaire philanthropist said “Any body who dies rich, dies disgraced”.  Money is like manure.  If you spread it around, it does lot of good. Like blood it should always be in circulation and not to be hoarded or accumulated.

Easy money which is an unearned gain, is the worst of all evils. The desire to become a millionaire overnight made the lottery a flourishing business. People want today quick-fixes and instant money. That is why astrologers, palmists and fake godmen are thriving. Only a crackpot can expect to get a jackpot.

However, there is beauty in earning money through hard labour or honest means and sharing some of it with our less fortunate fellow human beings. Professors of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences of Emory University of Atlanta (U.S.A.) made research and found out that lottery winners and persons who got easy money do not get satisfaction and real joy in life, and that “the brains of those who had to work for money were more stimulating. The subjects were more aroused when they had to do some thing”. Our Upanishads say “What you possess is not yours.  What you give is yours”. Majority of people perceive nacre as silver, glass beads as gems and mirage as water.

About political corruption here is an inscription on the tomb of a politician:

“Here richly with ridiculous display
The politician’s corpse was laid away
While all his acquaintances sneered and slanged
I wept, for I longed to see him hanged”.