How greed is the rot at society's dying core...
OPINION: A PAIR of travel-worn slippers, a brass bowl and plate, round-rimmed glasses and an old pocket watch recently fetched a whopping $1.8 million at a New York auction. The memorabilia constituted just about all the earthly possessions of Mahatma Gandhi, the man Churchill infamously described as the “naked fakir” or beggar. Coincidentally, on the anniversary of the death of Gandhi, who epitomised austerity and simplicity, Seán Quinn, Ireland’s richest man, admitted in an RTÉ interview following the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank to feeling that “we were too greedy”...
It may well be deemed a collective admission from all of us, who in varying degrees, have brought on this global recession. Topping the list will be those whose greed has subsumed the hopes and dreams of generations, to the extent where radio shows that hitherto dished up discussions on caviare and champagne are recommending snail and nettle soup as its recession flavours.
Our children who have grown to expect at least “20 presents” from poor Santa at Christmas, and enough chocolate at Easter and Halloween to warrant dental surgery, may hopefully feel a little remorseful too.
“But not me!” some of us may exclaim – and rightly so. We have 12-hour working days, five daily hours of traffic, murderous mortgages, colossal childcare costs and suffer from extreme time and rest poverty. Besides, we are hardly being “greedy” when all we want is a reasonably comfortable life, affordable education for our children, easy access to medical facilities and employment security.
Had Gandhi been around to respond to this, he may have pointed out that the state of the world is a result of the seven sins that can break the world – “wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humility, worship without sacrifice and politics without principles”.
If much of the world is disillusioned with its political systems, it could be attributed to the betrayal of faith and the absence of truth – Shraddha and Satya – the very basis on which the universe exists. Gandhi’s vision of democracy also upholds the virtues of common good. “Democracy,” he said, “must in essence, therefore, mean the art and science of mobilising the entire physical, economic and spiritual resources of all the various sections of the people in the service of the common good of all.” Of what use is the wealth of a nation if its people remain hungry, its children discriminated against and its elderly deprived of healthcare and dignity?
In this X Factor and Dragon’s Den -dominated world, where the sense of “self” is bigger than ever before and material wealth determines the quality of not just life, but even death, it is hard to change mindsets so they shift focus from individual success to one that strives for universal good. We are all thus faced with a perennial moral dilemma, struggling to strike a balance and find harmony.
The behemoth financial institutions and business giants of today shun high ideals in favour of an obsession with bottom lines to the exclusion of everything else – to the extent where they consider the very people and resources that make this success possible as tools that can be dispensed with at will.
Gandhi, who favoured the principles of trusteeship rather than ownership, often drew from the verse in the Gita that considers the needless accumulation of wealth as a vice. The Gita goes so far as to say that using nature’s resources to feed only oneself is nothing short of sin. The fruits thus gained should be through rightful labour and must be shared and not hoarded. The world has enough, Gandhi said, to satisfy everyone’s need, but not everyone’s greed.
Thanks to Al Gore who has pleaded for “the Earth’s security” and several other experts and philanthropists, we are today more environment aware. But the Vedas, arguably the earliest literature available to mankind, have spoken at length on the importance of preserving and revering natural resources, even the need to keep the sun’s friendship, lest we face its wrath. The Shanthi Path Mantra, a part of the Upanishads, Hindu scriptures dating back to the first millennium BC, prays for the five elements including the sky and space, the forests, the earth, herbs and animals and universal peace. Our chronic obsession to mass produce and mass consumption has brought us to a situation where we are on the threshold of grave environmental retaliation. The world we give our children could well turn out to be a place they dread.
At the recent G20 summit, the elite group of the developed, developing and emerging economies, we saw world leaders take their proud places for belonging to the richest and the most powerful. Yet, ironically, these are the very nations who are most responsible for the state of the economy and the environment. Meanwhile, the poorest of the world, who have in some way or the other contributed to this growth remain untouched by prosperity, and most vulnerable, dying by the thousands for a cause that never was.
The Indian-American press widely reported that Obama, who cited Gandhi as a major inspiration in his life, had a portrait of the great man in his senate office. Whether it has found a place in the White House, we may never know – but if the ideals that the Mahatma stood for and his “experiments with truth” become an inspiration for the world’s political and business leaders, on the subject of positive change, we may still be able to say that, “Yes we can.”
Report PRIYA RAJSEKAR - Irish Times.
OPINION: A PAIR of travel-worn slippers, a brass bowl and plate, round-rimmed glasses and an old pocket watch recently fetched a whopping $1.8 million at a New York auction. The memorabilia constituted just about all the earthly possessions of Mahatma Gandhi, the man Churchill infamously described as the “naked fakir” or beggar. Coincidentally, on the anniversary of the death of Gandhi, who epitomised austerity and simplicity, Seán Quinn, Ireland’s richest man, admitted in an RTÉ interview following the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank to feeling that “we were too greedy”...
It may well be deemed a collective admission from all of us, who in varying degrees, have brought on this global recession. Topping the list will be those whose greed has subsumed the hopes and dreams of generations, to the extent where radio shows that hitherto dished up discussions on caviare and champagne are recommending snail and nettle soup as its recession flavours.
Our children who have grown to expect at least “20 presents” from poor Santa at Christmas, and enough chocolate at Easter and Halloween to warrant dental surgery, may hopefully feel a little remorseful too.
“But not me!” some of us may exclaim – and rightly so. We have 12-hour working days, five daily hours of traffic, murderous mortgages, colossal childcare costs and suffer from extreme time and rest poverty. Besides, we are hardly being “greedy” when all we want is a reasonably comfortable life, affordable education for our children, easy access to medical facilities and employment security.
Had Gandhi been around to respond to this, he may have pointed out that the state of the world is a result of the seven sins that can break the world – “wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humility, worship without sacrifice and politics without principles”.
If much of the world is disillusioned with its political systems, it could be attributed to the betrayal of faith and the absence of truth – Shraddha and Satya – the very basis on which the universe exists. Gandhi’s vision of democracy also upholds the virtues of common good. “Democracy,” he said, “must in essence, therefore, mean the art and science of mobilising the entire physical, economic and spiritual resources of all the various sections of the people in the service of the common good of all.” Of what use is the wealth of a nation if its people remain hungry, its children discriminated against and its elderly deprived of healthcare and dignity?
In this X Factor and Dragon’s Den -dominated world, where the sense of “self” is bigger than ever before and material wealth determines the quality of not just life, but even death, it is hard to change mindsets so they shift focus from individual success to one that strives for universal good. We are all thus faced with a perennial moral dilemma, struggling to strike a balance and find harmony.
The behemoth financial institutions and business giants of today shun high ideals in favour of an obsession with bottom lines to the exclusion of everything else – to the extent where they consider the very people and resources that make this success possible as tools that can be dispensed with at will.
Gandhi, who favoured the principles of trusteeship rather than ownership, often drew from the verse in the Gita that considers the needless accumulation of wealth as a vice. The Gita goes so far as to say that using nature’s resources to feed only oneself is nothing short of sin. The fruits thus gained should be through rightful labour and must be shared and not hoarded. The world has enough, Gandhi said, to satisfy everyone’s need, but not everyone’s greed.
Thanks to Al Gore who has pleaded for “the Earth’s security” and several other experts and philanthropists, we are today more environment aware. But the Vedas, arguably the earliest literature available to mankind, have spoken at length on the importance of preserving and revering natural resources, even the need to keep the sun’s friendship, lest we face its wrath. The Shanthi Path Mantra, a part of the Upanishads, Hindu scriptures dating back to the first millennium BC, prays for the five elements including the sky and space, the forests, the earth, herbs and animals and universal peace. Our chronic obsession to mass produce and mass consumption has brought us to a situation where we are on the threshold of grave environmental retaliation. The world we give our children could well turn out to be a place they dread.
At the recent G20 summit, the elite group of the developed, developing and emerging economies, we saw world leaders take their proud places for belonging to the richest and the most powerful. Yet, ironically, these are the very nations who are most responsible for the state of the economy and the environment. Meanwhile, the poorest of the world, who have in some way or the other contributed to this growth remain untouched by prosperity, and most vulnerable, dying by the thousands for a cause that never was.
The Indian-American press widely reported that Obama, who cited Gandhi as a major inspiration in his life, had a portrait of the great man in his senate office. Whether it has found a place in the White House, we may never know – but if the ideals that the Mahatma stood for and his “experiments with truth” become an inspiration for the world’s political and business leaders, on the subject of positive change, we may still be able to say that, “Yes we can.”
Report PRIYA RAJSEKAR - Irish Times.