Journey

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोस्त्वकर्मणि॥

-श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता (२:४७)

Is an investment in time and effort always worth its name?

That is an interesting question, for when one gauges return on an investment one tends to use currency that equates in some measure the investment and its return. In other words, we are adept at valuing and comparing things that have the same unit basis. I wonder how often we have stopped to consider how we might value returns which have unit bases entirely different from their investments.

That, by no means, is the end of all problems of ROI. How, for instance, does one even recognize value that is delivered but won't be appreciated till many months down the road?

What if the value returned were perforce in a domain different from the one in which the investment was made in the first place?

In my mind, one major cause of all this confusion is this tendency we have of evaluating the usefulness of everything that we do in terms of ROI. Life is not a business. There is no obligation towards a bottom line being in the black instead of red; no fiduciary duty to shareholders. Instead, there is only a quest to live life. To experience its joys and its tribulations alike. To welcome one and avoid the other, perhaps. Not, certainly, to bemoan our ‘misfortune’ at “less than average return".

Achieving some of the desired results in life would be good. That need not become an obsession that determines the course of all our actions.

Life is a journey, not a destination. I cannot rest from travel.


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Image ©opyright Niladri Roy.