One Family
By P.R. Sarkar
The Supreme Consciousness is my Father, the Supreme Operative Principle (the force of creation) is my Mother, and the threefold universe (pysical, psychic and spiritual) is my homeland. We are all citizens of this universe.
The universe is the thought projection of the Macrocosmic Mind, and it is in the extroversial and introversial phases of the Cosmic imaginative flow that the creation, preservation and destruction of all entities continues.
When an individual imagines an object, then that person alone, and no one else, is the owner of the object. For instance, when an imaginary human being roams about in an imaginary green field, the imaginer, and not the imaginary person, is the owner of the field. The universe is the thought projection of the Supreme Entity, so the ownership of the universe lies with the Supreme Entity, and not with the imagined beings.
None of the movable or immovable property of this universe belongs to any particular individual; everything is the common patrimony of all, and the head of the family is the Supreme Being. All living beings can enjoy their rightful share of this property, like members of a joint family in the Dáyabhága* system.
As members of a joint family, human beings should safeguard this common property in a befitting manner and utilize it properly. They should also make proper arrangements so that everyone can enjoy it with equal rights, ensuring that all have the minimum requirements of life to enable them to live in a healthy body with a sound mind.
We must not forget, even for a single moment, that the entire animate world is a vast joint family. Nature has not assigned any portion of this property to any particular individual.
Private ownership has been created by selfish opportunists, as the loopholes in this system provide them with ample scope for self-aggrandizement through exploitation. When the entire wealth of the universe is the common patrimony of all living beings, can the system in which some roll in luxury, while others, deprived of a morsel of food, shrivel up and starve to death bit by bit, be said to have the support of dharma?
In a joint family every member is provided with adequate food, clothing, education and medical treatment, and amenities, as per their individual needs, according to the financial capacity of the entire family. If, however, any member of the family appropriates more grains, clothes, books or medicines than he or she requires, will that person not be the cause of distress to other members of the family? In such circumstances his or her actions will be certainly against dharma – certainly antisocial.
Similarly, the capitalists of this modern world are anti-dharma, or antisocial, creatures. To accumulate massive wealth, they reduce others to skin and bones gnawed by hunger and force them to die of starvation; to dazzle people with the glamour of their garments, they compel others to wear rags; and to increase their own vital strength, they suck dry the vital juice of others.
A member of a joint family cannot be called a social being if he or she does not possess the sentiment of oneness with the other members, or if he or she does not want to accept the lofty ideal of joint rights and the principle of rationality. According to true spiritual ideology the system of private ownership cannot be accepted as absolute and final, and hence capitalism cannot be supported either.
* In the Dáyabhága system prevalent in Bengal, the heirs’ right of inheritance is subject to the discretion of the father while the father is alive.
From Problems of the Day (1958)
Copyright Ananda Marga Publications 2012
Ideological Foundations of Progressive Socialism:
1) One family
2) Morality and spirituality
3) Socialization
4) World habitat
5) Universalism
6) World government