One of my earliest memories when I was young was being taught the virtue of hard work.
My family and society emphasized working for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden. I am thinking in particular of my grandparents who lived through the Indian struggle for independence led by Mahatma Gandhi. My grandparents were very idealistic and wanted their entire family to be of service to the country.
There is also in Indian society and also I suppose in all societies worldover the concept that one should not be a parasite and should make a contribution (mostly financial) to the family and society. I remember the time a few years ago before I started this blog. I was looked down upon by people in general as being an unwanted dependent. The Bhagavad Gita also specifically mentions this. One of the reasons that Lord Krishna uses to exhort Arjuna to fight the Kurukshetra war is that being a dependent is shameful and is to be avoided.
After I started this blog people recognized that I had my own contribution to make to society. People started to treat me and my parents with more respect.
But there are other points of view. When I was young I was inspired by Bertrand Russell who wrote the book In Praise of Idleness. There is also the French philosopher Montaigne who gave up a worldly career in order to live a life of learned leisure. There is the Chinese view that aims for enjoyment of life and does not aim for power and money. And the Chinese civilization has survived for more than 2,500 years since Confucius. Lin Yu Tang also praised idleness and explained the Chinese view of it in his book The Importance of Living.
Here is what Russell says about Idleness:
The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education.
It is because I had leisure that I was able to do the reading and get the knowledge that I have. My blog articles would not have been possible had it not been for the fact that I did not need to work at a job all these years.
I agree that most of the people who have leisure will not make a very constructive use of their time. There is also the old chestnut – An idle mind is a devil’s workshop.
But most if not all progress made by civilized society was through the contributions of people who had leisure. Below is a quote by the Chinese sage Chang Ch’ao:
Only those who take leisurely what people of the world are busy about can be busy about what people of the world take leisurely.
The quote is from Lin Yu Tang’s book mentioned above. Link is below:
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