April 14, 1999
Theory of Social Process of Development
(Based on the theory of creation by Sri Aurobindo)
The process of social development is the same as the process of creation. Sri Aurobindo says that the Self-Conscious Being, putting out its various powers in the planes of Time and Space, creating Forms out of Force, is a process of self-conception. Society that is a collective entity by its own willed self-conception, develops new and higher forms of its existence.
Society, essentially collective, aspires through its individuals. The Self-Conscious Being by involution creates Mind, Life and Matter. And by evolution Life emerges out of Matter and Mind emerges out of Life. As social evolution is a phenomenon of Mind organising life, let us confine the parallel only to this part of creation.
Sri Aurobindo says Life progresses by consciousness and consciousness progresses through organisation. It is this part that is relevant to us in social evolution. Sri Aurobindo goes on to say that the universe fulfils itself in the Individual and the Individual fulfils himself in the universe. In society, it means the individual and society fulfil themselves in each other.
Consciousness is external as well as internal. So also organisation is external as well as internal. The internal precedes the external. All civilisation is the result of man's growing awareness of the external environment. It is evident that that external awareness is made possible by an internal endowment. The needs of survival compel man to be more and more aware of his environment. Greater awareness results in greater progress. Awareness being an idea energises man and releases the energy. Energy thus released will yield results only when organised.
The seed of the organisation is an act. When acts are strung together according to certain rules, systems are born. Such a system is the primary organisation though several systems working in unison generate the organisation. Such an organisation grows in width as well as in complexity.
As all social results are produced by social organisation, development means creation of organisations or widening an existing organisation. Thus, social development means development of social organisations. Therefore, the constitution, functioning, and growth of such an organisation is the process of social development.
The relative importance of the inner and outer is significant. Without going deep into its philosophy, one can see that MAN begins inside. So the consciousness and organisation of the inside precedes those of the external exploits. Our starting point for the external organisation is an act. It is possible to see that an ACT is the result of an idea directing the physical movements through vital energy. What we start with as the primary unit is itself a complex organisation even as the ultimate particle of an atom is a world in itself created by compressing infinite energy.
Anyway, our present discussion does not go beyond the primal act. If we say oil is an external resource and education an inner resource, the inner should first awaken for the outer to become useful.
Organisations are centralised and directed from a centre. As time passes, the central authority moves to the individual in the periphery making a social organisation into a social institution. Festivals are thus institutionalized in a society. Organisation that was run by rules matures into an institution that is maintained by social values that are accepted by the individuals. It further develops into culture. A society's ability for accomplishment is measured by its culture. Culture is acquired in work, human relationships, religious sentiment, spiritual pursuits and in every walk of life. Punctuality is work culture, not to interrupt is the culture of committee work, the other man's point of view is the culture of organisational effectivity.
In periods of transition, the most effective instrument naturally turns into the most effective obstacle. In switching over from agriculture to manufacturing, the serf finds his most valued possession of loyalty to the master the greatest fetter, as he has to go in search of urban employment.
In The Third Try (*) we are in such a transition period. It ushers in a new world, which requires a new set of cultural values. Obviously all those values we have cherished till now will turn into their opposites. One would be considered rational for the new venture if he comes forward not to insist on old values but to evaluate those values in terms of the new requirements. We shall deal with this part in greater detail when we come to the strategies required for the new venture.
Organisations as well as individuals possess physical skills, vital attitudes, mental opinions and spiritual values. Values are the skills of spirit and skills are the values of the physical. Language permits the use of these words in other contexts such as mental attitudes or physical values. For the sake of convenience, let us restrict these words to one plane, i.e. skill for the physical, attitude for the vital, opinion for the mental and values for the spiritual.
For the theory to be comprehensive, the structure of existence of society, its constitution, new creation, transition, process of functions, energy, force, power, and strategies at each level must be theoretically explained.
For the theory to be valid for the planners, it needs to provide those strategies that will 1) speed up progress, 2) awaken awareness in areas where there is none, 3) put resources to greater use, 4) accomplish more with less effort, 5) locate the missing infrastructure, 6) discover areas of marriage between two aspects that will move the society, 7) arrange for divorces of unholy alliances, 8) restore each function to its proper authority, 9) discover the links of power that are energising anti-social activities, and 10) pronounce on every aspect of every social function.
Social and human lives as we live have the alternatives of success and failure. This character of our life has given place to one of success banishing failures in certain aspects of our daily functioning. As man or woman acquires fresh skills, he or she first acquires a one-time success where no success had been met with at all until then. This is the beginning of conquest of a fresh area. With the passing of time, the measure of success increases almost touching 100%, when that skill spreads all over the society and becomes a social requirement. Eating, walking, etc. acquired that status in the beginning. Now literacy claims that status. Rationality is not accorded that rare privilege till now. The theory will do well to explore more and more areas where the rule of unfailing success can be extended. It should also describe the principle of unfailing success in general. By reducing that principle to a strategy of human choice, the theory will help the society to banish failure from chosen areas.
Behind the achievements of a society lie its energies. The social will directs those energies to its own purpose, converting them into social force. Social organisations that utilise that force further convert it into social power. Still for the individual to secure the results he aspires for, he must develop those social skills that are capable of rendering the social power into social results. That basic energy of the society is enhanced by the social aspiration or the mental idea by which it is actuated.
The individual is the finite point of concentration of the social infinite. The individual acquires individuality that as time passes becomes a separative entity. We call it ego. This separative ego was essential in the beginning for a person to become capable of survival by acquiring skills of survival. The ego has done a great service and now its time is over. In this century the individual has increasingly discovered the virtues and the power of cooperation with other individuals and particularly with the social whole. This cooperation has shown strong tendencies of over-reaching the national boundaries since 1950. Thus, globalisation, the global century, the global public sector, and the global citizen are born. The individual ego, even national egos are found to be bars in this wider effort. All those persons who come forward to overcome the fruits of ego and recognize the powers of co-operation of the individual with the social whole will become instruments of creating global activities.
We can think of several characteristics that would be helpful in this regard. Personal opinion, awareness of one's strength or one's country's strength, the value of the past, reliance on one's successful past, cultural values, capacity for successful action which at times can be the strength of irrationality, sentiment of any description, reliance on the external tool or method instead of the inner content are the main attributes.
Opinion: By definition, opinion is personal, arrived at by assimilating the external fact through one's past experience. What is needed is the social opinion, not the personal opinion as it would be limited even when it is right. Opinion limits. One should be willing to give up opinions, rather the capacity for opinion formation. It is a way one outgrows one's own mind into the social mind or universal mind. Facts that are the kernels of opinions are of value. Geography has now moved from the arena of opinion to facts in a great measure. History is still partly in the realm of opinions. After coming out of one's own opinion, one accepts social opinion. That may be better, but will not serve the purposes of objective science. Mind releases enormous energies when it is able to detach itself from opinions. The Third Try does not belong to the mindset of the Cold War. Whether it is Cold War, or superstition or ignorance, the transition requires an OBJECTIVITY which is not available now. That objectivity carries with it the power to accomplish our goal. It is an objectivity that can live with paradoxical opposites.
If a person has strong opinions on some subject, he or she can try to withdraw them and see the flood of mental energy that is released. Even a positive value can be held as an opinion. One may accept the value of honesty as an opinion. Let such a person shed the opinion or change the opinion into a value and see its power. An opinion derives its energy from the mind or mental ego. A value rests in the mind outside the ego, unsupported by the ego. In changing an opinion into a value, one shifts from his ego to the mind, from the ego centre of the mind to the mind proper.
Awareness of one's strength or one's country's strength: It is Shakespeare who said that one might have strength, but to use it is tyrannical. Use of strength starts from being aware of it. It is an ancient phenomenon and an inevitable one in the minds of people. As soon as strength of any description collects, it fills the being, gives rise to satisfaction, one tends to use it, and finally enjoys using it with a vengeance against the weak. All religions arose from the Middle East and decayed in the above fashion. Nature shifted its centre of action from a decayed part to Greece and Europe. Science and democracy were born. They too went the same way. The next triumph of society showed itself in the USA and apparently shifted temporarily to Japan.
It is natural to use one's strength. It is also natural to lose the benefits of the strength in the next phase. It happened to Russian communism and Indian spirituality. Giving way to natural impulses, one meets with the alternatives of success and failure. When strength accumulates, it is difficult to be humble. Humility absorbs strength into equanimity or equality, as Sri Aurobindo says. Strength thus absorbed will not meet with the alternative of failure. What Mother calls Self-giving also implies not to recognise one's strength. A strong person acting not from his strength will not have the alternative of failure. To act from a sense of strength creates pride, not acting from strength. This is one aspect of perfection. Strength hurts weakness. It is natural. Not to allow oneself to walk roughshod over the weak needs the strength of the whole being. Knowledge is the strength of mind, a part. For one's knowledge not to hurt another, strength of mind is not enough. It requires the strength of the whole being, of which body, vital, mind and spirit are parts. Even the highest part, spirit, can hurt others as its ego is not dissolved. The WHOLE BEING will not have the ego. Therefore, by acting from the whole, it hurts no one.
One may be humble. When it comes to his country, his patriotism will rise. Spiritual, cultural, military, or wealth superiority of one's country is not easy for one to overcome in arriving at personal judgements or opinions. Those who endeavour in international fields must aim at this perfection. To pay for the show and not call for the tune is a restraint called for.
Value of the past: To look at the future from the point of view of the past is to ruin it. To derive the essence of the past and apply it unfailingly to the present is the real way of accomplishing any work.
To ruin the fresh opportunity by dealing with it as in the past needs no explanation. This is to extend the externals of the past and create trouble. It is common for us in meeting a new situation to raise questions that we have not raised in accepting the past. In accepting a partner we do raise considerations which we have consciously disregarded in accepting a brother. In accepting a brother, we accept him as a whole in spite of his defects. In accepting a partner, we object to his defects. The truth is:
Reliance on one's successful past.
People who do not have courage will not have faith either. A work or a type of work they have themselves done dozens of times does not generate courage or faith in a timid person. The next time diffidence arises. This is so because faith does not issue out of experience. It is a ray of natural boldness that gives hope in the future that springs from the whole of one's being. Those who have it, have it. Those who do not have it cannot raise it from past success. Should they shift from the part that experiences to the whole that carries the ESSENCE of experience, faith can be born. So, reliance on the successful past becomes a reliance on the method used then and positively leads to failure. The method is partial, the issue is the whole. The person who wails, "I have used this method so many times successfully, why has it failed now, I don't see.." is one who lacks the rationality required for accomplishment. Rationality required for accomplishment is that which takes each situation afresh and deals with it as it requires, not based on one's past however successful it might have been.
Cultural values
Most of us will agree that to judge another by our cultural values is irrational. This is true up to a point. Beyond that point our entrenched cultural sensitivities at the physical level will rise in revolt. Not that we are irrational but our rationality is limited. Surgeons who by their profession handle blood, mucus, urine and all kinds of putrid matter in the theatre and who treat this as neutral matter will not be able to stand dirt of that description in another culture. In spite of the best of education, rational vegetarians cannot consider non-vegetarians religious or spiritual. "Rationality is all right, but I do not want to hear of the spirituality of one who eats flesh." Buddhists and Jains do not get over their vegetarianism in spite of their Harvard education. Eminent persons who refuse to look up to rich people for their riches or leaders for their power expect those people to look up to themselves because of their intellectual eminence. They won't be able to brand this irrational.
Persons known for their rationality who, throughout their lives championed the cause of rationality, are capable of saying, "If that is rationality, I don't need it" when confronted with situations that touch their organised sensitivities entrenched in their bodily consciousness. Some examples will be,
We condone alcoholism, criminal mindedness, absolute sloth, and uncouth manners in our people, more so in ourselves. I mean for such defects, we do not give up a parent or a child. We hope one day they will turn around. When they emerge out of it, we are happy. Only that we do not want it to be known. That it once existed in them is no bar to our emotions towards the child or parent. But the same phenomenon in another raises our brows, and we feel an outrage. Those who do not feel so are RATIONAL in their emotions. To successfully work in international projects, these concepts, if not their practice, will be of great help.
Not to be able to discredit any defect is a great spiritual strength. Though we may not see the route of strength that the other person travelled and in that process acquired this defect, we must not be able to disown anyone for the sake of any pronounced defect.
For our limited purposes, we may consider these ideas to cover the foundations of the theory and the rest can be understood as phenomena that are combinations of various minor factors. Let me take some examples from Mexico and The Third Try for examination.
Neither in Palestine, nor in Serbia is there such a great abundance of social energy. If the USA is free of ethnic conflict, no small war anywhere in the world, be it in Kashmir or the Gulf, need be waged, if only the social energies are directed to the economic opportunities.
The Third Try
Academic work and social work can be done within the framework of this society enjoying the existing support. The Third Try, though welcome to many, will be a threat to all establishment. The entire establishment will rise in revolt. In 1917 the fledgling Soviet government met with such an invasion from 17 nations. Now conditions are different. If we go about it on the principles of unfailing success, there is a chance of the society---not the establishment-rising to the occasion to our support. The Third Try can even be an instantaneous success. For that, we should not lose sight of this principle of double opening. We should in our formulation, provide for meeting the resistance of the establishment. When the principles of organisation are carefully employed, it will enable us to overcome that possible threat.
We know the joy of discovering even small things. Our joy is the reflection of God's delight. Einstein said that one who has not crossed the border of human reason and seen the emotions of an intuitive vision of God, is one who is incapable of great discoveries.
When we set out to discover the right organisation, which will make the Third Try possible, the discovery will give rise to a great joy.
Accomplishment is enjoyment. It can also be stated as -
Enjoyment is Accomplishment.
A flawless higher enjoyment is a sign of accomplishment. Any accomplishment invariably gives rise to enjoyment.
As the whole body is one single organism, when the temperature comes down in one part, it will come down all over the body. Life is a single whole without any break anywhere. An isolated act in one place may not mean it can be duplicated elsewhere or all over. But when an act that is characteristic of SUCCESS is performed in one place, it can be reproduced elsewhere. If the act which is characteristic of the whole can be performed anywhere or in any measure, it means it can be a success even when performed all over.
Whether a sugar mill will be a success or not can be determined by the cost of one kilo of sugar produced in their pilot plant or testing laboratory.
In a sense, most of our acts are representative. When we learn to see which is a representative act and which is not, we shall be able to determine the outcome of a greater work from the result of a small act.
The government functions as an organisation. In an organisation, no work will be done however small, without an order being given by the authority. Festivals are institutions lived in the society. No one awaits anyone's order to celebrate Christmas. As each person has accepted the imposed order of the society at the beginning of the festival 1000 years ago as a personal social value, it is celebrated by itself. We can say Christmas celebrates itself.
In the organisation we are trying to evolve for the implementation of The Third Try, everyone can, in the beginning, learn the rules to be observed. When all the rules are learnt, it will be desirable if each person follows them without the monitoring of a central authority. The small group we will organise should institutionalize the values of organisation we evolve for this purpose. It is not essential but desirable. Should it happen, The Third Try will lead to further goals.
(*) The League of Nations and the United Nations Organisation were the first and second attempt at one world. Harlan Cleaveland's Birth of a New World speaks of a Third Try at one world based on the burst of information and faster communication.