Is there anyone on this planet who doesn’t have greed in them ? There could be some people who have overcome this impurity of the mind, but in general there is an element of greed in all of us. When I say all of us I am specifically referring to the human race. In general I have seen that animals and all other living species other than humans do not have this element of greed in them. What is there in humans which others don’t have which makes them greedy. Is it the intellect which is only present in humans which elevates greed in humans ? lets find out.
To start with lets try to understand what is greed. To understand what is greed one also needs to understand what is need. Many of us use various adjectives for need like basic needs, good to have needs or must have needs. Every living being in this universe has needs and these needs vary. My need will be very different from my wife’s need or my kids need or even my pet dogs need. I need X amount of money to sustain my living. I need X amount of space to live peacefully and go on with my life. I need X amount of food to live healthy and all. This need would be very different from other living beings. Another example is when we sit down to eat our food, there comes a time when we say we are full and we don’t need anymore. But the dish which is on the table is so delicious that you are tempted to eat more. Very often we keep the food in the fridge and decide to eat later.
When does this need turn into greed. Lets talk about money. You have earned enough money to fulfil your needs. There are now things which you desire and you feel you need more money to fulfil those desires. To fulfil those desire you start finding means to earn more money. To earn this more money you start getting greedy. Once you start getting greedy, the impurity of greed in your mind starts troubling you. You become more stressed. The volume of your thoughts increase and there are times when those thoughts starts interfering with each other. This causes you to take misjudge your decisions and repercussions are grave. So it would be fair to say that greed is the result of you fulfilled desire. In the last article I wrote on anger. Anger is the result of your unfulfilled desire and greed is the opposite which is it is the result of your fulfilled desire. A desire which is fulfilled gives rise to another desire and the cycle goes on. The problem with us is we dont know where to stop and soon we realise that our greed has taken us so far away that it is difficult to come back. This is what we should avoid.
Often we think the greed is only related to money and wealth. But the greed which we harvest is beyond the greed for money and wealth. In today’s world whether is relationships, recognition, power, respect. With recent advancement in technology, there is a new kind of greed which we harvest which is social media greed. We want more and more likes and shares on the content which we share on social media. The high and lows of ones emotion depends on the number of likes you get on your share or how people people have reposted your content. The quality of your content does not matter. This is a very dangerous trend and is troubling everyone especially young people. The pressure of getting acknowledged for your social media content is high. There have been so many cases where young people have committed suicide because they did not get the expected likes and shares on their social media posts.
The greed in us is very well understood by the marketers of today’s generation. They have exploited this impurity in our mind to fulfil their needs and desires and beyond. How many times we have gone to a supermarket with a list and end up buying more. They have a strategy where they keep the most saleable things in the most prominent shelf and subconsciously remind you that you “need” those things whereas your needs are taken care in the list which you hold.
Another question which may come in one’s mind is that “Are all kinds of greed bad ? “. The answer to that question is no. A greed which is selfish and for self gratification is not desired and is harmful, but a greed which results in welfare of people and other living beings is not a bad greed. But the moment one starts using the platform for selfish reasons the greed could be harmful. The great Mahatma Gandhi once said ” There is enough in this world for everyone’s need but not enough in this world for one person’s greed.
How do we then get rid of the greed. One way is to realise the self destruction character of wealth. This wealth could be any one mentioned earlier in the article. The greed for the wealth is dangerous when it is used for selfish purpose. If one realises and acknowledges the person will concentrate more on the needs rather than acquiring more and more. But when the objective is to spread the wealth among people so as to benefit them, it is not calamitous.