It is not at all a new thing for any of us, this transition/transformation, from need to greed.
There was even a joke! A villager on his visit to a metro town for the first time, was warned by a experienced ‘senior’ to bargain for half the quoted price, when buying anything….. “Be careful, it is written all over your face that you are from a village…”
Now this villager took this advice too carefully, and went to buy an umbrella. He asked for 50 when the price quoted was 100. Being the very first customer of the day, the poor shopkeeper felt sentimentally not good to return the customer empty handed. So he conceded. But at once the villager now asked for 25 since 50 was thee new ‘quoted price’! The haggling went on, and out of sheer frustration and suppressed anger the shopkeeper shouted “Please take it for free and get lost”…. But our villager friend would not give up, and asked for two umbrellas as free! (The quoted offer is one for free!). The greed crept into the need, somewhere, and now we have a hearty laugh.
In fact, there are political parties that have a slogan of ‘From each according to ability, to each according to need’. And, in practice, it changes to “from each beyond his capacity to each according to greed”! The taxes throttle the common man, and greed of corrupt people in power grows and grows.
It is not that only very few are greedy. It is obvious because of the magnitude. For most of us, this greed camouflages and presents itself in totally different colour. It is very relevant to know how to fix the need. Because, need keeps changing according to situation. The size of the operation or surgery decides the need of additional blood. Doctors prescribe needless quantity of tablets, medicines and drugs which end up a pile of junk, beyond the expiry date. At least these wastages would have saved many poor lives! We do need to do something very strongly about this wastage that follows the immediate footsteps of the greed. It is the greed for a ‘name’ that makes a person throw a lavish party, where another set of greedy people respond by wasting precious enriched food to the extent of 80 % for sheer ‘fashion’ sake. Corruption has reached dizzy heights due to this greed.
The fight against corruption has sprung out of need to curb the greed! It would be nice if the people who are ‘convicted’ for corruption, should not be allowed to even respect the NATIONAL FLAG! They should never be invited to flag-hoisting functions, etc. They should be kept away from national flag. May be, this step would deter their greed from growing beyond the tolerance capacity of common man’s pocket!
This urge or upsurge to fight against corruption which is the result of greed , would have naturally led to a logical question, as to why/when the need becomes a greed! No point in pointing fingers against others, when the seed of greed is about to germinate inside the ‘need’! So, the question is genuine, and should be respected with a genuine attempt to answer it and logically too. There are several aspects to the reply. I just make a humble beginning by way of inspirational effort.
Psn(25th April, 2011)
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110419013430AApza3f
Why/ when does need transform to greed?
SL
how does we know that we are in need or greed?
My reply:
When the needs turns too personal, way beyond the need of the 'situation'.Our body is "ours", and "we " are not the body itself. So, when body needs something it is 'situational' need. When we look out for tasty junk food, it is not the body's need but our greed's need!
Please look at other living beings. There is no scope to point fingers at their greed! When the deer loiters within the reach of a huge lion, we can be certain of two things... the deer has good perception that it can sense the difference between a hungry lion, and a well fed lion. Second, the lion is incapable of greed (the greed to eat inclusive).
Animals cannot sacrifice too. We can do both.. we can be greedy, we can choose to forgo as an act of sacrifice.
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