When man is born, he is born in the fullness of his own being. Size does not matter because it changes with time. But the very reason that man is born is because he lacks something. His desire wants him to live. His birth lends him the opportunity to accomplish what he yearns for. But most men end up creating more unfulfilled desires which keep on lending them new births, making them go in circles. Eventually, most men die unfulfilled and dissatisfied.
However, Buddha was different. Buddha was born to the wealthiest family in the land. His parents were warned that the boy would become an ascetic and all precautions were observed accordingly. But when Sidhartha Gautam saw an old, diseased man and a dead man, he left the kingdom in search of the truth and went on to be blessed with all that man desires.
Desires lead to thoughts. You become part of the rat race. You want money so you can fulfil desires in the future instantly, so that poverty does not create a gap between desire and its fulfilment. This makes you greedy. Greed becomes an innate state of the mind. One begins to look at everything in life with greed. Life becomes a game of profit and loss. You start thinking that life would be easy when your desires are fulfilled instantly, but this only aggravates your worries and suffering, causing a sense of loss. Thus, your greed will always land you in losses.
Greed is an obsessive and excessive longing for the undesirable desire for money, power, fame, etc. The world has enough to satisfy everyone’s needs but our greed is what is making the world fall short of things now. A sense of saving up in a time of scarcity and spending in a state of abundance is natural. But the kind of greed which makes you feel like you can never have enough has become the biggest problem in the world. Humans have not learnt when to hit the pause button and that is taking a toll on our environment, their air and water around us, and everything else that is priceless, including our life. Greed is the reason for other problems in the world too, like climate change, poverty, resource gap, racism, discrimination, inflation, power struggle, corporate empires, high interest rates and terror.
A sense of greed is like a permanent sense of loss because one has already assumed profits in everything he does. The profits you earn out of greed will also run you into losses. And when you want to get rid of greed, you actually want to get rid of the sense of loss because greed has taught you to loathe loss. It is a very delicate situation. If greed had given you great peace and not worries, would you have wanted to give it up? But because of greed, which makes you fear losses, you end up never ridding yourself greed, instead clutching it firmly.
firmly. Greed can show you big dreams. It can create a dream world. But it can give you neither loss nor profit. You have to wake up to your greed. It is nothing but a state of intoxication, which leads to chaos. In greed you make new friends, family, bonds and networks which take a toll on existing friendships, family and social order. Greed thus brings only a sense of loss in life.
When you do some work or business, the obvious result is either profit or loss. It is natural. But your greed does not let that happen – it turns all profits into losses. In fact, a sense of greed cannot make you wealthier, more popular or more powerful. It can make you neither poor nor rich. It yields no profits or losses. It is an empty word.
In business, there is a motive of earning profit and reducing loss, but businesses should be run without being greedy. If you do it right, profit is likely to come. But greed has no place in business. Profits or losses do not come by greed—in fact, chances are that your worries will actually lead you to make more mistakes. And since greed is an assumption of profit earned in advance, chances of experiencing loss are the highest.
The greedy mind then wishes to change the definition of success. If in this momentary world, the greedy mind looks up to building permanent assets in the heavens, remember that those heavens will only be a creation of this greed.
A sense of greed indicates the absence of your being. Your arrival into your being should prompt the departure of greed. Greed is like darkness and the moment the light of your sense of being is lit, that darkness disappears.
But greed is precious to you. To understand greed, you have to look at greed in its naked state. Don’t think of ridding yourself of greed from the vision of avoiding losses or suffering. Greed does not give you worries—you are worried because of your thoughts which make you greedy. Greed itself is an empty shell. It cannot kill your ego. Your ego will keep on postponing life for tomorrow in the guise of greed. Then death will come to cut your long story short and you will blame it on greed. But it was not greed which wanted to win, it was your mind and your own ego.
So, don’t look at life with greed. It can deliver neither profit nor loss. It is an impotent desire. Understand that greed is nothing. Don’t give it any importance. If you do that, greed will change directions. Just accept greed for what it is. It is there—don’t fight it. See greed wakefully. One day when wakefulness emerges, you will find that greed was nothing but unconsciousness. Remember life is not made of greed. We should plan to earn as much as is required for us to lead a life as per our free will and learn to sense the danger of greed and hit pause.
The author is a spiritual teacher and an independent advisor on policy, governance and leadership. He can be contacted at arunavlokitta@gmail.com.