Kabeer and me ..

Kabeer, do not be so proud of your tall mansions.

Today or tomorrow, you shall lie beneath the ground, and the grass shall grow above you.

Since the day we gain our senses, we are driven by a sense of purpose, to collect, to achieve and to consolidate wealth, power, status and prestige. From the day we are born and we start growing up and go to school, the system, society conspires to make us focus and achieve this prize of a job, always calculated in money and the influence of power we can exert. A child is molded from very young to set goals, to achieve a specific percentage which will entail him to get a job in the distant future or to earn a degree which will get him or her a label all equated and weighed in money and the amount of materialistic things, objects one can buy.

Our society has become label conscious, be it the body that has to be in a certain shape, or the hair or the shoes or clothes one wears. They all have to be branded; it is this labeling that makes us prisoners to the shackles that start weighing us down.

Many a times, crimes are committed to keep up with this façade or one sinks into depression or stress is created leading to lifestyle disorders. It is these new age pressures that are leading to an upsurge in stress, heart related disorders and general disenchantment and unhappiness.

Escapism is sought by us in the form of a parallel life created on a virtual platform that is neither here nor there but in the form of 1 and 0 only.

The Gurus from all the religions just give one message immemorial, that why do we waste our human life, accumulating wealth that will remain when one dies or will get squandered and frittered away like the sand falling from a closed fist! However, much we try we cannot contain the sand in our fist. It will fall away, and in the same fashion time is moving, it does not wait for us. Time and the time turner and the clock keeps on ticking away but we keep on running trying to outwit, out run, out race it. Man is blinded by hubris thinking that he is special and different and this would not happen with him. He is untouched by this.

Alas, no one has the key to taking one’s wealth with them to the next journey, nor has anyone ever come back to tell what happens there. We all die, we all have a date with the Maker and we all are crumble and become the sand beneath. The journey is always in a full circle.

Instead of hoarding and waiting to enjoy in a future date that will never come, it is best to enjoy the journey to, share and to save a little (I don’t want you to be foolish) but help along the way. The joy is in giving and sharing with all and to not to be proud of one’s status, because all foundations crumble and collapse .It is always empathy and compassion and humility that is the true mark of wealth.