Mahatma Gandhi: the Great Soul, viewed independence not in terms of gaining freedom from a foreign rule but independence for every downtrodden in this country from the materialistic clutches of the s. He said "Materialism is inversely proportional to moral and ethical values". More materialistic we are, less the moral values which are imbibed within us. Less materialistic we are more the moral values. I agree 100% to this.
Materialism , Materialism, Materialism.... day by day materialism is burgeoning in the country of spiritualism. What is materialism? Attaching oneself more towards matter/substance( money, possession, riches. etc.). There is saying "Earth provides everything for a man's NEED, but not for his GREED". Materialism, leads to greed. Greed leads to all kinds of trouble. U.S.A.'s greed lead to 2 wars and huge loss of lives. Japan's greed lead to 2 atom bombs being tested in live environment. Jinnah's/Nehru's greed (I won't blame one) lead to the partition. Every devastating greed mentioned above had materialistic direction involved.U.S.A. wanted to be bring under it's control the world's oil production/marketing. Japan wanted to conquer other nations which finally fell due to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nehru/Jinnah fought the power struggle to rule the nation and thus the partition. Everything mentioned above involves greed which is due to the materialistic ideals of people.
Mahatma Gandhi viewed independence as freedom for every common man and to generate a livelihood of their own 'Swadeshi'(Product development rather than service-oriented as we say in industry terms). Only product development companies live for a long time and are sstable. What a visionary he was? For him Independence from the British rule was a step on the ladder to reach the above goal in which every Indian was independent, that is what real independence is. Was he right or wrong? I let you people to decide. But people like Nehru and others who proclaimed to followed Gandhi viewed independence from the British as the final destination and were materialistic where the "power to rule" the 300 million was the material. There is no difference, then the British ruled, now the politicians rule and the common man sucks!!! Gandhi was severely disappointed when he found Nehru and other followers of him never took over his ideals to implement. That's why he never went even to the Independence proclamation by Nehru. Then started India's downfall, many thought India was independent and it is going to be a success story. The real truth is India and Indians were happy under the British than now. The people who argue against the above predicate I would like to say something, I heard the below statement from one of the acquaintance of Gandhi during an interview on August 15Th, 2009 in a news channel and it goes like this: "We were happy then than now" the golden words from the man who was living with Gandhi. He belongs to Tamil Nadu and was with Gandhi during the twilight of his life.
Young India's materialistic attitude
I'm not saying I'm not materialistic, but less materialistic when compared to most of us but trying hard to move myself towards the Gandhi's school of thought as that is a permanent ideal, everything else is temporary. India has turning itself into the western (specifically U.S.) style of living and they started to consume conspicuously rather for the need. The recession has taught the people of U.S. a great lesson. People were consuming more than what is needed and people felt their lives were ruined during this recession. That is not the truth, recession didn't ruin their lives. They lived all their lives with comforts which were not needed for survival, when it was difficult to retain or acquire the comforts they felt their lives were ruined, actually they were experiencing a new way of life rather I would say the real life. Many people understood that they could live happily without many comforts and their comforts were just for their social status (for conspicuousness) rather for their need.
For the past decade India is also trying to navigate through the philosophy of conspicuous consumption i.e. only for showing off that they are also "socially" well-off rather than their need. At the end of the day have we ever thought for a minute after all this struggle chasing money finally we are living for others not for ourselves. I get to laugh when I think about this and Gandhi comes to my mind. I would like to quote Thoreau here:
"Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after"
The strongest man in the world till date lived with two sets of dhotis and a cup of goat's milk. We are nothing in comparison to him.Yes, when he uttered a word 400 million people listened. Do even a few 10s of people know us. But we require lakhs of rupees every year, a car, a big bungalow (not even one) just for the sake of showing others that I live. Please ponder over this. Satisfying the need is very easy. Satisfying the greed when it steps in is the root cause of all evils in this world for which the materialistic ideal is not going to help. Live "Great" within you and for showing others that you live great.
We must try to reduce our materialistic attitude and every individual grows morally. If every individual becomes less dependent on materials and not a slave to any possession means he is becoming really independent. This independence is what Gandhi believed in. We need to strive for this.
We can give a try...
I would like to end with a quote from Thoreau
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly "
