[Published in Next Future, Jan 2006.]
The Subjective Age
The transitional phase from the present to the future is likely to be mediated or governed by two factors: subjectivism and intuition.
The history of the past (and the present) was governed predominantly by what we may call as objectivism or the objective view of the world. To understand, master and enjoy the objective world which we can see, touch and feel is the main occupation of the men and women of the past. Except a few spirituality inclined individuals and communities which tried to explore the inner subjective world of the self and the knower, most of the creative energies of the past were directed towards the objective world of the known. And the result is the funny paradox of our present age: we send rockets all over the cosmos to know the nature of the sun, moon and mars but we know very little of our own self.
This objectivism is one of the major causes behind the many aberrations and defects of our present society and its values. For example, in the mind and its work like science and philosophy, we tend to explain everything including inner realities, in terms of the external, visible or material circumstances and we ignore or deny the invisible, supraphysical, psychological and spiritual forces and principles hidden and acting behind the outer phenomena. In life and society, we give higher importance and value to external appearance, position, status, power, wealth, achievement or success and much less importance to inner achievements in the moral, psychological, aesthetic or spiritual realms. In ethics and religions, we tend to judge people and institution by the goodness and nobility of the outer act, behaviour and achievement and ignore the purity, goodness selflessness and the quality of the inner motive, feeling and realization behind the outer act. This is because we lack the true and complete knowledge of our subjective self.
In the future when the deeper and higher ranges of consciousness manifests, there will be an increasing inner awakening to the knowledge of our subjective being, its inner realities and their influence on the outer life. This will bring about a reversal in the values. In science, philosophy, and other works of knowledge, there will be an increasing emphasis on understanding the occult, psychological and spiritual principles (and forces) of the self and world, not only in psychology, but also in other fields of world-knowledge like sociology, politics and economics. In life and society there will be a greater emphasis on qualities like self-knowledge, self-mastery, integration of the personality, character, integrity, sensitivity to higher values for leadership positions. More and more people will value inner well-being or inner satisfaction and fulfillment as something much more precious than power, wealth, success or achievement in the outer life. In ethics and religion, there will be a greater awareness and sensitivity to the purity and quality of the inner motive, feeling, state of consciousness and the realization. There will be more or less similar awakening in other fields like literature or art.
In a nutshell the human consciousness and life as a whole will turn inward. And with this inward turn there will be a shift in the governing faculty of human consciousness from reason to intuition.
