PROGRAMME
ON DEENDAYAL UPADHYAYA – EKATMA MANAV DARSHAN
25th September 2016 is birth centenary of
Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya, a leading thinker of post-independence era who
expounded Ekatma Manav Darshan,
an outline of the National Philosophy for the country to suit present times and
future aspirations.
A special programme for academicians was organised by Ekatma Prabodh Mandal in whcih leading national thinkers addressed the audience and held Q&A sessions.
Theme:
THIRD WAY – EKATMA MANAV DARSHAN ECONOMIC ASPECTS
Speakers:
1 Dr. D.N.Dhanagare,
ex-Vice-Chancellor Shivaji University
2 Dr. Ashok Modak,
National Research Professor
3 Dr. Bajranglal Gupta,
renowned economist
Place:
Vaze-Kelkar College Auditorium,
Ground fl., 90ft Road, Mulund East, Mumbai
Time:
Saturday, 1st October 2016, 3 to 7pm
Material Related to the programme and Theme of the Programme
Deendayal Upadhyaya - Biography and Philosophy
http://guide-india.blogspot.com/2013/09/deendayal-upadhyaya.html
_________________
_________________
_________________
MSU Baroda
The lecture at Mumbai meet is similar to the one delivered at MSU.
IMPORTANT ISSUES IN Dr.Ashok Modak's Presentation
(Summary made based on his talk on 1 October 2016 and an article by him presented in the Seminar at India Policy Foundation, Delhi on 25.9.2014)
The genesis and growth of Integral Humanism
We all know that Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay expounded the philosophy of Integral
Humansim in April 1965 through the series of four lectures at Mumbai. Indian Government as well as by the Indian elites favoured Democratic Socialism during seventeen post independence years upto
1965. That such sort of a choice mirrored attraction for the crossbreed of capitalism and
socialism is obvious. The elites in India then found it desirable to borrow polity from
capitalism and economy from socialism. There was of course a unique commonality between the protagonsits of socialism and those of capitalism, they had a fascination for Euro-American models of development and a suspicion about Hindu ethos.
Background of Deendayalji’s Presentation
As for the fascination for Euro-American models of development one may point out
that during the decade preceding to Deendayalji’s presentation of Integral Humanism,
Capitalist world as well as socialist world were undergoing turbulent upheavals causing
rethinking of the respective ideologies. What astonishes us most is the fact that despite
such a rethinking then observable in the respective citadels of the ideologies in the EuroAmerican
arena, the Indian followers of these philosophies remained loyal to capitalism and socialism.
That the capitalist model of development started losing its charishma can be substantiated by referring to the list of selected books and articles published then. The list is
as follows.
1) Richard Nelson, “Theory of Low Level Equilibrium Trap”, American Economic Review
(1956)
2) David Macord Wright, Open Secret of Economic Growth (1957)
3) Leibenstin Harwey, Economic Backwardness and Economic Growth (1957)
2
4) Kuznets Simon, “Economic Growth and the Contribution of Agriculture: Note on
Measurement”, International Journal of Agrarian Affairs (1961)
5) Schultz, T.W. “Transforming Traditional Agriculture” C.T Yale University Press(1964)
6) Phelps Edmind S, Golden Rules of Economic Growth (1966)
One may also allude to the aspersions cast against capitalism by Latin American
thinkers such as Andre Gunder Frank and Frantz Fanon etc As a matter of coincidence,
Soviet Union also witnessed then leaders and protagonists of communism levelling criticism
against tenents of Marxism. Soviet events like the de-Stalinisation–compaign launched by
Nikita Khrushchev, profit-sponsoring economic reforms introduced by Kosygin, macrolevel
disaffection for cooperative and collective farms were indeed clear signals of the antiMarxist-Leninist
approach. Nehruvian propoganda in favour of cooperative farms in India in the latter-half of 1950s caused a rude shock to the sane Indians against the backdrop of such Soviet happenings.
Deendayalji was distubed by the fact that Indian elites in fact had possessed serious misconceptions about Indian ethos. They had thus developed solid convictions that reliance of masses on Indian paradigm had made them superstitious passivists and turned them backward reactionaries!
Deendayalji was, of course a very balanced and integrated thinker. He was in favour of accepting and adopting certain appreciable pluses of Euro-Amercican development models such as activism, entrepreneurship etc. I am tempted to quote here certain extracts from Deendayalji’s Mumbai speech – “ There are some who suggest that we must go back to the position when we lost our independence and proceed from there. On the other hand there are people who would like to discard all that has
originated here in Bharat and are not ready to think about it. They seem to think that western life and thoughts are the last word in progress and all of it should be imported here if we are to develop. Both these lines of thought are incorrect, though they do represent partial truths and it will not be proper to discard them altogether.”
“Those who advocate starting from where we left off a thousand years ago forget that whether it may or may not be desirable it is definitely impossible. The flow of time cannot be reversed”
“It is similarly neither possible not wise to adopt foreign isms in our country in the original form in toto. It will not be helpful in achieving happines and prosperity”
Deendayalji concluded that India should develop its own model conducive to its ethos and appropirate for the present era. How lucidly he articulated his views- “We must absorb the knowledge and gains of the entire humanity so far as eternal principles and truths are concerned. Of these the ones that originated in our midst have to be clarified and adapted to changed times and those that we take from other societies have to be adaptedto our conditions.”
We can elaborate the nuances in comparison of integral humanism with capitalism and socialism under six heads.
A) Integral Humanism has emerged for positive reasons where as Western lsms have arisen in reaction to something else
Socialism was sponsored as an antidote to the capitalist exploitation of common masses.The genesis and growth of Integral Humanism have however been positive.They remind us of unique rise and unfoldment of our nation - the Hindu Nation.
According to Swami Vivekanada “ We never preached our thoughts with fire and
sword,’’ . Swamiji also stated that India is the land where Humanity has attained its highest
towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness above all the
land of introspection and of spirituality.’’
It was again Swami Vivekanadan who highlighted India’s contribution to the world in the most notable way: “Like the gentle due that falls unseen and unheard and yet brings into blossom the fairest of roses has been the contribution of India to the thought of the world.’’
Unlike Indian Nationalism that in Europe projected itself as a nation state and it relied rather exclusively on the institution of state, it’s policies and practices have been mainly negative, retrictive, proscriptive and prohibitory. Indian Nationalism has informed the world of positive, constructive,
prescriptive and recommendatory policies and practices.
Deendayalji has pointed out that Indian Nation has never relied exclusively on the state and that is why even when the state was subjugated by foreign invaders, our Nation marched ahead uninterruptedly. Deendayalji of course does acknowledge the significance of the state in the life of a Nation. “We forgot that though it may not be central, the state is definitely an important institution
serving some needs of the Nation just as a limb of the body –” thus comments Deendayal
Upadhyaya.
What is fundamental is the fact that though the state is important it is not supreme (सर्वोऩरी). It is dharma, which offers sustainability to society is supreme in the life of a nation. This is why, we have bothered always to strengthen higher tendencies of human nature like love, sacrifice, etc. We have thus preferred happiness for all to the happiness for oneself, non-possession or अपरिग्रह to acquisitiveness or लोभ, service motive to profitmotive, restrained consumption to consumerism and so on. Western Isms like capitalism and socialism have however built their respective paradigms on the basis of the six lower tendencies (षड्रिपव:) of human nature, such as desire, anger, greed, temptation, insolence and jealosy. If capitalism has relied on desire, greed and temptation (काम, क्रोध and मोह) as pillars for its development-model, socialism has opted for anger, insolence and jealosy (क्रोध, मद and मत्सर) as foundation stones for building its own model of development. Followers
of both ideologies have, of course realised in susequent years that their reliance on lower human tendencies has caused a great damage to the humanity at large, and that is why, they must go beyond the boundaries of their repspective isms. Mikhail Gorbachev thus underscored the necessity to prefer “human” interests to “class” interests. It was Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet President, who declared that the following quotation from Bhagwan Gautam Buddha is quite relevant today - “The greatest victory is one in which nobody is defeated and all can share in that victory.” As for capitalism, Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Fedral Reserve of the U.S. testified before the U.S. Congress after Lehman’s collapse that “there is a flaw in the capitalism – ideology that self interest would protect society from the financial system’s excesse.”
B) If Integral Humanism believes that Man is a physical-mental-intellectual and spiritual
being, Westen Isms treat Man as a mere material being Spiritualism is definitely the most salient feature of Integral Humansim, though of course, physical, mental and intellectual urges of a human being do get due recognition at the hands of Deendayal Upadhyay. The Indian philosophy has however a faith in the divinity of a human being. Do we not know that Swami Vivekanand called all human beings as अमृतपुत्रा:? (sons of immortality?) All Indian philosophers including Deendayalji of course do underscore due significance of the fulfilment of physical needs. They however distinguish between the need and the greed. The philosophy of integral Humansim thus teaches us the Mantra of Self-hood rather than that of brotherhood as according to the conviction on the part of this philosophy each and every human being is divine!
We trace the seeds of consumerism, permissivism and philistinism, the signs of present crises in the pursuit of western Isms, as these isms, which rely on lower human tendencies, have blessed our march from shyness to shamelessness!
Integral Humansim thus teaches each one of us to treat everybody including himself or herself as a divine being and therefore one must deal with others with genuine concern and affection.
C) Integral Humanism with its itegrated view point underscores complementarity underlying the diversity, whereas Western Isms think of life in sections and then try to put them together by patchwork
Deendayalji points out that the Hindu approach is quite scientific. As per Integral Humanism, that person is a fully developed human being who possesses a fully integrated personality in the sense that he develops to the full extent five dimensions of his being such as physical. vital, mental, intellectual and blissful ones. These dimensions are actually sheaths (कोषाः) encasing the soul of the being. They are physical (अन्नमय), vital (प्राणमय), mental (मनोमय), intellectual (वर्वज्ञानमय) and blissful (आनंदमय)
sheaths (कोषाः).
His elaboration is equally quotable:- “Family, community, Trade Union, Grampanchayat, Janapada, State and such other institutions are various limbs of the nation and even of mankind. They are interdependent, mutually complementary. There should be a sense of unity through all of them. For this very reason there should be a tendency toward mutual accomodation in them, instead of
conflict or opposition.”
Deendayal Upadhyay has further commented that the West has failed in conceiving the organic unity in the midst of apparent diversities. That is why there is degeneration of stability into stagnation, dynamism into adventurism, national self-reliance into jingoism, nationalism into imperialism, internationalism into disloyalty to one’s own nation, liberty into licentiousness and discipline into regimentation. The west has indeed failed in offering genuine, full happiness to the human being. If in a capitalist society liberty caused inequality, the socialist society converted citizens into slaves of a bureaucratic state, where party loyalists enjoyed more equality than others. Integral Humansim is undoubtedly quite superior to all Western Isms.
D) Integral Humansim is holistic, in the sense that it underscores the complete harmony between an individual, the society and the nature. Western Isms, have on the other hand opted for undue glorification of anthropocentric Humanism As Integral Humanism believes in the divinity of each being it concludes that very divinity assures us of full harmony between individual (व्यष्टी), society (समष्टी) and nature (सष्ृटी). Divinity means (परमेष्ठी)! The humanism sanctioned and sponsored by Hindu philosophy is thus bound to be unique, in the that it reminds every human being of
the silken bond between him or her and the surrounding circumference! As a result of sustained campaigns by such NGOs, perople have realised how cruel it is to torture and kill innocent animals for enhancing human pleasure! These campaigns have undoubtedly caused a great shock to the materalistic mind of the West! One and the same awareness has prompted us to place “Profit” in the midst of “People” and “Planet”. We all have realised now that the unbecoming rush on the part of an individual (व्यष्टी) has caused an incalculable harm not only to the people (समष्टी) but also to the nature (सष्ृटी). That the anthropocentric Humanism endorsed by the West has made human being
inhuman is now acknowledged by everybody.
If Integral Humanism teaches us to consider every human being as a part of nature,
the anti God, anthropocentric Humanism sponsored by the West has led the same human
being to be cruel against nature. We find everywhere at present massive consumption of
non-renewable raw materials and energy sources as well as equally massive pollution of air
and water because of rush for industrialisation.
E) Integral Humanism gives priority to the transformation of the human mindset whereas
Western Isms rely on institutional transformation for changing social order
Integral Humanism being the latest articulation of the Hindu-ethos emphasises that
it is the individual mindset which needs to be changed on the priority basis for shaping the
required socio-economic and political transformation. Lokmanya Tilak has dealt with this
issue in a very lucid and apt manner. According to him, the Western Materialistic School has
recommended that questions of Morality must be decided by the purely external material
test of the greatest good of the greatest number. Lokmanya Tilak, of course accepts that
according to some protagonist of this Western School, questions of Morality must be
decided by the welfare of the entire creation. Both groups belonging to this school,
(according to Tilakji) however apply purely external material tests for deciding the questions
of Morality.
Integral Humanism, of course does recognise the role of institutional change in the process of broad socio-economic transofrmation, but it emphasises the basic or the fundamental role of the change in the individual mindset!
Deendayal Upadhyay rightly integrates objective and subjective realities, in the sense that after underscoring the crucial role of subjective change he prescribes that simultaneous change must also be introduced in the objective reality. Deendayalji’s view point that the state is significant though not supreme has already been mentioned above.
F) Integral Humanism is inclusive, accomodative and pluralist as well. The discussion made so far in connection with five tenets prompt me to comment that Integral Humanism is capable of accomodating all sublime views of several thought currents and paradigms. Integral Humanism is the latest manifestation of the Sanatan Dharma. This is why like Sanatan Dharma which has integrated Shankaracharya’s intelligence with Gautam Buddha’s Compassion, Integral Humanism has done full justice to its adjective by reconciling contemplative Hindu ethos with active European civilization. It has similarly endorsed reconciliation between spiritualism and materialism in the sense that although it has deep faith in spiritualism it recognises the importance of accomplishing the basic needs and comforts of all.
Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi stated : “For enduring world peace and harmony we need a new
paradigm and a new world order based on a free and frank dialogue among civilisations
conducive for the making of a global culture.”
It is obvious that the philosophy of Integral Humanism does offer the holistic, all-inclusive and pluralist paradigm which assures us of our march towards just and humanitarian world order!
Deendayal Upadhyaya - Biography and Philosophy
http://guide-india.blogspot.com/2013/09/deendayal-upadhyaya.html
_________________
_________________
Dr. Bajranglal Gupta, renowned economist, Former Reader, S.S.N. College, Delhi University
__________________________________
MSU Baroda
The lecture at Mumbai meet is similar to the one delivered at MSU.
IMPORTANT ISSUES IN Dr.Ashok Modak's Presentation
(Summary made based on his talk on 1 October 2016 and an article by him presented in the Seminar at India Policy Foundation, Delhi on 25.9.2014)
INTEGRAL HUMANISM - PRESENT RELEVANCE
- Dr.Ashok ModakThe genesis and growth of Integral Humanism
We all know that Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay expounded the philosophy of Integral
Humansim in April 1965 through the series of four lectures at Mumbai. Indian Government as well as by the Indian elites favoured Democratic Socialism during seventeen post independence years upto
1965. That such sort of a choice mirrored attraction for the crossbreed of capitalism and
socialism is obvious. The elites in India then found it desirable to borrow polity from
capitalism and economy from socialism. There was of course a unique commonality between the protagonsits of socialism and those of capitalism, they had a fascination for Euro-American models of development and a suspicion about Hindu ethos.
Background of Deendayalji’s Presentation
As for the fascination for Euro-American models of development one may point out
that during the decade preceding to Deendayalji’s presentation of Integral Humanism,
Capitalist world as well as socialist world were undergoing turbulent upheavals causing
rethinking of the respective ideologies. What astonishes us most is the fact that despite
such a rethinking then observable in the respective citadels of the ideologies in the EuroAmerican
arena, the Indian followers of these philosophies remained loyal to capitalism and socialism.
That the capitalist model of development started losing its charishma can be substantiated by referring to the list of selected books and articles published then. The list is
as follows.
1) Richard Nelson, “Theory of Low Level Equilibrium Trap”, American Economic Review
(1956)
2) David Macord Wright, Open Secret of Economic Growth (1957)
3) Leibenstin Harwey, Economic Backwardness and Economic Growth (1957)
2
4) Kuznets Simon, “Economic Growth and the Contribution of Agriculture: Note on
Measurement”, International Journal of Agrarian Affairs (1961)
5) Schultz, T.W. “Transforming Traditional Agriculture” C.T Yale University Press(1964)
6) Phelps Edmind S, Golden Rules of Economic Growth (1966)
One may also allude to the aspersions cast against capitalism by Latin American
thinkers such as Andre Gunder Frank and Frantz Fanon etc As a matter of coincidence,
Soviet Union also witnessed then leaders and protagonists of communism levelling criticism
against tenents of Marxism. Soviet events like the de-Stalinisation–compaign launched by
Nikita Khrushchev, profit-sponsoring economic reforms introduced by Kosygin, macrolevel
disaffection for cooperative and collective farms were indeed clear signals of the antiMarxist-Leninist
approach. Nehruvian propoganda in favour of cooperative farms in India in the latter-half of 1950s caused a rude shock to the sane Indians against the backdrop of such Soviet happenings.
Deendayalji was distubed by the fact that Indian elites in fact had possessed serious misconceptions about Indian ethos. They had thus developed solid convictions that reliance of masses on Indian paradigm had made them superstitious passivists and turned them backward reactionaries!
Deendayalji was, of course a very balanced and integrated thinker. He was in favour of accepting and adopting certain appreciable pluses of Euro-Amercican development models such as activism, entrepreneurship etc. I am tempted to quote here certain extracts from Deendayalji’s Mumbai speech – “ There are some who suggest that we must go back to the position when we lost our independence and proceed from there. On the other hand there are people who would like to discard all that has
originated here in Bharat and are not ready to think about it. They seem to think that western life and thoughts are the last word in progress and all of it should be imported here if we are to develop. Both these lines of thought are incorrect, though they do represent partial truths and it will not be proper to discard them altogether.”
“Those who advocate starting from where we left off a thousand years ago forget that whether it may or may not be desirable it is definitely impossible. The flow of time cannot be reversed”
“It is similarly neither possible not wise to adopt foreign isms in our country in the original form in toto. It will not be helpful in achieving happines and prosperity”
Deendayalji concluded that India should develop its own model conducive to its ethos and appropirate for the present era. How lucidly he articulated his views- “We must absorb the knowledge and gains of the entire humanity so far as eternal principles and truths are concerned. Of these the ones that originated in our midst have to be clarified and adapted to changed times and those that we take from other societies have to be adaptedto our conditions.”
We can elaborate the nuances in comparison of integral humanism with capitalism and socialism under six heads.
A) Integral Humanism has emerged for positive reasons where as Western lsms have arisen in reaction to something else
Socialism was sponsored as an antidote to the capitalist exploitation of common masses.The genesis and growth of Integral Humanism have however been positive.They remind us of unique rise and unfoldment of our nation - the Hindu Nation.
According to Swami Vivekanada “ We never preached our thoughts with fire and
sword,’’ . Swamiji also stated that India is the land where Humanity has attained its highest
towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness above all the
land of introspection and of spirituality.’’
It was again Swami Vivekanadan who highlighted India’s contribution to the world in the most notable way: “Like the gentle due that falls unseen and unheard and yet brings into blossom the fairest of roses has been the contribution of India to the thought of the world.’’
Unlike Indian Nationalism that in Europe projected itself as a nation state and it relied rather exclusively on the institution of state, it’s policies and practices have been mainly negative, retrictive, proscriptive and prohibitory. Indian Nationalism has informed the world of positive, constructive,
prescriptive and recommendatory policies and practices.
Deendayalji has pointed out that Indian Nation has never relied exclusively on the state and that is why even when the state was subjugated by foreign invaders, our Nation marched ahead uninterruptedly. Deendayalji of course does acknowledge the significance of the state in the life of a Nation. “We forgot that though it may not be central, the state is definitely an important institution
serving some needs of the Nation just as a limb of the body –” thus comments Deendayal
Upadhyaya.
What is fundamental is the fact that though the state is important it is not supreme (सर्वोऩरी). It is dharma, which offers sustainability to society is supreme in the life of a nation. This is why, we have bothered always to strengthen higher tendencies of human nature like love, sacrifice, etc. We have thus preferred happiness for all to the happiness for oneself, non-possession or अपरिग्रह to acquisitiveness or लोभ, service motive to profitmotive, restrained consumption to consumerism and so on. Western Isms like capitalism and socialism have however built their respective paradigms on the basis of the six lower tendencies (षड्रिपव:) of human nature, such as desire, anger, greed, temptation, insolence and jealosy. If capitalism has relied on desire, greed and temptation (काम, क्रोध and मोह) as pillars for its development-model, socialism has opted for anger, insolence and jealosy (क्रोध, मद and मत्सर) as foundation stones for building its own model of development. Followers
of both ideologies have, of course realised in susequent years that their reliance on lower human tendencies has caused a great damage to the humanity at large, and that is why, they must go beyond the boundaries of their repspective isms. Mikhail Gorbachev thus underscored the necessity to prefer “human” interests to “class” interests. It was Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet President, who declared that the following quotation from Bhagwan Gautam Buddha is quite relevant today - “The greatest victory is one in which nobody is defeated and all can share in that victory.” As for capitalism, Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Fedral Reserve of the U.S. testified before the U.S. Congress after Lehman’s collapse that “there is a flaw in the capitalism – ideology that self interest would protect society from the financial system’s excesse.”
B) If Integral Humanism believes that Man is a physical-mental-intellectual and spiritual
being, Westen Isms treat Man as a mere material being Spiritualism is definitely the most salient feature of Integral Humansim, though of course, physical, mental and intellectual urges of a human being do get due recognition at the hands of Deendayal Upadhyay. The Indian philosophy has however a faith in the divinity of a human being. Do we not know that Swami Vivekanand called all human beings as अमृतपुत्रा:? (sons of immortality?) All Indian philosophers including Deendayalji of course do underscore due significance of the fulfilment of physical needs. They however distinguish between the need and the greed. The philosophy of integral Humansim thus teaches us the Mantra of Self-hood rather than that of brotherhood as according to the conviction on the part of this philosophy each and every human being is divine!
We trace the seeds of consumerism, permissivism and philistinism, the signs of present crises in the pursuit of western Isms, as these isms, which rely on lower human tendencies, have blessed our march from shyness to shamelessness!
Integral Humansim thus teaches each one of us to treat everybody including himself or herself as a divine being and therefore one must deal with others with genuine concern and affection.
C) Integral Humanism with its itegrated view point underscores complementarity underlying the diversity, whereas Western Isms think of life in sections and then try to put them together by patchwork
Deendayalji points out that the Hindu approach is quite scientific. As per Integral Humanism, that person is a fully developed human being who possesses a fully integrated personality in the sense that he develops to the full extent five dimensions of his being such as physical. vital, mental, intellectual and blissful ones. These dimensions are actually sheaths (कोषाः) encasing the soul of the being. They are physical (अन्नमय), vital (प्राणमय), mental (मनोमय), intellectual (वर्वज्ञानमय) and blissful (आनंदमय)
sheaths (कोषाः).
His elaboration is equally quotable:- “Family, community, Trade Union, Grampanchayat, Janapada, State and such other institutions are various limbs of the nation and even of mankind. They are interdependent, mutually complementary. There should be a sense of unity through all of them. For this very reason there should be a tendency toward mutual accomodation in them, instead of
conflict or opposition.”
Deendayal Upadhyay has further commented that the West has failed in conceiving the organic unity in the midst of apparent diversities. That is why there is degeneration of stability into stagnation, dynamism into adventurism, national self-reliance into jingoism, nationalism into imperialism, internationalism into disloyalty to one’s own nation, liberty into licentiousness and discipline into regimentation. The west has indeed failed in offering genuine, full happiness to the human being. If in a capitalist society liberty caused inequality, the socialist society converted citizens into slaves of a bureaucratic state, where party loyalists enjoyed more equality than others. Integral Humansim is undoubtedly quite superior to all Western Isms.
D) Integral Humansim is holistic, in the sense that it underscores the complete harmony between an individual, the society and the nature. Western Isms, have on the other hand opted for undue glorification of anthropocentric Humanism As Integral Humanism believes in the divinity of each being it concludes that very divinity assures us of full harmony between individual (व्यष्टी), society (समष्टी) and nature (सष्ृटी). Divinity means (परमेष्ठी)! The humanism sanctioned and sponsored by Hindu philosophy is thus bound to be unique, in the that it reminds every human being of
the silken bond between him or her and the surrounding circumference! As a result of sustained campaigns by such NGOs, perople have realised how cruel it is to torture and kill innocent animals for enhancing human pleasure! These campaigns have undoubtedly caused a great shock to the materalistic mind of the West! One and the same awareness has prompted us to place “Profit” in the midst of “People” and “Planet”. We all have realised now that the unbecoming rush on the part of an individual (व्यष्टी) has caused an incalculable harm not only to the people (समष्टी) but also to the nature (सष्ृटी). That the anthropocentric Humanism endorsed by the West has made human being
inhuman is now acknowledged by everybody.
If Integral Humanism teaches us to consider every human being as a part of nature,
the anti God, anthropocentric Humanism sponsored by the West has led the same human
being to be cruel against nature. We find everywhere at present massive consumption of
non-renewable raw materials and energy sources as well as equally massive pollution of air
and water because of rush for industrialisation.
E) Integral Humanism gives priority to the transformation of the human mindset whereas
Western Isms rely on institutional transformation for changing social order
Integral Humanism being the latest articulation of the Hindu-ethos emphasises that
it is the individual mindset which needs to be changed on the priority basis for shaping the
required socio-economic and political transformation. Lokmanya Tilak has dealt with this
issue in a very lucid and apt manner. According to him, the Western Materialistic School has
recommended that questions of Morality must be decided by the purely external material
test of the greatest good of the greatest number. Lokmanya Tilak, of course accepts that
according to some protagonist of this Western School, questions of Morality must be
decided by the welfare of the entire creation. Both groups belonging to this school,
(according to Tilakji) however apply purely external material tests for deciding the questions
of Morality.
Integral Humanism, of course does recognise the role of institutional change in the process of broad socio-economic transofrmation, but it emphasises the basic or the fundamental role of the change in the individual mindset!
Deendayal Upadhyay rightly integrates objective and subjective realities, in the sense that after underscoring the crucial role of subjective change he prescribes that simultaneous change must also be introduced in the objective reality. Deendayalji’s view point that the state is significant though not supreme has already been mentioned above.
F) Integral Humanism is inclusive, accomodative and pluralist as well. The discussion made so far in connection with five tenets prompt me to comment that Integral Humanism is capable of accomodating all sublime views of several thought currents and paradigms. Integral Humanism is the latest manifestation of the Sanatan Dharma. This is why like Sanatan Dharma which has integrated Shankaracharya’s intelligence with Gautam Buddha’s Compassion, Integral Humanism has done full justice to its adjective by reconciling contemplative Hindu ethos with active European civilization. It has similarly endorsed reconciliation between spiritualism and materialism in the sense that although it has deep faith in spiritualism it recognises the importance of accomplishing the basic needs and comforts of all.
Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi stated : “For enduring world peace and harmony we need a new
paradigm and a new world order based on a free and frank dialogue among civilisations
conducive for the making of a global culture.”
It is obvious that the philosophy of Integral Humanism does offer the holistic, all-inclusive and pluralist paradigm which assures us of our march towards just and humanitarian world order!
