"To the illumined man or woman, a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same."
Bhagavad Gita
This verse from the ancient Hindu holy text came to my attention when reading through Eknath Easwaran's excellent book, Words to Live By. We look at the prices of gold, silver, stocks, bonds, etc. on a daily basis but sometimes it is nice to put things into a higher perspective. Here is now Mr. Easwaran further elaborated on this quote from the Bhagavad Gita:
"Gold is not valuable in itself. It is valuable because there is so little of it. If sand were found only in small quantities, people would treasure it in their safe-deposit boxes, they would buy sand certificates, on important occasions they would exchange a little sand, and they would have the expression "as good as sand".
Things cannot give us status. We give status to things. When Tom gets into his BMW, he is giving status to the car. The car is not giving him status. The car says, "I feel good because Tom is at the wheel."
What really gives value to anything is its usefulness in serving others. Our body draws its value from its usefulness in serving others, and ourlife draws its value, not from the money we make, or the prizes we win, or the power we wield over others, but from the service we give every day to add a little bit more to the happiness of our family and our community."
Some [golden] food for thought.