Wealth Talks

K. Kasturi Devi reported in the local paper that Penang Hospice Home is in dire straits. The current hard times have purportedly forced the home to stop accepting cancer patients. The home run by the Penang branch of the National Cancer Society of Malaysia provides free palliative care for cancer patients but its funds have been dwindling. The chief executive officer and medical director Datuk Seri Dr. T. Devaraj said that donations have dropped significantly but operating costs have escalated. That goes to show the importance of money. Money, some people say is the root of all evils but I suppose without money, one can't even afford even a little kindness. A kind smile or a kind word sometimes is just not enough when one is talkng about helping a cancer victim or feeding a hungry stomach. Buddha once told a householder,Anathapindika that wealth earned righteously provides pleasures and satisfaction to the person, his parents, his children, wife and employees , friends and associates and maintains that pleasure. Likewise, wealth righteously gained wards off calamities coming from fire, flood, kings, thieves, or hateful heirs, and keeps the person safe, enables a person to perform the five oblations to relatives, guests, the dead, kings, & devas. and to institute offerings of supreme aim which brings happiness. Wealth is in this sense, all too important in our mundane world.

And here's a million dollars for your viewing pleasure!