It Is Easy to Talk Philosophy When You Are Rich: - Beyond Bank Balance - The Avadhoota Way of Seeing in Hinduism
There is a common belief that philosophy is a luxury,
something reserved for those who have already secured their meals, their homes,
and their comforts. A poor man is told he has no time for such matters, and a
settled man treats it as a hobby to be picked up on weekends. Both miss the
point entirely. Hindu philosophy, especially the Advaita Vedanta tradition,
never made wealth or poverty a qualification for truth. The Upanishads were
composed and understood by kings, hermits, and wandering ascetics alike. What
mattered was not the size of one's possessions but the clarity of one's seeing.
The Problem of the Growing List
Every being needs food, shelter, and covering for the body.
This much is basic survival, and no philosophy denies it. But human beings
rarely stop there. The list grows on its own: a particular type of house, a particular type of mate, a particular phone, a particular
dress, a particular taste in food, a vehicle, a status symbol. This is true of
the poor person who dreams of the next possession as much as it is true of the
rich person who already owns it and wants more. Modern psychology calls this
the hedonic treadmill, where satisfaction from a new acquisition fades quickly
and the mind resets its baseline, demanding the next thing. Hindu thought
identified this centuries earlier and gave it a name: trishna, the unending
thirst that possessions can never quench because the thirst is not really for
objects but for a sense of completeness the mind mistakenly seeks outside
itself.
Who the Avadhutas Are
An Avadhoota is one who has shaken off, literally cast away,
the identifications that most people cling to. Such a person may be found
anywhere and everywhere in daily life, not only in forests or monasteries. They
can be seen in offices, in small shops, in temples, in hotels, on the roadside,
or even among those society considers outcasts. History remembers certain
wandering figures who walked with stray dogs and slept wherever the ground
offered rest, indifferent to whether they were treated as royalty or as
beggars. Their teaching was not spoken often in words. It was demonstrated
through the simple fact that their peace did not depend on where they slept or
what they owned.
An Everyday Example for the Novice
Consider two people standing in the rain without an
umbrella. One is anxious, worried about the phone getting wet, the clothes
getting spoiled, the shoes getting ruined. The other simply lets the rain fall,
aware that the body will dry, the clothes will dry, and nothing essential has
been lost. Both are equally wet. Only one is suffering. This is the entire
teaching in miniature: the external condition is identical, but the inner
reaction, born of attachment, creates the difference between distress and ease.
The Heart of the Teaching: Tat Tvam Asi
The Chandogya Upanishad gives the great statement Tat Tvam
Asi, meaning That Thou Art. To understand this, one does not need degrees,
wealth, or social standing. One needs only to recognise the Self, the awareness
that watches thought, that remains constant whether the body is fed or hungry,
whether the room is grand or modest. This recognition is not an intellectual
exercise reserved for the leisured class. It is available to anyone willing to
look within, precisely because it does not depend on external circumstance at
all.
The Ragged Bag and the Million Dollar Bag
A beggar's cloth bag and a wealthy person's expensive
luggage will both perish. Time, called Kala in Hindu thought, treats every
object with the same indifference. Cloth tears, metal rusts, currency loses
value, and even the body itself ages and returns to the elements. What does not
decay is the awareness within, the witness that Vedanta calls Atman, and which
the Upanishads declare to be one with Brahman, the underlying reality of
existence.
Modern Psychology and Ancient Insight
Contemporary psychology has begun to arrive at conclusions
the Upanishads stated long ago. Studies on materialism and wellbeing
consistently find that the pursuit of possessions correlates with anxiety
rather than contentment, while practices resembling detachment and
present-moment awareness correlate with steadier peace of mind. Mindfulness,
now taught in clinics and corporate wellness programs, borrows heavily,
sometimes without acknowledgment, from the same well of self-observation that
produced the Avadhoota tradition. The difference is that Hindu philosophy never
separated this insight from a larger metaphysical claim: that the observing
awareness itself is the deepest truth of who we are.
Symbolism and Life Lessons
The Avadhoota walking with dogs is itself symbolic. The dog,
often seen as a lowly animal, becomes a companion without any sense of
superiority or inferiority on the part of the sage. This models a life lesson
for ordinary people: true understanding does not create distance from others
based on status, species, or circumstance. It dissolves such distinctions
rather than reinforcing them.
Relevance for Today
In an age of constant comparison through social media, curated lifestyles, and endless upgrading of possessions, this teaching is more relevant than ever. One does not need to renounce the world or become a wandering ascetic to apply it. It is enough to notice when the mind is chasing the next item on an endless list, and to ask what is actually being sought. Hindu philosophy's answer, offered as much to the poor as to the rich, is simple and available to all: recognise That which you already are, and the list stops mattering.