Simplicity and Modern Life
The protagonist of 3 Idiot movie ‘Rancho’ was inspired from the real character ‘Sonam Wangchuk’ from Leh, Ladakh. The winner of many international awards is a humble man who lives with the bare minimum in the mountains.
He uses cycle, public transport and lives a simple life inspiring others to follow him. His leadership approach fulfils Gandhi’s vision “live simply so that others may live simply”. He cares for the Future generation and he regards that resources should pay back to the future generation as these are debt taken from them.
His simplicity is renowned throughout the country and abroad. Let us know what National simplicity day is.
National Simplicity Day
National Simplicity Day is celebrated on 12th of July every year to re-examine how life should be lived – simply and meaningfully. It is celebrated to remind ourselves that we should live a simple life in every sphere of life.
This day is celebrated in the memory of Henry David Thoreau, a great American naturalist, poet, and philosopher. He wrote a famous book called Walden.
- It critique consumerist and materialistic attitudes and prohibits destruction of nature.
- It emphasize the importance of solitude, contemplation and closeness to nature.
- It also promotes immersion with nature to gain a more objective understanding of society through introspection.
| “As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler”. -Henry David Thoreau |
Why should we live a simple life?
It brings peace and tranquility in our soul. It shifts us away from the hectic life into a world of bliss and peace. Some of the greatest men on earth like Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and many more lived their life simply. A simple living harness a plethora of human values within the individual like humility, honesty, generosity, compassion, and forgiveness.
The need for a simple lifestyle has elevated, especially in relation to today’s hectic world. We are engulfed with too many menial work that we have less time to reflect upon ourselves. The unnecessary burden won’t let us draw an attention towards ourselves. Too much unnecessary competition have become a hurdle in our personality development. Lack of time for oneself leads to frustration, tension and mental problems which are widely common nowadays. Moreover, it drains away the most precious moments of life, the time to be spent with family.
Living simply means living with only the things we need. It doesn’t mean that living with nothing. We need to remove away the excesses from our lives. We should know that market create ‘manufactured demand’ where unnecessary and unwanted material is presented as necessities of life through various techniques. These techniques include advertisement, promotion, offering in order to appeal to the customers.
With respect to India, most of the endorsers in marketing industry are actors and cricketers. They infuse our faith in the products they want to sell. Therefore, we should become an empowered consumers. A consumer which act rationally while putting faith in heroes. We should not indulge in hyper-consumerism. Ultimately excess of consumerism have no contribution in the development of our personality. It only bring consequences like environmental impact, debt and financial stress, social and psychological effects along with materialistic fervent in the mind of the individual.
Simple living and Environment
National Simplicity Day help people embrace the Mother Nature. On this day we are expected to take time of our busy scheduled and heal ourselves by strolling in the Mother Nature’s lap. The importance of National Parks, Wildlife sanctuaries and Biosphere becomes very crucial in our modern urban life. People living in cities may visit these places whenever they want to reconnect with the Mother Nature.
| “The earth, the air, the land and the water are not an inheritance from our forefathers but on loan from our children. So we have to handover to them at least as it was handed over to us.” -Mahatma Gandhi |
If we do not live simply, our demand will increase. Increase in demand will be reflected in increasing supply. This put pressure on the limited resources of our earth. Humans are already extracting resources in an unsustainable way.
Ecological Footprint measures the human’s demand on the Earth’s ecosystem, and currently humanity’s total ecological footprint is at 1.5 times faster as the earth can renew it. It means that one earth is not enough for humans, it need one and a half earth.
The earth unable to cope with it responds in various forms like flash flood, heatwaves, drought, rising temperature, sea level etc.
We must give back to the Earth and not only take from it. We should return the resources safely to the future generation as we got it inherited from our forefathers.
What can we do?
We can take these pledges to contribute our efforts to make our daily lives simple.
- Switch to green energy
- Heating and AC optimization
- Reduce food wastage
- Use more public transport
- Cycle and Walking
- Cook more vegetable food
- Get food from locally grown market
- Segregate household wastes
- Follow 3 R’s Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Ilive Simply Movement
The Indian environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk has started a movement which is joined by thousands of individual around the globe. It works towards living a simple way and put less burden or pressure on the planet’s resources. Ilive simply movement makes pledge from students and various strata of society to take environmental friendly steps.
When we live simply we enjoy the little things around us. We embrace those little things which we don’t consider in our daily schedule. For example we can feed the animals around ourselves like, cats, dogs, pigeons etc. If we can feel the beauty by doing little acts of kindness, it brings peace and happiness within ourselves. Thereafter we don’t have to go to a theatre to find joy but watching a single flower in the pot makes us happy.
| “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things”. -Robert Brault |
Written by: Aijaz Hussain
