Much before Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations in 1976 and Karl Marx wrote Das Capital, Kautilya – also identified as Vishnugupta and Chanakya – wrote अर्थशास्त्र, Science of Wealth, in around 300 BCE.  Ancient India was a land of plenty, called the Golden Bird, and Indians saw the world as one family – वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् – and desired the happiness of all – लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनोभवंतु ।

The Scottish philosopher Smith’s world was about how the wealth is created. He saw adventurous sailors crossing seas, conquering new territories and bringing wealth home, leading to industrialization. Smith famously said, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love.

The world of the German philosopher Karl Marx was about how this wealth is distributed. Industrial Revolution had happened by his time, and there were wealthy owners of factories and poor workers employed there. According to Marx, capitalists take advantage of the difference between the labor market and the market for whatever commodity the capitalist can produce. Marx famously said, “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.”

India favored badly after local kings were dethroned by invaders, and finally, British established their rule and destroyed the local economy. In my lifetime, I have seen the hegemony of the capitalistic United States, the dissolution of socialist Soviet Republic, the rise of communist China, and the transformation of my own democratic nation from a food-deficient nation to a 3-trillon dollar economy with good, if not the best, education, healthcare, and civic amenities, if not for everyone, to a quarter of its people and improving by the year. 

I was born in a middle class family. My grandfather, whom I have never seen, was a retired railway employee who gave tuitions in the neighborhood after retirement and constructed a three storied house in Meerut City, a cantonment town of British India, north of Delhi. My father worked in municipal administration and with the help of my mother, who was a schoolteacher, could send me for engineering education. My employment brought me to Hyderabad in 1982 and both my children are brought up here. We remain in middle class but have moved up from local to cosmopolitan standards of living. 

Thanks to my 33 years tutelage with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, which started with working under him in the missile laboratory and being his aide, and consequently my exposure to the higher echelons of the society when he had risen as a national figure, I traveled to many countries and met hundreds of people of consequence who generously shared with me their experiences and wisdom. 

It was through Dr Kalam that I met Govind Bhai Dholakia, a prominent diamond industry person well known for his philanthropy. When he invited Dr Kalam to visit his factory in Surat, Dr Kalam deputed me to meet Dholakia-ji and understand his model of wealth creation and charity. Dr Kalam and Dholakia-ji articulated on creating a knowledge foundation for organized skill development needed as technology raises its level from gross to subtle. Dr Kalam departed in 2015, and I remained a part of the knowledge foundation that Dholakia-ji had created as per Dr Kalam’s vision.

I visited Dholakia-ji many times, participated in his societal work – especially the population health project in his native village Dudhala and surrounding areas in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. I met his family members and employees and other people in the society with whom he had worked. Three things I found different in his world. First, though he could not study beyond primary school, his penchant for education, especially of the girl-child. Second, his support of needy patients in their health crises, both using his connections in the medical fraternity and financial support.  Third, his emphasis on an addiction-free life and a penchant for the joint family system. 

These are not mere ideas and sentences written as vision, mission statements on his company website, which does a business of 2 billion dollars every year, but these define his life. He supports a large number of schools. He has played a pioneering role in the creation of Kiran Super-specialty hospital in Surat so that no one has to rush to Mumbai for a medical emergency. His family – his six siblings and their children and grandchildren – more than 1500 people now – meet once every year and stay together for a few days.  

It was during the coronavirus pandemic that I broached the idea of writing a book about him. He was reluctant in the beginning but, perhaps impressed by Wings of Fire, which he had read in Gujarati and immensely liked, agreed. Then came the language barrier. So, his long-standing associate and educationist Kamlesh Yagnik joined me as the co-author. We had 48 Zoom sessions during the lockdown and published Diamonds Are Forever, So are Morals. Bhiku Parikh, Labour Party member of the House of Lords, wrote the introduction and, like a cherry on the cake, the Prime Minister of India has written a paragraph acclaiming the book.

I got another bestseller book to my credit, but that is not the point. During the writing of this book, I learnt a great deal about wealth or rather aspects of wealth. Indian society and a large part of it still live with the ancient mindset. They work hard and expect to be taken care of in need. Govind Bhai used his wealth to whatever extent he could to address this issue. The only prohibition he enforced upon the people who worked for him was zero tolerance of addiction – tobacco, alcohol, gambling, for example. 

Employees in Govind Bhai’s company – Shri Ramakrishna (SRK) Exports – are treated as family. I have participated in the 50^th year celebration of his company in 2014 and dined with 20,000 people – from small children to aged parents of employees, everyone was there in the celebration. Expenses for children’s education and medical care for the elderly in the employees’ families are borne by the company, and the deserving would automatically get a job upon growing up. 

As a good biographer, I must ask him how he got this idea of utilizing his wealth. He narrated to me a dream he had transiting in London from a business breakthrough in Antwerp, Belgium. I quote from the book: 

Goddess Lakshmi was saying, ‘I have eight forms, Adi Lakshmi, Dhaanya Lakshmi, Vidya Lakshmi, Dhana Lakshmi, Sanatana Lakshmi, Gaja Lakshmi, Dhairya Lakshmi and Vijaya Lakshmi (आदिलक्ष्मी, धान्यलक्ष्मी, विद्यालक्ष्मी, धनलक्ष्मी, सन्तानलक्ष्मी, गजलक्ष्मी, धैर्य लक्ष्मी और विजय लक्ष्मी). Depending upon your goal—spiritual enlightenment, food, knowledge, resources, progeny, abundance, patience, and success, I support them with abundance and success. So, tell me son, what do you want?’

I said, ‘O Mother, give me spiritual enlightenment.’ The Goddess smiled and said, ‘Had you asked for Dhana Lakshmi (धनलक्ष्मी), I would have established you here controlling a quarter of the Diamond business of the world. Nevertheless, you asked for Adi Lakshmi (आदिलक्ष्मी), so go back home. I will always be with you, giving you enough for all your good works. Do whatever charity you want to do without any fear.’ 

So, the issue is not what wealth you want; the issue is for what you want it. If you are clear in your heart and mind, the symbolic words used here to mean intent and thought, you will get whatever you seek. 

I can see capitalism, communism, and socialism as three different streams emerging out of this one spiritual spring. Simplicity is what matters in life. If the life is complicated, no wealth is sufficient. Even the wealthiest people live miserably. I have seen Dr Kalam rising to become a great scientist and the President of India. He lived a very simple life – all belongings that could be packed in two suitcases – and yet I receive every year the royalty of Wings of Fire for having worked with him.