NEED AND GREED: PART - 1

"We need money in order to have 'bread, dress and shelter' ; but when money becomes a psychological need, this originates the fight and the conflict to possess it."
-Samael Aun Weor (Anthropologist)

It is necessary that you have three things in life: bread, dress and shelter. We must not be hungry; we need to eat. We must not be badly dressed: it is necessary to be well-dressed. It is fair that we have a house where we can live decently.

These three things are the primary needs of the human being. It is urgent we can all comprehend where our needs end and where our greed begins. Only when we deeply comprehend what need and greed are, can we establish true bases in order to think in a correct way.

THE DIFFERENT FACES OF AMBITION

Ambition is many- sided. Ambition has a saint's face and a devil's face, a man's face and a woman's face, a face of interestedness and a face of disinterestedness, a virtuous person's face and a sinner's face.

There exists ambition in whoever wants to get married and in a diehard old bachelor who hates marriage. There exists ambition in whoever wishes to be someone, to appear, to go up, in an infinitely mad way; and there exists ambition in whoever becomes an anchorite, who does not wish anything in this world because his only ambition consists in reaching the Heavens, in achieving deliverance, etc.

The "I", the "Myself", the "Oneself", loves hiding its ambition, putting it into the most secret turns of the mind, and it says, "I do not desire anything; I love my fellow creatures; I work disinterestedly for the goodness of all the other human beings."

The "foxy" politician, who knows all tricks, sometimes amazes the crowds with his apparently disinterested works, but when he leaves his job, it is quite normal that he leaves his country with a few million dollars. The ambition that disguises itself with the mask of disinterestedness usually deceives the shrewdest people.

There exist many people in the world whose only ambition is not to be ambitious. There are many people who renounce all pomp and vanity of the world because they only desire their own Intimate Self-Perfectness. The penitent who walks on his knees to the temple and whips himself full of faith, apparently desires nothing at all and can even afford to give without receiving from anybody. But it is clear that he desires a miracle, being healed, recovering his own or some relative's health, or perhaps the eternal salvation.

We admire the truly religious men, but we regret that they do not love their religion with a complete disinterestedness. The holy religions, the sublime sects, orders, spiritual societies, etc. deserve our disinterested love. It is very rare to find someone in this world who loves his or her religion, school, sect, etc. disinterestedly. This is a very regrettable fact.

EVERYBODY IS FULL OF AMBITIONS

Hitler went to war out of ambition. All wars have their origin in fear and ambition. All the biggest problems of life have their origin in ambition.

Everybody fights against everybody due to ambition: some against others and everybody against everybody. Whoever does not desire this mean and miserable world desires the other one; and whoever does not desire money desires psychic powers.

There exists a greed for occult powers when we want results. Those who only desire results are greedy. Those who go from one place to another accumulating theories, seeking powers, today in one school tomorrow in another, are in fact bottled up within the bottle of greed. A mind that is bottled up in greed is unstable.

They migrate from "Lodge" to "Lodge", from school to school, from sect to sect; they always suffer, etc., and never achieve anything, for what is unstable can never comprehend what is stable, permanent and divine.

Only God comprehends Himself. A mind that is bottled up amongst the bottle of greed is unable to comprehend the things which are outside the bottle.

The covetous people want to bottle God up, and that is why they go from school to school always seeking, always longing- uselessly, because nobody can bottle God up.

Whoever wants to work in the"Great Inner Work" must first abandon greed. The bricklayer who is greedy leaves his work when he comes across another work, even when the latter is a tenebrous one, really. Those who are covetous retire from the "Great Inner Work". Many people start the work, few people finish it.

SPIRITUAL AMBITIONS AND EARTHLY AMBITIONS

There exist great spiritual ambitions and there exist great earthly ambitions. Those who do not desire money, desire power; those who do not desire powers, desire money. There exists a greed for money when we desire it out of psychological purposes and not for attending our physical needs.

Why has money become so immensely important in our lives? Do we, by any chance, only depend on it for our own psychological happiness? All human beings need food, clothing and housing; this is very well-known, but why has such a natural and plain thing- even for the birds in the sky- assumed such a tremendous and frightening importance and significance?

TO BE CONTINUED.................

-Inspired by the works of Samael Aun Weor