Time never stops. It is relentless. Its march is called the progress of civilisation. Century after century, decade after decade, progress continues. Thus the mere existence of Man becomes history. His mere existence is now denoted as pre-historic period. As existence matures into history, history ripens into culture. Man was physical, selfish. Now he is mental and aims at being selfless. Man does not become selfless on his own. He is compelled by circumstances to be selfless. When other tribes attacked, man organised collective defence, impelled by his own selfish security. The ultimate goal of that movement is self-giving, the Spiritual progress of the collective Man. The March of Time compels Man to be selfless and practise Self-giving.
Such a movement is there in commercial technology, education, democracy and the Pure Spirit. When education was a close preserve of the chosen few, children were eager to learn and were aware of the prestige of being educated. Such eagerness lessens the effort of the teacher. No special method is called for. Teaching was easy to teachers who had the knowledge of the subject. Now education is universal. Children are to be enticed to school by a meal. Most of them will drop out before reaching 5th standard. All of them are of the first generation of education. To produce any result in such schools without even a blackboard, educationists all over the world have discovered more and more sophisticated methods. There is a further dimension to it. Now we want to teach the deaf and dumb, the invalids, those whose sight is impaired. Glenn Doman was a doctor in the army. He was interested in teaching brain-damaged children. He was rewarded with a marvellous success. He used those methods to teach retarded children.
Trying to teach ALL and those with disabilities, methods of teaching became refined to a great degree. This is social progress. Progress comes from the effort to reach wider cross-sections of people. Man is compelled to do so by social pressure. We see the computer in 1950 and the one in 2000 AD. The vast improvement and cheaper price came out of a profit motive to earn more by reaching all the corners of the market. It is true of royalty changing into democracy. Spirituality means individual salvation, moksha. The modern man in the West or for that matter, in the modern Indian metropolis is NOT interested in moksha. He wants a BETTER life at home, better education for his children, better living conditions at home, the most sophisticated medical treatment. To get them is spirituality in life. It cannot be had on a salary of Rs. 10,000. One needs ten times more. Sri Aurobindo offers the SPIRIT in life, the Psychic Being as the goal of spirituality for the common man, the collective Individual. To earn that income in the right way, one needs a life of spiritual values.