HOW IS PROGRESS OF MAN, A SOCIAL ANIMAL, POSSIBLE?

Let us try to understand as to what is the real meaning of the proverb ‘Man is a social animal’. Like other beings, man cannot live with satisfying his own needs only. A being other than man can satisfy his own particular needs and can exist merrily but man, unlike other creatures, has many needs, required for his very existence, for example, he requires uncooked food (grown by other men), various means for cooking the food, clothes to wear manufactured by other men, house to live in, means of transportation to go from one place to another, money to obtain the means of his comforts et cetra. He cannot fulfill all of his requirements by himself. He has to depend on other human beings for fulfilling his requirements. We obtain means of fulfilling our requirements, only after we fulfill some of the needs of the other human beings. Imagine that a manufacturer manufactures things which are not required by any other person or a doctor treats the patients in such a way that no one gets cured of his disease, then no one will pay such manufacturer or doctor for his goods or services to enable them to fulfill their own needs. Going a little deeper, we can say that a person is able to meet his needs or requirements in proportion to his devotion towards meeting others’ requirements. It is very well said that for development of man, he needs to progress in three different aspects. These aspects are ‘progress of soul’, ‘progress of body’ and ‘progress of society’. If progress of man in any of these aspects is lacking, then he cannot develop. People understand the necessity of progress in first two types of aspects but they fail to understand as to how social progress is important for man for his development. We try to make this clear through an example. Imagine that ten men buy ten separate cars for their comforts. Now, they must have road also, on which these cars will run. Every car-owner cannot build his own road to drive at. Without a good road all these cars will be of no use. And a good road can be provided by the society. Where society is not organized and does not work for the welfare of its members, the individuals comprising of that society cannot develop.