living sensibly
Right now, the economic engine in the world has picked up so much momentum that never before in the world this many people were exposed to affluence and money and wealth as they are today. Of course, large masses of people still live without even the basic requirements; but the number of people who are affluent is still the maximum compared to any other time in history.
If you take India as an example: one of the things that caused a big buzz in the Economic Summit is the fact that in 1825 India had the highest GDP in the world. This meant that India was the richest country in 1825 and that is why everybody—since the time of Columbus-wanted to come here. Now they are saying that this is a 200-year cycle and, in 2025, India will once again be the biggest economy in the world.
In 1825, when India was very rich, the Maharaja wore a diamond studded crown, gold braided coat, and golden shoes with the biggest diamond in the world on his left foot. Even his toilet was gold. They actually ate gold, if you did not know this. Mysore Maharajas ate a certain amount of gold with their food, and people went to process his excreta every day. They fought to pick up his excreta because there would be an ounce of gold in it each day. This is not a joke; this is the reality. He actually consumed gold and it naturally came out of him; so, people fought to pick up his excreta.
India was the biggest economy in the world; but it was just focused on a few people; the larger masses of people always lived the same desperate lives. This time around it is not going to be like that. If economic well-being comes, it has to spread. No one person can sit on it, although there are many people who want to overdo whatever life offers them.
The affluent communities in the world are beginning to live lives of excess in so many ways, and at all levels. United States is a huge example of everybody living lives of excess. The lives of affluent Indians are similar. Last year somebody spent $200 million on a wedding. At another wedding, Rs 150 crore was spent in two days. These are the new maharajas, but that has to change because as Mahatma Gandhi said, “There is enough in this world for everybody's need, but there is not enough even for one man's greed.”
There is no end to what a man would want to do to enhance his own grandeur. Somewhere, every human being should be able to put some limit. He need not live a life of deprivation, but there has to be some self-limit. When limits are not drawn, it becomes a life of excess. A life of excess is not a good life, it is a perverted life. When people do anything in excess, it leads to perversion and it is without joy. People become totally frustrated and mentally broken. This is happening to the affluent classes in the world everywhere. Money should have brought well-being, but for most people, it brings terrible situations within themselves.
Once, Shankaran Pillai's son went to Africa as an IT professional. You know Indians; they can go anywhere only as IT professionals. There he made some local friends and one weekend his friend said that he would go to visit his tribe and the witch doctor, and would Pillai like to go along. Shankaran Pillai's son had nothing much to do and decided to go. On the way his friend narrated all the miraculous things that the witch doctor could do. Pillai's son was seasoned; he was from India and had seen enough mumbo jumbo. But, he said, “Okay, let me see.”
They went there and the witch doctor did many things. As only an African witch doctor can mumble, he mumbled and mumbled. However, he did a few things which impressed him. His friend then said: if you want anything just ask and he can make it for you. Shankaran Pillai's son thought about his father and how he always regretted growing old, wanting to remain youthful. So, he asked the witch doctor, “Can you bring back my parents’ youth?” The witch doctor pulled out a dark, evil-looking container in which there were dark, very evil-looking pills. He said, “You give one of these pills to your parents, and it will take years off their life.” The son promptly took them and couriered it to India.
After three months, after his project was over in Mombasa, he came back to India. He walked into his home and found a young man taking care of an infant. He looked around and said, “Where are my parents? Where is my father?” The young man replied, “Hey, don’t you recognise me? I am your dad.”
"Oh Dad, what happened?"
"You know those wonderful pills that you sent? I just took it and it took years off me."
"That's wonderful, Dad. Are you happy? Where is Mom?"
The young man then pointed at the infant and said, "That’s her; she took three."
Living in excess has a tradition of its own and from small to big, everybody tries to live excessively, without considering the realities in which they live or the limitations of the planet itself. Whether we make a safety pin or a big machine, you dig it out of the planet. So, there is a certain limit to what you should do and what you should not do. We do not have to live on goat's milk, but somewhere some cap should be there; otherwise, it will just lead to perversion.
