There is No End to Desires

Our Vedic scriptures prescribe the ultimate aim of life as realization of God. In earlier times, people lived austere lives to attain this goal. They worshipped God and attended to their duties with diligence. They lived happy and contented lives with whatever they earned. In modern times however, the aim of life has completely changed. The only aim of life left today is to make lot of money and get rich.

Everyone wants to get rich quickly today. Everyone wants to make more and more money and acquire loads of items of luxury. It is true that making money is important and no one can deny this. But one must know how much money is enough. Wise people say — one must possess only that much money which one earns through personal hard-work and which is sufficient to fulfill one's basic needs. Excess money always becomes a reason for conflicts and eventually, misery.

There is an interesting story. In the town of Kanakpur lived a farmer with his wife. He owned a small farm, which yielded enough grain to provide for his family. The couple led a comfortable and happy life. But the farmer was ambitious and like others, wanted to be rich. One day, while resting under a cool tree, he heard a voice: "Do you want money?" He gathered some courage and replied, "Yes, I wish for lot of money." The voice spoke again: "Alright then, go home, seven pots of gold coins are waiting for you." When he entered his home he found real seven pots. He excitedly opened the covers and found that six pots were full of gold coins, but the seventh one was half empty!

There was enough money in there for the couple to live their entire lives merrily. But the farmer and his wife were not happy. They wanted the seventh pot also full! So they decided that they would save from their expenses and try to fill the seventh pot. Several years passed like this but the seventh pot never got filled. They grew more and more dejected.

One day, a sage visited their home and looking at the signs of worry on their faces asked them, "Is the seventh pot filled or not yet?" The husband and wife were amazed to hear this and wondered how the sage knew of their seventh pot. The sage spoke: "Children, this seventh pot is actually the pot of your lusts and desires. However much you may try, it will never get filled. Excess desires make the mind anxious and restless, and eventually, man leaves the world carrying with him this anxiety only. It is better that you desire for only so much that is enough to lead a happy and contented life." Saying so, the sage left and the seven pots disappeared too.

Just like the farmer and his wife, we also spend our entire lives in earning money, providing means of luxury to the family and worrying over their wellbeing. When the time comes to leave this world, one gets filled with remorse that the entire life was wasted, and one never did anything that could take one closer to God. In fact, remembrance of God does not happen even at the last moments because one lived the entire life thinking about money and family, and never about God.

So, the money and property for which a person worries over so much in his entire life does not liberate him. It actually binds him. A person gets liberated only when he uses his money to benefit others and reduce others' sufferings, and performs good deeds of benevolence. These in turn elevate him. It is not wrong to earn money and save it. What is wrong is to be obsessively attached to money, to worry over earning excess money and to waste the precious life over these. Only the good deeds performed by a person elevate him and create favorable circumstances for him. So we must perform benevolent deeds without any expectations in return and put all the saved money to the best use.