Faith, Passion, Contentment or Wealth

Sep 21st, 2008 by tilak

An Indian philosopher Sri Ramakrishna once said ‘Taka mati, mati taka’ ( money is nothing but earth and earth is money). Hindu philosophy preaches of a human existence where money plays only a secondary role. Incidentally, Ramakrishna was from my state West Bengal and the organization which has come up in his name Ramakrishna Mission to preach his philosophy to serve the needy community wherever and whenever possible.

It is almost impossible for the common man and the mass to follow this philosophy in the modern materialistic community existence. Though there are some individuals in this world, however small may be their number and regardless of their nationality, still do believe in it. This materialistic world on the other hand demands acquiring more wealth by the individual, for social status, than is required for comfortable existence. In fact, our status within the family is often determined by the quantity of wealth you possess. This initiates a rat race in the society. And this social and environmental effect grips almost everyone. And almost the entire world is trapped in this rat race to a great extent. Many states of India are also not immune to it.

In Goa, I experienced a society where this rat race is much less palpable, and almost the entire society believed in a happy and peaceful existence, where money played a lesser role than we are used to in other parts of the world.

They have more time for religious activities irrespective of the religion they followed (Hindu or Chritianity) . Faith serves an important role for such existence and for calming the mind. It also prevents one from getting distracted by the importance of materialistic comfort for happy existence.

The mass there is born and brought up in such an environment that they do not feel the compulsion of running after the wealth. It is amazing to see how the entire community gets involved in the religious and many other annual social functions. Even the youth participates in large number and whole heartedly in all the religious activities. It is amazing to note how much time they have and devote for all such events.

As they are not after the money, they pursue their activities with much intensity; be it music, dance, football or cooking. They are very passionate about such things as they exist for their pleasure and so enjoys it to the maximum. They do it because they love it and many of them pursue their passion as their profession. Some of them achieve high standard as they manage to blend a lot of passion into their work. But it ought to be a work of his choice, be it cooking, fishing or driving.

A good percentage of Goan give priority to his enjoyment while working, over the amount of money he earns. I know a Goan ‘Pilot’ (a motorcycle rider available for hire) who preferred to continue his job as he enjoys riding motorcycle even when a bank offered him loan for buying a taxi. He could have earned much more, he chose not to.

Not many such people now exist in this modern world and not many places where the majority still believes in it.

Contentment, in Goa, is the rule rather than an exception.

Tilak Ranjan Bera | 21 September ‘08