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Welcome to episode thirteen of the Prout Consciousness series where we will take a look at the third fundamental principle of the Progressive Utilisation Theory. Here we shall see how Prout accelerates socioeconomic dynamics by utilising all individual and collective potentialities at a maximum, and not only focuses on some resources in the external world.
First, how does capitalism and socialism utilise human potentialities? As in everything, capitalism’s perspective is short-term. The reason for capitalism’s myopic perspective on the utilisation of human potential is its chronic profit-thirst. It is obsessed with placing commercial value on resources, and finds no profit in educating an entire population. Instead, it focuses on acquiring the particular human resources it think it needs in order to amass more and more crude capital. Subtle and sublime wealth in themselves hold no import to capitalists; they are valuable only to the extent that they are able to increase crude capital holdings. Socialism, on the other hand, subjects the entire population to a egalitarian regime with little or no scope for individual adjustment. As the common denominators of life are found more easily in the physical sphere and only with some difficulty in subtler and more sublime spheres, the scope of socialist education remains practically materialist. Thus, under socialism human beings and their society remain a materialistic machine with little or no concern for psychic and spiritual wealth.
Prout’s third fundamental principle reads: “There should be maximum utilisation of physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities of unit and collective bodies of human society.” This principle introduces a new factor, the metaphysical, which needs to be clarified. The term metaphysical means “above or beyond the limitations of the physical”. The metaphysical is the problem-solving mind of individuals and the collective, the endeavour to overcome the challenges of the physical world in order to make life nice, smooth and conducive to further progress. The metaphysical includes all kinds of mundane discoveries, inventions, processes and achievements, such as good hygiene, proper diet, constructing a vehicle and structuring traffic, looking into ecological causes and effect, etc. It is the psychic part of us directing our physical world.
The metaphysical is the purely mental mind, not the primitive instinctual. The primitive instinctual mind, addressed by Prout’s first fundamental principle, directs itself towards primal needs, crude desires and urges. When we are hungry, crude instinct informs us it is time to get something to eat. The metaphysical mind, on the other hand, is able to suggest improved, studious ways of solving such physical problems and challenges. It is more analytical than impulsive. For instance, we tend to eat on most days so why not fulfil this perennial need by securing a steady supply of food stuffs by local cultivation of fruits, vegetables and of whatever else we require for the preparation of our meals. Such is the reasoning of the metaphysical mind, and the art of cooking, engineering, architecture, the sciences of mathematics and physics, etc. are all of metaphysical nature.
Some schools of philosophy may have associated metaphysics mainly with the parapsychological, means with realities beyond the conscious mind of most people. To Prout, the metaphysical is not at all inaccessible but the practical mind of living beings dealing with their environment in order to make it more practical and amendable to their perceived needs. Prout differentiates between metaphysics, as just explained, and the lofty psycho-spiritual, which takes the mind into the purely spiritual by way of properly concentrated contemplation. While most people do live an active metaphysical life, not all engage effectively in the psycho-spiritual sphere, where progress requires subtle and sustained effort to achieve tangible results. A trend of current metaphysics is precisely the recognition of the significance of the psycho-spiritual; today increasing numbers of notable thinkers and people at large are not only rationally analytical but psycho-spiritually attuned and determined due to having taken up spiritual practices in their daily life.
Early humans were busy with doing their very best to survive in the hostile external environment they found themselves in. The accumulated practical experience of the human beings of a million years ago was very small, they were the early pioneers of metaphysical exploration and invention. With external experience comes internal development. Gradually, the human structure—its brain, nervous system and build—grew larger, stronger and more complex, and thereby able to detect and deal with still more subtle and sublime external and internal realities. In broad historical terms, it is only quite recently, that we begun to develop educational resources systematically resulting in formal training, academic study and normative scientific research. Prior to that, knowledge and skills were passed on by and large within families. Prout joins in the modern effort to make all kinds of knowledge and experience universally available, aiding the trend of enlightenment by introducing a socioeconomic system that benefits from and most importantly stimulates the utilisation of subtle and sublime potentialities.
Whereas the supramundane, discussed in the preceding episode, exists beyond the crude external, the metaphysical is the individual and collective purely mental mind directing itself at utilising physical potentialities. The metaphysical is a psycho-physical approach to adjusting the external environment with perceived needs, wheres the supramundane is physico-psychic phenomena—the external environment triggering or awakening subtle and sublime sense in us. Beyond the metaphysical and the supramundane is the spiritual. It means that beyond the rational analytical metaphysical mind are layers of still subtler and sublime mind—pure psychic and various stages of psycho-spiritual mind. These deeper states of mind are accessible by various means. Some experience such mind by way of supramundane glimpses—in supreme beauty, profound presence and any other expression of greatness in nature and human expression. Such short-lived glimpses remain memories only. Others develop their minds by regular effort and achieve those states in permanence. IT is theirs to have forever. When spiritual consciousness is awakened and firmly established, it informs the metaphysical mind of potential directions it may take for further progress, such as in areas of law, aesthetics, the arts, in socioeconomics and civil and cultural life in general.
The spiritual does not annihilate diversity but works through it. As such, not only the entire world but every locality and individual will benefit from subtler and sublime developments of individuals and communities. Greater awareness and higher consciousness can only enlighten and illuminate our existence, and such progress will continue to enrich human life and our influence in the world. The Irish poet William Butler Yeats stated mystically: “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” To that the 14th Dalai Lama added: “Happy people build their inner world; unhappy people blame their outer world.”
Since the spiritual bears significantly on the development of culture, the arts, social life and law there is no reason why anybody should leave this sphere of existence untouched. Rather, it is humane to evolve spiritually as well as in any other way. Practically, our emerging global world requires a unified framework that will work for all, in the absence of which the world will work for none. Only the spiritual has the capacity to provide sentiments and outlooks sufficient to unite all of humanity in a common world. So, in the interest of our future democratic global world everybody should put in an effort to develop spiritually as well.
So there you have it, the third fundamental principle of Prout: “There should be maximum utilisation of physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities of unit and collective bodies of human society.” Whereas the second fundamental principle of Prout addresses the need for peak employment of the external, objective environment, this third principle focuses on peak engagement of the subjective, of the potentialities of persons. There are at least two significant aspects to this concept of maximum utilisation of unit and common physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities. First, the engagement should be at a maximum. Even those who are unable to participate in conventional work, due to old age or any other vital hindrance, should be included socially, culturally, spiritually and in any way that adds to individual and collective existence. Nobody should be made to feel that they have been chipped out and left behind in humanity’s grand passage towards the fulfilment of all.
Indeed, it behoves the powerful—men and women of rare competences—to ensure that even those of little understanding and poor skills evolve properly on the great path of all-round progress. The key of Prout’s symphony, the primary colour of its palette of universal thought, the common cord in its human tapestry, is the progress of the weak and unfortunate turning into the triumph and real strength of all. Here, Prout heralds that the good of every person lies in developed society, and the other way around: the good of the community lies in the proper development of every one of its members.
Second, diversity is our strength. No trend or movement has ever benefitted from monoculture and prolonged control by domineering disposition and prejudice. By allowing all to express, and not only have a privileged few prevail and enjoy at the fatal expense of all others, Prout taps into new and hitherto undiscovered reservoirs of energy and wisdom. Not only is the human mind largely unexplored but its gradual coming to light will add greatly to the physical sciences as well as paving the way for fresh development in the fields of sociology, politics, psychology and others of great importance to the survival and further evolution of life on Earth. This dimension of Prout is discussed further in the following episode 14 where we look at the need to continuously adjust our utilisations of various potentialities.
But what good will it do, you may ask, if people sit around mulling over existence’s profundities. Since antiquity, hermits, and probably all sorts of freaks, have shed the duties of family and social life and run for the hills but did it ever do the world any good? For every known philosopher of history there must be thousands if not millions of idle thinkers who spent their time spacing out instead of performing their social duties properly. And if at all they came up with genuine insights and realisations of real worth, why did they choose to keep it to themselves far removed from the general mass and not share it with all for the common good and progress of all? Why did they choose to become intellectual and spiritual capitalists instead of sharing their precious subtle and sublime riches with others? Did such escapism and selfishness ever take humanity further on the path of progress? Prout’s reply to it is that there is no reason for seekers and wannabe philosophers to leave hearth and home. Truth can be discovered, explored and realised wherever one chooses to live. If truth is universally, where would it not exist? We should embrace the universality of true human spirit. Our world and all in it will only be the better for it.
Prout holds that truth is that which never changes: it always remains in the same condition throughout eternity. Shrii Sarkar commented that not only is truth unchangeable throughout eternity but it is also unlimited: there is nothing beyond it. It does not change from place to place: truth remains the same whether in one place or another, whether in one person or the other, whether at one time or another. The expression of truth may vary but the essence remains the same. Truth is what expedites progress towards life’s supreme goal, and truth is the essence of that goal. Thus truth is not affected by changes and variations in time, place and person, and Prout is embedded in this truth.
Notions of changes and variations over time, from place to place and from person to person without understanding or realising the essence of such changes and variations is what is called relative truth. Any worldly notion of reality is relative truth, as is any purely psychic appraisal of it. The physical and psychic are always subject to variations in time, place and person and therefore relative. Relative truths appear somewhere at a particular time to a particular person. It is our reality and it is relative and not absolute. It changes all the time. This is truth, and the essence of this truth is that sublime existence is found everywhere, and its sublimity is the goal of all life.
Historical events are also relative truth. An incident which happens on Earth in the last century is a historical event, but as the light from Earth will not have reached another planet for a hundred years, on that planet the event has not yet occurred. It is like a fire that has started in one room of the house but not yet spread to other rooms. I one part of the house people are highly aware of fire spreading whereas people elsewhere are ignorant of the impending danger. Thus historical events also depend on time, place and person and are changing from time to time, place to place and person to person. None of it can be called absolute truth. Even what is regarded as right, wrong, sin or crime somewhere may not be viewed in the same way elsewhere. Just take the case of minority rights, issues of race, sex, religion, law, etc., etc.
As discussed earlier in the series, the individual and collective are among the most hotly debated issues of socioeconomics. Those who attach all importance to individuals alone are all out to establish individualism to the utter exclusion of the collective interest. According to them the individual knows best where his or her welfare lies. That is why he or she must be liberated from all bondages. All efforts of the individualist will be directed towards 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 because not individual interest but collective welfare and advancement constitute the keynote of the social endeavour.
In reality, the individual and the collective are inseparably connected. A garland of flowers and its individual flowers both have their importance and significance. The development of the individual is the first requisite for promoting collective welfare, and But while utilising individual resources collective welfare should be the principal objective in view. In this, Prout can be branded neither as individualism nor collectivism. It is a happy blending of individual liberty and collective interest.
The late Prout thinker Raghunath Prasad commented: “In order to benefit the collective body, its individuals will be provided with physical essentials and amenities on strength of their purchasing power earned in employment. Prout’s principle is not to fix a minimum salary per se. The range of salaries should in all cases emerge from the purchasing capacity required to secure the minimum necessities of life via amenities for all to special amenities for the meritorious deriving from the surplus after having secured the universal minimum necessities and general amenities. Prout’s wise employment and earning policies will secure the optimal development of the physical potential of the individual. A proper sense of collective and corporate life – a sense of service and sacrifice beyond education – will evolve and develop the metaphysical aspect of individuality and consequently the collective mind.”
When all physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities of society would have been maximum developed, society at that stage only can be claimed as full-fledged and highly evolved. As such the society will have to be developed in all aspects and not in a particular sphere only.
The three kinds of wealth referred to in the third principle—physical, metaphysical and spiritual—are the wealth of human society. They will have to be harnessed for the general good of the world. The totality of physical might of the entire humanity is its physical wealth. Similarly, the entirety of the intellectual potentiality of all human beings constitutes the metaphysical potentiality while the spiritual wealth implies the sum total of all unit consciousnesses. Thus a well-knit social order is to be ushered in making the best use of physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities.
We conclude this episode with comments by the theory’s propounder, Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar:
“The collective body, collective mind and collective spirit must be developed. One must not forget that collective good lies in individuals and individual good lies in collectivity. Without providing for the comfort of the individual through proper food, light, air, accommodation and medical treatment, collective good can never be accomplished. So it is with the sole intention of doing collective good that one will have to devote oneself to individual good.
“The development of the collective mind is impossible without developing a proper social consciousness, encouraging a sense of social service and awakening knowledge in every individual. So, inspired with the thought of doing good to the collective mind, one has to do good to the individual mind. Absence of spirituality and spiritual morality in an individual will break the backbone of the collectivity. So for the sake of collective good one will have to awaken spirituality in individuals. One or two powerful, learned or worldly-wise people, or one or two spiritualists do not indicate advancement and progress of the whole society. The body, mind and self of every individual have the potential for limitless expansion and development. This potentiality has to be harnessed and brought to fruition.”
In this episode of Prout Consciousness we have examined the third fundamental principle of Prout: “There should be maximum utilization of physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities of unit and collective bodies of human society.” The following episode 14 examines Prout’s emphasis on proper adjustment of utilisations. That is all for this episode, thank you and goodbye for now.