I recently visited the Parinirvana Sthal of Buddha in a quiet little place called Kushinagar. With the flurry of temples as dedications of countries and communities which believe in the philosophy of Buddha, it felt natural to get an educated perspective on the relevance and importance of the place itself. I hired an official guide at the cost of Rs 500 and hoped for an enlightening experience. Few minutes in, it was evident that the guide was ‘just doing his job’ and had no particular affinity to the location or Buddha’s philosophy. (The latter was anyways a long shot) Nevertheless, an old Bengali gentleman I was travelling with, completely ignored the incompetent guide and requested a labourer cleaning the rocks of the 2000 yr old Stupa to give us his perspective on the ‘tourist spot’. What followed was one of the most beautiful narrations of the story of Buddha, the culmination of which was the very place that we were standing in. The passion of the man who stood before us had shadowed the odd job he was hired to do otherwise. Wonder if I were a fool to spend my 500 on the ‘professional guide’. Rightly so then, I paid the same amount to this man who sincerely guided us.
Today, when our nation’s youth largely deals with both, unemployment and dispassionate employment (to survive) at a mass scale, it is imperative that we rethink the understanding and pattern of our growth. In fact, it is the latter which is a greater concern for a society as dynamic and large as ours. Passion drives souls towards happiness and when that ceases to happen, we must be all fools to invest our own 500 in the mere mechanics of a need instead of the intrinsic value of that same need. After all, isn’t a common state of satisfaction the closest we can get to provide a better place to live in for our future generations.
While the economics of passion is yet to be established in this country at all levels, the means of communication that we have achieved through internet and easier travel can take us to that end. After all, the social structure of exchange of the intrinsic value brought forward by each one of us, is by nature the greatest blessing to humanity. And with well directed exploration of that intrinsic value in our people combined with the latest modes of communication, it might now be practically possible to establish a passion driven economy.
One must now establish a clear system of ‘communication’ and ‘exchange of value’ which leads us to the ‘passionate’ guide automatically. We should also seek an environment which nurtures the growth of all individuals part of this system to lead an economically sustainable life as far as possible. Should we be able to establish such an identity enhancing platform driven by passion, it would be our greatest gift to our own future. It is with this belief and as some would say, self delusion, that I seek to explore the intrinsic value of our nation.
If you too are a greater fool who suffers from the same amount of self delusion, let’s get in touch. Needless to say, your passion is all that matters. :)
PS - To begin with, I am looking for greater fools in the fields of App Designing, Language Translations, Journalism and Travelling to pursue my dream of creating a passion driven economy. Should you be any of these or even have another perspective to add on to the dream, feel free to connect.
No comments:
Post a Comment