Economics of Mahaveera

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

Page 34

18
ECONOMICS OF MALTAVIRA
large cow-shed having forty thousand cows. Capital worth crores was invested in his business. But being a member of a vrati (devout) society his vow was not to use unacceptable means to earn wealth. On that basis alone, he had attained his own economic prosperity.
Religion and Economic Development No religion puts an obstacle to economic development. Many modern economists have said that religions ordain restraints and tell people not to do this and not to do that. They maintain that these restraints are not productive and are impediments to development. In reality, however, it is only when we think in terms of worldly pleasures that they appear to be obstacles. If we consider them from the point of view of human welfare, we would find that they are not obstructive but conducive to development. If we invest in both pleasure and welfare, then economics could be very productive. On the other hand, if we confine it to pleasures alone then we would find that today's economics has created many distortions in the society. It has made men cruel and misled them to the path of exploitation.
Presence of Imperialistic Mentality It is doubtless that considerable development has taken place in technology. If only along with this there was also compassion, then, perhaps, mankind would not have been threatened as it is today. The meticulousness with which technology has been deployed for destruction has not been used for welfare. The reason for this is that imperialistic mentality persists in man. There was a time when imperialism of land was the order. Acquire land, grab more land, this was a kind of territorial imperialism. Today, it is the age of economic imperialism. What is important is not how much land one owns as how much market one controls. Japan is a small country with a relatively small population, but it has dominated the world market for quite sometime.