Money Matters and Love cares!
M- Momentarily
O — Owned
N- Not
E- Eternally
Y- Yours
Love and money are two extremely complex subjects in their own right. When they’re mixed haphazardly, it could be a recipe for disaster. Money and love, is the glue that keeps lives together. Money symbolizes security and happiness. Without love, everything you do seems meaningless. Without love, you will live empty inside. Without love, you will feel like you are incomplete. More importantly, there will be no one to celebrate with you even if you are rich and have all the money in the world. Does this make love the more important than money?
Money is important, but not the most important, because it is tangible. At heart we always crave for the intangibles — God, Grace, Devotion, Blessings, love, satisfaction, praise, liberation, pleasure, fragrance, oxygen etc. Things desired but difficult to get are precious. That which is ultimately sought after, yet remains beyond reach, beyond actual touch, that which could only be felt is invaluable. E.g. — Oxygen!
Money- what it can and what it cannot!
Money can buy you medicine and not Health. Money can buy you amusement but not happiness! Money can buy you books but not wisdom. Money can buy you a bed but not sleep. Money can buy you food but not the Appetite. Money can buy you a companion but not a friend. Money can buy you a house but not a home. Money can buy adulation but not respect. Money can buy services, but not loyalty. Money can buy flattery, but not self-esteem. Money can buy designer clothes but not the inner beauty. Money can buy an expensive watch and not the Time! Money can buy jokes but not a sense of Humor.
Bottom line: It is good to have money and the things that it can buy, but it’s good too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven’t lost out on the things money can’t buy.
Money talks
The adage-Money makes the world go round is more than true. When you have Money with you, you forget who you are! When you do not have money, others forget who you are! Money Is the Megaphone to Identity! Money gives you power, dignity and honor. Money by itself is neither good nor bad. Usage of money makes it good or bad. Choice is yours; Money is just a tool.
Eighty percent of the world’s money is with twenty percent of the population, while the rest 20 percent of the world’s money is with eighty percent of the population. In the pursuit of money many of us lose our values and ethics. Having money for the greed is criminal but earning money in the right way is spiritual and is your right. Steve Jobs once said: I don’t care to be the richest corpse in the cemetery!
We lose our health to make money and then lose money to restore the health. We live as if we will never die and die as if we never lived. The want for more never ends. Everyone dies, but almost no one really lives. Money can never be the ‘be all and end all of life’. So is everything else! Life is more important!
Having lots of money can be like being high on drugs. It can make you feel powerful and giddy. It makes you feel invincible. Money makes us feel that we’re better and more important than we really are. Money fattens our ago! It has power to bring people together and also tear them apart.
You can’t escape money — the more you chase the more you get it! The more you get the more you want! Money is rightly said- is an Aphrodisiac! Money is not acknowledged and appreciated the way it should be. Human lives are a tragic enclave of contrasts. There seems to be a statistical disconnect between money and happiness.
If you are able to enjoy what matters- love, relationship, compassion and empathy, which is what money can’t buy, Money is secondary! Once we escape the trap of poverty, levels of wealth have an extremely modest impact on levels of happiness. The central assumption of modern society is- more money equals more pleasure. We’ve been led to believe that dollar is a delight and the currency rules!
To go after money is greed. To have money and flaunt it is vulgar! To spend it is reckless! But giving it to others in need is dharma and takes you straight to god! In practice there is grudging but overwhelming admiration for those who make lot of money. Society envies you! if you have In addition, good qualities it adores you.
Love cares
Love gives us the assurance that we are not alone in the world. You are not rich until you have something that money cannot buy! Love is when the want is more than the need!
A simple question! Who has changed the world more- Bill Gates or Mother Teresa or Borlaug? My vote is for Bill gates and Borlaug! I agree it is not how much one gives, but how much love we put in that act of giving is what matters. Bill Gates used the power of money to change the world and Mother Teresa used the power of love to change the world.
Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution used agricultural science to reduce world’s hunger, has been credited with saving a billion lives, more than anyone else in history. All three are great in their own spheres. You decide who is more powerful!
Healthy, wealthy and may be- wise! This is no package!
Wealth is an enabler, a catalyst and even validates of your wisdom. The beauty of the wisdom is that it belongs to you forever. Look around you: There is abundance of ignorance!
The very notion of ultimate wealth is fallacious and misconceived.
· When you are battling poverty, money is the ultimate wealth.
· When you are sick, immunity and health is the ultimate wealth.
· If you are lonely, love is the wealth you need.
There’s something inherently disturbing about thinking of wealth as obscene. For, such a perspective not only limits our understanding of one of the most important and powerful criteria of human progress.
We need to rekindle the law of love within us, and within our children. Let me tell you a conversation I was witness to. My grandson, my son and I were relaxing at home. A neighborhood boy came home and was playing with my grandson. The boy had “I too want that toy looks”. My son told my grandson to give him one of his toys. After some pleas, he finally agreed to give. He picks up a toy — his least favorite toy!” My son told him, No dear, not that toy, Give him your favorite toy.
At this point, grandson instinctively protested, but then looking at his father’s stern-yet-compassionate look, he grudgingly goes to the door to give away his favorite toy. Naturally, I figured that my son will have to console his son when he returns; lo and behold, much to his surprise, the grandson returns with a hop in his step. With an innocence befitting to an 8-year-old, he looks his Father in the eyes and says, “Dad that was amazing. Can I do it again? This is the law of love, and may we all keep doing it again and again and again. Indeed Love cares. Money and Love
A lot of women prefer to marry rich men. They prefer a husband who earns more than they can spend. Ever heard of The World’s Most Loving Couple? No. How about the World’s Richest? Bet you have. Would you rather cry in a Porsche or on a bicycle? Choice is yours!
Dr N prabhu dev
Former VC Bangalore University
Former- Director Jayadeva institute of cardiology.
nprabhudev@gmail.com