Ecology
The
ecology of progress
By Dr. Ravi Batra
To understand
Prout, it is necessary to begin with its concept of progress. In common
parlance, the term "progress" is associated with technical
and scientific advancement, or anything that enhances the comforts of
life. But these also create problems and can therefore not be termed
as real progress.
Humanity
is said to have made tremendous progress today because life seems so
much more comfortable these days then it was a few centuries ago. Nowadays
people can travel fast by land and air, whereas only a hundred years
ago they were traveling by horse-drown bogeys and bullock carts. If we
go back to ancient times, people had to travel on foot. This progress
is commonly understood as an increase in living comforts through scientific
inventions, which have eased our lives not only physically but also mentally.
The invention of paper has helped spread scholarly ideas. People can
now engage their minds reading novels and other literature. The Internet
is another case in point, having put exchange of ideas and gathering
of information at the fingertips of all. Scientific discoveries may be
credited with tremendous advance that humanity has made in the physical
and intellectual realm.
All this,
according to Prout, is not progress. To be sure, it has resulted in a
great change in the mode of living, but it is not progress because most
scientific discoveries have created problems which were non-existence
before or which have increased proportionally with the various material
or intellectual developments. Faster travel today has increased the risk
of accident; industrialization has resulted in environmental pollution
and cancer and other diseases unheard of in the past, as modern medicines
quickly cures the malady but generates side-effects requiring further
treatment. Even in the intellectual sphere, there is much available to
keep the mind occupies, but people today suffer from emotional problems
and neuroses that did not afflict them before. And a momentous invention
like the Internet is surely a mighty river of and and important carrier
of information but it is also a cesspool of negative influence and even
dangerous addiction to some.
Increased
comforts in physical and intellectual spheres have been accompanied by
deleterious side-effects, and who is to say that progress has really
occurred in these realms. Indeed, Sarkar goes as far as saying that progress
in the intellectual and physical sense is impossible unless there occurs
a spiritual advance at the same time - unless they support spiritual
development. In other words, the term progress in the intellectual and
physical spheres is a misnomer.
Why cannot
progress occur in the physical and intellectual arenas? Why must any
positive development on these levels be associated with a negative movement?
The reason lies in the very nature of the universe which exists in a
vibrational flow balanced by positive and negative forces.
Physical
development
Our Earth and the atmosphere surrounding it are finite. Any positive wave in
these finite realms will have to be counterbalanced by a negative wave. Therefore,
any invention creating a positive wave of physical comfort is matched by a corresponding
negative wave leading to discomfort. In view of the interdependent nature of
the physical world, it is not surprising that the results of new technology
will be exactly counterbalanced by a side-effect. Therefore if life becomes
easier in some respects, it will become harder in others. No one can laud science
and technology as anything else but a mixed blessing.
Prout's
claim that progress is impossible in the physical realm is very strong
indeed. It seems to be incredible but it has an internal logic of its
own. And today, with the constructive and destructive fruits of science
visible in all directions, this logic has become manifestly clear. Can
you think of any invention which while reproducing life's boredom has
not added to life's danger at the same time? Repetitive work is drudgery;
when machine can do that work life becomes more pleasant than before.
If dishwashers do our dishes, air-conditioners temperate our rooms, laundry
machines clean our clothes, cars do our walking and so on, life certainly
appears blissful relative to what our forefathers had to endure in a
less scientific world. But then they did not have to cope with electric
shocks, fatal accidents, urban congestion, super-selfishness, crime and
so on.
Indeed the
harm done by an invention varies directly with its promises of comfort.
Coal results in smoke pollution and so does oil. Nuclear power has none
of this and is one vast reservoir of power. But when problems first come
in a nuclear plant they may be many times deadlier and more catastrophic
than traditional sources of energy. You can move away from the pollution
of oil and coal but from nuclear radiation there is no escape. It follows
you wherever you go.
Today solar
energy holds greater promise than nuclear plants. That is because its
dangers are not yet known. Every scientific device conceals invisible
dangers that become apparent much later. When utilizing new technology,
we do not expect any trouble from it. This is faulty logic and very short
term thinking.
Sarkar corrects
this thinking by saying that the side effects of every invention are
inevitable, because the universe is finite, and vibrational in nature,
and any physical change producing comfort must be counter-balanced by
an equivalent physical change producing misery.
Does it
mean that science should be discarded? Not at all. With our overwhelming
problems concerning energy, population and pollution, our relapse to
pre-science days is unthinkable. All it means is that we have to be more
cautious about inventions. Before translating any new invention into
industrial technology, its side-effects should be thoroughly studies,
and investments should simultaneously be made in controlling its emissions.
Mental
development
While the concept of progress in the material sphere is at best dubious, things
are not better in the intellectual sphere. The world seems to have greatly advanced
in the realm of the intellect. There are more scholars today than ever before.
People with M.A. and Ph.D. abound in many nations, and many more are habituated
to regular reading and writing. But has all this occurred without a cost?
People in
ancient times were intellectually backward, but they did not suffer from
emotional stress and neuroses. One who is less scholarly is also less
prone to mental disturbances, whereas an intellectual is highly vulnerable
in this regard. He or she creates unnecessary problems in his own world
of imaginations and experiences sleepless nights. Hence in the intellectual
sphere also, progress is unlikely, if not impossible, because the feeling
of increased pleasure is likely to be balanced by one of increasing trouble
and pain. The barometer of progress in the ultimate analysis must be
mental pleasure, which is really nothing but a mental vibration emitted
by relaxed nerves. On the other end, pain is just an opposite experience.
When the nerves are under tension, the vibration generated in the mind
is called pain. In the evaluating the impact of science, people usually
focus on the conveniences it has provided, while ignoring the nervous
tensions it has created in our lives. The fact that progress is not possible
in the material sphere only means that the scientific change increases
both pleasures and pain in the same proportions.
The same
holds true with intellectual activity as well. In most states, mind experiences
wither pleasure or pain. There may be cases of mental repression of mental
denial of either comforting or discomforting things, but such mental
stated do not last long. Generally, mind is either happy or unhappy.
The intellectual activity undoubtedly increases the feeling of pleasure.
A person who has won an argument over another is usually very happy and
sometimes delirious with joy. But after a while, he will experience a
corresponding amount of pain in some other aspect of his or her mind.
The reason is that the human mind has a certain mass and volume. Purely
intellectual study and analysis fail to enhance its mass. All they do
is to increase the activity and play of ideas into a given intellectual
arena. With a greater number of thoughts criss-crossing a given mental
field, the result inevitably is increased clash in the mind. Hence occurs
the mental breakdown. hence the neuroses. Hence the growing need of psychiatrists
in the intellectually developed societies.
True
progress
Is the progress possible at all? The answer is yes. Human existence has three
aspects--physical, mental and spiritual. While the first two aspects are not
amenable to progress, the third is. Increased happiness in that sphere is not
neutralized by increased misery.
While physical
and intellectual activities deal with the limited, spirituality is concerned
with the unlimited. Hence the goal in the spiritual arena is not finite
but infinite. Therefore, the feeling of pleasure resulting from spiritual
activity is not accompanied by pain, or happiness by misery. This then
is true progress. In the spiritual experience there is no negative movement,
no reaction. For every effort there is a forward march unaccompanied
by any deleterious side-effects.
Spiritual
activities include meditation and selfless living. Without providing
help to the needy, the forward movement towards the infinite is impossible.
And since mind's goal is infinitude, the spiritual life results in an
expansion in the volume as well as the mass of mind. As a result, the
mental conflict declines, and the nerves get relaxation. The person becomes
broadminded. He or she seeks to serve others, to share in their pains.
A community which respects the selfless beings and attempts to emulate
them, experiences increased happiness without corresponding pain. That
is when true progress occurs in the entire society. The degree of selflessness,
therefore, is the true gauge of society's progress, and not the material
development, or its intellectual attainments.
While real
progress is unlikely in the material and mental sphere, Prout does not
advocate that scientific and intellectual pursuits be abandoned. On the
contrary, Prout is the champion of science, art and literature. Sarkar
insists, however, that scientific advances should be "spiritualized";
they should be accompanied by spiritual practices for such practices
enable us to gain increasing mastery over our body and mind. All detrimental
effects of scientific and intellectual developments on the human organism
can thus be brought under control.
The introduction
of new technology increases the pace of life. More decisions than before
have to be made in a relatively short span of time; one has to move fast
from place to place in order to cope with the speed of the machines.
All this adversely affects the nerves, and in turn puts stress on the
brain and the heart. Heart failures and mental agonies are the inevitable
byproducts of science and technology. Spiritual practices, which calm
the nerves, are therefore indispensable if we intend to master science
and not be mastered by it.
Prout's
concept of progress has profound implications for humanity. It suggests
that scientific change and intellectual transformation, unaccompanied
by spiritual advance, would lead only to degradation in the physical
arena such as our environment but also to racism, bigotry, and social
conflicts. Spirituality is the foundation of all progress. During the
20th century, thousands of remarkable inventions and new theories have
almost totally transformed our way of life. There is no indication that
this trend will slow down, rather we expect accelerated movement in all
spheres of life. However, at the present we have spiritually stagnated
and even moved backwards. Consequently, battles and wars have been deadlier
in the 20th century than ever before. Rising greed, crime, drugs and
environmental pollution threaten to overwhelm the delicate thread of
life on our finite planet. The moral is that change in the physical and
mental sphere, without spiritual advance, is ultimately self-destructive.
