Just the other day stumbled upon this old ABBA song, which surely you must have heard: Money, money, money, must be funny in a rich man’s world, Money, money, money, always sunny in a rich man’s world. It got me thinking. Money is indeed funny. We sacrifice our time, effort, health and relationships to get it and when we have it, we might have many things – comfort, luxury, convenience, prestige but can we get happiness? Not essentially. Funnier still is how we define richness. Is richness in money alone? What about richness in character? A person who sleeps peacefully is also rich, a person who has good health is also rich. A person with good friends is of course rich – so why equate richness with money alone?
Agreed that money is required for sustenance, for essential comforts and convenience; the wheels of our life (equated with a car) cannot move without the fuel of money, but fuel isn’t the only thing for a smooth ride. We need the engine nicely tuned (Health Quotient) the tires with the right pressure (Emotional Quotient), the windshield and rear mirror properly cleaned (Spiritual Quotient). Fuel alone cannot be enough. The breakdowns in our journey are never for lack of fuel but engine breakdown, punctured tires, accidents due to improper vision, etc.
At the risk of sounding cliché the – khali haath aayen hain hum, khali haath jayengey is sadly the cruel truth. It is not that we do not know this; we somehow chose to forget this till a time comes when we realize the hard way that we need to do major course corrections because the money is of no use without health, friends, family and above all mental peace.
Why cannot we just consider that the money circulating around is nobody’s – it will simply flow from one person to another over time. We might have earned it by our own efforts but it is for us to ensure its flow – first for the essentials in life and then to be used as an opportunity to add value to someone’s life, to make a difference. The feeling of pride that we have for whatever richness we have earned and the feeling of envy that we have if someone else has more than us, is so unfounded and unnecessary. No, I am not suggesting giving away on charity but to spend it judiciously and responsibly without having the feeling that it is ours. It was given to us for a purpose and we need to make the best use of this opportunity. After all, it is going to be in our hand for a transient period and we need to make the best use of it. We are mere custodians of this richness.
What about our need to grow it? To grow it is a natural responsibility that we must partake to the best of our ability in a manner which is correct, ethically and morally. So what do we need to do differently? Let us start with small things. All those whose livelihood is dependent on our money should be first recipients – maids, helpers, drivers, employees etc and we can as a first step start by becoming more compassionate, understanding and kind to them and give them a little more than their expectation. Let us control our natural urge to negotiate unnecessarily with those whom we can bully, while succumbing to the exorbitant pricing of brands. Let us think of all those nameless, faceless persons who we take for granted for their services towards us. Their smiles and gratitude will be worth our small efforts and all our small acts of compassion will make us so much richer. With this maybe the ABBA song will ring true – it will indeed be sunny in the rich man’s world.
