Culture and Values of India: Long View of Time and Space

(iii)      Long View of Time and Space

            Zero and infinity are Indian concepts or discovered by Indian mathematicians. The universe and time are unending. There are cycles of birth and death of expanding and contracting universe within this unlimited time horizon. This process of birth and decay and death also applied to  humans unless one escapes the cycle by achieving Nirvana or Moksha. This translates into short-tern daily behavior so as to taking it slow and easy. 
             The long view is held as against the concepts of continuous maximizing of benefits and minimizing of costs as theorized for human behavior by modern neoclassical economics. Self-interest of Adam Smith is universal but its application is conditioned by culture, weather, institutions, spirituality and other dimensions of life. 
              Kama Sutra originating in India, for example, is important for enjoyment of life and source of happiness but not the same way as the driving force in Freud’s analysis of human behavior. Indian view is the opposite of Sartre’s “here and now” in which you discount the future almost near one hundred percent. The US and other Western  savings rate of 1 to 3 percent tell us that people allocate almost all their income in spending it today. 
              Indians save some 36 percent where tomorrows are very important. Chinese save even more concerned about building the the future and therefore save and invest around 46 percent of current income. In India and China tomorrow is almost as important as today. 
              Not so in the Western culture and behavior of consumers. Western culture creates and destroys things, empires and systems faster and more often as against preservation of old  ways and systems kind of forever as in India and china, among other Asian societies.
              Spiritual guidance is linked to  and is a component of economic transactions. God and spirit bless it but action in this world makes economic gains and losses possible. Action is one's duty. Action is essential for progress as it will produce an outcome regardless of expectation of a particular gain and its timing. Slow and steady approach and patience are the behavioral characteristics leading to a long view of time and space in Indian thinking and value system.  It has significant implications for the inter-temporal allocation of resources, progress and sustainability of India and the world.