From the Editor’s Desk

We move into the month of April carrying the same theme as for March, Material Wealth. Once again, we think of the money on our hands and its force and again, scrutinize the manner in which we put that entity into use.

 If wealth is a force, at whose perusal do we place this force? Are we mindful of what motivates our attraction to this force? Are we mindful of the motivations that make us use that force in one way and not in another? Do we contemplate on how collectively countries of this world perceive the money-force, what value each country places behind this force and how each country executes its yielding and spending power? Are we ourselves, as individuals “commercial” in our approach to things in life, with our family, with education, with the work we do?

According to an Online dictionary, ‘Commercialism’ is referred to as ‘practices, methods, aims, and spirit of commerce or business’ or it could be “An attitude that emphasizes tangible profit or success.” Business refers to “an economic system in which goods and services are exchanged for one another or money, on the basis of their perceived worth.”

What is the degree to which we subscribe to commercialism? Sri Aurobindo enlightens us with his description of commercialism in The Human Cycle: “The accumulation of wealth and more wealth, the adding of possessions to possessions, opulence, show, pleasure, a cumbrous inartistic luxury, a plethora of conveniences, life devoid of beauty and nobility, religion vulgarised or coldly formalised, politics and government turned into a trade and profession, enjoyment itself made a business, this is commercialism.”

Such a life, gross in its outlook and execution qualifies as a barbarous life, according to Sri Aurobindo, for it lacks that subtlety of influence from a higher sphere within us, from the higher mind, higher vital and physical, let alone the psychic or spiritual, though these cast their influencing rays from behind. It is essentially a life ruled by a grosser vital in pursuit of its own satisfaction, intensely propped up by the ego-force. “The essential barbarism of all this is its pursuit of vital success, satisfaction, productiveness, accumulation, possession, enjoyment, comfort, convenience for their own sake.”

In matters of wealth, as in the other forces, namely, power and sex, the vital has a deciding role as to what use these are put to. Life is expected to arrive at another dimension more and more enlightened by the evolving consciousness. Sri Aurobindo provides us with a simple and effective rule to measure the life we live endowed with wealth.

This is the check: “A full and well-appointed life is desirable for man living in society, but on condition that it is also a true and beautiful life.” We include in this edition Mr Devan Nair’s thought provoking piece of writing on Economic Barbarism: “It’s culmination and it’s close” leading us into avenues, fissures and furrows normally hidden to our ordinary outlook on life that scans the surface as it runs on the treadmill without stopping to think, notice, observe and contemplate on our attitudes and actions related to the money-force.