Ram is a restaurant owner who believes in the concept of Seva. “Seva” is a Sanskrit word meaning “selfless service” or work performed without any thought of reward or repayment. In ancient India seva was believed to help one's spiritual growth and at the same time contribute to the improvement of a community.
But Ram is also an MBA graduate and understands that to keep his Seva going on, he should make it sustainable. It is of no use going bankrupt doing Seva only for sometime, because everyone has finite amount of resources and he/she can only do so much Seva. Ofcourse, the rewards come from the community or society in the form of donation to keep some Seva's sustainable. But these Donations come from finite resources too, so this too isn't a sustainable way. And there are risks that it does not remain a Seva anymore, it becomes an act done to please donors or get more donors. And donor's feel King-like or proud by just giving away paper money and not doing any work. It sometimes just boosts ego of rich people.
So Ram came up with a concept of "Sustainable Seva". Its practice encourages other connected businesses (Other businesses that supply material to this business) to adopt the Sustainable seva concept and Slowly & gradually the whole world will return to Original Seva model.
So what is this Sustainable Seva Business model ?
Some disclaimers:
- Its a model & a revolution, a revolution against inequality, greed, and currency!
- A few 100 unselfish businesses can drive this change.
In this model, the business charges its customers only that much which it is being charged from this world to sustain. To put it in other words and in the context of Seva, it simply means that
"The business will not charge money for the work it does" BUT "It will charge for what it takes to survive in this harsh world, ONLY TO serve / do SEVA for a longer duration."
How does it work ?
A Honest Retail Price - HRP (Instead of MRP) is proposed. It is the final price of the product without taking into account the cost of efforts put into making it.
For Ex: Ram's restaurant pays for electricity, Shop tax, cooking gas, Food items, Salaries, etc.
When a customer orders any food, he gets with it a "Honest seva pricing card". The customer will first be astonished at the low cost of the food - HRP, in Rams restaurant and then the card lists down costs of various things that went into making the item and saying "This is charged only to keep us sustainable. You can ask other businesses supplying raw materials to be honest like us and our food will become even more cheaper"
Thereby, creating awareness that, just because the world is charging the restaurant, the restaurant needs to charge its customers. It is not charging for the effort it put into making the food so tasty and that's why the prices in Ram's restaurant are so low.
Noticing Ram's selfless work, one of his food suppliers offers to provide free grains to Ram's restaurant. Ram refuses, as he is a man of principles. He says "If you give it free my friend, how long can you sustain ? Or maybe to sustain, you'll have to charge others more, and that is not honesty my friend. So tell me the Honest Price of these grains that you wish to offer me - take into account all costs, such as of water, of pumping electricity charges, fertilizers, salaries of labourers, and the cost of your lifestyle. As you can see, if you wish to reduce this price, you must lead a simple unselfish lifestyle." Thus Ram inspires his connected businesses to try Honest Retail Pricing concept and spreads awareness about Sustainable seva model.
Imagine if this model spread so much that many businesses adopt a honest pricing model, then other businesses must lower their prices to stay in the competition. People will have to become less greedy.
A time will come when Ram's restaurant gets Electricity, cooking gas and food items at tending to 0 prices or Zero cost. Why ? Becuase all connected businesses are not being charged by the world to sustain. Therefore Ram, provides Food for free in his restaurant too.
Real Seva will be established in the world. Paper currency or mere numbers stored somewhere in virtual secure cyber world, will have no value in the world of Seva.
You give freely and get freely. Therefore you are truly free to choose whatever that is you wish to give - be it some source code by coding away, or Fresh vegetables by farming, or convert raw materials to finished products like clothing by setting up a factory, or provide cooked meals like Ram. You'll find your passion easier in such a world.
Some questions arise like - who will do the hard work - who will work as labourers in factories, power plants, etc.
So some are worried where we will get the slaves from ? On the face of it, its such a bad thought, a bad question that asks how can we force people to work for us.
Lets not waste time inventing new forms of slavery. Lets grow up and do whatever work we like to do in this world. You are free, just like everyone else.
Also, such questions assume people are not interested to work for free in these areas. True that it might be drudgery, but because the world needs it, doing it becomes a form of seva, a contribution for the improvement of community & oneself.
But Ram is also an MBA graduate and understands that to keep his Seva going on, he should make it sustainable. It is of no use going bankrupt doing Seva only for sometime, because everyone has finite amount of resources and he/she can only do so much Seva. Ofcourse, the rewards come from the community or society in the form of donation to keep some Seva's sustainable. But these Donations come from finite resources too, so this too isn't a sustainable way. And there are risks that it does not remain a Seva anymore, it becomes an act done to please donors or get more donors. And donor's feel King-like or proud by just giving away paper money and not doing any work. It sometimes just boosts ego of rich people.
So Ram came up with a concept of "Sustainable Seva". Its practice encourages other connected businesses (Other businesses that supply material to this business) to adopt the Sustainable seva concept and Slowly & gradually the whole world will return to Original Seva model.
So what is this Sustainable Seva Business model ?
Some disclaimers:
- Its a model & a revolution, a revolution against inequality, greed, and currency!
- A few 100 unselfish businesses can drive this change.
In this model, the business charges its customers only that much which it is being charged from this world to sustain. To put it in other words and in the context of Seva, it simply means that
"The business will not charge money for the work it does" BUT "It will charge for what it takes to survive in this harsh world, ONLY TO serve / do SEVA for a longer duration."
How does it work ?
A Honest Retail Price - HRP (Instead of MRP) is proposed. It is the final price of the product without taking into account the cost of efforts put into making it.
For Ex: Ram's restaurant pays for electricity, Shop tax, cooking gas, Food items, Salaries, etc.
When a customer orders any food, he gets with it a "Honest seva pricing card". The customer will first be astonished at the low cost of the food - HRP, in Rams restaurant and then the card lists down costs of various things that went into making the item and saying "This is charged only to keep us sustainable. You can ask other businesses supplying raw materials to be honest like us and our food will become even more cheaper"
Thereby, creating awareness that, just because the world is charging the restaurant, the restaurant needs to charge its customers. It is not charging for the effort it put into making the food so tasty and that's why the prices in Ram's restaurant are so low.
Noticing Ram's selfless work, one of his food suppliers offers to provide free grains to Ram's restaurant. Ram refuses, as he is a man of principles. He says "If you give it free my friend, how long can you sustain ? Or maybe to sustain, you'll have to charge others more, and that is not honesty my friend. So tell me the Honest Price of these grains that you wish to offer me - take into account all costs, such as of water, of pumping electricity charges, fertilizers, salaries of labourers, and the cost of your lifestyle. As you can see, if you wish to reduce this price, you must lead a simple unselfish lifestyle." Thus Ram inspires his connected businesses to try Honest Retail Pricing concept and spreads awareness about Sustainable seva model.
Imagine if this model spread so much that many businesses adopt a honest pricing model, then other businesses must lower their prices to stay in the competition. People will have to become less greedy.
A time will come when Ram's restaurant gets Electricity, cooking gas and food items at tending to 0 prices or Zero cost. Why ? Becuase all connected businesses are not being charged by the world to sustain. Therefore Ram, provides Food for free in his restaurant too.
Real Seva will be established in the world. Paper currency or mere numbers stored somewhere in virtual secure cyber world, will have no value in the world of Seva.
You give freely and get freely. Therefore you are truly free to choose whatever that is you wish to give - be it some source code by coding away, or Fresh vegetables by farming, or convert raw materials to finished products like clothing by setting up a factory, or provide cooked meals like Ram. You'll find your passion easier in such a world.
Some questions arise like - who will do the hard work - who will work as labourers in factories, power plants, etc.
So some are worried where we will get the slaves from ? On the face of it, its such a bad thought, a bad question that asks how can we force people to work for us.
Lets not waste time inventing new forms of slavery. Lets grow up and do whatever work we like to do in this world. You are free, just like everyone else.
Also, such questions assume people are not interested to work for free in these areas. True that it might be drudgery, but because the world needs it, doing it becomes a form of seva, a contribution for the improvement of community & oneself.
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