વિકાસ - ગતિ, પ્રગતિ કે અધોગતિ
We live in a society which is blindly running behind Progress (પ્રગતિ) or in a way Growth (વિકાસ). Do we need to define what is progress or growth here?
What is growth? Does it mean "Financial Growth"? More Money? More Assets?
પ્રાણીમાત્રની મૂળભૂત ચાર જરૂરિયાતો છે. ભુખ, નિંદ્રા, ભય (સુરક્ષા) અને પ્રજોત્પતિ. God has designed lives of ALL the animals in such a way that these basic needs can be fulfilled without much effort.
But, human being is slightly different from all other animals. Human beings have mind. મનુષ્યો પાસે મન છે. મન છે એટલે ઈચ્છાઓ પણ છે. આ આપણા મન અને એની બધી ઈચ્છાઓ સાથે આપણે સમાજમાં રહીએ છીએ. These wishes are so infectious. They keeps on changing (Growing) with the change in wishes of our neighbor, peer, friend and relatives.
Now let's see how the whole story of Growth Starts. Let's start with our basic needs one by one.
ભૂખ
ભૂખ તો ખીચડી અથવા રોટલી, શાક અને દાળ-ભાતથી પણ સંતૃપ્ત થવાની છે. But, we (our minds) want change. We want to eat out. "અઠવાડિયામાં એક વખત તો બહાર જમવા જવુંજ જોઈએ ને!" We want to eat in good restaurant. And then..."Yesterday my friend went to Newly opened Five Star Hotel, vow... How delicious food with amazing ambiance"...
Now, not only to eat out every week, but looking for good (different) restaurants every-time. And slowly it becomes habit. Now, if we can't go out for one week, we become restless.
It does not stop hear. Along with this habit we invite...
- શારીરિક અશુદ્ધિ (A slow poison... starting with Gas, Indigestion, Acidity and then many other diseases... Sugar, Blood Pressure...)
- માનસિક અશુદ્ધિ (રોજેરોજ પાંચ જ્ઞાનેન્દ્રિયો દ્વારા માનસિક અશુદ્ધિ આપણામાં પ્રવેશે છે. જેમાં આહાર એ ખૂબજ અગત્ય નો ભાગ ભજવે છે. Not only while eating out... At home also we eat while watching TV.)
- Need for Financial Growth (Obviously we need more money to visit many restaurants frequently and to cover it's after-effects like medicines, doctor's fees etc... Although it's minuscule in the beginning, it becomes bigger day by day.)
Before we realize we enter into vicious circle. Slowly we start clubbing this Basic need with "Need for Financial Growth". "Dinner Diplomacy", "Business Parties"...Get-to-gathers, Sometimes meetings at Home... Now we need nice crockery, good dining table... this circle keeps on "growing".
AND WE ARE HAPPY THAT WE ARE GROWING, WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS.
નિંદ્રા
આખા દિવસની મહેનત પછી ઊંઘ તો જમીન પર પાથરેલા સ્વચ્છ ગાદલામાં પણ આવવાની છે. But, we need good ambiance. We need nice beautiful double-bed.
આખા દિવસ નો માનસિક થાક ઉતારવા TV જોઈએ. Slowly it becomes habit. Then... we cannot sleep without our favorite serial. Now we need LCD TV opposite to Bed.
And then...one day we hear that our friend has put a nice 1000W home theater system in his bed-room. So we also must have it. Otherwise we would look "under-grown".
Again we invite...
- માનસિક અશુદ્ધિ, અસંતુલન (We go to bed with thoughts of TV Serials and other worries)
- શારીરિક અસ્વસ્થતા, અસંતુલન (We sleep late & wake up late at a cost of desirable habits like Morning Exercise, Meditation, et al)
- Need for Financial Growth
In-spite of all facilities, still we don't get sleep. We bring AC. Slowly it becomes habit and we can't sleep without AC.
WE ARE HAPPY THAT WE ARE GROWING, WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS.
ભય
જે મેળવ્યું છે, તે ગુમાવવાનો ભય. જે નથી મેળવ્યું પણ મેળવવું છે તે મળશે કે નહિ તેનો ભય (ચિંતા).
જેટલું વધુ મેળવ્યું હોય તેટલો ગુમાવવાનો ભય વધુ લાગે. પશુઓએ જીવન સિવાય કંઈ મેળવેલું હોતું નથી તેથી તેમણે માત્ર જીવન બચાવવાના ભયમાંથી ઉગારવાનું છે. જયારે આપણે તો ઘણું બધું મેળવ્યું છે. પૈસો, પ્રતિષ્ઠા... અને ઘણું બધું મેળવવાનું છે...
ખરેખર તો કુદરતી આપત્તિઓથી બચવા અને પ્રભુની સુપેરે સેવા કરવા આપણે એક સ્વચ્છ, હવા-ઉજાસ વાળું નાનકડું ઘર (home) જોઈએ.
But, we are "Growing". So we cannot be satisfied with 'Home". We need "House". And in this house we need nice dining table with beautiful dinner set. We need a nice ambient bed-room (with all amenities as seen above). A drawing room with nice furniture. ઘણું ધન ભેગું કર્યું છે તો તેને સાચવવા માટેની સુવિધાઓ. And all these things should be as per our so-called "Social Image".
And we invite (Note the change in sequence)...
- Need for Financial Growth (
At this stage, "Need for Financial Growth" becomes much larger. So, now we put our "Future Earnings" also to fulfill this need. We buy assets in Installments.)
- માનસિક અસમતુલા (Worries, which we can't handle and frequently getting converted into anger... અને આ ક્રોધ સંપૂર્ણ વિનાશ નોતરે છે... )
- શારીરિક ઉપાધી (All psychosomatic diseases)
And then... running around for payment of "Installments" starts. We need better job. We need more business. Run.... Run... Run... We see that our neighbors, our friends are earning more, making so many foreign visits. So now we also want to earn more. We also want foreign visits. Run...Run... Run... Stress? Does not matter... Attend "Stress Management Workshop"... Run... Run... Run...
Exhausted? Frustrated? Does not matter... Attend "Motivation Workshop", where they will teach Positive Thinking, Time Management, Goal Setting, How to be successful...
Oh Great! I got re-charged! Now I know "How to Live Life, How to be successful in Life". I again set goals (with "better" Goal Setting Techniques learnt in workshop)....
- (I have Maruti Fronti) Within one year, I will have Honda City.
- (I have reasonably good flat, which can be called as "home") Within 3 years I will have a Farm-House.
- I will "take out time for me & my family (!!)" and go for Holidays "out of country" at-least once in a year.
WE ARE HAPPY. WE ARE GROWING. WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS.
How nicely we have fulfilled our basic needs - ભૂખ, નિંદ્રા અને ભય.
