Hyatt's Grace

For a middle class family to enter the portals of a five star hotel is akin to entering a paradise on earth. It is a dream fulfillment. It is an out of the world experience. A slice of life that is at once removed from their humdrum existence. It is where mortals live like kings. It is like the grace of God to be invited to such a place as the Hyatt hotel. To be among the rich and the famous, among the glitter and glamor of affluence, to be regarded as a dignity, as an eminent personage, to be given importance to one's self, to be treated with respect and allowed to be serviced and chaperoned by uniformed officers and workmen, it is the pinnacle of achievement in a lifetime.

"For the first time in my life," said a father, "I felt great to be able to feast at a table that is elaborately decorated and rich with delicious food items. It is enough for me in this life. My son has made my day, nay, my life." The man eulogized his experience with emotion, eminently satisfied. His son had been an apprentice at the hotel after he completed a hotel management course. His son studied and trained to be a chef. And he was allowed to bring his family for a lunch with the families of his colleagues.

Such is the reverence that a typical middle class family accords to opulence, for it has had to struggle lifelong to make ends meet, to send the son to college, to buy jewelry to the wife, to buy expensive drinks to meet the demands of the man's habits. The family was dressed in their best, and had to overcome their nervousness, their fear of not doing the right thing in an august occasion. It was a dream come true.

The dreams of the poor man center round the possessions of the middle class. The dreams of the middle class border on the fantasy of the high class. The high class dreams consist of joining the exclusive club of the business magnates, the corporate bigwigs, the puissant paradise of unchallenged power.

Mammon is the new God of the world. From the most powerful to the downtrodden in the society, cutting across all class lines, the God of wealth is worshipped in different ways - from paying humble tributes through the offering of delicacies, to the secret offering (gupt dan) in gold nuggets or currency notes counted in unimaginably large numbers. It is no longer considered evil, for it is encouraged in every walk of life. The world in fact keeps track and honors the richest men in it. Every prayer is directed to the acquisition of wealth. Every struggle, every endeavor, every plan and scheme is designed to achieve the sole objective of living in the affluent society. Wealth begets respect to its devotee; he is graced by its opulence, singled out to be special, elevated in status, bestowed by power.

The awe one experiences at the display of opulence was not born yesterday. It is as old as the hills, literally. When the Buddha asked a pious man to describe the heaven that he was always praying for, the man described it in terms of the opulence he had seen in the world - the glitter of gold, the regal finery, the commissioned art, the palatial surroundings, the exquisite gardens and so on. The Buddha merely said that man could not know anything other than what he had seen and experienced and therefore his description of heaven must necessarily consist of the things of this world. Heaven could not be described in the language of man. Its grace is not in any way akin to Hyatt's grace.

Without the grace of the mammon most people end up becoming bitter in life. The mammonizing influence of modern life is a recipe for bitterness.