Inward management is essential

Commerce is something that we believe will decide the quality of human life in many ways. It is a 50 percent truth because when a human being is in poverty, you cannot tell him anything other than food. When you are hungry, your whole consciousness will be food. If you go and ask a beggar how much is 2+2, he may say four chapattis. The whole thing will be about food when there is no food.

It will not be possible to talk to a human being about anything higher in his life when his fundamental needs are not taken care of. But we need to understand that this journey from poverty to affluence is a hard journey. Whether it is for an individual person or for a society or nation or large populations in the world, it is a hard journey. It does not happen easily; it comes with an enormous price attached to it. But most of the time when people get there, they cannot enjoy their affluence.

Most societies suffer their affluence. For example, in the United States, which is among the richest country in the planet, average citizens have so much comfort and convenience that even royalty could not have afforded a hundred years ago. In spite of that, a significant percentage of the population in United States is on some kind of anti-depressants. If you just take away a particular medicine from the market, half the nation will go crazy. That is not wellbeing. It does not matter where you live, how you live, what you eat, what you wear, what you drive, if you are not happy, you cannot call it wellbeing.

If you do not know how to manage yourself, your happiness will be accidental. Outside situations are not always going to be in your control because the outside situation involves a million different ingredients. Most of them do not even know what they are actually. Only some you understand and those you try to control. Rest you do not even understand, so there is no question of controlling. You are just hoping it will all fall into place.

But when it comes to inner situation, there is only you, just you. This inner situation at least must happen your way. If this one does not happen your way, you are a lost case. So, if you want to be happy, you have to manage yourself properly. Management means creating situations the way you want it. Just as you manage your family, finance, industry, business, it is important to manage your mind, your emotion, your energy, your body. And your ability to manage the outside situations will come to you only when the inside is well managed. Unfortunately, we as an individual, as a society, as a nation, as a world, we have not invested anything towards inner wellbeing. It is time we invest in our inner wellbeing.