Standard of Living vs. Standard of Life

Everybody talks about the Standard of Living. But, they don’t bother about the Standard of Life. So, A Journalist Reveals has taken up the task of comparing the Standard of Living vs. Standard of Life. This post was inspired by a Muslim Ola driver.

Standard of Living vs. Standard of Life:

In one of my earlier posts, I said that my Dad is ill. During one of our trips to the hospital, we met this Ola driver. Mom has been an orator and often, chats up the drivers of Ola that we meet. This man said after a long conversation, “You talk so well. We meet many passengers, who are silent and make the atmosphere very serious.”

The conversation shifted to religious texts. The man told us that a Muslim scholar had researched the Quran and broke up his knowledge to several speeches that the Ola driver often listened to during his commutes.

In one of the speeches, the scholar said, “When youth begins to depart, we should begin to give up our luxuries and desires. With the approach of old age, we should start to reduce our necessities, as well. People with meager necessities are completed detached from desires and are saintly or true angels. On the other hand; a person with several desires at the threshold of old age is nothing more than a wild animal.”

The Ola driver played one of the speeches and sent some links to the speeches to Mom’s phone. Mom used to learn Urdu, at her young age. She regretted having stopped learning it, due to some reason. But, putting 2 and 2 together she could understand the speeches.

In Hinduism, we have different ashramas – Balavasta, Brahmacharya, Grahasthashrama and Vanaprasthashrama. The last meant complete detachment from worldly desires. Even the kings went to the forests to give up their desires.

The information in the speeches of the Muslim scholar is similar to that available in the Hindu Upanishads! That is not the only thing, I need to highlight in this post. If you want to know more, stay tuned.

To be continued…