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

Economy of Permanence
intercept the current and water of the river to bring wealth and happiness to
hundreds, without violence to nature.
This is a commendable use of his freewill so to condition his circumstances as
10 invite nature to cooperate with him to work out her purposes on her own
lines. She then blesses him with fuller and richer life.
On the other hand, man often uses his will to interrupt nature's working. He
strays from her paths for his own enjoyment without giving any consideration to
her laws. For instance, he may use machines to polish rice and wheat to make
these products look pearly white to gratify his ill-conceived and misdirected
aesthetic sense. In doing this, he upsets the balance of harmony in nature
which has carefully provided in a grain of cereal, the germ to afford
nourishment and a coating of bran to aid digestion. Both these essentials are
lost in the process of polishing. Nature punishes those who stray from her ways
by eating polished grains, by inflicting them with Beriberi disease which causes
much pain and death.
Similarly, nature blesses us with wholesome fresh fruits like apples, dates,
grapes etc. Instead of eating these as they are, man extracts the juice and
ferments it into crider, today, wine etc., to exhilarate him artificially. Here
again, as we have already noticed, nature deals heavily with those who try to
play pranks with' her in this way.
It is in pursuit of pleasure, and not in the fulfillment of nature, that man uses
his creative faculties in the manufacture of contraceptives to defeat her
provision for the preservation of the species. She comes down on him
relentlessly, for excess in this line ultimately leads not only to the loss of the
reproductive faculty but also to nervous disorders and derangement of mind.
It is needless to multiply instances of such mal-practices and deviations from
nature. Modern life is replete with them. Man, with his undoubted ability and
enterprise, is rushing headlong in pursuit of personal pleasure and momentary
and fleeting happiness, approaching, at an alarming speed, the precipice which
will be his end. In so far as all such misuses of his freewill lead to destruction,
www.mkgandhi.org
Page 22