Mechanical entity should be enriched by spirituality

Atul Sehgal

THE goal or target of a person should be not to have material benefits just to his own self but to others also. If in our actions, we seek and strive for benefits to others and not directly to our own selves, we shall be following the divine Law of Karma in its true spirit. The whole community of such persons would then become a mini-paradise. The world would become a heaven of happiness and human fulfillment.

The modern work ethic is a set of material ideas and materialistic principles. It is dull and drab in content, based as it is on the presumption that man is a working machine. The Weberian philosophy of human being as a mechanical entity producing goods worth money has to be enriched by the spiritual principles of Karma as expounded in Bhagwadgita. Only after this enrichment will the principles become really practical and humanistic. Every principle of business and professional world should have a human face based on the premise that man is physical body plus mind plus intellect plus soul and every human being ushered into this world naturally and instinctively seeks enlightenment and spiritual salvation.

The modern work ethic recognises the existence of mind, intellect and soul but has no prescription to tame the ever-excitable and errant mind. Mind is the gateway to hell and it is mind which is the veritable doorway to heaven. Bhagwadgita, through a brilliant exposition of the nature of the human mind, provides the regimen to regulate the working of the mind. Bhagwadgita shows the way to check the banal, corrupting influences on the mind and it also shows the way to mould the mind favourably which results in human action conducive to peace, progress and prosperity. It also shows that man, as the common denominator of society, community, nation or the world has to strike inner peace and harmony for happiness and harmony to prevail at the larger level. Modern work ethic has to be alive to these realities of human existence for realisation of a world free from the scourges of poverty, crime, economic disparity and fear psychosis.
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