Chasing quick returns, investors sacrifice their own financial security

Chasing quick returns, investors sacrifice their own financial security

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I recently attended an investment conclave in Ayodhya where, in a keynote speech, Acharya Mithilesh Nandini Sharan Ji shared the story of Bhasmasura as a metaphor for what investors do. It was an unexpected connection, but it was the perfect metaphor for what I see happening to retail investors across India today. For those unfamiliar with the tale, Bhasmasura was a demon who desperately wanted divine powers. Impatient with the slow path of righteous living, he sought a shortcut through Lord Shiva, known for granting boons quickly to devoted supplicants.

To demonstrate his devotion, Bhasmasura performed severe penance. The particularly gruesome detail that makes this story relevant to modern investing is this: he cut pieces of flesh from his own body and offered them into the sacred fire, progressively mutilating himself in pursuit of divine favour. Pleased by this extreme sacrifice, Shiva granted him a terrible boon–the power to turn anyone to ash by merely touching their head.

Key Highlights

What happened next is instructive. Bhasmasura immediately attempted to test this power on Shiva himself. Lord Vishnu intervened by assuming the form of Mohini, who tricked the demon into placing his hand on his own head during a dance. The boon worked perfectly, and Bhasmasura was reduced to ashes by his own power.

Retail investors and financial sacrificesLook around at the investment landscape today, and you’ll see this ancient story playing out in modern dress. Retail investors, desperate for quick wealth, are progressively sacrificing pieces of their financial security. First goes the emergency fund, which is then invested in futures and options (F&O) trading. Then the children’s education corpus gets diverted to cryptocurrency speculation. The retirement savings follow, invested in dubious schemes promising impossibly high returns. Insurance policies are surrendered, gold is sold, loans are taken—each sacrifice made in the hope of obtaining that divine boon of instant wealth.The financial industry, like Shiva in our story, is more than happy to grant these boons. Want the power to control vast positions with little capital? Here’s huge leverage for your trading. Want to profit from minute-to-minute price movements? Here are derivatives that let you trade every minute. The industry doesn’t create these instruments reluctantly; it actively promotes them, extends trading hours to facilitate more transactions, and designs incentive structures that push these products the hardest.Also Read|Retirement savings revamp: NPS now includes gold, silver ETFsBut like Bhasmasura’s boon, these instruments tend to destroy their users. Most individual derivatives traders lose money isn’t an anomaly—it’s the system’s mathematical certainty. The person who borrowed against their home to trade options, the young professional who liquidated their mutual fund investments to try cryptocurrency arbitrage, the retiree who moved their fixed deposits into high-return schemes—all are progressively reducing themselves to financial ash using the very tools they sought for wealth creation.Wisdom, patience and systematic investingThe Acharya narrating this story emphasised a crucial point: there’s no fear for those who understand the process and its outcomes. The problem isn’t investing itself—it’s the toxic combination of impatience, lack of understanding, and access to dangerous instruments. When someone asks why Buffett and Munger missed the technology boom, the answer lies in this principle. They understood that not understanding something is itself important information. They knew what they didn’t know, and that knowledge protected them from both spectacular wins and catastrophic losses in areas beyond their competence.The ancient story offers another lesson we often miss. Bhasmasura wasn’t destroyed by external enemies or bad luck. He was destroyed by his own power, used without wisdom. Sim