Anupam- The Dreamer

Mike is a 51-year old filthy-rich investment banker who lives in the USA. Mike has every material comfort of life- he lives in a self-owned mansion, drives a Ferrari car, has all the modern amenities in his home, uses only top-end Apple products and wears a diamond-studded Rolex watch. On top of this, he has servants to do all his chores like cleaning home, cooking, driving, security etc. Mike has an amazing job, where he devotes 12 hours a day, because he cannot afford to lose his job as he has to maintain a lavish lifestyle. Mike likes to party on the weekends with his friends and often indulges in eating junk food, drinking heavy booze and even drugs. You may think that Mike has everything and he must be living a dream life, right? But, surprisingly Mike isn’t very happy. Infact, Mike is obese, suffers from various lifestyle diseases, takes multiple stress-related medications, and leads a sedentary monotonous lifestyle. On top of this, Mike doesn’t have time to do things that he truly loves in life and is kind of leading a robotic life.

The reason for Mike’s unhappiness isn’t his job or his health etc. The core reason is that Mike has achieved the heights of materialistic life, which he once thought is the final aim of every person to lead a comfortable and happy life. Mike was only after money all his life and in this process, he became distanced from the basic necessities of human life. Now, Mike is in deep trouble and decided to take a trip to India to seek guidance from a spiritual guru. You can say it is a déjà vu, similar to “The Beatles” coming to Rishikesh back in 1960s to study meditation.

But, you may ask why did Mike decide to come to India leaving all his material possessions behind in the “land of the dreamers”? Because Mike was so much into materialism that at one point of time in his 50s, all his happiness started seeming ephemeral and temporary to him. The more he indulged himself into materialism, the less happy he became. Therefore, he heeded to the advice of his Indian friend and colleague at his US office, Rajat, who advised him to visit ISKCON ashram in Rishikesh for a life-changing transcendental experience. When Mike came to the ashram, he was amazed to see many firangis from different countries like Russia, Poland, England, Kazakhstan etc. already living a peaceful life in the ashram, away from all hustle and bustle of the modern-day cities.

Mike came into touch with the spiritual master Guru Gopaldas. Guru Gopaldas taught him the ethics of life (Dharma) encapsulated in the teachings of holy Gita. And he also taught his do practise yoga and meditation on a daily basis. Slowly, Mike started to appreciate the teachings and started to follow a balanced routine in his life. He ate nutritious food, stayed away from drugs and all, exercised daily, and practiced yoga and meditation. He started to follow what he liked and made time for the things he truly loved. Mike particularly enjoyed the chanting of “Hare Rama, Hare Krishna” song with his peers at the ISKCON temple during the evening prayers. You must be thinking Mike is a fool, who has sort of become like a “Monk who sold his Ferrari”!!!!

But, Mike’s calling was not to become a monk. Mike wanted to contribute to the world by his immense knowledge of finance and economics. So, Mike learned the fundamentals of spirituality from India and went back to his country. Now, Mike is a much more balanced person in life. He knows that materialism (Artha) along cannot lead to ultimate happiness in life. Now, he indulges in the sensual pleasures of life (Kama) driven by the ethical rules and principles (Dharma) he learnt back in India. His spiritual trip made him better at his work also in terms of enhancing his productivity through good physical, mental, social and spiritual health. Mike has also learnt about the spiritual liberation (Moksha), but still he doesn’t know much about that. Maybe, he has to make another trip to India after his retirement from active job towards that end. Mike has also opened a branch of ISKCON in his hometown San Francisco and takes weekend classes for the other “Mikes”. He even has adopted a new spiritual name and his followers know him by the name “Mohan”.

So, what do you want to be like? Mohan or Mike?

P.S. This story is fictional with the deliberately made characters, but at the same time is based on some true events 😀