{"id":3043,"date":"2013-07-13T01:45:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:45:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:36","slug":"29-the-imperfection-of-past-aggregates-vol-25-the-human-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/25-the-human-cycle\/29-the-imperfection-of-past-aggregates-vol-25-the-human-cycle","title":{"rendered":"-29_The Imperfection of Past Aggregates.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n

\n\t\t\tChapter II <\/font> <\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Imperfection of Past Aggregates <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tT<\/font>HE WHOLE<\/b> process of Nature depends on
\n\t\t\ta balancing and a constant tendency to harmony between two poles of
\n\t\t\tlife, the individual whom the whole or aggregate nourishes and the
\n\t\t\twhole or aggregate which the individual helps to constitute. Human
\n\t\t\tlife forms no exception to the rule. Therefore the perfection of
\n\t\t\thuman life must involve the elaboration of an as yet unaccomplished
\n\t\t\tharmony between these two poles of our existence, the individual and
\n\t\t\tthe social aggregate. The perfect society will be that which most
\n\t\t\tentirely favours the perfection of the individual; the perfection of
\n\t\t\tthe individual will be incomplete if it does not help towards the
\n\t\t\tperfect state of the social aggregate to which he belongs and
\n\t\t\teventually to that of the largest possible human aggregate, the
\n\t\t\twhole of a united humanity. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor the gradual process of Nature introduces a complication which
\n\t\t\tprevents the individual from standing in a pure and direct relation
\n\t\t\tto the totality of mankind. Between himself and this too immense
\n\t\t\twhole there erect themselves partly as aids, partly as barriers to
\n\t\t\tthe final unity the lesser aggregates which it has been necessary to
\n\t\t\tform in the progressive stages of human culture. For the obstacles
\n\t\t\tof space, the difficulties of organisation and the limitations of
\n\t\t\tthe human heart and brain have necessitated the formation first of
\n\t\t\tsmall, then of larger and yet larger aggregates so that he may be
\n\t\t\tgradually trained by a progressive approach till he is ready for the
\n\t\t\tfinal universality. The family, the commune, the clan or tribe, the
\n\t\t\tclass, the city state or congeries of tribes, the nation, the empire
\n\t\t\tare so many stages in this progress and constant enlargement. If the
\n\t\t\tsmaller aggregates were destroyed as soon as the larger are
\n\t\t\tsuccessfully formed, this graduation would result in no complexity;
\n\t\t\tbut Nature does not follow this course. She seldom destroys entirely
\n\t\t\tthe types she has once made or only destroys that for which there is
\n\t\t\tno longer any utility;  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/span>285<\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/font><\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tthe rest she keeps in order to serve her need or her passion for variety,
\n\trichness, multiformity and only effaces the dividing lines or modifies the
\n\tcharacteristics and relations sufficiently to allow of the larger unity she
\n\tis creating. Therefore at every step humanity is confronted with various
\n\tproblems which arise not only from the difficulty of accord between the
\n\tinterests of the individual and those of the immediate aggregate, the
\n\tcommunity, but between the need and interests of the smaller integralities
\n\tand the growth of that larger whole which is to ensphere them all. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHistory has preserved for us scattered instances of this travail,
\n\t\t\tinstances of failure and success which are full of instruction. We
\n\t\t\tsee the struggle towards the aggregation of tribes among the Semitic
\n\t\t\tnations, Jew and Arab, surmounted in the one after a scission into
\n\t\t\ttwo kingdoms which remained a permanent source of weakness to the
\n\t\t\tJewish nation, overcome only temporarily in the other by the sudden
\n\t\t\tunifying force of Islam. We see the failure of clan life to combine
\n\t\t\tinto an organised national existence in the Celtic races, a failure
\n\t\t\tentire in Ireland and Scotland and only surmounted through the
\n\t\t\tcrushing out of clan life by a foreign rule and culture, overcome
\n\t\t\tonly at the last moment in Wales. We see the failure of the city
\n\t\t\tstates and small regional peoples to fuse themselves in the history
\n\t\t\tof Greece, the signal success of a similar struggle of Nature in the
\n\t\t\tdevelopment of Roman Italy. The whole past of India for the last two
\n\t\t\tthousand years and more has been the attempt, unavailing in spite of
\n\t\t\tmany approximations to success, to overcome the centrifugal tendency
\n\t\t\tof an extraordinary number and variety of disparate elements, the
\n\t\t\tfamily, the commune, the clan, the caste, the small regional state
\n\t\t\tor people, the large linguistic unit, the religious community, the
\n\t\t\tnation within the nation. We may perhaps say that here Nature tried
\n\t\t\tan experiment of unparalleled complexity and potential richness,
\n\t\t\taccumulating all possible difficulties in order to arrive at the
\n\t\t\tmost opulent result. But in the end the problem proved insoluble or,
\n\t\t\tat least, was not solved and Nature had to resort to her usual
\n\t\t\tdeus ex machina <\/i>denouement, the instrumentality of a foreign
\n\t\t\trule. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut even when the nation is sufficiently organised, \u2014 the
\n\t\t\t  largest unit yet successfully developed by
\n\t\t\tNature, \u2014 entire unity is not always achieved. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/span>286<\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/font><\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t If no other elements of discord remain, yet the
\n\t\t\tconflict of classes is always possible. And the phenomenon leads us
\n\t\t\tto another rule of this gradual development of Nature in human life
\n\t\t\twhich we shall find of very considerable importance when we come to
\n\t\t\tthe question of a realisable human unity. The perfection of the
\n\t\t\tindividual in a perfected society or eventually in a perfected
\n\t\t\thumanity \u2014 understanding perfection always in a relative and
\n\t\t\tprogressive sense \u2014 is the inevitable aim of Nature. But the
\n\t\t\tprogress of all the individuals in a society does not proceed
\npari passu<\/i>, with an equal and equable march. Some advance, others remain
\n\t\t\tstationary \u2014 absolutely or relatively, \u2014 others fall back.
\n\t\t\tConsequently the emergence of a dominant class is inevitable within
\n\t\t\tthe aggregate itself, just as in the constant clash between the
\n\t\t\taggregates the emergence of dominant nations is inevitable. That
\n\t\t\tclass will predominate which develops most perfectly the type Nature
\n\t\t\tneeds at the time for her progress or, it may be, for her
\n\t\t\tretrogression. If she demands power and strength of character, a
\n\t\t\tdominant aristocracy emerges; if knowledge and science, a dominant
\n\t\t\tliterary or savant class; if practical ability, ingenuity, economy
\n\t\t\tand efficient organisation, a dominant bourgeoisie or Vaishya class,
\n\t\t\tusually with the lawyer at the head; if diffusion rather than
\n\t\t\tconcentration of general well-being and a close organisation of
\n\t\t\ttoil, then even the domination of an artisan class is not
\n\t\t\timpossible. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut this phenomenon, whether of dominant classes or dominant
\n\t\t\tnations, can never be more than a temporary necessity; for the final
\n\t\t\taim of Nature in human life cannot be the exploitation of the many
\n\t\t\tby the few or even of the few by the many, can never be the
\n\t\t\tperfection of some at the cost of the abject submergence and
\n\t\t\tignorant subjection of the bulk of humanity; these can only be
\n\t\t\ttransient devices. Therefore we see that such dominations bear
\n\t\t\talways in them the seed of their own destruction. They must pass
\n\t\t\teither by the ejection or destruction of the exploiting element or
\n\t\t\telse by a fusion and equalisation. We see in Europe and America that
\n\t\t\tthe dominant Brahmin and the dominant Kshatriya have been either
\n\t\t\tabolished or are on the point of subsidence into equality with the
\n\t\t\tgeneral mass.   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 287<\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/font><\/font>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo rigidly separate classes alone remain, the dominant propertied class and
\n\tthe labourer, and all the most significant movements of the day have for
\n\ttheir purpose the abolition of this last superiority. In this persistent
\n\ttendency, Europe has obeyed one great law of Nature’s progressive march, her
\n\ttrend towards a final equality. Absolute equality is surely neither intended
\n\tnor possible, just as absolute uniformity is both impossible and utterly
\n\tundesirable; but a fundamental equality which will render the play of true
\n\tsuperiority and difference inoffensive, is essential to any conceivable
\n\tperfectibility of the human race. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTherefore, the perfect counsel for a dominant minority is always to
\n\t\t\trecognise in good time the right hour for its abdication and for the
\n\t\t\timparting of its ideals, qualities, culture, experience to the rest
\n\t\t\tof the aggregate or to as much of it as is prepared for that
\n\t\t\tprogress. Where this is done, the social aggregate advances normally
\n\t\t\tand without disruption or serious wound or malady; otherwise a
\n\t\t\tdisordered progress is imposed upon it, for Nature will not suffer
\n\t\t\thuman egoism to baffle for ever her fixed intention and necessity.
\n\t\t\tWhere the dominant classes successfully avoid her demand upon them,
\n\t\t\tthe worst of destinies is likely to overtake the social aggregate, \u2014
\n\t\t\tas in India where the final refusal of the Brahmin and other
\n\t\t\tprivileged classes to call up the bulk of the nation as far as
\n\t\t\tpossible to their level, their fixing of an unbridgeable gulf of
\n\t\t\tsuperiority between themselves and the rest of society, has been a
\n\t\t\tmain cause of eventual decline and degeneracy. For where her aims
\n\t\t\tare frustrated, Nature inevitably withdraws her force from the
\n\t\t\toffending unit till she has brought in and used other and external
\n\t\t\tmeans to reduce the obstacle to a nullity. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut even if the unity within is made as perfect as social,
\n\t\t\tadministrative and cultural machinery can make it, the question of
\n\t\t\tthe individual still remains. For these social units or aggregates
\n\t\t\tare not like the human body in which the component cells are capable
\n\t\t\tof no separate life apart from the aggregate.   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 288<\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/font><\/font>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tThe human individual tends to exist in himself and to exceed the
\n\t\t\t\tlimits of the family, the clan, the class, the nation; and even,
\n\t\t\t\tthat self-sufficiency on one side, that universality on the
\n\t\t\t\tother are the essential elements of his perfection. Therefore,
\n\t\t\t\tjust as the systems of social aggregation which depend on the
\n\t\t\t\tdomination of a class or classes over others must change or
\n\t\t\t\tdissolve, so the social aggregates which stand in the way of
\n\t\t\t\tthis perfection of the individual and seek to coerce him within
\n\t\t\t\ttheir limited mould and into the rigidity of a narrow culture or
\n\t\t\t\tpetty class or national interest, must find their term and their
\n\t\t\t\tday of change or destruction under the irresistible impulsion of
\n\t\t\t\tprogressing Nature.  \n<\/p>\n


\nPage \u2013 289<\/p>\n

\t<\/font><\/font><\/font>\t<\/font>\t\t\t<\/span>
\n\t\t\t <\/font>\t\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter II   The Imperfection of Past Aggregates   THE WHOLE process of Nature depends on a balancing and a constant tendency to harmony between…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-25-the-human-cycle","wpcat-58-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043","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=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}