'GREED'is the basest of all traits exhibited by the human-being and can ,in my humble opinion be termed as the root-cause of all wrong-doings,evil and is certainly the deadliest of all sins known to Mankind...Simply said,it would mean the 'desire','craving' or 'eyeing' of that which does not rightfully,legitimately or correctly belongs to one's own self ...Thus,it is by all reasoning one of the most disagreeable facets of the behaviour,quality or nature of a person...!!!
'Greed' or avarice cannot be confined to the meaning contained in the English Language-dictionary .It connotes a deeper ,cruder,crueler instinct in human activities which are prompted by the all-pervasive yearning to acquire,to own,to possess an animate or inanimate possession - either by hook or by crook;through rightful means or by wrongful ways ...
..Be it matters of food,clothing,shelter,property or power,he/she becomes rapacious and is led by a lone obsession ,viz;-'to-have-more-and-more-and-more'...when this crosses the limits of tolerance and steps over the barriers of human-acceptability of aberrations in attitudes of fellow-beings, it transforms the mind of the person concerned into a possessed beast and in the process,the greedy-person shall fail to draw the lines between civility and lawfulness and behave in the most selfish,uncivilized,barbaric ways...
..A major part of the said such individual's life-time is directed exclusively at 'amassing' or 'hoarding' and 'holding' such ill-gotten wealth or ownership - usually of things immovable and movable - physical-assets are 'built' but the moral fibre and fabric of the person's existence is depleted and affected irrevocably ...The 'thirst-for-more-and-more' becomes unquenchable ,literally speaking and the sinful obsession continues- eventually leading to untold sufferings and unexpected end to the selfish-exercise which may be compared to chasing one's own shadow at high noon-time in a blazing sun : the more one secures or obtains, the more one wants - it is seemingly never-satiated , never-ending , never- complete...Invariably,this trait ends in Misery (there is a poetic expression of the 'birth' of this negative-quality in a living - being where the poem allures to the haste with which a calf suckles at the mother-cow's udders)- this ugly phenomenon rears its hydra-heads in many walks of Human Endeavor too...
I seek to explore the causes of this singularly unfortunate,sadistic trait in everyday life as encountered in our society today:
* GREED FOR FOOD :We notice the trend of hordes of people (families en masse) flocking after dusk or after dinner-time to the stalls and carts and hotels or pubs located on the highways and even the by-lanes of many a city to 'eat' and savor food :It may be fashionable to declare this a lifestyle evolved out of the last generation not having learnt how to cook or that it is impossible to devote time at home after long travel/work-hours to prepare the delicacies or even a laborious process of 'making rotis' ...But nevertheless,I shall not be wrong in surmising the situation and defining it as the 'Greed' for food - many people are greedy for 'good'-food ...OF COURSE ,THERE MAY BE NOTHING HUMANLY WRONG IN 'ENJOYING' GOOD-FOOD or appreciating the food sold on the streets to 'home-made food' my dear Friends,but the moment you cross the boundary -line of moderation you would be inviting trouble and the incidence of gastro-related illnesses and digestive-formulations and tablets vying with paracetamol-tablets on the shelves of the pharmacist's is no mystery at all..!!! By gorging in excess of the bodily-needs,indigestion,dypepsia or diarrhoea are invited by the consumer .Hence and therefore,one must guard oneself against excessive attachment to food or uncontrolled intake of food...As the elders of yore said - 'Eat to live and do not live to eat...'
( As a lawyer,I would dare say that becoming a slave of the palate is akin to being enslaved by lust .So,GREED is a wrong,a sin, a crime : interestingly,often times, greed - for - food is self-destructive resulting in pain,suffering and misery to the eater himself ,per se )...
* GREED FOR MATERIAL-WEALTH :This is a 'desire' thought and bandied about to be a 'feather' in the plume one gathers around one's name as though one were a peacock spreading its grandeur of coloured-feathers when it rain-dances ...little realizing that when one's mortal life ends at a certain age on Earth,the wealth generated, amassed,created would not continue to be 'owned','possessed' nor 'enjoyed' by the greedy-person .What an anachronism and ironic way of Life this is indeed ...!!!
And the unique feature of this trait or quality in most human-beings is that unless and until there is true 'renunciation',there is bound to prevail such a desire .For any house-holder this desire in moderation is essential to 'fend' for the needs of those dependent upon the property so created....It is important that need is not mistaken for greed and at the same time , what steps into the terrain of 'greed' is to be understood . While 'Contentment' is the source of all human joy ,irrespective of the economic and social-strata to which one belongs to ,'GREED' is the beginning of the endless stream of miseries that are bound to happen ,often times during the lifetime of the said such greedy person ...One should not earn money ,make money , hoard earnings, amass wealth or acquire properties for the mere sake of 'the-pleasure-of-making-it-all'...All religious Scriptures of every Faith and Following advocates against the sinful habit or tendency to develop attachment to or a weakness for money-making or building-property...Man made money and Money must not make the man As the Holy Bible enunciates - .'it is more difficult for a rich man to reach Heaven than it is for a Camel to pass through the eye of a needle ...'!!As the Enlightened Souls have said time and again, ..'the gift of human-life is not to earn money but for serving GOD ..'
'Selfishness' is the factor that prompts all exercises of 'GREED'.It makes one unsuited to seek the truth-of-Life or go in quest of 'Self-Realization'..So, I am sure the question springs up immediately : 'how to curb or eradicate this defect of the human genetic composition(if one concedes this clever defence of a self-inflicted quality of becoming greedy for something or a personal possession) ? . . . I for one would humbly submit that all vices can certainly be controlled quite effectively by the cultivation of opposing-virtues ,consciously as well as conscientiously... 'Greed' can be controlled by practicing 'CONTENTMENT'- a virtue that very few people are born with ...'CONTENTMENT'flows by the cultivation of dispassion,detachment and by shunning the feeling of dejavu in grabbing what does not belong to oneself (either by depriving another or by sheer denial of the others'rights to the given object-of-enjoyment',so to say...!!)...let not the cynic there point out that a contented person seldom attains any worthwhile worldly-material ...However and nevertheless,he/she is on the pathway to secure Spiritual-treasures- with inestimable value, great permanence and very relevant at the end of it all , in Human - Life ...
* GREED FOR FAME : It is not wrong to say that if all the much-publicized, often-televised,ever-eulogized 'Godmen'and 'Spiritual-gurus'were to practice what they preach and shun the 'greed'for popularity ( and to be revered,kowtowed,worshipped by large numbers of people - often forgetting that it is GOD ALMIGHTY ALONE who is the SUPREME FORCE FOREVER and even the one enslaving the weaker fellow-beings in the Name of God is subservient and must die as a mortal-being from this Earth )...Every experiment conducted over the ages and even in recent times has shown that often what we spend as essential needs are costs of bowing to or allowing one's self to be enslaved by the hi-tech waves of Advertising and in fact can be done away with - to lead a longer, serene,happier lifestyle ...Sops to vanity should end ; necessities of life must suffice ... The number of clothes in the wardrobe, the array of perfume-bottles and shoes in the rack are not the one's which exhibit the true nobler ,finer qualities of the girl who would become your wife or the man who would father your children - this message must be spread to the minds of the Youth of today ,worldwide and only then can 'Inflation' be battled by Mankind ... or else, irrespective of being a gold-medallist in several professional-courses or excelling in the chosen line of profession, even I would fail in curbing the price-rise when I don the mantle of the Governor of all my fellow-citizens,one fine day ,God-willing of course ...(not with a view to usurp fame and pelf or power but with a view to make life more meaningful ,happy and productive for both the Living and the Future populations)...
* GREED FOR EASY-WINNINGS:In ripping apart the monster of greed,can most certainly learn to live and lead by example the way to beat micro-economics in established theories of price-rise as also tame macro-economics pundits by the horns : a cumulative effect will be the increase of 'happiness-quotient' in the society,in the economy , in all people of the society - irrespective of disregardful of the price-rice figures displayed by any opposition-party or commerce-chamber : HOW ELSE DO YOU ACCOUNT FOR THE LARGEST OF INDUSTRIALISTS SURVIVING BEING BROW-BEATEN BY THE ORCHESTRA OF BULLS-AND-BEARS ON THE BOURSES OF THE WORLD - how else can a big'loser' survive while a small'player' drown in this tide of human-failings ?
( Stock-exchanges are certainly the businesses' way of making you play at the race-courses without stepping out of your house,is not it ? GREED for making ,amassing,hoarding wealth is often associated with the constant bombarding of the drawing-rooms and vulnerable minds of the largely below-middle class level of people in the society who either become enslaved to vices or 'unwise' ways of lifestyle and if successful such ill-gotten wealth invariably brings with it heaps of miseries and sufferings in one form or the other - How else would you account for the hoard of 'security-personnel' guarding a 'Successful' or 'Wealthy' or 'Famous' persona- be it a film actor or a minister or a capitalist in the society? ).
* GREED FOR SENSUAL-JOYS: Beware ,the pursuit of sensual-pleasures and material-comforts is a 'rat-race' where as you run,the goal or the destination recedes... As the Ancients said - ..'All flesh is like grass and all its Glory is like the flower of the field...the grass withers;the flower fades;only the WORD OF GOD endures forever and forever ....Can any scientist or any layman deny this fact ? Why then participate in a self-defeating and pointless exercise ...
Ultimately,'Contentment' alone contributes to the 'Peace-of-Mind'.Wonder of wonders, it not merely counters avarice and greed but even anger(an emotion that emanates from an unfulfilled desire) and other weaknesses of the human-nature ,such as Vanity,Jealousy ,Selfishness,Hatred,Cruelty...
May I make an observation as I rest my friends, is it not 'greed' to take/demand/seek a 'dowry' from the woman you would wed? Is it not 'greed' to ignore the needs of your elderly and aged parents ? Is it not 'greed' to not live and let live ?
In allowing you to rest and evaluate ,assess and draw your conclusions on your own situation in Life's journey on the 'Greed-Audit'exercise, My dear Friends, I dare say please do begin with the -'WHO AM I ?' question to arrive at the right picture ...
