Keys to US & Indian Prosperity

By Roy Posner

Nations are like individuals, having both positive and negative aspects. As they overcome their negative propensities, they grow and evolve.  This short article describes the cause of US’s economic success, and its material limitations that it must evolve beyond.  It also describes how India can rise to the great material success of the West, yet utilize its spiritual resources for growth and development in all planes of life, not just the material.

The Evolution of Individual Nations

Just as every individual is an amalgam of positive and negative attributes whose being is growing and evolving, so too each nation of the world has an evolving character that expresses both positively and negatively. Each nation can in fact be said to represent a different aspect of human consciousness and capacity. For example, France is said to represent "clarity of thought;" Russia "the brotherhood of man;" the USA "practical organization;" and India "the spiritual teacher (i.e. guru) of the world." Each nation then expresses a ray, or several rays of truth, knowledge, and capacity, reflecting the best of human character and consciousness. Similarly, every nation also expresses its own wanting propensities for falsehood, ignorance, and incapacity. By accentuating the former, and overcoming the latter, the growth, development, and evolution of nations is made possible.

Perhaps the best way to come to know the various capacities of a nation in the current world environment is to examine its level of prosperity. The USA and India can serve as excellent examples, as they represent two contrasting extremes. The USA, on the one hand, has experienced a level of material success bordering on the infinite, even as she has failed so far to embrace the deeper aspects of life. India, on the other hand, who once knew the infinity of spirit and then lost it, is now trying to regain it.  In addition, along the way, she became very poor, but now can utilize a regained spirit to rapidly prosper in an integral -- i.e. not merely material -- way.

Success and Limitations of USA

First, let’s consider the development of, and the level of prosperity of the USA. When the settlers first arrived in America, they managed the impossible by rapidly recreating the civilization of Europe in a land of virgin forests. They were able to accomplish this because they already carried with them the knowledge of their homelands. With the details of how to recreate a civilization already known, they were then motivated to organize that knowledge and rapidly turn it into practical results. As a result of their adoption of the value of practical organization, a number of developments came about -- including the assembly line, the telephone, the automobile, the suburban home, the interstate highway system, as well as an array of technologies, including various communications systems, the personal computer, and now the Internet.

Though her practical organization continues to release the infinity of matter, the USA is unfortunately still too physical in her fundamental nature. That is, she is amoured with the physical, material reality she creates or sees before her, ignoring other planes of being -- including the psychological, the cultural, and the spiritual. In essence, she needs to raise her laudable value of practical organization from its current physical foundation to these higher planes of consciousness. Though the USA has known vast material success in matter -- achieved by applying true spiritual values such as honesty, orderliness, systemization, etc. -- she still needs to apply these values to other aspects of life beyond the material. That would enable a vast psychological progress, and help her to focus on the true needs of Man, rather than her present preoccupation with the mere material. Such an approach can also help her (a) eliminate the negative byproducts of her technology (such as pollution and radiation), (b) overcome a sometimes vulgar culture that’s spreading around the world, (c) reduce her own poverty and vast differentials of income distribution, and (d) surmount her propensity to constantly fight wars and stockpile dangerous weapon arsenals. It can also help shed her single-minded preoccupation with economic growth and accumulation of personal wealth, which come at the expense of other high values. Finally, it can help her overcome her intransigent independence that too often separates her from the needs and concerns of the rest of the world.

There is also a second reason for the US’s present material success. The multiplicity and diversity of its immigrant citizens -- with their myriad of approaches, solutions, and accomplishments in life -- has released a tidal wave of energy in the nation. This phenomenon is a direct expression of Sri Aurobindo’s renowned dictum and principle of life “unity in diversity.” Together with its value of practical organization, the diversity of its citizens has given the USA an unprecedented power, enabling her to assume the mantle of economic and cultural leader of the world. What she needs to do now however is to evolve her consciousness beyond her current material view if she is to maintain such a lofty position. All indications are that the big change in the consciousness of the world could happen here first.

Nature’s Course for India

What then can we say about the origins, current condition, and destiny of India, especially as it relates to their level of prosperity? Karmayogi describes India as a land of rishis; that her sons carry the spiritual light in her body in the depths of her being. He says that it is that spirit that is the source of her greatness; but it has been lost over the millennia, and needs to be regained. If she can accomplish this, she will not only emerge out of her poverty, but she will fulfill her role as the Guru of the world. How did India some to her current condition, and how can she reemerge in prosperity to fulfill her spiritual destiny?

Again, Karmayogi describes how Spirit developed and reached Its penultimate peak in India. However, Nature -- which is, along with Soul/Spirit, the instrument of the Divine -- did not want Spirit’s further development there. For Her own reasons, Nature moved elsewhere, as She set about developing Mind, Vital, Science, Organisation, Technology in other parts of the world. Now that Nature has completed this round of development outside India’s borders, She has now come back to India to complete the work of development of the Spirit on earth. In addition, because India has fallen into great poverty, Nature has come to resolve that difficulty as well. How then can individual Indians cooperate with Nature so India can fully adopt the Spirit and emerge out of poverty -- in essence, utilizing the former to enable the latter? Here are a few suggestions:

Strategies for Indian Prosperity and Success

·         Spirit Regained -- The roots of Indian spirituality need to be rediscovered. The light that is natively there in the body of the Indian must be reclaimed.

·         Use Spirit in Life – As the Spirit is regained, it should not be utilized for one’s personal spiritual liberation outside of life (i.e. moksha), but utilized and applied to the details of one’s active life. The spirit should be called into each act of our lives. In addition, it would serve us well to understand the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, as He has moved Indian Knowledge forward by explaining the way Spirit can consciously be applied in the evolving life of Man.

·         Spirit-based Resourcefulness -- The West has used its mental resourcefulness to enable the infinite to emerge in matter in the form of material discoveries, technologies, comforts, etc. India can use her spiritual resourcefulness to enable infinite results and possibilities to emerge in all planes of human life, not just the material, as in the West.

·         Develop Spiritual Capacities -- Indians can develop spiritual capacities of Silence, vision, insight, intuition, subtlety, etc. to enable ultimate possibilities and fulfillment in life, such as the acquisition of an ever-revealing integral knowledge to solve all of life’s problems. Individuals can become receptive to, value, and cultivate these capacities by moving away from a surface oriented existence, and discovering a deeper consciousness within, which will reveal the inner life from which these capacities of spiritualized mind can emerge.

·         Opening to the Force -- By opening to the (supramental) Force that is powerfully there in the atmosphere since 1956, and applying it in the details of life, one will be able to experience instantaneous miraculousness of life response; enabling the infinite to rush into the finite in terms of material abundance, rich social existence, true insight and knowledge, joy and delight of being, etc.

·         Needs for Truth and Honesty – Perhaps the single value that has most contributed to the success of the West has been its full acceptance of Truth in life -- i.e. being truthful and honest with one another, not tolerating corruption and bribery, and a general belief in the practical values of integrity, decency, and virtue. It is crucial that Indians apply the value of Truth in their own lives if they are to have material success. If they do so, they will get an added benefit not currently available in the West. Because the spirit is inbuilt into every Indian, adoption of Truth in the details of one’s life will enable the spirit to express in every undertaking, in every aspect, in all planes of life. This will reflect in endless, causal positive responses from life, enabling one's daily existence to become a ceaseless wonder and marvel.

·         Self-respect -- No aspect of Indian life has created more prosperity than the sense of self-respect among its citizens. Self-respect creates energy that leads to prosperity. Prosperity in turn creates self-respect. Through the reinforcement of this two-way dynamic, a vast energy can emerge in India. Government can support this, as can every individual learn to foster self-respect in his or her own life. For example, if Indians take to the entrepreneurial way of life, self-respect will become abundant throughout the land.

·         Preserve Indian Cultural Values -- Education has developed extensively in the West, as has technology. These are two currents that have enabled their vast material success. India should also welcome education and technology, but not on the terms of the West. Technology should not be an end in itself, but rather a means to work for the elevation of all aspects of Man, as those needs are superior to technology in of itself. Thus, India should welcome technology and introduce it at all levels of life in such a way that her cultural values of life are preserved. Endless possibilities for the betterment of society will then arise through the application of technology based on cultural and spiritual values. Life will then express richly and abundantly at all planes, releasing the infinite possibilities of life -- not merely at the material level as in the West.

·         Geographical Unity -- India had discovered the spirit, and knew the oneness of spiritual existence, even as its land over time fragmented into a thousand pieces. For her to become the guru of the world through the utilization and broadcast of the Spirit, she needs to first attain physical, geographical unity.  Sri Aurobindo says Nature resorted to foreign invasion to unite India, but has failed thus far in all Her attempts. Britain gave India that unity, but partition of the country came to mar it. Thus, the Spirit in India still awaits the geographical unity of her various parts. Indian Independence on August 15 (Sri Aurobindo’s birthday) in 1947 was a first step. A second step would be a federation of her former states, including a reunion with Pakistan.

The West is creating an astonishing infinite material reality through science and technology, which is unfortunately marred by corresponding negative effects, due to her limited physical consciousness. She can however begin to emerge out of that limitation. All indications are that she can become the pioneer of the new consciousness and move out of her current limitations. India, on the other hand, can cultivate her “spiritual technology” to enable infinite benefit at all planes of human existence. From that position, her wisdom and spiritual truth, now applied to all facets of life, will attract the attention of the world, enabling her to finally fulfill her destined role as the Guru of the world.