Verses of Vemana – 40
dhanamu kudabetti dharmambuseyaka
tanu tinaka lessa dachugaka
tenetiga gurchi teruvari kiyyada
viswadhabhi rama vinura vema
Commentary: This verse of Vemana is a mirror image of verse 15, chapter III of the Uddhava Gita. The miser hoards a large quantity of money with great struggle and pain. He neither shares it with others nor enjoys it himself. No matter how carefully he hides his hard-earned wealth or tries to protect it, in time it will fall into the hands of others[1]. The greedy man is like the bee that labours to gather a large quantity of honey[2] without even relishing it. It eventually falls into the hands of the honey-gatherer.
[1] The poet Bhartrihari says that wealth can be spent in three ways: by oneself, in charity or be stolen by robbers!
[2] Bees may travel as far as 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just a pound of honey.
