‘How much land does a man need?’ is a story written by Leo
Tolstoy. A man is offered as much as land that he could cover in one day. Pahom
was his name. He went in different directions and finally started running
thinking that the distance that he would cover by the sunset would be his and
he would be rich forever. He ran as fast as he could and each time he felt his
lungs hurting he prodded himself to run more so that he could acquire more
land. Finally he collapsed and breathed his last. The servant came, dug out a
six feet hole in the earth and buried him there. In fact he needed only that
much land- six feet of earth in total.
Greed has no end, Tolstoy wanted to tell his readers and the
remuneration for greed is nothing but death. More than this apparent moral
lesson, it also shows a larger truth of life: whatever one earns to earn and
possess goes useless when death comes calling. You will need only six feet of
space. Your sepulcher may be made up of marble. It may be spread out in acres
of land. It may tell all your glory, your knowledge, wealth, worldly gains,
conquests and charities you made but still you are there straightened up
initially, crumbled later and dust to dust finally in an earthy vacuum of six
feet. But is there any surety that you even get six feet that you rightly
deserve as remuneration to the life that you have spent on earth? You may be
cremated in an electric oven, you may die as a destitute, you may be buried
like the carcass of animals died in host after an epidemic.
(Taj Mahal)
Still you run for your earthly possessions. We live in a
world where money speaks to money. Even the biggest religious establishments
that offer solace and redemption speak to the seeker in terms of money. Is it a
wrong thing to have material possessions in a world where success is defined by
visibility and visibility is assured through money? We have developed our
economy from the real barter system to the symbolic currency system. Today we
live in a world where money is transacted virtually and where showing of wads
of currency notes either brings astonishment or disgust in the eyes of the
onlooker. Money not seen but all what money could bring seen is the new mantra
of our lives. Yet we need to show off our wealth through certain
manifestations. The more you show it to the others the more you draw attention,
reverence, influence and fear. The more you get all these, the more you feel
like acquiring. You forget the story of our six feet of land.
Human beings have the tendency to clutch on to what they
have. They feel like ‘possessing’ it. They don’t let it go. Whether it be a
tiffin carrier or it be a suitcase full of notes, be you the richest of the
rich or be a beggar in the pavement you clutch on to what you have. You just
don’t let go. Clutching on to what you have and latching all your being on to
them is like a gravitational pull. But all philosophies tell you to take
momentum and get out of the orbit that is controlled by the materialistic pulls
and release yourself into the firmament of pure being. Kabir says, burn your
house and come to the streets. He asks us to let everything go. There is a
famous story of Mulla Naseeruddin. A beggar was sitting on the pavement and was
crying out that he had nothing. Mulla saw a small pouch of coins in front of
the beggar. He snatched it and ran away. The beggar left his pavement
possessions and darted after Mulla. Panting and puffing he caught hold of Mulla
and demanded the pouch back. Mulla laughed and said, “you were the one who was
wailing for having nothing. Now you have a few coins and you are running for
it.”
(Mulla Nasiruddeen)
We are like that beggar. Running for what little things we
have and wailing constantly to add on to it. People say acquiring wealth is a
way to liberation and happiness. Or pure joy and pleasure. Pure joy is something that you feel and you
understand the joy based on the memory of the initial memory of moment that had
given you that pure joy. By doing that you create a distance between the actual
sensation of joy and the memory of it. Then it is not pure joy. It is a
pleasure that you indulge in or you want to indulge in. People seek pleasure as
they misunderstand it as pure joy. Pleasure has the semblance of joy. When
there is an ultimate decimation of the distance between the two one gets pure
joy. Money is the distance between pleasure and joy. That does not mean that
money is unnecessary and penury is virtue. The understanding of money as
distance between pleasure and joy is what making us run after it. We make mistakes when we by pleasure with
money and take it for joy. And we feel that we need to enjoy more and more pure
joy, which is boundless, we think of buying more and more pleasure. We don’t
see the fact that all the pleasurable things are like packed products which
come with an expiry date. One has to throw it once consumed or by the expiry
date. Joy cannot be thrown. That means money cannot bring joy. It can bring
only pleasure.
You may ask what is that joy separated from pleasure or that
pure joy absolutely integral with the enjoyment of pleasures. It is a sense of
freedom, lightness and happiness. It is like an undisturbed sleep, the balm to
all worries. I recount a story here. Perhaps it has been recounted by many
masters and I got the story from one of them. A rich businessman, while
traveling by a wheat field got a flat tyre and had to wait till the driver changed
it. He saw a man of his own age lying down on a charpoy placed under the cool
shade of a neem tree and smoking a hookah. The rich man walked up to him and
struck up a chat with him. While talking he came to know that all those fields,
orchards and endless lands with fruit bearing trees belongs to this man on the
charpoy. So he asked why he could not sell a few portions of his land and
invest in a business in the city. Then what, asked the farmer. You will get
more money, said the rich man. After that, quizzed the farmer. You can invest
more and make more money, said the rich businessman. After that, asked the
farmer again. Then, you can take rest, said the businessman. That’s what I am
doing now, replied the old man with a smile.
(A grave)
Resting is another form of happiness. It relieves you of
fatigue and also brings you contentment. It prepares you to face graver truths.
And when you are content perhaps truths become simple. You could see it like
the horizon line at the end of the wheat fields. Such kind of happiness is not
about absolute detachment from the material life. One has to go through all the
karmic processes. One has to hold one’s own responsibilities. Detachment is not
from the responsibilities but from avarice. To get that detachment one has to
have the vision of that six feet of earth that is waiting for you.
There are three types of people who mainly talk against
greed: One, the really rich ones who have grown tired of making more money,
Two, the ones do not have money at all but aspire for making it. The third,
people are those who have abandoned the pursuit of wealth for realizing higher
forms of being in one’s own life. They do not seek riches but riches come to
them as it would give them enough freedom to function in a society which is
bound by greed. While the first category understands the futility of
acquisition, which is rare, the second category speaks against it because they
become bitter by constantly comparing their penury with others’ riches. The
third category is those of visionaries who while deeply involved in the worldly
karma realize their six feet of earth and the silent vacuum of eternity
contained in it. They are the creators of a better world within a world that is
on a race from morning to evening.
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