Greed O noble Greed, much maligned and hated, more sinned against than sinning yourself, come to me and bring your life giving force, which compelled man to evolve and grow and make of life a little more than mere existence!!
That is my morning prayer. I love greed.
Why, in the name of God, and all that is holy, do we carry so much animosity towards such a positive urge in our lives? I want to expound the virtues of being greedy.
Was it not our greed for life, our greed to live another day, another hour, which resulted in man’s struggle to survive against all odds? The prehistoric man learnt to preserve himself against the elements, learnt to hunt, to work skills with his hands, to find food and water and shelter. Was it not his greed for immortality, for love, for sharing; his greed to be nurtured that made him find a partner to love and to produce his progeny? Was it not his greed to see himself in another human being that made him bring children into this world, in great pain and to cherish and raise them to take his place in the tug of war with nature? Was it not his innate greed for survival that made him adopt himself to his surroundings, which pushed his genes to mutate and give him the best chance to survive, thus beginning an unstoppable chain of evolution?
It is this greed for comfort, which made him study the pattern in which the universe behaved, so that he could control its forces; that made it possible for him to have invented millions of gadgets; from the first wheel, to the robot that does the humanly impossible tasks in his stead. His greed for communicating with and understanding others, far and near, has resulted in the creation of myriad forms of art. His greed for recognition has pushed him to test the outer limits of endurance and intellect. His greed for well being, for enjoying the pleasures of life, for being strong forever, has been behind medicine, martial arts and stretching longevity. His greed for power over other humans led him to invent God!
I call each desire, Greed. That is because man did not stop after his first meal, his first hunt, his first comfortable bed, his cave shelter, his first copulation, his first child, his first attempt to fight sickness, his first war to protect his territory. He went on to desire and to acquire more and more, and in the bargain, evolved into a being completely at variance to what he started as being.
On a more microscopic, individual level, I have a greed for love, for life, for comfort, for travel, for more of the sun and the moon, fragrances and flowers, sights and sounds and unlimited time to be with my loved ones. Who doesn’t? I would like to steal even the smallest possible unit of time from death, if I could. I would want to read the millions of books ever written in this world, listen to billions of musical compositions, see zillions of breathtaking sights, walk trillions of miles of roads to see thousands of culture and meet every one of the six billion people residing on this earth. What is wrong with that? I could do only a millionth part of all that, but my desire is not bound by the achievable, the possible, the limited. I am not cursed to stop at a landmark and fumble for the rest of the time, if any. I have started and am geared to go on endlessly until death wrings down the curtains – maybe there is life beyond death too . . . . who knows?
So let us lust after every bit of life and pay our homage to the Prime Mover Greed.