Everyone is working for peace and satisfaction. If we do not find great satisfaction within our souls then we are much affected and afflicted by the circumstances surrounding us. The key to real peace is within and not without.—Radhanath Swami.
Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content. One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy.
Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the King’s woes and the servant’s story, the advisor said, “Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club.”
“The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?” the King inquired. The advisor replied, “Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant’s doorstep.”
When the servant opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy… So many gold coins! He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins. He wondered, “What could’ve happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!”
He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection.
From that day, the servant’s life was changed. He was overworked and chastised his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He stopped singing while he worked.
Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor’s help, the advisor said, “Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club.” He continued, “The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never contented, because they’re always yearning and striving for that extra 1 telling to themselves: ‘Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life .’
“We can be happy, even with little, but the minute we’re given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt our family; all these as a price for our growing needs and desires. That’s what joining The 99 Club is all about.”
18 replies on “The 99 Club”
Wonderful illustration to become happy with what one possess not endeavoring for more.
Thank you for sharing such an important lesson on how to be satisfied with what we have with this instructive story.
Very true! We are never satisfied with what we have and always hankering for “that ONE” thing that is missing. Unless we are happy and satisfied within, there can never be real peace and serenity.
Very instructive story.
Yes, thats the case with all the politicians in India
We have to control our greed.We have to first satisfy the devotees of lord then Krishna will automatically satisfy our needs.Thank you very much for sharing the article.
Truly to be peaceful we have to wear the slipper of Satisfaction.
Indeed the modern civilsation inspires everyone to take part in the rat race to get the 100th coin & not feel contented with the 99 coins……
Lamenting for the loss and Hankering for the things which we do not have are the two which give never ending pain.
This is the nature of this material world.
this story illustrates how the greed makes our life miserable
No matter how much we have we will always be after something unless we surrender to the Supreme Personality Krsna .Thank you Radhanath Maharaj for such wonderful story.
Very instructive story by HH Radhanath Swami. Instead of being greedy for the material worldly things which are any way going to perish with time, we should be contended enoguh to ivest our time and energy in searching for real happiness throguh spiritual pursuits.
As Radhanath Swami emphasizes often times, we need to find satisfaction & happiness within & not in our material possessions. We need to connect to the divine in a meaningful manner to remain blissful even in materially adverse circumstances.
The greed takes away the peace in ones life.
Thank you for this wonderful story. This reminds of the quote from Radhanath swami saying that “If one is not contented with whatever one has, then one can not be happy with whatever he gets”. This story exactly resembles this quote and lesson for all of us to be happy with whatever we have.
Real peace in within.. we need to taper it properly, under bonafide guidance …
Great article.. Jai Gurudev!!