Any nation can have three stages or circles of time in its entire existence. First is the time of struggle when a nation is weak and is usually suppressed by stronger nations and all its members are in great pain and difficulty. In this state of weakness, two conditions are possible. Either majority of its members compromise to live in the same difficult situations due to their weakness or laziness or either all the members are charged up with a desire to change their condition and thus they work hard to change the impossible into possible.

State of weakness is always a time of great struggle for a nation accompanied with a lot of painful memories. If the nation is lazy and is unaware of its condition and does not have any desire to come out of this state, every member must pay for this crime. But if the nation has realized the importance of a dignified life and they have all raised up to achieve this, many of the members have to give sacrifices and entire nation passes through a turmoil of changes and revolutions and thus again it is not such a favorable situation.

The second stage is the stage of national awakening when the nation realizes the importance of a better life and all its members get united to achieve this ideal situation.

If a nation has been occupied by a stronger nation, the struggle would be to achieve its freedom. In our present time, when a nation is crippled by poverty, illiteracy and disunity, all the members get united to be free of these problems and emerge on the world map as a developed and civilized nation.

In my opinion, this is the most ideal stage when every member of the nation thinks and works incessantly for achieving a noble cause and thus we see an air of activism and productivity.

Third and final stage in life of a nation comes when the efforts and struggle of second stage bears fruit and nation becomes an independent, developed and advanced state and is given due importance and honor on the international stage.

This is the stage when every citizen is happy and they have almost achieved all their goals of life. Now they don’t have any cause to make struggle and their days and nights pass in enjoyment and recreation.

This is also a dangerous stage as people are now more relaxed and they have no major aim to achieve. This makes everyone lazy and in a sense puts basis for the decline of a nation. Thus this stage can be termed as a decomposing stage when too much comfort and proud make the people lazy and their natural abilities are greatly reduced.

Similar to the nations, same three circles or stages also come in the life of a common person. Without the exception of a few (when a family fortune is extended to many generations like that of Ford and many other families who have businesses and fortunes being successfully passed from a generation to other) every person goes through good and bad days in his life.

Those who started with a poor backgrounds rise to the peaks of wealth and fame and those who once used to be rich lost their fortune and again had to start their struggle from zero.

Among the rich, I was very much impressed from a family where abundant wealth was used to live a standard and disciplined life. No doubt, plethora of money had made possible separate playing grounds, swimming pools, library, home theater and many more facilities but every member was a perfect picture of discipline where they exactly knew how to behave with each other, how to utilize their times to have equal amounts of recreation and study and how to have the best food and other items to lead a healthy life. This luxurious life had not spoiled any habits of the members of family and where good manners were termed must for all.

There is another very interesting point in this case. First, except for a few things like luxurious food and separate rooms and grounds, rest of the joys can also be achieved without much money. Self-discipline, good manners and division of time are not much bound to abundant supply of money rather they can be easily achieved with limited wealth as well. There is another psychological factor in the above scenario. Suppose that a child is well-dressed, he has been given good education, he comes in a grand car and if he is well-mannered too, all the other things highlight his manners and thus he appears to be very polite and humble. Same manners may be present in the child of a poor person but it may not get much appreciation or attention of others.

Being rich is a very good virtue. Just like the gifts of health, beauty and intelligence, being wealthy and prosperous is also one of the gifts of nature and thus it needs to be much appreciated and taken care of.

There is a great quotation in Turkish that if your pocket is full of money, the light of your eyes would also be increased but if your pocket is empty, everything would appear dark to you. Similarly, being rich gives you a natural confidence and as majority of the problems of world can be solved with money, so it makes you free of the worries of the problems of the world. Exact reverse of it is also dangerous when a poor man’s abilities are buried under the worries of the world caused due to the lack of money.

I still remember a movie in which a Lord or any other rich person was shown who was very rich and had a grand villa in country where he had established a big personal library and every day, he used to study in his library, or rode his horses in his vast state or strolled in his grand gardens. He had a couple of very sensible servants for his personal works who looked after his library and arranged his daily chores. This is the life still ideal for me.

But unfortunately, money has its own air as well that is not controlled by many.

I have seen a lot many who have become so much dependent on servants that they cannot fetch a glass of water for themselves. Similarly, they forget their things here and there in a hope that their servants would be collecting them. In my opinion, this comfort has rather enslaved them to the servants.

There are also many who cannot differentiate between the good and mean friends and with the passage of time; they are fully occupied by the mean friends. In the old times, majority of the Kings were destroyed by such mean advisers or companions and it is still not an exception.

Wealth brings a very comfortable life and this in turn destroys your habits. Eating a lot, sleeping a lot, talking a lot, thinking less, moving less, and doing your work less spoils you both physically and spiritually. This is the money that has been declared as the enemy of a person.

The greatest victim of excessive wealth become the children who never come to realize the realities of life and their habits are greatly spoiled by the comfort of life and in the end, they emerge as spiritless, aimless and motionless beings who are of no good to anyone, even to themselves.

However, a person is very lucky who has been gifted with wealth along with a sensitive heart, with zeal to help the needy and who is kind to those who knock at his door and treats them the most gently.

In the end, it should not be forgotten that the patience of poor on his poverty is more rewarded than the generosity of rich, so no one needs to feel bad about being poor.