The lust for money

MONEY is essential that brings for man all his necessities and luxuries for his comfortable existence. We cannot deny the importance of it just like we need food to live similarly we need money to survive. In order to live a happy life, we need money. From buying the necessary stuff to paying the fee for our kids to renting the home, we need money for everything.

Though money is important in everyone’s life but still there are many people who hold a different view regarding this concept.

Money may not be everything but it is the means to achieve happiness in life. Life without money is undoubtedly a virtual hell, with twinges of hunger and thirst eating into us.

However, by the same token, for man to think that money is everything is also a great misapprehension. Money is a necessity only in as much as it is the thing which buys for us all we need, but beyond that money is a forerunner of all sorts of vices.

Money should be considered as a means to an end, and not an end in itself. The end is a comfortable life, and the means is money.

If we consider money as a means to our end of having a comfortable life, then we would be seeing money in its proper perspective for without money we cannot live as we are not able to buy anything if we do not have money.

So much so good but in the present day scenario, money is no more a means to an end. To collect money, to hoard money and become richer and richer has become our sole aim in life.

It is here in our outlook towards money that we have strayed, and so the fatal situation we are placed in is not hidden from anyone.

Each individual has set a goal of hoarding money and money only, and this is also not fixed to a certain amount; we just have to go on and on irrespective of how much we need, for the lust for money has become our very style of life. It is a wild goose chase that we are all indulging in, and that, at the cost of all the rest we had.

The State Water Department corruption probe by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over alleged abuse of power is a case in point.

The investigation resulted in the arrest of two senior officers in the state agency along with the confiscation of RM3 million which had been kept inside a safe deposit box in the office of one of the suspects, together with a total of RM52 million cash seized from various hidden places, including from the official’s house which included gold and stone jewelry, luxury brand watches, 94 branded handbags, nine luxury cars and folders containing 127 land titles of the two officers.

The total confiscation amounting to RM114.5 million became the largest ever confiscation by MACC in the country’s corruption history.

To date the case is still pending disposal in the court while those involved are devoid of peace of mind. Is it worth it? Indeed the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving for it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

I would not dispute that money gives us all that we require but money is not the only thing that we need to keep happy and fit.

There are several other things that make life beautiful and cannot be purchased with any amount of money.

For example, a gush of wind from where we take our very breath of life cannot be purchased at any cost.

We can wear the most glamorous dresses but, to give health to that same body, no amount of money is enough. We can buy the thickest and costliest of mattresses with money but, no amount of money can buy for us a good night sleep.

Lest we forget, the position of the society today is far from being enviable, largely due to this money mania that has caught hold of the society.

Each and every individual is busy in his/her money spinning activities. That reminds me the fact that in the Hindu mythology, the Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth has an owl for her transport.

This is very significant as it is believed that the pursuit of money, as it is today, make an owl of a man. We have all become money maniacs, sacrificing every conceivable pleasure on the altar of wealth.

Is this not owlish sense? When we lose our equilibrium, we become the significant owls. On the other hand now, we have plush carpets, foam on our beds and a beautiful dining table with no one at home to share our joys and worries.

This is what money has done to our family succor. The parents are busy making money and have no time to spare for the children, the husband is busy buying diamonds for his wife but has no time even to take a glance at her when she dons them.

The wife is busy preparing the office routine but has no time for the routine service of the family.

So, in this avenue of life, money has done more harm than good. In as much as money is essential to buy for man his necessities and to some extent even his luxuries, it is good. However, as soon as it becomes the be all and end all of life, it wreaks havoc on life.

These few facts are sufficient to awake us to the fact that there are many other important things that make for a happy life, and money is not all.

We should thereby give money only its due importance and not make it all important, for if we do that, we are certainly going to sacrifice some other vital items of a good life.