PROUT Gems 

An examination of the 4th principle of PROUT

If a particular person is endowed with all three potentialities (physical,
mental and spiritual) and if only their physical services are utilized, then
they may not be able to serve the society with their intellectual or
spiritual potentialities. So there should be proper adjustment in the
process of encouraging service from individuals or collective bodies.

Here "proper" means progressive. According to PROUT's law of adjustment one
should utilize mostly that potential which is most subtle in a person, and
only secondarily the less subtle one. The utilization of subtler and more
rare potentials should always be preferred.

--

The 4th fundamental principle of Prout states:

"There should be a proper adjustment amongst these physical, metaphysical,
mundane, supramundane and spiritual utilizations."

Purport: While promoting individual and collective welfare there should be
proper adjustment amongst the physical, mental and spiritual and the crude,
subtle and causal factors. For example, society has the responsibility of
meeting the minimum necessities of every individual but if society arranges
food and builds a house for everyone under the impetus of this
responsibility, individual initiative becomes retarded. People will
gradually become lethargic. Therefore society has to make such arrangements
so that people, in exchange for their labour according to their capacity,
can earn the money they require to purchase the minimum necessities. In
order to raise the level of minimum necessities of people the best policy is
to enhance their purchasing capacity.

The law of adjustment further stipulates that while taking services from a
person who is physically, mentally and spiritually developed, society should
follow a balanced policy of adjustment. If only one of these three
capacities - physical, mental or spiritual - is developed in a person,
society should take the one that is developed. If both physical and
intellectual capacities are sufficiently developed in a person, society
should adopt the policy of adjustment, which takes more intellectual service
and less physical service, because intellectual power is comparatively
subtle and rare. If all three capacities - physical, mental and spiritual -
are found in one person, society should make greatest use of their spiritual
service and least of their physical service.

The greatest service to the cause of social welfare can be rendered by those
who have acquired spiritual power, and the next service by those having
intellectual power. Those having physical power, though not negligible,
cannot do anything by themselves. Whatever they do is done under the
instructions of those with intellectual and spiritual power. Hence the
responsibility of social control should not be in the hands of those who
have great physical capacity, or in the hands of those endowed with courage,
or in the hands of those who are intellectually developed, or in the hands
of those with worldly skills. Social control should be in the hands of those
who are spiritual aspirants, intelligent and brave all at the same time.
(See Ananda Sutram 1962 by Shrii Shrii Anandamurti / P R Sarkar)

--

In this regard one must ask, what can quench the human apiration?

If land is bountiful and 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?  That is, taking the
human entity as a microcosm, will their aspirations be quenched by physical
and then psychic longings and gains?

The answer must be no. To quench the all-round micro-psychic longings of the
people, there must be the following:
- Psycho-spiritual education. As there can be balkanization of society if
there is no psycho-spiritual education, eg this is evident by fighting
between religions.
- Rule by moralists and people of ethical calibre based on universal
cardinal human values.
- A balanced structure.  Eg in the political structure at least the three
arms of government - legislature, executive, judicial.
- Ever-increasing purchasing power. If the per capita income is $500 and the
price of acquiring food per year is $800, the condition of the people will
be very bad.

--

It is essential also that there be the 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 fulfill the above responsibilities, sufficient
purchasing capacity should be created. If the supply of requirements be
guaranteed without any conditions of personal skill and labor, the
individual may develop the psychology of idleness.

The minimum requirements of every person are the same, 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. 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-conomic 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 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

One pertinent question is whether both a ceiling on landed property and a
ceiling on bank balances have to be imposed. It goes without saying that
both methods have to be adopted, but the latter should precede the former.
This will bring immediate cash to the government to help establish new
industries on the one hand, and it will check the growth of capitalism on
the other. By enforcing land ceilings no direct benefit can be expected to
accrue to the nation because the available arable land will not be
increased, nor will production be increased, since it is not the function of
the government to cultivate land. Such an approach would wound the public
sentiment and the public would think that the state had replaced the big
landowners (zamindars). In the face of food shortages it is not advisable to
change land policies immediately.

By P.R. Sarkar
From "Talks on Prout" (1961)
Prout in a nutshell 15

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