Not anchoring to chosen path

Statements made by Shri Asaram Bapu and the aftermath of the same, along with what has happed over last few weeks made me think about the problems in our society. One of the thoughts that is taking shape in my mind is we as a society has lost clarity on the roles that each one of us has to perform, and therefore we have lost passion and the focus on excellence is gone. Some where we have lost our anchors. We are not happy with ourselves, we are just focused on doing what others are expected to do.

By virtue of choices that we have made, based on our own aptitudes and capabilities and interests each one of us have a role to perform. We have to perform our roles with full passion and interest with right thinking mind. If each one of us plays the role that is assigned to us most of the social problems will be minimized. Let us look at some examples.

Legislators:

They have to ensure that the Country / State has right legal system that is relevant, efficient and effective. They have a role to play in ensuring the system works, justice is not denied, it is expeditious and the whole system works as designed. All the laws are periodically reviewed for their continued relevance and amended as necessary. Questions:

1.    Are the legislators playing that role? Do they have awareness about their accountabilities and responsibilities.

2. Do they have intellectual depth and understanding of the work that needs to be done?
3. Do they take interest in their own subjects.
4. Are they connected with relevant sections of the society? Do they know what society needs?

Many film stars, sportspersons and other socialites and celebrities become the members of the Rajya Sabha – Do they look at these positions as the positions of status or the positions that bestow on them certain new responsibilities and accountabilities. Do they understand their roles and are playing the roles with interest and passion?

Politicians:

They are the backbones of the democratic society. Political parties have to be anchored to the strong ideologies and the politicians have to represent the chosen ideology. People of the country have choices to make, they have to decide which ideology is best suited for them at a point of time and which individuals can provide the leadership. Politicians have to be the role models. They have to personify the ideology, behave like “Statesman” rather than focus on the next election and populist gimmicks. Politicians represent he people, hence they need to be well connected with people. Questions:

1.    Do politicians understand their role?

2.    Are they role models?

3.    Are they perfect representatives of the people, are they well connected with realities?

4.    Do they represent the ideology on foundation of which their political party is created?

Bureaucrats, police and the allied services:

They have an important role to paly of that of management of the Government. Create right Strategies, management systems and the Governance. Ensure the bureaucracy is always kept relevant. They have to create efficient and effective systems that are citizen friendly. They have to ensure civil society fabric is preserved thru excellent Governance. They have to be aligned to the ruling political party (since it represents the will of the people at a given point of time) however in the process of alignment they can’t lose their independence as managers of the Government and the democracy. Questions;

1.    Are Bureaucrats playing their assigned role effectively?

2.    Are they becoming stooges of the political parties and losing their independence?

3.    Are they enforcing the laws with full rigor in letter and spirit? Do the citizens of the society have confidence in the rule of law?

Society as a whole:

 

Each individual has to ensure that he /she becomes a good responsible and alert citizen of the society. They have to participate in the democratic processes full heartedly with passion. Social activists too have important roles to play. They have to focus on social awareness, creating social institutions that benefit the society, etc. Questions:
1.    Are we a law abiding society?
2.    Do we participate in the democratic processes with passion and enthusiasm?

3.    Are we contributing back to the social causes?

4.    Are we alert, and active participants in the social processes or are we just the bystanders sitting on the fence all the time?

Parents and elders of the society:

Parents and elders of the society are important. They have to ensure younger generation is well educated, right education coupled with right upbringing is the foundation of the future citizens. Are we ourselves the right parents and elders? Some Questions:

1.    Are we doing right “Sanskars” on the youngsters?

2.    Are we ensuring right values, beliefs and objectives are set for the youngsters?

3.    Are we the elders - role models?

4.    Do we ensure concept of love, brotherhood, peace, and harmony are built in the minds of next generation, rather than just being selfish?

5.    Do we focus on the all-round development of the young population?

Religious /spiritual leaders:

These are other important constituents of the social fabric. Their role is to ensure right sanskars, right social norms and moral threads are intelligently woven in to the social fabric. They can’t afford to be fanatics. Every religion talks of Universal brotherhood, happiness, harmony, peace and spirituality. Religions are different from each other basis some symbols and rituals however the fundamental spiritual principles are very similar. Fanaticism of any type has no place in in any civil society. Religious leaders have following of large masses hence responsible behaviours and role modelling becomes their prime responsibility. Some questions:

1.    Are you a fanatic? If yes, you are not a spiritual leader.

2.    Do you make responsible statements that are well thought out? If not – you are a wrong leader?

3.    Are you interested in politics and social issues? If yes, you should move to become a social activist or a political leader and give-up the robes of the spiritual/religious leaders.

Our problems:

In this post, I have talked about very few roles as illustrated above. There are other roles too like the role of an entrepreneur, roles of teachers, etc., which I have not dealt with at this stage.

Some where we have lost the role clarity. We just do what we please to do. We just do things based on impulses, selfish motives and at times just based on free will and desire. We have forgotten that social fabric gets preserved only if we confine ourselves to our chosen paths and do an excellent job of what we are supposed to be doing.

There are five pillars of civil society, viz, legislators, Executives, Judiciary, press and the people. Problems come up if these pillars don’t behave the way they are expected to behave. Press gets focused on sensational news, executives get busy pleasing the politicians, legislators get busy focusing on populist initiatives and next elections,  people get busy with their own selfish motives, and judiciary becomes inefficient and everyone starts looking at judiciary as a source of strength.

There is nothing wrong for individuals to change the roles if they so desire, for example if a film star, religious leader or a sportsman wants to become member of the Rajya Sabha, he/she is most welcome to transition to the new role. However this role change has to be coupled with deep thinking, should be associated with full knowledge and awareness of the associated new responsibilities and accountabilities. Before a role change one has to ask a question - Am I the right person for this role? Do I have the right skills, capabilities and passion to perform? After the role change he/she should start playing that role with full passion and rigor. We need people who are anchored to a chosen path and do an excellent job.

The current problems are also reflected in the corporate world, where executives have a tendency to point fingers and poke their nose in each other’s areas rather than work as a team and discharge their own responsibilities diligently with passion and rigor. If all of us do what we are expected to do, with an objective of excelling, the society will become a good place to live.

The purpose of life - Artha

Like Kama this is also one of the most misunderstood Pursharthas. Based on my understanding in the past, like many others, I always thought that talking about money, collecting wealth etc. was not in conformity with the tenets of the philosophy of Hinduism. After considerable thinking, some reading and after having heard some wise people, some clarity has emerged in my mind and the same is being shared in this blog post.

  What is Artha?

Artha deals with material prosperity of the individuals and the society. This purshartha or the purpose of life, is all about the wealth creation, or earning money, this all about the acquisition of the property, creating the engine for wealth generation and employment. It is all about entrepreneurship  which makes society powerful and prosperous.

Lu the Chinese God of prosperity and wealth

This is all about worldly or material prosperity. While money is an essential ingredient for survival and fulfillment of the fundamental needs of a human being, wealth is also necessary for the material prosperity and development of the society. Wealth leads to great human endeavors which are absolutely critical or essential. These endeavors lead to building industries that create employment and ensure social security in long term. Wealth creates and nurtures large institutions for education, charitable institutions for the needy, creation and nurturing of the places of worship, institutions for research and development, infrastructure development for the society,  development of the cultural and social institutions, etc. Wealth is certainly not a bad word, it is the basis for the life.

Wealth creation and earning money is therefore not a taboo and should never be shied away from. Wealth creation or “Artha” is an important second Purshartha. In Indian society  Hindus have always worshiped Goddess Laxmi and in Chinese society also  God for Prosperity and wealth is  an integral part of a household. It is expected that during the Gruhastha Ashram phase of life,  people must focus on earning money and ensuring that the money gets utilized not only for the fulfillment of basic needs and comforts of the householders but also for social security and fulfillment of the Runas or debts about which I have talked earlier in the other blog posts.

Laxmi the Hindu Goddess of Wealth

During my journey I also discovered that the term Artha has a broader meaning - The word 'Artha' implies achievement in general. In particular, it implies the kind of achievement that accumulates  meaningful wealth. This wealth may be material goods and possessions; or it may be merit, fame and honor, or knowledge and skill, or good habits and virtuous character.

Even nomadic sanyasi or mendicants also need to earn money for their own survival, they also have to work, we may call it alms, or Bhiksha, whatever you may call it, work has to be performed by them and resources have to be generated either in kind or cash for their own survival and living.

Beware, Wealth or Artha may derail us:

During my discoveries I realized that the wealth creation is an important objective and we have to focus on this while we are in the second phase of our life. One of the reasons why wealth creation is unfortunately considered as wrong by many Hindus was it can derail a human being.

 

I realized that problem is never with the money or wealth on its own, the issue comes-up when the human beings misuse the wealth. Wealth invariably leads to power. Wealth can lead to indulgences of all kinds leading to derailment from the path of Dharma and losing sight of the ultimate objective of life "The Moksha". Wealth can become a cause or an important source of the evils that we talked about earlier - Kam, krodha, moh, mad, matsar and Lobha.  

In the process of wealth creation, somewhere individuals start focusing only on "wealth amassing" or hoarding, since this gives them sense of power, position, name and fame or even false sense of security. Objectives in the life therefore get focused on acquiring more and more. Becoming a wealthy person, earning not only for self but even for the next generations, becomes the sole  objective / purpose of the life. This may even lead to, showing off the wealth in order to get the name and fame. Wealth becomes the means to  fulfillment of several latent desires (Kama) and also creation of new desires which otherwise the individual was not aware of. Wealth can corrupt / spoil an individual very quickly. However if one follows the four Pursharthas completely in letter and in spirit, likelihood of Artha or Wealth corrupting or spoiling an individual gets minimized since the individual will always remain focused on the ultimate objective of the life, i.e.  "Moksha" and work within the frame work of the Dharma.

  

Some jewels that I picked up during my journey of self discovery:

  

• Austerity, simplicity and detachment are the basis for the Dharma however the poverty is never glorified in India; somewhere due to the lack of the true knowledge I had misunderstood wealth creation as a wrong / undesirable activity.
• Most of the Vedic invocations lead to asking for wealth or prosperity - a divine power that leads to individual and social progress.
• Renunciation does not mean give up wealth; it just means get detached from the wealth and this is the most difficult part.
•  Purpose of life is not to generate wealth and to become personally powerful or indulge in luxuries and other undesirable vices, but to generate the wealth for a bigger cause.
• Hinduism talks of moderation, detachment and not aversion to wealth.
• Arha-arjan or earning money is a noble goal as long as the objectives for earning and the process for earning are right. 
•  Hinduism recognizes importance of Artha for overall well-being of an individual as well as that of the society.

If one looks at the Four Pursharthas dispassionately and objectively one will realize:

1.    The Moksha is for self (mainly self-centered, the ultimate objective of the life),

2.    the Kama is also for the self (mainly self-centered, unless the fundamental and latent desires are not satisfied one can’t get to Moksha),

3.    Artha is for self (to fulfill personal needs) as well as to create prosperous and strong society around us. Here the focus is on self as well as the society and therefore discussion on the Runas or debts.

4.    Dharma is for “self-management” as well ensuring harmony in the society.

In the next blog post we will deal with the concept of Moksha as understood by me.

 Disclaimer: The pictures are downloaded from Google Images.