The Spiritual Imperative

For Better or For Worse? Is humanity making any progress? Not according to postmodernists, whose anti-progress attitude is partly, and justifiably, a reaction to the oversimplified belief in progress that was popular in the 19th century. “The human race isn’t going anywhere except round in circles or downhill,” many say today. But, as we will see later, this attitude can be explained by the fact that we live deep in the Worker Age, the least religious and spiritual of the five ages, therefore the one with the least hope — either of joy in this life or in a future one after death. No hope and no faith in progress are two very compatible sentiments. Be that as it may, the Caste Model gives a clear “yes” in answer to the question, “Is humanity making progress?” The human race steadily evolves and progresses. True, the three non-spiritual-religious ages get increasingly out of touch with reality. Yet each, at the same time, is an improvement over the one before. Each raises humanity higher on the evolutionary ladder, makes it more mature, and raises its spiritual consciousness. Every caste revolution and age introduces new human suffering and problems. But they also relieve the suffering and solve the problems of the age before. The Warrior Age, for example, introduced the horrors of war, brutality, and sexual and class oppression on a scale unknown in the preceding Spiritual-Religious Age No. 1. Yet at the same time, the warriors made the world smaller (through conquest and empire), allowed business, trade, and crafts to flourish, released the individual spirit from the grip of the group and of nature, and created a sense of individual morality, responsibility, and individuality per se. The warrior world view strengthened the individual will, and energized the struggle to pursue worthy goals, explore the unknown, and embark on spiritual quests. The warriors promoted reason, clear thinking, science, and the development of the mind in general. The conquests of warrior emperors like Constantine and Ashoka spread advanced spiritual consciousness to the masses through Christianity and Buddhism, respectively, and the warrior world view enabled more people to reach higher states of spiritual awareness than was possible in the previous age. The Merchant Age ushered in the familiar evils of capitalism, commercialism, urban industrial blight, money, wage-slavery, European colonialism and imperialism, mechanized warfare, and the rest. Yet the merchant caste also raised the level of material well-being of the masses, accelerated science and technology, launched the Industrial Revolution, ended slavery, introduced the first wave of modern feminist revolution, and spread the modern concept of democracy for all. Need I describe to you the suffering and problems of our present Worker Age? Of course not. Yet at the same time the worker caste was the first to reject war and imperialism in principle and to promote peace. It developed class consciousness and solidarity, and embraced class, sexual, racial, and ethnic equality. It was the first to demand for all the right to basic needs such as food, housing, education, and medical care. Progress through the ages was uneven, and at times hard to discern through the suffering and problems, but it would be hard to deny that the human race has made spiritual as well as material progress throughout the ages.