Greed

As humans one quality which most of us have in us is Greed. Greed to earn more, greed to be more powerful, greed of food, greed of love and so on. Greed comes in all forms, but is this greed going to help you in any way?

Think for a second

Greed arises from the quality of comparison. When an individual compares his status to the other, his wealth to the other, his love to that of other people. He wants to beat that other person anyhow and be the most richest, most wealthiest etc. Comparison in school level exams, college level exams wherein the topper students fight amongst each other is good to some extent but has it own flaws. Many students study with the intention to outshine their competitors rather than gain knowledge and make themselves competent. Their mind loses focus and now they have only one thing in their mind i.e to come first. Lord Krishna says that such knowledge are of no use. With the greed in mind to become the first, your mind doesn't remain determined and focused towards your goal. At some point of time this useless knowledge goes off your mind and you remember nothing.

Same happened to Angaraj Karna in the epic Mahabharata. Lord Krishna in the battlefield makes him realise where he went wrong.

In the final battle between Karna and Arjun, the former forgets his knowledge and is unable to call the brahmastra. He tries several times but fails. His knowledge, his education and his talent seemed to have left his side. He questions the Lord about the same for which Lord Krishna gives him a befitting reply.

He asks Karna the reason behind why he took this education. He asks him if he really wanted to learn or was it only to prove himself better than Arjun.

Karna, when he was small had first approached Guru Dhronacharya to get education on archery and other skills but the latter refused to teach him saying that he was a suthputra ( son of a charioteer) . This made him angry and he challenged Guru Dhronacharya that one day he will return back and prove himself above all. He will outshine Guru Dhronacharya's students. With this thought in mind, he walked to Lord Parashuram and requested him to teach him. Years later, after gaining all the knowledge he came to compete Arjun, Guru Dhronacharya's best student in the great tournament. But even there he was humiliated by the crowd, everyone around him called him a suthputra and said that he had no talent. This infuriated him even further and he again challenged Arjun that one day he will prove himself the best in archery.

Lord Krishna reminds Karna that his pain was true. The way people humiliated him was wrong but the intention that made him pursue knowledge and education was also wrong. Since he had the thought of revenge within him, he could not give his full concentration while learning. His mind was unstable and he was not focused which ultimately led to his loss of knowledge and education today.

Think about it.

How many times have we thought the same way. Not only in terms of education but also in terms of money and other luxuries. We are never satisfied with what we have, we always need more and more. More wealth, more power, more love and so on. This desire for having more will one day leave us with nothing, like in the case of Karna in the above instance. So sacrifice the greed within you and be happy with what you have and what life gives you. Remember one thing that this Greed leads to feelings like Hatred and revenge against one another. Focus on fighting all your negative attributes and love as much as possible.

Non- healthy Competition, comparison, greed, hatred, revenge, anger, possessiveness, attachment, ego etc are the ones which can destroy a human being easily.

Always make yourself competent rather than pulling others down. A quality which I have noticed in a lot of youngsters these days. In the name of competition, people start pulling others down. My only message to all those, make yourself competent or else just stop competing. Don't ever pull anyone down to outshine in your life or career. You will never know when time changes and when you are left with nothing in life.

Lastly, to all the parents out there. Please don't compare your kids to the other kids in their class and ask them to score first. Don't create the pressure in their mind and instead encourage them to do what they like to do. Be it singing, dancing, acting, sports etc whatever they like to do, let them do. They can make better choices than you can.

Radhe Radhe,