It is just preferable to know why you are living
Recently, the YSU Rector, responding to the question of the journalist about his property, rebelled, “I’m not a homeless to live in a freezer box.” The talks about the boundaries of temperance usually leads to the idea that everything is relative and depends on historical circumstances. In 1996, Minister of Interior Affairs, Vano Siradeghyan’s house was perceived as the highest manifestation of luxury and deserved respective treatment by the opposition mass. Today, this house looks too modest next to the huge chambers of our officials. Over 20 years, it seems there is no particular major progress noticed in the financial situation of ordinary citizens of Armenia, which cannot be said the same about our high-ranking officials. Hence, the problem is not only economic development or legislative restrictions, but also the ethical norms that are accepted among the elite.
The people in Armenia who should give the positive example of these norms, in other words, voluntary self-restriction, to the rest of the public, they first of all become holders of completely different criteria. I am confident that only the demands submitted by the state, the fight against corruption and other similar things on this matter are few, there should also be a “power of tradition.” Ultimately, driving a “Bentley” is a matter of ethics, also building a residency in Yerevan. And vice versa, the Uruguayan President José Mujica has tried to create another precedent, as well as the current Pope of Rome, having his “prototype” Francis of Assisi.
The idea of asceticism, temperance, flesh, suppressing uncontrolled desires and “killing” exists in any religion, but it is especially common in Christianity and played a big role in European culture. The European Christians have taken the word “asceticism” from the ancient Greeks, which literally means an “exercise”, which develops the person’s spiritual powers. The 19th-century Russian Orthodox priest and theologian Theophan the Recluse was insisting that any covenant aimed at self-restriction, be it a fast, labor, reclusion, meditation, Bible reading, will remain an exercise if it does not open the door of bliss before the human. In other words, people, especially those who is given something, cannot be reserved and modest if they do not know why they do it and what they want to achieve with it.
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In the atheist Soviet Union, there was no such problem. In 1970-80’s, the Communist elite are too lavish and lived wasteful, but they had to hide this luxury because officially there were no market relations in this country. Where should the wealth come from? Maybe that’s why they started “reconstruction” in order to legitimize this wealth. Now, “the masters of the country” may not hide themselves, “justifying” their dissipated life with business, which allegedly their relatives are engaged with, which totally “legitimizes” their golden toilet. In a country like ours where the middle class is extremely few in number, this luxury causes the rage of vulnerable people.
However, the entire problem is that the driving force of people’s behavior should not be the point whether they are afraid to show their overindulgence and will earn the hatred of the masses or not. The desire to live a modest life should come “from inside the man” and serve spiritual purposes. Otherwise, there are also cases when people are thinking, “Let me restrain me for two days, for which God will reward me success in my business.” Only, to put it mildly, not so reasonable people can be engaged in such self-deception.
Hence, it is not necessary to torment your body day and night, to stand on one leg for months like the Indian monks, or using a more modern metaphor, to live in a freezer box. Importantly, if we give a common formulation, to understand why you are living.
… Buddha also joined the hermits when he was young and voluntarily had a rough time for 6 years. But then he saw that it did not bring him close to his spiritual goals, and came to the conclusion that no need to “kill” any flesh, even our own. After that, he decided simply to run a moderate and discreet life.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
