12/10/2024
OUR GREATEST STRENGTH IS ALSO OUR GREATEST WEAKNESS:
On the face of it this statement appears completely illogical and contradictory. But let us dive deeper into the essence of it to understand what it means.
We draw power from our strengths. For someone it is enormous wealth of money, property, precious possessions, etc. For some others it is our network and contact of powerful people like politicians, senior government officials, police and so on. For still others it is their Sharp Intellect and knowledge of any particular field, be it medicine, engineering, etc. For still others it may be physical strength. The list can go on and on.
Now Human tendency is to pile on what they perceive as their strengths. for example if a person thinks money is his strength he tries to accumulate more and more of it, Those who find strength in knowledge load themselves with more and more of it.
let us take a hypothetical case of a person being so rich that he can buy anything he wants and there is so much wealth that he has to worry about parking it securely. So he parks his money in bank accounts or in big SAFEs in his house, he hires armed security guards to secure the money.
He starts to think that money is the panacea of all human suffering and can give him a secure and comfortable life. BUT IS IT REALLY TRUE? A rich man too has friends, relatives, children as all people have. sooner or later the excess wealth begins to ooze out as non essential expenditure, exhibition to enhance social status and so on. The man wants to make the life of his children, wife and close ones comfortable, so he buys the things desired by them even before the desire crops up in their conscious mind. children and family members begin to feel a sense of entitlement and lose sense of responsible and wise spending of wealth. Since the man has too much excess wealth he tries to fill up any gap of values in his progeny by pumping extra money. The people around him get deeply attached to the money they have never toiled to earn, and wants become needs and desires start growing in leaps and bounds and since the desires are immediately fulfilled the people lack patience, forbearence, humility, sense of sacrifice and simplicity. Selfishness develops. slowly family relations get based on money rather than love for each other, further fuelling greed, acquisitiveness, jealousy and arrogance. Now people who come in contact with this person or his children are also dazzled by wealth and they stick with him because of greed of money, they appear like friends, but in reality they are also avaricious beings full of greed, flattery and self interest. so this wealth creates a big group of friends, relatives and associates all glued to gether because of wealth.
Now gradually this person begins to realise the ingenuity, futility of these connects as there is no heart to heart bond, but his attachment with money leads him to try and hide his wealth. He becomes suspicious of his friends, relatives and close ones and they sense it and become insecure because of this.
Now as he hides his wealth his close ones start to devise ways to extract it by hook or by crook. deficit of human values leads to growth of negative human values and in extreme cases criminality also.
A stage can also arise that the same excess wealth that was supposed to secure a comfortable life for a person becomes a source of false relationships, lies, greed, jealousy, anger and in extreme circumstances also life threat and insecurity.
And it started off as a source of security. That is why our shastras say :
ज्ञानी भोगे ज्ञान से |
शक्तिशाली शक्ति से |
धनवान धन से |
In truth even spiritual wealth when accumulated becomes a source of suffering eventually. A person who has realised this truth and gained this wisdom does not even desire moksha. He constantly empties himself out, remains surrendered in His Master, Lives moment to moment, Does not even desire accolades and recognition.
He goes into anonymity seeking refuge only in his Inner Master , as the Sahaj Marg prayer says:
" O Master!
Thou art the real goal of human life,
We are yet but slaves of wishes putting bar to our advancement,
Thou art the only god and power
to bring us upto that state!
