Applying Spiritual Economics in Modern Time

The enlightened masters have multi-dimensional personality and so they have useful economic thoughts for the upliftment of the society. Be it Rama, Krishna, Buddha, or Tulsidas, they all had economic thoughts for the welfare of the society. Kautilya’s economic thoughts are well presented in his Arthshastra. We find the reference of spiritual economics in several religious texts such as in the Vedas, Upnishads, Ramayan, Mahabharat, etc.

In Srimad Bhagavadgita Chapter 3-20, 25, Krishna presents his spiritual economic thoughts in one single word lokasangraha, which literally means organizing people. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan defined lokasangraha as “spiritualizing society” in his work on Bhagavadgita published in 1948.

Since lokasangraha symbolizes the path of action (karmyoga), it represents the ‘wholesome’ approach, the thrust of which is on the ‘prosperity of all,’ ‘peace to all,’ ‘positive outlook towards all,’ and ‘inflicting pain to none.’ This concept of spiritual prosperity is also imbibed in the philosophy - atmbat sarbbhuteshu (visualizing our own self in all) or basudhaibakutumbakam (treating each of us in this globe as our own relatives) as we are all the off-springs of the same immortal being. As economy is one of the important aspects in the life of the global relatives, basudhaibakutumbakam has its thrust on unrestricted movement of goods and services for the global welfare.

However, the modern economists do not seem to have as much depth of economics as the spiritual masters had. The modern economists are guided morge by greed rather than need and so there is a lack of direction. Even if we go by various definitions of economics, we find this fault. Economics has virtually become ‘greedonomics’ in modern days.

Of the various definitions of economics, for example, the one by Lionel Robbins given in 1932 as “the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses” is treated more appropriate. But this definition of economics, too, is not free from limitations. First of all, there cannot be several ‘ends’ in human life. There is only one ‘end’ in life and that is happiness or more appropriately the feeling of ‘bliss’ or ‘moksha.’ And at a time there is gross ignorance about the ‘end,’ mention of alternative uses of scarce means is not much meaningful.

Until spiritual dimension is added to economics, the discrepancies found in the definition of economics cannot be removed. In the absence of ethics in economics, there is very

little to rescue humankind from Laissez Fair and Pareto Efficiency, which tend to run economics and management sciences into a technique of exploitation.

In order to avoid exploitation, Isha Upanishad makes reference to the word “tena tyaktena bhunjeethah” in Sanskrit, which means utilizing or consuming the objects without any sense of attachment thinking that they belong to the Supreme God. Knowingly or unknowingly, what Bill Gates is doing today through his worldwide charity plan is in conformity with this spirit of Isha Upanishad or the concept of lokasangraha of Bhagavad-Gita.

Mother earth has all that is essential to meet the needs of the worldly instincts. It is just the greed that cannot be satisfied. Since all the objects in the universe are valuable gifts from the God, one should not misuse them. One should take only such portions of the objects that one needs and leave the rest to the others.

The centrality of spiritual economics is not on relinquishing wealth, but on its possession to the extent it is needed for achieving bliss. In fact, the word “needonomics” carries much of the sense of spiritual economics. Therefore, Spiritual Economics could be defined as, “the art to achieve ultimate spiritual bliss or moksha (liberation) through the earning of wealth in righteous manner and its proper use for one’s needed material comfort and for the welfare of all after attaining which there is no sense of sorrow or repentance.”

In India Mahatma Gandhi tried to implement spiritual economics, which is widely known as “Gandhian Economics.” He gave thrust to labor intensive techniques of production like Charkha (spinning wheel), Khadi, cottage industries, small agriculture, etc. He opposed sophisticated and advanced machineries for their failure to give freedom to millions of population from hunger and poverty, though he was not altogether against the use of science and technology. Unknowingly, in Nepal HELVETAS/Nepal – a Swiss INGO is also trying to implement spiritual economics under the “Elam” project in Birgunj corridor in Terai. Many of the poor, downtrodden, women and oppressed sections of the society in India and in Nepal have been able to free themselves from extreme form of poverty and hunger from these small economic ventures. 

Ignorance of spiriatual economics brings about inequality of income and resources both among the nations and also within the national territory. In fact, the exploitation of the weak by the powerful for the purpose of economic gains ultimately causes world economic disorder.

The Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) in its study has found that the richest 2% of the adults at the global level own over half of global household wealth. Rather, the richest 1% of adults has in their possession 40% of global assets. And the richest 10% of adults have in their lot 85% of world’s total wealth. On the contrary, the bottom half of the world’s adult population own merely 1% of global wealth.

Therefore, if the world has to be saved from further catastrophe and economic chaos of recession or inflation, dharma (righteousness) should form the core controlling factor over the accumulation of wealth or fulfilment of kamas (desires). In following dharma, one should aspire for the greater good, not making money at the expense of others but increasing the wealth of all.

Practice of spiritual economics might control extravagance. The more there is growth in spirituality, the less will be the negativity and the magnitude of violence, wars, terrorism, criminalization and corruption. With the reduction in some of these activities, the expenditure on security at the national or global level would have a tendency to decline. Resources, thus, saved on security might be spent on people’s welfare and for the benefit of all the human beings, which is in tune with the basic concept of spiritual economics.

Written by: Prof. Hari Bansh Jha

Jha is Professor of Economics & Executive Director of Centre for Economic and Technical Studies (CETS) in Kathmandu, Nepal. He might be contacted at dr.hbjha@gmail.com.