Thrones and Mansions: Colossal Egos

A month or so ago, my friend Stan Smith sent me a few pictures of the resident ruler of ______.
The palace was something out of the Arabian Nights. The bathrooms were the size of most homes—the opulence was unmatched. It was almost as if imagination’s dam had over flooded and completely submerged any semblance of sanity. The final blow was the fleet of cars on display before the mansion—one, a silver Audi—that’s not silver as in the color silver, but solid silver.

What’s with this opulence trip? Thinking about it gave me a headache. So I ask you to stop and think for a moment: all the founders of the major religions lived their lives essentially as ascetics, or threw off the trappings of power and money, as in the case of Moses and Buddha. Yet the followers of these religions, at least their stewards of power, live in luxury that the laity cannot even fathom. Am I crazy or is the world wacky?

Look at all the Churches, mosques, and temples; look at all the gold, silver, and materials that have gone into creating these edifices; are they monuments to the Supreme Being or monuments to our colossal ego?

If we can really study their lives; if we can really see their simplicity; if we can stop being so hypocritical; if we can really understand their message; if we can accept everyone for what they are, and not what we think they should be, we can be a much better world. To do this, however, we would have to go past egos—that I am afraid is going to be a hard sell. Moses walked; Jesus rode a lowly Ass; Muhammad rode a camel—none of them ever sat on gilded thrones—their stewards do. Strange, isn’t it?

What do you think: am I crazy or is this entire setup wacky? Talk to me!!

Riaz Sahibzada