Are you living a
simple life? Is your life need driven or greed driven? Do you live within your
means and genuine earning? Do you have several credit cards so that you can pay
the dues of one credit card by utilising the limit of another credit card? Is your
EMI (Equated Monthly Instalment) obligation more than 40 percent of your
monthly take home pay/salary/income? Do you get tempted to buy a costly luxury
item only because your friend, colleague or neighbour has bought it? Do you
enjoy manipulating things and flouting the rule of law? These are some of the
basic questions everybody should ask oneself. Why? It is simply to make sure
whether you are moving on the right path in your life.
It is said that
being and remaining simple is really beautiful and very beneficial. Actually,
living a simple life gives you peace, prosperity and happiness. The
well-known Chinese philosopher Confucius says that life is really simple, but
we tend to make it complex. Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer who is
regarded as one of the greatest authors in world literature says, “There is no
greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.” Just think, who
knows you better who and what you are? Then what is the fun in
showing off what you are not and, in the process, make your own life
unnecessarily complex and miserable. Those who believe that living an
ostentatious and luxurious life reflect sophistication should note that
simplicity is the ultimate sophistication as asserted by the world-famous
Italian painter, architect, sculptor, theorist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci.
If you go through the lives of Confucius, Tolstoy and Leonardo da Vinci – three
great men from three different countries and geographical regions of the world,
you will be surprised to find one strikingly common thing and that is their
simplicity.
Interestingly, we have been reading about a famous saying: “Simple Living and High Thinking” since our childhood. Across the world we find many great persons in each field of activity who lived a very simple life, yet created history by their amazing thoughts and deeds. The life of Ram Krishna Paramhansa to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay; Albert Einstein to Satendra Nath Bose; Prem Chand to Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’; Sundar Pichai to Satya Nadela (in present time) amply supports this fact. Actually, simple living is a safeguard from all types of distractions – the serious cause of many avoidable problems in life. Notwithstanding these facts, a large number of people opt for a complex life leaving the simple one, knowingly or unknowingly, and in the process waste lots of time, money and energy. Ironically, they also know it pretty well that there is a direct link between complex and uneasy living and growing stress. Anyway, it is never too late to mend.
Yes, many great people used to reiterate that all people are but
the product of their thoughts; what they think, they become. It being so, it is
always better to think positive, act straight and simple to have better
performance, less anxiety and greater happiness. So, spare some time to review
your day’s engagements to effect suitable changes for significant value
addition in your life.
In this age of
liberalisation when almost everything is market driven; when information gets
precedence over ideas most of the time; when machine is more important than
man, it is all the more necessary to keep your life less complicated in all
possible ways to ensure better inclusive growth for the society of which you
are also an important component. Steve Jobs rightly says, “That has been one of
my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have
to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it is worth it
in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
It is equally worth thinking why people of India treat and respect people like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Jay Prakash Narayan, Baba Amte and such other persons as the most popular and inspirational leaders despite the fact that they were not the President, Prime Minister, Vice-President, Governor, Chief Minister or Minister? It is primarily because these great men were extraordinary in their ideas and deeds; were very simple, fair and transparent in their day-to-day life; always worked for the good of the common man and disadvantaged section of the society.
As always, I'm keen to know what you think on this subject. Hence, I request you to post your comments to share your valuable opinion. (hellomilansinha@gmail.com)
# Published in my Sunday Column of "Morning India" daily. # Click here to enjoy my Blog in Hindi, "Chalte, Chalte" (चलते, चलते)
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