Welcome to episode five of Prout Consciousness where we will be exploring the philosophical basis of Prout. As is well known, certain laws govern our existence. We all have an autonomic nervous system that governs itself, we live for some time only, and during our life everything keeps changing beyond our control. Such existential laws just cannot be altered. Sometimes though, it may seem as if the existential laws are relative to specific circumstances and not fundamental to everyday life. For instance, when the weather gets very hot and humid one will be sweating, and when one stays out in the cold long enough it is likely one will catch some cough and cold, fever or the other. Hence, one may think that the laws that dictate such particular outcomes work only in those particular circumstances and not, say, when the weather is pleasant. Yet, it is the same general law that makes for hot, pleasant and cold weather and their bodily outcomes and that general law, which governs the entire physical world, is: Anything physical is limited.
Limitations are what makes it possible for us to differentiate one thing from the other. A psychic effect of this law of universal physical limitation was mentioned in the preceding episode on socio-economic movements: As a result of the limitation of all physical things, extroversive human beings keep skipping from one thing to another. We keep telling ourselves: “I’m done with this, now on to the next,” as we rush incessantly from one thing to the other. This existential restlessness of ours becomes the cause of all clashes and conflicts within and between people, for what happens when two or more people clash over the same limited physical object? Thus, another general law of our existence may be formulated: Limitations lead to clash, which would explain why clashes and conflicts follow restlessness like sweating follows hot and humid weather. Following from this yet another general principle of existence may be formulated: Oneness within results in oneness without, which is essential to Prout’s principle of subjective approach through objective adjustment. In the previous episode it was discussed how this principle of universal oneness governs the process from socioeconomic disparities and differences towards the formation of still larger socioeconomic zones until one day one world socioeconomic zone is firmly established upon this principle and law.
When everything physical is limited and therefore are constantly subjected to temporal clashes and states of cohesion, it is only natural that the sphere of socioeconomics, too, is effected by it. If for instance, an indiscriminate amount of money is poured into the economic system all money would soon lose value and a host of other symptoms of economic and other imbalances would erupt as well. The worst effect by far, of the law of limitations in the socio-economic sphere, is that over-accumulation of physical wealth by a tiny minority results in the poverty and suffering of the great majority. Prout takes proper note of this basic reality and states in its first fundamental principle, discussed in episode 11, that no individual should be allowed to accumulate any physical wealth without the clear permission or approval of the collective body.
Evidently, capitalism has little understanding of such cause and effect in the socioeconomic sphere. A capitalist never considers first that his or her increasing accumulation of capital may harm others by way of depriving them of basic means for leading a normal life. Here we should remind ourselves that capitalism does not mean only private capitalism but state capitalism, too. In materialist socialist states, such as the present China and other countries where the economy has been brought firmly under centralised control, accumulation in the hands of a few is as real as in countries where liberalist capitalism is allowed free reigns. Personal profiteering, and not the common good, remains capitalism’s priority both in its private and public sector forms.
We are discussing philosophy most of which can be categorised as either idealist or materialist. Idealist philosophies promote some abstract idea, such as God, good, right, wrong, sin, crime, etc. Materialist philosophy is all about physical science, engineering and other approaches to physical matter with no concept of any subtler or sublime dimensions. Now, we just established that the limitations of all physical things are essential to Prout. Is this an idealist or a materialist idea? In reality, an understanding of limitation is only possible against an understanding of limitlessness. In the preceding episode, it was discussed that hate is negative love whereas love is not negative hate. In the same way, a perception of something limited is only possible against an idea of something unlimited, and it is only natural that what is unlimited cannot be an expression of limitedness. A drop of water is of the ocean whereas the ocean is not part of the drop. Likewise, the seemingly incessant flow of changing limitations that is our existence exists in a flow of infinite existence, just like waves of the ocean. As such, Prout’s first principle, that everything physical is limited and therefore nobody should be allowed to accumulate physical wealth indiscriminately, is a spiritual principle. It is spiritual both because recognising limitation means recognising limitlessness, and because this righteous principle of regulated physical accumulation sets all on foot towards a full life and final attainment.
Spiritual, as you may know, is a word that comes from an understanding that a spirit flows through all of creation as if some infinite being were breathing throughout it. The pure, eternal consciousness that imagines all of creation, expressing the cosmos, is that spirit, and any idea of this grand cosmic scheme is spiritual. This is why practices that lead to greater realisation of that infinite flow are called spiritual practices, and any philosophy that support the idea of it is called spiritual philosophy. So, Prout’s philosophy is basically spiritual and all the four remaining fundamental principles of Prout deal with all physical, psychic and spiritual potentialities of our personal, collective and environmental existence. The goal of Prout is human emancipation, full and satisfying life for all, which includes continuous psychic expansion and final spiritual attainment.
The particular philosophy that supports Prout in these endeavours is neohumanism, evolved by Shri Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar some 20 years after he first propounded Prout. The ethos of neohumanism is to maintain a balance between the physical and psychic worlds and take human beings to the threshold of spirituality. Neohumanism expands humanism by way of devotion to the cosmic consciousness that expresses itself throughout creation and indeed in all creatures. By focusing on universal synthesis rather than geo-sentimental, socio-sentimental and inter-species differences, neohumanism is a profoundly ecological idea that establishes firmly the frontiers of existence, development and attainment at the core of individual and collective life. This expanded humanism embraces the existential value and universal dignity of all creatures including even mindless matter. They all have existential value and their social value, their utility value, is held to be subordinate to it—existence comes first and only then whatever utility value. By declaring that one consciousness expresses itself in innumerable created entities and their societies, neohumanism provides a coherent physico-psycho-spiritual perspective on all affairs of existence including the socioeconomic.
Prout and neohumanism may be said to be derivatives of pure spiritual philosophy. Genuine spiritual philosophy explains how pure consciousness generates cosmic mind and within that cosmic mind the physical universe is generated, out of which microcosmic, individual mind is generated, which allows evolution to continue until the microcosmic mind realises the macrocosmic reality and reunites with pure, eternal consciousness.
Neohumanism and Prout can be thought of as twins who differ only by their slightly different approaches to a shared reality. They may be said to function like two skins of the app of basic spiritual philosophy, representing two specific ways of application, as it were; Prout for socio-economics and neohumanism for the psycho-social sphere. Shrii Sarkar likened the basic philosophy of spirituality to a bird, with Prout and neohumanism as its two wings without which the bird of all-round liberation will not be able to fly, means spiritual philosophy would not become a reality of the living world without the application of Prout and neohumanism. Both Prout and its sister-philosophy neohumanism promote proper subjecto-objective approach. Prout provides for the practical socioeconomics of this balanced approach while neohumanism is the psychic approach well-suited to education, legislation and cultural work.
According to the neohumanist philosophy, humans are rationally alert beings with sufficient intellectual and intuitional potential to relate commonplace phenomena to noumenal truth. Students of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant may know that all phenomena of the world are but expressions of the supreme subjective noumenon. In modern scientific terms the noumenon is pure, infinite consciousness and objective phenomena constitute the manifest cosmos that harbours the world of the living, our universe, including atoms, the sub-atomic, etc. Both Prout and neohumanism deem that the responsibility for the proper management and development of all should rest with highly developed human beings and not with those of animal and mostly instinctual temperament. Prout and neohumanism are ideologies for awakened humanity looking towards an era free from exploitation of superficial bias. Proutist and neohumanist ideas of leadership are discussed in episodes six and seven in the series.
Philosophy is a vast and diverse field. In fact, it is so vast that the human mind at times finds difficulty in following up on it properly. That is why we often see more of argumentation and disagreement between even philosophers than visionary content of constructive value and inspiration to ordinary people. The essential challenge of philosophy is to link up the unknown with the known, the subtle and sublime with the crude, the beyond with the here and now.
Again, do we need that, can’t we just leave the philosophers to themselves? Do we need to constantly be in touch with the beyond in order to live well here and now? Well, it does seem so. The ethics and legislation of most classic and modern states are indeed embedded in philosophy of the virtuous. Regarding the bigger picture, if you ask just about anyone, they would, in the final analysis, be very much interested to know what went on before and what comes hereafter. 99% of us would be interested to know if there are developed beings on other planets, whether it is possible to go there or for anyone out there to come here, whether that would make us more happy, whether it is possible to be more happy than we are at present, whether such a thing as infinite happiness exists and how it would be attainable, etc., etc. Just the food for philosophers.
We just cannot let be; the sense of wonder in us, our never-ending search for greatness never seem to let up. This incessant impetus, this eternal longing for the great against all odds, against all physical limitations and psychic restlessness in our daily life, is moving us along a seemingly never-ending path. Spiritual philosophy calls this search for the Great by the little mysticism, and our microcosmic life journey through macrocosmic time and space depends on this mystic endeavour of ours. As long as the mysticism in us is alive, as long as we keep searching, we are alive. And when our mysticism, when all outward search come to coincide with our inner longing, the goal is attained: the limited becomes Infinite Great. This is the essence of the philosophy of Prout, of neohumanism and of all spiritual thought. Prout is the practical application in the socioeconomic sphere of spiritual truth.
Now, there is enough physical wealth in this world for everyone’s need but not even for one person’s infinite greed. Therefore, capitalism ends up badly and present humanity sorely needs a more useful, dignified system. Psychic things, however, are in unlimited supply but their value is still relative, keeps changing, and therefore cannot satisfy the human thirst for limitlessness. Why then does Prout give the physical and psychic any importance at all? If the physical is both limited and relative and the psychic is only relative then what good can they do to human beings who have an absolute thirst for limitlessness? Well, if physical and psychic resources are not used wisely it will be impossible to attain any ultimate good. And, the subtle and sublime, the psychic and the spiritual are there to guide us in our use of physical things and in all worldly matters so that we may reach our goals and final attainment. So, the physical, psychic and spiritual are mutually important and of mutual significance to our all-round well-being. Without one of them, all well-being would be lost. If the physical is not utilised properly, all people will be in conflict with each other and the majority will not have enough even to life a decent physical life, not to speak of their higher development such as basic education and subtler and sublime existential realisation. Conversely, if only physical matter were the sole goal of life, our existence would soon lack sweetness and profound mystery as there would only be limitations to enjoy and share. So although the physical and psychic do not carry absolute value, they are very much of relative value to our further evolution. This in fact is what sets Prout and neohumanism apart from traditional idealist and materialist philosophies. Prout is neither but an all-comprehensive system of socioeconomic thought and action that secures the progress of not only human beings but of the entire ecosystem of all of creation.
This is where practice meets theory in the philosophies of Prout and neohumanism. Many idealist philosophies are purely speculative and carefully avoid run-ins with the material world. Materialist philosophies, on the other hand, roll in physical matter only and consequently fail to achieve the enlightened state necessary for constructive use of physical things, not to speak of the psychic and beyond.
We mentioned that Prout’s philosophy is basically a synthetic interpretation of the origin and evolution of the entire Cosmic phenomenon. It deals with the generation and development of the cosmic environment and life itself. It explains the origin and existential position of human beings and how they attain Cosmic status. We emerge from matter, which has come out consciousness in a gradual process of crudification of cosmic mind. This sort of idea is in harmony with modern physics and informs us that all exists in a field of expressed consciousness. This integral philosophy teaches the wisdom and provides motivation for moving ahead in all spheres of life. It shows the path to direct one’s physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities towards ultimate sublimity. It is a practical philosophy where the physical, psychic and the spiritual function as one in a coherent process of evolutionary progress. Hence, Prout advocates proper use of individual and collective physical, mental and spiritual resources, as well as their proper adjustment and variation over time, from place to place and from person to person, and that the use of all these things be always progressive. What this theory of proper utilisation means by progressive is discussed in episode eight of this series.
The nature of the limited is to seek the infinite, just as a drop of water finds the real nature of its existence in the ocean. At the human stage, this search for the Great becomes conscious and gradually more well-directed. This fundamental urge, this longing for the Great never leaves us even when physical and psychic things prove themselves to be finite and relative and even threaten to destroy us. As such objects are finite and relative, those who seek to attain the infinite through them eventually feel frustrated. By lopsided materialist or intellectual pursuit one fails to attain boundless happiness and only end up in conflict with others due to the reasons explained so far. Finally, as a result of much progress deriving from numerous clashes and conflicts, our properly evolved human mind approaches and attains its long-cherished goal by adhering to scientific physico-psycho-spiritual processes.
The condition of people who live in materialist socialist states is this: As they have little to think about except matter, the authorities continue to apply pressure to keep them from rushing forward to satisfy their unsatisfied hunger. Such pressure may be in the form of policing, application of brutal force, institutionalised dogmas in any sphere of collective life, etc. The American thinker Noam Chomsky has said presumably about conditions in his own country, quote: “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.” Quote ended. The terms for it are suppression, oppression and repression. Whether or not suppression, oppression and repression are intended by all authorities or not is up for question, and whether all critical claims about authorities do not border on conspiracy theory is another. A better approach would be to do something practical about the system. The reality is that people cannot bear such pressure on their minds and eventually refuse to accept it. Whenever they find opportunity, the disgruntled take to uprising either in the form of revolution or counter-revolution. Prout has its own theory of revolution discussed in episode seven of this series.
Why shouldn’t people rebel? After all, struggle is the rule of life, struggle between apathy and opportunity, being stuck and being on the move, between despair and hope, darkness and light. To this effect Shri Sarkar once asked what is the mathematical nature of proutistic philosophy? Is it omni-static, statico-dynamic, dynamico-static or omni-dynamic? His response was that omni-static is a sort of negation, cynicism or nihilism. Not to care, to be disinterested, aloof is an indication of lack of dynamism. Statico-dynamic has some dynamism but is retarded by staticity. It is like being in the process of becoming well after a serious inflict on one’s health, not yet recovered but getting there. Dynamico-static also has some dynamism but only leads to the degenerative state of extended stagnation. It is like jumping parachute, soon enough you hit something hard and less inspirational. Only omni-dynamic movement can bring about the all-round welfare of all creatures in creation, Shrii Sarkar opined. In all-round ever-dynamic movement there is continuous movement from crudity to subtlety in all spheres, leading to everlasting progress and the effulgent radiance of spirituality. Proutistic philosophy is omni-dynamic, and to realise its omni-dynamics spiritual practices are very helpful, if not required. Mind you, Prout teaches liberating socioeconomics, it does not teach spiritual practices itself but remains in harmony with such practices. So, if you want to know more about spirituality you better direct yourself to a spiritual teacher who actually knows how to proceed.
Where are humanity right now? Where do we stand in biological, social, political, economic and cultural evolution? Do we live in an era of rapidly advancing communication technology or in an age of declining capitalism and civilisational decay? What is going on with us—a rise or a fall? Prout deems that ours is an era of psychic expansion with immense potentialities and tremendous achievements. This conviction of Prout is incorporated in all of its sixteen principles listed at the end of the following episode and found on our web page proutglobe.org/prout. Previous centuries saw humanity still preoccupied mostly with the external environment, largely employed in primary industries such as manual agriculture, fishing, forestry, etc. The physical overshadowed everyday life and subtler and sublime ideas were vague and abstract to most. The 20th century was an era of world wars and capitalist globalism. Increasingly, science and technology came to impact the way most humans think. As a result, we have become more rational and believe less in dogma and superstition. Significant rational thinkers and explorers like Freud, Einstein and the propounder of the term “ecosystem”, Arthur Tansley, conceived of new dimensions both of the external and internal environment, ideas that set new courses for the engineers and architects of our lives and changed our world forever. Physicists and astrophysicists are approaching both the internal aspects of atoms and electrons, of mind and consciousness. To them, the evolution of the cosmic phenomenon appears as a cosmic play and the human being can only play a conscious part in the divine game without affecting it in fundamental ways. Those general laws of existence stand firm however much we attempt to push their boundaries. Prout’s philosophy of adjusting and varying utilisations of individual and collective crude, subtle and sublime potentialities concurs with those laws, and is therefore a practical, satisfying philosophy. In its relentless search for the Great, the human mind finds tremendous inspirational appeal in such lofty philosophy that treats the minutest physical particle with the same respect as God is given.
There is also a deep sense of social justice in such philosophy. Until now the achievements of science and technology, agriculture and industry have brought affluence, and even great wealth, to some but not to all. In the affluence of a few all others have suffered. The theory of trickle-down economy is just not valid for most. The many physically deprived suffer in their various ways, while the middle classes with their hurt values and arrested aspirations suffer in other ways. Serious clashes and conflicts therefore emerge from wherever vast disparity abounds. Instead of going in the direction of a proper socioeconomic order, humans keep battling on the geo-political level just like primitive clans used to fight and harbour prejudices against other clans. Weapons of war may have changed but the basic motivation remains the same—“us and them” and never a greater “we all together—united humanity!” To build an exploitation-free economic-political order and motivate that order to realise its ideals, a radical social philosophy of new spiritual humanism is required.
That is all for this episode. As always there is much more than could be said on the topic and we can only refer to our web pages and published works. For now, thank you and goodbye.