Economics of Mahaveera

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Adarsh Sahitya Sangh

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THE CENTRAL FOCUS: MAN OR MONEY
the needs of our body. Thirst is a need of our body. It is necessary to satisfy it. Vinayvijayaji has identified the needs. The first need of the body is food. The second need is water. The third need is clothes. The fourth need is a house. These are the four basic needs, the basic requirements of the body.
Classification of Needs
What satisfies the needs of the body is a necessity. The needs are those which satisfy the sense organs. Our life's first element is body and the second element is sense organs. Ornamentation is not a need of the body. It is a demand of the sense organs. Hearing music, seeing movies, eating tasteful food, experiencing pleasure-giving contact these are the demands of the sense organs. Mahavira and spiritual teachers did not reject these demands. They accepted that these are demands, and men and women, the social beings, exist within the bounds of this reality. That is why these were permitted to be satisfied.
Beyond these, there are the demands of the mind. These demands are not directly relevant to the body, but if the demands of the mind are suppressed, it can create mental disorders or aberrations. It is, therefore, appropriate to satisfy the demands of the mind. Going beyond this, it is also necessary to maintain healthy relations with the family and with other members of the society. Expanding the family and establishing social relationships is also a necessity. Getting married, producing progeny and satisfying the sense-organs have all been classified by Vinayvijayaji. The Acharya has presented the entire visualisation of Mahavirà.
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The Personality of Man
All the foregoing needs, however, represent a materialistic point of view, a narrow point of view. Modern economists also propagate all these needs and provide a way to satisfy them. Mahavira said that these demands or needs are there and we would not deny their reality, but these are not all, everything, for the human beings.