Don’t Buy
Gold,
Buy Meals for
Hungry Children!
A leading jeweller
has published today six full-page ads in a major daily paper with circulation
in several states, urging buyers to grab the attractive discounts it offers.
Are you
buying gold today? Astrologers pronounce that this Akshaya Tritiya is very
special. But do you recall any Akshaya Tritiya in recent years which did NOT
have rare planetary conjunctions propitious for purchase of gold, jewels, and
property. Unsurprisingly, an astrologer claims that such special planetary
conjunctions are occurring on Akshaya Tritiya this year after 17 years, and the
next such auspicious alignment would occur only after 27 years; and therefore,
purchase of gold, property, etc. would be highly beneficial – for the buyer as
well as the seller, it may be safely presumed.
Akshaya Tritiya
Akshaya
Tritiya (April 30, 2025) is a very auspicious tithi in the Hindu calendar. As
per the scriptures, on this day Vishnu took the Parashuram avatar, Tretaya Yug
commenced, Ganga descended on earth, Surya gifted Akshaya Patra to Yudhisthir,
Veda Vyasa commenced composition of the Mahabharata, and at Dwaraka Sudama met
Krishna who instantaneously removed his poverty.
On this day,
many people buy gold believing that wealth acquired on this auspicious day
would never decay, dwindle, or diminish. Everlasting wealth, prosperity, and
happiness guaranteed!
Does it
really work that way? Yes, of course! But you don’t need astrology for that
prediction; simple arithmetic confirms it. If you bought 1 gram of gold on
every Akshaya Tritiya for the last 25 years, your gold stock would have
increased year on year. How much gold would you have now? Just add up X, Y
& Z, where X is your opening stock, Y is 25 gm, and Z is additional gold
that you or your spouse might have bought intermittently. If you bought 10 gm
every year, add a zero to the figure at Y. See, how easy it is to predict the
future correctly!
Are you
happy with your present stock of gold? How do you compare with others? Well,
the per capita ownership of gold in India is estimated to be 20 to 30 gm, one
of the highest in the world. Judge for yourself.
Gold: Glamour &
Grandeur
Gold
glitters, but does it guarantee happiness? How much gold will make you happy? If
you own one kilo of gold and acquire half-a-kilo more, does your happiness
increase by fifty percent?
Of course, you can do a lot with gold; sleep on a golden four-poster bed, use golden cutlery for royal dining, install an ‘America’[i] in your wash-room.
India can do more amazing things - run a gold thread around the Earth - only 608 tonnes needed for a 1 mm thick girdle. How about paving 1 km of road, 3 m wide, with a 1 mm thick layer of gold, for which only 58 tonnes of gold would suffice? It could be named Swarna Path to commemorate the Swarnim Kaal currently under way. But why just a kilometre, our gold holding could build 482 km of Golden Road. A little nod to ED can take it to 500 km. Just imagine, what a top tourist attraction that would be!
Do you know:
Indians own about 25000 to 28000 tonnes of gold, and buy 700-800 tonnes every
year!
But this cultural practice is problematic. Who buys gold year on year? Families who have investible surplus accumulate gold and other assets, and get richer. The poor who never buy gold, and the lower middle-class which seldom buys gold remain where they were – gold-less, gold-deprived, and gold-starved. The gap between the rich and the poor increases.
My prayers
to Goddess Lakshmi to bless every gold-deprived family with a gift of at least
10 gm of 24-carat gold this Akshaya Tritiya.
Spread Happiness
How about spreading
a little happiness instead of buying gold? How about feeding hungry children?
Consider
this:
Estimated
number of malnourished children under 5 years in India: Stunted : 42–46 million
(35.5%) , Wasted : 23–25 mn (19.3%), Underweight: 38-42 mn (32.1%).
Must
practise before you preach, I told myself, and made a humble donation of 4500
rupees to Akshayapatra.org[ii]
to provide mid-day meals to three children for a year. How much gold could I’ve
bought instead? Less than 0.5 gm!
Gold for YOU!
Not by
plundering,
Disembowelling
the Earth,
But by
gathering atom by atom,
Gold-dust
simmering in the air,
Seen only by
alert, prayerful eyes;
Crafted to
resplendent jewellery,
These
precious words are
For
connoisseur, client, customer,
YOU, Dear
Reader!
On Sharing Wealth &
Prosperity
Sanskrit
Verse:
धनं तु भूतिहेतुः स्यात् न केवलं धारणे।
दानेन च विशेषेण तस्मात् संचितमर्पयेत्॥
Meaning:
Wealth
should be a means for prosperity, not merely for hoarding. Especially through
charity, one must share what has been accumulated.
From Hitopadesha:
यं ददाति स धन्यः स जीवति।
Meaning: He
who gives is blessed; he truly lives.
Moral from
the Jataka Commentary
न हि सो वित्तकामो यो धनं निधापेति —
संविभागी धनं करॆ, एषो वित्तस्स संयमो।
Meaning
He is not a
true lover of wealth who hoards it; one who shares his wealth — he alone is a
true master of riches.
[i] Italian sculptor Cattelan’s ‘America’: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/maurizio-cattelan-america
[ii] I am neither a member of ISKCON or Akshaya Patra (NGO), but had once visited the latter’s Bhilai unit which cooked and distributed hygienic meals to school-children. I liked what I saw, and made a small contribution. Which charity to support is your call.
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