XXIII. The Apocalypse of Aspiration Is this world an unchanging succession of the same phenomena always or is there in it an evolutionary urge, an evolutionary fact, a ladder of ascension somewhere from an original apparent Inconscience to a more and more developed consciousness, from each development still ascending, emerging on highest heights not yet within our normal reach? If so, what is the sense, the fundamental principle, the logical issue of that progression? According to Sri Aurobindo everything seems to point to such a progression as a fact, to a spiritual and not merely a physical evolution the Inconscient from which all starts is apparent only," S

XIX. Supermind and the Integra I Know ledge The face of Truth is hidden by a golden lid; that re- move, O Fostering Sun, for the Law of the Truth, for sight. O Sun, O sole Seer, marshal thy rays, gather them together, — let me see of thee thy happiest form of all; that Conscious Being everywhere, He am I. Isha Upanishad, 15, 16. Mind is not in its very nature an inventor of errors, a father of lies bound down to a capacity of falsehood... "it is in its origin a principle of light, an instrument put forth from the Supermind and, though set to work within limits and even set to create limits, yet the limits are luminous b

XXVIII. The Flaming Vision Beholding the higher Light beyond the darkness we came to the divine Sun in the Godhead, to the highest Light of all. Rig Veda1 O Immortal, thou art bom in mortals in the law of the Truth, of Immortality, of Beauty... Bom from the Truth, he grows by the Truth, — a King, a Godhead, the Truth, the Vast. Rig Veda2 The perfection of psychic and spiritual transformations would be "the perfection, wholeness, consummated unity of a knowledge and experience which is already part of things realised, though only by a small number of human beings. But the supramental change in its process carrie

III. The Evolution of Evolution Perhaps the greatest and the most universal of the problems which have intrigued the mind of man are those which deal with his own place in the world in which he lives. But before he can even formulate these problems, before he can set himself out as something apart from the rest of the world and inquire about his relations to it, he must construct some picture or model or theory of the universe as a whole. He must, in the learned jargon which he has invented to help keep his thoughts in order, develop a cosmology. He may wish, however, at times to go beyond a mere description of his universe and speculate on its inner nature, or

XV. The Logic of Solids He discovered that Mind was the Brahman. Taittiriya Upanishad' Indivisible, but as if divided in beings. Gita2 Mind cannot possess the infinite, it can only suf- fer it or be possessed by it; it can only lie bliss- fully helpless under the luminous shadow of the Real cast down on it from planes of existence be- yond its reach. The Life Divine3 Here, in this section, we shall have a searching analysis of the scope and limitations of 'reason', and discuss the concept of the Infinite along with the question whether our logical postulates and categories require to be modified or re-interpreted in de

REFERENCES REFERENCES CHAPTER I 1.Taittiriya Upanishad, Brahmananda Valli, 7. 2.Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL Vol. 18, p. 78. 3.Rig Veda, Hymns of Bharadwaja, Mandala VI, S. VII. 4.Nolirti Kanta Gupta, The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, Part VI, p. 19. 5.Ibid., p. 20. 6.Ibid., pp. 31-32. 7.Dr. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 11. 8.Bloomfield, Religion of the Veda, pp. 242-43. 9.S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, Vol. 1, p 101. 10.Max Muller, Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, pp. 65-66. 11.Sat. Brah., ii, 5.1. p. 1-3. 12.S. Radhakrishnan, Op. Cit, Vol. I, p. 181. 13.Encyclopaedia of R

XXVI. The Purpose and Process of Rebirth Finite bodies have an end, but that which possesses and uses the body, is infinite, illimitable, eternal, inde- structible. Therefore, fight, O Bharata. Gita1 There is a birth and growth of the self. According to his actions the embodied being assumes forms succes- sively in many places; many forms gross and subtle he assumes by force of his own qualities of nature. Swetaswatara Upanishad2 The embodied soul casts away old and takes up new bodies as a man changes worn-out raiment for new. Gita3 Sri Aurobindo prefers "rebirth" to reincarnati

MOVEMENT FOUR HUMAN DESTINY XXIX. The Spiritual Aim He who knows that as both in one, the Knowledge and the Ignorance, by the Ignorance crosses beyond death and by the Knowledge enjoys Immortality. Isha Upanishad1 To fulfil God in life is man's manhood. He starts from the animal vitality and its activities, but a divine ex- istence is his objective. The Life Divine2 He who knows That as both in one, the Birth and the dissolution of Birth, by the dissolution crosses beyond death and by the Birth enjoys Immortality. Isha Upanishad3 O Nightingale, thou surely art A creature of a fi

MOVEMENT THREE THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION XXV. Man and the Evolution The one Godhead secret in all beings, all-pervading, the inner Self of all, presiding over all action, witness, conscious knower and absolute ... the One in control over the many who are passive to Nature, fashions one seed in many ways. Swetaswatara Upanishad1 He fashions one form of things in many ways. Katha Upanishad2 From the non-being to true being, from the darkness to the Light, from death to Immortality. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad13 As men approach Me, so I accept them to my love (bhajāmi); men follow in every way

Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy of Evolution Content Pre-Content To The Mother Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction Preface FIRST THOUGHTS I. Vedic and Puranic Cosmogony II Avatarhood: The Parable of Evolution III. The Evolution of Evolution IV. Man Must Needs Have a Cosmology V. The Mysticism of Matter VI. Evolution of Homo Sapiens VII. A Critical Retrospect VIII. Will to Reason