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Cooperatives- catalyst for the future

By Acarya Samanvayananda Avadhuta

Cooperatives constitute the mode of grass-roots development. Today, while Europe ismoving towards becoming a federation of nations, Asian nations face economic crisisand keep turning to Europe, the IMF and the World Bank to come to their rescue byencouraging foreign investments in the Asian region. This amounts to giving bigconcessions (i.e. removing national safeguards in the name of liberalizing theeconomy) to multinationals to set up manufacturing plants for low-tech and high-tech consumer products to be then exported for consumption in developed countries.This kind of over-supply oriented industrial development reaches a saturation pointand then sets off economic recession. In any case this export-oriented industrialdevelopment helps provide employment in the urban centres. It does not result inthe technological development of the developing countries since this is not on thebusiness agenda of multinationals. Most of all this type of economic colonizationnever remedies the rural areas where the bulk of the population resides and wherepoverty since liberalization is now most abject.Essentially this amounts to inviting multinationals to cheaply buy off sick industries inAsian countries. While this might supposedly sustain employment, it will result ineconomic colonization and crippling of indigenous entrepreneurship as well as thecollapse of rural economic and cultural structure. This is especially the case incountries with extreme corruption (like India and other developing nations of Asia,Africa & South America) where all safeguards are flouted by politicians in return forbribes, (not to mention their direct theft of aid money) generating a spiraling amountof “black’ money. This is also an inherent instability associated with dependence onmultinationals based industrial development. When the market demand for theirproducts decreases due to over-saturation of the market, they lay off people in thehundreds. Also when they find exploitative regimes where labour is cheaper, theytransfer their operation to the new locale without feeling any sense of responsibilityor remorse. The present Pacific-Asian economic crisis is merely one example of this.The same scenario is repeated in the industrial heartland of America.The correct approach would be to use IMF, World Bank or UNDP funds and/or loansfor development of rural communities and inner cities through local resourcedevelopment by the local people, if needs be with the assistance of experts fromoutside. However it is certainly not wise to invite outside parties to come in anddivert profits outside. In general, it is PROUT policy in times of difficulty to try toentirely trade on a barter basis. Our solution to this problem is grass rootsdevelopment in the form of cooperatives and master units to form self-reliantcommunities by reaching out into and uniting the surrounding villages ormicrocommunities. A master unit should comprise of small farms, a seed center,primary healthcare centre, primary school, community centre (for social and spiritualfunctions), small-scale enterprises (such as making clothes or solar heating units).Essentially, a master unit is an implementation of what we have been describing tobe the extended role of cooperatives.To this master unit we can invite representatives of the surrounding community. Wecan propose to them to develop agricultural & dairy cooperatives as well asprocessing & distribution cooperatives. It should be emphasized to them that the

cooperatives will be managed by them, and will give them financial security as wellas grant them decent living, education and healthcare facilities in a spiritualenvironment. The master unit directors along with the community representativescan apply for a bank loan to purchase agricultural technology to augment agriculturalproductivity, and build a factory to make processed food products from the harvestproduce. The cooperatives will be developed as detailed in previous chapters. Fromthe revenue the agricultural and factory cooperative members as well as bank loanswill be paid.The first priority in community development would be to enable people to earn aliving, such as through farming (agriculture and/or cattle rearing) and agro-basedindustries (such as dairy). Simultaneously these cooperatives would help developsome basic community services, such as water supply, healthcare, and education. Asthe children of members get educated and learn trades, their acumen can be utilizedin the community to further the development of industries and services such aselectrical power, public health, public transport, etc. In this way education andcommunity services can be developed in tandem and stepwise, supported by theincreasing revenue generated from agriculture, dairy farming and even cottageindustries. Furthermore the development of strong moralist spiritualists (throughspiritual practice) can in turn cause more and more community members to join asmoralist spiritual aspirants. This will cause Neo-Humanism to flower, which alone canremove the bitter ethnic and other social prejudices that have been causing so muchsuffering from the dawn of human society to our own, most bloody, 20th century. Aswe have seen in detail through the course of this book, the entire human communitywould be able to become established in the vital essence of cooperation – devotionalservice.This is the mechanism of not merely self-reliant community development. This is theway for the advancement of the human race to the spiritual realm, to cosmichumanity. Thus cooperatives are the primary path (marga) on which humanity canharmonize with this world in its quest for self-realization as Bliss (a’nanda) or theSupreme Consciousness. It aims not merely to create one Vrinda’van (villagetransformed by Lord Krishna’s charming presence into a sweet devotionalcommunity), but to make every village a Vrindavan; not merely to create oneVara’nasi (the first city in the world, created by Lord Shiva’s affectionate presenceinto an intensely powerful spiritual centre), but to make every city into a Varanasi.While some may merely hope for this, those devotees who are being blessed by therapturously tender presence of Lord Anandamurtiji know that this human communitywill be blissfully transformed from a physical and psychic existence into a devotionalexistence – a life immersed in our Beloved, in Supreme Consciousness. “I want every human being to be guaranteed the minimum physical requirements of life; every human being to get scope for the full exploitation of his or her psychicpotentiality; every human being to get equal opportunity to attain absolute truth;and endowed with all the glories and achievements of the world, to march towardsthe Absolute. In and through this movement, humanity should be made conscious of the purpose and meaning of life.” - Shrii Prabhat Rainjan SarkarCopyright Proutist Universal 2000