இப்போது நாம் பணத்தாலும் உடைமைகளாலும் லக்ஷரிகளாலுந்தான் அந்தஸ்து என்று ஆக்கிக் கொண்டு, இதைத் தேடிக் கொண்டே போவதில் சீலங்களை இழந்து, சீலத்தாலேயே நம் முன்னோர்கள் எந்தச் சொத்துமில்லாமலும் பெற்றிருந்த ஸமூஹ கௌரவத்தையும் அடியோடு இழந்து, ரொம்பக் குறைந்தவர்களாக நிற்கிறோம். உடைமைகளைச் சேர்த்துக் கொள்ளக் கொள்ள பயந்தான் ஜாஸ்தியாகிறது. அபரிக்ரஹத்தின் நிம்மதி இங்கே ஒருகாலும் கிடைக்காது. – ஜகத்குரு ஸ்ரீ சந்திரசேகரேந்திர ஸரஸ்வதி ஸ்வாமிகள்
But now we value our status only in terms of money, possessions, and luxuries. Due to that avarice, we go more and more in search of money. Consequently we have completely lost our character and the respect in society, which our forefathers had in abundance though they did not possess any riches. Because of this today, we stand very low in the society. As you go on accumulating possessions it only results in more and more fear. The peace which we gain by ‘Non-Possession’ (Aparigraha) can never be experienced in this situation. – Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal
Categories: Deivathin Kural, Golden Quotes
EXCELLENT COMMENT
The last few quotes on Aparigraha make for very sad reading. Most followers here may view them as of a purely religious orientation, but their import runs deeper and covers all aspects of life.
Those of us who have been keen and deep students of economics see in them the very essence of a sane economic order, which brings with it a sane social order. The modern economy is based on converting “needs” into “wants” and multiplying them. Almost the very first lesson in modern economics is that wants are unlimited, they are recurring and their satisfaction is the rationale of economic activity. Man needs food, and it was obtained by conventions of each society locally; but now we are made to ‘want’ specific things like bread, pizza, doughnut, hamburger etc by worldwide advertising; globalising wants is the big ad industry spending billions of dollars.
Mahatma Gandhi made many terrible mistakes in public life. But he made one supreme discovery: nature provides enough to meet everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed. So he said we should limit our wants to fulfilling basic needs- which is a reiteration of the Upanishadic dictum: tena tyaktena bhunjitha. Governments which print his picture on the currency notes discard this dictum and promote greed in the name of economic development.
In Gandhi’s generation, followers like Richard B.Gregg, J.C.Kumarappa developed this theme further and showed how the economy of permanence or sustainable economics was possible only on the basis of voluntary restraint on consumption, ie voluntary simplicity. Later, economists like E.F.Schumacher developed this even further and spoke of “Small is Beautiful”. Sociologists like Ivan Illich warned us as to how the entire society is being made a consumers’ camp, Writers like Duane Elgin wrote of Voluntary Poverty which captured the imagination of millions of youth. But these failed to make an impact on the society as a whole. Serious economists admit that infinite growth based on endless exploitation of natural resources is not possible in a finite earth. Scientists have shown that the resulting energy use patterns would lead to greater entropy and it would be more destructive than productive. Ecologists have shown that the physical universe will simply be not able to cope with waste resulting from development. But all these have had no impact on the corporates’ hold on public mind which is manipulated to want more in the name of economic development.
The situation is alarming in India, with limited resources compared to the fast growing wants of a steadily growing population. Even as it is, our water resources are dwindling and polluted; the air is sickening, food is poisoned with chemicals, plastic is invading our very bodies.But neither our economists nor scientists are bothered. Of course we have no statesmen to talk of these things.
What is happening is that the very basis of Classical Indian Civilization – simple living and high thinking is discarded. The dissenting voice, whether that of a philosopher or scientist or sage is neither heard nor honoured,
Modern life has brought everyone into an inescapable net of increasing minimum expenditure. To live a simple life is not easy now, even if it is possible. ( Our simplicity imposes costs on others, as in the case of Gandhi. Even sanyasis have to provide for themselves through institutional arrangements -they can no more take the householders’ hospitality for granted individually.).
Wordsworth sang:
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.
This was written 200 years ago. Who has cared?