Photo: From a 2014 PBI rally in Bhuvaneshwar, Odisha, India.

By Acharya Santosananda Avadhuta

From prehistoric times human beings have been strongly motivated by the urge to lead a happy and    peaceful life. This irresistible urge expressed itself in the form of the origin and evolution of science and technology. While human beings have been active on the material plane to acquire more and more happiness and prosperity they have also been active on the mental plane to contemplate and evolve many theories and philosophies for the betterment of their life and existence.

Despite all their efforts, humanity continues to remain mired in misery and suffering. Remedies were suggested to attain the objective of a suffering-free and stress-free life but attainment of this objective has always eluded humanity. In this quest for more and more happiness, aside from their spiritual endeavours, humans have attempted to evolve socio-economic theories. Thus appeared the ideas of Capitalism, Marxism and other schools of thought. Many revolutionaries and revolutionary events emerged in pursuit of this goal – numerous Freedom Movements, the Enlightenment, French Revolution and Communist Revolutions. There have been several smaller movements to remove discrimination, disparity and injustice but the cherished goal is nowhere in sight.

Establishment of Moralist Society

The latest in this evolution of thought is the exposition of a socio-economic philosophy, PROUT (Progressive Utilisation Theory), propounded by Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti) in 1959. Shrii Sarkar explained how PROUT is a panacea that will create an exploitation-free social order. He has dwelt at length on social, economic, political, cultural, educational and moral issues confronting humanity. He has also envisioned a dream goal which is called a moral revolutionary society (Sadvipra Samaj).

Now the question is how will this precious thought system come into practice? Whether it will also remain a dream project never to be translated in practice, or will it ever see the light of day?

Some of the objectives towards the establishment of moralist society are 

1. Governance by moralists alone.
2. Self-reliant economy.
3. Jobs for all.
4. Genuine establishment of moral, cultural and human values. This implies no discriminations based on caste, race, religion, etc.
5. Coordinated and not subordinated cooperation between individuals and social groups.
6. An autonomous mechanism to deal with any social menace that may emerge or erupt in the said revolutionary moralist society.

The object of this paper is not to dwell on the specialities and utilities of Shrii Sarkar’s theory in detail but to explain how PROUT can be implemented. The author’s intention is to express an understanding of how PROUT indeed can resolve the age-old dilemmas, riddles and challenges that humanity until now have failed to grapple with successfully.

In a nutshell Shrii Sarkar deals with two aspects:

1. The integrity of an individual’s moral character.
2. A well-knit social order that discriminates against none.

Shrii Sarkar always voiced and emphasised that only those who are strong in morality – who have infallible moral character – they alone should be entrusted with the responsibility of socio-economic management and political governance. In Shrii Sarkar’s ideology, such moralists alone can bring an exploitation-free society into practical existence. So one thing is very clear – a movement headed by moralists alone can implement PROUT in reality. 
Regarding who is a moralist, there are many perspectives, but here I want to state only three salient qualities which are fundamental to the question:

1. One should be the one and the same in speech and action.
2. One must in all circumstances – favourable or unfavou rable – completely carry out one’s ideological commitments.
3. Once one has decided to attain a goal, one must not abandon it, come what may.

I feel that the degree to which one is established, or is following these basic principles of morality, is judged by how closely one is able to come towards the goal, which in this case is the establishment of PROUT.

To Take Action NOW

Starting from 1959 until now, for various reasons, Proutists have not been able to significantly influence the existing social currents anywhere in the world. The ideas of PROUT have no doubt been disseminated through various programs (books, seminars, etc.) and PROUT has won the approval and admiration of several distinguished persons throughout the world. But as it is, PROUT has yet to be taken seriously by any intellectual or organiser of any standing or any government anywhere in the world. Because of this PROUT has not been able to be an integral part of the main current of social activities anywhere. So the object here is to explain how to make PROUT the dominant social current and thus to move towards the goal of a just socio-economic and political order.

There may be persons who like to say that when God desires then automatically PROUT will be established…since  none has the capacity to resist God’s will, therefore PROUT will be established once God wills it…we should therefore not bother about it and should only go on discussing, sermonizing about this philosophy amongst the people. 

Such a psychology goes against everything Shrii Sarkar said and did. Many times he stated that he wanted to see significant change in society without any further delay. We never fulfilled this ardent aspiration of his revolutionary mission. 

In countless inspiring messages in his books, he repeatedly asks us to take action NOW to save humanity and bring the suffering to an end. Thus far these words have failed to motivate any notable revolutionary zeal in us to establish a government of spiritual moralists. Rather the aforementioned superstitious attitude extinguishes whatever revolutionary fire exists in the Proutists. 

Let us recall some of the soul-stirring messages of Shrii Sarkar to all moralists:

“In this world, in this entire universe, the wind is blowing in our favour. It is the most opportune time to do something for the present and future humanity. At this critical juncture one moment of time has the value of 100 years. Utilize the present position – utilize the situation. Do your duty with more zeal. Let your speed be accelerated. It deserves more acceleration…
“The world moves fast, the universe moves very fast, and the psychic counterpart is also moving fast. Recently the speed of this movement has been greatly accelerated. You should realize this, and you must accelerate the speed of the duty allotted to you. You should  maintain a proper balance with the revised speed. Everywhere sanity and rationality will rule human psychology. Humanity will rule the universe.”

“Parama Puruśa [Supreme Lord] has blessed you with hands to work and legs to move; has infused you with the stamina to act; has endowed you with practical intelligence, so make the best use of them in the fight against the demons. You must not sit idle relying on fate. Be vigorously active.”

“Just as the advent of the purple dawn is inevitable at the end of the cimmerian darkness of the inter-lunar night, exactly in the same way I know that a gloriously brilliant chapter will also come after the endless reproach and humiliation of the neglected humanity of today.

“Those who love humanity and those who desire the welfare of living beings should be vigorously active from this very moment, after shaking off all lethargy and sloth, so that the most auspicious hour arrives at the earliest.”

“Despite its advent onto this earth many thousands of years ago, humanity is not yet capable of building a well-integrated and universal human society. This is in no way indicative of the glory of human intellect and erudition. You, who have understood the predicament, realized the urgency, seen the naked dance of evil and heard the hypocritical and raucous laughter of the divisive forces should throw yourselves into this noble task without further delay. When the ends are just and noble, success is inevitable.”

The above messages of Shrii Sarkar are a clear indication that he wants us to translate the ideals of PROUT into a living reality at the earliest. Not only that, he also guarantees us success once we throw ourselves into action for the realization of this goal. 

Two Movements

Summarizing the objective outlook of PROUT, two movements are implied – a socio-economic-cultural movement and a political movement. For spearheading the socio-economic-cultural movement, Shrii Sarkar has propounded socio-economic groupifications called Samajas (eg. Malwa Samaj, Asi Punjabi Samaj, Hadoti Samaj, etc.) based on certain essential factors such as same economic problems, uniform economic potentialities, ethnic similarities, the sentimental legacy of the people, and similar geographical features. 

Through this he wants us to identify with the sentiment of a particular region. Through these socio-economic groupifications, Shrii Sarkar wants that an anti-exploitation socio-economic-cultural movement should come into existence.

PROUT in fact advocates ensuring that economic power comes into the hands of the common people. The goal is to ensure that everyone is economically self-reliant and therefore PROUT principles and policies seek to involve local people in the planning and economic development of their region. The reason is that local people are the best judge of their own needs and aspirations. Their direct involvement with the economic activities of their region is essential for them to achieve self-sufficiency. 

Fight against degenerating pseudo-culture also infuses into a person, fighting spirit against exploitation. Protecting one’s cultural and sentimental legacy is important as it enables people to unite on a common platform easily and then to take the struggle against immoral misrule strongly and steadfastly.

The second movement is a purely political movement. In the last chapter of His book Ananda Sutram, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti begins by talking about the rule of a particular psychology that is prevalent in a particular place, in a particular age, and how in course of time, that leads to exploitation, discrimination and all types of degeneration. In such a situation, the moral forces have to save the people and end this exploitation. So their movement for the eradication of exploitative rule takes place either by evolutionary or by revolutionary methods. Needless to reiterate, for a Proutist revolution to really succeed in advancing its objectives, the movement’s leadership must be in the hands of moralists.

For Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, leadership is the most crucial issue. It is a leader who brings a good or bad system into practice. If moralist revolutionaries lead a movement it will bring about a humane social order in a practical sense. Immoral leaders never act selflessly and therefore always remain concerned with their own happiness and well-being. They will therefore never allow moralists and Proutists to hold power. This is the reason why despite the persecution of Proutists, no leader – social, political or corporate – has ever come out openly against this persecution. Not less than fifty persons have been killed and many gory incidents have taken place, yet none of the well-recognised persons even took pains to ponder over it seriously.

A Government of Proutists

Hence a government of Proutists is essential for the promotion and implementation of Proutist ideals. PROUT cannot be implemented if we are to continue to live under the rule of a hostile government. The existence of a PROUT friendly government is indispensible for the purpose. 

PROUT has thus given two distinct movements side by side: A socio-economic-cultural movement and a political movement to take over power from immoralists.

Let us first discuss the Samaja movement. It moves people to agitate in order for them to become empowered socially, culturally and economically. When the government accepts the demands of the Samaja movement and enacts laws to that effect, their materialization takes practical shape. Otherwise, the rule of corruption, hypocrisy and suffering for most will just continue. Therefore Shrii Sarkar has envisaged a political movement to bring Proutists to power. It is for this reason that we need a Proutist government. In order to practically achieve this, launching and strengthening the political movement is the way out.

Proutists in the seat of power will be a step forward in establishing PROUT ideology. A PROUT friendly government can implement the vision of PROUT into reality. The present lack of a PROUT government is one of the main reasons why Proutist institutions have not succeeded in accelerating their activities. A sympathetic and supportive government is an important factor to provide impetus to ideologically revolutionary activities. So in order to bring acceleration and consequent victory of Proutist movements – the rule of moralists (Proutists) is essential. Samaja movements will facilitate this work. Both movements – political as well as socio-economic – cultural– are to complement each other.  

In order to raise a political movement, a clear vision and direction is required. In 1968, Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar founded a political party called Proutist Bloc, India (PBI). All these years this party has not been sufficiently active with the desired speed, desired strength and therefore it has yet to find a place on the political map of India. Now, in the present era, PBI activists have resolved to wage decisive struggle with the immoral forces.

A System of Dual Powers

Economic and political powers need to be segregated. It is unwise to give both powers to one institution. Therefore, economic power (via Samaja activities) will be vested in the hands of the local people. Local people (belonging to a particular samaja) are sovereign in this regard. To understand why, it is essential to realize that the dominant doctrine in social and perhaps scientific thought is the doctrine of “the survival of the fittest.” This doctrine causes people to take the suffering of the helpless and the weak as something natural and not worth becoming outraged over. Shrii Sarkar dealt a death blow to this concept by saying that every living being has dual values. 

Firstly there is their inestimable value of their existence and second there is their utility value as a precious resource for society. Until now, in practical life there has been recognition and emphasis on people’s utility value because the doctrine of “survival of the fittest” still dominates the collective psychology. The result is that certain persons dominated by this doctrine have been more and more active in acquiring more skills and knowledge and also they have never hesitated to exploit, suppress and oppress without any qualms of conscience. Indeed, they always were vociferous in justifying their actions to the public claiming that their wealth was the result of their talents and hard work and that other people have the opportunity to struggle and succeed just like they did. In the past successful dacoits propagated the same type of justification for their social vices.

Shrii Sarkar thoroughly differs from this duplicitous line of thought. When the Supreme Entity cares for the existence of even the lowliest and most helpless beings, why then should human beings not do likewise? Why should they deny others the very right to remain alive. The benevolent Lord knows that a newborn baby has undeveloped digestive organs. Therefore He provides milk in the breast of the pregnant women, well before the child is even born. Similarly the Lord has not discriminated against the most hateful sinner with regard to their right to exist. We are to look upon all as a dignified manifestation of the Supreme Lord. Therefore we have to guarantee the existential value to one and all. This is why Shrii Sarkar has guaranteed economic power and economic rights to one and all, so that everyone becomes self-reliant and so that no one should feel that their life could not blossom due to a lack of resources and opportunities. Therefore we have to usher in a system where everyone exists with dignity without any worry about poverty, suppression and exploitation. Thus Prout’s economic movement of Samaja puts economic power in the hands of the common people.
 
But so far as governance and administration is concerned, it cannot be entrusted or delegated to everyone like economic power. Only moralists should occupy the seats of governance, not any Tom, Dick or Harry. Without the presence of a strong moral foundation within a person, they are bound to fall and deviate from the righteous path. Those remaining in government or in administration must necessarily possess moral and spiritual attributes. Precisely for this reason, PROUT’s political movement will however be in the hands of moralists alone without any compromise. Here the role of the common people is that of an activist and voter and not that of a leader or an official functionary.

One of the negative results of failing to maintain this separation can be seen today. There is concentration of wealth and power in a few hands, resulting in poverty and deprivation everywhere. These economic giants are controlling the politics as well. Virtually both the powers – economic and political – are effectively vested in the same set of persons. In order to grapple with this disparity in the economic condition of the people, economy therefore needs to be decentralized and for this reason PROUT has started 44 Samaja movements in India. 

But in order to maintain unity and structural solidarity of the country, there is only one political unit, i.e. India. Thus there is one Indian government accommodating all the 44 Samajas. 

Politics has to be the exclusive domain of moralists while the economy remains in the hands of the local indigenous people. There is centralization of political power and the economic power will be decentralized.

Right from the early days Shrii Sarkar started creating and inspiring cadres to take part in elections. Why did he continue to do this? The reason is by this the cadres were made to go out and see the suffering in the society and listen to people’s problems. This makes them dedicated to the mission of PROUT and it makes them think deeply how to solve their local problems with PROUT. Furthermore the struggle to carry out the work despite money shortage and oftentimes violent onslaughts by corrupt people, force them to become courageous and make leaders out of them. Shrii Sarkar said leaders are born out of the process of doing the revolutionary work of mobilizing the people.

PBI will not be a three-month program during the elections period. Representatives will learn to fight for the people’s issues all year round. They will teach the people to think for themselves, articulate their feelings and fight for their rights and their dreams through PBI. Through this, the people will become a powerful force that will not just bring candidates to power rather will always be engaged in fighting to bring PROUT about in their local area. In this way national mobilization of the Proutist activists of India and the Indian people will take place to create a new breed of Proutists who relish struggling against all odds. Shrii Sarkar thus says,

“Hence, non-struggle – the absence of struggle – is but another name for death. It has been my constant endeavour to arouse this spirit of struggle in you; I have never encouraged aversion towards struggle.” 

So to bring back the spirit of moral struggle is the most important task facing Proutists today. PBI will honestly accomplish this task.

Mission of PBI

In order to fill this gaping void in politics, PBI has emerged with clear vision and determination. PBI will accomplish five tasks:

1. PBI will endeavour to create polarization in politics. There should be a clear message to society that only moralists will be allowed to take part in political activity. Therefore morality has to be the minimum qualification of a political activist. The yardstick of judging a person’s morality will be his/her private and public conduct. In particular the amount of wealth of a candidate must be clearly scrutinized.
   Today, people believe that without indulging in immoral and unfair practices, it is impossible to be successful in politics. In other words, a person cannot win a seat in the legislature without resorting to immoral means. This myth in the Indian psychology has to be shattered by PBI.
2. PBI will do its best to organize and unite disgruntled moralists. Goody-goody moralists are not of much use for addressing the issue of people’s suffering. It requires fighting zeal and revolutionary spirit to challenge the immoral and exploitative forces.
3. PBI will endeavour to establish harmonious coordination with other PROUT activists and movements.
4. PBI will endeavour to maintain a sympathetic relationship with like-minded organizations and movements.
5. PBI will work for mass mobilization for bringing a new socio-political order into existence and as such will fully concentrate on mass awakening and mass uprising.

The ultimate aim of all these activities is to bring Proutists (moralists) into power in the form of a PROUT government. 

The Aftermath

Once we have a Proutist government, is there any guarantee that this government will materialize PROUT principles and PROUT policies? This is a question meriting serious reflection.

Past experiences show that the new governments have deviated from their declared agenda and with the passage of time become tyrannical like their predecessors. That is why, the examples of revolutionary struggle and revolutionary governments formed after seizing power from exploitative governments no longer inspire people today. Instead people have come to believe that we may expect a change of government but never the replacement of the existing system by a durable, benevolent and thoroughly pro-people’s system of governance.

Shrii Sarkar has deeply gone into this issue and says,

“The government, be it fascist, imperialist, republican, dictatorial, bureaucratic or democratic, is sure to become tyrannical if there is no moral force to check the capricious activities of the leaders or of the party in power.”

This implies that Shrii Sarkar visualises two sources of power – the first official power and the second unofficial
 power. Official power means power derived from the national Constitution and the statute books. The entire machinery of governance and administration functions within the ambit of the provisions laid down in the Constitution and legal statutes. Hence this is considered the official system. Anything not officially permitted is considered illegal and punishable.

Due to this situation, it is most likely that a person in official posts of power who lacks moral integrity is destined to unleash a rule of terror and ruthless exploitation. It is therefore not possible to check the baneful actions of such government functionaries and authorities from within the  government machinery as it is under the control of such tyrannical and immoral persons. Shrii Sarkar therefore has made us realise the need for a moral force outside and independent of the official machinery of government

Therefore he says, “One cannot expect this moral force from the government power functioning within a democratic structure. We expect it from non-political ends.”

It is therefore evident that the desired moral force has to emerge from outside the realm of the government. By what process will this moral force become a reality for the common man? To understand this, let us scrutinize and analyse the nature of Proutist politics.

Proutist Politics

Shrii Sarkar advocates partyless democracy – the reason being that people become divided in several groups due to their loyalty to different political parties and these parties keep them divided because only through these divisions can they come into power. The current system of party-democracy has many defects known to every intelligent citizen. The main defect is that people vote for the party and the party very often fields candidates who are unworthy from the viewpoint of dedication and dauntless struggle for the rights of the suffering people. The only consideration of political parties, when selecting a candidate, is to see whether he/she can win election using even immoral and illegal means, including of course, money and muscle power. The supporters of a party vote for the party’s candidates without caring for credentials of those candidates. Therefore the legislature becomes full of people of questionable character. Parties also enter into unholy alliances with other parties for gaining power and money, making a mockery of ethical principles. This kills the very spirit of democracy. It is in light of this scenario, that Shrii Sarkar is in favour of partyless democracy where people will vote based on the merit of the candidates. 

The question still remains as to whether people elected in this new partyless democracy (just like those in the party democracy existing today) will fulfil the mandate of their manifesto. What is the guarantee that when she/he enters in the legislature, their integrity remains as clean as in the past?

In order to address this very eventuality, Shrii Sarkar has visualized another centre of power independent of the constitutional and legal system. This is a moralist power functioning as the centre of the common people’s support. People will rally around moralist leadership and accord them recognition due to their exemplary conduct, service-mindedness and indomitable integrity. This power centre does not arise through the legal order. It comes into existence because of the people’s will for justice, equality and unity.

People support this unofficial, non-governmental power centre due to their implicit trust and confidence in the moralist leader’s selfless and dedicated personality. This leader will therefore exercise their influence on the people due to the force of their uncompromising struggle against all forms of injustice and not because of any legal or official position. People will thus have a genuine form of leadership to bank upon and will be inspired to become such leaders themselves. This moral movement will create mass support for change and will enable the leadership to exert effective and productive influence upon the government and the administration.

A situation will therefore naturally evolve into existence when the government with its various agencies will no more be in position to ignore this power centre. They will always remain in fear of this moral leadership due to the massive popular support behind it. They will realise that once they refuse to listen to this moral power centre, they will be thrown out of power. They will therefore always feel accountable to this moral, non-governmental power centre. 

Past examples of such popular moral political support include Mahatma Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan and recently Anna Hazare. They did not hold any official post in the organisation, which was running under their leadership. Without any position, the entire movement was under their control and the people followed them so long as they felt the leader was fully responsive and dedicated to their welfare. However, those past leaders made serious mistakes due to which they lost their role as a moral guide.
 In the case of Mahatma Gandhi, he could not restrain the Congress from working as a political party and that became the cause of his failure. Even prior to this, he could not prevent the Partition of India despite his loud declaration that the division would take place on the corpse of his dead body. In post-Independence India the Congress party was taken over by opportunist politicians who refused to listen to Gandhi. 

In the case of Jayaprakash Narayan, after the Janata Party came to power, he disbanded the entire network of people’s organizations. Thus no one in the party would listen to him and he died in grief seeing the corrupted party collapse. What he should have done was to keep the network of organizations alive and use them as a means to exert pressure on the government. The rulers at the centre would have then felt accountable to this moralist centre of power; this moral nucleus would have remained a threat to their capricious activities. In the absence of such a powerful centre, the Janata Party rule collapsed without completing its full term. 

Similarly, a non-governmental people’s movement emerged centring around Anna Hazare. It also gained mass support but subsequently it was hijacked by those nurturing political ambitions. As a consequence, the movement flopped and lost its mass appeal and Anna is a bewildered man today. In retrospect we see that Anna lacked penetrating intelligence and thus could not realise the nature of his companions or forsee their future actions.

Shrii Sarkar has introduced the concept of a moral power independent of government machinery but having unquestioned leadership of the moralist people. This centre of moral power will emerge as the natural choice of the people. Here I do not mean to imply one individual’s leadership. I mean the collective leadership of strong moralists. While the legislators will do their work in the legislature, people under the collective leadership of moralists will keep an eye on their functioning. When they find that a particular legislator is not acting in accordance with the contents of his/her manifesto, then they will force him to resign and if required leave politics forever. So, once the people are empowered to act under the leadership of such a moral centre, which should evolve as a natural consequence, the emergence of a non-governmental effective moral power centre will become a practical reality. Such a non-governmental power will serve as a deterrent for any immoral act of any legislator.

Two-tiered Leadership

So we have a two-tiered leadership – 1) the official leadership represented in the governmental structure (legislative, judicial, executive, audit, secretariat, police, etc. branches); and 2) the non-official universally recognized moralist force. Both will complement each other. But in the case of the government machinery not working in the people’s interests, the moral force will create such circumstances to force them to mend their ways or vacate the seat of power. Such a system of social culture can guarantee the implementation of PROUT. None need be afraid that the legislators and other wings of the administration will not do their duty.

Without such a centre of moralist power, the implementation of PROUT ideals will remain a dream. Therefore in PBI, there are leaders who will contest elections and enter into the legislature. Besides this, there are leaders who will always work with the masses without aspiring for any political gain. They will be natural leaders of the population (rather than appointed, nominated or elected leaders) and hence the interests of the masses will be safe due to their selfless leadership. The official (administrative) leadership will always be in awe of this moral leadership because they will always remain accountable to its relentless vigilance to safeguard the welfare of the people.

Today, this second tier is completely absent. People are endlessly divided – having loyalty for and against certain parties and those who are elected by the people have no worries about the public going against them. These immoral legislators use all tactics to keep the people divided and docile and in low spirits. All the parties want to retain their separate identity and work day and night to consolidate their vote bank, In this nefarious game of power politics, one section of the common people always remain at war with the others. The parties spend funds lavishly to keep their party in the limelight and for attracting mass support.

In addition, every party in power always at the grassroots level encourages the spread of alcohol, drugs, pornography and decadent culture, no matter what their public stance might be. The revolutionary spirit in the dissatisfied and rebellious people is sapped by such degradation which keep them morally weak. Thus they compromise with their own exploitation and aid the exploitation of others. These rudderless, self-disrespecting people are no threat to the unscrupulous politicians and therefore the latter feel free from worry. They feel assured of remaining as MP or MLA for their full term. 

Since they foresee the wrath of society against the exploiters who fund their election campaign they are careful to keep creating controversies so as to divide people on superficial issues and social prejudices. As a result they shamelessly and freely use this term in power to inflate their wealth and amass luxury items. They do not even bother to visit their constituencies regularly. 

So this type of psychology will not exist once fear is instilled in them that the people will not tolerate even for one day if they make a mockery of the promises in their manifesto.

The propagation of Proutist ideology has to be consistently carried out as a permanent activity and not a seasonal or yearly activity. Only in this way can change be generated in the collective psychology towards PROUT ideals. People have to be empowered with PROUT – to feel that with this ideology and path of action they can liberate themselves. They must arise and liberate themselves with PROUT. 

This strong freedom sentiment must be developed and in order to develop this sentiment, constant PROUT educational empowerment programmes have to be undertaken. This also helps in consolidating the will power of the disgruntled people. These disgruntled moralists will have a platform(moralist nucleus) to ventilate their dissatisfaction and anger. The more they become organized and united, the more they become aggressive for attaining their goal of social reconstruction. PBI will tirelessly work to this end. 

Finally the disgruntled people become capable of more and more acts of courage to end the prevailing exploitative system and bring genuine changes. Therefore Proutist political movements will succeed in giving a pure and efficient administration and a pro-people governance. Thus PROUT will finally see the light of day. Shrii Sarkar expressed the pure truth saying

“There is joy indeed in launching a struggle against injustice, and that joy is part and parcel of aesthetic science.”

Let this joy be felt by not just every Proutist, by every moralist on this planet; let even the immoralists yearn for this joy in their hearts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.  Do you think staging rallies, dharnas (sit-ins) and contesting elections at this stage, before creating awareness  of  need for change will help establish Prout.   Dharnas and rallies on a small scale are not taken seriously by media and people; they get mixed up and lost among other rallies on petty issues. 
A.Staging rallies, dharnas and contesting elections certainly help in creating awareness for the need for change. I do agree that dharnas and rallies on a small scale do not create much immediate impact. The solution therefore lies in steadily raising them to bigger and effective strength as part of a sustained grassroots campaign.

Q. Do you think mass will become ideological easily in order to support PBI movement? 
A. Mass can never become ideological. They can only be sympathisers and supporters. When they find that a particular movement holds prospect of bringing relief to them, they join it in droves. My experience is that the mass who raises slogans of Gandhiism does not know what Gandhiism in fact is. Same is the case with the activists of other movements. Only few people at the top have the understanding of their ideology. This is true in case of Proutists as well. How many among us know the specialities and beauty of Prout? They just know the word Prout, and that it is the best philosophy and ideology. Their conviction is based more on devotional sentiment and partially on intellectual understanding. 
Prout was propounded in 1959; 56 years have passed. Can you claim Indians in general know even the word Prout ? It is known to a very small number of people who are the ardent followers of Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. In the outside society, the number can be counted on fingers.

Q. Do you not feel it is the time of intellectual fight and time for physical fight is not yet mature. Gain enough strength before taking the enemy face to face. Should we not concentrate at this stage on intellectuals and thoughtful people?
A. I do not think we should say this is the time of intellectual fight alone. We have been waging this fight since 1959. This should continue but this is not enough. Prout ideas will remain confined to a few people as it has remained till now if we insist only on talking and discussing about Prout without corresponding work on the ground.
     I have never implied taking on enemy face to face. My emphasis is on creating collective psychology and effecting genuine polarisation in politics. Propaganda and elections are parts of the strategy. Once collective psychology is evolved and consolidated in favour of Proutistic change, formation of Prout government becomes a natural consequence.

Q. We find political parties and politicians are not respected at present by right thinking people. Will they take PBI seriously?
 A. Politicians and political parties are not respected due to their conduct. Once their motives and activities are channelled towards unwavering sincerity and moral integrity, people will start respecting politics. Today it is the refuge of scoundrels. This situation has to be reversed.PBI will strain every nerve to accomplish this task. 

Q. Helping people by pressurising government through agitating movements to solve their problems makes them think that the present system is right; and when we fail in our efforts, will not people turn to other persons and parties even if latter adopt corrupt practices? 
A. Efforts to pressurise the government is a strategy, it is not the way to solution. This helps in consolidating anti-thesis and organising as well as uniting viksubddha shudras(disgruntled moral virtuous revolutionaries).
    People will certainly not abandon us when they find and realise that we are not the present day professional politicians.They will come forward to support us impressed and inspired by our sincerity, integrity, dutifulness and service mindedness. PBI stands for this.

 Q. Is it not that Samaj movement should precede contesting elections by PBI? Highlighting the need of local economy and culture will gain popularity among people that will eventually help in winning elections. Do you not think that PBI contesting few seats symbolically will not be taken seriously in present day politics?
A. Contesting elections is also an integral part of the strategy. It also assists in mobilising masses and consolidating collective psychology in favour of Proutistic change.
     I do not think that Samaj movement has to precede the political movement. They have to proceed side by side. The spirit of both the movements should be to establish Prout. They should complement each other in letter and spirit.
      Samaj movement has also to evolve collective psychology in its favour in order to gain mass support for its agenda. It is not possible just by talks and discussions.

Q. Do you not think Proutists must be in a position to give Proutistic solutions of the present day problems to the people in order to inspire their confidence and consequently acquire much needed credibility?
A. They ought to know, but this is possible only for a few competent Proutists whom we can call ideological leaders. Masses and mass leaders sympathise and support the movement. They are however, attuned with the subterranean spirit of Prout but do not possess the deep knowledge of the philosophy and ideology. The collective body of the ideological leaders and mass leaders together will crown the Proutist movement with victory. 

Q. What are in your view the methods to reach different media in order to reach people?
A. All these methods like dharnas, memorandum, symbolic hunger strikes, protest processions and door to door contact are the methods to bring the movement closer to common people and earning popularity among the masses, thus broadening mass support for the movement. We will also agitate for redress of people's grievances by bringing circumstantial pressure on the administration through these methods, and if needed even by courting arrest.

Q. What will be the methods to make people feel the necessity of a new system?
A. Once we are able to make people aware of the cause of their sufferings through propagation of our philosophy and ideology and fighting for their cause with the administration,they will feel the need of the change of the system realising that their grievances are not being redressed and their suffering continues to accelerate.

Q. What is needed for changing the collective psychology in favour of Prout?
A. For changing the collective psychology of the people, the best course is to organise and unite viksubdha shudras (disgruntled, impoverished moral virtuous revolutionaries) and thus bring about the polarisation between moralists and immoral politicians. Collective psychology evolves through anti-thesis as well as synthesis. Therefore while PBI will sincerely and seriously work for strengthening the anti-thesis, it will simultaneously popularise synthesis by advocacy of the new system to be introduced on the basis of Prout through platform propaganda and door-to-door contact. When people find that their sufferings are not being alleviated in the present system , and the new system offered by Prout has the practical remedies, the necessary collective psychology is  bound to evolve and consolidate in favour of Proutistic ideals making Prout the dominating element of socio-economic-cultural and political currents of the society.

Q. You are repeatedly using the words revolution and revolutionaries. What exactly do you mean by these controversial words?
A. There is no controversy or confusion regarding the meaning and significance of the word “revolution”. It means the tremendous application of all the three powers a human being possesses – physical, psychic and spiritual.
A revolutionary will not give any encouragement to lethargy. Their entire physical existence will be devoted and dedicated to the cause of suffering humanity.
A revolutionary will not support or encourage any dogma. Their intellect will remain liberated from all forms of narrow “isms”, social prejudices and psychic weaknesses. They will neither be trapped by any attachment nor by any malice. Their mind will always remain fixed upon the goal. 
They will be a bonafide spiritual person having no trace of hypocrisy in their life. They will never use spirituality as a commercial enterprise. They will never allow themselves to be worshipped but rather will give honour to all the unrecognised good people in the society. They will strive endlessly to work in a state of ardent love for the Supreme Entity. 
In social life they will always be unable to bear the suffering of anyone and will personally wipe the tears from their eyes and fight for them against all odds. Those people who are rejected and hated by others will become the dearest objects of their love. They will build the personality of the victims of society and teach them to fight for their rights and show them how fighting for the rights of others is the greatest joy in life.
When these same qualities become manifest in the collective psychology and the people become unwilling to tolerate the sufferings of others in the society, we call it a revolutionary psychology. When this psychology leads to mass struggle and mass upheaval in the society it is called revolution. Those who at that time are ever absorbed in crowing this revolutionary struggle with all-round success and bringing about the triumph of justice for all beings are the leaders of the revolution.

Q. Any other reason of your being confident regarding the success of PBI movement?
A. We are conscious that we have to maintain the consistency and continuity of the movement to reach the goal. We are also aware if we fail to do it we will also be pushed into the oblivion like other good movements of the past. Our hearts bleed for suffering humanity.