Date: 15 FEBRUARY 2018

Time uploaded in London- 20-47

Written by London swaminathan

Post No. 4748

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There is no misery, if there is no desire- says Tamil poet Tiruvalluvar (Kural 368)

‘’Aasaa Dukhasya Kaaranam’’ , (Desire invites Misery) says a Sanskrit proverb.

‘’Striving for wealth with different designs, we follow our desires like cattle’’- says Rig Veda 9-19(3)

‘’Desire, which is never extinguished by the enjoyment of desired objects only becomes more intense like a fire fed with butter ‘’– Manu Smrti 2-94

There is a Telugu folklore in a hundred year old book. The story is as follows:

Four friends lived in Chitrapur and they were extremely poor. They decided to practise austerities. After some time, Goddess Kali appeared before them and gave them a talisman each. Since they asked for richness and happiness she told them to place the talisman on their heads and walk northwards. She told each one of them to dig the earth when a person’s talisman fell on the earth and take whatever one gets.

The four friends set out on their travel. At a distance, the talisman of the first man fell on the ground. Immediately he dug out the earth, an enormous quantity of copper was found. he told the other three friends that he was very happy and wanted to go back. Everyone agreed.

When they walked further north the second person’s talisman fell on the ground. The spot was dug into and he found enormous quantity of silver. He told them that he also wanted to go back like the first man. The other two proceeded further. one of the person’s talisman fell on the ground and the ground was dug into. There was enormous quantity of gold. By this time both of them were very tired. So the person who found gold said to the other man to come back with him and he would share the gold. But the fourth man who was very greedy still had the talisman on his head. He told the gold- man to go back and then proceeded further north.

After some time he was very happy because his talisman fell on the ground. He thought that he was  going to see mine of diamonds. But there was only iron when he dug into the ground. He was very tired and could not even take back the iron. He came such a long distance and already friends had gone back. So he could not take any of the iron. More over it would be uneconomical to transport from such a  long distance. He was dis appointed.

Now he learnt “ The man with unlimited desire is indeed poor but, if one is satisfied with what one has, can be rich” (Bhartruhari)

–Subham —