Not Going Backwards · Resuming the Civilization State

In a conversation for Inflection Point, I was asked whether coming back to the civilization state means turning from science and common sense back to tradition. We’re not talking about going backwards. We’re not talking about returning to a previous period of time.

My speculation is that if there hadn’t been this interruption of the civilization state, it would have progressed into its own kind of modernity, rather than the modernity determined by a colonial presence. It’s not that we should go back to where Ayurveda was practiced when the British and the Portuguese invaded India. Ayurveda would have continued to progress during those 500 years, according to its native circumstances, and it would have arrived at a place that reflected the modernity of our times. I would apply this to all aspects of our thinking and our culture, and especially our spirituality.

What stands in the way of the resumption are the colonial artifacts that remain in our thinking, in our discourse and in our media. We have to recognize them for what they are, so that we can discount them in our resumption of civilization.

Subtitles in English, Hindi, Konkani, Serbian and Russian: choose your language with the buttons under the video. More conversations: Inflection Point.