{"id":1179,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1179"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:06","slug":"61-summary-and-conclusion-vol-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15\/61-summary-and-conclusion-vol-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","title":{"rendered":"-61_Summary and Conclusion.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n\t\tCHAPTER<\/font><\/b>
\nXXXV<\/b><\/font><\/span>
\n<\/font><\/b>
\nSummary
\nand Conclusion<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/font><\/span>I<\/font><\/b>N<\/span>
\n<\/b>
\nOTHER words, – and this is the conclusion at which we arrive, –<\/span> while it is possible to construct a
\nprecarious and quite mechanical unity by political and administrative means,
\nthe unity of the human race, even if achieved, can only be secured and can only
\nbe made real if the religion of humanity, which is at present the highest
\nactive ideal of mankind, spiritualises itself and becomes the general inner law
\nof human life.   
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

    The outward unity may well achieve itself, – possibly,
\nthough by no means certainly, in a measurable time, –<\/span> because that is the inevitable final trend of the working of
\nNature in human society which makes for larger and yet larger aggregations and
\ncannot fail to arrive at a total aggregation of mankind in a closer
\ninternational system.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>This
\nworking of Nature depends for its means of fulfilment upon two forces which
\ncombine to make the larger aggregation inevitable. First, there is the
\nincreasing closeness of common interests or at least the interlacing and
\ninterrelation of interests in a larger and yet larger circle which makes old
\ndivisions an obstacle and a cause of weakness, obstruction and friction, and
\nthe clash and collision that comes out of this friction a ruinous calamity to
\nall, even to the victor who has to pay a too heavy price for his gains; and
\neven these expected gains, as war becomes more complex and disastrous, are
\nbecoming more and more difficult to achieve and the success problematical. An
\nincreasing perception of this community or interrelation of interests and a
\ngrowing un- willingness to face the consequences of collision and ruinous
\nstruggle must push men to welcome any means for mitigating the divisions which
\nlead to such disasters. If the trend to the mitigation of divisions is once
\ngiven a definite form, that commences an impetus which drives towards closer
\nand closer union. If she<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-548<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

cannot arrive by these means, if the incoherence is too
\ngreat for the trend of unification to triumph, Nature will use other means, such
\nas war and conquest or the temporary domination of the powerful State or empire
\nor the menace of such a domination which will compel those threatened to adopt
\na closer system of union. It is these means and this force of outward necessity
\nwhich she used to create nation-units and national empires, and, however
\nmodified in the circumstances and workings, it is at bottom the same force and
\nthe same means which she is using to drive mankind towards international
\nunification.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But,
\nsecondly, there is the force of a common uniting sentiment. This may work in
\ntwo ways; it may come before as an originating or contributory cause or it may
\ncome afterwards as a cementing result. In the first case, the sentiment of a
\nlarger unity springs up among units which were previously divided and leads
\nthem to seek after a form of union which may then be brought about principally
\nby the force of the sentiment and its idea or by that secondarily as an aid to
\nother and more outward events and causes. We may note that in earlier times
\nthis sentiment was insufficiently effective, as among the petty clans or
\nregional nations; unity had ordinarily to be effected by outward circumstances
\nand generally by the grossest of them, by war and conquest, by the domination
\nof the most powerful among many warring or contiguous peoples. But in later
\ntimes the force of the sentiment of unity, supported as it has been by a
\nclearer political idea, has become more effective. The larger national
\naggregates have grown up by a simple act of federation or union, though this
\nhas sometimes had to be preceded by a common struggle for liberty or a union in
\nwar against a common enemy; so have grown into one the United States, Italy,
\nGermany, and more peacefully the Australian and South African federations. But
\nin other cases, especially in the earlier national aggregations, the sentiment
\nof unity has grown up largely or entirely as the result of the formal, outward
\nor mechanical union. But whether to form or to preserve the growth of the
\nsentiment, the psychological factor is indispensable; without it there can be
\nno secure and lasting union. Its absence, the failure to create such a
\nsentiment or to make it sufficiently living, natural, forcible has been the<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-549<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

cause of the precariousness of such aggregates as
\nAustro- Hungary and of the ephemeral character of the empires of the past, even
\nas it is likely to bring about, unless circumstances change, the collapse or
\ndisintegration of the great present- day empires.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>The trend
\nof forces towards some kind of international world-organisation eventuating in
\na possible far-off unification, which is now just beginning to declare itself
\nas an idea or aspiration though the causes which made it inevitable have been
\nfor some time at work, is enforced by the pressure of need and environment, by
\noutward circumstances. At the same time, there is a sentiment helped and
\nstimulated by these outward circumstances, a cosmopolitan, international
\nsentiment, still rather nebulous and vaguely ideal, which may accelerate the
\ngrowth of the formal union. In itself this sentiment would be an insufficient
\ncement for the preservation of any mechanical union which might be created; for
\nit could not easily be so close and forcible a sentiment as national feeling.
\nIt would have to subsist on the conveniences of union as its only substantial
\nprovender. But the experience of the past shows that this mere necessity of
\nconvenience is in the end not strong enough to resist the pressure of
\nunfavourable circumstances and the reassertion of old or the effective growth
\nof new centrifugal forces. There is, however, at work a more powerful force, a
\nsort of intellectual religion of humanity, clear in the minds of the few,
\nvaguely felt in its effects and its disguises by the many, which has largely
\nhelped to bring about. much of the trend of the modern mind and the drift of
\nits developing institutions. This is a psychological force which tends to break
\nbeyond the formula of the nation and aspires to replace the religion of country
\nand even, in its more extreme forms, to destroy altogether the national
\nsentiment and to abolish its divisions so as to create the single nation of
\nmankind.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>We may say,
\nthen, that this trend must eventually realise itself, however great may be the
\ndifficulties; and they are really enormous, much greater than those which
\nattended the national formation. If the present unsatisfactory condition of
\ninternational relations should lead to a series of cataclysms, either large and
\nworld-embracing like the present war or, though each more<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-550<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

limited in scope, yet in their sum world-pervading and
\nnecessarily, by the growing interrelation of interests, affecting even those
\nwho do not fall directly under their touch, then mankind will finally be forced
\nin self-defence to a new, closer and more stringently unified order of things.
\nIts choice will be between that and a lingering suicide. If the ‘human reason
\ncannot find out the way, Nature herself is sure to shape these upheavals in
\nsuch a way as to bring about her end. Therefore, – whether soon or in the long
\nrun, whether brought about by its own growing sentiment of unity, stimulated by
\ncommon interests and convenience, or by the evolutionary pressure of
\ncircumstances, – we may take it that an eventual unification or at least some
\nformal organisation of human life on earth is, the incalculable being always
\nallowed for, practically inevitable.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>I have
\ntried to show from the analogy of the past evolution of the nation that this
\ninternational unification must culminate or at least is likely to culminate in
\none of two forms. There is likely to be either a centralised World-State or a
\nlooser world- union which may be either a close federation or a simple
\nconfederacy of the peoples for the common ends of mankind. The last form is the
\nmost desirable, because it gives sufficient scope for the principle of
\nvariation which is necessary for the free play of life and the healthy progress
\nof the race. The process by which the World-State may come starts with the
\ncreation of a central body which will at first have very limited functions,
\nbut, once created, must absorb by degrees all the different utilities of a
\ncentralised international control, as the State, first in the form of a
\nmonarchy and then of a parliament, has been absorbing by degrees the whole
\ncontrol of the life of the nation, so that we are now within measurable
\ndistance of a centralised socialistic State which will leave no part of the
\nlife of its individuals unregulated. A similar process in the World-State will
\nend in the taking up and the regulation of the whole life of the peoples into
\nits hands; it may even end by abolishing national individuality and turning the
\ndivisions that it has created into mere departmental groupings, provinces and
\ndistricts of the one common State. Such an eventuality may seem now a fantastic
\ndream or an unrealisable idea; but it is one which, under certain conditions
\nthat are by no<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-551<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

means beyond the scope of ultimate possibility, may
\nwell become feasible and even, after a certain point is reached, inevitable. A
\nfederal system and still more a confederacy would mean, on the other hand, the
\npreservation of the national basis and a greater or less freedom of national
\nlife, but .the subordination of the separate national to the larger common
\ninterests and of full separate freedom to the greater international
\nnecessities.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>It may be
\nquestioned whether past analogies are a safe guide in a problem so new and
\nwhether something else might not be evolved more intimately and independently
\narising from it and suitable to its complexities. But mankind even in dealing
\nwith its new problems works upon past experience and therefore upon past
\nmotives and analogies. Even when it seizes on new ideas, it goes to the past
\nfor the form it gives to them. Behind the apparent changes of the most radical
\nrevolutions we see this un- avoidable principle of continuity surviving in the
\nheart of the new order. Moreover, these alternatives seem the only way in which
\nthe two forces in presence can work out their conflict, either by the
\ndisappearance of the one, the separative national instinct, or by an
\naccommodation between them. On the other hand, it is quite possible that human
\nthought and action may take so new a turn as to bring in a number of unforeseen
\npossibilities and lead to a quite differing ending. And one might upon these
\nlines set one\u2019s imagination to work and produce perhaps a utopia of a better
\nkind. Such constructive efforts of the human imagination have their value and
\noften a very great value; but any such speculations would evidently have been
\nout place in the study I have attempted. <\/font> <\/p>\n


\n\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>Assuredly,
\nneither of the two alternatives and none of the three forms considered are free
\nfrom serious objections. A centralised World-State would signify the triumph of
\nthe idea of mechanical unity or rather of uniformity. It would inevitably mean
\nthe undue depression of an indispensable element in the vigour of human life
\nand progress, the free life of the individual, the free variation of the
\npeoples. It must end, if it becomes permanent and fulfils all its tendencies,
\neither in a death in life, a stagnation, or by the insurgence of some new
\nsaving but revolutionary force or principle which would shatter the whole<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-552<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

fabric into pieces. The mechanical tendency is one to
\nwhich the logical reason of <\/i>man, itself a precise machine, is easily
\naddicted and its operations are obviously the easiest to manage and the most
\nready to hand; its full evolution may seem to the reason desirable, necessary,
\ninevitable, but its end is predestined. A centralised socialistic State may be
\na necessity of <\/i>the future, once it is founded, but a reaction from it
\nwill be equally an eventual necessity of <\/i>the future. The greater its
\npressure, the more certainly will it be met by spread of <\/i>the spiritual,
\nthe intellectual, the vital and practical principle of <\/i>Anarchism in
\nrevolt against that mechanical pressure. So, too, a centralised mechanical
\nWorld-State must rouse in the end a similar force against it and might well
\nterminate in a crumbling up and disintegration, even in the necessity for a
\nrepetition of <\/i>the cycle of <\/i>humanity ending in a better attempt to
\nsolve the problem. It could be kept in being only if <\/i>humanity agreed to
\nallow all the rest of <\/i>its life to be regularised for it for the sake of
\n<\/i>peace and stability and took refuge for its individual freedom in the
\nspiritual life, as happened once under the Roman Empire. But even that would be
\nonly a temporary solution. A federal system also would tend inevitably to
\nestablish one general type for human life, institutions and activities; it
\ncould allow only a play of <\/i>minor variations. But the need of <\/i>variation
\nin living Nature could not always rest satisfied with that scanty sustenance.
\nOn the other hand, a looser confederacy might well be open to the objection
\nthat it would give too ready a handle for centrifugal forces, were such to
\narise in new strength. A loose confederation could not be permanent; it must
\nturn in one direction or the other, end either in a close and rigid
\ncentralisation or at last by a break-up of <\/i>the loose unity into its
\noriginal elements.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The saving power
\nneeded is a new psychological factor which will at once make a united life
\nnecessary to humanity and force it to respect the principle of <\/i>freedom.
\nThe religion of <\/i>humanity seems to be the one growing force which tends
\nin that direction; for it makes for the sense of <\/i>human oneness, it has
\nthe idea of <\/i>the race, and yet at the same time it respects the human
\nindividual and the natural human grouping. But its present intellectual form
\nseems hardly sufficient. The idea, powerful in itself and in<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-553<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

its effects, is yet not powerful enough to mould the
\nwhole life of the race in its image. For it has to concede too much to the
\negoistic side of human nature, once all and still nine-tenths of our being,
\nwith which its larger idea is in conflict. On the other side, because it leans
\nprincipally on the reason, it turns too readily to the mechanical solution. For
\nthe rational idea ends always as a captive of its machinery, becomes a slave of
\nits own too binding process. A new idea with another turn of the logical
\nmachine revolts against it and breaks up the machinery, but only to substitute
\nin the end another mechanical system, another credo, formula and practice.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>A spiritual
\nreligion of humanity is the hope of the future. By this is not meant what is ordinarily
\ncalled a universal religion, a system, a thing of creed and intellectual belief
\nand dogma and outward rite. Mankind has tried unity by that means; it has
\nfailed and deserved to fail, because there can be no universal religious
\nsystem, one in mental creed and vital form. The inner spirit is indeed one, but
\nmore than any other the spiritual life insists on freedom and variation in its
\nself-expression and means of development. A religion of humanity means the
\ngrowing realisation that there is a secret Spirit, a divine Reality, in which
\nwe are all one, that humanity is its highest present vehicle on earth, that the
\nhuman race and the human being are the means by which it will progressively
\nreveal itself here. It implies a growing attempt to live out this knowledge and
\nbring about a kingdom of this divine Spirit upon earth. By its growth within us
\noneness with our fellow-men will become the leading principle of all our life,
\nnot merely a principle of co-operation but a deeper brother- hood, a real and an
\ninner sense of unity and equality and a common life. There must be the
\nrea1isation by the individual that only in the life of his fellow-men is his
\nown life complete. There must be the realisation by the race that only on the
\nfree and full life of the individual can its own perfection and permanent
\nhappiness be founded. There must be too a discipline and a way of salvation in
\naccordance with this religion, that is to say, a means by which it can be
\ndeveloped by each man within himself, so that it may be developed in the life
\nof the race. To go into all that this implies would be too large a subject to
\nbe entered upon<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-554<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

here; it is enough to point out that in this direction
\nlies the eventual road. No doubt, if this is only an idea like the rest, it will
\ngo the way of all ideas. But if it is at all a truth of our being, then it must
\nbe the truth to which all is moving and in it must be found the means of a
\nfundamental, an inner, a complete, a real human unity which would be the one
\nsecure base of a unification of human life. A spiritual oneness which would
\ncreate a psychological oneness not dependent upon any intellectual or outward
\nuniformity and compel a oneness of life not bound up with its mechanical means
\nof unification, but ready always to enrich its secure unity by a free inner
\nvariation and a freely varied outer self-expression, this would be the basis
\nfor a higher type of human existence.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>Could such
\na realisation develop rapidly in mankind, we might then solve the problem of
\nunification in a deeper and truer way from the inner truth to the outer forms.
\nUntil then, the attempt to bring it about by mechanical means must proceed. But
\nthe higher hope of humanity lies in the growing number of men who will realise
\nthis truth and seek to develop it in themselves, so that when the mind of man
\nis ready to escape from its mechanical bent, – perhaps when it finds that its
\nmechanical solutions are all temporary and disappointing, – the truth of the
\nSpirit may step in and lead humanity to the path of its highest possible
\nhappiness and perfection.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-555<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER XXXV Summary and Conclusion   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0IN OTHER words, – and this is the conclusion at which we arrive, – while it is possible…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","wpcat-25-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}