There was a little girl in a small town. She went to the farm one day and wanted to buy watermelon. She looked at a large watermelon and asked for its price. The farmer replied that it would cost 50 rupees. She had only five rupees and so she replied to the farmer. You can have the small one, replied back the farmer pointing to a little watermelon in the middle of the field. The little girl was very happy. She gave 5 rupees to the farmer and requested him to let the watermelon stay on the field. I will come after 30 days and take my watermelon, she said and left with a smile. The little girl was smart enough to understand the importance of patience. She knew that after 30 days she will get a large watermelon at the cost of a little one.
Russian folk lore had the story of the duck hatching the golden egg. Greed in the form of impatience of the farmer made him loose his duck and his fortune. Are we doing the same thing everyday?
Impatience is the new life
That is what the marketeers wants us to believe. The popular commercial of the famous mobile network company ran a national campaign showcasing impatience as a virtue of the youth. From instant noodles to instant coffee to instant search engines to instant photos the market is flooded and the consumers fascinated with every thing instant. If we want it we want it now.
A world of Instant Gratifications
The social network sites bestows us with the power of enjoying instant likes. Every social happening, every travel, every moment in life is being captured on our smart phones and uploaded on the social sites to receive instant likes. The little kid no longer is ready to wait for that special day to receive his gift. The number of consumers waiting for the festivals to come, to buy new clothes have diminished drastically. If you want it now you have to get it now. The whole banking world is waiting out there to help you get your stuff through credit cards, personal loans and so on and so forth. Even the loans have become instant. But every instant gratification comes with a delayed pain. And we are happily oblivious.
YOLO Culture
Though the phrase was existing for over 100 years it has recently achieved currency in youth culture. It has become a popular Twitter hash-tag. The phrase and acronym are being popularly used in merchandise worn by teenagers such as hats and t-shirts. ‘You Only Live Once’ culture conveys the same impatient mentality where every experience, every encounter has to be now. Without caring for the consequences. impatience is the soul of such outlook.
Consumerism that kills
We all deserve to have good food, beautiful clothes, comfortable homes and more. But there is no end to this ‘more’. We are all gradually getting in the grip of acute consumerism. We want much more than we need. We accumulate much more than we can ever use. This constant consumerism is slow poison that is killing. With this attitude of more adds the eagerness of now. Every billboard, every TV commercial, every newspaper, every place where your eyes go, is shouting out at you. To get more and get them now. The cycle of production and consumption should rotate faster than ever. And this will churn out the most desiring profit. The consumers should consume faster so that the producer should produce faster and the profit will flow. Greed is running this wheel. And we are getting crushed under it.
A Farmer’s Life
Imagine a farmer sowing his seeds and every day digging them up to see how much the saplings have grown. He would be called a fool and will never see his crops grow. A farmer sows his seed and then leaves it to grow. He has faith that one day he will reap a field full of crops. But he regularly waters the saplings even when they are not visible. He painstakingly clears the weeds and patiently waits for the beautiful plants to flourish.
Every old wisdom had taught us the virtue of patience. In this cut throat world of competition and consumerism we have a greater need of alienating ourselves. To reclaim our inner peace and happiness we need to develop the virtue of patience within us. This is the only antidote we have in hand to save ourselves from the acute greed syndrome that all of us are suffering from.
soulsutraa 