The changes are too many and in every sphere of life. The problem is that many of these changes are not only not understood by the old consciousness but often misunderstood to the extent of interpreting these changes as negative. The problem is that humanity that is burdened with the old ways, is wary and suspicious of every change. Its idea of good is reverting back to the old ways, as we see typified in the ancient fable of Mahadeva and Sati and the fate of Daksha Prajapati. Anyways, coming to the list of changes that some may regard as positive while others may not like them. Yet they are in the right direction of the New Creation.
1. Women’s liberation from being housebound to becoming active participants in the common life and progress of humanity. They have stepped out of the house, have their own say, have voting rights, are working in every sphere from battleground to flying machines. The list is long.
2. Youth unrest, which is like a cry for change, a cry for a new and inclusive way of life, a thirst for truth, an urge to break free from the barriers, refusing blind obedience to authority, revolt against blind customs and traditions, a search for something higher and more complete, they are ready to try new things, experiment and explore. Again, the list is endless.
3. Children are more open and frank, dislike hypocrisy and artificiality, do not have fixed formats or rigid notions. Their thoughts and feelings are very different than just a generation or two back. That is why they are called Millennials. Again, the list would be rather long.
4. Even old people are not spared the winds of change. They feel and remain active, if not youthful, much longer. The standard ideas and format of old age are gone.
5. The old family system based on birth and the strong bonds shared due to similar language, customs and common surroundings are being broken, giving rise to nuclear families and even sometimes broken homes. However, children are able to adapt much better and are much wider in their consciousness with a great degree of acceptance of all that is contrary to their early upbringing. A kind of acculturation is giving rise to new language and vocabulary that the generation understands. The strong family barriers are breaking and the concept of family is growing far from the family of physical origin and native place to families sharing common interests and ideologies, common aspirations, and spiritual seeking.
6. Religion is almost fading away except in some hardcore bastions, though even there the winds of change are strong and the reactionary atheism, agnosticism, spiritual exploration, emergence of new spiritual paths are taking over the traditional religious tendencies.
7. Restructuring of Society. Old social institutions that had become too rigid and hence counter-evolutionary. These include a breakdown of marriages and their replacement by Live-in which implies a relationship based on the heart’s truth rather than social norms or outer pressures. In the absence of outer pressures, men will be compelled to look within and search for their own inner truth.
8. Standard schools are being replaced by a more open-ended schooling. Though yet very few, it is the beginning of a new trend presaging the emergence of a universal education.
9. Apart from marriage and schooling, the work opportunities are changing from a few standard works to an expansion of skills in many different directions. In fact, all social, political, financial, and religious institutions are breaking down as there is, on the one hand, a surge in individuality with an increased need for more inner space by the individuals. On the other hand, there is a great inner expansion of consciousness with individuals often identifying themselves as global citizens. Typical 9-to-5 or fixed-salary government jobs are all slowly going out of fashion.
10. Computers and now AI have brought education to the doorsteps and the entire machinery is coming to a vanishing point.
11. Medicine is turning back towards alternative systems, energy healing, and a resurgence of some well-known ancient systems such as homeopathy and Ayurveda in a new way. On the other hand, healing is beginning to go back into the hands of the patient with the deeper understanding that Nature heals, physicians are meant to facilitate the process, though often they complicate it. But that is another big area of discussion.
12. Human nature is fast experimenting with almost everything, not only ways of life but science, art music, painting, education leading to the emergence of New Age Music, New Age Dance, New Age Education, New Age Medicine, New Age Parenting all of which indicates that humanity has entered a self experimental mode that is a kind of empiricism that often opens new and unexpected doorways of understanding.
13. A new physics that takes us to the doors of the occult and explorations of consciousness in every field, from the molecules of water, to plant life, to healing and even death and past life regression, are all gifts of the last 50 to 100 years.
14. New kinds of food that are almost chemically defined and designed rather than simply taste-oriented, along with a surge in vegetarianism, a decline in overall smoking and drinking after the great surge until the nineteen eighties, have also been seen. The youth, in general, are becoming health-conscious. They eat less and engage in some kind of sports or physical culture, and often practice some kind of non-religious meditation. Many opt to stay single or childless, or just have a single child, so that they can devote time and energy to different avenues of work and progress.
15. The political systems are all shaking or being shaken up. Democracy is losing its shine as dictatorship and kingship have gone into the background. What is going to come up is a question one has to wait for the answer. Possibly a kind of anarchy through which new unexpected possibilities of self-governance and free groupings along with the idea of global citizenship, universal religion of humanity, common military against global threats, nations beyond geographical boundaries and based on inner psychological affinities, a kind of self-determination and autonomy. A lot is on the offing. We have to wait and see.
16. A greater acceptance of the ideal of human unity, individual liberty, fraternity, the rise of the depressed and the oppressed, all based on the Vedantic and not the communist idea, is clearly seen as the writing on the sky and often on the wall as well.
17. The financial world is again shifting from the gross to the subtle with the card system. Money is no longer hard cash but more and more digital, circulating in the world as it should be.
18. There is a great interest worldwide in India and its spiritual thought. Sanatan Dharma in its original roots is attracting the minds of the progressive thinkers and thought leaders. It is slowly replacing the outdated and declining institutional religions and sectarian spirituality.
19. Psychological Sciences are getting interested in Meditation and the Gita as well as the ancient Indian approach and attitude towards life. The purely intellectual notion of IQ is being carried further to EQ, Emotional Quotient and SQ, Spiritual Quotient, as a better sign of individual evolution and progress than IQ alone.
20. Rise of Asia and India, whereas at the same time a decline in the hegemony of Europe, a slow setting of the sun on both Western World and the Islamic States are all getting more and more visible.
21. The breaking up of Pakistan and the rise of India as a global power within 75 years of independence is another clear signal of the intent of the gods.
22. A general decline in fixed, formal Religion and a steady increase in Indian Spirituality is too evident to be missed. A frequent refrain is ‘I am spiritual but not religious’. At the same time, spirituality is outgrowing its limited sectarian outlook and becoming more and more universal, more subjective and personal, individual, so to say.
I could go on and the list would expand. Maybe someday, time permitting.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
