We Don’t Need Much for A Holistic Life.

Posted: May 8, 2020

As we are locked inside our homes, we have enough time to self introspect on what we really need to lead a meaningful life. Have we been leading a life, succumbing to an imposed lifestyle which purely benefits the manufacturers of these products than the receivers? How have we been chasing behind these swanky things, assuming that our true happiness lies in owning them. On the other hand, how have we kept aside the simple, inexpensive things and activities which in fact have the potential to give us true joy of everyday life. Yet, we have been constantly racing behind expensive things which we thought, the source of real happiness. On a positive note, this lockdown period hopefully has enabled us to realise the true worth of these hitherto considered trivial needs.

First of all, just think, what have we been going out these days for? Only to buy basic necessities like food items. Or even while placing online orders. So, now we realize that, if we have a house to stay, we can survive with a supply of food. Moreover, all other things can wait, as they are occasional needs. But on normal days, we care more for our luxuries, the EMIs we have to pay for them and the financial calculations we have to make to buy them. In this process, we shorten our life and invite all ailments. We stress our body and mind, so that, we own them somehow. Sadly, we don’t even have enough time to enjoy them due to our busy schedule.

Then, the basic question we need to ask, why do we need them? This is the superficial idea of the world created by the corporate world to dump their products on us. It is their necessity to sell them for money, not our needs at all. Hope this is the right time to liberate ourselves from their shackles and concentrate on the means of true joy of human existence. This can be achieved through self growth by keeping oneself open to all forms of knowledge and wisdom, attain it and then pass it on with your insights.

As H W Longfellow’s poem, ‘A Psalm of Life’ asserts that the purpose of human life is live in the present moment, achieve something great by following the footsteps of past achievers and leave behind footprints of personal excellence for the future generations to inspire. Hope these uncertain moments of life, awakens our true inner self, sheds unnecessary baggage of deceptive needs and gives us an idea of simple, but contented life.

Look at nature now. We are getting news from every corner of the world that nature is healing itself automatically due to non-interference of humans. The animals are seen on silent roads, snowy hilltops are visible from a faraway distance, ozone layer is recovering, et al. With a few days of human non-interference, nature is slowly getting back on track. Just imagine, how much suffocation we have been inflicting on mother nature on daily basis. As Gandhiji once rightly said, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” We don’t have to destroy the whole planet in the pretext of our needs, instead control human population. This excess of population is against the law of balance of nature.

This virus has brought the whole world under distress, but hopefully for a better future together. Human history has seen a drastic transformation over the years in terms of administration. We have been able to eliminate a lot of disputes over the years. But we are still holding on to the concepts like nation-state, as well as, the idea of boundaries on the basis of religion, race, etc. This has provided the pretext for the nations to hoard expensive nuclear arms, but, at the cost of poor health systems and other basic amenities. However, when this invisible virus crossed international borders, these sophisticated nuclear weapons couldn’t save our lives. So, it is time to prioritize what are our dire needs; a healthcare system in place and most importantly, conservation of nature with minimal human interference.

Image Credits: Pixabay