Q. I am a young businessman of 21 years and have 11 dependents. I
believe in truth and non-violence but find I cannot strictly follow
it in business. What should I do? Abandoning the business means
suffering for my relations.
A.
This begs the question. It is difficult but not impossible to
conduct strictly honest business. The fact is that the honester a
business the more successful it is. Hence the proverb coined by
businessmen "Honesty is the best policy". What the correspondent
lacks is application and an accurate knowledge of honest business
methods. What is true is that honesty is incompatible with the
amassing of a large fortune. "Verily, verily, it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
into the Kingdom of God." Nor therefore should an honest
businessman, however capable he may be, support idlers whether
eleven or more or fewer. The eleven dependents cannot all be infants
or incapables. Honesty makes no impossible demands upon the
resources of a businessman. An honest man cannot have dishonest
kinsmen. The questioner will find on introspection that there is
nothing wrong with honest business but that there is something wrong
with him. Let him find out what it is that is wrong with him.
Panchgani,
18-7-'46
Harijan, 28-7-1946