Indian Ethos on Work, Leisure and Recreation Tourism
ABSTRACT :
The concepts of Work, Leisure and Recreation are viewed differently by different workers and are examined with reference to the concepts contained in the ancient Indian scriptures. The ancient scriptures declare that work involves both body and mind and is not a mere physical activity. Human body possesses five organs of action and the mind possesses f ive sensory organs, all of which are connected with Prana a vital force/cosmic energy. There are specific relaxation techniques for each of the sense organs and organs of action. The scriptures further proclaim that recreation is not complete unless it involves both the body and the mind. Since they are interconnected, there should be no imbalance between the levels of relaxation of the two. Based on the findings, a conceptual model has been designed and developed in tune with the wide variety of opinions expressed on Work, Leisure and Recreation in the current literature, for the purpose of clarity. Contrary to the thinking of the present day workers the study and analysis brought out the inseparable nature of body and mind for the recreation to be total. This concept should prompt the promoters of leisure and recreation to provide amenities for relaxation of sense organs besides the organs of action.
Keywords: Work, Leisure, Recreation, Ancient Scriptures, Body and Mind, Sense Organs, Organs of Action.
Introduction
Work is an activity directed toward making or doing something. By definition, an activity is a situation in which something is happening or a lot of things are being done. It is well known that no living being in the universe can survive, even for a fraction of second, without engaging in any activity at all times. Activi ties engaged in by human beings, during free time through voluntary pursuits that are relaxing to the mind is the Leisure. The process of engaging oneself in some pleasurable activity is Recreation. In the field of Leisure studies, the relationship between work, leisure and recreation has been the subject of inquiry for many researchers.
Many thinkers who probed the subject of Work, Leisure and Recreation, have put forth various views and ideas from time to time. The key concepts advanced by different authors on the subject are summarised and presented in Table 1, along with their fields of specialization, indicating their individual perceptions, possibly connected to their specialization.
It can be observed from the table that, as regards work, Roadburg (1983) ob serves that individuals are motivated when they are paid for the work they do and at the same time would also be willing to put up with the stress and strain, whereas
Table 1 Different Opinions of various Authors on Work, Leisure & Recreation along with their field of specialization
| S. No. | Item | Contemporary Author & Year | Key Concepts | Field / Specialization | Indian Ethos |
| 1 | Work | Roadburg (1983) | i ) P a y m e n t m a k e s motivation ii) Unpaid task enjoyable | Gerontologist | Author & Year: Veda Vyasa (3000 B.C) Key Concepts: The Human body comprises of the action organs and sense organs with an invisible energy Prana where He advocated various relaxing and recreation techniques. Specialization (Profound Philosopher and Author of Vedas) |
| Brook (1993) | i) Non freedom ii) Freedom of choice | Psychologist | |||
| 2 | Leisure | Pieper Josef (1965) | Mental and spiritual attitude | German Catholic Philosopher | |
| Gray David E (1971) | Pursuit of truth and self understanding | Historian | |||
| Neulinger (1974) | State of mind: being at peace with oneself | GermanAmerican Psychologist | |||
| Stockdale (1985) | Emphasizes individual perceptions and belief system | Psychologist | |||
| Weaver and Lawton (2002) | Enhancement of mental and physical health | Eco Tourism | |||
| 3 | Recreation | Ap John 1986 | Act or experience to meet personal want or desire | Psychologist | |
| Cooper, (2005) | Totality of Pursuits engaged in during leisure | Geographer | |||
| Hall and Page (2001) | Universal accepted definition is an impossibility | Geography and Rehabilitation |
persons who do work on their own free will, without any payment enjoy the work and have freedom to relax. Brook (1993) while classifying work and non-work found that they have similar characteristics, such as creativity, challenge, mental activity and self development, but non-work possesses freedom of choice which is socially oriented, and discretionary.
Pieper Josef (1965) considers leisure as a mental and spiritual attitude—not simply the result of spare time, a holiday, a weekend or a vacation. Gray David (1971) views leisure as an activity in the pursuit of truth and self-understanding involving both gross and subtle body. Neulinger (1976) concludes that Leisure is a state of mind; it is a way of being, of being at peace with oneself and with what one is doing. Stockdale (1985) identified three main ways in which the concept of the leisure is used viz. i) as a period of time, activity or state of mind, ii) non-work or residual time and, iii) a subjective view which emphasizes individual perceptions and belief systems. Finally, Weaver and Lawton (2002) state that leisure and relaxation are for enhancement of mental and physical health, amusement (entertainment, escape), play (relaxation, exercise), adventure (excitement, challenge) or education (organized, incidental) indicating the involvement of both body and mind.
As for “Recreation” AP John (1986) states that it is important to re-create the individual to resume daily obligations, whatever they may be. Cooper, et al (2005) opined that recreation can be thought of as the totality of pursuits engaged in during leisure time, comprising those around the home at one end of the scale and those connected with tourism involving an overnight stay, at the other end. Therefore leisure and recreation are two components of work within a constellation of related purposes that include vacation, rest, relaxation and pleasure.
However Hall and Page (2001) believe that a universally accepted definition of leisure, tourism and recreation is impossibility. Therefore the main purpose of the present study is to arrive at an acceptable definition and conceptualization of Leisure and Recreation that relates to work through investigating into ancient Indian scriptures.
Indian Ethos and Contemporaneous Thought
As per the ancient Indian scriptures every human being has two bodies on the material plane—the gross body and the subtle body, where the former is visible and the latter invisible. The gross body, which is visible in physical form, is made up of five elements known as the organs of action, viz., speech (vak), hands (pani), feet (pada), genitals (upastha) and anus (payu). In a similar way the subtle body also comprises of five elements viz., skin (Thwak), eye (chakshu), ears (srothra), tongue (jihwa), nose (ghrana) imbibed with cosmic energy (Prana).
These declarations are realized from Vedas which testified that the gross body has five action organs and the subtle body has five sense organs and they are related through the cosmic energy Prana, the motive power from within, by which the individual survives and recreates in the pleasantries of the Universe as stated in following lines.