Even highly-trained minds cannot sustain a healthy economy if they don’t follow the ethics of spiritual wisdom, says Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj Ji
Ethics has always been an important priority for people across the globe. It consists of a number of good attributes such as honesty, forbearance, commitment, redemption, reliance, charity, patience, intelligence, serenity, altruism, generosity and so on. However, today, it is widely believed and said that business and ethics do not go together and hence it is not possible for everyone to follow an ethical path to earn money.
It was quite astonishing when one of the world’s most prestigious business schools released an official statement saying that they won’t start a business ethics course even though they have been given a handsome grant by the government for the said purpose. The faculties explained that the business school, which had three expert professors in its staff for the subject, tried their level best for a year to teach it as a part of its regular curriculum but they failed to evoke an interest in the students. The authorities therefore decided not to keep any staff for teaching ethics to business management students which clearly shows that most businessmen wish to earn money without being guided or controlled by any principles. There is evidence in society that sooner or later, the money earned without any ethical principles plays havoc in one’s personal, familial and public life. Not only does it create a parallel economy but it generates an atmosphere of corruption, leading to a moral break-down of the society.
This is true not just for businesses abroad but also nearer home as we are familiar with this wide-spread evil.
The recent IT raids on some top business houses and the press criticism of certain government deals presents a gloomy picture before us. Even if we give scope for many of the scandals being untrue and much of the criticism being biased, it can be said that all is not well with business and state deals as far as ethics is concerned. Add to this, deficit financing, that has become a widely prevalent practice. It has had a bad effect on the moral standards of the people, on the currency value as well as the economy. The result is that almost all nations to-day are in debt with weak economies and almost all industrialists and rich men are directly or indirectly, dependent on the borrowings from banks which makes use of bonds or fixed deposits, the savings of the middle class and the poor people. Also the planned economy almost everywhere is near its exhaustion point and is seeing a severe resource crunch.
This shows that even the highly-trained minds cannot sustain an economy in a healthy state if it is divorced from the ordinary rules of ethics or principles of spiritual wisdom. The best thing, therefore, is to observe moral norms and to base our economy on ethics, for without that there cannot be peace and happiness in the world.
