Shri Nathji would narrate the parable of the rich man and his son. The man had collected a large amount of money, which he kept in a sack. Every night he would sit alone and count the money and take delight in it. His son, who had been the victim of his father’s miserliness on many occasions, sought to teach his father a lesson.
One day he robbed the gold coins in the sack and replaced them with stones. That night when the father went to count his money in the sack he was shocked to find it all gone and replaced by an equal number of stones.
“Robbed!” he said, staring at the stones. As he was about to raise a hue and cry, his son came to him and said:
“Father! What difference does it make to you? You merely used to count them. So you can count the stones instead!”
Shri Nathji used to narrate the state of those who were greatly attached to money in the following Persian Verse:
Zar to thhaa aaraam ko, khud zar ke khaadim ban gaye
Ganj madfoon hai daroon aur khud bane darbaan hain
Wealth was meant for joy, but we become the slaves of wealth,
The treasure was buried within, and we became the watchmen without!
This was how Shri Nathji described the material possessions of the world. Man became like a slave tied down with a chain of gold to the throne of materialism. Lucky were those who knew that the intrinsic worth of wealth was little.