The Economy of Permanence: A Quest for a Social Order Based on Non-violence (स्थायी अर्थतन्त्र)

Economy of Permanence
The guru himself did not look upon teaching as a profession any more than a
father looks upon his perental duties as a profession. The guru led his own life
from which emanated his outlook on life and his disciple gleaned what he could
from his practice. Jesus, when he chose his disciples said "follow me" and he
did not give them a list of text books to read. They had to follow in their
master's footsteps. That is our system of education.
True Economic Value: The close contact of Western commerce has enshrined
gold amongst us. Our cultural values have yielded place to money values. We
have begun to think in terms of gold and not in terms of humanity. The
brahmanical cultural standards have gone and the Baniya civilization of the
West has crept in. The Brahmin was valued and respected not because of his
possession but because of the service he was to render to society without
regard to the return he gets. No educational system which does not place first
things first is worthy of our attention. Any attempt to educate the masses must
include inculcation of true standards of financial, social and economic value
above all things.
Varied aspects of life: Man is a complex being; we cannot divide him up into
water-tight compartments and develop him in stages. Education, which attends
only to the intellectual development leaving aside the physical, moral and
spiritual aspects, is directed towards the production of monstrocities. If our
aim is a true education we have to attend to all faculties at one and the same
time. We have to develop a person physically, socially, mentally and spiritually.
He has to learn an occupation, he has to learn how to live as a member of
community, he has to know how to evaluate man and matters. Unless all these
are attempted we can have no education worth the name.
There is not a single action of ours that does not leave its indelible mark on us.
Our work, our play, our pastime and our rest all have to be consciously planned
out if the reactions have to be healthy socially. Training for work takes care of
the major part of a worker's life. We spend most of our time in our economic
activity. If it is so arranged that it develops our faculties and enriches our life
in the process of producing goods, to that extent the nation will be the better
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