Hello all, Mahatma Gandhi was once asked to describe an ideal
life style and he responded by saying "Simple Living and High
Thinking". I completely agree with his thoughts. Hey, did you ever tried,
what Gandhiji has said? anyone?
Don’t worry. I never tried, too. But, Great men of the world have preached that simple living high
thinking should be the golden principle of life. Most of the men in the annals
of history have practiced this principle and achieved greatness. All the saints
like Mahatma Gandhi, Guru Nanak and Buddha who attained spiritual greatness and
shook the world by their intellectual thinking are example of this principle.
Simple living is the right way to live. One does not get
lasting happiness by living a flashy lifestyle. We do not need branded clothes
to wear or have wardrobes full of designer clothes. Simple fare would be far
better than straining our system with huge variety of exotic food frequently.
Partying every other night neither wins us lifelong friends nor does it
permanently remove our boredom. To commute one does not need top end vehicles -
I am not advocating public transport for those who can afford private
transportation. However, no point in having huge fuel guzzling vehicles to move
around.
We know that human wants are limitless. If psychologically
encourage, these wants will multiply ad keep multiplying. They make the man a
selfish salve from high thinking and bring him down to the narrow cycle of
worldly pursuits. They affect adversely his devotion and concentration to
higher ideals of life which mostly include service to fellow human beings.
But, if we were to reduce our needs to the bare minimum, we
would start being less demanding on the precious and limited resources of the
earth. We would start showing consideration for our fellow beings who may not
be as well-endowed us. By reducing our demand, we would check inflation and
help in making things more affordable for the poor.
High thinking is what will help us in our evolution path.
Human beings are superior because we can think far better than other beings. We
should make use of this faculty to probe further into the real purpose of our
existence and what we need to do to reach our goals. High thinking also refers
to rising above petty and mundane issues. As one’s spiritual growth increases,
one tends to think about higher things and does not get trapped and lost in the
usual worldly matters.
High thinking always needs time or leisure, knowledge,
experience, patience, will, determination, discussions, clarifications, and
guidance etc. Many factors like experience, education, knowledge, influence
our thinking. Other people try to influence their thinking on us or try to
enforce their thinking on us. We should have independent thinking. We should
never have biased thinking. Then only we would be able to arrive at correct
decisions or have our own opinion or conclusion on any matter. More we
think more we realize. Behind any invention certainly there is thinking.
Development, planning, improvement in the standard of living which have taken
place in this world are all brainchild of high thinking only. Nothing could be
done without thinking at all. Anything
done without thinking may end in failure or disaster.
So, at last want to say, be simple and be high thinker.
I would like to end my speech by saying one quote from Osho –
Just look all round; Look at the ocean, look at the sky; How
can you manage not to be simple and not to be humble?
