Due to certain experiences I developed an aversion to working at a job when I was in my 30s. I had made some money on the stock market and wanted to live the rest of my life with learned leisure. I decided not to marry at that time since I did not have good career prospects.
Before you criticize me and say I was not paying my debt to society read the rest of this blog.
I faced criticism from certain powerful people. I was spending time – post my premature retirement – in reading and meditation practices. I was not making a nuisance of myself and not disturbing anyone. But this was not good enough for the high society people I have alluded to. In one interaction with them they said that the country cannot afford a person or persons who was not working actively for the development of the country or for the welfare of the poor and downtrodden.
They asked me, “What will happen if everybody started to do the same thing as I was doing?”
This blog is my response to their question.
I am writing this in order to justify some other youngster who wants to quit business or a profession and take up a life of learned leisure. I am no longer at any risk of harassment.
Th first point is that as far as the country not being able to afford my behavior, I will say that I was not asking the country to pay for anything. I was paying my taxes and had paid good money for the food I ate and the other products and services I consumed. I was not the beneficiary of public funds raised by taxation and was a private individual. All this being the case the country had no right to curtail my freedom and deny me the rights guaranteed to me by the Constitution.
The next point is that I may not have been doing much good by just sitting and reading books but at least I was not harming anyone either. This cannot be said of my high society victimizers.
Next my adversaries were doing more harm than good (at least as far as I could make out). This was because they had not read philosophy or a degree in social work. We do not expect someone to practice surgery, however much he wanted to serve society, unless he had undergone the required training. You need to master the technical aspects of whatever job you have or else you will do much more harm than good. This applies to social work and serving the country as well.
Another reason is that the constitution and the laws of the country were on my side and I was a free citizen of India. If anyone had an issue with the way I was behaving they could and should have changed the relevant laws of the country so that I would be forced (by law) to behave in the way they wanted. But for them to impose their will through harassment was reprehensible.
Next, in my opinion, my adversaries were misinterpreting and misusing the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi whose teachings they claimed to follow.
Next I will say that we are on this earth not to serve mankind or other sentient beings except as a means to an end. The real reason why all of us are here is to serve God. According to the findings of Quantum Physics the Universe is an organic whole and that means that the position of all of us is similar to that of cells within the human body. Our job is to serve the Universe. Everything else is a means to that end.
A related point is that there are always people who think they know what your duty is better than you know it yourself. One must know how to deal with such pests. Know your rights as free citizens and insist on them.
Also my adversaries were on the wrong side of history. Modern society requires scientific progress. The economy and the military of the country depend on scientific inventions. And scientific progress depends on people who have leisure and put their free time to some constructive use. Einstein would not have discovered the theory of relativity if it hadn’t been for the fact that he had free time that he spent in pursuing his interest in science.
This point in extremely important. The USA owes its prominent position in the world due to its excellence in STEM – that is science, technology, engineering and mathematics. India needs to follow their example.
Lastly I will point to the Chinese civilization and their respect for people who aimed for enjoyment rather than power. Bertrand Russell had this to say of them in Sceptical Essays:
Traditionally they admire learning more than anything else; next to that and usually in combination with it they admire urbanity and courtesy. … They have an infinite capacity for leisurely amusements … To our way there is something unduly mild about such a way of spending one’s life; we respect a man more if he goes to office every day, even if all he does in his office is harmful.
… since I came to know China I have regarded laziness as one of the best qualities which men in the mass are capable …
But I will leave you to read Russell yourself. Link is below:
If you need any further justification for respecting the culture of China Russell adds that their civilization is based on the teachings of Confucius and has survived for more than two and a half thousand years. A system that had this extraordinary power of survival must have great merits and certainly deserves our respect and consideration.
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