It has been a long time that I wrote the article on ego. The article on greed waslong overdue. However, everything has to happen at its time.
Today I am going to talk about the second devil, GREED...or rather unmask it, as itis sitting very pretty on the high pedestal where people have put it. Of course, it iswearing a pretty mask and goes by a different name, but we are going to unmaskit and call it by its real name.
So let's start.
The Germans said "Give the dog a bad name and shoot, it." Well, we gave the witchcalled "Greed" a good name, and started worshipping it...!
Imagine greed as a witch, with disheveled hair, white sari, red eyes, dangerousfangs and ugly teeth. She needed a little rehaul before she could be sociallyacceptable.
So, we took her to the beauty parlour and gave her a "makeover". We have her agood hair spa treatment and then followed it up with a stylish corporate haircut.
Instead of her white sari, we gave her a smart corporate suit, we put classy RayBan over her eyes in order to cover the bloodlust. We got her a dentist'sappointment to hide her long teeth, and gave her ugly fangs a manicure. We gother feet pedicured and put fashionable shoes underneath them, and gave have anew name...AMBlTlON...!
It is the same witch...Greed.
Ambition is nothing but Greed in a corporate suit...!
She is even more dangerous in her new avatar, as we no longer run from her, onthe contrary, we embrace her and let her dig her poisonous teeth into our necks,and totally surrender our mind, body, heart, and soul to her.
If you say "I am greedy", people look down upon you, but if you say "I amambitious", you are the rock star.
People...it is the same witch...!
I have seen people go to tragic lengths trying to achieve their "ambition". It is theroot cause of most struggles, disparities, conflicts, and ugliness in the world. Theeducated middle class suffers from this disease the most.
I have seen class 8th children drag themselves from one coaching to another inorder to get into a coveted engineering school (read IIT) ...! Then we see those whosuffer because they were not able to make it to the top colleges, or coveted jobs(read IAS). Some get depressed, others get into intoxication and things likegaming and porn addiction. Most of them get wasted after wasting years of theirlives.
A child who was born to be a painter is pushed into engineering, a writer is pushedinto medical, and the photographer is busy with accounting, just for a few extradollars, and they all are miserable.
I want to put this billboard on every educational institution in the world: Life is NOTmade of money...life is made of TIME.
This is what most people don't understand. Life is supposed to be ENJOYED doingwhat you were born to do, by putting your god given talents to a good use, andbring out the best in you.
It is better to be a good writer than to be a third-class engineer (God knows wehave far too many of them). At times I often joke "Harghar se engineer niklega,tum kitney engineer palogey?" (an engineer is going to come out of every house,how many of them can you employ?) Unemployed engineer is such a cliché in ourtimes, and don't even get me started about MBAs, CA finalists and UPSC failures.
Parents are pushing their children into careers they don't want, and are not fit for.Young men are working their guts off in jobs they hate, just because it pays well.Young women are marrying the men they hate, just because "he is well settled"Young aspirants cheating at everything from exams to sports, and then all of themare failing. All this madness leads us to one culprit.
AMBITION...youb**ch…!
I am not against people doing well, succeeding, and making tons of money, in fact,I am all for money, but money should be a byproduct of a job well done with love, not a resented goal for which one sells his soul. What’s even more tragic is that most of the people chasing ambition blindly often don't go very far, almost alwaysthe end is irrevocably tragic. Ever rising divorce and unemployment rates are atestimony to this.
Life is about having a good TIME. We are HUMAN BEINGS, not "humanachievings", or "human succedings". At the risk of repeating myself, I would againsay. Life is NOT made of money...life is made of TIME.
Have a good time while you are alive. Marry the person you love, study thesubjects you love, and do the work you love. Now that would be a lovely life.
I am going to end this with one of the wisest quotes ever said:
“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only withdistaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of thetemple and take alms of those who work with joy.”
Chant this like a mantra...and the witch called "Ambition" would stay away fromyou.
God Bless,
G. Vijay Kumar