During 1990s, I was watching an old classic Raj Kapoor's 'Awara' on TV. One scene struck me - it was a conversation between the bad guy and his side kick. The bad guy was scheming about the demise of the protagonist and how to add misery to his life. The side kick is confused as asks the bad guy - why would he want to earn more money and inflict more damage to others when he has everything in the world. That's when the magical words come out of the bad guy --
" तुम नहीं समझोगे सिर्फ अमीर आदमी को ही पैसे की ज़रुरत होती है गरीब को तो सिर्फ रोटी चाहिए. "("Only the Rich are in need of money, the poor just needs food.")
At that moment, I understood it as a a sarcastic statement. Over the years, it acquired a cult status for me, beautifully put --how rich people are always running after money. Later, when I started working, earning on my own, became rich and met and became friends with a lot of rich people (though remember, no one admits they are rich), I realized this is a true philosophy and not just a sarcastic statement. It is true, as stated in another chapter of this blog - you crave what you want.(Link-Here)
The more rich you get, the more you care about money. The poor are satisfied if the basics are provided, but once you start getting something extra, the world of insurance and security opens up. You suddenly want to control everything around you. The ego is unbridled and you are proud of the past and want to control everything in the present and future. The poor live in the now, the rich live in the future. The need to insure my present becomes prime -- insure what I have does not go away. As the fear increases, you see your future as insecure, and the more you want to stow away for the future. The more the mind is free of the present, the more it thinks of what can go wrong. It's an endless cycle. For example, a person begins to obsess about their own future but will soon feel the need to control their kid's future also. If somehow that impossible task is done (and of course, it never is, there is no limit to obsession), then what about your grandkids? it is a never ending project. Money becomes life and life becomes money. The richer you get, the more you need it, and the more people like the sidekick in the film wonder why does he need it? What the sidekick does not realize is, there are people poorer than him who are asking the same questions about his motives.
This is a beautiful dance of life -- all poor want to be rich, but as you get rich, you move away from living in the present and dissatisfaction of not able to control everything sets in. Then rich are told in expensive seminars and by religious gurus or on facebook posts... that you need to live in the present and basically the way poor live... money can't give you what you look for but obviously can't let go of what you have .... just to be happy. ah.. life is beautiful.
This is a beautiful dance of life -- all poor want to be rich, but as you get rich, you move away from living in the present and dissatisfaction of not able to control everything sets in. Then rich are told in expensive seminars and by religious gurus or on facebook posts... that you need to live in the present and basically the way poor live... money can't give you what you look for but obviously can't let go of what you have .... just to be happy. ah.. life is beautiful.
