WHETHER MONEY MATTERS.... ?

My daughter Shreya was in a big dilemma when her teacher left her with no other alternative but to speak against " Money Matters" subject in the inter college debate competition. She was initially not happy as her batch mate was asked to speak 'for' on the topic.
It was difficult for her to reconcile (even now also she is not) to the fact that she has to speak on 'Money Doesn't Matter’, when she is not at all convenienced.
I tried to prevail upon her that in a debate whether you speak ‘for’ or ‘against’ is not so important than the content and how you convey across the same to the audience by proper posturing and body language.
Appended below is her version on the subject, after getting inputs from different sources. I do not know whether she spoke in the spirit of debate competition or out of her conviction or just for the heck it!

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WHETHER MONEY MATTERS OR NOT?

In today's highly materialistic world, if you ask any Tom, Dick or Harry that ‘Money doesn't matter’? Be rest assured, everyone will start laughing at you: What? Money doesn’t matter? Of course, it does. It can buy me anything and everything I want to buy to make me happy.

It is only an ignorant, immature and arrogant mind that worships money as God, ignoring the basic fact that money is only a sort of resource or a via media to carry out transactions. In ancient times, people lived without money and without currency, for the simple reason that they did not need it as they had everything in abundant that they wanted. When there is abundance and plenty of everything all around to meet the needs of all creatures on this planet, you realise that money really doesn't matter.

Yes, money makes many things but certainly not all. Yes:

You can buy bed but not sleep.
It gives wealth but not natural health - hale and heartiness
You can buy food but not appetite
It gives you fame but not satisfaction
It can buy worldly pleasures but not happiness.

Money can't buy friends but it can get you better class of enemies!

Can money buy for me, my own parents, sisters and brothers? Our kith and kins, friends and and dedicated teachers with commitment to groom students to make them as good citizens of the country; who are a rare gifts of God to us. Can we buy God's gifts in the market, from money, to say that money really matters?

Have you ever noticed that most of the sulking, complaining, criticising, condemning and miserable people you meet in everyday life are rich people? The unnecessary misery these people go through and heap upon themselves, which is their own making, is not because they do not have enough money. They have enough money but they do not have what they essentially need to have - character, integrity, compassion, empathy and humanness, which money cannot buy, as these things are not available for sale in the market.

An exhaustive research study conducted by the University of Illinois has very clearly indicated that majority of the richest people in America are not as happy as 'have nots'. In reality, the glossy picture of the so called 'happy rich person' that most people hold in their minds is simply an illusion - a myth. Money can buy sense gratification, but certainly not actual happiness.

As per Peter Ubel, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, the relationship between money and everlasting happiness, is not existent at all. You can buy sense and physical pleasures, you can buy short lived happiness, but not everlasting happiness known as total bliss.

To you a person, who is lost in the desert and is suffering under the scorching sun and on the verge of collapse; if you offer him a choice of sweets, diamond, wad of notes and a glass of water; what would he prefer ? The common sense tells us that for his survival, of course, he will grab the glass of water without ever caring for other things that are there for free ! Once you survive, you start ‘acquiring’ and this ‘acquiring’ is nothing but a shade of greed that changes from person to person, situation to situation and from place to place, depending on the kind of society we live in.

Yes, we all of us need money to meet our basic needs for survival and healthy existent on this planet and, beyond this, if you want money, it is called greed. A greedy person becomes corrupt and corruption leads to contamination of mind, body and soul.

The everlasting peace, happiness and bliss is what we all human beings are aspiring for, which cannot be purchased by exchange of money.

While concluding, i would like to say that “Money can buy you a fine and well bred dog but only pure love can make it’s wag tail.

Friends, pure love and total bliss, which you need to have to share with others to have everlasting peace and happiness is not a commodity that is available in the market for purchase. It is in you, within you. Please explore.

-- Shrooti Pujar

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MP