How Indians learned to spend within their limits?


Last week I visited Lord Venkateshwara Temple at Tirumala. It was a good trip and by the grace of the Lord,we had a very quick darshan. It just took us one and a half hours for the darshan. I was impressed by the overall management and cleanliness of the temple, given the fact that thousands of devotees throng to the temple every day to seek the blessings of the Lord.

At the temple thousands of devotees contribute to the 'Hundi'. The legend goes that Lord Venkateshwara borrowed a huge amount of money from Kuber to finance his wedding to Princess Padmawati. It is said that the amount was so large that the Lord is supposedly still paying off the debt and the interest on the loan. The contributions to the 'Hundi' are supposed to go towards paying off the debt and people contribute to the Lord by offering whatever they can. It is said that the contributions go towards the payment of the Lord’s debt .

Interestingly, I think that such legends have shaped the lending and borrowing activities and there by impacting the Indian way of life. I think that the Indians learned the lesson to live within their means by hearing the legend of Lord Venkateshwara and his debt.Who can dare to take a mortgage and a loan to show extravagance at the cost of paying the loans for generations, when even the Great Lord himself is still paying off his debt from time immemorial?

Had America learnt from such legends, the world that we know today would have been quite different!!

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