There is a conversation going on between a son and father. The son recently got engaged, but since it was an arrange marriage he had no idea how the girl would be. The marriage is scheduled for next month.
Son: Dad I have met this girl 5-7 times and within these few meetings only I have come to the conclusion that she is in no way right for me. We won’t be able to live together. I am not mentally mature for marriage right now.
Dad: Are you out of your mind the cards have been published, people have been invited. You are a kid you have no idea about life. What would people think?
Son: Dad but still it is not about people I seriously know it would be impossible.
Dad interrupts him in between
Dad: Shut up! If one more word came out of your mouth you will be shunned out from this house forever. Don’t even think of cancelling the marriage at any cost.
Son in the pressure of his dad gets married to the girl he knows there is no chance of both of them being together. Ultimately within one week of Marriage, a divorce is filed in the court.
One day after the divorce the son is sitting on his chair regretting and thinking about his life when he remembers the wise man. Suddenly, the wise man appears.
Son: Oh Wise Man! Please tell me why my dad this to me. I stopped him. Why does the society behave in such a way?
The Wise Man: Life has given you the best lesson. The only problem is you are not recognising the true lesson. There are two viewpoints to almost every situation. One called the cultural viewpoint (It is a human myth) while the other is the natural viewpoint.
Let us talk about your situation, your dad did not let you break the marriage because it was culturally unacceptable. But let’s think deeply if you were born in some family with some freedom based mindset this kind of cancellation was easily acceptable. Then who is right, is it the freedom based family or your dad?
Actually, let me ask another way will nature differentiate between you if you had cancelled the marriage or not. If you have a pet dog will his behaviour change with you based on your decision?
This is natures viewpoint, nature does not care whether which kind of mindset you are born or brought up with. Nature treats everyone equally.
But all the cultural viewpoints are nothing but myths created by humans so that they can live or organise in a society.
There is one big difference between natural and cultural viewpoint…….Natural viewpoint has been there since the beginning of this earth and never changed, while cultural viewpoint always changes and it is contextual (Mostly created by humans)
Think about your country the boundary lines created or your constitution on which your country is based. It is nothing but a human myth. Nature will not differentiate on your DNA whether you are born in India or Sri Lanka or Europe or Singapore. Nature does not know where is Singapore or India for nature it is all Earth or Universe. Laws of nature are permanent while laws of culture are impermanent and based on myths.
Son starts giving Flabbergasted look on his face. The wise Man continues.
Think about religion, your way of dressing, the way you judge people all those things are nothing but cultural myths. Like most people start forming viewpoints on the basis of gender, if a girl has had many relationships it is considered still unacceptable in many orthodox societies. Why do you believe your way of thinking or dressing or doing anything is correct? Remember it is a cultural myth.
One of the very famous myths of human society has been the democracy. We think if in one country democracy works every country should have democracy. But think about China it is a very successful country run by the communist government. No viewpoint is correct both are cultural myths applicable as per own context.
In fact, money is a cultural myth. Nature never created money humans created it so that trade was possible. Yet we always love to judge people with how much money they have, forgetting money is a temporary cultural myth created by humans, in natures viewpoint, it has no place. Nature cares about DNA not your viewpoint about money.
Take another situation,
Think you are running a business or have done some investments. Initially, you turn out to be quite successful. People believing in this cultural myth that since you are monetary successful you have the key to everything will be influenced by whatever you say. However, now imagine you made a mistake and have some losses, people come to know about it.
They will start seeing you from a different viewpoint considering you a loser.
Now whether you win or lose nature does not care? It is only a cultural myth. Yet most of the time people spend their life in fear of losing money.
The Biggest Myth of Today’s world – Consumerism
The wise man takes a break and starts again………………
Like capitalism in earlier society, today’s myth is consumerism – This myth is based on the fact that the more you consume the more satisfied you become. Now think about shopping. Check your cupboard, you go shopping almost every week buy two or three clothes and still, your hunger for shopping never ends. In fact, freedom is defined as the choice of doing whatever you want to do – it is the most flawed concept.
Think about cars or houses, people today think the more they have the more satisfied they become. What happens in reality is? For example, you bought a new car for the first one or two months you will be very happy and satisfied but with the passage of time, that satisfaction will turn into dissatisfaction very soon. You will want another type of new car.
Same applies to when you go shopping. In fact, the same applies to hunger. Nature gives us food only to satisfy our hunger. Yet the basic reason for the majority of diseases today is overeating or obesity. When you get any certain kind of craving of maybe pizza the principle in today’s world is to satisfy it immediately.
Our media (advertising) or surroundings play a major role in this. Think about foreign travel these days most people travel to show others that they have travelled. They will never read a book about that country or its culture or really see the true country of the culture there.
Majority of people earn today to consume more – To satisfy their desires, not for any larger goal resulting in becoming slaves of their mind. But they forget the golden rule of nature — Once you satisfy one desire immediately, the mind gives rise to another one too soon. That is the construct of our mind by nature……..
These are the last words uttered by the wise man and he is gone. The son feels satisfied after hearing this and plans to spend the rest of his day out on shopping.
Argha Investment Advisers 