The Modern Day Yogi

After getting ripped off paying nearly 9 Euros for one naan and a few spoons of chicken tikka yesterday at an “Indian” restaurant, I am starting to appreciate the “smaller, simpler” life back home and how underrated it is. But that’s for another time.

I went out with friends for dinner yesterday night. It was raining. Cold and ghastly winds. After we got home to my place, my friend Vasanth and I started talking and we eventually got to the subject of one of his friends who left a well paying job in the corporate world, choosing to devote his life to becoming a yogi. Now I have heard of many people who do this and in all honesty, the very idea torments me. We went on to discuss how different our views on the subject of “Money and Happiness” were.

Vasanth is a man of the belief that a certain amount of money was required but that money is not the source of happiness. I, on the other hand, believe that money is in fact the source of happiness because, at the end of the day, money does get you more freedom. The more money you have, the less you need to sway to other people’s judgement and opinions just so you don’t have to worry about your next paycheck. Money also gets you more security and assurance. The most common example is found in the schooling systems all over the world where if you can’t compete for a seat, you just pay for one and you don’t lose a year. These feelings of freedom, power, security, etc. in the right amounts are all the attributes that set the human mind in the state we call “happiness”. Opinions change in time but as of today, I am of the opinion that the relative ease with which one can be happy is, in fact, a function of wealth.

I wouldn’t belittle the point that there are people who have very little, yet are happy. It is hypocritical of me to conform to both notions together, nonetheless, it is true. I fondly remember the story of a friend who was vastly wealthy and thought that money was in fact his key to happiness. He had a very expensive car. One day at a traffic light, he looks over at the car to his right and in it he sees a small family in a car that in his own words, he could buy 20 or 30 of. They were smiling and holding hands. Happy. In that moment he realized that that was he couldn’t buy with his money.

Having come this far into the chat, having seen both sides of the argument, I can understand why people leave those high paying jobs to become yogis. To them, money takes the back seat. They go in search of something far greater. Something spiritual. God. Or perhaps, Purpose.

The concept of the Modern Day Yogi is the conclusion we came to. The Modern Day Yogi would be someone of today who instead of quitting his job, finds the aforementioned “God” or “Purpose” in doing what they do or what they love to do and in doing so, manages to make money by trying to find his purpose in a professional setting. That way, in the words of Scott Alexander as mentioned in the beginning of this post, making money becomes a hobby that ever so beautifully complements the other hobbies you pursue.

There is a beautiful phrase in the English language. It goes,

God Bless!

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