Business to the Buddha

Tag: abundance

  • Start the new year by giving







    Capitalism has specially fascinated me in recent past. The fascination had been such that I have believed that capitalism is an approach where we realize futility of running behind all the comforts and all the need hierarchies. If there are other economic models too that help you approach this realization, than capitalism seems to work faster. My feeling had been that the possibility of realizing that need hierarchy under a socialistic and other type of economic systems is lower compared to capitalism. This impression is based on visits to certain cities of developed – mostly – capitalistic economies.

    My opinions may be incorrect, as repeatedly pointed out in comments by Ramana uncleji. I am still analyzing why I may be incorrect in the sense that capitalism a better approach to move towards spirituality compared to other systems.

    Image result for donateOne recent incident helped me evaluate my premise bit more. I was collecting donations for an NGO – DSY. The plan was to collect about 1 lac Indian rupee within 5 days before 25th Dec. Some unexpected mail, call and chats resulted in donations. I was confident of other close friends to donate – they did not! It was utter surprise to me. I am not asking money for myself, I am giving financial details of the organization and I am also showing the work the organization has done, yet the closest of my friends are uncomfortable to donate. Impact of two of the projects are below –

    Some of my friends are MBAs and others are Engineers working in respectable organizations. They are well to do, yet they were unwilling to donate. What was the problem with them to even commit INR 1000 or say INR 5000? In fact I told a few of them if you donate INR 5000 or more you will get tax deduction under section 80G of Income tax too. The question I had in my mind was – if someone can spend few thousands on New Year eve, cannot someone commit that much or lesser for someone else? The money can help a farmer stay alive, not commit suicide or a tribal child study. Why so? Have we become so callous? Are we less compassionate in the influence of capitalism?

    Answer to the question and my recent analysis was – in many cases today’s capitalism is a constant feeling of “having less” and “willingness to have more”. I’ve been writing about this desire for more, constant running behind many things in past. I felt that it’ll get subdued over period of time under capitalism. Prosperity will help a person view futility of this constant race to get more. Because over a period of time an individual will start questioning own’s running – why? What more? Resulting in realizing futility of this rat race sooner rather than later.

    Abundance possibly is based on our sense that “I already have things in abundant supply”. Possibly, we’ll have some different economic model in future, not exactly capitalism; where contentment will be primary and give will be preferred over feeling of paucity depravity and wanting for more.

    Last not the least – I’ve extended my targets to 2 lac. By 31st March 2018 you can donate at https://www.dsyindia.org/login.php. Once you donate please share the acknowledgement with me so that I know how far I’m from my targets.

    Start the new year by giving. Wish you a Very Happy New Year. I hope few of you will think of donating besides wonderful celebration of the coming year.

    Image source – http://mike-ward.net/donate/

    Related blogs – Education, Chicken in the “poultry farm of economy”, Race – never ending, What more you need?, When will we stop?, Swasthay – dwelling in oneself, Money worth earning, A cup of tea

  • Shopping malls







    [Tweet “The world with a lot of abundance (perception of abundance) makes people feel miserable.”]

    I was in grade 8 when one of my teachers – Mr Maltare told us this story – A donkey becomes fat in summers and looses weight in rainy & winter season. Reason is that the donkey feels that it has eaten a lot and that feeling makes it psychologically feel too full & gain weight. In rains & winters it feels it has not eaten enough & there is more than what it can feed itself. This causes the donkey to feel helpless, miserable & underfed. The results are what I wrote above.

    If we take the same example of the donkey, we would realize that the developed nations have lot more psychological illness than they should have. Abundance there is more compared to the developing or underdeveloped nations. apparently, I see the same issues with adults in developing nations as well. I don’t think my father or many/any of his friends suffered psychological/heart related serious issues. However, these problems are more prevalent among the young generation now. We may argue that earlier there were no sophisticated instruments or people did not even know that there is a problem therefore visit a physician. Agreed, so here is my own’s example! This is what happens when I visit shopping malls –

    When I go to big shopping malls, I realize that I don’t have enough money (to buy all the luxuries of the mall/world). However, when I look at myself (in terms of monthly salary I earn), I think I fall in a top 25% of earning population in India. But this complex that I do not have enough money to buy, does not go. Similar to the story of the donkey above. Believe it or not, this must be the feeling of many Indian people. I checked the following statistics of The Times of India last Friday. Which apparently proves at least on thing – I fall in top 40% at least [Rural India has 60% or more population of India.] Yet that psychological issue of buying more/consuming more/wishing for more and “limited resources” create a kind of misery.

    Urban Rural Poverty

    [Tweet “The world becomes miserable not because there are lack of things but because many things make people feel miserable.”]

    Image source – The Times of India Mumbai Edition Friday 20th March 2015.