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New Insights into World History & Current Events A consciousness-based approach to history

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by Roy Posner and MSS

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Our Perceptions of History Evolution in History Evolutionary Destiny of the World Evolution through Law of Contradictions Evolution through Higher Harmony World Unity Evolution of the Nation State The Rise and Fall of Empires How the Bad Serves the Good War; War that Purges Low Consciousness On Revolution, Struggle for Freedom The Small, Weak, Oppressed, Ignored Rise to the Top Anachronisms Evolutionary Leader in History Miscellaneous Major Stages of History

Recent History World War II The Cold War The United Nations The European Union Rising Expectations Poverty, Terrorism, World Security Ascent of USA to World Leadership Internet & Technology Environmentalism East-West Integration Socialism & Capitalism Democracy Recent Evolutionary Changes Other Affecting the Collective From Within The Emergence of the True & Spiritually True Individual The Emerging Spirituality in Society Other Ironies of History, Life

 

 

OUR PERCEPTIONS OF HISTORY
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Uncovering the True Meaning of the Historical Past
The deeper reasons for the historical reasons are now constantly being discovered. (MSS)

History and Consciousness
History is the chronicle of human consciousness. In that way we can develop a study of all essential developments of consciousness.

Knowing the Past Causes to Solve Current Problems
If we seek them out, all of the facts and knowledge of the recent past are available to us to help us know the root causes of all of our current problems. Once ascertained it becomes a mere formality to come up with the solutions to the problems of the world. Then it remains a question of energy and will.

History's Evolution from Story of Kings to People's Aspirations
History has suffered enough change, from being the story of kings to people's aspiration. (MSS)

History of the Common Man
There was a time when history was written as the history of kings, because for those historians kings alone mattered. They were founders of various kingdoms and presided over them like veritable colossuses. Hence their own biographies were the history of nations. What else was there? It took time for historians to realise that kings and emperors do not matter so much as People. Then the emphasis shifted. That was how the common man came into prominence. So the 20th century came to be called the century of the common man as against the aristocrats and kings.  (MSS)

Oscillations of History
History has a way of oscillating between two opposite ends. The age of kings was followed by the age of the common man even as the age of religious faith and worship was followed by an age of materialism or agnosticism. The curve of progress sometimes progresses as one scientific discovery followed by another in quick succession. At other times, it alternates between the opposites. India who was aping the English customs, has started worshipping the American culture. After 1947, one would have expected that India would have shifted to reviving her past with a vengeance. It was not so. (MSS)

Civilization Marches Ahead through a Wave-like, Undulating Movement
The wave moves by an undulating motion. The unmoving sheet of water is quiet. The wave rises and falls. The rise and fall causes the movement. There is no movement without that rise and fall.

Civilisation marches ahead through a wave motion of alternating peak and trough. The same Japan that was so insular earlier has now conquered the world market in several products.

America was isolationist in the 19th century. On Friday the reverse is true. She is all over the world. All the races on earth have come to the US. (MSS, extracts)

Untitled
In the beginnings of human history man was but a part of a mighty collective whole. The one decision that mattered was the collective decision. (MSS)

Additional Thoughts on Evolution of Society

Theory of History
This morning I awoke with the possibility of a Theory of History based on the following principles:

EQUILIBRIUM -- Every disturbance of change is restored through another reaction. E.g., West tries to destroy Russian Revolution at its inception. West then suffers through the fear of the brutal Soviet Empire for 50 years. (This is a negative example. It also works in the positive.)

OSCILLATION -- History oscillates between one tenet or possibility and its opposite, in an ever-upward movement. E.g., Elizabeth and James brought greater consciousness and harmony to England, to be followed by Charles' conservative treachery and restoration of monarchy, only to be reversed by Cromwell's vision of democracy.

PIONEER ROLE -- A pioneer leads history forward to the next stage of progress. Cromwell in UK brought the possibility of democracy. Napoleon brought new higher values to Europe. Akbar brought the possibility of harmony and unification of religions in India, etc.

NATURE'S EFFICIENCY -- Nature works on many fronts simultaneously. E.g. 9/11 event makes people aware of Middle East poverty and angst, of US & European diplomatic insincerity for 100 years, backwardness of ME, futility of fundamentalist religion, need for global solutions to world problems, etc. The current economic crisis brings out the same multiplicity (greed, Man NOT at the center of life, need for a World FED, US way not necessarily the best way, China and India are not losing much GDP compared to US, EU, and Japan saving society, etc.)

SUBTLE CAUSALITY -- Historical outcomes may be due to inner forces undetected. E.g., Mother's Force ends Cold War through Gorbachav.

EVOLUTION -- History is a jagged, though continuous upward movements of higher consciousness. From physical to vital and mental and spiritual ; from lesser to greater harmony; etc. Period example breakouts are the Renaissance and the Hippies. Formation examples are like the UN and the EU. Etc. Values examples are liberty, democracy, human rights, etc.

DEEPER EVOLUTIONARY INTENT -- -There is an inner upward movement at work in any event that is masked by the surface outcome. WWII sped up evolution by hundreds or even thousands of years, bringing UN, EU, and many other forms of international collaboration.

OTHER PRINCIPLES:
-- Go to the higher plane to resolve problem of the lower. E.g., utilize economic strategies to deal with political impasses amongst nations. Cultural to overcome economic impasses. Etc. upward.

Theory of History and Science's Limited View of Life
It is an inspiring idea to develop a complete theory of history, though very challenging When I see the complexity reflected in the smallest incidents in P&P, I get a glimpse of why physical science has failed so dismally in formulating laws for life and society. The perspective of viewing each event in isolation from the whole society and the whole world simply does not work as it may in the electron accelerators. This prompted me last night I spoke to Appa about charting the relationship between events in P&P, so there is a parallel in our thought processes. One further complication comes out in P&P. Mind's conception of linear causality does not work in life where the future can determine the past as the past determines the future (tree and seed) and both are actually determined by cosmos.  Appa would like to attempt this to trace the emergence of mind and individuality in the West from Greece. Please do share your further insights. (MSS)

Karmic Effect in History
The cyclical tendency in nature so evident in its functioning as demonstrated by day and night alteration and seasonal changes of summer and winter may well find an extension in human social functioning also where periods of liberal progress are succeeded by conservative backlashes.

America inagurated the atomic age by dropping two bombs on Japan and now no nation is more worried about nuclear proliferation than the U.S. The U.S supported the Taliban against the Soviets only to find the very same Taliban supporting Al-quaida attacks on American interests. Western Powers conquered Asian countries with their military might and now they are finding Eastern mysticism conquering western youth in so many ways.

The karmic cycle affects not only individuals but nations also is what we have to learn from such incidents. Pakistan broke away from india only to find Bangladesh breaking away in turn from pakistan. Democracy replaced monarchy only to find itself being replaced by socialism in many countries.

Organsied religion has held a sway over humanity for centuries but spirituality is threatening to wean humanity from the hold of religion in the near future. Many more such karmic consequences are there for us to explore. It will be a fascinating study. (N. Asokan, MSS)

Notes on Workings of World Energies, History

• Any attempt on the social level to understand the world energies, movements, histories, the positives or negatives, the qualities of men, including the utility of tyrants and brutes will fail. Much more so, moral solutions will lead us astray.
• Going to another culture and evaluating their values in terms of our culture will give us results that will make the analyst look irrational.
• One needs an original framework of thought to truly understand these movements.
• Sri Aurobindo provided some framework from The Human Cycle and elsewhere scattered amongst his writings. They are as follows:
• The workings of Nature are the workings of world energies.
• They express the evolution of earth with the evolution of the Supramental Being as the crux.
• Nature being a partial Force, can work only on parts at a time.
• There is no waste in Nature.
• Evolution proceeds from the physical to the Spiritual.
• It is best understood as Spiritual evolution, the evolution of the Spirit in the various parts.
• It follows the law of ascent to Supermind and descent to the body.
• Any evolutionary Force is not born as perfect. It takes birth in the fashion possible during that time. [e.g. Napoleon overreached his mission.]
• One must see the three reversals in history 1) gross to subtle, 2) subtle to causal, 3) surface Mind to the depth.
• Tyrants were necessary during the periods in which they arose. They served an important role. They must also be destroyed when their role is over. (MSS, reorganized and restated in parts)

 

Consciousness Approach to History
"8. The Chinese who withdrew from their border invasion of India in 1962 were more responsive to Mother's force than the Indian government." [from list of 50 remarkable truisms of life]

For a long time I have thought about the possibility of a 'Consciousness Approach to History,' just as Appa developed 'Consciousness Approach to Business' in the 1970s. It would consist of many startling statements that highlight underlying truths affecting events, including spiritual influences on those outcomes -- not unlike #8 above. For some reason, the other day I started compiling a short list of items in my mind as I recalled Mother's statements from The Agenda, Appa's writing, and other dramatic history related statements. Here are some of these that might qualify for such a consciousness approach.

-The United States and the West were confronted by a hostile Soviet Empire because they earlier opposed the Russian revolution and its substantial values when it arose.

-Terrorism and 9/11 are the culmination of 100 years of insincere diplomacy of the West (particularly UK and US) towards the Middle East.

-The world evolved out of Africa; one force went to the Middle East and developed religion, the other to India and developed spirit and culture. Then the one arm left the Middle East for Europe where technology developed, leaving the ME nowhere since the 14th century. Now terrorism and other forms of conflicts is making the word deal with ME and N. African backwardness, while also dealing with the limitations in consciousness of the West.

-Nature works on many fronts simultaneously.

-Napoleon lost his power when he abandoned Josephine, and was then resoundly defeated.

-The world threat posed by the Cuban Missile Crisis, and #8 above threat from China on India came at the same time; even the same week, as Mothers' Force overcame both.

-Mother's Force ended the Cold War through Appa's Commission.

-Sri Aurobindo put his Force behind Churchill and defeated the Nazis. That Force was withdrawn after victory, and Churchill and UK were forced to give up its Empire.

-Sri Aurobindo invoked the fog that saved England and the world at the Dunkirk evacuation.

-WWII and its 70 million deaths sped up the evolution of Europe (including its unity) by 2-500 years.

-All history can be thought of as the march of an ever-increasing harmony and oneness amongst people and nations.

 

The Truths of History We Miss -- The Brutality in the 1930s of the Soviet Union
Historians patiently go after the facts, the true facts, the hard, concrete facts. Their quest has burst many historical myths. As a result, historians are fond of saying that in most of the enduring historical myths, there is very little truth worth the name. We are common people. We have no judgment or even information. We go by leaders, thinkers, the press, and books. When they differ, we look up to great minds for guidance. H.G. Wells, and G. B. Shaw were known to be geniuses of the 20th century. We expect them to be infallible. It is impossible for us to conceive that they too, sometimes, were misguided, as we are misguided. That is a frightening situation. Has the world endeavoured to design a remedy for such a situation?

In 1929, America was hit by an economic depression. It spread all over the world. At the same time the USSR enjoyed full employment. When swarms of unemployed people crowded the American cities, Russia offered everyone employment. As soon as the USSR was in power, all the great men of the world made a beeline to Moscow to see for themselves what was really happening, discounting whatever came to them as propaganda. So Russell, Huxley, H.G. Wells, G.B. Shaw, and Laski went to Moscow. Nehru too desired to visit there at that time. Trotsky impressed them as intelligent, Lenin was a great leader. Sir S. Radhakrishnan said, 'Stalin is indeed a great man'. Wells found Stalin noble-minded. Shaw said those who went to prison in Britain emerged as convicts because of the prison's dehumanising influence. But in Russia, he said, the prison life was so attractive that sometimes discharged prisoners applied for readmission. A British Ambassador said Stalin was so childlike that a child would like to sit on his lap. A whole book could be filled in by the praise that was generous adulation of the Soviet system and her leaders.

When Khrushchev came to power, he disclosed the atrocities that Stalin had committed. About 30 million people had been shot dead in Russia. How could the great minds of the century be beguiled by what they SAW with their own eyes? All the atrocities were true and all the noble traits witnessed by great minds were also true. Paul Johnson, a famous editor, commenting on this phenomenon, says the Thirties were an age of heroic lies. During that period, he says, saintly mendacity became the prized virtue. In other words, all those great minds could not see through the veil. Is it, then, really impossible to see the fact? I shall mention only the principle here, without elaborating on it. In any situation for the perceptive eye, there will be subtle symptoms of what is hidden from the naked eye. That is inescapable. Prejudiced people can always suspect. When Stalin was offering overwhelming co-operation in 1945, the sword of honour presented to him by the British King and received by Stalin reverentially was dropped by his Minister. That revealed the hidden intentions. (MSS)

 

Understanding History at 4 Planes
Watching a 1942 movie about the US Merchant Marines under fire from German submarines, it strikes one that we can understand an event -- or the larger sweep of history itself -- from the physical to the spiritual plane. At the physical plane I perceive an enemy who threatens me -- in this case the Germans -- and I wish to defend myself as best I can; even destroy them. At the vital level the Germans represent the taking away of  my cherished freedom, that which has distanced me from my loved ones, and that which takes away energy I would direct otherwise. That in turn raises counter emotions, such as righteous indignation, as well as the energy to support a physical defense against the enemy. At the mental level I perceive the German intrusion as the result of a maniacal madman, a false philosophy subscribed to, the failure of European nations to collaborate between the world wars, and others. At the spiritual level I perceive that the negative is an intense power of the positive -- understanding that the physicality of Europe was broken down through the boot of war, that the UN and the EU arose thereafter, and several other ways. At the cosmic spiritual I see these events as forces of darkness trying to block the light of the emerging Force from spreading through the world.

Each of these levels are filled with their own truth. Man normally cares about the physical and vital factors and truths, leaving the mental to the experts. Even the experts only see the part from the whole. The spiritual is deemed for sages. 

As man evolves, one's own level, as well as the level above one's current strength can be progressively grasped in its fullness. In this way, every man can one day come to know every plane. The low can know everything above him; the sage, every level below.

The secret from below is to know the process that expands his knowledge upward and integrally. Progressing towards rationality is one step, with an opening to The Force and the life Inside a concurrent step, enabling mental and spiritual genius, which is, in essence, the Integral Knowledge of the conditions.

Two Sides of Gandhi, Churchill; Many-Sided Insight
The genius of Gandhi is that he united the country. His tragedy is that he also helped divide it. The greatness of Churchill is that he stood strong against the Germans. His tragedy is that he supported the evil of the colonial masters. (E.g. he was happy when Gandhi was incarcerated!)

Such an analysis indicates that true insight is to objectively see the whole picture of the individual, or the nation, or the situation without prejudice. It is a very hard thing to do because we are filled with our own baggage; our own ignorance, falsehood, and prejudice.

Incongruities and Dualities of History that Defy Normal Mind
There are many incongruities and dualities of history that show false or evil men acting good, and good men acting foolishly. It defies the mind, which likes to have a single view of things -- including the main characters and events of history. Mind that is flexible, rational, and spiritualized can however embrace the many sides simultaneously. Here are some examples of incongruities and dualities of people in history:

·         Stalin helped save his country and Europe from the onslaught of Nazism, even as he had 30 million of his own countrymen shot (as expression of his own extreme paranoia).

·         Hitler marched across Europe, perpetrating the greatest evil in history, which ironically helped bring about the unification of Europe very soon thereafter, an outcome that might have taken centuries if ever to have come about.

·         Saddam Hussein brutalized his people and neighbors, even as he was the chief leader advocating non-religious governance in the Middle East, who's opposite is now one source of its scourge.

·         Gandhi brought independence to India through non-violence, even though his action delayed the exit of the British, which enabled the partition of the country, leading to the death of millions, and bringing about two nuclear foes across the border from one another.

·         Nixon, who brutalized nations of the world including Vietnam, and sought to oppress forces of freedom and progress in his own country, went to China and helped open up that land to modernity.

·         Churchill saved the world from fascism, even as he advocated the imperial power of the Empire, which collapsed in the wake of WWII.

·         Gorbachav saved the world from nuclear annihilation by ending the Cold War from within without a single casualty -- an event unprecedented in world history -- and yet he is eminently unpopular in his own country!

·         The British who are genteel, are extremely dignified, and demonstrate culture on the surface have been diplomatically insincere to the extreme for the last 100 years.

There is Truth in life, which expresses not through a single side of an issue or matter, but includes all aspects that make up its Whole. To perceive all sides of an issue or personality is to open to the wider, truer truth of things. Being ideological or intellectual is to engage the primacy of the lower aspects of mind, which sees only a part not the Whole, believing that single part to be the Whole of the truth. This is the case of our ignorance.

True Rationality on the other hand, has an integral vision of the many-sided details of the whole of the truth of any matter. It even sees each detail relative to the Whole. This is, in essence, the expression of a spiritualized mind -- i.e. the ability to perceive all truths of an object that resides in the universal plane of Mind. To see history, an event, or even the circumstances of our own lives from the many-sided integral truth of things is to become a true Rational Individual that has a spiritual quality.

We can begin to develop the capacity to absorb the many-sided truth of things (and the perception of the Whole which they reflect) when we move to a deeper consciousness within. From that deeper status, we are able to perceive the multiplicity of truths unfolding around us, rather than the surface truths we perceive or the limiting attitudes and habits we are attached to. From that deeper poise of calm and silent mind, of ''witness consciousness" to the unfoldings of life, we have greater access to integral understanding, insight, knowledge, and truth, as we are more in touch with the multiplicity and integrality of that that truth that is here behind at the level of the universal plane of Mind.

In this way, we can begin to perceive history in its integral truth, from which we can derive universal principles of life that we can readily learn from in our own times. Through such integral insight, we can accelerate progress in our times by a factor of ten or more. We can even take to decisions that can attract the ''instantaneous miraculousness" of life response -- i.e. of the onset of sudden good fortune.

Of Tyrants and Saints
Even tyrants and brutes can produce things of worth. Nixon sought out markets in his opening to China. Stalin fought back the Nazis. Reagan reversed himself and negotiated with the Soviets. Mao organized the Chinese against the colonialization of the West. Saddam Hussein provided the greatest distributed prosperity of any nation in the Middle East. The English provided India with English. In the other direction, great souls can do questionable works. Gandhi's non-violence helped divide India and Pakistan. Mother Theresa worked to push her missionary agenda. Seeing the integral, many-sided truth beyond the accepted and familiar takes mental courage.

Evil Forces, Men
Evil forces and men serve a role in the progress of every period.

Positive in Negative, Negative in Positive in Historic Individuals
Stalin, Mao, Gandhi, Churchill. To know them fully and integrally, we need to see the good in the evil, and the evil in the good.

Mother's Force, Life, and and History
M, these are great examples of equilibrium and the response of Nature to one's higher attitudes. Even more so, they show how Mother's Force puts a new wrinkle in the equation. Her Determinism overcomes Nature's slow, difficult, and multi-pronged path. Her Force controls events, as in your stories, and also controlled and can control world history, as when HE used HER Force in WWII and elsewhere to bring vast success. Karma there is overcome. (People do not even perceive workings of Karma, let alone know that Mother can overcome it; and REDIRECT LIFE.) In History as in Life, She is the power of Purusha (Soul), replacing the profound, but difficult way of Prakriti (Nature), radically altering the course of events in space-time.

Existence to History to Culture of Selflessness -- through Compulsion of Life or Self-Directed Spiritual Values
Time never stops. It is relentless. Its march is called the progress of civilisation. Century after century, decade after decade, progress continues. Thus the mere existence of Man becomes history. His mere existence is now denoted as pre-historic period.

As existence matures into history, history ripens into culture. Man was physical, selfish. Now he is mental and aims at being selfless. Man does not become selfless on his own.

He is compelled by circumstances to be selfless. When other tribes attacked, man organised collective defence, impelled by his own selfish security. The ultimate goal of that movement is self-giving, the Spiritual progress of the collective Man. The March of Time compels Man to be selfless and practise Self-giving.

Such a movement is there in commercial technology, education, democracy and the Pure Spirit. [E.g. in education he is compelled to expand that education to all members of society, including invalids. Beyond the compulsion of life to enable greater culture is our direct conscious spiritual will to achieve based on spiritual values such as self-givingness, oneness, etc.. This is the approach of the future. -editor] (MSS)

On Predicting the Future
Ours is not to predict the future, but to learn from the present by being aware of its subtle suggestions, its precedent formations, the interconnectedness of things, the underlying values, their history and causes, so that we can learn the right lessons and take the right actions now and in the future, or, if necessary, avoid all actions to begin with.

Ours then is not so much to predict, but to anticipate.

Retrospect from the Present and the Future
In retrospect from the present we see that our way of life, our technology, our knowledge of material reality makes life 100 years ago appear rough and backwards. In retrospect of 100 years from now we will look back on these current times as one of psychological infancy, containing a mass of foolish children engaged happily and willfully in their ignorance and falsehood. Today we call tomorrows retrospective "progressive modern life."

Paralleling the Individual and Life of Society
Interestingly we can correlate the events and movements, particularly at the turning points, of the earlier life of that individual and the earlier life of that society in a parallel of one to one correspondences.

Sri Aurobindo's Thought Can Shed Light
Reading Sri Aurobindo's The Human Cycle and Thoughts and Aphorisms will fully bring out these aspects. [Evolution in history, necessity of war to overcome physicality, and others.] (MSS)

The History Of Civilisation Can Be Written as The Record Of Progress In Education.
 
His physical body learned to survive by vital sensation.
That was the inheritance from his animal ancestors.

He lived in herds of men. He learned to value collective security.
Education of vital sensation to preserve the vital body is upgraded over centuries from Individual preservation to collective security.

The collective security gave the pride of place to physical prowess. Its other side was to destroy the weak, even if it is his own children.
Organised physical strength.

The physical coming into its own has thrown up the leadership of a BRUTE. The behaviour of a brute, the cruelty of the malicious, the tyranny of the vulgar became the culture of the period.
Physical strength becomes crude culture.

Physical withdrew into the immediate rear, giving place to vital pride that went along with ostentatious splendour. When the line is crossed by the equilibrium, brutality rises in full.
The physical with its splendour of cruelty lies in wait just below the surface.

Pardon becomes a way of life. Prior to that, physical punishment remains but the victim is allowed to choose the mode of punishment.
Crude physical acquires the 'magnanimity' of mitigation.

Fairness emerged in the physical crudeness -- Duel came into existence.
Fairness of the physical establishes its own superiority.

Duel is abolished in law, but flourished under the surface.
Physical dual gives place to vital annihilation without any semblance of right, good or honour.

Parliamentary democracy was the first occasion to replace might by right -- the right of the ignorant.
Today Parliaments are irrational, vulgar, crude, and false. Still this is the best available. To know their true character and suffer them is wisdom. To honour them is foolish.

The progress of the English language as expected of a gentleman has anticipated all the levels of progress mind has to go through for another thousand years.
Nothing in the world appears suddenly. Its true beginning is the beginning of creation.

Till 500 or 400 years ago, education meant experience, experience of age, except for the royalty and top echelon of aristocracy.
First discovery of descent.

To extend it even a little, the physical of the collectivity had to give up its possessiveness and recognise the reality of others' existence.
Selfishness relents, cracks show up.

Selfishness upgrades from vital selfishness to mental selfishness. It means those who approve of your idea are your friends.
Broadening selfishness into possible semblance of selflessness.

Reason is coordinating intelligence. It is EGO.
To know reason is the knowledge of Ego is worldly wisdom.

Intellectuality is efficient ego, going by the name of Reason.
Intellectuality is inert, is an efficient bar to knowledge.

Knowledge begins with insight and intuition. It matures when the intuition transfers itself from outside to inside.
It is supramental intuition. To it there is no evil.  (MSS)

 

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EVOLUTION IN HISTORY
(top)

Evolutionary Destiny of the World Evolution through Law of Contradictions Evolution through Higher Harmony World Unity Evolution of the Nation State The Rise and Fall of Empires How the Bad/Evil Serves the Good War, War that Purges Low Consciousness The Evolution of Mind and Individuality On Revolution, Struggle for Freedom The Small, Weak, Oppressed, Ignored Rise to the Top Anachronisms Evolutionary Leader, Vanguard, Spearhead in History Miscellaneous

Evolutionary Destiny of the World
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Evolution of the World
The world like the individual is undergoing its own evolution. 

The end of the Cold War is a big step in that process.

Just as an individual can change from within him or her self, so can an institution, such as a nation, and so can the world.

The world is moving towards human unity. The European Union is a recent example, as was the UN in earlier times. 

This movement toward world unity can be indicated by our responses to situations. E.g. a global response to terrorist attack, rather than just from the US, the victim, would be such an indicator of movement toward unity. The same with the development of a rapid response world army to similar or other types of conflicts.

World unity proceeds from political to economic to social to cultural to spiritual. We are but merely in the economic unity stage (i.e. World Trade and world financial markets)

 

History is History of Enlarging Freedom
The history of civilization is the history of enlarging Freedom. (MSS)

 

Sri Aurobindo's Thought Can Shed Light
Reading Sri Aurobindo's The Human Cycle and Thoughts and Aphorisms will fully bring out these aspects. [Evolution in history, necessity of war to overcome physicality, and others.] (MSS)

 

Nature Creates New World Free of Class and Cast
If human progress is stultified by classes and castes, Nature creates a New World free of them. (MSS) [e.g. Immigrants from limiting Europe came to the wide open possibilities of the US.]

 

Radical Change in Consciousness
Nothing but a radical change of consciousness can save humanity from the terrible plight into which it is plunged. (The Mother)

 

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Levels of Collective Change in Consciousness in the World
Is there a collective movement in higher consciousness under way?

Undoubtedly we are in a new age where a new consciousness is emerging. It is happening in ways that for the average person are too subtle to be perceived. Even for the conscious person, it is happening in ways that are beyond the spiritual traditions or even the New Age movements. That is why Sri Aurobindo's perceptions of this new world are so helpful, because he lays out the general parameters so clearly. Karmayogi has extended this knowledge into the major fields of life.

If it is a collective movement, it is certainly not a conscious one. That is why I listed out several of the outer manifestations of collective change, because it can be more readily seen there. For example, people are speaking about the environment with one very strong, even loud voice. It is a great development, but only the most surface form of collective unity. It addresses the purely physical plane of existence. When humanity address the psychological issues -- i.e. the fulfillment of the individual, the encouragement of his full potential, the overcoming of all problems that impede his progress, etc. -- then there would be real collective progress. In other words, we would be collectively sharing the need to embrace the deepest of human values. Environmentalism addresses physical values of cleanliness, security, etc., not the deeper psychological values, let alone spiritual values. Still it is a significant step.

Spiritual values of harmony, unity, oneness, love, deep wisdom, Delight, timelessness, infinity, peace, et al are the deep beliefs that would be embraced for a true spiritual evolution. That is an evolutionary leap beyond; though it can infiltrate earlier forms of collective progress.

We can also see evolution along a spectrum from political to economic to cultural to spiritual unity. We are well under way towards economic unity, with the others hardly addressed.

It is in outer events/unfoldings that we can see the inner appreciation of values. The Internet is a perfect example, as it embraces the deeper aspirations of man. The common man does not see the deeper values that the Internet represents. 

Perceptions of deep human values at the collective level would be a great sign that human evolution is on its way, and is being shared, communicated, and embraced. It would be a great step in human evolution.

Of course, the overcoming of ego, ignorance, exclusiveness, possessiveness, separateness, et al; plus the purification at the physical, vital, mental, and spiritual levels of the person are the essential steps of progress for the individual. They would readily contribute to the general collective movement forward; to the progressive evolution of humanity.

See Additional Thoughts on the Evolutionary Destiny of Society

 

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Evolution through Law of Contradictions
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Contradictions are Complements
That is, that all things that seem to be in conflict, opposition, depend on one another for the other's progress and evolution.  In fact, the progress of each side is buried in the makeup, aspect, needs, destiny, and evolution of the other side. The things that seem to conflict or contradict are really complements to each other's progress. Thus contradictions are complements. This principle applies between individuals, to an individual in a social context, between social entities like businesses, between nations, and so forth upwards to the earth and the cosmos itself.

Each party then is only able to change as a result of their conflicting or contradicting interaction with the other. The knowledge of what needed to be changed in each person could only be found in the interaction with the other person, in the knowledge of the other person, or in the truth of life that the other person has. So what on the surface we perceive as a negative contradiction and conflict between the two parties, is actually a complement unfolding and necessity to bring out their each of their own growth and development.

Contradictions are Complements
Contradictions are complements in the sense that they represent aspects of a greater truth and through their interaction and conflict they help that greater truth to emerge. The existence of slavery in the USA, a country founded on the principles of freedom and equality, forces the society over time to dig deeper into the roots of prejudice and domination of one group by another and eradicate it at a deeper level. The principle of equality came to America with the impoverished immigrants trying to escape persecution and domination by the aristocracy of Europe in the freedom of a new land. That same freedom attracted the aristocrats of Europe who were condemned and persecuted during the French Revolution to come to America where they could be free to reestablish their aristocratic culture. Aristocracy requires someone to be subordinate. In America the common man is not subordinate, so they brought slaves to serve them. Mother says there can be no growth without freedom. She also says that whenever freedom is given, it becomes freedom for the lower to reassert itself. Here aristocracy reasserted its superiority in the freedom of the New World. Even peasants coming to America longed to become aristocrats so they could enjoy the prestige of their erstwhile lords. The interaction of these contradictory tendencies forces America to evolve a society which accords equality before the law to people of all nations greater than that of any other country. Had it not been for slavery, this never would have happened. (MSS)

Contradictions are Complements
One interesting element of the contradictions principle is that it is only, or predominantly through the embracing of the other side that the contradiction moves towards its resolution. It would be interesting to look at history this way, including the examples discussed here. The Israelis know what the more fanatical sector of the Palestinians know (progress through Mind without violence), and the Palestinians know of the Israeli's psychological intransigence to change rooted in physicality. If they each embraced the knowledge of the other side, the contradiction would move towards resolution.

A Perfect Knot
While surrounded by fanatic enemies, Israel is herself disingenuous about creating a Palestinian state. Thus she attracts continuous violence. She refuses to give up her fears, while her enemies refuse to give up their fanaticism. It is a perfect knot.

Contradictions are Complements in World Events
The conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians, the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, and the 9/11 attacks on the US are examples of the great phenomenon in life of contradictions being complements. Each side has weakness and blame that only the other side perceives, and it is only in their contradiction and conflict is the truth of each side's weakness revealed in the interaction with the other side. This enables a further, higher harmony. This is Nature's way.

Also See Thoughts on Nature's Way of Contradiction
 

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Evolution through Higher Harmony
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Evolution through Higher Harmony
The world evolves through ever higher formulations of harmony.

Gorbachav Solution as Higher Harmony
The Gorbachev solution that ended the Cold War was not a compromise of conservative and liberal political values of the West, but an action of a higher harmony that both views could relate to; strength towards the Soviets that would appeal to conservatives, and peaceful solution and outcome that the liberals favored, though in reality it was an integrated higher harmony that included yet transcended both. In this way it was a creative solution from the causal realm of the Force moving in the world.

Resolutions of Problems Through Higher Harmony
All problems in life are problems of Harmony, says Sri Aurobindo. E.g. California energy crisis is one of distribution within the state and among the states, and more comprehensive and collaborative intrastate and national policies; food shortage in world is due to food abundance in one place and shortage in another. When greater harmonies are created between social entities problems are solved and disappear.

Society evolves through higher harmonies between the social entities. In this way all problems, conflicts are overcome. The ego of the social entity is overcome

Beyond the Political Opposites in Society, Enabling Rapid, Vast, Smooth, Creative Progress
In the USA as elsewhere there is a two-party system. It is an indicator of democracy, as opposed to the oppression of monarchy and aristocracy. And yet it is flawed relative to what it can be. The Democrats are passionate about ending poverty, and many of their policies are very helpful, but many are flawed. Their hearts are in the right place, if not all of their ideas. The Republicans want to cut taxes, which is one of a series of fine ways to stimulate the economy, and yet behind is a virulent selfishness and greed in that approach that is cut off from the social aspirations of people. Each side has positives that are wrapped in negatives, or negatives wrapped in the positive. When you also add in the political instinct, it can turn poisonous, as useful policy is abandoned for doing what is expedient and in the interest of that party.

One of the ways America and similar countries progress is through the opposition of parties that are each flawed. And yet we now progress through the interaction of these two conflicting and flawed opposites. This is Nature's way of progress through complementary contradictions, here expressed in governance. She also expresses elsewhere; in fact everywhere. E.g. in business through a traditional opposition of executives and the remainder of the staff. Through conflicts between nations; through conflicts between lovers; even of ideas. Everywhere we look, we will see such complementary opposites that appear to be in opposition, in duality.

As we rise in consciousness, the dualistic nature of progress dissipates, and there is growth and development in society through unity that is also exceedingly diverse. We release ourselves from a particular side to embrace the Whole. (Where is the Whole? It is the sum of all the truths of an object, and then some.) Life progresses in this more conscious way through positive energies only, not through an incessant mixture of positive and negative. Even the appearance of the negative in this new consciousness is seen as positive in disguise. As a result, progress is exceedingly fast, is exceedingly smooth, is vast, and infinitely creative -- replacing the slow and difficult way of Nature that is our current way.

What is this consciousness that sees the world in this new way? It occurs when we take to rationality certainly, moving away from our superstition and falsehood. More than that it has the spiritual touch, which expresses several ways: (1) a movement out of ego and separateness; (2) a giving up of exclusive points of view and the tendency to take sides; (3) a connection within that sees harmonies instead of dualities outside one's self; that even sees the unity emerging from conflicting opposites; (4) that acts in such a way that opposition is never created. It is for the future life, but we can each begin now by connecting with the calm and serenity and joy and love of our inner being and True Self. We discover this spiritual Being by moving away from the surface of life and connecting with the silence within.

Also See Thoughts on Evolution through Our Conscious Way Instead of Nature

 

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World Unity
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See Thoughts on World Unity

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Evolution of the Nation State
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Evolution of the Nation State
Just as an individual evolves by overcoming his limited sense of self (ego) and enjoins the needs of others around him so too the nation state overcomes its limiting self-importance and enjoins the nations of the world. Global trade is an example of this movement. Global unity is a greater example. A potential divine life on earth would be the greatest example.

Nations Should Evolve Themselves Fully to Contribute to a United Humanity
Gone are the days of great partial achievements. The time is NOW for each nation to acquire what she does not have [e.g. economically, socially, psychologically, strength-wise, value-wise, spiritually, etc.] to enable her to contribute to the whole of a united humankind. (MSS)

History like the Individual
Indian wisdom tells us that such great philosophical truths behind the history of nations are the same as those behind our own personal life. (MSS)

See Thoughts on the Evolution of Individual Nations

 

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The Rise and Fall of Empires
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The Rise and Fall of Empires
Every empire has risen on the basis of a strength or force that has given rise to a greater form and failed because the form was deficient to give full expression to the force.

1. Greece:

a. Rose by the power of mind. Will Durant says even today it is Hellenic thought that rules the world. Its contribution was in ideas, philosophy, the arts and conceptual sciences (Level 1 & 2) and in architecture (level 3). Sri Aurobindo says Greek thought could not develop further because it was limited to mind and did not know the spirit.

b. On the other side, it did not fully apply mind to organize social life, which the Romans did. Its principle of democracy remained a cloistered virtue.

c. Greece rose by organizing military force, minting coins, developing export oriented trade to compensate for its poor soil.

2. Rome

a. Applied the power of mind to life and generated principles of law, administration and governance which it extended to citizens throughout the empire. It organized the military. Its strength was in organizational social mechanism.

b. Its weakness was in social vital to harness the social energies continuously. The empire died of economic bankruptcy but without any debt, which means it failed to fully understand the power of money and how government could create money. It knew organization at the mental and social level, but did not know how to fully organize the vital energies of society through money.

3. England

a. Fully knew the power of money. It organized national currency, banking and public debt and created a global commercial empire of unprecedented prosperity

b. Negatively it insisted on principles of aristocracy both at home and in relation to its colonies. Therefore it failed to tap the vital energies and aspirations of the common man and ultimately failed.

4.  America

a. Unleashed the power of the individual in democracy and applied the power of the mind at the physical level through production and social organization.

b. Negatively it has tried to resurrect and perpetuate the old power structure of the nation state rather than fully extend power to the individual and to the global society. It has tapped the power of the individual, but not the power of the social collective (only the power of the nation-state), i.e. it remains socially unformed and immature.

c. If America is to continue to be the evolutionary leader, it will have to shift from exercising national power to evolving global power through global institutions such as a world central bank, world currency, world army, world government. Otherwise the evolutionary spark will arise elsewhere.

d. Its response to the environment and nuclear weapons are critical tests of its capacity for leadership. (MSS)

Greece to Rome to Europe to America
Greece gave birth to a mental culture of poetry, philosophy, scientific thought because she was in a hot climate. Thought develops where the climate is hot. In narrow confines of a small peninsular nation thought easily finds birth. It stirred the vitality of Rome giving birth to an empire and LAW. When the impetus was lost in its execution Europe entered the Dark Ages. Emerging from it we witnessed Renaissance, Reformation. Its important contribution is the birth of Mind in Europe in philosophic and scientific enquiry. In the European atmosphere of socially stratified constriction the wave of evolutionary impulse could not find sufficient expression. It bursts forth and landed in America and endeavoured to give birth to MIND in practically beneficial work and result and emerged as Efficient Practical Organisation whose material results rule the world today for over 50 years. (MSS)

March of Civilization
It is said that civilization began in Mesopotamia. Man took to agriculture and urban living. It was a physical life of the civilized man. Mind was developed in Greece in later centuries. The evolution of Man continued, but elsewhere. It was Rome that developed law, art, and empires. Again it moved. Europe developed science. Now that center of that movement is in USA, which is focusing not so much on Science as Scientific Technology. Before this movement began the Spirit was discovered in India. (MSS)

Stages of Civilization
Mesopotamia witnessed the origin of civlisation, Greece was mental, Rome gave law to Europe and Europe generated science. England created an empire and liquidated it herself. (MSS)

Impact of Greece on Rome
The impact of Greece on Rome gave birth to culture, art, Law and the capacity to build an empire. The Roman empire ruled the world. To this day Rome remains the capital of the world's art and organised religion.  (MSS)

British Empire
Churchill saved the world from fascism, even as he advocated the imperial power of the Empire, which collapsed in the wake of WWII.  (MSS)

Roots of British Empire
It was not the aim of the British to found an Empire. Their main interest was in trade. Trade became a source of Empire by circumstances.  (MSS)

End of British Empire
The conscious rule of the British that divided the Hindus and Muslims directly ended in the dismemberment of the Empire.  (MSS)

 

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The Great Character of, and the Decay of England
England, the mother of democracy, ruled over the seas with an empire on which the sun never set. Having undergone subjection under the Romans, Normans, and French for centuries cherished democracy and the values of democracy. That build up leadership of courage and character. They could save democracy for the world or the world for democracy [in WWII] because they were men of character.

Had their character sprung from spiritual roots, it would not have become rigid as it has now done. So, she cannot be in the evolutionary race any more. It is a character from physical hard work. By definition it will ossify and lead to rigidity. We see them worshiping the rigidity of permanence, not realizing that it has no life. Their Royalty is the symbol of their decay. (MSS)

Liberal Democracy and Empire in Britain
Liberal democracy and empire have co-existed in Britain. Hence, one will find conflicting urges in her in the 19th and 20th centuries.  (MSS)

European and English Character, their Success, and Values
The Europeans, especially Englishmen, are men of character, integrity, self-respect, individuality, and independence. They practise the work ethic of Protestantism and work tirelessly. Modern science, the several empires, post-war development, and conquest of disease are the direct result of these VALUES, all of which are spiritual in origin and content. (MSS)

Promises Kept and Truth as Source of Britain's Dominion
The ideal of the English gentleman was a man who always kept his promises and was incapable of speaking anything that was not true. It was on the strength of that character that tiny Britain for a time extended its dominion over more than half of humanity. (MSS)

The Empire
The Empire that spread all over the world had to fight for and pay for the entire world and be impoverished in the process. (MSS)

The British Empire, US, and India
The US began its war of independence and secured its freedom in 1776 from Britain. Incidentally it was in 1774 only that Britain won the battle of Plassey in Bengal and began the consolidation of the British empire. As Britain's capacity to maintain an empire was limited, the moment India was gained, America was lost. (MSS, N. Asokan)

British Did Not Interfere in Indian Culture
When the French came to India they tried to impose their religion on the Indians while the British chose not to interfere with the native culture and traditions. The result was that while the British added India to their empire, the French could only rule a few pockets. (MSS, N. Asokan)

English Colonial Obliviousness
England established her empire, not so much to attain territories, but to gain markets. She was oblivious to the ramifications, however.  (MSS)

Conquered is "Conquered" by Culture of Subject Nation
The UK went to the Middle East and Asia for trade and conquest. It ended up in the conqueror being conquered by the culture of the subject nations. The British Empire was the main reason for the interest of the West now in Zen, Buddhism and Eastern mysticism. (MSS, modified)

Britain Now Nowhere
The wave moves by an undulating motion. The unmoving sheet of water is quiet. The wave rises and falls. The rise and fall causes the movement. There is no movement without that rise and fall.

Britain that ruled the whole world is now nowhere. They could rule the world, as they were ruled for a thousand years by various European powers. (MSS, extracts)

Energies Depleted from WWII, England Relinquishes Her Colonies
With its energies depleted defending Europe in WWII, Britain how no energies remaining to uphold its colonial territories. Soon after WWII, most won their independence.

Untitled
The British "unified" the US and then India by their exploitation. Looking for resources and markets, she unconsciously instigated freedom. Likewise Nature shapes our own individual lives, evolves our being slowly or quickly over time in ways we are unconscious of.

England Unites India
From a subtle perspective of the march of Nature we can say that England came to unite India.

Social Anachronisms
When a society (or individual) lives in the past and is not open to the needs of the present, it begins to decay, wither, and die. (e.g. later Roman Empire; Lady Catherine's authority in Pride and Prejudice, etc.)  (MSS)

Roman Empire
Augustus Caesar organised the life of the Roman Empire and it was this that made the framework of the first transmission of the Graeco-Roman civilisation to Europe-he came for that work and the writings of Virgil and Horace and others helped greatly towards the success of his mission. After the interlude of the Middle Ages, this civilisation was reborn in a new mould in what is called the Renaissance, not in its life-aspects but in its intellectual aspects. It was therefore a supreme intellectual, Leonardo da Vinci, who took up again the work and summarised in himself the seeds of modern Europe. (Sri Aurobindo)

 

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How the Bad/Evil Serves the Good
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Evolution of the Good through the Bad
Life normally evolves through conflict. Things we perceive as conflict are the means of social evolution. Things we perceive as "bad" are necessary in the scheme of things, as are the "good." The "good" and the "bad" are necessary to each other for the greater development and emergence of all. E.g. WWII led to UN and the first glimmers of a new emerging movement toward world unity. Problems in Bosnia focuses European role in future of confrontations in region. And so forth.

Holding a Thought in Our Mind and Its Opposite
It is difficult to hold two thoughts in our mind that contradict one another. If they are opposite, how can we subscribe to one or the other? And yet the spirit-oriented individual who has transcended ordinary thinking tends to embrace all sides of an issue that make up the Whole, rather than the exclusive part ordinarily subscribed to. By moving our center of awareness inward away from the surface, we enable such multi-opposing perceptions of truth.

Mohandas Gandhi was the redeemer of India, bringing her to independence in 1947 after years of hard-fought battle. Can anyone but admire; no, revere the Mahatma? And yet his practice of "Ahimsa" -- non-violent action -- caused a 30 year delay in Indian independence, the partition of the nations into two (including Pakistan), with nuclear missiles pointing at one another. Also immediately after Partition, millions died in the separation. When  the British were on the ropes years earlier, and were on the verge of leaving the country through Indian force, Gandhi stepped in and halted that action because it was not derived through non-violence. Thus, independence was delayed in the name of the gimmick known as Ahimsa, bringing great suffering and problems in its wake.

It is difficult for the mind to hold these two apparently conflicting ideas -- Gandhi's greatness and his tragic error -- together. And yet that is the truth that overcomes our propensity to see only one side of an issue. For example, China annihilated the Tibetans in the 50s and 60s when she tried to make her way towards independence. The Dalai Lama and followers were forced into India. China had undertaken the most despicable actions to defend her territory: an abuse of the collective ego. And yet at the same time, the Dalai Lama realized that Tibetan Buddhism had become crusted over. In India and his travels around the world, he came to perceive a modern, new evolutionary perspective that he never would have enjoyed if he remained with his people in Tibet. Because he was forced to run, life compelled him into a new, dynamic perceptive of the religion he led. It is an irony of history that only an open mind -- i.e. a multi-side perceiving spiritualized mind -- can fully appreciate.

Each of us are tethered to a limited view of things. We stick to it fiercely. Yet Nature works on multiple fronts simultaneously -- enables what seem to be contradictory occurrence to happen at the same time. E.g. the EU might not have ever come about, or if so in hundreds of years, if the Nazis in the guise of evil hadn't rampaged through Europe.

Man in the 21 century and beyond will begin to unshackle the  propensities of exclusive mind, and embrace a true hyper-rationality of spiritualized mind, which is willing to look at all sides of an issue, and embrace each of those truth, no matter how contradictory they may seem on the surface.

Even the brute Nixon went to China to open up that once-closed land.

Nature Brings Progress through Evil

Nature's Way:

-The evil fascists came to bring about greater world unity, including the UN and the EU
-The negative British came to India to unite her.
-The evil of terrorism has come to end world poverty.

All of these evolutionary gains could have and come about through higher consciousness of humanity. When that is not possible, Nature steps in and works her difficult ways. Greater consciousness must be the way of the future, or else there will be continued suffering.

Oppression of Tibetans and Dalai Lama's New Perspective
In a new book on the Dalai Lama, he reveals that as a result of China oppression where he was forced into exile in India (and after many tens of thousands died), his own beliefs and understanding of Tibetan Buddhism have undergone a major revision, seeing that the earlier ones were crusted over and did not embrace the modern world - e.g. the evolutionary perspective of change.

By being in exile, he has thus developed a new spiritual understanding for Tibetan Buddhism that could be embraced by his people in the future.

Thus, we see that out of darkness comes the light.

The Great Value of Tragedy and War
Greek philosophers spoke of war as a great benefactor. The great boon to the world that lies behind the erupting of the war is not seen by us. It lies in the causal plane. Western Europe was ushered into unbelievable prosperity when she recovered from the ravages of the world war. A report of UNDP says that the world made as much progress in the fifty years of the post war period as she had done in the previous 500 years. (MSS)

Nature Pounds the Physical Consciousness Out of Peoples
Often when nations suffer great difficulty and tragedy it is Nature willfully driving out their Physical consciousness. That consciousness shows itself in that people's tendency towards any of anachronism, inertia, brutality, violence, harmful religion, ritual, insularity, indifference, materiality, etc. Nature uses physical disaster, war, and disease until the people move out of their physical consciousness to a higher vital or mental consciousness. In this sense Nature serves a great purpose. It would be better however if people can evolve by self-consciously moving out of their physical consciousness.

The Utility of Evil as Expressed in Mythology and Reality
In the mythologies of the world, we generally see the play of good and evil. E.g. in the Indian spiritual epic The Mahabharata, we see the conflict between two sides, some of whom are close relatives of one another. One of the sides, the one considered 'good,' is advised through the Wisdom of the current avatar [one who brings evolutionary change to the world] Krishna. In the West, there are also ancient, as well as modern mythologies, two of which involve the adventures of science fiction space travel. They are 'Start Trek', generally produced for a more mature audience, and 'Star Wars,' written for youth. Here too good and evil are at play. Then, of course, there is the reality of life itself that the mythologies represent. In WWII, we saw that reality, including the conflict between good and evil.

Here, however, I would like to change the course of thinking about good and evil with several bold statements, one of which is that perhaps the greatest power to bring about Good in the world is through evil. I.e. evil is an even greater power for bringing about the true Good than the actions of the ordinary good, i.e. the good side that we perceive and appreciate in life. Why is this the case? It is because the result of evil's negative action speeds up and intensifies further progress of the world, enabling the truer Good to further emerge in all its integrality and fullness.

Consider the mythology of Star Trek. The Federation of planets is essentially the good, and the Romulan Empire, (or the Borg) are the bad. Yet, if we watch closely, we will see that the good is often fractured; i.e. its members are not yet fully in harmony with one another. That side only moves to greater coordination, cooperation, and integration of intent and action after the mischief of the dark side has run its course. It is only then that the good side -- the Federation -- moves towards greater solidification and unity.

This modern mythology is of course a refection of the real truths of life. As the Nazis rose in power during the years leading up to WWII, there was no united force to confront them -- so the fascists flourished. In fact, it was the selfishness amongst the good nations leading up to the war -- expressed by the stock crash, the Great Depression, and the fall of the Weimer Republic in Germany; all, by the way, facilitated by financial greed -- that set the stage for the rise of the German nation that turned to evil. With the lack of harmony of the ''good" side, the dark side flourished. Finally, the good side came together and overcame the enemy, creating a modicum of further harmony and integration amongst themselves and the defeated nations. The United Nations then became the one great attempt to establish a formal institution to unify the world, especially in light of the darkness that preceded it. Likewise, the European Union (EU) is an attempt to insure the common purposefulness of the individual nations of that continent to avoid repeating such catastrophes as war, financial ruin, and cultural disharmony. It may have taken hundreds, even thousands of years for such progress to have occurred amongst the nations on its own if evil had not spurred it on. In the end, we see that evil speeds up the process of integration and unity. Thus, we need to perceive the value of evil in the evolutionary process -- even as we seek to overcome it.

Modern mythology, as well as ancient ones like the Iliad and Odyssey, and especially those with vast spiritual insight like the Mahabharata, serve to show the subtle processes of change and progress for the nations and people of the earth.

Similar changes are of course occurring right now in the world around us. All we need to do is look around to see that same dynamic at work now; that the various dark sides pressure life into further harmony and integration, and unity. A broad open mind, influenced by spiritual knowledge and insight will be a great aid in pursuing these insights. Then of course, we will be able to develop the right strategies that integrate these many-sided truths. Naturally, these same movements of good, evil, and the true Good are unfolding in our own individual lives. To see them we need to look within.

Human Unity and the Global Financial Crisis
Aside from focusing on the methods that will precipitate individual evolution and transformation, Sri Aurobindo was equally concerned with the social evolution of life on earth. In fact, they each played off one another. In practical terms, he recognized a social process unfolding amongst the nations of the world that resulted in ever-increasing world unity. That collective movement echoed transformational developments of the individual human that together would usher in what he called a ''Divine Life on earth."

At the collective level, these developments occur in fits and starts because man is not conscious enough to bring about change through positive means alone. The negative is often the greatest spur to change, and in that sense can be thought of as a great positive in disguise. For example, in the wake of the devastation of WWII, many new organizations and associations were developed to prevent the reoccurrence of that tragedy -- the UN, NATO, and the Marshall Plan being several amongst many. It was also subconsciously a movement toward human unity concentrated into a few years that without the negative that preceded it might have taken centuries or even millennia to occur. As we see, the negative can be a vast spur of positive developments in life.

And so recently, when I watched two interviews on the US TV show Charlie Rose, I was reminded of this fact. First, former Secretary of State and global strategic thinker Henry Kissinger pointed out that the current financial crisis can be seen as a positive in that the major nations of the world -- including the US, the EU, Russia, China, India, and others -- are gradually forced to work together to solve ever-increasingly complex global issues. Separate, they are doomed, but together they have a great power to affect vast, new collective change, mimicking the period following WWII. In that sense, he was surprisingly optimistic, considering the current situation, indicating that he had a higher vision of things. He, in essence, semi-consciously perceived new openings in civilization's march toward global unification.

Immediately after, Michael Porter was interviewed in which he stated that the US has never had a strategic vision of how to improve itself, and that the current global financial crisis was forcing it to work collaboratively and centrally to resolve its national problems. Instead of the piecemeal and reactive approach to development, external conditions were forcing the US to confront what she has been unwilling to do till now at the economic and social level. Thus, the US was now finally ripe for a holistic, integrative, and comprehensive strategic economic plan.

The host Charlie Rose then commented how both Kissinger and Porter had come to the same conclusions in their two interviews. That the global economic crisis was forcing dynamic change upon the world. I noticed the very same thing as I watched the two interviews broadcast consecutively. And when Charlie expressed this thought, it made me happy because it reaffirmed a lifelong dedication to Sri Aurobindo's vision of an ever-increasing unity amongst the nations and peoples of the world. That unity in fact reflects an evolutionary urge toward higher consciousness through personal and spiritual growth, which are themselves harbingers of what Sri Aurobindo calls a Divine Life on Earth.

Life Divine Quotes on Negative Serving Progress
I have been organizing my Life Divine site and in one of the chapters recently found a few quotes on the power of the negative to effect change: that it was actually a positive in disguise. Here is a close paraphrase from Book 2 Chapter III 'The Individual and the Eternal:'

• The negatives (of the Absolute) bring in the rest of its absolute possibilities that the positive does not allow for.

• In each pair - of infinite and finite, the conditional and unconditional, etc. - the negative conceals the whole power of the corresponding positive which is contained in it, and emerges from it.

It seems to have relevance to the current financial crisis.

Thoughts on Seeing Beyond the Positive and Negative, Good and Bad
 

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War, Natural Disasters that Purges Low Consciousness
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War and Other Disasters that Purges Low (Physical) Consciousness

War

War Over Territory
War is a way of life in the history of nations. Bitter wars have been incessantly fought over possession of territory. That was the major cause of war. Territory is the physical mother of all that exists on earth.

Man is a conscious living extension of the solid inanimate earth that gave birth to him. It is this truth that lies behind the tenacious struggle MAN wages for the mud of which he is the offspring. Crusades and religious wars were there, but they too were waged over a sacred piece of territory.

Great wars have been fought to restore a lost woman - Helen, in the Trojan War, Sita in the Ramayana - as women are as sacred to men as mother earth. (MSS)

War and Nation Ego
War destroys the physical ego of nations.

Utility of War that Overcomes Bad Habits
War is a process injurious to civilization is obvious. That it also destroys those habits and edifices that impede the march of social evolution is not so obvious to many. (N. Asokan, MSS)

Overcoming Physicality of Man
On another scale, the physicality of Man is to be overcome.
The wars did it effectively.
Terrorism is its effective, symbolic residue. (MSS)

When War Will End
War is a direct result of man's combative and acquisitive nature that craves to expand his dominion. It will come to end only when his moral sensibilities get refined enough to restrain these impulses. (N. Asokan, MSS)

Invasion and Strengthening of Nations
It is interesting that nations have often been only fully formed after they have invaded and conquered by an outside power. It seems to coagulate the country and strengthen its nationhood. The same could also be said for the world (e.g. after World War II the United Nations is formed).

Reason Countries are Conquered is to Raise them Out of Their Low Consciousness
Low consciousness needs to be crushed out of existence for it to emerge [into a higher consciousness]. That is why nations are conquered. The significance of WWII is that. [i.e. why the countries suffered in WWII.] The USSR tyrannised over its people [under Stalin 30 million were shot], and then lost millions in war because of her low consciousness. (MSS, with additions)

Man's Physicality Purged by War
War is the expression of man's physicality at exercise. The two world wars are symbolic of MAN finally overcoming his physical rigidity. It was done at the cost of 50 or 60 million lives.

The Great Value of Tragedy and War
Greek philosophers spoke of war as a great benefactor. The great boon to the world that lies behind the erupting of the war is not seen by us. It lies in the causal plane. Western Europe was ushered into unbelievable prosperity when she recovered from the ravages of the world war. A report of UNDP says that the world made as much progress in the fifty years of the post war period as she had done in the previous 500 years. (MSS)

War Purges Rigidities of Society
In the course of its social evolution society moves from one plane to another. Warfare is typical of human existence at the physical level. War is an expression of the policy of Might is right and such an attitude is typical of the physical man. Socrates signifies the flowering of the mental plane in humanity while Buddha is the representative of man's entry into the realm of Spirit. When man reaches perfection in the physical plane, he should take efforts to move on to the next plane. But unfortunately he has a tendency to stagnate in the physical and develop rigidities there. These rigidities have to be shattered to make way for further progress. There is no better way to shatter rigidities than the act of warfare which physically destroys buildings and infrastructure. It can be seen that after every serious warfare, great progress is achieved. It is not surprising that destruction of rigidity paves the way for progress and advancement. (MSS, N. Asokan)

Liberal Democracies and War
Liberal democracies do not go to war with each other.  Self-defence is an exception. (MSS)

Sri Aurobindo's Thought Can Shed Light
Reading Sri Aurobindo's The Human Cycle and Thoughts and Aphorisms will fully bring out these aspects. [Evolution in history, necessity of war to overcome physicality, and others.] (MSS)

Also See Thoughts on the Breaking the Reigns of the Physical Consciousness of the Individual

 

Calamities, Natural Disasters

Nature Pounds the Physical Consciousness Out of Peoples
Often when nations suffer great difficulty and tragedy, it is Nature willfully driving out their Physical consciousness. That consciousness shows itself in that people's tendency towards (any of) anachronism, inertia, brutality, violence, harmful religion, ritual, insularity, indifference, materiality, etc. Nature uses physical disaster, war, and disease until that people move out of their physical consciousness to a higher vital or mental consciousness. In this sense Nature serves a great purpose. It would be better however if people can evolve by self-consciously moving out of their physical consciousness.

 

Nature Drives Out Society's Physical Consciousness through Calamity
The individual and collective express their consciousness from the lowest to the highest levels. The lowest is the physical consciousness, which expresses through inertia, unwillingness to change, insensitivity, brutality, superstition, dogma, falsehood, and other anachronistic tendencies. Actions of Nature overcome that physical consciousness through natural disasters and calamities, through attack and invasion by enemies, and through other means She deems fit. The individual too suffers the consequences of his own physicality through the tragedies that come in his own personal life.

The Tsunami of 2005 in Asia is one example of this phenomenon, indicating the limited physical consciousness of the people affected there. Another is the 30 million Russians who died during WWII, which matched an equal number of citizens the Soviets had just killed of their own. Even when the nations of Europe were annihilated by the Nazis it was because of the limited physical consciousness of those nations who were unwilling to pull together in the years leading up to the war. Many other events demonstrate this intent of Nature to overcome the unyielding physical consciousness, including the recent 9/11 attack of on the US, indicating apart of her physical nature. We see earthquakes in Iran and other locations shaking up the physical consciousness of backward thinking areas. Of course, those that hand out such "justice" -- including fascists, terrorists, and other oppressors -- are often virulently physical too, and invariably suffer the consequences as well.

 

Earthquake and Backwards, Forwards Movements of Society

Earthquake reflects a disturbance at the subconscious level of the society. There was a huge earthquake in Iran just prior to the Islamic Revolution in the late 1970s that deposed the Shah and installed the Islamic government. Disturbances come not only when the society moves backward. They also come as reactions to rapid forward progress -- both in the society as well as in individuals. When the society moves forward very rapidly, all the forces that cling to outmoded ways of life react and revolt against it.** You can say the the rise of terrorism in the world is one response to the rapid social development of the world, including the rapid advancement of women. (MSS)

[**Comment: I believe this was the case recently in Haiti. There was in recent years a real progressive movement afoot to move the society forward by people in power and elsewhere in the nation, yet there was still a tremendous resistance and inertia of the overwhelming majority of the population many decades in the making.]

 

On Cause of, Avoiding Catastrophes
-Catastrophes strike more often people who are unconscious. It stops harassing them the moment they become conscious.

-It is a truth of life that when you are armed against an eventuality, it never comes to pass. Life hits unconscious people. When you are armed, you become conscious. In the 2nd World War, the German submarines were sinking a large number of Allied battleships. At one point, Britain successfully decoded the German submarine messages and waited for the next event. The next event never came to pass. And with that, the tide of war turned and led the Allies to victory.

-Mother Earth will not quake when her sons are awake. What is true of a nation is true of an individual. He who is conscious, alert, who avails of opportunities, will have no problems. Nature or Fate will not strike him awake. (MSS)

 

Nature Drives Out Society's Physical Consciousness through Calamity
The individual and collective express their consciousness from the lowest to the highest levels. The lowest is the physical consciousness, which expresses through inertia, unwillingness to change, insensitivity, brutality, superstition, dogma, falsehood, and other anachronistic tendencies. Actions of Nature overcome that physical consciousness through natural disasters and calamities, through attack and invasion by enemies, and through other means She deems fit. The individual too suffers the consequences of his own physicality through the tragedies that come in his own personal life.

The Tsunami of 2005 in Asia is one example of this phenomenon, indicating the limited physical consciousness of the people affected there. Another is the 30 million Russians who died during WWII, which matched an equal number of citizens the Soviets had just killed of their own. Even when the nations of Europe were annihilated by the Nazis, it was because of the limited physical consciousness of those nations who were unwilling to pull together in the years leading up to the war. Many other events demonstrate this intent of Nature to overcome the unyielding physical consciousness, including the recent 9/11 attack of on the US, indicating apart of her physical nature. We see earthquakes in Iran and other locations shaking up the physical consciousness of backward thinking areas. Of course, those that hand out such "justice" -- including fascists, terrorists, and other oppressors -- are often virulently physical too, and invariably suffer the consequences as well.

Earthquake, Tsunami Tragedy in South Asia
-The fact that the natural disaster could have been avoided through proper communication indicates a lack of international cooperation -- suggesting that the world must evolve towards greater unity to solve its problems. Individual nations must give up their egos, their superstition, and falsehood to collaborate to solve world issues, which is greater than their individual capacity to deal with them. The world at large must also extend its technological competence to all peoples of the world. The leading countries must give up their global ego and embrace all nations of the world, no matter what their social, political, military, or economic status. It is in their interest (as we see in the deaths of many tourists from these nations in the event.) These are required step towards our inevitable destiny of human unity. [Adds MSS: This is an example of nations not using the existing technology at their cost.]

-The event also reflects the resistance of the "physical consciousness" of the people to progress and the insist of Nature to overcome that resistance by wiping it out. I.e. the citizens there have a physical resistance to progress that takes shape as inertia, dependent on the old ways, rituals, religions, etc. Nature through natural disaster drives out that resistance to progress. In this case, Nature drives that out of them through the suffering of natural disaster, which forces them into the modern world (i.e. of less and less Ignorance). It is ushered in through Her insistence that they first adopt the required level of organization to deal with a natural catastrophe. They can then organize all other aspects of their lives through conscious choice, i.e. by raising their consciousness, rather than by waiting for Nature's difficult way.

Preparing for Earthquake, Tsunami Tragedy Has Tendency to Cancel its Origins
For over fifty or seventy years there are tools that discover earthquakes and the consequent tsunamis. The tidal waves take a little time to arrive after the earthquake. This time there was a gap of three hours between the earthquake in Indonesia and the havoc of tidal waves in Tamilnadu. Why the warning system was not availed of is not known.

The Indian Seismic Labs should have known of the earthquake the same moment it occurred. Why they could not warn the population of tidal waves is also not known. It can be called unconscious. Suppose India has availed of the warning system and warned the people in time, the tidal wave havoc would not have been there or the catastrophe would have been on a minor scale.

It is a truth of life that when you are armed against an eventuality, it never comes to pass. Life hits unconscious people. When you are armed, you become conscious. (MSS)

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The Evolution of Mind and Individuality
(main)

The Rise and Fall of Empires
Every empire has risen on the basis of a strength or force that has given rise to a greater form and failed because the form was deficient to give full expression to the force.

1. Greece:

a. Rose by the power of mind. Will Durant says even today it is Hellenic thought that rules the world. Its contribution was in ideas, philosophy, the arts and conceptual sciences (Level 1 & 2) and in architecture (level 3). Sri Aurobindo says Greek thought could not develop further because it was limited to mind and did not know the spirit.

b. On the other side, it did not fully apply mind to organize social life, which the Romans did. Its principle of democracy remained a cloistered virtue.

c. Greece rose by organizing military force, minting coins, developing export oriented trade to compensate for its poor soil.

2. Rome

a. Applied the power of mind to life and generated principles of law, administration and governance which it extended to citizens throughout the empire. It organized the military. Its strength was in organizational social mechanism.

b. Its weakness was in social vital to harness the social energies continuously. The empire died of economic bankruptcy but without any debt, which means it failed to fully understand the power of money and how government could create money. It knew organization at the mental and social level, but did not know how to fully organize the vital energies of society through money.

3. England

a. Fully knew the power of money. It organized national currency, banking and public debt and created a global commercial empire of unprecedented prosperity

b. Negatively it insisted on principles of aristocracy both at home and in relation to its colonies. Therefore it failed to tap the vital energies and aspirations of the common man and ultimately failed.

4.  America

a. Unleashed the power of the individual in democracy and applied the power of the mind at the physical level through production and social organization.

b. Negatively it has tried to resurrect and perpetuate the old power structure of the nation state rather than fully extend power to the individual and to the global society. It has tapped the power of the individual, but not the power of the social collective (only the power of the nation-state), i.e. it remains socially unformed and immature.

c. If America is to continue to be the evolutionary leader, it will have to shift from exercising national power to evolving global power through global institutions such as a world central bank, world currency, world army, world government. Otherwise the evolutionary spark will arise elsewhere.

d. Its response to the environment and nuclear weapons are critical tests of its capacity for leadership. (MSS)

March of Civilization
It is said that civilization began in Mesopotamia. Man took to agriculture and urban living. It was a physical life of the civilized man. Mind was developed in Greece in later centuries. The evolution of Man continued, but elsewhere. It was Rome that developed law, art, and empires. Again it moved. Europe developed science. Now that center of that movement is in USA, which is focusing not so much on Science as Scientific Technology. Before this movement began the Spirit was discovered in India. (MSS)

[though there is an ascent from physical to vital to mental in history, there is also a descent, as when mind developed in India as spirit, then as mind in Greece, then through life in Europe, and into practical use of matter in America.]

Untitled
Tinier Greece had offered intellectual leadership to the entire West for two millennia.

Impact of Greece on Rome
The impact of Greece on Rome gave birth to culture, art, Law and the capacity to build an empire. The Roman empire ruled the world. To this day Rome remains the capital of the world's art and organised religion.  (MSS)

Greece to Rome to Europe to America
Greece gave birth to a mental culture of poetry, philosophy, scientific thought because she was in a hot climate. Thought develops where the climate is hot. In narrow confines of a small peninsular nation thought easily finds birth. It stirred the vitality of Rome giving birth to an empire and LAW. When the impetus was lost in its execution Europe entered the Dark Ages. Emerging from it we witnessed Renaissance, Reformation. Its important contribution is the birth of Mind in Europe in philosophic and scientific enquiry. In the European atmosphere of socially stratified constriction the wave of evolutionary impulse could not find sufficient expression. It bursts forth and landed in America and endeavoured to give birth to MIND in practically beneficial work and result and emerged as Efficient Practical Organisation whose material results rule the world today for over 50 years. (MSS)

Historical World Movements
The world evolved from spirit (as in ancient India) to Babylonia as civilization to Middle East as religion to Greece as birth of mentality to culture, trade of the Renaissance to invention of 20th century Europe to practical organization of the US. Now the US in its full materialism meets the ancient Indian spirit through Indian programmers, completing the cycle and tying the head to the tail.

Evolution of Mind in History
Mind was born in Greece. It made Europe seek science. Mind was born long before that in China where Mind was taken to its acme. But it was applied to life. Aristotle applied mind to the inquiry of Nature. Hence Science was born. In India mind was born earlier than in China. Its philosophic urges were famous. Mind in India was applied to Spirit. What matters is not mind, but what it is applied to. Neither China, nor India, nor even Greece pursued the inquiry of Science. It was left to Europe. The USA applied Science to work, organised work. Hence its prosperity. (MSS)

[Mind is being applied in history first to Spirit and then Mind itself and then Life and then Matter.]

The Emergence of the True Individual in Society
Today America rules the world as Great Britain did till the world war. Greece, Rome, and France had such eminence in their time. We see Greece had it on the strength of a culture that enabled it to flower Mind. Rome ruled Europe because of her law. France dominated Europe by her Freedom. Britain's eminence was made possible by her trade. North America dominates the world because the Individual is emerging there in the physical plane. Maybe the Americans are aware of their military, political strength and abundant wealth and do not really see the emerging Individual. That is the route social evolution has chosen. Army, wealth, political power, etc. are the results of the emerging Individual, not vice versa. In the twenty-first century, the Individual will certainly emerge and it will be credited as the century of the Individual. Emerging at the physical level, he ushers in prosperous plenty. At the vital level, he will be the harbinger of Peace expressed as international law and order. At the mental level, the emerging individual will establish the rule of Rationality, abolishing all kinds of superstition, which our present life abounds in. At that level, he will be a psychological individual and his goals will be psychological growth and ethical standards. The real individual is truly spiritual. He will accomplish things from inside and not move in the outer life. (MSS)

Parliamentary democracy was the first occasion to replace might by right -- the right of the ignorant.
Today Parliaments are irrational, vulgar, crude, and false. Still this is the best available. To know their true character and suffer them is wisdom. To honour them is foolish.

Nature Creates New World Free of Class and Cast
If human progress is stultified by classes and castes, Nature creates a New World free of them. (MSS) [e.g. Immigrants from limiting Europe came to the wide open possibilities of the US.]

Development of Individuality and Mind
Individuality like Mind too had its ultimate conception in Indian thought. It then moved down into the lower planes. From Spirit to Mind to Life (e.g. Renaissance, French revolution, English democracy) to practical physical freedom in US.

Now we need to evolve upward in individuality from the US model to life, mind, higher values, and spirit.

Development of Individuality and Mind both have this involutionary, evolutionary dynamic.

Everything reflects and thus follows the essential involutionary and evolutionary process of creation, including Mind and Individuality.

Internet is a movement upward from pure physical application of Individuality and (practical) Mind in the US. It gives life power to both individuality and Mind.

Yet the movement is also coming through a descent. India's spirit is beginning to pouring into the world. That means giving spiritual dimensions to both Individuality and Mind. This is parallel to evolution occurring not just because of the unfolding of the seed, but of a descent of the Force.

Internet itself gets smarter in the Semantic web of meaning (MIND), i.e. Web 3.0, after passing the collaborative web (vital), i.e. Web 2.0 we now see emerging. It gives both individuality and mentality a vital and mental turn.

The movement in society is now beginning to become INNER. Individuality and Mind are both moving inward, back to the original inspirations of Greece, and beyond to India. As we move from physical to vital to mental to spiritual application of Individuality and Matter, the movement is inward.

The Inward application of Individuality and Matter ironically has ultimate, exponential change on the Outer existence. The Internet itself is proof of this dynamic.

Thus, Individuality and Mind is moving inside.

 

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On Revolution, Struggle for Freedom
(main)

Revolution Follows the Rules of Life, Not Society, Morality
Revolution as well as evolution does not follow either the rules of society or of morality. They follow the rules of life. (MSS)

Definition of Revolution
Revolution is an activity of the oppressed against the oppressors.

Unity of the have-nots created Revolutions.

Definition of Revolution
Revolution is the minority rebelling against the majority violently, as it is an act of physicality. Evolution is the winning of minds of the majority and dispensing with the bloodshed. Such a change calls for the genuine change of heart in the beneficiary.

Revolution's Violence vs. Evolution's Education
What Revolution brings by violence, evolution brings about smoothly.
Evolution comes by education.
Education is education of equality. (MSS)

Revolution vs. Evolution
-Evolution is a variant of revolution.

-Evolution changes the killings of the revolution into resentment.

On Revolutions and the Prosperity of the Masses
-Revolutions have changed the face of nations beyond recognition.
-Revolutions belong to the realm of politics. They arise even in the field of religion.
-Revolutions are periods of transition.
-Such periods offer the lowest member of the society the chance to rise to the highest status.
-The American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Reformation, the technological revolutions brought about by steam, electricity, science in general and, now, the computer have opened up such apertures of PROSPERITY.
-As a result, those who were at the bottom of the society have started moving up and some have reached the peak to stay there forever. (MSS, extracted)

Source of Revolutions
Revolutions rise from outside, never from inside. (MSS)

Freedom as One of First Preoccupations of Man
Sri Aurobindo says that the earliest preoccupation of man is the search for God, Freedom, Light and Immortality. That is man's spiritual quest. This is reflected in his social life as the quest for equality in Knowledge, Power, Status and Capacity. (MSS)

The Invisible Movement of Rights in History, & the Emergence of Spiritual MAN in the 21st Century
There is an invisible movement in the air all over the world which espouses the Rights of the oppressed. Now it is the Blacks who are in favour, next it is the women. The street children get their turn. The poor suddenly come into the favour of the world and the whole world sings the chorus of the Right to Food, Right to water, Right to Peace, etc. All types of Rights have emerged as the target for the awakened world. It is a balm to the hearts of idealists and visionaries the world over as the have-nots, downtrodden, the oppressed and the invalids have now their share of the limelight. The UN is the spearhead for most of these movements. The world is awakened enough in her conscience that the world opinion readily swings to this call. This development is imperceptible but unmistakable. I see behind all these urges that MAN is emerging as someone to be counted hereafter. The Spirit in MAN seeks expression, peeps out from its hiding place. The symptoms are well-defined. He who seeks expression is no longer the social man, but the Spiritual Individual. The 21st century will be his century. (MSS)

Freedom vs. Liberty
Freedom is what life permits, while liberty is how we practically avail of it. Spiritually, one who REFUSES to take away another's freedom because he can abridge it, is the one who fosters liberty. E.g. the husband who refused to dominate his weak wife is a defender of liberty. By allowing for another's freedom, one fosters and defends liberty. (Paraphrase of MSS)

French Brought Freedom to Europe, then Fell Back
The French who were receptive to Freedom revolted against the monarchy and gave the benefit of Freedom -- rule of law -- to the whole of Europe. Then, France took to the path of dissipation resorting to wine and women. Thus, character in the leadership could not be built up. (MSS)

Fanaticism that Issues Our of Attaining Freedom and Being Humiliated/Losing Self-respect
In fighting for freedom, men feel righteous, noble and proud. There is something more deeply seated than the national freedom. It is one's self-respect. There are moments in history when a population or a section of population is HUMILIATED in such a fashion that they cannot publicly acknowledge it to others or even to themselves. At such moments, men lose their balance and readily grow irrational.

E.g. [The Irish in pursuit of their freedom.] Irish Catholics were, by law, banned from judgeship. They were prevented from becoming bishops. They were called stupid and ridiculed. The Irish acknowledged it to be true, but could not openly acknowledge it. Hence the ferocious fanaticism. Humiliation is one of the causes of fanatic ferocity. Thus the leaders become irrational. [MSS, extracted]

Freedom (and Market Economy) vs. Liberty
Freedom to produce and sell -- market economy -- is economic democracy as franchise voting is political democracy.

Freedom is what society gives, liberty is that which the citizen enjoys. Liberty makes Freedom meaningful. (MSS)

 

When the Soul of a Nation is Invoked
As with individuals, the soul of a nation is often called upon only in times of great need or emergency, such as during war, famine, or oppression. (e.g. the great French contribution to world evolution that emerged during their revolution of 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man.  This document enunciated the principles of freedom, equality, and brotherhood as rights for all peoples, during a period of upheaval and bloodshed in that nation's life.)

Another way the soul of a nation is invoked is when an inspired leader, along with his or her accompanying soul group, emerges as an expression of the national soul and takes difficult action for the greatest good of all citizens. (Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson from 'The Soul of Nations')

Great Movements Originate in Mind of Sages
All great movements of the world have emanated from the Minds of Sages. Mostly they dispel or dissolve hostile forces; often they set Revolutions afoot. All the discoveries, explorations, and inventions are first suggested to a Saint of that region and later sprout through a lesser mind or minds. (MSS)

Pride & Prejudice in England Avoids Revolution of France
Jane Austen's genius captured the flavour of the French Revolution wafting across the shores of England which was anxious to restructure its society so as to avoid a bloody revolution. Mental growth that assimilates the spirit of the times can compel the body to rise to the occasion, thus avoiding the inherent violence of any revolution. England did escape the guillotine by exercising its social wisdom which was willing to unite the higher and lower strata of the society. (MSS)

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What France underwent by a revolution England was anxious to learn by the experience of France.

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After the birth of the USSR in 1917, nations gradually changed themselves to being welfare states to stem the tide of communism. As a result, the seventy-year rule of communism could not give that prosperity to its proletariat which capitalism could give its workers. This is a process of avoiding a communist revolution by unconsciously receiving the force of that revolution to express it as social evolution.

Deeply Buried Injustice When Nation Ruled by Irrational Leaders with Vast Public Support
When leaders are absurd, irrational and still have a vast universal backing, it means there lies a deeply buried injustice. Such movements will always win and long rule over the territory they won. Ireland was one such. Irish Catholics were, by law, banned from judgeship. They were prevented from becoming bishops. They were called stupid and ridiculed. [MSS]

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The Small, Weak, Oppressed, Ignored Rise to the Top
(main)

Periods of Transitions When the Bottom Rises to the Top
Transition is a period when talents rise from the very bottom to the very top.

In India, a poor Brahmin boy, one from a cobbler's family, a trade union leader, a small farmer, and the son of a village munsif, rose to the Presidency. A rural youth became the Prime Minister. Before 1947 this was not on the agenda.

The Industrial Revolution made a shepherd the Chief Engineer of the Railways. In India, it was a political revolution. In France, it was a great Revolution that changed the course of history. In England, it was an industrial revolution.

America underwent a social revolution. An errand boy, Thomas Edison, by dint of merit patented one thousand inventions. Lincoln rose from the log cabin to the White House. The personal computer ushered in a technological revolution. Bill Gates became a phenomenon. (MSS)

The Oppressed are the Adored of the Future
The oppressed of yesterday will be the adored of tomorrow, is a rule history has honoured. The sober among the Blacks have a poise, a calm, a goodwill that is admirable. Those who have distinguished themselves in any field exhibit these great qualities without exception. It may be true that so far no Black or Jew or woman has been nominated to contest the Presidency of the USA. They are slow in coming into their own. When they do so, they will be there solidly for a long time, as tiny Britain ruled over the world or tinier Greece had offered intellectual leadership to the entire West for two millennia. (MSS)\

Deeply Buried Injustice When Nation Ruled by Irrational Leaders with Vast Public Support
When leaders are absurd, irrational and still have a vast universal backing, it means there lies a deeply buried injustice. Such movements will always win and long rule over the territory they won. Ireland was one such. Irish Catholics were, by law, banned from judgeship. They were prevented from becoming bishops. They were called stupid and ridiculed. [MSS]

The Invisible Movement of Rights in History, & the Emergence of Spiritual MAN in the 21st Century
There is an invisible movement in the air all over the world which espouses the Rights of the oppressed. Now it is the Blacks who are in favour, next it is the women. The street children get their turn. The poor suddenly come into the favour of the world and the whole world sings the chorus of the Right to Food, Right to water, Right to Peace, etc. All types of Rights have emerged as the target for the awakened world. It is a balm to the hearts of idealists and visionaries the world over as the have-nots, downtrodden, the oppressed and the invalids have now their share of the limelight. The UN is the spearhead for most of these movements. The world is awakened enough in her conscience that the world opinion readily swings to this call. This development is imperceptible but unmistakable. I see behind all these urges that MAN is emerging as someone to be counted hereafter. The Spirit in MAN seeks expression, peeps out from its hiding place. The symptoms are well-defined. He who seeks expression is no longer the social man, but the Spiritual Individual. The 21st century will be his century. (MSS)

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Anachronisms
(main)

Social Anachronisms
When a society (or individual) lives in the past and is not open to the needs of the present, it begins to decay, wither, and die. (e.g. later Roman Empire; Lady Catherine's authority in Pride and Prejudice, etc.)

Also See Thoughts on Anachronisms in Society

 

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Evolutionary Leader, Vanguard, Spearhead in History
(main)

Unconsciousness of the Evolutionary Spearhead
At no time did the evolutionary spearhead have any conscious idea except Napoleon till his conscious choice of decline. Humanity is physical. Its thinking, especially when it represents the collectivity, is physical. At these moments, one can say, 'they think with their bodies'.

Great Movements Originate in Mind of Sages
All great movements of the world have emanated from the Minds of Sages. Mostly they dispel or dissolve hostile forces; often they set Revolutions afoot. All the discoveries, explorations, and inventions are first suggested to a Saint of that region and later sprout through a lesser mind or minds. (MSS)

See Thoughts on the Vanguards of Society at Major Stages of History

Napoleon

Napoleon's Great Positive Influence
Napoleon was defeated but equality was accepted by the world, serfdom was abolished all over Europe, Code Napoleon was accepted and lives till now. (MSS)

What Napoleon Gave the World
It was a dictator who accomplished in 3 years the work of 3 centuries - a work that put the nations on an administrative basis of equality - when Napoleon gave the world the values of the French Revolution. (MSS)

Avatars and Lesser Levels
Avatars, vibhutis, minor emanations, geniuses, heroes, leaders seem to be the order. Avatars are known to be messiahs who come down from heaven to deliver a message of God to men. They are charged with a mission by the Godhead. Buddha, Krishna, Rama, and Jesus are called avatars. Avatars can be major or minor ones. A single aspect of a godhead entering a human soul makes him a vibhuti. They appear on earth once in a few centuries. They bring about a revolution in the ways of human life impacting minds or lives. Shankara, Shivaji, Caesar, Alexander and Napoleon have been described as vibhutis or God's emanations. Napoleon said that a man like him appeared once in three or four hundred years. He came to consolidate the gains of the French Revolution and offered the rule of law to the whole of Europe. The legal as well as administrative system of all the European nations today is what Napoleon originally devised. Even here, it is customary to speak of major and minor vibhutis or emanations. (MSS)

On Napoleon and Passion
Napoleon's achievement is the achievement of his emotions. His emotions are of the physical -- physical emotion is passion.

For a passionate man to achieve, his passion must be at rest, in equilibrium. The equilibrium is found when his own passion finds its balance in another's passion.

Josephine gave Napoleon that equilibrium. When he left her, his downfall began. Sri Aurobindo said he should not have left her. (MSS)

Napoleon's Mistake with Josephine
Sri Aurobindo said that Napoleon should not have gone away from Josephine as he drew his power from her. He was an evolutionary Force, which she supported. By desiring an heir, he shifted his emphasis to heredity which it was his business to demolish. (MSS)

Untitled
Any evolutionary Force is not born as perfect. It takes birth in the fashion possible during that time. [e.g. Napoleon overreached his mission.] (MSS)

Unconsciousness of the Evolutionary Spearhead
At no time did the evolutionary spearhead have any conscious idea except Napoleon till his conscious choice of decline. Humanity is physical. Its thinking, especially when it represents the collectivity, is physical. At these moments, one can say, 'they think with their bodies'. (MSS)

Organization Turns Ideals Into Falsehood
It is sad to see how the ideals and truths of great men and movements are turned into falsehoods through an organization established for the ideal. The true power, strength, and truth of the ideal comes from the individual, not the institution set up to organize the ideal. The organization corrupts it, ruins it. (E.g. the UN itself is undemocratic, in its Security Council, as it values democracy and equality; Napoleon turns away from his mission and puts relatives in place as he resorts back to organization of government; the USSR creates false government structure to implement its social values; a guru's or thinkers profound insights turn to falsehood through the organization created, etc.)

The truth of the Force of evolution that is behind the emerging of new great forces and developments in the world manifests through the ideals of the awakened Individual, not through the falsehood of the organization that is set up to further the ideal, which corrupts it.  (Paraphrase of MSS)

Energy and Great Leaders
Indomitable energy has been an outstanding trait of great political leaders such as Napoleon, Churchill and Gandhi and business leaders such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Tom Watson of IBM. (MSS)

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Sri Aurobindo said of Napoleon that when the battle-hardened, well-equipped professional mercenary armies of Europe descended on France to confront a newly assembled army of young French conscripts with little military experience, God placed Napoleon as their leader to equal the odds. Such is the potential power of a skilled leader. (MSS)

Sri Aurobindo & Napoleon
Sri Aurobindo was believed to be Napoleon in the previous birth. (MSS)

Sri Aurobindo & Napoleon
Sri Aurobindo was known in his Ashram as the rebirth of Napoleon. Napoleon's birthday was also August 15th (the date of India won her independence). In his previous births, it was believed he was Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Krishna and many other persons too. Someone asked Sri Aurobindo whether he had been Shakespeare as well, but could not elicit an answer. (MSS)

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Whether it is Napoleon's tinned food or trans-Atlantic phone call, each such advance is a great development in collective functioning demanding full focussed attention. (MSS)

Untitled
Companies are vital, ideas are mental. Organised ideas make soldiers rule over the world for millenniums as it did Socrates and Buddha. Armies are physical. Once a physical organisation is successfully created it can rise to any height and even world domination as in the cases of Caesar, Napoleon and Chenghis Khan. (MSS)

Resistance to New Invention
Orthodoxy, conservation, tradition are the old ways of life summarized by the modern term 'Establishment'. That the old strongly resists the new is the order of the day. The old ways of life are so strong, that they can come back sooner or later, even if removed effectively. After the French Revolution, Napoleon made himself the Emperor. Later the royalty was restored. The same thing happened in England earlier. Even in democratic countries, the President of the nation behaves like a Monarch and people at all levels treat him as a King. The old is strongly entrenched, not easy to remove. (MSS)

MSS Article: Significance of Passion -- Napoleon 

 

Hamlet

Hamlet as Symbol of Emergence of the Mental Individual in the Human Collective
Hamlet represents the beginning of a new phase in the evolution of Western society -- the birth of thinking mind and the emergence of mental individuality in the human collective. Instead of immediately seeking to revenge his father's death, Hamlet begins to contemplate the nature of human existence. He perceives the pretense and falsehood of society. He becomes conscious of his own personal defects. He comes to question the very purpose of life and action. All this is possible, because the thinking mind has been born in Hamlet and that mind is giving shape to his individuality. | Hamlet is a symbol captured in fiction of a real historical phenomenon that was occurring at the time the play was written -- the collective development of thinking mind and mental individuality in Europe. ... Around the time of Hamlet, some 500 years ago, thinking ceased to be the sole prerogative and preoccupation of a rare few and became the common right and heritage of humanity as a whole. (MSS)

Hamlet
Hamlet brought a new evolutionary urge of the Mind on the social collective.

Hamlet Represents Something New to Society, But They Feel Threatened
The situation in consciousness expresses literally in life. Hamlet has grown to manhood, his faculty of knowledge is developed, but he is excluded from the throne which is the true power for action. In this respect he is not merely an individual but a representative of a growth in the society as a whole. He is part of and represents the royal house of Denmark, the central will (''head") of the state. Not only is his birth a new development in the society, but it threatens the existing social consciousness and evokes a response of fear and hostility from it. In other words, his birth marks the appearance of a greater possibility, a greater power of consciousness, to rule Denmark. Because it is a higher development it has a power over the existing society and also poses a threat to it. But because it is young and not yet integrated with the present achievements of the civilisation, it is awkward, unbalanced, weak and its appearance creates a temporary disequilibrium or gap in the consciousness of the society.

This gap is a weakness which invites a challenge. The challenge comes from Norway as war. But the vitality of Denmark embodied in Old Hamlet is strong and the result of the threat is an expansion of Denmark's sovereignty over a far greater area. In life, a new emergence usually brings with it an upset, accident or temporary difficulty. But where the basis is firm and the new element positive, the net result is an expansion and progress. In this case Hamlet's birth marks the rise of Denmark as a greater international power. (MSS)

Social Forces that Support and Oppose Hamlet's Evolutionary Advance
At a deeper level the positive support for Hamlet reflects the readiness and willingness of the country for an evolutionary advance, namely, to develop a governing mental consciousness. The resistance to this advance comes from the old established order, not the wider collectivity and we find the forces of the social life constantly fostering the movement. (MSS)

Social Forces Working to Destroy Hamlet's Mental Progress
The existing social forces are covertly working through subconscious life channels to weaken or destroy the nascent mental consciousness in Hamlet by presenting it in its weak condition with an intolerable burden. It is the same movement that overtly confronted Socrates, Copernicus, Jesus and innumerable others who represented in themselves some new manifestation. (MSS)

See MSS Article on the Character of Life in Shakespeare's Hamlet

 

Da Vinci

Untitled
Augustus Caesar organised the life of the Roman Empire and it was this that made the framework of the first transmission of the Graeco-Roman civilisation to Europe-he came for that work and the writings of Virgil and Horace and others helped greatly towards the success of his mission. After the interlude of the Middle Ages, this civilisation was reborn in a new mould in what is called the Renaissance, not in its life-aspects but in its intellectual aspects. It was therefore a supreme intellectual, Leonardo da Vinci, who took up again the work and summarised in himself the seeds of modern Europe. (Sri Aurobindo)

Leonardo Worked Clandestinely
Leonardo da Vinci worked in the catacombs clandestinely. (MSS)

Leonardo and Sri Aurobindo
-Sri Aurobindo was known in his Ashram as the rebirth of Napoleon. Napoleon's birthday was also August 15th (the date of India won her independence). In his previous births, it was believed he was Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Krishna and many other persons too. Someone asked Sri Aurobindo whether he had been Shakespeare as well, but could not elicit an answer.

-It is noticed that all that Leonardo wrote in his notebooks became real after the birth of Sri Aurobindo. (MSS)
 

 

Augustus Caesar

Augustus Caesar
Augustus Caesar organised the life of the Roman Empire and it was this that made the framework of the first transmission of the Graeco-Roman civilisation to Europe-he came for that work and the writings of Virgil and Horace and others helped greatly towards the success of his mission. After the interlude of the Middle Ages, this civilisation was reborn in a new mould in what is called the Renaissance, not in its life-aspects but in its intellectual aspects. It was therefore a supreme intellectual, Leonardo da Vinci, who took up again the work and summarised in himself the seeds of modern Europe. (Sri Aurobindo)

 

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Miscellaneous
(main)

Themes of Each Generation
Each society and each man organizes himself around one theme and lives the best part of his life for that. At different periods, society fashions a dominant motive to more fully fulfill itself. It was marriage once, money in another period, name or fame, freedom as in the 1960's, etc.

The Formerly Oppressed Oppress
A very desirable change has come for the oppressed, not for the oppression. Oppression still survives but is an instrument of those previously oppressed. (MSS) [We can see this in part in the current world situation, where poor nations who were in the recent past oppressed, now oppress their citizens or others outside. We need to reconcile this contradiction with new solutions, beginning with education and higher standards of living.]

Wisdom and Strength Practiced by Leader
No leader has ever attempted successfully in practice to reconcile wisdom and strength in action. (MSS)

Destruction of Those with Lack of Strength
Good and even great people are often assassinated because they lack strength. Again perhaps Jesus is an example. There are many others. Often these great people are betrayed for lack of strength, as happened to Gorbachev when he was harshly thrown out of office after saving the nation and the world.

Society is cruel.

Often great beings are assassinated because of a darkness that surfaces in them, such as when Lincoln is assassinated after backtracking in his mind about the harshness of how he treated the South thought the South had been evil in their slavery; or when Indira Gandhi gave in to her mother's vindictiveness to being betrayed by her husband, when Indira allowed herself to be swayed by her foolish son to allow for forced sterilizations. there are many examples.

How Political Revolutions are Created
Political revolutions are created by the intensity in the spiritual plane. (MSS)

Emergence of Lower Individuals During Reversals for that Society
In times of reversal in society, such as economic recession or social revolts, buffoons rise in prominence.

Also See Potentials and Possibilities for Society

Also See Leadership  (as it relates to history)

 

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MAJOR STAGES OF HISTORY
(top)

March of Civilization
It is said that civilization began in Mesopotamia. Man took to agriculture and urban living. It was a physical life of the civilized man. Mind was developed in Greece in later centuries. The evolution of Man continued, but elsewhere. It was Rome that developed law, art, and empires. Again it moved. Europe developed science. Now that center of that movement is in USA, which is focusing not so much on Science as Scientific Technology. Before this movement began the Spirit was discovered in India. (MSS)

Historical World Movements
The world evolved from spirit (as in ancient India) to Babylonia as civilization to Middle East as religion to Greece as birth of mentality to culture, trade of the Renaissance to invention of 20th century Europe to practical organization of the US. Now the US in its full materialism meets the ancient Indian spirit through Indian programmers, completing the cycle and tying the head to the tail.

Stages of Civilization
Mesopotamia witnessed the origin of civlisation, Greece was mental, Rome gave law to Europe and Europe generated science. England created an empire and liquidated it herself. (MSS)

Nature's Recent Historical Path
Science was developed in Europe which was proud of its scientific culture. Pride stands in the way of further development. So, Nature moved away from the self-sufficient Europe to develop further. The next step is not so much Science as scientific technology. Nature chose a humble population of the USA for that purpose. (MSS)

Advance of Civilization and Role of India and US
Advance of civilisation arrives at revelations which later become their culture. The Greek's intellectual culture, the Roman's love of law, the European scientific enquiry, British patronage of democracy and the American's excelling in practical organisation are such consummations. The Indian discovery of the Spirit as the underlying principle for all these expressions and their reliance on that spiritual approach to shape their daily life are unique to India.  This is the basis of Sri Aurobindo's statement that India would become the Guru of the world.

The world is treating USA as the leader and is taking after her culture. Even in India this is true. I consider this movement in the historical perspective that Nature develops her several facets at several parts of the globe before she achieves her desired consummation. The full cycle of human capacities having been developed successively, what remains now is to unite them all. I see Indians moving to the West in that light. (MSS)

 

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Nature's Voyage Away from & Back Towards India
Spirit developed in India. It reached its acme, rather its penultimate peak. Nature, for her own purposes, did not want to complete the further development of the Spirit in India. She moved away. She set about developing Mind, Vital, Science, Organisation, Technology in other parts of the world. Now she has finished one round working in various parts of the world. It is time Nature comes back to India and completes her work in the development of Spirit.

So far, Spirit developed to seek its own fulfillment in moksha [liberation into Spirit apart from life]. That is not God's original intention in creation. [It is completed when Spirit is brought into the details of life; the Spirit Being into the Becomings of life] God's delight lies in the original delight of the Spirit. It comes out when the original Spirit hidden in Mind, Life and Matter emerges on the surface.

Nature will start that phase only when the self-sufficient pride of the Spirit in its superiority gives way. Nature needs humility to continue its progress. India was humbled by foreign rule, poverty and low status. Though practically humbled, even humiliated, the inherent pride of the spiritual possession is abundantly present here. The feeling that we deserve greater luck or better treatment is there in many ways. One is expectation. For Nature to raise India's spiritual stature to that the Guru of the world, India should part with spiritual ego and acquire spiritual humility. (MSS, extracted; with our added comment)

Movement toward World Unity in History Periods
In his recent vast commentary on Pride and Prejudice (Book II, Chapter 19) Karmayogi on the subject of the evolutionary movements, institutions, etc. on the way to world unity says:

On earth the progress started in India, traveled via Greece to Italy and Europe till it reached America.
India started with the spirit and reached the penultimate stage.
Greece took up Mind and its thinking faculty.
Rome developed vital power.
Europe gave the power of thinking to every Man alive.
America took the Mind to impact on physical work.
Next, all of them are to be united so that the ultimate height of the spirit can be reached.
Its basis is the global, territorial unity, a human unity symbolized by the world government.
Its basis is global institutions, especially the financial institution.
Spiritually Man shedding the dividing ego is the starting point. (MSS)

USA and Organizational Efficiency
USA has more records for the life of the last 200 years than any other nation. She has distinguished herself as a nation of practical efficiency. In every other nation these versions of organisation are originally developed while in USA it is original imitation in the sense that populations from cultured nations came to a virgin land and created a new nation from scratch, but from a subconscious or conscious memory of their parent nations. (MSS)

Untitled
The history of civilization is the history of enlarging Freedom.

ARTICLE: The Four (Historical) Stages of Social Evolution

Evolution of Mind in History
Mind was born in Greece. It made Europe seek science. Mind was born long before that in China where Mind was taken to its acme. But it was applied to life. Aristotle applied mind to the inquiry of Nature. Hence Science was born. In India mind was born earlier than in China. Its philosophic urges were famous. Mind in India was applied to Spirit. What matters is not mind, but what it is applied to. Neither China, nor India, nor even Greece pursued the inquiry of Science. It was left to Europe. The USA applied Science to work, organised work. Hence its prosperity. (MSS)

Evolutionary Stages of Society
Just as the universe evolved from matter to life to mind; and the individual parallels that development in his body, his vital, and his mind, so too the society has evolved from a physical state of survival beginning say 100,000 years ago, to a vital stage during the middle of the last millennium, focused on trade, and interaction with others; to a mental stage that he is now currently emerging in which we see the emergence of freedom, democracy, higher organization, education, and individual self-fulfillment.

There have been three stages of social development, the Physical (marked by survival, deference to the collective, etc.), the Vital (marked by human interconnections, travel, business, etc.), and the Mental (freedom, fulfillment, higher organization, etc.. There is also the possibility of a future Spiritual stage. 

The Mental stage of social development is indicated by an increase in freedom, democracy, mental inquisitiveness, human fulfillment, and higher levels of organization.

The Internet is reflective of the further emergence of the power of Mind. The Internet is an outer reflection, form of the Mental stage of human development.

The more complex and interrelated the systems of an organization is, the more development and evolution there is in society.

Beyond the mental age of society is the spiritual age, indicated by harmony, unity, collaboration, peace, spiritual consecutiveness, unlimited infinite potential of accomplishment, success, and joy. There is also the utilization of the Divine Spirit, i.e. the Force (which can also be accessed even in the mental age) to create instant life response, accomplishment, and possibility in life.

The Emergence of the True Individual in Society
Today America rules the world as Great Britain did till the world war. Greece, Rome, and France had such eminence in their time. We see Greece had it on the strength of a culture that enabled it to flower Mind. Rome ruled Europe because of her law. France dominated Europe by her Freedom. Britain's eminence was made possible by her trade. North America dominates the world because the Individual is emerging there in the physical plane. Maybe the Americans are aware of their military, political strength and abundant wealth and do not really see the emerging Individual. That is the route social evolution has chosen. Army, wealth, political power, etc. are the results of the emerging Individual, not vice versa. In the twenty-first century, the Individual will certainly emerge and it will be credited as the century of the Individual. Emerging at the physical level, he ushers in prosperous plenty. At the vital level, he will be the harbinger of Peace expressed as international law and order. At the mental level, the emerging individual will establish the rule of Rationality, abolishing all kinds of superstition, which our present life abounds in. At that level, he will be a psychological individual and his goals will be psychological growth and ethical standards. The real individual is truly spiritual. He will accomplish things from inside and not move in the outer life. (MSS)

Development of Emotion in Asia, Mind in Europe
Nature herself is a partial force. Soul and Nature together make for the whole. Nature is a part. A partial force cannot work for total progress. Hence Nature has decided to develop emotion in Asia and mind in Europe.  (MSS)

MSS Article
Organizational History of Humankind  

Also See Thoughts on the Emerging Stages of Society

Also See Thoughts on the Rise and Fall of Empires

 

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RECENT HISTORY
(top)
 

World War II The Cold War The United Nations The European Union Rising Expectations Poverty, Terrorism, World Security Ascent of USA to World Leadership Internet & Technology Environmentalism East-West Integration Socialism & Capitalism Democracy Vast Recent Human Progress Other

 

 

 

World War II
(main)

Reasons for, Root Causes of WWII

Moving from the Destructive Physicality to Mentality in the World
The physical learning by destruction was really consummated in the first and second world wars, in which about 50 million people died. When the physical died, it died with a sense of pride. It died voluntarily. Sense of pride belongs to the vital. Actually it is a mental value. We can even stretch it to describe it as a spiritual value of honor.

Mind is the first entity that can reverse consciously. If the two world wars have represented the destruction of the physical, the Cold War represents the terrors of the vital. The period of the Cold War was a period of enormous tension all over the world. As soon as the Cold War was over, we see the revival of the rigid physical in the shape of terrorism.

So far for the negative accomplishment. When the negative is removed, positive endowments must be developed. The development of positive endowments does not wait for the total destruction of the negative. They go hand in hand.

The prerogative of the mind is to accept the conscious evolution. That prerogative is exercised by the human choice every moment.

The physical, having given up its physicality, has to develop physical skills which are superior to the physical skills of the nations from which the immigrants have come. (MSS) 

Man's Physicality Purged by War
War is the expression of man's physicality at exercise. The two world wars are symbolic of MAN finally overcoming his physical rigidity. It was done at the cost of 50 or 60 million lives.

Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor was the direct attack on the USA that relieved it of its physical consciousness that was unwilling to fight the war.

Reason Countries are Conquered is to Raise them Out of Their Low Consciousness
Low consciousness needs to be crushed out of existence for it to emerge [into a higher consciousness]. That is why nations are conquered. The significance of WWII is that. [Why the countries suffered in WWII.] The USSR tyrannised over its people, lost millions in war because of her low consciousness. (MSS, with additions)

The Great Depression as Cause of WWII
There is a wide field of resourcefulness in the negative arena of social existence. It is the stock exchange. Here men can gamble collectively to destroy the very system of money and the society which created it. So the great Depression of 1929 came. It was the most glorious economic moment for USA with the boom at its peak. Stock exchange is no real institution beyond a point. Up to that point it is the institution that brings the public savings as private capital. Beyond a certain point, as elsewhere, it changes its character. Society came to that brink half a dozen times since 1825. In 1907, it was given to one man's integrity and strength to save the world from such a crisis. In 1929 the bounds were broken. Man used with a vengeance the very system that made him leap several times to destroy himself and the system. It raged essentially between 1929 and 1932. Money was destroyed all over the world. It was devalued. America had the productive strength of the society so her suffering was confined to social life. It was in Germany that humanity was making an effort at the physical level. The Allies were out to destroy that country at its very roots, its physical existence. The impact of the Depression on Germany was received by her monetary system. It resulted in runaway inflation, the very worst the world economy had seen. It was the peak of the dire result in the negative side to recover from which one needed to make a reviving effort at the deeper level - the physical. Germany chose to destroy mankind physically and decided in her subconscious to sacrifice her physicality initiating the Second World War. She developed her material physical strength militarily to destroy herself physically. The Second World War was caused by the Great Depression of 1929-1932. As soon as the power of the Depression slackened, Hitler came to power in 1933. He was diabolical. The diabolical character of Hitler originated in the devilish instinct of self-destruction initiated in 1929. All negative uses of a system have this character. He went further to plan the holocaust feeling it was by that act he was destroying the money power symbolically. There was an immediate excuse for him. When bands of unemployed youth roamed the streets, they found most of the employers were moneyed people of a particular community. Hitler played upon it. (MSS)

Both Sides in Ignorance
You write as if what is going on in Europe [WWII] were a war between the powers of the Light and the powers of the Darkness -- but that is no more so than during the Great War. It is a fight between two kinds of Ignorance. (Sri Aurobindo)
 

The Force that Overcame in WWII

Churchill, England's Courage Saved the World; Using the Force
When all Europe capitulated to Hitler, he expected England to hasten to surrender. What happened was the opposite. Churchill declared, ''We shall fight, fight to the end. We shall fight the enemy on the land, let us fight him on the high seas. Let us give fight in the air. We shall fight him in the streets, we shall fight, fight and die fighting." It inspired every man in the factory, every woman in the kitchen. England won, NOT Hitler. England won FREEDOM. England saved democracy. England saved the world. That is the courage of the collective. Churchill received the SPIRITUAL FORCE from Sri Aurobindo and exhibited spiritual courage, which spread all over England and all over the world. It is true not only in the subtle plane but in the warfront too. (MSS)

Sri Aurobindo's Force and Churchill
Churchill was selected as a fit instrument by Sri Aurobindo to send His force to act through him to fight WWII.  Churchill received the Grace in the right way and acted according to the Divine's will, unconsciously, and thereby became a hero overnight.  (MSS, paraphrased by Vidya)

The Force and Churchill
Churchill won the second world war through the Force that was sent to him, which he did not know about.

End of WWII and Cold War Due to Force
-The work of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother overcame the evil of WWII. That same force overcame the potential evil of the Cold War conflict.
-Sri Aurobindo evoked the fog that enabled the British to flee from the Germans at Dunkirk. The Mother sent a message to Hitler to attack on the Russian front which divided his force, putting him on the road to eventual defeat.
-The Mother's Force enabled Gorbachav to end the cold war from within without violence; an event unprecedented in world history.

Sri Aurobindo Saved India from Destruction in WWII
Sri Aurobindo by HIS GRACE saved India from such a misery in WWII. ''No great portion of the world population was so effectively protected from the horrors and perils of the World War as were the peoples of Hindustan" -- Churchill. As a compensation, India suffered famine in 1943, lost 30 million lives and had the riots. (MSS)

Moving the World from Without and from Within
The pioneer westerner seeks outer action to change the course of life, away from disaster and suffering. He seeks ending nuclear proliferation, environmental degradation, disease, poverty, etc. He is a man of outer action. The eastern pioneer -- i.e. the yogi -- seeks to change himself within, causing corresponding life on the outside to instantly change. He is a man of inner, soul-based action.

Churchill rallied the people at the retreat at Dunkirk, a masterly outer action that saved the world. Meanwhile Sri Aurobindo from within invoked the fog there that shrouded the forces and saved humanity. Even His force was behind the ascent of Churchill to lead the world in battle against the Nazi oppressors, only to withdraw it when the prime minister resumed his colonialist activities. Once again, we see the outer man of the west and the inner man of the east in action having an equal power over the outer reality; with each seeing the world from their unique vantage points.

We too can follow in their footsteps and change the outer world through these two entirely different approaches. Which one we choose or how we integrate them together in our own lives depends on our mind's intention and the deep aspiration of our soul.

See Thoughts on the End of Cold War and the Action of the Force

 

Other

Right Action from the Wider Perspective of the Whole
In 1938 the British Cabinet was planning for prosperity and Churchill who was pleading for building bombers was dismissed as insane. Had the Cabinet looked at the issue from munitions [i.e. a wider perspective of the whole] they would have seen that they had 238 bombers while Hitler had raised his to 758. What was considered intuition in Churchill was commonsense from facts. (MSS)

Man's Blindness
Man is not merely blind when he chooses not to see, but is incapable of seeing the writing on the wall even after events have proved it. [as in start of WWII] (MSS)

Churchill Had Social, Not Moral Consciousness
Churchill had social conscience.  He was not humanitarian nor had human, moral conscience.

He was unscrupulous outside the social culture of Britain. (MSS)

Article: Observations from Reading the Biography of Churchill  (MSS)

Allies Help Make USSR Superpower by Crushing Russian Revolution
The Allies who tried to crush the USSR in 1917 WORKED to make the USSR a superpower in 1942. When you work against the Force, the Force compels you to work for it later doubly. (MSS)
 

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The Cold War
(main)

Cause of the Cold War

Moving from Physical to Mental Consciousness through Recent Wars
The two world wars, the hundreds of mini-wars after it, the cold war and the several million lives that were laid down in them can be described as the Physical moving to the Mental or the search of humankind for the right type of government for each nation as well as each part of the nation. (MSS) [I.e. the lower physical consciousness moving to the higher mental  consciousness in search of the right system and order.]

War and the Overcoming of the Limited Physical Consciousness
The two World Wars of this century where fifty million people died for their nations were the symbolic destruction of the human physical rigidity characterised by nationalism. The end of the Cold War, the vital extension of the World Wars, gave rise to globalisation and thinking in terms of internationalism. (MSS) [I.e. the intent of Nature is to move from nationalism to internationalism. The wars served that purpose, since humanity was not conscious enough to do it on its own.]

The Cold War and the Vital
Mind is the first entity that can reverse consciously. If the two world wars have represented the destruction of the physical, the Cold War represents the terrors of the vital. The period of the Cold War was a period of enormous tension all over the world. As soon as the Cold War was over, we see the revival of the rigid physical in the shape of terrorism.

Reason Countries are Conquered is to Raise them Out of Their Low Consciousness
Low consciousness needs to be crushed out of existence for it to emerge [into a higher consciousness]. That is why nations are conquered. The significance of WWII is that. [Why the countries suffered in WWII.] The USSR tyrannised over its people, lost millions in war because of her low consciousness. (MSS, with additions)

Violence that Begat Violence
Russia that took up Marx's socialism resorted to violence. Maybe their past demanded it or the peasant composition needed it. But, resorting to violence, they had a violent end [i.e. Stalinism]. (MSS)

The Truths of History We Miss -- The Brutality in the 1930s of the Soviet Union
Historians patiently go after the facts, the true facts, the hard, concrete facts. Their quest has burst many historical myths. As a result, historians are fond of saying that in most of the enduring historical myths, there is very little truth worth the name. We are common people. We have no judgement or even information. We go by leaders, thinkers, the press, and books. When they differ, we look up to great minds for guidance. H.G. Wells, and G. B. Shaw were known to be geniuses of the 20th century. We expect them to be infallible. It is impossible for us to conceive that they too, sometimes, were misguided, as we are misguided. That is a frightening situation. Has the world endeavoured to design a remedy for such a situation?

In 1929, America was hit by an economic depression. It spread all over the world. At the same time the USSR enjoyed full employment. When swarms of unemployed people crowded the American cities, Russia offered everyone employment. As soon as the USSR was in power, all the great men of the world made a beeline to Moscow to see for themselves what was really happening, discounting whatever came to them as propaganda. So Russell, Huxley, H.G.Wells, G.B.Shaw, and Laski went to Moscow. Nehru too desired to visit there at that time. Trotsky impressed them as intelligent, Lenin was a great leader. Sir S. Radhakrishnan said, 'Stalin is indeed a great man'. Wells found Stalin noble-minded. Shaw said those who went to prison in Britain emerged as convicts because of the prison's dehumanising influence. But in Russia, he said, the prison life was so attractive that sometimes discharged prisoners applied for readmission. A British Ambassador said Stalin was so childlike that a child would like to sit on his lap. A whole book could be filled in by the praise that was generous adulation of the Soviet system and her leaders.

When Krushchev came to power, he disclosed the atrocities that Stalin had committed. About 30 million people had been shot dead in Russia. How could the great minds of the century be beguiled by what they SAW with their own eyes? All the atrocities were true and all the noble traits witnessed by great minds were also true. Paul Johnson, a famous editor, commenting on this phenomenon, says the Thirties were an age of heroic lies. During that period, he says, saintly mendacity became the prized virtue. In other words, all those great minds could not see through the veil. Is it, then, really impossible to see the fact? I shall mention only the principle here, without elaborating on it. In any situation for the perceptive eye, there will be subtle symptoms of what is hidden from the naked eye. That is inescapable. Prejudiced people can always suspect. When Stalin was offering overwhelming co-operation in 1945, the sword of honour presented to him by the British King and received by Stalin reverentially was dropped by his Minister. That revealed the hidden intentions. (MSS)

Allies Help Make USSR Superpower by Crushing Russian Revolution
The Allies who tried to crush the USSR in 1917 WORKED to make the USSR a superpower in 1942 [and touch off the Cold War -editor]. When you work against the Force, the Force compels you to work for it later doubly. (MSS) [The Force is the spiritual evolutionary force that has a purpose to fulfill in earth's evolutionary destiny.

Russian Police State Inherited from Tsars
The police state of USSR was an inheritance from the Tsars. Peter the Great was a tyrant. Ivan was Ivan the Terrible. The emotional nature of the Russians demand hard cruel treatment to emerge out in freedom to keep up with the progressive world outside. (MSS)

Soviet Values Rejected Support Rise of Cold War
The social values raised by the Soviet revolution, and rejected by the West contributed mightily to the rise of nefarious Soviet power and the Cold War.

The Positive Influence of the Russian Revolution on the West
It is fascinating to reflect on what the aristocracy must have felt during and after the terrors of Revolutionary France and what must have been the conscious and subconscious impact of those events on values, attitudes and life in England and other European countries. A similar thing occurred during and after the Russian Revolution when the Labor and socialist movement in England and other parts of countries was deeply stirred and every European government was afraid that communism might spread to them as well. The rise of social democracy in western Europe was a reflection of that trend. Many people would not consider communism an evolutionary advance, but the greater consideration given to the conditions of the working class and lower levels of the society became a universal movement in the 20th century. (MSS

Gaddis Misses the Deepest Meaning of the Cold War
John Lewis Gaddis has written a new book on the history of the Cold War. Though he perceives the corruption of the Soviet system due to Stalin, he misses the second, even-deeper cause of the failure of the Soviet System and the rise of the Cold War: how the West tried to systematically destroy the Russian revolution in its early days. For its encroachment, Nature returned with a fury and set Russia -- which had in its earliest days, positive revolutionary new social values, (that ironically America is adopting in large part within capitalism) -- on a course of fifty years of opposing America. This is the real secret of the Cold War, as the West now tries to grapple with so many issues that the Soviets were willing at the time to address (i.e. for the first time in a serious way) in the early stages of the Revolution. Is there a thinker out there who has addressed this issue? It is the real cosmic purpose of the rise of Sovietism in history, and the need for the rise of a Cold War. The USA and Europe helped initiate the Cold War through its early actions, even as the Soviet system was corrupted from within by a brutal man who had 30 million of his people shot, thus cementing the Cold War

Let someone with a profound, multi-sided view -- and one who can see into the true mysteries and unfoldings of life and history - write the ultimate Cold War story. It is for the future, as we are unable just yet to see the deeper movements of history and human evolution

Opposite Side Knows What the Other is Ignorant of
Opposite viewpoint almost always contains an element of  Truth

1. Cold War -- Russia vs USA

2. Israel vs Palestine  (MSS)

[Each side has a knowledge that the other side is ignorant of.]

Horror of Cold War Greater than WWII
The Cold War that followed it for forty years was in one sense a greater horror than the actual war (WWII), as war on the field expresses the emotion of patriotism or idealism. (MSS, slightly modified)

Tension and Relief of Cold War
The tension Cold War generated was palpable in the sixties and seventies. Also, the relief when Cold War ended was equally tangible. (MSS)

Weapons of Atomic Energy as Crime Against Humanity
To utilize the higher for a lower purpose is a crime against humanity, just as releasing atomic energy for the destruction of the population.

Terrorism, the Cold War
There are a physical, vital, and a mental consciousness. The rigid physical consciousness as in WWII is only overcome through war. The Cold War was vital in that it never came to war, but enabled a state of fear, i.e. vital. Terrorism is the revival of the physical consciousness.

Cause of End of the Cold War

Practical Causes

Russians Longing for Western Prosperity and Freedom Enabled Cold War to Give Way
The Cold War gave way because the Russians (and their Eastern European), having come to know of Western prosperity and freedom, longed for it. Gorbachav recognized this, and helped bring down the system peacefully from within. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Gorbachev and World Unity
Gorbachev's unilateral action to destroy that side of the power bloc opened the world arena to World Unity. (MSS)

Recognizing Western Prosperity and Freedom; and Society Brutality Energies Youth for Change
When the youth of the Soviet system were able to see through the emerging communications technology of the 70s and 80s the prosperity and freedom of the West, they jumped on it. When they also considered the brutality of their own system, especially under Stalin and its threatening gestures around the world, they were more than happy to see it go as Gorbachav offered the means to do so.

Reagan Did Not End Cold War
The Cold War did not end because of Reagan, but despite him. Already forces were rapidly moving ahead for the disintegration of the Soviet empire, especially economically. Meanwhile in the streets Eastern Europe was ready for freedom. Gorbachav also saw that Reagan's aggressive posture was headed for a direct head on collision with the Soviet military. Reagan was endangering the world, putting it on a course of nuclear war. If anything, this sped up Gorbachev's resolve to move toward radical change, which he did from within without a single person losing their lives, unprecedented in world history, and thereby saving the planet. Meanwhile Gorbachev later offered Reagan a deal the latter could not refuse; the complete elimination of missiles. Reagan mired in Iran-Contra and spurred on by forces around him (including his wife) could do nothing but agree. The man who said he would never deal with the Soviets was forced to give in to the man, Gorbachev, who change the course of history.

Reagan WAS a central figure in the end of the Cold War, but not in the way people (especially on the US Right) have come to believe. He was endangering the world, and was antagonistic to cooperation, and yet Gorbachav pushed on despite that negative force and ended the Cold War.

 

Spiritual Causes

The Gorbachev Miracle
Gorbachev nearly single handedly ended the Cold War. He also did something unprecedented in the history of the world; he enabled a revolution that reversed things to the opposite while in power, while representing that old system which he destroyed. And he did it bloodlessly, which is perhaps even more remarkable. It is a sign that the spiritual Force was at work which always creates in fresh, unprecedented ways.

Gorbachev's Legacy
Gorbachev single handedly changed the course of world history, helping it avoid a looming, increasingly-possible nuclear end to life on earth. He convinced the hawk Reagan to negotiate a radical reduction of weapons, and offer that Reagan could not refuse. Gorbachev thus turned the aggressive, hostile Reagan into a lamb, the greatest act of reversing an opponent in world history. It was possible in my opinion because Gorbachev had the divine spirit behind him (in his rise and power) as the Higher Power responded to the call of certain segments of the world's people who feared global annihilation if the standoff between the two superpowers continued. It worked.

The Creative Way the Cold War Ended Indicates the Working of Divine Power through Gorbachev
The spiritual Force is an evolutionary power that is moving life on earth towards ever higher consciousness. Gorbachav was an instrument of this power when he brought down the failing Soviet system from within. The fact that the system was undone from within, an event unprecedented in history, and the fact that it happened without any bloodshed, is a testimonial to the workings of the spiritual Force, which is not bound to past solutions, but to the unbound possibilities and solutions at the disposal of the Divine properties unfolding in life.

Gorbachev as "Redeemer"
How can we come to terms with the fact that an atheist (at the time), Michael Gorbachev, saved the world from nuclear annihilation? Perhaps our notions of "redeemer" need to be broadened? [MSS comments:] His significance lies in the fact he destroyed the demon from within as if he is the Light buried in the darkness.

The Divine Force Ends Cold War
The Divine Force through the instrument of Gorbachev enabled the end of the Soviet system that ended the Cold War.

Utilizing Creative Action of the Force in World Scene
The opening to the Force and its Creative Action enabled the stalemate of the Cold War to dissolve through the personality of one individual, Gorbachev. It can be invoked again to enable Its Creative Action to overcome obstacles of the post Cold War period. But that will likely require another such individual in power to be the instrument.

The Mother and the Force
The Mother is the individual who became the instrument of the evolutionary spiritual Force.

The Mother Ending the Cold War
Though she [The Mother] was not alive when Gorbachev almost single-handedly ended the Cold War, we believe she (as the instrument of the Force) had a hand in his emergence, and the "velvet revolutions" that ended the Cold War that followed in the late 1980s.

The Mother Anticipates the End of Soviet System
In the Mother's Agenda she repeatedly referred in the early 1970s to the fact that the Soviet experiment has failed, and the people are realizing it. While she sensed that that its demise was well underway, the West was blind to it. It came on them suddenly. She also suggested the end of the capitalism system as we know it.

End of WWII and Cold War Due to Force
 -The work of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother overcame the evil of WWII. That same force overcame the potential evil of the Cold War conflict.
 -Sri Aurobindo evoked the fog that enabled the British to flee from the Germans at Dunkirk. The Mother sent a message to Hitler to attack on the Russian front which divided his force, putting him on the road to eventual defeat.
 -The Mother's Force enabled Gorbachav to end the cold war from within without violence; an event unprecedented in world history.

The End of the Cold War and Effective Collective Prayer
There was a great prayer amongst concerned citizens of the world just before the end of the Cold War. It was an invocation for the sake of the collective, not merely for one's own self-concern. It was matched by their understanding of the issues involved and the benefit of solutions of peace for the world. The two together made all the difference. It helped enable the defining response from the Divine Mother.

Changing  History from Within
When the British were forced to retreat from the German onslaught at Dunkirk, the situation looked grave indeed. Exposed out in the open, the troops were in danger of being annihilated by the German Air Force and Navy. But one day in the middle of it all, a fog suddenly moved in providing the English soldiers with cover so they could make it back to their homeland. England was saved and the course of WWII was reversed.

Thousands of miles away Sri Aurobindo, the Indian seer and sage had worked to evoke that fog through a movement of consciousness. During the same period, his spiritual partner knows as The Mother had similarly sent a vibration to the ruler of Germany to attack Russia, creating a dual front in the war that eventually weakened the German war effort and led to their eventual defeat.

There are individuals who have inner power to shape events in the world, thereby altering the course of history. Interestingly, each of us has this power in relation to the collectives that we are part of or associated with. Through movements of higher consciousness, we can change the weather, cancel a dire energy crisis, or change the fortune of an organization on the verge of collapse. Normally we would need to (a) have a keen interest in the matter, (b) understand it in its myriad of details, and (c) offer the matter arduously to the spiritual Force. The result will be the sudden, dramatic appearance of a resolution of the problem. Often it comes in forms that leave one completely dazed.

In India there is an organization called The Mother's Service Society. Two of its objectives have been to foster global economic development and bring about world peace; both as a means to foster ever-increasing world harmony and unity. To that end, it formed the International Commission on Peace and Food (ICPF) in the mid 1980s. One of its central tenets was to bring about the end of the Cold War. It was the belief of the founders that overcoming the threat of nuclear annihilation would dramatically enhance their ultimate goal of human unity and the psychological and spiritual evolution of life on earth.

After putting together a prestigious list of members that included two wives of renowned world leaders, they planned their first plenary meeting in Trieste, Italy. As it turned out, the day one of the primary founding commission members travelled to this first gathering from California to Trieste, the Berlin Wall began to fall, ostensibly ending the Cold War.

The founder members of MSS (Mother's Service Society) and the ICPF commission had the deepest aspiration for a change in the collective condition of society. Through an inner movement -- the aspiration and the opening of the situation to the spiritual Force, supplemented by an outer one, the commission itself -- a vast change in the world took shape. Like Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's inner actions, several members of an obscure think tank in India and its worldly commission had changed the course of history. It is an indicator of the infinite power we have to affect the conditions of the world from within.

ICPF and End of Cold War
The ICPF commission's actions was directly related to the descent of the Force through the Mother ending the Soviet system. When it had its first plenary meeting, the Berlin Wall fell.

Reagan, Spirit, and End of Cold War
Reagan came into power and threatened to take action that could end life on earth. To this threat a deep prayer went up to the Divine Mother, who answered by putting Gorbachav in the position to end the Cold War from within, without a single casualty, indicative of the power of the Force. Reagan changed his stripes and agreed to the terms of disarmament that Gorbachev presented. Thus, the Cold War ended despite Reagan, not because of him.

 

Additional Points

The Mother, Kennedy, and Khrushchev
The Mother believed throughout the 1950s to the 1970s in the rapprochement between Russia and the US, and worked inwardly for that goal. She thought it might happen when Khrushchev and Kennedy were in power in the early 60s, but noted that hostile forces worked for their removal. The rapprochement never took place in her lifetime. Though she was not alive when Gorbachev almost single-handedly ended the Cold War, we could perhaps believe she had a hand in his emergence and the "velvet revolutions" that ended the Cold War that followed in the late 1980s. (MSS)

Gorbachav Solution as Higher Harmony
The Gorbachev solution that ended the Cold War was not a compromise of conservative and liberal political values of the West, but an action of a higher harmony that both views could relate to; strength towards the Soviets that would appeal to conservatives, and peaceful solution and outcome that the liberals favored, though in reality it was an integrated higher harmony that included yet transcended both. In this way it was a creative solution from the causal realm of the Force moving in the world.

See Thoughts on End of WWII through Action of the Force

New Insights into the Life and Teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother

 

Consequences of End of the Cold War

Globally

Untitled
The end of the Cold War radically reduced the chances of global nuclear war, which could have left all life on earth destroyed.

Tension and Relief of Cold War
The tension Cold War generated was palpable in the sixties and seventies. Also, the relief when Cold War ended was equally tangible. (MSS)

Effect of the End of the Cold War
The end of the Cold War has dramatically reduced the threat of armed international conflicts and the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war, providing a far more stable and secure climate for worldwide economic expansion. War is a destroyer of development. It physically demolishes what society has accomplished. The Cold War limited the physical destruction to regional conflicts, but it directed a substantial portion of the energies and talents of the world community into an unproductive arms race.

Rapid Advancement of Humanity
The end of the Cold War and imminent threat of nuclear annihilation, the peaceful unification of Europe, and global spread of the Internet are striking recent instances of humanity's heightened capacity for rapid advancement. (MSS)

Evolution of the World
The world like the individual is undergoing its own evolution. The end of the Cold War is a big step in that process.

Expenditure Persists
Yet long after the end of the Cold War and at a time when there is not even a serious potential enemy in sight, world military expenditure remains at $XXX billion a year. The war is over, but a costly, wasteful, unproductive anachronism persists. (MSS)

Unabsorbed Energies of End of Military Buildup
The energies at the end of the Cold War were not absorbed for productive use; i.e. we did not take advantage of the vast opportunity to uplift the masses, which is how the energies released by the end of military buildup in the Cold War afforded the world.

The Relationship Between End of Cold War and Minor Wars that Followed
An expert in international security said fifteen years ago that there were 26 intra-state and inter-state conflicts in the world. The demise of the Cold War was received with a sigh of relief by the world. But there was disappointment about these minor conflicts. It is a law of life that the abolition of a major problem will be followed by minor problems unless the major relief is received with gratitude.

The abolition of Cold War, the process by which it came about, was the first of its kind. Revolutions rise from outside, never from inside. Cold War was abolished by the USSR, by its chief, from inside, a thing the world has never known. Had the world recognised the stupendous nature of the event, and felt gratitude to its architect, the minor conflicts of Gulf War and Iraq war would not have followed. The Nobel Prize to Gorbachev had more of propaganda in it than a sincere recognition of his SINCERITY. (MSS)

Several Minor Wars Since End of Cold War
After the demise of the Cold War, several minor conflicts survive, such as Kashmir, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Sri Lanka, and Ireland. (MSS)

Energy of Military Disengaged Can Only Be Absorbed by Raising the Masses
The enormous energy absorbed by the military is now disengaged. It is there for us to use. Except in raising the masses, it cannot be fully absorbed. (MSS)  [I.e. As a result of the end of the Cold War a lot of energy is available to humanity. However, the only way it can be absorbed and utilized is if is used for the rising up of the masses.]

Ending Poverty through Reduced Military Spending
UNDP has calculated that $40 billion a year would be sufficient to eradicate global poverty within ten years. Yet long after the end of the Cold War and at a time when there is not even a serious potential enemy in sight, world military expenditure remains at $850 billion a year. The war is over, but a costly, wasteful, unproductive anachronism persists. (MSS)

Take Advantage of Boon of End of Cold War
We could realize that we have utterly failed to take advantage of the end of the Cold War. The West has said it has have won, and yet has left Russia to its misery, and not taken advantage of a golden opportunity to work with Russia to solve the world's problems. The US and the world could reverse themselves and  work collaboratively with the Russians to help solve many of the problems addressed above. (Russia is vital to the world scene. The perception that the US won the Cold War and that Russia doesn't matter any more is a catastrophic view, that has led to misery in the country, the rise of its Mafia and other nefarious elements, and the potential proliferation of their nuclear fuels around the world, including to terrorists. Our approach to the role of Russia and its influence in the world, not to mention its dangerous black market nuclear fuel, will make everyone stand up and take notice. Russia lost the Cold War, yet is just as important as the US on the world scene, and we will come to acknowledge this.)

Need for Reduction of Nuclear Arms after Cold War
We can look to a reduction in nuclear and other arms of mass destruction in the hands of the US and Russians; thus fulfilling the original intent of the end of the Cold War. This will enables a far greater security for the world, preventing their accidental or intentional use, as well as preventing their getting in the hands of terrorists and hostile nations.

World Army and End of Cold War
The establishment of a World Army is a necessity in the management of international affairs. A global economy needs the protection of a global army, a World Army. That army will create the necessary stability that supports rapid growth of the world economy. Now that the two blocks of the Cold War are dissolved, it is an opportune time to unite. It is opportune because otherwise there is the danger that new blocks will form in time, that might opt for a competition, a competitive challenge. The hour is now. (MSS)

Terrorism as Revival of Rigid Physical Consciousness after Cold War
The period of the Cold War was a period of enormous tension all over the world. As soon as the Cold War was over, we see the revival of the rigid physical in the shape of terrorism.

US, Russia, and EU
Because the US spurned the Russians after the Cold War and practiced a go it alone policy in dealing with the world, the Russians could suddenly become formidable partners with the EU, thereby weakening America's status and influence worldwide.

In Russia Itself

Failure of Shock Therapy Approach in Russia
The transformation of the Soviet Union to the market-based Russia has been a disaster. It has been so because the infrastructure of the Soviet state has been so dismantled that there was nor organization upon which to build a market-based Russia. The "shock therapy" approach of the first Russian leaders (and conservative leaders support in Europe and America) failed to appreciate the importance of organization as a supporting basis for a new society. (It also did not have the consensus of the country's people and political leaders; i.e. it was undemocratic.)

Yeltsin's Failures
Yeltsin's mindless, radical breaking up of the Soviet system, put corruptive power in the hands of unscrupulous businessmen immediately after the end of the Cold War.

Take Advantage of Boon of End of Cold War
We could realize that we have utterly failed to take advantage of the end of the Cold War. The west has said it has have won, and yet has left Russia to its misery, and not taken advantage of a golden opportunity to work with Russia to solve the world's problems. The US and the world could reverse themselves and  work collaboratively with the Russians to help solve many of the problems addressed above. (Russia is vital to the world scene. The perception that the US won the Cold War and that Russia doesn't matter any more is a catastrophic view, that has led to misery in the country, the rise of its Mafia and other nefarious elements, and the potential proliferation of their nuclear fuels around the world, including to terrorists. Our approach to the role of Russia and its influence in the world, not to mention its dangerous black market nuclear fuel, will make everyone stand up and take notice. Russia lost the Cold War, yet is just as important as the US on the world scene, and we will come to acknowledge this.)

Russian Humiliation and Emerging Russian Power
Ever since the end of the Cold War the West and particularly the US has humiliated Russia. Right out of the bag, Bush 41 launched on the first Iraq war with Russia hardly able to say anything. We did the same only much worse in the 2nd Gulf War.

When Yeltsin took power, we allowed shock therapy of unbridled deconstruction of Russian infrastructure baited by NeoCons that led to gangsterism and mafia in Russia.

Bush 43 on virtually every foreign policy issue ignored Russia acting unilaterally on everything. Russia was a mere afterthought., One humiliation after another.

It addition what use is there for NATO in its current form, which antagonizes Russia. Where is the reduction of nuclear arms that the two powers ended the Cold War on? Where were as Gorbachev recently said the continuation all of the dialogue on issues raised at the end of the Cold War. Nothing and more nothing.

Which brings us to the unstable individual who is currently running Georgia, who is backed by US NeoCons which the left misses. Who blatantly attacked on the day of the Olympics. What shame! After all of this humiliation is it any wonder Russia reacted strongly, and well she should have!

Now we finally have a power (along with China and the EU) to stand up to the unilateralism of Bush, who after the end of the Cold War ran with the ball downfield by himself, unopposed, and then fell on his face.

Welcome Russia and thank you for rebuilding the multi-polar world. It is the first step of many that I think has begun to take place and will take place in the future. (Obama if elected next?)

And thank you Mr. Putin for creating a strong Russia. You will have to diversify your economy more, and give democracy more of a chance. But that will come over time. Now I thank you for restoring the balance of power in the world. Thank you especially Mr. Gorbachav who ended the Cold War and now advises the 2 leaders of Russia.

Russia 2008
The humiliation of the Russians by the West since the end of the Cold War has brought out the anti-democratic tendencies of Russia. And yet that semi-authoritarianism may not be so bad in boosting the economy and enabling her to play an important role on the world stage. With a more pliant America under Obama, Russia may then settle down and resume its slow march towards greater prosperity and democracy.

How Socialism's Values are Being Adopted in Capitalism
 

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The United Nations
(main)

Purpose and Emergence of the UN

The UN as Indicator of World Movement Toward Harmony, Unity, and Oneness
The world is moving towards ever higher formulations of harmony, unity, and Oneness. The emergence of the UN is one indicator of this movement.

Formation of UN as Evolutionary Urge
The UN has emerged as a part of the evolutionary urge of humanity towards world unity, which itself reflects the Divine Will and Intention towards Oneness, Delight, Love, et al in the cosmos.

World Unity and the UN
The world is moving toward world unity. The United Nations has been and can continue to be an instrument of that great progress.

UN, EU as Steps of Evolution
The UN and the European Union are semi-conscious first steps acknowledgements of this aspect of human evolution and destiny.

Stages of World Unity
World unity goes through several stages from physical to vital to mental to spiritual, which explicitly manifest as a sequence from military to economic to social and cultural to spiritual unity of Oneness. We are currently barely into the economic stage.

Vision of a World Union Organization
The ultimate result must be the formation of a World-State and the most desirable form of it would be a federation of free nationalities in which all subjection or forced inequality and subordination of one to another would have disappeared and, though some might preserve a greater natural influence, all would have an equal status. A confederacy would give the greatest freedom to the nations constituting the World-State, but this might give too much room for fissiparous or centrifugal tendencies to operate; a federal order would then be the most desirable. All else would be determined by the course of events and by general agreement or the shape given by the ideas and necessities that may grow up in the future. A world-union of this kind would have the greatest chances of long survival or permanent existence. This is a mutable world and uncertainties and dangers might assail or trouble for a time; the formed structure might be subjected to revolutionary tendencies as new ideas and forces emerged and produced their effect on the general mind of humanity, but the essential step would have been taken and the future of the race assured or at least the present era overpassed in which it is threatened and disturbed by unsolved needs and difficulties, precarious conditions, immense upheavals, huge and sanguinary world-wide conflicts and the threat of others to come. The ideal of human unity would be no longer an unfulfilled ideal but an accomplished fact and its preservation given into the charge of the united human peoples. Its future destiny would lie on the knees of the gods and, if the gods have a use for the continued existence of the race, may be left to lie there safe. (Sri Aurobindo; written before 1951)

See Thoughts on World Unity and the Unity of Nations

Origins of the United Nations
Out of the disunity of the nations that contributed to the devastation of WWII arose the organization of unity, the United Nations.

European Failure that Led to UN
Europe failed before the rise of fascism. 80 million died to bring the UN, and the European Union.

Rise of the UN
The rise of the UN after WWII shows how so much great good can arise from the bad.

The Necessity and Utility of the Good and the Bad

Life normally evolves through conflict. Things we perceive as conflict are the means of social evolution. Things we perceive as "bad" are necessary in the scheme of things, as are the "good." The "good" and the "bad" are necessary to each other for the greater development and emergence of all. E.g. WWII led to UN and the first glimmers of a new emerging movement toward world unity. Problems in Bosnia focuses European role in future of confrontations in region. And so forth.

Birth of the UN
The birth of the United Nations, in San Francisco in 1945, came about because these far-sighted leaders understood that the world could simply no longer afford to continue as it had in the first half of the century, which had witnessed two world wars, countless civil wars, genocide, mass expulsions of populations, and the horrors of the Holocaust and Hiroshima. (IRNA)

UN's Accomplishment
And for sixty years we have all reaped the benefits of this conclave in San Francisco. The UN's existence created the framework within which human progress was possible during the Cold War and beyond.

UN peacekeeping, for instance, prevented local conflicts from igniting a superpower conflagration, and so helped ensure that the Cold war did not turn hot. More than 170 UN-assisted peace settlements have ended regional conflicts.

Indeed, with the UN's help, more civil wars have ended through mediation since the UN's birth than in the previous two centuries combined.

The more than 300 international treaties negotiated at the UN have reduced the prospect for conflict among sovereign States. (IRNA)

The Unparalleled Service of UN
The UN has rendered unparalleled services  in the fields of education, health, pollution, and weather . (Paraphrase of MSS)

 

Limitations of the UN

UN's Limitations
Despite its modest successes, the UN is not an organisation that can implement anything substantial since its power is only in persuasion. In essence, it hasn't the capacity to turn information and ideas into realities; thus it has no real power. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Undemocracy of UN
The UN is false because it is undemocratic in that for one the Security Council is run by the few determine the outcome for the all. It fails in its self-proclaimed intent of being democratic and just.

Undemocracy of UN
What we have now is an undemocratic United Nations. E.g. in the five member Security Council of nations, England and France, with relatively low populations, determines outcomes in the world. Also, decisions throughout the organization are not based on true needs, formulated through a democratic criteria. What we need is a system that accounts for the power and influence of all nations of the world in proportion to such things as their GDP, infrastructure, population, etc., weighted accordingly, and based on the needs of the situation. The problem is that there is no context for such thinking.

Undemocratic Veto System
Few have discussed the greatest deficiency of the UN -- its undemocratic veto system. How can the United Nations advocate democracy if it is itself undemocratic? Imagine if every bill passed in the US were blocked because one state was against it. This is no way to run a democratic institution.  It is an anachronistic policy born of the end of WWII, and should be scrapped. Otherwise the UN will never function as intended, and a new system -- e.g. a more democratic World Parliament of some sorts -- could arise to replace some of its core functionality.

Cold War Organization and Bias of UN
The UN is not approaching the world objectively, but from the Cold War point of view. (I.e. it is organized along those lines still.) (Paraphrase of MSS)

The Unparalleled Service of UNO
The unparalleled services UNO rendered in the fields of education, health, pollution, and weather -- the fields of development, are immense, though a tiny bit of the possibilities. (MSS)

MSS Article
The Limitations of the United Nations

 

The UN and Eradication of Poverty

Specific Proposal for UN to Eradicate Poverty
-We suggest UN should take on itself the authority of accepting the  invitation of any nation to eradicate poverty or illiteracy or major diseases.

-We suggest UN should declare that within 5 to 10 years poverty should be eradicated from the world. At the end of that period UN may take over one or more countries under its administration to eradicate it compulsorily. (MSS, slightly modified)
 

Miscellaneous

Creating a Positive World Atmosphere
If the world DOES what is possible NOW, all her problems will be wiped out and there will be a positive world atmosphere. (MSS)

The Invisible Movement of Rights in History, & the Emergence of Spiritual MAN in the 21st Century
There is an invisible movement in the air all over the world which espouses the Rights of the oppressed. Now it is the Blacks who are in favour, next it is the women. The street children get their turn. The poor suddenly come into the favour of the world and the whole world sings the chorus of the Right to Food, Right to water, Right to Peace, etc. All types of Rights have emerged as the target for the awakened world. It is a balm to the hearts of idealists and visionaries the world over as the have-nots, downtrodden, the oppressed and the invalids have now their share of the limelight. The UN is the spearhead for most of these movements. The world is awakened enough in her conscience that the world opinion readily swings to this call. This development is imperceptible but unmistakable. I see behind all these urges that MAN is emerging as someone to be counted hereafter. The Spirit in MAN seeks expression, peeps out from its hiding place. The symptoms are well-defined. He who seeks expression is no longer the social man, but the Spiritual Individual. The 21st century will be his century. (MSS)

See Resolution of Problems Through Higher Harmonies
Sri Aurobindo said that "all problems in life are problems of harmony." Most of the problems we have described are problems of harmony; in this case disequilibrium between nations and people of the earth. The problems of harmony as disequilibrium have manifest in the form of haves and have-nots, the organized and the disorganized, partial, local solutions at the expense of fuller global solutions, and reactive rather than thoughtful, to name a few. When we rise to these higher harmonies, the problems will easily be solved. Solutions are endlessly available by creating more harmony, more integration, greater opening to collaborative approaches. This idea that Sri Aurobindo propounds (all problems in life are problems of harmony) will be slowly accepted by the world, consciously or unconsciously. For example, the UN and the European Union are subconscious first step acknowledgements of this aspect of human evolution and destiny.

Initiatives in a Futile Atmosphere
The history of 1952-1999 by Gilbert shows the endless initiatives various individuals and organisations are taking in a futile atmosphere. [The Cold War? -editor] UNO's conscious initiative will be a good field of action. [Meaning?  -editor]

Global, Rather Than Isolated Solutions to Terrorism
In the past we continually see one nation, the victim, combating terrorism, with no change in the world situation on terrorism. We can thus come to the realization that to end terrorism one single country cannot counter it; the world together must combat it, preferably led by the United Nations. Another way of saying this is that terrorism has not ended because the world has never been united against it. Unity of purpose must replace the isolated approach.

World Army
The ICPF report "Uncommon Opportunities" that was presented to the United Nations in 1995, speaks of the necessity of World Peace and a World Army as a basis for the future development of the world.

 

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Rising Expectations
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Harlan Cleveland and Coinage of "Rising Expectations"
Harlan Cleveland coined the phrase "revolution of rising expectations" to describe this phenomenon which he observed in Eastern Asia in the early 1950s. Spurred by the end of colonialism and the diffusion of democracy, since then this revolution has circled the globe and ignited a clamor for education, higher levels of consumption and opportunities for advancement among billions of people. The universal awakening of this urge for progress is another compelling reason why the speed of development is increasing so rapidly. (MSS)

The Rising Expectations Unfulfilled Will Attempt to Break the Present Structure
-Man expects the present society to fulfill his rising expectations and if it does not he will break its present structure.
-The society is poised for evolving an order of affluent joy of mental adventure. It will accomplish itself breaking the existing social structure unless by a conscious evolution a smooth transition is offered by the leadership. (MSS)

Untitled
Societies are being challenged by the rising tide of expectations of the individual. That is because of heightened expectations due to education, communications, and media, and the background force of a movement of the empowerment and fulfillment of the individual. (MSS)

Rising Expectations in Mental Stage
Media, communications and technology is creating rising expectations of all individuals of the world to attain one's individual fulfillment. This is an indicator of the mental stage of development. (MSS)

Times of Rising Expectations
These are times of Rising Expectations. Every man can see the possibility of the success of others through mass media and communications. He thus wants the same benefits NOW. He doesn't want to wait, as he has for thousands of years under autocratic governance, monarchy, church, etc.

Era of Rising Expectations
Through that rapidly expanding technology base, through exposure to the vast knowledge base presented in media, in the Internet, people become even more aware of what can be achieved. They become aware of possibilities for achievement; and see that others are doing it. That in turn leads to an era of ever rising expectations; people want and demand more in their own lives.

Communism and Birth of Rising Expectations
Communism even through its 7 decades of failure has succeeded in abolishing the exclusive right from the human consciousness by giving birth to the revolution of rising expectations. (MSS)

Rising Expectations and the Arab World
The energies in the Arab countries are not being utilized for productive work and labor. There is misery and unemployment. That energy goes into railing against the system that does not give them what others have in the world. The era of Rising Expectations exacerbates the unproductive energy that moves towards any means for an outlet - emotional or otherwise.

Awareness of One World, Rising Expectations
The problems of other countries will come to be seen as our problems. We will begin to understand that we are becoming more interrelated, and that if we leave others too far behind, we will be creating the conditions for conflict. We will come to understand that the underdog people of the world have rising expectations that they have a legitimate right to share in the bounty of the world that others share IN THEIR OWN LIFETIME. This is a very powerful force new in the world, accelerated by instant communications, media, and globalism. We should do everything to acknowledge and act on it.

Untitled
With the elimination of wars, the spread of democratic forms of governance and market economies, the political, social and economic conditions needed to release human energies for higher levels of accomplishment are being met today more than at any time in the past. The worldwide revolution of rising expectations is one expression. (MSS)

Untitled
Re: The mental stage of development of man: "In an era of rising expectations around the world, individuals who had qualitative benefited from the organization of knowledge in turn began to become more aware of and sympathetic to the qualitative life issue of the collective, including social issues of hunger, poverty, suffering, and disease.

Value Formation and Rising Expectations
Man has come by a value formation (of prestige, security, money) after a considerable effort. He will NEVER risk it for anything. He will readily risk it (nothing can prevent him from risking it) if he sees another higher value formation. It does not matter it is far higher and unattainable but he will exert his maximum to attain it. He would rather die than not attempt it. In the revolution of rising expectations this energy is see. It is irresistible. (MSS)

Bodily Knowledge & the Basis of Rising Expectations
The Mother says body understands at the moment when it is ready for action. Till every cell acquires the knowledge the body does not understand. The moment the last cell completes receiving the knowledge, body acts instantaneously. Hence the revolutionary sweep of the rising expectations. (MSS)

Untitled
All development moves -- Tom Peters, Gorbachev, Berlin Wall, Chrysler, New Deal, Model T, technological advancements, Internet, as their crown the revolution of rising expectations -- bring the social Superconscient to its surface. (MSS)
 

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Conflict Resolution, Poverty, Terrorism, World Security
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Thoughts on Resolving Conflicts the World

Thoughts on Poverty

Thoughts on Terrorism

Thoughts on World Security

 

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Ascent of USA to World Leadership
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Cause of recent US Ascent to World Leadership

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Internet and Technology
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Internet is Expression of Modern Aspirations
The development of Internet is neither a fortuitous discovery nor an inevitable evolution of technological trends. It is a natural expression and embodiment of the aspiration of modern society for unlimited and immediate access to information and unlimited means for individual creativity and self-expression. This aspiration has released a colossal energy in society that is by no means restricted to any single country or form of expression, but rather flows and overflows through every conceivable channel that will lend itself as an outlet. (MSS)

Real Underpinnings of Today's Social Change
Social and cultural changes are having even more impact than technological change. Recognizing this will put computer and Internet in its proper perspective. And that will make the Internet socially creative.

Additional Thoughts on Internet & Technology

 

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East-West Integration
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East Meets West to Know Infinite in All
The West is evolving material reality to infinity, even as it fails to see the Infinite behind. Now as the movement of technology moves from the US and enjoins India and the East, it can know through this movement of the Infinite behind, not only the material, but every aspect, dimension, current, and force of creation.

Force Moving through US and India
The Force is moving through technology in the US. Rather than moving directly from spirit-oriented India, the Force has taken an unexpected path, moving through the emerging subtle technology of Internet in the US, which extends in collaborative service work with India, where the Force returns to meet its true earthly Source. Then together these two nations can enable the infinite to emerge in the finite, not just in the material plane, but in all planes.

How the Indian and Westerner Combine to Bring a Great Power to the World
The Westerner has material success in matter because he has applied true spiritual values to that endeavor such as honesty, orderliness, systemization, etc. Yet he knows practically nothing of spirit. Spirit on the other hand is in the body of the Indian, yet he is not prosperous because he lacks the spiritual values that the westerner has toward matter. If the Indian can learn to acquire this in the outer life of matter, then with the already existing profound spiritual insight of the Rishis that he embodies, he will in tandem with the West unleash a tidal wave of power on the world. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Additional Thoughts on East and West

 

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Environmentalism
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Overcoming the Material View that Creates Insights and Products of Harm
The material view that science ascribes to is to only recognize that which is verifiable, measurable, and provable. In that way it misses 99% of our life and existence. More troubling still is that a science rooted in such a material-only view is bound to create limited and false insights and thereby products of harm and destruction. When science moves from its current acceptance of matter and fact as the only truth to an all embracing science of life -- embracing the psychological state of the human, incorporating the deepest human values, and recognizing the hidden forces and powers of existence, including the Conscious-Force and Spirit that underlies all of creation -- it will move away from its self-destructive tendencies, creating understanding and insights that will enable products that are ONLY good for the world.

Science for the People, not Science of the Part Which Brings Problems
-The post war period was known as the period of the Cold War. All over the world, it was a period when pollution slowly gathered into a veritable evil, resulting in smog in the air, acid rain, DDT in vegetables and in water. Life was threatened at its very roots. Then emerged the movement of the environmentalists. Many things of revolutionary character emerged. The most important thing was that the world discovered that science is for the people and not science for science's sake. When a part usurps the status of the whole, the part has the tendency to become evil. Science is a part, the society is a whole.

-We are all proud of science, especially its technology. Its success, says Russell, is amazing. Because of the striking success, we begin to worship science, adore it as the be all and end all. Science is neutral; man, his attitude, is moral in the sense he gives a character to the thing he uses. Man's excessive devotion to science leads to science harming him. That the scientist has a social responsibility is now well established. The scientist concentrating on science is part. His taking society into account is whole. The former can hurt, not the latter.

-Science rules the world. It is knowledge. It seeks pure, total, ultimate knowledge. How can evil come out of it? Still, we see it emerges out of science. The part can become selfish, evil, wrong. It can be an error. The whole can never hurt, go wrong or give birth to evil.

-The scientist has a responsibility to the society which is the whole. Though the scientist discovers, it is the politician who has the ultimate word as to its use. Should the scientist develop social responsibilities, he will move to the present position of the politician. (MSS, extracted)

Environmentalism and the Future Evolution of Man
The Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo envisioned a future divine life on earth, which would in essence be the culmination and ultimate achievement for humanity. He calls for our collaboration in this endeavor by opening up to and drawing in the spiritual dimension into our lives in order to divinize it -- i.e. bring out its infinite potential.

Before that could happen, however, he suggested that several other developments had to take place, one of which is the movement toward human unity amongst the people of the earth.  Already this process has begun, especially in the last 50 years with the emergence of the United Nations, the European Union, global economics, the Internet, and the cultural cross-pollination and integration we see in the major urban areas of the world, to name a few. It should be noted that much of this was presaged in the 1960s during the Hippy era when the youth of the world took to greater freedom and creative expression, while exploring a variety of cultures and forms of spirituality, including those of the East. What is occurring now is in one sense a ripening of that dramatic, through relatively short-lived pioneering effort amongst that generation's youth.

Yet another way world unity is emerging is through the rapid expansion of the global environmental movement. Because of the misuse of the resources of the planet, the people of the world have been galvanized to change those dire conditions. On the surface, the degrading of the environment might appear to simply be the byproduct of an industrial society, or the dark side of prosperity, but more fundamentally, it is a reflection of the very way we humans think. Let me explain.

Though scientists, researchers, engineers, and others in the West and elsewhere are able to conceive of an infinite variety of material forms which comfort and benefit us, we are unable to control the negative side of this creative, developmental process. For example, we discovered and unlocked the power of the atom, yet we were unable to contain its byproduct of atomic weaponry. That wanton result has become the greatest evil ever devised by Man -- casting humanity's very future in doubt. Likewise, we have developed infinite manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of an ever more prosperous and growing population, yet we cannot control the array of forms of pollution it has engendered. Similarly, we have developed powerful automobiles that glide along super highways, but cannot control the hundreds of thousands of deaths from car accidents every year. Thus, for every positive that science and technology devises, one or more very dangerous negative consequences are unleashed upon the world.

Which leads me back to the essential reason this occurs. It turns out that environmental degradation is the end result of our uni-dimensional view of life. It is the result of our mechanistic, empirical, material-only approach to the creative process, which excludes other dimensions -- including the psychological, the social, and the spiritual. Environmental degradation itself thus a product of having left Man out of the developmental equation. The scientist, engineer, or other professional is too preoccupied by the joy of discovery in matter; by what can be seen under the microscope; by what can be resolved into a neat equation to address the subject from its deepest and widest context. Operating from within a constricting, exclusive box of a materiality, the discoverers and implementers are insulated from the wider truths of life, which allow falsehood, and, yes, evil to be set lose on the world.

We could therefore say that this material, empirical, mechanistic approach to discovery is one of Ignorance, since it is separated from the true, wider, multi-faceted, all embracing Knowledge that is being addressed. Because the work professional sees only a small part of the whole picture, decisions made and actions taken are based on a material, mechanistic, empirical superstition, releasing negative outcomes that become the basis for social strife and danger in the world. In fact, one subtle principles of life is that when we embrace only a part of the Whole of any object of inquiry, all of the other parts tend to express negatively. Pollution, nuclear threat, and death on the highways are but several ways the unaddressed Whole, this missing multiplicity of understanding expresses when we look out on the world through these limited blinders. Even now, the unaddressed truths related to any number of subject matters are producing negative side effects in a host of fields that we are summarily unaware of.

Thus, though the world has now begun to perceive the dangers of the degradation of the environment, it has not understood the process by which it occurs. It is not simply a product of modern life, or of a developing economy, or even the foolish ignorance of a few men, but the way we put Matter before Man in the discovery process. It is the root cause of the dark consequences that threaten or otherwise degrade our daily lives.

And yet no matter what its origins -- material or otherwise -- environmental degradation is a reality and fact of life. Moreover, that issue is galvanizing the peoples of the world into action. In that process, connections are occurring amongst individuals, associations, and organizations, which, in essence, occur as movements of cooperation, integration, and harmony. Such integrative and harmonic associations are but another way that human unity is taking shape.

We could even say that these harmonic developments are reflections of the Spirit itself -- particularly the Divine aspect of the Oneness of life. When we protect the planet we share, and when we do so through deep cooperation and connection, we are experiencing several aspects of the Oneness of being in life. If this is so, then environmentalism may be looked upon as a kind of shared religion; or better yet, a first form of common spiritual experience shared by the peoples of the world.

Through our ever-increasing mentality, through wider circles of culture, through the integration of citizens and nations, human unity is beginning to take shape in the world. Environmentalism is a particularly powerful catalyst because it addresses a fresh new way of relating to our common experience, enabling people to participate and interrelate in ways that transcend one's backgrounds and culture. The environment is not alone in this regard, as the Internet has a very similar nature. It is a most unexpected manifestation of the new: an organization that not only supports ever-greater knowledge and individuality, but ever-greater unity and harmony of purpose amongst the people.

These ever-new, unexpected forms of commonality of purpose are sure signs of an emerging World Unity. We can look around and see many such signs in the arts, politics, economics, the media, public discussion, and so forth. Most of all they subtly reside in the new perceptions of the individual, in the way he or she relates to others as well as humanity as a whole.

And yet this slow but steady emergence of World Unity presages an even greater eventuality for humanity: the emergence of a common spirit-oriented life on earth. It is a human existence where the Spirit is brought into every activity of our lives in order to bring out their infinite potential. It is a new world unimagined where we experience our ultimate psychological fulfillment, while perceiving the deepest truths of life, including the Spiritual underpinnings of all existence. That ecstatic vision and possibility is also now beginning to appear on the horizon: a sign of humanity's ultimate destiny and purpose.

Oil Crisis (2006) and Human Unity
Oil is the fuel that provides much of the material energy for society. The fact that there is contention and crisis over the availability of oil is both symbolic and an indicator that there is something amiss elsewhere. It is an indication of a lack of harmony in society.

Sri Aurobindo says that all problems in life are problems of harmony. Never was this more true at the material level of society than the issue of oil. Nations vie for it now at one another's expense. Each country selfishly seeks it in the name of survival. It is a problem that can be solved through higher levels of harmony amongst the nations of the world. We need to move from self-interest to global interests; from our own needs to the needs of the collective of nations. It is requires a movement from ego to oneness.

Oil ironically serves another purpose. It gives us the opportunity to move to higher levels of human unity. For the oil problem is related to so many other problems: our lack of concern for the environmental well-being of society; a 100 year old distain for the nations who produced the oil; the oligarchies and fundamentalism that has arisen in these oil producing states; the poverty and misery in these and other countries where so much oil money flows; the inability of industry to have the will to develop methods of energy efficiency; and so on.

As we address these issues, we have the ability to enable rapid progress in the world. Oil forces us to look at all of these issues and get to their root cause. As we address these issues, we take major steps in human progress, as we make our way towards our evolutionary destiny -- human unity. 

Bush and Oil
It is one of the great ironies of history that as we go through a catastrophic oil and environmental crisis, the sitting president of the world's leading country is from a family of oil men. It is no irony nor coincidence, but Nature's way of addressing and weeding out the reactionary and the false.

The Environmental Movement
The environmental movement is the most obvious example of this phenomenon. This is not only a compulsion of Nature that is forcing us to deal with a problem that affects our common environment, the earth, globe, but is also Nature's secret way of bringing us closer together, to creating more world unity -- i.e. to create Oneness. It is an outer pressure put upon us that we are reacting to avoid potential catastrophe, but it is secretly a pressure to advance the course of our human destiny of Oneness.

The Environmental Movement
The environmental movement has been successful because it took root locally, expanded out, and then gained traction at the wider national and international, i.e. global, levels. Surely, environmentalism began in part by the efforts of the much maligned hippies, the boomers, and their descendents from the 1970s onward. Then the society as a whole embraced it, as we see when householders throughout the world separate the recycled from the non-recyclable trash. Even leaders, business, and the nations themselves are speaking out as if they invented the concept! They were merely followers of movements that began locally and spread globally.

Untitled
The efforts over the last ten years to implement the value of environmental security illustrate the range of knowledge, information, attitudes, institutions, systems, and skills needed to achieve any high value in life.

Environmentalism as New Consciousness
I think of environmentalism as a new consciousness emerging that gradual organized itself into a movement and is just now beginning to formalize itself through effective social organization. As a problem that can only be tackled effectively on a global basis, environmental issues compel humanity to move toward human unity and evolve institutions for global governance. Otherwise China's and India's smog and CO2 becomes everyone else's problem. (MSS)

Global Warming?
In the 1960s the "facts" presented were that we were coming upon an era of overpopulation (from 3 to 6 billion), which would bring certain catastrophe. It turns out that the population more than doubled and there has been no such catastrophe, though there are certainly some shortages or misdistribution of global resources. The same is likely true of global warming. Though, there is certainly threat of pollution, greenhouse gasses, et al that need to be dealt with ASAP, even doubling our efforts, there are no hard facts that it will lead to a form of global warming that will have catastrophic effects or destroy the planet. In fact, the warming (or cooling) of the globe may have positive effects that we are not even considering, or are at least the shifting of climates around the world from warm to cool and cool to warm, as well as other natural or non-lethal changes. In other words, global warming may not only not be catastrophic, but may be beneficial, just as increased population can be seen as an asset that created more diversity, more power for emerging nations and cultures, etc. The truth is we just do not have enough information on global climate change to pronounce on it rationally.  

On Global Warming
-50 years ago, people (including science) said global cooling (coming Ice Age) was at hand and would ruin the world. It was a hasty conclusion.

-40 years ago, it was overpopulation that would do the same. Again, the same mistake.

-Now it is Global Warming, due to fossil fuels.

-Global Warming may actually be due to natural changes.

-Or Global Warming may not even exist in the long-term view of things.

-Coming to absolute conclusions now is folly.

-We should be alert, mindful, and look at all sides of things, but avoid coming to hasty conclusions even if the current evidence seems compelling on the surface.

-Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of environmental improvements are certainly welcome.

 

TO BE CATEGORIZED

 

The Environment

On Global Warming

-50 years ago, people (including science) said global cooling (fear of coming Ice Age) was at hand and would ruin the world. It was a hasty conclusion.

-40 years ago, it was overpopulation that would do the same. Again, the same mistake.

-Now it is Global Warming, due to fossil fuels.

-Global Warming may actually be due to natural changes.

-Or Global Warming may not even exist in the long-term view of things.

-Coming to absolute conclusions on the subject now is premature, and can lead to folly.

-We should be alert, mindful, and look at all sides of things, but avoid coming to hasty conclusions, even if the current evidence seems compelling on the surface.

-Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of environmental improvements being undertaken in the world are certainly welcome.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

US on Climate and Nuclear Arms Agreements

The US needs to come on board and agree to environmental change as the European nations have, and not demand that China and others do so simultaneously as the US Senate has required in the past. When the US is free to continue to pollute, then other nations will feel unfettered to do so as well. The same is true for Nuclear Arms. The US should commit to radical reductions of missiles, otherwise other countries, friendly or otherwise, will feel free to develop theirs as well. If the US does not make the change, then life will respond opposite of its interests with other nations opting for pollution and arms. The result of this is a movement toward inevitable catastrophic events in the future.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Earthquake and Backwards, Forwards Movements of Society

Earthquake reflects a disturbance at the subconscious level of the society. There was a huge earthquake in Iran just prior to the Islamic Revolution in the late 1970s that deposed the Shah and installed the Islamic government. Disturbances come not only when the society moves backward. They also come as reactions to rapid forward progress -- both in the society as well as in individuals. When the society moves forward very rapidly, all the forces that cling to outmoded ways of life react and revolt against it.** You can say the rise of terrorism in the world is one response to the rapid social development of the world, including the rapid advancement of women. (MSS)

[**Comment: I believe this was the case recently in Haiti. There was in recent years a real progressive movement afoot to move the society forward by people in power and elsewhere in the nation, yet there was still a tremendous resistance and inertia of the overwhelming majority of the population many decades in the making.] (2009-2011 Q1)

 

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Socialism and Capitalism
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Man at the Center of Life
Socialism as a system has attempted to put Man at the center, and mostly failed. Capitalism has tried to put man's freedom at the center, and has succeeded in part. Freedom, cooperation, harmony, integral development, and other deep values will take root only when Man is valued for what he truly is.

Socialistic Values
Socialism has mostly failed as a system, though its values and beliefs are noble. The irony is that they are are being embraced and implemented through capitalism.

Truth of Marx; Disaster of Its System; America's Success
The aim of all socialism and communism is to distribute prosperity over the entire population. It is a laudable aim. Karl Marx wished the state to accept that duty. America achieved it in natural conditions all by itself. Perhaps Marx assumed the government to be wise, fair and incorruptible. As a goal it is great, but the USSR proved to be a disaster. (MSS)

Marx Adopted through Capitalism
Marx was denounced vehemently, but Marxism came to stay through the fabric of Capitalism. (MSS)

Socialistic Ideas Adopted by Capitalism
A great irony of history is that many of the socialistic ideas, which failed miserably under the communist system, are being adopted by capitalist countries.

Rise of Socialistic Democracy
-The world is gradually moving from capitalistic democracy to its socialistic form.
-Market-orientation will remain, but with a shift in emphasis on servicing Man, not money. Hence socialistic replacing capitalistic.
-Recent financial events will move society in that direction.
-E.g. finance of the future will focus on helping the individual person first, and profits secondarily.
-Socialistic democracy is not a command economy, but a surrendering to the social needs of Man.
-It will serve the Individual and Individuality in all respects.

Russia has Socialized the Capitalist World
Russia has made the entire capitalist world more socialistic than socialistic countries. Today the worker is far better off in all capitalist countries than in socialistic countries. (MSS)

Capitalism Expressing Socialistic Values
In 1917 the Russian Revolution and the birth of the USSR created a scare all over the world. The West tried to repress it. However, subconsciously the West valued the Marxian ideal of the concern for the welfare and well-being of the worker. In fact, the West over time since has adopted a good deal of it, especially the first phase of "pay according to one's abilities and capacities." Now the West is moving into the second Marxian phase of "pay according to one's need." (Watch the science fiction series Star Trek and you will see a culture where being paid according to one's needs is implemented in some fashion.) (Paraphrase of MSS)

Socialistic Values and Beyond
Capitalism is one by one adding socialistic values and services, which is why it has done so well in the last fifty years. From minimum wages, to concern for safety of workers, from woman's maternity leave to management listening to the inputs of workers, from consumers' rights to anti-trust laws, socialistic-like values are entering capitalism and enabling it to thrive.

Now as a result of the latest financial debacle, new values will be put in place, protecting homebuyers, small investors, international concerns, and others parties. This will help capitalism expand further.

Of course, the name "capitalism" is not accurate to describe the system, for it has not been built on financial might, on capital; but on personal initiative, vision, and especially entrepreneurism. Add social values to it, and you have the reason the entrepreneurial system has been so successful, despite recent events.

On the other hand, this is not enough. That will only be the case when the Human Individual is put at the center of life; not a system, economic or otherwise; not materialism and the needs to produce goods for consumers; but the decision to support the human being in every facet of his and her being so that person can find  ultimate fulfillment in life. The 21st century awaits this higher outlook on life.

Socialistic Values in Capitalism
Merit (pay for deserved skill) is the first socialistic major tenet of Marx that capitalism has adopted. Pay for one's true needs is a next step. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Socialism Failed .. and Succeeded
Marx's idea of Socialism never gained ground for 70 years until Lenin made it a reality. It ended up as a reality of command economy and police state. After 70 years, it destroyed itself. Socialism in the sense of welfare to the masses has become an abundant political fact all over the world. (MSS)

The Russian Revolution Enabled Social Welfare in Nations of the World
After the birth of the USSR in 1917, nations gradually changed themselves to being welfare states to stem the tide of communism. As a result, the seventy-year rule of communism could not give that prosperity to its proletariat which capitalism could give its workers. This is a process of avoiding a communist revolution by unconsciously receiving the force of that revolution to express it as social evolution. (MSS)

Capitalistic Countries Become Welfare States to Avoid Revolution as in USSR
After the birth of the USSR in 1917, nations gradually changed themselves to being welfare states to stem the tide of communism. As a result, the seventy-year rule of communism could not give that prosperity to its proletariat which capitalism could give its workers. This is a process of avoiding a communist revolution by unconsciously receiving the force of that revolution to express it as social evolution. (MSS)

New Spiritual Age Built Atop Reconciliation of Capitalistic and Social Values

The emerging new age that we are entering transcends socialism, communism, and capitalism. It is a higher harmony that transcends the conflict between the opposing forces, of freedom (capitalism) and social consciousness (socialism).

Everything on earth is constantly moving towards a higher harmony. A higher harmony is not a mere compromise, but something that transcends the contradictions and conflicts of two opposing, conflicting, or contradicting parties, forces, or ideals. The emergence in the world of a new social order that transcends capitalism and socialism is that higher harmony unfolding. It is the opening to the new spiritual age that awaits us in the 21st century. If the 20th century was the century of the economic man, of the common man, then the 21s is the century of the spiritually-realized man.

American Chance for Socialism Under FDR
FDR who came upon the New Deal had a wonderful success, made the people reverse their attitude. [They acceded to his advice that the only thing to fear was fear itself.] He had before him the greatest ever opportunity of creating an egalitarian socialist government that would have cancelled Russian violence. [Ed. The idea is that if the West had adopted these values, the Russian oppression under Stalin would have been cancelled in the subtle plane.] American would have become the socialist nation leading the world. Instead, FDR went back to monetary policies and war [WWII] came to save the situation, making the US the arch enemy of socialism. But as a result of what can be called the irony of fate or life -- in my words according to the wider theory of social evolution -- the US pays its working population more than any socialist country. In fact, workers in the US are enamoured of becoming mini capitalists. (MSS, with addition)

The End of Capitalism and Communism
"The age of Capitalism and business is drawing to a close.

But the age of Communism, too, will pass. For Communism as it is preached is not constructive, it is a weapon to combat plutocracy. But when the battle is over and the armies are disbanded for want of employment, then Communism, having no more utility, will be transformed into something else that will express a higher truth.

We know this truth, and we are working for it so that it may reign upon earth." (The Mother, 1956)

Capitalism, Socialism, and Current Financial Crisis
Capitalism whose death signals were rung in 1825 first shifted its arena to Money. Socialism operating through democracy can stave off the crisis. It is a provisional solution to the malady, not a final resolution. (MSS) [Man, not Money at center of life, and values issuing from it, is the solution.]

Solutions to World Financial Crisis
1. A World Fed must be put in place because there is no international control of wild investing.

2. Man -- the human individual -- not money must move to the center of life.

3. Greed and speculation brought about the Great Depression and opened the door to Hitler and WWII leading to 70 million dead. This must change, or we are destined to repeat, but in a New Way.

4. Ego is the cause of greed and our unwillingness to change. It is at the root of all selfishness, which is in every one of us. That must change.

5. Rampant materialisms must come to an end, ushering in higher human and spiritual values.

6. Unfortunately, disastrous circumstance is the fastest way to change things; to overcome our fixed ways that do not want to change. If we don't take to several of the suggestions above, then life will brutally do it for us, forcing us to change. It is Nature's (i.e. Life's) painful method.

Speculation and the Global Financial Meltdown
In the 1970s, the individual known as The Mother predicted the demise of both communism and capitalism. Through the experiences of certain visitors and her own view, she concluded that the Soviet system was failing internally. The Mother was intuitive in the extreme and vastly knowledgeable about world events, including the arc of human evolution. A decade or so later, the Soviet empire crumbled, as president Michael Gorbachav brought it down from within without any loss of life. It is perhaps the greatest development and miracle of history, as his rise to power enabled the world to avoid nuclear confrontation, and therefore the end of life on earth.

As I mentioned earlier, The Mother also anticipated the end of capitalism. She saw both systems as inherently flawed: that humanity was not fully served by either. In fact, she felt that society was subconsciously yearning for something more. And yet for years, capitalism has done relatively well, and might continue to do so. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that it can no longer continue in its current form, for its speculative nature is bringing it to its knees so that it can reexamine itself and evolve to a higher state.

At the core of the financial meltdown is speculation, which rests on the negative value and attitude of greed. Speculation is to try to devise and execute financial instruments without reference to the safety of investors or the individual such as homeowners who own the money in the first place. Risk is extreme, as self-serving instruments become paramount. In an economic environment of laissez-faire capitalism, the law of the jungle rules; deep human values are thrown to the wind. It is on that basis that The Mother suggested the end of capitalism. Because humanity is ever evolving, Nature demands external forms that can meet its higher aspirations. The Soviets tried to incorporate higher human values -- such as cooperation and justice -- but devised an artificial and faulty state system. Thought the foundation for the West was the freedom and capacity of the individual, it lacked in values that could serve cooperative and collaborative interests. Thus, they are two sides of a whole, each a part, and therefore ultimately inefficient. Human evolution requires the integration of the best of these two domains, and something more.

When freedom becomes extreme, it reinforces ego. Thus. in the extreme of free markets, individuals act on their own behalf. Their self-serving interests and actions come back and destroy their supporters and themselves. The philosophy of unfettered individuality without higher values of cooperation and harmony destroys.

The US is the world leader, especially economically and militarily. Culturally and values wise, she is adolescent at best. Because she leads in these way, the world follows blindly, and so too is caught in the snag that America set for herself. World capital flowed into the faulty financial instruments created by US speculators, bringing down the world along with the originating force, America. The whole world participates in the meltdown as there is no organization to coordinate these activities, employ the necessary social values, and take right action when necessary. Unfettered capitalism has thus spread around the world, and other nations have followed the speculators blindly. It is the greed, ego, and darkness in the heart of man. As we see, it knows no bounds. Where it will lead is anybody's guess. One thing is certain however: human evolution which demands intensive change is on the march.

Thoughts on India

Also See Thoughts on the Potentials & Possibilities for Society

Also See Thoughts on the Movement Towards World Unity

 

 

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On Democracy
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Recent Evolutionary Changes
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New Evolution in Society
The last 50 years has seen a vast development of the mental consciousness, surpassing the previous 500. Humans are ever more frequently having subtle and psychic experiences indicating a movement towards higher mind. The greater globalism, through greater economic development and dependency, increase in communications and media, indicate an accelerating  movement towards the outer oneness of life.

Achievement, Human Choice, and Infinite Capacity
In the last 100 years the world has achieved more than it achieved in the previous 500 years. Man's choice has inherently had that power within...The human mind is always capable of that power, because it is Infinite. (MSS)

500 Years of Progress Since WWII
Since the end of the war in fifty years the world has made as much progress as in the previous 500 years. (MSS)

Rapid Evolution of Society in Recent Decades
Normally when we think of the term ''evolution," images of how humans emerged from the plant to the ape come to mind. Yet evolution is also occurring in the present, though few have tried to map it out. It is occurring predominantly through human evolution, which can be seen at the level of the individual, or at the level of society, or at the point they intersect. Interestingly, evolution is speeding up in the last several decades. Some have even suggested that evolution is moving into a phase of exponential growth. Consider the events of the last two decades, indicating the evolution taking place in society:

• The Cold War has come to an end, ending bi polar conflict that threatened to end the world, opening the door to more integrative, collective developments in the world.

• The European Union has taken shape, creating a model for forms of political unity in the future.

• Asia has risen out of its moribund state, bringing entire new cultures into the forefront.

• A global view of the earth and environment has emerged, which is a kind of collective world "religion."

• A new world of possibility has opened up with the emergence of the computer, telecommunication devices, and especially the Internet.

• The education of humanity is radically accelerating, contributing to vast new knowledge and insight.

• Man is becoming more aware of other cultures and spiritual traditions.

• Man is becoming more mental, rational, and open to a variety of perspectives.

• We are moving from the rise of the Common Man to the rise of the True Individual, who is able to express his true individuality, not determined by the view of the herd.

• Increasingly it is the era of Rising Expectations where everyone expects their fair share in this world.

• We see individuals all over the world taking to personal growth and new forms of spiritual identity.

From these developments it is not to difficult to envision further steps towards Inner Fulfillment and World Unity, including deeper associations between nations and cultures,  the development of a World Parliament, the movement from economic to political to cultural to spiritual integration, the emergence of new insights into the nature of spirit and spiritual progress for the individual, and endless other possibilities. We are just at the very beginning in the next stage of human evolution, just as startling a change from what we are now as the human was from the ape.

Levels of Collective Change in Consciousness in the World
Is there a collective movement in higher consciousness under way?

Undoubtedly we are in a new age where a new consciousness is emerging. It is happening in ways that for the average person are too subtle to be perceived. Even for the conscious person, it is happening in ways that are beyond the spiritual traditions or even the New Age movements. That is why Sri Aurobindo's perceptions of this new world are so helpful, because he lays out the general parameters so clearly. Karmayogi has extended this knowledge into the major fields of life.

If it is a collective movement, it is certainly not a conscious one. That is why I listed out several of the outer manifestations of collective change, because it can be more readily seen there. For example, people are speaking about the environment with one very strong, even loud voice. It is a great development, but only the most surface form of collective unity. It addresses the purely physical plane of existence. When humanity address the psychological issues -- i.e. the fulfillment of the individual, the encouragement of his full potential, the overcoming of all problems that impede his progress, etc. -- then there would be real collective progress. In other words, we would be collectively sharing the need to embrace the deepest of human values. Environmentalism addresses physical values of cleanliness, security, etc., not the deeper psychological values, let alone spiritual values. Still it is a significant step.

Spiritual values of Harmony, Unity, Oneness, Love, Wisdom, Delight, Timelessness, Infinity, Peace, et al are the deep beliefs that would be embraced for a true spiritual evolution. That is an evolutionary leap beyond; though it can infiltrate earlier forms of collective progress.

We can also see evolution along a spectrum from political to economic to cultural to spiritual unity. We are well under way towards economic unity, with the others hardly addressed.

It is in outer events/unfoldings that we can see the inner appreciation of values. The Internet is a perfect example, as it embraces the deeper aspirations of man. The common man does not see the deeper values that the Internet represents. 

Perceptions of deep human values at the collective level would be a great sign that human evolution is on its way, and is being shared, communicated, and embraced. It would be a great step in human evolution.

Of course, the overcoming of ego, ignorance, exclusiveness, possessiveness, separateness, et al; plus the purification at the physical, vital, mental, and spiritual levels of the person are the essential steps of progress for the individual. They would readily contribute to the general collective movement forward; to the progressive evolution of humanity.

New Planetary Change in Consciousness
Question: Will there be a vast spiritual shift on our planet, a new consciousness emerging on earth in 2012, as some have predicted.

Certainly, there is a progressive movement taking place of higher consciousness, of evolution, even spiritual evolution gradually over time. It is possible that there will be a spiritual shift on the planet as some have suggested for 2012, or for any year for that matter.

In the 1960s, there was the greatest spiritual alignment in history as the Force descended into the earth's atmosphere. Hardly anyone noticed, yet many were affected, particularly the Hippies. (They too did not know it.)

Movements of spirit are normally inward, unseen, subtle. These are realms unperceived in man. Does it break out on the surface? The Hippies was definitely a breakout. The Force was so powerful, and the instruments of the people so limited that for every step forward the Hippies made there was a step backwards. (They could not hold the force despite their profoundly new perceptions in the world.) Then it all disappeared as if they never existed. The environmental movements, the computer, and the Internet are just a few of their legacies.

Whether there will be another such breakout (itself due to inner spiritual changes in the cosmic realms) remains to be seen.  

The interest in ''The Secret" is to me the most powerful development I have seen along these lines. It is 75% of what Life Response is. It knows the effect well (i.e. the response that comes), though it is lacking in the integral view of the cause. The Secret's approach is to achieve a goal. Life response is more than that, being a comprehensive view of a new way to live our lives. An evolutionary leap.  The Secret/Life response and its offshoots have the potential to change the course of spiritual history. It is a step in the stages of yoga I outlined in the previous entry.

To return to the original question. We cannot know for sure if such a spiritual breakout will occur in society. As the sage says, ''Ours is not to predict, but to anticipate." Yet anything and everything is possible. As Sri Aurobindo said: ''It is the Hour of the Unexpected."

Economic to Common to Spiritual Man
The last few centuries were marked by the emergence of economic man. The 20th century saw the emergence of the common man. This new 21st century will see the emergence of spiritual man.

From a Material to a Human-Centric World
American has become the economic and military leader of the world. Through vast organizational capacity (mass production) and several waves of immigrant population, she has become the pioneer leader of nations. She is a microcosm that the world seeks to emulate.

And yet America suffers periodically as she is now experiencing in the current world financial crisis. It is a reflection of her limitations of consciousness. It is her material-oriented view of reality that is too often devoid of a more complex psychological view of existence.

The Indian sage Karmayogi of India put it this way, ''Americans think with their body." That is, US citizens are oriented to what can be seen, heard, and touched; to what mind perceives of the world outside itself through its senses. America's preoccupation with sense knowledge causes her to have a material, mechanistic, technological view of life, which shields her from deeper truths and values. Hence, she suffers as she does now in the current financial crisis, rooted in speculation and greed of the material surface.

To continue to be the world pioneer and leader, America must develop deeper vital, psychological, and mental values. Otherwise, others will take up the mantle of truth leadership. India is one fine candidate in that her tradition has deep roots in the most profound truths of life. These psychological and spiritual insights are what the world secretly yearns for, as the American-led material view that has led to the current catastrophe has proven unworthy for the next stage of human progress and development. The world may embrace America's dynamism, energy, organization, and creativity to create infinite-like material well-being, but humanity is beginning to see that much more is needed for sustaining a stable and meaningful life.

Thus, the current financial crisis is a sign that the reign of the material view of the world is coming to an end, and a new era of more complex psychological and spiritual values is at hand. Who will be the pioneer in this area remains to be seen. America who has been the beacon has lost her glow. Yet even she can discover qualities that take her beyond the mechanistic, scientific, material view, and thereby perceive these deeper truths. She can begin by putting Man at the center of life. When the individual human is idolized and cherished, instead of mere material and financial gain, then a new era of life on earth will have begun.

Ease in Society Since WWII because of Moving from Vital to Power of Mind.
Life was negative with a vengeance until 1900, maybe until the end of World War II. It made survival difficult. Most people struggled to hold on to what they had. The question of opportunity was unheard of. When Benjamin Disraeli became the Prime Minister of England, he described his rise as, "At last I have reached the top of the greasy pole.''

In an expressive proverb it is said here that if we rise six inches, there is a slide down of 12 inches awaiting us around the corner. It was so because Mind was not sufficiently organised in those days. Life is a lower force, which was stronger than Mind. (MSS)

Phenomenon Decade of Change Following End of Cold War
In fact, the decade following the fall of the Berlin Wall has hugely creative -- European Monetary Union (1990), START treaty (1991) EU (1992-3), Chemical Weapons Convention (1993), WTO (1994), WWW (1994-95) World Court judgment on nuclear weapons 1996, Euro (1998), followed by expansion of NATO and the EU (from 15 to 27 countries).  What a phenomenal decade of human progress! (MSS)

Solutions to World Financial Crisis
1. A World Fed must be put in place because there is no international control of wild investing.

2. Man -- the human individual -- not money must move to the center of life.

3. Greed and speculation brought about the Great Depression and opened the door to Hitler and WWII leading to 70 million dead. This must change, or we are destined to repeat, but in a New Way.

4. Ego is the cause of greed and our unwillingness to change. It is at the root of all selfishness, which is in every one of us. That must change.

5. Rampant materialisms must come to an end, ushering in higher human and spiritual values.

6. Unfortunately, disastrous circumstance is the fastest way to change things; to overcome our fixed ways that do not want to change. If we don't take to several of the suggestions above, then life will brutally do it for us, forcing us to change. It is Nature's (i.e. Life's) painful method.

 

Emerging World Unity Amidst the Chaos (2006)

On the surface, it seems like the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Actually, such disturbances are indicators that we are accelerating towards greater World Unity.

The threat of the annihilation of the entire world was eliminated for the most part by the end of the Cold War. This was a vast leap for humanity. When Gorbachev disengaged the failing system from within without bloodshed, he took the world across a precarious and great threshold. Now the other, smaller problems of the world have reared their heads, hidden from view in the shadow of potential global annihilation. There are many difficulties to be solved: with poverty, disease, terrorism, resources, and environmental degradation being the most noticeable. Even conflicts on these fronts indicate that through the resolution of these issues the world will further progress, develop, and unify.

Of note, the problems of the Arab world and Africa have seen ignored for decades, if not centuries -- particularly in the umbra of the Cold War. It is the most obviously unorganized part of the global system; of life on earth. With the end of Cold War hostilities, they can finally be addressed, and with it will come not only greater economic stability, but greater political, social, and cultural harmony and integration amongst the peoples of the world.

We must first understand that this is the Hour of the Unexpected. All unknowns can become know; and the seeming impossibilities can become infinite-like possibilities. In other words, what we perceive as huge roadblocks to progress are actually a vast opportunities in disguise.

One hundred years ago, the Europeans laughed at America, at her crudeness and backwardness, and now she is the most prosperous nation in the world. Likewise, for 100 years, the West ignored and snickered at India and China, and now these emerging nations are rapidly moving toward prosperity and vast global influence, something thought of to be utterly preposterous only a few generations ago. The fact of the billions living in those countries -- once perceived as an economic obstacle to human progress -- is now perceived as a vast opportunity. Interestingly, we see a leading edge of creating thinking and innovation emerging there; in ways that may even exceed the West. What would life be if a billion geniuses emerged from the East? The earlier impossibility would turn into a never-thought-of-before infinite-like reality.

At a higher level, we see that the Force of Nature is pushing the world towards further evolution. It takes shape in many forms: from economic to cultural to spiritual. We are in the times of economic integration. Secretly however there is a movement afoot toward human unity, of which economic cooperation and harmony is but an initial steps. Political, social, and cultural harmony are further stages. Though it will take decades if not centuries for it to occur, that movement is surely under way.

One great question is whether the movement toward Human Unity will occur consciously, where we use our higher values to create that future, or through the slow and difficult path of Nature, which is through contradiction, conflict, and strife. For example, there was vast progress after WWII, with the establishment of the UN, the EU, and many other global-unifying institutions. It is an example of progress that comes in the wake of destruction On the other hand, the Internet, also a global unifying power, came out of the positive aspirations of society for a higher order of organization and success to knowledge. Which path we take will depend on the level of conscious awareness we bring to bear, as a people, and as individuals partaking in the world.

One critical determinant of Human Unity will be how the degree we take to rationality and clear thinking; as opposed to our attachments to limited points of view, superstition, and falsehood. Education will obviously play a great role here. As a result of a more rational humanity, there will invariably be movements towards higher social and cultural values. As human values such as tolerance, true individuality, and collective action ascend in the world, the people will naturally move into closer economic, social, and cultural integration and unity. Such movements will be mirrored by events and circumstance at the highest level, as the yearning towards oneness of individuals will reflect at the level of the human collective. Again, the Internet serves as an example.

As a result of greater rationality and more deeply shared human values, there will also be corresponding evolutionary movements in the way Knowledge is accessed through the human mind. In the future, we will see increasing capacities to perceive complex truths directly through silence, intuition, and revelation. This will increasingly reveal the deeper meaning and purposes of life, including that of the spiritual dimension. Through these new states of consciousness and awareness, a Soul movement will begin underfoot for humanity, where we increasingly feel deep connections and bonds with others, including a profound association, unity, and oneness. All of these together then will reflect at the macro level as ever-accelerating movements of Human Unity.

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Other
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The European Union (EU)

See Thoughts on the EU

Evil, Crime Against Humanity of Atomic Weapons

Atomic Bombs are a Greater Evil than War and Must Be Abolished; End of Ego Abolishes Such Evil
Now that the wars are over and humanity is lucky enough or maybe wise enough to avoid the Third World War, the approaching 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan is an opportunity to think of the future.

War is evil. The atom bomb is a greater evil. The greater evil helped to end the rule of the lesser evil. The stockpile of nuclear bombs threatening the world is the greatest of evils. Disarmament is proceeding at the level of positive decisions, decisions not to use the weapons. The existing bombs must be dismantled.

Also, there are other weapons equally dangerous, such as chemical or biological weapons. It is a great thing to destroy one form of evil. Still, it can sprout as another form of Evil. Will evil disappear after humankind ceases to produce these lethal weapons? Evil lies in the human heart, at its very bottom. Evil is in Nature as the tiger's ferocity and the destruction of an earthquake. Before trying to abolish evil from Nature or human nature, one needs to understand what evil is.

Religions or philosophies have not been hopeful of abolishing the fundamental evil. They advised mankind to avoid evil. Sri Aurobindo says there is no evil in creation and there is evil only to the experience of the ego. When man abolishes his ego, there will be no evil in his view or his experience. Leaders of thought in religion, philosophy, and science should address this issue in the light of the rich experiences of the twentieth century. (MSS)

Weapons of Atomic Energy as Crime Against Humanity
To utilize the higher for a lower purpose is a crime against humanity, just as releasing atomic energy for the destruction of the population.

Stock Pile of Weapons Compels Its Use
The stock pile of weapons (e.g. nuclear weapons) has a power to compel people to use it. (MSS)

 

Vietnam, Watergate

The Whole of Truth of Freedom in Vietnam
Individual skill is a part. Victory in battle is a whole. The part, however great it is, cannot win against the whole. In the Vietnamese war, as to ammunitions, there was no comparison between the US Army and the Viet Cong. Even in the training of soldiers, the Viet Cong had untrained villagers, while the US soldiers were conscripts who were fighting a war in which their heart was not there. As to money, the US had mountains of it, while the Viet Cong was poor. Still, the US had to withdraw ingloriously, as the Viet Cong was fighting for their Freedom, which is a greater cause and a whole. (MSS)

Unmotive to Fight of National Armies
At present we have national armies that do not have anymore a motive to fight. Because there is no motive, there is no willingness, no will to fight. The army is in an impasse. An army without a motive to fight is no army, cannot call itself an army. Still armies are send out to for instance Bosnia or Somalia. If the army fights, soldiers will die. Soldiers can only die for a cause, a national cause. They cannot die, that is do not want to die for a cause that does not concern them. Their mission and training is to defend their country or the stakes of their country. They cannot defend, as it is now, another nation or people, because their emotions will not be released. Without the necessary emotions a soldier cannot fight. He has to fight by order, but when his heart is not in it, it leads to disaster (Vietnam). Not to fight also leads to disaster (Sebrenica). (in Sebrenica a few thousand Bosnian people were murdered after the Dutch peace keeping forces, which were there to protect them, lapsed and gave the enclave over to the enemy forces) (Robert van Harten)  [This is an argument for the creation of a World Army.]

America in Vietnam
America is doing horrible things. They have mined Haiphong. [[Mother actually said Hong Kong, but she was certainly talking of Haiphong and the resumption of American bombings over North Vietnam, followed by the blockade ordered by President Nixon.]] Nobody had ever dared do that so far. (The Mother)

On Nixon, Vietnam, & Watergate
The Mother: I have always seen material help coming from the United States [to India  -editor] - always. But that President,  [[Nixon]] who is a brute, stands in the way. There won't be a new President until November. Something should be done in the country to block him (because he's a candidate), so that he doesn't get reelected.

Satprem: He's virtually the favorite.

The Mother: Over there people don't like him.

Satprem:Yes, but he has the backing of Big Business.

The Mother: Yes, quite so.

He MUSTN'T be reelected, and there's no point in seeing him either [Indira's overtures]. He mustn't. It MUST NOT happen. [[Watergate began two months later, on June 17. But Nixon was triumphantly reelected in November.]]

The consciousness must support, help, enlighten and strengthen all those who don't want him. (from The Mother's Agenda)
 

 

The Hippy Generation

Influence of the Hippies
-The hippies in the US echo the evolutionary call from heaven.

-The hippie movement was an aberration of the civilization. It was really a revolt of youth against the establishment. Yhey are now reabsorbed into the society and they are in their fifties [in 2004], the real leaders of thought in whatever field they are in. Examples-

• Fritjof Capra is a physicist who revolted thirty years ago against the traditional philosophy of physics. He has not yet been accepted by the world of physics as yet. But his books [e.g. 'The Tao of Physics' and 'The Turning Point'] have sold in the millions. He tried to integrate Science and Spirit.

• Tom Peters was another from that generation. His plea for Freedom [in the workplace] had the widest appeal of the eighties. The spirit of his appeal prevailed in the field of Management. (MSS, slightly modified)

Hippies as Emergence of the Individual
The hippy movement originated in the USA as a revolt against the establishment. It was the distance beginning of the emerging individual. Though they were absorbed by the society later, the spirit of their revolt is still alive. (MSS)

Legacy of the Hippies
From out of the hippy movement emerged the environmental movement, the higher end of the woman's movement, the new age movement, the embracing world cultures movement, the computer revolution, and the Internet revolution, all of which spread, throughout the world. Deep, new emerging values tend to catch the wave of the emerging social evolution, as they did here. The irony is that though they creates these great goods, they were absorbed into the culture, and forgotten as the originators of these very things they now cherish.  

Hippy Legacy
The hippies became the baby boomers, who brought workplace values, the computer revolution, the Internet, global environmentalism, Eastern thought, and 'The Secret.'

The Power of Hippies that was Vast Not Captured by Organization
The power the hippies released was immense and spilled over the world. Society was bewildered. No organisation rose to receive it. Just now no one seems to remember what happened through the hippies in the society in the sixties and seventies. It rose like an earthquake and vanished like a bubble. (MSS)

Re: Hippy Use of LCD and Other Drugs in 1968 
There are other times when there is a very strong push towards transformation, and, I must say ... with a risk of possible damage. Certainly since 1956, it's plainly visible that there has been something [the Force] pushing and pushing and pushing to hasten the movement, and ... it results in some very dangerous extravagances. (The Mother)

The Hippies and The Force

There is a new book on the market -- 'What the Dormouse Said' by John Markoff -- that attempts to explain the relationship between the use of drugs by the hippies in the 60s and the emergence of computer revolution. When I sent a note about it to certain friends, they responded by revisiting their drug experiences, glorifying in its power to evoke intensity. I responded by saying that the hippies were indeed responsible for the emerging personal computer industry, but that it was not due to the influence of drugs, which was a distortion of consciousness, but to the deep values advocated by the hippies.

If this is the case, i.e. if they brought with them the profoundest of new values, a new worldview and consciousness, a new definition of freedom, etc, why didn't the movement  -- actually it was more than a movement, it was a large chunk of the baby boom generation -- sustain itself?

Let's look at it from the metaphysical point of view. There is a spiritual Force descending on the earth. It is the evolutionary Truth Consciousness of the Divine. As it leans down on the earth, it does so with great pressure. The hippies who were ripe for such things were directly under its positive influence. However, their consciousness was not wide enough to hold the Force, and therefore it began to express in a distorted fashion -- i.e. through their distorted behaviors. Focused in the lower vital consciousness, the Force manifests as creativity, wonder, new vision, new possibility, but when the vital is not strong and pure the action of the Force can express in distorted ways -- through the super-intensity of the drug experience, through sexual indulgence, and in other ways. Had the Hippies developed an inner basis of calm and equality, the Force could have penetrated their being without the negative side effects.

As a result of the distortions, the Hippy generation could not survive. Add to it the fact that there were no organizations formed in society to channel their energies, the movement simply evaporated. After half a decade, it was absorbed and diffused by society, vanishing quietly like the last bubbles on a calm sea. Still they left an astounding array of change -- perhaps unmatched, at least in possibility and potentiality, since the Renaissance of 500 years ago. Hundreds of years of influence were condensed into half a decade.

For example, former hippy Tom Peters' management books advocating freedom and values in the workplace would revolutionize the business environment. In science, hippy-influenced thinkers like Fritjof Capra in books like 'The Turning Point' would sanction the astounding, mind-bending new discoveries of physics. More generally the hippies would have an vast impact on society, bringing about the birth of the environmental movement, the New Age spiritual movement, a fuller blossoming of the woman's movement, the spreading of civil and human rights values around the world, the birth of the computer revolution, the emergence of the Internet, the spreading of global harmony and unity, and many others that are still unfolding today. Its influence appears endless, and continues to vibrate and influence a variety of fields of life today.

Let me conclude with this. The Force is more powerful than ever in the earth's atmosphere. You can feel it tangibly if you open yourself a little to its influence. It is there around you. From a poise of calm, we can aspire for its influence in our lives, and it will turn anything we do into miraculous result. If we call the spiritual Force into any activity we are about to embark on, that work will unfold magnificently; it will be truly a miraculous-like wonder. New possibilities will reveal themselves suddenly from out of nowhere, and from the most unexpected quarters. The sudden, positive opening in life will be eye-opening, astounding, intense -- something that the hippies of the 60s would certainly appreciate!

New Planetary Change in Consciousness
Question: Will there be a vast spiritual shift on our planet, a new consciousness emerging on earth in 2012, as some have predicted.

Certainly, there is a progressive movement taking place of higher consciousness, of evolution, even spiritual evolution gradually over time. It is possible that there will be a spiritual shift on the planet as some have suggested for 2012, or for any year for that matter.

In the 1960s, there was the greatest spiritual alignment in history as the Force descended into the earth's atmosphere. Hardly anyone noticed, yet many were affected, particularly the Hippies. (They too did not know it.)

Movements of spirit are normally inward, unseen, subtle. These are realms unperceived in man. Does it break out on the surface? The Hippies was definitely a breakout. The Force was so powerful, and the instruments of the people so limited that for every step forward the Hippies made there was a step backwards. (They could not hold the force despite their profoundly new perceptions in the world.) Then it all disappeared as if they never existed. The environmental movements, the computer, and the Internet are just a few of their legacies.

Whether there will be another such breakout (itself due to inner spiritual changes in the cosmic realms) remains to be seen.  

The interest in ''The Secret" is to me the most powerful development I have seen along these lines. It is 75% of what Life Response is. It knows the effect well (i.e. the response that comes), though it is lacking in the integral view of the cause. The Secret's approach is to achieve a goal. Life response is more than that, being a comprehensive view of a new way to live our lives. An evolutionary leap.  The Secret/Life response and its offshoots have the potential to change the course of spiritual history. It is a step in the stages of yoga I outlined in the previous entry.

To return to the original question. We cannot know for sure if such a spiritual breakout will occur in society. As the sage says, ''Ours is not to predict, but to anticipate." Yet anything and everything is possible. As Sri Aurobindo said: ''It is the Hour of the Unexpected."

Hippies Unable to Hold Force
The spiritual Force was descending (and still is), the hippies (i.e. us) picked it up, but we had not the depth of being to hold it, so the vibration became distorted, and so we indulged. The accomplishments or influences however were truly great.

Re: The Over-intensity of American Youth/Hippies in 1960s Due to the Force; Need for Balance
-That there is a very great Pressure [of the Force], a sort of intensity of pressure, is indisputable - everywhere, just everywhere. And, naturally, the reaction of Ignorance.

Nature, basically, had arranged things, and as she had no limitation of time, they were arranged so as to last millennia and millennia and millennia - she went along at a leisurely pace, having fun on the way; she invented everything that could be invented and had fun. But things didn't move along very fast. And she has arranged them in such a way that if you exert a pressure to move faster, oh, it causes catastrophes.

On the immense mass, the mass still plunged in Ignorance, it creates a sort of excitement that tends to become unhealthy. Those who are settled in a certain equilibrium protest; I have often heard them say, "But we aren't in a hurry, things are all right as they are! Why do you want to change them so fast, that will happen in its own time!" That's the attitude of those who have found a sufficiently harmonious equilibrium in life: "Oh, what a hurry, why do you want to upset everything? Let things just carry on on their own. It will happen in its own time" - like that. All those who are in a somewhat "sattvic" poise are in some such equilibrium.

Then, among those who aspire, a small number are sincere, serious, level-headed, ready for anything: ready to go slowly, to go fast, to do much, to do little - but they are regular and quiet. And finally, a band of people like imbalance and, for them, it's an opportunity for all kinds of crazy things. But the Pressure of the Force is clearly making itself felt everywhere.

Sri Aurobindo always said that the most important, but also the most difficult thing, is to learn to keep one's BALANCE IN INTENSITY. To have the intensity of aspiration, the intensity of effort, the intensity of the march forward, while at the same time keeping one's balance - the balance of perfect peace. That's the ideal condition. But it's difficult.

-The true force is a movement of fantastic speed but ... in perfect calm. There is no agitation; the movement is fantastically faster, but without agitation, in such calm! ... They generally don't even feel that Force, yet it is the one that makes - that will make - the transformation possible. (The Mother)

The New Age Movement
The New Age movement has its soul in India, its energy and leadership in the US.

 

Globalism, Energy

Conflict Economic Globalism and Energy Issues Bring World to Higher Unity
The conflicts of the emergence of economic globalism is bringing the world to greater world unity. The issue of energy and oil supplies does the same.

From Nationalistic Ego to Internationalism   

An individual grows when he takes inventory of his own limitations, identifies several deficiencies, and makes a concerted effort to overcome them in life. There is no more admirable exercise taken in an individual's life. It is sometimes known as "personal growth"; and if it is great, it can even blossom into personal evolution.

Individual nations are in many ways like the individual, and likewise have the potential to identify wanting qualities, and overcome them. It is happening for all nations to a degree, whether consciously or unconsciously. The best of nations bravely identify their weakest part and make a full effort to overcome them. Otherwise, they overcome them through Nature's way, which is of conflict, pain, and suffering. In the mental age we have entered, the ability to consciously determine our futures is the way of Soul, overcoming the slow and painful way of Nature, which has essentially been the way of the past.

One way an individual progress is by overcoming his own ego. He sees that he is not separate from others, and the world, and therefore works in ways that are not only in his own best interest, but of the world -- i.e. the people, the institutions -- around him. Nations also have that capacity; i.e. to see themselves not merely as distinct entities apart from everything else, but as part of an emerging collective of nations. While it is best to become a True Individual People, with unique concerns and interests, with a unique culture, it is not wise to exercise that nation's ego at the expense of the other nations of the world. Practically speaking, the ego of a nation expresses as nationalism, over the more positive internationalism that is emerging in the world. It is a sure sign of future difficulty, if not extreme pain and conflict.

When the Germans marched across Europe before WWII, nations were unable to cooperate to halt that movement. Each nation pulled in its own direction, asserting its own nationalistic identity; in other words, their ego. As a result, cooperation was not gained to halt the march of the ruthless Nazis, who were able to sweep across Europe, until they had no other choice but to join together to stop the Evil. In the meantime, over 50 million died because individual nations asserted their nationalistic ego over their efforts of international cooperation.

The world is moving towards international cooperation, as expressed in the United Nations, in the various world alliances, and in the European Union. We also see that same energy expressed through economic globalism, which is slowly moving towards the even higher social and cultural globalism. These are indicator of a gradual movement toward World Unity, which is our ultimate economic, political, social, cultural, and even spiritual destiny. When nations express their nationalism over the movement of internationalism, they are acting counter to the tide of evolutionary history.

Oil Crisis (2006) and Human Unity
Oil is the fuel that provides much of the material energy for society. The fact that there is contention and crisis over the availability of oil is both symbolic and an indicator that there is something amiss elsewhere. It is an indication of a lack of harmony in society.

Sri Aurobindo says that all problems in life are problems of harmony. Never was this more true at the material level of society than the issue of oil. Nations vie for it now at one another's expense. Each country selfishly seeks it in the name of survival. It is a problem that can be solved through higher levels of harmony amongst the nations of the world. We need to move from self-interest to global interests; from our own needs to the needs of the collective of nations. It is requires a movement from ego to oneness.

Oil ironically serves another purpose. It gives us the opportunity to move to higher levels of human unity. For the oil problem is related to so many other problems: our lack of concern for the environmental well-being of society; a 100 year old distain for the nations who produced the oil; the oligarchies and fundamentalism that has arisen in these oil producing states; the poverty and misery in these and other countries where so much oil money flows; the inability of industry to have the will to develop methods of energy efficiency; and so on.

As we address these issues, we have the ability to enable rapid progress in the world. Oil forces us to look at all of these issues and get to their root cause. As we address these issues, we take major steps in human progress, as we make our way towards our evolutionary destiny -- human unity. 

A Cycle Completed After the Cold War (2007)
When the Cold War ended, the West, and in particular the US misread it. It thought it was a complete victory, compelling it (the US) to unilateral action thereafter. The Russians at the time were compliant. Now BusinessWeek and other report that the hot new market in the world is Russia, even beyond India and China, especially when it comes to original scientific thinking, thereby worthy of considerable investment. This comes as Putin speaks loudly and vociferously against a defense system in Europe -- fully backed by China, and reinforced by Gorbachev. It is as if a cycle has now run its course. The failure in Iraq parallels it on the downswing. This strikes me as a significant step towards world unity at the political and economic level. It is an important power redistribution that I think is critical for the march forward. I admit there may be bumps in the road. It may also indicate that the US is ready to lead the way through an inner progress, not just wild uncontrolled outer activity it self-justified in the wake of the Cold War.

Also See Thoughts on World Unity

 

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Other

Asian Tsunami Tragedy

Nature Drives Out Society's Physical Consciousness through Calamity
The individual and collective express their consciousness from the lowest to the highest levels. The lowest is the physical consciousness, which expresses through inertia, unwillingness to change, insensitivity, brutality, superstition, dogma, falsehood, and other anachronistic tendencies. Actions of Nature overcome that physical consciousness through natural disasters and calamities, through attack and invasion by enemies, and through other means She deems fit. The individual too suffers the consequences of his own physicality through the tragedies that come in his own personal life.

The Tsunami of 2005 in Asia is one example of this phenomenon, indicating the limited physical consciousness of the people affected there. Another is the 30 million Russians who died during WWII, which matched an equal number of citizens the Soviets had just killed of their own. Even when the nations of Europe were annihilated by the Nazis, it was because of the limited physical consciousness of those nations who were unwilling to pull together in the years leading up to the war. Many other events demonstrate this intent of Nature to overcome the unyielding physical consciousness, including the recent 9/11 attack of on the US, indicating apart of her physical nature. We see earthquakes in Iran and other locations shaking up the physical consciousness of backward thinking areas. Of course, those that hand out such "justice" -- including fascists, terrorists, and other oppressors -- are often virulently physical too, and invariably suffer the consequences as well.

Earthquake, Tsunami Tragedy in South Asia
-The fact that the natural disaster could have been avoided through proper communication indicates a lack of international cooperation -- suggesting that the world must evolve towards greater unity to solve its problems. Individual nations must give up their egos, their superstition, and falsehood to collaborate to solve world issues, which is greater than their individual capacity to deal with them. The world at large must also extend its technological competence to all peoples of the world. The leading countries must give up their global ego and embrace all nations of the world, no matter what their social, political, military, or economic status. It is in their interest (as we see in the deaths of many tourists from these nations in the event.) These are required step towards our inevitable destiny of human unity. [Adds MSS: This is an example of nations not using the existing technology at their cost.]

-The event also reflects the resistance of the "physical consciousness" of the people to progress and the insist of Nature to overcome that resistance by wiping it out. I.e. the citizens there have a physical resistance to progress that takes shape as inertia, dependent on the old ways, rituals, religions, etc. Nature through natural disaster drives out that resistance to progress. In this case, Nature drives that out of them through the suffering of natural disaster, which forces them into the modern world (i.e. of less and less Ignorance). It is ushered in through Her insistence that they first adopt the required level of organization to deal with a natural catastrophe. They can then organize all other aspects of their lives through conscious choice, i.e. by raising their consciousness, rather than by waiting for Nature's difficult way.

Preparing for Earthquake, Tsunami Tragedy Has Tendency to Cancel its Origins
For over fifty or seventy years there are tools that discover earthquakes and the consequent tsunamis. The tidal waves take a little time to arrive after the earthquake. This time there was a gap of three hours between the earthquake in Indonesia and the havoc of tidal waves in Tamilnadu. Why the warning system was not availed of is not known.

The Indian Seismic Labs should have known of the earthquake the same moment it occurred. Why they could not warn the population of tidal waves is also not known. It can be called unconscious. Suppose India has availed of the warning system and warned the people in time, the tidal wave havoc would not have been there or the catastrophe would have been on a minor scale.

It is a truth of life that when you are armed against an eventuality, it never comes to pass. Life hits unconscious people. When you are armed, you become conscious. (MSS)

On Cause of, Avoiding Catastrophes
-Catastrophes strike more often people who are unconscious. It stops harassing them the moment they become conscious.

-It is a truth of life that when you are armed against an eventuality, it never comes to pass. Life hits unconscious people. When you are armed, you become conscious. In the 2nd World War, the German submarines were sinking a large number of Allied battleships. At one point, Britain successfully decoded the German submarine messages and waited for the next event. The next event never came to pass. And with that, the tide of war turned and led the Allies to victory.

-Mother Earth will not quake when her sons are awake. What is true of a nation is true of an individual. He who is conscious, alert, who avails of opportunities, will have no problems. Nature or Fate will not strike him awake. (MSS)

 

 

Kashmir

Overcoming Security Concerns through Economic Cooperation in Kashmir
Today's reduction of Indian troops in Kashmir seems to confirm A's view that building economic bridges and well-being amongst the parties is the best way to overcome political and military disputes. They are pulling back because of economic improvements in the area which has reduced violent acts, and hence reduced security needs. The economic improvements are due to the efforts of both sides.

Kashmir Dispute
Kashmir is in dispute for over fifty years. Several causes can be traced:

• Nehru was indecisive.

• Patel, the one man who integrated all the 500 odd states was not interested in Kashmir as it had a Muslim majority.

• The UN can approach any problem, NOT objectively, but only from the Cold War point of view.

• In a physical conflict, he who approaches from a moral or legal angle will never solve it. The invading tribals must be met by an invading army. It is the bungling of politicians.

• Hari Singh jailed Nehru in June '46 and kept Sheik Abdullah in jail for years. They could never really help him.

• Nehru had emotionally disturbed Mountbatten.

• The invasion of Gazhi Mohamed had not lost its momentum and was revived in the invasion of the Afghan tribals.

• Pakistan, i.e. the Muslim League made no contribution to the Freedom Movement. Any concession to them would generate conflicts. (MSS)

One Small Perversity Overcome by Great Men
One who is given to such reading cannot miss this element - the element of conscious endeavour to detach oneself from a small perverse joy - in the lives of great men.

Great men are great by birth. The greatness in them is born when the choice is there to deny the impulse of perversity which is hostility to the Divine. (MSS)

US and Europe

US and Europe are currently contradictory complements; i.e. they are in mental conflict at the surface, though secretly each knows what the other side does not, and can be of aid to them if the other side is open to it. On the surface we see a conflict of ideas. Viewed from the depths, it is an indicator of an emerging higher harmony beyond current points of view, which invariably express through events of history.

 

America has entered the vacuum created at the end of the Cold War. When attacked, she moved to fill the vacuum -- moving in fact in a hundred directions at one.

 

She put full effort to prevent terrorism in her own nation, and remarkably thus far there has not been a single serious incident since 9/11 in the US.

 

But going in so many directions to overcome evils she perceives, she has extended herself beyond her material and psychological capacity. For every victory there seems to be a defeat. Also, her conservative tendencies have rallied support for this sometimes mindless, multi-pronged approach. (The physical does not know bounds; it just moves until the mind tames her unruly tendencies, like the bridling of a wild stallion.) 

 

Europe knows this. She herself however also has no power yet to enter the vacuum. She is trying too to work that out (e.g. we see the emergence of something akin to a European rapid reaction force), though she spends as much time waving from the sidelines in protest of US unilateral action.

 

The US, consciously or more likely sub or unconsciously, is energized to solve threats. The Europeans are mostly unenergized, yet see the US going it alone. The US sees the European weakness. The European, the US's high-handed approach. Thus, they are contradictory complements.

 

A world army, parliament, etc can resolve this difference. Or Nature will take its course, and it will come through a slow painful process. Or it can be a major negative event that unites the two sides, forcing them into a new common strategy.

 

Europe failed before the rise of fascism. 80 million died to bring the UN, and the European Union. There was also the negative role of religion as a support. We want to avoid Nature's methods, by substituting Soul. Moving out of regional ego will evoke the Soul, replacing Nature. We can thereby avoid catastrophes of all kinds in the future by moving on a common front. The more prepared we are together through common purpose, the less likely negative catastrophic events will tend to arise in the world on their own.

 

The back end pressure of Asia's rise, will also force America to consider its own flank, especially economically. Asia can be an instrument of the further unity of purpose of US and Europe.

 

Another perspective is that the US and Europe are not that far apart. It is just the current US government, representing a certain conservative element that accentuates the problem; though that force is unlikely to give way soon. The US itself has its own contradictory complements.

ARTICLE: The Rise off the Creative Class (Summary of book)

There is a dynamic creative class emerging in the US that can lead it to greatness.
Click here

MSS Articles on History, Current Events

Historical Events Interpreted ...

September eleventh

The Significance of Passion -- Napoleon 

MSS Article:
Forms of Government; Shades of Democracy, Freedom, etc.

 

Russia/Georgia Conflict

Seeing All Sides & Deeper Meanings in the Russia/Georgia Conflict
We can look at the brief war between Russia and Georgia and see so many things simultaneously: even contradictory elements. It indicates that Nature works on many fronts simultaneously.

Among them: 

• A US ally in the misguided war in Iraq, Georgia, received no help from America.
• US influence in the world's regions has deteriorated.
• The Iraq war has limited US influence.
• The leader of Georgia is a believer in US at a time the latter's standing in the world has gone down.
• The Georgian leader is aligned with US NeoCons.
• The Georgian leader misread the Russian response.
• The Russians are supporting the pro-Russian province of South Ossetia in Georgia as victims of being a breakaway region.
• The Georgians are trying to repress a legitimate breakaway area.
• The Russians have been influencing the breakaway province (and several others).
• The Russians are also using it as an excuse to flex their power.
• The Russians themselves have been treated shoddily since the end of the Cold War
• They are eager to flex their muscle and show themselves on the world stage.
• Bush said he saw into the soul of Putin (in a positive sense).
• He misread Putin in the sense that the Russian leader has had its own self-interest.
• Gorbachev says that the US is meddling in the affairs of the Caucuses.
• The US candidates were eager to support the Georgians and condemn the Russians.
• It is easy politically to do so because it was an invasion of a sovereign territory.
• Yet that was exactly what we did against Iraq.
• It is too subtle to discuss the oppression of a breakaway districts by the Georgians, who are also influenced by Russians influences.
• Russia is ready to stand equal to the US and now China on the world stage.
• The incident occurs on the very eve of the Olympic ceremonies in china. (The day of 888.)
• Everyone wants a part of the New World.
• Russia is finally arriving after the end of the Cold War and the humiliation thereafter.
• She can also spill over and become dangerous.
• The EU can stand up and temper her. (The French leader went to Moscow to calm things down.)
• The EU herself is another world influence.
• The teenage-like US is being forced to play equal and fair.
• The world is seeing the complexity of competing influences.
• Movements toward World Unity occur through this complex emergence.
• Contradictions are complements in ever increasing dimensions.
• As we pull back and see the big picture, we are subtly compelled to favor the World itself over local interests.
• All the world's cultures are being introduced to one another in these wars and conflicts.
• These emergences create new energies, and a new richness to the world.

 

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IRONIES OF HISTORY, LIFE
(top)
 

 

The Nature of Irony

What is irony?

-Irony is the appearance that a thing shouldn't be a certain way, but it is. 

-Therefore, irony indicates that there is a deeper truth that can be revealed.

-When we understand that deeper truth, irony ceases, revealing principles, laws, etc. in their place

 

Ironies of History, Life

1. Darcy marrying Elizabeth, considering their class difference, and their original contempt for one another.

2. Intelligent and insightful Elizabeth's inability to be offended by the treachery of Wickham.

3. Bankrupt England saving the world in the war.

4. The Greek thought that now rules the world has not made Greece eminent.

5. The aims of socialism are being achieved through capitalism.

6. Those who grow food for the world are living at the bottom of the society.

7. An Asian country and an erstwhile colony -- India -- is the biggest democracy of the world.

8. Penniless settlers of America evenutally ruled the world by their wealth.

9. India that refused a UN seat in 1952 in favor of China was attacked by China in 1962.

10. Germany and Japan, the vanquished in the war, became the leading economies in the late 20^th century.

11. Britain, the imperial power that won the war, lost its eminence after it.

12. Egalitarian idealists decry inflation, which is an indicator of wage increase.

13. England not knowing the significance of Shakespeare for 300 years.

14. The land of the French Revolution, where tyranny was shed, quietly capitulated to Hitler.

15. The champion of freedom, USA, institutionalizing slavery.

16. Rome that gave Law to the world is now the centre of Mafia.

17. 1929 Depression occurred in an atmosphere of economic boom.

18. The Middle East that was the cradle of civilization is now the most backward region of the world.

19. Ku Klux Klan in freedom-loving America.

20. Pacifist Einstein's scientific discoveries leading to the atom bomb.

21. Punjab that received all the ancient invaders suffered the worst in 1947.

22. Bengal where Sri Aurobindo was born was the province of famine in 1943.

23. USSR dissolves on her own initiative.

24. China where Mind was developed most still trends towards totalitarianism.

25. After developing music and philosophy, Germany took to Nazism.

26. Untouchability is there only in India where there is the greatest spiritual enlightenment.

27. Freedom in Africa destroyed the stability they enjoyed before the war.

28. Tiny Singapore equaling USA in prosperity without a high level of democracy.

29. Vulgarity's energy in Mrs. Bennet accomplished three weddings while she planned only one.

30. The irony of an historically brutish Russia taking to human-centered socialism in 1917.

31. One percent of the US population producing more food than 64% of Indian population.

32. Non-productive banks earning more than productive lands and factories.

33. Serious thought not fostered by the land of Shakespeare but in the nation of Napoleon.

34. Theory of Creation unnoticed for 90 years, while the Origin of Species was sold out on the day of publication.

35. The universe beginning in Ignorance, though originating from a Divine Source.

36. America armed and trained the Taliban Islamic extremists as a force to counter the Russian occupation of Afghanistan in the early 1980s. Now it has been forced to liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban and fight the forces it armed, just as the Russians did 25 years ago.

37. The French Revolution, which abolished the monarchy and aristocracy in France, was succeeded by Napoleon who established a hereditary empire and new aristocracy.

38. The Russian Revolution, which abolished the tyrannical rule of the Czars, replaced it with the tyranny of Statism. (MSS)

 

More Ironies of History, Life

• The revolutionaries who freed France from tyranny decapitated the vanquished.

• The Russians who aimed for human values slaughtered the aristocracy.

• Progressives around the world who saw the tyranny of fascism were obliviousness to Stalin's evil.

• Nixon who was paranoid and bombarded Southeast Asia went to open China.

• The Dalai Lama whose people were annihilated admits that Buddhism is more progressive in its new locale.

• Mother who sought ultimate spiritual achievement was trailed by Dark Forces.

• Lady Catherine who sought to stop Eliza was instrumental in their marriage.

• Clinton who was a policy wonk and interested in many progressive matters is remembered for a sexual affair.

• FDR who exhibited ultimate strength in America was confined to a wheelchair.

• Woodrow Wilson who tried to do good, but may have unleashed evil.

• Hillary Clinton and Obama arrive on the stage at the same time in the campaign representing woman's power and black ascendency.

• Gorbachav who tried to save the USSR ended up bringing it down.

• Bush, from an oil family, rises to presidency at a time of conflicts in the Middle East of oil producing states, and huge rise in petroleum prices impacting the world.

• The terrorist attack of 9/11, is the same numbers as emergency dialing in the US -- 911.

• Steven Spielberg is forced to sell his movie business to Bollywood, the film industry Hollywood once mocked.

• Christians tried to convert the English colonies and took back Eastern philosophy to the West.

• Sports teams suddenly rise to win championships parallel to catastrophe or good news that has hit city.

• England mocked the US during independence and later became its lackey.

• Buddha who saw the impermanence of life and championed non-attachment is known throughout the world through physical statues of his person.

• 30 years Life Response effort leads to someone else coming forth and revolutionizing the world in the form of Rhonda Byrne and 'The Secret.'

• Jesus advocated peace and was the instrument of the death of millions.

• The radical environmentalists never acknowledge their past successes.

• A Polish pope is in power at the time Poland is liberated from the Soviet bloc, and plays a role.

• The first major wave of blacks in executive and judicial US government power are all conservative to reactionary.

• Socialist values are being adopted by capitalism.

• A complex and confusing language becomes the world standard -- English.

• A progressive man Barack Obama rises to power in US with a name that reminds people of treachery. Obama sounds like Osama, and Hussein (as in Saddam) is his middle name.

• Shakespeare whose plays are well known is little known himself.

• The free market of the world is being driven by central planning in China.

• Kennedy was shot while riding a Lincoln automobile.

• Jefferson and Adams who worked together to found the country, corresponded greatly in old age, and both died on the same day -- July 4^th, independence day.

• Nearly every time Lyndon Johnson rose up the ranks in power it was due to a tragedy or great difficulty, culminating in his rise to presidency with assassination of Kennedy.

• The middle class have distain for hippies who brought them environmentalism, the personal computer, and the Internet.

• Gorbachev who saved the USSR from further treachery and ruin and opened the doors to its prosperity is loathed in his own country.

• Hamlet who practiced constraint from retribution ushered in many deaths.

• Reagan who mistrusted the USSR signed a pact with them ending the Cold War.

• Jesus who railed against the Jewish church ushered in the biggest Church in history; and an often corrupt and treacherous one.

• Adlai Stevenson who was considered a wimp by his political enemies exercised great strength as US ambassador to the UN during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• The US who tried to assassinate Castro had their own president (Kennedy) assassinated.

• Teenage geeks are gaining more power and more money more rapidly than any period in history than the elders who are expected to do so.

• The US, a nation of immigrants is anti illegal immigrant.

• Philosophy of Non-violence in India led to millions dying after independence.

• Khrushchev who brought a degree of liberalism to Russia is known as the dangerous man who railed and banged his shoe at the UN.

• Reagan who endangered the world is foolishly known as the person who directly brought about the end of the Cold War.

• Decent governor Gray Davis of California was forced out of office after being blamed for all its problems, which had little to do with him, and was replaced by Schwarzenegger who is forced to follow Davis' policies to survive.

• Hillary Clinton, seeking a political name for herself apart from her president husband settled in New York, where 9/11 happened soon after.

• Churchill a Tory was forced to fight the Tories to compel them to engage the Germans.

• The tragedy of Pearl Harbor enabled FDR to get exactly what he had been after; a reason to enter the war.

• The benefactor is abused by the beneficiary.

• The recipient of charity resents the donor.

• The scientist who aspires to come to Truth through the scientific method  only embraces the material.

• God who is all Good allows for Evil.

• It is said that the reactionary Nixon spearheaded more opportunities for blacks than anyone US president in history.

• Bush 41 had close association with the bin Laden family. Osama bin Laden led attack against US on 9/11 during Bush 43's (the son's) term.

• Al Gore loses presidency against Bush in contentious, closest race in US history, but then wins Nobel Peace Prize in new career as environmental advocate, greatly influencing leaders and the peoples of the world. (Bush during his term has lowest approval ratings in US presidential history, and is distained around the world.)

• The religions are contemptuous of many spiritual groups and proponents and their followers.

• Teddy Roosevelt who shot animals freely for sport established the National Parks system in America and became an environmentalist.

• Kennedy is revered despite having many affairs. Clinton is reviled for having one.

• People's anger goes out to their politicians: never to the electorate who elected them.

• Picasso who mastered nearly every art form is known for his abstractions.

• Julie Andrews who starred in My Fair Lady on Broadway and was shocked when she didn't receive the film part, won the Oscar in 1964 for Mary Poppins, the same year MFL was released. (Audrey Hepburn who won the part of MP was not nominated.)

 

Ironies, Statements, Opinions

Some of the following are ironies, some statements, and some just opinions. 

• Al Gore gets the most US votes in history and loses the presidential election.

• Hillary Clinton gets the most primary votes in US history and loses the democratic nomination for president.

• Barak Obama is a black president, of Muslim faith with a Muslim name, seven years after Muslims fanatics instigated 9/11.

• Hillary Clinton becomes first woman to vie for president after her husband was ''impeached" for having an affair.

• Stalin is revered in Russia; and Gorbachav reviled.

• China is vilified though it has made more economic and social progress in a shorter time than anyone in world history.

• Hillary Clinton raised the issue of health care in 1992 and was vilified; now everyone worries about the issue in their own lives.

• Jimmy Carter's presidency is mocked in retrospect though he raised the most popular issue of our time, conservation of resources and the environment.

• People think of India as Gods, when it actually knows the ONE Reality.

• People think of the One God of the Old Testament in the West, when it was actually one particular God.

• Gandhi is revered in the West as a spiritual teacher.

• The British who instigated it, voted down slavery peacefully. The US had to fight brother against brother in the Cicil War to overcome it.

• The US overcame the worst of the Great Depression not through economic policy per se, but through War.

• The Great Depression ruined the democratic Weimer Republic through the excesses of capitalists, who themselves didn't want to fight the Nazis, while sending them weapons.

• Wickham who deceived Eliza becomes her brother in law.

• Seabiscuit was the small horse who overcame the large fleet one, giving succor at the very time the people were overcoming the great obstacle of the Great Depression.

• Gold was found in California, creating money out of nothing; like the vast, cash-producing technology companies that would arise in that same place 150 years later.

• Something arises out of Nothing.

• Nothing (0) divided by Nothing (0) equals Infinity. Minus plus Minus equals Minus; but Minus Times Minus equals Plus.

• The world sees Evolution, but not Involution; the real cause.

• In the animal kingdom the males are the bright colored; for humans it is the opposite.

• The world perceives the evolution of animals, culminating in man, but rarely speaks of it for Man himself.

• Mind that developed in the West is focused predominantly on the material.

 

Additional Thoughts, Ironies, etc.

• Jesus humanized Europe, and Christians now decry humanism.

• The Hippies who wanted to permanently change society, quickly died out.

• Blacks progress by imprisonment. Imprisonment is anachronism.

• The world progresses through evil.

• A negative is a positive in disguise.

• Bhisma in Bhagavad Gita agreed with the Pandavas, yet worked through the other side. Gorbachav did the same.

• Instead of gratitude in Asian development, the US perceives fear.

• In a land of plenty -- the US -- there is a dearth of knowledge.

• Diversity creates power; so does homogeneity.

• Homogeneity can limit a society, as in Japan.

• Hate is Love inverted.

• Time depends on the viewpoint of the viewer.

• Socrates looked forward to the Hemlock.

• Society takes credit for the work of the pioneer, ignoring him.

• The Divine wished to forget itself.

• Science that claims objectivity is superstitious.

• Ayn Rand who said not to follow the herd was a political reactionary.

• Love is the consummation, but Knowledge must come first.

• That fixed, permanent-like thing we call the Soul is actually evolving.

• The Jews evolved and became intellectually stable by wandering.

• Humans have ten fingers and toes that match our system of math.

• Mind divides, and lives in contradiction, and there are 2 parts to the brain.

• Unconsciousness of sleep restores our energies.

• The best knowledge comes through non-thinking.

 

More Ironies, Thoughts

• Sri Aurobindo experienced pain as pleasure.

• Education is revered. Super successful Bill Gates and Steve Jobs dropped out of college.

• Money increases by paying out.

• Pain grows through attention.

• Fear motivates.

• The more we give, the more we receive.

• Sex that creates life debilitates.

• ''Child is father to the man."

• The biggest fool -- Mrs. Bennet -- is the biggest winner.

• Van Gogh worked for world peace, but of another time.

• Not intending so, Joseph led the Jews into slavery.

• Death occurs in order to create new life.

• Fools are the instrument of progress.

• The body which is unconscious always knows.

 

More Thoughts, Ironies

• Only when a man's Ignorance reaches a certain threshold does Truth emerge.

• American conservatism which is backward and reactionary must run its course.

• The Russians would like to use the case of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo as a case to justify its retaliation against the attack of Georgian forces against its breakaway districts, but she opposed that view during the Serbian war.

• The Nazis rampaged across Europe with arms supplied by the victims.

• The Iranians who railed against the falsehood and evil of Saddam were told by their leaders to go into battle by the millions armed only with the Koran.

• Unlike others, Egypt fought the Israelis strait up and then became its closest Arab ally.

• Gunpowder invented by the Chinese spread throughout the Western world as violent weapons, but not in China.

• Solzhenitsyn railed against the evil of Stalinist Russia, but was ignored when he spoke of the materialism and treachery of the West.

• When elections are held in the Middle East, fundamentalists sometimes come to power.

• The great inventor, painter, writer, theorist Da Vinci wrote his words backwards so no one would understand them.

• Eisenhower created a sense of security during his administration by playing golf.

More Ironies and Other Thoughts

• Sri Aurobindo who was explaining the new spiritual path for the individual in Synthesis of Yoga stopped working on it because he was tired of using his mind.

• Reagan who railed against the communists, settled with them. Nixon did the same in China.

• Khrushchev and Kennedy who together seemed to be the best chance for accommodation were quickly disposed.

• The native Indian peoples of Latin America have no idea they are Asian in origin.

• The UN that advocates democracy allows for the veto by a single nation.

• Nixon and the leading anti-war protestor of the time, Joan Baez, were both Quakers.

• Opposites attract, not likes.

• When you forget about a thing, you remember it.

• Non-thinking brings clarity.

• Searching for India, Europeans discovered America.

• Trying to merely trade, England unleashed a thousand wrongs.

• The common man president Truman dropped the bomb.

• Einstein left Germany and was then betrayed by the good side.

• The treatment for rabies and other diseases is to give the individual doses of it before one is infected with it.

• Some of the most serene and majestic music is composed by some of the most irritable characters.

• Vast numbers of young girls take to dance, but the men are most renown.

• Mr. Collins who sought the choice of the Bennet litter, ended up with a physical plane jane.

• Heated liquid smokes, but so does ice.

• Geishas are compliant, yet are also honored and revered.

• Country folk are neighborly and sweet, yet through their ignorance fan the flames of war and death.

• People express their individuality more in the mass populations of the city.

• The Hippies expressed individuality through a certain unique conformity in their time.

• Ancient Chinese doctors refused payment when their clients fell ill.

• Emperor Claudius who was good was content to see evil rise around him, as he saw its purpose.

• Snakes which are symbols of danger and evil in the West are indicators of energy and evolution in the East.

• For the relatively minor offense of Clinton's affair, America ushered in the treachery and folly of Bush 43.

• US corporations, who rail against the US debt, do everything to avoid taxes; thus supporting debt's growth.

• What we rail against, we help create.

• Citizens want benefits, but don't want to pay for them.

• Conservative Western interests who hate communism, helped create it through their low business and social values in the 19th centuiry.

• Blacks are mostly shades of brown.

• American "Indians" are not so.

• Slavery of blacks enslaved blacks to the dole, enraging whites who enslaved them.

Recent Accumulated Ironies, Thoughts, etc.

• According to Sri Aurobindo, Maya (illusion) is real.

• The invisible is real.

• The material is illusionary. (It is mostly empty space.)

• It is difficult to define irony, which is ironic.

• Treachery ushers in goodness.

• Tyrants serve the cause of progress.

• Clowns can be sad. Comedians often make fine actors.

• A thing and its opposite are true.

• ''Too much of a good things is not good for you."

• Steve Jobs who helped give birth to the culture of individual freedom in business has been controlling and possessive.

• The US, a nation of freedom, often seeks to dominate and control.

• The two richest Americans, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, are in many ways ordinary characters.

• Conservatives in the US cannot conceive that US past actions have antagonized the Arab world.

• The Middle East, the birthplace of civilization is the last one to be civilized.

• The latest major war of modern times occurs in Iraq where civilization began.

• The US mocks the French, who saved them at America's birth. The French mock the US, who saved them during WWII.

• As soon as England won WWII, the British empire collapsed.

• Indian independence day happened on Sri Aurobindo's birthday.

• China and Russia finally emerge in power at the exact same moment: China at the Beijing Olympics, Russia through the Georgian aggression.

• Karma can be overcome. So can destiny.

• Karma can be cancelled. (through the spiritual Force)

• Empirical science now indicates that the truth of scientific phenomena  depend on the perspective and consciousness of the viewer.

• Infinite, Eternal God has a body.

• The Mother says the most powerful and memorable music has few, but the right, rich notes.

• The Mother and others have had out of the body experiences. But She indicated that life had also gone outside her.

• Though we are in the universe, the entire universe is contained within us.

• The inner and the outer are not so. (There is only one contiguous existence.)

• The inner can attract the outer.

• Space and time are what we make of it.

Thoughts and Ironies

• The unofficial US death tolls of 9/11, Katrina, and the 2nd War in Iraq are ~3000 each.

• Georgia prided itself in being a breakaway republic from Russia, and now has its own breakaways.

• The Mother could make 20 minutes seem like 1; and 1 like 20 minutes.

• Christianity which admires its savior's Love, ignores it in Buddha's compassion.

• Western materialism and spiritual Christianity have travelled a long way together.

• The Roman Empire of 1000 years is more renown for how it failed than how it succeeded. Napoleon, the same.

• Dickens who felt compassion for the poor, reveled in their eccentricities.

• Jane Austin who endlessly wrote of courting and marriage never married.

• People believe in electricity, oxygen, thoughts, feelings, bytes, etc. which are invisible, but not Spirit.

• The Western material world consistently identifies God as a man with a beard, even as they profess that God is far beyond Man.

• By "philosophy," Westerners mean Western philosophy.

• America who overcame the power of the Spanish in their territory are being inundated by the Hispanics from the South.

• His followers long to meet him in heaven, though Buddha denied its existence and value.

• Jesus who advocated love for a peaceful life is mostly revered for his suffering.

• We love our heroes. We also love to tear them down.

• Those who advocate Truth with a certain vehemence, are often the instruments of great falsehood.

 

Organization Turns Ideals Into Falsehood
It is sad to see how the ideals and truths of great men and movements are turned into falsehoods through an organization established for the ideal. The true power, strength, and truth of the ideal comes from the individual, not the institution set up to organize the ideal. The organization corrupts it, ruins it. (E.g. the UN itself is undemocratic, in its Security Council, as it values democracy and equality; Napoleon turns away from his mission and puts relatives in place as he resorts back to organization of government; the USSR creates false government structure to implement its social values; a guru's or thinkers profound insights turn to falsehood through the organization created, etc.)

The truth of the Force of evolution that is behind the emerging of new great forces and developments in the world manifests through the ideals of the awakened Individual, not through the falsehood of the organization that is set up to further the ideal, which corrupts it.  (Paraphrase of MSS)

Solve Problems by Going One Level Higher
One can consciously solve the problems of one level by going to the next level. E.g. solve political problems of conflict between India and Pakistan, or Israel and Palestine through economic cooperation and development. (Unconsciously problems solve themselves through great struggle, slowly, in a long time frame.)
 

 

To Be Categorized

History, Current Events

Mother Indicates the End of Communism and Capitalism

The Mother ~1973 said both Communism and Capitalism were coming to an. She said at the time the Russian experiment had utterly failed, and would collapse soon. No one believed such a thing possible at the time. 15 years later it happened. The Mother anticipated this. She also saw the end of Capitalism, which is occurring now, or at least a mutation of it into a higher form -- hopefully Human-centered. By the way, the Mother and Her Force brought about the end of Communism from within.

 

Difficulties Moving EU from Common Currency of Euro to Greater Economic Unity

We see again how so-called negatives like the European financial crisis to prop up certain failing governments has caused it to consider even great economic unity, which would reduce the likelihood of such outbreaks, beyond merely a shared, common Euro currency. As we see time and time again, difficulties compel man to change; without them he tends to remain insert or fall back. They simultaneously enable his further progress and evolution. In this case, they allow the further integration and unification that the world seeks in all facets of life.

 

Crisis and Disasters Presage Need for Change to Higher Social Values

The negative circumstance recently befalling America -- huge oil spill, financial crisis, unprecedented recession and high unemployment, earthquake, and hurricane; particularly originating from and affecting the corridors of power in Washington and New York; and coming during the run-up to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 -- is due in large part to a certain unconsciousness of the society. Such wanting attitudes and beliefs attract and is concomitant with these sorts of negative events.

And yet if the US were to change its attitudes and values in several critical areas, prosperity can quickly return, and a new era of serenity and well-being can emerge. I.e. life will respond with positive circumstance it cannot now even imagine. If not, the slow, difficult, and painful methods of Nature in its myriad of forms will force change on its own.

The key for the US -- and for that matter all of humanity -- is to put the Human Individual at the center of life, instead of money, materialism, and mercenary economics.

Higher personal and social values and their implementation can overcome all of America's problems. It requires a certain maturing on the part of the people, and a willingness to engage in serious self-examination that leads to corresponding positive psychological change.

 

The New Journalism of Infinite Contributors

When new disruptive technologies come along, they have a great impact on things, though over time they are assimilated in some fashion, strengthening the corresponding institution -- in this case Journalism.

The ability of many to contribute to truth of any issue that arises is a very good thing. Still that impact has to be filtered down to what is actually truthful and helpful. Over time, standards will emerge for bloggers and others that will enable Journalism to thrive in new ways.

Just now we are in the period of the breakout of the masses in contributing to that knowledge. Somewhere down the line we will need to develop methods that turn hard opinions into harder truths.

And yet these developments, these many-sided contributions from a myriad of source indicate the dawn of a Golden Age for Truth; so long as methods are developed to turn the dross of infinite opinions into the gold of the many-sided truth of things.

 

New Developments in Society

The New Journalism of Infinite Contributors

When new disruptive technologies come along, they have a great impact on things, though over time they are assimilated in some fashion, strengthening the corresponding institution -- in this case Journalism.

The ability of many to contribute to truth of any issue that arises is a very good thing. Still that impact has to be filtered down to what is actually truthful and helpful. Over time, standards will emerge for bloggers and others that will enable Journalism to thrive in new ways.

Just now we are in the period of the breakout of the masses in contributing to that knowledge. Somewhere down the line we will need to develop methods that turn hard opinions into harder truths.

And yet these developments, these many-sided contributions from a myriad of source indicate the dawn of a Golden Age for Truth; so long as methods are developed to turn the dross of infinite opinions into the gold of the many-sided truth of things.

 

WWII

Europe Gave Up Its Hard Ego Sense and Forged New Unity

Q: How did Europe give up its Ego-sense after WWII?

A: Each country pulled in its own direction before WWII, completely disregarding others, working in its own self-interest. As a result of the horror of the War, the nations were shocked out of uncooperation. The essential hardened Ego was melted away, leaving a much softer form. The nations now think more deeply on its motives and action relative to its sister nations. The European nations have gone through a dramatic evolution, though not yet transformation. There is still much scope for cooperation and collaboration, whose ultimate purpose is deep harmony and unity. Actually Harmony in Diversity.

 

Spirituality & History

Power of Force in World Events, EU

The Influence of the Supramental Power in EuroCrisis and World Events, and Our Collaboration

Question: What influence is the supramental power having in the current EuroCrisis?

Answer: It is an interesting question. From the point of view of Evolution, the EU, including the current difficulties is created by an internal force and pressure for increasing unity and other forms of progress. But there IS an external Cosmic push as you indicate coming from the Supramental Consciousness and Force. To what degree and the details I do not know.

One thing that is clear is that Evolution is speeding up, as Man becomes more mental, and as he tosses away the old separative, uncooperative, egotistic, and oppressive ways. New higher human values invariably follow our ever-increasing mentality and rationality. WWII destroyed the old uncooperative Ego sense, which society was ready for.

The pressures of life force the problems we see now in the EU (and globally for that matter), as does the pressure "from Above." I suspect the Above's spiritual Force exerts enough influence to push the Evolution along without creating too much disturbance.

Now if only the people in charge of these changing events in the world had the Higher Consciousness, they could be instruments for a harmonious transition. They would be vessels for the Supramental Truth Consciousness to put everything in order very rapidly, as occurred when Gorbachev ended the Cold War single-handedly, which DID involve the invocation and action of the Supramental Power. In fact, the proof of that Force working to end the Cold War was that virtually no one died, and what could have taken decades to end happened peacefully in a flash.

 

 

Simultaneity (In Current Events)

Startling Simultaneity In the News

Life unfolds through synchronous events that we miss. It happens every day, which we fail to notice 99% of the time. Today in the US the great, elderly US college football coach Joe Paterno, of Italian descent, the winningest of all time, was ousted due to a sex scandal of his staffer. Simultaneous to that is the vast threat faced by Europe and the world by the danger of financial default by Italy, run by a president -- an Italian of course -- who sexual dalliances are infamous.

If you look around you will constantly see such "unconnected connections" in the news. Just scan the NY Times with an open mind and you will see startling associations. I have witnessed such things hundreds of times.

One astonishing example is that when a sports team suddenly starts winning a championship or two after decades of failure, you will see that that town had been famously going through a hardship or a catastrophe that was known countrywide or even worldwide.

This phenomenon is known as "simultaneity" or "parallelism" amongst those who define the subtle unfoldings and phenomena of life. They are no coincidence, but a way to show the subtle connections in things, missed by us, as our minds are too linear and closed to their appearance.

It is also metaphorically speaking (or more than that) an indication that God is constantly winking at the world, as these synchronicities can be infinitely ironic.

 

World Events, History

 

Overview

Thoughts on World History

-World history can be seen as a progressive unfolding of higher human values expressing at increasingly higher planes from physical to vital/social, to psychological to mental to spiritual.

-Man is slowly emerging from his lower, physical nature to a higher mental nature based on reason and higher values.

Each development of higher values express through historical events. E.g., the value of individual freedom first emerged in Europe through the efforts of Martin Luther when he confronted the church with the right for each person to worship as he pleased. Every human value, whether freedom, tolerance, organization, etc. etc. expresses through such historical events.

-Different values seek to express in different parts of the world for different purposes. E.g., science and mentality developed in Europe, while emotion and spirit developed in Asia (especially India). Eventually these diverse forces, which may develop miles and eons part, and movements come together to influence one another and point the way forward.

-There is a divine Will behind history for society to increasingly express the highest spiritual values of harmony, oneness, truth, knowledge, power, creativity, delight, love, timelessness, and infinity.

-The events of world history are leading to increasing world unity, as well as the psychological and spiritual development of individuals and collectives. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Historical Karmas that Transcend Our Normal View of Things

One day a subtle view of history will be written which will reveal startling associations not given to our current surface, material, even political and social view of life.

For example, it has been suggested that the reasons the African American issue has been so prevalent and unresolved in the United States -- especially concerning their persistent poverty -- is that one hundred fifty years earlier the US annihilated and oppressed the Native peoples of the land. Similarly, the fact that the West was forced to confront the oppressive brutality of the Soviet Empire for fifty years was because the European nations and the US meddled in and tried to prevent the Russian Revolution from taking shape decades earlier.

In other words, there are negative karmas that originate in the distant past that come back on us in ways unwanted and unintended. The difficulties, problems, and even evil that return to haunt us are the result of past unconsciousness, which finds related vehicles to express. This seemingly strange causality is not logical from a surface perspective of history; but from the standpoint of karmic truth, it is an expression of the logic of the Infinite. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

War Beats Out the Physical

War (and its effect) beats the physical, brute, egotistic, separative consciousness out of Man. WWII did it for Europe. A vestige of the principle is current terrorism.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

 

Recent Events

Icelandic Eruption and EU Crisis

-In my view, the European intransigence and disharmony over the Greek Debt crisis (and any related financial concerns of other countries in the EU that might follow) attracted the unprecedented Icelandic volcanic ash that shut down the airlines and otherwise disrupted life on the continent.

-We could also say that the eruption was a predecessor indicator of problems to come or further building up.

-It is also another test of the inevitable movement of an increasing European unity.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

On the Haiti Catastrophe

-The problem in coordinating the relief effort in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake shows that we need an international body, like a prospective World Parliament to coordinate such undertaking in the world, among its many other functions. It is another indicator that Movements toward higher harmony amongst the parts through greater organization can solve all problems, or as Sri Aurobindo put it, "all problems in life are problems of harmony."

-The world cannot turn away from poverty as it has till now. It is a global issue. Poverty contributed to 90% of the deaths in the Haiti earthquake due to poor infrastructure. It is the basis of the greatest instability in the world, including the onset of terrorism, war, immigration conflict, disease, and other forms of suffering.

-It is no coincidence that the acknowledged poorest nation in the Western hemisphere has its greatest catastrophe ever. It shows not only its own lack of internal physical and psychological organization, but the callousness and unconsciousness of the world.

-It is also no coincidence that this occurred during the presidency of Barack Obama, America's first black president. To understand that one needs to penetrate deep into the mysteries of life.

-Haiti can now become a model country for the world. If there is a coordinating effort (from inside its people and outside from the world), Haiti can stand as the model of how to overcome poverty, creating a model for others. In that sense, this catastrophe will have served a great purpose in evolving the consciousness of its own people and the world.

-The people there can learn the process of accomplishment; and the peoples of the world can take to greater global coordination and action. This event thus opens a great opportunity for all involved. We can therefore say that all negatives are positives in disguise; especially if one sees into the possibilities that are opened up.

-The world is moving increasingly toward human unity. It is merely at the material level at this point; not the psychological, cultural, or spiritual. It is these sorts of events that move the world forward.

-The fact that the catastrophe occurred so close to the most prosperous country in the world, the US, is also no coincidence. Within 500 miles, you have such vast extremes. (2009-2011 Q1)

  

Philosophical to Practical: How Gorbachav Ended the Cold War

In a recent interview in Nation magazine, Michael Gorbachev reveals the process by which he systematically ended the Cold War. It is a revelation and a lesson for us all.

First, he reveals that he began with a philosophical bent, which naturally came to him. He then scanned the state of his country and the world and determined that he had to make great changes, including moving the Soviet Union to greater openness, while bringing down the stockpile of nuclear weapons, which threatened the end of life on earth during that tense period. As a result, he offered perestroika and glasnost, which began to have a liberating effect on the Soviet system. That philosophy and possibility spread then throughout Eastern Europe leading to vast changes there. He then got Reagan and the US on board to vastly reducing nuclear weaponry despite the reluctance of the Americans. When the Berlin Wall fell, and thereafter the liberation of the Communist bloc in Eastern Europe took place, the Soviets followed suit, essentially ending the Cold War.

From the philosophical ideal, Gorbachev developed a practical plan that ended the greatest threat to the world it has ever known.   (2009-2011 Q1)

 

End of Repetitions after WWII

WWII repeated WWI because the basic understanding of collaboration of nations was not yet there. After WWII that changed earnest with the establishment of the EU and the realization that world destruction could occur through nuclear arms. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Carter's Human Rights & End of Cold War

Jimmy Carter�s aspiration for the spread of Human Rights helped evoke the end of the Cold War. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Truth Consciousness/Force that Reconciled Division, Ending the Cold War

The Truth generated by the supramental action (i.e. the truth consciousness of the Divine Force) reconciles opposites and contradictions in the form of a higher-level, creative, unprecedented resolution. Perhaps the most dramatic recent example is as follows:

Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the West's strategy against the Soviets was divided into two camps: those who favored aggressive blockage and those seeking reconciliation and mutual disarmament. However, Gorbachav came along, backed by the supramental truth Force, and simply deconstructed the Soviet empire from within without a single loss of life, ending the global threat of nuclear holocaust. It was a totally unexpected, creative, and unprecedented  resolution of the Cold War that only the Truth Consciousness and Force of the Divine could have made possible. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Sri Aurobindo, The Mother Altered the Course of History

Sri Aurobindo and Mother altered the course of human history from within. They enabled the defeat of Germany in WWII by compelling it to act wrongly, and propped up Churchill to energize the continent to victory. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

2000 through 2009: Great Positive Developments in the World

Many people are claiming that this period was a lost decade; a difficult one with many problems. I would like to balance that claim with the following.

-It was a decade in which the greatest number of poor in history moved out of poverty and misery in India, China, and elsewhere.

-It was also the decade of the rise of Asia to preeminence in the world, as all the globe can now benefit from their great cultures and insights sorely missed till this point.

-It was a decade in which America began to mature, slowly coming out of its adolescent materialism and surface view of existence.

-It was the beginning of a new socialistic form of capitalism in which the human individual is placed first.

-It was the age of the Internet that empowered everyone around the world, bringing knowledge freely to those who pursued it.

-It was the decade of environmental recognition of the wholeness and oneness of the earth, a preliminary movement toward world unity.

If we look closer at negative circumstance, we will see beneath the veneer of pain, the birth of great, new positives. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Obama's Nobel Prize

In less than one year in office, Obama has:

-Saved Capitalism from imminent collapse.

-Created an atmosphere of global collaboration, instead of hostility.

-Has changed the discourse and course of nuclear proliferation -- the single great danger to the world -- to the positive.

-Has put the US back on the environmental track, helping lead the world in a new direction.

For this and other reasons, he does not deserve one Nobel Prize, but several.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Overcoming Rage and War by Ending Poverty

While all of these mini wars - Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. - rage on in their own ways, we do not realize that they all have the same common root: high unemployment rates and poverty that cause people to take to fundamentalism and terrorism. Unless this is addressed, mere fighting of wars will not win over the other side. The 'enemy,' the 'bad guys' have to come to enjoy the fruits of prosperity in this era of rising expectations when no one wants to wait for economic fulfillment. When young men have no jobs and they see no way out of their dilemma, they will take to rage and hatred.

The reason the US cannot readily conceive of this is that we do not take care of a comparable problem in our very own country, where e.g. Washington DC -- the nation's capital (!) -- has rampant poverty and unemployment. The same for other cities, such as Detroit with 50% unemployment for young men. These too may become hotbeds of fundamentalism.

When everyone has a job in this nation and in the world, then poverty will cease, fundamentalism and terrorism will lessen, and people's energies will be absorbed in constructive activities. It will be a progress and evolution for society.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Predecessor and Successor Events in Recent History

Every event has a predecessor. If we understand it and act on it, we can avoid the successor. E.g., a man was having trouble finding lotion before embarking a boat trip. There was a lot of strain involved to return to the boat before it embarked. he arrived just in time, but fifteen minutes after the little boat got under way, it was nearly hit by a speed boat fifteen minutes later. The strain to find to lotion in time was a predecessor and indicator of the successor near collision.

We see this with the original attack on the World Trade Center, which had only a few causalities, and the later deadly attack in which thousands died. We also see how the DotCom meltdown was a predecessor of the Global Economic collapse. In the case of the DotCom collapse, greed was behind it as financiers quickly pulled their funds when they did not garner immediate results for their tech investments. It was an indicator of the global financial collapse seven years later when investors (i.e. global speculators) created extreme financial instruments in the housing market that triggered a landslide in financial institutions around the world.

The predecessors in each case were relatively mild compared to the successor event. Had we seen, understood, and learned from it, we could have avoided the successor.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Japan�s Insularity and Her Future

The same insularity that led to Japan�s attacking Asia in the name of resources before and during WWII is still there in a pacific form in a very cultured society. Business fortunately preoccupies them and absorbs their energies, preventing the negative from coming to the fore. Still it builds up; negative, physical consciousness of insularity, proud separation, and homogeneity rears itself. The great earthquake and tsunami of 2011 reflects the consciousness of the time and place. Surely Japan, an island nation, will be humbled once again and learn from the experience, shedding at least part if not most of her proud separativeness. It is an awful negative that comes as a result of a virulent resistance in the people. But when learned from becomes a great positive in disguise. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Stock Market Obsession and Calamity

Stock market price obsession is of the physical consciousness, and the modern version of animal existence. That is why it attracts great financial calamities. It did in the 1930s, setting the stage for the evil of WWII. It occurred in 2008, due to the physical consciousness of America that is enjoined by the free flow of unregulated vast sums of money in the world. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Disasters Compel a Human-Centered Economics

With energy, financial, and environmental disasters repeating, it is time for the world to seriously and sincerely come together and develop a new economics based on the needs of the individual human. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Growth of Backward Middle East and Forward Nations as Well

It is ironic that the basket case that is the Middle East (2011) also has held and holds the key to the economic prosperity of the entire world through its oil reserves. It is an indicator that we are all dependent on one another; and that the evolution is going on not just for the backward nations but for the more progressive, prosperous and dynamic prosperous nations, including the West. All thus serves the movement forward in life. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

The Arab World Left Out Till Now

The world has waited until now to include the Arab nations of the Middle East. They were left behind when the evolution moved from Africa to Europe to America in order to develop science, technology, and production; and to Asia to develop emotion and the variety and depth of the Spirit. Now the world energies have come full circle to embrace them to enable further human progress. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

The Egyptian Revolution (2011)

For the world to move toward greater prosperity, awareness, and harmony, the left out Middle East must take part. It is the subconscious aspiration of society. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Middle East Change During Obama Administration

It is interesting that positive, if difficult change is occurring now in the Muslim/Arab world at the time of the presidency of Barak Obama, who has Muslim parentage in part. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Evolution in the Middle East and for the Evolved Nations

Helping the undeveloped countries of the Middle East evolve not only benefits them, but through that process helps the countries that are already evolved to evolve further. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

 

Beyond Good and Evil

The Great Benefit of Difficulty

Periods of difficult transition more often than not usher in the greatest possible changes. (E.g., the deep recession of the 80s enabled one man to move beyond his old business and take up a vocation that not only lasted the rest of his life, but was a vast movement in society.) It is the great benefit that comes from great difficulty. v

 

How the Good Attracts Evil

No negative outcomes are unrelated to the state of consciousness that attracted it. Thus, in history we see how the good attracts evil, when the good has its own shadow of negativity. Examples include:

-Western greed and non-cooperation led to the Great Depression, thereby attracting fascism and 70 million dead during WWII

-The West tried to repress the progressive Russian Revolution and attracted 50 years of Stalinism in which the world arsenals were pitted against one another threatening Armageddon.

-The West engaged in 100 years of diplomatic insincerity in the Middle East and attracted 9/11 fanatics and global terrorism.

When the good is unconscious, it attracts evil. That evil will force the good to confront its limitations. When the good becomes the true, self-existent Good, it will attract no shadow of darkness and evil.

When we come to understand these inner-outer correspondences, we will evolve greatly as a society. (2009-2011 Q1)