Simple Living and High Thinking

Simple Living and High Thinking

Great men of the world has always preached that simple living and high thinking should be the golden principle of life. All great saints like Mahatma Gandhi, Guru Nanak and Buddha etc. who attained spiritual greatness and shook the world by their intellectual thinking are examples of this principle.

From time immemorial, thinkers from every corner of the would have emphasized the importance of simple living and high thinking. The advice as based on the fact that human wants are limitless, once they are given a long rope. It psychologically encouraged, these wants multiply and keep multiplying. These make manna selfish slave of material acquisitions. These divert the attention of man from high thinking and bring him down to the narrow cycle of worldly pursuits. These adversely affect his devotion and concentration in achieving the higher ideal of life, which mostly includes service of fellow human beings.

In this atomic era and fast paced life the harmony between the ideals of plain living and high thinking has come down. More thinkers feel that elaborate living is more conductive to the service of humanity than simple living. This thinking, however, is not endorsed in practical life.

As is well known Mahatma Gandhi was always dressed in a dhoti but still moved the entire world by his dynamic thinking. Similarly Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russel had proved that simple living is better way of achieving greatness from service to society.

There are other examples too, and a lot of then in human history, to prove the theory of simple living and high thinking. Kabir, Vinoba Bhave and Sant Longowal are other examples of this mode of life. These personalities led unsophisticated lives. Yet they became the idols of people as philosopher poets and leaders. They emancipated the thinking and living of common people with their strong conviction of truth, love for human beings, good of society and led the people to great deeds and achievements not only in the spiritual fields but also worldly affairs.