Contentment – a Greatest Possession

“There was once a woodcutter who was cutting wood near a river side, suddenly his axe fell into the river, and this was indeed heart-breaking because that was the only bread earning element of his life. He started howling around, seeing which river deity appeared and asked him about his grief.

To test him, she first showed him a golden axe for which he rejected saying it was not his axe. Second came the silver axe which was refused too. At last, she showed him his axe, and the wood cutter was happy to receive the one. But the holy divine was impressed about his honesty and granted him all the three axes.

Hearing this event, a friend of that woodcutter was craving for such boons to become rich. He tried the same trick to cut the wood on river side, and purposely threw his axe into river and started weeping stridently. Deity of river appeared to ask him the same questions and this friend wanted what she showed.

The divine river got enraged due to his greediness and there was neither a boon nor his axe at last.”



Following the above story Benjamin Franklin says “Who is wise? One who learns from everyone. Who is powerful? One who governs his passions. Who is rich? One who is contented.”

True! Greed is the cause of many of our problems. We want more and more – there is absolutely no end to this greed of possession no matter how much we have – we still want more!



Striving for more or doing better is not bad or wrong so long as it is done for the right reasons, so long as it is for the purification of the soul and not for physical, materialistic things.



If greed is not dealt with contentment, it causes competition. No matter how many materialistic things you possess, you will always find somebody with more money, a bigger house, a better car, etc. Pursuit of that is futile because ultimately it leaves you with greater dissatisfaction – once the desire to acquire what so-and-so has awakens within...