Money, any one can earn. Earn this…This is worthy of life.
In the desert villages of northwestern India in Rajasthan,
where the heat reaches 120° at 8:00 o’clock in the morning and where all the
invaders came but left after hoisting their flag, the ancient culture still
thrives. Unadulterated. In rural enclaves in many corners of India, from the
North to the South, East and West, these talks still take place even today.
In the deserts’ sparsely populated villages thousands of years old, the elders
coral young boys running around in the sands and around the deep wells. They
ask, what will you become when you are grow up? What will your life be about?
The newer generation, separated from old culture, because they are touched by the Internet and changed by cellular access to consumerism, the glossy eyed 6 and 8 year olds respond, a movie star! or a cricket superstar, or a rich man with a shiny car. What does a 6 or an 8-year-old know if he has not been guided in his home or community? The sizzle of the modern times has reached the villages. It is testing the core of the village values.
Money, anyone can earn. The elders say. It’s easy. It comes to you without even asking. But is money worthy of your life? What is worthy of your life? The elders ask again.
As children scan their brains with curiosity and come up light. The elders inspire:
Be a tree.
– Bear fruit so that the tired and hungry can fill their stomach.
– Bear fruit that are juicy, so that thirsty travelers can quench their thirst. And
– Be a massive and lush tree with an expansive spread, so the people who are beaten down by the sun, shattered dreams, broken trust, and battered spirits, weathered by life’s harshness can rest and recuperate in your shelter and shade.
Be a source of life yourself. Protect it. Preserve it. Prolong it. That is the purpose of life. The purpose of life is life itself. That is what is worth striving for.
Money, any one can earn.
Earn honor.
Honor is worthy of life.
When you have honor, wealth, connections, and opportunities will gravitate to you.
You will have all the choices and they will come to you in abundance and uninvited.
You will chose whose money you want to take and whose you
will decline.
You will decide which people fit within your life and who don’t match your
values. And
You will select which places welcome and inspire you and where you feel drained.
You want all the choices?
Earn Honor! My very dear and respected village elder, the honorable late Shri Ram Solanki from our ancestral village, and Ravi, my brother-like friend’s father refreshed this inspiration even on his deathbed. Honor is worthy of life. Life is the purpose of life.
Ravi works for the United Nations in Iraq and cares for 2 million refugees.