Minimalism-இருந்தும் ,இல்லாமல் இரு!

 Minimalism is an old concept but is gaining ground these days when Covid 19 pandemic is trying to devour the entire world.

Minimalism is all about living with less. This is not a fad but a way of life of renunciation and deep withdrawal from worldly pleasures, which has a profound effect on the psychology of humans.

In India, many of our Saints and philosophers have talked about leading life of penance ,sacrifice and total detachment. Even wealthy persons of yester years led a life like that of a Trustees of their wealth. Gandhiji also said this in his seven sins of life:

"Wealth without work; Pleasure without Conscience;Science without humanity;Knowledge without character; Politics without principle; Commerce without Morality; Worship without sacrifice"

It is said that Gandhiji also laid lot of stress on wealthy businessmen and persons to remember that they are Trustees not owners of their wealth which provide them an opportunity to serve the people at large and for social welfare.

Minimalist philosophy emphasizes on getting rid of excess stuff and living life with less and less of worldly possessions.

This is similar to the concept of leading a life like that of water on Lotus leaf. It is a status of living attached but detached explained in Bhagavad Gita. Nishkamya karma yoga in Gita is a path on the same lines without any attachment to the results. If you stretch it , this will show that the emphasis is on being not selfish but living for the sake of greater good of the society.

In Tamilnadu, siddhars gave a concept of "இருந்தும் இல்லாமல் இரு" which is nothing but minimalism of modern era. Siddhars extended this concept even to knowing the meaning of our existence. According to them God Dhakshinamurthy symbolises total silence and  inward withdrawal of soul to know thyself. Arunagirinathar was delighted at being advised by the Lord "to remain in silence".Even getting rid of words or speech is the best way to realise the truth about oneself.

This is Minimalism at its maximum!

The Interactive Triangle -how do we lead a life!

Humans are students of life with the ability to help others in every possible way, however small may it be, day in and day out and go up in the ladder of evolvement of their individual souls. In this process they realise that they are preprogrammed machines with same set of Operating Systems  of mind and senses ,but with a discerning intellect guided by the Paramatman from deep inside.

Some may agree that the "inner voice" of conscience, as Gandhiji would put it,  is God speaking to you or through you and many may disagree with this. Let us not digress into that.Let us keep it aside as this is a black box about which discussion can go on endlessly.

But the elephant in the room is that we have limited cognition of both our external  universe i.e physical outer world as well as, of the inner mind space world. We are only tuned into certain frequencies or preset softwares, for the purpose of our existence in this earth.

We are daily shaped by our observations cum experiences , which form our memories of short run and long run based on our Cognitions or Perceptions. All these interact and reinforce each other continuously defining our path of life.
The Interactive Triangle can be presented this way: (Ego is Gross and Consciousness is subtle- but both exist)

The Interactive Triangle