Money: A good servant but a bad master (Htet Zaw Htoo)

Money: A good servant but a bad master

Most of the people often say that nothing is more powerful than money and money can make almost everything like a God. So money is often called a second God. By and large, it is absolutely true that money is as important for people as a God. If we have no money, we cannot buy goods, clothes and other necessaries we need. Without money, we cannot go to the movies, theaters or other amusements places. Money is very important for all affairs of human beings. Therefore, people hunts for money in various ways to live comfortably and as the upper class in the society.

As most of people said, money makes us convenient and comfortable to live in the society. Not only in physical activities but also in spiritual activities, money can satisfy our needs. The more money we have, the more comfortable our living style is. We can buy many facilities to live in comfort and decorate our buildings and others. This is an example of physical advantages by virtue of money. Likewise, we can fulfill our spiritual needs by using money. As an example of it, we can extend our knowledge and study as much as we want. Thanks to money we can improve our spiritual activities easily. We can go to any schools, any universities we like to further our knowledge. If our parents are wealthy and powerful we may be sent abroad to study. Moreover, we can enjoy pure happiness by contributing our money to Charity funds to help the poor, the wretched and the victims of other disasters. It is not easy to say the advantages we get by virtue of money at one sitting. Therefore, it can be generally said that money is as useful for us as a good servant. A good servant makes everything easy and comfortable for our living and so does money. However, the world itself is a mixture of good and evil, money is no exception. There are a lot of disadvantages and serious consequences of money. As money plays a great part in a person's life, they try to get it as much as they can in various ways. However, they use illegal and unfair ways to get money especially when they cannot end their burning desire. Nowadays some people dare to do everything possible to get money. They do not care whether their ways of searching money are fair or not. Money, in this way, is the root of today evils. Because of their overwhelming desire for money, people dare to ignore justice and ethics. Following money, people unconsciously become the servants of money and money becomes their master. As a bad master, money instructs hard grasping people to do bad things and behave greedily and selfishly.

Moreover, money cannot make everything as most people said. Kinky Fridgeman once said, "Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail". It is true that we cannot buy real love and affection by using money. Kinky Fridgeman's quote argues that money cannot make everything as most people think. Furthermore, a video I have ever watched proves that money is not possible to control everything. In that video, there was a rich millionaire who was young and ever proud of having a lot of money. He always boasted of his possessions. He thought that he could control everything. However, one day his family doctor informed him that he had got a brain tumour and he had got only two weeks left to survive. He was very frightened and asked his doctor for stopping death by using money. Finally, the video was subtitled 'money cannot stop death'. That video educates us that we cannot make and control everything by means of money.

Greed belongs to three primary causes of the cycle of Samsara and rebirth according to Buddha's instruction. All of the religions instruct people not to be greedy too much. An avaricious man cannot end his desire easily till his last breath. Avaricious people spend the whole life hunting for money greedily and cannot spend their life happily. They become the servants of the bad master, money. It does not mean that we should not be eager to get money. However, we need to try to control our desire for money. We must try to use money as a good servant for us and not to be our bad master. If we control our desire for money successfully and use it well, it will be a good servant. If not, money will ask us to do what it wants like a bad master.