PROUT Gems An efficient economy is one in which minimum necessities for all are guaranteed through adequate purchasing capacity. No country or economy has achieved this due to limited outlook. But by universalistic outlook expansion of mind occurs. Universal humanism requires getting to the roots of what is fundamentally important and developing principles that allow for expansion and growth in a balanced way at the physical, psychic and spiritual levels and for the good and happiness of all. For points below are essential for this. In this issue: - Availability of minimum essentialities of life - Minimum requirements and maximum amenities - The amenities of life - Guaranteed minimum requirements - Increasing purchasing capacity - Income or purchasing capacity? - Quenching aspirations - The 5 fundamental principles of Prout (PROgressive Utilisation Theory) --- Availability of minimum essentialities of life The availability of minimum essentialities of life plays a vital part not only in achieving world fraternity but also in the development of human personality. Every human being has certain minimum requirements, which must be guaranteed to him or her. Guaranteed availability of foodstuffs, clothing, medical assistance and housing or accommodation should be arranged, so that people may be able to use their surplus energy - energy up till now engaged in procuring the necessities of life - in subtler pursuits. Side by side, there should be sufficient scope for providing other amenities of the progressive age. To fulfil the above responsibilities, sufficient purchasing capacity should be created. If the supply of requirements be guaranteed without any conditions of personal skill and labour, the individual may develop the psychology of idleness. Therefore, persons should generally earn their adequate purchasing capacity. However, that earning is to be in a co-operative economy. The minimum requirements of every person are generally the same in substance; but diversity is also the nature of creation. Special amenities should therefore be provided, so that diversity in skill and intelligence is fully utilized and talent is encouraged to contribute its best for human development. It will therefore be necessary to make provision for special emoluments, which can cater for special amenities of life according to the age and times. But at the same time there should be constant effort to reduce the gap between the amount of special emoluments and the bare minimum requirements of the average individual. This achieves efficiency in the economy, which cannot be achieved in capitalist or communist economies both of which espouse centralisation of wealth in the hands of a few (ie either in the centralised corporate structures or the State structures). The guaranteed supply of minimum requirements must be liberalized by increasing the provision of special amenities pertaining to the age, and also simultaneously bringing about a decrease in the provision of special emoluments given to the few. The never-ending effort of proper economic adjustment must ceaselessly continue at all times with a view to assisting the spiritual, mental and physical evolution of humanity, and letting humanity develop a Cosmic sentiment for a Cosmic ideal and world fraternity. In this socio-economic set-up humanity is at full liberty in the spiritual and mental spheres. This is possible because the spiritual and psychic entities for which people can aspire are themselves unlimited and the extent of possession in this sphere does not hamper the progress of others in their quests. But supply in the physical sphere is limited and hence any effort for disproportionate or unrestricted acquisition of physical objects has every possibility of creating a vast majority of have nots, thus hampering the spiritual, mental and physical growth of the larger majority. So while dealing with the problem of liberty in the physical sphere, it must not be allowed to cross a limit where it is instrumental in hampering the development of the complete personality of humanity - and at the same time must not be so drastically curtailed that the spiritual, mental and physical growth of human beings is hampered. June 1959 - From Idea and Ideology --- Minimum requirements and maximum amenities 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 first 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 moving towards 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. 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 move towards the maximum amenities for 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 - Prout in a nutshell 17 --- The amenities of life 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 favoured with moving towards 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 aspiration of the maximum amenities to all. Let us distinguish between "the pabulum asked for" and "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, but under the environmental conditions concerned, which means keeping in view such factors as the temporal, topographical, geographical, social and psychic conditions. 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, these type of 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 psychophysical pabula is also increasing. The minimum requirements of the age must be guaranteed without fail, and the maximum amenities must also be guaranteed by increases above the minimum necessities and moving towards the maximum available to those making special contributions to society. Maximum amenities must be provided in the existing environment. Here environment means that which controls the characteristic of inanimate and animate beings. 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 situated within a infinite Cosmos and can be called the progeny of the Infinite Consciousness, therefore human thirst is unlimited. All the properties of the Infinite Consciousness are likewise 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 / identification 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. This relativity of birth, sustenance and decay can never give ultimate happiness. Identification of unit consciousness with the sense of Infinite or Infinite Peace is what achieve ultimate happiness. 13 October 1989 - Prout in a nutshell 17 --- Guaranteed minimum requirements Prout's economic system guarantees the minimum requirements of life -- that is at least food, clothing, accommodation, medical treatment and education -- to each and every person. Once the minimum requirements have been guaranteed, the surplus wealth is to be distributed among people with special qualities and skills such as physicians, engineers and scientists, because such people play an important role in the collective development of society. The quantum of the minimum requirements should be progressively increased so that the standard of living of the common people is always increasing. The concept of equal distribution is a utopian idea. It is merely a clever slogan to deceive simple, unwary people. Prout rejects this concept and advocates the maximum utilization and rational distribution of resources. This will provide incentives to increase production. 1981 - Prout in a nutshell 13 --- Increasing purchasing capacity - Income or purchasing capacity? Increasing purchasing capacity To effectively implement this, increasing the purchasing capacity of each individual is the controlling factor in a Proutistic economy. The purchasing capacity of common people in many undeveloped, developing and developed countries has been neglected, hence the economic systems of these countries are breaking down and creating a worldwide crisis. The first thing that must be done to increase the purchasing capacity of the common people is to maximize the production of essential commodities, not the production of luxury goods. This will restore parity between production and consumption and ensure that the minimum requirements are supplied to all. 1981 - Prout in a nutshell 13 Income or purchasing capacity? Question: What do we want, increase in per capita income or increase in purchasing capacity? Answer: Prout suggests that increases in per capita income are not a sufficiently reliable and scientific index to determine the standard and progress of a particular unit. Rather, this approach is misleading and deceitful, because it refers to a simple mathematical calculation of total national income divided by total population. This does not give the correct picture of the standard of living of the people of a particular unit, as the wealth disparity in society is concealed. Per capita income shows the mean and not the variation of income distribution. If inflation is also considered, the reliability of per capita income is further reduced. On the other hand, purchasing capacity is the real index of how a person's economic needs can be met by their income. All Prout's plans and programmes in the sphere should be aimed at increasing the purchasing capacity of the people. Note that Prout stresses increasing purchasing capacity and not per capita income. Per capita income is not a proper indication of the increase in the standard of living of the people because while people may have very high incomes they may not be able to purchase the necessities of life. On the other hand if the per capita income is low but people have great purchasing capacity they are much better off. So purchasing capacity and not per capita income is the true measure of economic prosperity. Everyone's requirements should be within their pecuniary periphery or purchasing capacity. People will earn their required purchasing capacity through work. There will be no unemployment in such as progressive-minded socio-economic setup as local people on the local level will control the economy. When local people control the economy there is no chance of outsiders exploiting the local people. That local non-profiteering economy will develop self-reliance and it will be easy to keep everyone employed in such a consumption-motivated economy. Consumption economy produces for consumption needs not for profiteering tendencies. Rational profits from a business are distributed as wages, salary, bonuses, dividends to provide proper purchasing capacity. P R Sarkar 10 December 1987, Calcutta From Questions and answers, Prout in a nutshell 12 --- Quenching aspirations If the land is bountiful and the per capita income is very high, does it mean that the all-round micro-psychic conations or the all-round micro-psychic aspirations of the people are fully quenched or not? Answer: No. To quench the all-round micro-psychic longings of the people, there must be the following: - Psycho-spiritual education. There can be balkanization of society if there is no psycho-spiritual education - Rule by moralists - A balanced structure - Ever-increasing purchasing power. If the per capita income is $30,000 and the price of the cost of living is $40,000, the condition of the people will be very bad "Questions and answers" - Prout in a nutshell 18 --- The 5 fundamental principles of Prout (PROgressive Utilisation Theory) In 1959, Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar formulated the five fundamental principles of Prout, which were subsequently published in the end chapter of the book Idea and Ideology. These five core principles were incorporated as aphorisms 12 to 16 of the fifth chapter of Ananda Sutram (1962), a central work by P.R. Sarkar, along with the 11 social and socio-economic principles of Prout. 1 Ceiling on accumulation of physical wealth 2 Maximum utilization and rational distribution of all potentialities of the world 3 Maximum utilization of all individual and collective potentialities 4 Proper adjustment between all utilizations 5 Method of utilization to vary with changes in time, place and person and be of progressive nature