True riches in Life

Wealth, they say, is relative. The more wealth, the more relatives.

To me, there are two ways to be wealthy. The first method, the conventional way, is to acquire as much wealth as possible; as much money, shares, properties etc to meet the many unsatiable desires in our lives. However, the downside to this is that it can lead to greed and untold miseries when the many wants in our lives are not met.

The second way, the one favoured by the mystics, involves not in acquiring of wealth but rather in cutting down of the many wants or desires in our lives. The great Buddha, The Enlightened One, once had this to say. He said, "The world if full of sorrow. The root of sorrow is desire. And the uprooting of sorrow is desireless-ness."

Accordingly, the true riches of life are to be sought from within and not without and this is beautifully illustrated in a Hindu story. In this story, the Lord Vishnu appeared in a dream to a man and told him that at 10 o'clock the next morning a mendicant(wandering beggar) would be passing by the only road in the village and should he give the man the stone that he had, the man would be the richest man in the world.

And true enough, at 10 the next morning, the man saw the mendicant passing by the road and rushed to him. "Give me the stone! Give me the stone!" "What stone are you talking about?" "Last night the Lord Vishnu told me to wait here for a mendicant at 10 this morning and should he give me the stone that he had, I would be the richest man in the world." So the mendicant rummaged his bag and took out a stone. " Is this what you are looking for?" Wow! It was the largest diamond in the world. "Yes, would you give it to me?" "Of course, found it somewhere in my wandering."

Now, as the man was walking back with the diamond, something struck him. He sat down under a tree and pondered all day long. Evening came and again he saw the mendicant. Again he rushed up to the mendicant and told him, "Take back the stone. I don't want it. But would you give me the riches that is in your heart which enable you to give away this stone?"

My dear friends, there is something precious within us. The Bible says that "The Kingdom of God is within us." If only, we care enough to reflect and plough deep within us, we will find that all the riches needed to live a meaningful and enriching lives are inside of us and that we have a lot more to offer to the world and that we are all millionaires in our own right.

(Presented during the Sitiawan Toastmasters Club meeting - Table Topic in 2000)