r/TheMirrorCult

People love comparing countries by GDP, ranking nations from richest to poorest, and acting like living in a wealthy country automatically means having a better life. But how is that wealth distributed? Who actually benefits from it?

What's the point of having one of the largest economies in the world when people are homeless, can't afford food, and have to sell their own bodies just to survive?

Look at the United States. One of the most powerful and wealthiest countries on Earth, yet thousands of people struggle with homelessness and food insecurity. A country can be incredibly wealthy on paper while millions of its people struggle to meet basic needs.

What actually makes a country great isn't just how much money its economy generates, but how much access ordinary people have to the opportunities and resources that money creates.

And this is where people get the whole Africa argument wrong.

Someone will hear that you're from an African country and automatically assume you're poor, as if your nationality determines your standard of living. But imagine someone born in an African country whose parents can afford to send them to an expensive university in the United States or Europe, provide them with housing, and give them access to international opportunities.

Do you honestly think that person lives according to the stereotype people associate with Africa? Of course not. They might have access to a lifestyle that the average person in a much wealthier country could never afford.

Meanwhile, someone born in the United States might have no financial support, no affordable housing, no access to quality education, and no realistic way to escape poverty.

The point is that your country's GDP doesn't determine your personal quality of life. Your access to opportunities, resources, security, and financial support matters enormously.

So when people ask which country is the best or the worst, I think they're asking the wrong question.

The better question is: What kind of life can an ordinary person realistically build there?

Because I don't care how rich your country is on paper. If the system makes it nearly impossible for you to access the wealth and opportunities surrounding you, how much does that national wealth actually mean to you?

I was driving on the Confederation Bridge in New Brunswick, Canada, at around 5:30 in the morning, singing this bhajan that I just absolutely love, and I started recording it. The Confederation Bridge of Canada connects Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick and is 12.9 km long. Just so you know, below it’s all ocean!

I came across this bhajan through the Indian philosopher Acharya Prashant, whose interpretation really attracted me to this bhajan. I think I am still trying to grasp what exactly Kabir Sahab is trying to convey, but this is simply my personal take on it.

The lines I am singing in the video are:

“जुगन-जुगन समझावत हारा, कहा न मानत कोई रे।
तू तो रंगी फिरै बिहंगी, सब धन डारा खोई रे।”

“For ages, I have been trying to explain it; yet no one listens. You, like a bird, keep wandering coloured by the world, and in doing so, you lose all your real wealth.”

What I understood:

My understanding of these phrases of Kabir Sahab is that the truth has been spoken and reiterated over and over, but the mind is not willing to listen. It only seeks to keep moving along the path of seeking in colors, pleasures, possessions, achievements, etc., hoping that the next thing it will grasp will complete it.
He seems to be speaking to the ego: wherever the ego goes, like a chameleon, it takes on the colors of everything it encounters, be it consumerism, materialism, objects, or desires. In trying to fill its own emptiness, the ego keeps stuffing itself with more things that, sooner or later, it becomes burdened by.

However, whatever the ego takes on is not permanent. Objects, desires, relationships, even our dreams and worries, are all temporary. And in chasing after fleeting things to fill a void within ourselves, the ego has lost sight of what truly matters inside. Kabir Sahab’s metaphor of the mind as a bird, colored by the world and flitting from place to place, is what I think is trying to capture that sense of longing to fill this inner emptiness.
My personal reflection

What I feel is that this has been exactly the same with me in life. Five years ago, I was a completely different person; the things I desired, feared, and thought about don't really concern me much today. However, many new desires and fears have emerged in their place. What I thought was real and what I was fixated on is gone. I feel that today, I am worried about completely different things than I used to be.

This makes me ask myself: if my internal desires, ideas, and dreams can change so drastically, how can any of these things that are ‘mine’ be considered permanent? Isn’t everything that concerns me in life just like the mind changing from one color to another, from one desire to another, and confusing those to be permanent while wasting time and life doing so?

I don’t have an answer, but this bhajan makes me reflect on what I am chasing and what it is that I am really looking for. If there’s a stop to this endless running around, I would love to hear your personal take on these lines, and also to know if this interpretation is close to what you think Kabir Sahab could have meant here.

Full bhajan:

तेरा मेरा मनुआ कैसे एक होई रे।
मैं कहता हूँ आँखन देखी, तू कहता कागद की लेखी।
मैं कहता सुरझावनहारी, तू राख्यो उरझाई रे॥
मैं कहता तू जागत रहियो, तू जाता है सोई रे।
मैं कहता निरमोही रहियो, तू जाता है मोहि रे॥
जुगन-जुगन समझावत हारा, कहा न मानत कोई रे।
तू तो रंगी फिरै बिहंगी, सब धन डारा खोई रे॥
सतगुरु धारा निर्मल बहै, बामे काया धोई रे।
कहत कबीर सुनो भाई साधो, तब ही वैसा होई रे॥

Youtube vedio: https://youtu.be/08zoPSOtV6w?si=EzNUs7AXbBfavlAq

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If you want to find the devil, stop looking at Indigenous cultures and start looking at European history.

People are quick to associate the devil with Indigenous religions, colonized peoples, and cultures they don't understand, yet conveniently overlook the history of European societies that claimed to be Christian while participating in colonization, slavery, exploitation, and the dehumanization of entire populations.

Jesus said, Love thy neighbour as thyself.” How do you reconcile that commandment with enslaving your neighbour, conquering their land, and treating them as less than human?

You cannot serve two masters. If you claim to follow Christ but consistently act against the principles he taught, what exactly are you following?

Maybe the real problem is that people have been conditioned to recognize the devil in the cultures of the colonized while refusing to recognize him in the actions of the colonizers.

Apparently, the devil is always somewhere else, never in the history of the people claiming to represent God.

"If you wish to keep slaves, you must have all kinds of guards.

The cheapest way to have guards is to have the slaves pay taxes to finance their own guards. To fool the slaves, you tell them that they are not slaves and that they have Freedom.

You tell them they need Law and Order to protect them against bad slaves.

Then you tell them to elect a Government. Give them Freedom to vote and they will vote for their own guards and pay their salary.

They will then believe they are Free persons. Then give them money to earn, count and spend and they will be too busy to notice the slavery they are in.”