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Towards Inner Harmony : H. H. Acharya MahaPragya |
| | | | | | As
is our desire, so is our destiny | | | |
| | | | When
we look around, we find that the individual as well as society is ill. Man never
wants to fall ill. Intelligent people and thinkers in every era have given a planned
outline or philosophy of social health. Some economists and philosophers have
attributed social illness to the economic problem.
According to them, it is
economic factors which make or mar society. Therefore, society will become healthy
if the economic system is improved. Socialism and communism were the outcome of
the above philosophy. Inspired by them, a lot of efforts were made to balance
the economic system and thereby make society healthy, but to no avail. Where,
after all, is the illness? And what is the illness? These two points will have
to be deliberated upon.
Gratifying wants and acquiring wealth are two basic
individual instincts. Is it the former which helps the latter or vice versa? Very
little attention has been paid to this question. Consciousness of wants is natural
and the desire to acquire wealth comes later. In fact, man is born with wants
and so, gratifying wants is the basic human instinct. If all the instincts are
taken together and classified, the last to survive will be gratification of wants.
It gives birth and fillip to all other dispositions.
Man is his wants and unsatisfied
desires. Human life will be transformed in the absence of wants and desires. The
Bhagwad Gita has aptly used the word Nishkam (that which is desireless). If one
does not desire the fruit of one's endeavours, both economic rivalry and economic
crimes will disappear. If the desire for acquiring wealth and having wants had
been discussed together, we could have possibly got close to finding the right
solution.
Religion has explored the problem of desires extensively, whereas
socialism and communism have studied the problem of wealth in great detail. Both
studies remained independent of each other. If they combine, they can considerably
solve the problem. Further, there should be a joint study of desire and wealth.
I am not talking of kama in the sense of sensual desire, but as desire in general.
If we combine wants, wealth and consumption, we get a combination which constitutes
the process of keeping society healthy.
There are three characteristics of
a healthy society: Control of desires, Absence of unnecessary violence, Absence
of economic crimes. In fact, the first characteristic is in itself adequate to
ensure a healthy society. The other two can be added for the sake of expressing
the point better. The basic thing is desire. Lord Mahavira said: "All suffering
accompanies desires. Over-coming desires will automatically put an end to suffering.
Do not try to remove suffering. Go to its roots. The root of suffering is desire.
Seek a solution there. Then you will experience that there is nothing like suffering
in the world."
Spiritual teachers knew the root, but the leaders of socialism
and communism did not. Instead, they concentrated on the trunk. The basis of a
healthy society is control of desires and its concomitant is economic restraint.
With these two in place, the necessary background to building a healthy society
is ready. Control of desires results in controlled consumption.
Let us view
the problem psychologically. We desire an item, obtain it and are for the time
being satisfied. Then we see its more expensive and attractive version with our
neighbour and once again the desire to have the superior item is roused. Desire
is an almost interminable drive. In today's world rank consumerism is growing
fast precisely because of this reason. Craziness for newer and more expensive
goods reflects uncontrolled desire.
The Gita says that it is desire which is
at the root of all sins. Financial or economic control is impossible without the
control of desires. What we see today are numerous efforts to control the economy
without restraining our wants. It was this which was responsible for the failure
of socialism and communism. And it is at this point that spirituality comes into
the picture. Unfulfilled desire creates a hiatus between words and deeds. Thus
the reason of the hiatus is neither economic nor social, but spiritual. It pertains
to the inner world, the world of desires.
Restraint is the life energy of society.
How to establish its importance is the question. One of the ways of doing it is
through education. From early childhood, the awareness of non-violence should
be inducted in the mind. Awareness of the control of desires is, in fact, awareness
of non-violence. The more unrestrained the desires, the greater the violence.
The converse is also true. Early education should teach young children that they
should not fully indulge their desires, but trim them.
One single reason for
the failure of our plans is the unending cycle of desires. If it had not been
for the refinement of the above disposition, there should have been no examples
of asceticism and personal sacrifice. If education plays its role in encouraging
these dispositions, all will be well with individuals as well as society. But
for the time being, let us have a less ambitious target. We can ensure the well-being
of a little more than 50 per cent people by making awareness of controlling desires
a part of education. All the people everywhere cannot be improved. How can a man
with an undeveloped mental awareness improve? There are desperate cases where
no remedy works. But society will improve even if 50 per cent people improve. |
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