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

Economy of Permanence
Syphilis, Gonorrhoea etc. Not content with punishing the actual offenders,
Nature pursues even the innocent progeny of such transgressors from its path.
Imagination: Among all animals, the faculty to project thought into unseen
spheres, through the capacity to imagine and to produce art would appear to
be peculiar to man. Instead of exercising this faculty in the natural way, man
calls in the aid of stimulants and narcotics like opium, morphia, bhang etc, to
cause artificial exhilaration for a time. This drug habit, also like alcoholism,
renders the votary unfit for any work and finally brings ruin to the victim and
his dependents.
The Creative Faculty: Man comes nearest to his God, the creator, when he
utilizes his brain power to marshal mechanical forces to serve his purposes. To
do so in a way that will bring blessing and not destruction, he has to follow
closely nature's way to get the best out of it. We cannot get the co-operation of
nature purely on our own terms. Any attempt to do so will bring violent
destruction in its wake.
The natural heat radiated from the sun evaporates sea water. Leaving behind
the salt, the fresh water vapour rises high up with the energy absorbed from
the sun, forming clouds and condenses into rain in the cold atmosphere above.
The rain water falling on the hills has much potential energy in it because of its
altitude, as the force of gravity of the earth will draw it down and the land
level will direct it back to the sea finally. While it is still on the way to the sea
as a river, man can, by his intelligence directed by his will, devise means of
harnessing its energy to do much work for him. Early on its course, he can build
a dam across the river and store up its potential energy and utilize it as, when
and where he needs it, by using simple watermills to grind flour etc., on the
spot as they do on the hilly tracts in our country, or by using giant mills convert
the energy of the flow of water into electricity which can be taken by cables to
places hundreds of miles away for lighting cities, towns and villages on the way
and for supplying power to work water-pumps, electric motors etc. After all
this, he can still use the outflow water directed through canals, using these as
highways for boats etc., and to irrigate his cultivated fields. In this way he can
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