Listen to yourself

I have been following the Rajat Gupta trial rather closely, over the past few days. What shocked me was not the fact that a widely respected business head was convicted of insider trading, but the fact that a person who had everything going for him, and had everything he could ask for, chose to chuck it all up, in return for dubious  business benefits .

I mean, this gentleman had everything he could ask for. An IIT – Harvard education, the NRI dream, managing partnership of McKinsey (the first non- American born to be so), a financially secure life that many people in the US and India would die for.  He was on the UN advisory panel, and connected to the powers- that-be. Then, why this greed?

Two key words in the newspaper report gave it away. Envy. Greed. He was envious of younger people earning more than him , during his stint on the Goldman Sachs board, and in the words of Raj Rajaratnam, his associate in crime ( who was similarly convicted  last year), he “ wanted to make a hundred million dollars over the next five or ten years, without doing much work.”

Which brought to my mind the seven deadly sins mentioned in Christian literature:

-          Envy- jealousy and a desire to deprive other men of theirs

-          Greed- excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of wealth, status, and power

-          Gluttony- over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste

-          Sloth- laziness and indifference

-          Wrath- inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger

-          Lust- excessive uncontrolled sexual desire

-          Pride- the most deadly sin; the desire to be more important or attractive than others, failure to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self.

 Are we really in control of our lives? Or are we always searching for the next bigger pay packet, the bigger car, the larger house, the cosy job where we won’t have to do much but sit and earn? Are we prepared to stick our neck out to do what is not fashionable, to hit the lonely road which not many are prepared to travel? We aren’t. Do we have a vision for our lives, instead of merely rushing from   office to  house, from there maybe to the restaurant or the club/ pub, and finally slink off  at night, apparently happy at having lived our day well? We don’t . Do we have time for ourselves and those around us? We don’t. Do we have time for those we love and doing what we love? We don’t. We go around feeding our larger-than – life egos and the delusions that promise us the designer-made spouse, the latest trendy car ( much like the Ferrari ki  Sawari  movie), the  elusive green card which will provide us the ticket to the US.

We are living in the age of, to quote a famous advertising jingle from my childhood, “ neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride.”

And finally, in an age where even trusted and respected members of society such as doctors, lawyers and priests are committing unspeakable crimes, what has happened to our sense of morality? Has greed really become so pervasive? Is the “ greed is good” mantra really doing us well? Apparently not. The “ Jo jeeta wohi sikandar” philosophy is not working, if one sees the likes of Rajat Gupta, Rajaratnam, Harshad Mehta, Kalmadi  et al.And at the end of the day, we still have to face ourselves in the mirror and answer ourselves. Whom will we lie to, then?

The solution? There can be no fixed or prescriptive answers for these issues, and in any case that would be seen as moralistic preaching, but I found the following thoughts on a social networking site, sent by an acquaintance, which may be useful:

How to improve life

Personality:
1. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
2. Don't have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment . Hate the sin, not the sinner.
3. Don't over do; keep your limits
4. Don't take yourself too seriously; no one else does
5. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
6. Dream more while you are awake.
7. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
8. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner of his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
9. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
10. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
11. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
12. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
13. Smile and laugh more.
14. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.


Family & Community:
15. Call your family often
16. Each day give something good to others
17. Forgive people
18. Spend time with the young and elderly
19. Try to make at least three people smile each day
20. What other people think of you is none of your business
21. Your job will not take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Cherish them, take care of them.

Life:
22. Put GOD first in anything and everything that you think, say and do.
23. GOD heals everything
24. Do the right things.
25. Whatever good or bad a situation is, it will change.
26. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up
27. The best is yet to come
28. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful
29. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it
30. If you know GOD you will always be happy. So, be happy.

Easy to say? Yes. Difficult to practice? Probably. But if we do not start today, we might end up being the Rajat Gupta of the future.

To quote Atticus Finch, the  protagonist of one of the mostly widely loved books of this and the last century, “ To kill a mockingbird” , “People are certainly entitled to think what they want to , and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

Probably it’s time to search our own conscience, deep within ourselves, and come up with the right answers.