Increasing minimum requirements and special and maximum amenities

Whatever is feasible and practical has been said in Prout. Marxism

built castles in the air and encouraged the people to dream a
meaningless dream. Prout has not done this nor will Prout do it. Prout
will do that which is feasible and practical. If the common people and
the meritorious people are treated as the same, the capable people will
not be encouraged to develop their higher potentiality. This is the
reason why the brain drain is happening in India. When talented people
leave India, they leave it for good. Providing special amenities for
those with special capabilities will stop the brain drain.

Prout's approach is to guarantee the minimum requirements for all,

guarantee maximum amenities for all and guarantee special amenities for
people with special capabilities. This approach will ensure
ever-increasing acceleration in the socio-economic sphere. The question
of retardation does not arise; even the question of maintaining speed
does not arise. There must be acceleration. Acceleration is the spirit
of life, the spirit of existence, the spirit of the existential
faculty. One may not be a genius, one may simply be a member of the
ordinary public, and not properly accepted or respected by all, but
even then one will get the minimum requirements and maximum amenities
in an ever increasing manner according to the environmental conditions
concerned, according to the demands of the day.

So what is the significance of this new approach?

- Minimum requirements are to be guaranteed to all

- Special amenities are to be guaranteed to capable people. Special

amenities are for people of special calibre as per the environmental
condition of the particular age. Special amenities are incentives for
extraordinary cases.

- Maximum amenities are to be guaranteed to all, even to those who have

no special qualities -- to the common people of common calibre. Maximum
amenities are to be guaranteed to all as per environmental conditions.
These amenities are for those of ordinary calibre -- the common people,
the so-called downtrodden humanity. The provision of the maximum
amenities should not go against the common interest.

All three above are never ending processes, and they will go on
increasing according to the collective potentialities. This appendix to
our philosophy may be small, but it is of a progressive nature and a
progressive character. It has far-reaching implications for the future.
I hope you will realize its impact and all its potentialities.

1. Minimum necessities are for all - non-compromisable - food,

clothing, housing, medical care, education at the very least being
provided - and obtained by adequate purchasing capacity for all.

2. Special amenities are incentives for people of special calibre.

Those with physical, metaphysical or intellectual ability may demand
something more than ordinary people. Special amenities should,
therefore, be provided so that the diversity in skill and intelligence
is fully utilized, and talent is encouraged to contribute its best
towards human development. It will, therefore, be necessary to make
provision for special emoluments which can cater for special amenities
of life according to the age and time.

But at the same time, there should be a constant effort to reduce the
gap between the amount of special emoluments and the bare minimum
requirements of the average individual. The guaranteed supply of
minimum requirements must be liberalized by increasing the provision of
special amenities pertaining to the age and also, simultaneously, by
bringing about a decrease in the provision of special emoluments given
to the few. This never-ending effort of proper economic adjustment must
ceaselessly continue at all times with a view to assisting the
spiritual, mental and physical evolution of human beings, and to let
humanity develop a Cosmic sentiment for a Cosmic ideal and world
fraternity. There should be a never-ending endeavour to minimise the
gap between minimum requirements and special amenities.

3. Maximum amenities are for ordinary people and means that as the
wealth of society increases the amenities become more and more
available so that the standard of living increases. The common people
should not be deprived of maximum amenities, so there should be efforts
to give them as much of the maximum amenities as possible. There will
still be a gap between the maximum amenities of the common people and
the special amenities of the meritorious, but there should be constant
efforts to reduce this gap. Thus, the common people should also receive
more and more amenities. If maximum amenities are not provided to
common people, no doubt there will be progress in society (as they will
have minimum necessities), but there will always remain the scope for
imperfection in future.

What constitutes both the minimum requirements and the maximum

amenities should be ever increasing. If the maximum or special
amenities of meritorious people become excessively high, then the
minimum requirements of common people should be immediately increased.
As the need for the minimum requirements is fulfilled and the supply of
the maximum amenities increases, the struggle for daily subsistence
will gradually decrease and people's lives will become increasingly
easy and enjoyable. For this reason PROUT guarantees the minimum
requirements and the maximum amenities to all. These maximum amenities
must be good for the physical and psychic development of human beings.
There should be maximum amenities for one and all, with more longing
for physico-psychic objects of enjoyment. These amenities should be
increased for the entire social order. There cannot be any full stop,
any comma or any semi-colon in this progress.

PR Sarkar
13 October 1989, Calcutta
Prout in a Nutshell 17