Both the protagonists in our contemporary international scene have really fallen into the same soul-sickness; the chief difference is only in the way and the extent to which they fell into it. Both have sold their spiritual birthright for a mess of materialistic pottage, the one through temptation and freedom and the other through blindness and compulsion. The goals of both civilizations are similar, only their methods and atmosphere differ, and differ widely. Both seek the mechanistic and materialistic life, but one only partially, the other wholly. Hence the real struggle is between two varieties of materialism. The only correct conclusion is that this is not so much a conflict of clashing ideologies as of two different variants of the same ideology--a good variant and an evil one. This leads to a confused rather than a clear issue. The clean-cut difference in ethical values, aims, and ideals which made the war against the previous incarnation of the aggressive spirit a defensive struggle against obvious evil is still present today, but the metaphysical issues are somewhat chaotically distributed on both sides.
But how far is it enough from the point of view of higher culture? Will they learn to appreciate the values of truth, goodness, and beauty or despise and trample on them? For the juncture of social justice with mechanical development could provide them for the first time with more freedom every day. What use will they make of this enlarged or even new freedom? We may not let such questions hinder us from creating the opportunity to think about higher matters. What use or abuse will be made of it is history's concern.
If, as we believe, it be true that history moves in cycles, the world is now entering a new cycle. The old Chinese culture featured this theory of collective fortunes moving through a series of phases, whilst a similar doctrine has long been held in India. We well remember one evening many years ago listening at a riverside village near Gaya, where Buddha attained Nirvana, to one of those melancholy Hindu melodies whose monotonous repetition of the same low wailing notes depresses most Westerners. We complained about this to our cultured companion. He was an extremely old man who sat twice a day in the yogi posture of intertwined ankles--so pleasing to behold, so difficult to perform--with his gaze fixed into space and the fading sunlight playing in quivering undulating waves around his figure. The sacred cord of the twice-born, the white triple thread of the Brahmin, hung around his neck. He did not answer for a full two minutes, for he had been wedded by long habit to silence. Then, without turning his head, he said slowly:
"My son, among our people it is otherwise. We are not, like the Westerners, afraid of truth's sadness, while welcoming its joy. We know that the scenes of this world come and pass like a dream of the night. And this is true of all the events and fortunes of a people's life also--more especially now that we live in the Iron Age, which is ruled by frequent death and covered by spiritual darkness. You know that we measure the world's history in great epochs, each divided into four successive lesser epochs and each endlessly departing and returning on itself like a wheel. Do not blame us, then, if our minds fall quickly into despondency and if our music reflects this sadness. We accept it resignedly, and through such resignation find contentment. We know that karma is always active and we try to accommodate ourselves to it.
"Once I brooded for long over the strange prophecies to be found in an ancient Sanskrit book, a Purana. In it I found this passage: `When the earth is bound by iron chains (are they not your railways?), when men speak to each other across immense spaces (is this not your telephone without wires?), and when materialism rules supreme (has history shown a less spiritual age than ours?), in that time there will incarnate Kalki, the Slayer of Men, who (it is written symbolically) will carry a flaming sword in his hand.'
"
-- Notebooks Category 11: The Negatives > Chapter 5 : Their Visible and Invisible Harm > # 62
