There was this man who could be called the personification of greed. He opined that the woman he would like to marry need not have to be beautiful, knowledgeable, good natured, but only had to possess money. The locals, who knew of his nature, were not willing to let him marry any girl from amongst them. So he went to different places looking for a bride.
In a distant town, he met a rich man. He got a proposal to marry one of the rich man’s daughters. The rich man said, “I have a daughter who is twenty years old. If you marry her, I shall give you half-a-million dollars as dowry. I have another daughter who is twenty-five years old and if you marry her, the dowry shall be one million dollars. There is a third daughter who is thirty years old – and the dowry for her is two million dollars.’
As the rich man increased the age of the bride, the dowry amount went up correspondingly and he became very excited. He asked, ‘Do you have any daughter who is fifty years old and still unmarried?’
Money, wealth and property are mere tools. Money is not happiness. If the meaning of money is happiness, then all those who have plenty of money should really be happy. But in real life it is not so! Well, how to get happiness? It is buried deep inside in the meaning we give to money, position and life.
On the Bombay Juhu beach, an ascetic was relaxing by stretching himself out. A passer-by noticed and asked, ‘While everyone else is rushing around and working, why are you lying down doing nothing?’
‘What is the use of working?’
‘If you work you would get money.’
‘And if I get money...?’
‘You get all the comforts of life.. .’
‘If I get all the comforts...?’
‘You can relax and remain idle!’ And the ascetic replied with a smile, ‘Well, right now, I am doing the same thing.’
Many misinterpret this story. It is not meant to encourage people to be idle. The moral of the story is, happiness and peace of mind are not in money and comforts!
Happiness is in our outlook and approach to the very life itself.
Swami Sukhabodhananda is the founder and Chairman of Prasanna Trust. He is a respected spiritual leader in the country who is often referred to as the ‘Corporate Guru’.