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Rashmin Sanghvi & Associates

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Tardeo Road,
Mumbai - 400 034,
Maharashtra, India.

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Indian Budget - Economy & Philosophy 2002

Part D - Economy and Philosophy

1. Can economy and philosophy (or religion) mix! (This important issue is discussed here very briefly as if two friends are discussing.)

Maharshi Ved Vyas has summarised the WHOLE of "Mahabharat" including Geeta into one Sloka –

"I am telling all the people raising both hands but no one listens to me —

Artha, Kam and Moksha all the three can be achieved only by Dharma."

In other words,

Material wealth, desire fulfilment and the Nirvana all can be achieved only by religion.

So using philosophy in economics is possible and even practical.

2. Economics is defined in a ‘Scarcity Oriented’ manner –

"Human wants are unlimited (or infinite) and resources are scarce. The art and science of attempting to bridge the two is called economics."

3. Now contrast this statement with the following Sloka –

"Aum Poornam Idaha, Poornam Idam,
Poornat Poornam Udachyate.
Poornasya Poornamadaya Poornam Eva Avashisyate".

In other words, "God, Parbrahma is infinite. Every soul (including man, tree and insect) is infinite.

Infinite takes birth from the infinite. By taking out infinite from the infinite, what remains is infinite."

In simple words, every soul has infinite capability.

Further,

All materials are produced from energy – Chaitanya. Chaitanya is infinite. Hence availability of any and all materials is infinite.

Every soul can have whatever he wants.

Nothing ever is destroyed. Only the basic energy (Chaitanya) keeps taking different forms.

All resources are abundant.

Nothing is scarce.

No human want need remain unfulfilled.

4. How can one believe in abundance when we see poverty everywhere!

5. There are some sources to understand the principle of abundance.

The easier one – Read Mr. Neale Donald Walsch’s series of books on "Conversation with God". Total five books.

OR

Read the Upanishads or any good religious book of that level.

OR

Simply understand Saint Kabir’s philosophy – Entire Universe’s Knowledge is realised by "Love".

6. What has Love got to do with Economics ?!

7. If, even without accepting, for the sake of argument, we assume that the principles of abundance in nature; and universal love are true;

Then,

Economic laws, by definition are wrong.

They are starting on a wrong premise of scarcity.

Since we are convinced of scarcity, our mind leads us to greed. Which leads to frauds resulting into lack of confidence and recession. It also leads to exploitation and unfair distribution of world’s resources.

If everyone believed in ‘dharma’ (synonym of philosophy, religion, love etc.), there would be no crisis of confidence. If everyone believed in love, there would be no unfair distribution of income and wealth. There would be no poverty.

8. Utopian talk.

9. Yes. It is something like the following hypothesis :

You can never win permanently by weapons.

However, if you win someone by love; you have won him forever.

Everyone believes in this principle. But very few practice it.

The day, people practice what they believe in; this world will be a different world.

Until then, we will keep generating economic theories and moving from one theory to another. Nobody understands it and everyone claims to understand. And hardly any theory works for long.

10. This leaves many issues open.

Yes. But (almost) all issues are answered in the three sources mentioned in paragraph (5) above.

It is guaranteed that the seeker will get ALL answers.

The beauty of philosophy is that we do not have to wait till the rest of the world practices. We can start practicing ourselves. And the number of people practising universal love is growing.

11. Isn’t it beautiful that in the film – "Beautiful Mind"; Professor Nash, on winning the Nobel Prize says to his wife that ‘the conclusion of my entire carrier is that — the most important thing in life is Love '.

 

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