Towards a Rich and Sustainable Future
A cottager and his wife had a hen that laid a golden egg every day. They assumed that the hen contained a great lump of gold inside it. In order to get the gold they killed the hen and discovered no gold inside. The foolish couple, thus hoping to become rich all at once, had deprived themselves of the gains of which they were assured day by day. (Ref)
This famous fable is old — from around the 5th century CE. Are we replaying its modern equivalent? In the fable, the couple killed the hen that laid the golden egg because they were driven by the desire for instant riches. Similarly, driven by the desire for short-term riches, are we killing our planet through overexploitation of resources and pollution in what seems to be a geological blink of an eye? Even more poignantly, are we truly rich today?
Since time immemorial, humans have aspired to become rich. In fact, most ancient cultures whether Chinese, Greek, or Indian have a God or Goddess of wealth and associated prayers. For example, SriSuktam, a Sanskrit hymn from pre buddhist times revering Sri or Lakshmi the Hindu goddess of wealth is still recited in Hindu households to receive the Goddess’ blessings. So what does ‘becoming rich’ really mean? Each one of us probably has our own definition of ‘rich’. In this article, we look at one of the verses from SriSuktam from the Rig Veda’s Appendices to understand what blessings a person is seeking from the Goddess of wealth through the recitation of the hymn:
श्रीवर्चस्यमायुष्यमारोग्यमाविधात् पवमानं महियते ।
धनं धान्यं पशुं बहुपुत्रलाभं शतसंवत्सरं दीर्घमायुः ।। (35)
O Mother, Let Your Auspiciousness Flow in our lives as the Vital Power, making our lives Long and Healthy, and filled with Joy.
And let Your Auspiciousness manifest around as Wealth, Grains, (animals) Cattle and Many Offsprings who live Happily for Hundred Years; who live Happily throughout their Long Lives. (Translation by Greenmesg.org)
The beauty of this verse to me is that it not just seeks ‘becoming rich’ for us but also for the future generation. Using this verse as a reference to create a richness matrix for the United States (wealthiest country), the present situation and projections for the future can be visualized from the table below.
Wealth and longevity are projected to be better than those in 2020. However health, decline in biodiversity, climate crisis, and depletion of natural resources along with an aging population outnumbering youth are key challenges for 2030. But there are positive goals as well, like no poverty, and reducing food waste.
We need to take corrective actions to ensure the present and the future generation has nutritious food, safe drinking water and healthy air to breathe along with a rich and diverse flora and fauna to experience.
Each challenge we face today in protecting the environment is an opportunity to put human intelligence and creativity to test, it is an opportunity to satisfy our mental curiosity and overcome obstacles. It is an opportunity to save humanity (we often mistake saving humanity as saving earth, the earth will survive just fine without us).
I believe that entrepreneurs and educators can play a pivotal role in the mission to save humanity, by taking the right steps to care for the Earth. They have the potential to bring about a positive change in not just social and economic, but also environmental well-being.
In the coming blog posts we will explore how design interventions, technology, bright ideas from different parts of the world, and lessons from philosophy can help us nurture humanity and the planet.
We will also look at how we bring environmental consciousness to K12 and design education.
The coming blog posts will demonstrate that if every one of us takes one step for taking care of our planet, together we move 7.8 billion steps towards a rich and sustainable future (if half of us don’t, then I am sure the remaining half can take two :).
If you would like to explore how to make a product or service eco friendly or have a success story in this field, do write to me at kalyani@rangedesign.in
P.s.: If only it was easy to insert a table in Medium! Sources for the data mentioned in the table:
(1) https://www.tfah.org/report-details/state-of-obesity-2020/
(2)https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/half-of-us-to-have-obesity-by-2030/
(4)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States
(6) to (15) write to me if you want to know the sources ;)
