Standard of Life Vs Standard of Living

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

There are two most critical things in life, one is the “Standard of Life” and other is the “Standard of Living”. We human beings have done so many things to fix our external things so as to increase our standard of living and nothing has been done to understand the standard of life.

The irony to be noticed here is, as much as we do to increase our standard of living; so much is the trouble we create to our standard of life. I was happy when I had an old television without a remote control and now that tiny electronic hand held device goes below the couch or its batteries are exhausted or its keys are not working…..finally it brings in annoyance and makes me upset.

Oh...no, I am not advocating to stay with the old ones, the point I am want to make here is, we human beings should learn how to handle the external factors those were created only by us for our own external comfort. The very creation of these comfort facilities should not put us into a depressed and anxious state of mind.

Right at this moment our standard of our life does not depend on the house we’ve or the car we’ve parked outside or our bank balance. It’s solely based on “How Happy Are We…?” One could be a great millionaire but he may never be happy and one could be a homeless beggar but still he may feel delightful and absolutely happy in this world.

Let’s understand that, increasing out Standard of living makes our lives easier in this world, but it can never bring in happiness and joy forever. Increasing our Standard of Life is the only way we can be ultimately happy and blissful.

Swami Chinmayananda says:

“The material growth and prosperity raise the ‘standard of living,’ whereas the spiritual inner rehabilitation improves the ‘standard of life.’ Both the ‘standard of living’ and the ‘standard of life’ have to be equally developed and balanced in order that one may sail through life’s different challenges with ease, poise, comfort and cheer.

The ‘standard of living’ is like the mast of the ship. If it is to be high, the keel must be made deep and wide enough to prevent toppling and this depth of the keel measures the ‘standard of life.’

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam