BE CONTENT

Former Bangladeshi military leader General Mohammad Ershad (1930–2019) came to power through a military coup in 1982. Later, another military coup occurred, and the current government filed several corruption charges against him. He was initially sentenced to thirteen years in prison for illegal possession of weapons and later received an additional seven-year sentence for financial corruption.

A news article in the Lahore daily “Nawa-i-Waqt” (June 8, 1993) summarizes the events involving General Mohammad Ershad. General Ershad and his wife Roshan were convicted by a special court in Dhaka of corruption related to land transactions and sentenced to 77 years in prison. He helped several individuals acquire land in a prime area of Dhaka and then bought some of that land from them at low prices. He built a structure called “Janta Tower” on this land and paid a large part of the construction costs himself. Since this amount exceeded his income, the court ordered all the involved properties and the building to be confiscated by the government. Currently, both he and his wife are in jail.

Such incidents emphasize the importance of the concept known in religious terms as contentment. General Ershad’s tragic downfall happened because he couldn’t practice contentment. He was not satisfied with his rank as General and aimed to become President. He was not happy with small plots of land and sought larger ones. He wasn’t content with a single-story house and wanted to own a thirteen-storey building.

If they had been content with what they naturally received, they could have lived a peaceful and happy life. But instead of being satisfied with what they had, they chased after what they didn’t have. As a result, in their greed for more, they ended up losing even what they already owned. The key to life’s problems is contentment, not greed.