Excessive desires are very strange. Atyāsā prāna hariniḥ! If the desires exceed the limit, it can also take away the prāna (life). Hence, greediness that causes sorrow is not good for anybody. Too much of desires are dangerous with respect to anything. Eating excessively is as dangerous as earning excessively because it will harm the stomach. Humans must possess desires but he must never succumb to excessive desires. Hence, it is said “Ati sarvatra varjayēt”

There is a bee which flew onto different kinds of flowers and consumed honey. After some time, its stomach was full. It then got the greediness of taking honey to its children. In a nearby pond, it saw few nicely spread lotuses. Seeing them, its intensity of the desire doubled. Within a while, the sun is about to set. Irrespective of that, the bee went and sat on the lotuses for honey because of its greediness. It forgot itself totally in the delectable taste of honey. The honey was so tasty that it went on savoring it forgetting about its house and children. Drinking too much of honey made the bee intoxicated. Dusk was falling rapidly and the lotus shrank. The bee was locked in the lotus. It then understood that this is because of the result of her greediness. Immediately, another idea struck the bee. It was thinking that upon the arrival of dawn, the lotus will soon outspread. Within no time, its desires were totally destroyed. An elephant came to the pond and stamped all the lotuses in the pond and uprooted it. The bee had to leave its body while it was still thinking about its desires. This is the proof to say that the results of greediness are so strange. Hence, we must never succumb to desires. There are many stories that teach us that many lives are lost because of possession of excessive desires.

There is a story about a deer. It was killed by an arrow. A jackal on its way saw the deer lying dead. Instead of eating the deer’s flesh, it first started to eat the flesh that was present on the arrow. In the process of eating, the arrow hurts the jackal and it too dies. How greedy the jackal is! This is a very beautiful story. We shall discuss about it later.

Atyāsā paramam duhkhaṁ! Too much of desires will only give us sorrow. We must be satisfied with what we have instead of being greedy. We must protect what we have and stop for excessive wants. There are many who involve in lottery. They already would have won in some lottery by sheer luck. Out of greediness, they again invest the money in some other lottery and finally end up losing everything. Many earn very hard. Just because someone has given them the idea of doing a business, they invest everything and end up in losses coming to streets. This is atyasa (greediness). We must have contentment in what we already have. Hence, it is said “Atyāsā paramam duhkhaṁ”. This greediness also takes lives. I bless you all such that you remember this moral every time.