How much is “ENOUGH”

A recent visit to a mall to purchase school bags for my daughters had left me with some interesting observations of the world we are living into. I could see people buying stuffs for the sake of either spending their time or just to grab some articles available on the so called discount sale as if this was their last opportunity of life or just passing time because they have nothing else to do.

I came across one couple sitting inside a big home furnishing store and to my amusement both were sitting on a sofa and fully engaged with their most sought after company “the mobile phone” .This small device has become the new “Inseparable Half” of the human population .It makes sure that though we are analog by existence , we always exist in the virtual . I draw my wife’s attention to them and shown her the biggest irony of today’s lifestyle .This incidence led me write this article which is basically to point out the chaos we have created around us .This seems like a never ending vicious cycle whose pedals are in the hands of the brands and products we always aspire to with an accomplice , the conspirator , “the world of advertising” who are suppose to inform us about the product , not to create a demand for the product with their flashy and luring campaigns.

We have got basic needs to cater to so to have a balanced life which is meant to be lived holistically. If we go back 100 yrs and see the unfathomable developments which have happened in every sphere of life, be it Medical Science, Space, IT, Education, Communication to name a few. These developments were meant to bring ease to human community so that they can complete their respective jobs in lesser amount of time and eventually have more leisure hours at their disposal.

Now see what we have created out of this development. People or the so called industrialists who were suppose to use these technological advancement for the benefit of their employees started using it as a money minting machines. More production with more number of hours for workers meant more money and therefore see where we have landed. It seems like a never-ending cycle of dreams and aspirations for the people at the top and the entire community of people working for them who have also been made part of this never ending race.

The problem starts when we cross the line of basic needs and step into the world of wants. We biologically need to meet out basic needs, Food, clothing and shelter. The moment we start looking for the wants, fancy cars, luxury holidays, high-end gadgets, fashionable and branded clothes, frequent outings for food and bigger and bigger houses our problems begin. To meet our insatiable appetite of wants, we start stretching our working hours that eventually gets reflected in the imbalance we create in our overall life. This has been observed that if you are not enjoying your work , not spending  time with family , no time for health (Exercise) and mind (Meditation ) , not doing some community work for others and spiritualism ,the extra work or stretched work for meeting your wants are simply wastage of time. As no money can buy you the happiness which can be created with the simplicity of  life , which most of time comes free of cost. This has become a global phenomena that people are so much dissatisfied with their life that in spite of having all the good things, they are  not happy and so to say not living  life the way it should be lived.  With the so called “Rat Race”  comes stress, anxiety, illness, bad food habits, poor family relationships etc. This is why so many of westerners are flocking to India for some dose of spiritualism and meditation and have started accepting the Indian way of living life as a sensible option. The number of people dying at a young age due to ailments , no. of suicides, no. of divorces, increasing crimes happening across the globe are really serious points to ponder over. People are busy inventing ultra advanced devices and technologies to keep aspirations high and push people to work harder than ever to get them. The example of couple quoted above , have the time to chat with someone on Facebook but they don’t have time for each other. And then they complain of poor relationship, what an irony.

Life is very simple, only when we keep ourselves simple , means,  keeping oneself  to needs. The moments we try to surpasses it and start looking for wants , we are doomed to become a machine or a non-living thing. The hunger for materialism never ends. The more you collect, the more hungry you become. This hunger has created a big economic gap among the population existing on the mother earth. The gap between the rich and poor is so big that 20 % of the rich people own 80 % of the materials. We carry a mentality as if everything is in short supply. The general psychological notion is that the more one hordes , the more successful one is. This scarcity principal has led people to run after something even they don’t know about. Ask anyone, what do you want to do with your life and the most probable answer would be either they never bother about or they think everything has been kept in abeyance to eternity. His plans are always in future tense, ignoring the fact that predicting even the next moments is just a guess. They are so busy hording things that the life which actually needs to be enjoyed in the present moment is always left for future, ignoring the fact that nobody can predict it or by the time you reach your destination your priority has either changed or you are no more physically capable of enjoying it.

I would end this article with a quote by His Holiness Shri Dalai Lama :

“Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”