Greed - A sin or not??

Greed in every religious scripture is considered to be a vice. Infact most of them have put greed among the top seven vices. And this word greed always threw lot many questions in my mind.

Greed for money is a vice. I fully agree, greed for money is one of the biggest causes of immorality among masses currently. But what about our hindu scriptures guiding us to perform Lakshmi puja? On a discussion with my guru once I was explained that Lakshmi puja is not just for hoarding and earning huge money. It’s a puja done to please the goddess and bless us with good health and money, that’s just enough for our needs. The puja is done to ask her to bless us with enough money so that we need not have to go begging, so that we have enough to take care of our basic needs.

But what about greed for knowledge, or greed for spiritual gains, so that I can be close to that one above? What I understood after discussing this point with many spiritual people is that Greed when gets combined with selfish behaviour, when the desire for more cross the limits of what we need or are supposed to receive, then it falls under sin. When greed is more for materialistic things, it’s a sin.

Greed or desire when is excessive, even for spiritual gains, it works negatively. Your mind is bound to turn restless. I have seen greed manifesting as envy even with people deep into spiritual journey. People feel jealous when another fellow spiritual seeker makes more gains. I have heard about few who lead a fearful life for the same. Their craving becomes so high that now when they don’t get connected to God, they fear of failure. All such feelings can never help in spiritual journey as they take away peace of our mind.

No, Greed is never good, even if it is for a cause good cause!