RULES, RULES, RULES

As part of my project for Strengthening the Sewa Shop, I have been given the task to find out about recently implemented legislation on matters ranging from health and safety to returns policies.

The amount of law on such matters is absolutely staggering. In one sense it is beneficial. The legislation ensures that all organisations follow and abide by a given standard. This is particularly crucial for matters such as fire procedures as most people have the view, 'it won't happen to me.' Therefore, by introducing laws, it forces people to take action and try to avoid this stereotype.

However, a lot of it is highly unnecessary for example having a 'No Smoking' sign which must be 77mm in diameter. Much of the legislation is there due to the 'suing' culture we live in today. It is a sad state of affairs that the such far fetched measures must be taken just to avoid being sued. This thought led me back to the TED videos we watched at Abhyas Varg B:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

It begs the question are all of these rules and regulations stemming creativity and reducing the need for us to think? We merely follow a set of rules given to us; mainly out of fear of being sued. But why has this suing culture arisen? Do we not care about our fellow man? Do we take great pleasure in taking from them? What are the motives for taking others to court - greed, revenge, want free money? A common feature to all of these motives are that they arise from material or egotistic desires.

From interviewing and meeting many different Hindu Organisations over the past few weeks, the answer to this may lie in some of our most ancient scriptures - Lord Krishna told us that focusing our minds on God helps reduce the ego; raja yoga enables us to search within and find answers to our lives and become more spiritual. Perhaps a more spiritual society is needed to cure the suing culture that we live in today.