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5 fundamental principles
11 social and socio-economic principles
Existence Leadership
Economic democracy Democracy
"State vs. private" Neo-humanism
11th social and 4th socio-economic principle
of Prout
The increase in
the standard of living of the people is the indication of the vitality
of society.
Purport: Meritorious people should certainly receive
greater amenities compared to the level of minimum necessities allocated
to people in general, and there should be never ending efforts to raise
the level of minimum necessities. For example, today common people need
bicycles whereas meritorious people need motorcars, but there should be
proper efforts to provide common people with motorcars also. After
everybody has been provided with a motorcar, it may perhaps be necessary
to provide each meritorious person with an airplane. After providing
every meritorious person with an airplane, efforts should be made to
also provide every common person with an airplane, raising the level of
minimum necessities. In this way efforts for rising the level of minimum
necessities should go on endlessly, and on this endeavor shall depend
the all round material prosperity and development of humanity.
Ananda Sutram 1962
There are many attractions in society, and it is the
nature of human beings to run after these attractions. Communism
exploited this human tendency by promising to give equal wealth to all.
But the mundane resources in the world are limited, so is it possible to
provide equal wealth to all? No, and the attempt to do so is nothing but
a dazzling ostentation. Now communism has met its end. Communism was
nothing but a "bogusism" -- a mere ostentation of verbose
language and nothing else.
Rather than trying to give equal wealth to all, the
proper approach is to ensure that everyone is guaranteed the minimum
requirements of life. As the income of people increases, the radius of
their minimum requirements should also increase. Just to bridge the gap
between the more affluent people and the common people, we have to
increase the minimum requirements of all. In addition, the maximum
amenities should be provided to meritorious persons to enable them to
render greater service to society. This should be done by setting aside
some wealth for those with special qualities, but the provision of the
maximum amenities should not go against the common interest. However,
something more can be added. Besides increasing the maximum amenities of
meritorious people, we also have to increase the maximum amenities
available to common people. Meritorious people will earn more than
common people, and this earning will include their maximum amenities.
But the common people should not be deprived of maximum amenities, so
there should be efforts to give them as much of the maximum amenities as
possible. There will still be a gap between the maximum amenities of the
common people and the maximum amenities of the meritorious, but there
should be constant efforts to reduce this gap. Thus, the common people
should also receive more and more amenities. If maximum amenities are
not provided to common people, no doubt there will be progress in
society, but there will always remain the scope for imperfection in
future. What constitutes both the minimum requirements and the maximum
amenities should be ever increasing. This idea is a new appendix to
Prout.
If the maximum amenities of meritorious people become
excessively high, then the minimum requirements of common people should
be immediately increased. For example, if a person with special
qualities has a motorbike and an ordinary person has a bicycle, there is
a balanced adjustment. But if the person with special qualities has a
car, then we should immediately try to provide the common people with
motorbikes. There is a proverb that refers to plain living and high
thinking, but what is plain living? Plain living eighty years ago was
not the same as it is today, so plain living changes from age to age.
The standard of value also varies from age to age. Thus, both the
minimum requirements and the maximum amenities will vary from age to
age, and both will be ever increasing. If this were not so, there would
be no economic progress in society. So, our approach should be to
provide the minimum requirements of the age to all, the maximum
amenities of the age to those with special qualities according to the
degree of their merit, and the maximum amenities to the common people as
well. The minimum requirements of the age as per their money value plus
the maximum amenities of the age as per their money value are to be
fixed and refixed, and fixed again and refixed again, and so on. In this
way you must elevate the standard of the people -- you must go on
elevating their standard of living.
13 October 1989, Calcutta
Prout in a nutshell 17
The amenities of life are those things that make life
easy. The word “amenity” comes from the Old Latin word “amenus”
which means “to fulfil the desire” or “to make the position
easy”. Amenities mean physical and psychic longings. Whatever will
satisfy the physical and psychic longings of the people will be the
amenities of the age. Common people should be favored with maximum
amenities. For example, previously people used to dig a well to get
drinking water, and then they carried the drinking water to their
houses. Later water tanks were constructed, and now drinking water comes
through pipes. In this way the amenities of life have increased and life
has become easier. Though the aim is to get water, the system of getting
it has become more effortless and more convenient.
Take another example. Suppose school children receive
the minimum requirements of life. If they are provided with free snacks,
this amenity will be over and above the minimum requirements. Again, in
most trains there are first and second-class compartments. First class
passengers already get special facilities, but if free tea or coffee is
given to the passengers in the second-class compartments, it will be
considered an amenity.
More and more amenities will have to be provided to the
common people with the progress of society. This process will generate
the impetus to collect and utilize more and more resources, and the
proper utilization of the collective resources will elevate the standard
of living of both the common mass and the meritorious people. As the
need for the minimum requirements is fulfilled and the supply of the
maximum amenities increases, the struggle for daily subsistence will
gradually decrease and people's lives will become increasingly easy and
enjoyable. For this reason Prout guarantees the minimum requirements and
the maximum amenities to all. The root vidh prefixed by su
and suffixed by ac and t'a' equals suvidha' which
means “the pabulum asked for”. Kuvidha' means "the
pabulum not asked for". If you are travelling by train and you see
someone take a snack of delicious food, you will have a natural urge or
longing to enjoy the same delicacies. This is a natural longing for
physical pabulum. Those things that your body wants are the natural
amenities. Natural amenities include all the longings of nature. They
include all natural physiological longings such as urination, defecation
and eating when one is hungry. Common people should be provided with
more and more natural amenities to make their lives easy.
They should also be provided with more and more
super-natural amenities. Common people experience much stress and strain
-- they should be freed from this tension. For example, the rural people
of India always worry about their crops. If the rains are late or if
they fail, paddy production will suffer; if the climate is too cold or
not cold enough, the winter crop will be adversely affected. The common
people should be freed from all these stresses and strains. This can be
achieved through the provision of super-natural amenities, which can be
developed artificially through science and technology. For example,
better agricultural techniques and the construction of small-scale dams
to conserve water and improve irrigation can help relieve poor rural
people of their stresses and strains. Even simple techniques can
increase crop yields. For instance, if the smoke from burning wood chips
is made to pass through a field of mustards seed, the flowers of the
mustard seeds will bloom immediately and increase the production of the
crop. We should provide common people with both natural and
super-natural amenities according to the physical capacity, the psychic
capacity and the technical capacity of the state. This approach will
ensure that human beings get enough amenities so that their lives become
satisfying and congenial.
The minimum requirements must be guaranteed to all human
beings, and under the environmental conditions concerned -- that is, the
existing environmental conditions -- there should be maximum amenities.
You should satisfy the thirst for physical and psychic longings -- for
physical and psychic pabula -- under the concerning conditions. So
maximum amenities are to be guaranteed to all under the environmental
conditions concerned, which means keeping in view such factors as the
temporal, topographical, geographical, social and psychic conditions.
What is the difference among surroundings, atmosphere,
and environment? “Surrounding” means “everything physical, either
directly physical or psycho-physical, that surrounds.”
“Atmosphere” means “the nature of different expressions in the
surroundings, such as water, air, air pressure, temperature, etc.”
“Environment” means “that which controls the characteristic of
inanimate and animate beings.”
One age will go and another will come, and human
longings will also change. In one age a particular type of breakfast is
accepted as the standard, and in the next age it will be considered
substandard. Today people eat bread and butter, but according to the
standard of the next age people may eat fried rice or sweet rice. Thus,
the maximum amenities of life should be guaranteed to each and every
individual, and their standard should be continuously elevated. The
jurisdiction of maximum amenities will go on expanding with the progress
of human beings. Human beings are marching ahead, and their longing for
different psycho-physical pabula is also increasing. The minimum
requirements of the age must be guaranteed, and the maximum amenities
must also be guaranteed. Maximum amenities must be provided in the
existing environment.
Can human thirst be fully quenched? Can human hunger be
fully satisfied? Why is it that human thirst knows no limitations? From
Prout we are moving to psycho-philosophy. In the relative world human
thirst cannot be satisfied. Human beings are the progeny of the Supreme
Progenitor, therefore human thirst is unlimited. All the properties of
the Supreme are ensconced in human existence, and not only in human
existence, but in each and every entity of the expressed universe. Can
physical thirst, psychic thirst and spiritual thirst be quenched? Only
spiritual thirst can be quenched. Unification of the unit with the
Cosmic can quench the spiritual thirst. The physical body has certain
limitations. It functions within very strict limitations. The mind has a
far bigger jurisdiction, but it is also limited.
13 October 1989, Calcutta
Prout in a nutshell 17
Copyright Ananda Marga
Publications 1999
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The fourth socio-economic principle of Prout, eleventh of the sixteen, states: “The increase in the standard of living of the people is the indication of the vitality of society.” So there must be a constant effort to reduce the gap between the income levels of those with earned surplus goods and services, and those with basic necessities. This means an approach, which, from time to time, increases the lowest wage while leaving the higher wages, untouched. This is a check on the expansion of living of society, and the defined level of basis necessities, rises. The benefits of science and technology can thus be distributed equitably and people in general can be freed from the more mundane responsibilities. Sarkar notes that mechanization under capitalism means more misery and unemployment to the common people because with the increase in the yield of a machine capitalists retrench laborers mercilessly. However under a collective economy the benefits of technology can be passed on to workers through progressive reduction in work hours.
While Sarkar supports the socialization of the means of production and the socialization of capitalist expropriation, he does not support nationalization or the communist practice of party dictatorship on behalf of society, and advocates socialism in the context of neo-humanism.
Sarkar opposes wholesale nationalization on two major grounds. First, the state is entirely dependent upon bureaucrats to administer its affairs. It is impossible for any bureaucracy to run diverse large and small scale industries spread over a whole country. Where a policy of nationalization exists, there persists a smug slackness not only in auditing and accounting, but also in the administrative affairs of the department. Secondly, it is impossible for state run industries to demonstrate as much technological and industrial dexterity and efficiency as either proprietary or cooperative industries. Nationalization is not a prerequisite for socialist transformation or reconstruction, and state ownership should be restricted to those sectors of the economy, which are too large or diverse for effective cooperative management.
Thus Sarkar’s economic principles are rooted in human values and he seeks to blend the expression of human potentiality with economic efficiency and prosperity in the context of a progressive socialist society.
From New Aspects of Prout, by Jayanta Kumar
Proutist Universal Publications, Denmark 1987
Copyright The author 1999
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