Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy And Yoga - Some Aspects

Passing Of This Civilisation

To all appearances, we are heading for a new birth, a new civilisation through all the throes, pangs and turmoil's of the present times. The crisis in human destiny was never so acute as now. Never in the history . of man such rapid and revolutionary changes took place in his life throughout the globe as humanity is facing today. This is only a prelude to some corning significant change of which few of us are really conscious. To a discerning intellect it ought to be evident that ours is a world which is constantly changing ; there is nothing stable even for a moment. It is in a state of constant flux and what appears stable is only an illusion of the senses. It is like the mass of waters of a river which gives some appearance of stability when there is no current or flow satisfactory to the eyes. Or, a block of stone which apparently shows no signs of change but which is changing slowly all the while because of the action of the sun, rain and wind. Motion of Matter in Space, motion of change in Time are the condition of our existence. But such is the veil of Maya or Illusion, man seldom takes .cognizance of this constant change in his life and surroundings and goes on as if things are fixed and stable for ever. But for this illusion, there could not be the continuance of the world. A rational and intelligent human being would certainly get disgusted with this perpetual change and would prefer to remain inactive because of the lack of certitude that life would always remain fixed, pleasant and prosperous.

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For the bulk of humanity there is no choice or will ; they are like the dumb driven cattle.

This is the rationale of the working of the Divine Conscious Force which is at work behind all the happenings of this world. If men were always conscious that tunings would not remain fixed and stable, they would not in all probability accept life and withdraw from it in the hope of finding some ultimate solution to this mystery—something that is stable and permanent. And for this human failure, the world as we know it, would certainly come to an end. There would be no progress in life, material or spiritual and stagnation would be the result of a creation meant to be always progressive even in the midst of this eternal change and flux.

During the last fifty years of the epoch in which we are living, materialistic civilisation seems to have reached its acme—if we can add to it the prospect of man's flying in the air with a vertical uplift like the helicopter for a short distance and in fair weather—the picture of our scientific and technological achievements will be more or less complete. Man has subjugated earth, air and water and by his discoveries reduced space and time almost to the vanishing point. His scientific and technological achievements are reflected in immense increase in industrial and agricultural output with an inconceivable increase in global trade, commerce, communication and transport. All these testify to human intelligence and capacity to reorganize life on earth on a better and more decisively improved scale than when he began his life as a cave man or a nomad. But unfortunately he is no better now notwithstanding his vast advance in materialistic civilisation than what he was mentally and morally during his

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first primitive stage. He continues to remain the same narrow, self-regarding petty egoistic being that he was in the past and has not enlarged his .consciousness in conformity with his material achievements. Millions of years have passed from the stone and iron age which marked his step by step advance in conquering the domain of matter but he is even now in his inner life what he was in those primitive times. He has conquered outer nature but his inner nature remains the same, beyond his control. His passions, instincts, desires and impulses still dominate him. He has no control over his senses. He is not master of himself though he has a great mastery and control over the external nature. He has no doubt developed the powers of reason but this reason turns traitor the moment his own self-interest is affected. And this—not only for the individual human being but also for the collective life. Greed, lust for power and domination over others are his characteristic nature even in these days of so-called enlightened self-interest which is only an euphemism for blatant exploitation of others. He is at enmity not only with his neighbour but also at loggerheads with whomsoever stands in the way of the aggrandise ment of his individual and collective ego. Thus sects are ranged against sects, tribes against tribes, religion against religion and nations against nations. He wages relentless wars against his own kind and is seeking complete destruction of his enemies by constant attempts at new discoveries of the most lethal weapons. He has no scruples of conscience to grab and confiscate the land of others and perpetrate genocide in order to be sovereign over others. From this point of view, namely aggression against his so-called enemies, he is

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no better than animals who have no compunctions of .conscience because mind is not developed in them. Whereas the elite of the present humanity who have been put at the helm of the governments of their countries by popular choice betray the same intolerance towards other nations and communities simply because their social, political and economic ideologies differ.

Now, if humanity is to survive, this mentality must be completely eliminated from our nature. Man must first be master of himself before he can be master of others. Brute force can subjugate for a time but this is only for a time, for, "Freedom's battle once begun Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son/ Though baffled oft/is ever won".

If all the past civilisations have perished in the incessant change and flux of the times, there is no reason why this materialistic civilisation of the present which typifies ever-increasing speed and commercialism with all their attendant evils, should not also disappear. So, let us prepare for a better, higher and more enduring type of civilisation to replace it in which stress should be laid on the life of the Spirit, for Spirit is One, infinite and immutable amidst the constant changes of the phenomenal world. The future civilisation is destined to be a spiritual civilisation which will bring to humanity all that it lacks at present, rlamely, Consciousness, Power, Peace, Bliss, Harmony and Love, in other words, a Divine Life on earth.

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