A minimalistic living is the recipe for affluence and peace.

By Murli Chari

Its human avarice, hubris and aggressive attitude that has led to squandering of the valuable resources endowed copiously to all. It is the common heritage to be shared with all and lead to egalitarian affluence putting an end to war and pestilence. That is the reason we all need to live frugal lives bringing sanity to the world. A person living on few needs is the richest person as any person materially rich will remain a mendicant throughout his life. We need to maintain the ecology and refurbish the nature so that we live in harmony with the environment. Minimalistic living does not mean we need to sacrifice on anything but stop collective madness of plundering the earth. We are already paying the price by way of climate change which can engender frequent floods, droughts, tsunamis, and earthquakes. The current lifestyle is not sustainable as meeting the demands of more and more will lead to disturbing the delicate ecological balance. Even the so-called recession is because we are producing more luxurious goods rather than those goods required by the masses. Now, lot of commodities are produced for classes. The over-ambitious plans are falling flat leading to recession. We need to make judicious use of resources available. With the growing population there would be phenomenal pressure on the planet. We owe it to the generation next to live a frugal life and stop living as if there is no tomorrow. Living a hedonistic life also puts tremendous pressure on us. It is the purveyors and advertisers together make us feel inferior if we do not buy their products. There is a lot of peer pressures which compels us to buy luxurious things by availing loans which then becomes their albatross.

It is possible to share rather have public utilities which can be made affordable, accessible, and available to all of us rather than buying everything. Many of us spend a fortune to buy luxurious cars which does not make economic sense to individuals and society as optimum use of the resources are not made. We can hire things for temporary use as we shell out meagre amounts. Owning a car involves lot of money and many hassles like parking, onerous driving, paying insurance, dealing with traffic police and the myriad other hassles. The amount derived from interest on money deployed in investment instruments rather than blocking in buying is much more economical. Added to that is the advantage of using different models rather than getting stuck to the same model. Buying cars is more of an infatuation rather than utility-based buying. The basic premise that we need to own certain things to enjoy is skewed as most of the things which give us happiness are free. Due to unethical competition more goods are produced than required leading to wastage of meagre resources. Even the richest can not buy the sun, the moon, the sky, and trillions of celestial beings. We need to understand sharing our resources can transform the whole world. This needless race to acquire more and more is leading to the abysmal nadir. We all need to take ownership of our planet rather our universe and act sensibly. Everyone is out to corner some piece of our planet leading to a virtual scramble. There is smorgasbord of blessings available to all of us without putting pressure on the already earth busting at the seam. We human beings are intelligent enough to understand the precarious situation and are also endowed with immense adaptability.

Let us put our heart and soul into bringing about a change in paradigm and prop up our planet. There is a need to assess the whole scenario and plan the architecture of the new civilization. Minimalistic is the only way forward to sustain life on earth. We have already pushed many species into oblivion. We must stop being greedy and besmirching the very source which gave us everything on a platter. It is intriguing to learn that we have conquered the outer space but have not understood the urgent need to stop the plunder. Let the whole humanity take up the cudgels nonchalantly and restore the pristine glory of our beautiful planet.