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The Cycles of Social Development and the Swing Away from a One-Sided Focus on Materialism · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We do not usually recognize or appreciate how much influence
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  our environment, our surroundings, the society we
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  live in. The customs and lifeways of that
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  social system impact what we think about, how we focus our
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  attention, and what we do with our lives.
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  The mother puts this also into the process of evolution that
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  takes place not just within a species but in entire
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  civilizations, which go through cycles of development, changes
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  in focus and progress as various different aspects of life and
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  consciousness are taken up in the evolutionary process.
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  We can observe through the lens of history how times change and
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  with it the developments we see in society and in individual
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  growth. In the West we have the examples
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  set by the Greek and Roman ages, the fall of the Roman Empire,
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  the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, the Age of Discovery and empire
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  building, and then the Industrial Revolution and the
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  development of our modern computer Internet age.
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  The East also experienced similarly a number of changes
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  that represented various cycles of development.
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  Each of these had an impact on the lives of people.
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  To look at more recent periods, the industrial revolution
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  brought about a tremendous enhancement of the capability of
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  society to provide physical comfort and well-being to
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  people. It however, also created a
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  mechanical viewpoint and mindset and a focus on the physical
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  basis of life as the element that should be focused on.
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  This represented something of a change from past ages.
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  We are still living under the impulsion of the focus of the
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  Industrial Revolution, impacted and extended by the development
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  of the World Wide Web and the technological forces that bring
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  the entire world together and disseminate this standpoint.
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  We can see, however, that the impulsion of the material and
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  physical focus is changing as a number of consequences become
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  known and as people begin to recognize the emptiness of this
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  approach in terms of understanding any deeper
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  significance to their lives. We see an upsurge in focus on
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  spiritual growth, as well as an increasing interest in the
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  investigation of subtle psychic powers.
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  We see an increasing recognition of the consequences, both
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  intended and unintended, of this unrestrained focus on a one side
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  and narrow focus on material development without taking into
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  account the balance and harmony of the larger world and the
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  beings who all are seeking some form of material basis and
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  stability. We see advances in science and
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  technology which lead more people to question whether this
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  is the future we need and whether we need to find a way to
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  manage this process rather than have it manage us.
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  Sri Aurobindo describes in The Human Cycle a number of changes
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  that will accompany what he calls the coming of the
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  subjective age. The Mother observes.
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  Quote. We have been told that evolution
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  is progressive and that it follows a spiral of ascending
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  progression. I do not doubt that what 1 calls
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  comfort in modern cities is a much higher degree of evolution
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  than the comfort of the caveman. But in ancient narratives, they
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  always spoke of a power of foresight, of the prophetic
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  spirit, the announcement of future events through visions,
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  life's intimacy with something more subtle that had, for the
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  simple people of that age, a more concrete reality.
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  Now, in those beautiful cities that are so comfortable, when
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  one wants to condemn anything, what does one say?
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  It's a dream, it's imagination. And precisely if a person lives
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  in an inner perception, people look at him slightly askance and
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  wonder whether he is altogether mentally sound, one who does not
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  pass his time in striving for wealth or in trying to increase
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  his comforts and well-being to secure a good position and
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  become an important person. A man who is not like that is
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  mistrusted. People wonder whether he is in
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  his right mind. And all that is so much the
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  stuff of the atmosphere, the content of the air you breathe,
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  the orientation of the thoughts received from others, that it
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  seems absolutely natural. You do not feel that it is a
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  grotesque monstrosity. To become a little more
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  conscious of oneself, to enter into relation with the life
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  behind the appearances, does not seem to you to be the greatest
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  good. When you sit in a comfortable
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  chair in front of a lavish meal, when you fill your stomach with
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  delicious dishes, that certainly appears to you much more
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  concrete and much more interesting.
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  And if you look at the day that has passed, if you take stock of
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  your day, if you have had some material advantage, some
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  pleasure, a physical satisfaction, you mark it as a
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  good day. But if you have received a good
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  lesson from life, if it is given you a knock on your nose to tell
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  you that you are a stupid fellow, you do not give thanks
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  to the grace. And you say, oh, life is not
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  always fun. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within,
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  Chapter 1, Looking at Life and Circumstances, pages 15 to 17.