On Friday morning I received a surprise phone call. It was my friend Dipek Bhatterai who had just arrived in Nepalgunj. Dipek and I had met in Kathmandu where he is a COCAP board member and active volunteer. I was introduced to Dipek at a meeting in Kathmandu he led to help get us AP interns oriented in terms of our mission for the summer. While in Kathmandu we got along and had some good conversations, during the last few days Dipek has become one of my best friends in Nepal. He is as interesting, well-meaning and funny a person as I have ever met.

Dipek used to work for the government. He worked hard in school, achieved good results and consequently was successful in his government position. In this position he earned a good amount of money and had a fair amount of influence. Most men would have stayed with this job and continued to build their wealth and power, but Dipek left after he had built himself a house and saved a little money. Now Dipek is doing social work, mostly as a volunteer, until his savings run out. He explained why he chose this path in two ways, the first was a philosophy and the second was a story.

The philosophy was simple, but important. He believes that in any situation you cannot just take, you must also give back. He realized that while working for the government essentially he was being paid by the people of Nepal, and so according to his thinking he must at some point work to give back to those people. I think more people working in governments worldwide would benefit from a healthy dose of Dipek-ian philosophy. It would be nice to find a place where all politicians and officials realized that the people do not exist to serve them, but actually they exist to serve the people.

Following his philosophy (if you spend a day with Dipek you will get a lot of philosophy), Dipek launched into a story. His story involved two old men he met at a temple. He had known both men when they were younger as the fathers of his friends. The first man had been a colonel in the army. This man had worked hard to become a man of influence and power and had succeeded. He wielded his power with a heavy hand and had ruled and governed over his friends, family and soldiers with a strong will. When Dipek met this man at the temple his once broad shoulders were stooped and all manner of power was gone. Dipek asked him two questions. The first was “What have you accomplished in life?” The man was quick to answer with a list of his accomplishments and a description of the great power he had wielded and as he spoke some of that lost puissance returned to his eyes and posture. Dipek’s second question was more difficult. “What have you lost in life?” This question shrunk the man back into his aged body and his answer was simple, he had lost everything. After his retirement his friends and family had suddenly stopped coming to see him, once his wife died, he was left utterly alone.

The second man had risen through the ranks of government to be a minister in government. He built his wealth and influence carefully and used it liberally to help his friends and family. In his prime, his house was a constant flow of friends and acquaintances coming to earn his favor and ask for help. He took pleasure in putting his influence to use. Despite his generosity, Dipek also found this man alone at the temple. His children had emigrated to India and England, his wife had passed away and those friends and family had stopped visiting after his retirement. This man also relived his power, subsequent loss and current solitude when faced with Dipek’s two questions.

What was the moral of this story? Simply that power and wealth do not last. You need to do what you can during your life to make sure when you face your two questions at the end your answers leave you content. In order to do this you need to focus not only on external comfort but also internal satisfaction, inner peace you might call it. While Dipek next dived into a discussion of the importance of meditation, I found myself remembering clearly a Johnny Cash song, “A Satisfied Mind.”

“Suddenly it happened, I lost every dime,
But I’m richer by far, with a satisfied mind.”