Training in Nonviolence

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Anuvrat Global Organization

Page 47

View Nonviolence and Non-possessiveness Together
to have attended it. While he was returning to Delhi, I asked him to tell the Prime Minister to engage in relativistic development. What is done should not be confined to wealthy few alone, but equally we must pay attention to the poor as well. It is the need of the day.
I mentioned two problems in connection with economic development. The third problem is crime. Crimes are increasing and very big people are turning into criminals. When I hear judicial verdicts of punishment to ministers and the like, it passes my imagination. The person who is a minister has to be sent to prison; big people have to be sent to prison. What will we then think of smaller people? All this is happening because only the economic outlook prevails, nothing else matters. What happens as a result of an exclusive economic viewpoint? Let me relate a small story:
Dacoits entered a house. The rich merchant was owner of the house at home, and three or four armed men with weapons entered. They addressed the merchant and asked him who they were. The latter said he understood that they were dacoits. They put two alternatives before the merchant: either hand over the keys to them or be prepared to die. The merchant soberly said that the wealth had been kept for the old age and that if they wanted to kill him they could do so. This shows what a futuristic viewpoint can be formed. A viewpoint of wealth is formed which defies even truth. The merchant did not understand that the question of old age did not arise once he was dead. Crimes are also connected with the economic problem.
The fourth problem is that of exploitation. It too is pervasive. All big men, be they officers, the rich, industrialists, and traders - all exploit people with great efficiency and cleverness. They steal in a manner that no one comes to know of it. That is why it is believed that the number of thieves in India and the world is small, not high. It is said that there might be a few thousands of them among a billion; but those who steal cleverly number millions. This is the problem of exploitation.
I have mentioned four problems connected with wealth: immorality, corruption, crime and exploitation. One more may be mentioned - temptation. In fact the root cause is temptation. Man is so greedy that he wants to acquire and accumulate everything. So I want that those working in the field of nonviolence should also take up economic problems, because without understanding these they cannot work. We have to give as much importance to training in nonviolence as to economic problems. Because training in limiting possessiveness is a part of training in nonviolence. Many years ago I told Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, who was very much in contact with us, that he was doing a lot for the people and asked him whether he could also limit individual possession. He said that his purpose had been to limit it but he could not succeed till then. A millionaire or billionaire simply feeds his ego at the cost of millions of hungry people who wail and weep for want of food. Therefore limiting the possessions of an individual is also a part of our training in nonviolence.
41