Economics of Mahaveera

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

Page 58

42
ECONOMICS OF MAHAVIRA
are uncontrolled, the society will remain hungry and will face vicissitudes, ups and downs.
Basic Mentality Let us refer to the society during the times of Bhagwan Mahavira. In the dedicated society which he created, both ownership and consumption were limited. Ownership is a fundamental, basic attitude. We can analyse ownership in terms of psychology. MacDugal and other scientists have classified the basic human attitudes. Mahavira while analysing human nature said that man has a basic mental trait. He demonstrates a sense of authority, of possession and of accumulation of wealth. Everything that has been happening is the result of a sense of authority. Other attitudes are by-products of that. This mentality is not peculiar to man. It is found in the lowliest of creatures and even plants. To explain this feeling of attachment and authority, Acharya Malayagiri has given the example of amarbel (a creeper). Amarbel, to start with, climbs up by taking support of the tree. Then it establishes its authority over the entire tree, spreads all over it, and slowly eats it away. The sense of authority is there even in a honey-bee. It is there even in an ant and it is there in all small and big living beings. Even the smallest of the living being resorts to accumulation for itself. The sense of authority is a basic attitude of mind.
The Principle of Devout Society In the present times, in the context of socialism and capitalism, ownership has taken a number of forms, like individual ownership, public ownership and collective ownership. The first principle of the dedicated society was that there should be limitation on ownership. Individual ownership should be limited. There were ten leading people of the committed society and all of them were well-to-do. But they exercised limitation of individual ownership. The craving for getting more and more wealth or money is unlimited. How far can man go? There ought to be the wisdom of limitation of wealth.