Sacred Concord

Mbh 12.158.2a

Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli

"'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 of also all the cunning and hypocrisy in the world. It is covetousness that makes men commit sin. From covetousness proceeds wrath, from covetousness flows lust, and it is from covetousness that loss of judgment, deception, pride, arrogance, and malice, as also vindictiveness, shamelessness, loss of prosperity, loss of virtue, anxiety, and infamy spring, miserliness, cupidity, desire for every kind of improper act, pride of birth, pride of learning, pride of beauty, pride of wealth, pitilessness for all creatures, malevolence towards all, mistrust in respect of all, insincerity towards all, appropriation of other people's wealth, ravishment of other people's wives, harshness of speech, anxiety, propensity to speak ill of others, violent craving for the indulgence of lust, gluttony, liability to premature death, violent propensity towards malice, irresistible liking for falsehood, unconquerable appetite for indulging in the passions, insatiable desire for indulging the ear, evil-speaking, boastfulness, arrogance, non-doing of duties, rashness, and perpetration of every kind of evil act,--all these proceed from covetousness. In life, men are unable, whether infants or youth or adults, to abandon covetousness. Such is the nature of covetousness that it never decays even with the decay of life. Like the ocean that can never be filled by the constant discharge of even innumerable rivers of immeasurable depths, covetousness is incapable of being gratified by acquisitions to any extent.
Mbh 12.158.2a · Mahabharata · SANTI PARVA

Themes in this passage

GreedDesirePrideSinNatureWealthAnxietyDharma

Greed in other traditions

The same theme, as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Taoism address it.

Let us live happily then, free from greed among the greedy! among men who are greedy let us dwell free from greed!
Dhp 15.199 · Dhammapada · Happiness
Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
1 Timothy 3:3 · Bible · 1 Timothy
Who hoard and who enjoin upon the people avarice. And whosoever turneth away, still Allah is the Absolute, the Owner of Praise.
Quran 57:24 · Quran · The Iron
Therefore the sage seeks to satisfy (the craving of) the belly, and not the (insatiable longing of the) eyes. He puts from him the latter, and prefers to seek the former.
Tao Te Ching 12.2 · Tao Te Ching

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