{"id":3143,"date":"2013-07-13T01:46:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3143"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:46:17","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:46:17","slug":"37-summary-and-conclusion-vol-the-ideal-of-human-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/the-ideal-of-human-unity\/37-summary-and-conclusion-vol-the-ideal-of-human-unity","title":{"rendered":"-37_Summary and Conclusion.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nCHAPTER XXXV <\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nSUMMARY AND CONCLUSION<\/b><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nI<\/font>N OTHER<\/font> words,\u2014and this is the conclusion at which we
\narrive,\u2014while it is possible to construct a precarious and quite
\nmechanical unity by political and administrative means, the
\nunity of the human race, even if achieved, can only be secured
\nand can only be made real if the religion of humanity, which is
\nat present the highest active ideal of mankind, spiritualises itself
\nand becomes the general inner law of human life. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe outward unity may well achieve itself,\u2014possibly
\nthough by no means certainly, in a measurable time\u2014because
\nthat is the inevitable final trend of the working of Nature in
\nhuman society which makes for larger and yet larger aggregations
\nand cannot fail to arrive at a total aggregation of mankind in a
\ncloser international system. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThis working of Nature depends for its means of fulfilment
\nupon two forces which combine to make the larger aggregation
\ninevitable. First, there is the increasing closeness of common
\ninterests or at least the interlacing and interrelation of interests
\nin a larger and yet larger circle which makes old divisions an
\nobstacle and a cause of weakness, obstruction and friction, and
\nthe clash and collision that comes out of this friction a ruinous
\ncalamity to all, even to the victor who has to pay a too heavy
\nprice for his gains; and even these expected gains, as war becomes more complex
\nand disastrous, are becoming more and more difficult to achieve and the success problematical. An increasing
\nperception of this community or interrelation of interests and a <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-316 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ngrowing unwillingness to face the consequences of collision
\n<\/b>and
\n<\/b>ruinous struggle must push men to welcome any means for mitigating the divisions which lead to such disasters. If the trend to
\nthe mitigation of divisions is once given a definite form, that
\ncommences an impetus which drives towards closer and closer
\nunion. If she cannot arrive by these means, if the incoherence is
\ntoo great for the trend of unification to triumph, Nature will use
\nother means, such as war and conquest or the temporary domination of a powerful State or empire or the menace of such a domination which will compel those threatened to adopt a closer
\nsystem of union. It is these means and this force of outward
\nnecessity which she used to create nation-units and national
\nempires, and, however modified in the circumstances and workings, it is at bottom the same force and the same means which
\nshe is using to drive mankind towards international unification. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nBut, secondly, there is the force of a common uniting sentiment. This may work in two ways; it may come before as an
\noriginating or contributory cause or it may come afterwards as a
\ncementing result. In the first case, the sentiment of a larger unity
\nsprings up among units which were previously divided and
\nleads them to seek after a form of union, which may then be
\nbrought about principally by the force of the sentiment and its
\nidea or by that secondarily as an aid to other and more outward
\nevents and causes. We may note that in earlier times this sentiment was insufficiently effective, as among the petty clan or
\nregional nations; unity had ordinarily to be effected by outward
\ncircumstances and generally by the grossest of them, by war and
\nconquest, by the domination of the most powerful among many
\nwarring or contiguous peoples. But in later times, the force of
\nthe sentiment of unity, supported as it has been by a clearer
\npolitical idea, has become more effective. The larger national
\naggregates have grown up by a simple act of federation or union,
\nthough this has sometimes had to be preceded by a common
\nstruggle for liberty or a union in war against a common enemy; so have grown into one the United States, Italy, Germany, and
\nmore peacefully the Australian and South African federations. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-317<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nBut in other cases, especially in the earlier national aggregations,
\nthe sentiment of unity has grown up largely or entirely as the
\nresult of the formal, outward or mechanical union. But whether
\nto form or to preserve the growth of the sentiment, the psychological factor is indispensable; without it there can he no secure
\nand lasting union. Its absence, the failure to create such a sentiment or to make it sufficiently living, natural, forcible has been
\nthe cause of the precariousness of such aggregates as Austro-Hungary and of the ephemeral character of the empires of the
\npast, even as it is likely to bring about, unless circumstances
\nchange, the collapse or disintegration of the great present-day
\nempires. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe trend of forces towards some kind of international
\nworld-organisation eventuating in a possible far-off unification,
\nwhich is now just beginning to declare itself as an idea or aspiration though the causes which made it inevitable have been for
\nsome time at work, is enforced by the pressure of need and environment, by outward circumstances. At the same time, there is
\na sentiment helped and stimulated by these outward circumstances, a cosmopolitan, international sentiment, still rather nebulous and vaguely ideal, which may accelerate the growth of the
\nformal union. In itself this sentiment would be an insufficient
\ncement for the preservation of any mechanical union which
\nmight be created; for it could not easily be so close and forcible
\na sentiment as national feeling. It would have to subsist on the
\nconveniences of union as its only substantial provender. But the
\nexperience of the past shows that this mere necessity of convenience is in the end not strong enough to resist the pressure of
\nunfavourable circumstances and the reassertion of old or the
\neffective growth of new centrifugal forces. There is, however, at
\nwork a more powerful force, a sort of intellectual religion of
\nhumanity, clear in the minds of the few, vaguely felt in its effects
\nand its disguises by the many, which has largely helped to bring
\nabout much of the trend of the modem mind and the drift of its
\ndeveloping institutions. This is a psychological force which tends
\nto break beyond the formula of the nation and aspires to replace <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-318<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe religion of country and even, in its more extreme forms,
\n<\/b>to
\n<\/b>destroy altogether the national sentiment and to abolish its divisions so as to create the single nation of mankind. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWe may say, then, that this trend must eventually realise
\nitself, however great may be the difficulties; and they are really
\nenormous, much greater than those which attended the national
\nformation. If the present unsatisfactory conditions of international relations should lead to a series of cataclysms, either large
\nand world-embracing like the present war or, though each more
\nlimited in scope, yet in their sum world-pervading and necessarily, by the growing interrelation of interests, affecting even
\nthose who do not fall directly under their touch, then mankind
\nwill finally be forced in self-defence to a new, closer and more
\nstringently unified order of things. Its choice will be between that
\nand a lingering suicide. If the human reason cannot find out the
\nway, Nature herself is sure to shape these upheavals in such a
\nway as to bring about her end. Therefore\u2014whether soon or in
\nthe long run, whether brought about by its own growing sentiment of unity, stimulated by common interest and convenience,
\nor by the evolutionary pressure of circumstances,\u2014we may take
\nit that an eventual unification or at least some formal organisation of human life on earth is, the incalculable being always
\nallowed for, practically inevitable. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nI have tried to show from the analogy of the past evolution
\nof the nation that this international unification must culminate
\nor at least is likely to culminate in one of two forms. There is
\nlikely to be either a centralised World-State or a looser world-union which may be either a close federation or a simple confederacy of the peoples for the common ends of mankind. The
\nlast form is the most desirable, because it gives sufficient scope
\nfor the principle of variation which is necessary for the free play
\nof life and the healthy progress of the race. The process by which
\nthe World-State may come starts with the creation of a central
\nbody which will at first have very limited functions but, once
\ncreated, must absorb by degrees all the different utilities of a
\ncentralised international control, as the State, first in the form of <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-319 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\na monarchy and then of a parliament, has been absorbing by
\ndegrees the whole control of the life of the nation, so that we are
\nnow within measurable distance of a centralised socialistic State
\nwhich will leave no part of the life of its individuals unregulated.
\nA similar process in the World-State will end in the taking up
\nand the regulation of the whole life of the peoples into its hands; it may even end by abolishing national individuality and turning
\nthe divisions that it has created into mere departmental groupings, provinces and districts of the one common State. Such an
\neventuality may seem now a fantastic dream or an unrealisable
\nidea; but it is one which, under certain conditions that are by no
\nmeans beyond the scope of ultimate possibility, may well become
\nfeasible and even, after a certain point is reached, inevitable. A
\nfederal system and still more a confederacy would mean, on the
\nother hand, the preservation of the national basis and a greater
\nor less freedom of national life, but the subordination of the
\nseparate national to the larger common interests and of full separate freedom to the greater international necessities. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nIt may be questioned whether past analogies are a safe guide
\nin a problem so new and whether something else might not be
\nevolved more intimately and independently arising from it and
\nsuitable to its complexities. But mankind even in dealing with
\nits new problems works upon past experience and therefore
\nupon past motives and analogies. Even when it seizes on new
\nideas, it goes to the past for the form it gives to them. Behind the
\napparent changes of the most radical revolutions we see this unavoidable principle of continuity surviving in the heart of the
\nnew order. Moreover, these alternatives seem the only way in
\nwhich the two forces in presence can work out their conflict,
\neither by the disappearance of the one, the separative national
\ninstinct, or by an accommodation between them. On the other
\nhand, it is quite possible that human thought and action may
\ntake so new a turn as to bring in a number of unforeseen possibilities and lead to a quite different ending. And one might
\nupon these lines set one’s imagination to work and produce perhaps a Utopia of a better kind. Such constructive efforts of the <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-320<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nhuman imagination have their value, and often a very great
\nvalue; but any such speculations would evidently have been out
\nof place in the study I have attempted. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAssuredly, neither of the two alternatives and none of the
\nthree forms considered are free from serious objections. A centralised World-State would signify the triumph of the idea of
\nmechanical unity or rather of uniformity. It would inevitably
\nmean the undue depression of an indispensable element in the
\nvigour of human life and progress, the free life of the individual,
\nthe free variation of the peoples. It must end, if it becomes permanent and fulfils all its tendencies, either in a death in life, a
\nstagnation, or by the insurgence of some new saving but revolutionary force or principle which would shatter the whole fabric
\ninto pieces. The mechanical tendency is one to which the logical
\nreason of man, itself a precise machine, is easily addicted and its
\noperations are obviously the easiest to manage and the most
\nready to hand; its full evolution may seem to the reason desirable, necessary, inevitable, but its end is predestined. A centralised socialistic State may be a necessity of the future, once it is
\nfounded, but a reaction from it will be equally an eventual necessity of the future. The greater its pressure, the more certainly
\nwill it be met by spread of the spiritual, the intellectual, the vital
\nand practical principle of Anarchism in revolt against that mechanical pressure. So too a centralised mechanical World-State
\nmust 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 repetition of the cycle of humanity ending in a better
\nattempt to solve the problem. It could be kept in being only if
\nhumanity agreed to allow all the rest of its life to be regularised
\nfor it for the sake of peace and stability and took refuge for its
\nindividual freedom in the spiritual life, as happened once under
\nthe Roman empire. But even that would be only a temporary
\nsolution. A federal system also would tend inevitably to establish
\none general type for human life, institutions and activities; it
\ncould allow only a play of minor variations. But the need of
\nvariation in living Nature could not always rest satisfied with <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-321<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nthat scanty sustenance. On the other hand, a looser confederacy
\nmight well be open to the objection that it would give too ready
\na handle for centrifugal forces, were such to arise in new
\nstrength. 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 least by a break-up of the loose unity into its
\noriginal elements. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe saving power needed is a new psychological factor
\nwhich will at once make a united life necessary to humanity and
\nforce it to respect the principle of freedom. The religion of humanity seems to be the one growing force which tends in that
\ndirection; for it makes for the sense of human oneness, it has
\nthe idea of the race, and yet at the same time it respects the
\nhuman individual and the natural human grouping. But its
\npresent intellectual form seems hardly sufficient. The idea, powerful in itself and in its effects, is yet not powerful enough to
\nmould the whole life of the race in its image. For it has to concede too much to the egoistic side of human nature, once all and
\nstill nine tenths of our being, with which its larger idea is in
\nconflict. On the other side, because it leans principally on the
\nreason it turns too readily to the mechanical solution. For the
\nrational idea ends always as a captive of its machinery, becomes
\na slave of its own too binding process. A new idea with another
\nturn of the logical machine revolts against it and breaks up the
\nmachinery, but only to substitute in the end another mechanical
\nsystem, another credo, formula and practice. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nA spiritual religion of humanity is the hope of the future. By this is not meant what is ordinarily called a universal religion,
\na system, a thing of creed and intellectual belief and dogma and
\noutward rite. Mankind has tried unity by that means; it has
\nfailed and deserved to fail, because there can be no universal
\nreligious system, one in mental creed and vital form. The inner
\nspirit is indeed one, but more than any other the spiritual life
\ninsists on freedom and variation in its self-expression and means
\nof development. A religion of humanity means the growing realisation that there <\/b> is a secret Spirit, a divine Reality, in which we <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-322<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nare all one; that humanity is its highest present vehicle on earth,
\nthat the human race and the human being are the means by
\nwhich it will progressively reveal itself here. It implies a growing
\nattempt to live out this knowledge and bring about a kingdom of
\nthis divine Spirit upon earth. By its growth within us oneness
\nwith our fellow-men will become the leading principle of all our
\nlife, not merely a principle of co-operation, but a deeper brotherhood, a real and an inner sense of unity and equality and a common life. There must be the realisation by the individual that
\nonly in the life of his fellow-men is his own life complete. There
\nmust be the realisation by the race that only on the free and full
\nlife of the individual can its own perfection and permanent
\nhappiness be founded. There must be too a discipline and a way
\nof salvation in accordance with this religion, that is to say, a
\nmeans by which it can be developed by each man within himself
\nso that it may be developed in the life of the race. To go into all
\nthat this implies would be too large a subject to be entered upon
\nhere; it is enough to point out that in this direction lies the eventual road. No doubt, if this is only an idea like the rest, it will go
\nthe way of all ideas. But if it is at all a truth of our being, then it
\nmust be the truth to which all is moving and in it must be found
\nthe means of a fundamental, an inner, a complete, a real human
\nunity which would be the one secure base of a unification of
\nhuman life. A spiritual oneness which would create a psychological oneness not dependent upon any intellectual or outward
\nuniformity and compel a oneness of life not bound up with its
\nmechanical means of unification, but ready always to enrich its
\nsecure unity by a free inner variation and a freely varied outer
\nself-expression, this would be the basis for a higher type of human existence. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nCould such a realisation develop rapidly in mankind, we
\nmight then solve the problem of unification in a deeper and truer
\nway from the inner truth to the outer forms. Until then, the
\nattempt to bring it about by mechanical means must proceed.
\nBut the higher hope of humanity lies in the growing number of
\nmen who will realise this truth and seek to develop it in themselves,<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-323<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nso that when the mind of man is ready to escape from its
\nmechanical bent,\u2014perhaps when it finds that its mechanical
\nsolutions are all temporary and disappointing,\u2014the truth of the
\nSpirit may step in and lead humanity to the path of its highest
\npossible happiness and perfection. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-324<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER XXXV   SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION   IN OTHER words,\u2014and this is the conclusion at which we arrive,\u2014while it is possible to construct a precarious…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-ideal-of-human-unity","wpcat-63-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143","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=3143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}