Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Times of India Delhi | February 04, 2017
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates could be the world's first trillionaire, according to recent research done by Oxfam International. When Gates left Microsoft in 2006, his net worth was $50 billion. His wealth has been growing by 11% per year since 2009 and by 2016 has risen to $75 billion. The Oxfam research established that if his wealth continued to increase at this rate, he would become a trillionaire by 2042, when he will be 86 years old.
Speaking about wanting more and more money , Gates once told students during a talk at the University of Washington in 2011: “Once you get beyond a million dollars, it's the same hamburger.“
Gates becoming a trillionaire may appear very good to others, but perhaps Gates would again say: “Once you get beyond a trillion dollars, it's the same hamburger.“
In an interview in 2013, Gates said: “I'm certainly well taken care of in terms of food and clothes. Money has no utility for me beyond a certain point.Its utility is entirely in building an organisation and getting the resources out to the poorest in the world.“ Gates and his wife Melinda have so far given away $28 billion via their charitable foundation, according to an interview published in The Telegraph on January 18, 2013, where Gates said: “I have no use for money . This is God's work.“
If one turns to the deeper side of life, one will be reminded of a famous saying of Jesus Christ: “Man does not live by bread alone.“ Apparently ,a human being is a physical entity , but at the same time he possesses a mind. `Bread' and `dollar' may have their limitations, but the mind is limitless. The human mind therefore requires a spiritual universe for itself: anything less will never satisfy a thinking person.
Some people, due to their particular mindset, have put limitations to the domain of spirituality . They believe that spirituality is purely heart-based, but such kind of spirituality can only lead one to a state of ecstasy . However, ecstasy is a condition which a person cannot clearly define himself, so how can it give him solace? In truth, spirituality is the name of a mind-based culture. Thus real spirituality is another name for a `thinking spirituality'.
When one looks through a telescope, one can observe the macro-world. Similarly , when one uses a microscope, one can see the micro-world to a very great extent. But the spiritual eye goes even deeper than this: through it, one reaches a limitless world.
This is why a limitless mind can find comfort only in limitless spirituality .
There is, however, no contradiction between the dollar culture and the culture of spirituality if a person is spiritual-minded. Indeed, money can become a facilitating factor for his spiritual journey .
Thomas Jefferson, was the third president of the United States. In his final days he insisted that his grave mention his status as founder of the University of Virginia; he did not want his tomb to mention that he was an American president.
Bill Gates has been giving away his wealth to charity to date, but a far greater option for him would be to establish a spiritual university , or a universal institute for research on spiritual sciences. This would be on a par with the initiative taken by another very rich man, Alfred Nobel, in his setting up of an institute for the awarding of Nobel prizes for outstanding human endeavour in a wide range of fields.