Is it beneficial to enter into a competition for money? Are money competitions futile?

Prize only for the winner, and for the rest…

Who in the city of Mumbai must not be thinking about money day and night? There are a few ascetics in white and ocher cloths who do not take money; they will not touch money. 

Questioner: Those who have worldly comforts, they are preoccupied in looking for more and those who do not have it, they are intently occupied in acquiring things; why is there such a preoccupation?

Dadashri: People want to enter into a horse race. Which horse receives the prize in a horse race?

Questioner: The one that comes first.

Dadashri: Now which horse comes first in your town? What is the name of the horse that came first in the race? So all these ‘horses’ run until they run out of breath, but none of them are a winner. And no one in this world has come first. They are all preoccupied in a futile race and they become breathless running in it. And then there will be only one winner out of them, will there not? Hence it is not worth entering a race. Continue taking care of your own work; meet all your necessary obligations, but it is not worth getting into the race. Do you want to enter the race?

Questioner: Having come into this life, we have no choice but enter the race, right?

Dadashri: Then run, who is telling you ‘no’? Run as much as you can. But we are telling you to meet your obligations calmly and adequately. At eleven at night, check to see whether everyone is asleep or not? If they are, then you too stop running and go to sleep. What is the point of you running around when everyone else has gone to sleep? What is that? One is bothered by an attribute called greed.

Reference: Dadavani Magazine April 1999 (Page #11)

I have analyzed the nature of money from all aspects. How much money can a person accumulate? I came to the conclusion that no one has ever managed to remain the richest person in the world. People used to say that Ford was the richest man, but four years later, we heard that someone else was. What is the point to all this? The horse that wins the race gets the first prize, the second and third horse will get some recognition, but what about the horse that comes fourth? He just runs the race in vain, foaming at the mouth. I said ‘Why do I enter this racecourse?’ Why should one have to foam at the mouth unnecessarily? People enter this race to come first but instead they all lose the race. Nobody cares for these late arrivals. What do you think?

Questioner: That is correct.

Dadashri: So I had calculated this mathematics. Dada’s mathematics! It is a beautiful mathematics. This mathematics is so beautiful. That professor was saying that it is worth knowing this Dada’s mathematics.

Run, run, run, but for what? If you are going to win then let’s go, whatever may happen to this body, but there is not even a rank nor a reward, nothing at all and endless foaming at the mouth. In this endless process of running, he has hardly done (spent) anything for anyone else. And he has lost interest in all other matters, not even in taking a proper meal. Don’t you feel that this mathematics is worth learning?

Reference: Dadavani Magazine March 2008 (Page #7)