Part Five Objections against Spiritual Theory of Evolution: Answers Against this spiritual theory of evolution, many objections can be raised. Metaphysical objection against Evolutionary Teleology It may be contended that if there is an ultimate Reality, which is infinite, perfect and absolute, then such a Reality, conceived in the metaphysical theory of the Absolute, cannot have any purpose in manifestation. Even if it is conceded that the Absolute is not only quiescent but also dynamic and therefore capable of manifestation, which could have some kind of purpose, it can have no purpose in manifestation except the delight of manifestation itself. It may

Part Two Philosophical Theories of Evolution Henri Bergson Henri Bergson (1859-1941) developed the theory that there is something more in evolution than merely mechanical urge. He pointed out that the molluscs in the order of evolution proceed by steady steps to develop an eye, which resembles the eye developed by the independent line of vertebrates. How does it happen, he asked, that similar effects appear in two independent lines of evolution, if they were purely accidental? He pointed out that the two developments must have been governed by a common vital impulse to this useful end. He is inclined to attribute a 'rudiment of choice' to the species which, traveling

Preface The theory of evolution is not entirely new. The Nasadiya Sukta, the Purusha Sukta. and the Aghamarshana Sukta of the Rig Veda indicate that the Vedic Rishis were aware of the evolutionary process, which begins with the Inconscience as a starting-point and higher levels of consciousness evolve step by step from the original starting-point of the Inconscience. The Sankhyan theory of Prakriti also refers to a process of evolution. But the facts of the universe as marshalled by Darwin have demonstrated to the contemporary scientific world some clues to the process of evolution. Even then the scientific theory of evolution has not received universal acceptance

Notes and References 1 Rig Veda, 1.129. 2 Aitareya Upanishad, 1.2.1-3. 3 This is the Samkhyan theory of satkāryavāda, according to which, nothing comes out of nothing and the effect is already present in the cause. 4 Vide., Asimov, Isaac, Asimov’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 'Garden City, Doubleday, New York, 1982; vide also, Dobzhansky, Theodosius, American Biology Teacher, 1973; Darwin, Charles, Life and Letters, John Murray, London, 1988; Kitcher, P., The Advancement of Science: Science without Legend, Objectivity without Illusions, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993; Salmon, M.H., et at.. Introduction to the Philosophy o

This book is addressed to all young people who, I urge will study and respond to the following message of Sri Aurobindo: ”, "It is the young who must be the builders of the new world, — not those who accept the competitive individualism, the capitalism or the materialistic communism of the West as India's future ideal, nor those who are enslaved to old religious formulas and cannot believe in the acceptance and transformation of life by the spirit, but all those who are free in mind and heart to accept a completer truth and labour for a greater ideal. They must be men who will dedicate themselves not to the past or the present but to the futur

Part Three Spiritual Theory of Evolution In contrast to these theories, the spiritual theory of the evolutionary process expounded by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is not speculative in character, but it is based upon the results that they obtained through a rigorous experimentation in the domain of yogic experiences and realizations. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, having made detailed yogic study of consciousness and of the methods of their operations in the material world and in the worlds that lie beyond the material world, arrived at the conclusion (i) that the mysteries and laws of evolution, when thoroughly understood and mastered, indicate that a divine supramental

Part Four Sri Aurobindo's criticism of Materialism: Evolution and Consciousness Materialism It is true that, as Sri Aurobindo points out, the materialist has an easier field; it is possible for him to deny consciousness to arrive at a more readily convincing simplicity of statement of the monism of Matter. The premise of materialism is that the physical senses are our sole means of Knowledge and that Reason, therefore, cannot escape beyond the domain of physical existence even in its most extended and vigorous flights. Indeed, this premise is both arbitrary and it assumes its own conclusion as its underlying basis. Sri Aurobindo points out that the world of Matter

Introduction The process of evolution seems to have been detected in ancient times. In the Rig Veda, the Nāsadīya sūkta¹ refers to the "darkness wrapped in darkness" and points out that from the breath that stirred in that original darkness, there stirred the life-force as desire, and that that desire was the seed of the mind. In the Aitareya Upanishad, there is a fable which tells us that the gods rejected the animal forms successively offered to them by the Divine Self and only when man was produced, cried out, "This indeed is perfectly made," and consented to enter in the human body. ² In the Sankhya philosophy, the infinite existence of Force was figured as a sea, initia

Part One The Modern Scientific Theory of Evolution The modern theory of evolution began to develop in the 18th century through the work of Linnaeus (1707-78), Buffon (1707-88), Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), Lamarck (1744-1829), and in the 19th century in the works of Charles Darwin (1809-82) and his followers. 'On the Origin of Species’ written by Charles Darwin (1859) gave details and demonstrations of his scientific theory of evolution, according to which, life on the earth evolved by a gradual and yet continuous process from the earliest forms of living organisms to the latest product, man. Natural selection, variation and heredity are said to be the factors through the op