Are you rich?

Are You Truly Rich?

The Bible says, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

It is natural for a person to long for the bare necessities of life, like food, housing, clothing and other little luxuries. But along with them a little sense of sharing can help. It can give more satisfaction and happiness than it normally would without sharing. We need money to survive, to be comfortable, to indulge and enjoy life. Money also gives power over others, but not peace. “Poor and content is rich and rich enough.” says William Shakespeare.

Most of the people want to live in richness, which is the tangible, physical form. Being materially rich, having wealth and physical property are greatest things and also useful some of the great men, sages were kings and princes, but they did not make it their weakness that could rule their lives.

Richness of mind and heart are two different things that create a balance in life. Richness of heart gives compassion, purity, the quality of serving and sharing. This richness of the innerself comes when man rises above narrow identities, lives successfully. His riches become useful in serving others. He becomes more sensitive to the beauty of nature, to harmony with the self and surrounding, to precise thinking and speaking. Because every thought of ill will or every hard word makes an impact on other person towards whom it is directed. Sages have said that one who has risen above the narrow selfish desires becomes free from anxiety, fear and worry and is always tranquil, calm and joyous. Such a person is ever helpful to all living like a king who is responsible in richness.

When money doesn’t stay in pockets, it goes to your hand, and then misery is sure to come. If you keep it in your pocket, it’s great. Having lots of money, if it enters your head it becomes misery because that’s not its place.

In the Western countries 40% people use psychiatric medicine to remain same. Because they have never seen poverty, scarcity of money, it always is in excess. They have seen only the outside world, through material gain and have forgotten the inside which can keep that misery away and bring peace. That cannot be called well being which money should bring.

When discontentment creeps in a person thinks only about fulfilling the future but misses the beauty of the present. If you are rich, you want to be richer, if you are strong, you want to be stronger, if you are beautiful, you want to be more beautiful and thus the want goes on increasing day by day. Such a mind does not let you live life, but it lives life behind. It takes away the happiness and pleasure, and gives greed and unsatisfaction. As J. Botheron quotes, “My richness consists not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants.”

This greed for money or richness goes to such an extent that the person can think of nothing else. The individual begins to see every action, every relationship and every transaction he does with the point of greed. The slightest chance of less gain will make him turn away from it. Even in his relationship the thought of personal gain will make him selfish. He cannot bear to do anything to please others, for a better cause or for the sake of humanity. But he will seek the same for himself. His greed becomes so dominant that he cannot see anything beyond the self.

This type of attitude takes away the small moments of happiness from life, from family, friends and all around. People slowly begin to drift away from such people as they cannot be necessarily interactive with him. In a whole family with several members he will be left out. He has to face loneliness as nobody barriers in his relationships. He develops a rigid sense of ego that does not tolerate ant deviation from is self-made pattern of life. He becomes proud, arrogant and disgraceful towards others. He feels he can set rules, he can bye anything and everything with the money he has. Forgetting that love, emotion, respect and care cannot be bought by any amount of wealth. They are the two way feelings, only if you give it you can give it you can expect in return. A one way flow can never last long. As George H. Lorimer has put it,- “It is good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.”

The example of Andrew Carnegie, who was born in a one-room attic in the nineteenth century is a Scottish weaver’s house, can only  remind the greatness of the riches you earn. He wrote, ‘It is a disgrace to die rich.’ And gave away seventy million pounds because he believed them to be true. He had migrated from Scotland to America with his poor parents. He started with an unpleasant job in a boiler room of a bobbin factory. Then he became a messenger boy, later he was promoted as an operator, then a telegraphist in a big company, after that he became a railroad superintendent. Slowly and steadily climbing the ladders of success. At eighteen he felt capable of doing anything. At the age of twenty-seven he earned £ 10,000 a year. He became the steel king and his reign lasted from 1875 to 1900. He spent all the surplus each year for benevolent purposes. He believed it ‘disgraceful to die as a rich man’. He believed that a rich man’s life should be divided into two parts, the first making money, and the second giving it away. This task of giving money was as difficult and important as earning it. In 1900 Carnegie retired, then for 20 years he gave his money away for noble causes. In educational fields, scientific research, music, he formed the Carnegie Corporation both I America and Great Britain, leaving a huge income to be spent every year for different purposes. ‘His Gospel of Wealth’ has profoundly influenced the modern world, writes one of his friend.

“A man’s true wealth is the good he does in the world. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.” –writes Khalil Gibran.

No matter how rich you are, whether you are born rich with a silver spoon, or you are rich due to your efforts and hard work. There should always be a sense of humility and compassion within you that no riches of the world can overtake. Being rich is a great boon, but not on its own. It has to be in partnership with human values. Only then can a person be called truly rich. Or else he will be only wealthy of belonging and devoid of morality.

Every religion, every sect preaches about sharing and caring for others.  What we have and what we can give away depends only on us. Only giving away money does not mean sharing. Giving away of help, care, thoughts, knowledge and inspiration is also a way of sharing. It is for the individual to decide whether he wishes to live rich or die rich.  Hoard his wealth till death or give it away for good cause. Hoard his knowledge and intellect to die with him or share it with others so that it can increase manifolds. Because sharing of knowledge and ideas will only increase them and will give a strange satisfaction that no riches can buy.

Buddha is not remembered to this day because he was a rich king, but because he renounced his riches, his kingdom to be a messenger of peace. Though in the 21^st century we scarcely find such enlightened souls, but no one can stop our soul from learning from them. Today we see great personalities around us, who have grown from rags to riches, but out of them who will be a Carnegie and who a Buddha only they can decide.

It is an old belief, that money goes the way it comes. If you earn the money with honesty, it will bring peace, prosperity and happiness and it will also last long. But if it is earned by unfair means it brings frustration and anxiety as long as it remains with you, and when it goes away in a split of time, again for wrong purposes, it leaves you helpless and unhappy.

The modern, rich and famous have a superficial attitude about them. They show artificial pomp. The neighborhoods are full of people who do spend their fortunes to buy expensive cars to be parked in the front porch of their bungalow, but when it comes to using, maintaining and refilling it, they prefer using the public transport to avoid the wear and tear of their most preservable object. Each person in the family may be given a latest model of cellphone, but everytime it needs to be recharged they have to face the dreary abuses. So the money you have also should have a way to be spent. It is not every person’s cup of tea to be rich, live rich and die rich.

How then do we define ‘Rich’?

In a nutshell – A person materially and spiritually affluent.”