Dec. 9,
1993
Social Evolution that is
Development
Social evolution, if taken as evolution of
society, is exactly on a parallel to the biological evolution of new species,
developing newer forms. The speed of social evolution is at a snail's pace.
Making allowance for the difference between matter and vital, we are tempted to
say the 'velocity' in both the planes is the same or at least similar.
The mind in the physical matter, if you can call it material mind, is very slow to perceive but perceives everything without fail. From its perception of facts around, through imagination, it chooses a form of action that would facilitate its work. Through trial and error, it arrives at a success and on that basis the organisation of action. The vitality in the body energises this choice and the physicality endorses it in action.
Thus the first organisation or system is
born. This is a very slow process. Man developed innumerable organisations thus
of which the group, defense, offensive action -- aggression -- , family,
community, agriculture, barter, market, movement, settlement, commerce,
education, science, money, values, faith, tapas, govt., military, language,
negotiation, comprehension, emotion, action stand out. The process of this
creation is the only Development the world knows and that process is mental
perception and choice, vital energisation, physical execution through skills.
It is by the same process the individual develops into a better person.
The process of the collective creating an
organisation has a subordinate action where the collective subconscious
experience matures in the pioneering individual as conscious knowledge ready
for action which when the society at large endorses is accepted as a way of
life by the whole society, thus creating the psychological basis for the birth
of a social organisation. In the measure this new organisation that is born by
the psychological growth and sanction of the entire society draws upon its
roots to convert that sanction into laws, rules, procedures, customs, usage,
belief, social system and social culture, that organisation takes root in the
society. What is consciously and
concretely achieved at the top is the subconscious psychological achievement of
the entire society which truth was lost sight of even by the Vedic seers. The
elite that achieved this achieved by
the entire masses and therefore the achievement belongs to the entire society.
In practice starting from the spiritual realisation and scientific discoveries
down to the reclamation of a piece of land has been held as a personal
possession by the discoverer or that group. Hence the secrecy, the esoteric
groups, the exclusive rights, the property right, the patent etc. Mother argues
for the abolition of property rights and the law of inheritance. 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.
The secondary or subordinate social
evolution too included an element of original evolution of organisation, but it
is minimal, though essential and significant. The aspect of evolution I would
like to consider here is the full spreading of the progress that is achieved by
the elite. Time was when the masses considered themselves as alien to progress,
culture, civilisation, comfort, convenience and psychologically distanced
themselves from the nobles, royalty, aristocrats, the elite, the clergy etc.
To wish to occupy the throne was treason
whereas to aspire for the Presidency now is to be dynamic. To dress well was
disobedience for a Harijan here. To know more than the guru was betrayal.
'Ambition' was used to describe dynamism and therefore all upward movement was
cursed.
This was also the period of the individual
in the sense that he alone was responsible for his destiny as the duty of the
govt was only to maintain law and order and society has no obligation to the
individual. Unofficially and imperceptibly the society, through the laws of the
govt and social disapproval, compelled the individual to acquire a modicum of
education and a minimum of health. In this process the govt. and the society
began to commit themselves to the individual and welfare came to stay. It is
obvious now that the society which educates the individual is well on the way
to "develop" the individual in future which function was essentially
discharged by the family till now.
Apart from the foundation laid by the family, it is the individual who develops
himself today. Should the aim of social development be fulfilled, the society
should shoulder the task of developing the individual to his maximum capacity
in future.
While the primary development -- the first
innovation -- is necessarily slow being an ascending movement of nature, the
spread of development from the top to the entire society, is always in a sweep
after it begins. This is so because
this is descent. Nature is at leisure and has eternity before it. She chooses a
patient, slow moment. The descent is of the mind on matter and therefore is
fast, being subtle.
Monarchy considered the common man's
aspiration to the throne as treason while democracy accorded him not only the
right to choose his 'king' but also the right to become one. The economic
status which remained the exclusive possession of the upper middle class was
not even considered by the lower middle class as a possibility. Not to wish for
it was a virtue, to be unambitious. Now the advanced technology and commercial
organisation are changing the scene. Everyone aspires for everything.
The social 'values' reflect this underlying reality. The non-performing slow
worker 'demands' the same pay as the high-performing skilled person who earns
it as an incentive. Behind this irrational demand lies the rationality of
"what the society produces belongs to the society."
Suppose the economic gains of the society
are to be extended to all, the society in greater part has to develop several
institutions and the individual has to acquire a host of capacities
simultaneously overlooking the original rule of individual to society and again
to all individuals. This is a must. Solving this challenge even in theory is a
major step forward.
In the world conditions of this decade
facilities of training, communications, follow up, organisational support,
psychological milieu exist in enough measure to achieve this as the
expectations have reached the very fringes of the society. The leadership
should rise to the occasion to render this into an ordered transition without
which the change will come about through chaos, breakdown, goondaraj, terrorism
etc. The military stockpile will leak into the hands of the revolution
completing the process. This is avoidable. The first step is Guaranteed
Employment in the West, abolition of hunger in the East.
Should this change occur, we will witness
initially a world without poverty, hunger and sorrow. It will take a few
decades for humanity to overcome the wonder of a sorrowless world. As the
horizontal spread of aspiration has reached the end, the society is ready for
the vertical to take off.
The rustic living in the village not only
lacks comforts and conveniences of the modern urban life, but lives in the mind
set of a rustic to whom superstition is sacred and offers a mental security;
he is ruled by the fear of the new, the
unknown. To urbanize a village will take several decades while a rustic moving
to the city is able to shift to the new atmosphere sharing its beliefs. This
new mental attitude enables him to take to modern urban life in a few years.
The leaders of thought can bring about this 'change in atmosphere' in the minds
of the entire population by enlightened social action that will bridge the gap
between the old and the new. As the energy
of the population is released everywhere where the expectation rears its
head, supply of missing links of the new organisation will accomplish this
quickly. Russia where the expectations have risen to the level of a revolution
among a highly educated population, is the ideal place to make an experiment.
Marriage was a social institution formed to
rear the children but man sought from it psychological satisfaction. When it
did not respond to his expectations, he broke it. Now he does not know where to
turn. Man expects the present society to fulfil his rising expectations and if
it does not he will break its present structure.
Monarchy in England, France, Russia and
colonialism gave way. What now faces dissolution is not one form of organised
society, but the entire society itself.
In truth the message is not abolition of
poverty but a society where all enjoy equally with equal freedom with no
fetters to women.
Fresh development saturates the social
layer it started from and stops with that. Within the same society, same social
stratum, same country, fresh development quickly spreads. The world today is
not one unit culturally or politically but with respect to these expectations,
the world today is one psychological unit.
Development of resources, economic
development, technological development are all the achievements of man. Hence
human development is the only development that matters hereafter, especially
when each type of development conflicts with the other. Man being the centre of
human development cannot generate any such conflict. Man cannot function in
such a fashion as to conflict with himself.
As this is social evolution at the level of
creating institutions -- mind -- the evolutionary energy is released only in
the mind. So all the ideas from the ancient times that have a bearing on social
organisation are of interest to us.
The
basis of the present society is 'Limitation of the Physical', i.e. resources
are limited -- water, land, air etc. -- whereas the society we are entering
into is based on the limitlessness of the mind. From the limits of the physical
realities to the limitless possibilities of the mind, is the view.
Privileges were originally for the leader
only. Then the rights got extended to his family -- royal family. Later it was
for the nobles and aristocracy, now it is the upper middle class. Finally it
must be for all.
Authority in the society has undergone
corresponding changes. What started as physical liquidation -- murder --
changed into mutilation, imprisonment, social ostracism, ridicule ended as
defeat in the election and disapproval of the society. But the Future is left
to the self-choice. There is no punishment involved but it is left to the
individual to choose a bright future.
The power, the institutions and their
symbols are as follows:
Leadership -- army -- empire
Resourcefulness -- land -- title
Productivity -- organisations, institutions
– Scientific discovery
Awareness -- upward social movement --
product
The Individual in the mass should be so
developed in all skills as to fully avail of all the social achievements before
the society can evolve further.
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.
To repeat, as required by the context, the
first step is to abolish poverty, disease, ignorance and SORROW.
In the absence of conscious transition,
society lies in wait till the TIME COMES when, in a sweep, it accomplishes its
purpose. So far, the sweep -- the revolution -- has only been negative in the
sense the achievement is by destruction.
It
can -- again I repeat -- now be made consciously in a sweep, positively, for
the first time.
Several small or tiny expressions are there
like the explosive expansion of computer use.
Crushing sweep is more easily seen in
destruction, not so much in the building up -- as in the industrial boom in
East Asian nations.
In the very new creation there is no sweep
or even swift move. Only when the majority of the society grabs at what the
minority has done do we see the sweep. Even in the snail's pace of new creation
-- founding of a family -- the sweep is there, but we miss seeing it. As it is
matter, the perception of each particle of the new truth is necessary before
the whole accepts. What appears to us as snail's pace is every cell of the
material mind acquiring the knowledge in sequence. At its own level the speed
is the greatest, a sweep. For our mental perception the swiftness of matter is
a slow pace.
Again 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.
As the original new creation -- of social
organisations -- was by the human resourcefulness (of the material mind) its
extension from the top to the bottom through expectations must also be by human
resourcefulness, this time by the physical mind.
To make the 'physical organisation' of the
world is possible by physical, material items like a commercial product usable
by one and all.
To make this revolution conscious and
possible it is necessary the links at all physical levels between the old
structure and new structure are to be identified. It is scooter in Pakistan,
pumpset in Ramapuram, car for the blue collar worker, moped for the middle
class employee. The following matter,
1.
The physical product.
2.
The physical procedure to obtain it.
3.
Its physical use.
4. The part of a physical organisation that
can use it.
5.
The physical enjoyment and comfort it yields.
The new creation is never a fixed
possibility. The entire atmosphere is ripe for the imagination to exercise
itself. It is not as if there are a few or many alternates from which one is
chosen. It is an open situation in which something new is fashioned.
Earlier the 'Products' stopped spreading at
a point leaving a substantial population outside itself. This is explained in our own minds as the lack of wealth. Not
necessarily so. The population so left out has psychologically distanced itself
from what was enjoyed by the elite. No rural landlord can persuade himself
either to invest in stocks or become a member of the city Rotary club. He is
outside the pace of such a thinking whereas now every blue collar worker wants
everything the elite possesses.
The change we propose is worked out at the
mental level by education, vital level by upward movement and at the physical
level the security is given by the material property.
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. Ethnic conflicts when reconciled can
absorb mountains of energy. The stock pile has a power to compel people to use.
it.
The material mind perceives and the body
organises. Here we see that Mind rules Matter.
Sweep has been there. So far it was
political. Now it will be economic. We await the sweep of cultural values in
the beginning of the next century.