Spirituality: One Answer for Many Problems

Abstract

The last 4 years have been very troublesome to many people across the globe due to the so called Economic Downturn. This paper traces the root causes of the Economic Downturn to the Moral deficit of the people, which in turn is a direct outcome of lack of spirituality. People often mistake religion for spirituality. We have enough religion but we are short of spirituality. Lack of spirituality made us hedonistic, seeking pleasures at any cost and by any means. Our scriptures cautioned us against Avarice. But we listened to Gordon Gekko, the protagonist of the Hollywood movie Wall Street. His words “Greed is Good” became part of

the public consciousness and he became a modern god of hedonism. Today most of the economies are bleeding. The world has been full of miseries, scandals,
scams, revolutions, unrest. The world is witnessing another Economic downturn, which is going to be more violent, deeper and more pervasive. No cosmetic changes, bailouts will save the world. We need to go back to the roots. We need to realize that the root cause of all our miseries is Greed and erosion of values. To get over this sin and all its accomplices, we need to embrace and practice Spirituality. No doubt many of us go to temples, read scriptures but when we reach our workplaces all the spirituality is getting evaporated. We need to look into this. We need to maintain harmony in thought, word and deed. Once a
spiritual should be always spiritual and everywhere spiritual. Today we have people with Low Values and High Skills; they are dangerous to the society.
What we need is people High on values even if their Skills are low. Values are bedrock of intelligence. In the absence of values such intelligence becomes a burden on the society. Right values, essentially, are the off-shoots of spirituality. We need to embed spiritual values into our everyday life. We can't have double standards for personal life and public life. So, spirituality as a paradigm is the only solution to the Economic Downturn.