Though I have a bachelor’s degree in Economics, working on my Masters in Business Administration, it was difficult for me to digest the PROUT philosophy in the beginning. I have tried to remain open and keep my patience through my initial studies of PROUT, which contradicted many of the ideas I’ve been learning in the University. After a few months I began to open my mind and imagine how a PROUT world would be. However, the compassion of the PROUT philosophy did not seem practical in today’s world. There are so many realities to overcome, no matter what economic system we follow. And I still am not confident to say that I completely comprehend PROUT. 

It so happened that Ravi Batra was speaking at a seminar held for PROUT’s 50th anniversary in 2009. This came at the time that the world was facing a deep economic crisis during the past year. The goal of this seminar was to review the course of the crisis: past, present and especially the near future. Do we have solutions to deal with it? Do we have a chance to put PROUT ideas into these solutions?

The participants divided into three main groups: Expert professors in each field, NGO’s, and the public. The course of the seminar was divided into two main sections. The first section was a conversation with economist Dr. Ravi Batra involving subjects relevant to the current economic crisis. In the second section the three groups discussed all kinds of current local economic issues and phenomenon, relating PROUT ideas to the situation. Predictably a big clash was generated while explaining and further discussing the meaning of PROUT. We argued about the definition and individual interpretations every time PROUT was mentioned. However, the seminar ended in a good flow and most participants agreed with the main points of PROUT. We made friends who were new to the ideas of PROUT, but wanted to work to promote the PROUT ideas to the public. Some of them were still disheartened about the tremendous, ugly beasts created by capitalism and have little confidence in winning against them. Still they believe it is their duty to fight for what isright, even though it seems an impossible task. My belief is that we anticipate and create the world we envision and we enjoy and suffer at the same time.

It has now been three months from the time I attended the seminar. However, I still remember the flow of that day. I wonder whether this economic crisis has given people a chance to review the way we make money and the insecure, out of control money markets we have created. From what I observe, probably not so much. People still use the same ways to grasp all the money and security they can. No persuasive economic solution has arisen to convince people that our economy will improve. Even so, I still believe the most important goal of the seminar is to grow PROUT seeds in each and every participant and hope that those seeds will sprout sooner or later. I believe we’ll see more and more people working for the ideals of PROUT in this world.  After all, we do rely on the collective social flow to realize PROUT. In time it will raise the human spirit to an even higher standard.

ABSTRACT

With the advent of internet technology and subsequent integration of national and global economies in the last couple of decades, brilliant brains have devised methods to generate money for millionaires and billionaires by moving money from one place to another any place in the world by the click of a mouse button as well as playing, and by creating financial instruments (derivatives, credit default swaps, etc.), that resembles casino games, which create trillions of dollars of investments on paper. The hedge funds play these casino games, but the ultimate losers are the common people.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

Until 700 to 800 years ago, the various continents exhibited little difference in wealth and poverty. The industrial revolution in Europe, however, created vast differences in wealth between rich and poor countries due to the fact that the colonies were deprived of the use of the “new technologies.” As shown in Tables 1 and 2, the economies of Third World countries like India, China, and Brazil were comparable to those of what are now the developed countries until 1750, but due to exploitation of their resources and trade restrictions their economies declined.
During the 18th century, for example, the British imposed trade restrictions on Indian textile exports, which were better than British machine-manufactured textiles, to safeguard its own textile industry. India experienced zero per capita growth from 1600 to 1870, the period of growing British influence. Per capita economic growth from 1870 to independence in 1947 was a meager 0.2 percent per year, compared with 1 percent in the UK.
The U.K. and other European countries achieved tremendous economic growth in the 1800s at the expense of the economic growth of their colonies until the two world wars ended this scheme. The U.S. then took over economic leadership when European nations had to take American war loans and due to the boost these wars gave American industry. The U.S. supplied billions of dollars’ worth of munitions and foodstuffs to the Allies during two World Wars, and the Allies had to borrow money on the New York and Chicago money markets to pay for them. By the late 1940s, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) was almost half of the world’s GDP, and American companies were working at full capacity. This contrasts dramatically with post-war Europe, most of whose factories had been completely destroyed. In addition, technological advances in both ocean and air transport during the war made the transportation of goods cheap, integrating the American economy into the world economy.
The war also caused the demise of the world’s two main colonial powers, Britain and France. Britain’s national debt was about 250 percent of its GDP in 1946. This forced them to grant independence to most of their colonies, which were too expensive to keep within the colonial fold.
World War II also saw the emergence of the U.S.S.R., which initially demonstrated tremendous economic growth. Soviet rulers claimed that they would surpass the economic might of the West, but after a few decades the Soviet economic miracle fizzled out once the drawbacks of communism, including inefficiency and relatively poor productivity, crept into the Soviet economy. This finally led to the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991.
Due to the Korean War, the Japanese and South Korean economies were rebuilt on the ruins of World War II. After the oil price increases in the late 1970s and subsequent inflation, U.S. industries started shifting their production to East Asia, creating the four “Asian Tigers,” namely, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. Since these four countries were too small to produce all the manufactured goods needed for the U.S. consumer market, Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore invested in countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, where the Chinese origin people had a monopoly on industry. This finally led to the rise of China. The losers were American workers, who were laid off on a large scale. The advent of information technology in the mid-1990s created jobs in the U.S., but to satisfy the profit demands of Wall Street investors, CEO’s had to send information technology jobs to countries like India, Ireland, and Philippines.

Capitalism is self-centered and mirrors the lopsided Darwinian law of evolution where only the strong have
the right to prosper. A capitalist social structure works on the illusory ethos of mutual exploitation.
“I am free to exploit you and you are free to exploit me.” In reality, the power to exploit remains
concentrated in the hands of the privileged. For the majority, life in self-centered social structures
degenerates into an endless struggle for existence amidst plenty. It becomes insecure and artificial, full
of contradictions and uncertainties. One is forced to question the glory of a prosperity that excludes so
many.

Religious power structures are based on dogma-centered ideologies, which are purposefully devoid of human
rationality. Such structures use fear to coerce support from the people, yet are incapable of meeting the
basic needs of their subjects. Dogma-centered social structures have never been self-sufficient, but
survive as parasites on socio-economic systems guided by the other two ideologies. While matter-, self-,
and dogma-centered systems have come and gone, no attempt has yet been made to create a social structure
based on Spirit-centered, universal, neohumanistic, and cardinal values. The Indian philosopher
P.R. Sarkar outlines such a possibility in his discourses on Progressive Utilisation Theory (i.e. PROUT).
Sarkar claims that humans are inherently universal and spirit-centered by nature. However, throughout our
history of collective living, our leadership often promoted self-centered, dogma-centered and
mattercentered ideas. We must now move on to higher vistas. No doubt, many are reluctant to sacrifice
their political egos for cardinal human values.

Ignoring the most noble human wisdoms, they continue to push their self-centered agendas. But it’s too
late for their games: individually and socially we have reached a critical point on the curve of social
evolution. At this juncture, there may be only two options left: change our value system or perish as a
civilization. What is Sarkar’s Neohumanism, and how does he envision a spiritcentered neohumanistic
social structure? First, let us look at what it is not. Neohumanism is free from the following three major
shortcomings of the prevailing political ideologies:

1. Geo-sentiment (nationalism, geo-patriotism)

2. Socio-sentiment, which promotes social inequality via leftist mattercentered ideologies and hatred
related to largely right-wing, dogmacentered philosophies including religious hatreds as well as racial,
ethnic and gender-based inequality.

3. Pseudo-humanistic sentiment, an essentially self-centered outlook used to justify the continued plunder
and degradation of the environment. This can be seen as a type of warfare against other species and the
planet itself. In contrast, Neohumanism is a happy blending of spirituality and rationality, a move beyond
left and right ideologies. Religious leaders who forgo rationality invent dogmas and capture the allegiance
of people by infusing them with inferiority complexes and fear. Progressive rationality without spirituality
is dry and heartless. It creates mattercentered structures, such as communism, which enslave and tortures
humanity. Neohumanism acknowledges the need for an approach that recognizes both the spirit and the
intellect.

Political ideologies throughout the ages have changed little, although the collective psychology of humanity
is yearning for an altogether new social structure. Political ideologies are still polarized, amongst the
masses and within the leadership, at both local and global levels. Just recollect the “balance of power”
theory of the Cold War era. Although the Cold War ended more than a decade ago, world leaders today are out
to validate a new “Cold War”, this time along cultural lines, and, perhaps, not so “cold”. That could be
devastating indeed.

Sarkar’s neohumanistic world order, based on the following principles, present a positive new approach for
obtaining world peace:
A. A World Constitution, incorporating the following:
 1. A common penal code for all countries of the world,
 2. A guarantee that clothes, shelter, medical care, food, and education
 are available to all people.
 3. The preservation of all species of plants and animals in their natural
 habitats wherever possible.
 4. Guaranteed purchasing capacity for basic necessities of life to all
 citizens.
 5. Four universal rights for all citizens on the planet:
  -The right to spiritual practice as per one’s belief,
  -The right to cultural legacy,
  -The right to education, and
  -The right to linguistic expression of one’s mother tongue.
B. A World Militia – standing army, and
C. A World Government – with more executive power than the current UN
D. Neohumanistic education to replace the out-dated (bi-polar) social structure with a nuclear one,
E. Creating social leaders and Local Guides of high ethical standards, in good number, and at all levels
of society.

Ac.Vimalananda Avadhuta is the Sectorial Secretary of Proutist Universal, Inc.

Namaskar is a traditional yogic greeting that means, “I greet the divinity within you with all the charms of my mind and the cordiality of my heart.”
We are divine beings, each one of us. We have, in addition to physical and mental qualities, spiritual qualities. Our journey, as individuals and as members of a global community struggling against economic globalization and injustice, is two-fold. It is personal, and it is collective.

Capitalism teaches the superiority of the individual: “I win, you lose.” Or, “I win and it really doesn’t matter what happens to the rest of the world.” What are the lessons we teach our children in school? “Get a good education, then get a good job and make some money.” Western education offers no clear message of social responsibility. We have responsibilities to others as well as individual rights.

Compassion is the most important quality for a spiritualist to have. We need to feel compassion for others and to serve those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

So our journey is both external and internal. Just as we learn from all our personal experiences, so we also learn from the collective struggle for social justice.

I teach prisoners, as Father Jim Consedine does [another speaker at the conference]. I teach them meditation and yoga every week, and personally I find it very gratifying, because they are in a process of transformation. I am inspired by the example that my spiritual master, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar <../../sarkar/default.htm>, gave when the first person he chose to teach meditation to was an infamous criminal in Calcutta who later became a great saint and spiritual visionary. So I think, “If that was the person who he felt was most worthy of spiritual transformation, then who am I to judge the spiritual potential of others?”

We are all brothers and sisters. When I was a child, I often used to fight with my brother and sister, but of course we remained family. In the same way, human beings have lots of differences, and I’m going to fight and struggle against injustice. But I always want to remember that I’m fighting and struggling against the bad actions that people do and not against who they are. Because they are, forever, my brothers and sisters, too.

I accept a universal definition of God: that which is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. For some, this may seem a rather standard dictionary definition of the Supreme Being. But I think the definition is very revolutionary. If He is everywhere, then that means He is right inside me and He is right inside you and He is right inside our planet earth.

God is both He and She. I use the male pronoun unnecessarily, because I have trouble calling the One I feel so close to an “It”. Both the masculine and the feminine are equally present in that Supreme Being — it is we who are limited by our concepts of male and female.
If that Being is here in me and here in you, then that means I have to act accordingly, I have to work accordingly. I cannot be a spiritual capitalist, one who says, “I’m going to go to a nice monastery, to a beautiful forest retreat, to the mountains, I’m only going to do my spiritual journey.” That’s capitalism. That’s selfishness.

In my opinion, spirituality is everywhere. In some places, of course, you will feel more spiritual energy. But you don’t have to go on a pilgrimage to any place, because if you close your eyes, wherever you are, you can find all that you seek. So that inner journey is more important than any pilgrimage. Yes, I like to go to the mountains sometimes, to the forests, I love nature, and clearly there is more spiritual energy in some places, such as this beautiful Maori center. But that’s relative. We shouldn’t stop our progress because we’re not in a spiritual place. I’ll meditate four times a day wherever I am.

Consumerism and materialism is what our current society teaches us. It goes like this: “Buy a new pair of Nike tennis shoes and you’ll be happy. Buy a new car and you’ll be happy.” (You’ll probably get a woman with the car, because most advertisements have a beautiful woman next to the car, so obviously you’re going to get that, too!)

That’s a lie. These capitalist lies are what we have to stop, because they are destroying human minds, convincing people that money is the secret to happiness. Television, film, radio, magazines all get money from advertisers to spread these lies. When our minds become clear and strong in meditation, in spiritual practices, then we can begin to see through the veil of lies and legitimacy. Happiness doesn’t come from any material thing; it comes from your own heart. That’s a fundamental truth.

Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar <../../sarkar/default.htm>, the founder of Prout <../5fpp/5fpp.htm>, was both a great spiritual master and also a revolutionary. I first met him in January 1978 in a prison cell in India where he was a political prisoner for seven years. After his release, the US, UK, Australia and some other rich countries refused to give him a visa because they said he was a dangerous revolutionary.

In August 1979, he came to Bangkok, Thailand where I was working. I had the wonderful opportunity to spend seven days with him. One very dark night, what I would call a very “Tantric” night, three of us went with him on a walk in a park. At one point he stopped and explained why the dictator President Ferdinand Marcos had just deported him from the Philippines:

“ They say I am a dangerous man. But I am not a dangerous man; I am not a strong man. Imagine, they are scared of me, and I am only five feet two inches tall!
“ You know how a fish store smells? Ugh! Yet some people like that ‘fishy’ smell. Only those who like the ‘fishy’ smell of selfishness are afraid of me. Selfishness is a mental disease and they know that Prout gives no scope for selfishness.”

We are trying to create a world that limits the expression of that particular mental disease. I used to work in a psychiatric hospital, and I have friends with all kinds of mental diseases. They need a certain kind of care. But we must not allow people with the mental disease of selfishness to run our economies and our countries, to dictate the world that our children can have.

As spiritualists, we have to unite. We have to unite with other spiritualists, like these great people beside me. We have to unite with people of all expressions and beliefs and faiths. I believe the only “ism” that we can support is universalism, the idea that we are one human family. You have your beliefs, and I have mine, but we are all moving in the same direction. If we climb a mountain, it doesn’t matter from which side of the mountain you start your climb; we’re all going to reach the summit together.

I believe that spiritual practices are fundamental to the spiritual path. They are what you actually do to get there, whether they take the form of some kind of meditation or some kind of deep personal inner reflection. It is gratifying to work for an organization that teaches meditation free of charge. Whatever type of meditation we do, our goal is to become better people. An ideal human being, a saint-like person, a God-like person – who cares what their faith is, who cares whether they are Muslim or Jew or Catholic or Protestant or a yogi? When we become ideal human beings, then we’ll all be one.

To unite the moralists, to unite those people who are fighting against injustice, against exploitation, is our goal. Our spiritual practices, our spiritual vision, our spiritual love and compassion are fundamental to get there. They are our strength, our inner sustenance.

Logically, if we look at the world, global ecological destruction is a very real possibility. Spiritually, though, I know we’re going to make it. P. R. Sarkar said, “Your future is bright. It is brighter than gold, it is brighter than platinum, it is brighter than anything you can ever imagine. And you’ll see it with your own eyes.”

How will it happen? I don’t know. And whether it happens this year, or next year, or later, I’m going to continue doing what I’m doing now: fighting for social justice, working against capitalist exploitation, doing my spiritual practices and encouraging everyone else in this human family to learn and try them, too. Because we need inner peace and we need global peace. Without one, we have an angry world. Without the other, we have people dying completely unnecessarily. That’s a crime. That’s totally unacceptable. Humanity is bleeding. We must awaken. We must work together. We must make a better world. We don’t have another option.