QA221 QUESTION: I would like to hear your conception of the relationship between historical revolution and the development of human consciousness.
ANSWER: Revolution is an exaggeration of evolution. The evolution of consciousness, the evolution of mankind, of all spirit being, is an organic, slow process. Revolution is a reaction that may sometimes, in a wider and deeper sense, have its own function. It is extremely difficult to speak of these things, because in the human terms, everything is considered good or bad, right or wrong, black or white, so the value judgments should be left out.
I do not say that revolution is either wrong or right. I say it is a chain reaction of the distortion of the human dualistic state, very similar to the inner processes. If you consider the processes of the development within man, which you begin to observe in yourself, you will see that when you stay stuck a very long time in a negative situation, when you do not want to move because you fear the movement, you fear the change – then the life processes elicit crisis.
That crisis is a battle. It is a painful, often – literally or figuratively speaking – bloody battle. It is only as a result of that bloody battle that the fortifications are loosened up and the life flow can begin to emerge again.
Now, historically speaking, as far as the collective consciousness is concerned, the process is identical. This means that if the movement could be created voluntarily, the crisis would not have to appear. The crisis may seem very undesirable. In the human individual life, it may appear as a severe sickness and violence and deaths and suffering and deprivation and what have you.
In the collective mind, it takes place in the form of wars and revolution. Now, these appearances are undesirable from one point of view. But they are necessary from another point of view, but necessary only as a result of stagnation. If the consciousness would avoid stagnation, the crisis would become unnecessary. It would become superfluous.
If you look back into history, you will see this movement – that wherever revolutions occurred, there was stagnation; there was holding; there was the disinclination to let go of something. And it is exactly the same process within the individual consciousness. When you consistently refuse to let go, the revolution in the body or in the life manifestations will come.
The further developed an individual is, the less crisis, the less revolution, in these terms, will be necessary, because the growth process will not be hampered. It will be organic and it will be a flow. It will be an expansion, more and more and more.
The same applies, of course, to the collective consciousness of mankind, as a whole. The more developed mankind will become – because more and more individual consciousnesses have attained or are attaining more growth and development – the less wars and revolution and bloodshed and violence will be necessary. The changes will occur organically.
Of course, the topic you ask is such a vast one. It could be talked about in many, many different ways and for a long, long time, but I think most specifically the answer would be geared to this way.
