How humanity can pass from decadence to renaissance: by changing not people's behavior but society's values — and why each of us can throw a pebble into the collective unconscious.
Two opposite phenomena are well known: decadence and renaissance — a state of decline and a state of rising. Decadence is a slow and seemingly irreversible movement toward the worse; it is a particular way of perceiving and feeling the surrounding world that has poured out into one or another state of decline and prevails in certain circles of society. Renaissance is a state of revival, of being born again. So how can humanity take up the challenge and pass from decadence to renaissance?
Before answering this question, we first need to understand how a state of decadence arises at all. The human mind is built in such a way that it creates problems for itself. Anger, lust, envy, pride and greed create tense situations. One can make efforts to suppress these feelings and try to control them by the "carrot and stick" method, but that approach will bring no result — somehow a new way will form around each new rule. Attempts to control problems are like the behavior of a man who comes up to a river with a whip and starts lashing it, telling it how it ought to flow properly. But the river does not react to this in any way.
The importance of values
If we want to change our behavior, we need to change our values. When values change in society, people's behavior changes too. Whatever we may say, the highest values in society today are money, power and fame. When someone has them, people strive to be friends with them, take selfies with them and so on.
But there are other values: honesty, morality, a wish for the well-being of society. They have not disappeared, but for most people they are now secondary. Naturally, if someone is respected because of the values listed first, most people will do everything possible to acquire exactly those. And if a choice suddenly arises between these two kinds of values, in most cases preference will be given to the first. Naturally, in a society where money, power and fame are welcomed and encouraged, people's lives will keep flowing in the same channel. And people will face problems connected with greed, pride, envy and the like. To dig a new channel requires the greatest mass effort of educated people, psychologists, sociologists, teachers and so on. To bring the right social principles into life, these people must have strong will and desire. It may seem utopian to achieve this, but a change of values is gradually happening all the same. And over the last century, and even over the last few years, very great changes have taken place that one cannot fail to notice.
The collective unconscious
In space there is so-called "dark matter." Visible matter makes up only 10% of the mass of the universe, while 90% is hidden somewhere; it is not registered by any instruments, cannot be seen or heard, but it is there. It is thanks to this invisible force that we see the universe in the configuration in which it exists: there are constellations, galaxies are twisted into spirals, and so on. Such is the picture of the world today.
In a similar way there is the force of the collective unconscious layer of humanity. And in this layer flow currents of positive energy, or positive thinking, and currents of negative thinking. The collective unconscious is a moving substance. It is formed from all minds. Each of us can throw a pebble into it. And from that pebble this whole great, inert system will shift by a micro-micromillimeter.
Take, for example, the swan, the crayfish and the pike: they will pull the cart in different directions, and the cart will not budge. But if a couple of people harness themselves to the same cart and move in one direction, they will outpull the swan, the crayfish and the pike. So there is always hope that the deep causal layer will change. The influence of meditation on a person is an example of how this happens. There is the obvious influence of spiritual practice: for example, I have meditated, I am in a good mood, and I have a positive influence on those around me. This we can easily feel and understand. And there are many examples of how meditation, the energy and the state of the meditator influence those around: children, adults, animals. So there is hope.
And if you begin to meditate very early in the morning, going deeper and deeper into the process, then after a while "the lever turns," and you suddenly feel jubilation in your soul. You feel that "mountains are only shoulder-high and the sea only knee-deep." This is a significant change in your life and in the lives of the people around you. And this is the little pebble you can throw.
Besides meditation, there are practices that influence the surrounding space. In particular, this is the singing of a A sound or set of sounds that, repeated with its meaning in mind, carries the mind toward the Infinite.. When you sing a mantra, the atmosphere becomes very, very favorable.
For example, Urokimeditatsii (Meditation Lessons) holds a marathon called "A Million Hours of Singing a name of the Supreme together, often with a simple dance; in Ananda Marga the words are Bábá Nám Kevalam.." Thousands upon thousands of people unite, harness themselves to one cart together and move in one direction, with positive thoughts and the right effort; they practice every day and support one another. Kiirtan has a one-hundred-percent positive influence, so a person progresses by doing this practice. Any crisis in life is caused by a problem in the causal sphere. If you feel sad and dreary for no reason, it means your inner source of joy has been blocked. There is no resource, no inspiration, because the hunger of the soul has not been satisfied — you want something, but what, you can't tell.
The construction project of the century
It is very important to change values throughout society, beginning with our own personal attitude to what is now considered valuable. What attracts us in people? Power and money, or their usefulness to society? If you find yourself respecting someone, ask yourself: do I respect this person as an honest human being? If this really is an honest person who makes a great contribution to society, you can put them on a pedestal. Our heroes should be people who bring the greatest benefit to society.
We must dig a new riverbed rather than scold people for their behavior — their behavior is conditioned by society. When people commit crimes, society condemns and hates them. But these crimes are committed because from everywhere — from television, from books, from every corner — they try to convince us that precisely such values matter; they shout at us that this is the most important thing. And people want, they crave this "most important thing." So we have to leave the water alone and start digging a new channel. This is a large-scale undertaking. It is the construction project of the century.
Changing values is entirely possible. For this we simply need to wake up today and start digging the new channel. Each of us can do this. And gradually we will be able to draw the whole of society into this process. And that means the world will be transformed.
