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Prout defines social classes on the basis of collective mental disposition. It also defines certain mental qualities that make for good leadership. At the center of proutistic society sadvipras – morally and spiritually enlightened – guide society onwards to still more exploitation-free and progressive being throughout the social cycle.

The Place of Sadvipras in the Social Cycle

By Shrii Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar
Primitive man had no society and the whole set up was individualistic. Even the concept of family was absent. Life was brute and non-intellectual. Nature was the direct abode and physical strength ruled the day. The strong enjoyed at the cost of the weak who had to surrender before the voracity of the physical giants. However, the sense of acquisition had not developed in them and they worked manually and there was no intellectual exploitation in that age. Though the life was brute, it was not brutal. If  proletarians, shudras, be defined as those who live by manual work or service, the primary stage of nature’s brute laws could be named as the proletarian age, because all were manual workers. The reliance on physical power gradually led a chosen few to lead the rest by the strength of their muscles. They were the leaders of the proletariat.

Simultaneously, the family also developed. And the above mentioned leadership once based upon the superiority of muscles passed on from the father to the son or from the mother to the daughter partly due to the momentum of fear and power commanded and partly because of superiority of animatic breed.

Superior strength requires assistance of other superior strengths in the neighborhood to maintain their status. Generally such superior neighbors belonged to the same parent-hood or were related through matrimonial ties. Gradually the leaders by physical might started a well-knit group and ultimately formed a class known as the warriors, ks'attriyas . The age, when the power to rule, or supremacy in arms, was the only material factors that mattered, was the warrior age. The leaders of the warrior age were Herculean, huge giants who depended on the supremacy of personal valor and might, making little or no use of intellect.

With the development of intellect and skill as a result of physical and psychic clash, physical strength had to lose its dignified position according to the growing intensity of intellectual demand in the warrior-dominated society. One had also to develop skill in the use of arms, and even for this the physical giant had to sit at the feet of some physically common men to learn the use of arms and strategy. A reference to mythology of any ancient culture quotes numberless instances where the hero of the day had to acquire specific knowledge from teachers. Subsequently, this learning was not confined to use of arms only and extended to other spheres, such as battle-craft, medicine and forms of organization and administration, so essential for ruling any society. Thus the dependence on superior intellect increased day by day, and in course of time real power passed into the hands of such intellectuals. These intellectuals as the word implies, justified their existence on intellect only, performed no labor themselves, and were parasites in the sense that they exploited the energy put in by others in society. This age of domination by intellectual parasites can be called  intellectual – vipra – age. Even though the intellectuals came into fore-front by the use of their marked intellect, it is more difficult than in case of warriors to maintain a hereditary superiority of intellect. In an effort to maintain power amongst the limited few they actively tried and prevented others from acquiring use of the intellect by imposing superstitions and rituals, faiths and beliefs, and introduced even irrational ideas (caste system of Hindu society is such an example) through an appeal to the sentiments of the mass (who collectively cannot be called intellectual). This was the phase of human society in the middle ages in the greater part of the world.

The continued exploitation of one section of society resulted in the necessity for collection and transfer of the consumable goods. Even otherwise, need was felt very badly for transport of food and other necessities of life from surplus parts to deficient parts. Also in case of clan-conflicts the result of resources of one community or class versus another, gained importance. This aspect was confined not only to the producers but also to those handling that at various stages up to the point of consumption. These people became known as acquisitors or capitalists – vaeshyas – and ingenuity and summed up production began to enjoy supremacy and importance till an age was reached when this aspect of life became the most important factor that counted. These capitalists, therefore, began to enjoy a position of supremacy and the age dominated by this class is said to be the age of capitalists. Individualistic or laissez-faire essence develops capitalism when the means of production pass into the hands of a few, who are more interested in personal exploitation. At this stage, it can be said that the instinct of acquisition has developed tremendously.

The thirst of acquisition instigated them to the psychology of complete exploitation of the human race also. And this resulted in a class by itself. In the race for greed and acquisition not all could dominate the society in general and the economic set up in particular by their capital. The great majority were either duped to believe that they would be allowed to share such resources or were neglected and left uncared for for want of strength and did not survive the race. Such men in the society ultimately occupy the place of exploited slaves of the capitalists. They are slaves because they have no option other than to serve the capitalist as laborers to earn the means of subsistence. We may recall the definition of proletariat as persons who live by manual work or labor hard for their livelihood. This age of capitalism is the one when the large majority of society turn into such proletariat. This develops into dejection and dissatisfaction on a large scale because of an internal clash in the mind, because the psychology of society essentially dynamic in nature and the mind itself exists as a result of constant clash. These conditions are necessary and sufficient for laborers whether manual or mental to organize and stand up against the unnatural impositions in life. This may be termed as proletarian revolution. The leader of this revolution also are men physically and mentally better equipped and capable essentially of overthrowing the capitalistic structure by force. In other words, they are also warriors. So, after a period of chaos and catastrophe once more the same cycle – proletarian age to warrior to intellectual and so on recommences.

In this cycle of civilization one age changes into another. This gradual change should be called evolution, kranti. The period of transition from one age to another can be said to be transitional age, yuga samkranti. One complete cycle from the proletarian age evolutionizing to other four ages is called full cycle, parikranti. Sometimes this social cycle is reversed by application of physical or psychic force by a group of people inspired by a negative theory. Such a change is, therefore, counter-evolution i.e. – against the cycle of civilization. This may be termed as vikranti. But if this reversal of social cycle takes place due to political pressure or any other brute force within a short span of time, the change thus brought about is counter-revolution.

Such a morally and spiritually equipped sadvipra [satya means Cosmic truth; sadvipra means "whose intellect is ensconced in satya"] has to perform fundamental and vital duty to society. In the cycle of social evolution during each age before it is succeeded by another age, on particular class enjoys the position of domination and superiority. Such class while in political power has every chance of exploiting the society. History has shown that this is not a mere chance but has been repeating itself. Now the duty of sadvipra is to see that their dominating class does not take recourse to exploitation. The four classes: the toiling class, the warrior class; the intellectual class and the capitalist class have remained well defined in the cycle of human civilization and the gradual domination and decline of each class shall continue to occur in their cycle.

Life is a dynamic principle and the movement of social cycle continues without any break or pause. The cycle cannot be checked as stagnation implies death. The function of the sadvipra shall, therefore, be to see that the dominating or the ruling classes do not have any scope for exploitation. The moment one class turns to be exploiters, the life of the majority become miserable, a few enjoy at the cost of many whose lot is only to suffer. More than that, in such a state of society both the few and the many get degenerated. The few (exploiters) degenerate themselves due to excess of physical enjoyments and the many (exploited) cannot elevate themselves, because all their energy is taken up in mundane problems and all their mental waves are always tending to attain psycho-physical parallelism, thus getting day by day cruder. Hence for the physical, mental and spiritual welfare of the administrator and the administered of the society as a whole - it is essential that none should be given any scope to exploit the rest of society.

The sadvipra is not an inactive witness. He is an active participant to see that no person or class exploits the rest. For this he may have to resort even to physical violence because the sadvipra will have to strike at the source of the power which is tending to become the exploiter. In case the warrior class is becoming exploiters, the sadvipra may have to resort to physical force and in an age where the intellectual class is dominating, the sadvipra may have to contest and win election because the capitalist class rule by democracy and the democratic set-up enables them to accumulate undue gains.

Copyright Ananda Marga 1999