The ecology of progress

By Ravi Batra

To understand Prout, it is necessary to begin with its concept of progress.
In common parlance, the term "progress" is associated with technical and
scientific advancement, or anything that enhances the comforts of life. But
these also create problems and can therefore not be termed as real progress.

Humanity is said to have made tremendous progress today because life seems
so much more comfortable these days then it was a few centuries ago.
Nowadays people can travel fast by land and air, whereas only a hundred
years ago they were travelling by horse-drawn buggies and bullock carts. If
we go back to ancient times, people had to travel on foot. This progress is
commonly understood as an increase in living comforts through scientific
inventions, which have eased our lives not only physically but also
mentally. The invention of paper has helped spread scholarly ideas. People
can now engage their minds reading novels and other literature. The Internet
is another case in point, having put exchange of ideas and gathering of
information at the fingertips of all. Scientific discoveries may be credited
with tremendous advance that humanity has made in the physical and
intellectual realm.

All this, according to Prout, is not real progress. To be sure, it has
resulted in a great change in the mode of living, but it is not real
progress because most scientific discoveries have created problems which
were non-existence before or which have increased proportionally with the
various material or intellectual developments. Faster travel today has
increased the risk of accident; industrialisation has resulted in
environmental pollution and cancer and other diseases unheard of in the
past; and modern medicines quickly cure the malady but generate side-effects
requiring further treatment. Even in the intellectual sphere, there is much
available to keep the mind occupied, but people today suffer from emotional
problems and neuroses that did not afflict them before. And a momentous
invention like the Internet is surely a mighty river of and important
carrier of information but it is also a cesspool of negative influence and
even dangerous addiction to some.

Increased comforts in physical and intellectual spheres have been
accompanied by deleterious side-effects, and who is to say that progress has
really occurred in these realms. Indeed, P R Sarkar goes as far as saying
that progress in the intellectual and physical sense is impossible unless
there occurs a spiritual advance at the same time - unless they support
spiritual development. In other words, the term progress in the intellectual
and physical spheres is a misnomer.

Why cannot progress occur in the physical and intellectual arenas? Why must
any positive development on these levels be associated with a negative
movement? The reason lies in the very nature of the universe, which exists,
in a vibrational flow balanced by positive and negative forces.

Physical development needs to be mentioned. Our Earth and the atmosphere
surrounding it are finite. Any positive wave in these finite realms will
have to be counterbalanced by a negative wave. Therefore, any invention
creating a positive wave of physical comfort is matched by a corresponding
negative wave leading to discomfort. In view of the interdependent nature of
the physical world, it is not surprising that the results of new technology
will be exactly counterbalanced by a side-effect. Therefore if life becomes
easier in some respects, it will become harder in others. No one can laud
science and technology as anything else but a mixed blessing.

Prout's claim that real progress is impossible in the physical realm is very
strong indeed. It seems to be incredible but it has an internal logic of its
own. And today, with the constructive and destructive fruits of science
visible in all directions, this logic has become manifestly clear. Can you
think of any invention, which while reproducing life's boredom has not added
to life's danger at the same time? Repetitive work is drudgery; when
machines can do that work life becomes more pleasant than before. If
dishwashers do our dishes, air-conditioners temperate our rooms, laundry
machines clean our clothes, cars do our walking and so on, life certainly
appears blissful relative to what our forefathers had to endure in a less
scientific world. But then they did not have to cope with electric shocks,
fatal accidents, urban congestion, super-selfishness, crime and so on.

Indeed the harm done by an invention varies directly with its promises of
comfort. Coal results in smoke pollution and so does oil. Nuclear power has
none of this and is one vast reservoir of power. But when problems first
come in a nuclear plant they may be many times deadlier and more
catastrophic than traditional sources of energy. You can move away from the
pollution of oil and coal but from nuclear radiation there is no escape. It
follows you wherever you go.

Today solar energy holds greater promise than nuclear plants. That is
because its dangers are not yet known. Every scientific device conceals
invisible dangers that become apparent much later. When utilising new
technology, we do not expect any trouble from it. This is faulty logic and
very short term thinking.

Sarkar corrects this thinking by saying that the side effects of every
invention are inevitable, because the universe is finite, and vibrational in
nature, and any physical change producing comfort must be counter-balanced
by an equivalent physical change producing misery of some sort.

Does it mean that science should be discarded? Not at all. With our
overwhelming problems concerning energy, population and pollution, our
relapse to pre-science days is unthinkable. All it means is that we have to
be more cautious about inventions. Before translating any new invention into
industrial technology, its side-effects should be thoroughly studied, and
investments should simultaneously be made in controlling its emissions.

What about mental development? While the concept of progress in the material
sphere is at best dubious, things are not better in the intellectual sphere.
The world seems to have greatly advanced in the realm of the intellect.
There are more scholars today than ever before. People with an M.A. and
Ph.D. abound in many nations, and many more are habituated to regular
reading and writing. But has all this occurred without a cost?

People in ancient times were intellectually backward, but they did not
suffer from emotional stress and neuroses. One who is less scholarly is also
less prone to mental disturbances, whereas an intellectual is highly
vulnerable in this regard. He or she creates unnecessary problems in his own
world of imaginations and experiences sleepless nights. Hence in the
intellectual sphere also, progress is unlikely, if not impossible, because
the feeling of increased pleasure is likely to be balanced by one of
increasing trouble and pain. The barometer of progress in the ultimate
analysis must be mental pleasure, which is really nothing but a mental
vibration emitted by relaxed nerves. On the other end, pain is just an
opposite experience. When the nerves are under tension, the vibration
generated in the mind is called pain. In evaluating the impact of science,
people usually focus on the conveniences it has provided, while ignoring the
nervous tensions it has created in our lives. The fact that progress is not
possible in the material sphere only means that the scientific change
increases both pleasures and pain in the same proportions.

The same holds true with intellectual activity as well. In most states, mind
experiences either pleasure or pain. There may be cases of mental repression
of mental denial of either comforting or discomforting things, but such
mental states do not last long. Generally, mind is either happy or unhappy.
The intellectual activity undoubtedly increases the feeling of pleasure. A
person who has won an argument over another is usually very happy and
sometimes delirious with joy. But after a while, he or she will experience a
corresponding amount of pain in some other aspect of his or her mind. The
reason is that the human mind has a certain mass and volume. Purely
intellectual study and analysis fail to enhance its mass. All they do is to
increase the activity and play of ideas into a given intellectual arena.
With a greater number of thoughts criss-crossing a given mental field, the
result inevitably is increased clash in the mind. Hence occurs the mental
breakdown, and hence the neuroses. Hence the growing need of psychiatrists
in the intellectually developed societies.

What is true progress? Is progress possible at all? The answer is yes. Human
existence has three aspects - physical, mental and spiritual. While the
first two aspects are not amenable to progress, the third is. Increased
happiness in that sphere is not neutralised by increased misery.

While physical and intellectual activities deal with the limited,
spirituality is concerned with the unlimited. Hence the goal in the
spiritual arena is not finite but infinite. Therefore, the feeling of
pleasure resulting from spiritual activity is not accompanied by pain, or
happiness by misery. This then is true progress. In the spiritual experience
there is no negative movement, no reaction. For every effort there is a
forward march unaccompanied by any deleterious side-effects.

Spiritual activities include meditation and selfless living. Without
providing help to the needy, the forward movement towards the infinite is
impossible. And since mind's goal is infinitude, the spiritual life results
in an expansion in the volume as well as the mass of mind. As a result, the
mental conflict declines, and the nerves get relaxation. The person becomes
broadminded. He or she seeks to serve others, to share in their pains. A
community which respects the selfless beings and attempts to emulate them,
experiences increased happiness without corresponding pain. That is when
true progress occurs in the entire society. The degree of selflessness,
therefore, is the true gauge of society's progress, and not the material
development, or its intellectual attainments.

While real progress is unlikely in the material and mental sphere, Prout
does not advocate that scientific and intellectual pursuits be abandoned. On
the contrary, Prout is the champion of science, art and literature. Sarkar
insists, however, that scientific advances should be "spiritualised"; they
should be accompanied by spiritual practices for such practices enable us to
gain increasing mastery over our body and mind. All detrimental effects of
scientific and intellectual developments on the human organism can thus be
brought under control.

The introduction of new technology increases the pace of life. More
decisions than before have to be made in a relatively short span of time;
one has to move fast from place to place in order to cope with the speed of
the machines. All this adversely affects the nerves, and in turn puts stress
on the brain and the heart. Heart failures and mental agonies are the
inevitable byproducts of science and technology. Spiritual practices, which
calm the nerves, are therefore indispensable if we intend to master science
and not be mastered by it.

Prout's concept of progress has profound implications for humanity. It
suggests that scientific change and intellectual transformation,
unaccompanied by spiritual advance, would lead only to degradation in the
physical arena such as our environment, but also to racism, bigotry, and
social conflicts. Spirituality is the foundation of all progress.

During the 20th century, thousands of remarkable inventions and new theories
have almost totally transformed our way of life. There is no indication that
this trend will slow down, rather we expect accelerated movement in all
spheres of life. However, at the present we have spiritually stagnated and
even moved backwards. Consequently, battles and wars have been deadlier in
the 20th century than ever before. Rising greed, crime, drugs and
environmental pollution threaten to overwhelm the delicate thread of life on
our finite planet. The moral is that change in the physical and mental
sphere, without spiritual advance, is ultimately self-destructive.

From Proutist ecology and economic development

Ravi Batra, Prout Research Institute, Italy 1990

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Progress

by P.R. Sarkar

Question: What is the nature of Proutistic progress?

Answer: There is simple progress and accelerated progress. In accelerated
progress there is simple accelerated progress, progressive accelerated
progress and compound accelerated progress. Proutistic progress is compound
accelerated progress. Compound accelerated progress is not the same as
compound interest, which is equivalent to progressive accelerated progress.
Rather, it is a higher stage of acceleration.

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Lack of prama in the spiritual sphere

By P.R. Sarkar

The main purpose of spirituality is to discover the Supreme Consciousness
(Parama Shiva) who is lying quiescent in every human existence, and to
establish oneness between Macrocosm and microcosms, between Cosmic Being and
human beings, ie between parama'tma and jiiva'tma'. Very often, ignorant of
real spirituality and goaded by religious dogma, people undertake long and
hazardous journeys to places of pilgrimage, sometimes even selling their
earthly possessions like houses, cultivable land, etc to make the trip
possible. They hope to attain virtue by taking a holy dip in sacred rivers.
It is needless to say that this causes a loss not only of energy, time and
money, but brings much trouble and no spiritual gain. This is one of the
glaring examples of lack of prama' (equipoise or balance) in the spiritual
sphere.

February 1987, Calcutta

Prout in a nutshell 9

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Prout is a complete socio-economic theory based on an integrated view of
life and comprising a wide spectrum of human activity, propounded by Shrii
Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar (1921-1990) in 1959. At the time it presented an
undeniable challenge to the outdated Marxist and capitalist theories whose
falls it predicts. Based on practical observances rather than theoretical
assumptions, Prout remains very much a vibrant rational ideological
alternative today.

The name Prout is an acronym of progressive utilization theory. For the
first time human goals and aspirations on any level of existence have been
brought within the compass of a comprehensive socio-economic theory. Earlier
socio-economic thought could not comprehend a synthetic approach to human
physical, mental and spiritual requirements. Hence they could provide
neither for the integrated development of individuals nor the wholesome
adjustment with others and the environment.

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