“A person cannot do right in one department
whilst attempting to do wrong in another department.
Life is one indivisible whole”
-Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
The Seven Social Sins According To Gandhiji
Mahatma Gandhi believed that a person’s life has many facets. He or she must strive to do right in all, what the Mahatma calls, ‘departments’. The individual is a part of a society and wrongdoings of several individuals adds up to a decadent society. With this in mind, he defined seven social sins. He first published these sins in his weekly newspaper ‘Young India’ in October 1925. Management guru Stephen Covey dwelt at length on these social sins in his book ‘Principle Centered Leadership’.
1. Wealth without work: Instead of evolving to a higher moral order, we are becoming increasingly corrupt. There is an increase in cyber crime, in hacking into bank accounts in order to get rich quickly at some one else’s expense. Some dishonest builders take a big advance from prospective buyers and never give possession of the apartments. The poor buyer has to run from pillar to post for years trying to get either his money back or possession of the completed apartment.
2. Pleasure without conscience: Many seek instant gratification and pander to their own pleasures without a thought of others, including their family. The industrialist has no qualms of conscience entertaining a mistress on the side. Others may spend their time gambling, drinking with friends and going on holidays without the family while their wives has to bring up the children by herself. Women are busy outdoing each other in hosting lavish parties, going for spas and living it up. Where is the partnership in such marriages and what happens to the kids left in the care of paid help?
3. Knowledge without character: It is a pity that the education system today is highly competitive. The emphasis is on securing high marks in order to get into a good college. The end goal is to get as lucrative a job as possible. Students, in general, are not taught a right sense of values that will provide them with a moral compass for the future.
4. Commerce without morality: Tax evasions, bribery of government authorities to get quick sanctions, siphoning funds to other countries are only a few instances of commerce without morality. Companies stoop down to false claims to sell their products. Some pharmaceutical companies make huge profits by patenting life saving drugs. The high mark ups put these drugs beyond the reach of the common man. Hospitals are run on a business model with doctors being pressurised to bring in patients by playing on their fear of mortality. They rake in the money with unnecessary medical tests and surgeries.
5. Science without humanity: No doubt science has enriched our lives. Several inventions have benefited humanity. However, on the flip side, science is also being misused to invent bombs and weapons of mass destruction. Where is the humanity in the massacre of innocent civilians including children?
6. Religion without sacrifice: Offering wax images at Mt. Mary and praying are not enough. Religion is not the following of rituals. Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Do we reach out to others in kindness, with empathy even if it means that we have less time to pursue activities that we enjoy? Do we use our talents for the betterment of others instead of wasting time gossiping? If the answer is negative, we are not putting our religion into action.
7. Politics without principles: Volumes could be written on this topic. The games politicians play is dividing people on the basis of caste and creed in order to secure votes.
Conscientious voters, some in wheelchairs, come out in numbers to vote. Once elected, politicians forget all their facile promises. Horse trading occurs regularly and politicians are bought out by a rival party. Freebies galore at the time of elections do not address the deeper problems of illiteracy and poverty. One former Chief Minister put up huge statues of herself for self glorification. Another was involved in a fodder scam. These shameless so called leaders were elected to serve their people but they only serve themselves.
The seven social sins give us plenty of scope for introspection. Where have we gone wrong? If government officials are receiving bribes, someone is bribing them. We go on a shopping spree of items we do not need because it brings us pleasure and then grumble about pollution, little realising that our spree is adding to environmental degradation. A far cry from the simplicity of Gandhian times. It is the duty of each one of us to do our bit for a healthy society.
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