From the booklet PROUT, What It Stands For

There should be maximum utilization of all physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities of unit and collective body of the human society.

Maximum Utilization of All Potentialities

The individual and the collectivity is a controversial issue in the social and economic spheres. Those who attach all importance to individuals alone are all out to establish individualism to the exclusion of collective interest. According to their doctrine, it is the individual who knows where his or her welfare lies. That is why he or she must be liberated from all bondages. All his or her efforts will be directed toward the sole purpose of complete fulfilment of his or her individual end. Those who differ contend that it is the collectivity that alone matters. The individual has to be sacrificed for the collectivity since not individual interest but collective welfare and advancement constitute the keynote of social endeavour.

In reality the individual and the collectivity are inseparably connected. “It will not be proper to forget that collective welfare and individual well-being are intertwined.”¹ A garland without the individual flowers cannot be thought of; similarly the beauty of the flowers in their totality is not wholly manifested unless put wreathed together in a garland. Hence the flower and the garland have their own importance. PROUT is of the opinion that all the wealth of the unit body as of the collective body will have to be utilized to the maximum. But while utilizing them, collective welfare should be the principal objective. The development of the individual is the first requisite for promoting the collective welfare. It can be branded neither as individualism nor as collectivism. It is just a happy blending between individual liberty and collective interest.

When all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities of the entire society would have been developed, society at that stage only can be called as full-fledged and highly developed. As such society will have to be developed in all its aspects, not in a particular sphere only. One or two powerful persons or learned or wise persons or one or two spiritual aspirants do not indicate advancement and progress of a whole society.

With a view to facilitating the maximum physical development of society, adequate provision for food, clothes, light, air, etc. will have to be made for the individuals’ comforts. For effecting maximum psychic evolution of society the imbued individuals will have to be thoroughly imbued with correct social consciousness, the spirit of service, and the thirst for knowledge. Morality and spirituality will have to be inculcated in the individuals in the interest of collective welfare, else the superstructure of society will crumble down in its absence.

So the third principle emphasizes maximum utilization of physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities. But unfortunately this is conspicuously absent in the present social setup. It is painfully observed that the outstanding body-builders have got only one business, i.e. to show off their physical feats at the exhibitions with the sole purpose of gaining some material benefit. Again those having extraordinary calibre, in absence of constructive avenues and congenial atmosphere for maximum use of their intellect, leave reluctantly for other countries thereby causing a serious brain drain. Even those who stay behind do not get proper scope for utilizing their intellectual calibre. The spiritual aspirants who are drawn by the irresistible lure of salvation to renounce the world begin to live in seclusion far away from human habitation. They remain least concerned with ups and downs of the rise and fall of society. But arrangements must be made for maximum utilization of these unit potentialities.

There three kinds of wealth referred to in the third principle are the wealth of human society and all the potential of the unit and collective body will have to be harnessed for the general good. The totality of the physical might of entire humanity is its physical wealth. Similarly, the entirety of the intellectual potential of all human beings constitutes the metaphysical potential while the spiritual wealth implies the sum total of all unit consciousness. Thus a well knit social order is to be ushered in by making the best use of physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentials.

Note

1 Ananda Sutram (1962), Shrii Shrii Anandamurti

Copyright Proutist Universal 2011