The Material And The Immaterial Money

By Kewal Ahluwalia

"The real measure of your wealth is how much you would be worth if you lost all your wealth."

It goes without saying that a certain amount of material wealth is a necessity to sustain our life. A man wants to earn money in order to be happy, and his whole effort and the best of a life are devoted to the earning of that money. Happiness is forgotten. Money never made a man happy yet. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants.

The greatest love of man’s life is money, there is no comparison between man and money. What is money? Money is a powerful tool which empowers you to do almost anything. It’s like a magic wand that makes it easy for your desires to come to life. Money can pay your shopping bills. But one needs more than that. Man cannot live by bread alone. This applies very much to money also, for Man cannot live by money alone.

Money can fulfil our physical requirements, but you and me are more than a physical entity; we have a mind, we have emotions, we have spiritual desires, and this part of our personality requires a person.  A person like us who can smile, have intellectual exchanges and share our emotions. Then why are people attracted to money rather than to cementing relationships? The reason is very simple. As a human being, with money, you have to make contact on a give and take bases. This is perhaps the reason why people show a preference for money over man.

Being rich or materialistic has nothing to do with being religious. Any one form of happiness does not preclude us from being spiritual or religious.  Many (but not all) religions and spiritual paths renounce part or all of everyday life due to the spiritual dangers that life offers. It is left to the individual to find happiness. Society often judges people according how much money they have. In some institutions we means nothing if we do not have enough money. This may be a common point of view, but it’s not universal. There are other traditions that insist that the only way to achieve spiritual greatness is by successfully facing the challenges of everyday life.

The greed caused by pursuit of money is damaging, this greed for money does motivate an increasing number of citizen's to stealing, violence and murder. It can make people embezzle, swindle, go to war and even colonise other countries to control their resources. Just that is what happened to India from Mughal Rule to British rule for almost 1000 years. Money and wealth have been the most explosive divide in history. Revolutions have generally involved the poor fighting for their rights and a share of the money from the minority rich.

Greed in the family can cause many problems, especially after a death of a close family member, arguments will occur depending on the will, which is supposed to be shared between: the cousins, sons, daughters. Greed by wanting more of the will and the proprieties of the passed away member might cause severe conflicts between close family members.

It can be argued that the existence of money has turned man against himself. It can be argued that money has divided our society into classes. It can be said that the roots causes of poverty and crime are society's perceived hierarchy of its citizens and the monetary value of that person. This has distorted the distribution of wealth across society.

It is certain the accumulation of wealth drives economic crime. The commission of a crime such as embezzlement, money laundering and economic crimes, are much higher than those crimes associated with social ills like drugs, robbery, murder and theft etc.

Money can be good and bad there are only a few ways that money is good and that is to use it to provide food for your family and giving it for donations to charity, but there are many ways in which it could be bad and that is some people use it to bribe others, they exchange it for drugs others even kill one another just to get the money. Some people are so greedy for keeping their money that they would rather see poor innocent people suffer than help them.

Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants, money will not give him a code of values and it will not provide him with a purpose and the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to bribe his superiors to serve him, with his money ends up becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him. That is the reason why we call that money is the root of all EVIL.

Black money refers to money that is not fully legitimate property of the owner. A white paper on black money in India by the Government of India suggests two possible sources of black money in India. The first includes activities not permissible under the law, like crime, drug trade, terrorism, and corruption, all of which are illegal in India. The second, more likely source is that the wealth may have been generated through an unlawful activity and accumulated by failing to declare income and pay taxes. Some of this black money ends up in illicit financial institutions across international borders as deposits in tax haven countries.

Lend money to a friend and thou will lose him. Never a lender nor borrower be, and keep your friends as "friends." The quickest way to lose a friend is by lending him money, even if you have old ties or years of friendship under your belt. There is a very old and true saying lending money makes enemies. It goes without saying that friends and money don't go hand-in-hand. I don't care how chummy you are, how close you are. Mixing finances and friendship can foil a friendship. To ensure you and your friend are on the same page you need to create some kind of paper work explaining how to pay it back.