Book Title: Economics of Mahaveera
Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Adarsh Sahitya Sangh

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Page 98
________________ 82 ECONOMICS OF MAHAVIRA Mahavira nor to Gandhi. From that point of view, Marx did not very much lag behind. He also saw a dream and that is very significant – a stateless society. What a great dream -- an environment of freedom where the government does not exist. Keynes could not see such a dream. Under the capitalistic economic system as well, freedoin is preferred. But Keynes could not propose and subscribe to a stateless society, which Marx did. However, the question is: how could one conceive of a stateless society in the framework of a centralised economic system? Under a centralised structure, it is necessary to resort to violence and punishment. Only dictatorship can flourish in such circumstances and one cannot really talk of freedom. . Lenin attempted to give a shape to the dream of Marx. The moment power slipped into the hands of Stalin, the form of dictatorship became so horrifying that there remained no opportunity for freedom to survive.. The entire situation transformed itself. And the dream of Marx remained unfulfilled. Material Objects and Freedom Freedom cannot be associated with material objects. Where material development is achieved, man becomes dependent. First, material objects become dependent on man and then, in the process, man becomes the slave of the material objects. It is observed that first man drinks alchohol, then alchohol starts swallowing him. On the same basis, it can be said that first man tries to make objects dependent on himself and then material objects make him so dependent that he cannot give them up until the end. A man was on his deathbed, counting his last breaths. Mustering up all his strength he called his elder son. The elder son informed him, 'Father, I am seated here'. Then one by one he called the second, third and fourth sons. All of them, said, 'Father! We are all here'. The man got irritated and said, 'Fools! If all of you are here then who is at the shop?' Definition of Freedom The definition of freedom that Mahavira enunciated established Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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