Prout Consciousness
A series of pods on the fundamentals of the Progressive Utilisation Theory
Welcome to the introduction to this podcast series. Prout is a comprehensive socioeconomic theory propounded by the Indian renaissance person Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. The Prout in a Nutshell series parts 1 to 21 contains all of what Shrii Sarkar published on Prout, and a one volume compilation titled Proutist Economics consists of essential material of that series.
Prout is the first socioeconomic model that takes into account the full extent of ecology beyond the mundane and the further dimensions of human existence beyond the physical and analytical intellectual. Before we delve into it, let us glance briefly at the status of socioeconomics today. Academic socioeconomics study how economic activity impacts social processes, and the other way around, how society affects the economy.
For example, as is well known people tend to fare better during times of high employment and when the government is rich in revenue, whereas most people are worse off during economic recessions and depressions. Such dynamics of the economy affect society and its members in so many ways. The other way around, social factors such as background, education and marriage influence how individuals and families perform and contribute to the collective. In such ways, socioeconomics register how individuals and societies progress, stagnate and even regress at any level such as the local, national and global. This in a nutshell would be the scope of today’s socioeconomics and there will certainly be variants that may inform us of any possible forward trend of socioeconomics.
This series has been titled Prout Consciousness. If we were to classify the Progressive Utilization Theory, we may say it is the socioeconomics of an increasingly aware world population. Present humanity is much more conscious of the social, political and economic, the environmental, cultural and spiritual, than their predecessors were. As such, Prout is the socioeconomics of the future, of a steadily expanding human universe and vision beyond previous biased individualistic and collectivistic modes of thinking.
We humans have come a long way from when we were all living up in trees. By moving together on the ground, uniting in flocks, tribes, monarchies and republican states we have gradually expanded our understanding of individual and collective potentialities to the point of now looking seriously at global governance. Beyond the limited ego-state our magnanimous side continues to grow and expand. Prout is the socioeconomics of ever-new and increasingly universal awareness.
This term consciousness has many meanings and usages, such as sense, regard, concern, mindfulness and so on. Theories of politics and economy are normally based on certain notions or ideas of the role of individuals and society. Thus they, too, deal with consciousness, and we get to hear about localism, class consciousness, national, continental and planetary consciousness and so on.
In this way, capitalism emphasizes industrial potentiality headed by commercial intelligence. The commercially intelligent will be able to inform others of the prime importance of individual freedom, and of personal values such as sense of responsibility, hard work, inventiveness, competition, no leaning on the state and so on. In contrast, socialism demands justice for the underprivileged, promotes solidarity and is all for collective ownership. In other words, both these leading schools of socioeconomic thought are awash in ideas of wealth distribution and appear to be limited to that extent.
After all, how far can money takes us? Comedian Steve Martin offered: “I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline-powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too” [laughter].
Yes, money can only get us that far, and under Prout that would be the optimum place for delving into the more subtle and causal, the psychic and spiritual spheres that existence has to offer. It behoves developed human beings to utilize all crude resources, including physical wealth, wisely for their further progress and not only choke on grotesque piles of exorbitant physical wealth that only go to deprive others and leave them to starve.
Now, Prout takes as its starting point the fact that all of existence expresses the one and the same reality: consciousness. It is the universal factor the world and we all are made of, and quite naturally we want to realize all of that. Thus, human needs and longings are not only physical but also psychic and spiritual. Regarding the spiritual, both modern science and various schools of liberating existential practices refer to consciousness as the cause of creation. Spirituality is the path of realizing that universal existential reality. Prout concurs with science and genuine spiritual reasoning. Its central socioeconomic idea is that of universal inheritance; all living beings are the offspring of consciousness and therefore share the same right to enjoy the world in order to progress in all of life. To Prout, economic liberation is one of numerous human rights, none of which are the privilege of only some but the birthright of all.
With its essential understanding of the universality of physical, psychic and spiritual rights, Prout differs from capitalism by stating that individuals cannot just accumulate as much physical wealth as they may like. As an old joke on Reaganomics has it: “I have a joke about trickle-down economics, but most people won’t get it” [laughter]. Moreover, Prout differs from materialist socialism by supporting individuals and communities in their progress on their own terms in all spheres of life. Nobody should be subjected to tyranny of imposed equality or any other form of existential limitation. In this, Prout differs even from religions by stating that no external institution is required for existential liberation or salvation. Truth resides within and only when found in there may it be found without as well.
The relevance and significance of consciousness runs as a common thread through all of Prout. Just like matter may be all there is to primitive instinctual beings, consciousness is everything to the developed. Thus, any opinionated class or society of people is recognised by Prout. All are part of universal consciousness with potentiality to realize infinite consciousness however limited their present thinking may seem to be.
Sure, the complexity of such vast socioeconomics as Prout may appear to be approaching the astronomical. In addition to the entire world of living beings and their environments extending to the cosmic, Prout considers the role and potentialities of the physical, psychic and spiritual, the metaphysical and supramundane, the subtle, sublime and causal in exploration, planning, policy-making, execution and follow-up. Be it with concern to production, trade, commerce or governance, Prout views contributory awareness, presence and participation as essential while upholding purchasing capacity and absence of economic exploitation as crucial parameters of the increase in people’s standard of living and consequently their ability to progress further in life.
No doubt, to a veteran materialist Prout may appear utterly overwhelming to the point where it may seem largely irrelevant. Yet, this theory of progressive utilisation is wonderfully simple. In all of its diverse approach it keeps arriving at the same singleness of purpose: full and satisfying life for all. Prout’s simplicity may be likened to a city accessible via a number of entry points all leading to the city centre. Visitors can take any approach—air, sea, rail, car, bike or just walk—to reach the hub. The closer they come the busier it gets until the central plaza opens up—a serene space of elevated calm. There, tourists, pilgrims and other explorers can all draw a long deep breath and get closer to one another in peace and quiet. Similarly, from whatever angle one chooses to approach Prout, sooner or later one will arrive at its focal point of increasing well-being, universal awareness and existential liberation.
Prout even claims independence of the limitations of time, place and person. Now, this is a huge call. This statement of Prout indicates a nucleus beyond relativity, a core or centre of absolute consciousness. We see this in its main socioeconomic concept of universal inheritance, which Shrii Sarkar called “an axiomatic truth and intuitional vision beyond the scope of intellectual logic”. This major assertion of Prout is examined from various angles throughout the series and in particular in the episodes dealing with its five fundamental principles.
Simply put, Prout is universally minded. Now, what does universally minded mean? What would for instance the difference between open-minded and universally minded be? The open-minded, or the narrow- or close-minded for that matter, approach anything from a distance moving from ignorance to familiarity. They may ask: “What is this; it seems to be moving, is it a lump of soil or a plant or an animal?” So goes their inquiry. A close-minded person may reflect: “This doesn’t look very attractive to me and moreover I do not have the time for dealing with it right now…” An open-minded person may say: “Aha, this seems to be of interest, it reminds me of something, let me take a closer look and see if I can find out more.” But even after finding out a good deal more, the open-minded may still keep some distance between him- or herself and that which is explored. The approach of the universally minded is altogether different: “Whatever this is, it is part of my existence; I am here with it, and the distance between it and me keeps reducing and in reality we are one…”
In this way, the universally minded harbours the entire world within him- or herself. We may say that Prout’s approach is truly subjective, embedded in self, whereas the open-, narrow- and close-minded go by seeing everything around them as foreign and even irrelevant objects. Prout views all in the light of their universal existential value whereas other forms of socioeconomics tend to assess any perceived utility value of things first and their existential value last. These all indicate various frames of mind, different states of consciousness, and Prout is universally minded socioeconomics.
Obviously, the understanding of a fact so subtle and profound as universal consciousness is bound to vary from one to another. Still, it is found that those who support Prout and call themselves proutists have at least a rudimental understanding of the essential import of universal inheritance; that everybody have the right to enjoy the world and nobody can just appropriate unlimited physical wealth without depriving others even of their life.
In this, Prout presents the socioeconomics of extended ecology and the idea and motivation of continuous appropriate struggle for the natural progress of all. The relevance of such struggle is reflected in the social fact that by supporting each other in common development from helplessness to helpfulness, from apathy to activity, from negativity to positivity, we are all so much better off. The reality of it is discussed in particular in episode 11 on the first fundamental principle of Prout.
By the way, referring to themes and subjects being followed up in other episodes is a recurrent phenomenon in this series. Prout is such a comprehensive theory of a wide array of interrelated elements so that any episode in the series could have been much longer and more complete in itself. The editorial choice however has been to discuss only very essential elements in each episode and allow for others to complete Prout. For instance, the episode that follows this introduction is on economic democracy. Most probably nearly all of Prout could have been fitted under the heading of that one episode only but that would have made for a very long episode.
And that is all for this introduction. Thank you and all the best on your journey through this series on Prout Consciousness.