The simple life

The simple life

July 2017

By Satish Purohit

To become simple is to become powerful because life whispers its magical secrets into the ears of those who are simple at heart and mind, says Satish Purohit

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

-Lao Tzu

“What is simplicity?” asked the seeker.It was Guru Poornima when the seeker reached the teacher’s hermitage in the forest. 

“Simplicity is living in constant awareness of the four realities," answered the teacher. 

“What, pray, are the four?” asked the seeker. 

“That we are wayfarers, that there is a way, that there is a destination at the end of the way and that we need tiffin on way to the destination,” explained the sage. 

“I am not sure I understand,” said the seeker.

“The soul is the wayfarer, life is the way, liberation is the destination and all we need to maintain body, mind and relationships as embodied beings is the tiffin. To live a life in awareness of these four truths is the way of simplicity. To live in ignorance of these four truths is to live in complexity,” answered the sage.

“Ah, I have been spending all my time preparing the tiffin, and I have not even begun my journey. I have made the seeking of wealth all of my life,” lamented the seeker.

“Acquisition of wealth is a means to an end. To hanker even for a grain of sand beyond what you need to stay alive is inviting needless complexity,” declared the wise teacher. 

Ah! How beautiful it is to be simple and natural.

“As clear as springwater, as good as the earth and as simple as bread,” writes Margaret Mitchell in her book Gone with the Wind, while describing Melanie Hamilton, one of the key characters of her seminal novel.

This simple girl, who was terribly shy of strangers, and who could hardly speak for herself, was like a flickering flame of candle that burnt resiliently in the face of howling winds that threatened to extinguish her. When the world as she knew crumbled before her eyes, with her near ones dead, her wealth gone, poverty and hunger staring in her eyes, she never once became bitter, angry, hard or spiteful like others . Her eyes continued to radiate the gentleness, love, kindness, and compassion which they used to when she had the world at her feet. Her simplicity remained as unaffected by harshness as it was by comfort and abundance. Yet such was her steely spine that she could speak her mind even if it militated against the popular opinion and take up causes which were long lost. She stayed till the very end a gentle, good-hearted soul who could never see any evil in the worst of humanity, and in whose wide open arms the battered, weary and wounded of world returned to seek refuge and succour. Even though the heroine of the novel, street smart Scarlett O’ Hara considered Melanie sissy and mealy-mouthed, she was forced to admit her greatness and nobility in the end and had to swallow the fact that without her unstinting support and loyalty she could not have built her successful business empire.

Melanie was the epitome of simplicity, and it is noteworthy that she was the only character who stays happy till the very end of the story. She didn’t need luxury and money like Scarlett to feel happy. She took immense pride in her small house, its plain furniture simply because she owned them. For Melanie they were a symbol of her independence. 

Jiddoo Krishnamurti, noted philosopher- sage of India had said that a simple life does not just mean the mere possession of a few things but is freedom from both possession and non-possession.

"Simplicity of life comes with inner richness, with inward freedom from craving, acquisitiveness, from addiction, from distraction. A simple life is not the result of outward circumstances. Contentment with little comes with the riches of inward understanding. If you depend on circumstances to make you satisfied with life then you will create misery and chaos, for then you are a play-thing of environment. Only when circumstances are transcended through understanding that there is order and clarity. To be constantly aware of the process of acquisitiveness, of addiction, of distraction, brings freedom from them and so there is a true and simple life," Krishnamurti says.

While Melanie may be a fictional character, the charm and pull of her persona cannot be denied. For who does not wish to be unaffected by life’s many slings and arrows and sway happily to its tune? And the good news is that it is possible. Rather simplicity is our real and actual nature. We lose it and become complicated in the angst of growing up and in making sense of the odd world around us. All that we have to do is to become aware of the benefits of being simple. The less crowded our minds are with zillions of thoughts, questions, worries and desires, the simpler we become. And as soon as we come in contact with simplicity, the very maze of the complicated, mesh of worldly reality falls apart.  

Simplicity has divine origin

It is beneficial to be simple because all of life’s winding roads conclude unfailingly at the cremation grounds, and it helps to travel light along the way.
“The state of non-duality is our true state,” says Kabir. Whatever else one takes oneself to be, is the adding of complexity to a simple story. Even for those who are a long way from gaining a Kabir-eye view of reality, there is merit in arriving at simplicity. I would get upset if people did not respond to my efforts to reach out and be friends. I could not bear or take orders from people in positions of authority. My sense of justice was easily outraged at a wrong, real or perceived. My breakthrough came when it struck me that there were people I did not like to spend time with, and I was okay with that. I realised that I had to respect the time and space of others who did not want, have the need or the desire to engage with me. It was okay for people to not like me as well because I did not like every person who crossed my path.Nothing complicates life like misplaced sentimentality.   This is probably why mystics advice people to ‘die’ while still in the body. Which means to ensure the annihilation of the ego, after which the real self emerges. “The path of love,” says Kabir Das, “is the path where the self dies and the Beloved is all that remains.” The significance of the word ‘Hari’ which means ‘the one who takes away’ in Kabir’s poetry points to the Lord’s ability to ‘take away’ the ego or the lower self so one awakens to one’s higher potential as a pure being. You either keep your ego or discard it if you wish to enjoy the love of the Beloved. Undeniably God is a constant companion of those who seek to simplify themselves and their lives. If the path of spirituality has made you attitudinal about being spiritual, take it from me that you are far from being spiritual. Because the Divine is simple and uncomplicated. It is the ego which likes to complicate things.

For people on the path, life increasingly becomes a process of simplifying, and removing all that which is unwanted, unnecessary, or superfluous from it. It may begin with things and go upto removing waste thoughts, emotions, work engagements and even relationships that no longer work, only to arrive at a simpler, more basic you.

Bliss in Bangalore 

Chandigarh-based Bharti Kapoor who specialises in facilitation of learning in children with learning disabilities says that moving to Bangalore helped her gain an insight into living simply that has had profound impact on the way she lives her life. “I was a typical Punjabi before I moved to Bangalore. I loved to dress up to the nines every time I stepped out of my house even if it was for a few minutes to drop my son to school bus. I would wear a fresh suit, have my hair in place and dab some lipstick on. I began to notice that the other moms would be in their nighties. I realised that the South Indians were keener on listening to what I had to say instead of what I wore. I stopped dressing up, and the lesson rubbed deeper. It also brought changes in the way I kept my home. In Amritsar, how your home looked, the sofa set, the crockery and cutlery, the table decorations were as important as what you served and how many dishes you served, but when I realised that it was not the case here. I could put away my table decorations, napkin rings and stem holders for table flower decorations away. Life became simpler,” says Kapoor. 

The simplicity drive did not meet with approval from all quarters.

“I also began meditating around this time. It deepened my resolve to simplify my life. While I was happy, and my friends were happy too, my extended family was not as appreciative. My simplicity was seen as a failure on my part to protect the family honour. Undaunted, I soldiered on. I shrank my wardrobe, cut down on the accessories and discovered to my happiness that I could manage with fewer clothes. However, on my trips back North, I would face a lot of flak. I had replaced my chiffon and crepe sarees for cotton sarees. After a workshop in a school, a participant wrote ‘No doubt, the workshop was good. I learnt a lot, but why are you wearing only cotton sarees? You should wear chiffons. They befit your stature. Hope you don’t mind. I have expressed the general opinion’,” smiles Kapoor. 

She remembers how life took a spiritual turn for her around this time. 

“I thought I needed to have lots of people around me. I did not really get along with a lot of these people. I would also be constantly hurt because of things that were said to me or even left unsaid. I needed to party every Saturday, at least. I was living this life when I fell seriously ill. It made me introspect. It led me to meditation. I cut out a lot of people from my life. I have fewer people around me now. The ones that I have today are people with whom I have a genuine meeting of mind and heart. The situations that would leave me hurt back then make me smile today, and every time I buy two dresses I make it a point to discard two from my existing wardrobe,” says Kapoor. 

Urban yogi 

Anish Savla, a 52-year-old, credits his decade-long study of Patanjali Yoga Sutras with helping him simplify his understanding of money, health and spirituality. “The purpose of yoga is ‘chitt vritti nirodh’ which is the stopping of the dance of the mind to the tunes of the world. In my old life, I wanted the most expensive car, the best phone, the biggest TV without any regard to the usefulness of these objects. Four wonderful teachers contributed to my understanding of yoga, who explained ‘pratyahaara’, a process that involves a gradual withdrawal of senses from the world. As I moved deeper into yoga, the materialistic things that once mattered to me ceased to be important. The single-pointed obsession with constantly thinking up means to make money and hoard it, gave way to a saner, less competitive me. I became much calmer. I was able to work my way out of daily drinking and chain-smoking. Today, I have reduced my intake to an occasional drink and a stray smoke once in a while. I exercise moderation in everything I do. I continue my self-work with constant reminders that all my rules are for myself and not for my wife, parents or kids. I am not here to change the world but to develop myself. Even after all these years, the awareness of where I go wrong does not  mean that I am able to improve myself immediately. There is much struggle before I can change a behaviour but the journey has reduced my struggle, made me calmer and made life so much simpler,” says Savla, who is writing a book on the Patanjali Yoga Sutras.

Madhukar Anand, a leading music composer in Mumbai, says the simple is also inclusive. “I have a training in classical music but I make my living from popular film music. I learnt my lessons in simplicity early when I arrived in Mumbai; I had to struggle hard to create quality music that appealed even to someone unschooled in music. My challenge is always to convey the profound in a simple manner. This is what connects. It is very difficult to be simple because only those who have a profound grasp of what they wish to convey can be simple. This is as true of music as it is of other aspects of learning. Folk music survived across centuries because it is simple. Classical music forms like Dhrupad struggle to survive because they depend on the minuscule minority of listeners who have a strong grounding in music. While classical forms are kept alive by the cultural elite, folk music feeds off the ground and carries the fragrance of the soil. Goswami Tulsi Das, who simplified Valmiki’s Ramayana from Sanskrit to Avadhi and made it accessible to the masses, has said, "sahaj bhaav mile raghurai," which means that it is the simple of nature who attain the feet of Lord Rama. I serve God in the form of my listeners and I constantly remind myself to keep it simple,” says Anand.

Arriving at simplicity is nothing short of a constant exercise to declutter your mind and get to the heart of the matter. And people, especially those in the field of literature and art, have to continue to strive to be simple in their observation and execution if they wish to connect with the masses

In fact, He (the idea of God) is the height of a man's flight of intellectual fancy He who forgives our trespasses, know Him well, for He is God  

Rameez Pathan, a 76-year-old ustad of Urdu poetry with roots in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, remembers his first lesson on the subject of simplicity in writing. This was at a mushaira in Mumbai. In a grand display of his command over Persian idiom, Rameez recited a couplet: 

Dar haqiqat har ek insaan ke fehm o daanish ka irteqaa woh hai Baksh deta hai woh gunaahon ko usko pehchaan lo khuda woh hai 

As he recited the rest of the poem, he noticed a fellow-poet, a dear friend, gesturing with his hands that could either be saying ‘lower it’ or ‘stop it’. Taking offence at the breach of etiquette and incensed at the audacity of his friend, Rameez finished his recital and approached the poet. “What was the meaning of that gesture?” he demanded. 

“What’s with the vocabulary? No one understood what you just recited. How do you expect people to appreciate your work if they are not even able to comprehend it?" the friend asked. 

Rameez, who wanted to write for films, took the lesson to heart. “It is upto you how you wish to express your insights through poetry. The greatest of poets have conveyed profound insights through the simplest of words. If you can aim to ‘say’ great things with simplicity, it is sure to touch more people and survive the test of time. I have been writing for half a century now. I keep reminding myself of the valuable lesson I learned that evening," says Rameez. 

Great ideas come from a simple mind

40-year-old Rushabh Turakhia, a businessman based in Mumbai, is the founder of Your Turn Now (YTN), an initiative he kickstarted in 2009 to spread goodness in the world. YTN is a beautiful lesson in the art of simplicity in giving.

YTN supporters help strangers and ask the person who has been helped to do a good turn to another stranger in return. The person who is helped is given a 'Your turn now' card, which he is to give to the stranger he helps similarly because it is 'his turn' to help and make a difference. 

Over four lakh such cards in languages as diverse as English, Hindi, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Mandarin and Russian have been distributed in 42 countries across the world. 

“If I find an old man who is out of change in the bus, I contribute. I then hand him a YTN card, which he is to give to a person he helps because it is his turn to make a difference. There have been cards that have changed over 250 hands. Institutions take years of effort, supervision and resources to build. Not all of us have the room to build hospitals, orphanages and community kitchens but all of us can make the world a nobler place by contributing in small, simple ways. Through YTN, we show that we can make a difference irrespective of who we are, where we are with what we have. Even the smallest of gestures can help us make the world a better place,” smiles Turakhia. 

Turkahia says his goal is to reach seven billion people on this planet at least once in their lifetime. There cannot be a bigger testimony to the power  of thinking simple. 

Simplicity resolves difficulties

33-year-old illustrator and visual artist Sameer Kulavoor, an alumni of the reputed JJ School of Arts and founder of Bombay Duck Designs, an independent design studio, says the world is moving towards simplicity in design. “In my visual education, I learned to sift the ornate or complex in an object or scene till I arrived at the bare lines that comprised that scene. The artists job is to communicate what has been observed in as few lines as possible. An artist, especially the one who illustrates, strives to grasp the heart of what is being observed, which is the simple, the essential in terms of form as well as colour. This allows an artist to articulate what is being seen in a manner that is simple, direct and economical,” says Kulavoor. 

“Have you seen a mountain stack of plastic chairs in red, white and various shades of ivory? The sort one uses for weddings, political meetings or any event that involves a sizeable gathering? The idea is brilliant because it is simple. You can serve a gathering of thousands of people spread over an area of one lakh square foot and once the job is done, one can stack the chairs in a fashion that allows for transportation of all the chairs in a single truck with a few other items thrown in. In an overcrowded world where space is at a premium and the world is coming together thanks to the social media and transport revolution, simple is the clear way forward when it comes to design. We need elegant solutions in the new world that is shaping out there,” Kulavoor adds. 

That said, it is not that complexity and ornament do not have a place in design or in the world. They do. In design as well as other aspects of life, simplicity and complexity are in constant interplay. The bicycle, for instance. is a marvel of human ingenuity, clear thinking and workable design, and even simpler is roadster bicycle, the ubiquitous black workhorse or 'Ghoda Cycle' used by young men who deliver food from small restaurants, doodhwaalas, dhobis, idli and coffee vendors who service customers through the night on Mumbai's streets. “The decorative tassels on hand bars, the mud flaps that carry pieces of popular wisdom and lines from Bollywood movies and the additions made to the basic cycle speak of the need to introduce complexity and ornament to something simple. The saree is another case in point. It is simplicity itself because it's just a long stretch of fabric woven, dyed and manufactured in thousands of designs across the country,” says Kulavoor.

Laurie Baker, the pioneer in low cost housing, and an advocate of mud as a viable material for modern housing, remains the paragon of simple thinking in architectural design. Much of his practice was for clients with small budgets in Southern India where his organisation, COSTFORD, continues his legacy. Baker recycled material from old dilapidated structures and even objects like bicycle wheels, discarded bottles and shunned expensive things 

Comic simplicity

Ahsaan Qureshi, a poet and standup comedian who specialises in comic poetry says that an eye for simplicity in observation, simplicity in the construction of a joke and simplicity in delivery are the foundations of a good comic performance. “In my line of work, simplicity is a virtue that I can only ignore at my own risk. It starts with the way I dress, my appearance and the way I talk. If I do not come across as a person you can relate to as a gentleman, as a person who is as likeable as a member of the family, I cannot expect three generations of a family to enjoy my performance in the same audience. If I am a simple person and people connect to my simplicity, I will be treated well even if I have a bad day on stage. I can make people laugh by cracking obscene jokes. However, this departure from basic decency is sure to cost me as a comic in the long run because you would not take your family to a performance where the norms of decency are flouted. If you ask me, I think establishing yourself, conveying your simplicity as a person is 60 per cent of your job as a stage performer. If that is not in place, nothing you do will work,” said Qureshi.

Raju Shrivastav, noted actor, TV personality and comic for quarter of a century, says one cannot survive or thrive unless one is constantly in listening mode, which is the mode of simplicity. This, says Shrivastav, calls for simplicity of nature and lack of affectation. 

“I strive to be so simple that my audiences get the feeling that they are in a family gathering sitting with their uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents and I am just engaging them in good natured conversation. If I enter a zone where I consider myself superior to my audience, I stop listening to the sounds, sights and happenings in the lives of people around me. When that happens, my comedy suffers because it is not rooted in life as it is unfolds.