GHANDI'S SEVEN DEADLY SINS

SPIRITUAL LEADER MOHANDAS GANDHI WAS ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FIGURES IN MORAL ENLIGHTENMENT. THESE ARE THE SEVEN TRAITS HE CONSIDERED MOST DEADLY TO HUMANITY:

1. WEALTH WITHOUT WORK
2. PLEASURE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE
3. SCIENCE WITHOUT HUMANITY
4. KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT CHARACTER
5. POLITICS WITHOUT PRINCIPLE
6. COMMERCE WITHOUT MORALITY
7. WORSHIP WITHOUT SACRIFICE

Wealth Without Work

This refers to the practice of getting something for nothing - manipulating markets and assets so you don't have to work or produce added value, just manipulate people and things.Today there are professions built around making wealth without working, making much money without paying taxes, benefiting from free government programs without carrying a fair share of the financial burdens, and enjoying all the perks of citizenship of country and membership of corporation without assuming any of the risk or responsibility.

Pleasure Without Conscience

The chief query of the immature, greedy, selfish, and sensuous has always been, "What's in it for me?Will this please me?Will it ease me?" Lately many people seem to want these pleasures without conscience or sense of responsibility, even abandoning or utterly neglecting spouses and children in the name of doing their thing.But independence is not the most mature state of being - it's only a middle position on the way to interdependence, the most advanced and mature state.To learn to give and take, to live selflessly, to be sensitive, to be considerate, is our challenge.Otherwise there is no sense of social responsibility or accountability in our pleasurable activities.

The ultimate costs of pleasures without conscience are high as measured in terms of time and money, in terms of reputation and in terms of wounding the hearts and minds of other people who are adversely affected by those who just want to indulge and gratify themselves in the short term.It's dangerous to be pulled or lulled away from natural law without conscience. Conscience is essentially the repository of timeless truths and principles - the internal monitor of natural law.

Science Without Humanity

If science becomes all technique and technology, it quickly degenerates into man against humanity.Technologies come from the paradigms of science.And if there's very little understanding of the higher human purposes that the technology is striving to serve, we becomes victims of our own technocracy. We see otherwise highly educated people climbing the scientific ladder of success, even though it's often missing the rung called humanity and leaning against the wrong wall.

Knowledge Without Character

As dangerous as a little knowledge is, even more dangerous is much knowledge without a strong, principled character.Purely intellectual development without commensurate internal character development makes as much sense as putting a high-powered sports car in the hands of a teenager who is high on drugs.Yet all too often in the academic world, that's exactly what we do by notfocusing on the character development of young people.

Politics Without Principle

If there is no principle, there is no true north, nothing you can depend upon.The focus on the personality ethic is the instant creation of an image that sells well in the social and economic marketplace.

You see politicians spending millions of dollars to create an image, even though it's superficial, lacking substance, in order to get votes and gain office.And when it works, it leads to a political system operating independently of the natural laws that should govern - - that are built into the Declaration of Independence : "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.... "

In other words, they are describing self-evident, external, observable, natural, unarguable, self-evident laws: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident."The key to a healthy society is to get the social will, the value system, aligned with correct principles.You then have the compass needle pointing to true north - true north representing the external or the natural law - and the indicator says that is what we are building our value system on : they are aligned.

Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics)

In his book Moral Sentiment, which preceded Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith explained how foundational to the success of our systems is the moral foundation : how we treat each other, the spirit of benevolence, of service, of contribution.If we ignore the moral foundation and allow economic systems to operate without moral foundation and without continued education, we will soon create an amoral, if not immoral, society and business.Economic and political systems are ultimately based on a moral foundation.

Worship Without Sacrifice

Without sacrifice we may become active in a church but remain inactive in its gospel.In other words, we go for the social facade of religion and the piety of religious practices.There is no real walking with people or going the second mile or trying to deal with our social problems that may eventually undo our economic system.It takes sacrifice to serve the needs of other people - the sacrifice of our own pride and prejudice, among other things.

SHARED BY: JOEL JOHNSON