The economic progress of Greece in the 8th – 6th centuries B.C. was accompanied by flourishing culture . The Greek alphabet , based on Phoenician characters , was created in the 8th century B.C. Literature entered a new stage of development . The Homeric Hymns , the Iliad and the Odyssey , were closely related to mythology ; however in Hesiod’s Works and Days we find a reliable description of everyday life in Greek society , written from the viewpoint of a simple tiller who is oppressed by the rich and the mighty . The first literary works in prose appeared at this time .
Originally a part of folklore , they were later written down . Tales in the form of fables , in which the characters were usually animals , became very popular . Aesop , a slave , is still the world’s most famous writer of fables . The 8th – 6th centuries B.C. were a time of great progress in all art forms , and especially in architecture . The wooden temples of past centuries were replaced by temples of stone . The Doric and Ionic columns came into being . Realisnt became the dominant art form .
The Solution of Mankind (साधना:) Self-realizationS
We have seen that the life-ideal of ancient India was to expand the field of self-realization to the whole world, to wander in the all-conscious and all-pervading Brahman and to experience the ultimate bliss in Him. It can be said that this ideal is a thing beyond the ability of man. If this industry of expansion of self-realization is started from the outside world, then there will be no end to this process. This effort is like drying the waves of the sea and bringing them to the beach; Trying to absorb everything, we will not be able to get anything; will lose everything. But in reality this is not as inconsequential as it seems (the daily problem of man is that he is always diligent in expanding his field of work and balancing the burden of his responsibilities. His burdens are not less, they are There are so many and so many that it seems difficult to move on the path of life while handling them, but he knows that by creating a system he can make his burden lighter. When that load seems too awkward and odd If it is, then man would have got this knowledge immediately.
that there has been some defect in his arrangement, due to which the burden could not be balanced and placed on his shoulders. Then he tries to keep her in order. Another name for this search for order is the search for equality or unity. We try to establish equanimity in the disparities of our external devices with the help of internal unity. In this persuasion, we begin to realize that to seek that One is equal to attaining everything. And that that is our ultimate, supreme goal. The basis of this unity is the same truth which pervades many and resides in all. Existence is of many events but the truth is one. The animal-intellect lives only up to the existence of events, the human-intellect has the ability to reach the truth. The fruit falls from the tree, the rain falls on the ground from the sky; If you start remembering the history of these events, then there is no end to it. But once we know the principle of ‘Law of Gravitation’, the fundamental nature of these events, the usefulness of the collection of events ends. You come to the one truth which is the basis of innumerable events. This realization of truth liberates man’s mind and fills it with divine bliss. For events are like blind alleys that end in themselves; Do not take you anywhere outside yourself. And the path of truth opens before man the path of all the heavens, it leads us to the path of the infinite. This is the reason that when an elemental human like Darwin in zoology
If he knows even a simple truth of it, then it does not stop there. For the attainment of which he had illumined the light of knowledge, it not only illuminates that thing – it also illuminates the things that are far and near from it. That light spreads in all the streams of man and life. In this way we know that truth pervades all events and does not remain confined to events only; He crosses those limits from all directions and also indicates that infinite which cannot be seen by the limited power of the eyes. Just as this is true in relation to knowledge, it is also true in relation to cognition. Man must experience that centered truth which may give him the power to see the most expansive or oblivious goal. That same goal is that being in relation to which our Upanishads say ‘know your self’ or in other words know the root of the oneness that is in all men. Our egoistic tendencies or selfish desires cover the true nature of our soul like a fog and when we become self-realized, our soul transcends that ego of ego and then becomes self-illuminated and then we can see the whole world with self-consciousness. can. The natural equality that exists between our soul and the universal soul makes us the soul of the universe. When children start making sense of different letters, they get some joy in this understanding.
They do not get it, because then they do not know the real meaning of this realization, but that letter-understanding exhausts their mind. They get interested in it only when they start expressing any emotion by joining letters in words and sentences. Similarly, when our soul is confined within the limits of a narrow self, it loses its specialty. Its specialty lies in its unity. She can realize her true nature only by being equated with the world, and only then she feels bliss. Man lived in conditions of fear and conflict until he came to know the principle of the universal equality of nature; Till then the whole world seemed like a stranger to him. In the end, the knowledge he gained was nothing more than that he realized the natural equality between his conscience and the system of the world. This is the thread that binds man to the world. The knowledge of this became very happy for him because then he started seeing his own shadow in the things near him. To understand something means that we find some element in it which is part of us. In this way we rejoice in finding ourselves in things outside of us. Being related by this realization does not make our relationship completely perfect. Relationship attains perfection only through love. There is no discrimination in love and by attaining that perfection the human soul attains its ultimate goal; When she crosses her limits and starts touching the infinite. Love It gives man the knowledge that he is beyond his limits and that he is a part of the soul of the universe, this feeling of equality with nature through the creation of literature, art, science and religion by being ever vigilant in the soul of man. Keeps making contact. Only then have our great souls renounced the meaning-self of human love and told the true meaning of the soul. In the path of love, he suffered, physical sufferings were right; Even death was welcomed. He understood the true nature of the soul and affirmed the ultimate truth of humanity by leading a spiritual life. That is why we call him Mahatma – a man of great soul. In one of the Upanishads it is said: You love your son not because he is a son, but because you desire your soul in him; You see the reflection of your own soul in it. This means that we see the form of our soul in whomever we love. This Absolute Truth is the basis of our existence. God resides within us, He is in our son; The experience of love in one’s son is the result of realization of this truth. It often happens that our son-love or friend-love becomes a hindrance in the path of further development of our soul. Still it has its own importance. This is the first step in the search for intimacy outside of yourself. It reveals this nature of our soul for the first time. On the basis of this first realization, we get a glimpse of the ultimate truth that the culmination of happiness lies in giving up our egoism and creating equanimity with others. This love gives us new strength and new insight. But if we narrow its boundaries, then this love becomes a rebel of its true form. Then , our affection is confined to a narrow periphery ; Our family ties are filled with feelings of selfishness and animosity, our nation builds up walls of fear and suspicion. It’s like tying a blazing fire in closed walls, which burns and gives off flames until its poisonous gases burst out. Yet before it is extinguished, this fire gives light to the joy that he had in getting rid of cold, dark darkness. The Upanishads say that the key to universal consciousness is self-consciousness. Knowing one’s self as separate from one’s own self is the first step to the knowledge of Brahman. We must know with full faith that our true form is in the Self. This knowledge can be attained by raising us above worldly ego, fear, greed and assuming that our soul remains untouched by worldly gain, loss and birth and death. When the hen is freed from the captivity of the egg, he knows that the wall of that egg has virtually no part in his life. That egg shell is a dead thing, there is neither growth nor development in it. He doesn’t even shed any light about the world outside him. However beautiful that shell may be, it has to be broken in order to attain the fullness of independent life. Similarly, man will have the freedom to meet the universal soul by breaking his physical bonds, only then life will be complete, equanimity with the whole world will be established. I have already said that our Tatvdarshi forefathers never gave the sub-country of relinquishing the sovereignty of the world, the result of which is emptiness. Their aim was to make sense of the soul or in other words to find the world in the Absolute Truth. When Jesus said: ‘Happy are the humble, they will become the masters of the earth, this is what Jesus meant. He had declared this truth that only by giving up the item of ego, man becomes the master of self in true sense. Then he does not have to struggle to make his place in the world; He himself is safe everywhere. His soul has an immortal right to get that place. The false pride of ego hinders the full development of the soul and becomes a hindrance in the completion of the task of creating equanimity with the whole world. While preaching to Sadhusimha, Lord Buddha said: ‘It is true that I preach the renunciation of action, but here I mean only those actions which are unworthy in any sense, mind-word-action. It is true that I preach renunciation, but I aim only at renunciation of ego, lust, ill-thought, ignorance and not love, forgiveness, charity and truth. ‘
The liberation that Buddha preached was freedom from the bonds of ignorance. Avidya darkens our experiences and confines them only around the ego. This tendency causes our other selfish passions, greed, attachment, anger and cruelty. When a man sleeps, his instincts are bound within the limits of narrow bodily life-efforts; That is why he has no knowledge of himself. Similarly, when a man leads an ignorant life, he becomes confined within his own limits; His experience-power is not awake to know the great existence of his circumstances. He does not know the true nature of the soul. Once in a village in Bengal I met saints of two different sects. I asked him, ‘Can you throw light on the specialty of your religion? ‘ One of them said after some hesitation, ‘ its definition is difficult. ‘ The other said, ‘It is a simple task. First we try to know our soul under the supervision of the Guru; When that task is completed, one also gets the knowledge of the Supreme Soul who resides in all. ‘ I asked, ‘Then why don’t you spread your doctrine to the whole world? ‘ He said, ‘He who is thirsty will himself come to the river. ‘Did anyone come? ‘ In response to my question, he only smiled a little and replied with very patient satisfaction, ‘Everyone has to get it. ‘
The enlightened one from the village of Bengal was true. Man travels on pilgrimage to quench his spiritual hunger, which is more important than the needs of his food and clothes. The history of man is the history of ritualized journeys to realize his immortal soul. Humans built empires and destroyed them at their own hands; He also gathered heaps of splendor and with ruthless hands crushed them to dust; Made huge statues of his dreams and broke them like old toys, erasing the artifacts created by the effort of centuries, started making them anew on the basis of new imagination; From all this it is seen that man is passing step by step from one era to another, reaching the final stage of self-realization of knowing his true nature, that soul which is greater than all these greatest creations, industries and fantasies of man. Is . In this soul-oriented journey, even the biggest of destructions and destructions cannot be a hindrance. There is no end to man’s mistakes and failures, his path is littered with ancient remains and ruins; The intensity of her sufferings is no less than the pain of childbirth; But his goal is great. These sufferings are only his role. Man has made many sacrifices. Till now he is going ahead on this sacrifice. His institutions are like temples to which he visits every day to offer the naivedya of his miraculous, gigantic sacrifices. May this sadhana, this worship become purposeless and unbearable.
If a man does not feel indescribable spiritual bliss in his conscience. It is this soul which tests its divine power by these painful sacrifices and who by sacrifice proves its inexhaustible corpus. The travelers of this path are coming in this direction, they are coming to take the true wealth of the world. His understanding power is expanding every day. His journey towards the highest equanimity is on and he is drawing nearer moment by moment to the one central truth that pervades all. There is no end to man’s disabilities. As long as he does not get the true understanding of his soul, even his needs do not end; Until then, in his eyes this world is an ever-greatest storehouse; There is a magic which is not understood, even whether it is there or not. But the man who has realized the Self, begins to see a definite center of the whole universe, in whose circumference all other things have their own fixed place. From the same center that person can get the blessings of equitable life and the experience of bliss. There was a time when the earth was just a mass of liquid matter, its particles were scattered far and wide due to the intense heat; It had not yet formed its definite shape; Neither it had form nor its goal was clear; She was still only in the form of fire and speed. Gradually a force, which was gathering all the scattered and colliding particles in the center, also brought the particles of the earth into a sphere; Only then he got a proper place in the constellations revolving around the Sun, just like a sapphire gets a place in a necklace of diamonds. We too have the same situation. When the velocity and heat of our blind desires spread it everywhere, we can neither receive nor give anything. But, when by the power of self-gratification we find our center in our soul, by that power which creates equality in all the fighting elements and collects the scattered particles and stabilizes the unity, then our scattered memories form the form of self-realization. and the momentary desires arising in our hearts are fulfilled in love and our thoughts and actions invariably become part of our inner equality. Only then all the efforts of our life are seen moving towards the eternal goal. The Upanishads forcefully say, ‘Know that One, the Self’. This is the bridge that leads to immortality. ‘ That is the ultimate goal of man to know the One; What is in him is the truth and is his soul. This is the key that opens the heavenly door to spiritual life. Man’s desires are many, which are behind the various attractions of the world.
Tamevakam Janath Atmanam 2. Amritsaisha Bridge. Crazy bunny runs. But the One who is in him is the purifier of one element; The unity of knowledge, of love and of the ultimate goal of life. He attains the ultimate bliss only when he finds the infinite within the periphery of his outer equanimity. The Upanishads say, “Eternal happiness is attained only by such peace-minded men who know that one situated within themselves, who manifests himself in many forms in the universe.” He is traveling through the various paths of the self-realized world in search of the One situated in all. This is his nature, this is his joy. But walking on that four-faced path, he never reaches his goal, unless he himself is illumined by that light, in whose light he realizes his goal. To realize that ultimate goal in one’s soul is not the result of any external effort. He is intuition; which is itself. He had no outward appearance. Our eyes also when we see, see the whole form of the object, not by dividing it into pieces, but by collecting the different pieces. Before seeing, we get equated with the visible object. This is what happens when we realize the soul through intuition, which is not without the feeling of the soul’s easy equanimity with the Supreme Soul.
Ekam rupam bahudha yaha karoti, tamatmastham yenupashyanti dhiraah, tesham sukham shastam netaresham. can . The Upanishads say, ‘The deity who manifests himself through the various actions of the universe resides in the heart of man. Those who come to know the inner-dweller through experience and practice of the mind, they attain the immortal position. “He is ‘Vishvakarma’; that is, his external form is manifested in the various endeavors, forms and powers of the world. Therefore, when we seek truth in the kingdom of nature, we will do it gradually with the help of science, through investigation-analysis, but When we research it in the spiritual world, it will be done directly through intuition. Gradually increasing the knowledge, we will not be able to find it even in centuries because it is not divided into pieces; it is one. We can attain it only by taking it as a soul. Leaving our egoism, we go near it, then the divine love and joy that we experience will make us realize it. The human heart has probably never prayed so heartily as our sages did. In these words, ‘O you who illuminate yourself! Illuminate yourselves within me. The cause of all our sorrows is that we are the ‘ego’.
Aaviravimeedhi. He has become the priest of the ego – that ego that is two-fold and narrow, which is blind to see things outside itself and which does not reflect the light. Our ego chants its own dissonant voices; It is not that ‘Veena’ whose strings are tinged with the sound of the infinite. Dissatisfaction, the fatigue of failures, the futile regrets of the past and the unrealistic anxieties about the future keep our shallow hearts withered because we have not united our souls with the universal soul; Self-published has not published itself in our conscience. Then we cry out, ‘O Rudra! You always protect us with your smile. “All these are the deadly poisons of death which manifest themselves in the form of the desire for gratification, the fire of the ever-burning craving and the ego of wealth accumulation. Let the smile break through this veil of darkness, that awakens my soul. Lead me from untruth to truth, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality. This is a prayer, but the hope of its fulfillment is great. It is difficult. How can one cross the infinite distance between truth and falsehood, between death and immortality. This task is very difficult, but when the self-manifested GOD reveals Himself in our conscience, it is
Rudra yat te dakshinam mukham ten maa pahi nityam. . Even the seemingly impossible task can be completed in a moment. The sage calls out, ‘O Father, take away all our sins. “Because in sinful acts, a man rebels against his soul and receives the cooperation of the narrow feelings of the world, then egoistic selfishness wins over the soul. Sin blurs the purity of our conscience. In sin we seek momentary people. , not because they really have some seductiveness in them but because the red color of our lust gives them such a color in which they look attractive ; We desire things , not because they really have some flair or importance , but Because our hunger gives them a bigger shape, making them look bigger. This tendency to enlarge the small and give things a false form destroys the equality of our life at every step. We lose sight of the true value of things. Unable to accept it and the mutual rebels of life get lost in various temptations.Because of our inability to bring our various tendencies under the rule of one soul, we start feeling so much pain of separation from the universal soul that we cry out, ‘O Father, take away all our sins. We should only Give that which is welfare, this welfare which is the food of our soul. pleasures
Asto Ma Sadgamaya Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya Mrityorma Mrtam Gamay.
Vishwani dev savitarduritani parasuva yadbhadram tamna aa suva.
The slave – owners put forward a demand for secession , i.e. , they demanded the right for any state to withdraw from the Union . In November 1860 a congress of slave – owners in Charleston decided to secede and in December the state of South Carolina proclaimed its secession from the Union . South Carolina was followed by 10 other slave states . The action of the ” poor whites ” against the secession was most savagely suppressed by the slave – owning planters . The Southern Confederacy was formed at the Congress of six seceded states in Montgomery ( Alabama ) in February 1861 and Jefferson Davis , a rich planter and rabid advocate of slavery , was elected its president . The city of Richmond ( capital of Virginia ) was proclaimed the capital of the Con federacy . The temporary Constitution of the Confederate States of America adopted by the Congress proclaimed slavery a ” natural state ” and ” bulwark of civilisation ” . In April 1861 the troops of the South attacked Fort Sumter ( near Charleston , South Carolina ) which had remained loyal to Lincoln’s government . Thus began the American Civil War which lasted four years ( 1861-65 ) .
The establishment of feudal relations in China was com pleted by the 3rd century AD . ( earlier , according to some sources ) . Politically speaking , this coincided with the disin tegration of the ancient Chinese Han Empire and the follow ing new unification of the country under the Ch’in Empire . One of the distinctive features of feudal relations in China was the establishment of the ruling class’s monopoly ownership of land and water , not as individual property , but as a form of state property . Like the establishment of state property under a slave system , this was similarly related to a definite centralisation of community work and the extensive con struction of fortifications . It was at this time that the construction of the China Wall was begun . During the reign of Shih Huang Ti , the first emperor of the Ch’in dynasty , a law on state lands was issued . Under this law , a peasant received a plot of land which was subse quently divided into two parts . Everything he harvested from the first half belonged to him , while the harvest from the second half belonged in toto to the state . Besides , the peasants were responsible for the upkeep of the irrigation ditches , for draining land and building fortifications . This was a peculiar form of labour rent . However , the European system , under which a peasant tilled his lord’s land , was practically unknown in China . There were relatively few estates belong ing to feudal lords , and the attempt to establish state fields tilled by peasants was unsuccessful . and , at the same time , to encourage his interest in his holding . The feudal state strove to attach the peasant to the land That is why rent in kind became predominant .
The distinguishing feature of feudalism in Arabia was the fact that a religious community formed the core of the polit ical union . The founder of Islam was a merchant named Mohammed ( app . 570-632 ) from the Hashimite clan of the Meccan tribe Koreish . The nobility of Mecca feared that the dissemination the new religion would undermine the .cult of the Kaab shrine , the political influence and the commercial ties between Meccą and the Arab tribes . That is why they forced Mohammed and his followers to move to ‘ Medina in 622. This year was to mark the founding of a new Moslem calendar . In Medina the Moslems formed an alliance with the ruling clique of the Arab tribes . During the next eight years Moham med carried on a struggle against Mecca which ended in the victory of his followers , who then won over the Bedouin tribes . In 630 Mecca capitulated to the army of Mohammed without putting up a fight . The Koreish tribes adopted Islam ; Mecca and Kaab became the centre of Moslem faith , a place of yearly pilgrimage of Moslem believers . Mohammed was considered a prophet , Allah’s representative on earth . After Mohammed occupied Mecca a considerable part of Arabia came under Moslem rule . Mohammed , as the leader of the Moslem community , was the supreme religious , secular , judicial and military ruler . After Mohammed’s death Abu – Bekr became the first ” holy ” caliph ( deputy ) of the Prophet Mohammed . As head of the Moslem community he was both Imam ( spiritual leader ) and Emir ( secular ruler ) . Under Abu – Bekr ( 632-634 ) and the second caliph , Omar ( 634-644 ) , the unification of Arabia and its conversion to Islam were completed . At the same time , the Arabs began their conquest of the countries of the Mediterranean , Asia Minor and Central Asia . In 636 the Arab armies defeated the Byzantian army and established their rule in Syria and Palestine ; they invaded Iraq and won a series of victories over the Persians . They conquered Egypt in 641-645 and Iran within the next few years . By the beginning of the 8th century they had conquered Northern Africa and the greater part of Spain . The conquered countries became a part of the Arabian caliphate , ruled by the Omayyad dynasty ( 661-750 ) . The capital was moved
. from Mecca to Damascus . The Arabian caliphate was an early feudal state in which there were significant remnants of slave owning relations . As a rule , the conquerors took no part in social production in the Vanquished lands . The conquered people were forced to pay a land and per capita tax , both in kind and in cash , to the caliphate treasury . The conquerors canle under the influence of the more highly developed economy , culture and social relations of the con quered peoples . Developing feudal relations in the countries conquered by the Arabs were most clearly defined in the Baghdad caliphate during the reign of the Abbasid dynasty ( 750-1258 ) . The capital was now moved to Baghdad , found ed by Mansur in 762 on the Tigris River . The Arab nobility lost its privileged status in the Baghdad caliphate , having been supplanted by the Iranian feudal lords who had helped the Abbasids come to power . In the majority of caliphate countries feudal and state own ership was the rule . Some of the lands belonged to the caliph and his family . Some estates were in private hands , corres ponding to the European allod . A different type of feudal landownership quickly spread throughout the Arab state . Under its terms , a holding was given for life or temporary ownership in return for military allegiance . There were also the inalienable lands of the various Moslem religious institutions . Unlike Western Europe , commodity – money relations were highly developed in the Baghdad caliphate in the 11th century . This resulted ehiefly from the intensive trade carried on both at home and abroad , which fact was also responsible for the rapid growth of the towns as centres of crafts . The slave structure was an important part of life in the Baghdad caliphate . Slave labour was used for all the more difficult jobs : for digging irrigation canals , working on the cotton plantations , in the mines and quarries . As a rule , the slaves were of African descent . The burden of feudal exploitation resulted in mass upris ings . In the 9th century the Baghdad caliphate was shaken to its foundations by the peasant uprising led by Bābek ( 815-837 ) and the slave uprising of 869-883 . The resistance of the conquered peoples to Arab rule , the development of feudal relations and the increased power of the local feudal lords all combined to dissolve the Baghdad
caliphate in the early 10th century into a number of inde pendent states . The Abbasid caliphs , having lost their estates and political might , became Moslem religious leaders ( Imams ) . Egypt became an independent nåtion ruled by the Tulunid dynasty , which was later succeeded by the Fatimite dynasty . The northern part of Syria and the city of Antioch , which remained , as in Antiquity , one of the largest cities of the Eastern Mediterranean , were conquered by Byzantium in 969 . The independent state of Himdanid ( 929-1003 ) was formed , occupying part of Syria , the Lebanon and Palestine . It was conquered by Egypt under the : Fatimites . Other independent nations were established in Iran , Cen tral Asia and in other regions . The rulers of the Moslem coun tries accepted the Baghdad caliph as their spiritual leader only , as one who gave them the right to own land .
Basic Forms of Monopolies The basic forms of monopolies are cartels , syndicates , trusts and corporations . A cartel is an alliance of large capitalist enterprises . Its participants agree on the conditions of sale of their goods , the purchase of raw materials and dates of payments , divide the markets among themselves , fix the prices on the goods produced and the raw materials purchased , decide on the quantity of goods to be produced by each participant , etc. The enterprises belonging to a cartel retain their indepen dence .
A syndicate is a monopolist alliance of enterprises , in which the participants lose their commercial independence . The goods are produced independently , but their sale and sometimes the purchase of raw materials are effected through a common office . A trust is a monopolist association in which all the enter prises belonging to it lose their production and commercial independence and merge into a single enterprise , while their owners become share – holders and receive profits according to the number of shares they hold . The management of the production , financial and commercial activities of a trust is effected by a board elected by a meeting of the share – hold ers . The persons elected to the board of a trust are usually holders of a large block of shares . After the passage of the antitrust law in the U.S.A. in 1911 , the trusts began to call themselves companies . For example , Rockefeller’s giant oil trust , Standard Oil , divided itself into several companies Standard Oil of New Jersey , Standard Oil of California , etc. All these companies are controlled by the Rockefellers . A corporation is a monopolist association of enterprises of different branches of industry , banks , commercial firms , transport and insurance companies based on common financial interests and common financial dependence on a group of big capitalists who effect control over the enterprises belong ing to the concern . In the U.S.A. the electric industry is controlled by the General Electric Corporation , the aircraft industry is con trolled by the Douglas Aircraft Company , the aluminium industry – by the Mellon concern , and the chemical industry by Du Pont de Nemours and Company . In the automobile industry in 1956 only two monopolies – the General Motors Corporation and the Ford Motor Company – produced and sold 80 per cent of the automobiles . In each of the 43 branches of the manufacturing industry four corporations concentrate in their hands more than 75 per cent of the output , while in 102 branches of industry four of the biggest monopolies turn out from 50 to 75 per cent of the gross production The monopolies not only fail to eliminate the competition The competitive struggle is waged between monopolist associations within them , and between the monopolies and non – monopolised enterprises . Various methods of pressure , to the point of ruin by commercial machinations , are used against those who do not yield to the monopolies . In the bitter struggle among the monopolies all unfair means are used : bribery , violence , blackmail , sabotage and other criminal offences to the point of physical annihilation of the rivals .
By the 6th century B.C. more or less similar religious beliefs were held in common in all regions inhabited by the Greeks . These beliefs formed the basis of the Olympian religion , so called after Mount Olympus which was believed to be the home of the Gods , headed by Zeus . The Olympian religion was not connected with any organised religious body , dogma or ritual . The temples of the gods , though of definite significance in the religious lives of the people , did not , how ever , form a single system ; likewise , there was no special strata of religious attendants , no high priests . When necessary sary , persons chosen by the popular assembly carried out various religious functions . By making the gods human , the Olympian religion was able to penetrate deep into the masses and influence the working people . In time the cult of the Olympian gods became the official religion of the Greek polises , sanctifying the class suppression of the slaves and poor labourers . The masses , dissatisfied with their lack of civil rights , often countered the official religion by inaugurating cults of their own patron gods . Such , for instance , was the cult of Dionisius , patron of the tiller , in whose honour feasts and celebrations were held . This religious dissention can be considered the prototype of all later religious heresies .
By the 6th century B.C. more or less similar religious beliefs were held in common in all regions inhabited by the Greeks . These beliefs formed the basis of the Olympian religion , so called after Mount Olympus which was believed to be the home of the Gods , headed by Zeus . The Olympian religion was not connected with any organised religious body , dogma or ritual . The temples of the gods , though of definite significance in the religious lives of the people , did not , how ever , form a single system ; likewise , there was no special strata of religious attendants , no high priests . When necessary sary , persons chosen by the popular assembly carried out various religious functions . By making the gods human , the Olympian religion was able to penetrate deep into the masses and influence the working people . In time the cult of the Olympian gods became the official religion of the Greek polises , sanctifying the class suppression of the slaves and poor labourers . The masses , dissatisfied with their lack of civil rights , often countered the official religion by inaugurating cults of their own patron gods . Such , for instance , was the cult of Dionisius , patron of the tiller , in whose honour feasts and celebrations were held . This religious dissention can be considered the prototype of all later religious heresies .
These elements in themselves were incapable of breaking the fetters of the existing mode of production . A revolutionary upheaval was necessary to destroy the slave – owning formation – the state and superstructure that were holding back the development of feudal relations . The Roman state was constantly shaken by popular upris ings . The revolutionary actions of the masses and the con quered peoples did much to urdermine the might of the Roman Empire , but they were incapable of crushing it com pletely . In the end , the combined blows of uprisings and attacking German and Slay tribes brought about the fad ] of the Western Roman Empire and the slave system and helped strengthen the emerging feudal relations .
The main function of the slave state ( as of all other exploit er systems ) was the suppression of the exploited . In order to capture new slaves the slave states waged constant wars , plundering the defeated peoples , turning them into tributaries or slaves . Herein lies the second function of any state based on the exploitation of man by man : the expansion of its ter ritory . The state carries out its functions with the aid of a state apparatus . To begin with , the state adopted some clan and tribal institutions ; however , they no longer reflected the interests of the entire clan or tribe but only those of a small group of clan elders and tribal chieftains who eventually became hereditary rulers . The military force of the primitive communal system was composed of all the able – bodied members of the clan , while in a slave system there appeared a new force , removed from the people and standing in opposition to it : a paid army whose duty it was to defend the rapacious , egotistic interests of the slave – owners . The courts appeared in like manner , the guardians of the interests of an insignificant part of society , the slave – owners , not the interests of society as a whole . The clergy were an integral part of the state apparatus , as were the overseers , guards , scribes , collectors of duties , taxes , etc. The former division of the population along lines of blood relationship was now supplanted by an administrative and territorial division .
Capitalism Society 