Journey of Money
This is the real life story of a friend of mine, who struggled hard in life, and adopted all fair and unfair means to become successful, and finally made it to that level, where by all means, he could be called successful.
Having had the satisfaction of having all that a man can dream and aspire for, he still experienced some kind of void in his life, and so once he shared with me his uneasiness.
I suggested him to get into charity and start giving financial and material support to people/NGOs working for underprivileged strata of society.
He happily took to charity and started giving lavishly, and in the process started enjoying respect and admiration which comes naturally when you start giving for social cause. As is the rule with ‘giving’, he soon hit the cosmic circuit, and more he gave towards social cause, more his business started generating profits.
Almost all the places he would visit to give charity, he will be received well, and on way back, was seen off by the Head of those charitable institutions, and he would return back to his office happily and with full satisfaction. Being happy and respected started getting reflected in the increase in his overall confidence and increase in his social circle too.
Recognition swells the pride and has the impact of highest level of intoxication, till one day he got jolted with an altogether different experience.
Once he visited a charitable institution and gave handsomely. The concerning person happily received the cheque but didn’t thank him for his gracious gesture. This friend of mine, while walking out, was simmering with pain that "How come this man be so ungrateful that he even didn’t utter those two words, Thank You”. He was besieged with so much irritation that he told his office staff, who used to accompany him, “ Let’s go back and ask that person how could he be so discourteous that he didn’t said Thank you to him. Despite his staff’s suggestion not to go back for such a small thing to hear those two words “ Thank you”, my friend went back to the person who received the cheque, and point blank confronted him, and sought to know why was he not thankful to him for his gesture and donations he made to their institution.
This man now said those words which my friend was not used to. He said, “ Why I should thank you, and why my friend shouldn’t be thankful to them for they having accepted his donation cheque?”
This man, from that charitable institute, went on to say that "Had they refused to accept his donation, he would have gone back sulking for two reasons; one that he would have been denied the experience of that lightheartedness which dawns on the person donating money, and secondly it would have hurt his ego that help he is trying to give to us is not being accepted by them. So, therefore, instead of expecting their thankfulness, he needs to be more thankful to them for their having accepted his donation."
It took my friend some time to digest what that man said, but then once for all, he crossed that last frontier, saw the vanity in that false sense of pride he was getting associated with, shook off the air he was living with, and while continuing with his charity work, he became a down-to-earth human being, an epitome of all around peace and tranquility.
Success, Fame, Wealth, Charity with humbleness and modesty, leading to peace, is the ultimate way the money and byproducts thereof has to travel.