Saraswati or Lakshmi

There is plenty of Lakshmi but too little of Saraswati!

 

 The perception of money over matter is caused by the liberalization of the economy in the 90s. When the flood gates are open large amounts of water will gush forth. In the wake of the transition in economic policies it was realised by many that Laksmi was better approachable through Saraswati who was not immediately recogisable. That was when Sakunis, who were deplored until then were approached by those who could not access Saraswati. Harshad Mehtas, Ketan Parikhs and the lot of scamsters circumvented Saraswati to reach Lakshmi. What followed was unprecedented. It is just that economic reforms brought in more money into the system and interchanged the roles of Laksmi and Saraswati so much so that now Saraswati is approachable only through Laksmi.

 

 That is when we stopped respecting Saraswati. During the economic uplift the wealthy became wealthier ad so on…my point is there ensued unequal distribution of wealth…a lot of us grudged paying the plumber his dues.. we refused to pay him for the knowledge he possessed..…here is an illustrative example.

One of the machines in the factory was rendered non-functional. The in-house engineers failed to bring it back to life. Production suffered…there was panic all around. An expert from outside had to be requisitioned. He came and inspected the machine for five minutes, took out a wooden mallet from his tool box and knocked a part of the machine and pronto it started purring again. Putting back the mallet into the bag he announced his fees as Rs. 5000/-. An astounded manager hesitantly queried whether it was not too much for what he did; all he did was to give the machine a knock with the mallet. The expert’s reply was “my charges are not for tapping the machine with a mallet. They are for knowing where to tap and with what intensity”. 

The problem is that those who have money (Laksmi) are seldom ready to share that with those who may be more deserving of it.

Everything in this world is relative. The disparity of wealth within the three segments of rich, middle class and poor in India is itself vast. The varied demography and diverse distribution of resources in our beautiful country renders generalization irrelevant. Say a person earning  ` 100 a month in a particular region of the country will spend ` 130 a month whereas in a different region a person with similar earning will spend ` 60 a month. Who is better for the country – a million rupee question. There is a contradiction here. This diversity in our country is its weakness as well as its strength. We will have to be patient for this contradiction to reach a balance. Until then the turmoil resulting in mismanagement will continue...

There are many ways to speed up the process. Bringing education (Saraswati) to the masses is one of them.