The Ultimate Sophistication!

For the past several years, many people are interestingly being attentive to stories of people returning to the simple life, of people moving back to the countryside or growing their own food or building their own home and so on. This phenomenon appears to be of deep social significance. It is the way of life whose time seems to be arriving; or more precisely, returning. However our present era of relative abundance contrasts sharply with the material poverty of the past.

Just give it a thought - We take birth, have education, do a job which we hate or do a business where we blame colleagues for failures; find a life partner cause everybody is getting married, have a family, have a disease or two, and finally die! Rarely, some fine day, we realize: We were running a rat-race simply because everybody else around us was doing the same and we just did not have the time to live!

Well, I agree that we all need money or few materialistic things to get the fair share of easiness in our life. So we have to work for it. Unfortunately, this can be a double-edged sword. The more we work, the more we earn; the more we earn, the more we spend. That requires us to work more, and the vicious cycle is hard to break. Outwardly we may have the appearance of having it all and being successful, but inside we may feel a void and an unsettled, hard-to-fill emptiness. Perhaps one needs to get out of the rat race and instead get to the top where the ‘top’ is defined by self, not by society or your boss. But this journey is not that simple as it seems.

Duane Elgin, writer of the famous book Voluntary Simplicity believes this journey is Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich. The driving forces behind Voluntary Simplicity range from personal concerns to critical national problems. In my last article, we have discussed that - We all have to abandon our destructive system of exploiting our natural resources and find sustainable ways to inhabit the planet. But how?

Voluntary simplicity or simple living is subjective - it is different for each person or family. Some may envision simple living as moving to the countryside and live with the basics, while others may picture a small dwelling in the middle of a city. For some it may be enhancing relationships and finding inner peace. For others it may be a major life change. The particular expression of simplicity is a personal matter. Every one of us knows where our lives are unnecessarily complicated. We are all painfully aware of the clutter and pretense that weigh upon us and make our passage through the world more cumbersome and awkward. Hence a one-size-fits-all do not apply to Voluntary Simplicity. 

Voluntary simplicity is not about living in poverty; it is about living with balance. To live more simply is to unburden ourselves. Sometimes this approach to life involves providing for material needs as simply and directly as possible, minimizing expenditure on consumer goods & services and needless distractions; and directing progressively more time and energy towards pursuing non-materialistic sources of satisfaction and meaning. Simplicity is to establish a more direct, modest, unshowy, and suffocation-free relationship with all aspects of our lives: the things that we consume, the work that we do, our relationships with others, and our connections with nature. This generally means accepting a lower level of consumption, in exchange for more time and freedom to pursue other life goals, such as community or social engagements, more time with family, artistic or intellectual projects, more fulfilling employment, social participation, sustainable living, spiritual exploration, reading, contemplation, relaxation, pleasure-seeking, love, and so on - none of which need to rely on money, or much money. 

I have met people who do not have time for friends, kids & family, exercise or even for themselves. They will spend the whole week sloughing at the workplace and to release that stress they will fly to some dense forest to exploit it further in the name of hobby. I wonder what they are running after or what they are running from..?

By cutting out the things we don’t absolutely need and by ceasing to do the things that we don’t absolutely need to do, we can increase the amount of free time we have. We can use this free time to improve our intellectual and spiritual lives and to increase the quality of our relationships. Voluntary Simplicity means that we keep our eye on what really matters in life. It means letting go of anything that interferes with your view of a high quality of life and meeting life face-to-face as it is - straight and unadulterated.

At present the concept of Voluntary Simplicity gains an additional importance because limiting consumption becomes a point of special interest in these times of global pandemic and economic recession. The recession not only forces consumption reduction but also stimulates deeper deliberation about the necessary shifts in individuals’ values system. Thus crisis may work as an ‘alarm clock’ or ‘teacher’ that motivates consumers to simplify their lives.

The idea of simple lifestyle is nothing new to Indians. In the Yoga Sūtras, great Indian sage Patanjali listed Aparigraha as the fifth of the Yamas (the don’ts) or code of self-restraint. The majority of pre-industrial societies also used to live in a very simple way. The philosophy of minimised consumption, an antidote to greed-driven economic growth, is part of the Indian worldview.

Living simply is more about the journey than the destination. Most people do not wake up one day and make a simple life. It is a slow process, an evolution that occurs over time. I, personally, have slowly evolved through conscious decisions to simplify. There is no concrete prescription for achieving a simple life, and each of us will take our own unique path. You can start by growing your own Fenugreek at your place or composting the kitchen waste, by decreasing the use processed foods or simply by decreasing the electricity usage consciously.

Choosing a simple life requires time and energy to rediscover what is most important to you, what brings you happiness, and what you really want. It requires you to slow down and focus on your path. Once you find your bliss, then your focus shifts to achieving, and life becomes more joyful and less stressful. The simple life of voluntary simplicity is about discovering the freedom and contentment that comes with knowing how much consumption is truly ‘enough’!!!

This Environment day, let us begin our journey slowly towards the simpler and meaningful life..!

अपरिग्रहस्थैर्ये जन्मकथंतासंबोधः ॥३९॥

Meaning : With constancy of aparigraha, a spiritual illumination of the how and why of motives and birth emerges. (39)
                                                             - Sage Patanjali, Yoga Sūtra.