Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 223

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VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. I
which all wants are satisfied and pain and suffering are totally extinguished.
It has been argued that this state of perfection is only a bunkum, a figment of the imagination or a deliberate fraud devised to afford solace to the exploited proletariat who are deprived of all the good things of the world. This fantastic dream is held out before the working men and women in order to blunt the edge of their resistance. The apostles of spiritual life are allies of the capitalists and their mission is to keep the down-trodden, persecuted, exploited labouring class in perpetual subjection. The salvation of the working men and women lies in their struggle against the privileged class. The bourgeoisie and the capitalists must be annihilated and the rule of the proletariat established. From reports of newspapers we are given to understand that this has been achieved in Russia and China and the other communist countries. This is an unfailing temptation for the poor people of all countries. Communism is defined as vesting of property in the community, each member working according to his capacity and receiving according to his wants. This is no doubt the utopia which is to be realized as the ultimate goal and socialism is the penultimate stage.
This is a respectable philosophy and is a covetable price for the sections of people which are lagging behind in the struggle for existence. Let us suppose that conditions of society are so adjusted that none will be deprived of the legitimate share of the food, drink and housing accommodation, in fact all things that are necessary for comfortable and healthy life. When this state of society is reached, there would be no class struggle, all men being placed on an equal footing. Whether all men and women can be made equal partners of life so far as the material advantages are concerned is a moot question. Again it is problematic whether all men can be intellectually and morally made perfectly equal. In the existing state of affairs we find blatant inequalities in intelligence, capacity for physical and intellectual labour and moral dispositions. Let us suppose that these inequalities will be obliterated by means of social adjustment and reforms in the education system. Let us also suppose that all poverty, deformity and drawhacks, physical and intellectual, will be made good by progress of science and people will cease to have any worry regarding the necessities of physical existence. Suppose this utopia is realized. But will all men be content with the good things of the earth? As we have observed before nothing finite can satisfy a man. The higher and higher a man rises in the scale of civilization and culture his wants