There is more to life than riches.
Accumulation of material wealth alone will not bring you any enduring happiness.
He is so rich and wealthy, but how does it matter, look at his family life.
“If wealth is lost, nothing is lost…”
“You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” (The Gospel of St. Luke 12:20, The Holy Bible)
These statements would all be more than familiar for all of us. They figure frequently in the pieces of advice that we give and receive, in the rationalizations and judgements we make of both ourselves and others, in religious and moral discourses and in our daily reflections as well. Arguably, that is partly because all of them flow from or are themselves universally accepted truths of life. Indeed, there is more to life than material riches: who can possibly refute that, I wonder.
This integrative viewpoint of the multidimensional phenomenon called life and this appreciation of the larger picture of the journey of life and of what lies beyond it is one reason why the pursuit of wealth is often decried. It is viewed disrespectfully at best and as a necessary evil at worst.
At the same time, society does attach a high degree of social importance to financial status. Most of us would like to be in a better financial position; many of us envy those who are financially better off than us; almost all of us want our children and other loved ones to be financially solid; and a good financial standing is regarded as a mark of superior ability and accomplishment.
Is there a contradiction between the two attitudes, both of which are prevalent often in most of us? Well, perhaps no: we agree money is not everything, but it sure is important.
Ok, so is it just important? One of the numerous important things?
Money has played a fundamental role in the evolution of human civilization and it does play a very important role in the modern society. Entire wars have been fought due to differences in the principles, values and the form in which money has been structured into the fabric of the economic society. Further, the absence of adequate economic opportunities has been both a cause and an effect of the state of poverty, one of humanity’s long-standing problems. At the same time, the alleviation and eradication of poverty through an expansion of economic opportunities has been one of its biggest opportunities as well.
These reflections about the nature of money and our different attitudes to wealth have been triggered by the 1937 book by Napolean Hill, “Think and Grow Rich”, which I am now reading. The book talks about the path to riches, based on a 20-year study of various successful individuals. I would like to share three pieces of thought on this, based on my reading and reflection.
Are many people poor or otherwise not as wealthy as they wish they were, due to the absence of an ardent, intense desire to be rich? It seems so to me. Indeed, many people whom we call poor are very hard-working and many who have become rich were once poor and are respected precisely due to their journey from rags to riches, and not so much for the riches themselves. At the same time, it seems to me that many or most people go through life without achieving the wealth which they themselves would have liked to acquire, because they do not ardently intensely desire for the same! I realize that so far, I too have been one of them.
Secondly, I think we often tend to mix up wealth and income, which are in fact two very different concepts. Wealth is a stock variable, the total quantity which we have at any given moment. Income on the other hand, is a flow variable, denoting the quantity someone is able to earn on a regular basis. One can have high income and zero wealth, or high wealth and zero or even negative income.
I believe there is a need to differentiate between these two disparate concepts of wealth and income, while formulating our attitudes about money. I am given to think that the pursuit of high income is, in most cases, more meaningful than the pursuit of high wealth. Interestingly, the landlord in the Bible who amassed riches in his go-down was rebuked by Jesus, not for his income, but for his wealth. I think Jesus would not have found any fault with him if he had high income which he was regularly utilizing for the betterment of his fellow beings!
Lastly, I was wondering why exactly I was reading the book by Hill, when I did not really have an ardent desire (so far) to become richer; I was also wondering why the author thinks becoming wealthy is so important and honourable a pursuit. I think becoming rich is honourable, precisely because of the personal spiritual transformation that the pursuit of good wealth can bring. Is this then the real goal the author secretly exhorts the readers to pursue? To become spiritually rich in the process – and not so much as to become materially rich? I think so. And indeed, one who becomes rich in this manner can also be expected to be creating opportunities for others in abundance – economic, social and spiritual opportunities. Now, that would indeed be a worthy journey to undertake: what say?
- Dheep
October 2, 2017
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