Circle of Good Will - The World Teacher Trust

grand empires? It was thieving gold and other preciousmetals and stones. Now there is no crude thieving, butan intelligent thieving. That is what is called ‘business’.Thieving has taken to a dignified form of business. Itis an intelligent way of thieving. We don’t feel that weare thieved, but we are regularly thieved. If we indulgein the activity of thieving, we cannot have a cleanlife. Today business makes us feel that we need manymore things than necessary. The theory of economicshas also changed. Originally the science of economicswas considered as ‘supply according to the demand’,meaning, to produce according to the needs of thepeople. There is a difference between a need and awant. A shoe can be a need, but ten pairs of shoes is nota need. A watch can be a need, but ten watches cannotbe a need. A television could be a need, but a televisionin each room is not a need.That is why we always feel that we do not haveenough money for good work. Where is the money?Much money is spent for desires and not for needs. Ifa new product comes out, there will be bombardmentof advertisements. Then we feel that we have tobuy. We open the newspaper; there is bombardmentof advertisements. We watch television; there isbombardment of publicity. We move in the streets,everywhere we have big hoardings for publicity. Sowe are regularly hit with the suggestion to buy. Thenthere are also advertisements: Buy one, get one free, orliquidation 50% off.The classical theory of “producing goods accordingto the need” has changed. They produce much moreand then bombard people through marketing mediato make them believe that they need it. In olden daysall machines like cars, motorcycles and watches wererepaired, when they were defective. But now the mottois: use and throw. As much garbage is produced asproducts. So much garbage! What is all this? It is whatis called ‘international thieving’. Before Cola came in,we were drinking natural juices. But today?! It is aglobal phenomenon that people feel they have to drinkCola. Why all this? Because an average human mindcan easily be bought! That is marketing. That is howcrude thieving is substituted by intelligent thieving.There is a small story from olden days: There wasa businessman. He had a donkey. He used to moveon the donkey to do business and used to earn goodmoney. He did not store the money anywhere, butprepared bags and put his money into them. Wheneverhe used to move, he used to keep the moneybags onthe donkey and used to sit on those bags so that themoney was secure. One day he bought a very goodgoat, a black goat with a white spot on the forehead.It was very beautiful. He wanted to take it to anothervillage and sell it. He tied a bell to the tail of the goat42 43