THE FOUNDATION OF THE 21ST CENTURY SHALL BE SPIRITUAL ECONOMICS

Regarding the viewpoint of mankind the World Health Organization has placed before the world some astounding statistics. According to it, the world over at present, about 10 billion people suffer from myopia (such patients cannot see far off objects). This news can cause a lot of worry for scientists and the medical fraternity. But in it one also gets data that even if we do not think in terms of a disease yet from the standpoint of lack of farsightedness wherein we fail to mull over future possible events, the entire world population is ‘ill’. If we cannot see with our physical eyes, this problem can be solved by using lenses yet how to solve the problem of lack of farsightedness in life’s daily transactions? Lest in entire world society this financial thinking is made a substratum, then the very existence of non financial values pertaining to beauty, etiquette, good behavior, ethics, good health and cleanliness shall remain only when tested from the financial/economic standpoint. Even with reference to ethics and lack of it this very economic thinking shall perforce ask people not to imbibe farsightedness since it does not give immediate benefits.

In reality the situation is bang opposite to this. Materialists with an unruly intellect may put forth many arguments yet it will be unable to draw humanity on a lowly path. Of course wealth is required for human living but it cannot become the be all and end all of life. The 1st place always belongs to spiritual values. Finance is discussed much later. Wealth without true religiosity is vain, perilous and it invites nothing but diseases and sorrow. Before man starts earning wealth his intellect full of good behavior must get activated. In this manner he will use wholesomely all that he earns.

In Mimansa Darshan (philosophy) Maharshi Jaimini says: “Yato hi abhyudani nihshreyas sa dharmaha”. Spiritual advancement and material progress are fast friends. Yet the basis of production must be labor oriented cooperation and never merely big industries. By enumerating 3 reasons he labels this as Spiritual Economics. The 1st reason is that one gets a total opportunity to utilize and evolve hidden potentials and unknown energy via its medium. The 2nd is that working with others a sense of cooperation takes birth in our psyche. Then the egoistic thought that ‘I’ have done this work, disappears. In its place when ‘we’ appears ego based taints do not crop up. The 3rd reason is that when a spiritual person labors hard to produce materials he makes intense efforts to render beautiful and firm all required things. This sentiment of selfless service is akin to Yoga of Self surrender which today is lacking in all forms of production units.

Problems like joblessness, industrial agitations, strikes, crimes, ethical downfall etc have cropped up in the same manner as for short term benefits one takes recourse to Allopathic cures. A medicine given in this case leaves behind many side effects that lead to other diseases. When floods erupt it brings along with it epidemics etc. in the same way on the basis of industrialization countries out of hypocrisy who claim to have generated a lot of wealth fail to tell us that as a result of this love, affection, goodwill and religious piety get overthrown only to get replaced by people harboring narrow mindedness, selfishness and hard heartedness.

Father of India Mahatma Gandhi was well aware of the dire results of uncontrolled modern science, technology and industrialization. He had hence dreamt of a village self rule via creation of independent village units. But blind adherence to western progress led to industrialization being given greater weight age. The immediate enticement of gigantic amounts of production rendered forgotten farsighted wholesome results and thus Gandhi’s program meant to benefit humanity was relegated to a mere dream.

The imagination of the writer William Irwin Thomson of a research paper titled ‘Values to a viable future’ in “The American Review’ is similar to the thinking of village rule. Thomson has faith that the direction in which today’s civilization is headed towards, most definitely shall destroy the human race. Hence it is most required that transformation from its very fount takes place. He has imagined the advancement of such a culture which has its basis in rural civilization and that its people dwell with a sense of love and brotherhood. The sources of production must be cottage industries.

Irwin Thomson calls this culture as ‘Para Industrial Culture’. According to him in Para Industrial Culture the decentralization of production and labor force shall take place via the medium of small cottage industries. He opines that today in the name of progress and fashion so many materials are made and despite being useful it is called useless just because it is no longer fashionable. Such activities are very dangerous. Now those materials that shall be produced shall be made due to its utility value and shall be used for years to come.

In order to advance this future culture of his, William Irwin has laid stress on 4 ideals. He has given the names of these ideals as ‘Working Social Force’. The first ideal is to render the entire world as one family. As long as each nation thinks itself to be separate from others, no goodwill and brotherhood can usher in between world nations. In order to protect one’s own nation and try and usurp land of other countries, each one resorts to designing and amassing destructive war based weapon technology. As a result tensions and agitations spread out the world over. Hence it is most required that all world countries unite to form a single world family. The 2nd ideal is decentralization of cities and towns. He opines that in this new culture today’s urbanized centralization must be replaced by exposing world humans to nature. Only then is it possible to save the world from all sorts of heinous environmental pollution.

The 3rd ideal is to lessen the zest for technological education (which encourages more industrialization). Small scale industries must replace large scale industries. According to Thomson it is best that technology power used for large industries must also be used for rendering nature full of green trees and plants. Not only does the world’s environment get influenced by large scale industries but that our ethical environment too gets influenced. The dangers of industrialization imbalance can be warded off a great deal only if sacred wisdom is given greater weight age than more and more industrialization, in place of capitalist economy that economy is given more importance in which small industries are built for regional production and more importance is given to consumer values. In this manner tension between people and enmity shall decrease a fair bit.

The 4th ideal of Irwin’s cultural neo creation process is rendering introvert one’s consciousness. What he means is that today the human race has become very externalized and extroverted. Even the highly intellectual class of the world thinks that the highest goal of life is build ‘homes’ in interstellar space whereas the true goal of human life is to progress within at the soul level. In today’s civilization this inner subtle vision is lacking. Only its advancement can help reinstate material values in human life. Under such situations the nature and form of the world shall transform drastically. In order that countries render their borders more widespread, a lot of tension and agitation ensues between countries. Yet when our consciousness shall become introverted the entire world shall seem like a united peaceful family. The aim of world humans is “Vasudhaiva kutumbakam” or world united peacefully as a family.

On the basis of these 4 ideals a new era that evolves shall harbor the goal of production of wealth of great thinking in world society and not merely augmenting various materials. No doubt paraphernalia produced from small factories and industries shall be used yet humans living in the vicinity of nature made up of birds, animals, greenery, foliage etc shall prefer to make efforts to advance his/her soul consciousness. This henceforth shall be looked upon as true progress of world society. In those future times today’s cities shall not remain which today poses problems like lack of food items and energy resources. In future the goal of healthy education shall be to render the intellect brilliant and sacred and the heart full of generosity but never will its only aim be production of more and more materials.