Anyone whose goal in life is exclusively material, economic or social, does not serve you, and you should summarily distance yourself from these people. Why? There are a number of things in life that, although they are necessary for us, simply because they are necessary, they cannot be goals.
For example, you need a home, you need to eat and drink, you need to rest, you need to get married and have children, you need a job. These are all necessary things for subsistence. Now, what is necessary for subsistence cannot be, at the same time, the goal of existence. The goal must be far above all of this. And all these things — these other elements — come to us as things that sometimes help us, sometimes they hinder us; but, from the moment that the individual has placed them as the goal of existence, he has already cut off any connection he may have and that happens between him and the meaning of existence.
The human being is the animal that has the capacity to perceive the universal in the particular. His mission, his role is determined by this. Man is the animal created to discover what is beyond him, what is beyond the sensitive world and for him to realize his destiny in this sphere. Nobody has the right not to want this. If the subject says “Ah, I want to get married and have a child, I want to have a good job, I want to have this, have that”, all of these are means for existence. So, if you notice that the individual’s objective is placed in this sphere, even if he says “I want to be a writer”, “I want to be a poet”, “I want to be a painter”; the name of what he is saying is a socially relevant thing, but even there, he is in the purely material sphere.
It reminds me of that piece of “Túnica e os Dados”, that the boy runs away from home, and leaves the message to his mother: “Mother, I ran away to Rio de Janeiro, I feel the bubbling of genius in me”. If a person does not feel the bubbling of genius in him — genius does not mean that he is going to be a great painter — no, it means that he will discover that he is facing the mystery of existence; he wants to know what’s there.
If the person does not have this, you should in a word distance yourself from these people. And treat them, of course, with respect, with deference, but with the proper distance. Because they are below what is structurally required of human beings. This is the principle of the distinction of the varieties. Although, in India, the notion of caste has crystallized in a social compartmentalization, we have to understand that caste exist as individual human differentiations, mixed in all social classes. The subject may have been born in the greatest poverty, have nothing, and be focused on the highest goal of existence; and the other may have been born in a golden cradle and be a goof who is turned only to the stomach, to sex, to this kind of nonsense.
When you meet someone, see if there is that flame within the subject that lifts him above the ordinary social world. Get to know him if he has that call from God to the highest things; if he doesn’t, move away from that person, he’s a fool, it’s worth nothing. If there is a principle that justifies a hierarchical separation between human beings, it is this one. Not social, economic, racial separation, this is all materialism. You will rank people for the money they have in their pocket when, in general, the money was not even earned by them, it was the father who gave it, it was a great-grandfather; sometimes the family had a man of genius four generations ago and left money for a bunch of vagabonds and the guys think they are something because they received money from their great grandfather. The other who thinks he is better than the other because one is black and the other is white, this is all materialism, this is a dog thing: it is not a human criterion, it is a canine criterion. Do not accept any of this, but judge people and rank for it: “Ah, you do not have the flame of the spirit burning in you, so I do not want to talk to you, because who put yourself down was yourself; I’m not the one who’s classifying you, it is you who didn’t want to, you didn’t answer God’s call, you denied the human vocation, you threw it in the trash, so you’re already trash.”
So, do not hesitate to select your friends, because if not, these people who only have really worldly interests, will only disrupt your life, will live by blackmailing: “Oh, you don’t like us anymore”, you have to say “I really don’t. So? If you want me to like you, try to improve, occupy the post of intellectual and spiritual dignity given to you by God, do not despise what is superior to you and you will not be despised either”. This is a missing element in American culture. Well, then people only conceive of two things: as everyone only thinks with their bellies, then they imagine the following: either you will have a social hierarchy based on money, or you will have egalitarianism also based on money. These are two absolutely indecent things, one as indecent as the other. Do not hesitate, even, to clearly express your disapproval of the conduct of these people. Sometimes, when we are alone, it is difficult to do this, if you are the only one then you are afraid. Don’t be afraid, when I was very young I was afraid of that. Then, from 20, 30, I started: “Look, my son, from the time you are there, you have nothing to judge what I’m doing. For me the abnormal is you, because the human being was made to be as I am, I am following what God sent. God has made me a spiritual creature, so I am able to ask the highest questions and hope to find the answer. Now you don’t, you just want to know about your money, your damn sexual pleasure, your house, your little things. You are acting like an animal.”
Smilingbirdfood this is a false dichotomy. It’s both.