Travelling to faraway countries

What is the true objective?

July 8th 2025

Some young people, captivated by adventure, want to travel to faraway countries to live amongst the indigenous population, because they supposedly feel restricted and oppressed by western society, the ‘consumer’ society.
But what is their true objective? Do they really want to care for people, help them to feed themselves better, and educate them? Or are they just looking for adventure? In the first case, this experience could be very interesting, useful and beneficial, both for them and for others. In the second case, however, they will do no good to others, and they themselves will gain nothing since their objective is not a disinterested one; on the contrary, they will return impoverished and disappointed.
In reality, very few people are able to reach a deep understanding of peoples with a very different mentality from theirs, and so bring them effective aid. We can make ourselves useful wherever we are—we do not have to go to the ends of the earth to do so.*
* Related reading:

One of the most important faculties is to rejoice, not to possess. Joy is in our higher nature and pain is in our lower nature. So if we want to taste real, eternal joy, we must seek to live in soul and in spirit. They alone have the power to project us into infinite space for the higher nature...