PROGNOSIS & DIAGNOSIS OF SIN | AVARICE | PART 3
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|| 3 | AVARICE ||
How is it that greed , aggrandizement or avarice is universal ? Animals have greed , humans have it , everybody has it . How is it that greed , avarice or aggrandizement is universal ?
Everybody wants to have all sorts of things around . Everybody wants to accumulate things around the body , and this greed is never satisfied . The more you get , the more does the flame of greed increase , the more is this flame fed .
You become an emperor , and still the greed is there and your greed is also heirly .
You are a poor person and your greed is poor .
How is it that it is universal ? In the churches , in the Hindu temples , in the Mohammadan mosques everywhere , the preachers deliver long sermons and say ,
" O Friends ! no greed , no greed , no greed . "
They put forth all their energies to strangle it ; they want to remove it , to eradicate it , but it is there despite all their remonstrances . How is it ? It cannot be throttled , it cannot be checked , it is there .
Explain it . Before you want to kill greed , before you want to kill this disease , let us know the cause of it . Unless you tell the cause of the disease , you are not expected to be in a position to cure the disease . Let us know the cause of it .
To say that Satan puts it into our hearts is unscientific ; is unphilosophical . It is contrary to all the laws of logic . That will not do . If you cannot give a scientific explanation of the fact , why this mythological explanation ? Why is it universal ?
Vedanta explains it by saying that
" There is in you , O human , the reality , the true Self , the real Atman asserting itself ; it cannot be crushed . "
They say that no energy can be destroyed , no force can be annihilated . We hear about the law of conservation of energy , indestructibility of matter , persistence of force . We hear all that , and here Vedanta says ,
" O Preachers , O Ministers , O Christians , Hindus and Mohammadans , you cannot crush down this energy , you cannot crush down this force which appears in the form of greed . You cannot crush it down .
From time immemorial all sorts of religions have been preaching against greed , against avarice , against aggrandizement but the world is not a bit better despite all your Vedas , Bibles and Korans .
Greed is there . The energy cannot be destroyed , but you can make the right use of it . "
Vedanta says ,
" O person of the world , you make a mistake . Take that greatest of words , that word of three letters , G-O-D ; read the letters in the reverse order . What does it become ? D-O-G .
Thus you are misreading the Holy of holies , the pure G-O-D in you , you are misunderstanding it ; you are reading it in the contrary way ; and thus you make a veritable dog of yourself , whereas you are in reality the Holy of holies , the pure GOD .
Through the error , through the ignorance of attributing the glory of the Atman to the body and the worthlessness of the body to the Atman , by this mistake you fall a victim to greed .
Eradicate this error , and you are GOD immortal . Redeem the real Self in you , take a firm stand in the true Self , and realize yourself to be the GOD of gods , the Holy of holies , the Master of Universe , the Lord of lords , and it becomes impossible for you to seek these outside things and accumulate them round this body . "
SOURCE | SATYAVEDISM.ORG