Most of us grow up as a socialist in our early twenties. As a socialist, money is considered an instrument which divides our society. Even our religion teaches us the principle of "aparigraha" (Not to hoard more than what you need). Therefore, I often hear many of my socialist friends saying "Why do I need to be rich?" or "What will I do with loads of money? I would be happy with some minimal income and I would prefer to pursue my this or that interest in life?" Some view the rat race to accumulate money as greedy and the pursuit of unhappiness. Many scholarly type people also make a similar claim that money has no importance for them in life. Even I make these claims all the time in my daily routine. And then somewhere, I have this dissonance about underestimating the functional and existential importance of money.
Well, one may survive with the minimal amount of money assets. But survival is not what people are born for. One can survive with no money as well. India is a philanthropic country and one can always find his meals in temples, gurudwara and other places of punyarjan. But can we realise our free spirit without money resource? Can we really live our life happily with some the miminum resources? What is that minimum? one lakh or two lakh or one million?
I once listened to Rajat Gupta. He was describing his experience of building India TV. He beautifully summarized my thoughts on the subject. He said, In India, only riches are free. You can pursue what you want only when you have enough money in your bank account. A poor man can not afford a number of things in the society. He sits on the fringes of the society. He is so exhausted with his fight for survival that he can hardly think of higher maslownian needs of life.
Our society is resource constrained. Thus, everything comes at a cost. Possibly that is why people say money can buy you everything. Even the so-called intangible things like love, kindness, and politeness come with money. No father would agree to marry her daughter with a poor fellow howsoever deep is the love. Even girls back out most of the time. Rarely, we show the same level of politeness and kindness to beggars which we show to a rich or powerful fellow. Most of the time, our conversations with the homeless, the poor are ridden with scorn and suspicion. Thus, money is the primary need to be able to think about higher goals of life, let alone do them.
Once a person is educated or become a responsible member of the family, everyone in the family looks up to him with hope and promise. Inevitably the societal arrangement puts a responsibility on the person's shoulder to pull the whole family out of the ditch of ignorance, poverty, and hopelessness. And the one assured way to fulfill those expectations and hopes is money.
And think about situations when you may have an urgent need of money. An accident of loved one or one's own, a robbery or theft in the house, an unnecessary and uninvited court battle, an ill-advised or nonsensical government policy is enough to uproot you upside down and taking away all your money related comforts. Your hedges collapse like a the peck of cards. And that's when you wish, you had more money. Someone may say, one can not plan for every eventuality or one can not live in fear. But In Indian ecosystem, such eventualities are inevitable. They are bound to happen. Sooner or later.
One can talk about decent living and dignified life. But what do you call a decent living in a society of such a spectrum of inequalities and income levels. Your participation in the society is measured by the money you have.
From my general experience, The societal environment has a stronger influence on individual attitude than the hereditary factors. So either a person should have extremely strong hereditary genes in relation to materialistic orientation or his environment (friends, family or past experience) should be strong enough to motivate him in money-agnostic attitude. However, sadly this kind of environment does not exist in our society. Today, money has become an existential need for our survival.
There is no one answer to this puzzle. The best defence is to develop an attitudinal orientation which is insulated from a societal rat race of money. An attitude which is indifferent to the pomp and ostentation of the riches. I agree when someone says that don't spoil your present in order to ensure your future. But it also smells of instant gratification tendencies.
And possibly for all these reasons, I believe happiness does not come naturally. You have to guard against negative thoughts and keep a vigil against all the social evils and social influences. Filter each one of them and accept and assimilate only what you feel fits well with one's self. It is all about knowing one's like, dislikes and priorities in life and sticking to them in good or bad times. They may change over time but then the self should be mature enough to deal with self-correction induced dissonance in an amicable manner.
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