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The Navhind Times Upholding Social Values amid Crass Materialism By Dhurjati Mukherjee THE nation would be remembering Mahatma Gandhi and his thoughts once again during the week-end, on October 2. The Mahatma believed that Sarvodaya takes non-violence as its means, but repeatedly stressed that means and ends can never be separated. The votary of non-violence takes Sarvodaya — the welfare and well-being of all — for the realisation of his humanist ideal. “He will strive”, observed Gandhiji, “for the greatest good of all and die in the attempt to realise the ideal. He will, therefore, be willing to die, so that others may live.” The fundamental aspect of Sarvodaya is the belief in the spiritual and ethical unity of the human individual. This eternal unity of many may be distinguished from a mere metaphysical assent given to human unity that consists in arguing over its rational basis. But this by itself fails to unite humanity. The spiritual concept of human unity is dynamic and comprehensive and includes all possible aspects of unity and solidarity - the economic, the sociological and the anthropological. On the spiritual plane, all aspects of Indian philosophy agree but differ in their elaborations and discussions of the doctrines. However, these systems realise that life cannot be comprehended in its fullness merely by logical reasons. According to the eminent philosopher, late Dr Sarvapelli Radhakrishnan: “The philosophy of India takes its stand on the spirit which is mere logic, and holds that culture based on mere logic or science may be efficient, but cannot be inspiring”. The Upanishads took up the philosophical problems and came to the conclusion that the central reality is infinite existence (sat), absolute truth (chit), and pure delight (ananda). This constitutes the concept of the ultimate. Atman is another concept which is dealt with as the subjective phase of the same reality. From the objective point of view, the same reality is conceived as brahman while from the subjective point of view as atman. Brahman is the objective and cosmic principle while atman is the subjective and physical principle. Both the psychic and the cosmic principles looked upon as identical. Hence the Indian concept of ultimate reality is psychological. This is called advaitam or the non-duality of life, an important element to the understanding of the basis of Sarvodaya doctrine. The philosophical ideals of Sarvodaya metaphysics has been derived from the Upanishads and the ideal of trusteeship from the Ishavasya Upanishads, as observed by Vinoba and Gandhiji. The Ishavasya Vritti of Vinoba is an exemplification of this fact. But its main features are to realise the ultimate reality by the scientific-spiritual method of non-violence. The means is as important as the goal itself; to realise the goal and adequate method is important. Any scientific pursuit requires a discipline or method, which is appropriate to pursue the task. Similarly, one should undergo a spiritual discipline. Thus, for the study of consciousness, a phenomenological method is important which is different from the psychological method of experimentation. For the realisation of the highest — Brahman or atman, non-violence has been considered the only method. Sarvodaya has adopted the method for the solution of all problems of human life — social, economic and political. Hence the Sarvodaya approach is the non-violent spiritual approach to life. In contemporary Indian philosophy, the principle based on the psycho-physical ultimate reality of the Upanishads has been applied to all problems of life and society. The doctrine is not merely sterile metaphysics; it has been translated into humanist terminology. For example, the ideal of God or Brahman was not conceived as merely transcending the human personality but as imminent in it. It may be pertinent to mention that Tagore believed the human personality to be infinite and man supreme - purushottam. Similarly for Gandhiji there is an anthropomorphic conception of God. >From the ethical point of view, man is conceived as the best expression of God. He has a divine mission to fulfil, a mission of ahimsa or the love of mankind and of his surroundings. It is his inner-most conviction that he is not only the body but his atman that becomes the true vehicle of self-realisation. From the experience of self-realisation he evolves the ethics of subduing desire, anger, ignorance, malice and others passions. Thus, he puts forth the best effort to achieve the end, and finally attains complete success. In the words of Gandhiji, “full effort is full victory”. Sarvodaya is the concept of life and is the ideology of permanence. Its value and significance is contained in the synthesis of different humanist trends. It applies the principle of tolerance in studying different trends of thought and tries to bring about all that is good for humanity. Thus, its main consideration is education of the people in order to make them understand the virtues of life and what is good for them. It lays special stress upon mass education, which is a vital need for any civilised society, and also introduces spiritual education to inculcate values different from what we witness in society the today. The overriding emphasis is the development of the qualities of man - spiritual, social and moral. Sarvodaya considers the spiritual development of man as important as the material. In this age of materialist civilisation where greed, wealth and power dominate the society, the individual has become a cog in the wheel and subservient to social, ethical and cultural values of life. While the modernisation process has no doubt contributed a great deal to human progress, it has also curbed individual liberty and made him subservient to the machine. The obvious answer to come out of this path of quest for power and wealth can be found on the Sarvodaya philosophy which is possibly the only answer to the challenge of the modern age. Sarvodaya can definitely play a pivotal role in achieving the objective of restoring basic values in the individual and the society through true decentralisation of the socio-economic and the socio-political set-up. Also the philosophy of Sarvodaya can go a long way in checking the economic imbalance and restoring cultural values of different groups in our society. Without true implementation of Sarvodaya, there is a definite threat of the social structure breaking down and a complete domination by the powerful forces that have very little concern for the poor and the weak. This has to be resisted as the primacy of the human individual has to be upheld and equal rights and opportunities to all, irrespective of any consideration. Sarvodaya has thus to become a global philosophy and its significance practised throughout the world. To save human society from the brink of disaster, one has to rely on the doctrine of non-violence, love, compassion and equality of all. — INFA
