Moving towards a sensible mode of life

Piyush: Is consumerism actually driven by paranoia? People buy six saris because they are afraid that when they go to a party, someone else there is wearing the same sari. People buy a new mobile phone because someone else also got a new mobile phone. When I was young, no one gave me extra supplements with my food, but today, we are feeding our children all kinds of things. 

Sadhguru: Whether it is consumerism or something else, any kind of “ism” will lead to mindlessness. Mindless consumerism is definitely not towards human wellbeing. Consumption (Archaic name for pulmonary tuberculosis) used to be a disease, you know? 

Even now, it is a kind of ailment. That is, we do not do what is needed in our lives; we do what is expected by others. The people who expect things out of you do not know a thing about their own lives. If you live to fulfil their expectations, obviously your life will go off the track.

Mindlessness means just simply doing something. Once mindlessness sets in, society will go in cycles, not really getting anywhere. There will be nothing profound in that society. Everything will become profane. Right now, we are rapidly going in that direction. India used to be a culture where every aspect of life had a deeper rooting and meaning. 

Even simple things – how to sit, how to stand, how to eat – always had a deeper connotation. Because of this, no matter what kind of rigors the outside situations offered us in the form of invasions, famines, or whatever else, the spirit of India lived on undisturbed. 

If you take away this deeper rooting in human beings and make them live out of a mall, they will get shattered easily. Until about 20 years ago, the number of people who were psychologically deranged in this country was extremely low. You could say the number was low because proper records were not kept, which is a fact, but still, for so many hundreds of millions of people, the number of those who were psychologically deranged was extremely small because of this deeper rooting, that every simple thing had a deeper meaning and a deeper possibility. If you look at the percentage of the US population who are on antidepressants, it is not a healthy society, which in many ways is a result of mindless consumerism. 

I think a more sensible way of living is possible. This does not mean you should not enjoy your life, or that you should not have things. Everyone should have what they need. But digging up the planet just for the sake of satisfying someone else’s opinion is simply mindless. I am not trying to render an ecological message. My concern is about human beings. This is like the proverbial story of a man cutting the branch that he is sitting on. If he succeeds, he will fall.