Mottainai – finding new purpose

If you are of my generation, you would have no doubt experienced "Mottainai".? In most Indian middle-class families, it was (and still is) quite common to pass down hand-me-down clothes from the older child to the younger one.? During your school days, you might have bought used textbooks each year from a senior student or from a second-hand bookstore at half-price.? 'Best out of waste” was a standard theme for school craft; you would have probably made items such as a flower vase from a fused light bulb or a quilt stitched together from old pieces of cloth.?

Mottainai (pronounced "moat-tie-nigh") is a Japanese term that means to avoid wasting resources and to use them with a sense of gratitude.? Mottainai incorporates the three Rs of environmental conversation - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle along with another important R which stands for Respect.? This means that we should treat everything with care and reduce waste by repurposing items to extend their usefulness.?

The term Mottainai came into public limelight outside Japan through the influence of Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on sustainable development, democracy, and peace.? During her speech at the launch of The United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2006, she said "Recently while visiting Japan, I learnt of the concept of Mottainai, which not only calls for the practicing of the 3R but also teaches us to be grateful, to not waste and be appreciative of the limited resources. This old Buddhist teaching is in complete agreement with the concept of sustainable management of resources."?

Today there is a lot of international attention on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices applied to businesses and economies.? Mottainai is one such practice that when implemented in its true spirit can have a significant impact on the future of our planet and its people. While at the most basic level, it encompasses neo-trends such as zero-plastic, plant-based sources of food, renewable energy, etc. there is much more to Mottainai.?

Finding new purpose is the essence of life...

The theme of Mottainai is central to the theory of evolution. Humans first hunted animals for their flesh, and later realized that some of them?could be domesticated to provide other sources of food such as milk and eggs. Animal hide began to be repurposed for clothing and leather that protected early humans from the harsh elements of nature. Trees that initially might have been seen only as a source of fuel for fire, became integral to the progress of human civilization through their versatile uses as material for building houses to their ability to be converted into paper.?

A profound meaning of Mottainai is found in Hindu philosophy.? As per the Bhagavad Gita, our body is like the clothes that we wear.? The soul changes bodies at death just like we change our soiled clothes.?? It takes a soul many lifetimes to achieve its true purpose and become one with the almighty.? Till then, various lifetimes are spent chasing different purposes and the deeds (karma) of each lifetime determine the course of the next.???

Over the recent few years accentuated by the pandemic, we have seen a surge of people movements across corporates and industries. We have heard of the Great Resignation wherein employees have been leaving organizations to pursue completely different career paths and passions. A software developer decides to become a pastry chef, a banker decides to go back to college to study history.? We have also heard of people who have formally retired from a long corporate career and subsequently taken up a second career in a completely unrelated field.? This is the true spirit of Mottainai, constantly evolving and reinventing yourself towards a new purpose in life.?

There are various ways to practice Mottainai, including some notable ones from the Japanese, in the form of Kintsugi and Omotenashi.? At the heart of Mottainai is the ability to appreciate the value in a thing, fuelled by intention and pursuit towards maximizing such value.?? As we see more Western influence on Indian society, we are moving towards nuclear family structures and transaction-based, utilitarian view of relationships.? Unfortunately, this is destroying the fabric of our rich culture and societal values that have always been grounded in the spirit of Mottainai.??It's time to pause and revisit the basic tenet of Mottainai to be able to re-establish the balance.?

If we restore the core values of love, acceptance and respect, then we can fully realize the true purpose of humankind!?