The Nature of Economic Super Powers: Sri Sathya Sai Analysis

Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Nowadays, morality is gradually declining in the economic sphere. Man is hanging himself with the rope of wealth. To widen morality, one has to decrease the greed for money. As money increases, ego and bad qualities increase. Today, when people become wealthy, their respect for others becomes sparse, though they expect great respect from others. This is not proper. The absence of ethics and spirituality in business is the cause of their downfall.

The people of all nations enquire into the first two questions. But some nations like China and Russia did not enquire into the third question: ‘What is theism? From where does it come and where does it end? What is the relationship between man and theism?’

Russia

Russia: Even after disintegration of erstwhile USSR [i], Russia has vast geographical area, but has comparatively less population. They are quite advanced in industrial development. They export arms, ammunition and value-added raw materials to other countries. They have plenty of natural resources even today. They focus more attention on other things as compared to food grains, which is essential for people. Every year, they import a large quantity of food grains. Gradually, over a period of 70 years, their faith and confidence dwindled. But in such an industrially advanced nation, why was there a decline?

China: If one looks at China, the geographical area is relatively small, but when compared to large nations like former USSR, the population is huge, running into billions. China is an emerging economy but poverty is still rife in the countryside. Chinese people discovered the drawbacks in their country’s public administration. There were many controls in the pre-liberalisation era and very little freedom was given to the people in business. There was struggle in China which affected the dynamic balance among the different constituents of society.

Germany: East Germany re-merged with West Germany by breaking the Berlin Wall [ii] to reap economic advantages. Why has Japan advanced? It took help from USA, learned the technical know-how, indigenized the technology and became more developed than USA in certain sectors. However, economic development in many countries has been accompanied by a rise in their egos.

Today, many ancient civilizations are on the decline because morality is on the decline. As a result, the relationship between man and man, man and society, and man and nature is worsening. These ills are the effects of the decline of ethical and spiritual values. People forget the wisdom in the adage, “Man disregards his own value because he attaches great value to manufactured goods.” As people go on attaching more and more value to goods and services, value of people decreases. As the human assessment of commodities goes up, human values take a beating.

India: Today, India is weak in confidence levels and as such she tries to ape others. It has not been able to recognise its own distinctive strengths and achievements. If others progress following a particular path, let India also try to achieve progress in her own way using its own native systems and practices. India should not adopt any country’s management practices and systems simply because they succeeded somewhere else in a phenomenal manner. India must not forget its own culture at any cost. Our national leaders go abroad and ask others to invest in our country. Why call outsiders? Earlier, East India Company too came under the pretext of business and ultimately captured political power in India and ruled India for about three centuries. Today, some other country will come and show interest in investing in business. They are not going to invest without mutual benefit. If you show them the tip of your finger, they will swallow your hand! Hence always be careful. 

Note:

[i] The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), resulting in the independence of all 15 republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991. The direct cause of the dissolution was the failed attempt by Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the USSR from March 11, 1985, to revitalise the Soviet economy through a process of limited political liberalisation within the confines of a totalitarian communist one-party state. The broader result of the dissolution was the fall of Communism as a global ideology between 1989 and 1991 and the end of the Cold War.

[ii] The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13th August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The Soviet-dominated Eastern Bloc officially claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the ‘will of the people’ in building a socialist state in East Germany. However, in practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.

Source: Social Culture and Management, Chapter 18, Man Management: A Values-Based Management Perspective