The Minimum Essentials of Life

The availability of the minimum essentialities of life plays a vital part not only in achieving world brotherhood, but also in the development of human personality.

This should be tackled on a world footing, and should be based on certain fundamental presumptions.

Every human being has certain minimum requirements which he or she must be guaranteed. Guaranteed availability of foodstuff, clothing, medical assistance and housing accommodation should be arranged so that human beings may be able to utilize their surplus energy (energy up till now engaged in procuring the essentialities of life) in subtler pursuits.

Side by side, there should be sufficient scope for providing other amenities of the progressive age. To fulfil the above responsibilities, enough purchasing capacity should be created.

If the supply of requirements be guaranteed without any conditions of personal skill and labour, the individual may develop the psychology of idleness. The minimum requirements of every person are the same, but diversity is also the nature of creation.

Special amenities should, therefore, be provided so that the diversity in skill and intelligence is fully utilized, and talent is encouraged to contribute its best towards human development. It will, therefore, be necessary to make provision for special emoluments which can cater for special amenities of life according to the age and time.

But at the same time, there should be a constant effort to reduce the gap between the amount of special emoluments and the bare minimum requirements of the average individual.

The guaranteed supply of minimum requirements must be liberalized by increasing the provision of special amenities pertaining to the age and also, simultaneously, by bringing about a decrease in the provision of special emoluments given to the few.

This never-ending effort of proper economic adjustment must ceaselessly continue at all times with a view to assisting the spiritual, mental and physical evolution of human beings, and to let humanity develop a Cosmic sentiment for a Cosmic ideal and world fraternity.

In this socio-economic set-up people are at full liberty in the spiritual and mental spheres. This is possible because the spiritual and psychic entities for which people can aspire are themselves unlimited, and the extent of possession in this sphere does not hamper the progress of others in their quests.

But the supply in the physical sphere is limited, and hence any effort for disproportionate or unrestricted acquisition of physical objects has every possibility of creating a vast majority of have-not’s, and thus hampering the spiritual, mental and physical growth of the larger majority.

So, while dealing with the problem of individual liberty, it must be kept in view that individual liberty in the physical sphere must not be allowed to cross a limit whereat it is instrumental in hampering the development of the complete personality of human beings.

At the same time, must not be so drastically curtailed that the spiritual, mental and physical growths of human beings are hampered.

Thus, our social philosophy advocates:

• the development of the integrated personality of the individual
• the establishment of world fraternity, inculcating in human psychology a Cosmic sentiment.

We advocate the progressive utilization of mundane and supramundane factors of the Cosmos.

The society needs a stir for life, vigour and progress. We advocate the Progressive Utilization Theory (Prout), as progressive utilization of all factors.

The Prout principles are:

1. No individual can accumulate any physical wealth without the clear approval of the collective body.
2. There should be maximum utilization and rational distribution of all mundane, supramundane and spiritual potentialities of the universe.
3. There should be maximum utilization of physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities of unit and collective bodies of human society.
4. There should be a proper adjustment amongst these physical, metaphysical, mundane, supramundane and spiritual utilizations.
5. The method of utilization should vary in accordance with changes in time, space and person, and the utilization should be of progressive nature.

5 June 1959, Jamalpur