Making Life Meaningful

The Price of Being a Taker present development of America was due mostly to the labours of the immigrants. I said, “No, although apparently immigrants seem to be working in the developmental activities of the USA, in actual fact the credit goes not to Mr. Immigrant but to Mr. Incentive.” It is a fact that these immigrants have failed to perform well in their own countries, whereas in the USA they are seen to be involved in almost all the activities of development and progress. The reason is that in the USA every success is based on merit, so these immigrants become heroes in achieving that success. By taking account of this fact, one can say that the credit goes to Mr. Incentive and not to Mr. Immigrant. After independence, India’s economy came under the control of the state – a system whereby everything depended upon state policy. That meant that there was no free competition, everything being decided by the state, with the individual entirely subjected to state policy. It must be conceded that a state controlled economy renders people incentive-less and incentiveless people work only as is laid down in rules and regulations and not according to their full and natural capacity. Once, on a visit to the USA in 1893, Swami Vivekananda walked along a street in Chicago, clad, according to the swami custom, in just two lengths of untailored cloth. At that time in the USA, this form of attire was quite unfamiliar. On seeing this, a woman whispered to her husband, “I don’t think that man is a gentleman.” Overhearing this remark, Swami Vivekananda approached the lady and said politely: