Greed Rots Your Soul

Greed Rots Your Soul

CHRISTIANITY

7 Deadly sins: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth  

“Also known as avarice, cupidity, or covetousness, is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of desire. However, greed (as seen by the Church) is applied to an artificial, rapacious desire and pursuit of material possessions. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "Greed is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things."

 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” 1 Timothy 6:10

 “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” 1 Timothy 6:10

Greed is the mother of all sins, it is the stuff other deadly sins are made of.

“Like pride, it can lead to not just some, but all evil”

HINDUISM

In the ancient Hindu epic "The Mahabharata," Bhishma, son of the holy river Ganges and one of Hinduism’s great yogis, delivers Hinduism’s great treatise on greed, naming it for the faithful as the matrix out of which all other evil arises:

"Yudhisthira said: 'I desire, O bull of Bharata’s race, to hear in detail the source from which sin proceeds and the foundation on which it rests.' Bhishma said: 'Hear, O King, what the foundation is of sin. Covetousness alone is a great destroyer of merit and goodness. From covetousness proceeds sin. It is from this source that sin and irreligiousness flow, together with great misery. This covetousness is the spring also of all the cunning and hypocrisy in the world. It is covetousness that makes men sin....'"

BUDDHISM

Greed is considered one of the three poisons of Buddhism, the others being ignorance and aversion.

Buddhism, in essence, rests on a practiced abhorrence of the ways of desiring. The Visuddhimagga explicitly counsels: "Greed is the real dirt, not dust …The wise have shaken off this dirt, and in the dirt-free man’s religion, live."

ISLAM

Material greed is an omnipresent temptation that terminates only at death.

“The 102^nd Sura of the Qur’an, al-Takathur, opens with the proclamation, “Vying for increase distracts you, until you visit the graves.” In the 104^th Sura (al-Humazah), we read, “Woe unto every slandering backbiter, who amasses wealth and tallies it, supposing that his wealth makes him immortal.”

JUDAISM

All material wealth in this world is decreed by God- and thus it all belongs to him and it is as if we were merely stewards looking after the money of God. Therefore, we cannot hoard it, but must use it constructively. 

The Talmud and Midrash amplifies the verse in Koheles (Eccl. 5:9): “One who loves money will never be satisfied with money.” The Midrash Koheles Rabbah (1:13) states: “One who has one hundred [of some currency] wants two hundred.” In other words, greed is futile. It is a goal with no end.

SIKHISM

According to the Sikh lifestyle instructed by Sikh Gurus, one should control and get rid of five vices. The Vices are Kaam (Lust), Krodth (Anger), Lobh (Greed), Moh (Emotional Attachment), and Ahankaar (Ego).

Lobh means Greed. Greed keeps one entangled in materialistic things, and as long as one remains entangled in worldly possessions, he or she wanders away from God. "The waves of greed rise within him and he does not remember God. He does not join the company of the holy, and suffers in terrible pain through countless incarnations" (Guru Granth Sahib Ji, 77). "Filled with greed, one constantly wanders around; he does not do any good deeds. O Nanak, the Lord abides within the heart of the one who follows the Guru" (Guru Granth Sahib Ji, 321). "I have seen the world being destroyed by greed and egotism. Only by serving the Guru, God is realized and the true gate of salvation is found" (Guru Granth Sahib Ji, 228).