Do you remember the one golden saying that our parents used to repeat often was "Simple living,high Thinking".सादा जीवन उच्च विचार।
This one single thought,just four words make our life so blessed, so uncomplicated so joyful. Today we celebrate National Simplicity day which is observed every year on July 12 to honour the life, work and philosophies of Henry David Thoreau. Born on July 12, 1817, Thoreau was an advocate of living a simple life and wrote a number of books around the subject. He was an American philosopher, environmentalist, poet and essayist. He is best known for Walden or Life in the woods, published 1854.The book is an account of a simpler life lived in natural surroundings. He described ways people could tap into themselves and be happier through a less hectic lifestyle. Thoreau was also a tireless champion of the human spirit against the materialism and conformity that he saw as dominant in American culture in his times.
In Walden he writes and I quote:
"Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail . . . Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion". unquote
Even after more than 200 years the concept of this simplicity holds true as much as it did in Thoreau's time. Look around us.Do we not find ourselves surrounded,in fact weighed down by so many things which are really just the trimmings to our existence.We value the mobile phone we hold in our hands though it just a means of communicating. Our communications have become minimal but the means have become disproportionately important. Our houses have all fancy gadgets,yet we suffer from lifestyle diseases.Our minds are cluttered with thoughts and not a single one brings us peace or tranquility. As part of the complete ecosystem of the earth,we are part of nature herself. But we are getting further away from her,isolated in our airconditioned houses,concrete buildings and mechanical devices. We have forgotten to listen to the song of the birds,the rustling of the trees,the vibrant hues of the sunrise and the colours of the setting sun. Relationships are becoming complex,they are becoming taxing and like taxes they weigh us down and sap our energies.Make them simpler,say simple words and relate to each other honestly. Our daily living fills us with anxieties.Do we really need to compete with our friends for a holiday abroad? Our existence is not defined by what we wear it is defined by who we are.The consumerism all round us has instilled in us a sense of constant competitiveness,a constant nagging of being left behind and in today's terminology of having FOMO or fear of missing out.
A simple living is a way of life that focuses on simplicity, intentionality and living life with regard to simplifying your activities, eating habits, home, emotions and thinking. There is happiness in lifting our heads from the social media platforms and the movie streamings and looking around us to find joy and beauty in the sonorous singing of the bird,in the fun of doing routine chores,in the watching live videos made by nature and her creations.
Leonardo de Vinci said:"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication". Isn't this a truth we all know?We need to acknowledge and accept it and integrate it in our lives.Simplicity should manifest itself in everything we do and where ever we are.Just be true to yourself and cut out the excess everywhere.It does not really mean living the spartan way or living in poverty.With riches also you can be simple.You can be setting up a big business empire but you can be simple.A Head of state and yet simple.Mahatma Gandhi who led our freedom movement yet his core was simplicity.Simplicity is contentment.Mahatma gandhi said,
"Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man's happiness really lies in contentment."
Even Steve Jobs,the co founder of Apple computers has this to say
"“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
So simplicity is not about lack of ambition, or about being dull or boring or unenterprising.It is about being in harmony with nature,with your own true self ,about less is more and about throwing out the non essentials.
Let us see what Thoreau has to say about the simple life since we are celebrating his life this day.
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
But let me end with a quote from my favourite physicist Richard Feynman.
"There is always another way to say the same thing that doesn't look at all like the way you said it before. I don't know what the reason for this is. I think it is somehow a representation of the simplicity of nature."
And that is what we should aim for, a simplicity in everything we do, say and think.
