People tend to be certain that they will live a hundred years; be damn sure that their house will not burn down; that their car will not be totaled in an accident. The question is: Is it surety, certainty, or foolishness?” This is why it is said that Insurance is not bought, but sold.
We wish to draw an analogy from the Mahabharat which is divided into 18 parvas. In Aranya Parva, there is a chapter called “Yaksha Prashna”. The story was that all four brothers of Dharmaraj or Yudhisthira, who went to a lake to fetch water died soon after drinking it. They also wanted to bring some water back to Dharmaraj. In turns, each brother went to the lake, drank the water and died. The Yaksha warned them not to drink the water until they had answered his questions, but the brothers ignored Yaksha.
In search of his four brothers, Yudhisthira went to the lake. Dharmaraj saw that the water was clear and the lake beautifully reflecting the blue sky, and his brothers lying dead. He heard a voice warning him, ‘Dharmaraj, do not drink water until you answer my questions.’ Dharmaraj replied, ‘Sir, I will drink water only after answering your questions. Please, go ahead.’ The Yaksha asked series of questions, to which Dharmaraj responded correctly. One of the questions was “What travels faster than air?” Dharmaraj answered: “Thought, it travels the fastest.”
Yaksha pleased with the answer said, “Dharmaraj, I ask you the last question. If you answer this correctly, you may have the water. “Give me an example of the foolishness of man”. Dharmaraj answered: “Every day we witness thousands of people dying, yet, we believe in our own immortality”.
What better example could we provide to demonstrate the foolishness of man? Man thinks all men are mortal but himself. Hence, Dharmaraj calls it as foolishness.
Similar foolishness is observed in the statement “Insurance is not bought, but sold.” The foolishness that I will live for a hundred years, the foolishness that my house will not burn down; and that my car will never meet with an accident. Rather than calling the people foolish and hurting their sentiments, we insurance people polished these statements to mean “Insurance is not bought, but sold”.
Now, do you agree with this?
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