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Resources

 

July 11, 1999

   The term ‘resource' is taken to mean here human resource, rather a resource useful to man. It will be proper to consider it in a wider context but our topic is economic development in practice, though we can entitle it ‘social evolution'. From creation to universe and from there to earth and world and society, the scope goes on narrowing. We confine ourselves to economics and that too the part they style development.

From the Stone Age to the computer age, it is human mind that discovered the tool the stone was and that computation is. Computer is one more step removed beyond computation. We have laid down the law that resources are infinite, as the mind that makes them is infinite. Logical consistency can be conceded to this assertion or denied. As the resources of the past few centuries testify to that fact, we can refrain from a logical justification till it is raised as a theoretical issue.

   There are material resources like wood, land, water, etc. There are non-material resources too. We may consider water either a material or non-material use as we choose to classify. Few people were inclined to term air a resource till the previous century. When chosen as a resource, it may go under non-material. It does justify the heading material resources. These are inconsequential points of debate.

   Human relationship is a major resource in the society and it is clearly non-material. Action of one substance on the other, especially those that produce visible reactions, created the field of chemistry. It is a fundamental part of our life today. One man's action on another is inherent in the social structure; perhaps it is all the structure the society has. Surely, it is the greatest known resource. Those who have lived an emotional life of idealism will readily see the truth in it. Money that rules the social life today is based on human relationships generating trust. War that was a major occupation of nations till recently belongs to that domain. Those who are amazed by the role of computer in social development or the vast changes brought about by the dissemination of information may find a reservoir of potentials in human relationships. It is socially creative as well as psychologically energising. In the plane of human relationship the end product is joy, particularly harmonious joy. It is the chemistry of human traits or even human energies.

   The creation of a resource passes through several stages like any act. This too is governed by another law. The mind understands, evaluates, accepts, decides, determines to create a resource out of a certain material. This chain of mental action, which we are familiar with, is taken up by the vital which releases its energy and takes it through the known process to a usable result. The physical comes in to accept and use the product or reserves its veto to disregard the product.

   Persons are formed, well formed, unformed, or ill-formed. The more formed a person is, the greater is his ability to be resourceful in creating resources. One is formed by education, family training, career experience and his own personality. Formed persons create resources within the framework of their forms. There is another form of creativity in this field of creating resources for human life. There are occasions when the forms are barriers to discovering resources or they limit the scope of one's success. They are exceptional situations. In those unique circumstances, the unformed person, because of absence of the inhibiting form, is more capable of discovering resources. In theory we can say,  

   Form creates resources; formlessness creates greater resources.

   Human mind is endowed with a great many faculties. Thinking, understanding, remembering, imagining, observing, discriminating, deciding, determining, caution, and resourcefulness are the faculties we know of.  Human mind is not essentially social. It is mainly related to itself.  Whether a person is resourceful or not is a capacity of his mind. It has nothing to do directly with his social personality. Resourcefulness in the sense of discovering new resources is an ability related only to that activity. For instance, it is a particular organisation of the mental faculties. It issues out of

  • A capacity to observe objects in themselves;
  • A capacity to see one object in its possible relation to another object;
  • An ability to see such relationship in the context of creating fresh products or uses;
  • The social centre in one's consciousness;
  • One's knowledge of the basic structure of materials;
  • A quest for creating new products, new uses;
  • A quest of social growth in the mind.

Such resourcefulness is increased by one's physical exposure to conducive engineering circumstances. Resourcefulness is a creative ability of the individual. It is fostered by the culture, upbringing, present pressure to create new products and the organisational opportunities society offers its individuals. A strong educational base, an expansive social climate, an atmosphere of active innovation, over-flowing creative energy, etc. render one resourceful. Such individuals are rare. In a progressive society they abound and become a class by themselves. Even such a rare phenomenon lends itself to conscious creation in certain sectors in the modern world, if the planner is well equipped by knowledge of the Theory. We can say matter accepting mind in its plane is the basis of a resource.

            Resource is mind in matter.

Resources start with matter, expand in the field of vitality, but blossom in the human mind. Human mind is its proper seat or plane. By its subtlety and wideness human resources prove to be the greatest resource on earth. Mind can choose to be fixed or rigid. It can choose to shed its fixity and its flexibility can go up to infinite dimensions. In this capacity, mind excels other parts of the human being. Therefore, it has the capacity to convert any fixed resource into an infinite resource. Comparing the resourcefulness of the parts of our being, we find the resourcefulness increase very fast as we go up the scale from physical to vital to mental to spiritual.

   Mind is the instrument we now speak of. It uses innumerable instruments. The more subtle mind is, the more subtle its instruments are, the more delicate they are, the greater is the resulting resourcefulness.



story | by Dr. Radut