Avarice leads to ruin

[sumitsehrawat]

A person becomes rich either by inheritance or by self-earning, but the tendency in general, is not to remain contented but to possess all that one can as soon as possible. In course of such a temptation, some may not even hesitate to commit unlawful acts to achieve their desires. The insatiable greed to amass wealth, the eagerness to consume delicious dishes, the inclination to befriend women and to drink intoxicating beverages are the chief causes for the destruction of man. Greed is like a flame which can reduce to ashes any quanitity of hard wood, if not nipped in the bud, it will annihilate the avaricious. Two parables serve to bring out the consequences of greed, one from Jain scriptures and the other from Panchatantra. Three young men and an elderly person travelling through a jungle came across an ant hill. Under it was a treasure of silver, guarded by a cobra. Disregarding the elder's advice, the youth killed the reptile and carried the booty with them. A little ahead, a similar ant hill with a treasure of gold was found and again, despite the old man's warning, the youth killed the cobra and took away the bundle of yellow metal, with a feeling of joy that they had grown richer. But when they came across a third treasure of gems, they were fatally bitten by a giant-sized cobra. The elder one who managed to escape, retrived the entire treasure and spent it for charitable purposes. A fox in a forest was lucky to find a hunter and a peacock lying dead and was happy that it could get enough food for winter. But in its anxiety to satisfy its immediate appetite, it tried to chew the string of the hunter's bow, when the string forcibly hit the animal, resulting in its death. Contentment alone can fetch peace and happiness while desire can lead to a man's ultimate ruin.

January 21, 1980
The Hindu