"The old arrangement of a mass of slaves well fed and provided and a select class or classes enjoying in greater or less quantity the higher wants of humanity broke down in the mediaeval ages, because the heart began to develop too powerfully in humanity. and, under the influence of philosophy, ethics and religion, began to spread its claim beyond the person, the class, the family, the clan to the nation and to humanity or to all creation. A temporary makeshift was invented to replace slavery, called free labour, by which men were paid and bribed to accept voluntarily the position of slaves, contenting themselves with the coarse satisfaction of the animal necessities and in return providing by their labour the higher wants of their masters now called superiors or higher classes.This also has become a solution which will no longer serve. The whole of humanity now demands not merely the satisfaction of the body, the anna, but the satisfaction also of the prana and thecitta, the vital and emotional desires. Political, social and economic liberty and equality, two things difficult to harmonize, must now be conceded to all and harmonized as well as the present development of humanity will allow. It is this claim that arose, red with fury and blinded with blood, in the French Revolution. This is Democracy, this Socialism, this Anarchism; and, however fiercely the privileged and propertied classes may rage, curse and denounce these forerunners of Demogorgon, they can only temporarily resist. Their interests may be hoary and venerable with the sanction of the ages, but the future is mightier than the past and evolution proceeds relentlessly in its course trampling to pieces all that it no longer needs." Sri Aurobindo, 1910
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:34:29 +0000