9 THE IMMUTABLE LAW
The teachings of all traditional doctrines are, as we have seen, unanimous in affirming the supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal and in considering as normal and legitimate only that social organization in which this supremacy is recognized and expressed in the relations between the two powers corresponding to these two domains. Moreover, history clearly shows that misunderstanding of this hierarchical order always and everywhere brings about the same consequences: social imbalance, confusion of functions, domination by progressively more inferior elements, and also intellectual degeneration-forgetfulness of the transcendent principles coming first, followed, as one descent follows another, by the negation of all true knowledge. It should be noted however that this doctrine, which allows us to foresee that things must inevitably happen this way, does not in and of itself need such a posteriori confirmation; nonetheless we feel it necessary to stress the point because, as our contemporaries are particularly sensitive to facts because of their own tendencies and mental habits, there is enough here to stimulate them to reflect seriously and perhaps above all to lead them to recognize the truth of this doctrine. If that truth were recognized even by a small number it would still be a result of considerable importance, for it is only in this way that a change of orientation leading to a restoration of the normal order can begin; and that restoration, whatever may be its means and modalities, will necessarily take place sooner or later-a point to which we now turn.
We have said that the temporal power concerns the world of action and change; now change, not having in itself its sufficient
reason, [1] must receive its law from a superior principle, by which alone it is integrated within the universal order. If on the contrary it tries to be independent of all superior principles, it is no longer anything but disorder pure and simple. Disorder is fundamentally the same thing as disequilibrium, and in the human domain it manifests itself through what is called injustice, for there is an identity between the notions of justice, order, equilibrium, and harmony; or, to be more precise, these are only diverse aspects of one and the same thing envisaged in different and multiple ways according to the domains to which they apply. [2] Now, according to Far-Eastern doctrine, justice is composed of the sum of all injustices, and in the total order all disorders are compensated by other disorders; this is why the revolution that overthrows the monarchy is both the logical result and the punishment, that is to say the balancing compensation, of the prior revolt of that same monarchy against the spiritual authority. Law is repudiated from the moment one denies the very principle from which it emanates; but the deniers could not really suppress it, and so it recoils upon them; thus does disorder finally return again to order, against which nothing can stand except in appearance and in an altogether illusory way.
Some will no doubt object that the revolution by which the power of the inferior castes was substituted for that of the Kshatriyas was only a worsening of that disorder, and this is certainly true if one considers only the immediate results; but it is precisely that worsening which prevents disorder from continuing indefinitely. If the temporal power did not lose its stability by the very fact that it ignored its subordination to the spiritual authority, there would be no reason for disorder to cease once it is introduced into the social
organization. But to speak of the stability of disorder amounts to a contradiction in terms, for disorder is nothing but change reduced to itself so to speak, and this would be tantamount to asserting immobility in movement. When disorder is accentuated movement is accelerated, for one more step is taken in the direction of pure change and of 'instantaneity'; this is why, as we were saying earlier, the more inferior are the prevailing social elements, the less durable is their domination, for like everything that has only a negative existence disorder destroys itself. It is in its very excess that the remedy for the most desperate cases is found, for the increasing rapidity of change will necessarily have a limit, and today are not many beginning to feel more or less confusedly that things cannot continue on their present course indefinitely? Even if in the present state of the world a rectification is no longer possible without a catastrophe, is that sufficient reason not to envisage it despite everything? And if we refused to do so, would that not again be a way of forgetting the immutable principles, which are beyond all the vicissitudes of the 'temporal' and which consequently nothing could affect?
We said earlier that humanity has never been so removed from the 'Terrestrial Paradise' as it is at present; one must not forget however that the end of a cycle coincides with the beginning of another cycle. One need only refer to the Apocalypse to see that the extreme limit of disorder, proceeding toward an apparent annihilation of the 'external world', must bring about the advent of the 'Heavenly Jerusalem' that will be, for a new period of the history of mankind, the analogue of what the 'Terrestrial Paradise' had been to the one that will have ended at that very moment. [3] The identity of the characteristics of the modern epoch with those indicated in the traditional doctrines for the final phases of the Kali-Yuga allow us to imagine without too much implausibility that this eventuality may not lie very far off; and this would most assuredly be the complete triumph of the spiritual after the present period of obscuration. [4]
If such predictions seem too daring, as they may indeed be to those who do not possess sufficient traditional data to support them, one can at least call to mind the examples of the past, which clearly show that all things depending only on the contingent and transitory inevitably pass away and that disorder always disappears and order is finally restored, so that, even if disorder sometimes seems to prevail, its triumph can only be a passing one; and the greater the disorder has been, the more ephemeral will the triumph be. Such will doubtless be the case sooner or later (and perhaps sooner than one might expect) in the Western world, where in all domains disorder has gone further than anywhere else before; but here also it is better to await the end, and even if this disorder were to spread for a time over all the earth-as there are some grounds to fear-we would not modify our conclusions, for it would only confirm the predictions we have just made regarding the end of an historical cycle, although in this case the restoration of order would have to operate on a much vaster scale than in all the known examples; but then it would also be incomparably more profound and more integral since it would go as far as that return to the 'primordial state' of which all traditions speak. [5]
Besides, when we place ourselves, as we are now doing, at the point of view of spiritual realities, we can wait without anxiety as long as necessary, for as we have said, this is the domain of the immutable and the eternal. The feverish haste so characteristic of our times proves that our contemporaries really still hold to the temporal point of view even when they believe they have left it behind, and that, despite the claims of some in this respect, they scarcely know what pure spirituality is; moreover, even among those who try to react against modern 'materialism', how many are actually capable of conceiving a spirituality free from all special formsand more particularly from a religious form-and of separating
principles from every application to contingent circumstances? Among those who pose as defenders of spiritual authority, how many have even an inkling of what this spiritual authority can be in its pure state? How many truly realize what its essential functions are, and do not stop short at outward appearances, where everything is reduced to mere questions of rites (the profound reasons for which remain moreover totally misunderstood) and even of 'jurisprudence', which is quite a temporal thing? Among those who would attempt to restore intellectuality, how many do not debase it to the level of a simple philosophy, understood this time in the usual and profane sense of the word? And who understands that, in their essence and in their profound reality, intellectuality and spirituality are absolutely one and the same thing under two different names? Among those who in spite of all have kept something of the traditional spirit (and we address them because they are the only ones whose thought could have any value in our eyes), how many envisage the truth for its own sake, in a totally disinterested way, independent of every sentimental preoccupation, of every party or ideological passion, of all concern for domination or proselytism?
Among those who understand that it is necessary above all to denounce the vanity of 'democratic' and 'egalitarian' illusions in order to escape the social chaos in which the Western world is foundering, how many have a notion of true hierarchy based essentially on the differences inherent in the very nature of human beings and on the degrees of knowledge to which they have effectively attained? Among those who declare themselves adversaries of 'individualism', how many are conscious of a reality that transcends the individual? If we ask such questions as these it is because they will permit all those who truly wish to reflect on them to find the explanation for the futility of certain efforts (despite the undoubtedly excellent intentions animating those who undertake them) and also for all the confusions and misunderstandings we referred to in the first pages of this book.
However, as long as a regularly constituted spiritual authority continues to subsist, even though it be unacknowledged by almost all (including its own representatives) and reduced to no more than a shadow of itself, this authority will always prove the better part,
and this can never be taken away from it because it contains something higher than purely human possibilities; even weakened or dormant, this part still incarnates 'the one thing needful', the only thing that does not pass away. [6] Patiens quia ceterna [patient because eternal] is sometimes said of spiritual authority, and rightly so; not of course that any of the external forms it may assume will be eternal, for every form is only contingent and transitory, but because in itself, in its true essence, it partakes of the eternity and the immutability of the principles; and this is why, in all conflicts that pit temporal power against spiritual authority, one can rest assured that, whatever the appearances may be, it is always the latter that will have the last word.