Value of things

                                     Value of things


 Children,from the early age should be educated about the value of things and not money.

A boy had a beautiful piece of cloth with exquisite workmanship. He took it to a shop in antiques with the intention of selling it. The shopkeeper, looking at the unique artistic piece, was ready to offer him twenty gold coins for that. The boy became greedy and tore the beautiful cloth, a table spread, into two pieces and asked him for the price. As both the pieces had beautiful motifs weaved on them intact, the shopkeeper was eager to have them and was ready to offer twelve gold coins each. The boy, not being satisfied, tore the beautiful pieces into small, small pieces and wanted to know the price for all. The wise antique dealer declined to give anything for those small insignificant pieces and addressed the boy, “ Oh my dear boy ! You don’t know the worth of this beautiful cloth. You tore into small pieces without any regret. You don’t seem to realize as to many hands have labored in making this unique artistic cloth. The farmer grows and cultivate cotton in the fields, fighting against the vagaries of weather. The merchant buys it and gets the cotton in the form of threads and gets them  colored in different shades. It is the weaver who weaves it with patterns and gives  it  to the merchant, who fixes the price and ships it to shops for sale. This is the case with everything manufactured.
When a person realizes this, he would never waste a thing or underrate any worker. The worth of a thing, appreciation of the same will develop the qualities of reverence, honesty , and love towards all. Automatically, the necessity and importance of money will also be realized in due course as it is needed for a comfortable living of one's own and to support and preserve others and other things. This realization will motivate earning of money through rightful means without exploitation."
In our modern, hectic and consumer-oriented lifestyles, competition and profit motivate business. Our society attributes status, position, power to people rich in terms of money. Since with money, everything is bought, children take everything for granted. Money is necessary, but money is not everything. Money masks everything. So people have no hesitation in wasting food, throwing out the clothes and other things. Children and even adults don’t understand the value of things, the labor undergone and the sweat shed by The laborers. They provide us the basic things for our living like food, clothes, shelter and other things. These things are modified into various forms by big business houses, who thrive. As we have multiplied our possessions but reduced values, we’ve learned how to make a living but not a life.

Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize that all the creatures that inhabit this earth- be they human beings or animals- are here mutually inter-dependent and are here to contribute each in its own particular way, to the beautty and prosperity of the world. We will understand others, we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance and care. We will also realize that in diversity, there is beauty and there is strength.
If we want to continue to enjoy varieties of food, clothing and other amneties of life, we need to help farmers and creatures carry on and preserve the pure environment, the bountiful Nature has provided us with. This will teach and value other people’s skill and knock out any thought of our superiority out of our head. We will realize that we all share a common thread and mutually depend on each other, our lack of healthy connection to each other, our inability to see the full dignity of each other is the underlying cause of lot of our problems.

When we understand the value of things, we will not waste food, clothes, toys, books or anything. Either things will be bought according to the needs or if more, will be distributed among the needy.
Even thinking of the wastage will be a shame, when many on the planet are starving, under-nourished, underclothed and uneducated.

We will consciously care for our planet and limit the damages we create and this will become a prioritized habit in our daily lives.
Value teaches the worth of everything. When we learn to respect even the smallest being of creation, whether animal or vegetable, nobody has to teach us to love our fellow human beings.
If we are able to see life from a broader perspective, we will thoroughly enjoy this place called Earth, our great common benevolent mother. All people, especially children will not feel isolated and glued to electronic devices for comfort, they will find their family-world has been transformed into a joyful fairy land of big , comforting, and loving world-family of "Live and Let live" resulting in boundless feelings of gratitude. This boundless gratefulness will lead to a total love to the Divine, who is our resource and who is also our refuge.