Storytelling Week 12: Greed Makes the World Go 'Round

Gold: Flickr

There are many forces that rule this earth. 

Look around you… do you see all the people who are making excuses and  using their religions for hating and killing each other?  Do you see the greed that surrounds this world?  Do you see the people who waste, while others have to go without?  This is not how it was meant to be. 

The earth was created with an order- a very specific order that was designed to hold its shape… but humans are apparently pretty good at messing things up. 

I am here today to explain to you one of the balances that humans have messed up the most.  This imbalance is the root of many of the problems that exist in our world today.  When the balance between Saraswati and Lakshmi is thrown off it is not easily restored, but that is what humanity will have to do one day. 

Traditionally, Saraswati is the representative of peace, while Lakshmi is the representative of wealth.  They should be held in a balance in life, but people tend to focus only on Lakshmi.  The story says that Saraswati and Lakshmi cannot be kept together at the same time because  humans tend to focus on Lakshmi’s wealth.  Saraswati gets jealous of this attention and she tends to leave, resulting in a focus on just  wealth,  and a feeling of restlessness.  This is the root of the idea that “money cannot buy happiness”.  No matter what you do, if you are only focused on Lakshmi, you will lose sight of Saraswati and you will not be truly happy because there will be no peace. 

Although this one imbalance may seem small, it has big impacts in life.  It not only changes the way you live and your outlook on life, but it affects other balanced relationships in the world.  The story goes that Lakshmi does not like to be alone, so when Saraswati leaves, her not-so-desirable twin Alakshmi shows up to keep her company.  This is problematic because Alakshmi leaves humanity with even more undesirable things in life because she represents all the things that Lakshmi does not- everything that is unwanted. 

For this reason, everyone must eventually make the journey to finding who they are.  Humans will only find happiness and peace when they stop focusing on wealth and money.   

There is no good.  There is no evil.  There is only balance. 

To find that balance, humanity will have to find themselves and find their true importance in life.  The balance will be restored only when people stop the greed and learn to focus on others.  When the balance is restored, you will know.  World hunger will end, people will stop suffering from disease because pharmaceutical companies will work together, everyone will be cared for and loved, there will be no anger or jealousy, all stray animals will have a home, and there will be no war. 

If this seems too idealistic to be true, it is because you are human, and you too have the same outlook on life.  You too are caught in the imbalance of Saraswati and Lakshmi, but fear not, for one day you will be enlightened. 

Author’s note:  This story was based on Pattanaik’s Seven Secrets of Vishnu:  Link to Videos, specifically sections C and D.  In this part of the video series, there was a strong focus on the balance between Lakshmi , Saraswati, and Alakshmi.  I really enjoyed learning about it and it seemed to make a lot of sense to me.  I decided I wanted to write about how it related to the world, but not from a human perspective.  I tried to make the speaker mysterious so that the reader can put in their own idea of who the author is, but I also tried to identify them as someone with great power like a god.