Baba
Failed way
Namaskar,
Nowadays, we hear a lot about the inequality of wealth in society. The population of India, second largest in the world, is around 1.34 billion. Thus, a minuscule fraction of the entire population is controlling a huge proportion of the national wealth. In other words, the wealth is accumulated in the treasure vaults of a select few. As a consequence, a vast proportion of the population is languishing in abject poverty.
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Reason behind ultra rich
Wealth accumulation is a widely discussed topic in social, political, and academic spheres due to its highly negative influence. The reason behind wealth accumulation is a very basic concept. The material wealth of this universe is finite, while humans have an infinite desire. Some misguided people try to satisfy their infinite desires with the available finite resources. Those greedy people who are capable, go on accumulating wealth well beyond their needs, thinking that the wealth will fulfill their infinite desire. Thus, they collect huge amounts of wealth by exploiting others. As the net wealth of the universe is limited, the remaining people are left with very little or nothing to even meet their basic needs. Wealth accumulation begets many problems like economic depression, poverty, and social degeneration.
Economic depression: cause & solution
Economic depression is the most dreaded amongst all economic problems. If most of the wealthy people, who are very few in number compared to the entire population in an economy, stop investing their money then the whole economy crashes. The aforementioned phenomenon of a crashed economy is known as an economic depression. Economic depression is less likely if the wealth is distributed more evenly.
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According to Prout, “The value of money increases with its mobility. That is, the more that money changes hands, the greater its economic value. On the other hand, the more that money is kept immobile in a safe, the more it loses its utility, and thus its economic value decreases. This is the most fundamental principle of economics.” (1)
Real cause of poverty
Although limited, there are sufficient resources to feed all. However, a few misguided individuals amass most of the resources and deprive others of meeting their basic needs. This causes poverty. Thus poverty is caused by wealth concentration and not due to a lack of resources.
According to Prout, “The ambition to become rich by exploiting others is a type of psychic disease. In fact, if the infinite longing of the human mind does not find the proper path leading to psychic and spiritual fulfilment, it becomes engaged in accumulating excessive physical wealth by depriving others. If any member of a joint family appropriates food from the family food store by using physical or intellectual force, he or she becomes the cause of misery to others. Similarly, when capitalists declare, “We have amassed wealth by our talent and labour. If others have the capacity and diligence, let them also do the same; nobody prevents them”, they do not care to realize that the volume of commodities on the earth is limited, whereas the requirement is common to all. Excessive individual affluence, in most cases, deprives others of the minimum requirements of life.” (2)
Ultra-rich are root of social degeneration
Another problem associated with an overaccumulation of wealth is that an access to extreme wealth often intoxicates and debauches wealthy people. Others who are not well to do, live under a spell of hopelessness and inferiority complex. This causes a degenerate social environment in which the finer sensibilities and higher human values of people are lost.
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Failed solutions
Two common solutions to the problems of wealth accumulation that have been practiced in India and different parts of the world include: (1) Communism that snatches money from the rich and promises to divide equally among the poor, and (2) Gandhism that exhorts the rich to donate their money to the poor people.
Communist approach & defects
The communists believe that all the money from the rich should be taken away by the communist state. Such a solution, rather than distributing the wealth, concentrates the wealth at one place, i.e., with the communist state. The difference in the effects of capitalism and communism on wealth concentration is that instead of the wealth concentration amongst a select few rich people in capitalism the wealth accumulates in the hands of the communist state. Communism is, in fact, state capitalism. Thus, the problem of wealth accumulation remains the same if not worse when the communist approach is used. Moreover, forcefully snatching the wealth will not eliminate the greed that causes the wealth accumulation in the first place. Capitalism makes people beggars while communism makes the beggars animals.
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Prout philosophy states, “Communism is state capitalism which is why it is not free from the defects of capitalism. State capitalists, like individual and group capitalists, control industries. State capitalism means state controlled industries. In other words, in state capitalism industries are centralized. Communist countries support state capitalism, which means centralized production. While communism appears to differ from capitalism on the question of popular liberation, capitalism and communism are the same internally. Fruits of the same variety may have different colour skins, but their seeds are the same. Capitalism and communism are fruits of the same variety.” (3)
Gandhism & its defects
Gandhism on the other hand proposes requesting the rich to donate to the poor. The request may or may not be acceded to, which is the problem. Such an approach is very slow and results are also not certain. The famous Bhudán movement pioneered by the famous disciple of Gandhi jii called Vinoba Bhave is an example of the aforementioned approach. Bhudán means ‘donation of land.’ The movement did not succeed for the aforementioned reasons. Gandhism has a major defect that it delays the revolution and thus indirectly supports capitalist exploitation. People begin to feel that the donation is the only way and as few donors are donating so nothing more needs to be done. So Gandhism delays the revolution.
Prout philosophy states, “In Gandhism, we find two defects – psychological and material. Although Gandhism is not pure capitalism, it is undoubtedly a way to protect capitalism. Capitalists find complete shelter in this system. Gandhism claims that the capitalists are the trustees of human beings, but how can that be possible? Can those who thrive on human blood be the protectors of human beings? How can the exploited masses believe that the exploiters will be their saviours? Hence, Gandhism is ultra vires to psychology."
"Secondly, Gandhism always tries to avoid fights and all sorts of struggle, including class struggle. According to Marxism, there are two main classes – the exploiters and the exploited. Gandhism does not recognize this sort of division. The fact is that out of the four classes in society – the shúdras, kśatriyas, vipras, and vaeshyas – the dominant or ruling class exploits the other classes according to its capacity. While the period of exploitation may be short or long depending upon the inherent strength or vitality of the ruling class, the order of mundane advancement follows this pattern. According to Gandhism, it is possible to transform the exploiters through persuasion. Theoretically, this view may be acceptable, but it is neither natural nor practical. If a goat tries to persuade a tiger, won’t the tiger eat the goat? Struggle is natural and indispensable. According to Tantra also, progress lies in struggle. The denial of struggle is the material defect of Gandhism. That is why the world will never accept Gandhism.” (4)
Poverty is not destiny but a man-made problem
Both the aforementioned approaches are defective. Poverty can neither be alleviated by mindlessly snatching from the rich nor should it be accepted as one’s destiny. A change in social structure has to be brought forth to solve this man-made problem.
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Proutist solution is free of defects
All should share the resources just like siblings do in a family. Prout provides the solution based in spirituality unlike Communism and Gandhism that are based on materialism. All the resources in the universe has been created by Parama Purusa. Humans cannot make anything. All they can do is transform the objects already created by Parama Purusa from one form to another. Thus, no human can claim hegemony over the resources. All resources are to be shared such that the utilization is maximized. The feeling of sharing can be evoked only if a spiritual bent of mind is developed. As all humans are created by Parama Purusa, we are all brothers and sisters and thus should share the resources just like siblings do in a family.
Prout philosophy states, “Parama Puruśa [Supreme Consciousness] is my Father, Paramá Prakrti [Supreme Operative Principle] is my Mother, and the universe is my homeland. We are all citizens of this universe.” (5)
Shudras are to be transformed into vikśubdha shúdras
In the existing state of affairs wherein capitalism has taken over and Vaishyas are dominating the world Vipras and Kshatriyas have also turned into Shudras. If we look around, the intellectual and warrior classes are working for capitalists i.e. Vaishyas, and are thus no more than shudras. All other classes get exploited by the capitalists. To bring a revolution to break the yoke of exploitation, emergence of vikśubdha shúdras is needed. Vikśubdha Shudras are those who, although getting exploited, realize their miserable state and attempt a revolution.
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Prout philosophy states, “However, a day comes when some intelligent people emerge from the exploited masses having detected the exploiters’ techniques to dupe the people, even though the media is controlled. At this stage the exploiters become active intellectually to prevent the germination of the seed of liberation. They take control of the education system, the printing presses and the propaganda agencies in a last and desperate attempt to raise high embankments to contain the surging tide of public discontent. But soon after comes the day of change when the vikśubdha shúdras [disgruntled masses] rise up in revolt and the high sand embankments get washed away by the floods of revolution. After this the masses make an independent appraisal of the type of socio-psycho-economic exploitation they were subjected to. Before the revolution they may have discussed social injustice in private amongst themselves, but if they had tried to propagate their discontent publicly their tongues would have been cut.” (6)
Conclusion
Concentration of wealth in the hands of a select few is a major problem caused by capitalism, which in turn causes economic depression, poverty and social degeneration. To solve the problem of wealth concentration, the defective approaches of communism or gandhism are often used which eventually fail as they are based in materialism or idealism. However, the proper pragmatic solution is Prout. As Proutists we have to use a three pronged approach.
- We have to create strong circumstantial pressure* so that people will give their extra wealth which they have accumulated beyond their basic needs, give it up for the cause of society.
- Prout economic policies should be implemented so that these capitalist exploiters will not get the opportunity to exploit the common masses and amass wealth and make others starve anymore.
- To
remove their psychic disease, spiritual practice should be taught to
them so that they can goad their infinite desires toward Supreme
Consciousness. When their psychic desires will be goaded toward Parama
Purusa, then their tendency to hold onto wealth will slowly diminish. By
this process, capitalist exploiters as well as the entire society will
be benefitted.
This is the only way to remove the socio-economic suffering of the common, hungry masses of the entire world.
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In Him,
Bhakti
* For further details on the meaning of ‘circumstantial pressure’, please read Baba’s book “Problems of the Day.”
~ In-depth study ~
Due to the overaccumulation of wealth by a few, the majority of people became very poor, hand-to-mouth.
See these impoverished kids. The ultra-rich are the cause.
Misguided logic by capitalist cheats
Ananda Marga philosophy guides us, “The aspiration to become rich by exploiting others is always a kind of psychic ailment. Capitalists argue, “We amass wealth through our intellect and labour. Let others also amass wealth in the same way if they have the intellect or capacity to work. Who will stop them?” They do not want to accept that the number of consumable commodities in the world is limited, but all need their basic necessities. If one person is rolling in wealth this will generally mean that others will be deprived of even their minimum requirements. The failure to recognize the needs of others is itself a disease. But the victims of this ailment are also our brothers and sisters, members of the same human family. Either through human appeals or circumstantial pressure, these people must be cured of their psychic ailment. In order to do this we will have to channelize their obsession with material wealth in a mental and spiritual direction. At the same time as people’s physical hunger and thirst are being satisfied, everyone should be freely taught scientific processes to fulfil their psycho-spiritual] longings.” (7)
References
1. Proutist Economics, Keep Money Rolling - Section B,
2. Problems of the Day, Point #4
3. Prout in a Nutshell Part 16, Decentralized economy - Part 3
4. Prout in a Nutshell Part 21, Social Defects in Gandhism
5. Problems of the Day, Point #1
6. Ananda Marga Philosophy in Nutshell - 5, Yatamána – 2
7. Prout in a Nutshell Part 5, The Responsibility of Society
== Section 2: Links ==
Other topics of interest
