Page 169 - SocialHarmony

The Spirit of Family in Business 173

person who has just started a new business gets enough money
that can help him to manage his expenses. This is a social custom,
which everyone follows. They may have to go to such
inaugurations quite often, but everyone gets support from their
own community. This shows how much people care for each
other. This strength, that is an outcome of the social sensitivity,
is the foundation of our social system. However, today we have
forgotten this old custom and that has proved to be a major loss
for the society. In Indian culture, the villages were the best
because the entire economic system was based on the finest that
you can gain in life. The southern part of India is known for the
production of betelnuts. I have never come across any research
on betelnuts. I had gone to an All India Seminar once, and I
offered betelnuts to someone only to face a question: “Why do
you eat a piece of wood?” Imagine, if there is so much ignorance
about betelnuts, what would happen to the community that
survives on the selling of betelnuts? But the far-reaching vision
of our ancestors gave betelnuts a religious significance. They
started using it in religious ceremony. There cannot be any
religious ceremony without betelnuts, and this religious
importance created a huge market for betelnuts, and in this way,
they gave a huge boost to the entire economy.

There are various types of workers in villages, but the social
system cared for the welfare of each of them. A potter would
make earthen pots and diyas, but in a village of 500, would he
have a sufficient market for his products? How would he
survive? The society created customs that people should change
their pots and use new earthen lamps during each festival, thus
creating a huge market for pots and diyas. Thus, the society gave
a definite place to earthen vessels. This is entrepreneurship. This
is a natural way of making the social life strong. Gradually, due
to a lack of understanding, we broke our old customs and started
new ones. This gap between the old and the new keeps on
widening, and now we have to work harder to fill in this gap.
We have to organize seminars, workshops and create a new
structure to fill the gap. We have destroyed the social system
and now we’ll have to reconstruct the whole structure. We have