MIDWAY: Money mania

Everybody seems to be running after money these days. The money-minded society only praises those with stupendous wealth. Money has distanced human beings from each other as financial greed overtakes all other human concerns. Money has lead to the deterioration of human reasoning as all and sundry become puppets for the sake of money. So much so that even in their deathbeds people think about money.

Human beings are supposed to understand the difference between good and evil. But greed has made them into animals. This, despite their great intellectual ability. Fathers are ready to sell their daughters, husbands their wives, and brothers their sisters — all for the sake of a bit of profit. The charm of money drives these otherwise noble people to commit such heinous crimes. Can money buy permanent happiness? Can it really make people happy or raise a person from his deathbed? Surely not! Though it might buy us momentary pleasures, it cannot help our spiritual quest. Those gifted with virtues but short on money are marginalised these days and humanity seems to have little value. The lust

for lucre has hardened people’s hearts as they find pleasure in material goods.

Great English philosopher Bertrand Russell famously said that the worship of a free man is the real service of the mankind. But these days people seldom show mutual respect for the ones short on money. All links between hearts seem to have broken down. Everybody is busy calculating profit but no one has a single minute to spare on alleviating human pathos.

Hence the worship of a free man should be the only basis for leading an honest and fulfiling life. People seem to have forgotten that the only inconvertible truth in life is death. No cliché holds more truth then that a person enters his coffin without a penny. If so then why are people running after money?

An ideal human being is the one who has an equal place in his heart for his foes as he has for his friends. Our hearts should be the place to sow the seeds for humanity, truth and other virtues. Money has no place in making a man immortal. The only way to achieve immortality is through sacred humane deeds.