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Greatest good of greatest number
JEREMY BENTHAM, James Mill and John Stuart Mill propounded the utilitarian philosophy. The rationale of any good action was its capacity to create utility. The basic objective of public policy was the greatest good of the greatest number. This Nineteenth century English philosophy became the basis of the concept and practice of Welfare State of Britain in the 20th century. But they carried the practice of welfare beyond the concept of the greatest good of the greatest number. Welfare for everybody and not just the majority! Not a single man will die of starvation. Not a single man will remain unclothed. Not a single man will be denied basic education and primary health facility.
Contrast this with our Indian concept. It is not the greatest good of the greatest number. It is the greatest good — material and metaphysical — of everybody. Sarve bhabantoo sukhino (May everybody be happy). Sarve Santoo Nirmaya (May everybody be free from ailment). Sarve Bhadrani pashyantoo (May everybody see only good). Ma kaschit dukhabhog bhabhet (May none be afflicted by sorrow).
Swami Vivekananda used to address gatherings: "Listen to me, ye children of immortal bliss." Everybody is inherently a child of immortal bliss and yet left uncared for. In the country which has always said `May everybody be happy', some children go to work instead of school; they do not often get two square meals a day; they do not get adequate clothing and health care. How much have we deviated from our philanthropic doctrine of universal good and how much has the West gone beyond its concept of the greatest good of the greatest number and converged with the universal good!
Social security schemes
Various welfare programmes are undertaken by many governments on the basis of the need of the people. These programmes include allowances to families with children and health care for the poor who cannot afford them. These welfare programmes are different from the social security or social insurance programmes which include various benefits such as retirement, unemployment and disability benefits or compensation in case of accidental death. The social security programmes were initiated in the wake of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. The first sickness insurance law was passed in Germany in 1883 which was soon followed by Workers' Injury Act and then the compulsory old age and disability insurance law. Similar laws were soon passed in most European countries. Notably such laws were passed in the early Twentieth century in the U.K., Sweden and Japan. The U.S. passed its elaborate social security legislation in 1935, following the Great Depression. Canada passed its law in 1940.
As against the social security schemes, the welfare programmes addressed to alleviate poverty have been in existence from ancient times, though these were not organised and conducted by governments but by various voluntary groups, well-to-do relatives, churches and temples. Eventually in the early Twentieth century almost all European countries started looking after their poor and the needy through various national welfare programmes such as sickness and maternity care for the entire population. Such welfare schemes were introduced in Germany in 1883, in the U.K. in 1911, in Japan in 1922, in Australia in 1944 and in India in 1948, i.e. immediately after India's Independence. There are various other welfare programmes like monetary allowance to families with children and such programmes were initiated in many European countries after the Second World War. Welfare programmes in the U.K., Norway and Sweden are so wide-ranging and comprehensive that these states are described by some sociologists as Welfare States.
For practising comprehensive welfare, whether by state or by voluntary groups, we must first be actuated by the basic motive embodied in the clarion call, "Love thy neighbour as thyself." We must be inspired by the Saktuprasthaanayajna of the pious Brahmin of Kurukshetra which was being witnessed by the great mongoose who rolled on the ground of the yajna where half of its body came in contact and turned golden. The mongoose thereafter frequented the palaces of kings, hermitages of ascetics and even came to the sacred spot where the great king Yudhishthira was performing the Asvamedha sacrifice but could not turn its other part of the body into gold.
For the universal good, we the children of the immortal bliss, the progenies of the Divine Mother, have to call everybody for the preparation of the grand worship of the Mother — The sacred pitcher has to be filled up with sprinkles of holy water by all — the high and mighty, the lowly and helpless, the eloquent and vociferous, the meek and dumb, the touchable and the untouchable. The pitcher will then be full of holy water for Mother's Abhisekh and then will come the state where the precept Sarve bhabantoo sukhino will become the practice — all the children will play blithely in the mother's lap. All the children will be fully fed, fully clothed. None will be afflicted by ailment and sorrow. All the children will be sprinkled by the unending flow of nectar that the Divine Mother possesses in infinity. Then only all the children will be children of immortal bliss.
D.K. ACHARYYA
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