No greater disaster than greed

Erich Fromm says: “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” Aesop was a storyteller from ancient Greek. His time is believed to be 564-620 BC. His written stories are known as Aesop Fables.

In one of his fables titled The Salt Merchant and his Donkey, he writes: “A Peddler drove his Donkey to the seashore to buy salt. His road home lay across a stream into which his Donkey, making a false step, fell by accident and rose up again with his load considerably lighter, as the water melted the sack. The Peddler retraced his steps and refilled his panniers with a larger quantity of salt than before. When he came again to the stream, the Donkey fell down on purpose in the same spot, and regaining his feet with the weight of his load much diminished, brayed triumphantly as if he had obtained what he desired. The Peddler saw through his trick and drove him for the third time to the coast, where he bought a cargo of sponges instead of salt. The Donkey, again playing the fool, fell down on purpose when he reached the stream, but the sponges became swollen with water, greatly increasing his load. And thus his trick recoiled on him, for he now carried on his back a double burden.”

That is why it is said that the same steps taken do not work in all situations, and in the case of guilt, they do not work at all.

William Shakespeare, in his play Hamlet, writes: “When we insist more and more on our innocence, we seem more and more guilty.”

Your destruction always happens by your own hands and not by others’. But this is only understood after the damage has been done. And before that, you consider yourself to be the world’s greatest hidden clever and wiser. Nature gives you hints again and again, but you ignore it every time. The question arises here is: why do people remain prisoners of their desires? Some people, after a lot of struggle, have freed themselves from this imprisonment and suffering. But most continue to find satisfaction in the punishment.

One only needs to review the life and times of the most important and powerful characters in our country. Despite being blessed with everything, they are fighting each other to gain more money and more power. After all, what will they do with such a lot of wealth and power? What will they do with so many lands and houses? How much of this litter will support them? Do they not believe in God and His justice? Are all of them exempt from the Day of Judgement? Are they different from other humans? Don’t they eat like normal humans? Or do they eat like giants? Perhaps they eat currency? Because their desire to collect cash is not going away.

Rabindranath Tagore says: “The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness. Its one object is to produce and consume. It has pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings. It is ruthlessly ready without a moment’s hesitation to crush beauty and life.”

The salves of desires are actually suffering from self-torture. It is just like getting pleasure from scratching own wounds. When they scratch their wounds, they get more pleasure. And then they contract canker. There is a famous adage in China that wealth does not last beyond three generations. So whatever they do, this accumulated wealth will eventually be looted. And in their destiny will only remain a desolate and ruined grave.

Lao-Tzu says: “There is no calamity greater than lavish desires. There is no greater guilt than discontentment. And there is no greater disaster than greed.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2023.

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