Life so obscene

It is human nature to seek improvement in all aspects of life - material, social or personal. Yet, the craze to be bigger and better has become an obsession. G. GAUTAMA says it is time we re- examined our motives.

ALL of us have the urge to make things beautiful. And why not? With ugliness all around, the urge to beautify is surely natural. To decorate the hand with henna, the ears with an earring and the porch with a kolam. A little flower in a room. Surely a little something to enhance, to beautify and decorate. The urge to embellish is the mark of leisure and space in the mind; adding just that little extra which is not needed, that which is extra functional, speaks of care and affection. We must each have done it sometime or the other. Some of us more consistently than others and some of us less. Who has not felt like adding a little design to a letter or a joke to a serious conversation? Whose day has not been enriched by a smile for a purely functional context? Every society has grown its embellishing patterns and these have a certain beauty. Embellishment does not get into conflict with what exists before, merely adds something. We see the force to improve things also widely prevalent. Distinct from the urge to embellish, this urge is a search for the better - better clothing, shoes, car, job, house, etc. To improve facilities, one may add a shelf or an extra room, buy a set of plates or a new gadget. The urge is to improve matters for the present and for the future. A better job means more money.

It also means moving away from a web of relationships. An additional facility means finding what one has inadequate. One may be tempted to ask if this is a problem. After all is it not human nature to seek betterment and improvement? Does it not, however, seem strange that all humanity from the poorest to the wealthiest and most powerful, seek betterment and improvement? Probably the poorest, in resignation, give up seeking any improvement and subsist, holding together body and soul in abject poverty, sometimes even giving up their near and dear. But what about the many who are not the poorest? Is it the fate of man to be eternally discontented and improving? Or has this urge to improve slowly gathered itself into epidemic proportions? Is it merely that man's fancy for new things, makes him work for change, for improvement? Is it that the human mind has been educated to be bored, tired of everything? That improvement is a virtue, contentment a sign of failure, appears to be a sign of our times.

Obsession, according to the connotation of the word, refers to a compulsive action, urge or expression. Has the urge to improve become a compulsion? Maybe the compulsion has to do with fear. If there is nothing to improve what will I do? If I am not making more money, what else shall I do? Shall I meekly let someone else exploit me? Therefore whatever I have is not enough.

Yes, this urge to improve has also somehow become obscene. To buy a car for Rs. 30 or 60 lakhs is obscene, as obscene as buying slippers made of gold or having a jacket studded with diamonds. It is a sick mind which says: "I can't give away, I can't share. I will add to myself till I choke. I have enough but I am afraid of giving lest it be thought of as weakness, impotence. I will aggrandise myself. I don't know how else to live. I need the envious gaze of fellow seekers to nourish myself. My mission in life is to stoke jealousy." To think in terms of need is primitive. To ask what I need, how much I need, and to live by the wisdom of that answer has become somehow so unsatisfying. An ancient Chinese saying:

"The universe is sacred, You can't change it.

If you try to improve it, you will ruin it.

If you try to hold it, you will lose it."

Lao Tsu

I can't keep feeling that the opulence of Imelda Marcos and her ilk is obscene. I can't help thinking of the Kings of Kerala who wore simple clothes. Today we have institutionalised obscenity - companies manufacture and sell cars for 60 lakhs of rupees. There are people to buy them. There is an arrogant assurance in their advertisements, a confidence that this is the right and the educated way of living. I can't help saying to myself, this is the visible symptom of obsession gone berserk, this is madness. These are actions of poor men, so poor and hungry, that they are grabbing all the time, clutching and pulling, obsessively. Such hunger and such actions from people who have enough and more is a disease. What do we want to teach our children?

Live your lives ever hungry,

clutching and pulling.

Or

The best things are free,

and you need little.

Surely enjoy life, but know also

that enjoying things can go too far.

Let your life be an embellishment,

A gentle fragrance on this earth

not a costly scar.

Watch the splash and pomp

and deeply understand

you will never need it

unless you get diseased.

The author is Principal, The School, KFI, Chennai.

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