Acharya Mahaprajna
Mahavira had conceived a new society. That could be styled as a society pledged to basic principles. For that kind of society, he prescribed a code of conduct. From that code emanate many principles of the economic system and economic theories.
Let us visualize the idea of a society dedicated to religion as its driving force. It is based neither on materialism nor on any other similar theory. It is a concept in which materialism and spiritualism are interwoven. Mahavira was a realist. He did not reject materialism or materialistic pleasure. But he did bring out the difference between spiritualism and materialism. One is everlasting and real happiness; the other is monetary and materialistic pleasure.
Mahavira said that materialistic pleasure is momentary, which leads eventually to unhappiness. He propounded this difference but he did not say that a materialistic point of view is totally wrong. After all, it is true that our life is based on matter. We cannot live completely on spiritualism detached from materialism. This is why he laid emphasis on a harmonized point of view. It is not materialism alone, which would be only one-sided point of view. The principle of anekant is a synthesis of both materialism and spiritualism.
