Mithilesh Kumar Sinha
The present economic development module that has been manifested by so called modern developed countries clearly gives a message of catastrophe rather than promoting the sustainable development of the world. The overall sufferings and miseries of mankind proves that existing economic policies are not for the betterment of society but for the destruction of our planet. Isn’t a big question on our survival? Is human being doom to suffer just for the cause of power, money and politics of few? Are we sacrificing our life by purchasing the unwanted products made at the cost of nature? Many burning questions that are unresolved and still we are punished by globalized open market and exploitive consumerism.
Modern economic development has opened opportunities of rapid growth for human being in the universe. But it appears that it has given rise to complex problems of unbridled and uncontrolled exploitation of nature and mankind, with the result that we find extreme inequality, poverty, hunger and destruction around us. Due to modern economic development, the world is passing through a great turbulence. Today what we see happening in different parts of the world is most unexpected. Man has lost his mental peace due to extreme consumerism. Since economics is not concerned with ethics, it aims at fulfilment of desire, but does not care for the innate moral instinct of human beings.
We forget that there are problems of physical, social, ethical and spiritual that cannot be solved by money. If no check is put on the accumulation of money by individuals, the social problem of inequality is bound to become acute dissatisfaction in the society making rich more richer, poor more poorer. Natural resources being limited, we have to put a check on utilization of them for sustainable development.
So time has come to give a u-turn to the prevalent economic thinking so that mankind may find lasting peace, solace, safety and security. What is desirable is striking a balance between the two which means acquiring wealth without being dishonest and cruel in economic behaviour. Morality, spirituality and humanity cannot be separated. Economics of nonviolence can only be practiced if economics of morality exists. This gives the birth of the idea of Relative Economics which can be considered a branch of economics which studies money with the relation of compassion and charity.
The father of theory of relative, Albert Einstein, gave the famous formula in the field of physical sciences in form of E = MC2 to show that energy and matter are interchangeable. This formula can be explained in the field of stress-management in the form of E = MC2 i.e. Equanimity = Money x Compassion x Charity.
90 per cent of stress arises from a blind race for acquiring money. There is a cut-throat competition in this race leading to cruelty, violence and exploitation throwing away all moral values. This has to be combated with compassion, the mother of all human virtues. The second cause of trouble is the tendency to hoard and possess and not to give and distribute. This has to be combated through the virtue of charity which means joy of giving which is the anti-dot of the choking situation of a miserly person. Charity pre-supposes an attitude of detachment towards money.
Money is the basic need of life lent cruelty and together with miserliness is not only anti-life but lent anti-social also. Money when related to compassion and charity forms the foundation-stone of that holistic approach to life which provides remedy for not only physical but psychological diseases also, or to be more accurate, to all psychomatic diseases, because all diseases are psychomatic
