Who is the richest person you have ever met?

A while ago I was asked this question by someone. I didn't just have an answer. It became a deep thought. Actually, by the way, a very nice process.

The nicest thing about this question was it automatically started quickly to show me the movie of my life so far. All kinds of things suddenly came up and showed themselves again. Amazing to discover how much you still can remember if you take the time to watch that running movie.

My thoughts lingered for a while at the age of around fifteen. My father had his physiotherapy practice at home and he had several patients (clients) who lived far away from us and regularly came to visit him. Most of the time they had to wait for a while. And yes, his practice offered a waiting room as well but my mother always felt a bit pity on the people waiting and always offered coffee, tea and cookies in our living room for them. So, our private living room became more and more the waiting room. And her hospitality was not only there for the patients of my dad. Also, our milkman and baker, who at that time came to your house, nearly on a daily base were our visitors in mom’s ‘coffee shop’.

My father had a number of patients from a family. Father, mother and their son always came together every other week.

The son’s hobby was karting and always scored high in the national top ranking. He worked at their family business. They owned a garage and also ran an ambulance, coach and taxi services business. I was always amazed about the astonishing stories they told and especially about the wealth of jewelry that they wore around their fingers and wrists. Abundancy of money because business was running more than well and they had a lot of solid big customers including large hotel chains and Schiphol Amsterdam Airport. The wealth almost “sparkled" toward me.

And yet, when they were gone again, my mother often told me about the pity she had with them. I didn't understand that first that time. Often my mother, with her background as an actress, ‘replayed’ the stories to my sisters and me afterwards and we had to laugh a lot about it.

At some point I started to understand my mother's pity, despite the fun we sometimes had about the wonderful stories she made of it. Their life was not happy at all. Visit after visit to us was filled with a list of all sorts of problems and suffering because of their private and business life.

Now that I am writing this, I am sure they also saw (and used) the visit and therapy of my dad (and mom) as a kind of relief. Sharing their stories safely with someone who listened, did not immediately have an opinion or unsolicited advice, and who was outside their close "circuit".

Where I first saw them as super-rich, it turned out to be a great poverty with a lot of misery.

And in relation to that question from a few weeks ago, this memory shows me again that wealth is not at all in possessions and outward show. This insight began to come alive for me already at a young age through these stories from my father's customers and personal experiences.

Further on in the movie of my life, several "richest" people emerge. People I know from politics, government, the uniformed world, service clubs and so much more. The strange thing is that when I touched the situations in which I remembered them as ‘rich’ again, those thoughts immediately evaporate. This was and is no richness at all. Often simply laughable impressions and unreal life shows. I will not go into it any further.

The photo on this blog is from April this year when I was in India with my girlfriend. This poor boy, he begged in the streets, touched me deeply with his spontaneity. We only met and talked shortly. He was more than thankful after our chat and showed me his real inner richness and especially his pleasure in this photograph.

Where I am stuck for the answer to the question so far in my life, is with a person I met at the Padma Center in Middelburg-NL more than 12 years ago as my philosophy and meditation teacher. For years I attended evening classes every Thursday and also regularly weekend meetings. They were the fuel for the huge life(style) change that I was allowed to make in my life.

This man was far from rich in a financial sense and even struggled with a developmental disorder as he sometimes told. And perhaps precisely because of the latter, he was an expert in his specific interests and activities in relation to philosophy.

He possessed and possesses the wealth to encourage you to discover the richness in yourself through his stories, history, Bhagavad-Gita, personal experiences and inner wisdom.

Someone who shares his rich set of talents in a fantastic way to let others discover their personal treasures and added value.

Voila ... the answer. The richest person I have met in my life so far.


Gangey Gruma (Frans Captijn)
email: captijninsight@gmail.com 

Foto blog: http://franscaptijnhisworld.blogspot.com

Captijn Insight. Catalyst in developing tranquility & in-sight to get in a sustainable way real connection, purpose, pleasure and flow in life, love, family, business, career and work again.