How to produce more than we consume?

For a family to survive, the amount earned by the family must be more than the amount of expenses incurred by the family. "Aagaaru alavu ittidhaayinum kedillai pogaaru agalaak kadai" - Thiruvalluvar (Tamil).

ஆகாறு அளவு இட்டிதாயினும் கேடில்லை, போகாறு அகலாக் கடை.

For a country to flourish, its citizens have to produce more for the country than they consume from it. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" - John F. Kennedy.

A common theme in the above two cases is "Producing more than we consume". Even at the individual level, this concept is of utmost importance. This concept is a part of a pledge and is drilled into the young minds of children attending Chinmaya Mission classes.

Now, the question arises - how can an individual produce more than he/she consumes?

To find an answer, we need to do some self-introspection and come up with a list of things we consume/produce on a typical day. We get up in the morning. We brush our teeth - we consume water, power to heat up the water and to keep the inside of the house warm, toothbrush, paste etc. We then have a bath - we consume soap, shampoo and again water and heating. We then put on some clothes that we consume. If we look at the list of things we do in a day, we can come up with a size-able list of things we produce and a list of things we consume.

Let's say we pray in the morning - now it is difficult to say if we produce something or consume something by praying. Let's say we pray for a particular material cause (we pray and ask God for something), then we did something to get something back in return - so we can say that the net was we neither produced nor consumed anything. So, there could be a list of things that are difficult to say if the net effect was whether we produced or consumed something.

Then, we eat our breakfast - again, more consumption on our behalf. We go to work and do our daily office work. Are we producing something or consuming something here. We produce something at work (some product that the entire team works towards) but then we do consume something from our employers as well (a nice fat paycheck). Assuming an efficient structure, our work justifies our pay and we end up neither producing nor consuming a net amount.

Now, you must be getting the idea. It is quite difficult to produce more than we consume. If we total up the list of things we produced and consumed, the chances are we consumed more than what we produced.

Now, if we look at one of the key SriVaishnavic principles (this could be true of other faiths/religions as well), it states that we should do everything as a kainkaryam to God (भागवत आज्ञा भागवत कैंकर्य रूपं) and not for anything in return (not even the pleasure of doing it should be desired by the individual). In this case, we say a prayer for the pleasure of the divine couple, and by doing so, may have produced something - at least we have not consumed anything.

The only way to produce more than we consume is to do something without expecting anyting in return - a tendency referred to as 'saatvic'. Doing something expecting the results of that action is called 'rajasic' tendency and expecting something without doing anything (lazy people) is called 'tamasic' tendency. Thus, only by cultivating a saatvic nature and doing our duties without expecting the fruits of our actions as Lord Krishna advised in the Bhagavat Gita can we hope to produce more than we consume.

Some suggestions to follow include:

Before consuming anything (for example, before eating food), we must offer it to the Lord and consume it as a prasaadam (gift) of the Lord. Even a simple thought such as 'Govinda! Thank you very much for this excellent food. We offer this food to you. Please accept this food' is sufficient before eating.

We must donate for good causes and volunteer to help the underprivileged.

Think about nature and how to give back to nature - environment friendly power, recycling, reducing waste etc.

I am sure each one of us can come up with more to add to the list.