Thus Spake the Divine - Standard Of Living

Thus Spake the Divine

Standard Of Living

The Government has a number of plans to enhance the living standards of its people. But at the same time, poverty is rising by the day. Poverty here refers to increasing discontentment in the mind-set of people, who have become greedy with perennially increasing wants and needs.

Improving one’s standard of living does not mean fulfilling his wants and needs. If one keeps adding to his wants and needs, only poverty and greed will prevail. Irrespective of one’s earning, there will always be inadequacy and shortage of resources to fulfil the increasing needs. The person will thus always remain poor.

One should aspire to acquire only those things that are necessary for the dignity and life of an individual. It is the Government’s duty to ensure that minimum needs of everybody in the society are met. All planning should aim at fulfilling the basic needs of the people.

For such a scenario to become a reality, rich should live a life similar to that of the poor in our country. If the poor live in a hut, the rich too must live in a hut to check out the experience. If poor have to make do with porridge, rich too should limit themselves to porridge. Just because the rich possess wealth, they should not be living a luxurious life.

If a person runs behind material needs and luxurious life, then, he violates the Dharma of Aparigraha. Aparigraha is the virtue of non-possessiveness or non-greediness. Aparigraha is the opposite of parigraha. Parigraha refers to restricting the desire for possessions to what is necessary or important, depending on one’s life stage and context. The rich must use their wealth and resources to help those who don’t have even the basic necessities of life. Only such acts would lead one to the state of Moksha.

Ignorant of this, rich keep accumulating more and more wealth. This leads to animosity among poor against the rich. This is because the poor are forced to take loans to fulfil their needs and they thus fall into a debt trap. Around 50 to 100 years earlier, nobody drank coffee. They had food and porridge made out of millets. Both rich and poor lived in same kinds of houses. If the rich of today vow not to wear silk clothing or drink coffee, they can easily help five families with the amount of money saved.

Once we get into the clutches of wants and needs, we make continuous and nonstop efforts to fulfil them. This affects our mental peace and happiness. Whatever we once considered as luxuries, such as radio, fan etc., have now become necessities. People who cannot afford them are discontent. The more needs we create, lesser is our peace of mind and contentment. Standard of living does not refer to the standard of monetary capability of an individual. It is the quality of life of an individual. We should fill our life with good qualities and devotion to God, which will automatically get us an improved standard of living.

Perennially increasing needs do not amount to improved standard of living. As against this, people should live a quality life at heart and improve their standard of living. Just because a person possesses a cupboard full of dresses, he has air-conditioned his house, or can afford to eat in restaurants quite frequently, it does not mean that his standard of living has improved. Only if the heart is filled with a feeling of contentment and there are quality thoughts in mind, the standard of living of an individual can be said to have reached a higher level. Such mental contentment will never come from external substances. If we focus on needs and wants that give us external and short-lived pleasures, our inclination towards spiritual life will totally vanish. This is quite evident from the lifestyle of people living in foreign countries.

I don’t think the Government will ever heed to what I am saying. But still, it is my duty to speak out what I think is right. If the Government wants to do something good for its people, it should redefine the economists’ outlook of “improved standard of life”. This redefined “improved standard of life”, with focus on spirituality, will bring in mental contentment. It will divert the minds of people towards spirituality, which will bring in harmony and well being for the entire society.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.