There's No End to Human Greed

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 15 October 2022 T 'igiyu capitola ent -An Old Turkish saying (Wealth suffocates) Life adorned with affluence Often loses its significance Maulana Rumi, translated from old Turkish by the writer Extreme, nay morbid, greed for more wealth drove a Kerala couple so crazy that they participated in the gruesome killings of two women along with a pervert. This had me thinking as to how much does one require for a respectable living? Every sane person seems to be asking the same question as a cogitative and cognitive aftermath of this gory episode. While reading Wren Congdon's ' Sufi Sayings, ' I came across a very perceptive line: The obsession for possessions turns into a sickness. One wonders whether wealth really contributes to well-being. Is it really the ultimate source of happiness? Contentment is something that doesn't come with wealth. On the contrary, wealth takes away one's peace of mind. ‘Raton Ki Neend Dil Ka Qaraar Le Gaya/ Paisa Mujh Se Kaya-Kya Le Gaya' (Money took away my sleep and inner peace). This lamentation of affluent people is not uncommon. Wealth begets jealousy. In fact, Japanese people say that wealth and envy are twin sisters. They're indeed Siamese twins. Wealth invariably increases one's longings for more wealth. And these cravings have no end. In our pursuit of wealth, we often miss out on life's simple pleasures. How much does one need to live peacefully? The mad scramble to amass and accumulate will leave no time to stand and stare. ‘Woh Jinko Pyar Hai Chaandi Se Ishq Sone Se, Wahi Kahenge Kabhi Humne Khudkushi Kar Li' (Those in love with affluence will one day end up committing suicide). Excessive wealth incarcerates one in a golden cage. A wealthy friend of mine in Himachal Pradesh sold off his expensive car within a couple of months because his wife felt embarrassed to drive her rather 'ordinary' car. It gave her an inferiority complex to drive a car worth Rs. 10 lacs, just because the neighbour had bought a car for 15 lacs!! This is the pitfall of wealth. You're never satisfied. It fills you with rabidly vicious envy. Mirza Ghalib rammed home this point in his inimitable manner: 'Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi Ke Har Khwahish Pe Dum Nikle/ Bahut Nikle Mere Arman Lekin Phir Bhi Kam Nikle' (All desires are so overwhelming that you die for each of them/ Even after so many wishes, there're still a host of them unrealised and unfulfilled). In a short span of life, many of us are just hankering after wealth and possessions. We start living in ivory towers and lose our touch with the ground realities. Wealth often creates an artificial life and one eventually feels suffocated in it. You'll often see affluent people thronging the meditation centres. Agreed, it's one of their style quotients, but there's no denying the fact that they find a void in them which they want to fill with the help of meditation and other such relaxing exercises. A gnawing sense of emptiness is always deep down in their conscience. When Siddharth (later Gautam Buddha) left home, it wasn't the overwhelming fear of death and sufferings that egged him on to leave everything. It was actually the futility of wealth which dawned on him at an early age. Interestingly, in Sinhalese, the word Buddha also connotes 'a blissful existence without wealth!' (see Nevin Ramanayke's PhD thesis 'Sinhalese words in the context of Buddhism and its scriptures', Colombo University Press, Colombo, 1999). Wealth is a mirage in the desert of life. It's a proverbial will-o'-the-wisp, an ever elusive thing. To be affluent and happy is like being happily married. You're either happy or married. The two can't live together. I'm not a rabid egalitarian to hurl stones at those who've wealth. It's good to have money but there should be a limit to it. Too much wealth is often inimical to (mental) health that finally leads to physical health. One should also realise that soul-satisfaction is also of paramount importance. To quote Sahir Ludhianvi, " Dil Ki Taskeen Bhi Hai Asaish-E-Hasti Ki Daleel/ Zindagi Sirf Zar-O-Seem Ka Paimana Nahin / Zeest Ahsaas Bhi Hai, Shauq Bhi Hai, Dard Bhi Hai Sirf Anfaas Ki Tarteeb Ka Afsaana Nahin " (The satisfaction of heart is also the assurance of a happy existence/ Life's not always the goblet made of gold and silver/Life's a feeling, joie de vivre and also pain/ It ain't a mere story of the arrangement of breaths). Long ago, the late US Economist Milton Friedman, who won the Nobel in Economics in 1976, wrote that, ' Wealth also has a collective negative bearing on societal relationships, which is not good for the overall well-being of the society and mankind.' He explained his statement further, ' When we judge people on the basis of their wealth and we inevitably do that, we draw an invisible line and create differences in our subconscious. This is undesirable and unhealthy because it polarises the world into two distinct groups: Have and have-nots.' This is not just against the well-being of an individual. It's also against the well-being of a nation. This is what's happening in India: The unequal distribution of wealth. Some are so wealthy that they live in a clover and wallow in money and most of the people are so poor that they can't even make both the ends meet. This extreme polarisation of wealth disturbs the social equilibrium and the collective well-being of a larger group. Coming back to the Kerala episode, the healer husband and wife were well-settled in life. Man writes beautiful and complex Haikus (poems of 17 syllables) in addition to healing. He's 68-yr-old and his wife is 59. Yet, they craved more wealth. This reminds me of Albert Camus's letter to his daughter in which he wrote, ' There's something terribly wrong with the patterns of human desires......' The legendary French existentialist was spot-on. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. 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