Money Is Not Honey

Just to pass my leisure I entered in a discussion room, it was full of people from different-different countries and places. Diversity did not stop here; it was a group of people of different age group, and of people from different economic background. Topic for discussion made it a perfect place to join, to discuss and to understand the issue from various perspective. The topic was “Importance of money in life and its management.” I was curious about this discussion because money is something, around which our lives revolve. It took me back to my childhood days when I participated in a debate with a similar topic, “Is money everything?”

Those days I always had favored money, because what we observe every single day, every minute, in our every step is somehow related with money. Discussion began with importance of money. From the group a person in early sixties put out his words, worth of money cannot be decided as its importance is beyond our imagination, and it has become so important that anyone cannot think his life without having money. Starting from food, clothes to shelter, from basic needs to shining luxurious accessories, every fulfillment depends only upon money. And the best ways to understand its importance is try to live penniless for a single day. His point reminded me a quote of famous writer Oscar Wilde, “When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.”MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF HUMAN NEEDS

1. Physiological needs,
2. Safety needs,
3. Love and belonging,
4. Esteem needs, can only be achieved through money. She related self-actualization with money very convincingly, that the path of self- actualization (the utmost act of human) goes through money. It was an excellent work-out by her.

She explained so vividly that most of people who were present in the hall came in support, from which I was not an exception until I heard the next affluent orator, who started with accepting the point of view of all earlier speakers.

He said, “Off course money is of importance, off course money is essential for man to full fill his necessities. Life without money is undoubtedly a virtual hell, with pangs of hunger and thirst eating into man’s very bones. But at the same time we must not forget that money may be something but it is not everything.” When you think about necessities it is something and when you think about luxuries it is everything. And when money becomes everything it starts creating a vicious circle around us and our life. Money should be treated as a mean to achieve something, but it, itself is not something to be achieved. ‘Need is not bad but greed is.’ Yet on the contrary in the present scenario our sole aim of life is to live for money and to die for money with our ever increasing lust to get rich and richer. We are even ready to kill people, including our loved ones in anguish for money. It is a wild goose chase that we are all indulging in, and that, at the cost of all the rest we had. We have forgotten the story of that king whose wish was same as we have today. I beg you all to think of it :-

Long ago, King Midas ruled the land of Greece. He had everything that money could buy, but he wasn’t happy. He lived in a huge palace made of fine white marble, but he wanted it to be bigger and better. He had lots of servants, but never enough to satisfy him. More than anything else, King Midas loved counting his money and piling it into great shining heaps of gold, with desire to accumulate more.

Once, he was walking in the garden, the king was surprised to hear someone calling his name. King Midas should have been smiling with happiness, but he was his usual grumpy self.

‘What scoundrel is hiding in my garden?’ he scowled. When the servants dragged an old man out of the bushes, the king was astonished to see Silenus, his old school teacher and a friend of the god Dionysus.

‘What are you doing here?’ King Midas asked.

‘I’m lost,’ Silenus said. ‘I’m growing old and sometimes I forget where I am.’

For the first time that day, King Midas smiled. Silenus had always been muddle-headed, he remembered. Instead of sending him away, Midas ordered his servants to prepare a feast for him. When the two men finished their meal, the king called for a carriage and sent Silenus back to Dionysus. The god was so pleased that Midas had helped his old friend that he offered to grant him a wish.

King Midas had only one wish in the world. ‘I wish that everything I touch would turn to gold,’ he said, his eyes lighting up at the thought of it.

‘Are you sure?’ Dionysus asked.

‘Sure,’ the king nodded. So the god kept his promise.

Now as King Midas wandered through his garden, he touched first a perfect pink rose which turned to gold in his hand. He reached up to an apple. Again it turned to gold.

He couldn’t stop smiling. The servants followed their king, packing the gold into great deep sacks. ‘Take the gold to my counting house,’ Midas ordered. ‘I’ll see to it after lunch.’

But when he sat down at the table, the king got a shock. Everything he tried to eat – bread, meat, a bunch of grapes – turned to gold and cracked his teeth. He tried to take a sip of wine but that, too, fl owed into his mouth like melted gold. ‘What shall I do?’ he asked. ‘I’m hungry and thirsty and I hate all this gold!’

He rushed back to Dionysus and begged him to undo his magic. ‘I’ll never be so foolish and greedy again as long as I live,’ he promised. Dionysus was sorry for King Midas and sent him to bathe in the River Patoclus so that the golden magic could be washed away.

It is true, money gives us all that we require, today people believe that if they have a lot of money, they can have everything. But it is not more than mere illusion; money is not all the only thing that we need to keep ourselves happy and fit. For example,

>>>Money can buy a bed, but not sleep.
>>>Money can buy a book, but not knowledge.
>>>Money can buy food, but not appetite.
>>>Money can buy blood, but not life.
>>>Money can buy medicine, but not health.

The above said facts are more than sufficient to realize the fact that, there are many other important things which together make our lives happier. Today, when we have joined the race of money maniacs, we have sacrificed the bliss of a happy family with no time to love, care etc., as each member of the family is busy in making money. No one can deny the advantage of money and also one cannot close their eyes from its disadvantage. Money is important but to counter its vicious circle and to keep yourself away from greed, it’s better to learn how to spend money wisely.

The discussion progressed towards money management,

A person in his late fifty shared his views, “now after such a healthy discussion we all agree that money is not everything but it is something, therefore we must learn its management, which is the only way to serve both the purpose. And with all my experience I would like to tell that the easiest path which I have practiced throughout my life, u may laugh with title, “Buddha way to money management.”

Yes, it is true that Gautama Buddha never spoke about money management as he always dealt with religious philosophy. Here, with Buddha I meant about his famous philosophy of middle path. Yes, this philosophy is like a law and very practical in every aspect of our life, whenever you feel to choose a path I suggest opting middle path. It is not something which you will know from your financial advisor who suggest you to, pay your bills on time, and be committed to your monthly budget etc. I don’t say that they are useless but this middle path philosophy includes all.”

“In my journey of life I have met two kinds of people, first, those who spend money lavishly without thinking, they never value money. I can remember a trip to India where I met a person who told that, “in Indian culture money is Goddess and if we do not pay respect she will leave us, and spending money for no reason mean disrespecting the Goddess.” And second category of people is of those who die without spending a single penny.

More or less these two categories are there in almost every society. So what I feel is, both path are wrong, to first category I would like to suggest that “be aware of your little expenses, as too many small holes can sink a boat,” “not only to think about present, you can rather take it as a breather, but also think about future to.”

To second category what I suggest that, “this is the only life we have in our hand. No one has taken a single penny with him/her after death not even the Great Alexander. At the end of your life only 6 feet of earth and one coffin is required, so try to live this life,” “not only think about future where you can breathe, but also think about present.” And the best way to balance it is the “Buddha way to money management.”