Money-power surrenders to wisdom-power

There was once a man who was very miserly, whereas his wife was very generous. But the wife did not have access to her husband’s money. They had so much money that they could have easily helped the village that they lived in. For months people were suffering from drought and famine. Because of the drought, there was not enough food and people were dying of starvation. The wife begged the husband to dig some wells so that at least their neighbours could have water. But the husband did not want to spend money to dig wells.

The wife said, “Who knows, by digging in the ground, perhaps even I can find water.”

So she asked their one servant to help her dig a well at a particular place. The wife, herself a respectable lady, also joined the servant in digging. Every day they would dig, but they did not find water at all. The husband laughed and laughed and said, “Yes, you will dig for a year and still there will be nothing. Only your stupidity-hole is becoming bigger.”

One day the servant had a clever idea. He said, “Mother, we are trying so hard, but your husband is being so unkind and cruel. Let us play a trick.”

“What kind of trick?” the wife asked.

The servant said, “Every morning your husband comes and laughs at us. Tomorrow also he will come. Let us put some oil on the ground where we are digging. When he sees the oil on the ground, he will get very excited. He will employ many workers and servants, thinking that oil may be found here. They will dig and dig. Who knows, perhaps there will be some water here.”

The following day the husband came and saw the oil on the ground. He was so excited and said to himself, “I want to take the full credit for discovering oil.” Then he said to his wife and servant, “Can you do me a favour today? Can you bring me something from the market? I will give you anything you want if you do me this favour.”

His wife and servant went to the market to buy a few things for the husband. The wife was totally innocent. She had totally forgotten about the oil trick. She was just doing a favour for her husband. In the meantime, the husband brought twenty workers to continue digging at the same place so that he could get all the credit for discovering oil. They worked for a few hours and finally they found water.

The workers were so happy to find water, but the owner of the house was very disappointed. He said, “Who wanted to have water? I wanted to have oil so that I could sell it and become richer. How can I sell water? I can only give it away to my neighbours.”

The wife and the servant came back from the market and they were so delighted and excited to see that water had been found. The husband said to them, “How can it be? This morning I actually saw oil on the ground. That’s why I hired so many workers. This morning there was oil, but now there is only water.”

The wife said, “Money-power surrenders to wisdom-power.”

“What are you talking about?” asked the husband.

“This is all due to our servant’s wisdom. We tried so hard to find water but we failed. Then he had a brilliant idea. He knows how miserly you are. He knew that if you saw oil on the ground where we were digging, then you would start digging a well looking for oil. God wanted you to help the needy. God didn’t want you to become richer by discovering oil.”

From:Sri Chinmoy,Is your mind ready to cry? Is your heart ready to smile? part 3, Agni Press, 1981
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/mrc_3