The Life of Excess

B L Razdan
The Puranic edict: “Ati sarvatra varjayet (Excess of anything is bad.) found resonance in what Mark Twain said much later: “Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.” Sadhguru was only reiterating our old Upanishadic message in saying, “A life of excess is not a good life. Excess of anything leads to perversion and depression.” When someone asked Gautama, the Buddha, ” what is poison? ” the latter answered “everything which in your life you have in excess than you actually require is poison …it may be strength, wealth, hunger, greed, pride, laziness, desires, expectations, love, hate.”
Our own Lalla Ded had echoed the same message in one of her oft quoted quatrain: Khae’n khae’n karan kun no vaa’takh, Na khae’ne ga’tshakh ahan’kae’rey; So’muy khae maali so’muy aa’sakh, So’muy khae’ne mutch’rnai bar’nyan tae’rey (By gluttony you won’t achieve any of your goals even as refraining from food will render you egoistic; if you observe restraint in eating, the self-restraint will open the gates of heaven for you.)
As said by Hippocrates, “everything in excess is opposed to nature” and there is a lot of truth in his saying. Nothing in excess is good. For example, if one has money in excess then he becomes a spendthrift and never understands the struggle of the poor. Even excess of food, alcohol or anything for that matter, leads to unpleasant repercussions. Anything in excess disrupts the simple supply and demand ratio. Demand is defined as how much the consumers crave for the product. Many people who crave for partying and flings, tend to indulge in them in excess and regret their acts sooner or later.
The word ‘excess’ is a threat to our environment as well. Excess of automobiles, the smoke and traffic caused by them have triggered an increase in pollution and chaos, especially in big cities. Excess of effluents from industries are dumped into water bodies like lakes and oceans, causing threats to aquatic life. These excesses have led to global warming which may spell doom for the existence itself.
Consumerism, which promotes the human desire to own and obtain products and goods in excess of one’s basic needs, is the main culprit. It does not stop at the fulfillment of the basic human needs like sufficient food, clothing and shelter but whets our appetite to have more and more of things that we may not even need. In the consumerist culture people are persuaded to have more, more and more, still more and only more, and more and more again. Brands are planted almost permanently in the impressionable minds of even our children so that they become a source of earning for all the times to come. We are experiencing a new fad: “Shopping for Pleasure” which is just the opposite of the need-based shopping. Merely because some people have enough money to throw, they go on an acquisitive spree even when they know that they don’t need these. Singapore’s many sales could benefit the economy by increasing production and in turn increasing employment, but excessive consumerism also puts a strain on the planet’s natural resources. Walking around Singapore, it is hard to miss large signs that enticingly announce: “Sale of up to 70 per cent” or “Clearance sale. Everything must go!” Online, these advertisements don’t let up, with local and foreign sites promising discounts on first purchases, and the best look of the season on a bargain. Product launches or giveaways are also a marketer’s dream here, as people form queues overnight for everything from mobile phones to plush toys to doughnuts. These events happen so often that they appear to have become part of Singapore’s culture. In fact, they are all part of a bigger phenomenon called consumerism.
There is always a difference between excess and abundance. Abundance is having more of what you want or having anything more than your need that you can share with your loved ones. Excess is something that is consumed or taken more than the required level. A human life is defined in such a way that anything in excess will spoil the existing goodness.
There are six aspects that a human has to maintain in the right level to enjoy a beautiful life. They can be broadly classified as physical, mental and spiritual aspects.
Most of the illness nowadays is due to excessive food intake. Even if you call a food highly nutritious, excessive eating of it can only cause adverse effects. So, one should take effort on not only having good and healthy food, but also on having the right quantity. The second one is doing more than what is required. For example, exercise is an activity done to raise our energy. In the name of exercising, one should not exhaust one’s energy. If the exercise itself is going to make us tired, it means we are exceeding the limit. Any effort that is spoiling our health cannot be called as the real effort. However much we may think positive, excessive thinking is bad. Excessive talking also has negative effects. Unnecessary thinking and unwanted talking are the root cause of various problems in human relationships. Always remember that excessive thinking over something or unnecessary talks about something are never going to help us in any way. In fact it is only going to spoil the existing happiness in a relationship.
Nowadays many people are so much committed into spirituality but they fail to understand that spirituality is to regain our lost ability and to recreate our own reality faster, happier and easier than ever before. It is not to renounce life but to rejoice life. One has to maintain the above mentioned four aspects of body and mind in order to enter into spiritual practice. Right amount of food, right exercise to keep one fit, avoiding excessive thinking and excessive talking can help us enter into the domain of spirituality easily. Sadly many are not aware that they are committed to wrong spiritual practices like excessive chanting of mantras or involving in excessively in puja and prayers always, which again spoils the existing goodness in life. So one must commit to the right spiritual practice. Let’s all realize that spirituality is not about talking or listening about God. It’s about taking the effort to be with God and experiencing the presence of God in us. It is about finding oneness with the divine. This truth has to be realized and any commitment to a practice in the name of spirituality is of no use unless we understand this.
Our personal tribulations apart, consumerism is no friend of environment either. According to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), emissions from textile manufacturing alone are projected to skyrocket by 60% by 2030. As per the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the fashion industry produces 10% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions every year, while it is estimated to use around 1.5 trillion litres of water annually.
As awareness on the impact that consumerism has on the environment grows, many companies have embarked on ways to decrease their carbon footprint and use of natural resources. Many of these moves have been prompted by conscious consumers who look for goods that do not cause harm to the environment during their making.
Environmental activists have also been trying to stave off growing consumerism. For instance, to combat excessive buying, “anti-consumer” movements have sprung up, observing what supporters call “No Shop Day” or “Buy Nothing Day”.
Excess of everything is poison because we are pursuing the material object through our material senses which all have limits. For example if I keep eating a sweet ball (rasgulla) I will enjoy the first one. While eating next it will be not so much enjoyment. By the time I eat the fifth one I will feel it horrible. A few more and I would perhaps want to puke. This law of diminishing returns is applicable in every field of human activity. Thus happiness through sense objects has its limit and after sometime it feels like poison. Enjoying life is not a problem as such, but our attachment certainly is. What we are looking at are the problems caused by the attachment we get for having that something sweet. Before we even know it that we are craving for that something every day; or needing bigger hits of it to really feel satisfied. This might not always be in relation to sweets, but to the latest pair of trainers, our next holiday, or our next promotion. Gandhi was once asked about his philosophy of life, to which he replied “Renounce and enjoy!” No one is suggesting that we go into austerity and stop buying those caramel frappucinos that we love, but trying to just enjoy what we are able to have without always striving for more, does have a peaceful ring to it. Let not the life of excess degrade into excesses over our own lives, our homes, our neighborhood, our surroundings or even our environment.
(The author is formerly of the Indian Revenue Service, retired as Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), Chandigarh)

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