Evolution
Evolution Next XIV: An unprecedented time
Abstract
We have entered a new age of human evolution, the Age of Truth. What we are witnessing increasingly is the action of Truth upon the world and humanity. It is slowly, but with an increasing force, chipping off the dark or bright envelopes into which we had hidden ourselves. The result is an initial confusion, a loss of what we had called ourselves. Exposed and bare, it is time for us to re-look at ourselves and search for the lost Truth that dwells within us.
None can deny that we live in unprecedented times. The previous century saw two great wars of a kind that the world had never witnessed before. The wars led to an entire breakdown of the old world order. Not only did we lose many lives, we also lost many cherished values of human civilisation. Not only did the history and geography change with the war, but also something in the psychology and sociology of man. This of course was the first half of the century. The next half witnessed a rapid transition from the old world to a new world, at least in a seed form, a nascent new world whose seeds were sown in ‘death’s tremendous hour.’ Science and art and creativity and education all started changing in ways beyond recognition.
Science had already started preparing for a leap since the beginning of the previous century. Man had broken into outer Space crossing a critical barrier created by Earth’s gravitational field. But even his inner boundaries were collapsing or rather enlarging with the popularisation of ancient Indian yoga and the birth of a New Thought aspiring for a greater world that would be free of boundaries and limits imposed by Nature for the human species. With these limits beginning to fall away, man’s consciousness began releasing the djinns tied to its basement for long. But it also saw the gods descending from mysterious heights inspiring new modes of activity and new forms of thoughts and institutions. The world started shrinking while man’s consciousness started needing more and more psychological space. The result was a rapid shift of values whose far future end is yet concealed to sight.
Along with it, the world witnessed unprecedented transitions and migrations of human beings exploring and reaching out beyond the land of their birth. Of course in a certain sense man has always been a nomad, a wanderer who is seeking for some new world or perhaps in quest of some ideal state of a perfect law of his individual and social living. But this quest and seeking became more and more widespread leading to a disruption of settled ways of living and experimenting with new possibilities from drugs and music to neo-religions and cults. Add to it the sudden bursting of knowledge beyond its seams and the rapid transfer of information at the touch of a button, and our individual and collective life has become exceedingly simple and complex at the same time. Simple in terms of space and time, which have shrunk while complex with regard to the human beings inhabiting it, since, unlike previous times, man’s life has become crowded with many experiences of many kinds and at many levels. Our consciousness has become many-sided so to say and it is not easy to integrate all this variety of experiences into a unified field of individual psychology. And we may well say that the change has just begun!
The Wisdom working behind the present confusion
We are as if put on Evolution Fast Forward, as if many lifetimes are entering into a single lifetime and therefore the assimilation and integration is becoming more and more difficult. It is idle and futile to focus on the good and bad of this jump-time. Only the still unfolding future will show it to us. It is also futile to complain about this change since such is the Will of the Time-Spirit and those who trust that there is a Wisdom working in the heart of all flux and drift, however meaningless and paradoxical it may seem, cannot but trust that there is Wisdom behind this rapid transition.
But one thing is becoming more and more obvious. It is useless to hold onto the old forms and institutions of the old world order, however high and grand and beautiful they may have been in distant and not so distant times. The old ways simply do not work anymore. At best they serve us temporarily, like a sketchy patch-work on a cloth that is torn beyond repair or a palliative given to ease our pain. What we need however is a new garment, a new and radical remedy, a new understanding and vision, a new conception and perception, a new way and a new law of life. But the new way and the new law is still not in sight. Or perhaps it is evolving even as the way of human existence evolved out of the animal as man began exploring the jungle and make settlements of a new kind that would change the face of the Earth. Nevertheless all this is creating a state of confusion. Temporary though this confusion is, yet it is enough to cause palpable distress among those caught between two worlds as beings of transition.
Amidst all this confusion we see the birth of today’s children which symbolically represents the birth of the New amidst the Old. These children are challenging and engaging at the same time. They are like the unsettled nomads of early humanity searching for their true dharma like a new species that is trying to understand who they are and why they are. The answers that satisfied the old world do not quite satisfy them. Like the first human being queer to the animal world, at once weak and strong, afraid and frightening to the settled order of the jungle, this new humanity is at once wise and foolish, frightened of the old humanity as well as a rebel against it. Clearly a new species is slowly but surely emerging out of the old human-animal species that we were. It is however quite likely that not all will take the leap at once. Not all are ready for the cross-over and it is quite likely that there will be many intermediary species much as there were nine or ten sub-species between the first humans and modern humanity, termed homo sapiens erectus. The other previous sub-species have been wiped away as evolution entered the crucial critical phase. Perhaps there will be similar wash-out generations before we as a human race enter the crucial and critical hour. But while the confusion still prevails, and it is likely to stay thus for long, it is imperative to help each other and especially the children of today and tomorrow for the cross-over across this perilous bridge in time. Perilous because these children will no more share the values common to the humanity of yesterday. At the same time they would not have discovered the new law of the future super-humanity of tomorrow. They are like the way-finders who have no sure guide and no clear compass. For in this navigation reason is unlikely to help since its days are over and intuition, the guide of this transition, is yet to develop.
Navigating through the transition
But how can we help this transition unless we ourselves awaken to the needed Intuition? Otherwise we shall be like the blind leading the blind. This then will be the focus in ourselves, first and foremost to find the way to develop and cultivate intuition and secondly insights that would help us look at the problems of youth and adolescents of today with a fresh perspective shedding the lens of our old value systems. It means a truer and deeper understanding of the challenges of today’s children. It also means helping them discover the pathways of the future. And for this it may be useful to draw help from whatever past and present discoveries in spiritual, psychological and scientific realms are being made in this regard. Of course, not all may recognise that a new species is emerging out of man that, though still human-like in appearance, is much more different than the humanity of yesterday. As this emergence happens slowly this is bound to exert a pressure even on the external being of man, on the form and its possibilities thereof until even the very body structure and functions change into a distinct future type. But first let us take the issues that the parents, teachers and children face today. There is an obvious gap, an ever widening gap between the two, and this gap is much more than just a generation gap. It is in fact two very different worlds that are being inhabited by the old and the new generations along with a tectonic shift within and without. This must be carefully studied and rightly understood.
The Age of Truth
This background understanding is important. We should not see these children in isolation with the wave of Time that is carrying them. In fact most of them do not even know why they are the way they are. They are trying to figure out their way through a fast-changing world. Ill understood by those around them, they still seek the approval of parents and teachers, though not their advice. Unwittingly they are becoming instruments of change. Unknowingly they are ushering a New Age, the Age of Truth. That is why regardless of their outer behaviour, most of these children do not like hypocrisy and are instinctively averse to falsehood. This means that they do not respect all the artificial measures and values indoctrinated by society into us. Their standard is truth, which means, that either we should be able to give a satisfactory reason or explanation for whatever is being done or asked of them to practice. Mere ritualistic practice or formal mechanical conformity is not their natural way of life. If they say, ‘Namaste’ they must ‘feel’ it and not say it because it is a socially acceptable behaviour. Similarly if they ‘feel’ that their inner state can be better expressed through a particular gesture or a particular word then they would rather prefer that than to repeat an age-old mechanical formula of greeting. The very language is changing, becoming more impersonal so to say.
The wash-out generation
This does not mean that they are living by truth. Far from it, since it is not easy to do so. Secondly, the forces of falsehood are working overtime to prevent the coming of the New Age that has already dawned by spreading their dark net in devious ways. They are often using good things towards evil ends even as the Divine brings good out of evil. Taking advantage of the confusion that precedes all change, they are entering the vacuum created by the loss of past values. Take for example, the urge for Freedom, the transcending of religious boundaries, the spirit behind individualism and collectivism, all of which are foundations of a New World Order but are being used for other ends by forces of falsehood that seek expansion. Freedom of speech is being used to distort and spread disinformation while transcending religions are being used to further pseudo-secularism and a violent leftist ideology that throws out the baby with the bath-water. Their very love for truth is being used to distort history in a new way stating that all that was written until now is false. It is as if the world has become a cultural battleground where new fashion statements are emerging to capture the mind of youth and pervert it even before they have the discrimination. It is like trying to slay the divine child while he is still in the cradle.
Conversions and radicalisations are being done to spread terror and divide the world using the massive advantage of technology. There are many such examples and young children are becoming easy prey through no fault of theirs except that they are not inwardly developed enough to resist what needs to be resisted and embrace what needs to be embraced. Of course, not all can be taken through the narrow doorway towards the wide New World that is opening before us. Many will simply be a washout generation who will remain confused as ever and succumb to the various forces of darkness and unconsciousness that are fighting a last-ditch losing battle. The two great Wars were like the storm that swept aside much of what we cherished as life. Now is the time for the action of Truth.
The Action of Truth
The Action of Truth is often like a sieve; the elements that are subtle, refined, humble, supple pass through to the other side. But that which is hard and rigid, crude and inflexible tends to linger back. This of course is the initial action. Later another action will follow, the action of fire, wherein those elements which can bear the pressure of purification will not only remain but shine transformed whereas those which are merely an appearance and not the real thing will be reduced to ashes. Finally will come the great deluge, a giant wave of Time that will drown and carry away all that are not ready back to the ocean floor, but leaving the rest untouched so that a New Creation can take firm roots upon earth. Practically it means that as the Force of Truth gathers momentum in this New Age, there is going to be felt an increasing pressure for change within humanity. This pressure will come from within as well as without. Man will be compelled to change despite himself because such will be the rapidly changing circumstances, or else, those who cannot will either be like another aborted species or else fall back to the simplicity of an animal life. The animal wearing the mask of man will be uncovered for all and himself to see and make a conscious choice to change or to perish. But also the gods within that often walk concealed in the disguise of man will step out in the forefront of the human quest and become the new leaders of humanity. Already this is happening. The façade of social and religious masks are falling off and our hideous faces are getting exposed before the blaze of truth, sparing none. But also we can see that the ordinary humanity, whom one would have normally looked down upon, is being upraised by some secret Hand to lead and to conquer. The nobleman of yesteryears is no more to be found in some privileged circles; he springs up in the midst of nowhere and everywhere as a lotus blooms in mire. So too evil is no more confined to some dark den but emerging from high-rise palaces and high-sounding names.
We are in for more and more surprises and wonders… it is the growing action of Truth upon planet Earth…
Dr. Alok Pandey, an editor of NAMAH and member of SAIIIHR, is a doctor practising at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
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