Economics of Mahaveera

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

Page 55

LIMITATION OF INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP AND PERSONAL CONSUMPTION
39
Tan ki trishna alpa hai, teen pau ya ser. Man ki trishna amit hai, gale mer hi mer. The thirst of the body is only little. It could be threequarters of a kilo, at the most a kilo. But the thirst of the mind is insatiable. It can swallow the entire Meru mountain.
Uncontrolled desires do not give happiness to a person; they make him suffer, make him unhappy. The first base of unhappiness and suffering is boundless greed. It never gets satisfied and continues giving pain like an inner wound.
Uncontrolled Wants The second element is want. The wants may be uncontrolled social structure: In course of time, wants take the form of camouflaged needs, and they go on increasing. These can never be satisfied.
Uncontrolled Consumption The third element is consumption. The present consumerist social structure has unleashed consumption. Consumption is essential, but since consumerism surfaced, it has expanded to an extent that it has impacted health, mind and consciousness.
What is the consequence of an uncontrolled society? To satisfy wants to increase wants and, for fulfilling them, violence becomes a sine qua non. In a way, new consumerism is the corollary of a new type of violence. Violence has already assumed a new dimension. Everybody has developed craving in his mind that a certain amount of consumption is essential. If that does not get satisfied, then effort is made to satisfy it somehow or the other. It is achieved by abduction, theft or murder, since the fulfilment of these desires is the goal. In today's Economics, there is very little or perhaps no scope for morals. It does not recognise the need for moral and human values Under these conditions, acquisition somehow or the other becomes the only objective.