'Eliya Vazhvu, ie., 'Simple Living', in pages 363 to 366, in Volume 1 of Deivathin Kural. Unless specifically mentioned, he or man includes, she or woman.
1 Now-a-days, we hear a lot of talk about making efforts to raise the standard of living. Everybody do need, enough food, clothing and accommodation. In fact, the standard or quality of life, is not dependent on proliferation of possessions. 'Mana niraivu', or contentedness, is to be achieved in the mind and not elsewhere. Having increased one's own requirements, if you run from pillar to post, with anxiety and aspiration, you can only end up increasing your own blood pressure with eventual collapse. We are seeing this in all walks of life. Our people are avidly copying the western world, for the satisfaction of the senses. But the westerners, who have attained to the top of their life, are flocking to our country in hoards, to get to know, Yoga, Vedanta and Bakthi. They come here because they realize that the senses are insatiable. If we do not learn a lesson out of this, it is simply bad luck. 2. If someone has a bureau full of clothes; goes to hotels and eats whatever his eyes alight on; has his house air conditioned and so on; does not mean that he has achieved a 'standard' in life. If his heart is full, then he has attained a 'standard'. The contentedness can never be achieved by outer materials. As you keep accumulating things, we will aspire for more and more luxury goods. Seeing us, others will also start having this thirst. Those who cannot afford them, will be either frustrated or spurred on to heinous methods. 3. As the possessions proliferate, devine aspirations dwindle. Kindness, love, tolerance and humaneness vanish. In the so-called advanced nations, we see so much of depravity, meanness, purposelessness, drift, lack of morality, and selfishness. We are inviting all that here too, with 'Poorna Kumbam'. Modern life has come to mean; thinking unwanted things as essentials; to get those things, search for money by 'hook or crook', to the utter neglect of 'self-improvement'. Where is the time for art, culture, literature, poetry and so on, when all the time is spent on self-serving process of amassing? We have lost peaceful life forever, because we have forgotten the beauty of the word, 'enough'. 4 . Now no body has fullness. In social life too, mutual love and respect is gone, and replaced by jealousy and hate. If one man is 'showy', others will look down on him and some may envy him. But when the whole society is running after wealth and lucre; competition, comparison, dislike, jealousy, hate and other added crimes multiply. Can anybody satisfy all his wants? Mahatma Gandhi once said, 'There is enough in this world for everyone's need; but there is not enough for even one man's greed!'. When everybody is greedy, then what happens? 5. So, it is better for the rich to live a simple life, is better for them and others in the society. In olden times, it was like that. For those who were caring for the Vedas, the kings were prepared to give any amount of wealth. But they did not like to live a life of ostentation. They were enjoined by the Sastras to refrain from pomposity. They were not to develop love for materials. We can guess this from some of the words in Tamil. 'Venkala Panai' and 'Vaira Olai', for example. All the utensils in everyone's households were made of baked clay. They were called, so-and-so pot or 'panai'. So, when brass utensil came to be used, it became a brass-panai. Same way, the women wore palm-leaf-ear-ornament. Even the Goddess was described as having a 'panai-olai' or palm-leaf ornament. In Syamala Dandakam, the Goddess Lakshmi is described to be adorned with, 'tharalee thala batha thadanga busha viseshanvithe'. Later even when the ear-stud came to be made of diamonds, the 'olai' word for palm leaf, got connected to it. 6 In olden times, even the well to do, would live in houses similar to other's. People were wary of flaunting their wealth. The exceptions were those of the houses of Kings and Ministers. Some of the very rich businessmen of Vaisya caste would have some big residences. They benefitted the artists in sculpture and architecture, in doing so. But the Brahmins who lived the life of, 'friends, guides and philosophers', to the society, lived in modest accommodations only. 'Siruga katti peruga vazh', was the catch phrase, meaning, 'construct small and live big'! In all matters the Brahmin was to live a simple life. 7. If the palace of the King was a house of splendour, the biggest was always the Temple, the House of Gods. For the God, the best of everything was offered. When there was a Temple festival, it was as though the whole town was celebrating a Marriage Ceremony. For individual beings, there was never a dinner party or a 'high tea', as it is called. When people with the wherewithal, could live a simple life, others did not feel envious. But later when they gave up Veda Rakshanam and village life, and came to the towns, and fell into the money hunting process, the mutual amiability in the society was the victim. To go back to simple living now, is a herculean task! 8. Till Gandhi was alive, there was at least some talk of 'simple living'. Now the idea has gone out of currency. We have to make an effort to at least turn people's mind towards such ideals. We have to live like that to demonstrate to others. To live a simple life, to do one's duties, to be happy, by cutting down our requirements, to develop such mentality, May God Chandramouleeswara, bless us all. Sambhomahadeva. KR IRS 4 6 23 On Sat, 3 Jun 2023 at 16:14, Jambunathan Iyer <[email protected]> wrote: > Take charge of your life and don’t keep working to make others happy. When > you are happy, you will make others happy.You may be trying to strike a > better balance between your home and work lives but also take out time to > pamper and rejuvenate yourself. It is important to you to live > independently, with a stable income and with enough time and space to also > nurture your loved ones. > N Jambunathan Rengarajapuram-Kodambakkam-Chennai-Mob:9176159004 > > *" What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you > become by achieving your goals. If you want to live a happy life, tie it to > a goal, not to people or things "* > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZorwJ0zCiVOOqomapgAPbU-BNbFhJNSrpq9_-Zau6okFaw%40mail.gmail.com.
