Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s9.t9.20

v1.c7.s9.t9.20

Aurobindo’s social evolution theory is the extension and application of his “spiritual evolution” philosophy in history field. His view of history is individual-centered and believes that the individual is the basis of society and the components of a society, state or society is a community composed of countless individuals. Therefore, the evolution of the state and society is same as the individual evolution (behind the state and society there’s also a “spiritual nature”), that is, through the way of self-improvement to enable the inner spiritual nature be fully revealed. He believes that despite historical development is affected by the economic factors, but in the final analysis it is decided by human’s rationality. Accordance to the development level of human rationality, he divided the human history into five stages: symbolic era, typical era, agreement era, individualistic and spiritual era. He predicted that the ultimate goal of social development is the spiritualised age or spiritualised society. In the spiritualised society, people will realise the unity on the basis of a common spirit and live a harmonious and satisfying life; the unity between countries based on the same spirit will be achieved as well, different nations will respect each other and interact equally and harmoniously. At that time, the dream of uniting the human beings will be realised.