Love of Money-Root of Evil
“Love of money”, it is said, “is the root of half the evil in the world; lack of money is the root of the other half”. Both these statements are broadly true. The implication of greed and dishonesty. Anyone who develops this madness for money becomes, like the greedy jew and the miserly scot, a devotee, or rather a slave, of the goddess of wealth. He claims and boards money by every possible means, denying himself and his wife and children a good living in the effort to save every penny he can lay his hands upon.
Love of money often compels a person to take to evil and anti-social habits, and consequently, he is not tolerated or welcomed in a decent, honesty society. Such lure also leads people to commit thefts, resort to cheating in office and company accounts, and in tax returns, in business and industry; in fact, deception expands in every branch of human activity. Cases have been known of people whose love of money led them to work all the time without rest and thus ruin their health-but all in vain. Thus they lost both the wealth they had earned by laboring ceaselessly and their health in the process.
It is rightly believed that the power of the purse is a great power. It brings prestige, influence, friends, flatterers, and admirers, (just as honey brings flies), and comforts and convenience of life. When pockets are cherished more than hearts and brains, human bodies, justice, and dignity are deterioration of character and of moral set in, gradually but surely. The love and possession of wealth also bring in their wake callousness and dislike of the weak and lack of sympathy towards the helpless. The human factor, which is-undeniably vital tends to be ignored. The rich man is generally found coming in the way of progressive movements. Moreover, large quantities of money do not bring high intelligence. Nor do love of money and greed for gold necessarily ensure the culture, high standards, and good breeding.
In fact, the knack of earning money and boarding it for sheer love, it teaches a person many evil things; it debases and dehumanizes him, thus defeating the very purpose of life and creation.
