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The 21st Century

By Karmayogi

Different centuries
acquire different distinctions. Empires were built in a century by the various
European powers. Expeditions were undertaken in quick succession, as if they
were all planned together. Inventions were made in different fields almost
simultaneously, as if the different discoverers worked together. The Industrial
Revolution sprouted and spread all over. Religious Reformation too had its
share. What is in store for the 21st century? If one century built empires,
another century dissolved colonies. The march of civilisation has its own
footsteps and leaves its stamp on each century.

There was a time when history was written as the history of kings, because for
those historians kings alone mattered. They were founders of various kingdoms
and presided over them like veritable colossuses. Hence their own biographies
were the history of nations. What else was there? It took time for historians
to realise that kings and emperors do not matter so much as People. Then the
emphasis shifted. That was how the common man came into prominence. So the 20th
century came to be called the century of the common man as against the
aristocrats and kings. History has a way of oscillating between two opposite
ends. The age of kings was followed by the age of the common man even as the
age of religious faith and worship was followed by an age of materialism or
agnosticism. The curve of progress sometimes progresses as one scientific
discovery followed by another in quick succession. At other times, it
alternates between the opposites. India who was aping the English customs, has
started worshipping the American culture. After 1947, one would have expected
that India would have shifted
to reviving her past with a vengeance. It was not so.

There is an invisible movement in the air all over the world which espouses the
Rights of the oppressed. Now it is the Blacks who are in favour, next it is the
women. The street children get their turn. The poor suddenly come into the
favour of the world and the whole world sings the chorus of the Right to Food, Right
to water, Right to Peace, etc. All types of Rights have emerged as the target
for the awakened world. It is a balm to the hearts of idealists and visionaries
the world over as the have-nots, downtrodden, the oppressed and the invalids
have now their share of the limelight. The UN is the spearhead for most of
these movements. The world is awakened enough in her conscience that the world
opinion readily swings to this call. This development is imperceptible but
unmistakable. I see behind all these urges that MAN is emerging as someone to
be counted hereafter. The Spirit in MAN seeks expression, peeps out from its
hiding place. The symptoms are well-defined. He who seeks expression is no
longer the social man, but the Spiritual Individual. The 21st century will be his
century.