Welcome again to PROUT Gems. It is vitally important that the fundamental principles for a progressive change in society be propounded and that the moral and ethical unite around such universal principles. The right to minimum necessities of life is undeniably one of those principles. But do you find it in economics or social policy? Those who care for the good and happiness of all, certainly find it in their thinking. The practical task is to ensure it is implemented as a matter of social and economic practice. Other principles to support this are also discussed in this posting. These principles, when one dwells on them with a spirit of wellbeing for all, shows how inefficient the current economic system is and how bankrupt economics has become. Alternatives are possible and they need to be deeply planted into our consciousness to assist in their fruition. * THE RIGHT TO LIVE! - MAXIMUM UTILIZATION AND RATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOCIETY’S RESOURCES * DEVELOPING A QUALITY WORK ENVIRONMENT AND AN ADEQUATE LIVING WAGE BASED ON PROUT * SCIENCE -- THE RIGHT TO LIVE! - MAXIMUM UTILIZATION AND RATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOCIETY’S RESOURCES Planet Earth has enough resources for everyone if we share. The principle of Cosmic Inheritance means that we should consider humanity as one human family and the universe as our common patrimony. This is the fundamental spiritual outlook. On this basis, it is unacceptable to hoard excessive wealth or resources. The goal of Prout is to utilize and distribute our shared inheritance in a rational way for the benefit of everyone. Material incentives for those who work harder, are more skilled and who contribute more to society are integral to a Proutist economy, but the incentives must be reasonable. The goal is to properly raise the standard of living and quality of life of everyone, while doing less damage to the natural world and other creatures. The Minimum Necessities of Life The first requirement of Prout is the guarantee of the minimum necessities to everyone: “The minimum necessities of all should be guaranteed in any particular age.” Guaranteeing the right to live has to be the first priority of every country. The Brazilian spiritualist Frei Betto called attention to this need when he said, “The degree of justice in a society can be evaluated by the way food is distributed amongst all of the citizens”. Prout recognizes five fundamental necessities of life: food (including pure drinking water), clothing, housing (including adequate sanitation and energy), medical care, and education. Supplemental requirements are local transportation and water for irrigation. According to the principle of Neo-humanism, this birthright transcends citizenship, meaning that every human being, whether native or visitor to a country, must be guaranteed these necessities. In this sense guarantee means to ensure that the required outcome is achieved. Providing the basic necessities should be the primary function and duty of any economy. Human beings require these in order to realize their individual potentialities, to develop culturally, to achieve inner fulfilment and self-realization, which many now consider as higher goals of life. The right to meaningful employment is also a fundamental human right in order for the guarantee of minimum necessities to be realised. The minimum requirements should not be handed out by a government agency as the current welfare systems of liberal democratic countries do. Rather the people should pay for them with the income they earn from honest work. It is the responsibility of all levels of government to pursue policies which maintain full employment, with jobs that are meaningful and which utilize each worker’s skills and capabilities. A just minimum wage must be set high enough so that people may purchase the necessities. Only as a special contingency, and for those who are physically or mentally unable to work, would there be a type of welfare system. However, there are also alternative co-operative means to ensure that people receive their minimum necessities if unable to work or if retiring, such as mutual insurance, superannuation and pension schemes The determination of the minimum necessities should be done in a progressive way; i.e. there must be continual adjustment of these basic requirements depending upon the available resources and scientific standard of the locality. As with all the principles of Prout, the standard for minimum necessities will change with time and place. For example, staple foods are different in different cultures, yet they must meet adequate nutritional standards. Clothing varies according to climate and culture. Regarding shelter, a local government housing board in each region will have to decide what should be the minimum standard for a single-family dwelling, considering the climate, the lifestyle of the people, available construction materials, appropriate technology, architectural styles that are in harmony with the local culture, etc. The cost of monthly payments to finance the construction or renovation of an existing house to meet this standard will have to be included when calculating the just minimum wage for that region. Anyone who does not have a dwelling and is unable to work will be provided one by the government. However, most people have capacity to serve society in some way. Owner participation in the planning and if possible, the construction, is a key factor of successful low-cost community housing programs in the US. Of course, those who work harder will be able to earn enough to buy bigger and better housing – such incentive will be built into the system, unlike in communist economies. However, everyone will be guaranteed a roof over their head, regardless. They also have to make their proper contribution to society through physical, mental or spiritual work. In a Proutist framework, the people's purchasing capacity will be taken as the measure of economic advancement. In order to facilitate a continually increasing purchasing capacity, a number of factors are required. These include the guaranteed availability of basic goods and services, stable prices, progressive and periodic wage increases, and increasing collective wealth and productivity. It is possible to build a world where no one on the planet worries about getting enough money to buy food, clothes, housing, education and medical care needed for his or her family! The inefficient capitalist and communist economies is what prevents this from happening. Regional Self-Sufficiency In Medicine It is the practice of nature to abundantly produce those herbs which cure the common diseases of the people in that locality. Yet countries like Brazil import billions of dollars worth of medicines from multinational drug corporations which are then sold at very expensive prices to the people. In Teresópolis (Rio de Janeiro), two Proutists are proving that Brazilian soil can produce the medicines people need locally and affordably. Ary Moraes specialized in medicinal plants at university, then spent four years in the Amazon studying with indigenous people. In 1988 he returned to his home state and purchased 10 hectares of woodland. More than 150 local medicinal plants now grow on his small property. Subtle influences such as gardens designed in special circular shapes (“mandalas”) which are conducive to growth and the serenading of sound vibrations with mantra qualities help the plants increase their curative powers. In his small workshop, Moraes produces huge quantities of more than 120 types of herbal medicines to sell in the health food stores and open markets of the state. Brazil, at the urging of the United States, has implemented very strict laws prohibiting the labelling or sale of these natural remedies as “medicines”, imposing legal restrictions on small community producers to prevent them from competing with the multi-billion dollar drug industry. In this way Brazil and other economically undeveloped countries are forced to become dependent on foreign medicines and health products to the great disadvantage of the people, who need affordable medicines. Only three hectares of Moraes’ land are presently under cultivation, and he is beginning to harvest most of the plants from the forest on his land as the Indians do. Eighty poor families live in his area, so he and his wife, Rosa Helena, opened a free medical and dental clinic, as well as a literacy school for adults. As a spiritualist service to society means more than accumulation of wealth. They then organized a cooperative of women and taught them how to cultivate the most common medicines and to produce herbal cough syrups that he helps them to market. An association of residents, with a system of trading local currency services among the people, has commercialized community production, creating cottage industries which produce and trade things such as handicrafts, bread, traditional foods, used books, clothes, utensils, etc. All this may seem meaningless to multi-national CEO's, but it is the quality of community relationships that is the most important. Moraes says, “The challenge for every one of us is to establish in his or her community, through a revolutionary organization, a popular participatory project that meets the basic needs of the people in a cooperative and unifying way, breaking the attitude of dependence.” The Rational Distribution of Resources While a Proutist society provides the minimum necessities to all, it will also have to decide how to distribute the remaining surplus. Sarkar argues that to distribute the rest equally would not be practical: “Diversity is the law of nature and uniformity will never be. Those who want to equate everything must fail, for this is unnatural.” (Sarkar, P.R. Prout in a Nutshell Part IV, Calcutta: Ananda Press, 1987, p.23). Sarkar did not accept the communist ideal. Though Karl Marx was a humanist who inspired revolutionaries, Sarkar asserts that the communist philosophy was not adequate for human psychology. “Serve according to your capacity and earn according to your necessity” sounds good, but is not adequate to motivate human beings in general. By centralizing both political and economic power in the hands of the state, communist regimes throughout the world generated intense dissatisfaction amongst their own people. Party dictatorships ordered the military to imprison or kill their own people if they tried to escape, censored artistic expressions, banned any private enterprise or initiative, and prohibited religious and spiritual freedom. These same dictatorships have now been overthrown by popular revolts in Eastern Europe and Russia. But in other parts of the world, communist oppression continues. The communist Chinese government continues to close internet cafes across the country because it finds a number of internet web sites objectionable. Prout advocates: “The surplus goods and services, after distributing the minimum necessities, are to be given according to the social value of the individual's production.” This surplus wealth is the incentive to motivate people to render greater service to society. This incentive is given according to one’s qualifications and credentials, effort and contribution to society, both as increased salary, as well as other benefits. Since its purpose is to encourage people to develop their skills and increase the capacity of hard-working people to benefit society, surplus wealth incentives can take the form of special task-related privileges. For example, a talented researcher may be given access to expensive laboratory facilities while an effective and selfless social service worker may be offered more staff to work under her. In an article published shortly before his death in 1990, entitled “Minimum Necessities and Maximum Amenities”, Sarkar expanded on the relationship between minimum salary and surplus wealth incentives. He stressed that while providing the minimum necessities, people should not be left with a bare-bones existence. Higher salaries should be provided to the meritorious, yet continuous and collective effort will be needed to raise the economic standard of the common people to an appropriate level for that time and place, so that the majority would consider that they are living with dignity. In essence, the principles that have to be supported by all caring human beings and for the advancement of society are: 1. Everyone must be guaranteed the minimum requirements of life. 2. As the income of people increases, their minimum requirements should also increase. 3. To bridge the gap between the more affluent people and the common people, it is necessary to increase the minimum requirements of all. 4. Special amenities should be provided so that the diversity in skill and intelligence is fully utilized, and talent is encouraged to contribute its best towards human development. 5. Maximum amenities should be provided to especially qualified or gifted persons to enable them to render greater service to society according to the social value of their production. 6. The provision of these maximum amenities should not go against the common interest. 7. It is also necessary to increase the maximum amenities available to the common people over and above their minimum necessities. 8. There will still be a gap between the maximum amenities of the common people and the maximum amenities / special amenities of the especially qualified persons, but there should be constant efforts to reduce this gap. 9. If the maximum amenities / special amenities for talented people becomes too high, then the minimum requirements of the common people should be immediately increased. 10. What constitutes both the minimum requirements and the maximum amenities should be ever increasing. Five Fundamental Principles The following five statements direct how resources should be distributed under Prout. Together they comprise what are known as the five fundamental principles of Prout. A unique aspect of the Prout model is that it recognizes the physical, psychic and spiritual qualities of human beings as well as of natural resources. 1. “No individual should be allowed to accumulate any physical wealth without the clear permission or approval of the collective body.” This point recognizes that the physical resources of this planet are limited, hence the excess hoarding or misusing of any resource will diminish opportunities for others. Hoarding wealth or using it for speculation rather than productive investment directly reduces the opportunities of others in society. Hence ceilings must be placed on salaries, property and land ownership and any excess wealth accumulation. This principle is based on the concept of Cosmic Inheritance, that human beings have the right to utilize and share, but not hoard or abuse the resources that we have been endowed with from Creation. Those who lack spiritual insight because of their crude materialistic minds consistently fail to recognise this and cause suffering to others through their mental malady of wanting more material wealth in the fruitless effort that excess hoarding by them can give them unlimited happiness. Salaries should be capped at a reasonable maximum level. The amount of the maximum salary should be calculated by including all the components of a salary package, such as share options, incentives, performance bonuses, personal expense accounts, etc. Just as the amount of the minimum wage will have to be progressively increased, so the amount of the maximum salary also will have to be progressively increased. At the same time, the gap between the minimum wage and the maximum salary will have to be gradually reduced. However, the gap should never be reduced to zero. “The collective body” in the above statement refers to social boards, not merely public service government employees, such as the participatory budget meetings that take place in many major cities of Brazil. Prout social boards will need to decide on matters such as awarding a paraplegic person a very sophisticated and expensive computerized wheelchair, where it seems that mental abilities can be utilised for society - and there are many instances of that. The principle above only applies to physical wealth, because intellectual knowledge and spiritual wisdom are unlimited. 2. “There should be maximum utilization and rational distribution of all mundane, supramundane, and spiritual potentialities of the universe.” Maximum utilization means to make the best use of the planet’s resources, with maximum economic and mechanical efficiency while protecting the natural environment. It is the conviction of Prout that everyone can experience a high quality of life if we use our resources wisely. As the American scientist and visionary R. Buckminster Fuller said, “We have enough technological know-how at our disposal to give everyone a decent life, and release humanity to do what it is supposed to be doing – that is, using our minds, accomplishing extraordinary things, not just coping with survival.” Excessive wealth concentration causes poor utilization and deterioration of the earth's resources. For example, when an elite few own vast land holdings, they often leave them sitting idle, or, they produce cash crops for export. Poor rural farmers are thus forced onto marginal land, clearing and cultivating it with dire ecological consequences. Supramundane potentialities include properties which cannot be perceived by the sense organs, but which would include subtle knowledge resources, psychological ideas, and that pertaining to metaphysical things. Spiritual potentialities refer to the attractive force in the universe which helps us to come closer to the Supreme Consciousness. 3. “There should be maximum utilization of the physical, metaphysical and spiritual potentialities of the unit and collective bodies of human society.” This principle concerns the utilization of all human resources, emphasizing the value of both individual and collective well-being. Healthy individuals create a healthy society, just as a healthy society fosters the development of healthy individuals. According to Prout there is no inevitable conflict between individual and collective interests. Rather, their true interests are shared. The results of excessive individualism can be seen in the breakdown of the family and the “me first” selfish attitude which is sadly all-too-prevalent throughout the Western world. Many strive to increase their own pleasures and comforts, indifferent to the needs of others. However, this often results in addiction disorders whether physical or psychic because of alienation caused by the "me first" attitude. Loneliness and insecurity often follows. However, the principle in the above statement does not support abandoning all individualism for the supposed good of collective society. Communism amply demonstrated the danger of excessive collectivism. Instead of an ideal society, communism has brought inefficiency while stealing joy, making life mechanical. Waste of metaphysical or intellectual resources occurs when people lack education, or are denied opportunities to develop their different talents and contribute their ideas because of racial or sexual discrimination or economic exploitation. What a glorious day it will be when all the creativity of human beings is encouraged and channelled towards improving our world, instead of being wasted or misdirected in advertising to convince us to purchase what we don't need. The spiritual potentialities which allow humans to develop peace, harmony, wisdom, wholeness, and lasting happiness within remain for the most part undiscovered in materialistic societies. Yet throughout history, mystics of all cultures have dedicated their lives to practicing spiritual techniques to realize this inner treasure and share it with others. 4. “There should be a proper adjustment amongst these physical, metaphysical, mundane, supramundane and spiritual utilizations.” The traditional economic principle of comparative advantage states that each country and person should do what it, he or she is best at. Sadly, this principle has been used to argue that Central America is best at producing bananas for North Americans, and that the US is best at producing everything else! The Food First Institute has demonstrated that every country in the world today has the agricultural potential to feed its entire population. So Prout would insist that the farmland of every region should first produce food for its people, and only after that is achieved can the surplus produce be exported. The issue here is one of holistic development of both the human being and of society. Where there are competing uses for any resource, the more rare and valuable quality of the resource should be used. For example, during the Cultural Revolution of China and also after the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, all doctors, nurses and other university graduates were sent to the countryside to do farm work on communes. Those who have developed intellectual skills should not be utilized for manual labour to this extent. Developed spiritual qualities are still more rare, so a true saint who is capable of imparting spiritual wisdom should be allowed to spend sufficient time in meditation and in teaching others - such persons also naturally render social service to others as required and are willing to undergo any manner of hardship. A wilderness area with especially inspiring scenic beauty should be preserved as a natural park instead of mined for iron ore. The burning of fossil fuels is destroying our climate and our environment, so to re-establish equipoise, dynamic equilibrium, every effort should be made to develop and utilize alternative energy sources such as sunlight, wind, tides and gravity. 5. “The methods of utilization should vary in accordance with the changes in time, space, and person, and the utilization should be of a progressive nature.” This principle acknowledges that change is constant. Technology both creates and destroys. Today institutions and individuals with great wealth and power control the direction of research, and use that power to increase their wealth still more. The challenge for a Proutist society is to choose wisely, directing scientific research and development for the short, medium and long-term welfare of humanity and the planet. We can welcome new technology when it frees human minds and hands for higher pursuits. Every effort should be made to thoroughly assess technology’s impact and minimize its negative repercussions. Factors that Motivate People to Work It is often argued that wide disparities of income are needed to encourage the most talented to be more productive and accept jobs that are more challenging. Prout accepts that some income inequality is beneficial to society when it actually provides an incentive for greater productivity. However it must be recognized that human motivation is complex -- there are many reasons why humans choose to be productive, only one of which is income. Life is not mechanical or based on dollars and cents as the capitalists may want us to wish. The many causes and reasons for motivation diminishes the need to rely on income incentives alone to raise productivity. Abraham Maslow explored this theme at length. He found that healthy, self-actualizing people become devoted to their work because of their interest in the work itself, not because of external rewards. He found that every child and every adult has the motivation to create and to work, and that most “are for good workmanship, are against wasting time and inefficiency, and want to do a good job”. What blocks or inhibits people are the negative aspects of the work environment, such as interpersonal conflicts, intimidation, boring, repetitive tasks and irrational orders. On the other hand, a well-managed, positive work environment can greatly enhance the natural desire to do good work. Employing strategies to foster such a positive work force and work environment can benefit the whole society. This requires a co-operative based economy - which is the most and really only efficient economic system. Hence Maslow was highly critical of conventional economics, which is based solely on the obsolete motivation theory that people work harder to earn more money to meet their lower basic needs. Still, he acknowledged the place for healthy competition and monetary incentives, writing, “A boxer needs a good sparring partner or he will deteriorate ... . The best product should be bought, the best person should be rewarded more.” Proutist Mark Friedman (not related to the Proutist mayor in the USA) is an Adjunct Professor of Economics at Minnesota State University, USA. He has written an excellent evaluation of P. R. Sarkar’s system of economic incentives. Starting from Maslow’s work and including the analysis of economists Harvey Leibenstein and John Tomer, Friedman presents an economic model to show eight factors that motivate workers to be productive. He states this as an economic formula, where Pr stands for Productivity. The f symbol is a “Cobb-Douglas function”, a mathematical model that emphasizes the interaction of each of the factors. So in this formula, a worker’s productivity is the result of the interaction of the following factors: Pr = f (A, P, Ed, Ex, WE, FG, SC, MI) A represents individual ability. Friedman assumes that there are some innate differences in abilities and talents. P stands for personality, including individual drive, maturity, work ethic and psychic health. Ed stands for education Ex stands for work experience. WE stands for work environment, with several components. For example, does the job and organization suit the individual? Is it a solitary job or does it involve social interaction? Does it use literary or mechanical skills? Are meaningful goals part of the work? Are the supervisor and fellow employees fair and supportive? FG stands for future growth, the potential perceived by the worker to grow and learn in the present job. This increases self-esteem, enhances job satisfaction and increases motivation. SC represents service culture, the degree to which service and self-sacrifice are encouraged in the culture. If the organizational objective is noble, a person inspired by a service ethic would expend more effort to reach that goal, without expectation of personal reward. Finally, MI stands for material incentive. All of the variables interact. For example, those with greater individual ability tend to pursue more education, and more education may enhance ability. Experience will reinforce the benefits of education and enhance ability. This model asserts that the salary of the worker is only one of eight important factors that motivate an individual to be productive, and should not be overemphasized. This type of psychological insight into economics is desperately needed today. Setting the Maximum Wage A Prout society will establish a minimum wage that is adequate to provide the minimum necessities of life to each individual and his or her family. Of course, this will be considerably higher than at present. The next task is to fix a maximum wage or salary. Economists have long wrestled with the questions of how to achieve the most efficient output and distribution, as well as the most equitable and fair. But economic efficiency and fairness have generally been regarded as matters that need to be considered separately, and many have argued that equity should not even be considered by economists. The Prout principle of surplus wealth incentives resolves this dilemma both logically as well as with a moral value judgment. It asserts that the only justification for higher income is the incentive it provides to motivate greater human effort to benefit society. A higher salary can induce an individual to work harder. However, there are only 24 hours in every day, and there are natural limits to the output any person can achieve. A graph that charts a person’s increased production with more material incentives will eventually level off. This is a central principle of economics known as the law of diminishing marginal returns. Offering a salary raise that is a hundred times higher cannot induce any individual to work a hundred times harder or become a hundred times more efficient. Corporation CEOs are today earning salaries that are much, much higher, up to 30,000 times what other employees are earning. This is a social and mental malady and bears no relationship to any outputs or outcomes. Professor Friedman has demonstrated an economic model which could be used to calculate the exact level of surplus wealth incentives in any given enterprise. He then concludes: "If attempts at setting the optimal individual wage ... became commonplace (assuming personnel managers became skilled in the practice), statistical studies could determine the interval between the minimum and maximum wages in these firms, and use these results as guides for the rest of society." Others would not have patience for such a drawn-out process that could have dubious results, even if the conditions for gathering the data were in place. Many are rallying behind what Pizzigati has coined the Ten Times Rule -- the maximum wage should be no more than ten times the minimum. Ravi Batra first proposed this rule in the 1970's and defends it forcefully. He argues that attempts at finding optimal levels of inequality have produced unsatisfactory results, and are unlikely to do any better in the future because of difficulties in measuring utilities and differences in criteria. The practical problem of inequality cannot wait for useless theoretical constructions. He writes: "As a practical guideline, the decimal scale for income distribution is unimpeachable. It is simple, and not riddled with loopholes. Given the will of the people and governments, it should not be difficult to enforce it. Let us not waste any more time and proceed to implement it." (Batra, R. Prout and Economic Reform in India. Delhi, Khosla Publishing House, 1979). While this may not be ideal, the fundamental point is that society must tackle the problem of excess wealth distribution which currently goes to the hands of a few and is the major cause of deprivation in the world today because of the entirely inefficient economic structure that it forces on others. -- DEVELOPING A QUALITY WORK ENVIRONMENT AND AN ADEQUATE LIVING WAGE BASED ON PROUT By Prakash Laufer, Proutist and Co-owner of Motherwear Inc. This firm uses a Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Many employees are working mothers and are committed to creating a healthful, empowering, and family-friendly work environment. This fledging co-operative is committed to providing a living wage to employees, above the minimum wage. Although a relatively small company without great financial resources, it believes employees are the most valuable resource. It also provides health insurance and dental insurance for employees and their dependents; short and long-term disability insurance; child care subsidy for eligible employees; and paid time off in the form of holidays, vacation and wellness time. These benefit costs can range from 35 to 50% above any base compensation for many of the lowest paid employees. Although this is expensive, we consider it an important tool for recruiting and retaining employees in a competitive marketplace. To provide the level and quality of service to our customers we feel that it is essential to provide a living wage to the employee shareholders. Even with the current level of pay and benefits it would be more accurate to say that we are providing a surviving but not a thriving wage. To put the “living wage” and the what most countries call the minimum wage in perspective here are some interesting statistics: The pay gap between top executives and production workers in the USA grew from 42:1 in 1980 to 419:1 in 1998 (excluding the value of stock options). Had the typical worker's pay risen in tandem with executive pay, the average production worker would now earn $110,000 a year and the minimum wage would be $22.08 per hour. Had increases in the minimum wage kept pace with inflation since the 1960s, the minimum wage would now exceed the earnings of nearly 30 percent of U.S. workers. If the USA minimum wage had grown over the years to this level, the costs of doing business would be greater. However, this would be more than offset by a very significant increase in the size of the market, as the purchasing power of millions of families would be much greater, and they would be more able to afford useful products. To borrow a metaphor from Robert Reich, the former secretary of Labor, businesses would do better to think of their employees more like a baker would than a butcher. Our goal, like the baker, is to get the best product by using the best ingredients; hence we invest in our employees. This is far better than seeing them as fat to be trimmed off by the butcher’s knife so that our company can be “lean and mean.” So, lets all support the idea of guaranteeing a "living wage" for all. All of us would benefit from this. -- SCIENCE P.R. Sarkar * The proper use of things varies according to time, place and person. One must be progressive in the practical use of every object, every idea. Through progressive scientific research we have to make increasingly greater use of human potentials. In an era of advanced science, the use of tools and apparatus from a less developed era is by no means a sign of progress. The use of developed tools and materials, evolved through dynamic and progressive imagination, may create small or large obstacles in the way of society; you will have to face them courageously. Through fight and clash you have to march on to victory, to the path of vindication of universalism, the cherished goal of your life. (A'nanda Su'tram, 58) * Today some people claim that science is the root of all evils and that frequent new scientific discoveries and inventions have been creating quarrels and dissensions in human society, thereby pushing the whole human civilization along the path of destruction. It is evident that those who criticize science, in reality want to turn the onward current of life backward. This is wholly inimical to progress. Such an endeavour is indicative of a negative mentality. If science remains completely in the hands of materialists, the consequence will be hopelessness and despair. If conflicts among different classes go on unabated, people will eventually realize that only spiritual and moral revolutionaries can be the leaders of society. The majority of individuals as well as social problems can be solved by those spiritual and moral revolutionaries through the proper cultivation of science. (Abhimata, The Opinion, 122) * The population of the world is increasing rapidly. In fact, this has frightened many people. Under a capitalistic framework there are sufficient reasons for such fear. In those countries an increase in population means corresponding decrease in the property of the people. But there is no reason for such fear in a collective economic system. In the event of shortage in foodstuff and housing of the masses, we will convert barren land into green fields with cooperative efforts, and productivity will be increased by scientific advances. (Problem of the Day, 37) * My personal opinion is that atom bombs can never destroy human civilization totally, for human beings have not yet become intellectually bankrupt. So I cannot but come to the clear conclusion that humanity is sure to discover in the very near future a counter-device to forestall this atomic menace. And this will also conclusively establish the fact that science indeed has a great and sublime role to play in the sphere of human welfare. (Abhimata, The Opinion, 132) * It is a fact that the temperature of the sun will gradually decrease. One day it will become a dead star. The conversion of the sun into a dead star will mean a similar fate for its planets. The earth then will not be a congenial place to live. But the destruction of a particular planet or solar system does not mean the end of the human race. There are numerous other stars and planets in the universe. With the further development of science and with the help of interplanetary transportation, human beings will move to other planets. The dream of today will become the reality of tomorrow. ("The Future of Civilization")