Aparigraha the Humane Solution

Author(s): Kamla Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

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CONSUMERISM-ANTI-HUMAN GOAL
Thus, it is suggested that religion and religious gurus can do a lot in curbing consumerism. Though religion is generally understood as merely ritualist, it has a more important characterstic aspect - ethics. In fact ethics is central to life and social life. Environmental protection, simplicity in life, containing consumerism, concern for human existence and survival- all these issues are essentially ethical concerns. The lasting solutions for all these problems lie in ethics and its universal principles, where social responsibility and commitment are much more important than personal success, and where we have to realise that a healthy economy cannot be bought with unhealthy human beings. This would require a fundamental change in man's contemporary character, his attitudes and his ways of living. This awareness implies a revival of his conscience or a realisation of the fact that prolonged anesthesia of his conscience would be harmful or rather fatal to his existence.
A permanent solution therefore lies in what can be called a change of heart and mind. We all know that there is a dire need to change ourselves. But the question remains: How is one to do this? Many plausible answers can be given to this 'how.' But the most redeeming fact is that change has already taken place and with much faster speed in these last two centuries, and we are noticing the negative aspects of changes with great concern. If science has led to the changes that were unimaginable earlier, maybe a 'thinking man' brings about changes in which may lie the solution to save earth and mankind. If science can produce and invent weapons of disaster perhaps science can also invent such human regulators or governors for the human mind which are ethics oriented. Human optimism should not be blurred by the reflections of pessimism that we can only make a downward journey and that an upward journey is impossible. If robots can think and help the human race for intellectual activities, similar devices may be in our store for moral activities for making man more socially acceptable and to make the earth more livable. Dedicated scientists may be able to explore this field of research and may be able to identify some area in human body where a governor or a pace-maker like thing can be implanted. This is purely in the realm of imagination, but at least it is in a positive direction.
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