Money
- Theory |
- Money |
- Development |
- Money |
- Spirituality
Money has come to rule the world today. Its rule began long ago. But now men, countries, continents, armies, movements, ideals, organisations, institutions, leaders, powers, philosophies, technologies are its veritable slaves. Man who has created money himself is a willing slave of it in his totality. He is proud of possessing large quantities of it which means he celebrates the fact that he is possessed by it. His emotions towards his subjection to it is that of a lover who is proud of his unconditional surrender to his Beloved. It is created by the Power and consciousness of the human mind which produced or created the entire civilisation. It is a collective power and the institution of money is social. No money can be created by the individual for himself. Always it is the individual who wielded the power of the collective on its behalf in every other field. In the march of Social Evolution the Individual is just now poised to acquire the collective power of money for himself. Should he do so, the entire collective power will express in the Individual making the finite currency the infinite money Force. The law of social evolution that every new organisation gradually integrates with every other organisation is fully true in the case of money. It is seen in the fact that there is almost no work, that cannot be done by money. It means every social activity permits itself to be evaluated in terms of money. Every work and any work can be reduced to terms of money and vice versa. Done positively, the act furthers social evolution. Sought after negatively, the work organises the foundations of social existence in the vital substance of humanity. Man's individual ability to create world's wealth need be no wonder as it has already been accomplished in knowledge. We call such a person a genius. The poet is a similar phenomenon in language. Its earliest expression is in the leader and in his courage which is the collective physical prowess which he possesses on their behalf. We see it in the social organisation and its creation in the collective finds a spearhead in one man in whose consciousness it centres. What is organisation in the society is the organised consciousness in the individual of which he first becomes conscious.
It is not confined to knowledge, education, language, power or money. It is a common process for all collective power for its generation. Power of any description - observation, thinking, sensing, moving, feeling, producing, creating, etc., -- subconsciously starts in the collective and when it is saturated becomes conscious in the Individual when he is able to create all the power the world can create. Beyond that the collective becomes conscious as a collective when it possesses that vibration in all its individuals. August Comte, a disciple of St. Simon had a glimpse of this truth in the 19th century and said that one day the world would have 37 million Homers, 37 million Molliers, 37 million Newtons, etc. He also said the sea will become lemonade. And such power is given to one at birth as the animals inherit instincts. It is the object of this work to trace all the aspects of such a social evolution in the context of MONEY and reveal that power to the Individual so that poverty in 3 billion people will be at once wiped out. As the individual can now speak endlessly, i.e. produce words, then he can produce money endlessly at his will. That will be the power to create money as he is emancipated from the power of money. The power of money will be his slave instead of his becoming the slave of money, as he is now.
Money is social power. Man's acquiring the power to create infinite quantities of money incidentally will release him from his social conformity which is submission to the collective. Money is not a refined force as knowledge or language is. It is crude, as it is a social vital force. Even courage is more refined than money perhaps because courage is mainly a quality of the Individual. Man's capacity to produce money like this will pave the way for everyone becoming a leader of extraordinary courage, everyone becoming a genius or a poet. What the society achieved in the individual so far, the society can accomplish in every one of its individuals in future. Power is the basis. Power emanates from organisation. That Individual in whom the consciousness is organised enough for this purpose of creating wealth will be the pioneer of social evolution. Other pioneers - genius, leader, poet, etc.-- are to follow later. In will be the Millennium at the level of social existence, if not spiritual living.
Money has begun as a material thing and now is an expression of individual trust in the collective economic stability that is security. Now it is a social force. It can outlive its dependence on society and become a pure force. Thus it is well on its way to becoming a divine Force to be won from the Asura and put at the Feet of the divine Mother. Its growth has been through several stages. A material thing, a thing in itself - transaction - relationship in trade - personal relationship - organisation - a power of organisation - a symbol - a force - a social force - monetary force - a social monetary power, are the stages through which it has passed. The Theory of Development will reveal itself to one who studies the other forces in the society (education, organisation, production, creation, etc) through the several stages of their growth. During each stage one can see that each force forges a relationship with all other forces and becomes effective in the measure of its relationship. Such relationships mature towards social integration. Social integration is a part of integration of Existence. The process of integration has an insistent tendency to extend its domain towards the negative forces of the society. As there are positive social organisations, there are an equal number of negative social organisations. Each positive organisation has its counterpart in the negative. As the positive organisations grow in size and intensity, they grow in efficiency. Efficiency is of the part. Existence is of the whole. That comes to the surface when the positive organisations become consciously aware of their necessity to integrate with their negative counterparts. I shall not digress into that wider field of social integration in this book, as it is severely limited to the role of Money. Money is a quantifiable, transferable, storable preservative of social force. In the smugglers one can see invisible money being used as effectively as money in our society. Almost all its aspects are subtle to be kept in memory made possible by the honesty of the other pirates. The material thing Money is matures only when the subtle aspects - apparently negative -- are fused into its existence, evolution and function. To trace that growth stage by stage will be not only fascinating but will make this study evolutionarily meaningful. It is worth undertaking. In view of the very limited purpose adumbrated here, I propose to restrict my scope to what I have already laid down - the individual's social capacity to create an endless amount of money.
When money was a shell, tobacco or even precious metal, it performed one thing, to relate one man to another man. The lone self-centred man was introduced to the social value of relating effectively with another man thus becoming selfless to some extent. This is the process of the birth of social organisation which is invariably done by speech, family, teamwork, transport, education and every other social function that brings one man into meaningful contact with another man. Education is mental and therefore it carries less power than the vital force of money. Speech is vital but it represents thought and therefore carries less power than money that represents work as well as property. A transaction is not merely an exchange. It implies a more understanding relationship, an understanding of the person, an appreciation of the product that comes from him. It forges a little of the psychological power which is not absolutely demanded by a mere transaction that is mainly determined by the genuine value of money. Beyond transaction money is an organisation. That organisation rises from its primary value to its ultimate value through a long list of gradation. Money as a thing represented by a shell or leather acquires its value by the scarcity of the symbol. Its value was symbolic, not intrinsic. Money as precious metal has an intrinsic value, not a mere symbol. It means money as a symbol has integrated with the real value of precious metal. This integration is more powerful than the earlier symbolism. It means the ORGANISATION that money is brings under its fold the organisation of value of the precious metals. Initially the precious metals too might have had only an intrinsic value, not a value of their organisation. The organisation of money lies in the fact that a function has been converted into symbolic money. Here that function is transaction. Organisation is born in more than one way. By virtue of money becoming an organisation, the transaction, the materials that are exchanged, the person who exchanges them all are TOUCHED by the fact of organisation. This initial change is an evolutionary change. It permits in future the effective coming together in transactions persons and materials. Such a transaction gets upgraded into what can be called an event. It is a financial event as well as social event. Money thus gets one more dimension of its being finance. The unit of social complexity which is a unit of social power is generated by money during a transaction.
As the level of money rises from being a thing to an organisation, it can relate to other activities from this higher level thus making itself a higher instrument. A spiritual truth of society is each in all and all in each. There is another side to this Truth which says God is in all and all is in God. The objects in a room are obviously unrelated and their use is limited while people at home can interpenetrate each other's personality and play a role in another's life. In the subtle plane this is true even of inanimate objects. An evolutionary truth about the spiritual plane of transformation is the more inert an object is, the more powerful it is after transformation.
Creation is upheld in Time and Space. Grain and eggs are farm produce while a hammer or stool is a product from a workshop. The former are perishable while the latter are not, but a hammer is a hammer and it can be used only as such. It cannot do the work of a towel. When converted into money, grain and eggs acquire the quality of imperishable money and can be preserved endlessly. A hammer can do the work of a towel if it passes through the medium of money. Thus money,
- conquers Time.
- So, it can also conquer space as it admits of being carried to another place far more easily than the product it represents.
- Its capacity for convertibility gives it a great power of social manoeuvrability in Space, Time as well as in phases of society.
It is needless to repeat every time all these capacities of money are no close preserves of it. Every social institution is vested with a similar power of varying expressions. The idea of organisation is not material but subtle. An organisation is, of course, a material thing. It is equally true that it is subtle too. Being a subtle organisation, money is capable of giving gross material objects the power of subtlety because the society has a subtle existence too. A subtle organisation enables us to bring out the subtle powers of the society thus enabling the spiritual man to rise to subtle heights of functioning. These are original ideas that require original elaboration through explanations and examples.
It is a self-evident truth that an educated man is a far more efficient individual than an uneducated one. An endowment acquired helps to bring out that endowment in a man if it is there in potential. By the same logic a spiritual man can be far more efficacious in the society as it brings out the spirit in him. Life belonged to the elite till the 18th or even the 19th centuries. A man's effectivity was determined by his birth, not his capacities. One who is not high born endowed with higher capacities is not lauded but is suspect. It brings on his head a punishment for having usurped the higher echelons of society from which he is barred. Sastras in India prescribe that molten lead be poured into the ear of one whose ear is struck by the tone of the Vedas, if he was not born a Brahmin. Class in the West is more tyrannical than caste in India. One of the words that migrated into English and through that to other European languages very early was caste, as it struck them as a forceful idiom. The 20th Century had the distinction of having been the century of the common man. Towards its end being a common man became a virtue all over the world.
The Report of ICPF speaks of this century as that of an Individual. I present here the idea that that individual will be a spiritual individual. As currency abridges products, we see a credit card abridges the bulk of the currency. In a similar manner Spirit in Man has the unique power of abridging as well as condensing all that MEN in the collective are capable of. Property is an endowment but it can become an encumbrance for certain higher purposes. Endowments are powerful but they have a way of keeping us to their vital, mental planes. Becoming a spiritual Individual, one carries the powers of the lower planes without being encumbered by their gross expressions. To study the fashion in which money discharges these functions and further enhances the ability of man, is to advance on the journey of becoming a Spiritual Individual. It is a Supramental truth that the instrument is enriched. The pen of a genius or a blackboard in the class is not enriched by the functions they perform. It is true that they have the subtle atmosphere of the genius or the thousands of ideas written on it. In practice we do not see it or we cannot use it. Money enriches the Man who uses it and enriches itself in the process.
One major theme of this book is in future Money can be created in endless quantities as we now can produce electricity and it will happen by a process known as a self multiplication. My endeavour is to explain this theme in its totality from every possible aspect as and when the context permits. One of its bases is as civilisation proceeds man shifts his centre from the body's physicality to the mind's subtlety which is infinite. If it is not exactly infinite as in the spiritual plane, it tends to infinity. In the physical plane, money represents property whose expansion can be tardy and cumbersome and admits of inherent limitations. This limitation is less at the vital stage as that stage is represented by human relationships as well as one's capacity to produce. Whereas in the mind, money represents trust. Trust can increase in itself without limit. It can also extend by the widening population in which it acts. The Euro, whose rupee value was close to 40 while there were twelve countries in the European Union, has risen to 58 now when the twelve became 25. One important reason is the increasing population that uses the euro. The increasing speed of currency circulation raises its value and generates more money as it abridges Time. As each transaction acts like the function of a bank, the greater transactions can lead to generation of higher amount of money as well as raise the currency value. The proposed Asian currency will shoot up in value if India and China are members by virtue of their population. If the theme is of value, it is an argument for world currency. That move alone is enough to abolish the poverty of the world at one stroke. As electricity made the world bright by its illumination, a world currency will make it prosperous by its inherent capacity for multiplication. Time, Space, speed, population, productivity, trust will increase the value of the currency and have the power to multiply its quantity. Such a process reaches the point of maturity where self-multiplication starts. Fire itself was a kind of invention by man though he had witnessed it for long. His production of heat and fire moved from wood to coal to oil and now electricity raises the quantity and quality available. Now Solar Energy has been organised or harnessed on a modest scale. It may take over from oil and electricity in future. Spiritually, the theory says, any energy can be produced from any source if only the appropriate method is devised. Abundant money can wipe out universal poverty. Increasing levels of education can wipe out universal ignorance.
Black Money
Money that evaded tax, bribes, money earned by anti-social activities are under this classification. Money is an instrument, a tool and a symbol. It is neither black nor white. Man can be white or black, not the money. It is he who lends his character to money, his tool. Man is conscient. He can acquire any consciousness he chooses. Anyone who earns black money will find his money carrying his character even after it passes through hundreds of hands. That is the force of the original act that is black. There is another side. One who has earned it wrongly has the choice of changing in his consciousness to the other side. In the measure the man changes, the character of money too changes. It is possible for him to change, but often he is not willing. Man's demand is the world should treat his black money as white. That will not happen. Man submitting himself to an organisation that is entirely right, can change the character of his money to a great extent, not fully. Man's inner change can be complete, but it has a tendency not to be permanent. Should he choose to change inwardly and submit himself outwardly the change will last permanently. Most men will consent to THINK that they should change inwardly. That will generate no results outside. On the surface there are ego, Time, mind, finite. In each of these domains Man has to take sustained conscious effort to change, not generally that has a value in thought, but with respect to each detail of the original act. In the ego it becomes selflessness; in the mind it changes one's opinions; in the vital it changes the attitude; in Time one goes back as far as his memory can take - his memory can go very far even to a past birth - and THERE bring out a genuine change of consciousness. All smallness of being fosters finiteness while all outgoing movement of generous expansiveness will release him from being finite and therefore DARK. It should be effected in mind as well as in memory. These movements can oscillate as mind does so. Effected in consecration, the change of consciousness comes to stay. What changes here is the value system by which one lives. The extent and character of change will reveal in our sensitivities. Outside life will confirm it. Physical sensitivities are more comprehensive. After the change, a bundle of currency received will by its physical sensation reveal its character. On enquiry, one's sensitivity will receive an incontrovertible confirmation. For a wider deeper effort, changes in the law of the land and attitudes in the society are symbolic endorsements. Money is always earned by hard labour. It is never black. Man can fully change its character by his own change.
Social character of Money
Money was born in a society rigidly fixed by caste here and class in Europe. Men were evaluated by birth in both cases. Their rewards and punishments in the society were determined not by their talents but by their birth, a thing entirely extraneous to the conditions obtaining at a given time. Caste or class had its partial truth in earlier generations for the men who acquired them by their talents. It is true one's own talent alone matters. It is also true that a son born to a talented man has a greater chance of acquiring the father's talents. These are partial truths. Society is a whole. Society that is a whole coming to espouse partial truths develops imbalances as well as rigidities. Monarchy, aristocracy, high castes were the result. Society permits these irregularities to come to stay. At the same time there is another phenomenon. Growth of knowledge, skill and talents is open to all. This opening corrects the imbalance created by the rigidities of caste, class barriers. But vested interests develop. Those of the high caste using their social status take an unusual step to prevent other castes from acquiring knowledge. This is an organised negative method which is the tool of organising falsehood in the society. Nature, He says, consciously delays quick development and this is one of her ways. Higher castes, of course, can impose denials of education, but they cannot prevent knowledge being acquired and thereby talents building up by themselves. This much is open in the society. With Money, it is different. Even in its earliest stages when money was a thing, a transaction took place between two individuals on a footing of equality of transaction, if not social equality. The equal status in any transaction cannot cancel or reverse social inequality, but is an antidote to social inequality. No one can buy a cow or pig from a poor man or low caste man for a lower price because of his social position. The elements of democracy enter into social life through the instrumentation of Money and help restore Man's lost dignity a little. Thus Money is a democratising force, however feeble its contribution. It is a social leveller. This character of money is shared by every other social organisation -- education, transport, communication, sport, military service, etc. - but in Money this character is felt more as it integrates with other social functions more readily than other organisations. Its readiness to integrate translates into social force inherent in money. That aspect of Money more fully belongs to the domain of the Theory of Development.
Mental Character of Money
Man ate the food which the land possessed and produced. So, he endeavoured to possess the land that was the source of his food. It was a time he was severely physical and hence totally possessive. In the language of the theory, we say Man was centred in the physical consciousness. We call him a physical man. To a physical man, knowledge is physical, existence is physical, experience is physical. When such a man develops Money, money will be physical, a material thing, a shell, a coin. The physical is severely limited. It has no inherent or latent capacity to extend itself. It cannot expand, much less multiply. Since then Man has grown. He had a stint as a vital man. Now he claims to be a mental Man. The term Man itself has its indirect roots in the word ‘mind'. Mind gets knowledge through the senses. It can know without the aid of the senses too. Now mental Man is centred in his mind. Mind is a knower, not a possessor like the body. What mind knows can be given away without its losing itself, i.e. Mind has the capacity to extend which is expansion. It is obvious mind has the power to multiply the things it creates. Mind is an organiser. Whatever it produces or creates will bear the stamp of organisation. We can even say mind cannot produce or create without an essential element of organisation. Money is essentially the creation of mind, i.e. it is a product of organisation. What does it organise? It organises the better utilisation of what Man produces and the human energy which produces it. Organise means to relate with other aspects functionally for greater efficiency and effectivity. So we see Money is created by the mind which
- abridges Time,
- enables energy to be stored and transferred easily,
- converts one product into any other product
(We have mentioned all these aspects earlier; Now we look at them as parts of organisation that Money is)
If the physical produces food, Mind produces knowledge as well as Money. And that Money carries its stamp of organisation and a potential to multiply itself. Mind has given Money its capacity of subtlety too. To know that Money is not a mere thing, but a symbol of organisation that is capable of expansion, multiplication and at a stage even self-multiplication is to know Money better and fully.
What has Money represented over the centuries?
Society was simple in its early stages. It began to grow not only in size or knowledge, but society has been growing into an ever-increasing complex whole of an organism. Periodically society creates fresh capacities. These capacities grow into organisations and institutions. Slowly they begin to interact and merge. It tends towards integration. In this process several powers emerge. Money represents economic power, i.e. productive power. Education is the power of knowledge. Transport generates the vitality of the society by bringing to one place what it needs from another place. We can say it is the vital power of its productive capacity which ultimately rolls into economic might. Communication is a reinforcement of transport. Also it links the minds of the members of the society thus helping to organise the mental powers of the society. The army is an exclusive category powerful in itself needing all the services of production, transport, communication, education and money. Not only powers emerge, but they merge to create a more forceful power. We see how more production becomes economic power and at later stages solidly as wealth. The growth of a society generates fresh and more powerful powers that are all-inclusive and comprehensive. We are only looking at the society. Government is there. With its army and administration it becomes formidable and overshadows the society itself. At each stage Money represents the highest formulated power. Ä
As a mere thing Money represented products. Becoming transaction, Money represents the vital capacity of the society to relate with each other and enhance their effective functions. It is a primary social power of communal existence. When it becomes an organisation, Money represents fully the organised power of the society at that period. It goes on to represent the wealth of the society and its power to create Social Power. We see each time society acquires something new, be it a knowledge, technology, power, or organisation Money readily integrates itself with that thereby raising its own value as power and the power of the society. Now Internet has raised Money sky high. Money, further, can penetrate into the potential powers of the society and then represent them too. Above all Money has the power to develop new powers in the society by virtue of its being Money, an organised entity. Money is productive as well as creative. The many facets of Money are the many facets of the society. Also each enriches the other. Beyond all this, Money is a Force. It can be a social force, a pure force as well as Divine Force.
Money is an institution
Money is as much an Institution as language, family, Internet, education, etc. Language was born when there was a necessity to call in another to share what one felt. Maybe it was to seek help. Perhaps it was a shout. The instinct that relates one with another brings another to you when you shout for help. What is shouted is an emotion. It is communication. A sound let out of the mouth is heard by the ear of another, communicates distress of one to another and brings that body to the first body. It could be a shout of joy which is similarly communicated and a response evoked. The first articulate conscious SOUND could have been a call from one to another. It was an emotional communication. From emotion to thought it would have been several millennia as so much of time is needed to rise from emotion to thought. We can only guess the first words born were simple ones such as the names of objects. In such a formulation of a name in the mouth and recognition by the ear we see the coordination of a sensation of sound with a vibration of listening. Speech is of the mouth, sound is of the ear; both meet at the vital in the stomach centre. From the names of material objects to simple concepts such as 'help', 'yes', 'no' the distance mind travelled is great. It is concept-formation, a faculty mind was not born with. The felt emotion forming as a word in the mind is a process of mentalisation at a primary level. Obviously such words are nouns. To predicate an action to a noun is a stage of mental growth. It is a process more complex than the first process of observation. If observation and utterance is the process by which the first sound issued, to mentally give that observation an action and formulate a word for it is to think in more than one word. A sentence is thus formed in mind and uttered. It is received by another mind and understood. Communication that is of words is essentially a mental sensation given and received made possible by a unity in emotion in two individuals. It is a collective sensation shared by two or more individuals. Sri Aurobindo says thoughts originate in the body, i.e. the sensation is not so much of the vital but of the body. The thoughts are not created by individuals. They are collectively created by the community. They are floating in the atmosphere ready to enter any person whose mind is in tune, very much as radio waves in the atmosphere enter a receiving set. From there, the first articulate sentence, toward the exchange of complex formation of ideas is a scholarly study obviously out of place here. That will be a helpful analogy if not an instructive parallel. To study money and education or any two institutions is a valuable study in social psychology.
Money multiplies
Nothing in the physical plane multiplies. But we know a message moving from mouth to mouth multiplies. Sages of information are not tired of saying that information is not lost when it is given. As it is a mental plane, the plane has the power of multiplication. About three or four hundred years ago, banks came into existence. One who had money lent it. Obviously he could lend only the money he had. He could not lend the money he did not have. As information is not lost by giving it away, money has a little of that capacity. To a certain extent the bank can lend the money it does not have. When money is a thing, a coin or represents a product, one can lend only the money he has, not more. From being a thing, Money becomes a transaction. Such a transaction generates SOME trust in both the persons who transact, also in the money that is the medium. It is not the characteristic of Money. It is the characteristic of transaction. A transaction implies that both are capable of producing the product they transact. Banks unconsciously are aware of this aspect of society which money brings out. Activities make man powerful. Activities arranged in a system make men more powerful. Power issues out of action. Coordinated, systematic action generates greater power. A transaction is an act. A bank situated centrally in a community is at the centre of all the coordinated acts of that community. Transactions have behind them the productive power of those who transact. A bank ready to lend money to a community is a centre of transactions; hence it is in touch with the entire productive capacity of that community. Presently any community is using only a part of its productive capacity and the rest are unused. It remains in potential. There are various reasons for limited production one of which is the paucity of money. An instrument of transaction is partially a power of production. Money represents that and has the capacity to become that instrument in a greater than actual capacity. Bankers as well as governments saw this fact which is a social phenomenon and lent three times the deposits that were really with the banks. In their experience expanding money supply three times its availability retains its real value and does not lead to inflation as long as that money goes to tap the potential productive power of the society. Expert bankers now say that it is nine times. The productive capacity of the society has now increased a hundred-fold or even 1000-fold. Money extended up to that limit will retain its monetary reality. It is totally lost sight of that money creates fresh productive power in the society.
At this point money is no more a transaction. Money, then is the productive power of society. And it has the capacity to energise every other productive power in the society. Its productive power enables it to expand. Its capacity to create that power of production allows it to self-multiply.
As far as the rule of multiplication, it is a power of multiplication. It applies to all social powers. A plant grows by virtue of the food and water given to it by man in the beginning, but as soon as it can strike roots and reach food and water in the soil, it becomes independent of the farmer. At this stage it grows on its own. In any system of power, there is a point at which it begins to self-multiply. Money, in my view, has reached that point in the 80s. We said the capacity of money to expand is limited by the productive power of the society. Its capacity to self-multiplication is limited ONLY by the self, here the self of the individual or the self of the society. At further stages, it becomes the self of Money which has the ability to raise itself to the Self, which is the Self of all. This aspect of Money is its most valuable aspect, especially because every item in the society or in creation has this aspect. Considering those aspects one shades off into philosophy of creation. We are taking up here the aspect of social power of money and we can extend it to be a social force. Our domain of inquiry can safely go up to that.
One aspect of Money least explored theoretically is its power of organisation, is the organisation money is. It is not done, as the theme of organisation itself is unexplored. Organisation is a systematic arrangement. The power of any organisation is primarily determined by the way the system is arranged. Secondarily it depends upon the other aspects on which it impacts. Those aspects can be organisations too. Railway is an organisation. It serves the postal system. Part of its functioning is done by telegraph. Telegraph itself is a sophisticated organisation. Post is another. The railways touch upon several such organisations. Its power is secondarily determined by all the other organisations it serves. Here we see a complexity coming into existence and organising itself not merely as a force but a real Social Power. Money is a greater complexity that looks like a veritable complication. Every aspect of the society that touches money in one way or another energises money further and they all get energised by the power money is. Thus money is a growing social power which grows with each new invention of the society, be it a technology or knowledge or right or anything else.
Money and Human Nature
My theme is Money is a marvellous power which Man longs for over the ages. What he yearns for is really the Divine Money. In his low consciousness he thinks he is asking for plenty of money in his greed. Even here, it is indispensable that there is a human choice. It is up to us. In either case, what we seek is ultimately the Divine. My aim is to show man what he really aspires for through his unconscious, low attitudes. He seeks Money, the currency bills with which he can shop. I want to show him the Money that represents the Divine. That Divinity is seen in the capacity of Money for self-multiplication which man understands as his own increasing power of ego. Whatever he may construe it is, it is the divine power of money. To acquire the divine power is to reach the Divine in some measure. Let man see that Money self-multiplies. Let him see that he can create endless quantities of money. That power is there in money. It has started surfacing since 1980 because of the Internet. He can SEE it now, if he chooses. He can get it if he makes a mental effort. This power being so real, so great, even a mental comprehension can become the power in some measure. Every man will be eager to reach it as children take to Harry Potter. No man will refuse or hesitate. It is in our power of SINCERITY to present it to him. Compare it with a physical person or a vital person, ignorantly aspiring for the Supreme Supramental Consciousness. If his Sincerity is granted, it means he seeks self-awareness in his mind. It also implies a sincerity in his emotional will to accept readily what his highest enlightenment reveals. A man is what he does, what he feels, more than what he thinks of himself and speaks out. Look at all the acts he does. He seeks to possess. It is the trait of the physical. He seeks to dominate. It is vitality. Let him see it in a hundred acts of his. Now his mental sincerity shows in his unreserved acceptance of it as an idea. His vital sincerity is revealed in his full acceptance of that emotional reality. Should he do it, the first step is taken. He must constantly endeavour to maintain it. Hereafter his trying to be a mental man and a mental man aspiring for the Supramental has the same procedure which sums up as,
-- Try exhaustively NOT to be what you are;
-- Recast all your activities around the spiritual centre
It is given by The Mother as the ten rules of Psychic Education. She starts with the top level.
1. Do not rely on mind; have faith in the Spirit.
Do not try to possess or dominate, rely on rational thought.
2. Do not seek comfort. Do not seek psychological comfort.
3. Don't do what you like, like what comes to you as work.
Spread yourself, expand yourself in the aspirations of people around you.
4. Don't complain of others; if you can, you can change them.
Complain against yourself, change inwardly, if you can.
5. See the world as your reflection.
See the family and company as your reflection.
It is the real inside.
6. Move towards the Divine every second.
Remind yourself of your rational decision all the time.
7, 8, 9, 10. Consecrate eating, sleeping, talking and acting.
Any man will be serious and sincere if he understands he can make tons of money in doing the above. The American settler SAW it in real terms and flew towards that. He made that money and rules over the world. He did it physically. Here, it can be done vitally. The American made all the money he needed to dominate the world. Here, Man can make all the Money the world is capable of possessing. It is the infinity in the infinitesimal. This book tries to convince his mind. It is the most we can do in a book. It is up to him to comprehend the argument, explain to himself in emotional terms, examine his money value in its various expressions and SEE his mental values of Money undergo in his mental comprehension the changes Mother wants Man to undergo in the Psychic Education, a version of which is given above. The thing needed is SINCERITY. It is a sincerity of mental values, sincerity of emotions towards others, sincerity of physical sensation to all (universal). In his own mind personally, in his emotions socially, universally in his sensation, MAN needs to change or reverse his MONEY values in real terms. Doing that much, all the money due to his consciousness will move towards him. All the money needed for the nuclear disarmament and the projects in the Academy will sail towards him. His inner sincerity will be fully reflected in the outer sincerity of Life Response. Will he come to grant
-- what he is really inside;
-- that he should move towards his ideal.
Will he examine every minute detail of his life in the last thirty days or hundred days or one year in the light of the searchlight? Does he aspire for everyone's luck? everyone around him? Will he refuse to stand in the way of anyone getting his Mother's DUE? That ideal above translates into this practice in the field.
Crossing the Border
Is there a border, a term, a boundary? If so, what is it? How to cross it? It is the point at which the limited turns into the unlimited. The Indian world believes in karma and fate. For them, the boundary lies between the Force and consciousness. We can say Being instead of consciousness. In our prayers, we see that the law itself changes to confer a single, little benefit on it. It is not the finite becoming the infinite; it is the personal changing into the impersonal. When discussions of an idea sap our energy, the talk moving to trivial facts restores our energy. It is the energy being free from the all-absorbing idea and turning to the small details that need a little energy. At night, when sleep overcomes an information we await restores our energy at a higher level. It is interest, not infinity. Even when the ego and evil rise out of all proportions, HE says it is immensity they reach, not infinity. With respect to money, billions are immensity. For many of us, millions are immensity. Man would be more than satisfied with that. What I outline is not that. I have in mind crossing the border in essential terms into the infinity of Being and consciousness. And from there confer on humanity infinity or immensity. The Spiritual Individual cannot rest satisfied with anything less than the true infinity. It matters not what the world is willing to receive from him. It may be immensity or even mere abundance or just plenty of prosperity. Leslie's father sent her an article "India-Boom" from the New York Times Business report. The writer of the article, some tourist, clearly has sensed the Infinite Presence in the Indian economy. The vital man or the physical person desiring to raise himself to the plane of mind should really follow the Psychic Rules to reach the Supramental consciousness. Below each such rule I have written in red ink the vital man's version. He should aim at the very highest. He said that He had prayed to the very highest for the greatest of boons and it was granted. That being the spiritual context, our aiming at the next best will be self-defeating. One index that we are on the right track is at times when our energies are sagging below a low point, ONE of these ideas set out above must be able to restore our energies. At least sleep must revive those energies. It is a symptom of our sincerity in the physical, if not in the physical consciousness. Anything may fail, not Sincerity. I demand sincerity of emotional understanding with respect to money values in the mind.
Money is Social Aspiration
Human existence was conditioned by external circumstances. Initially Man was not a producer in the sense he exercised his productive capacities with a view to producing. His life was one of subsistence. He collected as much fruits or game as he could consume. The excess, if any, he had no use for. It could only go to waste. This external circumstance determined his inner urge to collect food. Even when he took to agriculture, he could not find any use for himself in any surplus. Surplus or excess had no personal use, meaning or significance for him. That condition led him to produce only for consumption. From there, till the advent of Money, society passed through several stages each of which was a step in evolution. We cannot give a detailed consideration here of these developments beyond indicating their existence. Family is one of them. The various skills man acquired were another major step in his individual evolution. Emergence of family makes the man that is physical vital. Accumulation of skill has a compelling tendency to urge them to act which naturally will produce a surplus. The collective group or tribe that took shape had a bearing on his productive capacities. In short, every aspect of social organisation of a later day maybe up to now, has had its origin in the early formative days. We shall leave them aside for the present. The advent of Money has generated a new possibility. While produce will perish in time, Money in any form is not a perishable thing. Man had more energies for production than he was using. After the advent of money, man had a reason to produce more than he could consume. He became productive. His past energies could be used for his future preservation. As his productivity rose, his own human self-satisfaction rose. As a distant echo, this new occasion of Money opened up in Man the idea that his productivity could be raised by means other than his own exertion. That was the origin of his fashioning tools, the very distant origins of thinking, even scientific thinking. Money which at those times was only a material thing had the subtle aura of organisation in the sense it could link the past to the future, it could tap the potential energies, it could activate his mind to discover better ways of producing more. As elsewhere this characteristic was not confined to Money. It was a universal trait of every social aspect which almost threw themselves up as if from nowhere. It shows us we are in the presence of a creative social atmosphere of evolution.
Parallel between Money and City
Our aim is to understand Money in all its aspects, especially in its evolutionary role and its relation to the emerging Spiritual Individual. Our theoretical position is when we do so, Money will proliferate, as urbanisation is expanding now. A time will come when man will be able to create Money as he is now able to create ideas. In truth, he will then be able to create ideas as a genius creates new ideas. For this purpose, a closer, fuller understanding of urbanisation, what a city really is will be of help. Understanding a city is less subtle and more concrete than understanding currency that is Money. Let us start from the beginning and trace all the steps of urbanisation as far as our comprehension and common sense permit.
A City is a University
Civilisation began with agriculture. Before that man was uncivilised as he was not settled. He was a nomad. The discovery that he could grow food that was then grown by Nature made him settle down in one place, reclaim land, grow food, stay there, work as a community, develop a family, grow attached to the land that fed him and then over time develop the concept of property. Land was that property. That is the beginning of our enquiry. Money was created long after but it was an extension of that property and the produce from that property. Extensive research has been done in the period I refer to but it is research to get at facts. It can be a broad guidance to us but will not help us to precisely pinpoint us to a period or a process. Our theory starts from above where knowledge dwells and is extended by way of application. We shall seek confirmation from the historical data, not bind ourselves by what it appears to be to the scholars now.
All men without exception lived on the land in villages. Agriculture was the work. Anyone doing any other work was for agriculture and was directly dependent on it. Food was produced only for consumption. Cities or towns were a later creation. What was the origin of their creation? Let us start where Money came into existence. Money came into existence when man had learnt to buy and sell. It was a time when, according to our definition, Money was a thing. It was only a symbol, until the precious metal replaced the shell, tobacco, etc. often an insubstantial symbol like the tally. What was the measure of Man's civilised state at that sacred historic moment is only an intelligent guess. But, we start from here. Any act exists in the subtle plane prior to its emerging into the gross plane. The best part of it is invisible and therefore not seen. If seen it is not seen by the naked eye. It is sensed by the other senses like nose. Only the subtle senses man has lost now he was fully aware of then. For the perceptive it always reveals itself in one way or another. The buying and selling in villages was the early symptom of trade. Trade collects in its intensity not in the village but away from the village. Trade has its secrets too which are best kept away from the seller of the produce. As trade is an offshoot of agricultural surplus or the need to exchange the agricultural produce with other newer services, every other aspect of civilisation such as transport, communication, education, astrology, festivals, entertainment, art, music develop out of man's settled life. They do not tend to centre themselves in the villages. Their tendency is to move away from the village life. They all cluster around one point. That point was the city. The exhaustive list of the aspects of city life is an interesting exercise by itself. But one major thing stands out.
Each positive act has the capacity to generate its exact opposite at once. To us it is negative. Completion of harvest is the culmination of the season's work by the entire community. It at once creates the negative possibility of theft of produce. For a fuller yogic understanding of Social Evolution, it is necessary to draw up that list in the mind so that Evil can come into its proper place in the study. We do not have that necessity. Our inquiry is narrow and limited. The life of the villages extends to cities. It is not a mere extension; it is an evolution to the next stage of progress. It contains all the aspects of village life at the next higher evolved stages, subtle as well as gross. In those aspects coming together as urban life, there enters a refinement unknown to the village existence of hard labour. That refinement is the first foundation of the future culture of the society that was to emerge. That refinement is seen as a pleasant, expansive, inclusive, emotional sensation, a dexterous handling of men and matters, a more precise accounting of what happens in terms of quantity that gives birth to quantitative appreciation of unformed events of unshaped mass. This outer delicacy directly penetrates the inner life unleashing a line of music or poetry in these receptive individuals. The inner rhythm of excessive, ecstatic well-being flows out as a physical movement that is pleasing to the observing souls. Thus was born dance and its accompaniment music. Music and dance are the munificence of the ripe soul seeking expression in sound and movement. That which takes note of those developments and records them for cultivation are centres of consciousness in us that flower into individual and social culture later. Dress, speech, food, festivities, relations, organisation for living, etc. are the outer expressions of what is thus collected inside. A town comes into existence as the outer expression of this inner centre. Thus a town is in the next stage of social evolution of the life in the village. Every aspect of life here is more evolved, more organised, more refined, more powerful, fuller, and subtler. Money too is so. Money that was a thing in the village becomes a transaction between two individuals more cultured than the rustic in the village. It is no longer a mere medium of exchange of goods produced in the soil. It is also a coming together of two or more evolved men experienced in the art of living, having experienced its inherent intensity.as well as a social power. Money has the aura of that atmosphere. If man works during the agricultural season, the rest of the year is there for him to collect his experience for present enjoyment as well as future use. In the towns there are not only agricultural seasons. In many ways the town witnesses trade seasons, temple seasons of festivities, cultural seasons of intense interactions and deeply felt communal enjoyment. Life's intensities move inward into the recesses of family life as well as outward into the organised outbursts of outer activities. Mind finds a greater play in the towns. It gets a widening field, widening into the newer possibilities of evolving social life. This is no occasion for the individual. He does not exist. All life is communal.
Money that travels from person to person, from a phase of old life to a phase of new life collects all these influences to constantly mature into a well-ripened social product that is essentially in touch with every aspect of life that gave birth to it. When such a power saturates Money, at once it moves to the next higher level only to begin the same old round of the known process in an unknown level of life. Money that was a medium of exchange becomes productive of social power, as at this stage it represents the productive capacity of individuals. The productive capacity of Money we see here is the new productive capacity of the society in the towns, productive of social powers other than foodstuff. As the society grows, Money too grows in its complex content as every other aspect too does. At this primary stage Money is productive. Later when the society becomes creative, Money too becomes creative. Society that was conditioned till then from the outer environment shifts its essential existence inside and becomes creative by its own Self-conception. Money as a parallel acquires this facet too. Just now Money is yet in the quantitative phase of self-multiplication, and has not entered into the other higher spiritual phase where it can draw upon the Self.
Man witnessed the miracle of Money expanding apparently with no basis when credit and mortgage came. He was able to use money he did not have. Hire purchase made his future income available to him. Insurance brought him the social average for his token participation. In the guise of Money, through insurance society rose to the benevolent attitude of saving one individual from his personal catastrophe. Life became social from its narrow confines of being personal. Society thus practised self-giving, an instinct it never had. About 200 years ago when insurance began, the dominant impulse of man was to gloat over crushing another who had fallen. In that act society exhibited its meanest motive. Theoretically it was a necessity for the society as it was a very physical period. The physical needed strength. Society was to foster strength and frown on weakness. One who fell was weak. It was the duty of the society to discourage weakness and crush it out of existence. So it not only destroyed the fallen man but ridiculed him. Just at the moment insurance emerged, expressing the very opposite of the social ideal, to collectively support the unfortunate individual. Here we see how the society creates the outer organisation to enshrine its inner needs.
Then we are able to conceive what powers, forces, energies, and skills Money has now when the Internet is offering the World Wide Web to every child. One Man was able to place himself at the storm centre of a shaping catastrophe and ward off the ill effects for the whole world. He was an ordinary man in whom we see no trace of anything extraordinary. What we have explained here, he had experienced in his life. Having acquired the knowledge through experience, he used it for the benefit of humanity. That knowledge, exactly one hundred years ago to the year, is now available to every individual who seeks it. It is there to come to him in a higher form in vaster measure. With a view to reaching such aspiring human beings, this attempt is made. The Spiritual Individual is an epitome of the entire society. He is the conscious compression of the unconscious or subconscious maturity of the society. He has in him all the other aspects of the society because he is a full Individual. Here we consider one capacity of the Individual to create Money. That Individual will be able to create knowledge, power, joy -- the components of complete existence. The Money I speak of partly includes some of that knowledge and joy. One method to arrive at this Money is to feel the joy of its creation for the world.
This knowledge of Money can come to us as information from a textbook. It can be given to us by a professor as an intellectual argument. His explanation can make the Money he describes an intellectual reality to our intelligence. The width of the receiving mind or the power of a richer comprehension of the teacher can recreate some insights in our mind here and there. The curiosity of our minds, the energy of its eagerness to grasp and possess that knowledge can awaken in our mental emotions certain sentiments for the incoming knowledge. Should that occur, the understanding will be wider and more comprehensive. There is an inherent will in the incoming knowledge. There is a will in the person who delivers it to you. There is equally another will in the recipient. All these wills can function as wills with effectivity. Or, they can be organised with a form of the mind. It is the personality of that knowledge. That would carry a power of that knowledge to us. It has the capacity to turn itself into power. It is the power of mental consciousness. This is the first stage of effectivity, i.e. for that knowledge to bring in money. It has two versions of the personal and impersonal. One is limited while the other is unlimited. It can be received and perceived as a positive or negative power or as both. To choose to exercise only the positive power when one knows both sides is the human strength. To a person whose personality is negative but mind resourceful, the expanding expressions of the negative power will present themselves with full force so that life itself will come to him with opportunities where he can exercise his newly acquired powers with the joy of experiencing it. Our aim here is a narrow, limited, partial one by which the individual can create endless Money by his newly acquired knowledge that is power. It does not extend beyond Money to other aspects such as knowledge, joy or even power. I have been touching upon an aspect of theory everywhere that goes one step beyond my professed goal. Also, the expanding aspects of a theoretical comprehension, viz. positive, negative; personal, impersonal; consciousness, substance; surface, depth; Time, Timelessness; etc. to draw the attention of the reader to the wideness of the scope, while this book confines itself to one aspect at a time relating to Money. The subject here is Infinity in the infinitesimal and the process by which man can bring it out in one aspect of his own life, Money. Though the writing touches upon Mind often, Mind is not our topic, Money is. Mind is a wider topic that has created life and matter. Money is one symbolic aspect of social life that is a part of life on earth.
Value of Scale and Measurement
Wherever there is measurement, there is Mind. Cleanliness is a value on the plane of material physical. No Supramental force will descend on a spot that is not clean. Physical cleanliness is external, inner cleanliness is purity of consciousness. Each plane has its values. One of them stands out. As cleanliness is for the physical plane, in the mental plane the value of measurement is important. Measurement goes with a scale. Without a scale measurement is useless. One need not argue the enormous value of measurement. Length is measured, weight is measured, national prosperity is measured, and the body temperature is measured. Imagine the world without the measurements we know. In the absence of ‘miles' we can only say Chennai is near while Delhi is far. How absurd it is, is clear when you again say the guesthouse is near and the Ashram is far. In the absence of well-defined measurements, one resorts to impressions where 10,000 miles and 10 miles can be equally far, while 5 feet as well as 500 miles can be near. Impressions are of the vital, measurements are of the mind. It enables us to compare the comprehensions of the vital man and the mental man of the world. Hence the value of the science of statistics. Once you find a man armed with statistics, he passes for a scientist in our eyes, as we do not pause to ask what these statistics and measurements mean originally and how they are useful to us. Money has a capacity to measure quantifiable things as well as those that cannot be directly quantified. Any aspect of work or life when it touches Money, gets measured in terms of money. As money is converted as currency, an inherently quantified aspect, work, performance of music, quality of a play or anything has a capacity to reduce some aspect of it in terms of Money. Educational attainments are evaluated in terms of one's earning capacity. Education is really qualitative. Its being reduced to scores and grades itself is a sacrilege but when the man enters the labour market, he is paid in terms of Money. In social terms, Money measures the value of education, though it does not qualify as a real measurement. Money's measuring the value of a piece of art can be vulgar, but in its absence there is no other measurement available now. Thus as an instrument of measurement, Money excels itself. For the Theory of Development Scales and Measurements are like eyes and ears. Thus Money qualifies itself in many fields where no scales or measurements are existent now.
Money Moves towards Man
This is not a theme exclusive to Money. It is a theme of Life. It is a theme proper to the spiritual domain. The principle here is the same that works in what we know as Silent Will. In Silent Will we see a thought afloat in the atmosphere. (None of us are able to see it). We KNOW it to be our thought. Knowing it to be our own thought, naturally we seek to express it for effectivity. Our understanding is our thought will be heard, its value understood and acted upon only when WE express it. We are completely oblivious of a subtle fact witnessed daily in all our experiences that a thought expressed readily meets with its opposite. A thought expressed by one is an opinion, not a thought. An opinion is part of a thought. One opinion naturally meets with another opinion, usually its opposite. A customer who enters a shop meets a salesman as they are complements or correlatives. Don't we do it all the time? The ego entirely loses sight of this phenomenon. The truth is a thought is afloat in the atmosphere. We are one point of reception. The other is another point of reception. Either of us receives one part of the whole thought while WORK receives the whole thought and completes itself. This needs two things, patience and silence. Both are merged into non-initiative. We call it Silent Will. Silence on our part allows the whole thought to be received by the work or allows our opinion to be received by the other person. Thus work is completed. Here Money comes to a man who does not seek it. It comes to one who seeks only Money. While the former is in infinite quantities of a higher order, the latter comes in a quantity considered to be infinite in his circumstances. What comes is of a lower or negative order. Money is a thing, transaction, organisation, power, Force. With respect to each, the general rule works variously. A thing sought eludes. In a transaction money moves to a stronger person, strength issuing out of an outgoing attitude. Money's organisation submits to a stronger inner human organisation. Human power overpowers material power even when it is subtle. Don't seek THE thing money is. Take the other man's point of view in a transaction that makes you strong. Enjoy an inner organisation of consciousness that can generate Money. Know the corresponding human powers to the social powers Money represents. In short, acquire a strength higher than that of Money. It can be said that Man created Money. He should be its master. Let him not become a slave of it lest it should elude him.
Foundations of Wealth - Ultimate Basis for Money
Countries that resorted to deficit financing used it up to 5 or 6% beyond which it would trigger inflation. The gold bars in the Reserve Bank were translated into currency and maintained the value of money. There was a time when the value of such gold was only 4% of the money in circulation. The idea is the money in circulation represented the productive capacity of the country. The real value of money was thus protected. Of the myriad illusions by which society exists, this is one. The productive capacity of the nation is represented by the value of goods produced. Beyond that lie the services. And such services do not multiply, they proliferate. I wonder how the Reserve Bank can keep track of the bulging services of Man to another Man. Maybe they have their monitor. We believe Money can be endlessly created and its real value kept up for various reasons, all of which sum up as: There are in the society many mines of resources that could be converted into Money.
1. Man's initiative produces Money. He takes initiative when he is sure that he will not be inhibited, i.e. he has the social freedom to act as he chooses. Disturbance in the society is inhibitive to initiative. Ensuring freedom from social disturbance and creating a SENSE of psychological freedom releases his initiative.
2. Freedom in the nation converts itself into liberty in individual life. Absence of social ostracism minor and major releases man's physical energies for action.
3. Social organisations in our country are 5% as efficient as in advanced nations. There can be no great obstacle to raise it to 10% which will double the national efficiency on that score. As a matter of fact, to take all the efforts to raise that level of efficiency to the maximum possible level in the given circumstance is possible. In that case, this 10% may rise to 30 or 35%.
4. Labour productivity is lowest here. No one can argue that a serious mental effort to evolve strategies to improve it at least marginally is not possible. In a country like India with its population, when people move from five cars per 1000 to 12.8, the New York Times writes about the BOOM of India while other nations are at 349, 551, 480, etc.
5. Even the IIM graduates who are welcome to high paid jobs in the USA are known NOT to think, but memorise. They could switch over to thinking, acquiring mental skills.
6. In 1970, NLC had a 48% plant utilisation. A concerted effort took her to 77% in ten year which won her a national award. Obviously this is a poor performance at 77%, whereas similar establishments are known to reach 102% of plant utilisation. In all fields the productive capacity can be raised. The increased capacity is increased wealth. And that much of Money will enter into circulation.
7. There is wealth in various forms which is not presently converted into money value. One who has a house worth one crore free from encumbrance, does not see that there is national wealth lying idle. He may not use it. But it certainly has use for others. This is a huge field that when tapped will triple or quadruple Money in the nation.
8. Future productive potential - material and human. Now that longevity is nearly double what it was at the dawn of freedom and the nation has come to accept hire-purchase as a valid institution, we see how much is in store in this shape.
9. An idea is capable of creating greater wealth than a year of physical labour. We have about a thousand ideas that can be beneficially borrowed. Our ideas as micro-credit can be created in thousands. One lakh of borrowers of micro-credit were prompt in repayment.
Unsecured loans to salaried people from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 15 lakhs is the order of the day. Rs. 1/- wage in 1970 has now risen to Rs. 130/-. The unconscious process of the above description is putting Money into every pocket. About 18 years ago many state governments were bankrupt. Now all of them are flush with money. Temples that used to receive one lakh a month thirty years ago are now exceeding one crore a day. The nation is moving towards Prosperity and hunger is less and less. Still, this is NOT due to any conscious effort on anyone's part. Social response can have a greater result than government planning. The initiative of the Individual can have the greatest imaginable result. Politicians, economists, etc. must discover what is happening in the country and HOW before any of the above ideas can have a chance of being listened to. Even in advanced countries, there seems to be no conscious thought bestowed on these aspects of monetary life. Everyone gets the benefit. Business readily rises to the occasion to benefit by a new possibility, but not much of thought goes into it. It is our endeavour to draw the attention of those concerned to this and other similar phenomena.
Money is a Social Power
Power is that which accomplishes work. It is energy that so accomplishes. It does so first becoming force by the direction of will. Force is converted into power by the structure of an organisation that lets it pass through. A bullet is powerless. You can hit a man with it. It will hurt, not wound. Put it into the barrel of a pistol and send it to a man. It kills him. The pistol is an organisation. It is a mechanical tool. It is a system of action. Its action is energised by gunpowder. The bullet which is a piece of metal acquires the power to kill a man when it passes through the organisation of a pistol. Offering help to the farmers in the seventies was a prominent idea. A farmer told us that no bank loan would be necessary if jewel loans were released. It was the simplest of ideas, an innocent one. At that time C. Subramaniam was the Central Finance Minister. He was the head of a government organisation of which the banks are a small part. He appreciated the idea and accepted it and passed orders to implement it. The local district cooperative bank on receipt of that order raised its usual three crores of jewel loans to 30 crores. We saw a similar expression of it in the state as well as India. An idea that carries no power becomes a formidable one when it passes through an organisation of power. Give a significant idea to a great man. Even if the idea is small, passing through the personality of a great man, it acquires a great power. Money is a thing. It is a transaction. It is an organisation. It is a power. It is social power. Society is an organisation as Money is an organisation. Society is structured. It is culturally structured, socially structured, organisationally structured. Anything that passes through society and its structures acquires the social power of those structures. Money by itself is an organisation. Anything that passes through Money gets the power of Money. Money passing through society is a partial organisation entering a total organisation. The resulting Social Power is immense.
This has happened over the centuries fully. But it is unorganised and subconscious. It is like the rainfall for agriculture compared with irrigation. Even irrigation can be improved from the surface irrigation to one through plastic tubes. Drip betters that. Money is a divine Force man is handling, as if a child is using a sophisticated tool. The immense power inherent in Money unseen and unutilised is buried in its organisation. Society at present has NO organisation that can handle the power Money can release. Even its own power when released, society cannot manage as it has not yet developed the appropriate organisation. The power the hippies released was immense and spilled over the world. Society was bewildered. No organisation rose to receive it. Just now no one seems to remember what happened through the hippies in the society in the sixties and seventies. It rose like an earthquake and vanished like a bubble. When the Internet came and developed the worldwide web, few people saw what was happening. We now know a few shining results. Its innate power was so great that college graduates have founded the biggest corporation in the world. Amazon.com came into existence and enjoys 25 million customers. It is an organisation selling books. They are issuing credit cards. At the rate of $1000 per customer, their potential is $250 million. Hotmail has become email freely available to all of us. It is the power of organisation the Internet is. All this is coming into existence by itself, i.e. subconsciously. By a conscious process, it is certain that more can be done.
There are primary powers of organisation and secondary powers of organisation. Beyond that there are powers released in the society as Money is present there actively. Also its catalytic action is there. The secondary powers, at least what I call so, are the powers of Money which accomplish by Money not being employed. By virtue of possessing Money, man acquires powers. Its power is seen mostly in real estate transactions. In settling disputes it is very visible. Money power and social power are inter-convertible. Maybe most of the powers are convertible to some extent. It is a rule of social life and life in general that when new powers appear in the society, there will be virulent, organised, bitter opposition often unanimously. It happened to Money when it took the form of paper. Paper currency is to Money what the electronic chip is to computer. To fully appreciate the Theory of Development, one needs to fully examine the stiff opposition to any innovation. Its greatest impact is on us, the individual. Should one see it, he will enter the realm of self-awareness which properly belongs to yoga. Paper currency is what made possible the life we live now. In the USA, the opposition was bitter. Crass superstition was in glaring exhibition with a religious zeal. It was said bankers were robbing the honest workers in the field and factory of their labour, sitting at their counters and practising deceit of a high order. The movement of opposition spread. It infected the highest social quarters touching the Presidency. President Jackson became its spokesman and won an election on that score with a landslide victory. He managed to close a bank that was functioning like a central bank. No successful development can ever complete itself if the negative side is not faced and overcome fully.
The Institutions of Law and Money
Money is a power of exchange. Law is the power that creates order. Law makes living possible. Money enriches that living. Law is the outcome of collective living. Man living all by himself is a law unto himself or the plane of life that generates law does not arise. Living together makes order necessary. That which makes that order possible is law. What each man requires and feels, other men too require. It becomes a public perception. Perception matures into understanding when the mind endorses what it observes. Mind lends its mental force to that concept. An impersonal concept receiving the endorsement of the individual conscience is the birth of a legal necessity. Public conscience too can perceive it, can endorse it and offer its sanction to codify it. It is law. The existence of Man demands peace and order. Existence needs consciousness. Consciousness needs law and order. While law and order are collective, Money is personal but was created collectively. Both are expressions of power codified into organisation. Money is a mental organisation of vital power used to relate with each other facilitating the growth of the collective by the individual movement. Law is the mental enlightenment organised into codified knowledge imposed on the unruly vital for ordered existence. The Institution of Money translates itself into currency. The Institution of law translates into judiciary and police. It has no currency that people can carry with them. What they carry with them is a power of understanding necessary for their living. Law is enforced by the dual institutions of judiciary and police. The codification of law is for the lawyer, not so much for the citizen. The presence of law is invisible. Only at the time of enforcement its power is felt or received by the individual. But Money is something one can carry, use, give, take and enjoy its power all the time. It has a way of occupying human minds. It attracts the ego as sex, while law is invisible, imperceptible, intangible, but when it sails into action, the lathi is felt on the back, the bursting bullets remind us of its existence. There is a law for the collective, another for the individual. Maybe it differs from people to people, as with sex. Its versions vary but Money is uniformly the same acting as an economic leveller of social inequalities. Law does not have that role. It ceases with the collective enforcement. Only at times of disturbance is it in evidence. Behind the police is the army. There are times when the army too fails. Only the public conscience, if it survives till then, can come to one's rescue. One can understand Money better by studying law and vice versa.
The Virtue of Being a Mental Organisation
Work organisation such as serving meals to a hundred people is mainly an organisation at the physical level. Of course, the planning was done by the mind. We may note it is the physical mind. Mainly work organisations are essentially physical organisations. At the other end, there exist organisations guided by values. Here every action is guided by the value of honesty, truth, integrity, etc. One's reputation is such an organisation of values. The good will companies have which is taken into its sale value depends upon the market value of the brand name. Here the market value is a commercial value, but is indirectly built on ethical values. Suppose we set aside physical organisation on the one side and organisations based on values on the other side, we will be in a better position to evaluate the Mental Organisation. A mental organisation primarily demands understanding. An organisation essentially based on mental understanding is a Mental Organisation. When the engineers of Chicago were trying to work out a method to lift the buildings five feet above the ground, they were trying to fashion a purely mental organisation that is a method. In that method - not the act of lifting the building - there is no value. No ethical value enters into it. Nor are there moves that are physical. It is a method devised by the mind. So also when the Navy engineers tried to abridge a repair job of months into hours. Ethics of no description enter there. All movements are mental and no movement is physical or vital. The virtue of a mental organisation is its effectivity rises with the rising effectivity of the understanding. In the context of Money, this turns out to be "with a wider, stronger, richer understanding of this organisation, its capacity to create money rises in proportion." Here we see ORGANISATION is by itself creative of Money. The work done by the lands, factories, services is now done by the very organisation by virtue of its structure of constitution. Its power to create Money can be raised by raising the power of understanding the organisation. Organisation becomes creative and it makes ideas creative of Money. Hire purchase, insurance, credit card, sixty-year house mortgage came into existence this way. One who studies various mental organisations will better appreciate this aspect of Money when he completes those studies. Organisations, we said, make ideas creative. The ideas themselves are mental organisation of thoughts. Therefore, their power to create Money is great. Men living in the plane of mind can rule the world by creating Ideas that are powerful and making those ideas creative. The world is ruled by about a dozen original ideas. Great men created powerful ideas that, in time, came to rule the world. Therefore to make ideas creative so that Money would be created in abundance is not impossible. Opinion, belief, conviction are non-ethical mental organisations. For our purposes, our opinion about Money, our belief in Money, and our conviction about Money matter. Opinions about Money are varied.
If only I can earn money, it does not matter how, is one opinion. Such people are successful. Their success depends upon their capacity. This opinion of theirs will do no good to them. It is not an ethical opinion, but any opinion has its own power. This opinion pins the man to the end, not the means which render the opinion useless. Suppose another has an opinion that:
I should apply myself fully to any work.
Such an opinion, by virtue of the idea it carries in it will make it powerful. Ethics apart, opinions, beliefs, convictions are mental organisations having the power of being organised in the plane of mind. So, our opinions, etc. should be such to create those powers. E.g. one may have a conviction that
Giving myself fully to a work is best.
There is no ethical value here, but the power of conviction is there. To repeat, this is a non-ethical Mental Organisation where the type of one's conviction pours force and energy into his work. A conviction that
Market will respond to a positive approach of ours, will elicit a response from the market. In such a situation, if one tries to create Money, his mental organisation in this conviction will help him release more of it by virtue of the intensity of his conviction. Our endeavour should be to examine ALL the mental organisations that come into contact with Money in our work in terms of our ideas. Such an approach will take the study to greater heights and make it perfect. Our own project is a simple one meant for the common man. He may not travel to these supernal heights.
The Great Depression and World War I
Both are seventy years old. There are tons of exact, precise documents about them. The cause of neither has been discovered by the army of accredited scholars all over the world. HE speaks of conception of the mind, perception of the vital and sensation of the body. The Life Divine can give us the intellectual conception of the Integral Yoga. It has to mature in our vital and physical. The discovery of Copernicus is not for the vital experience of centuries. The fools of Gotham will never find the tenth man who was missing. Turn as much as you can, you are not going to see your back. It needs a mirror. There are eight reversals for us to pass through. Are we going to apprehend them?
Here we can concentrate on Money as organisation, though it has earlier and later roles. For us to study the origin of that organisation from the first ACT, the act of the birth of symbolism, we need another perception. With that perception, we make the first reversal. Then there is a hope for all the other reversals, because with the birth of that ACT is born not only Money and its power, but Man's knowledge, joy, and power too are born. A proper study is not a mental study, it is a vision to be visualised which sees in the birth of the part, the beginning of the whole. Man does not have that vision. It does not mean he must give up. The materialists begin by denying the other facets of Reality. That will lead us nowhere. Let us assume that other phases are there but invisible to our human senses. The animal is given unerring instincts at birth. Man is born having given it up and evolved into mind. Now his mental development when completed must regain those vital instincts as higher spiritual sensations through his higher consciousness. For one who is not anxious to give up his spiritual inheritance, there are multiple gates of entry into that vision. In any event, especially a great event, there are a few dozen small significant events that reveal the horizon of the higher vision. Perceptive people do not miss it. The anachronistic orthodoxy too is negatively aware of these indications. They take special efforts to neutralise them as they did on August 15th, to begin the ceremony a few minutes earlier. Jallianwallah Bagh, the Naval Ratings uprising in 1946, the assassination of the Archduke of Ferdinand, the public's pressure to bring Churchill into the Cabinet in 1939, JP Morgan's 1907 miracle are such events. One has to penetrate the surface and construct a tentative theory and then see all these significant events fit into it. That gives the opening. That alone can give. Let us endeavour here to trace the origins of Money and understand the organisation it is. With that, the essential work is largely over. Let the Individual taste the power of that knowledge.
The Relationship between New and Old Organisations
Creation was due to the energy because of movement. Energy issues when the moveless begins to move. Dormant cultures coming into contact with another culture experience a renaissance. Contact activates. One law of the Theory of Development is when a new organisation is born, it gradually integrates with all the other existing organisations. At each point of such an integration is a burst of energy. Having integrated itself with another organisation, the new raises its own level of existence. It simultaneously raises the level of the other organisation with which it integrates. Each such movement is a step in social evolution. A monograph on Money must begin at the beginning and trace all such movements and record the growth because of that contact that is integration. Their number is legion. To have a firmer grasp of the process, we can see what happens around us. The advent of the credit card for gas, the general credit card by the bank, and the others by other agencies, the services of other institutions they avail of for their effectivity, the advent of the Internet, the infusion of lightning speed in transmission of Money, the volume of movement of Money, the amount of fresh Money created by virtue of the new technology which is itself the most sophisticated organisation born into another space and how it spills over to create fresh economic activities will help us have a glimpse of what is happening. Telegraphy was one such invention. After its advent, it took time to cross the seas. Banks had not availed of its facility to send money till they came by a coded message. It will be interesting to see how long it took for the coded message to be accepted for money transfer. Internet can now give us the varieties of resistances that arose in between. Even on this one topic of one institution integrating with all other existing institutions, about a hundred volumes of literature are to be scanned and a literature of great volume created. The study when exhausted will sufficiently introduce us to the domains of Joy, Power, Knowledge and several others. The expansion of the field is significant. The contraction into one law is a wonder. The Theory of Social Development, if we are to do full academic scholastic justice to it, needs a separate encyclopedia of several volumes, as every subject on earth must be rewritten in terms of this Theory. An exhaustive list of organisations of the society, their points of contact with other organisations, the process of such integration, the myriad opportunities such a movement throws up is a MUST to study Money or any other social power. Here we touch upon only the outlines.
Old Literature and New Knowledge
Sri Aurobindo has not brought into this world a knowledge that is of the next level. In that case, we can try to build on what we know. The knowledge HE has brought is of the Supramental level, which is four stages beyond the human mind. Mankind has not exhausted the knowledge of the mental level. It is at the vital stage. Rationality is not born. No leader however great he is, is known to have lived a rational life. There are definitions of rationality and logic has been developed to a high level, but not to perfection. In terms of living, it has not been attempted yet. Those acts that concern us most today internationally can be seen to be conducted in a fashion far from rational. Reading the old literature can give you facts in the form of information, but not a single idea that will help you understand. Studying the volumes on the Great Depression, you can have all the dates, payments, losses, gains, etc. but not one idea why the Depression arose. Suppose the reason for the Depression is discovered, then to explain the principle in terms of statistics, all these publications are of immense value. Studying the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, The Gita, Vedas, Upanishads, etc., cannot make one understand the Supermind. The old cannot lead one to the new. So, understanding of Money in its context of social evolution cannot be helped by reading the literature on monetary economics. It requires observation of the movements of Money as a social vibration that energises, organises and creates -- rather new creates - Money. One has to see in these movements Money that is an organisation. Also we have to observe the other forces of power, knowledge, Joy, communication, etc. organising themselves alongside. Hence the significance of the theme integration. The temptation to resort to old literature is irresistible. Greater is the subconscious urge to employ the old method to acquire the new knowledge. Again, NO new knowledge can ever be meaningfully acquired by the employment of old methods. It is equally true of old attitudes. Old literature, old consciousness, old methods, old attitudes, old beliefs, old strategies must go lock stock and barrel. Even the old TONE will prevent the new knowledge. What in the old is helpful or even indispensable is the essence of experience, not the experience itself. The experience carries the form. We need the content, not the form. The creative energy that multiplies Money is with the New Force, not in anything that is old in any guise.
Lady Mason and Crawley
Legal justice does not claim to deliver absolute justice. Often, as in murder cases, it professes its aim more to prevent the punishment of the innocent than to get at the culprit. About 20% of the prisoners in US jail are serving terms for others' crimes. In our society to seek justice is in vain. What we call legal acumen or rational faculty is of course right in a vast majority of cases. It fails in the exceptions. And these exceptions happen to be the major events of history. This Theory of Development is capable of being fool proof, unfailing in any case, whether we acquire that capacity or not. It is capable of accurately pin pointing the cause of the First World War or assigning the exact reason theoretically as well as practically for the Great Depression. It cannot err as the magistrates or the public erred in the cases of Lady Mason or Crawley. In one case, we finally know that the lady forged and in the other case the gentleman was above board. In the case of Lady Mason, there were actual witnesses who could declare they had not signed a second document. To the keen perception of an aggrieved tenant the dates told the story. In a lazy social atmosphere ready to gossip with a vengeance, this is the subtle hint of life. He who seeks the facts cannot overlook these subtle hints. Here in this case the subtle hint is in the shape of hard dates. Crawley's case is more difficult and impossible for the social context in which we live. One with a subtle vision could have seen the figure of Eleanor on the cheque as Padmanabhan had seen blood on the blessing packet going to a piles patient waiting for operation. The truth of Money is evolutionary. It is in the subtle, causal planes. At every point it impacts, we can see it hits against the hard crust of vital vesture or material darkness to let the infinite power emerge. Only insight leading to intuition can be aware of it. The first qualification there is not to close one's mind. Next one has to fix the partial event - Depression, war, Mason's forgery, Crawley's theft - in the context of the widest whole and look for outlines of ideas or subtle hints that can lead one to truth. It is ruled out that rationality as we understand can arrive at the answer. The answers that we have tentatively arrived at for Depression and World War I can be put to the test of hard facts of history. In one case it is events; in another they are statistics. Suppose both these arguments are so proved, or one can prove to himself a few such questions, he is qualified to discover the Truth we are after in the case of Money. Let Mason and Crawley guide. In one's own life there are more than a dozen events willing to testify to this evolutionary fact.
Monarchy - Money - Knowledge
The European powers built empires all over the world. Their imperial power issued out of their trade and capacity to export. It was based on their production capacity. Their vital power gave them physical power of owning colonies. When a higher power like the vital is used to foster a lower power of physicality, the cycle becomes closed and ends there. It has no further opening for evolutionary growth. It is the point at which they meet with their destruction. They did in the postwar period. The power that helped the USA to take over world leadership from the European powers is the same productive capacity but at a far higher level. Thus the vital power of economic productivity overcame and destroyed the empires, symbols of physical powers. This economic power of productivity is now ruled and guided by Money power. Money power too exists at all levels from the physical to the spiritual. When Money ruled, represented mostly by property, it was its own physical power. In the USA Money has outgrown that stage. At the next stage Money is a vital power mostly represented NOT by solid property - or at least nor thus recognized by the public - but by the vital power of economic productivity. Immediately after the war the USA had an enormous productivity as she raised her fields and factories during the war time to such peaks of productivity. Now Money is moving away from that centre and is finding a new centre of power - Money power - based not on property, not on productive capacity but Money that is being created by the plane of human consciousness of Trust. This is a vital Trust made possible by mental understanding. The next stage to which Money power will rise will be the Money created more by the understanding of what Money is rather than by Trust. Trust is vital, understanding is mental. Theoretically any nation can do it. If that is done by whichever nation, the centre of world power will move there. If that ever happens, looks as if it will happen in the USA. As Money overcame the monarchy, knowledge will replace Money. It can even be the knowledge of Money. Suppose the Asian currency emerges, its value will sharply and quickly rise by virtue of the strength of population. That power of Money will be the power of knowing what MONEY is, of course sub consciously. In the event of a world currency coming into existence the leadership for the world will be a contest between the country that has the power of production and the country that has population. In ten or fifteen years developments will decide that course.
Money - Language - Internet
It seems there is a serious research at to what is the greatest invention. Is it the wheel? In their list Money does not figure. A question Sri Aurobindo raised is some what parallel to this. He has answered His supposed QUESTION what is the highest ideal Man can seek. His answer was trying to know God is that ideal. His announcement to the world that this is the Hour of God tells us by implication that to KNOW that this is that HOUR will prove to anyone that it is the greatest invention. Language does not strike the ordinary researcher as Internet does; Internet is still in the physical material plane as it works in electronic space. Language exists in the subtle physical plane. It is a far greater field. The miracles occurring in the field of language are greater than in the Internet. We know Internet does not create information, at least we believe so. We just do not see how Internet bringing miraculously to us the information the world has, creates NEW possibilities. The creativity of the Internet is not in the creation of information but in the creation of new organisations. In language it is easy to see MAN is constantly creative. He is creative at his own level. He, who speaks fluently, creates more of fluent speech where creative value is universally missed. Going further even in the plane of language there are creative and non-creative productive parts. What comes into our minds as new speech is new to us, but is drawn from the stored speech of the world in the subtle plane. We are oblivious of that. Our creativity in that plane is what we miss. In Money we see the Money earned by others coming to us for use. This is not to create Money. This is to make available to us through organisations what Money is already newly created. We don't see that in this same plane Money is also newly created. Seeing Money or Internet as an organisation we see new organisations are created. Seeing Money as a Force will enable us to see fresh Money is being created all the time. What is creative is the ACT more than Language, Money or Internet. As banks create three times more money, internet creates knowledge. The greatest creativity in a lower plane is productivity. Its instrument is the Act. It is done by our initiative, human initiative. Moving one step further it is pure creativity. It is achieved by Non-Initiative. The knowledge of Sarvaarambha parithyagi which is the most powerful discipline of this yoga is Super grace. Bringing it into the field of Money we can see that creativity. Even the character of that creativity is determined by the character of our personality. Inaction by non-initiative in the field of Money can raise the productivity of Money to pure creativity. It thus moves from electronic cyberspace to pure subtle space in the social sphere.
Money is a symbolic Power ¨
A symbol is a representation in a concentrated form. It is a formation saturated with the intensity of what it is originally. Money is a symbol of social vitality. It represents all the vitality of social existence, functioning and life. To start with it represented social products. From there it moved to represent its productivity. Money in the collective represents the entire productive capacity of the society. For purposes of transaction, it is broken into convenient units. This is Money's primary function. But Money represents the entire vital power of the Society. The productive power of the society refines into social power, the power that administers. It later becomes political power. Step by step we see Money becomes the cultural power, religious power and finally all the powers of the society.
A degree is a symbol for education. Thali is a symbol of marriage. Speech is the symbol for emotions. Life is full of such symbols. A symbol makes the abstract concrete, impersonal personal, universal individual. A symbol makes action possible. A boy sent into a library to acquire education may be at sea; sent to a university to take a degree he can handle it with ease and understanding. A degree holder is a well defined educational entity to which the society can meaningfully respond while a well informed person seeking a job may not be understood by the employer. For successive action that is building up the capacity a symbol is essential. Not all people can educate themselves by not going to school, though education of the mind is a non-stop functioning as the heart beating. It is for the genius and the precocious. The ordinary citizen needs schooling for his energies to be converted into educational capacities, raised to talents and converted into specialised abilities. It will be interesting to trace all these stages in Money. Incidentally it makes us see the vast unorganised potential energies of the society which Money in further phases of its growth can embrace. Money, as any other instrument, is capable of dominating the master who created it. That is an aspect we constantly must keep in view. Once we lose track of it we become a slave of Money and all our studies come to an end. To discover the symbolic powers of Money, to know how it has been built up so far and how much more it can be raised in the social progress is a rewarding exercise for the emerging Individual.
The Part Money is of the whole the Society is
A part of an inert whole can be removed and replaced. Sometimes it can be removed without much damage as a cover for a pen. The functioning of the pen is not interfered with by the removal of the cover as it is not an integral part of an integral whole. A child moving away from the mother for a few minutes will bring the mother to a dead stop as the child is an integral part of the mother's life. Society is a living organisation, not a mere functioning organisation. With each part born the society becomes alive and at once each part of the society endeavours to relate with that new part or the newly developed part with a view to integrating with it ultimately. The internal combustion engine revolutionised transport, created the motorcar which accelerated the growth of the society. Today is it possible for us to enumerate the uses of that engine and its electrical version - the electrical motor - which in all micro units is run by batteries stored with electrical energy. There are two different types of discoveries. One is confined to the field where it is originally used such as dress or pen. Innovations in these articles are mostly confined to this area of use. The other is like steel, plastic, TV, computer, motor, etc. They find more than one application or their applications can be endlessly extended. They begin to permeate our living and do not stop till all the avenues are exhausted. A minor version of this phenomenon is the newspaper, cell phone, TV, and car expanding their role in the society till all avenues are exhausted. Integration is the part becoming the whole acquiring the character of infinity. He has spoken of the part becoming greater than the whole. Money when it matures will, by this principle, become the society. That is our aim. It is the same principle of the Spiritual Individual who becomes universal and Eternal. And that is true of all other aspects and parts of the society. To consider the whole universe as an evolving organism, evolving in joy is to acquire the knowledge of creation through the process of creation. That is the same process by which society evolves and Money acquires its power. Today we are beneficiaries of the social process unconsciously. We aspire to become conscious social individuals who become a live part of the society by the evolving power of its aspects like Money. Money, He says is attractive to ego as sex is. So also is Power. Ego is a part, a part with a vengeance that considers itself a separate part. Ego when it sheds its separativeness, becomes the Purusha and finally evolves into the Transcendent.
Money - Power - Sex
Sri Aurobindo says these three are attractive to the ego. Sex is of the physical, capable of reproduction. Power is social, can dominate over all. Money relates only to products and productive capacity. In that sense it is partial while power is a whole. Money has the capacity to secure power and sex. Power too has the capacity to secure the other two through an element of compulsion or coercion while sex is not so much capable as the other two in securing the other two. Ego is the centralising spiritual power in the lower triplicity. Rising out of the lower to the other side on the higher realms ego becomes Purusha. This is a spiritual change or even spiritual transformation. As the ego loses its smallness of separativeness, it becomes selfless and moves to self-giving. Money moving from being a thing to social power through two other intermediate stages of transaction and organisation, expands, extends, becomes refined, grows in productivity rising to creativity. Its creativity exists at more than one level. It is creative of higher quantity of Money and Money of a higher quality. It can be socially creative to raise the quality of any other social sector such as education or sports. Money that is refined is capable of refining any other field in which it operates. It will be of very great interest to discuss the higher refined functions of Money till it reaches the stage of being a divine instrument. There was a time when poets, artists, etc. entirely relied on the patronage of rich men. Royal patronage was its acme. Poetry and art thus had no life outside such a patronage which was very difficult to secure just for the reason the possession of Money becomes possible only when people are incapable of appreciating art or poetry. Money came on the scene through the field of commerce. An artist can reach the people through the field of commerce and earn a living on his own. Shakespeare could do so successfully. Money emancipated art and poetry from the heavy unintelligent dependence on the aristocracy. Money here plays an evolutionary role in the society, the evolution being Social evolution. Today musicians, artists, writers are on their own very much. They owe their today's independence to Money. Athletes are sought after to advertise products of companies and it is a rich source of income for them. It is Money that makes it possible for these social heroes to become independently rich. To look at every such significant social function of Money is educative. To collect every insignificant function of Money in the expanding society gives us a deeper knowledge of the Society's creative potential.
Money as a Medium of Social Transformation:
As and when a new arrangement arises, a new facility becomes possible. This is social progress. Whether it is electricity in the 19th century or computer in the 20th century, a new thing is a source of progress, convenience and comfort. There is another law operating in the society. The more organised gets a greater benefit of any new change. The rich become richer, the poor become poorer is a complaint over the last half a century. Osmosis acts this way. The denser liquid while in contact with a diluted one rises in density. Money made its appearance at the dawn of history making sales and purchase possible, created trade, commerce, urban centres, etc. making human life civilised. After a while Money began to accumulate in some hands making them richer than others. In the society a few were rich, the many were poor. From this point Money began to act as an instrument to unjustly transfer the wealth from the poor to the rich. Money made credit possible, an institution that saved millions from bankruptcy, or even destitution, sometimes complete liquidation. It was an institution sent by God to save the weakest from annihilation. Credit made the collective self-giving possible to the oppressed individual. Before the advent of Money this was difficult or even not possible. The same benevolent institution of credit, under unfair or unfavourable conditions acts as an instrument for the rich to rob the poor of their property. After the World War, the social atmosphere markedly by changed towards the poor. Now the same institution of Money acts as a fertile medium to wipe off the poverty of millions or billions. Without money which is being liberally distributed as micro credit unsecured loans, the poor cannot be helped to emerge out of poverty. Money is a medium of social transformation. We know the great service of Insurance. Without the concept of insurance the society cannot exercise its collective protection of good will to a lone individual in distress. As insurance is a social boon, Money is an institutional boon which is servicing the population as no other institution can. No news can be given to the world except the through the media. No knowledge can be disseminated without the system of school. No goods can be sent to a distance without transport and communication. Each of these institutions is playing a role which cannot be replaced or rendered by another institution or agency. Money is a leveller of inequality, an agent of social transformation.
The Power of Multiplication
My eternal theme here made central is Money can multiply and even self-multiply. What is this power of multiplication? If it is real, where does it come from? Does it defy rational explanation? Multiplication comes from a large number who are all related to act lending the power of each to all and the power of all to each. In the terminology of current social comprehension, it is organisation. Organisation is the principle of multiplication when many are related to act in unison outside. Self-multiplication follows the same principle inside when the separated many join together in union in oneness which releases the Power of the Self. In a chit fund of ten members with an individual subscription of Rs. 1000/-, in the first month one member gets Rs.10,000/- which is the money of all. Rs.1000/- multiplies into Rs.10,000/- because ten members agree that one member can each time use everyone's money. This is called organisation. The resources of ten people, under a particular arrangement, come to serve one man which is the multiplication we see. Instead of ten members if it is a hundred members, Rs.10,000/- rises to Rs.100,000/-. The power of multiplication rises by the number of individual members increasing. Banks discovered it centuries ago. The volume of population acts as the depositors and borrowers of the bank and raises the value of currency. The spiritual theory is each member recognising himself as a part of a live whole and agreeing to act in coordination, generating the Lila, increases the collective enjoyment. Bliss that is static thus rises to Delight that is active. We see the same principle in the newspaper when the readership rises. The reader of the news is also the viewer of the advertisement. As the newspaper is organised to distribute the news invisibly another market of public that are consumers comes into existence. That market pays for the newspaper reader. Email is thus free. What is seen as free actually means the reader who gets his newspaper cheap or free, pays as customer to the advertiser. The selfishness of the newspaper reader who enjoys receiving a free newspaper subconsciously is willing to pay for the advertisement of the product to which he pays the cost. Nature destroys the ego by this method building a social organisation. The unwilling ego that in its selfishness refuses to let go its right is organisationally made to part with its unholy right. What Man refuses to give, God takes away from it through the back door. We see the lever reducing the labour. Here too the principle is the same in another fashion.
The Process of Multiplication
We see that when the railways or postal system is to be created, it can only be done for all, the Many. It cannot be created for one person. The concept of organisation belongs to the Many and the equality of all. The British biologist Sheldrake found the power of understanding increases with the increasing number of learners. Learning requires mental energy. As the river swells along its course and becomes swifter, the quality of learning increases in each member with the quantity of learners. In trade and commerce it is a common experience that the increasing users enable the producer to make better and cheaper products. Here it is seen practically needing no further explanation. Spiritually the theory is the greater the number of users or participants, the greater the energy that is gathered in the common pool which is available to each member. The process of multiplication is the process of the parts coming alive in the play of the whole. In education, the quality every member receives rises phenomenally as education reaches the wider segment of population. It is true of any commercial product as we see in air travel. The wider the area of operation the greater the possibilities of organisational innovation that is understood as individual benefit. As we see in GM which offers its own car finance, or in Amazon.com which is offering credit cards to its members who buy books from the company, any one specialised activity through this route tends to become general. In the supermarket which sells anything on earth, the concept of specialisation gives way to cover all activities. The infinite becomes the infinitesimal at which point the infinite in another form - energy - is released. Involution ends where evolution begins. Evolution ends where the Marvel of creation fully reveals. We are at neither end but trying to unite both ends in ourselves and raise it to the superconscient. Applied to Money, one acquires the capacity to infinitely multiply it. It directly points out to the value of world currency. A world currency before it comes into existence needs several new organisations at the level of banking, government, administration, social existence, trade practices, etc. All of them have been once successfully evolved in creating the Euro. The world need not reinvent it. It is enough to imitate the process including any possible innovation demanded and permitted by the local context. Asian currency, if it comes into existence, will have ironed out most of these issues. The process of multiplication is evolutionary capable of generating power.
Foreign Aid
Prosperity's essential part is Money and the capacity to generate Money. What is spoken of as capital is accumulated savings. Again it is Money. The cause of the Industrial Revolution in Britain is traced by one thesis as agricultural surplus. Sociologically it can be traced to the freedom it won over centuries after about a millennium of slavery to foreign powers. It comes from the individuality one has which is seen in commerce as entrepreneurship. Physical freedom as Robinson Crusoe had, for the below average man is freedom to die of hunger. For an above average Man, physical freedom symbolises a field of plenty. Settlers who migrated to the USA found wages in New York ten times higher than in Europe. Externally the fact was shortage of labour. Vast freedom is more than a challenge to Man. He who survives that becomes an individual. The individuality thus created in the midst of adversity makes one rise head and shoulders above the average. His productivity rises ten times. Hence the high wages. Productivity is prosperity. Prosperity is Money. One cannot receive aid without losing that individuality. Western Europe received the aid of Marshall Plan and became economic satellites of the aid giver. Russia refused that aid and preserved its independence. Monetary aid in practice renders the receiver culturally subordinate to the giver. The very capacity to think will be immobilised. It is a bad policy to receives aid or give aid. It saps the energy of the nation. Aid develops a dependent attitude. No one who is dependent can stand up as an individual. It is moonshine to develop individuality in a nation that develops essentially on foreign aid. Individuality can be physical making men warriors. Economic individuality brings self-respect. He can survive on his own. Only one who has such individuality can think on his own, become a thinker. Spiritual individuality is beyond all of them. A country that desires to develop individuals will do best to return all its aid and as a policy decide against it forever. What one country can receive from another is training and technology, not capital. Capital borrowed itself is harmful. Aid will dissolve any sense of independence a nation enjoys. Productivity is prosperity. In order to produce, one should be an individual, not a wage earner or a salaried employee. Those who seek such employment will discover that the nation is devoid of entrepreneurs. A nation devoid of venturesome entrepreneurs is one without an economic backbone.
Cause and effect:
One of the rules of the Theory of Development is we must be clear-headed as to what is the cause and which is the effect. Inversion of them causes problems. Behind any problem one will see that inversion. In the case of Money, the truth is Money is a symbol. To mistake the symbol for the Reality causes problems. The Great Depression was caused by that. Money is products, productivity, and the capacity to work, not the currency that represents it. To believe that currency is Money, the share certificate is Money is to invert the order of things. Speculation was based on that. Currency is paper. Share certificate is printed paper. How they can be Money? It is silly to believe that. It does not matter one is silly. If he acts on that basis he is led to catastrophe. In 1929 America was in an unprecedented boom. Investment companies were making many millions in a month, even a billion in a year. That was because companies traded on the real strength of Money. Money multiplied. For one who is gambling in the stock market or one of its versions in the various business deals, the border between the real value of Money and paper value is lost sight of. Once the border is crossed, the reality is lost sight of, the movement changes its character. Speculation has the temptation to reach its peak when prosperity is overflowing. For seventy years scholars have been researching the stock-market statistics to discover the cause of the Depression, like the German scientists who examined every part of the human body that came for autopsy and declared the soul is not found in any part of the body. In India conditions are so ripe that one can pay money and forge a degree without undergoing the course. Can that degree represent any knowledge in him? The inversion is most pronounced when Man, the creator of Money, willingly trusts that Money is a greater power. He becomes the slave of Money. It has happened to power, to matrimony, to property, to position, to monarchy and everything Man has created. In the view of the theory, all problems are created when this inversion takes place. Reverse this artificial inversion, the problem will be solved. In the case of the Great Depression Man never realised this inversion, nor could he reverse it. Life reversed it by bringing about a war and killing millions of people, thus reversing the vital inversion by the physical depth. It is worth noting that before this reversion took place, Money lost its value in Germany to become a zero.
The more subtle, the more powerful
This is another law of the Theory of Development which is apparently in contradiction with common sense. We would prefer to think that the heavier a thing is, the stronger it is. A famous metallurgist said about alloys of metals that a tougher alloy is lighter. It is a confirmation of a higher truth from a lower domain. This is true in all walks of life. It is strikingly true of money. From being a bulky product, it became a tiny metal which changed into paper. Now it is a mere unseen member communicated over the web as the credit card. It travels all over the globe in a trice and transacts any amount of Money. Local trade was possible when Money was invented. Trade spread all over the country as well as outside the country when gold represented it. The volume of trade rose from two digits to numberless digits when solid gold was replaced by paper currency. By an extension of logic, when Money represents invisible Trust without any medium, however flimsy it is, it rises to infinite proportions. In education we see the same phenomenon at the point when the heavy memorised material is replaced by the invisible understanding. Before memorisation was in vogue, knowledge was represented by bulky palm leaves written all over by a sharp stylus, written over the years. It is most evident in manufacture where miniaturisation sets in. The computer was occupying a full room in the fifties. Then its size began to shrink. Now it comes as a laptop. Further the miniaturised computer is there as a tiny part of any gadget like the cell phone or clock. This phenomenon has been directly derived from the Spiritual principle. Sat is invisible. Matter is the very opposite. It is durable, heavy, and dense. Moving up the ladder life is energy. Mind disappears. As we go above, things become subtle and more powerful. In the lower courts we hear loud, lengthy, hot arguments. In the higher courts, sound is less, length is short. No heat is evinced in the argument. The party is not addressed, the case is addressed. Senior lawyers move from the particular personal case to the general, impersonal law. A Pondicherry client having great amounts at stake reached a Supreme court lawyer for redressing his grievance. The lawyer was reluctant. When he was finally persuaded to plead the case, he stoutly refused to listen to the details of the case. He entered the court without hearing the details. He spoke for a few minutes and won the case on the strength of one casual remark the client was heard to make at the point of entering the court that Pondicherry was a Part ‘C' state. The client's order was invalidated on the strength of that information.
Life Progresses by Consciousness
Sri Aurobindo prefers to use subconscious in place of unconscious. Instead of saying life progresses by consciousness, we can as well say that a blind man will progress by sight. Here I would like to declare that the power of Money rises by Man becoming conscious of all its potential power. Examine the period when credit came into vogue. Money, by its preservative power accumulated itself as a surplus having met all the uses of eating. Food can only be eaten. Now Man saw that when all his food requirements were met, the grain was in surplus. It was there with him as cash. It was impossible for him to know the coins he had had some use for him. After some time, either he or another who was in need of his coins suddenly became conscious of their use. Till then the possessor of Money was not conscious of its value. Thus credit came into existence. Man had, at this point, discovered that he had a greater use for himself. There was a time mortgage came to be a possibility. It was a discovery of Man that he could live in his house and still have one more use for it as a property. At that moment, Man suddenly grew conscious of the potential value of property, as by then Money was in use. The medium of Money helps convert the unused value of his property into another usable value. The value of the property multiplies. Money rises in value. At every landmark of Money's growth, grain receipt, bank credit, discounting of bills, packing credit, working capital, term loan, credit card, unsecured loans, free giving away of Money, Man grows more conscious of the inherent power of Money. By being conscious of such hidden power, life progresses. The history of Money can be rewritten as Man becoming conscious of the invisible power of Money. To be conscious is the first stage of progress. There is a second stage of growth. It is by organising what one became conscious of. The other is about the progress of consciousness by organisation. It is to be conscious of the external potential. That is what has made the present civilisation possible. There is another consciousness. It is to be conscious of the inner endowments. It is much vaster. The one is a unit of one; the other is as wide as the society. All the powers of the society are inside. In the measure the American became conscious of his cultural inheritance, he discovered it outside as his own wealth.
Progress comes to consciousness by organisation
This law of the Theory of Development is in evidence everywhere. In Money it is blatantly perceivable. Why America paid ten times the wages, how the American was able to produce 34% of the world's production excelling the other peak of 7% is told by the Mother: "The Americans have excelled in practical organisation". Man discovers powers like steam, electricity, magnetism, etc. It is usable only when converted into power or knowledge. For the discoveries to become commercialised they need an intermediary, technology. Technology is knowledge of the Mind organised in matter as a mechanism or better still machinery. Knowledge organised is idea. Work organised is activity. Energy organised is skill. Skill can be upgraded by its being organised into capacity. Focussing the organisation for efficiency and higher intensity attempts perfection. Capacity poured through one skill for a greater organisation is talent. Talent is specialised. Specialisation is exclusive. Exclusiveness is one aspect of inclusive comprehensiveness at the higher level. Acting at a higher level makes the impossible possible at a lower level. Personality of Man is higher than his character. His character is fixed, rigid, and possessive. His Personality does not suffer from that vitiating oppressiveness. Man's Personality can shift his talents from one field to another. We call it in language ability. We see all these aspects in Money, its functioning, its structures, its potentials. To write on all those stages in his history, the powers Money unleashed into society will be quite a monograph on Money not so far conceived. Organisation acts within the available scope. In freedom organisations can quickly exhaust their old forms and try to innovate on a wider scale in newer domains. VISA is the best example. Credit card when it was originally introduced was an organisational innovation. Man tried to fly as it was long his ambition. Kennedy had the ambition of putting a man on the Moon. One was a creative act in organisation to higher intensity and wider amplitude. Organisation helps consciousness progress. This law of development taken through the stages of growth of Money in the fullest detail will reveal enormous potentials now and even in the past stages it can uncover many more devices.
Survival, growth, development and evolution
The above are the three stages of development. Evolution is beyond that. We can imagine that when Money was introduced as shell or tobacco how unwilling the farmer would have been to part with his produce taking some shells. The opposition that paper currency met with is of recent memory. When there is a registered document of power of attorney, banks wanting the owner to sign especially when the amount is big is a common experience. At each such stage of change resistance, unwillingness, lack of cooperation in all fields is fully in evidence. Bank of America gave a demand draft. The receiving bank insisted on collecting the Money before releasing the document. Even 100 rupee currency was suspect in the 70s. One has to sign his name on it lest it should be suspect as a fake note. Coinage became popular and spread far and wide. For the coin, to be accepted by the population is its survival. Its growing into all sections of population is its growth. Its being replaced by paper currency is the development of Money in earlier shape. Money that is an article of economic significance beginning to play a social role in politics to secure power is its evolution as Money. The economic productivity it represents changes into social or political power by which Money rises in the social scale of effectivity. That evolved status now has expanded and is penetrating every walk of life. To give a detailed account of it that is exhaustive is out of place here now. For one who undertakes a study of Money for the purposes of creating it himself with no fields or factories or even capital, it will be necessary that his knowledge of the details of the history of Money be thorough as well as exhaustive. An exhaustive knowledge at the point of exhaustion is the moment of Perfection. Spiritually it is a moment of Truth. It is at that point development spills over into evolution. To locate every point of evolution of Money and concentrate the STUDY there will reveal the highest aspects of Money. Banks introduced multiplication. It is one such point. Trust in dollar spilled over the borders of USA when we witnessed the phenomenon of Self-Multiplication. When that point is identified, the process of Self-Multiplication will be almost a revelation. Euro's value rising vertically due to increasing membership of EU and the growth in population is another point of Self-Multiplication.
Money behaves in opposite ways with respect to the Line
This rule in the Theory is an important landmark. Money is positive with respect to the society above the line, negative when it is below the line. The same rule can be stated with the same force in respect to Man. The speed, velocity, acceleration of development Money is capable of is amazing. It is so when it is above the line. What is it to be above the line or below the line for Money with respect to the society? Money represents organisation, i.e., employing Money for a work without our knowledge we are commissioning an organisation. That organisation represents the latest technology, the latest education, the latest administration. A road that took six months to build earlier can now be completed in six weeks or one month. It means not only five months are saved; the rate of progress in every field is six times greater. When 10% greater efficiency is celebrated as achievement this is 600%. Without Money this is not possible. One may try to imagine that in building this road, if he chooses not money and all that money can buy, he has to employ labour in great number. Assuming such an experiment is possible; he will find all works come to a stop. Only in refugee camps life degenerates to that level or during war devastation. An intense imagination of what Money represents can bring us this understanding. Money is not only technology, but it brings the latest education. Money helps us organise them at this new higher level. When Money swings into action, work moves by leaps and bounds. Money, above the line, is a constructive power. Money is below the line only when inflation erodes its value. Beyond a certain level of erosion Money exhibits its power of organisation in destroying all that was built up to that point. The deceleration too will be great. Money remains the powerful organisation it is. Only that its direction is reversed. What is important for us here to know is not its capacity for organisation but its capacity to reverse its role and act in the opposite direction. In that sense, Money is neutral; society gives it the character it chooses. The character is of the society. Money is capable of taking the character of the society. The original organisation of Money is neutral, but when it is positive it exhibits its positive character and when it is negative it exhibits its negative character vigorously. It is not a neutral instrument in action. A sword is neutral always. But Money is neutral in its constructions, not neutral in action. It is capable of identifying itself with the character of the act it is commissioned to do.
The laws of multiplying Money are the same for an individual, a bank or a government.
Society comes alive when it moves. It moves when its members move in action. Society is the social collective. Its power is in the individual. Its highest power is in the individual realizing his higher inner powers. His acting for himself does not release his higher powers. He would not act entirely for others. He comes forward to relate with others for his own sake. It is the beginning of his becoming a greater collectivity. To act or agree to act with another even if it is for his own sake is to recognize that he is a part of a whole. It starts with cooperation of a few members as in a family, extends into coordination with a greater number of people and finally becomes an organisation. In an organisation several people agree to come together to act according to an idea. That idea always implies his parting with a little of his rights in exchange for getting a little of everyone's rights and potentialities. In a chit fund we see one man using everyone's resources under an arrangement. We also see it in insurance. Organisation is a subtle arrangement that multiplies one's gross physical capacities. Organisation multiplies the power of a product it handles. At an earlier stage consciousness so creates. It is not so self-evident. Movement, action, consciousness, organisation, values, dismantling of the structures of the organisation, giving up the purpose of action are many landmarks in social evolution that are creative in differing measures. The spiritual truth is everything is creative, everything is infinite and spiritual evolution is to realize the creativity of objects releasing the infinity from the infinitesimal. Such a law applies to the individual, an organisation as well as the entire society. By this we enunciate that an organisation can multiply its wealth, an individual can multiply his wealth and the society at large can multiply its wealth to any extent it chooses. This can be extended to conceive that knowledge, power, joy, accomplishment can be increased by anyone if he chooses to. What starts as multiplication goes on to become self-multiplication. Only in Money it is possible for us to see how it occurs. Here we talk of increasing quantity. So, we understand it should apply to quality also.
Existence - Energy - Progress
Existence becomes energy by movement. Energy acts, gets organised as skill. Activities organised is progress. Progress can expand in space, stretch over Time. Sustained progress is tradition, history. Progress extending over an area is power of existence. The prime mover is movement. The unit is an Act. By the time an Act comes into existence the entire process of creation finds its play. Without going prior to an act, if we start from an act and confine our scope to Money, a meaningful discussion will shape up. Even in Money we further restrict ourselves to its capacity to multiply and how much an individual can avail of it. Money has a power in several directions. It is not quantifiable and therefore a discussion on the quality of Money will be nebulous. It is true that when money expands and multiplies, its standard rises. By standard I mean the role money plays in the social progress. With every further stage Money becomes a better instrument of social progress representing social aspirations, social processes, social structures, social forces, and social capacities. Only its number is measurable. So, the discussion confines mainly to it. In a transaction, one man deals with another. Unless he is a known person one will be reluctant to transact with him. You give your product to a man and take his Money or you pay your Money and take his product. Several things are involved. The product quality, the quantity of the product, whether it is not a stolen product are there for one to take into account. There are men who will take the Money and refuse to deliver the product. Or after delivering the product he will come back to claim it. So, one can deal with another only when he is rational, civilised and reliable. In doing so, the producer develops from being a mere laborer in the field into a citizen capable of many psychological endowments. He grows in his personality. When transactions come to stay, trade is in vogue which means each seller and buyer is capable of understanding a rule or law of trade and is willing to submit himself to it. His mind becomes capable of impersonal comprehension of rules or even a Law. Many facets reflect all these traits in a subtle fashion. The character of Money changes from being a shell or a coin into a symbol of social power of which processes and structures are part. To follow Money all along its path till today in this fashion is our study.
Aristocracy and Money
Creation of aristocracy was possible because Money was there. In the absence of Money no aristocracy would have come into existence. Aristocracy is landed property that is power. It is social power to rule and dominate. Money creates property, transfers the social power of the weak who cannot produce or manage their production to psychologically strong personalities. Money is an instrument of transfer of capacity that is power. This is an evolutionary role in the society. In a tribe, all are equal. While producing food the productive capacities of the individuals vary. Prior to the advent of Money that excess food went to waste. Seeing that waste next time Man produces less, enough to survive. There is no scope for using all his energies. Money enables transfer of the excess to another. The excess is preserved in the shape of Money. And it is an incentive for Man to exert to his maximum and invent tools to increase his production. Property was not easily created by Man before the advent of Money. With Money on the social picture, possession becomes real, property comes into existence. The stronger man who is more capable quickly discovers he is superior to the less capable man. He can see his excess ability as Money saved his excess production. Money makes for sale and purchase. A strong person, with his Money, can buy the property of the weak. It is money that makes this possible. Money is not only power but prestige. Power and prestige go together and fortify each other. Education that brings the knowledge of production and management is more easily available to those who have Money. The advent of Money has created property, the propertied class, endowed them with power, prestige and knowledge. This is the aristocracy. Repeatedly I said Money transfers power from the weak to the strong. It transfers both ways. The transfer is always in favour of the strong, those who enjoy the social patronage. It is a social transition. In periods of transition society gets more organised usually. We see Money that represents social power simultaneously gets equally more organised. At any given time Money enjoys the organisation society has. When the society decides to shift the power from aristocracy to the commoner, Money again acts as an instrument of transfer of power from the aristocrats to the commoner. Always Money serves the social ideal. Therefore it pays to understand Money in the light of the social ideal.
Money and Individuality
Individuality is the highest psychological endowment of a person. In its purity it means his acts will carry the stamp of his Jivatma, the individual Divine. In the ordinary sense it means he is one who needs no one's help whatever the work A\Põ¯ `µß. In practice, the phenomenon of individuality has degenerated into one living for himself. It has further slipped down to callous selfishness. Let us take it only in the higher sense, which means self-reliance, self-respect, capacity to stand on one's own legs, etc. In societies where individuality is prevalent it has come to mean not to borrow money or any other thing. Such people when compared with similar personalities not endowed with it are far apart. If one is a successful entrepreneur of several millions of business, the other is an employee who cannot retain his job. Socially it will be the distance between a judge and a taxi driver or a janitor. Individuality has developed in circumstances where there was no one to help. That became a virtue or an attitude. It also develops in places where no one is willing to help. In its best sense Individuality is developed in an atmosphere where everyone is willing to help - would be offended if no help is taken - one chooses not to avail of them for the sake of developing one's own independence. In both cases, Money helps the formation of his individuality. Individuality has its seed in the initial trickle of success. To preserve it as work or helpful circumstances is not so easy. Converted into Money it is easily preserved. In a progressive work Money plays at each successive stage a higher role. As it passes along it becomes more and more organised. What indispensable role it plays at this initial stage, remains real at all stages. One, who has 90% cost of a project seeking another's help for 10% of the rest, finds that 10% has the power to control the 90% thus destroying one's individuality. Conversely if one has 100% capacity for a project and needs help in various other shapes, it won't be surprising if none comes forth. But if it is converted into Money even a small part, of it what his full capacity failed to do this part can accomplish. Money has that power of organising the social powers which the superior individual psychological talents fail to achieve. Individuality is the highest endowment. Money has the ability to foster it in strong ways. Beyond this Money has an individuality outside its social power.
The choice at every step matters, matters ultimately
Money is a social institution rising in the society subconsciously. Man can become conscious of the role of Money more easily than society. Social evolution is sub-conscious society becoming conscious of it through the individual Man. Money is an instrument. It is inert. It cannot become conscious. Should it become conscious, it should be after the society becomes conscious. We have the gradation of Nature - Life - Society - Man. Nature is material. Our inquiry does not take us beyond Nature. Man can become conscious of himself or even of the society. Here we seek that Man should become conscious of Money. Presently Man alone is conscient. Therefore he alone can become conscious of the progress of Money which is a process in the society. He can become conscious of it in his individual life. In the measure he can become conscious or becomes conscious, he is free of the force Money is. In theory society can also become conscious, followed by Life and Nature. Ours is the first proposition. The one outstanding event which I refer to often is when ONE man was thus conscious of Money, its power, its process and progress he was able to save the USA and the world indirectly from the catastrophe that Money was about to wreak by Man negatively using it. In this context, let us remember that in the event of Man choosing not to be conscious, society will act unconsciously to the detriment of Man, but in the best possible interest of the society. That was the Great Depression. The Great Depression is a safety value of the society to protect itself against the unconscious negative acts of Man. Society restores the balance which Man disturbs. When society acts like the foolish Man and takes initiative to disturb the balance Life takes initiative and rectifies it as in the two world wars. Nature correcting the imbalances Life organises is the occurrence of natural catastrophes such as cyclone, earthquake, and tsunami, etc. Earth is evolving. Its rigidities of matter, fixities of vital, preferences of the mind are always corrected by a wider plane. Some of the conscious Individuals of this century -- FDR, Gorbachev. Napoleon and Leonardo led the world consciously earlier. Man through institutions has made the society somewhat conscious and provided for avoiding the pitfalls of 1929. The institutional safeguards Man has devised are half-conscious but they averted the catastrophe of the 1929 type since then.
- Man alone is conscient.
- He is really half-conscious.
He has the choice to act either consciously or sub-consciously.
- Neither society, life nor Nature are conscious in the sense Man is conscious.
- Body takes upon itself the duty of saving itself when the meddling of mind has brought it to an impossible impasse.
- Body then rises to act.
- There is no word to denote its awareness, as Man does not see such phenomena.
- We may call it tentatively the action of sub-conscious awareness.
- As long as the more evolved parts - vital, Mind - act on their own initiative body, the social collective, life, Nature are passive witnesses to those actions whether they are in the right direction or not.
- When such acts fail to maintain the balance of the plane on which they act, the plane rises to act.
It acts in several ways.
- It disregards the higher plane and restores the balance.
It destroys the higher plane and restores the balance in its foundations.
(Society destroyed Money and a big part of the human physical to restore it at the level of vitality - trade. This can lead to a reversal as in 1945 or simply maintain the balance as in 1907).
Society can destroy its then existing structure as in the Black Death and make way for a better structure.
Society can ‘consciously' throw its weight on the side of the rebels as in the French and Russian Revolutions.
- Money uniformly played a vast comprehensively constructive role in the USA for 3 or 4 centuries to create the domination of economics over the military hegemony.
- The First World Warclearly presented a feeble opportunity to Man to overcome his physicality avoiding the war. Man sought war with an enthusiasm in his nerves.
- The civil war in the USA is a tiny but determined resistance of the physical. It left its residue of Ku Klux Klan for over a hundred years.
- To know all such choices of Man is a study of social evolution.
Money Force as we see is an interplay of Social Forces
Money by itself is an economic entity. When you take Money as a Force you see it is in everlasting interplay with the forces of power, powers of knowledge, knowledge of government and every other conceivable Force. The world is a playground where HE plays, exchanging consciousness with consciousness, force with force, being with being, ananda with ananda. Fix Money in that widest context of creation, focus it on social progress, then you will see Money holding the central stage of the play called Life. Tracing this path from any one facet of society, we can see the same process in its local variation. The progress of the society is a process where energy passing through force and power gives us results through our skills. It is a process which at each further step MEETS with a similar further step from every other aspect, fully validating His phrase new-combining which is new-creation. It is new creation of higher energy, a more directed force, better organised power yielding newer results through new skills that are instantly forming. This is the wonder of creation witnessed in society as a phase of progress that is evolution. In this eternal change each has the joy of ushering itself into freshness and the further marvel of blending with other fresh forces. It is true that all is not evolution but part of it is the foundation. It must be stationery, answering to the law of necessity. Sure, it is undeniable. But the real significance of what we are tracing will reveal itself in its original splendour only when we are able to conceive of even that part as an evolutionary change because in faith, it is. Suppose the student of Money is able to fix himself in this context and trace Money through one transition fully, the whole process will be a revelation to him. Money changes from currency to credit card. It enables us to send money by wire. Just then it is evident that as and when this transition from currency to card takes place Internet and web have appeared on the computer which is already a wonder. Take into account the fact that simultaneously the dollar has become the unofficial world currency and American banks have opened branches here. Look at the other act that it is in the same period the American food habits have become popular here. Can we forget the BPOs here even if we refuse to see how their presence is related to our study. These are only a few. We must EXHAUSTIVELY enumerate all the changes at present and evaluate Money from the point of view of each aspect. Money is a vital force mentally organised, spiritually sanctioned acting in the material physical plane with a tendency to multiply.
Human Management of Money: Money need not be and should not be allowed to activate the negative propensity of the society
Man is conscious, Society is subconscious.
Money is an instrument of the society created by itself.
Any instrument has both sides, positive as well as negative.
Society too has both sides.
For an instrument to mature in the society it has to exhaust both of its sides working in both aspects of society.
This is true only when the Man is not conscious.
Being conscious has the capacity to mature without having to undergo the negative experience.
Because consciousness is to be aware of both sides as well as the capacity to acquire in knowledge what unconsciousness has to acquire in experience.
This is a common trait of all instruments of the Society and Money is one.
The positive capacity of Money is to help the society forge ahead by relating it to other aspects of society and pressing them all to integrate so that the progress can be fast, comprehensive, cover wider distances and produce more powerful results.
The ten times higher wages in the USA for the settlers is one such point.
In India wages have risen by hundred times in 40 years leading to social progress. In the absence of Money it would have taken a longer time.
Even now such a progress is more in the educated states than in the states with low literacy as education makes Man mentally conscious.
Similarly Money makes Man vitally conscious as Money is an organised vital force in the society.
Advanced parts in traffic, transport, communication, education, music, arts, technology, political awakening are better helped by Money to progress faster, the principle being the more organised is the greater beneficiary of any new development.
Man, in the measure of his awakening, can play a CONSCIOUS role in the society of which preventing Money from seeking the negative experience for its maturity which is witnessed during periods of inflation.
Money is infinite. Its infinity can emerge by physical, vital, mental, spiritual, supramental methods.
In these pages, I am trying to present a conscious mental method for the Individual and an organisational field for the society. That can be best appreciated when the preceding and succeeding stages are explained. We cannot hope to explain the succeeding stages as even this stage is beyond one's comprehension of imagination. The preceding stages will be self-revealing. If one stage is self-multiplication, the stage before that is multiplication. It is preceded by a stage where Money created by others is collected for the use of one. An earlier stage is the Money one has earned has greater use than its original value. At every stage of its higher function, Money extends horizontally, yields subsidiary dividends, grows vertically, changes its character with respect to the profession, society and itself. At most of these junctures, Money springs a surprise of its inherent productivity or innate creativity. Because an employee is paid wages in Money, we know all these above aspects in various forms. The salary becomes guaranteed, i.e. the recurring payment becomes a fixed phenomenon. Money in becoming wages acquires a little of the character of the function of the company. The company produces products periodically as and when orders are received. This uncertain recurring activity of the company ultimately gave Money the character of wages, which acquires a fixed punctual periodicity of a month or a week. This is a new development from the far earlier compensation of daily wages. What issues out of this? Provident fund is the direct immediate result. ESI is another, bringing in the benefit of various insurances. Outside in the market this makes him eligible for hire purchase credit. Even out of the PF, one is eligible for loans for certain categories. A major social result is the institution of pension, which means the work one has done to the society in youth and health takes care of him in age and infirmity. Widow's pension is another result, not to speak of the health care insurance benefits in the West. L.T.C. is the latest addition for the Indian employees. Annual holidays have become a permanent fixture in the West. The extended services are so enormous that even the unemployed enjoy them in that which abundant measure prevents them from seeking a job.
Money does not expect people to cooperate. They can do so only when they appreciate the freedom Money has in its play in the society because of its social personality.
As children growing in freedom come upon their newly forming personality to fully express it to newly integrate themselves with the society are not sympathised with by their parents who witness their own cherished outmoded values of anachronistic character, Money finds the society which it wants to serve as its major obstacle.
Money has a social personality that expresses its social values.
Money has its own personality outside its social existence.
It is true Money is a social product.
But Money is not entirely a social product, as the child born of its parents is not entirely of the parents because its soul is not from its parents. The soul entered that body as it originally found it biologically conducive. So, Money brings its seminal existence from above in that it is a force to sow itself in the soil of social life.
All creativity, Self-Multiplication, etc. arise from the germinal seed. Its exchange value, its consequent productive capacity that tends to multiply come from its social body that is organisation.
The present day is the transition period where one yields place to another. Hence its importance.
The birth of the Euro is epoch-making.
The talk of an Asian currency indicates the creative energy of the Euro.
The Euro came into official existence as the dollar unofficially became an international currency.
The period of 1950-2000, or better still the recent period of 1985-2005 is a fertile evolutionary soil to create a new world, especially the world currency that will presage the World Government.
The student of this Theory of Development will reap a rich harvest from a study of either of these periods.
Corruption, high wages, waste, etc. are Money outgrowing its structured strength in the society.
It may even be explained in an opposite way that social progress is outgrowing the structured limits of Money. Structure is the determinative reinforcements of the social form. The forms of the society are in all planes. Its physical form is seen in the settlement they are in. Its spiritual form has not emerged in any society including India because Spirit tried to escape from life here. It has not endeavoured to accept and shape life according to its expansive life. Physicality, vitality, mentality are formative forces of life. In their outline, it is seen in the planning of their cities. In its minute precision, we see it expressing as attitudes that govern every day life. To be able to cite one such expression is insight into living. To see them all is an integrated vision of life from the focus we see. Mind gives the form; vitality offers the energy acquiring the appropriate character. Physicality takes the Form given by the mind, shaped by the vital. Such forms are reinforced by structures decided by the original determinant. Money is one such structure that guides the movements of the society, fixes the foundations of its existence, and offers the energy for its changes of growth the society chooses from time to time. Tanks are dug out of a surface, they are naturally formed in a depression, or they may be built by bunds raised from the surface. Often they overflow unable to contain the volume of the inflow. Tanks, if they have bunds, can break them and destroy life around. Periods of development that bring in copious prosperity are capable of damaging their structures. It cannot be a permanent feature. As and when the excess withdraws the normality is restored by social effort. The excess may come to stay or even choose to increase. In that case, that care being permanent, a surviving society creates new structures that can support its survival and allow it to reach growth. Damages are the results of development. They must be viewed as such. Corruption, nepotism, breakdowns in law and order; even of the moral codes receive such benefits in transition.
Moral codes of the Society as well as Individuals are the training given to them for efficient functioning for a period intended. Honesty, truth, integrity are eternal values not only in the lower triplicity but in the higher heavens also. While Truth is eternal, its versions in various levels of existence, in various periods of history vary, the variation determined by the then aspiration of the social milieu. To mistake the outer apparent form for the inner content is an attitude which Man was capable of over the centuries. The educational system in pre-British India was language and arithmetic. Now it will not suit, nor will it be adequate. History and geography became indispensable. Later Science usurped the pre-eminent position of poetry. In Britain in the earlier centuries education was in classical languages, poetry, etc. In the course of learning the classical languages, it was inevitable to acquire major philosophic thoughts of these periods. Poetry was all education in its early eminence. Even philosophy branched out later. The manor houses of Europe were constructed as castles as their primary object was protection. When protection was taken over by the standing army of the nation, these manor houses had endless rooms to house the enormous number of guests that were invited from time to time. Of what use is there today for a palatial country mansion of Pemberley? These are outer forms. All forms are outer. Surely, they are not the inner content. Currency is the outer form of Money that is the social force serving as inner content. These forms were fashioned by the society with considerable care. The body of the society, its human part is meticulously trained to use the form the force has taken. The training varies from the Individual to the Society. If Money comes into existence, a purse too is invented for the keeping of it. Writing accounts becomes possible in the beginning, essential at a later period. The social mind creates the form of accounting, a numerical thought process that converts the quantity of the product into more precise quantity of numbers. The quality of production has already changed into quantity of product. Society is alive all the time. Its movements are productive in the horizontal plane, creative in the vertical direction. We focus on the content and disregard the form.
Withering of Money:
Marx predicted the withering of the state. Today we see militarily the state is "withered" as no country as it is now can activate herself militarily. The world, in utter surprise, noticed the fact that after the death of the leaders of the war - FDR, Churchill, Stalin, Mao, De Gaulle, etc. - the world has not thrown up a leader. The period of leaders is over, as the state politically is "withering" and is settling down to municipal functions. The basic evolutionary truth of an integrated society compels us to look for the reflection of these aspects of life in Money. Long ago Money ceased to be a thing representing the products of the field and the factory. Later it was given the dignified status of representing the most precious thing in the world, gold. No longer does the currency in circulation represent the gold in the Reserve Bank. Nor does it now fully represent the productive forces of the society defining production materially. It began to represent services too. As the state passed through stages of withering, Money too has passed through stages of losing its most material aspect of being a thing or its representation. It represents Trust between men, trust of men of their government, their social existence. Trust is the most durable form of mental energies or forces. Money can travel further. The mental trust it is today can rise to become spiritual trust. What is it to have spiritual trust in terms of Money? Only the spiritual Individual can see another as a Spirit. One man trusting another as Spirit is Spiritual Trust. Are there slight symptoms of it already? Spirit is infinite. Spiritual Trust is infinite. After the effective introduction of the credit card, Money is mostly reduced to accounting. Handling of currency is coming down. Accounting is a numerical function representing mental cognition that is comprehension. It does represent a transaction that takes place. Spiritual Trust will represent the transactions that can take place thus unleashing the potentials of the Spirit in daily living. Humankind must discover an appropriate symbol that would represent that Trust. It is presently indicated by Money representing the future income.
Social development depends upon the role Money plays, not the social resources, not even the social awakening.
Money is the effective Social Personality determining the extent to which its resources are utilised by its awakening. The rich lands of Thanjavur do not yield one fourth of California lands not because the soil is not fertile, but because the agricultural personality of the farmer is unorganised. Water is copious, land is fertile, and the tradition of cultivation is over several thousand years. Israel is a desert. The nation is less than a century old but her productivity is ten times higher because the farmer is educated, he is informed of the latest agricultural practices, he conducts researches. Mind was born in Greece. It made Europe seek science. Mind was born long before that in China where Mind was taken to its acme. But it was applied to life. Aristotle applied mind to the inquiry of Nature. Hence Science was born. In India mind was born earlier than in China. Its philosophic urges were famous. Mind in India was applied to Spirit. What matters is not mind, but what it is applied to. Neither China, nor India, nor even Greece pursued the inquiry of Science. It was left to Europe. The USA applied Science to work, organised work. Hence its prosperity. Money is the personality of the society. Only its measure of organisation will determine the measure of social accomplishment. Education did not spread in India. Education spreads in the nation only when it is commercially viable, which means Money is the determinant. No temple is popular if the collections are poor. The success of religion is determined by Money, as Money is the personality of the society. Britain and Holland are trading nations. Nothing enters their culture if it is not sanctioned by trade. America has invented the principle to evaluate any work in terms of Money. No work can get off the ground if it is not endorsed by its profitability. As of today, the essential value of the society is enshrined in Money in all nations. Only to the extent one works through Money can work be done.
The productivity, creativity, multiplication, self-multiplication and all creative energies of Money come from the subconscious. The surface utilizes merely.
This is true generally for all aspects of society as well as all aspects of the Individual. Its total relevance to the subconscious education and the consequent creation of genius is readily seen. Progress begins in all places in trickles, collects at one point when it is seen by all, called a conscious expression. One who is writing a monograph on Money will do well to describe each role of Money in its subconscious origin and its transition to the conscious form in the Society. Trade originated in the village fairs which had its origins in barter among neighbours. Music has its origins in the joy of the sound. Banks' beginnings can be seen in chit fund. Also we see that subconscious productivity changes into conscious creativity. The subconscious expansion is horizontal and therefore is productive. Productivity repeats the known forms. Being conscious is no mere growth. It is creative in the sense it does not repeat the existing form, but each time creates a new form. Therefore the productivity changes into creativity. This rule extends to the transition from multiplication to Self-multiplication. Multiplication accepts the external energy, the external form and the external field. Self-Multiplication transfers the external to the internal, the social to the psychological, and changes from Nature to Self. The statement clarity of thought is a contribution to peace in the context of Suez, Algeria and Vietnam gains significance. Intellectual errors lead to irreparable losses militarily. Behind this lies a vaster truth contained in absence of social ostracism, minor or major, makes psychological freedom effective, enchanting. The Individual who seeks to create Money in endless quantities will be vastly helped by knowledge of each aspect of Money. Their absence is a hindrance to creating Money. Their presence is a help in doing so. The freedom to create Money is a subconscious freedom deeply felt in one's physical substance. Doubts, hesitations, confusions, unclarified conceptions are effective bars to efficiently releasing a copious supply of Money.
Money is an institution born in the depths of the society and buried in its subconscious reality. It is not like other institutions imposed on the society from above.
Money is terra firma while traffic rules, government compelled education are like brick structures man has created. Money is vital force. It grows from the physical reality of work, production and existence. Therefore it is true, solid, and reliable. It gets organised at all levels. Organised at the level of physicality, Money becomes a coin, helps exchange grains, cloth, food, etc. The coin being easily transportable, it can travel miles more easily than the bulky products, and there can be in store or reconvert itself into other products. Physically organised Money, the coin, physically ‘moves' objects. It is one of its various functions. What do we mean by physical organisation? Man's physical work, its result, the produce or product, its carrying over distances, its safety in transit, its storage, its reconversion into another product, the people related with such activities are functionally related in an organisation so that each input can have the possibility of receiving all the benefits of all the components forever. The gain may be less labour or more practical benefits all in the physical plane. One truth of an organisation is the scope of one receiving the benefit of all, if necessary, is opened and almost a subtle system mentally agreed on by all concerned. A similar organisation with a greater effectivity arises in the plane of vital. Money being a vital force representing physical work, under a system created by the mind, in this plane we see all the effects combine. A plot is sold or agreed to be sold. Circumstances change. Land becomes plot and Money value shoots up. Disputes arise. If not, disproportionate benefits arise. It can arise and reward the beneficiary because Money is there as a vitally organised force to bring the benefits of the mentally organised urban centres to god-forsaken outlandish parts. Suppose Money is not there. How can the owner of the land receive any benefit higher than normal to that life? A plot may become IMPORTANT without offering social benefits to the owner. Now, the presence of Money acts as a medium to shift large chunks of the urban power to the rural folk. Money is stable, not skin deep, not shallow. It is enduring, durable. It is reliable, long lasting, has no power to change as other things.
Fields that have been enormously benefited by measurements, scales, and tools of measurement are many. Medicine and Money stand out among them.
Money was born as a countable coin whereas temperature, sugar, BP, etc. are scales constructed. Mother said to offer an analogy is to mentalise an issue. Westerners are mental and do not need the assistance of an analogy or illustration. When offered one, they may take it as an insult. In reading The Life Divine, no one born in the West or East can straightaway take in the idea. They are so far removed from our life. Even when one comprehends, it will be a comprehension of an empty statement devoid of significance. An analogy enlivens the understanding. It gives body to the grasp, putting flesh and blood into what the idea is. One such typical example is the Real-Idea. The above statement about the value of measurement is an important fact about the Theory of Development. Imagine the field of medicine devoid of all these tools. Its effectivity will be shrunk very much, may- be it will lose 80% of its present day pre-eminence. In the case of Money it is all important. How will the investors know of the company if there is no balance sheet? How can an executive be evaluated in the absence of measurement? As speed enhances the use value of Money, the measurements too do. The Exchange rates are of prime importance in international trade. The rate of interest is such a powerful tool that by raising or lowering 1% of it sometimes even ½ % of it, one is able to manage the market trends. The power of Money, its power to run away can be handled by this measure. Governments know the exact amount of currency in circulation. They know even their velocity of movement. In the West it is put at three while in India it was taken to be two. I am not sure whether exact measurements are instituted. Obviously, other economic factors apart, by trimming the administrative procedures, removing rules that are anachronistic even in India the two can be moved to three or at least towards three. That alone can change the face of Indian economy. Presently the bulging population and urban migrations are two major factors that have made India the 12th wealthiest nation in the world. Poverty remaining unaltered, this fact alone made the Western investors gravitate towards India. There does not seem to be any conscious appreciation of the value of these tools even in the economic sector at least to the point of instituting more of them or streamlining the existing one. Comprehension of Money increases considerably this way.
Scales and Measurements.
- Knowledge is power.
- Precise knowledge is creative power.
- Measurable knowledge is knowledge turning into power.
- Measurable knowledge graded makes knowledge power in the measure we need.
- Creation of instruments is a creative moment.
- An instrument is the material form of mental knowledge where conception has become sensation through saturated perception.
- So, scales and measurement are occasions where gathered knowledge changes into power at a higher level to initiate progress into evolution.
- Once a tool is created it does by itself what man has to achieve by his willed dynamic initiative.
- Technology creates a physical tool.
- Organisation is a vital tool created by the mind.
- Values are spiritual tools in all planes as they are skills through which the Spirit can express.
- Pursued to the end the spiritual, mental, vital, physical tools can convert involution into evolution as the sub-atomic particles revealed they are subjective.
- Scales, measurements, tools, values are instruments of efficiency.
- Efficiency abridges Time, Space, and Energy at the levels of productivity, creativity and even evolutionary progress.
- Abridging one of them indirectly abridges others. It is a partial inefficient progress.
- Consciously abridging all the three simultaneously converts productivity into creativity and the latter into evolutionary movement.
- Computer serves as a physical tool for many such measurements.
- Internet offers all the invisible potentials of progress that is evolution.
- The Americans measure with the computer the distance a player runs in a football game and compares it with his other performances.
- When 68% of the college graduates believe in the existence of the devil, such measurements have made America rule over the world. These TOOLS have the power to make a superstitious nation rule the world intellectually, culturally, economically, politically and militarily.
- Money lends itself to measurements in its movements.
Such measurements help Man to shift Money from a lower status to a higher status - from being a thing, a transaction, an organisation, power, force.
- Creation of such tools and measuring the movements of Money one can saturate the world with Money that is power at which point it begins its Multiplication or even Self-Multiplication.
- Even before such tools and measurements, the individual can get the ESSENCE of such measurements by perception and sensation.
- Right conception leads to initiate perception and sensation.
In the Process of creation Time precedes Mind. It is Mind that divides the One into the Many. In this sequence there is a mystery, a mystery of the Ego. It is one secret of creation. Ego, preceding Time is the sequence of formation of ignorance. But Mind that divides the One into Many making the ego formation possible follows Time. It is a mystery as well as a reversal. It is a secret that one can feel, not understand.
In the crossing of the golden lid HE speaks of Overmind as a dissimilar similarity. The apparent change in the ORDER is the Key. It helps that subtle perception to change into causal sensation. Knowledge of Supermind becoming Overmind helps in converting Overmind into Supermind.
Money creates law and order and maintains it.
Society initiates endless activities all the time. The initiation, continuation and consummation of these activities are determined in succession by the intention, the energy it releases, the force it becomes by the direction of social will, by the available social organisation that converts it into social power and the social skills the population possesses. As production represents Money or is represented by Money, peace - law and order - the foundation for production is more vastly represented by Money. Positively Money can build law and order; negatively it can degenerate law and order. As elsewhere, this is not only true of Money and law and order. It is vice versa. As a principle of social change in either direction, it is true of every social energy or force. In the absence of Money, Law and Order cannot be raised beyond the prevalent level. Cement and concrete are recent inventions. Lime was their predecessor which was preceded by mud. None of our temples, especially their high towers could have been built by mud. It was made possible by lime, its advent. Think of every construction since the advent of cement and concrete. It is more so with the cement that works instantaneously under water. None of them could have come into existence if cement has not been invented. Society is a growing structure. Any new higher aspect invented takes it higher still. If withdrawn, that part of the edifice with collapse. Money is a higher organised entity which is constantly organising itself at greater heights. As it rises, it raises the society that uses it. In a new neighbourhood plots and properties are sold and bought. They are ruled by the laws of the society. When those laws are respected by all the community, peace prevails. Where peace unquestioningly prevails, prices soar. It is a function of Money. Rising prices is a social phenomenon of social power transferring itself to property through the sacred sublime auspicious of Money. A school, whose reputation rises, raises its cost. A musician who enjoys popular support is permitted by the entire community to receive the adoration of the population in silent peace which is officially described as law and order. Her price soars day by day. At its bottom is the phenomenon of law and order. What is law and order socially is called peace and calm spiritually. It is the spiritual peace that descends on the society as stability. Money plays its part all along.
The greatest potentials of Money are in poverty. It requires a genius of social progress to discover that.
The phrase idiot-genius is what we know. It is not known that one is an idiot because he is a potential genius. This is a spiritual truth expressed in the Infinite emerges from the infinitesimal. It is so because it is the Infinite that in the process of involution and self-absorption changes into the infinitesimal. The essential truth in the infinitesimal, idiot, and poverty is the same. Sociological observations are void of significances if they are not based on psychological perceptions. It is said the poor man is poor by choice. Karma lays down that one is poor by his past karma. Insights into the past births reveal that one has taken pains to be poor and was tending towards absolute poverty. In the choice of birth the soul endeavours to fix the experience it seeks in one birth. Situated in Force, this choice has a destiny that is fatality. Situated in Being, the soul needs no such experience in the vital plane. In that context, what it seeks is to accept a given situation and flower through that in such a fashion that the structure of that situation is transformed to the opposite. In the plane of Time, the soul is dormant, a witness. Its being a witness is to allow Nature to act as she chooses. In the Timeless plane the soul is immutable. Only in the Simultaneous Time, the Soul emerges through the form of Time to perfect the Form. The result is Nature gives way to the evolving Soul and Lila is one of the play of Being with Being. If this spiritual basis is acceptable, it is easy to concede that the poorest of men is one who is preparing himself in the reverse to enjoy the greatest wealth when transformed. For one who knows the sublime ways of generosity of people of abundant wealth, the ways of the poor man is spent exhaustively to shun spending money, in devising ways of how to accomplish without involving Money. In that sense he knows all the ways of rich abundance. He will be trying all the rules that avoid waste, all the avenues of efficiency. Only that he attempts them in darkness, in ignorance. The capacity to exercise ignorance to accomplish is a great capacity. What is needed is the decision for transformation. Once that decision is taken the entire structure needed is there. It can be done by moving to utter truthfulness too as ignorance is falsehood of one type.
To know Money fully, one has to see it from every side of the society
To benefit from Money or anything else, one has to know all its potentials. To do so we have to know Money as it knows itself. It is a theme of integration. Presently we use Money as students avail of the facilities in a university. Most students do not know the academic potentials of a college. Those few who know are not interested in availing of them or are incapable of availing of them. To emphasis the inadequacy of man, we can say Money is utilized as much as computer is utilized in government schools in India. To know Money is a theoretical effort, I am writing this section to show the importance of the other man's point of view. In schools we rarely used to think the student has a point of view or the parent has a point of view. Can we conceive that Money has a point of view? Money will enjoy bringing out all its present potentials and creating new potentials. This is an endless topic which will savour endless repetition unless we see Money as we should see. In insurance there is an essential difference between life insurance where one gets the full policy value at the end and all other insurances where only the risk is covered. Such a difference is there in others also, in Money too. The rule is one aspect seen in one place will be there in all other places in other forms. I would like to say that it is the other man's point of view. Higher population raising Money value is not yet perceived by any. Each time a new vehicle arises, such as paper currency, cheque, credit card, we are sure new values arise in Money. I am sure even in paper currency there will still be unused potentials. Readers do not know the writers as they know the writing. A writer is always pleased when new readers appreciate fresh points. Is it not a fact that Hamlet is not fully unravelled yet? Even the causes of Depression or the WWI are not yet clearly spelt out. To offer VRS with full pay till retirement was introduced by Tata long ago. The eight hour day was in Tata before London and New York. Hire Purchase was a US invention. By an elaborate legal system it can gain the same status as currency. Even the credit card has not replaced currency. Quantitative as well as qualitative work remains to be done. Any organisation that comes forward to do three items such as complementary currency will break new ground. Money offers infinite scope in infinite directions.
The distinction between cost, price, commission, freight, demurrage is very important to devise scales, measurements, tools.
In education we can see the parallel for the educationist between hearing, listening, understanding, accepting, decision, determination and commitment. We can boldly say that cost accountancy made Carnegie wealthy. Cost accountancy is one of the earliest processes of integrating time, energy, work, result, etc. in terms of efficiency. Maybe the world after devising cost accountancy gave up that approach forever in that field as well as in all other fields. A three months repair job is reduced to eleven hours. Imagine the tools employed. List out the mental tool, social tools. Consider the proposition that the tool of clock helps the plane of time to be effective as well as another proposition that without the value of punctuality clock is rendered useless and Time ineffective. Examine the Herculean effort of abridging time like this and see the role of discipline of men that made it possible. Imagine the original organisation of WORK that executed the repair in ninety days. It enjoyed the reputation of American efficiency. Trace all the transformation that organisation passed through in quantity, quality and the changes it demanded in the participants. Even the energy used in the beginning and end would have been qualitatively different as quantity does not increase without quality changing. Different instruments must have measured the variations of energy along this transition. Whether the same men executed the job acquiring higher skills or different men - engineers replacing technicians, workmen - the end work enjoyed a totally different organisation of men and materials. Now transfer the analogy to the New York slums where men in seven weeks moved to middle class. Look at the boat man turning into a steel magnate. Follow such changes ONLY in terms of Money and the changes it underwent. It will help appreciate the value of the statement that is the title. Stingy men in this journey should have changed into generously spending lavish barons. Money value, accounting value, waste, gift, inevitability, waste becoming precious product, an idea bringing about that change, the corresponding change of idea in the consumer, the social endorsement that rises or disapproval that feebly resists are all reminiscent of a Robber becoming the Ruler exercising his own innate evolutionary resourcefulness to rob the people in as many ways as possible. The work needed to fully enjoy all the possible present and future resources of Money is not to be planned by a single mind, but by the spontaneous rising of the collective Mind sailing into social action simultaneously at all points of the society.
Earning is not Money, nor spending, nor saving.
Money is a social institution, a reinforcement of the social structure, only that the structure is a growing one and the reinforcement a living one. Internationally acclaimed experts in education mistake teaching as education, not to speak of the simplistic delusion that a degree represents education. It is a common misconception among the non-scholar public that government is synonymous with society. In this decade known as information age a very strong Maya is that information is knowledge. Obedience passes for surrender, conformity for chastity. It is easy to overlook the fact that chastity is a condition of the mind not the unpolluted condition of the physical body. The aim of this writing is to deliver the Individual the psychological capacity to multiply his Money by virtue of being a spiritual Individual - an individual who seeks to express his Spirit. I am tempted to persuade myself that that aim will begin to be well served if he sees the above fallacy and feels Money is a living force serving as a reinforcement to a growing society. Any growth breaks the existing equilibrium to reach an equilibrium at a higher level. The society is such a living organism that not only is the above truism true but another mysterious truth also emerges. The organism the society is demands the equilibrium constantly be maintained as it is growing. We may call it a dynamic equilibrium. Money, as other aspects do, helps maintain that equilibrium. To do so or in doing so Money maintains internally an equilibrium of growth. The vibration by which society is held and is held by all other forces of it, is harmony. Earlier, I said, when that harmony was wantonly disturbed rudely in 1929, society that was in a BOOM making the effort to keep the peak the average was deprived of its glory. She had to first restore her equilibrium lost in the vital. She restored it in the physical and for that purpose shattered the obstacles of rigidities valid only to the physical. This harmony, if maintained, will avoid all possibilities of such lapses the least of which are devaluation, inflation, deflation. Honour in transaction understood as honesty does duty to that in smaller occasions. Man's honour with the society richly expressed through Money delivered through the vibration of harmony will endow him with the social creativity in the Individual. It is this that makes him a genius, a multiplier of Money.
The Psychological origin of Money in the society as well as in the Individual.
Money is a power and a symbol. It rules the world. Man in the collective submits to it gladly. Man, the Indvidual, longs to be possessed by it. There is no work that cannot be done by Money. It is as powerful as a war and conquest in it. It is a Force nothing has been able to resist so far, not even its creator. It carried its power in all the forms it has appeared. It has occupied Man's mind at its centre and has made him think abstruse topics in its terms. If Money has failed to rule any other force, it is Romance. At lesser heights, even that sublime vibration has consented to be influenced by Money. A power that is a symbol is greater than usual by virtue of its being a symbol. A power, a symbol, a force of the collective possessing the Individual is irresistible. Man emerging from that possession and possessing it first acquires the knowledge of what it is. Such a mental knowledge releases the mind. The same becoming vital knowledge releases the vital power to possess it. The vital knowledge can be emotional or sensational. Its becoming physical knowledge, knowledge of the body is mainly of the physical sensation. Physical emotion is more powerful and is called passion. The yogis of India have shunned it so much that it is difficult to find sannyasis who will receive it. In the case of one, even the touch of gold created a reaction even if he has not seen it to be gold. He has physically in the sensations rejected gold. It is the negative side. We seek the positive side of possession without attachment. Money began as work and the results of work, when it is energy. It became the collective energy, particularly the energy in exchange when it represented the collective vital power. The generation of energy, its spreading to the collective from the individual, its being endorsed by the collective vital, that dividing itself to become the individual energy and finally that coming to hold it in venerable adoration in its emotion is one essential process of Money organising itself into power. From there it has reached the mental comprehension where mind has given it an organised form and released its sentiment for it. That is the role above. Below is the body without whose endorsement and enjoyment nothing in our world is established. Vital's power, mind's understanding and organisation, physical sensation's welcoming possession creates Money in the collective. He who seeks knowledge of Money must psychologically expand this outline into a clear-cut thesis of emotional understanding. That is knowledge. It will become power when his emotions along with the physical sensations are proud of it in utter understanding detachment.
The Army founded the nation-state; Money will found the World Government.
The emergence of the nation-state is a landmark in social evolution. It was done by the army. The army was physical. In this formation, Money played an important secondary role as the army got its supplies mainly by looting. No longer can looting be officially or practically practised. The general who was the King slowly saw the importance of politics. Over the last few centuries the nation-state was presided over not by the general but by a leader who represented the people. In that measure Money was gaining in significance. It is a shift to civilisation, Mind ruling over the body. The future World Government is seen in its embryo in the European Union. EU was created by the Euro. The dollar rules the world as the unofficial world currency; but Euro was an official currency. EU created the Euro; the Euro created the EU. Both statements hold good. The creation of the government in a country was done by the political stability that is peace. Behind it was the army. When the peace was disturbed, the police restored it, failing which the army restored it. If army too fails, the nation disintegrates into a tribe. Army represents the physical force, the main force. Civilisation requires renunciation of force and resort to rational thought as well as rational living. The norms of such a living are enshrined in Money. Man, who rises above the nation state, desires to rise and continuously rise in his living standards. One of them is copious traveling and constant communication, both of which technology has made possible. Continuous rise in living standards is the secret held by the continuous rising value of the currency. In the gross, this rise is in proportion to the rise in population that uses and honours the currency. It is an argument for the states to come together. Every advancement, be it in thought, living, organisation, technology, or culture raises the value of the currency. The birth and functioning of the EU confirms all these truths. There is talk of an Asian currency. World currency is only one step away which is the penultimate step to World Government, Sri Aurobindo's third dream ─ the first being the independence of India and Asia and the last being the birth of the Supramental Being and India becoming the Jagat Guru. Law that unites in organisation has had its teeth in the army. Now that power comes from Money that is common currency. Man was beaten into submission by the bullet. Now he is to be lured into prosperity by Money whose value is constantly rising, before he is educated into cooperation. The unity that is there in the Spiritual basis is to be rediscovered in the basis of material, moral living.
Universal Education, Universal Suffrage, Universal Prosperity
Civilisation created power, acquired knowledge, became prosperous. Military leaders created powers and became kings. The next king should be one who could rule, but circumstances enabled the leaders to appropriate it to their family which was held in veneration by the population. It is theoretically and idealistically true that the power belonged to the people but in practice, it is the people who admired the prince. It was not a path of social evolution but in the fixities created by the physicality of mankind it held valid for 2000 years. Knowledge was nebulous in the sense no one could monopolise it. Still it was denied to the vast majority of the population. It was believed that that majority denied themselves that education. In the widest sense, which is the true sense, power, education, and prosperity cannot belong to one person or one class, as it is truly created by the entire society. No President today can claim the wealth of the nation as his own which monarchs did earlier. The general, the priest, the wealthy are in every true sense only repositories of the national power, knowledge and wealth. Power was monopolised by a family till another general took it away. Knowledge was monopolised by a class or caste by practically denying it to others. That no one is excluded from prosperity is evident, but wealth accumulated in a few hands. The sentiments of egalitarianism apart, for the continuous evolution of the society, it is necessary that power, knowledge and prosperity belong to all. Universal education opened the doors of knowledge to all which prepared the world for universal suffrage. Now power has gone to the population through democracy. Democracy has extended education to all. Without a high level of prosperity, power and knowledge are powerless for man to emerge as the Individual. Society develops its own tools to achieve its own aims. Money is the very tool created by the society to equalise wealth among the population. The power of Money to transfer social power to an urban centre, the power of the producer to the trader was touched upon. In the 20th century Money has been actively, if invisibly, transferring social power from the rich to the poor. The communists have recognised this role during periods of inflation in the other direction. Money is to prosperity what democracy is to power. Society admits charity and service as superstitions but does not approve of them. Conscious men became leaders, possessed knowledge, and accumulated wealth. It is unrealistic to expect men in those centuries to voluntarily distribute what they acquired. Of course, Asoka voluntarily renounced war. The Rishis never claimed exclusive possession of their realisation. Smaller minds always try to possess what cannot be possessed. Hence society acts on its own to restore it to the original owners through democracy and education. Now Money plays that role in the society. Though it is natural to possess and they ruled for so long, what happened to their offspring? The power never got transmitted to the subsequent generations unless those generations exhibited these capacities. The Spiritual knowledge of India is too big a plum for the small human mouth to chew. Those who attempted it got the skin, but lost the fruit. The fruit always remained with those who pursued it with the selfsame vigour of the original sages. The case of power distributed through democracy and knowledge through the system of education is there for us to see. The ease of spiritual knowledge is very basic here but it is not pertinent, as we have abridged it as academic knowledge. Karl Marx saw it and gave a call to the proletariat of the world to unite, break their fetters, and expropriate the means of production. It led to the Russian Revolution and seven decades of State economy and secret police, without achieving the goal in USSR. The goal is achieved all over the world. The instrument of achieving is Money. Till World War II the centre of human consciousness was in the upper classes. Money served them, transferring from the rest of the population more than their due. After the war, Money serves a new master as the centre of collective consciousness has shifted. Society is slowly becoming conscious of its own prerogative to develop every one equally. The Individual is capable of becoming fully conscious and need not move as the society does slowly. Such an Individual can create wealth out of all proportion for himself. Just now, in the person of CEOs they do it for the companies they preside over as the company provides the organisational base for wealth creation. In the Individual that basis is the basis of consciousness, consciousness of his own universality. In the measure he SENSES it, he becomes that instrument. Money is trying to develop that Individuality as it has successfully done it organisationally. Money is acting as the means of production Marx spoke of. Not only Money, power and knowledge, but every power of the society belongs to all equally. It cannot be otherwise in the very nature of things. To recognise this role of Money in its collective and individual aspects, to recognise the role of a conscious individual with respect to the society, to see Money is offering economic democracy to people, and to practise them are the aims of this book.
Abolish caste, class and status
Caste confers no real superiority, but in India it was an instrument of tyranny. Class gave no real power in Europe, but the aristocrats enjoyed the psychological illusion of being superior. The USA shattered the distinction of class by freedom to work and enjoy the fruits of work by which wealth accumulated there. Accumulating wealth directly led to rising levels of education as the Americans understood the value of education in raising productivity. Wealth and education shifted the centre of the world from Europe to America. Europe has not lost anything real except its illusions. In India since independence, untouchability is abolished by law, the oppressed are raised by the prerogative of reservation. What is lost for the higher castes is the unfair advantage they enjoyed till then in education and employment. With higher education reaching higher levels of saturation and unemployment replaced by scarcity of skilled workers, even that will be lost. Ever since its inception, technology is offering the poorest what was exclusively enjoyed by the rich, as we now witness in the cell phone. Partially we see the phenomenon of rich not losing, but the poor gains. It is moving to the stage where no one loses, everyone gains. No more of win-lose, but win-win games. Inequality in wealth will be abolished in one stroke by a world currency by which all currencies will have the same value. The unfair advantage of low wages for the rich will disappear. Wages in India in 40 years have risen 100 to 200 times abolishing poverty in that measure. Suppose wages are still one rupee, who gains? The close preserve of the Ashramites of the Samadhi will be lost when each devotee invokes Mother from his home. Money is doing it by technology, law and population. Suppose the rupee is replaced by the dollar, what is lost? Nothing but the unfair advantage of the low cost production. It is rarely realised that by keeping this imbalance, the world as a whole loses. The middle class in India which has moved to the status of upper middle class could not have risen if the wages were kept low. Wages rose by MAN realising his social value. When Man realises his individual value, the world currency will emerge. What democracy and education have done in politics and knowledge, currency will do in economics.
Money enjoys our understanding it more than our cherishing its use.
An eminent educationist said that the child prefers learning to eating or playing. Playing is physical, eating is vital, learning is mental. Obviously the higher faculty is more attractive. The college gives a degree. A professional college offer degrees that secure jobs. Its research faculties give knowledge which may not often end in a degree or secure a job but will be scintillating higher mental exercises from which one cannot easily wean himself away. An eminent English writer could not put down Dumas's novel The Count of Monte Cristo which he began in the morning till late at night. The book absorbed him. He was not simply reading the story which cannot hold one's attention like that. Being an author himself he was seeing the creative faculties unfold through the events, characters and the plot. Hence the interest. The more you use Money the more it comes to you. But the force of attraction in both these cases pales into insignificance when Money sees that your mind understands its structure, urges, functioning and the process of movement and expansion. A child commented when two of his grandmas were at pains to fully engage him and entertain him, ‘Grandpa make me laugh'. The grandpa is one who loves children and loves to please them. The child has a sense to discriminate it from the attention of grandmas. Money has a future not easy for anyone to fathom. Its past is recorded. From its recorded past we can know the stages of its growth and what other social forces helped Money to grow. At each stage of transition the subtle force of Money interacted with all the subtle forces of the society to create a positive atmosphere of 1) social progress 2) expansive growth of Money. When Money conquered space kings extended their kingdom stably. Money conquered Time and the world jumped a few decades in a few years. Such acts were not the sole achievement of Money or Time or Space. All the social forces acted simultaneously in synchrony to create the subtle power and the invisible and visible results through the subtle plane. Aristocratic Europe sought the patronage of savage America even from 1800. The role of Money was dominant there. All the valuable arts collections migrated to America. All the Nobel Prizes shifted to America. To precisely fix the role of Money in its direct and indirect action will make Money enjoy our understanding it.
Characteristics of EU in Money
Robert Cooper says EU is not a mere coming together of 25 states but it is a different system, a system which reverses the earlier characteristics or the characteristics of the earlier system. The old system was aggressive. No longer does one nation in the EU, (especially France now never thinks of invading Germany) think in terms of war against another. Competition is replaced by cooperation. Laws of one nation ─ e.g. parking rules ─ are implemented by another nation; borders vanish. In that measure ego of the nations is shed. Money in great quantities offers a power to the possessor. It is a power of domination, a characteristic power Money enjoyed for long. Now the accumulation of Money has the opposite character. It seeks indifferent borrowers and persuades them to accept higher and higher credit, offers moratorium on interest. The power of domination undergoes a change into the power of submission, a transformation. Studying every characteristic of EU in comparison with that of Money widens our perspective of Money. Not only EU, but every new innovation in organisation has this parallel, a parallel in the reversal. The greater truth of social evolution ‘The more willingly one gives up the short term advantages of power, prestige, profit, the more powerful, prestigious, prosperous the whole becomes' is difficult to follow, though it is obvious. A lower middle class family with the head of the family alone earning offers him a respect with fear. Their deference issues out of dependence; their reverence is based on insecurity. When all the four members begin to earn, fear disappears, respect is for his values not for his position. As there is no dependence or insecurity there is no superstitious deference or squeamish reverence. The family moves into the middle class or upper middle class. Where there was no cycle or motorbike, every member has a car having moved into a five bedroom palatial house which they now own. This is true of any nation and is true internationally. No one loses, but everyone gains. The world currency will readily achieve that. Oppressive organisations change into an arena that fosters absence of minor ostracisms, thus making freedom a socially creative power, creative of the Spiritual Individual. An exhaustive study embracing every dimension is essential to know Money in all its social, evolutionary significances.
Human Value of Currency
The value of the currency was fixed and maintained by the gold it represented kept in the central bank. Now the gold standard is no more. The production of the fields and factories determined its value later. To that the services contributed their mite. The theoretical appreciation of currency has stopped there. In reality the real value of currency began beyond these roles. Production and services are of men, rather Man. It is his value that intrinsically fixes the value of currency. An approach that goes to the first principles rest on the human value. Human value is complex. Mainly it consists of how much Man values himself. Democracy that offers liberty raises his value. His value rises by his health, rights, education, skills, accomplishments, etc. As a rule in the more prosperous nations Man has greater self-respect. It is best understood when we put it otherwise. As the length of the roads rise, the currency values rises. In India eleven miles of roads were added annually in 1947. Now it is the daily addition. The overall rise in wages between 1947 and 2006 is from 25 p to Rs.100 which is about four hundred times. Pondicherry receives about two hundred telegrams a day. They are delivered on an average of three hours delay from the time of receipt. Suppose for some reason that three hours is reduced to two hours and it is true of all-India, the value of currency will rise by this rise in efficiency. The quick spread of cell phones is now doing it. What do we mean by the rise in value of currency? A family of fixed income is able to buy for that a greater amount of comfort, i.e. the rupee is able to buy more. A long list can be provided. All of them would sum up into the rising value of Man. They are,
- The percentage of passes in SSLC rising say by 5%.
- The breakdown in law and order coming down appreciably.
- 5% of the shops refusing to bargain and resorting to fixed prices.
- Banks offering loan in a greater measure.
- Increase of newspaper circulation.
- Increase of rainfall.
- Food in hotels rising in quality.
- Lessening of corruption.
- Quality of products in the market rising.
- Greater inflow of devotees to the temples.
- Increase in tourist inflow.
- Truthfulness of people.
Education and Money
China created an intelligentsia 2000 years ago who ruled her. Oxford and Cambridge and other European universities did the same. In Toynbee's estimate, the foundation of intelligentsia creates a Revolution in 136 years. America rules the globe on the strength of production. The sinews of her production come from the vast measure of her higher education. The founding of a new state goes with the founding of an agriculture college which grew into a university. The cultured Europeans pursued their higher education in the USA shifting the centre of knowledge from Europe to the USA. In India the frontline names in politics, business, education, journalism or any other field are mostly those educated abroad, particularly the USA. It is noteworthy a majority of them had their early education in well-known public schools in India. It is obvious that education moulds the leadership. Education is the part of consciousness that is light without will. The will part of consciousness is represented by Money. What education does by enlightenment without power Money can do by power without enlightenment. In an earlier period of history we see Money alone qualified one to leadership. We saw it was crude. Obviously a combination of education and Money is desirable. If the above view is acceptable, what can the schools do to take it further? Education makes a man rise and shine, if for any reason he is endowed with character. Otherwise the role of education is subdued, bringing up the rear. Leadership is of personality. Education moving from memorisation to thinking or understanding has created a wide spectrum of able leadership at the middle or upper middle level. Even memorisation produced outstanding leaders, but we understand it is not by memorisation but in spite of it. Moving education from understanding to thinking, education can produce an able leadership of high quality that can fully fill the top layer of the world. Thinking of Life, as distinct from abstract thinking, gives life education. It creates personality. What education does from knowledge side when it is trained, Money does from the side of will as witnessed in the Nattukottai Chettiar community. Such a training on the scale of academic education has never been conceived of so far. Now that general education is not low, founding of such a system will fulfil itself far better than in the Chettiar caste. It is worth seriously considering. The question is, if we can create a new system, why base it on Money, why not base it on the blend of knowledge and Money? The Spiritual Individual is based on NOT human personality but the personality of the Spirit. To plan and execute such a system on any level, comprehensive comprehension of the leadership that will issue from Money is essential and helpful.
Common Currency offers Equality of Social opportunity
Equality of opportunity is not equality. Spiritually all men and objects are equal but appear differently in society. Mental development and moral forms differ while the basis of Spirit is the same. Extending the logic to the society, we can as well say that all men or even all nations are equal in social participation and take on different levels of accomplishment in various social results. Once the higher perception rises, the difference in form does not matter. It has the capacity to become equal by itself. Till then, the endeavour at equality has its right to exist. Democracy gives equality of opportunity which is reinforced by liberty. Equality is no goal to the society nor is it necessary to achieve it for social evolution except in the measure its absence hinders the latter. As equality of opportunity facilitates the free exercise of human faculties, the right to equality facilitates the development social faculties, or the faculties of the collective society. Money that represented the product, moved to represent human transactions and later social productivity. Now it represents human Trust. At each of these levels Money serves different social purposes. At one crucial point Money that is an economic force changes into a social force capable of developing the social personality in the individual and in the collective the formulation of the social power into a divine instrument. Sri Aurobindo said Money won from the Asura and offered at the feet of the Divine Mother will become a force that can divinise the society. Education and Money function in the society differently as knowledge and will function as different entities in human life. To blend education and Money is to create the Real-Idea in the society. If any instrument is capable of doing it, it is the currency. The more individual currencies merge together to let a common currency emerge, the better the currency is suited to integrate education with it. I concentrate on Money often digressing into education. The institutions of language, the vehicles of transport, the forms of architecture that symbolise Man's aspiration for the Divine, the formation of states taking a nation soul exhibiting the tendency to develop into a world union and a world government are as significant as Money. Money is a force, education is a light, state is a form, communication is energy in movement, transport is a mode of conquest of Space, the evolving soul is the evolutionary centre of the spiritual development seen in the society as its own progress.
Reorganisation of the erstwhile USSR
At $1300 GDP in democratic freedom we see India in a boom, a boom that has attracted the attention of investors all over the world, notably the Americans. Russia is at $6000 GDP per capita. Glenn Doman has demonstrated that crawling rectifies defects in speech, sight, hearing, reading, and comprehension. The body being an integrated organism, this is true and much more than this is true also. As bodily movements rectify the defects of the constitution of the brain, mental decisions can cure bodily ailments. In the human body as well as the humanity that is an organised society, any aspect of it can determine any other aspect it. The ideal of integration is nowhere in sight. All that is happening in the society now is partial. So, these rectifications too are by a partial effort and will be partially effective. In EU we see the phenomenon of economic lure compelling nations to give up war. Certainly this is an incentive that enables nations to do it. As mentioned earlier what was imposed on nations by military superiority is now being achieved at a higher level by a voluntary economic incentive. Dragoslav Avramovich achieved 0 % inflation rate in a state where inflation was astronomical by linking his currency with the German Mark. It was done in a week. Lost economic stability was restored by the stability of currency. In the erstwhile USSR law and order has broken down. There is no market functioning. Politics is in turmoil. Mafia has taken over. (Incidentally this is the negative picture in social stability, the reverse of the business boom in software companies that is the positive growth of a new field where no stability is as yet established.) The Russian states are five or six times economically better than India, a vast advantage. Their currency can be replaced by the Euro without their joining EU. It will raise the $6000 GDP to two or three times that level. That positive economic boom can be dexterously used to rectify all other deficiencies. By joining each aspect of EU, the states of erstwhile USSR can completely reorganise themselves as developed nations when they will be eligible for the membership of EU. There is no great secret here in this strategy. A weak system upgrades itself by linking itself to the strength of a strong system. Drag has demonstrated it. Doman has enunciated it; the Theory of Development proclaims it. We see it is successfully working out in the European Union. What is needed is a full appreciation of the possibilities and a humble decision to avail of them. If done, MONEY will reveal itself as an instrument of Social Evolution.
Understanding Money will enable us to go far ahead in dealing with it. There is a superior method. It is not to exercise the mind.
A country that wants to multiply its Money resources or an Individual who desires it, will be enormously helped by the knowledge of Money outlined in the previous pages. The difference will be the progress in India in 1940 and now. One is like the first generation of education that is stiffly opposed and the other is like the 10th generation education. Even this compares the quantity but not the quality. The power of understanding over memorisation is great. Still greater is the power of non-understanding or non-thinking understanding. Outside India, this thought will provoke laughter. Even inside India, except for those who are familiar with the mental powers of silent understanding, people will act like Westerners. One produces degree holders and the other creates prodigies and geniuses. How is this thought extended in its application to Money? The present life that uses Money can be compared to memorisation. Suppose the world comes to examine this view of Money as it has accepted the reality of pollution and initiated counter measures, the very fact of such an examination will become subtle attention to Money. As in recent years accumulated Money seeks borrowers without security, relying on their creditworthiness, there will be a further burst of Money. The only partial analogy will be the rise of stock value from Rs.10/- to Rs.200 or 300/-. Money will be in a glut and the society will begin to think afresh as to how Money can be meaningfully employed. In the next step, if the world wants to implement it, I can only continue the analogy of the stock and take it to a value of few thousand rupees. All these are unimportant great steps. The real next big step is to use Money with a thorough understanding of its evolutionary value but without exercising the mind, much as the runner in the race or the musicians in the platform are not conscious of the strenuous practice they took. Air is indispensable without which humankind or life on earth cannot survive for an hour, but we are almost unconscious of it and it is in god's abundance. Money will become air. Of course, man's perversity should not pollute it! Before the world honours Money with this knowledge and receives its monetary blessing, the Individual who understands can have no objection to practice it in his life. Such a pioneer must have greater endowments in higher perfections. The experiment may yield some results to man as he is, but to ensure the expected results, the practitioner must adhere to truth. It must be utter truth inside and in outside life. In a corrupt national boom, this is a great avenue for honest public servants.
There is no potential force like Money's forces that cannot be converted into an organisational procedure to be followed by all. The higher forces are only for the Individual, for his own self-discipline. All others can be offered to all others.
Hire purchase, insurance, chit fund, credit card, Visa card, discounting of bills by banks are only a few of the myriad potentials of Money the world is using with advantage. Multiplication occurs without any conscious effort in the unseen invisible subtle plane. Self-multiplication is something few can conceive of. As far as the undeveloped Asian countries are concerned, there are a host of ideas in the West practised for long which are to be directly imitated. The emulating nations have to have two things prominently in mind: 1) The scheme or procedure must be culturally reoriented for the emulator and, 2) the extent of benefit is limited by the organisational receptivity of the host country. That is not a line one can cross safely. We have before us one concrete example in the creation of the Euro. Bankers know the ratio in which each nation took the Euro. That is a known part. The fact that the Euro will have legitimacy in more than one country brings in an invisible power which enhances the value of the Euro as the shares rise in value not in response to what is actually but what is perceived. The value issues from the power of perception. The effect of population is invisible and unseen but is more than real. ABN Amro Bank's experiment with micro-credit has shown that reliability is total. This is something new that credit is returned on its own. It must be understood as a potential of Money surfacing under the conditions of trust. The risk taken by the bank has brought it out, as the Grameen Bank. The potential is Money's capacity to create reliability in a cross section of unreliable population. What the credit card witnessed is a new insight into the field of lending that one can borrow not on solid property but on his behaviour in repayment. To chronicle all these capacities for the benefit of non-users and offer it to them as a kind of training is great. To move to the inner zone is less tangible now, but that is the area where great power is compressed. Already some programmes are there which have seen the generation of non-monetary powers to the bank when the bank utterly gives away the Money and does not ask for it back.
The path of Money is ubiquitous, devious, circular, spherical. To study it one has to limit himself, following it on one path.
This is a theme for integration, of integration. At this stage, we cannot handle integration unless we have studied integration. For the present, it is enough we trace Money on one path till the end. Money on its onward journey takes on itself every possible social character and grows in weight and significance. The fashion in which it grows is our study. For that, one has to start with Money, the thing, if not earlier and end at Money an organisation, if not a social force. In a god-forsaken village, a farmer of six acres of land diligently cultivated when the whole village had gone for well digging. He became affluent overnight in one year. The excess money went into a house of big size. His son went to college, got an M.Sc., and married the niece of a High Court Judge. Money brought him status through education. The boy and the Judge are poles apart socially. Caste played a part but the main role was that of money. Without education, the farmer's money would have gone to raise the price of neighbouring lands. Kurien sacrificed a few lakhs of salary all his career. He denied himself what was legitimately due to him, as he was of the generation of freedom fighters. The Money thus sacrificed brought him in touch with the Chief Minister, Prime Minister, President of FAO, World Bank, WFP and every dignitary in the world. Nor did he lose all the money he sacrificed. Through 168 awards the accompanying cash ranging from Rs.5000/- to $200,000 came to him. Had he been a government official with a monthly salary, in spite of his accomplishment, he would not have risen this high. Money travels down the gradient as water moves losing itself in seepage. When the round is complete, it is capable of returning to its origin or to a representative of it. How then are we to study it? The progression of a thing -- transaction-organisation-power-force-pure force-Divine Force -- is a fully comprehensive outline for the beginning. Studying its role, character, complexity, and colour at every stage is important. Something more important are the points of transition and the actual changes Money undergoes. Organisation multiplies we know. Transaction brings the social power into Money. Even as a mere thing, Money makes the man work himself to exhaustion. Moving from organisation to power, it has the capacity to occupy the centre of social power and control social movements. Positively it can save the world from bankruptcy. Negatively it can ruin the world, unleash war, create a holocaust and usher the world into a boom, initiating a new saga where the hotbed of war declares that war is unthinkable and play the role of successor to war to achieve its negative ends positively. Ultimately it can act as a World Army to found the World Government and pave the way to the fulfilment of Sri Aurobindo's final dreams.
Role of Money is functional as a thing, social in transaction, psychological in evoking trust, spiritual in being a Force. Apart from all these roles, its central role is that of organisation that organises the society at further levels.
Apparently this looks like a repetition. If we receive it as a repetition, it means we miss the new facet of Money that is issued out here now. Earlier we spoke of these same things more from the point of view of the Society. Now we do so from the point of view of Money. There is a world of difference. One question is, if Money has all these facets, where do they meet? How? What is the result and significance of their meeting there? In being a thing Money is a medium of exchange, helps store energy, becomes easily transportable and serves as an incentive for man to exhaust his maximum potentials. Money, a thing, in bringing two people together, permitting one product to be made over from one man to another man, it is Matter by virtue of its symbolism, helps a conscious man transfer a material product to another conscious man. Symbolic matter bringing two points of live conscious minds to recognise the value of one gross product in terms of another material symbol. It is matter becoming conscious in a vital plane by the office of mind. This is pure philosophy. To explain each act of ours everyday to ourselves in this light is to raise our minds to the heights of philosophy. Money is an occasion for us to know the society and ourselves. Money plays that role very effectively because of our abiding interest in it. In a transaction Money opens up the personality of men - the intra-conscient and circumconscient of their beings - to us, creates a web of energies moving in all directions thus creating in the society a new plane of existence, the plane of selective vital relationships made possible by the movement of material products, guided by decisions of mind when the decisions synchronise. Only when Money comes to organise, it finds its productive capacity uplifts itself into creative originality in being able to bring several persons together to meet on a commonly agreed on programme to be implemented according to fixed rules. Money here is creative in the subtle plane and initiates itself into a new capability of multiplying its result based on what is already created by others. Pure creativity is to create Money out of human Trust where man witnesses the phenomenon of one rupee becoming one thousand rupees, much as one seed in the soil gives birth to one thousand seeds. Knowledge is to know what is there. Wisdom is to learn how knowledge acts in the planes of energy and action.
The higher terms expressing in the lower planes makes for fullness.
As the mountain rises, it tends to be a peak that is narrow. In culture, democracy, national virtues what is acquired at the top gradually seeps down, called descent in the language of the Theory. Completion, fullness, wholeness, totality entirety are expressive of several shades of the one concept, but integration includes all. In the integrated state the infinitesimal is infinite. In a case like Money we can conceive of two states of integration. One is integrated Money and the other is a society into which Money is integrated. As Money rises from one state to another, it is mandatory that the previous level is saturated with the intensity of that level. Out of that saturation rises the next level. The known structures are so constituted as each layer is saturated with its own intensity giving birth to the next higher level and leaving each birth severely to itself. This may be enough to generate further higher levels, not for what we conceive of as Integration. Even in integration we speak of a fully integrated state. A democracy is said to have reached an ideally mature condition when each voter is qualified as a candidate. It is primarily done by education, heavily supported by wealth. It is really consummated by his own character and personality. A fully mature democracy may be one where the collective Personality itself has arrived at that maturity. Money as a thing, at that stage, will cease to be a thing but will become Money that is pure power or force. Put in another fashion one can conceive of Money as a force as a thing by another evaluation. Transaction becoming organisation or the thing becoming transaction is more easily conceivable. Imagine transaction becoming organisation. In that case the society itself must be so fully organised and so well that even outside Money mere transaction has acquired the power of social organisation. This GRADATION of levels of existence horizontally and vertically is something one needs to understand and appreciate to fully endorse the above argument. For Money to rise to organisation from transaction it is enough transaction is saturated in its own plane. For it to convert the transaction in the plane of transaction into organisation, society in several other aspects, if not in all, should have reached that maturity where transaction is organisation. To think out each stage, each transition in such elaborate clarity is a sine qua non for the Theory. For the purposes of Money, it is enough the basic argument is comprehended in terms of its applied existence.
Trust is a plane where Money grows, multiplies and when the Trust changes to the Divine it self-multiplies.
While it is a thing Money makes man grow in his capacity. Shifting to being transaction, Money multiplies itself by releasing the untapped productive capacity of the society. Society moving to manufacturing from agriculture, a new capacity of production comes into existence. Agriculture needs lands; manufacture needs a factory and machines whereas the service sector needs no such material base for its productivity. Human willingness to work is the plane in which Money grows. Next Money moves to the plane of human TRUST which creates Money not by the work expending energy but by the mere attitude of mental Trust. That plane multiplies the existing Money which at the point of its growth Self-Multiplies. What is true of the collective is true of the Individual. He needs to have an initial capital. Once he has that it can multiply and later self-multiply. Money having a character of the ways in which one has earned, what multiplies will also multiply that character. Therefore it is necessary to initially earn a substantial character that is positive. It is perhaps the critical mass needed. How the individual can multiply his Money is illustrated by what happens to the investment banking. There are two outstanding examples prior to the Depression of 1929. A beginning with half a million dollars gave $ 636 million in a year or two and another who started with $6 million in a similar period saw it rise to $1300 million. The individual being an individual can witness the result first. Suppose one whose honesty is 70% can raise it to 71%. Such a decision will directly result in a greater in-flow of one more percent of income. Raising it to higher percentages, his income too will rise, not in exact proportion but in a wider way. Up to 99% the process will be productive multiplication. At 100% it turns creative and begins to Self-multiply. The world has been witnessing this phenomenon for over a hundred years, but does not stop and give it the thought it deserves. One is free to receive the increased flow as result. It will give him that much of Money. Based on that real experience of his, if he comes forward to learn this Theory of Money that knowledge will become Power in him. The extent to which it will be real will be determined by his personality. He can create Money for the Society through an appropriate organisation or do so for himself without the medium of such an ORGANISATION.
The Structural power of Money grows in the ascent; its development awaits descent.
This is a general rule or law of the Theory of Social Development. Each plane and the members therein grow by virtue of their exertion that draws upon the resources of that plane. The occasion for development is not fully supported by such energies but they await the energies from above to descend on them. School is for the great mass of children who are unable to utilise the social resources to educate them. In the organisation of a school, there is a syllabus based on the wider curriculum where a teacher arrives with a textbook and a mandate to teach, enters the class as an authority to teach what is there in the textbook. The curriculum, syllabus, textbook, teacher, organisation of the school and its discipline are social resources which the pupil is unable to avail of either by his authority or capacity for organisation. Society does it for the child. It is growth. The boy who has exhausted these resources and is capable of drawing upon the original thoughts that are afloat cannot be helped by the school; rather the school will stifle it. He must seek them from outside the school in the society or in the library. The higher regions of knowledge descend on him so that his mind may avail of the occasion for development. At the stage of transaction Money is a resourceful instrument that can draw upon the unutilised productive capacity of the society thus enabling Money to grow into a vital force of the Society. Rise to the plane of pure trust. It is a creative power, capable of multiplying Money. That power of Trust does not lie in the society as its productive capacity. It is a psychological power of the Individual who is no longer one capable of conforming to social conventions. It is, in its origin, a truly higher power, a power of the Spirit emerging in him. Only that can make him an Individual. Society and conforming it to it can, at best, make him a citizen. The higher you reach for exploration, the higher is the revelation. One sees productivity that is vital-physical transforming itself into creativity that is mental-spiritual. It was Hamlet who said that doomsday was near when he heard the world had grown honest. Honesty spells the doom of the world we live in. Honesty is the truth from above. We live in an organised falsehood called the social plane. Another basic rule of evolution is explained here by implication. Nothing higher can ever be created permanently or meaningfully until the old structure is demolished. The old structure of falsehood is so sensitive and cautious, says Hamlet, that on its serving the advent of honesty, it recognises the need for dissolution. To make this phenomenon clear at every stage of transformation in the long chain of Money's journey helps clarity of thought. Clarity of thought, said Robert Cooper, is a contribution to peace. Right understanding dissolves wrong foundation.
The powers of Money in its highest form still not conceived by humanity can now be seen in its earliest expression of shells. To trace the higher powers in the lower levels and the lower powers at higher levels makes for a completer knowledge.
We know the body has a mind and a spirit. Mother speaks of a material mind well below the body mind. She also mentions a corporeal mind. The Egyptian mummies preserved the bodily form as the embalming had released the material mind into action, says Mother. Shell was a symbol. Imagine the effort mind had to take in the beginning to comprehend that the area of a circle is Πr². It is one thing to use the formula and another thing to comprehend the significance of the formula. Area itself is a concept. The relation between the radius and area is a further step and Õ challenges the mind. Even the one who uses the formula exhibits a certain amount of effort on the part of his Mind. It takes all the energies of his mind as the tapasvi who goes into trance losing all the activities of all his parts of being. Shall we say cannibalism was blunted when the community accepted the shells? One who has attempted to change his anthropomorphic idea of God to conceive of Him as infinite, eternal Brahman can fully know the type of effort the primitive needed to accept the shells as Money. In the heydays of currency we see misers hoarding Money and thoroughly enjoying the act of possessing those bundles of printed paper. To the miser the currency is still a THING as the initial gold coin. It is a rule in His Theory of creation that all the aspects of one plane are found in all other planes in modified forms. To exercise the mind with respect to Money in this fashion is our aim and scope. Take the formulated aspect of organisation of Money when it begins in a pronounced measure. Ten people joining in a chit fund suddenly discover, especially the one to whom the lot falls in the first month that the availability of Money is multiplied ten fold just because he is part of an organisation. Is this organisation in evidence in the credit card or VISA card? Or in the transaction. Can we see it in the shell? It is. Only that the concept of organisation modifies itself to suit the plane. VISA is organisation par excellence. It is an organisation of several concepts of organisation in other planes or other levels of this plane. In the shell ORGANISATION is implicit in bringing the shell into an act of selling or buying, a thing and an act are organised to create a symbol that inheres the social power which it generates. Production is the result of energy expended. Barter or selling is generative of power. We see the inklings of organisation relating energy with power.
Money - Cannibalism - war - Revolutions - riot - anarchy - terrorism
- Money being a mental symbol consumes unending energies of the plane of its creation rendering that plane less raw and more politically civilised.
- Cannibalism, as said earlier, lost its original vigour.
- Outbursts of tempers or clash of interests ordinarily led to riots and settled down as permanent condition of anarchy.
- The world witnessed in the fastest growing city of America, Chicago, unprecedented dynamism when the population grew in fifty years to the extent of a few centuries of growth. She lifted the whole city to five feet higher than the ground level. It was the nest of gangsters, producing Al Capone.
- Warcould be more organised when soldiers were assured of pay in coins instead of relying on looting. The army becomes less uncivilised.
- A riot issues as people are poor, i.e. Money acts as an instrument of transfer to the benefit of the rich. People riot to rob that Money. Even to organise the riot SOME Money is needed in the beginning. Even that cannot be looted as once looting starts riots cannot be stopped. Money has a role everywhere and the character of Money -- the initial Money -- decides the outcome. In such situations wild rumours are afloat that decide the course. One who follows the ways in which rumour shapes and acts can see the exact parallel in Money, its course, how it acts, multiplies, destroys.
- All that I write in this page is indicative of significance and NOT exhaustive of the process.
- Terrorism is a miniature war of the days before the rules of war were honoured.
All wars, much more so terrorism, arise out of the strength of the weak; violence is the response of the weak who imagines himself strong. He imagines himself strong as he has had a past to justify that imagination. Such a justification issues out of a past glory real or imaginary. Fortified by a sentiment religious, patriotic or any non- mental emotional intensity, it becomes fanaticism.
Fanaticism, by its intensity attracts Money and sacrifice.
Emotion devoid of thought shapes as fanaticism by intensity.
The roots of terrorism are at the bottom of these emotions and intensity and the reason why it is devoid of thought or how the available thought is either overcome or made to serve this fanaticism.
Those who have headed Revolutions know Money has been a major determinant in initiating the Revolution. Looking at the formulation of a Revolution among the people as well as among the leadership, the crucial role of Money and how it determined its possibility can be seen. It is more important to see that the character of Money ─ who it serves, for what purpose ─ is also changing along with the changing course of the Revolution. It is here one can perceive the role of Money as a determinant. The First World War originated by an assassination. Indian Independence was immediately succeeded by an assassination. Caesar was assassinated. Lincoln was assassinated at the end of the civil war. Indira was assassinated by the Sikhs. All these assassinations were from the disgruntled defeated who had once ruled. The present terrorism centred in the Islamic countries has among other things several causes of which the prominent ones are
- Foreign Aid. Either the recipient or his rival takes offence. Both are mortally offended by the help which announces the superiority of the Aid giver.
- Behind the intransigence of the Islamic countries lies the Israel-Arab conflict, an eternal quarrel between blood brothers.
- The Jews represent Money. Their Money secures help, support, and aid.
- In that fashion Money has entered the fray since the First World War.
- The Israeli Prime Minister said that Palestinecan be swept into prosperity as Singapore.
- Money can cause the conflict, Money can resolve the conflict.
- Ireland has experienced the unconscious resolution of unreasonable violence by the rising prosperity.
- The roots of terrorism appear as poverty, while they are deeper still. It is the once martial races, empire builders, fanatically superstitious illusionists now rankling under an inconceivable inferiority complex that are its very springs now. In another sense this principle is behind all violence, even the violent wars of the STRONG. What was considered strength, military strength, considered in the context of the world's progress, is real weakness. The cure lies in NOT throwing one's weight about in the fullness of unjustifiable pride, a pride of the uncultured.
The capacities of Money taking shape unconsciously in the society.
Man starts learning consciously not even in the school, but later when he knows what he wants to learn and how it can be acquired. Till then his gathering of knowledge is not conscious, but contains various measures of subconscious elements. The difference or distance between the subconscious knowledge and conscious knowledge is the same as between starlight and sunlight, animal sensation and human thinking, education outside the school and inside the school. Man has the ability to convert that subconscious process of Money in the society into a conscious process by a decision of his. For him to do so, he needs to know that subconscious process as well as the conscious process and in addition he must know how to convert into the other. When a skill is learnt we learn it in the surface and pass it on to the subconscious and not interfere with it. It is the function of Mind. Otherwise the subconscious will take an inordinately long time to learn. Mind receives it on behalf of the subconscious and transfers it to the subconscious and remains withdrawn. When the Mind receives from the Superconscient, Mind receives the instructions and without interpreting them passes them on to the subconscious for execution. In either case Mind is not active, does not exert its faculties of analysis, thinking or understanding. Only in such an attitude Mind functions as the instrument of the higher consciousness. Functioning as it is, its own Mind will be a bar. To understand Money from the higher functioning of the Mind, one discovers that the subconscious is converted into the conscious. It is evolution. It is Supramentalisation. This way of functioning brings down the Supramental consciousness to bear upon Money. That brings out ALL the potentials of Money from the earliest THING to the highest Divine Force. Such a knowledge in the collective enables the society to multiply the Money infinitely and renders it superfluous as air. The same knowledge in the Individual enables him to create ‘infinite' Money to make him individually prosperous. The same Individual with the same knowledge will impact on Money differently if he represents the society. That will be a JP Morgan in a higher context. Morgan avoided a crisis. Such an Individual will create crisis-like opportunities where Money will act as an instrument of Transformation of the Society.
Can Money, as an institution, become Self-conscious?
The present evolution is based on man's capacity to be Self-conscious which means the human soul becomes Self-conscious. To be Self-conscious means to be conscious of the Self, Brahman, in us and act from there. Money is a mental organisation, a vital power, an instrument in the society to guide it in evolution. It is inert; at best vitally self-conscious in the sense the vital force in it cannot be overlooked. Sri Aurobindo spoke of Man winning Money from the Asura to be put at Mother's Feet. Money becoming Self-conscious is the vital in the collective society becoming Self-conscious. It is a far cry for us at present. Anyway to be informed of such a phenomenon and why it is not feasible now can certainly help. Our aim in this thesis is Man, as the Spiritual Individual, becoming conscious of the evolutionary role of Money and using it for his own purposes instead of becoming a slave to Money. This from a higher point of view is partial Self-consciousness, better called self-consciousness. In the Revolutions such as the French and Russian we see the SOCIETY becoming Self-conscious for a brief period, bringing about the necessary basic changes and leaving the rest in the hands of human leadership. On such occasion Man sliding back to old prestige or habit as FDR, Napoleon or Lenin is usual. It happened all over the world in China, India, etc. In this view Revolutions are moments when the Society becomes Self-conscious. We call it social awakening or the ideal coming into its own. In Britain Freedom awoke about thousand years ago and we saw the Spirit of Freedom becoming Self-conscious in their fight against Hitler. France, which underwent the Revolution, because of lack of character could not rise to the occasion, was not able to be Self-conscious against the attack of Hitler and succumbed to it in a facile fashion. Even here in Self-consciousness there are grades. We see Money energising man, activating social productivity, organising trust in members of the society, acquiring social power in a general way and becoming a centre in ONE man or in one institution. Only when Money reaches the level of pure Divine Force can it aspire to be Self-conscious. If, today, anything is so Self-conscious it is the society in moments of Revolution and society does so in its leaders of Revolutions.
Great Souls are capable of Self-organisation. The Spiritual Individual is capable of such a Self-organisation with Money.
The self-organisation is that of the ego, while Self-organisation is that of the Spirit. Every farmer having a fence or watchmen is an organisation demanded by work. It is therefore work-organisation. The whole village deciding not to let loose cattle during the cropping period is social organisation. Bank is a financial institution but also is a social organisation as well as a commercial organisation. The credit card, as it is based on trust - the credit-worthiness of the customer - is more a psychological organisation than a social or financial organisation. A college is a social institution while a scholar in a subject is an institution in himself where we see education moving from the social plane to the individual focus. In that measure, a genius or even an accomplished scholar is a self-organisation of education at a point of transition into knowledge. We say in a certain context law will take its own course as we recognise the independent personality of law as an institution by itself slightly outside the control of the society. An organisation arises out of work and is capable of moving to being a social organisation or human organisation. It can also mature into a cultural, religious, spiritual organisation. Self-organisation arises when the field or organisation acquires a personality or even ego. The same organisation shedding its narrowness, widening into its spiritual expanse with the centre in the inner eternal Brahman will rise to become Self-organisation. The Individual rises through the scale from physicality to Spirituality. At the physical plane, he found his body to be unique, apart from the gregarious collective. At the vital level, a similar individuality makes him the leader, general and monarch. Mentally it raises him to be an expert professional, a genius, and an original thinker. The Spiritual Individual is one who has discovered his spiritual uniqueness in the context of the society. Such an Individual exercising himself to create Money having discovered its faculty of creativity through self-multiplication is capable of creating endless quantities of Money. His organisation can shift from the human self-organisation to the spiritual Self-organisation either within the society or in its own. It is the work of an awakened soul. What Great Souls can do either in Money or elsewhere is something outside our scope here but it is worthwhile thinking of such possibilities in the age of Internet.
Organisation: Subconscious, Conscious, Superconscious.
The functioning of the body, the sensational organisations of the animals, etc. are subconscious organisations. They are subconscious in more than one sense that they are not consciously organised, they are unperceived by the conscious mind and they are flawless. To become conscious is to develop Mind. Memory gives up the subconscious to become conscious. The subliminal memory is ever-present while the subconscious and Superconscient memory surfaces when the act surfaces. They cannot be summoned before the act occurs. Conscious memory can be summoned at will. Subconscious memory presents after the subconscious act occurs while Superconscient memory does not even after the act. Superconscient memory is understanding. It has to be activated through the conscious memory. After the superconscient act occurs, one has to activate the conscious memory to understand it. Here we see the subconscious and Superconscious trying to unite through memory. Both have a non-memory territory. For the subconscious, memory is the conscious part, while for the Superconscient memory is the human part. One faints when the subconscious moves beyond memory. In the non-memory part of the Superconscious, one loses oneself in the hold of the not-self (£µÁ\®). Institutions like Money begin in the society as a subconscious organisation where the society accepts its use value, become a conscious organisation with human direction and planning, moves up to the Superconscient organisation where Money acquires power over the entire community and is available for conscious direction as Morgan did in 1907. The Federal Reserve is the institutionalising of the individual acumen of Morgan. At that point the Superconscient organisation descends itself to conscious understanding and memory. The subconscious aspiration towards the superconscious is initially through memory. Memory is an attribute of the conscious extending to the surface of the subconscious and the lower regions of the Superconscious. Subconscious or the Superconscious organising themselves in the domain of the conscious under its own auspicious divorced from their native dynamism becomes superstition. The subconscious organises primitive superstition. The Superconscious organises religious superstition. It becomes chaos, an organisation of the unconscious, when the conscious gives credence to it. Astrology, if acted upon as a guide, reinforces karma effectively preventing man from reaching the Spirit. Religion where man follows the inspiration of another, organised by conscious direction as religious worship is organised, becomes superstition organised, effectively ruling out the use of Reason forever.
Money readily integrates itself with every aspect of evolving Society.
This book is properly a book on Social Evolution but is taken in a specific focus of Money. Money can be fully appreciated only with the complete knowledge of the society. Society can be so understood only when Money and all other aspects are so comprehended. It is analogous to reading text and criticism. Wherever the context demands or even permits, I have gone on a digression to other aspects such as language, education, etc. One fact is society is multifaceted, rather has infinite aspects which are all evolving simultaneously in 360°. Money is one of them, a latecomer. Of course, the role of money as a symbolic instrument of social cohesion was played by other aspects earlier. For instance, language is such a symbol. Knowledge that observes, identifies, recognises, symbolises is exactly such an instrument but totally subtle. It is impossible though interesting to extend the quest so far. It is not indispensable for us here. Starting at the point when barter changed into Money and its symbols, it is not exactly possible for us to know the linguistic development of the human mind, his extent of social interaction, his capacity to know the environment objectively, his sense of aesthetic appreciation, his ability to fight, more so his capacity to live in harmony with others for harmony's sake or for the demands of social existence, his perception of the astral bodies and their influence on his life, etc. To some extent we can appraise them. To that extent we can imagine the role of Money then. If documents are available then it may take a concrete shape. What is just now readily and precisely possible is the previous stage of Money before the credit card or even the stage prior to paper currency is fully in a recorded version in Europe and much more so in America. The glitter of gold when it is a coin is less when it is currency. To that extent, physical possessiveness loses its charm. No bank can discount a sale on credit when what was expected is cash. Credit sale through a bank can be discounted. Thus trade extends to commercial banking. Banks then require educated clerks where we see the indispensable role of education for discounting bills. Honour developed in trade when trades were illiterate and could not prepare documents. Honour was to trade what memorisation is to education. Absence of literacy integrates trade with ethics. It is certainly possible to locate hundreds of avenues where society evolves and see the role of Money integrating with them. Still one must clearly know that it cannot be exhaustive from the earliest of times. At present it can be never exhaustive.
The Rising Power of Money in the Society and in the Individual.
Consideration of social emotions, social conformity, individual conviction, individual conscience, urges from human nature, universal impulse in us, our own personal impulse at the three or four levels of mind, etc. will throw light on the above theme. A house in a slum and a house in a rich locality are still houses, serving the basic purpose of shelter. How those purposes are served and what those purposes are, are vastly different in stature, structure, content, concept. Money differs vastly with different levels of society, with different periods of history as the society differs. Money is as society is. Money serves social values. It helps their formation, fostering, reinforcing. Money helps the society to grow from one level to another level. When Man wants to destroy the society Money helps that destruction. When Man borrows heavily, Money rises superior to him, insists on its own personality and breaks his back and pushes him down in the society. Money is an instrument. It serves its master whether it is the society or Man. It also has a personality of its own. When Society or Man is out of his depth, Money comes into its own to assert its role. It is not a docile instrument. It is an instrument with a character. The subject of what an instrument is with respect to society and Man is something into which we need not go now. One thing is sure -- Money is not indifferent to ANY aspect of society or the Individual. It does try to integrate with each of them as fully as possible as the context permits or demands. So, we have to know the successive stages of social growth as well as the stages of individual growth so that at each stage we can meticulously workout the way in which the integration with both of them is worked out. It is best done in a recent period where all the facts are documented. Its growth is best observed TODAY when the transition takes place. That pattern will essentially hold good at all periods. The mafia takes note of men when they earn more than $100 million which discourages many to earn further. That accumulated Money inherited does no good is recognised by parents and they give away the best part of it. Society frowns on the filthy rich, no longer looks up to them. One section of people are shy of five star hotels and avoid them. In a country like India, even today, no one is proud of successfully making great money. These are simple public opinions but sifted in terms of the character of social integration the significance of the symbol Money is, its capacity to foster social growth, its sense to the god-seeker will reveal more fully. They can best be appreciated when the ego of the collective and the ego of the individual are fully known in their interaction in the social evolution which is an aspect of spiritual evolution.
Money has to fight for its survival in the Society even as Society struggles for it.
The phases of survival, growth, development, and evolution are inescapable whether it is the Society as a whole or the Individual as a part. This rule is valid for every aspect of the Society, organisation, institution, culture, custom, usage and every other conceivable part of them. Paper currency, the bank's role, gold standard have fought their battles all along. The Great Depression was a fight of Money in its durable form against the Society's capacity to indulge its negative energies. Inflation and deflation are important landmarks in the life of currency. The central bank is the psychological centre of the field of Money-forces of the Society. In the USA an agriculture college sprang up as soon as a State was constituted which was quickly upgraded into a university. In India primary schools opened by the government in the rural parts were to close because young kids were indispensable in agricultural operations and domestic service. We see the phenomenon of a clip becoming a house in the Internet. Will this stray phenomenon come to be established as accepted behaviour and a stable organisation? The Austrian town magnificently experimented with complementary currency abolishing unemployment and raising the level of prosperity. Just because it was a success, it was not accepted by the society. It died a death from which the experience has not yet revived. Drag's success went unnoticed. Success is only one aspect of survival. Survival needs social maturity of consciousness as well as infrastructure. The old should gracefully withdraw for the new to come of age. The rule is a violent break. In the case of the Austrian experiment, the central bank took a perverse stand that no one else could issue currency. Drag met with the age-old rebuff of NOT recognising the success of anyone else. The four phases of development have their parallel of conscious ignoring, conscious refusal to sanction, active opposition, compromise, trying to establish the old in the guise of new and silent dissolution. The entrenched religious orthodoxy in India, in the Islamic countries and in USA are playing these roles as if they are struggling for survival. Such efforts always find ardent support from the highest quarters as Jackson did with currency. The fundamentalists of USA and the White House are in the same camp now with respect to nuclear disarmament.
Money is energy organised and concentrated. It energises everything it touches.
The world has certainly come to recognise the evils of overeating. There was a time when overeating was a mark of status. Any civilised person will be shy of overeating now anywhere in the world. Money is indispensable, but more money than one needs is an encumbrance. Slowly this knowledge is dawning on humankind. Money came into existence when man's productive energies raise their evolutionary status in energy to a point where the Energy stood for a symbol. Primary energy comes out of interest. Interest releases energy and makes the body work for longer hours than usual. Prior to that it was physical energy that urged a man to move or walk. We know the difference between the basic physical energy that dredges and the vital energy that issues out of interest. The idea in the vital mind activates itself as interest and that interest releases the energy of the body. Let us go in for a further finer distinction. Energy of the vital with a physical base called passion is commonly known. Energy of the physical activated by the vital impulse and vital ideal. Distinctions are endless. It is obvious for us that there are differences. Going up, Mind has the energy of understanding. It acts in the vital and physical differently. Mind has the energy of organisation. They too go down to the vital and physical. Then decision releases the energy of the will. All these -- understanding, organisation, decision -- can combine in various ways. Symbolism is different from all these categories. Language is symbolic. Arithmetical numbers are highly symbolic. Mathematics is a science of symbols. Money is conceived of as a symbol, constituted as a symbol, created as an energetic symbol and works symbolically. The energy of the symbol extends horizontally to all its similarities, vertically to all that differs from it. Money energises anything it touches with its own symbolic energy and goes on to release various hidden potential energies of the thing touched. Money is creative in the sense it has created new activities, released new energies. Money is productive in the sense that it activates any productive process. It can be productively creative if it innovates new productive processes. It can be constantly productive when it multiplies its capacities for creation. To look at what happens around us, the distinction between a Demand Draft and a cheque in terms of these definitions, to label the seller's market as different from the buyers' market and define the changing attitudes, to classify them, to describe them, to define them enough for the Individual to use it effectively in his own life is a wide ranging task.
Movement in society is expansion in 360°. It also means extension into the subtle and causal planes to penetrate the subconscient and Superconscient.
The paperclip that brought a house is one expression of such an expansion at the most primary level. It does show the possibility of endless extension. It is for us to explore the truth of it. It is here a theoretical knowledge is of value. Our theory declares that it is possible. What is needed for us is not an exhaustive study, but we need to exhaust our energies in such a study. The instance of the paperclip, the Austrian experiment, Drag's fight against inflation, Morgan's handling the crisis, the way in which gold disappeared from the currency market are such occasions. A German scientist wrote a book Electricity State. Lenin was enamoured of it; the engineer who came to California armed with that book made California what it is today. Imagine a ‘Fiscal State' where every activity will be evaluated in terms of finance and monitored by financial dicta. When electricity was a focus, Money played a secondary role. It can be the reverse. Money can be the focus. In a small sense EU is making the Euro play that role. And there we witness Money playing the positive role of what war played negatively. It is a formidable transformation. And yet Euro is not the pivot of focus. A few centuries ago Army was the centre, before that that role was played by the church. In the first half of the 20th century technology played that role with its being made the spearhead, as the engineer consciously did in California with electricity. To make Money the conscious instrument of nation-building will be giving Money a greater power and she can very well execute her part. The results will be phenomenal. For such an attempt, a fuller knowledge of Money as the title describes is necessary. In India even today if a man is to receive a bundle of currency he will get up from his seat, take off his shoes, grow humble in bodily movements and vital attitudes, receive the currency in total reverence and put them to his eyes as he would do with a temple prasad, keep the money in his inmost pocket and resume his seat. Then he would lose his speech. In rural parts Rs.10,000/- will do it. Even in urban parts the behaviour cannot be missed. Only that each man has a figure when his submissiveness surfaces. What we witness here is the way Money touches his psychological intensities, transforms his social personality, brings out the very best of cultural appreciation of VALUE, (here the value of Money). To gather about a hundred such instances from various fields, analyse them from all the angles of this Theory and explore what Money is and is not is an indispensable exercise. I have not fully discussed even one event in this light. I have refrained from it just spot lighting the essentials.
Money has the curiosity of organised energy which acts on unorganised aspects to organise them, and on organised entities to elevate both of them.
Wherever there is curiosity there begins a quest of understanding. Curiosity is essentially of the mind. The physical responds when it is touched. The vital does not seek but responds with energy of action to forge a relationship. Money came into existence as coin. Soon personal barter was organised into communal trade. As long as education was supported communally with their production it was confined to the select few who sought it in spite of its rigorous discipline. Money came into its own, not only as a medium of exchange or an instrument of transaction, but as a social entity which had the ability to organise itself as an institution. It invaded the sector of education and compelled it to organise. That was the basis of universal education. At least in Europe and Britain travel was by private conveyance or on horseback. It is interesting to see the wide coincidence of a network of roads, springs and a system of transport coming into existence with the period of Money organising itself into its own personality. With the transport came the postal system which was impossible without Money already established as a power in the society. Today manufacturers of cars, two wheelers and a hundred other household durables have discovered what the USA discovered a hundred years ago -- the customer is an asset, is more valuable than his capital. Such a market could be created only by Money, a further organisation of Money. When Money enters the fray, it becomes a deal as it comes with its own inherent organisation as a symbol of social power. The symbol that Money is enables the market to change into an active power, symbolising the aspiration of the population. The credit card has created a market of borrowers not underwritten by their immovable property or even movable assets, but on the estimated credit-worthiness of an individual, regardless of any other disqualification. It looks like the computer chip emerging out of sand on the sea beach. Look at the world through the eyes of Money, you will be able to see much more than you are presently aware of. Negatively we know of hundreds of great projects dying their natural death for want of an insignificant sum of Money. Worse still, other greater projects are stillborn children for want of Money, the midwife.
It takes long for an act to take shape, establish itself in the society and begin to grow into an institution. Therefore to know the process of ascent and process of descent is important.
Periyar started his campaign for Dravidanadu in the 30s. Till 1945 or even 1950 he used to visit his supporters at home. Meetings were conducted in houses with an audience of forty or fifty men. In 1957 they won fifteen seats in the Assembly; in 1967 they came to power. For forty years they are there. Congress has become a splinter group totally dependent on their mean mercy. Rajaji saw which way the wind blew in 1962 and supported DMK. It took the wind out of their sails. They shed the claim of Dravidanadu and the platform of anti-Brahmanism, and became part of the national politics. Acute politicians are aware of the trend decades before they precipitate as irrevocable agents. While cultured ladies considered Chicago gentlemen as gangsters, European capital substantially migrated to America. In the thirties no one in Europe was giving thought to Hitler but his factories producing planes and tanks were in action. Espionage was aware of it. They warned the British government far ahead of time. The Divine Mother said in 1930 the future leader of India was none of the stalwarts around Gandhiji but the volunteer youth Nehru, as She saw the fire in him. The ascent is a process that begins as trickles and ends as a flood while descent is a process where the whole starts to divide itself into trickles. In the process of ascent we see movement, action, consciousness, organisation. In the descent we see what begins as movement, action, consciousness and organisation ends as the same in another plane of Time, the simultaneous integrality. To follow Money in the ascent and descent with the knowledge of the Theory is to know its present and future social power. As in politics the very first step of becoming an MLA is a great step, though in the overall picture it is nothing. One small move in Theory or consciousness is a very big step in life. For the common man, the path is a rising ladder of infinite steps. For the son of the Prime Minister the top post awaits as the work he should have done was done for him by his father. Mother's consciousness is not of this world. One who belongs to that consciousness is always eligible to enter life at the top level. How does that apply to Money? One who understands Money as Morgan did will be in a position to wield political, social, psychological power in the society made possible by the build of his personality. What Money can do can be done by any other social aspect. As Money is power, it will act more easily. Education being light can move the centres of power, as it cannot directly act. What military does by destruction, Money can do by lure or attraction. Anything can do anything but each follows its own path cut out for it by its swabhava.
Before the birth of Money, how was life?
Only those who have known India in the sixties can appreciate the BOOM she is undergoing. Knowledge comes by observation and it is expanded by comparison. Measurement, scale of values makes that knowledge precise. Comparison generates competition. There is no greater incentive than competition in human affairs. To appeal to a sense of competition is to work realistically, not in the air as the idealist tries. The idealism of unrealistic approach appeals to the potentials of human nature, whereas competition is a consummate strategy. It is generally NOT gradual. All the fifty-four eligible farmers who resisted a well loan for over a year, en bloc came to avail of that when the lever of competition set all by itself to work. Someone said a second wife makes marriage, as well as, concubinage an eternal Romance, as competition is ever present. To imagine how life was before the advent of Money, we can pause for a moment and see what can be done without Money. Apart from its so many social values, Money gave man something precious to possess and be fulfilled in that possession. By virtue of its being a shining small coin, its value rises in intensity. It is the first vital symbol in inanimate form in which the vitality of man found the greatest expression of concentrated vital energy. The very first thing we know of life before Money is Man was stationary, tied to his land much like an animal. Money gave him an avenue to go out into the world for other produce, relationship with others, to offer his son an inheritance and the scope for his mind to exercise itself in what is called rudimentary planning. It is the birth of a Symbol. Man felt the power of symbolism rise and possess him. There are animals that cannot look up and see the sky. Man was then like those animals unable to look up to the society, recognise its existence and relate to it meaningfully. The birth of Money was birth of several social facets in Man. Language, tools, village, leadership, Money, wheel, well digging, agriculture, creating a product such as a pen, discovery of energy are evolutionary landmarks in the society. To know the society before the advent of Money is an adventure in itself.
Money is an instrument that relates two or more people with respect to a product. Hence its basic purpose is to unite by organisation. So the birth of Money is the birth of a unit of an organised FORCE.
Man is a gregarious animal because spiritually there is only one body, one vital and one mind. It is the ego that feels the separation. As soon as the primary bodily separation is overcome by a process of civilization, FORCES in life throw themselves up to express that unity. Birth of Money is one. Family, language, education, etc. are other such forces. To know Money in this sense enables us to rise with its rise till we see that Money is a Divine Force. This book or paper will serve its intended purpose if we secure a glimpse of this aspect of Money. For instance, hire-purchase or installment credit was an invention of the USA. All such innovations are adventures in social evolution. Imagine possessive Man desiring to grow endlessly by unconditionally offering his products for an unconscionably long time. We know Man would rather keep his traditional fertile land fallow than give it for lease. It is impossible for his sensitivity of possessing in the physical to stand the idea that another man cultivates his land and takes home some paddy. All these American traders were the first generation of traders who just emerged out of agriculture. In America Man reclaimed land under conditions hostile and intimidating. Such farmers had few social contacts. They felt at home when they were all by themselves. To him there was excess production. A normal course is to curtail production. He would not consider that alternative. He would rather risk the excess production almost giving it away than cut down the production. This is a revolutionary attitude in trade created then in USA as an innovation. At all costs Man there sought greater unity with a larger population. To further evolution Man acquires revolutionary attitudes that destroy totally his primary sense of possessiveness in the physical plane. When evolution replaces Revolution, replacing the lone pioneering individual by the willing general population, the spirit of Revolution shifts to vitality from physicality. To unite with others is to reverse the vibration of division by which creation came into existence.
The scope of growth when social inhibitions dissolve leaving only the terms of life as the limitations.
Growth is organisation of energy into skills of social existence. When life was created it was created as a field of energy in flux. Life that was pure life never permitted anything to come into existence. Its one concern was to lose its form of movement and attain a form of stability and thus create Matter. Matter is durable where creation comes to an end. Matter that retains its fixed form releases energy by movement, thus regaining the movement life lost to bring Matter into existence. What we call Life is that, Life in the ascent, not in the descent. Society is an advanced stage of fixity in the existence of humanity. Money is born when society advances far more into organisation and civilisation. Money is fostered by society but at one stage Money outgrows the social bounds. As ego is a help and ego is a bar, society is a help and society is a bar. When society ceases to be a bar, we are left with the only field of life with its unbounded expansiveness. Money growing within the society is growth; Money breaking out of social norms and continuing to grow in the field of life is development. The evolution of Money comes into being when Money again breaks the limitations of life and bursts into the arena of consciousness. There it becomes Force developing the initial seeds of the Divine Force. Only in yoga one can pursue Money to those levels. I should like to reach the stage where the Spiritual Individual discovers his inherent capacity to create or produce endless Money by his own volition. By definition, it will be all the Money the world can produce - the wealth of the world. At this point Money sees the rule that complete minus complete=complete. Money reaches its infinite aspect in action. Man acquiring the same capacity in knowledge is potentially a multiple genius. These are concepts which cannot be relevant to social existence. For one to know the infinite aspects of Money or anything is only Self-revelation. A boy, whose life is cloistered when he is at home, feels a large freedom when he goes to college. The family limitation is replaced by the limitations of the hostel life. Next he enters life where he is free of the family as well as college. Here the scope broadens in a vaster measure as the limitation is only from the society. Suppose he decides to transcend society, he enters the domain of his psychological field where the expansion is again great. To rise above the moral values of conscience, he enters Life where universe is the limit.
Money started with produce, seller and buyer
Family started with parents and children, became the extended joint family almost covering the entire village. At this stage, the family was passionately attached, physically protective. In the village protection is TOTAL. Its opposite side is, the moment one crosses the village, they instantaneously destroy the family. Even the family does so to its members. Money as gold was almost dangerously devilish. One man's gold is every man's interest. To hoard it is a full time occupation. It is often buried under trees with some landmarks. To steal that is an adventure. The strong, clever, resourceful man steals it. Rights were not evolved. Capacity to hide or capacity to wrest is all that matters. Today banks offer secrecy of your account. It is a discourtesy to try to know another man's savings. Still, big Money evokes interest. An issue like Nuclear Disarmament begs for a paltry sum of a few millions. To any government this amount is a pittance. It is striking that no government has come forward to finance fully such laudable campaigns, as the Dutch Government footed the entire bill of the Brandt Commission. Still Money has physical value. Hence it is important to part with the physical possessive value of Money. It is education, especially scientific education, that built this civilisation. Teaching at both ends remains the least paid profession. Ideas do not carry value, especially Money value. To trace the various parallels in the society helps one to understand Money or anything more and more fully. Incidentally, it reveals the extent of our unconsciousness. To be conscious is to be conscious of the whole. Its consummation is to see that whole in the part. We live on the surface. We have to move to the subliminal where life is universal, where Money is a great force that helps build the universe, where family is humankind. The fundamentalist is not in Afghanistan. He is in the USA among the Christian sects. It is in the mind. As long as we fight terrorism in the Islamic countries we are not addressing the issue. The ROOT of terrorism is in the superiority of the English over the Irish, in the German Nazis, in the superior monetary strength of USA of their military and money. Let us have our perspectives clear. The village that crushed a dissenting family LIVES in the human mentality today in powers that are strong. You can crush the weak today but cannot escape his terror. Gandhi could change the heart of the Muslim goondas but strengthened the fanaticism of the RSS.
Use value, power of production and creative power
The products we use have a use value for us. We can neither produce them nor invent them. He who produces the product has far, far greater power over it, but he too cannot use it more than others. The inventor is usually different from the producer, but he too consumes. Only Edison combined all the three roles in himself. Neither the inventor, nor even Edison can have a greater use of the electric bulb he invented and manufactured any more than any of us. We have use value for Money. We do not manufacture currency nor have we invented it. Of course, all of it was done by another man who is similar to us. The lever and pulley moves thousands of pound weights by ten pounds of force. Where does the nine hundred ninety pound force come from? It comes from the subtle plane. When force converts into power it passes through the subtle plane. It is a subtle power. Knowledge of that power is subtle knowledge. Transformation comes from the causal plane. Here poison changes into nectar, foul odour changes into good fragrance. This article tries to give rational arguments and arguments that skip rationality. It tries to explain the subtle plane and points to the causal plane. A complete grasp of all these arguments gives one the possession of material knowledge, subtle power and introduces him to the causal worlds. In the chapter The Divine Soul there are thirteen paragraphs and a little over a hundred points. Each such point expands into several directions offering us comprehensive Self-knowledge. Reading one chapter thoroughly can lead to the whole book. Knowledge of Money overlaid with the power of The Life Divine can create in an individual the capacity to create all the wealth of the world as this combines all the three powers. Just because one can travel to any point on the earth where there is an airport or where roads lead to, one does not undertake world travel. He travels to places where he needs to go. Though one can create all the Money in the world, he will be able to use only what he needs, neither more, nor less. At the point the use value, power of production and the creative power meet, one can see a DOT of integration. To gain a knowledge of Integration of life or existence will further help this goal.
The Social Determinant
Society has always been its own leader. Never did the Social Personality allow itself to be swayed by any other force. Society by its own aspiration forges a lead and uses any other available force for that purpose which often appears to lead the society. Society struggled for survival, took to growth, endeavoured to develop and evolve higher forms. In each period it has effectively used religion, church, royalty, aristocracy, science, education, press, market, business, marriage, Money as its handmaid. The inversion of cause and effect is most clearly seen in this phenomenon when it was believed that the church or science led the society. Society always maintained its paramountcy. Any of these institutions, in serving the society, can fall in line or deviate. These institutions have developed in the measure of their falling in line with the aspirations of the society and accepting its lead. Just now the society is all set to evolve the Individual, and that too the Spiritual Individual. Money serving that purpose consciously will grow from power to force and from Force to Power, if it acts thus. The recent history of America is ample testimony to this theory which is more than a fact. It does not allow much scope for argumentation. In this article all along I have tried to position Money in that role but have pleaded that the Spiritual Individual will be able to create the wealth of the world. Only in America the trend of the emerging Individual can be seen unblurred by the obfuscation of the outworn social dressing. In the USSR, Gorbachev was the first chief to hold a university degree after Lenin, which underlines the role of education in human emancipation. The fact that No leader is anywhere visible after the World War II stalwarts quit the arena shows that the field is clear for the Individual to emerge. We see the distant echoes, smoothened inklings of his emergence in the emphasis laid on Human Rights, the facilities that are being offered to the handicapped, etc. Terrorism centring in the Middle East has one valid reason, if not the spearheading great reason. Before the Individual emerges, women, half the population, are to be freed. Man has enjoyed his unquestioning domination over the woman sanctioned by the society, Law and God. The emerging Individual, his possibility sensitively touches his physically developed sore spots when the onrush of liberation announces the future arrival of freedom for woman. Hence the Muslims are up in arms to defend their sacred rights there. Here lies a possible solution to terrorism.
Once Money is created all the necessary Secondary Powers arise.
We are now putting the Society in the place of existence and see how the application unfolds. Similarly we can enthrone Money in the place of Society and delineate the unfoldment. It will be an immense intellectual labour not necessary for us now to undertake, though fascinating. Society gave birth to a host of institutions, a very long list of them and now let us just think of a parallel list of say, faculties of Money. They are exchange, barter, medium, coinage, storing of energy, incentive to release the entire human potential, by extension the social potential and by a similar extension the entire potential of any institution it integrates with, credit, mortgage, harnessing future income, saving from bankruptcy, exhibiting the capacity to save a single man from utter destruction-doing the same thing positively and negatively to the society and to any other institution-multiplying its quantity and taking it to self-multiplying it, raising its quality to that of social power, conquering Time, conquering Space, conquering any obstacle created by any social institution, giving science a cutting edge, offering the army the capacity to organise itself better, reinforcing existing forces in their stated purposes, helping them to create non-existing forces for social purposes, raising one man to the level of a whole national institution, organising political life in economic symbolism employing the original symbolism of numbers, converting human talents into quantifiable numbers of profit, fighting social crime by luring the criminals away, replacing war by its strength of economic lure, offering patronage to art, music, poetry and philosophy, be a staple force to religion, bringing the social average to an individual in distress through insurance thus raising the psychological faith through an arrangement of organisation, making the entire population donkeys running after bunches of carrots as well as offering them umpteen bunches all the way, leading man to the revelation that he could either be its slave or make Money his slave and finally giving him the realisation that he could reach the Divine by placing it at the Feet of the Divine Mother. Each of these secondary powers can proliferate like the particles of light.
The two sides of change that is progress.
Division of labour is a great human invention that matured to give up mental possessiveness of vital activity in a physical field. It has the other side that leads to specialisation and evils arising out of separation. Every movement is change. Change is progress when it is vertical. It is creative when its comprehensiveness is inclusively integrating. This is the course of social growth organising social development, not to speak of social evolution. There is an opposite process, as every process generates its opposite. This is no context for a discussion on it. Still the knowledge that there is one, and it has an undesirable course whose end is the destruction of social values if not the very society, is of use. It is important to know the existence of the other side. In the early days of Indian freedom when Nehru was the head of the government he used to emotionally work himself to a pitch because of the nefarious activities of the black market. His favourite slogan was hang the black marketeer on the nearest lamppost. It was given to Sardar Patel to collect party funds that came from the self same black marketeer to whom Nehru was advocating the lamppost. Patel pointed out to Nehru the live connection between the lamppost and party coffers. The idealist in Nehru learned the worldly wisdom of Silence over the inevitable evil. It is not easy to discern the other side in Money. Banks' productivity of Money can help evil men cheat honest men. The speculation of stockbrokers beyond a certain point can wreck the economy and the nation. Even paper currency can be an inducement to counterfeit notes. (Incidentally, in theory fake notes serve the common man as much as ones of legal tender, much as the one of Milton, who waits, waits on the sidelines.) Credit cards can make great frauds possible before they are discovered. Quicker circulation directly can lead to inflation. Consumerism made possible by hire purchase, bank loans, etc. can lead to an undesirable state of production for the sake of production. It has the knack of non-production productive as the educational system produces an endless number of unemployable graduates. Only when the process comes under conscious planning, this knowledge finds its great use. Till then only men of experience devoid of theoretical knowledge can handle extraordinary emergencies created by the intense presence of forces of the negative type.
The various aspects of Money give rise to various types of human relationship.
The power of Money comes from the extent and variety of human relationships. It is not given to the human tongue or the writer's pen to exhaustively trace the infinite varieties of human relationships forged by the Many between themselves and those with the One. Money is power. It is the power of the society. It is created by one going out to another in utter harmony of enjoyment. A greater intensity of joy arises from the one of Many seeking a relationship with the One. It is an infinite progression ever expanding in all directions with ever increasing intensity of its inherent complexity. A good friend for a long time discloses another side of his personality when you become his client. The clientele is richer by several degrees by virtue of the friendship. On another side the rigours of the professional etiquette are found inflexible even with a friend. The one is a cultural variation of enrichment; the other is the discovery of the scientific requirements of an organisational discipline. While these can be more fully appreciated by the urban dweller, the rural citizen is outraged by the dry mental norms that disregard the blood ties of the rural soil of nativity. A fuller appreciation of Money demands from us the discovery of all that we know of Money in each of these new human relationships. It is not to be sought in its quantitative aspect. One comes to know the essential knowledge and acquires the capacity to apply it to any and every possible situation. Beyond human relationships one more is pointed out above. It is one's relationship with the society. Each inanimate object differently relates to Man. Between two such objects the subsisting relationship is of a still different kind. Now that society has developed units, organisations, and institutions, they enjoy a unique relationship with Man. Also there arises another type of relationship between themselves. It is evident that our study of Money is only that study of the entire society from one chosen side, the side of Money. So far we dwelt on studying the relationship between man and man with respect to Money. Money, an organisation of social intensity, like an electrically charged equipment, when it comes into contact with men or objects begins to monetarily energise them for a social purpose. A consideration of that side will take us further into the domain of social existence.
The productive organisation of Multiplying and the creative organisation of Self-Multiplication.
Organisation makes permanent what consciousness makes possible. We have successive organisations one replacing the other. We also have mentally exclusive opposite organisations such as health and disease. Transport follows road is an example of one organisation succeeding another made possible by its presence. War has an organisation as peace has one. The organisation of peace supports the organisation of war by its production. The fighting organisation of war ensures the producing organisation of peace. Health and disease co-exist, but a time comes when the intensity of the organisation of health by its perfection, i.e. the degree of efficiency, makes the organisation of disease impossible. So the time has come for the organisation of peace, if saturated, to eliminate the very seeds of possibility of war. Organisations arise out of a possibility which turns into a necessity. This is outer organisation. The unconscious outer organisation matures into conscious inner organisation. The inner organisation is will; the outer organisation is a system of execution, a field for the action of the inner will. All these are general rules of development. Here they have a particular application to Money. Our aim is to discover the productive organisation of Money by Multiplication and the creative organisation of subtle Money force by the process of Self-Multiplication. The emerging Spiritual Individual who has been developing the parallel inner organisation of consciousness in himself crossing the border of transition finds himself endowed with the power of creating Money all by himself or supported by a token effort of the vanishing field. In the rare phenomenon of genius this transition and this power are self-evident. The siphon works by itself once the air in it is removed. Disease and health; war and peace; scarcity and plenty; the scholar and the genius; poverty and prosperity; depression and cheerfulness; failure and success, and every other similar phenomenon are expressions of this principle. One is the organisation of energy while the other is the organisation of power placed on the two sides of the force of individual will that chooses its determinism. That human choice here can eternally move into the domain of creative Self-Multiplication. Money that was social energy in one phase becomes social power in the subsequent phase directed by the force of human Will which is the determinant of the course of social evolution. A full explanation that is well understood is enough for man to create Money; its essence will give a similar power in spiritual evolution.
The Importance of Separateness.
A unifying force, if taken out of circulation and permitted to foster separateness, can do as much harm to the community as it otherwise serves. Money that goes into gold is almost hoarding. Money thus separates itself from the mainstream of circulation. An estimate puts the value of domestic gold at $300 billion. Government of India is at the doors of the World Bank for a loan of $1 billion while so much is hoarded at home. The Brahmins kept the spiritual knowledge to themselves and deprived the society of its use value. Imagine if every scientific discovery had been kept as a closely guarded secret by the inventor. Money is a great force, but it is Man who decides how to use it. The role of gold is blatant and obvious, but at each step on its course Money permits both uses. A complete knowledge of Money can help it to surface. In the collective as well as individual life, such a knowledge when put to use can bring about a sea change. These are minor issues in the theme of Multiplication and Self-Multiplication. Still in particular cases, it can appear phenomenal. What is necessary is a complete grasp of the theoretical knowledge. Particularly here it is important to take note of the opposite roles Money can play. Still, this aspect of separateness can play a wider rol, as Sri Aurobindo said that creation can be there without ignorance but not this creation. We can know of such a role without enquiring into it fully. Banks, other institutions that accumulate Money do play this role to a great extent. Suppose they have the right theoretical knowledge, then a great opportunity arises to release 30% to 50% of their hoarding. Out of ignorance they hold on to the whole lot. Knowing that they need to hold on to only 20%, they are free to release the rest, at least part of it. It is like tapping the underground water storage. A release of this type may make available 70% of its present resources to humanity. Maybe it is 170%. Only a calculation based on knowledge and experience can decide. Money is a vast field, as vast as the social collective.
Even the isolated use of Money can lead to its own perfection.
Perfection reached through any route is the real goal. It does not matter through what path one reaches there.
Speech dissipates; Silence achieves. People give loud lectures about Silence! If it is not loud, it helps. Analyse silence, its nature, how it accrues, where it is centred, why energy issues out of it, you will find the loudness less loud. Continue the enquiry, you will be surprised to see Silence gathering. Any path ends in the goal. Analysis of the outer phenomenon as well as the synthesis of the inner phenomenon have the same result. Isolation or separation is caused by ego. One can analyse the ego till he reaches the origin of ego or relate to it as if it is Brahman. Ultimately it will reveal itself as Brahman. Ego is infinite; isolation too can reach the infinitesimal which is the other face of the infinite. Money in isolation loses its power of being Money. It is atrophied. Still it is not dead, as death has no reality. Each phenomenon has its own perfection. At the level of perfection Money in isolation is capable of revealing as Money in circulation. To see one in the other, one cannot so easily resort to examples. At that level even theory is concrete. One needs to enter into another domain. It is wisdom or insight that listens to a friend's remark about one's boorishness as the announcement of life of the Fellowship of a world organisation. It is a point of major reversal. What is Money in the market becomes currency in the bank. At the level of the Central Bank it becomes finance, far removed from its origin of crude material production or the vital force of production. The Central Bank is able to calculate the currency in circulation, its productive part or the part of being credit. Even savings where Money enters into dormancy can be accurately calculated. The speed with which Money has moved in the market is tracked. As a result of all this, Money the social symbol slowly but entirely gets converted into a mental SYMBOL of numbers, relations that can be handled by appropriate formulas. Raising or lowering the interest rate by 1%, the bank effectively controls the balance between exports and imports, is able to make the entire monetary population -- that part of the population that relates to Money -- concentrate its thoughts on the varieties of its movements.
Money is born in Relationship. It cannot be separate.
As ultimately everything is divine and infinite, even separation can achieve the goal of relationship. As Money was born in relationship, it is obvious that the more we foster the relationship, the richer it grows. As it grows richer, it is a joy to observe its growing stronger, nobler, complex, more organised, more capable of bringing out its innate potentials, more capable of bringing out the inherent potentials of the things it touches AND more of everything. This wonder is most appreciated if we have access to the tether end of society where Money reveals its newer capacities. The idea Luis gave for the Academy is the point at which Law becomes order, where knowledge taking the role of organisation changes into power. It is the exact point where the international organisations are newly born by a fresh inch and hence is of utmost importance. The few hundred thousand dollars necessary to organise it becomes the monetary determinant of a momentous watershed in the life of humanity. To know all that Money can accomplish at that point, all the relationships it can forge at that moment is to know Money fully. Not only Money, attitude plays exactly the same role there. Jonathan is not for stirring up USA and creating the possibility of destroying the court. That attitude can be as much determinative as the few hundred thousand dollars. Let us take Time. Speed, absence of delay is important. Equally not to hurry up is equally significant. What is important is not speed or quickness or even patience. The moment is important. The right moment is the ripe moment. Look at energy, interest, motivation and every other thing from this point of view. He who brings a momentous opportunity himself will become an obstacle. At this moment the non-cooperation we resent will reveal its evolutionary significance. At the right MOMENT, you will witness the extreme importance of performance as well as non-performance. We can also see then unegoistically the power in us to accomplish more than what the world has so far achieved. Also at the same time we can see the VERY opposite endowment. Hence the significance of the human choice, balance, rhythm. Indian spirituality has created in rich abundance all this in potentials. All that the Indian has to do is to realise it and avail of it. A non-Indian perception of this is greater than wonder.
Accumulating Money is wealth. It makes you Selfish and Aggressive.
This is the very nature of Money. It is true of all other social endowments. So far wealthy men have followed this path of accumulation and aggressiveness through the vehicle of selfishness. The priests in India and Europe rode this path. All generals made themselves king and created dynasties. It is the reality. Over the centuries Money has started revealing its other side of public benevolence. Money as democracy and education has started on its evolutionary role while Man clings to its earlier negative role. The Spiritual Individual I speak of is one who becomes conscious as an Individual and becomes conscious of the evolutionary roles of all social institutions, particularly Money. For him, it is to realise his own evolutionary potential in the evolutionary expansion of Money where it sheds its narrow power and discovers its role of taking society on the onward march of evolution. It is a course that will reverse the directions. With the changing directions, attitudes will undergo a similar change and strategies that will fulfil the opposite goals will arise. At the tether end the tactics too must change accordingly. Please note the energy that expands is the very opposite of the energy that shrinks. The will that directed an earlier movement is a will of selfishness. Now it has to change the direction into selflessness and finally into one of Self-giving. The organisation too will not remain the same. Earlier it was the gross material organisation. Now it is the subtle, causal organisation. The one was an organisation to accumulate and preserve. Now the organisation is for production and finally for creation. Production and creation are multiplications and Self-multiplication. The skills too have to change. It was the personal skills of narrow selfish possessiveness and preservation. Here they are impersonal organisational skills that are subtle and causal whose aim is to serve the society in the beginning and to equip itself to serve the Divine in the end. In this wide transforming movement Money will play the roles of communication, transport, sports, education and every other possible social function. No longer will Money or any of them bear the stamp of negativity. Even the role of positivity will be lost. Money will emerge as an instrument of the Divine to divinise the world. Prior to it, Money will help society evolve to a point where the Spiritual Individual will be born to spiritualise the living on earth. Accumulation will now offer its focused strength to every point in the wide social expanse.
Money gives you what you really need, opens up the possibility of your getting what you do not have and what you really are but refuses to express.
Money eminently fits the description of "any situation, though infinite, readily rises to your inner formed and unformed expressions". What accomplishes in Man is his sincerity. Sincerity is determined by what one is conscious. The deciding factor in Man's evolution is how much he still enjoys the taste of ignorance and how much he seeks the taste of knowledge. It is the Soul's Freedom in bondage, the ultimate freedom, the freedom to lose one's freedom. Money takes on both these roles 1) offers you a field wherein you can accomplish what you choose and 2) enjoys that freedom itself in being Money. Availing of the infinity of Nature and where she enjoys in leisure her infinity, one follows his course in force as part of creation. Choosing to evolve, he deliberately shifts from force of Nature to consciousness of Being. Sri Aurobindo beckons us to that minor adventure having accomplished the major adventure of having a new path in the virgin forest. It is best done by surrendering to Him through the surrender to the Divine Mother. How do we BECOME this adventure in Money? Money moving as currency or coin or even credit card is in Nature that is the social movement of force. Money while moving as coin suddenly stops and realises it can become currency. It is an evolutionary moment, fulfilled in society unconsciously. Should Man at that moment consciously see that possibility and switched over to currency, instead of being led into that movement, he becomes a conscious individual. As the unconscious Man became conscious here, further down the road a moment comes when Money too can so become conscious and BECOME currency. The French Revolution thus became conscious in Napoleon. The Cold War was made conscious by Gorbachev. The energetic market becoming dynamic becomes conscious of the customer and presses for his satisfaction. Truths of life in a poet become self-conscious to become immortal literature. Anusuya, Krishna, Rama, Mona Lisa, power of steam can thus be explained in their various stages. In the RIN ratings Indian Independence became conscious. Helen, Jesus, Brindavan, Kurukshetra are such landmarks of history. Narayana Darsan reveals each item of life becoming Narayana in one's vision. It is life becoming Divine.
Money entering any field expresses in that field the trait of being Money. One can see those traits developing there according to its possibilities.
When Sri Aurobindo said life is a mystery, he meant more than the word disclosed. Presently we see in the Indian politics greed acting as a positive instrument of democracy. An intensely emotional nation as Russia was ruled by cruel tyrants. More than the opposites, the co-existence of disparate traits in the extreme as mental honesty and bodily filth is baffling. Among the many wonders mystery meant, He also indicated the capacity of life to progress through reversals. All these phenomena we witness in the growth of Money into various fields. In this digital age quantum physics has opened the door to the invention of the personal computer, nuclear power, genetic engineering and laser technology out of which the CD player and the bar-code reader emerge. We see how into each final product several inventions go. Sociologically every social act is penetrated in toto by every social force like Money. It is only the ultimate vision that can reveal what has entered which and what further transformation it has undergone. We see here the play of being, consciousness, ananda splitting themselves into fragments for the purposes of interchange resulting in a magnificent marvel. In such a simple act of a mother rearing a child, we see Money playing a significant role bringing that child what education Money can buy within the limits of her comprehension of the child's educational needs. The health of the child is so determined by the mother's knowledge of health, the availability of Money and how much attention that single child deserves in such terms -- an act of human choice. In this we see a fully conscious mother rearing a fully unconscious child later developing vibrations of ingratitude and even accusing that mother of wrongdoing for his ineptitude in receiving. There we see the ruling ideas of the day deciding the attitude of the youth towards his mother. How many such ruling ideas enter into his opinions towards his mother is another mystery for the social scientist. Money shapes everything and everything is shaped by Money can be a dictum. Money can be classified as money of the first or second or third generation in another view of analysis.
Money can serve or destroy as any neutral instrument often does. Also it can reverse its traits as it becomes Money alone. Such reversals are illuminating sources of study.
Let us consider Money as Money, also as one of the social institutions that are instruments of the society. Society, like man, is egoistic, possessive, violent, harsh, cruel, etc. These traits Money serves faithfully as long as there are social aspirations. When society outgrows them say from cruelty to kindness, Money too changes its character. Money, being a faithful social force, can even anticipate the social transformation and help society transform in that line by its taking institutional initiative. We have said that Money is a thing, a transaction, an organisation, a power and a force. Even along these lines Money can outgrow one stage and flow into the next stage. It can also reverse in the sense of drastically changing its role either forward or backward depending on the status of the society. In the backward reversals, Money is capable of insisting on its institutional roles if circumstances permit. One can see all these traits in his child growing up. Up to a point in the social growth, the action of grace is unseen. Beyond a point, it is subtly visible. Further down the road, grace acts overtly. Inflation acts in its own chosen direction as an instrument of grace in the subtle plane. Thieves are forced to offer someone, officials, partners, politicians, voters, enormous amounts of ill-gotten Money. In one direction it comes as free products or services and in another direction it moves as bribes or incentives. To study Money in its theoretical role and further in its evolutionary role with respect to society offers an abundant raw material spread all over. At no time does Grace fail. Even when Grace has fully protected Man from his accentuated folly, he insists on passing through the motions of folly to fully enjoy the taste of ignorance. E.S.I. land-ceiling exemption, President with absolute powers were all legally protected even at the moment of the act of folly. Folly has its run after the tragedy is averted. It is folly equally to resist complete foolishness and foolhardiness. What remains is Grace, only Grace. Only that we must see it with open eyes.
Money is vastly different when it is possessed by an individual or by the society but the rule of reversal is the same for both.
Vast difference and total similarity between two things is one rule, because both are essentially the same. The difference is of the context and similarity is of the essence. Pearl and diamond, in their essence, are Brahman, but in external appearance and their origin they are vastly different. Money accumulated with the Individual offers security to him and threatens the same in others. When saved, it goes into dormancy. Held by the collective, it is actively seeking intense relations with everything it touches to become productive at one level and creative at another level. While it becomes creative, it is an example of ‘Miracles become commonplace'. In either case the reversal we mentioned earlier is a fact. Reversals are the essence of evolution even as consciousness and organisation are for development. What is normal for the society is a reversal for the Individual. Intellectually it is almost a pasttime and an intensely interesting game to study those reversals. Yogically reversals can be said to be at eight levels. Reversals are easily appreciated in the vertical scale. Horizontally the reversal is imperceptible. When SEEN as reversal it reveals the Brahman hiding at that point. Shakti to whom Ishwara surrenders asserting beyond a point is a classical example. He seeks His fulfillment in surrendering to Her while She enjoys in reversing the roles by assertion instead of the fullness of appreciation which requires Her expanding inwardly in Her Being. Subsidy for farmers' power has had the reverse effect of stalling the expansion of power. We see in big organisations individuals paying to serve that organisation instead of being paid for their service. America offered the Marshall Plan to Western Europe while it was the turn of the war-devastated nations to seek market help. In ancient times it was man who sought a bride but the bride came with a dowry PßÛPõuõÚ®. Now it is the turn of the woman to go after a groom while the dowry remains a fixture. The weak seeking support from the strong is understandable. Now we see the strong going to the weak offering all kinds of support, especially monetary support. Reversals in the collective or the Individual in Money as well as other fields is a rich field of study of evolution. It is much more so with yoga.
Money has the ascent and descent, but essentially it is of the descent, as it is man made.
In the ascent it has its usefulness. Only in the descent it releases its power that issues out of creativity. Education is essentially of the descent. Hence its great power of knowledge. Its power is enlightenment, not the power of will. The power of Money is that of the social will, a will of the society that almost compels the individual to turn to society in selflessness. Credit that we take for granted now is an arrangement by which one is compelled by the interest that accrues to help another out of his failure. Society compels the selfish animal that man is who gloats over the ruin of another, to make an about turn and help that other man come out of the hole through credit. Interest accomplishes it. Just now Money has developed the need to give itself away in return of non-monetary gains. Institutions are shy of disclosing the truth and are devising various ways to disguise their intentions. Politicians, who rob all, are compelled to give away crores to wipe off slums, buy a vote for almost a thousand rupees with their ill-gotten Money. Even if we do not project our imagination into the future and we only collect the events where Money in its descent is playing its evolutionary creative role, our harvest will be rich enough. Those, in India, who denied education for the untouchable, now preside over institutions of hundreds of crores of rupees and spend it in the cause of their education. Money that claimed the prestige of unavailability is knocking at the door of every pauper to beg them to accept loans. Surely Money has reversed its role of prestige and learnt humility. To study the ascent is to study economics. To study the descent is to study the social progress in the vertical, termed as social evolution. Only in the descent it integrates with more social institutions deeply enough to create a lasting foundation for further solid progress. It is essentially Money that created the service sector. Presently it is Money that is creating an effective public opinion to accomplish anything from nuclear disarmament to the establishment of One World or World Government. Money's creativity is at its best when it creates non-monetary social results. Money is creative, creative of a new society of wonders.
There is the inherent contradiction of majority of men below the line using the Money created above the line.
Contradiction is the basis of accomplishment. All instruments as well as institutions are created by the forces above the line. Most of the population is below the line. This, though appears as a contradiction, is the process of progress. In education it is much more apparent where the whole creation and utilisation of education is a process of decent. Money dominates over those below the line. Money is used and dominated by those who have created it by virtue of being above the line. One particular explicit use of Money is in insurance where Money overtly offers a service mankind is not used to. It offers to salvage an individual who meets with a calamity with the monies of his fellow men. It is a direct act of self-giving of the society where the selfish man is persuaded to offer selfless service in view of the hidden benefit to the self. Everywhere Money acts like this but it will not be self-evident in all those places as in insurance. The inherent contradiction expressed in the title has another truth too ill-concealed. While Money above the line serves copiously those above the line, it is capable of wiping off or exterminating those who are below the line thus serving the cause of evolution -- to eliminate the unfit. We have seen in the Depression the wonder of people coming in a car to the poor house for free feeding. It is a wonder that can be witnessed only in America. There is a reverse wonder of unemployed graduates not knowing, I would say not trying to know, the avenues of lucrative employment. It is another contradiction where Money prominently figures. One man working for Rs. 2500/- in a bottle washing company seeking a job in the USA on $60,000. How do they co-exist? We may say they are in two different countries. Even in the same country such an opportunity exists, if only the unemployed changes his attitude. These apparent contradictions are apparently rich resources of prosperity. Our discussion does not always stray into philosophical theory but confines itself to Money and the wonders it is capable of. This wonder arises out of a contradiction. The miser and the one who squanders Money are in another plane equal in the eyes of the Divine. Obviously if the miser does not accumulate there will be nothing for the one who plays ducks and drakes with it. Money is productive, creative, miraculous and is capable of making the miracles commonplace. This paper slowly tries to reach the recesses of those secrets. They lie hidden in the society. In truth they are buried in life and Spirit. To discover those secrets, and bring them out to the surface of the life of the Individual is our aim.
In the measure Man recognises the edge of growth Money has made in one generation, he enables Money to be effective.
Man is conservative as he is physical. The physical learns once and cherishes it as a possession. The horse that stumbles on a stone once unfailingly remembers when it comes to the spot again no matter after how long. That is the readiness with which the physical learns. For the same reason it refuses to forget. What it is slow to learn is the result of experience as the Irish. The Irish are quick to learn anything. They are cheerful, assume leadership in all local situations but are unable to learn from experience or aspire for the leadership of the nation. It issues from the fact that they were the greatest beneficiaries of the Catholic training. The wave of civilisation from Europe stopped with Britain and never reached Ireland. England tyrannised over Ireland and did there what they had not done in India, religious persecution. It takes a long time for the physical experience to change into mental knowledge as the mind is outside the scope of the physical. The essential role of Money lies outside its field of action. It lies in the subtle plane as well as in the plane of Mind. Money becomes effective in the measure its original value is recognised by the field of its action as well as experience. Such an attitude is seen as indifference, non-recognition, opposition, resistance till the wave of social progress overcomes such attitudes. They suddenly exhibit an energy to be over enthusiastic about what they frowned upon. Just now since the 80s or even 90s the excess potential Money has created in the society is so overwhelming and is one that exhibits a strong tendency to grow that trait that society can freely distribute to all who need Money in any measure. The free newspapers, free email, free phone calls announce it to the world indirectly. Technology can do it and is doing it for long. Language has done it from the beginning. Extraordinary talents in music, writing, speaking, and athletics are there for anyone to take. Money is no longer scarce. It is like the wind power or solar power freely accessible to all. As education was compulsorily thrust on the entire world, as epidemics were abolished by the few, Money has come of social age making it so abundantly available that it cannot ever be exhausted by distribution, as its distribution will increase its generation.
Mother has allowed an enormous waste of cash. It was the expression of infinite squandering of Her consciousness. It has prepared the world to come by an enormous potential of Money. Waste in Nature has this connotation. HE says, seen in this perspective waste is an investment for Prosperity. This is a social explanation, not a theoretical explanation. Theoretically to come by any capacity, one has to prepare, as the tiger goes back before pouncing upon its prey. The low consciousness to rise to higher consciousness serves it without reward. It pays to be permitted to serve. It is most seen in prestige. He who can be obedient qualifies to be a leader, not the one who seeks to assert from the beginning. The tree takes long years before it starts yielding fruits. The process of accomplishment begins with a knowledge of the greatness of the goal. Glenn Doman says the cells in the brain are dead by the age of five. Only till then one can learn. Evolution enables the dead cells to revive. It also postpones the limit of five years. Once evolution takes hold of the brain, the cells lose the capacity to die. Our topic is social evolution. Not to allow any social layer to die is the purpose of social evolution. Waste can be seen in this view. What appears to be waste in one man is really his activating the society not to die in parts which would normally die of their own accord. He who spends his energies, consciousness, Money, is one who later enables the society to create those things in greater surplus. The history of the society is a standing witness to this process. In one's own personal life and in yoga this process can be more than self-evident. Only those who spoke a lot are capable of greater Silence. In the progress of the Society, it will be in evidence only to a penetrating insight. India went into slavery for eight centuries which prepared her to be the Spiritual Guru of the world. The enormous waste of food in America is pathetic. But it prepares her to become aware of the need to conserve the higher consciousness. One can indulge in it consciously or unconsciously. Results will reflect the character of endeavour but he who wasted cannot escape abundance. It is a law whose significance is great in the field of evolution.
Power and Scarcity
In 1937 for a Ph.D. to work in a lab in America they paid $ 1000 a year.
- A small sum of $72,000 was the capital for the East India Company in the 1600s. It was one third of the British budget of those days. A little Money could accomplish very much in those days.
- Now Money is thousands of times more powerful and is available equally in that measure.
- The social power of Money, its easy availability, its reach in the society are to be reconciled in the plane of social progress.
- This is a general rule of inverse relations between the availability and its power in all fields.
- A few London returned gentlemen ruled India before the war.
- Now thousands have returned from America.
- The less prevalent is more powerful.
- The more widespread Money or education is, the more advanced is the society.
- Where do they reconcile as a principle of action?
- The truth remains that for the social power of today the availability of money almost retains the old proportion.
- As the social aspect -- Money, education, etc.-- is scarce, the power it exercises is great. At that stage it enhances the egoistic power of the man who holds it. As it spreads in the society, it is the power of Money or education that comes in the front, pushing to the rear the ego of the individual.
- In a less developed society a small amount of Money can achieve a lot which will be ultimately a little.
- In an advanced society, achievement is for all. So, for the same level of accomplishment vaster amounts of Money are needed which are readily available.
- In the beginning the social instruments are small, less available, but more powerful in a less powerful society.
- Now the same social instruments are widespread, more available, but appear to be less powerful in a more powerful society.
- The essence of impact remains the same.
The results have a differing appearance.
Ego of the individual is diluted.
Money needs the ultimate freedom to come into its own -- Self-Multiplying Identical -- and that freedom can only be given by the society.
Money neither asks for freedom, nor does the society consciously offer it to Money. Freedom emerges in the transaction. It is for the society to admit it or deny it. The one thing Money, as well as other attributes of the society, silently crave with all their being, but do not assertively demand is from the very birth of it, freedom to act. Money in its origin is society. The knowledge that Money inheres is its remembrance of Society losing itself in Money. Freedom is the power to emerge from Ignorance. In Money freedom enables it to emerge as powerful as the society. Immortality for Money is once it is born, it lives forever, growing non-stop. Freedom is the condition that brings this about. Therefore, freedom is the final law and last consummation. In Time, freedom is eternity. In Space, freedom is infinity. Freedom exists in the unity of creation with the creator. Equality is described as the consciousness of the Infinite. For a man to act in freedom, he must know he has infinity before himself. That is spiritual patience. He must be ready to act as if the act is to be completed in the same instant. The knowledge that infinity is before him and the patience that issues out of it when combined with the readiness to act to accomplish at the same moment, is the cosmic version of freedom beyond the cosmos. In the market where Money moves it is difficult to define freedom. What prevails are the market conditions and man's temperament. The awareness of this freedom and the aspiration to avail of it results in the strength of spiritual equality. Those who have that can hope to impart the knowledge of what Money is to Money in the market. Even if one does not have it, the knowledge that such a freedom exists in the society gives him the right attitude in the minimum. In fact, the society is an institution that condones in Money what is otherwise culpable. Without this tolerance Money will either be extinguished or destroy the society. Society cannot have a cohesive existence, if it does not have this indulgent attitude towards its own institutions. In other words, we have to appreciate the utter havoc Money wrought in the society. This is the freedom society gives Money on occasions.
Freedom exists for Money in society in general and in every other field such as education, army, arts, etc.
There is a course for the social forces. It requires a discipline for the forces, the society and every other thing that comes into contact with an event, a discipline to adhere to that course. Deviating from that course is social dissipation leading to destruction. Freedom is outside this discipline as well as deviation. Freedom is the course taken by the society and its forces in a plane of equilibrium that sustains the social progress along the route of its evolution. This freedom is ever present. It is generally not availed of nor is its prevalence felt. Music is an artistic force. Money is an economic force. Obviously the availability of Money furthers the cause of music. Its availability in excess in the absence of restraint on the part of music commercialises music. Music becomes coarse, vulgarised. The musical energy in excess of availability of Money, finds no elegant expression, shrinks in its existence and its performance feels throttled by Money's heavy hand. Music loses its artistic value, becomes a mercenary money earner. Money lowers itself to being an uncivilised agent corrupting itself and music. In extreme cases the vulgarity rises to prostituting profane agencies. The faculty in an academic institution demands academic freedom. It can come only when the academic knowledge is administered by academicians and that in its own right earns Money. At the centre of any academic institution is a mercenary vested interest that takes the course of economic route. Academic freedom is subordinated to other interests than academic. This is a truth valid in all fields. Society gives freedom to Money. Money can give freedom to art or education. That freedom is chosen and exercised by Man. As Man has a choice, at rarefied heights Money too acquires that choice. Thus there are several freedoms with respect to Money. They are academic freedom, artistic freedom, administrative freedom, social freedom, and freedom pure and simple. Spiritual freedom and psychological freedom are of great value, but will find rare expressions here as the focus is economic freedom in a social political context. Money is the central figure of enquiry here. Society is the wider plane. Economics is the particular field. We take in our stride art, music, communication and other subjects in the measure they lend themselves to analysis.
Freedom has its versions in all the four planes with ascent and in the descent. So, we have to define it in eight different ways.
Money, a thing, a transaction, an organisation, a power has its versions in the physical, vital, mental, spiritual planes both in the ascent and in the descent. Money when it outgrows one level, say, transaction and rises to become an organisation, we find the plane of transaction is saturated and the descent of organisation on transaction begins. What is it for transactions to be saturated at its level and be organised? At the point money becomes an organisation, transactions that were casual, or at random, i.e. only between selected and trusted individuals become more uniformly universal. For us to buy an article of high cost, we go ourselves to the shop instead of sending a young person, as he is likely to be cheated. When transactions are saturated, we see the prices are fixed and any child can buy anything. Just now we won't buy expensive articles from new establishments, as their products will be substandard. At the point of saturation of transaction all products will be standard and you can buy from anyone. Money when organised brings several people together who stand by a set of reliable behaviours. Of course, that is confined to selected groups. When organisation descends on transaction, the element of dishonesty will be removed from the plane of transaction as in the credit card system. As the planes are four, the directions are two; to exercise the mind in all these contexts and see them to some extent in real life is a rich exercise to thinking and imagination. This is when we consider only Money. We must consider Money in its relation to every social institution thus covering the entire society. Ask the question what it is for education in relation to Money in transaction and organisation, when one is saturated and the other descends on it. What are the new forms thus created. It is endless. Education spreads in the society when it is commercially viable. Transaction will saturate that plane of Money, if every educational institution renders standard service for its Money value. Organisation descends on that field when it is recognised statewide, nationwide and finally internationally. Now it is a far cry. State Board, Central Board, ICSE clash between themselves serving differently.
Every human endowment therefore will have infinite versions. Money too is capable of it. Twelve aspects in eight planes subdivided into positive and negative extends to one ninety two or three eighty four ways. What is true of Mind is true of Money as it is created by Mind. Mind in the ascent acts as social mind inhibited by psychological tendencies. It is also circumscribed by social and psychological consciousness. One can try any idea and see how it expands endlessly on three sixty sides. These are ideas Mind cannot contemplate for one moment without being fully disturbed. One, who can do so, can see what RATIONALITY is. Even in contemplation, it is frightening. So far such an individual has not emerged in the world among human beings. Imagine the same freedom in the descent. It is the spiritual emergence in the mind. We call it the psychic being. Suppose that happens, one will not be in the human surface mind or the Rishi's inner mind. He would have crossed these zones and reached the subliminal mind. The subliminal is universal. As it is the meeting point of the subconscient and the Superconscient it can be either dark or bright. Neither will help us. We have to remain in the darkness and see the seed of light inside the darkness. It is to unite the subconscient and the Superconscient as a preliminary effort to integrate them. Such integration must be done in the individual SOUL. After such integration it has to ascend to the Eternal. This is done by shedding the seven ignorances one by one. The Spirit begins to evolve only when seven ignorances are shed. At that point the Mental Psychic emerges. It has the Supramental Light, not power. The Supramental Light is not divorced from power. They are one. Still the Supramental Light will be the Supramental power in the Supramental consciousness, not in the Supramental substance. It is always turned to the Divine. Its remembrance of the Divine is constant. It has no power, as it is in the Mind. The power is in the physical, not in the Mind. By the time the mental psychic develops into the physical psychic, it also rises through the spiritual range to reach the Supermind. At that stage it is Ishwara or the Supramental Being. Opinions, attitudes, motives, preferences, and all the vitiating factors of the vital and physical deny the mind this FREEDOM. To apply this knowledge to Money in this detail is to follow its evolution in the society. We consider these arguments only from the point of view of Money. As we do so we meet the other aspects meeting Money from their evolutionary dynamism. There, if one pauses, he can observe the fullness of social evolution in its rich mature ripeness. At that point the greatness of freedom, Spirit, infinity, evolution, in short, God, will reveal in its entirety.
Money is a plane that includes other aspects like education, language, etc.
Education is commercialised and it spreads on that strength in the society. It is obvious that the result will be commercial not educational. Trying to make that movement educational will retard its speed. Presently the equilibrium is unconsciously arrived at. To aim at arriving at the right balance, it is necessary that the Individual should become conscious. In making the child fit into the society, we discipline him as we know dictated by the culture at our disposal. The ideal is the child is a society by himself one generation ahead of parents and the parents must grow to fit into his society. Man has created Money but Money belongs in spirit to the next generation and therefore, he must rise to the occasion of Money's latest progress and not try to prune it on all sides to fit into his outmoded structure. This needs a clear definition of the relative position of Money with 1) society and 2) all that the society has created like Money. Money's relationship with society will be akin to the Many's relationship with the One and Money's relationship with all other sectors of society will be a parallel to one soul's relationship with the other souls which is: each is in all and all is in each. Thus this section by itself will be subject enough for a whole book and will justify itself as one long segment of the Encyclopedia of Development. Here we can only indicate effectively and conclusively the deepest significance of this matrix. Incidentally a fuller appreciation of this linkage that is a complexity requires us to know the table one to nine where it shows the mental, vital, physical existing in each other.
1) Real-Idea 2) High poetry 3) Decision
Concept Sentimentalism Determination
4) Insight 5) Pure idealistic heroism 6) Passionate adoration
Cunning Heroism touched with Passionate physical
cunning attachment
7) Physical skill 8) Rural Poet - Folk Tales 9) Moving material
Physical capacity Physical emotion Live non-moving Matter
In the tabular column the term above refers to consciousness and the term below to substance. It was drawn for a different purpose in a different context. Here it can serve us well.
Money is a determinant of education or marriage or any other thing. Money determining education means education does not have a life of its own. When education is the goal that is to be attained at all costs, Money and its availability gets the maximum possible education as in the Brahmin community. In such a case Money is an essential but the determinant is education. Even in the Brahmin community in view of its utter impoverishment, education was not sought for its sake but for the earning capacity it gives. After the boy joins the college, Money does play various roles in varying measures. Even when it is inessential or non-essential it will be an interesting study to observe the role of determinant Money plays in entertainment, food, health, sports, etc. and the direct as well as indirect impact it has on education. We may call that role as one of Determinant while being a non-determinant. To go through the roles of various aspects of society with Money as the central focus will bring out in full relief the role of all social forces in play or inter-play. A study of how education is sought after in families of different levels of culture -- the same is true between 1950 and 2000 for all families -- shows how the Determinant emerges in families with the changing social attitudes. It is the social determinism. Move from there to Individual determinism. For that there should be an Individual in place first. The psychological value unencumbered by ethical conscience is behind that Individual determinism. Of course it can be egoistic or its opposite. Egoistic determinism is of the capacity of the ego. Non-egoistic capacity is of the psychological Individual. We should take our arguments to the Spiritual Individual, its Selflessness and further its ultimate potential of Self-giving. That alone will make the study real, complete, wholesome. To start with we shall focus ourselves on the field realities of Money, Education, Transport, Government, etc. and their social play, interplay and their own independent play. That enables us to collect a vast number of facts and get an insight into the subtle forces they are capable of generating.
What is true of freedom is equally true of all human traits. Let us consider only about a dozen.
Their number is legion. Opinion, attitude, stubbornness, faith, superstition, preferences, demand, desire, hostility, flexibility, generosity, comparison, etc. is a partial list. It is obvious that these things mean different things to different people and vary according to land, space, event, known as the context. What then is the role of Money in all these contexts? To know all that is there to know is the wisdom of the world. We restrict the use value of Money to the mind and to the selection of the transaction with one person in a given event. Let us know all about Money irrespective of what we do in our context. The Life Divine is a book of philosophy that describes the creation as the involution of God and His evolution. Whatever He has written there is a fact of His spiritual experience, not an intellectual argument valid or invalid in itself. Of course, HE had one idea which HE expressed in fifty-six chapters. The Book is split into two books and the second book has two parts. The first book is of creation and the second book is of evolution. The first part of the second book speaks of ignorance becoming knowledge. The second part is of spiritual evolution. In it HE uses plenty of Sanskrit words wherever His meaning tallies with the current meaning. His whole philosophy is new and therefore HE is compelled to use new terms. Such terms are non-existent in Sanskrit as His philosophy goes beyond the tradition. English is neither a spiritual language nor a classical one. It was developed by trade and made creative by parliamentary democracy. To write a new philosophy demands new terminology. The only language He knew was English. It never admits of it. Like the princess who fell for the handsome face of an idiot and made a Kalidas out of him, Sri Aurobindo has taken infinite pains to employ a substandard language for any purpose and tried to express a philosophy that transcends human experience. The simplest example anyone can follow is the word Silence. In English silence means absence of noise. In Sanskrit silence - mounam -- means absence of thought. To use the word Silence in the sense of absence of thought, any Englishman will feel it absurd and a violence to her idiom.
In Sanskrit mounam has an amplitude. Sri Aurobindo has to go necessarily beyond it. Silence is there when we do not speak. It is the Silence of speech. When we do not think, Silence arises which is far more powerful. We are tempted to call it mental silence but it won't be exact as mind has innumerable faculties -- imagination, decision, etc.-- behind each of which there is an appropriate silence. When all these mental faculties cease to function, the Silence that arises can be called mental Silence. As there is a Silence behind thought, there is a Silence behind feelings. The Silence behind acts is the most powerful and He says it sustains activity. Om is said to be the third stage when the Original Silence descends to creation. It is the Silence of universal creation. Equally there is a Silence behind Ananda, Consciousness and Existence. He calls that the Silence behind Silence. Even that Silence cannot be attributed to Brahman as it is featureless. Still there is a beyond which is His own yogic territory. When the Infinite Eternal Brahman chooses to express itself through Mind, Life and Matter and their activities, the silence that sustains that creation and evolution remains undisturbed. We cannot certainly call it Silence in the other sense. For want of a better word or any word, He resorts to original creation and says it is the Silence behind Silence, far richer and more integrated than the stage to which we gave that name. Intuition, insight, consciousness are very important in His vocabulary. Supermind is His key word. He is not satisfied with any of them. Often He refers to his own definition to words like Logic and Reason and divides them into higher and lower. E.g. He calls His logic Logic of the Infinite. Before trying to read the Book, it will be well to know what He exactly means by each word He employs. This is possible only after reading the book half a dozen times. He consciously avoids, whenever necessary, the Sanskrit word lest it should mean something else -- the traditional sense. Jivatma in the tradition has a limited sense having no eternity. To denote what He means He avoids Jivatma mostly and employs the word individual.
One of the important messages of the Book is the Process of Creation. Especially for Money it is important to know this theme. Our central theme is the Process of Creation of unlimited Money by the Spiritual Individual. Brahman comes into Existence. It becomes conscious and senses its being conscious. It looks at itself subjectively and becomes the Spirit. It looks at itself objectively and becomes Truth without losing its basic unity. Time is created when the Spirit looks at itself. Space is created when the Spirit looks at its movements. The plane of Supermind is created when the objective state of the Spirit-Truth relates itself to the objective state of consciousness-knowledge. It is called the plane of Truth-Consciousness -- Supermind. In the planes of Time, apart from Time and Timelessness. He introduces another concept where they co-exist and calls it Simultaneous integrality of Time-eternity and Timeless-eternity. To collect His terminology and understand it as He intended -- not what the tradition mean -- is a full-scale study by itself. Going beyond words we come to concepts. The most characteristic of those concepts is Freedom, when He says that Freedom is the final law and last consummation, giving it the meaning that Freedom is complete only when it is free to lose itself. Every concept of His has this dimension and every term of His repeats it. One may ask what all this has to do with Money. Money is the organising power of the society leading it to evolve. Presently Money offers social interaction so that life at that level will be smooth. The Individual is one who rejects the social way of life and seeks to evolve as the Spiritual Individual so that he may lead the evolution. In a limited context of Money, his endeavour will be to create individually all the Money the world so far created. It may be called the emergence of the individual, the monetary individual or even the psychological individual, none of which will precisely reflect what is meant. Let us call Money the power of the society that collects for the purposes of organising it. The experience of that organisation is decided by the organising society. The Individual who experiences is determined by the collective society. There is NO question of the Individual separating himself from the social collective. All that he can do is to have an evolutionary relation with the collective. The society is the ‘collective individual' meaning what the collective has permitted in the individual as his maximum reach. To do yoga, to study The Life Divine, etc. are issues I never touch upon in my writings for the devotees. My view is Money can be best understood if one understands yoga as described by Him. As a family man or even as an Individual one has to act in the society or in the field of Money. Action here means action of the Individual that is the citizen on the market in the context of Money at a given moment of transaction. Actions are judged by results. An understanding of yoga says the individual and Money are social finites out of which the infinite Prosperity emerges.
Surely the individuals who fulfil these conditions will be able to create greater amounts of Money than others. The question is will they be able to produce more money than the richest man now earns. What a rich man earns will be the minimum. What then is the maximum? The maximum is determined by the maximum receptivity of the Individual and the maximum encouragement society gives. Financially my aim is to create an Individual at the age of eighteen or twenty who will have all the potentials to create the wealth of this world. It is an abridgement of Time apparently, but in fact it is hastening the ripeness of social experience -- maturity. No man who cannot fully appreciate the value of Money as organisation will be able to emerge as an Individual and no one who cannot appreciate the roles of Internet can accomplish this. Maturity, ripeness are not aspects that can be hastened but that which enables them -- Freedom, awareness, choice, direction, self-direction -- can be given to the maximum possible extent. The CHOICE is made by the citizen, the individual. Is there a way to help the citizen to make the right choice? Such a help is an interference that will spoil the child and turn out to be conditioning. The progress one makes offers the scope for others to receive what direction it may choose. One man's perfection can save the world, said He. It means the atmosphere one creates is the maximum one can contribute. Direction is in place to prevent degeneration and dissipation. It is our conception that Money is to be produced in fields and factories. It is not a wholly wrong conception. Money lies more in human creativity than in the fields and factories. As trust is one such creative field, it creates Money. Real wealth lies inside more than in outer life. Going inside will be tempting to the individual and he would like to go more and more inside. It will again separate the inner from the outer. Integration of the outer with the inner is one essential aspect of creation of wealth. To discover the inner power in outer experience is living richly as no one so far has attempted. It will be a full living. All of us do it in learning a language. We can extend it to create prosperity. Our highest aim is to learn the evolving Spirit in life. It is an evolving life, evolving because the Spirit inside has come to the moment of realisation that it has to evolve. Spirit evolves in life, mind and matter. Spirit evolves by itself. What matters is spiritual evolution.
Social life as we witness it is an interplay of forces.
Creation, as we are repeatedly saying, is for delight. The delight issues out of the Brahman hidden in it emerging. The aim is explained as a play of consciousness with consciousness, being with being and ananda with ananda. This play demands separation. But the basic unity is indestructible. In the inversion created by involution, knowledge converts into ignorance. To know the play of the forces in the human world it is necessary to know what happens in the cosmos. In the beginning it is the Self-conscious unity in the Being. For the sake of the play, it becomes Sachchidananda. Supermind is the nature of Sachchidananda, its objective status. The Self-conscious Being presents itself as Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara with their corresponding powers of Maya, Prakriti, Shakti. Maya conceptively creates while preserving the original oneness. Prakriti dynamically executes as Purusha stands aloof. Shakti conceptively creates and dynamically executes as Ishwara here is a part of Shakti, by surrendering to it. Simultaneously the Self-conscious being divides itself subjectively as Spirit and objectively as Truth. The objective status of consciousness is knowledge. The action of Brahma, Purusha, Ishwara through Maya, Prakriti, Shakti takes place in the plane of Supermind which is the objective status of Sachchidananda. Supermind is called the plane of Truth-consciousness. It is here the One becomes the Many without actual separation, a differentiation without distinction. In our lower world Ego creates the separation converting the play of enjoyment into a struggle for survival. If the Self-conscious Being splits itself into Spirit and Truth subjectively, the Spirit by a similar process creates subjective Time and objective space. Further the plane of Time becomes Time and Timelessness. This is the original division between which the instrument of Mind is born. Mind, by definition, is an instrument of division. But the unity and oneness being the real basis, Mind splits only the Force, not the Being. The division meets with an absolute resistance at the level of substance, resulting in atomic existence. The ego, the result of division, acquires a mental point of view, a life point of view and considers itself as a separate entity at the physical level. Evolution restores the unity created originally at the level of Matter. As unity is the basic principle of Being, not division, when the division proceeds in the consciousness, it comes to a dead stop when it meets with the substance. The process of division is infinite. Therefore it cannot stop. When further division is not possible, aggregation of divided units begins. Evolution is to discover Sachchidananda in Matter where the fleeting Ananda of Cosmos is given permanency in the dense Matter below. For one who aspires for the spiritual life, this is the only view. In simple words, the first step in divine living is conversion of Selfishness into Self-giving in the universal life. This is exalted philosophy. All that we live today once started as exalted philosophy. We have to accept the new philosophy and create new attitudes that will express the new consciousness. That will be our study in Money. No work of ours misses our attitude and motive behind that represent our old philosophy of moksha which is seeking selfish salvation. The new salvation we seek is for the collective, not for the individual. This we do by the individual becoming the Eternal. In practice, this is selfishness becoming Self-giving on a universal scale. In the process of change, e.g. constitution, law, rule, procedure, custom, usage-there are several stages, each insignificant change being exceedingly important. The new understanding of Money we have to create must be on this basis.
Subjectively Money is an object of possessive enjoyment. Objectively it is an instrument of wide social action in any direction or field. They meet together at a higher level of social power represented by the WILL of the social individual in a person. That social power is Truth whose inner counterpart is Spirit. The Spirit of that outer social power is the social spirit. They merge in social existence. The Being of such a social existence is the head of the nation, his person. That splits into the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice. There was a time when the Chief Justice was paid only 5000/- while car drivers in banks were clearing a total salary of 20,000/- with a basic salary of Rs. 3000/-. This is a distortion which presaged the spate of corruption that followed in the coming decades. Money was put in the straightjackets of administrative process while the social growth of Money was overflowing enormously raising the value of a plot from Rs. 1000/- to Rs. 10 lakhs. As Money was not allowed the freedom it deserves, it went into ugly distortions. Kurien retired on Rs. 5000/- while he deserved Rs. 5 lakhs a month.
Money becomes unique at every moment.
As the infinite in creation has become the infinitesimal, the society in its progress has become many things of which Money is one. The same process continues in Money till Money attains a unique position at a given moment. What is it for Money to become unique? It is a truism of life that every thing can do duty to everything else. The speech can be replaced by a sign, but communication is unique to speech. The duty of exchange which is the primary function of Money was done prior to the birth of Money by barter. But Money does it with precision and goes on increasing the level of precision till the function becomes unique. The cost accountant has arrived at appreciating the unique service of Money to the society. At the point of uniqueness, it is the overmind that expresses itself through Money. We can well appreciate the difference between the sensory perception of an article like a book from its mental comprehension. Going further beyond, we can construct the understanding of the book at every level of the spiritual range of Mind and that of Supermind. Stopping at the overmind, we will be able to appreciate the value of uniqueness of anything. A similar exercise with Money is called for to know its uniqueness. For instance, there are various ways of measuring the efficiency of an act. Money too can do it. The time consumed is one indication, its usefulness is another, but Money measures the efficiency in terms of how much money is spent. Such an approach enables us to improve its efficiency in terms of Money spent. Uniqueness is a trait which no one else can exhibit. It is true that education, trade, etc. also have their unique functions. In man meeting his complement in the woman, Romance rises to its peak at the point he and she are unique to each other. What the web and the Internet do, nothing else can do. The credit card, especially the visa card, has come as a standing wonder. We see at this point Money becomes a unique instrument. At the point of uniqueness, its service excels, reaches perfection. Mind offers so many services, but in memory Mind's function becomes unique and cannot be bettered. Uniqueness enables creation to reach perfection. Fingerprint experts, handwriting specialists, astrologers and philosophers know this. The Buddha says the river is never the same. The teacher who sees this uniqueness in a child will have discovered the potential genius in the child. To be able to reach the unique aspect of Money or anything is to utilise it the best. Spiritually all men are equal. We try to become a type. To use Money as everyone uses is to reach Money at the level of a type. We cannot still say Money has attained its unique status. Maybe it is on its way. Ours is a summary primary attempt to create a great quantity of Money. From there, till we reach the uniqueness there is a long distance. Quantity is either physical or vital. Beyond that Mind and three further levels of it are there till we reach the overmind. Perfection is the watchword of this yoga. Perfection and uniqueness go together though there is one step beyond. When Sri Aurobindo walked for ten hours he thought walking the same distance in the same time is of significance. Hence he had four clocks in between the two ends. Supramental perfection demands it be taken to the minutest detail. Having reached atoms, physics has gone beyond it to subatomic particles. A similar attempt in matters of psychology was successfully undertaken by the Rishis earlier.
In its action Money becomes Unique.
Money becomes unique at one point. The Act becomes unique at some point. When we reach that point in social existence and examine Money as well as action, we find uniqueness meeting uniqueness. It is an acme of our study. An act is inanimate. It can be animate when done by a man. Still, the act has an existence. An ACT is the unit of universal life or existence even as the atom is the unit of matter. In the individual it gets the energy of his life. Also an act is a universe in itself. Money is a thing, not an act. When it is transaction it becomes an act. Money rises to be an organisation when it ceases to be an act but becomes a system. Rising further to become Trust, Money is no longer a thing or an act or even a system. There Money becomes a social value that exists in a human value system. Uniqueness being a universal value, Money arrives at its uniqueness in all these stages. Only when it is a transaction is it an action. It is obvious we are in the presence of Infinity of infinities in this study. What we are studying is not money, with Money as an occasion or an excuse, or a doorway. We are studying infinite existence which by its definition defies study. The question is whether we are able to conceive, perceive and sense that Money is the infinitesimal that reveals infinity. This conception is the reward of the study in the mind. Its perception evokes a vital response from life. Only its sensation gives us the power to create what we perceive. It will be doubly so as we are approaching uniqueness -- infinity -- from two sides, action and Money. The point at which they become unique is the natural terminus for the involution where begins the evolution. To us evolution, in this narrowest context, means Money enters the phases of Multiplication and Self-Multiplication. The significance is given by the reversal that is transformation of involution into evolution. Supramental consciousness has the power to reverse the involution into evolution not necessarily when the involution ends, but at any stage. It is the essence of this yoga that Man, being conscient, has the capacity to escape the rest of the evolution by moving away from his normal physicality to the conscious mentality and further to the further possible centre made possible by evolution, the mental psychic. If the truth in this statement is conceded, it follows that Money can enter into its final phase of being an instrument of the Divine. I always put it away to the sadhak. To the simple devotee, this movement, its first stirrings will open the floodgates of infinite Money. Our quest ends there.
We know when the Being is awake, it can reverse, change, hasten the course as it chooses. It is spiritual awakening. We have now the spiritual awakening of 1) man, 2) society, and 3) Money. Our stated purpose will be more than well served if the first is fulfilled. The world evolved from agriculture to modern society via manufacturing. As the centuries or decades pass, Mind has awakened. It hastens the change. Now that the service sector dominates the society and a TOOL of technology in the shape of computer has come, India can skip both the initial phases --agriculture and manufacturing. As the world becomes a global village, the earlier compelling need to produce all the nation's requirements within the boundaries of the state no longer is there. The world can have its food and all the other needs produced anywhere, as its then purpose dictates or demands. Rural areas can generate their own service sector and agriculture can be avoided to a large extent, if possible. Before printing came to India there were no textbooks. Children had to memorise all the textbooks. It is no longer necessary. All civilised progress is as such. Suppose one wants to analyse an act, he needs to know the process of creation. In creation Brahman has become the Self-conscious Being, Sat Purusha. The Self-conscious Being acquires three consecutive states of Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara and their powers Maya, Prakriti, Shakti. What Maya conceives, Prakriti executes. Shakti does both, i.e. conceives and executes. It is done in the Supramental plane which is the objectivised state of Sat. In addition Sat creates Spirit and Truth by the subjective and objective states. Spirit, again, by an objective process, creates Time and Space. So far, it is the creation of the cosmos. Only when Time splits into Time and Timelessness Mind is created. Mind creates Life and Matter. One can see the ACT at every stage. Maya, in creating the Many out of the One, preserves the oneness. The Mystery lies in the preservation. Minus the Mystery we are finite; with the knowledge of the Mystery we are infinite. This is the process of creation which is hidden or buried or implicit in every ACT. To him who knows the process, the Mystery begins to reveal. ten people sit around a table each with Rs.1000/-, and at the end of the meeting Rs. 10,000/- is offered to one of them. The recipient cannot but be intrigued, but pleased. Suppose he pauses a minute and sees the PROCESS, a process by which the selfish aggressive Man who does NOT want anyone to prosper comes forward to offer his own Rs.1000/- for another's use for a period, he will see selfishness giving way to Selflessness for a higher selfish benefit. This possibility arises out of an organisation. Suppose the modern man, by an infinite stretch of imagination sees that Internet brings to him news, knowledge, trade, opportunities, Money which none of his own co-citizens would concede because Internet is a wider subtle organisation. It brings him a house in exchange of a Red Paper clip. He will see such potential is there in the market, the world, the atmosphere. It comes to him when it gets organised. One more step. He sees the same possibility inside him. Should he have the same generous attitude of the Internet in his own psychological attitude, the attitude of creative Self-giving, he will see the same infinite possibilities of Multiplication as well as Self-Multiplication in him. It has after all gone out from inside. That inside was the inner life of an unknown human being. Then he becomes qualified to multiply Money as Internet is now doing.
Uniqueness has its variations in the individual, the act, the moment, the space, the relationship, etc.
One movement of Money considered from each of these sides will be of help. In lending, the value of the individual, whether his status is one of poverty or wealth, will be of importance. The act varies from a bank to a moneylender. Of course, how critical the moment is for the borrower is of great significance. When the loans have shifted from the banker's market to the customer's market, relationship determines how each acts. Over what space of time is the Money to be issued acquires importance. When no one returns the loan, one person promptly returning it becomes unique. Equally when everyone is anxious to return the loan in time without reminder, he who refuses to do so in spite of coercive action does prove to be a unique case. Money has over a hundred relationships of which lending is one. The Komutti Chettiar who believes that the borrower's Money with him for whatever reason will do him harm is unique as a community. A bargain that is prolonging for hours over a fixed sum, takes a unique turn when the sum is placed on the table as bank notes. The seller on seeing the currency bundles behaves differently. Once the Money is on the table, his look shifts to the Money and may not shift back to the buyer. From that moment, his attitude softens, and the bargain takes a different course. Money, the sight of it has a unique effect. Often in rural transactions the buyer thrusts the bundle of Money on to the lap of the seller which changes the direction of the transaction. The sight, the touch, sometimes even the voice that mentions the figure has a striking effect. Their result is typical. To see the unique performance, we have to wait still further. In Mother's atmosphere, we have always seen the phenomenon of excess benefit in one shape or another. When the buyer quotes an impossible price of Rs.66,000 as against his previous quote of Rs.125,000/- a new seller offers Rs.36,000/-. This is the type of response Mother evokes always. Now, uniqueness apart, whole fields of trade such as phones and emails offer the customer a price a hundredth of what he is used to. They excel themselves even offering the service free. This occurs when the uniqueness of several aspects joins together. Uniqueness is still farther away. In music the highest pitch of a raga becomes unique in each singer on each occasion. Money becomes unique as Money and more so when Money moves attitudes, power, situation, equilibrium, etc. as nothing can move. We know teaching is at its best when it becomes learning. Can we say buying can become selling and vice versa. Only in the real estate it can be seen very well. The cultivable land purchased to be converted into house plots undergoes a metamorphosis. We can as well say his buying is selling. Similarly at the point Money's role becomes unique the personal becomes impersonal as in the VISA card. Money, at that point becomes an uncentralised organisation of which No-body is in charge. Public opinion is another organisation which has been taken hold of by no one so far. Sri Aurobindo calls the moment, the moment where the involution changes into evolution, an evolutionarily creative moment. His own actual phrase is a virginally creative moment. The youth in the West wanting to be himself, not what the family or the society asks of him is the Quest of Man for uniqueness in individuality.
Voluntary Retirement.
India combines the post-Independence laxity in public life with the aspirations of the modern citizen. The employers, thus, face a two-faced dragon. Labour laws do not permit discharging the erring employees. They work for a few hours or refuse to work at all. The ingenious human mind found a solution through the instrument of Money. As today we cannot think of a negotiation except in terms of Money, the extraordinary resourcefulness of this measure can be missed in a great part. The situation is a complexity because of the political climate. It is intentionally made complicated by the refractoriness of the individuals who stand to gain. In terms of karma, this generation of employers pays for the sins of the employers of the 1940s. It is Tatas who originated this VRS (Voluntary Retirement). It pays to pay the full salary for the remaining years of service to the senior employees. It is a solution made possible by Money. As this is an example of solving a negative issue, there are positive ones where new entrants are paid a bonus of a few months' salary in addition to double the salary offered. They appear to be an individual benefit, but what absorbs the untold amounts is the newly emerging social opportunities in terms of Money. Chandrasekaran's book speaks of how even the sculpture in the Indian temples can be digitalised and made a source of vast income. Someone is selling a CD-ROM for a cost of Rs.1,50,000 in good number every year. As the sand on the beach contains the potentials of becoming a chip, computer has come making anything a source of Money. Even a paperclip becomes a house. The scope for innovation is infinite. Chandrasekaran speaks of a new software company in a village, opening monetary opportunities in animal food and a host of other similar items. The Rishis sought ÷©õm\® moksha that merged their souls with the static infinity of Brahman. Sri Aurobindo looks on the static Brahman as the Brahman that is active in itself and in all the planes down to matter where the Marvel unfolds. Moksha is one great soul receiving illumination and offering to bless the rest of humanity by his status in Silence. Marvel is the soul of the Individual emerging through the parts of his being, as it has realised that it is no longer the individual soul or even the soul of the universe, but it is of the Transcendent descending on earth to discover its emergence from ignorance. Money can accumulate with rich men, royalty and banks and shine from the top. Now man realises that his expansive attitude can bring Social Money to emerge through his life as abundant living, where one man spends as much as the richest man in an earlier period spent. It is the Marvel made possible by Money. Its infinity is reached at its uniqueness. Infinity, infinitesimal, uniqueness, Marvel all are facets of one single movement. VRS that puts Rs.20 lakhs in the hands an employee of Rs.20,000 salary raises the efficiency of the establishment he quits. Mostly uniqueness goes with perfection at some level. What the Supermind achieves in knowledge, Overmind achieves in ignorance. Bernard explains that counterfeit currency acts exactly as the regular currency as far as the public is concerned. Only that if the counterfeit money floods the market, inflation will set in economically. Morally, the Government will encourage immoral acts. The perfection of Overmind occurs in Matter. The perfection of Money's uniqueness takes place at all levels -- a thing, a transaction, an organisation, trust, power, etc. The smallest part of matter is the atom. The smallest denomination of the currency is the paisa or the cent or the penny. The aim of creation is to arrive at the perfect form. What is the aim of Money? Money is a symbol. Its best service to the society is to serve as an effective tool to accelerate its growth. It does it in two ways. One is just functional. Transport is made possible as every passenger can pay for his ticket. Payment for services rendered is the primary function of Money in any field. In the field of education, apart from the direct payment of tuition and boarding fees, Money plays a subtle, more powerful role as it equips the student with an earning capacity. Today, earning capacity is the central motive to get educated. A degree is a powerful symbol of society's monetary reward to the student. The players in a professional team are paid for their play. That is a smaller truth. Business pays them, for their period of popularity, enormously for being a social success. Money here becomes a symbol of social accomplishment. The spy does a patriotic service for the nation. He almost serves the nation. They can also be professional. Money does it. Suppose monetary rewards are not possible, the athletes will not be so forthcoming to advertise the goods, the spy will not readily risk his life for the nation. Money makes such things possible. Interest makes credit possible. It is the service of Money. Money does not make anything possible, but it makes many things possible. In 1980 a diabetic patient, not expected to survive, escaped death and was slowly recovering. The doctor suggested a drug not available in India could help her recover fast. It was produced in USA, but was not in the market, as it was not yet released for the public. The patient happened to know a doctor in research who could procure her that drug. But it was to be brought under controlled temperature. The airlines had that facility. The patient needed only four tablets. If the earlier hurdles could be overcome, the cost of the drugs and the transport was Rs.5000/-. It was a forbidding cost, but, in this case, Money made it possible. As symbolic service is its virtue, Money often exhibits the capacity to make the impossible possible. In this we see the accomplishment assumes the perfect form because of Money. In all accomplishment there is satisfaction. Satisfaction rises to delight when the service becomes unique at the point of the act acquiring a perfect form. Delight is the result of self-discovery for the lost soul. The delight of Money is seen when it realises its innate hidden capacities in non-monetary social fields, what is not possible for the forces of those fields. The infinite does not emerge out of the finite till it becomes the infinitesimal. Uniqueness and the infinitesimal go together. Also perfection in form is another of its attributes. Uniqueness can be expressed as the process of the formation of the seven ignorances. As the Spiritual substance descends to become material substance, the one infinite becomes the infinitesimal. Money which is a Divine Force descends to represent gross products of land or factory, and it becomes a material thing. To be able to know another person's unique nature is almost to know where his divinity emerges. The path of infinity to the infinitesimal is almost parallel to the other eleven aspects of Spirit becoming their opposites. One who traces all those paths, will be able to know Money fully in all its aspects of integration. When the uniqueness is recognised and is allowed to grow on its own path, the ugly duckling becomes the swan, the idiot becomes the genius, a nobody becomes a celebrity, shivering fear becomes undaunted courage and a mere thing Money rises to master the throne.
Search for uniqueness is search for Excellence.
In this poise, one is on the border of Becoming changing into Being. It is a poise where attention to details helps achieve greatness in Man. Also here we see persons ridden with chronic diseases changing into a picture of health. Uniqueness goes with high character. Uniqueness gives unique strength. It is a point where the inconscient becomes superconscient. At the same time, one crosses into the subtle plane from the gross physical plane. Again it is here the objectless ananda tries to express itself through objects. Uniqueness is the gateway through which the infinitesimal emerges into its original infinity. Guru-shishya, husband-wife, fast friendship, professional-client relationships are fertile areas for uniqueness to emerge. In the market, where Money rules it is eminently possible. Emerging uniqueness can be an iconoclast and abolish all forms of established authority.
- When Money chases borrowers, the authority of the rich man, his wealth, etc. vanishes into thin air.
- Money that is to be earned by hard work is seen multiplying from half a million dollars to 660 million in less than two years. The sanctity of hard work is no longer sanctimonious.
- When the servant insists on being called ‘help', not ‘servant', what happened to the unquestionable authority of the Money paid by the householder? Man rises in value when he discovers the value of honesty and integrity. It is Money that makes him discover the value of values.
- The Internet opened up cyberspace. It reaches all over the world and everyone is connected to it. By opening in multiple ways the endless vistas unknown to Man in Space and Time, the Internet has done wonders. To Money it opened pathways for a trillion or more to travel daily. Its direct results are,
- Wages in India are up from Rs.20/- to Rs.120/-.
- Real estate values all over the world rise high.
- One man with one tiny skill of speech about culture in a humorous way rose to be the fifth most well known consultant in the world.
- For one single flaw in accounts, world famous companies collapse.
- Banks, having realised that giving away Money will make them socially eminent and politically powerful, do not dare venture to act on their understanding.
- The rich man whose primary motive is never to allow the poor to rise now finds his bread in New York costlier if there is famine in Bangladesh.
- No longer are children anxious for the inheritance from the parents, as they perceive their own goal in life cannot be achieved by that Money.
- Parents do realise inheritance will render the character of their children flabby and flimsy and give it away to charity.
- No longer is the character of Money what it was.
The infinite social power of Money is in one single transaction.
A person in 1500 AD or even 500 AD, if told of the comforts of life we are now enjoying, would have found it unbelievable. Can we speak to anyone today that the Love of Jesus, the Compassion of the Buddha, the powers of Lord Krishna or all that we have heard of Paradise are inside us? The world we have now around us is created by our Minds. The Earthly Paradise the great souls have envisioned is in our inner lives. Sri Aurobindo went to the Kali temple and Kali came out of the idol. At least a few thousand devotees have seen Sri Aurobindo and the Mother like that in their photographs. Can we tell any teacher or parent that he has never seen the genius in his own self and at least now he must see it in his child? But it is true. A petty shopkeeper earning Rs. 1000/- a day cannot be shown that his business contains the potentials of one lakh of profits a day and, in truth, all the wealth of his town. It demands another dimension of vision. The world is long used to the idea that people are poor, ignorant, filthy and dirty and only a few are talented and are affluent. All our education has not taken us out of that superstition. We are out and out physical. These are superstitions of the physical existence. We find all these superstitions in Money. Some of them are,
- All cannot earn Money, it is meant only for the chosen few.
- One must be in luck to earn.
- It requires hard work to earn. This is true, but is partially true.
As luck is not the determinant, so work is not the determinant.
- Even if we earn, all cannot keep it. This is again a partial truth.
- There are two such ideas about education and Money.
- Educationis a hindrance to earn Money.
- Without education one cannot earn enormous Money.Education is a bar in the sense; it prevents Man from descending low enough to earn as the circumstances demand. Education is a help to earn as it enlightens the process. A deeper wider Truth here is education brings in his prestige which is foreign to accomplishment. In the second proposition education helps one receive from experience.
- There are other truths of life that are lost sight of or not known to humanity.
Money is produced by Man at different times out of different things - land, factory, service, values, etc. - depending upon his mental development and social opportunities. Man is capable of raising himself to any level. He can also raise the society if he chooses. Man influences the society and the society influences him but out of the two, he is the primary factor that determines the other. Money is not the only thing Man has produced. It is one among the many. What he really does is creation, not production; it is creation of social development.
In spite of a galaxy of intellectuals in the hundreds, if not in the tens of thousands, it has not produced one rational Man. Suppose such a rational man is in existence, he will be able to see what is happening to the social progress through the instrumentation of Money. He will get a glimpse of the infinite Money power behind the Money that is currency. Behind a single bank, a rational person will be able to perceive the inexhaustible power, if not as Money power. Bank is a powerhouse, market is a power station, society is power incarnate. It converts itself into bits of expressible power of various types.
Supramental Possibility in Money.
Abolition of poverty, prosperity, and abundance for some are what the world knows. Abundance for all is not yet a concept, leave alone a reality. Half the world is poor. There is a super abundance of things that makes the object superfluous. It is a Supramental possibility. Sri Aurobindo envisaged the Supramental Being even before the rational man is born. In India even agriculture is primitive. How can we skip manufacturing and the service sector? If we do, it is a Supramental possibility turned into actuality. All of us, as devotees, strongly believe in His prophecy but want that Being born in our social conditions. It is not rational. The Supramental possibility of Money will be realised if there are Supramental attitudes, Supramental organisations, Supramental values. We now see the distant, but distinct symptoms of them in various ways. Insurance is the oldest. Credit was only for the propertied rich. At the inception of banks, it was the attitude, but the need for the bank to lend Money made it gradually relax its rigidities and seek those members of the society it would otherwise shun. The innate power of Money compels the society to change. It is essentially the role Money gives the society. As the paper clip has other dimensions, Money too has. It has all the dimension of the society. By itself these dimensions do not emerge. When the society changes, new conditions emerge and organise themselves into an institution, those possibilities emerge and persuade men to conform. In this paper the aim is to know those possibilities in full before they emerge in the society so that they will become real in our life under appropriate conditions. Even rationality is a bar. Our turning inward to the evolving Being-the psychic being-is the changed inner circumstances.
- The society awaits changes in external social conditions.
- Man creates the necessary inner conditions.
Sri Aurobindo calls some of them Logic of the Infinite, Higher Reason.
- Non-action brings about greater results.
- Non-initiative brings the end results at the beginning.
- To spend Money freely up to the last rupee enables a greater inflow of Money.
- Money given even as a loan should not be taken back.
The spiritual truth translated in terms of Money will read like this. When the whole world believes one has to work hard to generate Money, our belief that less work brings in more Money sounds like not only a paradox, but downright folly. Spiritually, folly is the greatest of wisdom. Such are the mental attitudes demanded of us, once we embark on this path. Such attitudes are expected of us not only in important affairs, but in all small events. By a strange turn of events patients from the West are flying to India and Thailand to have medical treatment, a reversal of roles, as it was from Asia that patients went to USA for treatment. Seen as a whole, the social fabric reveals all these facets in rich abundance and goes on adding to the store till all is explicit. In the final phase there will be less distinction between Money and Education or between power and joy. All the independent powers of the society meet at the peak of the society gradually losing their individualities and becoming more of social facets. To trace each one of those movements in Money distinctly and to place them in the right social perspective so that Money will be seen not as Money but as a social instrument fulfilling social duties from its own side is the aim.
How to practise it?
Not many will come forward to accept these conditions or to benefit from them by practising it.
In practice, it means,
- In education, my child can become a genius. In prosperity, I can earn all the wealth I can conceive of in my mind.
- Anyone can solve any problem of his or any problem of others who trust him. In the measure he is universal inside, the problems of the world can be solved by him.
- Romance that dies at marriage, will refuse to dissolve, but on the other hand will gain life in marriage and grow into a ripe Romance of consciousness, capable of capturing the Romance of Being when the ONE became the Many. Society is the ONE. It becomes divided apparently into segments of production, distribution, and consumption. In that process production further fragments itself into work, organisation, enjoyment. The depiecing goes on when work becomes ploughing, watering, etc. In the meantime, another necessary process of communication, understanding, etc. starts. As each process exhausts its course, it reverses. Each process is one of division and each reversal is one of unity. Unity is preceded by union which is preceded by links that form into systems and organisation. One such organisation is Money. The reversal is done by organisation, symbolism and any measure that is suitable for each level. When Money is a thing, it is a symbol. At transaction, it is a symbolic movement that links two people. At its next level, while it is a system or further organisation, it gives life to the principle of all in each and each in all, trying to restore the unity through oneness and union. Theoretical exposition goes on endlessly. The Americans work from morn till night, they risked their lives all the time, relied only on themselves and thus developed individuality. Now the richness and density of formed individuality in each of them is seen expressing as ever growing abundance of material prosperity. He who has this yogic knowledge of society, particularly Money has the knowledge to create that Money inside. Only that it should be perfect. The knowledge will become explanations of an argument in the understanding Mind or valuable information to be remembered in the memory. Neither the information, nor the arguments have the power we seek. It resides in the knowledge that is power, not even in the knowledge that is an idea. Such a knowledge, a knowledge of Real-Idea is born in the Spiritual Individual. Not even the mental individual can boast of that privilege. The Spiritual Individual can be the static soul or the evolving Purusha. It is the latter that we seek. As we are presently constituted, rationality, truthfulness, goodness, or one such aspect in our life can turn our human personality into what we aspire for. Sri Aurobindo has given us the knowledge. His atmosphere is there to convert it into power. The above attitude gives us access to that possibility. It is a possibility to create abundance that has another greater spiritual sequel. But we move towards the least of its potentials -- abundant wealth.
Money reaches its final perfection when the environment -- market, man, institutions, etc. -- recognises its uniqueness of the infinitesimal and understands it as the tip of the emerging infinity.
On the day the Buddha was born, astrologers prophesied that he would rule the world as a monarch or a sage. The paper clip becomes a house. After working for forty years one suddenly becomes a national leader. Others gradually find their fame growing. Stones remain stone, desert remains desert but some points in the desert become important as oil is struck below. All are the same, but each item reveals it at different times. He who has the vision can see it at any time. Money, in its original sense, is the vital power of the society organised by the social mind as part of fulfilling its divine mission. At every point of its movement Money has two alternatives, actually many options. One is the routine role assigned to it in its horizontal expansion where it retains its character evolved thus far. Another is its productive role of multiplying accepting energies of the forces it interacts with or the planes higher than its present functioning. A farmer taking a bank loan meets his cultivation needs and there it ends if he is cultivating the crops all the others do. Suppose he raises a crop new to the village or new in his region or new to the country or in the extremely unlikely occasion a new hybrid, the role the bank's money plays in each case is different socially. When the farmer's savings go to money-lending or buying fresh lands, he is at the level of others. Suppose he starts a chit fund then unknown in his village or complementary currency, the bank money plays a different role of productivity or creativity. Credit cards in the sixties and seventies, Internet transfer of money in the eighties have played such roles. At any given time Money somewhere takes on that role somehow in the transaction of some person, but it always occurs. To be able to conceive of it in mind, perceive it in the vital, sense it in the physical act, one recognises the tip of the iceberg that is infinite expansion.
- Money is a vital power.
- It is organised by Mind into power out of the social energies when they are directed into social force.
- At every moment it potentially contains evolutionary propensities and awaits the social opportunities and individual attitudes.
- It is an ever-living perennial process visible to one awake in the appropriate faculties in an adequate measure.
Money is not so much conditioned in social existence as mind that gives out knowledge.
Money is vital power. Knowledge is the light of the mind. The light enjoying no power cannot be effective. It can only be guided and conditioned. Money being power expresses on its own, cannot be conditioned as knowledge. So, money is a power without self-guiding knowledge or light. Our approach to it naturally is to be different from that of education. We see education becomes effective only when Money leads it. It happens when education becomes commercial. There is a corresponding movement in Money, maybe in the reverse order. Money too can come into its own only when it is guided by knowledge. Without commercialisation education cannot reach its universal dimensions. Without mass enlightenment Money cannot realise its deeper potentials and release its higher energies. To convey the argument to every other social force and redefine our ideas of Money in that light is to travel through all aspects of the society spearheading ourselves on the light of the Theory. This exercise is one part of it.
- A conditioned Money conditioned by an already conditioned Mind can only evoke a fully conditioned response. There can be no life in it, much less the creativity we are looking for.
- Therefore, our primary objective is to release Money as well as Mind from its status of being conditioned.
- Money acts at home, in the market, in the office or in the society. None of these areas are free from conditioning of one type or another.
- What we seek is freedom for Money, freedom for the Mind, freedom for the society and freedom in their interactions.
- Money transacts a sale, a mortgage, a loan, a hire-purchase, etc. The question is, what is freedom in those transactions? And what is that freedom for the buyer, the seller, the market, lender, borrower, etc. Everyone is governed by law and custom. In that measure it is restraint. When we eat we are not conditioned by the laws of the land, but are guided by social customs. In that measure a certain freedom is there. Sitting alone and thinking how our life should be, no social laws or usage interferes but our own psychological beliefs and convictions govern that thinking. In its absence we say my imagination ran riot. Running riot is negative freedom for the mind. Its positive version is imaginative creativity in the realms of immediate future that fructify possibilities first creating them. When credit was born, a bank was founded, the credit card was conceived, there was such a moment of creativity. Today's bank was first born in the hand loan to the neighbour. It can be further extended to the need of the neighbour for Money and its availability with us. Mind's conception that the neighbour's excess can be of service to him and the emotional capability of the other to rise to the occasion by lending are socially creative moments of evolutionary possibilities. Can we transfer that conception to today's context and let minds be creative in a similar direction? If so, we will end up at the goal we are seeking for.
Money forms itself into power only in freedom. The power of Money shapes in the measure of freedom available in the society.
Obviously the ruling force is NOT money but social power. In one case, a trustworthy entrepreneur was entrusted with funds by several investors on their own choice. All of them belonged to an organisation. This organisation decided to destroy the entrepreneur for its own reasons of competitive jealousy. It ordered all its members to take the Money back from the outsider so as to ruin him. All acted as ordered which easily shows the determinant is not money but power. In this context Money cannot play its own role freely. The question of its rising to heights of productivity, creativity or evolutionary dynamism is nowhere. Whether Money plays its role or power usurps its position depends on freedom.
Freedom has two sides. Freedom to create or freedom to destroy. We have been considering only the constructive side. The speculations on the stock market, counterfeit currency, gangsters' organised life using stolen Money to buy judges and legislatures, etc. are on the wrong side. Whatever the side is, the theory finds all sides its field of inquiry. Our scope is limited. In a limited, positive social structure Money plays 1) a constructive role as Money 2) a creative role in the social development 3) a spiritual role in creating the Individual. Only these are our immediate concerns.
In a society where Money has negative freedom it can equally forge itself into an effective instrument. It will be an amorphous, unorganized aggregate or conglomerate that can create dynamic chaos in the society. Imagine what Al Capone would do, or would not do, if he had a field day. All organised institutions would have ceased to function as examination has become defunct in India due to mass copying. Once exams are abolished, the pupil goes to grass roots learning from journals, newspapers, TV, etc. which reduces him to a literate citizen. The body of academic talents will vanish. Money used negatively will help destroy the administrative core of the government as well as the structural functions social values have created based on the reality of administration. It will be a free-for-all where Money will certainly play a role. We cannot overlook the fact that negative freedom will destroy the value of Money too and remove it from social life. As the student outside school starts learning from rumour, society, having banished its own structures and that of Money, will have to start afresh. It will be a new foundation of society we are not used to so far.
Man receiving excessive Money saves. It is right. The knowledge we are trying to foster tells him it is better spent as early as possible. That means on any given occasion he must have more calls on his Money than what he will be receiving. It creates a fight in him. Rather, from this point of view, this should create joy in him. Our study will find there the modest householder will one day become an affluent middle class family accumulating objects at home through hire purchase. He will see his salary is rising. A paradox!
Money maturing in life through social organisation.
Money is a force which starts as energy. It is the social will that gives the direction to social energy for it to become social force. Before Mahatma Gandhiji came on the Indian scene, India was aspiring for her freedom. That aspiration rose as social energy. It was Gandhi who gave a direction to it by the slogan of Purna Swaraj -- complete independence. By that leadership the social energy for freedom became a socially well directed force. In 1904 Sri Aurobindo realised that what Indian needed was not a better government from the British, but complete Independence. His call awoke the nation which was in apathy. In the 80s and 90s Indian economy was astir. The educated population that can understand the market mechanism exhibiting greater trust and equally deserving that trust was taking some shape. NRIs who returned from other countries provided a fresh perspective. Society that was in majority was composed of people who were born after 1947. They never knew what slavery was. They were born free. It was a time the working class was intensely aspiring to move into the middle class. By this time, self-sufficiency in food as a result of the Green Revolution had increased the purchasing power of the rural population. The educational awakening completed with the higher purchasing power was given a push by the pressure of the increasing population resulting in urban migration. One consequence of it was the boom in real estate. It was a decade when the social progress was finding its feet. To convert all these positive factors, a certain organisation was necessary. It was offered by hire purchase. With that tool, every lower middle class home was quickly filled with the comforts of an upper middle class home. The working class too took the queue. The nation slowly, in a small measure, began to undergo a metamorphosis. Theoretically what happened was at a time of socially ripe atmosphere; the concept of hire purchase was born and accepted. It organised the aspirations of the society as social power.
- Such an atmosphere needs an organisation for the mere idea to mature into a living practical concept.
- Here we see the impersonal concept of hire purchase becoming a personal market tool for individual social progress.
- To repeat another important truth, let us say that unless the energies are organised into power in the desirable direction, it will create a state of society that can be well described as an enlightened chaos.
- Such a successful organisation, when it comes to stay will have two main characteristics:
- It will enable the evolving aspects like Money to become unique.
- The movement will tend to end in the infinitesimal.
The Border between the Infinitesimal and Infinity.
Of the thousands who buy lottery tickets, one wins the prize. The prize winning ticket carries the lucky number. Whether the number is predestined or it carries a possibility that through the language of probability precipitates the luck at the final moment is immaterial. We see it is happening; we do not see the process. It is given to our intellect to know the process; further something deeper inside, the soul can know the essence. The process is the same everywhere, for the lottery, for events of life and even the movements of Money. In life we have heard of many such moments. Latha Mangeshkar was so chosen by a film director. One story of Jayakanthan made him famous. The publishers saw the value of Tom Peters' thesis. Man responds to Mother's call. Gandhi went to Allahabad desiring to recruit the Nehrus to the freedom movement. Sri Aurobindo chose Churchill as His instrument. I made a conscious effort to touch the life of the village. Can we now try to know such moments when Money by one single act opened up the next phase of its development? The last twenty-five years is a period fertile in such instances. The credit card, the Visa card, consumer loans in India, housing loans, the micro credit of the Grameen Bank and other Banks are daily expressions of this principle. It is one thing to be its beneficiary and another thing to observe it and it is still another thing to see that that single act opens the next stage of development of Money. A complete comprehension of the spirit of this paper will be possible to one who sees in the present time as well as in the past all such occasions. It is not necessary that for this purpose one has to be a consummate scholar which demands years of study. Such scholarship will invariably be able to give that knowledge of that process. But, it is not indispensable to one who gets from several instances a touch of the essence. It can be acquired in any period short or long provided one gets to that process fully through the opening of the essence. This paper aims at it. Another paper on Internet dwells on the same subject from the point of view of technology. It can be clearer than this paper as this is on values that are intangible and that is on tangible technology. In Man, particularly a child, it is swabhava
that serves as this border. Behind the swabhava lies the swarupa. The lines of this form are expressive for this purpose of discovering the process as well as the essence. To discover the same border between the infinitesimal and the infinity in the transactions of Money so that we can come by the limitless power of Money is one act of the Lila in the plane of economic development. In each page of this paper, through writings that are apparently repetitive, we are handling the many aspects of that phenomenon.
Positive, negative, social sensitivities of Money.
Man is social. His social relationships are maintained by his manners. This is in his inconsequential behaviour, towards people who are least related with him. With his next inner circle, his colleagues and neighbours, he relates through his behaviour. His own life is built up with his character and that finds expression in his family. It is true that in all these relationships, his sensitivities find expression, but they are least visible. Every monumental decision of his will touch him beyond manners, behaviour, character at the points of his own sensitivities. Man is most touchy at those points. Positively he is most creative at those points.
Money, apparently inert, has life, if not in itself, but in its action. Money too has sensitivities. During high inflation, depression, crisis, etc. the negative sensitivities reveal their vast negative potentialities. We know with one whose million-dollar project is short of 5% or 10% of funds, positively those little amounts make the rest productive. In a musical performance, it is the experience of the singer that the spirit of the initial applause decides to what heights he will rise that day in his singing. The readiness with which the micro credit was returned is one great expression of social sensitivity of Money. Out of the one lakh borrowers, not one failed to repay. As long as the repayment is from 99,999 borrowers, it is money collected back, repayment. The creativity of Money will not surface, which it does in the last one borrower's behaviour. Ramapuram spread all over India, not only because the Money was recovered, but no farmer returned to the village without paying the loan at the bank. The value of repayment, the spirit of returning it is the social sensitivity of Money.
- Money is useful.
- It is productive.
- It is creative.
- It is creative of service.
- It is productive of organisation.
- It is useful for transaction, useful to increase social productivity, can be employed creatively to form new services or it can be made to create new organisations for the society and itself.
- The power of Money is most visible at its points of sensitivity.
- To list out all the negative and positive social sensitivities of Money and study their corresponding points will be the most rewarding sequel to this study.
Such sensitivities exist in consciousness and substance.
For Money, consciousness is the function, the substance is its potential capacity. A father allows a larger pocket allowance to his pet son. The actual use of that Money for the son, say to buy a camera or some such thing is the use or function of that Money. It is its consciousness. Such expenditure affects the character formation of the boy. It can make him luxury minded or create a generous attitude of spending. It can tickle his vanity or persuade him to lend his camera to his friends so that they too may enjoy using it. This makes his character expansive. It is the substance of Money. Sensitivities form in both planes. Negatively it is the sensitivity of pride, vanity, etc. Positively they are of generous, noble, sublime culture. Either way the highest possible growth of Money is at the ends of such sensitivities, positive or negative. These are individual. Correspondingly there are collective ones. Even the collective ones express themselves through individuals. It is easier to discern the collective sensitivity in a representative individual. Its collective expression is less perceptible. Exhortation is a way of life in one community as perversity in another. Modesty of shyness is another. Shyness of modesty is a superior version of it seated more deeply. In cold climates people talk less, perhaps to prevent cold air entering the mouth. In hot climates even the language is so fashioned that in the articulation of it the lips are not permitted to close. Twenty years ago someone sought change for a ten rupee note in Delhi. The reply was five rupee notes were not in use in Delhi. Delhi, being the capital, enjoys the heavy concentration of Money that goes with the seat of power. Man on the street was offended by a foreigner asking him for five rupee notes. Bangalore is a place where the value of real estates is rising at a speed of 100% in twelve months as one expression of its fast becoming the home of computer. About thirty years ago, a police inspector stopped a lorry carrying a forty HP motor and demanded a bribe of five rupees. The driver noticed that in Tamilnadu it would be fifty rupees. The varying amounts reflect the varying levels of prosperity as well as social assertiveness. These are points at which the collective sensitivity of Money is expressed in the individual behaviour. One must be able to distinguish the cost of living from the sensitivity of Money. One who pays in Germany Rs.700/- for a cup of tea to be served in his room enjoys the hospitality of his company when that 700/- is paid by the company. It is cost of living, not the sensitivity of Money. Twenty five years ago when two or three people ate a breakfast of Rs.17/- and 3/- is offered as tip, the server evaluated the customer as vain neo rich, not a member of a traditional rich family who does not throw out the Money as an exercise in vanity.
- The gold bar travelling to the end of the queue of customers in the Bankof England while the cashier did not even look up.
- Griselda who contemplated elopement with Palliser was rewarded by a costly jewel by her husband who received her mother's letter from her.
- Lady Mason's son's outrage against the attorney who raked up the case and how it was reversed with his ending up in Australia.
- The 75/- rupees of Arunachalam coming back ten times as mess bill and finally becoming 75,000/- in Mother Estates.
- The 2000/- of Nandan giving him 2000 crores later.
- The 50 paisa uncle grudged, after giving 500/- rupees for my marriage, prevented him from giving his property to me.
- The sensitivity of Money is capable of expressing itself through any other sensitivity, but its power is unmistakable. Roosevelt threatened to send a warship to South Africa to collect the debts from the First World War. His country was to give away billions of dollars after the Second War.
- Gandhi who made the Sirkali Congressmen go away even without Money for a ticket from his ashram was later forced to go on fast to give Rs.55/- crores to Pakistan and lose Kashmir.
- You can give away any Money or take any Money but that Money will not forget to play its role, if only it was expressing itself at a point of sensitivity. Rs.5/- I gave Radha was the base for him to loot 5 lakhs from the garden.
- If you accept Rs.1000/- offering from one who is inwardly compelled to give, he will make you expend on him or through him Rs. 50,000/- when the cycle is repeated.
- The ₤3000 Darcy gave Wickham in lieu of the living repeated when Lydia eloped and had its own way in continuing for years.
- Money has sensitivity. It is collective as well as individual. It is also functional as well as productive. It can be creative or evolutionary. It can combine any of these sensitivities or even all.
- Social sensitivity, cash sensitivity, sensitivity in a traditional beggar, in women can be distinguished from each other. But one rule remains:
- The great always end up giving.
- The mean always enjoy grabbing and the cycle ends up that way.
The distance between yoga and life.
For a yogi, the realisation is in the physical substance. Till then he can have the powers of earlier levels. The birth of the Supramental Being, the last level of transformation is a sine qua non. In ]Özöuõshº, Siruthondar, we see the demand coming from outside. In yoga, done in the right spirit, the change comes from inside by a volition of surrender and what was a pain for the Saint to overcome will be a joy for the yogi to court. Here, I limit my scope with the mental sensitivity. Money was created by a mental Trust; hence Mind alone can accomplish our goal. One who overcomes mental sensitivity in the mental substance is a rational person. In handling Money at home or in public, we can train ourselves to overcome mental sensitivity in the mental substance. The clerk at the Bank of England counter was not disturbed in the least when the gold bar was drawn out by a customer. Nothing in him winced. It is the physical substance not responding to the loss of the gold bar. Fulfilling this condition, one in the teen years can earn all the Money he would earn all his life. Life will put at his disposal the power to earn all the Money the world can produce. It need not sound as a tall claim if you imagine that the television carries one's human voice all over the world. In the television it is technology. In Money it is the power of psychology that blends itself with the universal vibration. The process is the same. The planes are different as the energy differs. The power is created as a potential which later becomes actual. The first occurs in consciousness and the second in substance. The child learning the mother tongue and a foreigner learning our language has a parallel. First one recognises what is spoken after he hears it. Then he recalls in his mind what is about to come but is unable to articulate it even in the mind. Next he can mentalise it but not verbalise it. All these are stages of development in the mental consciousness. Next the comprehension, recognition, ability to recall, capacity to mentalise, verbalise and vocalise shift to the mental substance. As the second stage is moving to completion, the child begins to lisp, the foreigner talks in his accents our words to the hilarious delight of the hearers. These stages are the steps in the process whether it is Mind, vital or physical. The shift from the consciousness to the substance follows the same rule in all planes. What is potential in consciousness becomes actual in the substance. The analogy can be repeated between Mind and Body taking one as consciousness and the other as substance. In the Body, apart from the distinctions of bodily consciousness and bodily substance, we know they exist at two levels of subconscience and inconscience. Maybe the flesh, blood and nerves belong to the subconscience and the bones to the inconscience. Even in the bones there is life. There is no life of any description in what is classified as Inconscience.
The Significance of clarity of Thought.
- "Clarity of thought is contribution to peace," said Robert Cooper in his book.
- Clarity of thought generates power in consciousness for it to become substance.
- Thought matures by clarity initiating a parallel movement in consciousness towards substance.
- The tip of the iceberg of abundance of Money is perceived as the brightness of thought that clarifies.
- In a human being it is a process that
- Moves him from youth to age.
- Draws him into the universal from the individual.
- Helps consciousness of mind evolve towards the substance of the body.
- Our idea of Money is it makes life possible and comfortable. But Money has wider functions as the paper clip. Money comes to one from the society invisibly bringing all that the society is potentially.
Along with it, the power of the society to convert into actuality also is brought to the individual by Money.
- A family is a place where, in our view, a child is socially prepared. The social preparation is a conditioning of community culture. As the family prepares the child socially and culturally, the mental individual in him where the soul is more actively present, responds positively or reacts negatively which is the process of formation of the psychological individual.
In every move of this, from the family, the child and the environment, Money offers itself as a field that is an anvil on which the individual is to be shaped.
The generosity, stinginess, readiness with which Money is handled, all express the Money value of the family intensely. It is the Money value of the Society, surely not all the value Money can express.
Money has an unexplored higher dimension which descends as a force from above, changing itself into social power in the psychological fabric of the individual. He is free to choose from the society below and the force above and free to blend them into what he desires in himself for himself.
Comparison of Money with a School.
- A school is expected to build the character of the pupil. Money is capable of shaping the youth into a social individual who can progress with the progress of the society.
- A school does to children what the parents cannot do. Money can do to an individual what the family as well as society cannot do. Money contains all that the society is. Also it contains all that the society is in its potential. Further Money has the power which life has given the society from the plane of mind.
A person can get all these capacities through Money if only he is open to them. Possessiveness of Money enjoyed keeps one physical as well as vital. Trying to understand how the family has acquired that sum of Money opens in the individual mental gates to know how it is created.
The values through which Money is handled, used, and possessed open up the corresponding values in Money. It is an opening for him to grow in values.
- A school, in a smaller view, gets one a certificate or degree. Money in a similar view serves one's functional requirements of daily life.
- One goes to school so that he may become employable by the society.
Money, its possession, enables a man to enter into the social activities as an acceptable member of the society.
- All the theories of education, and all the educational researches are mostly or fully tended towards one or the other ideas above.
All theories of economics and their researches are directed towards the fostering of the above functions of Money.
- So an ideal school is one which accomplishes this feat efficiently. An ideal citizen is one who uses Money well, earns it in good measure and saves it in great quantities.
- As years pass society moves from the physical to the mental. With the maturing of Money in the society as an instrument of progress, Money becomes less of a transaction, even less of a mere thing and more of a thing that represents social as well as individual TRUST.
- So, the cruel punishments of the physical phase are slowly replaced by a human approach that realises, after all, the child is not a mere physical being.
Money thus ceases to be a coin, the coinage descending to represent only its fractional units. It becomes currency, cheque, credit card, documents, bills of exchange, negotiable instruments, etc.
- Corporal punishment tries to reach the mind through the cruel sensations of the body.
The heavy weight of a bag of coins, their jingling sound in the appreciative ear change into a similar valuing of the currency or the inherent legal value of a cheque or bill or a document.
Gold Standard.
When the Rishis and shastris of India divided the spiritual quest, life in India lost its wholeness and the real strength of Spirituality. Equally so for the Rishis. Between the two world wars, currency was taken off the gold standard. It not only did not lose its vigour of Money, but began to show a momentum that was not there earlier. Currency represents gold in the bank and therefore it should begin to lose its value once it is off that support. It has not happened but had its opposite effect because Money at that point shifted itself from being a thing to being a true reflection of trust in the government and the society. In India the physicality of education condensed into flawless memorisation. It is a final refusal to learn. Money being released from the gold base was an extraordinary adventure the world was not ready to take. Having taken that evolutionary leap, the world reaped an inconceivable benefit. The present attitude begun after the war, an attitude of Money seeking the borrowers is a greater adventure least perceived. It is not only an adventure, but a reversal. We rarely realise because of social demands that a child can learn best all by himself outside the school. The parallel for Money is, Money can develop its power best when it is not constrained by social norms. The genius has a greater chance outside the society. The scope for Money is great. Comparing it with education, Money today has spread in its availability as education has spread over two hundred years. The further scope for Money to expand is as great as is the gap between the ordinary person and the genius. As no river needs any direction in its flow, no child ever needs any direction in its education. So also Money needs no social constriction. One may wonder under what restrictions Money is under now. Firstly, Money is represented by what the government determines it to be, not what it chooses to shape as. It is true without the present regulation Money will become a wild growth and lose all its present value, but it will begin to acquire the true value of Money. This is not to plead for Money being taken out of its restraints, but is an argument to plead that its truer soul is not flowering this way.
- Nowhere is Education considered as the Experience of the Mind, as the world has not defined to itself what Mind is.
- Equally so Money is not understood or described as a representative of the force by which the society survives and develops.
- Therefore, we cannot expect the further outcomes out of such thought.
- Discipline, at best, is destructive of human personality. So, any discipline will only warp the original form Money is capable of assuming.
- Nor is there a complete or precise definition of Personality.
- To create an ideal social climate where Money, the force, will reach its depths and issue forth in its evolutionary splendour, it is necessary for us to define precisely Mind, organisation and the power that sustains the society.
- Here, by organisation, we can reach two aspects of Money.
- The social organisation that enables Money to take shape;
- The powers of organisation that Money can release into the society for both of them to arrive at their perfect forms.
Ideal Money.
An ideal is defined as a state devoid of imperfection. It may be true, but it is much more than that. An ideal condition may be defined as one where most could be made out of the opportunities that present themselves. It goes further. An ideal condition is one which can create the opportunities it needs. Sri Aurobindo's ideal conditions are,
- where Matter is Spirit.
- where Simultaneous integrality of Time is created.
- where the Individualhas discovered itself as the universal and the Transcendental.
- where Man realises the egoism of service and shifts to divine service.
- where contradictions are complements.
- where the subconscious unites with the Superconscient.
- where Evil disappears.
Let us know what these are in the context of Money. The question is what is the role played now by Money in Matter evolving into Spirit. Money being a thing is its condition of being Matter. Money as divine Force is its spiritual status. Money entering into the phase of trust from organisation and again shedding that trust, Money acquires its own force drawing its energy from the social progress are these roles. For our consideration the Ideal is the perfect form of TRUST and FORCE. As Force is a further proposition, let us confine to considering what ideal Trust is. It is the rich man's trust of the poor man. Or when the rich man sees poverty is greater than wealth, he is tending towards the ideal. It is the same as ignorance is greater than knowledge in the sense ignorance issues out of knowledge. Society creates poverty to overreach the present highest possible prosperity. Man becomes prosperous by his capacities. That is not the maximum. There is a greater prosperity which grace and supergrace can create in him. For this he has to withdraw from his social and psychological personalities. By withdrawing from the social personality, he becomes a psychological individual. To become a spiritual individual - the psychic Being - he has to withdraw from his psychological personality, i.e. he has to shed his faith in his own capacities. Money can be said to be a creation of the society when it is a transaction or even organisation. It is a creation of Man when it is created by Trust. The ideal form emerges beyond. Confining our scope to Trust, we will achieve the goal before us. For that Money has to shed being a thing, a transaction and even organisation. The credit card, especially its being a number, destroyed the materiality of Money. It then remains as a transaction. It goes to the background when the transaction is indirect through the VISA card, but its being an organisation is insistently at the front. The fact of Money being an organisation very much recedes when Money seeks the borrower and tempts him with concessions. In the Roll Programme Money seeks to give itself away. Only it is seeking an excuse. The ideal form of Money emerges when Man gives away Money seeking to become a social force himself by virtue of that giving away.
- Newspapers are sold cheaper or given away free so that mere advertising revenue will accrue.
- At the next stage, not even that revenue is sought, but what is sought is the newspaper becoming a social force.
- Giving away Money makes the giver a Social Force.
The Perfect Form may not be a Form we know.
Forms change as contents change. The forms as they change may lose all the resemblance with forms we already know. Still the form remains. Food, riding on horseback, memorisation of the textbook, speech as a vehicle of communication in Silent will, etc. have changed far out of recognition, but food, transport, knowledge, communication remain.
- Money began as a medium of exchange, but now it is no longer recognisable.
It continues its function as a subtle builder of the social organisation.
In these various changes, if progress is there, it will be negative progress. It is worthwhile knowing the two sides of progress - negative, positive. Is there a neutral progress too? What then is progress? Progress is change in the positive direction. A further question is about change, movement. The inquiry ends at why the moveless began to move. As He says, if it is in quest of Delight, the inquiry continues to ask what Delight is. He stops the explanation at that point, maybe assuming the Delight is Self-existent and therefore the answer is self-explanatory. We cannot go further than He, except to say that Delight is a self-experiencing of what the Self-Existent is Self-conscious of. All that ends in the concept of Freedom, the final law. We have to travel in all these paths with respect to Money. That will reveal to us what Money is now, and what Money is leading to be.
- Progress is change caused by movement self-willed.
- In life change is for the better or worse or there is a state that is changeless.
- One who acquires knowledge, marries, develops a family, helps the society to grow, expands his living is making positive progress.
- One who destroys the property, health, family, contributes to the dissolution of the society makes negative progress.
- There can be one who does neither but vegetates. He is neutral.
- Positive progress is welcome, not negative progress.
- Progress, positive, negative, neutral is from a centre of existence.
In that sense the positive as well as negative are the same.
Only that they are progress from opposite points of view.
From that perspective the negative progress is always greater than the positive.
Poverty then is greater prosperity, as Ignorance is greater than knowledge.
One earns and serves; another spends and accumulates debts.
He who spends builds the expansive vibration.
He who saves builds the vibration of contraction.
Expansiveness is greater than contraction.
From a still higher point of view, expansion and contraction are the same.
That is from a centre before creation.
The Absolute needs neither to expand, nor contract.
Nor is it prevented from either.
Its capacity to choose either contraction or expansion is freedom.
Life becomes divine life when we centre ourselves in that freedom and ACT here in life. Understand Money as a divine Force and see how it achieves that purpose here.
It is to comprehend the infinitesimal from the infinite.
Maybe HE calls that phenomenon Maya, the consciousness of the Absolute.
When the Absolute chooses to move, it becomes conscious of its being Absolute.
That is the consciousness of the Absolute, what HE calls Maya.
That Maya is seen as Prakriti, Shakti.
To see in our daily small acts, Maya and how Prakriti and Shakti include Maya is divine perception.
To that perception, all is progress. There is no positive or negative progress.
The perfect form is arrived at as a human goal in divine life.
Forms change as contents change.
To Transfer all these perceptions to Money is,
To discover from your own personal experience these powers of Money in the various transactions you know. All these are eternally in evidence all around you. The question is how fully one perceives them and how soon. One can know them as soon as he chooses to know. They are,
- Money spent generously is creative - coconut garden and cashew garden. Money spent in vanity serves the purposes of vanity - The extra 500/-, 300/- offered to Maria Susai went to Kamalam.
Money is the medium for the vibration that passes through that.
To a large extent Money is a neutral instrument. Later it acquires the character of the action.
- Money is a vehicle of right. - £zx ¹£õ´ ö\õøͯõP.
Money -- non-existent Money -- imagined as a right serves to extract rights that are not there.
- Theft: Overcome in the next generation, it rears its head in the third generation. Robbing the public, transgressing rules, matures as robbing the Divine.
- Money ministers to ego - Padayachi.
- Trust in small matters helps money to draw upon the social culture.
Complementary currency in Austria.
All future powers Money will acquire are now in potential in Society.
- Internet - To grow one has to offer things and services free.
Google pays $800 million to search "My Service" that is free.
All powers of Money can very well be seen now in the Internet.
Paper clip brings out the invisible dimensions.
E-Bay reveals the value of used articles.
The more you give, the more readily it is given, the more one earns.
Earning is in Money at first, next earning is in status, the further power of Money being power.
- Movement is progress is best explained by Money.
- The conception of Money creates productive capacity, the expenditure of Money produces. One is Maya and the other is Prakriti. Shakti does both. He who can conceive of a productive project, execute it with efficiency later finds in himself both these capacities and that they can be induced in others or in an organisation. A poor housewife desiring to buy a dress for her child does not buy it as long as she longs for it. The moment she conceives how that Money can be earned, she finds that the opportunity to earn that Money comes to her. Once the Money is in hand, not all women can readily buy the dress for which she longed. Its coming into her hands as a physical possession creates the possibility of keeping that Money. Most do so for a short time. Some rush to the shop. The capacity to spend it generates an unseen occasion to bring in another dress in a few days without that conception and execution. So, if this theory is true in one's experience in life, he understands that the capacity to conceive is included in the capacity to earn and both are included in the capacity of spending. So, the rule reduces to
- Spending ALL one has generously with the right attitude quickly generates further Money without work or conception.
Market is to Money what a School is to Education.
A school completes the education for the child which the family begins. Market expands and extends the Money opportunities a family offers the individual. Schools are supposed to give mental maturity to children which is necessary to meet the social challenges in later life. A member of a family learns the primary values of Money at home and acquires the right attitudes to handle larger sums in later life which generally arises in the society. Society in this regard will be far different from the family which offers cooperation and support based on truth and affection whereas society will behave as another, a rival or even an opponent. These are challenges the family does not offer. In education one moves from the family to the society. In Money he moves from the family to the market which acts as society here. It is obvious that one faces positive, cooperative attitudes at home while in the market outside he cannot trust anyone and the likelihood of cheating is ever prevalent. We can as well say the society or the market negatively completes the training of Money which the family starts positively. Occasionally outside of home one has trusted friends while at home he may not be able to trust many. Either way, the family and society are complements for an individual in getting educated about Money. Not that the family and the market need to be always cast into moulds of opposite structures. They can interchange or be complementary if they choose.
- The main thing one needs to ponder here is the point elucidated earlier that Money gets in a token measure its future possible powers from the social culture mostly extended to it at home and rarely in good humane occasions outside.
- Interest rates of usurious money lenders rose to 60% in the previous days. Now it even touches 250%. This shows the normal capacity of human nature and its greed. It is the innate tendency of the finite towards the infinite. Money serves as a tool to egg man in this journey. Law comes to curb this tendency where the positive power of public conscience assents. Money serves greed negatively. Now credit card companies offer to take over a man's debts from another company on lower rates of interest and even go to the length of saying that for a specified initial period NO interest need be charged. The roles are reversed. The higher positive energies of Money are in store as potential in the society and emerge positively to a positive attitude, negatively to a negative attitude.
What matters is not Money, the transaction, the rate of interest or the occasion, but the attitude of man. His attitude determines. It is shaped by his own understanding. His negative understanding arises from outer circumstances. His positive attitudes and understanding issue out of his inner being.
Money is an important tool.
Market is an important field.
The outer circumstances have an unmistakable influence on the individual.
But they are not the determinants.
There is a prime determinant in all cases.
It is inside.
It is the inner being of Man.
Centres of Service -- Centres in Cyberspace.
Life develops from one centre of activity to several centres. The essences of all these centres emerge from a common centre of a higher plane. From agriculture to most modern department of life merges in politics as in government. Its common centre in the society is not usually perceived. It is the power behind the throne. Politics does function as a centre, but as it is indirect, it cannot be a conscious centre. Of course, it can be a conscious centre where power can be misused. Power rightly used brings about results which come by the initiative of the beneficiary as the dealers of a hot selling product seek the dealership depositing Money. There is still a higher way of the public seeking the product. It is to appreciate the spiritual value of the product as a seller of spiritual books does when he is a devotee. These are aspects of existing social life but there is no life in these fields. No devotee going to the temple buying a coconut has that attitude towards coconut, camphor, etc. If he does, he won't bargain or offer a little more by rounding it off at a higher level. No one buys The Life Divine for a higher cost than its price. They look for discount. These practices are there, but they are without the real spiritual life animating them. It is there in the commercial life of the Internet. Companies operating on the Internet realise it commercially. It is well pronounced and needs no explanation or canvassing. It has come to stay. Raising the commercial attitude to spiritual attitude is possible for the spiritual individual. And for that, it cannot be in one of the partial centres of "my space", ‘Google', etc. It is possible for the centre of centres. I do not think it is yet developed somewhat on the lines of a VISA card. I hope it is a centre where all services are offered free instead of the present arrangement of offering free service on the one side and receiving payments on the other. Of course, the receipts are there, but they will be dividends of social power as the banks are now trying with the Roll programme. The phenomenon is not unknown to life. The politician offered free service to the public in return of a hope for government service or the satisfaction of serving the public. Morgan's service in 1907 was one like that. It is a moral power. Presently it is a moral power without Money power if the man is pure. Corrupt men can raise enormous amounts of Money, if they let their power be exchanged for Money. In the Internet we see educational power is being developed. In the paper clip and E-Bay more dimensions are revealed. It is a field of technology where the subtle possibilities are in the plane of subtle physical making the power of any description tangible or palpable. At that point, arguments are superfluous. As a modern gadget - phone, pen, camera, etc. - is used by the customer innocent of its process or origin, the public will enjoy the benefit of this centre if only they put up the necessary attitude. Imagine a possessive miser joining the chit fund and giving his Money for somebody's use and patiently waiting for his turn. In him it is a psychological revolution. The fruit seller of Cuddalore was overbearing and bargained by raising the price or refused to sell. Chakrapani, the radio shop intellectual, would rather close his shop losing all customers than be flexible or reasonable. Now the same people or similar people have to bargain offering to absorb various types of costs and solicit customers. The demands of the market bring it about. The medical college in such a context may have to offer prospective students Rs. 40 lakhs for taking the course. In what shape the rewards will issue is not yet known. We see the public's vote is purchased and the public are even paid to attend public meetings. The RULE is already working negatively. To a positive person it will work positively. Even in sports which was an innocent past time, Money plays a big part. Along with Money comes power. Presently sportsmen entertain by their display. They have a subtle knowledge of the play which is of immense value to the public. They can physically demonstrate but cannot communicate it in the subtle fashion. It can be developed. Whether it can be translated into Money or power is in the realm of conjecture.
- Money is a field of power in real life as well as subtle life.
- Internet is a technological field that is capable of subtlety.
- The centre of subtle power of the Society can take shape on the Internet.
- What that requires is an inner capacity that has the urge to give itself away fully, an act of self-giving in the physical material plane.
- Whether such a centre is already shaping or has come into existence on the Internet is not known. It is worthwhile looking for it and if it is there we can use it. If it is not there, it can be created.
The Higher capacities to earn Money.
The family is the point where the individual begins life. It gives him Money to live on, educate himself and often a fund to start life. What he inherits from the family is Money, a thing. It becomes his capital. The family teaches him values of human relationship. It is abstract or can be simply family culture. Or, those values can be given to him by the family through Money. In that case, the family equips him with values of Money in human relationships - in Money as transaction. It is a capacity that stands him in good stead in life and enables him to make Money in his human relationships. The family certainly offers scope to teach these abilities, if one chooses. Money as an organisation is not always learnt at home unless it is a family in the money trade in some form. Without that experience at home, the child cannot be taught the organisational value of Money. For him to learn the value of Money as Trust, the family is the best place, but, the context being minimal, not much can be learnt that way. School may not play any substantial role in the child in this regard. A school can give more information about sanitation and hygiene than the family, whereas it is the turn of the family that can offer greater support to his health as habits.
One learns about Money at home, at school, later as an employee at his office. But, if he learns anything at all meaningful about Money, it is in none of these places. When he enters the market as an individual, he learns the true character of Money. Money as organisation, Money as Trust are learnt there only. No family, no school, no work spot has any knowledge of such powers of Money. Even in the market, such powers emerge negatively.
- It is true that these hidden powers of Money I speak of are there in the use of Money today.
- It is equally true that they are not pressing upon us.
I am pleading for a family, a school, a work spot, an individual attitude which will teach every man this value.
- These Money powers are there in the family, school or work spot as social values of implicit social power.
- An individual, if perceptive of them, or taught by his family or school can fully imbibe these values as capacities to earn Money as power of earning Money is really the power of cultural values of the society and family.
Money is given to a brother, not lent. When it is lent and is taken back the value of Money is nil. When it is given and not taken back it is the brother who is valued, not Money. One who is so raised at home will later in his life find Money coming to him from all sides when he ventures but without QUESTIONS. Every family value has its expression in Money. All the values of Money this paper speaks of can be taught at home as seminal values. Even the school can play a small part in it. To think of each cultural, social, psychological view and how much of it can be positively expressed through Money can be taken up by each individual as a study. Once he embarks on it, family and other places will often offer him ample opportunities to experiment though as a token.
- Experience teaches without exception and that experience one has to seek in the family and school.
The Training one can get till he weans himself away from the family and society.
We are aiming at a knowledge for the Individual that gives him all the powers to attract Money generated as power or force. We hope, if that is done, the normal capacities of one to earn money should come to him without his actively acquiring it.
- This is a conscious knowledge which naturally includes the subconscious knowledge. We learn to eat, wash the hands and the mouth, but the knowledge of the body to digest the food is there in the body itself. It is not acquired or need not be acquired.
An active comparison between education to acquire knowledge and a training to create Money will be of use.
Education is not a biological process as the mother takes care of her younger ones for some time.
It is animal evolution's gift to the offspring.
Integral yoga is spiritual evolution where there is a reversal.
Education is man-made, even as civilisation is.
The genius goes further, denies himself even the advantage of education.
On his own the genius discovers in himself an infinite capacity to learn.
What occurs in genius unconsciously in a lone individual, we hope to accomplish consciously for the collective in Money.
In education the genius achieves by active original thinking.
In Money one seeks life knowledge and through that the power to create Money.
Mind seeks the opposite, tries to discover its unity with that and achieves genius.
Money seeks its complement, draws upon its potential or grows into that potential to expand its creative powers.
In knowledge Silent will accomplishes the goal of reaching higher knowledge, Money, by its outward going movements, enters into the potentials of other factors, integrates itself with them and achieves the goal.
- This is a phenomenon that needs repetition everywhere it occurs.
Money is an instrument, an organisation.
Society is a living organism.
Almost Money is to the society what a pen is to the hand or the body.
At least Money is to the society what the finger is to the body.
The writing finger subconsciously acquires fully all the knowledge the mind and brain originally gave it.
We say the fingers subconsciously learns.
Money, at first, acquires all the properties of the society.
Finally Money can enrich even the society even as the pioneer leads the society having learnt from the society in the beginning.
The journey is long, varied, abundant in the final quest.
Our quest is for a quantitative expansion of Money till all poverty is abolished.
It is not as if there is a prohibition to continue the study.
Beyond that point, Money takes on itself a wider aspect where it is an integral living part of the social change.
At that point, all such instruments become equal to each other.
The study, if it is to be continued, must be a study of the Theory not confined to Money.
Money is personal as well as Impersonal.
The West has developed individuality. The East has set its face against it and developed conformity with the collective. Great accumulation of Money is possible only around the character of an individual. Conformity confirms survival and does not develop possibilities of great individual wealth. The individual wealth is selfish while the collective wealth of the joint family is selfless. Resolving the apparent contradictions between the collectivity and individuality, we will arrive at a highly desirable solution. As human relationship is one of domination and submission which has a further possibility of mental reinforcement, so too Money has that dimension. Now Money dominates Man. Man can emancipate himself from that and dominate Money. That way he may earn a lot more. Instead of one dominating and the other submitting a mutuality that leads to unity through harmony will bring about the best possible results - an unimaginable abundance to all.
Man does not act in these fashions or does not know how to act. Society, in ripe moments, puts up favourable circumstances for the creation of a new organisation. Man can rise to that occasion and respond to that.
- Money is functional, productive, and creative.
- Money is personal and impersonal.
- Money is social and instrumental.
- Money is capable of taking directions - outward, inward.
- Money is public apart from impersonal.
- Money is universal.
- Money is divine.
- Money is cultural and psychological.
- Money is energy.
- It is also a force.
- It is a power by itself and of the society.
- In all these above functions, Money retains its potentiality to be evolutionary.
To take an ordinary transaction like one helping a neighbour with a sum of Money, Western Europe receiving Marshall Plan aid, buying a railway ticket, etc. we can see all the above facets of Money. To be able to know how an ordinary transaction moves into other dimensions and into the evolutionary impulse is the capacity this article is supposed to give. Several years after a routine marriage, it is not impossible for a couple to enter into a mood of passionate affection and even slip into the domain of high Romance. Social existence moves into revolutionary outbursts, without many observing the change. An innocent purchase of an article from a neighbour can land one in jail if it is a stolen article or a used book may turn into a rare item for collection. These are occasional unconscious occasions. To us a conscious perception of every possible facet is necessary.
Common Sense is the superstition of stupid people - Russell.
One theme of the Theory is man does not extend his experience to new opportunities.
Supramental life is a life of higher values.
Sri Aurobindo has explained each of these higher values in the greatest possible detail. There is nothing in them for one to say he does not understand.
The question for the devotee is whether to accept them or not.
Once he accepts them, he must have the common sense to follow them as he follows the rules of human life.
There are hundreds of common sense questions man does not raise in his own life.
He foolishly raises all of them here without exception.
Suppose he does not raise them, the only question before him is whether it is possible for him or not. Wherever it is not possible, he must try to make it possible.
Apply this rule to Money and my theme that a great quantity can be raised.
My stipulations are two:
- 1) To understand the theory of creation of Money.
- 2) Raise oneself to the level of a Spiritual Individual.
There is nothing in the foregoing pages of explanation that defies understanding. Even for this understanding, Money will respond by an eagerness to enter us. The goal of the Spiritual Individual is reached by a graded ladder starting from the physical individuality.
The Westerner already has it. All that one has to do in the West, if he endorses this project, is to raise his individuality to the higher levels till he reaches the Spiritual Plane.
The Indian has a cardinal disadvantage in not enjoying Individuality in any plane. But he has a great advantage of being in touch with his spirit.
- Hence the theme that at any given time, the effort for anyone to reach the goal is the same. Only the method varies.
- Anyone can start only from where he is.
The Indian should start from his positive side of personality.
It is one committed to the joint family.
On the negative side, it has no edge of individuality.
On the positive side, it has a wider dimension of individuality that has a greater responsibility.
(Those who are negative must of course become positive).
Instead of referring our action to our ego or the joint family or even the society, he must refer them to his spirit, which is consecration.
The Westerner who has a well constructed individuality must wean himself away from his mental ego and shift to mental psychic.
Those who raise here the questions they do not raise in their daily life, I refer them to their own standards in their own life. To Russell, common sense is superstition of the stupid people. Common sense is gold, is not superstitious, it is the essence of the eternal wisdom of humanity.
Man is superstitious. His stupidity insists on using common sense as an instrument of superstition. One must avoid superstition and stupidity.
The American Dream and the European Dream.
Life in Europe emancipated itself from tribal living, organised itself into civilised cities and saw mental culture flower. That glory could not sustain itself in the absence of a spiritual content or spiritual basis. It collapsed. It was again taken up in the next wave as a vital exuberance in the Roman Empire and its lasting contribution of Roman Law to the world, even as Greece contributed its exalted thought. After flourishing for a few centuries, Rome fell giving birth to the Dark Ages. Russian primitivity rose to passionate emotionalism and being unable to develop thought, it degenerated into violent cruelty of tyranny for centuries. The liberation Luther gave Europe in thought was in seminal seeds. Even before the French revolted against the aristocracy, America was discovered. The barren freedom of the almost uninhabited land beckoned millions whose thrust for emancipation from the thraldom of class. Its constant message to the younger generation from the eldest was, "This is not Europe. There is no class. There is no prohibition from outside or inhibitions from inside. You are free to do what you want. No one will stop you". This is the nascent voice of recently emancipated slaves. The intensity of longing for freedom expressed itself in vast achievement in a larger rhythm. Till the world wars, Money was thus fettered. Money naturally expressed all the social attitudes it inherited. Money is not for the man who works, but it is for the ones who own lands or factories. Money is not to be enjoyed expansively but austerity is to be espoused. Money is to be put into savings. Money is for the elders, the learned, the high born, the noble, the aristocrats, not for one by virtue of his being a person, not even for him who creates Money by his own work. Money represented status and birth, a function not natural to Money. As the people tried to rise to Mind and vital briefly and fell, Money too rose in its reign and failed to reach any freedom it ever deserved. Nature heard its call and beckoned it to America where a free field was given to man to make as much Money as they desired. Men enjoyed physical freedom from outside. Money too enjoyed the same freedom. What man earned, he kept. He knew no tax of any description. This physical freedom enabled Money to expand in scope. Its first expressions were land was in unimaginable plenty and being a virgin soil produced 1/3 more. Wages were literally ten times moving slum dwellers into the middle class.
- The American Dream was for freedom and it gave prosperity.
- It made the American an Individual, as well as inward looking, self-reliant and somewhat selfish.
- He worked and earned. Family and society were for work. There was no energy for him to exercise his mind culturally.
- Europe that crushed the spirit of man also produced culture, family, society all of which are the opposites to the American context.
- America is physical, and produced plenty by physical work.
Money too has crossed the physical stage.
It is America that invented the Internet and web.
They have made Money global, if not universal.
Again it is the Americans who created the hire purchase and credit card.
They all find higher family and social values in Europe, showing the world the path away from physicality, selfishness and narrowness.
- Money is eminently serving the TOOL of the European Dream emerging out of the American Dream.
Energy, Skills, Efficiency, Organisation, Power, etc. in the Society.
In the long march of civilisation society aspires for progress, releases energy. It is social energy. It serves the society not just as energy but as energy organised -- skill. It is social skill. The grades are social aspiration, social skill, social capacity, social ability and social talent. Aspiration that releases energy organises into skill by non-changing repetition on a horizontal scale without end. This is made possible by the non-stop movement of the social collective. Man, when he finds himself a member of the social collective, also finds himself equipped with all the sub-conscious activities he has inherited from his animal ancestor. But none of them can make him speak, trade, possess Money, transport over a distance, etc. These are social skills and capacities he has acquired as MAN. For this purpose, he creates social tools of which Money is one. He achieves power by organisation, capacity through several skills, talents by concentrating the capacity on a particular skill, ability by an exclusive exercise of Mind that transfers the essence of one skill into another or one capacity into another. Relationships through communication, organisation through Mind, symbolism through imagination, dynamism through aspiration are his several achievements. In the creation of Money all the above functions have occurred at one time or another. To trace them all as a connected whole, relate them to the various appropriate other functions and see the conversion of energy at each given stage is part of our present work.
- Man exercises his body and mind to produce his requirements.
- When all the present requirements are met, and there is excess energy, the excess energy has a social impulse at conversion.
- His mind offers its faculties of organisation capacities of imagination for symbolic creation and the result is Money in the form of shells.
- The skill exercised here is not the individual skill, but the social skill. Man living all by himself, if he does for whatever reason, learns habits of individual survival, does not think of order or laws which are social faculties. Symbolism helps communication which arises out of a need to relate to another. That occasion generates from the individual a social capacity such as organisation or even a simple desire to communicate. As soon as man finds excess energy, it is seen as prevalent in all. The presence of excess energy is a social phenomenon. It is a time man feels the need to use his present excess energy for his future. It is not mind exercising itself in the present. It is forethought; mind uses a hitherto unknown faculty to itself. It thinks about its future at least subconsciously.
Subconscious thinking is the thinking of the whole mind. Hence it embraces the future.
Imagination was not a faculty that Man, in those days, exercised in abundance.
Imagination is the faculty that exactly sees a future possibility and has the power to convert it into a present actuality.
It is the excess energy that creates forethought, symbolism and imagination.
A shell becomes that symbol which later in our appreciation is described as Money.
To touch upon each such event and know it fully is our project.
Grid Technology.
The fact computer engineers have stumbled upon this technology is a technological boon. Should the world see the value of this principle for other fields, especially Money, they will be meeting a social technology whose power far exceeds the mechanical technology.
For any tool or method to come into use, the society fashions it with all its energies and holds all but that one use back. That is how the infinite creates the infinitesimal.
Such hidden reservoirs of energy or potential cannot be drawn upon until the society is willing to release it.
It becomes a resource when the period of holding back is over, not until then.
It will offer a great resource to national or corporate planners, if they become aware of it.
The VRS -- Voluntary Retirement scheme -- is one such in a negative sense to make a corporation efficient. The scheme offers both the employee and the employer access to hidden resources. In the sense it is beneficial to both, VRS announces the beginning of a new period in the society where both win as against the rule of society hitherto known that one wins at the expense of another. VRS institutionalised this higher principle.
The Grid Technology announces a period where the hidden potentials behind tools, institutions, values, habits, attitudes, motives and finally PERSONS are willing to emerge for social use.
It is interesting to see that this Grid technology first emerges in the field of computer.
- Manoj was shown this possibility to which he turned a deaf ear.
- Any family, if they are above the Line in GOOD WILL, can raise themselves to higher efficiency, as a personal computer does, and that will be not less than the highest reach of the present society.
- This paper is at pains to explain this principle with respect to Money.
There are two phases.
- 1. Money in various fields drawing upon the unutilised strengths of Money in other forms.
- 2. Money can relate similarly with all the other social institutions.
- Integral Yoga is founded on a principle which draws upon all the unexpressed Natural Energies as well as Spiritual Energies for the evolution of the mental psychic into the psychic of the physical.
- Surrender is a principle that enables Mother to draw upon all such energies for the evolution of earth through the instrumentation of an individual sadhak.
- The beginning is in action, simple actions. Actions so surrendered are completed with the energies of all the available parts instantaneously. It is neither the quantity, nor the quality of the act thus completed that should be so evaluated. It is the plane of Time in which it accomplishes itself.
Society has its own examples of this phenomenon.
- Banks have played this role by collecting the unutilised savings of the community.
- They could do so by offering a guarantee to the depositors which they had not had prior to the establishment of the Banks.
- It could come to stay and grow as Banks became productive by making the unutilised productive capacities of the individuals.
- Insurance was one such striking innovation.
- The risk to be covered in any individual victim was really covered by the fear of risk in all the others in the community.
- Democracyis the greatest of examples, if not directly, but in principle.
- Man has the capacity to take care of himself and it is a great urge when that possibility is held out from him.
- His knowledge of the country, his own needs in his personal life were made more explicit to him by the spread of universal education. Thus it becomes a resource.
- One reason for the energy in Indian society is the willingness to break the caste barrier in whatever minimum extent possible. Each caste has enormous use for the other castes subconsciously. Modern cities are vibrant with life because in any big city we now find people from various states. Their coming together energises both, even if one does not much penetrate the other.
- The common currency of Eurounconsciously draws upon such energies of the other sectors of the society. I can only cite the case of population.
- A common currency is a common language of an economic community, certain lingua finance. It is a negative service by removing the barrier.
- The sportsmen earning through brand endorsement is one such case.
- Internetis able to offer free service as its income is derived from other fields apparently unconnected.
- The unofficial subtle organisations wherein the Centre of Power is situated in the society are aware of these powers and often effectively use them.
Gossip is their main tool.
- Cyberspace is the Space in the subtle physical plane in the sense of mechanics. Therefore any unformed phenomenon in the physical plane comes to the surface here with life.
- The paper clip has shown the world the potentials of the world of collectors.
- The real potential is the present world which is not fully aware of itself.
- A greater possibility is in the worlds to come, the future on a parallel to the Force of Money.
Productivity - Leisure - Life
Productivity and leisure are inversely related. This is true when man is below average. While his position is above average, his productivity and leisure are in direct proportion. Work is for life, life is not for work. In the wider scheme of things as life improves, productivity too will improve. The reverse is an untenable position.
Under scales and measurement there was an occasion to speak about the football player's running distance.
The distance of running has several versions.
- The more he runs, the more he scores.
- The less he runs, the more he scores.
- The more he runs, the team scores more.
- The less he runs, the team scores more.
So far we speak in terms of one's team scoring. One can help the other team run better and score better. There is a still higher level of the game, where the running can be related to the quality of the game.
The teams of Sri Aurobindo Ashram visited Annamalai University in the forties for a friendly game. The physical director of the university spoke of those days. "Ashram players take the game as seriously as nobody does. In no game we could half match them. Only in Table Tennis some performance was put up."
Running is rewarding when it secures goals.
One can run more and better and score high.
The player concentrates on the ball and runs and it results in scores.
He can concentrate on the game; it will result in others in his team scoring.
Then he will run less and make the right passes for others to score.
He can concentrate on the spirit of the game and challenge the other team to perform better either by running more or less.
All these positions apply to Money.
By becoming the richest country, not the second richest, USA is using 2/3rd of the savings of the world.
This is the rule of the top newspaper getting all the advertisements.
Its converse is, the poorest nation can attract the majority of the world's wealth as investment.
In partial life, taking is giving and giving is taking. In the life of the whole, the part is charged by the whole to become the whole and the whole has the capacity to play the role of the part.
Money is a part of the society which is a whole. Appreciation of this idea will enrich us with Money power and arm us with the strategies necessary to reach the goal.
Europe seeks leisure. America seeks productivity. Productivity will dominate the world through prosperity. That may hold true only in the physical, vital period. When Mind comes into its own and has tasted the culture of living, the urge to live is the urge to live the cultural values. Cultural living has a higher productivity than physical culture. For that to become a reality, the cultured should centre their productivity in their culture.
If this is true, Europe must have a higher productivity than America. In such a context Money will have far more value than being a thing. Its value will arise out of human Trust.
Such Money will not merely serve as a transaction, but will generate social power.
Such social power will bring USA under Europe.
But, presently, the efficiency of America is very great as it uses two great weapons for its productivity: 1) education 2) organisation.
Also Europe built itself up by the money of the Marshall Plan. That influence must be overcome.
If Money in Europe can create social power, Money in India will generate spiritual power.
Maybe India is waiting to be united by its wealth acquiring Spiritual power. Even in 1948, it is the fifty-five crores that India owed Pakistan which helped precipitate the Kashmir problems. Patel asked Pakistan to vacate Kashmir in return of fifty-five crores. Gandhi threatened to go on a fast. Otherwise, no Kashmir problem would have ever been created. What can Money in emotional Russia or intellectual China do?
The role of Money in any society will come into its own only when Money is freed from other fetters.
Europe's culture is the culture of aristocracy.
Chinese culture is that of an intellectuality that cannot be excelled.
The Japanese enjoy honour as their pride of possession.
Money, when free, in each of these societies will play a social role.
In Europe it can yield social power as once enjoyed by the aristocracy.
In China it can generate a power of knowledge the world has not known.
In Japan Money will be a vehicle of honourable social power of courage.
In India Money will give her Spirituality a power spirituality has not had so far.
The power of the church was partly the power of its wealth.
But that was the wealth of property, the least valuable form of Money.
Money earned by Spiritual power can be the highest power hitherto the world has had.
It can give India the power to unite the world, to form a world government.
It should be preceded by prosperity, organisation, social culture and education of life.
The base for all of them is the territorial unity of India.
Indian unity was brought about by the British Raj.
At the time of its departure, Raj was keen on dividing India.
Kashmir is the Symbol.
Restoring Kashmir to India is to unite India and Pakistan which will result in world unity and world government.
The $40 trillion inheritance of our children.
Pension, Medicare, Social Security of the future are calculated as $40 trillion for which no provision is made.
- It is our experience so far that when society creates new needs, it does not always meet them in the old way, but is capable of emerging out with new inconceivable ways.
- This is a truth of life, whether history will supply us with earlier examples.
- Phones have done away with the lines shifting from electricity to electronics.
- Money that was generated by production was later generated by services.
Invisibly Money has been generated by Trust.
Trust can create more Money than production or services as Trust can assume an endlessness not easily matched by the other two.
One rule of society that today's expense is tomorrow's income may come into play with the elderly population.
If the accumulated experience of theirs can be permitted to change into ever-increasing enjoyment for them, they can offer a free service to the society now not known.
In future more Money than needed can generate itself by ways so far not known.
Now we can create any amount of electricity.
It is true of several other products in the market.
Particularly food grains can be produced seven or eight times more than what we need.
After the advent of radio and television communication has changed its old mode of printing.
Printing and writing were preceded by oral communication.
There is more information on the Internet than humanity can use.
Scarcity being replaced by plenty is not a new experience.
There is so much Money with some now that a handbag can be paid for with $5000.
It won't be too long before so much Money is available with all the others.
Corrupt politicians who have amassed untold wealth may not find any value for their Money when what is now procured by Money is procured without Money.
Huge amounts were paid in India to secure a well paid job.
There are instances where employees are offered three times or even twelve times their salary and a bonus of several months' salary for them to join.
The Phenomenon of Weaning Away from Dependence.
Quantum physics came upon the fact that the sub-atomic particles are subjective. For over eighty years they did not know how to respond to that fact. As there are levels of consciousness from life to consciousness, there are levels of subconsciousness which is commonly known as unconsciousness. Mother, more specifically, Her atmosphere makes the unconscious devotee conscious at that point - a point where the being has changed into ego. Like the physicist, the devotee does not know how to respond to the new feeble awareness he got.
In the relay race the baton must be passed on to the next runner. Till then it must be held tightly. When it passes on, it must be held NOT tightly. Otherwise the receiver's run will be checked. The balance is one that is delicate. There is no human relationship or even human moment where this apparently conflicting sensation does not arise. Their number is legion as our speech. Louder, it will be coarse; softer, it will be missed. What is the principle behind this phenomenon? Is there a principle? If so, what power issues out of it. Creation began when the One became the Many. It is a differentiation that makes the varying aspects pronounced enough to make lila possible. It is not a division leading to separation. Such an assumption is that of the myopic mind which creates ego. Ego sees itself different from the other souls whereas they are one behind. This apparent division created the lower triplicity. Its abolition raises Mind to Supermind. One who knows the right measure of weaning away, how delicately firm his hold of the relay baton must be, is one who emerges out of the ego into the Psychic Being. The Principle in view, He says, is surrender. Surrender then is a capacity to move into the subliminal from the surface, consciously giving up all that one cherishes.
- The capacity to give away with the understanding of willingness is the capacity to expand into the domain of infinity.
- One is free to be the finite householder.
- One by a supreme discipline of tapas can abruptly drop life and disappear into moksha.
- To transform one from life to the divine life one must have a full, but detachable hold on life that can, in transition, initiate transformation.
- Such a moment is brought into all life by the Supramental consciousness that has descended on earth.
- Weaning away is a transition that is transformation.
- Rejection of life cannot be surrender and will not lead to transformation. Only surrender can lead to transformation. Surrender is the capacity to possess more fully than usual that can detach without detriment to that from which we detach. Rather life is thus transformed.
Weaning away in Money
Money is a thing, a transaction, an organisation, an expression of Trust and finally a power and a Force, we said so far. At each of these points, at the point of maturity or saturation of one, the weaning away arises. Theoretically it exists at every moment as we grow at every moment or learn. One who is aware of learning every moment is a genius. One who is aware of growing every moment is immortal. Ordinary man can be aware of that phenomenon only in transitions. Unconscious men are not aware of it even at the points of transitions. Phenomenon such as the paper clip reveal it to him positively, stock market crash does it negatively.
- Social evolution is possible when at the points of transition man awakes.
- Supramental transformation is made possible when a society is constantly aware of the possibility of transformation.
- Unconscious societies refuse to awake even after a negative crash such as depression.
- In that case Society has to restore the balance at a lower level. After 1929, Nature opted for World WarII to rectify the physical imbalance. These symptoms started a hundred years before in 1825, but Man would not see light.
- Sri Aurobindo gave His yoga a hundred years ago to the world. Around the same time the sub-atomic particles revealed their subjective nature. Man is not yet awake.
- Only in Money we see society is forging ahead in spite of Man's blindness by creating new organisations such as VISA card. Society does act similarly in all other fields which is less visible.
- As Sri Aurobindo's arrival is the Hour of God, I feel it is the right time for Man to emerge as a spiritual Individual. It can be most easily seen and practiced in Money, as creation of endless Money is now possible. Man is not aware to it.
Freedom vs Structure in Weaning Away.
Society is structured. The structure helps it grow. A narrow, violent structure can stifle its growth. A flexible structure of understanding freedom is an incentive to growth. It is obvious that the freedom within the structure is full of energy for growth while freedom from structure that throws one outside the society is a freedom to perish. In exceptional cases it is a freedom to grow originally.
All that said of structures about the society fully applies to Money. Money can oscillate between two ends.
One is where the flexible free structure of Money functions in a society of flexible free structure. Here the growth of Money is maximum. The other is Money of narrow violent structure functioning in a society of rigid inflexible structures of society.
If these are the broad outlines we can construct, what is weaning away of Money?
Money in its existence oscillates for a variety of contributing contextual causes. To keep Money away from rigidity socially, legally, fiscally, etc. is to wean Money away from its natural mother.
- A time was when usurious interest confiscated one's property.
- Law can prevent it and it did on several occasions.
- Shylock could be heartless because of the Money he lent but the then society or social consciousness was helpless to save Antonio. At a later century the social conscience would not have allowed it.
- In India a bankrupt man loses his all and comes to the street. In USA his house, phone and insurance are left to him.
- Roll Programme, though it contains nothing that offends the law is not permitted by law. It can help Money multiply.
- Internetthat generates faith in people unknown and unseen weans away Money to play a positive role.
- When the Madras government offered students in the diploma course in medicine the option of shifting to the degree course, it cost 10/- per month. At that time there was no financial scheme available to help students to shift to the degree course.
- Presently there are plenty of such schemes. They all wean Money away from social rigidity positively.
- Suppose an insurance scheme is introduced to the top ten or twenty students of any institution promising compensation for wages for one year after education, in the event of their being unemployed, educational standards will rise as students will be anxious to avail of such schemes. It is a positive employment of Money that prevents it from playing a hard negative role.
- Money can be weaned away from its positive role as it is done from its negative role.
Life is an organised chaos
The completed merchant vessels are a sight to see. They are a city on the ocean. The achievement is magnificent in every sense. There are other hundred such excellences. From another point of view, they are monuments of inefficiency as they accomplish in as many months what really requires days. Sixty years ago the wartime emergency demonstrated that a yard can build a ship in 4½ days which till then demanded a month. Efficiency is to organise the work to be done in the minimum number of days in which the physical work can be done. It only means the yard accepts the lack of dynamism the external society is capable of. College degrees which can be acquired in a few years now take twenty to twenty-five years in the best of institutions. Accepting the time-receptivity of outside society, a university offers a Ph.D. in twenty five years while the knowledge content of that degree needs only four or five years or less. Money is no exception to this rule of chaotic productivity. In India, Sachchidanandam was reached long ago. There is nothing special about the Indian who has done this feat. We see the phenomenon in the Americans who have accomplished material prosperity on a magnificent scale. In both cases the external environment enabled or compelled Man to accomplish it. Man's outer environment varies. His inner faculties are the same. Should he choose inwardly, what one man achieves is within the reach of another man. His inner choice matters. The varying outer circumstances that determine the varying inner choices had validity in the formative period of Nature. As we saw under the Grid Technology, the potentials offer after a certain point of social readiness. In my view, that point is now reached. Except in subconscious sufficiency, Man does not know social forces acting in freedom reaching the efficiency of freedom. It is a point of transition where,
- Light changes into knowledge,
- Sensation of each part of the being rises to become that of a higher part,
- Thinking becomes Silent will,
- Understanding changes into vision,making the conscious clumsy efficiency of human civilisation into one of subconscious knowledge that self-effectuates itself, as in the instincts of animals now.
- Then the present organised chaos that wears the appearance of physical excellence will abridge in Time, rise in smoothness of integrated existence making SILENCE rise in the subtle atmosphere of emerging spirituality.
- A glimpse of that can very well be seen in the Spiritual Individual who is tuned to the social climate of Money.
- One of the secrets of social evolution appears to us in various garbs.
- Superstition of the Mind is the sure footing of the vital where it can enjoy its intensities to saturation.
- Body can live healthily on what is unclean and even filthy to the vital and draw material sustenance from the organisation of darkness as Mother showed in the villagers drinking mud as water.
- Spiritual negative propensities that acquire intense darkness are hailed as extraordinary human resources or even resourcefulness which the dark substances throw out when their very existence is threatened.
Bargain - The Hidden potentials.
- We see objects as finite. They hold back the infinite as the seashore reveals only a few miles of its immeasurable expanse.
- Our endeavour here is to bring to the knowledge of Man the vast productive territory of Money behind the currency bill it appears to be.
- For him to acquire that knowledge he has to rise out of his own cherished smallness and its intense ways, one of which is bargain. To rise to such heights he needs to look around at the changing ways of life and exert himself to benefit by them in knowledge and practice.
- Compelling external circumstances give him that attitude which his own consciousness cannot imagine to acquire.
Twenty-five people gather around two men quarrelling in white heat taking sides. The quarrel was in 1968 over Rs.2/- lent and collected back whose interest was due. They were men who earned sixty five paisa a day for which job they walked five miles from home. It was a time an acre fetched Rs.100/- a year from dry cultivation. They struck water, risked their property, and dug wells. When irrigated, cultivation gave them over 1000 rupees an acre. After about ten years they mustered courage when one pioneer earned Rs.25,000 an acre resorting to cash crop. Soon the whole village took after him and many villages around followed suit. The 25,000/- rose to a peak of Rs.150,000/- and steadied itself at Rs.75,000/- net profit. It was all over a period of thirty years. Now they dig bore wells of five hundred feet and pump water through submersible pumps costing three or four lakhs of rupees. In digging the well, or buying the pump, the villagers gave up the habit of bargaining.
- External circumstances changed the villagers who fought over interest for Rs.2/- to an attitude of not bargaining over thousands of rupees in thirty years of increasing prosperity.
- Bargain is the attitude of Money, the thing, to be saved.
- Not bargaining is the expansive attitude of Money that is created out of trust which increases endlessly.
- The thousand-fold increase in income is the hidden potential of society which Money brings out through a positive attitude of not bargaining.
- Now the villager has learnt to locate an honest trader, trust him, pay him what he wants so that his work will repay him what he expects out of his field.
- Bargain retains the responsibility for the results with the farmer. Not bargaining gives the trader the responsibility for the successful issue.
- What the ignorant farmer learns in long years of outer experience, the educated individual can learn by inner meditation shortly.
How an Airline company can Boom
Air tickets are becoming cheap. For thirty days in a month there are thirty rates for the ticket.
Delhi costs only Rs. 4000/-, sometimes even less. We miss seeing the role of Money here except that tickets are cheap.
- More than the cost of a ticket, Service is upgraded to the highest possible quality; almost it is royal service now. The attitudes of companies towards passengers can even said to be one of Christian love. Every salesman is a Good Samaritan. It is not as if there is a real change of heart in the company employees. They do it under orders as the airhostesses smile involuntarily till their lips ache. At home, they are unable to smile.
- One of the cardinal aims of humanity is tourism. It is an educational aim. It is an education that comes as entertainment. Travel educates as nothing else does. Those who like travel thrill in travelling. It is adult education in geography and a little in history. After the war, the movement of tourism is growing all over the world. America has started it long ago with a slogan ‘Go west'. Airlines responded to that call of humanity because of telex. After the advent of computer, airlines began to use it to the best advantage possible for ticket reservation.
- Computer reservation of tickets is an elaborate expansion of the service through sophistication of the system. As services rose, customer intransigence rose too. The companies ungrudgingly rose to the occasion. Airlines began to lose heavily.
According to the theory, it only means that the airlines have a very long way to go to meet the demands on them.
- Computer expanded the system of service.
It offered inconceivable benefits.
The refractory customer says he could pay only $200 in place of $ 2000. Companies try to meet that also. All unutilised potentials are fully tapped by the computer. Still the companies heavily lose.
Market has allowed the airlines to vary the price from $200 to $2000 which it does not tolerate anywhere else.
Now, a theoretical understanding says exhaust not many possibilities but all possibilities. As long as we use some new possibilities, the benefits are proportionate. When the very last possibility is exhausted, benefits come from the next plane. No One could consciously conceive that Lydia's elopement exhausts the very last propensity of Mrs. Bennet, opening the other great possibilities.
- Any airline company today can enter a BOOM, if it sees this truth and makes their partial response full. Do we see it is Money that opens all these possibilities in tourism? Airlines now act on the Trustthat a future will open up.
Money compelled the American Revolution
Glyn Davis in his book on Money in pages 457-467 says that the paucity of Money directly compelled America to revolt.
- In any major event, all social forces play a contributing role. There is no force that does not turn into a contributing cause to the event.
- It is true of all events and all causes.
- The forces can contribute or one of them can become a compelling cause, maybe a combination of some forces.
- Our study of major revolutions -- 1688, 1789, 1917, 1947, etc. -- from Money point of view will yield rich results.
- The smaller the event in which we discover this truth, the greater will be the clarity.
- We can study all events from all points of view.
- Now that Davis has laid out the outlines of the study, and all documents are available, let us do this exhaustively.
- All that we need to know of Money will be known through such a study.
- It can help us refashion our views on any issue, say the nuclear arsenal, and help us devise a strategy for its total disarmament.
- The Theoretical knowledge is more to the point than the practical use.
- Money, by changing its character, moving from one plane to another -- Trust to Force, organisation to Trust, etc. -- can become a formidable force to change the world or even the universe.
- The ultimate step of yoga in life for one who is utterly truthful is to discover that Force in the woman, the complement.
- Money gives the sensation of Force.
It can be a source of divine delight in daily life.
That is why the value of theoretical knowledge over the practical use.
To be able to see this character of Money in a small transaction enables us to acquire this delight in the greatest of actions.
Kashmir can be solved or the Arab-Israeli conflict can be readily solved by Money or for that matter by this force expressing through any aspect.
What matters is the perception becoming sensation.
Process of creation in the infinitesimal
- In all acts big or small, short or long, the act is accomplished only by one Process.
It is the Process of Creation.
- Brahman - Maya - Sat - Sachchidananda - Brahman - Purusha - Ishwara.
Maya - Prakriti - Shakti.
- Self-conscious Being - Spirit Truth
Spirit - Time Space
- Sachchidananda
Supermind
Comprehending Supermind
Apprehending Supermind.
Mind - The final action of Creation.
Life - Energy
Matter - Form with no energy.
- In an act spread over fifteen days that can split into ten or twenty stages, it is easier to discover the Process.
There are quick acts of an hour. There are flashes of an act in a split second.
Theoretically it is the same Process everywhere.
Practically it is not easy to discover it.
It has to be discovered in attitudes, strategies, atmosphere, motives, and assumptions.
Such a discovery completes our knowledge.
- The Process can be discovered in both the directions one is ascent, the other is the descent.
Within each plane, these two directions are perceptible.
The smaller the act where it is discovered the greater is the power.
As the power raises it shifts from the outer to the inner.
Further it moves to the inner that includes the outer.
It can be seen in Time dimensions.
It can be seen in ALL dimensions when it becomes Supramental vision.
Sensitivity - Non-Linear thoughts
- At the point of sensitivity, Man is conscious.
At other places Man is subconscious.
Money too is sensitive when it is in movement.
This too has two sides - Positive and Negative.
- He who knows the sensitive points of Money on the positive side will increase his Money supply.
This will release Money energy.
It becomes Money-Force by direction.
Money Power is the result of this force passing through the organisation of his character.
Results are out of his Money skills.
Should he honour the sensitivity of other aspects of life, this power will rise to the next plane.
- As Money grows to acquire sensitivity, all other aspects too grow and some acquire sensitivity.
Each aspect may have its sensitivity at different levels.
Education now is sensitivity in spreading.
Money is sensitive at the point of giving itself away.
- It is art of cultured living to be able to spend Money in such a fashion that it touches the sensitivity all around.
It is indicated, among other things, by the expansion of Money.
Such expansion will be in multiples.
Money has the power to expand even a thousand-fold and to continue that expansion in all the stages it touches.
Such expansion is greater in the lower planes, more so in the negative plane.
Such an act can be conscious or unconscious.
- Making the movement of Money all-inclusive sensitivity, conscious, positive, based on theoretical knowledge is the most one can do.
- Then it can be seen that the atmosphere changes from poverty to one of prosperity.
Prosperity is the capacity to create more energy than is needed for survival.
Survival is the atmosphere where the Individual supplies energy to sustain the society.
Development generates energy to sustain the organisations needed for it.
Evolution sets in when the energy generated breaks the organisation of development.
In all these planes Money plays an original role.
- Sensitivity can be subdivided as sensitivity of survival, sensitivity of growth, Development-sensitivity and where it loses the form of sensitivity where evolution can step in.
This is followed by cultural sensitivity and spiritual sensitivity.
That Sensitivity which releases the Spirit is spiritual sensitivity, when the spirit blossoms through the part of being.
Life is not linear. It is multidimensional. Truly it is in infinite dimensions. Not in an infinite dimension in one plane. It is in infinite dimensions. It is not confined to the physical plane but in all planes. Man's vision is not linear. It is multidimensional in the physical plane. But, he creates a limitation of the ego around him. Still, even within the ego it extends all over the surface plane. Here he exercises his choice. Within this physical plane of the surface, Life retains its character of multidimensional infinity. The planes of inner mind and the subliminal are still available to him in potential. He actually functions restricting his scope within the ego on the surface. Even there he chooses to neglect what is before his eyes by his interest being focused on a thing or a person. All these characteristics are fully shared by all the instruments of which Money is one. It is up to Man to reach the infinite life by his inward expansion. It is his aspiration that achieves it by limitation. His own aspiration is decided by what he is sensitive to as an opportunity. The inner opening gives his outer opportunity. He is free to extend it to Money. Man does not spend his Money regardless of the consequences on himself or the society. Nor does he receive Money from wherever it comes. He exercises this choice at every moment. His choice is determined by his values. Man's values are decided by the sphere into which he desires to fit. It may be non-social selfishness, social conformity or inner psychological preferences. Wherever one is, he
- can observe the plane, sphere, and the focus of his action from the point of view of Money.
- As he is aware of the scale of the planes of his life, he can aspire for the next plane.
- His progress will be in a geometric progression with the coefficient being anywhere between ten and infinity.
- The speed of his expansion will be determined by his receptivity to the Force above.
- It will be determined by the outflow of his energies towards the society.
- Its character can be positive or negative.
- Its non-social character will be determined by the character of his inner aspiration.
- The speed of expansion, its amplitude, its volume, its character and everything is determined inside.
- Its reality can straightaway be experienced by his observation and an experiment.
- Inner creation is in Time; outer expression is in Space.
- That which relates them is the Divine Law, the causality.
- The Divine Law retains its character, even when it is abridged into a social law or any law of any plane.
- The expression of this expansion occurs at the point of sensitivity of all aspects that we are concerned with.
- The action at those points has the capacity to convert the linear thought into non-linear action and existence.
Conception-Perception-Sensation
The above are the stages of accomplishment. Creation of Money by the society has all these stages. It is the subconscious of the society that conceives of Money. When the society perceives the functioning of Money, apart from enjoying the use value, Society begins to sense the power of Money in action and possession. The conception is in the subtle plane, the perception in the gross plane. Once Money enters in the causal plane, society acquires the capacity to sense its creative power. As these stages develop, Money acquires its appeal to the ego. Overcoming the limits of Man's ego, the selflessness of Money extends horizontally its higher capacity usually in the subtle planes. At that stage Society is able to progress unconsciously led by leaders who are perceptive.
Money represents the Godhead in the ascent till it reaches the Divine Soul's equivalent of Money. Money can be evaluated in its descent and in the ascent. The attributes of Money as the Divine Soul are worth considering in this context.
- For Money Sachchidananda is the Society.
- Its being is infinite, its consciousness is infinite and its delight too is infinite.
- Money does not cease to be in the presence of Society, its Sachchidananda.
- It lives in the One and the Many in Society as well as in the individual transaction.
- There is no conflict between the conception of Money and its executive force.
- It has three aspects of oneness, oneness in difference and individuality.
- At no stage is there any conflict between its thought power of conception and executive power.
- Nor is there any between any two members of the Many.
- It has the power to create the infinitesimal by withholding the rest of the infinite.
- All this is possible when Money sheds its ego or capacity to respond to the ego of Money.
- Money sheds its ego in the measure Man sheds his ego.
- To consider the ego of Money separate from the ego of Man is easier than to consider Money in the relationship of Man. uch a consideration takes us in a higher plane than the surface mind where we are functioning.
- As our consideration rises in its content, the plane too rises from the physical, subtle physical to the mental and subtle mental.
At each of these stages, an integration develops which completes itself at the spiritual where the Spirit is in the subtle plane, unlike in the other planes where its existence is split into gross and subtle.
Self-conception - Self-limitation - Self-absorption.
- The Self of Money is the Society.
- It is the Society that conceives of Money as all the faculties are conceived.
- It is the general energy of Money.
In the conversion of Money energy into Money force, the determinant is the will of society that determines the quality and quantity of Money that the society has.
- Here the Society limits itself to create only the quantity she needs.
- By self-absorption this Money divides itself into positive and negative Money.
- In the higher part, the seed is hidden deeper down, though on the surface its self-awareness is awake.
On the surface every faculty of the society is thus present.
When such awareness of many faculties is turned into self-knowledge, the society makes progress.
This too can be organised, or unorganised.
Thus consciousness progresses by organisation.
The Money above has the potential of prosperity.
The Money below has the complementary potential.
- The aspiration of lower Money evokes a response from the higher Money.
When the movement is complete, Money becomes creative and touches greater heights.
This is the movement of Brahman towards a greater delight.
- The aspiration of the lower culminates in surrender.
- This surrender must be made to the Society, as it is the Self of Money.
If the surrender is made to God, one is released into moksha.
Society is the Mother at its level of fullness.
What is Mother at one level is God at a higher level.
This is the secret of creation : the One divides into two which again unites.
Supermind is the plane of fullness in the descent and ascent of the creative process.
It is only the perception of fullness.
It is available only to the Supramental consciousness of Man.
The present Money energy is the inconscient energy.
The delight Brahman seeks emerges through conscient energy of Money when it is the divine force.
At this stage Money serves the divine purpose through its selflessness and later self-giving.
In the man-woman relationship, it is the woman who serves to release the inconscient energy and Man releases the conscient energy by seeking the superconscient through his aspiration.
Solving a problem - the Role of Money
Germany has unemployment and a glut of Money. This is like a Zamindar having a shortage of rice at home. This happens when the status of the Zaminder leads to extensive enjoyment to the neglect of cultivation. The simple solution is to cultivate. Or for a lazy Zamindar a simpler solution is to use the Money for buying the rice in the market. Such a solution if insisted upon leads to a crisis. The crisis cannot be solved if the attitude is not reversed. Most human problems are of this description. The present unemployment in Germany is one such. Still without disturbing the radically irrational centre, Money can be used to develop several aspects of the society that admits of social progress in such a way as to relieve or wipe out the unemployment problem. There is one more possible better approach. It is to restore the role of Money in each sector to its desirable standard. Each social force - Money, education, music, sports, communication, etc. -- has an optimum role to play in the society. At that level, it maintains its proper relations with other aspects. The question is how to know that level. There are the standards set by other nations with which we compare. The pressure on each sector like education automatically reveals the extra Money it needs there. For us the central problem is how to use Money as a lever of social progress. More than that how to use Money so that Money will more easily multiply. The final aim of this paper is how an Individual can use Money so that he will help it enter the phases of multiplication and self-multiplication consummating in his possessing the power of generating all the Money he chooses. Whatever is the stage or goal, the one issue that is of importance is
─ To handle Money on the positive side first bringing it in the situation of progressive expansionary urge.
─ If a farmer has Money for cultivation, his using it to cultivate a new crop, or to resort to organic farming puts the Money in the expanding line. In its actual use he must avoid inattention, miserliness, etc. In a student he must spend his Money to join a progressive course. A trader instead of selling traditional products can divert his Money to modern goods - not the fashionable ones - that are expanding in sales. Money employed in these places solves problems directly connected with the field and even not connected with its field.
─ What is true of Money is true of all other such things.
─ Germany's problem is not employment.
It is unable to give up seeking glory that other nations enjoyed in the past and now have become anachronism.
The Secret Significance of the creative Power of Money that is an organising Social Power capable of Self-creation.
The produce in the field or the products of a factory is converted into Money. Whether man understands values, ideals, character, etc. or not, he understands Money. Money is concrete, tangible, presents to us as a bundle of currency. Its power is there for us to see. To him Money is not a thing; it is an act. Further, that Money is multiplied by sales is not what he can appreciate. He understands that greater sales bring in higher profit. But he is unable to see that Money turning over quickly abridges Time, becomes productive and in that process expands in quantity and rises in quality. All this escapes our vision. Bank pools the excess of Money in a neighbourhood and offers it to the unutilised productive capacity there, thereby multiplies Money. It is done by being an intermediary between the excess that is accumulated and the excess of capacity that lies unused. As produce and products become Money, here the productive capacity turns into Money. The productive capacity comprises of available land, self-confidence and one's trust in other people. It is rarely appreciated that trust and confidence constitute productive capacity as it is conceded to the excess land available. In a chit fund, we understand Money is gathered from many for the use of one. Money is pooled, not created. By joining a chit fund a member partakes of the capacity of an organisation. To that extent his value of being an individual rises and generates a little more trust in others. He receives a little more of trust from others. Even if these things are not directly explainable, a member in government service does enjoy a greater trust from the public. Thus a plane of trust is created. As the planes of agriculture and manufacture produce products, a plane of Trust creates Money. Even so, a plane of organisation creates Money. It will be more self-evident in the plane of transaction, the market. Market permits Money to pass through it slowly or quickly. Quick passing of Money increases the turnover and hence the productivity of Money. By raising the productivity of Money, market creates Money. Hundred crores of rupees in a fast market, faster ten times, does the work of a thousand crores. Its productive capacity is ten times. So, this market has created, in effect, nine hundred crores. As speed creates Money, Trust creates more Money. In fact every movement in the society, apart from doing its work, indirectly contributes to creating Money. At the level where Money is a thing, what works is symbolism. It is human mind that creates that symbolism and a token. It is an exercise in imaginative experience. The power of imagination is greater than the power of thinking. It is more creative than the faculty of thinking. It is all creation. Money is originally created by the symbolic faculty of man; it grew by the plane of transaction and its speed, furthered by organisation and its power. Its greater potentials emerge in the plane of Trust.
The Process of Money Multiplying
A crore of Money with someone, if it becomes ten crores or hundred crores, can be called multiplication. What happens is a crore buys ten crores worth of things. Here the multiplication is not so visible. Only in the real estate we see cheap properties selling for fabulous prices. Here we see the Money value of a property rising, not the multiplying of Money.
The basic value of Money is the value of the human being. It can be called human value of currency. Once Man realises his value and raises it, his wages rise and the goods that he produces rise in value. People pay higher prices often by the Money moving faster facilitating the rotation to meet the requirements of higher prices. Initially more Money comes into circulation from savings and at the expense of other traditional items of expense, which begin to fall out of existence. By this time the goods produced are of a higher value than before and attract a higher currency in circulation. Labour becoming costlier necessarily raises the volume of goods produced which demand higher circulation of currency.
- Money, the quantity of Money in circulation, is determined by the volume of goods produced.
- Man, realising his individual worth demanding a higher consumption, generates those goods in the market.
- This higher volume of goods arriving in the market is the extra Money ‘created' by the society or market. We see the number of shops in the market multiplying.
- To whom this extra Money goes is determined by the human worth, one's own value of himself.
- Except for the salaried class, everyone is its beneficiary.
- Salaried people benefit at the end of the cycle when the whole market is in the upswing.
The process of multiplication and self-multiplication do not take place in utter vacuum. It always has a material base as a real estate property or a productive organisation. In fact, they are only excuses, a concession to the disbelief of the beneficiary. As one's courage rises all on its own, Money can proliferate all by itself. In practice it chooses to have a base which blurs the process in our understanding. As knowledge multiplies in the mind without the help of any objective field outside, Money too multiplies. Only that we do not see it thus.
- The simple theoretical fact is once confidence, particularly self-confidence forms and seeks self-affirmation, Money begins to be created in essence in the Society.
Is it not a fact that Money in circulation is only a projection of Man's capacity to trust himself as one who can survive, grow and develop?
Why then does Money need an outer occasion for its creation?
Money is capable of self-creation
Self-conception is for the Brahman. Therefore it is self-creative. As Matter, Life, Mind too are Brahman, they too are, in theory, self-creative. We know, feel and experience that Mind is so. It has the power of self-creation as everything in the world has been created by Mind. At least, to us, it is self-evident. Before considering Money in this light, we must be clear in or minds that Matter and Life have this extraordinary capacity. To one whose maximum development is vital sensation the idea of a self-creative life is understandable. Seeing the weaver bird weaving its nest or the spider at work in its web, he wonders from where those skills emerge. He says to himself, "Yes, it is there" by which he means it is there inherently in life. When a piece of wood or charcoal burns we do not think about it, as we know it to be its property. On a little mental exercise, it will be seen that wood creates fire all by itself. It is a process of creation or even self-creation. How do we see it in Money?
The Money got by selling paddy buys clothes. To us it is inter-convertibility. Can we not say figuratively that Money has created cloth out of paddy, as no dress would arise in the absence of Money? Money directly creates Money when it is lent on interest. It is a small insignificant token. Money changers in international currency see Money, currency itself is their product. In the stock market Money earns or loses Money. Black Money is exchanged for white Money where white Money directly earns Money.
- Trust creates or generates Money.
- Money creates Trust.
- The trust Money creates is social.
- The Money trust creates is psychological in the society.
- Self-creation is possible in a plane when what we want to create is already involved in it.
- Thus Money is involved in Trust. Therefore Trust creates Money.
- Money is a force which is variously represented.
- It is a social force capable of social achievement.
- Truth, work, ideal, accomplishments are forces represented by those words. The words are outer symbols necessary for communication. What accomplishes is the power or force hidden and involved in them.
- When we say any amount of Money can be created, we say any amount of social force can be released.
- It only means we can accomplish anything.
Multiplication of Money - Individual and collective.
We are used to finite as well as infinite concepts. There are only twenty four hours in the day. It is fixed. A retired man given to reading will find his scope endless. In our life we have the habit of labelling each item as one or the other. Thus Money came to be labelled as a finite thing. The theme here is Money is finite only to superficial observation, but for a deeper penetration Money is not finite. It is truly infinite. Once the mind knows for certain that Money is in its essence and origin infinite, one can think of ways and means to enjoy its infinite character. In life there are several aspects, forces such as Time, Space, relationship, etc. Each of them has two sides, one finite and the other infinite. Whether something is going to be finite or infinite for you depends upon to which side you are going to relate. That is a human choice. Here I wish to state that Money is infinite and when there are no further questions about it, we have to forge a relationship with it on the side of the infinite. For the Individual it is a personal act. For the society it is an impersonal act, possible only through an organisation. Now that several impersonal organisations - VISA, Internet, etc. - are available, that too becomes possible. The existence of Internet made someone think of a scheme of ‘unique minimum price'. This is a lottery scheme where NO falsehood is entertained. In the lottery false hopes are raised in the many, though everyone knows that only by chance one will get the prize. This ‘unique' scheme exactly resembles the lottery. The only difference is the bidder aims at being unique in his bidding. He does not go by chance. He exercises his understanding of what uniqueness will be for him. It is a quest for the truth of his own uniqueness, a spiritual Quest. This is a scheme by which anyone can sell his property for a price of ten times or more. When companies offer their employers partnership, their salaries rise from $150,000 to $600,000. There is no falsehood here. There are people who see a social opportunity and exert themselves to avail of it, by an inner growth. This unique scheme is one such where there is no falsehood, conscious or otherwise. Also, it helps or compels men to search for their own uniqueness inside. Uniqueness is the end from where turning around one can discover his own infinite nature. One's infinity can be reached inside from any point outside. Infinity is not confined to some aspects. It is everywhere. There is in the individual that infinity which is spiritual. In life we meet with relationship, possessiveness, security, action, movement, etc. As said earlier, it is human choice that makes every circumstance finite or infinite. To be infinite inside in any aspect is possible. It can later be extended outside. The reach from outside inside or from inside outside is determined by one's temperament. Man loves security, not risk. He who risks has a greater self-confidence. The greater one's own self-confidence, the greater is one's value of oneself. He who wants to create a higher value outside - create Money in life - obviously must create a greater value inside. Values, capacity to take risk, independence, self-existent joy, selflessness, self-giving raise one's value in his own eyes. It is the pioneer who rises like that. All are not pioneers. A time comes when the society raises itself. When that happens, every individual deserving or otherwise ipso facto enjoys the additional convenience the society has acquired. The capacity to multiply Money arises from the capacity to raise one's inner value by conscious human choice. Until the society attains development maturity, this opportunity is there for all those who are endowed with the spirit of the pioneer to discover his inner self and its values.
The Investment Bank
The Pioneer arises as a conscious Individual when the subconscious knowledge of the collectivity matures. What the Pioneer is today is enshrined in an organisation tomorrow. Ultimately the society comes to accept that way of life as its own when we say it is institutionalised.
Society in its mental maturity created by its imaginative symbolism Money which represented the human capacity for productive labour. Man's exertion became produce in the field and products in the factory. Money represented it. Money is the symbol of labour as well as the product. Banks made Money the product and created further Money out of the unutilised productive capacity of the society. Thus Money multiplied. Imagination is productive. It produces fresh planes of life by symbolism. In language, imagination produces literature. The characters in great literature are immortal while the living man in flesh and body perishes and is forgotten. That is the power of imagination. History is fact. Literature is of imagination. Literature teaches more effectively than history. What history leaves in our subconscious, literature teaches consciously.
The investment bank advises people how to invest their savings and is paid for its services. It has a knowledge and expertise about the financial market. Those investment banks which are trustworthy in the eyes of the people are listened to and acted on. In the last quarter of the 19th century these banks sprouted and multiplied Money in one or two years five hundred times or even one thousand three hundred times. For commercial banks the product is currency, Money. For the investment bank financial knowledge as well as Trust is the product. Commercial banks could make a symbol their product. It is a symbol of a material product or thing. Trust is a symbol of human value. Financial knowledge is a mental symbol of a social activity. The reason why the investment banks are capable of multiplying Money is their product is of a high value, at least high Money value. Morgan was an individual. There was no Federal Reserve in 1907. Roosevelt had immense confidence in him individually and gave him $ 25 million of government Money. Morgan himself underwrote $ 30 million. The banks acted on his words. The crisis was staved. Morgan in the next six years earned about $ 50 million, almost equal to the amount which his integrity represented. In Goldman Sachs the average earning of a partner is $660,000 a year. Its range is from $ 17,000 to $ 33,000 an hour. Morgan was the promising individual who later became in 1913 the Federal Reserve. In future the entire society will be able to function as an investment bank. The key is good will, furthering people's prosperity, precise knowledge and integrity. Any individual who is equipped with the financial knowledge of the market and is Trustworthy can earn as the partners of the investment bank. Many act as such in matters of education, career, marriage, etc. to others. It is a universal phenomenon, but only in Money it is measurable. Good will equipped with knowledge is productive of Money. It is truly creative of Money. What the professors and geniuses do in the field of knowledge, Morgan and investment bankers do in the field of Money. Professors create knowledge. We see its acme in a genius. Morgan was a genius in investment. In future any spiritually awakened Individual who is equipped with a comprehensive knowledge of Money will be able to produce or even create Money of the size of his personality.
Liberty, equality, fraternity
What the French Revolution gave the world, we are still trying to assimilate. Liberty is the individual endowment in a general atmosphere of freedom. Political freedom makes individual liberty possible, if the laws made in freedom and to uphold them are seriously enforced. Equality is understood to be equality before law. Only in the measure liberty thrives that equality is enjoyed. It is a democratic ideal that upholds equality. While liberty and equality are political and social, fraternity is psychological. These three together remind us of the spiritual formula ‘all is in each and each is in all.' Sri Aurobindo says that it was a great idea that they added fraternity to the other two. Power accumulates in pockets, is not interchangeable. Even our physical strength cannot be converted into brain. There may be excessive land and no water or great sources of water and no land. Is there a way of converting one into another? Inter-convertibility is not known in the physical plane. It is possible for the subtle plane if it can become a symbol for some reason to both the objects. Convertibility is a great step forward in civilisation. It is done by bringing to bear the subtle power on the material plane. Supramentalisation is to raise life to the causal plane. In the process of conversion, the instrument, Money, is kept neutral otherwise the conversion will become unfair which happens during periods of inflation and deflation. This conversion can also become creative or productive. In the plane where Money is organisation, it is productive. On the plane of Trust, Money is creative or Trust is creative of Money.
Internet has extended the concept of Liberty to the subtle plane and infinite dimensions. It can reach all the potentials of society. There are grades in the potentials. Products and wealth are potential Money. Even capacity is a potential. That which can become wealth is also a distant potential. Internet gives us an inexhaustible access to all levels of potentials to be converted into Money when the Individual comes into his own, because the spiritual Individual inheres in himself all the levels from Matter to Spirit.
This formula of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, when its spirit is kept up in the field of Money, works wonders in Internet because of its universal reach. Money is the medium of exchange. Here Money is the medium between the material and subtle planes. Being a divine force, it has its reach to the causal plane. As a thing it is in the material plane. As transaction it functions in the vital plane. Organisation brings Money to the mental plane. It being a divine force and subtle, it enters into the spiritual plane.
- Now that Money has access to all the planes, it exhibits the capacity to draw upon all the potentials of all the planes.
- Hence it is seen as an instrument capable of infinite power.
- Only when Man becomes an Individual - a spiritual individual - he has access to all the power of Money.
- The cry of the French Revolution ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' gives the clue to its functioning and its reach.
- What is true of Money, incidentally, is true of any aspect of life, e.g. education.
- The French Revolution carried in it, in one sense, all that the world needed in future of which an infinite supply of Money is one.
- It is noteworthy that Money extends its existence to all the planes - gross, subtle, causal.
Subtle, Causal Planes
A heavy weight is lifted by a small force through a lever. The excess power comes from the subtle plane. Life is composed of physical, subtle, causal planes. Acting in one plane, powers of the other planes can be drawn upon if the right strategy is used. In human psychology that strategy translates into attitude. The causal plane accomplishes work instantaneously. Here the attitude needed is one of patience that is ready to act instantaneously. Organisation being subtle multiplies Money. Trust can be causal when it is not mercenary and therefore it enables Money to self-multiply. The same work yields different results to different people because people act in various planes according to their attitudes.
Symbolism creates Money. It is subtle. Relationship is vital and therefore is subtle to the physical plane. The physical plane is material, inert, jada. We know decision itself can precipitate acts. It is so when the thought of the mind has the comprehensiveness to reach the mental substance and saturate it. Money acts in the ascent while decision that accomplishes is in the descent, Money the thing became transaction when the society moved from the plane of material-physical to the vital thus introducing a certain amount of subtlety. Organisation is entirely subtle and hence can lead to instantaneous multiplication of Money, drawing the collective resources for the individual benefit. Trust is entirely psychological and therefore is juxtaposed between the subtle and causal planes. In the measure it enters the causal plane, Money acquires the capacity for self-multiplication.
The process of ascent from physical to mental and to the spirit beyond can be easily seen as it is self-evident. This is not so with the process of descent. The ascent is one of direct growth one leading to the other. The descent involves evolution. In the process of descent the mind evolves into spirit, the vital evolves the mind and spirit involved in it. At the physical plane descent compels it to evolve the vital, mental, spiritual involved in it. Even in the ascent, there is evolution. It is an evolution of the physical into vital and vital into spirit. In the descent the hidden Spirit in the parts of being - Nature - is compelled to evolve into its fullness - the psychic being. Parts of being struggle for survival when they function in themselves. They grow into the next plane; they develop higher attitudes that are values, skills of the spirit. It is development for each part of the being. All this is in the ascent while the descent reverses the whole process. Here the spirit itself evolves from its partial, quiescent status to the full dynamic action. This change is a change from the lower to the higher hemisphere and enables the entering into the Supramental plane. Thus the Supramental plane descends into the lower parts activating the dormant spirit to evolve into the psychic. Money travels through all these planes acquiring the powers of these planes. The Individual emerging into spiritual individual is capable of making Money multiply or self-multiply. The maximum for the causal plane is instantaneous result; the minimum for it is the capacity for rapid multiplication. Money acquires higher capacities while it enables those planes to evolve further. It is a mutual process leading to integration.
Wikipedia - Money
The Internet is the society's invention of an organisation in cyberspace to make man shift from selfish aggrandisement to the expansion of self-giving. It has been systematically demolishing the hold of ego on property, idea, information, literary creation, etc. which bring to those sites an enormous number of visitors. Advertisement as a source of revenue and that too which enables the cost of newspaper to be cheap has been known for centuries. Internet adds one more dimension to it by allowing the advertiser and the reader to come together directly. This possibility allowed the email and many other services on the web to reach the customer free. By giving something fully free one earns more than by selling it is a truth made known to the world for the first time. In truth, this holds good in all fields. Recently this truth is accepted by the world in the field of information. To explain this truth in Money that Money multiplies by giving it away is not an easy proposition. We can show the purchasing power of Money increases by its faster movement. Wikipedia demonstrates this truthfully in knowledge. It invites people to contribute facts that are verifiable with respect to an entry. Millions of entries arrive. The editors arrive at a final article that is far more comprehensive than can be had otherwise. Still the truth we aim at does not fully emerge. In the matter of ideas, the validity of this truth is seen in a greater measure. When one sets out to teach on the web, this truth emerges in its full glory. Ordinarily the teacher teaches what he knows to the student who stores it in his memory with or without understanding. A better teacher trains the student's understanding or better still his thinking. Now unknown facts that are unknowable by the teacher come to the surface as the teacher taps the potentials of the impersonal - universal - mind. Unless the teacher rises to the occasion by raising the level of his own mind - not the memory, understanding, thinking that are parts of mind - he cannot make himself meaningful to the student or the class. There is a further dimension of the facet of life from where the student is drawn. This is Life, not mind. Internet lays bare the universal mind and universal life to the perception of the teacher revealing the infinite through the finite. Facts of immense quantity collect. Ideas of which facts are symbols emerge in ALL minds that work this programme. No encyclopedia of earlier construction can stand the competition of Wikipedia. They are not comparable. This is an area where facts expand infinitely, allow ideas to emerge out of them and indicate the possibility of the Real-Idea being born. This indicates the parallel for Money but it is still insufficient. In the Internet we see the field expands and becomes creative. It gives the opportunity for the learner and teacher to expand equally and become productive and creative. One who handles Money in a transaction has the occasion to grow into the heights of his own personality when the field expands as never before. Through the stages of symbolism, transaction, organisation and trust, Money enters the subtle plane and causal plane undergoing multiplication and self-multiplication. One who rises with the rising capacity of Money shares these faculties. He can be possessive as Steve Jobs or self-giving as Bill Gates. His own power to multiply Money will depend on the attitude he acquires. Still the question of HOW the funds in one's hands can self-multiply is left unanswered. It takes place in the next plane as in the mechanical advantage. It is easier to demonstrate as in THT - six fold expansion - than explain. He who has done it stands a chance of learning the process and essence.
Symbolism
It is the imagination that creates a symbol out of the objective reality. Imagination is a greater power than intellectuality. Intellect creates the thinker while imagination creates the poet who is only one level below the yogi. Symbolism is of the mental imagination. Vital imagination is superstition. The physical can act but cannot directly think. It is the physical memory that repeats. We see the ability of the physical to think in the formation of skill, a process of organising energy by constant repetition. It has no faculty of imagination. Maybe we can say its imagination is doubt. Capacity to doubt is a progress from disbelief, as it is a step ahead of inertia that cannot act. Coinage is the culmination of social imagination endorsed by the individual mind. One important characteristic of the physical is possessiveness. Possessiveness is the expansive extension of the physical with respect to what it produced. Possessiveness sublimated is adoration. The very first creation of collective mankind is security and law and order. It is symbolised by the leader who was a robber baron. Man allows himself to be robbed and tyrannised for the sake of security. The monarch is the erstwhile robber baron. In adoring the monarch man enjoys the physical possession of peaceful living and the security on the border. It is an emotion of the body that grows into a passion of patriotism. Coinage is the symbol of his economic well-being. Money is such a symbol of man's vital productivity, which enables his civilised living. At a further level of progress, man seeks psychological well-being inside which is reflected outside as social reputation. It is noteworthy that this reputation that is status includes the earlier stages of abundant productivity and the unassailable security. Possession of Money is a rich symbol of this status. The symbol can be neutral, positive or negative. Its neutrality is least productive while its negativity depletes him of Money. A positive state of this status is capable of productivity, i.e. by virtue of possessing Money, one can increase its volume. Money can multiply while man possesses it. And every social activity is a medium of multiplication. Man having Money with no sense of possessing it enables Money to enter into the phase of self-multiplication. Monarchy is the symbol of security. Money is the symbol of productivity. Knowledge is the symbol of creativity. Knowledge that is will is the symbol and secret of that creative power. It is cumulative in a selfish character while in a character of selflessness it is expansive. Self-giving makes that expansiveness extend infinitely and brings it back to oneself through another higher subtle plane. Its climax is reached in the causal plane. Business helps earn by a service. The service itself is productive of Money. Patriotic self-giving is not so productive of Money but it needs Money even for that service. It is an act which can make great funds flow towards one when it acquires intensity. The spiritual Individual can attract towards him all the Money he needs for his spiritual service. His essential need is to create a solid foundation for his successful work.
McKinsey Report on China and India
It is an encouraging report for us in India.
- It says certain financial reforms can create additional GDP of $48 billion for India and $321 billion for China.
- The best way to create jobs is to invest in the most productive sectors.
- It speaks of the Indian economy overtaking Italy, France and UK in a decade (BBC News). This is a credit to our size of population, not an indicator of rising per capita GDP.
- It speaks of bond market, NPA in the banks, government control of the funds, absorbing GDP into budget deficit, stock exchange and other things. It is heartening to know the Indian economy is coming into its own and lending weight to its political status.
An undernourished man's health can improve by better food, higher salary, shifting to a better job, attention to his attitudes, etc. etc. The rule is whenever a part improves, the whole rises. It is true of all the parts. Also whenever one part is improved all the other parts receive that benefit. Man is usually oblivious of his problems as well as opportunities. As long as the knowledge of the Theory is lacking, people will studiously consider parts. The whole is not in view as no one knows there is a whole. The whole has a centre of consciousness. It lies in the individual. When most individuals awake, we call it social awakening. The above report is a pointer in many ways.
- If one part of finance which is itself a part can have this impact, we can imagine the changes the whole can bring about.
- Even before the whole is activated, the harmony brought between the parts - the rising parts - itself can raise the level of prosperity very much.
- All this applies to an individual who is trying to enter the phase of self-multiplication of Money.
- At least a partial consideration of other sectors of society from the Theory will enlighten the planners in a startling fashion.
- In a nation it is worthwhile drawing up a list, an exhaustive list, of social aspects that can impinge on Money and give some valid thought to changes there.
- It is true of the individual. The same list will exactly suit the Man as he is the microcosm of the society.
- The report makes it clear that what is a Herculean effort at the agricultural or industrial sector (raising $ 48 billion) is done in the financial sector by a stroke of the pen. It should make him see that by changing the needle a little in the psychological sector he can allow immense amount of Money to create itself.
- Europe, especially the USA, has exhaustive statistics for all changes. A study that collects all these figures will directly confirm the central theme of this book.
The Eighth Reversal
In giving abundant Money to the people, we are being a channel for the abundant consciousness of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. His birth was undertaken to deliver it to the world by His doing the yoga of the earth on her behalf. He was willing to do the yoga of humanity, but they were unaware of His existence. He won India's Independence, but His ideas were rejected by the Congress. He did the yoga of the sadhaks and they whole-heartedly betrayed Him. He withdrew and sent His Force and now it is doing the work. Man will resist, oppose, and be indifferent to the ideas on Money as Elizabeth did. Darcy withdrew and offered his services behind the screen. Elizabeth gloated over the results but wanted to suppress the truth from Darcy. He persisted and won her over. First, it was his turn to go awry. He was rude, resentful of what he most longed for. He took initiative to wrong her sister, removed Bingley from Netherfield. He wanted for himself what he denied to Bingley. His justification for it was his ardent love for Elizabeth. Elizabeth did not want his true love but wanted the patronage of Bingley's status through marriage. His proposal was offensive. She brutally refused him through stinging abuse. After this begins his transformation, a true one. His was the inner change. Hers was the outer acquiescence. It was Pemberly she was pleased with, not his infectious love. He succeeded in pleasing her in several ways and went to Lambton to propose. Her own eighth reversal remained unfulfilled. It came as Lydia's elopement. He decided to go through it also without letting her know. It removed the obstacle - elopement - and he removed the obstacle of Jane's wedding. Still, she was unrelenting, found fault with him. The eighth reversal came in the shape of an external event that humiliated her. She came to know of Darcy's magnanimity and was humbled. Still she was stiff and assertive. Only when she spoke it out to him she was sufficiently humiliated making her receptive. Our giving the world Sri Aurobindo through Money may have to pass through all these stages as adjusted by our social context. We cannot accept the policy of Wikipedia nor can we be indifferent to it. Ours is a subjective method, Wikipedia seeks an objective one. The subjective method excludes the objective. There is another subjective method which includes the objective. It is in the Simultaneous Time. Already Wikipedia accepts the results of such a method. It is a method of letting the facts speak for themselves, so that Wikipedia will not ask for reference. Wikipedia is not a collection of facts which they claim to be. It is a collection of knowledge in terms of facts. Knowledge is not confined to facts. They are foolishly proud of proclaiming it. Still, as after his refusal Darcy went into himself to bring about an inner change for its own sake, we have to swallow the follies of the world, that of Wikipedia till we are accepted in toto. We must do exactly the opposite of what we believe in, in deference to their ignorance. Krishna killed Kamsa to offer him moksha. He violated the gopis to award them spiritual chastity. The procedure is Brahman. No step of it can be skipped, it can only be abridged in the measure of knowledge available. Life did not allow Darcy to propose to her a second time at Lambton without her going through the last reversal. In knowledge, one's reversal can be done without a tragedy. In ignorance, it can be done only through a catastrophe. She had to speak to him of Lydia's elopement and tacitly receive his help. Sincerity on her part could have averted the elopement had she realised her family's low status. She was unconscious. Let us be conscious of the Ignorance of the world, not in it, but inwardly in us and still play the game. To accept the world's Ignorance as ours is consciousness responsibility. To know it as our own ignorance and accept it is to be true to ourselves, a practically valid simple truth, and a fact of life inside us.
The ways in which Money multiplies and self-multiplies:
- Money was created by the urge in society to organise itself at higher levels.
- That organisation required converting the potentials into usable energy, mutual exchange, a medium of exchange.
- Such a medium cannot be in the plane of present existence.
- It will be the medium in a higher plane.
- That medium takes shape as a symbol.
- It is a symbol of the accomplishment in the present plane.
- Symbols are not the products of thought, but products of imagination.
- The exchange is effected by the symbol.
- Transactionis made possible by the symbolic existence.
- Such a transaction is between two individuals or organisations.
- Production in the physical plane is by physical labour.
- Productivityin the plane of exchange is in proportion to the transaction.
- The speed of the transaction, its volume, character, intensity determine the productivity of that field. One such field is trade.
- Commerce is a wider term than trade.
- Relationship is more comprehensive.
- Exchange expands the space of action, thus making higher productivity possible.
- Wider space of functioning makes Time a factor of productivity.
- Time has been influenced by speed as it admits it.
- As speed increases, productivity increases, Money multiplies.
- Initially multiplying Money gathers Money at several points at one point.
- Finally it enables creation of fresh Money in greater quantities.
- It is no longer multiplication, but self-existent multiplication or Self-multiplication.
- At the levels of Money a thing, a transaction, an organisation, Trust, Force these phenomena - multiplication and Self-multiplication- constantly occur.
- Such expansion of Money is by physical multiplication of quantity, vital multiplication of its purchasing power, its capacity to partake a vaster share of growing social productivity, its inherent capacity to accomplish a far greater amount of accomplishment and by moving into power from force.
- It is made possible by the improving scientific technology at the lowest, by the society growing into self-giving by everyone's willingness to support everyone else.
- What an individual should achieve by decades of labour at the cost of crores of rupees, is made possible by a higher technology offering the widest social accomplishment for the use of the individual. Of course it is implied that this Individualwill directly contribute to the social pool of higher, further accomplishment.
- A Development Encyclopedia that was only possible in 1960 by the combined effort of over a hundred scholars of eminence highly paid out of a vast fund, now is possible because the Web is available free and all such scholars in thousands are willing to pool their efforts for the joy and prestige of it. In effect, that $100 million is now earned and those scholars employed. Only that it is on a different footing - freedom to insist of the individual value of facts and the validity of law enunciated. Zero investment has thus multiplied.
The power of self-multiplication and its origin
The power of Self-multiplication is the power of evolution in the process of knowledge emerging into higher knowledge having done so first from ignorance. Movement occurs by energy. Force is created by the directing will. Force passing through organisation is power. Power accomplishes through skill. This is a part of the process of creation. The three processes of Self-conception, Self-limitation and Self-absorption are there at all stages of creation beginning from Brahman and ending in Matter. It acts in the reverse order in evolution. Each plane acts according to its characteristics. In the spiritual plane the energy acts to relate each to all by the inherent power of spirit which is endless. In the material plane the power is that of the form given by imagination as a symbol. In the vital plane the power issues out of movement, a movement that forges relations - transactions. In the plane of organisation, it is no longer individual power but is the power of the collective. An individual there is able to release the power of his own individual form, actively relate to other individuals by the power of his imagination which creates the organisation. The power of organisation is the sum total of all such individuals who act not so much by thinking as by imagination. Organisation is the creation of imagination in the collective. Trust is the organisation of psychological power of understanding others. Mind is possessive when it acts through its vital. Mind is expansive when it acts through the spirit in it. Such a spirit can be either immutable or evolving. Once Mind creates an organisation the power of the spirit in it chooses actively to relate it to every other individual. It does it through inherent active goodwill that is infinite. He who has such a universal good will has the universal power at his disposal to expand whatever he has. Here our concern is Money. What he does is to expand himself universally through an act of active goodwill. The power of multiplication and self-multiplication is created. Its results come to him from the plane where he has skills. It can be skills of production, lending, borrowing, understanding, relationship, organisation, trust or anything on earth. Often the work he does is invisible as there is no past experience on which he can rely. Money seeking him is more invisible not because it is occult, but because one is not trained to see. A thorough precise appreciation of the process of creation and an ability to apply it to the given situation will render the invisible process visible.
- By Self-conception Brahman creates Existence through Maya, its consciousness.
- By Self-limitation Existence limits itself to Existence preventing it from embracing Non-Existence.
- Self-absorption is resorted to in objectification.
Sachchidananda objectifies as Supermind.
Comprehending Supermind objectifies as apprehending Supermind.
Existence experiences itself as Spirit.
Self-absorption is Self-experiencing.
Spirit objectifies as Truth.
Consciousness objectifies itself as Time and Space.
Time works out its conception in Space by causality, the Divine Law.
Self-absorption results in Ignorance of Matter in form.
- The energy of Matter is conserved in form.
- The energy of Life is expressed in movement.
- The energy of Mind is in organisation and understanding.
- The energy of Spirit is in passive or active self-giving.
- The active Self-giving of universal GOODWILL is the strategy of multiplication as well as Self-multiplication.
It is easy to see this Power.
It is not equally easy to see the planes it moves in and the powers it releases in the human being.
But it is not difficult to reason it out.
Reason acquiring light can see that plane and that process by insight or intuition. The prosperity of the village has come to us as the higher value of our property.
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Ä All these steps can be precisely distinguished and explained and illustrated if a book is written on this topic only.
¨ Each of these topics, if expanded with explanations and illustrations can become a paper or a chapter or even a book.
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