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Sri Aurobindo's Evolutionary Concept of Man* L. G. Chincholkar
'"THE problem of human destiny has been engaging the minds of the A thinkers of the world throughout the ages. A search to know the facts behind the phenomena, a probe into the unknown reality of the existence of man and the world have been the subjects of ceaseless enquiry for all those who have not been content with the first view of things. The status of a man has a direct bearing upon his destiny. Is he a product of evolution or a directly implanted Adam or Eve by God? What is he at present, what would be his future ? How has he come to be what he is now? What, in general, is the past, present and future of mankind? These are some questions Sri Aurobindo has tried to settle in his investigations. This paper intends to elucidate the same. Man for Sri Aurobindo is the outcome of the evolution. He constitutes a phase of the graded evolutionary scheme which runs from the Inconscient to the Superconscient. The Supreme consciousness which is involved in the Inconscient strives to realise itself. It passes from division to unity.1 Thus the evolution enacts itself. It is the potential supreme consciousness involved in the Inconscient which gradually actualizes itself in the successive forms of evolution. The emergent is always richer than that'from which it emerges.2 Evolution is a graded unfoldment of the Supreme Existence and strives to realise the unity already inherent. The evolution has a double process, ascent and the descent. While the involved consciousness gradually rises up to reach the Supreme Consciousness, the same descends to lower planes to facilitate speedier ascension of the lower levels. The following is the ascent-descent order as presented by Sri Aurobindo: Existence Matter Consciousness-Force Life Bliss Psyche Supermind Mind
Page-183 Elaborating the above scheme, Sri Aurobindo writes that "the Divine descends from pure existence through the play of Consciousness-Force and Bliss and the creative medium of Supermind into cosmic being; we ascend from Matter through a developing life, soul and mind and the illuminating medium of supermind towards the divine being. The knot of the two, the higher and the lower hemisphere, is where mind and supermind meet with a veil between them. The rending of the veil is the condition of the divine life in humanity; for by that rending, by the illumining descent of the higher into the nature of the lower being and the forceful ascent of the lower being into the nature of the higher, mind can recover its divine light in the all-comprehending supermind, the soul realise its divine self in the all-possessing all-blissful Ananda, life repossess its divine power in the play of omnipotent Conscious-Force and Matter open to its divine liberty as a form of the divine Existence."1 The supermind is the "Truth Consciousness" of the Divine Being and is not above manifestation, though it is the highest spiritual consciousness. Matter, Life and Mind are the lower stages while the higher stages are Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition, Overmind and Supermind. Each ascent brings with it a corresponding change of consciousness. To be aware of and strive towards the destiny is the privilege of man alone. Man the Individual is an integral aspect of the Divine Being. The Divine Being is Sachchidananda, the Supreme Reality. The Supreme Reality is complex. It constitutes the Individual, Universal and the Transcendental simultaneously. These three aspects are not separate. They inherently and essentially together form the highest Reality. The Individual is ingrediently one with the Universal and Transcendental. The Transcendental is ingrediently one with the Individual and the Universal. The Universal is ingrediently one with the Individual and Transcendental. At times the Individual and the Universal are also described as simultaneous expressions of the Transcendental Being.2 Thus the Reality though complex is unitary in nature. There is distinction, not separation, among the constituents. Man is not a combination of physical forces, actions and reactions; hot an out-growth of dead matter, but an outcome of the concealed consciousness progressively actualizing itself.3 Therefore there are vast spiritual possibilities open to him. He is essentially the Spirit. Just as man is an outcome of evolution, similarly he has to emerge into higher evolutionary ascensions. Emergence of Mind is a decisive
Page-184 factor in the course of evolution. Man represents mind. The evolution of a man into the higher stages of evolution is as essential as it is natural. Man is not the ego, the surface self-consciousness. Ego is just a "practical constitution of our consciousness devised to centralize the activities of Nature in us".1 Extinction of ego is necessary for liberation. Sri Aurobindo distinguishes between Jivatman, soul, self and the psychic being. The "Jivatman", says Sri Aurobindo, "the spark-soul and psychic being are three different forms of the same reality and they must not be mixed up together as that confuses the clearness of the inner experience. The Jivatman or spirit, as it is usually called in English, is self-existent, above the manifested or the instrumental being, it is superior to birth and death, always the same, the individual self or Atman. It is the eternal true being of the individual. The soul is the spark of the Divine which is not seated above the manifested being, but comes down into the manifestation to support its evolution in the material world. It is at first an undifferentiated power of the divine consciousness containing all possibilities which have not yet taken form, but to which it is the function of evolution to give form. This spark is there in all living beings from the lowest to the highest."2 The psychic being is formed by the soul in its evolution. It supports the mind, vital plane and body and enriches itself by their experience, carries the nature from life to life.3 It must not, however, be supposed that there is any rudimentary difference amongst them. The evolution of a man has to pass through all such states. An emergence of any of the planes means, not only an ascent to a higher plane from the lower, but also a descent of the emerged principle from the world above. Thus the development of life is a result of the descent of that principle from the life-world above.4 Similarly an emergence of mind necessitates its descent from the mental plane above to establish itself in the course of evolution as an actualised plane of existence. All the planes of evolution contain in themselves individually the rest of the planes potentially.5 They all are inclusive of each other, and therefore the successive emergence of all of them is a consistent possibility. Different stages of evolution are possible on account of the pressure from the respective planes of
Page-185 existence, from matter to the supermind itself.1 The different planes have been so named according to their native characteristics. Each phase of the evolution of a man is a phase of higher spiritual experience, a higher order of reality, a greater unfoldment of the involved Spirit. Thus each plane of evolution expresses a higher degree of reality, the highest being the Supermind. As the evolution of man proceeds, the consciousness grows deeper, and the previous planes have to be well established before the next ascension is contemplated. The ascent is not easy. It has to work through the limitations of mental consciousness.2 It is mixed with passions, impulses and ideas the nature in the beginning. Ignorance of our self hinders true inner development.3 The grace of the Divine Mother, however, helps a sincere Sadhaka.4 The evolution may not be possible within a single birth, and may require innumerable births. Rebirth has therefore an important place in the evolution of a man. 'Man' forms the most important transitional phase. He alone is capable of realising the highest evolutionary principle. But human reason is inadequate to grasp the significance of the higher evolution; the possession of spiritual knowledge which surpasses reason is essential.5 This would successfully lead towards the higher and the highest phases of evolution. As the evolution proceeds, man transcends his physical limitations and the spiritual man emerges. He is Nature's "Supreme supernormal effort of human creation".6 The spiritual man is not an end in himself, though he lives and moves in the spirit. The ultimate aim of the human evolution is, not any confirmation of the supreme consciousness in him, but divini-sation of the society itself. Such a divinisation of society would not be possible unless man himself were spiritualised. The confirmation of the highest spiritual consciousness in man would gradually lead to the spiritualisation of the society. This might take an indefinite span of time, but it is inevitable. The concept of transformation which is the next higher stage in the process of evolution has an important place in the theory. The spiritual evolution of a man implies his transformation which is triple in nature. The transformation changes the entire being of man. Its secret "lies in the transference of our centre of living to a higher consciousness and in a change of our main power of living".7 Nature is unable to take such an
Page-186 advance. It fails to guide or control the spiritual evolution. There are three stages of transformation; the psychic, the spiritual and the supra-mental. The psychic transformation changes our present ego-oriented nature. The spiritual transformation brings down the great powers of the Divine like Light, Knowledge, Ananda, Bliss, etc. to the subconscious depths of our being. The supramental transformation is two-fold. It is an ascent to the supramental plane and the descent of the supramental consciousness into our whole being.1 It is the supramental transformation alone which brings about the total change of our being.3 This is impossible unless the Divine descends with all its Force.3 Thus the evolution of a man proceeds towards the Supramental transformation. This is, however, not possible without complete surrender to God and the guidance of a Guide or Guru.4 The grace of the Mother is indispensable.5 Sri Aurobindo claims that the ancients did not have such a transformation. Even Buddha, Sankara, Rama or Krishna did not have any idea of transformation.6 Such a completely transformed individual is termed a gnostic being. He is the culmination of the spiritual man.7 He possesses self-knowledge and world-knowledge simultaneously which are inherent powers of the supreme consciousness itself.8 The Gnostic being implies the total perfection of man as an individual and marks the most radical stage in his evolution. The evolution, however, is not complete with the emergence of the gnostic being. It is the community of the gnostic beings which is aimed at. The gnostic being integrally realises his unity with the cosmic many and the supreme Spirit.9 Such a community would be a free and harmonious expression of the Divine and would possess the Light, Beauty, Delight, Immortality and other highest powers of the Spirit. There woufd be complete harmony between the individual and the collective life.10 The gnostic life would express an integral consciousness in which all will essentially and inherently belong to each other. It would not be infected by the death, decay or conflicts so characteristic of the present human society. Since the gnostic community is governed by Divine law expressive of Peace, Love, Ananda, Harmony etc., and since all the gnostic beings would realise this basic unity with themselves and the supreme Spirit, they
Page-187 would consequently pass into the divine life. Thus the evolutionary scale inevitably reaches the divine life ultimately.1 Sri Aurobindo describes a few details of the divine life to come. No one would be in need of any food. All would draw upon universal energy, etc. Sri Aurobindo has not, however, worked out the details.2 He clarifies that the attainment of the divine life is not easy. The gnostic being would form the nucleus around whom gradually divinisation of the community would become possible. These few forerunners would help and guide mankind towards the higher spiritual evolution. But only the descent of the supramental consciousness could expedite it, which means that the Divine Power will be actively present on earth, even as the principle of rational intelligence is now present. Sri Aurobindo does not visualise any immediate miraculous change of the world. He knows that the process could not but be slow. What he emphasizes is an establishment of a "new power and consciousness"3 on earth. While the descent is inevitable, the evolution will not enter into a radical stage until the supramental consciousness descends on the earth. The evolution of man thus ultimately aims at the divine life on earth. It is not a Swarga or Paradise beyond. It rather leads towards the realisation of man's integral unity with the world and the supreme Spirit in an eternal divine life to be lived on earth. This is liberation, not of a man alone but of mankind itself. The physical evolution has not so far been able to throw light either upon the origin or the aim of the evolution. Modern evolutionary thinkers doubt if the evolution is mechanical inmature, an aimless drift. It is realised that the environment has its limitations and the evolution may be actuated by some inner effort towards perfection; that it may be a development from within.4 There is a growing awareness of the inadequacy of defining life in physico-chemical terms and a realisation that the evolution may have implied consciousness and liberty from the beginning.5 The inability to account for the origin of life is accepted.6 That the evolution of a man implies higher spiritual possibilities has been abundantly made clear by Sri Aurobindo. The scales of evolution as explained by him are sufficiently descriptive. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin has recently put forth corresponding thoughts on human evolution, though with some variations. The similarities are notable. He states that the
Page-188 evolution ascends towards a sort of supreme consciousness,1 that Nature is not dead matter but is living.2 He lists various stages of human evolution.3 He also visualises a society free from conflicts and disease.4 This might become possible on account of scientific progress. In Sri Aurobindo the disorders of mankind would gradually disappear as a result of the descent of the supramental power on earth. The Omega of Chardin is not structurally unitary with the evolution, but independent ;5 and evolution is a process of union with God.6 But the union is not an identification.7 The world does not seem to be a constituent aspect of the supreme being and the individual, as in Sri Aurobindo. Chardin does not appear to entertain an idea of the progressive evolution into the supermanhood; "All together" would ultimately get into it.8 How this would become possible is, however, not clear. A few gnostic beings can strive to divinise the rest. But if "All together" were a pre-condition of higher evolution, it is doubtful if it could ever become possible. If evolution is a process and not an abrupt leap, such a possibility appears remote. The super-evolutionary advance of all need not come into conflict with the advance of a few such individuals who may be followed by the rest. Evolution according to Sri Aurobindo is not a succession of aimless mutations. It is a process whereby the potent spiritual energy unfolds itself into successively higher phases of expression. It is as it were a process of Reality. Man represents a decisive link in the progressive unfoldment of the inherent Superconscient. The involution of the Supreme consciousness into the Inconscient from which the evolution started does not exhaust the supreme consciousness. The evolution is a process of the potential Real striving towards the actual Real. It progresses cumulatively. It gathers up the lower grades and proceeds towards the higher. The different stages of evolution are interpenetrative. They denote a basically ingredient structure progressively evolving the latent Superconscient within, the higher stages being more and more expressive of it. The peculiarity of man is that he can be a conscious constituent mover of his own evolution. His evolution does not come off without effort. Since the evolution has been conceived as an ascent-descent order, the
Page-189 invocation of the Divine Mother, i.e. the descent of the higher power to promote the ascent of man, does not appear inconsistent. Since the Divine Mother is not a force external to the order of evolution but the inherent highest representation of spiritual Energy, Her invocation by the Sadhaka and the descent of Her Grace to him do not appear to compromise the consistency of Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary theory. It has to be made clear that for Sri Aurobindo the higher evolution of man is not a mere theoretical possibility, but a fact based upon his spiritual insight. It is not by mere intellectual exercises nor with profound logical acumen that the depth and the truth of his vision could be realised. Reason gropes with its limitations and fails to grasp the Reality which transcends it. It is the spiritual insight alone which shows the way. It is a vision of Truth acquired through higher realisations. Transcendence of mind and conquest of our lower nature are the preconditions. Sri Aurobindo is clear that the evolution is not an endless path to traverse but a well-ordered structure of Reality to be realised successively by all those who qualify themselves for the same. True to the tradition of the ancient Rishis, for Sri Aurobindo also, Reality is to be realised, lived; it is not a theoretical symmetry to be admired without any bearing upon life. It has to be clearly understood that the basis of the theory of human evolution as presented by Sri Aurobindo is spiritual in nature. He admits that it is beyond human reason to grasp the higher levels of Reality. But it is not therefore irrational. It is the logic of the Infinite which imparts consistency to his views, which at times might appear to be otherwise. Spiritual insight is essential. It means a laborious passing through an elaborate Sadhana and its concomitant pressures, which few are sincerely prepared to undertake. It is the spur of realisation which ultimately leads the way and brings about the fulfilment of the highest aspirations of human life. Page-190 Social Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo* Kishor Gandhi
SRI Aurobindo is now well known all over the world as a great Yogi, philosopher and poet, but he is not yet so well known as a great social philosopher, even though his contributions in the field of social philosophy are of as profound a significance as his contributions in other spheres. Especially at the present moment, when humanity has arrived at a critical turning-point in its historic development where it is confronted with a crucial choice affecting its very destiny, the necessity of having a precise understanding of Sri Aurobindo's social philosophy is very great because it alone can show a decisive way out of the present dilemma. Not only so, but in his social philosophy alone can the modern humanity find the true foundations on which a new social order can be built out of the present chaos. Before undertaking to give a brief account of Sri Aurobindo's social philosophy, it needs to be pointed out that his social philosophy forms an integral part of his general philosophical system which embraces in its comprehensive scope all the aspects of existence. According to him, the social existence of man is not a thing apart but an intimate portion of the total universal existence, and so its nature, development and destiny are governed by the same principles and processes which govern the universal existence in all its spheres and in its totality. For this reason his treatment of the problems of social philosophy is mostly done not independently but in the larger context of his treatment of the problems of general philosophy. So we do not have a separate treatise in which we can find a comprehensive exposition of his views on the problems of social philosophy, as we have in The Life Divine a separate work which contains a complete and elaborate statement of his views on the problems of general philosophy. Only the theme of social evolution has been given by him a detailed consideration in a separate work, The Human Cycle; his views on the rest of the problems of social philosophy are embedded in his various other works. All the materials needed to make a comprehensive system of social philosophy are there in his writings but not in a compact block. They need to be culled from these various writings and systematically organised. When this is properly done, the inestimable value of his social thought
Page-191 clearly emerges in sight to a discerning eye. One feels that here is the fountain-head of tremendously potent idea-forces which can exert a decisive influence on the modern world in steering it out of its present impasse and leading it into a New Age. This is because Sri Aurobindo's social philosophy, like his general philosophy, is not a product of abstract intellectual speculation as most modern philosophy is, but is a presentation in intellectual terms of a direct revelation and living realisation of truths far beyond the limited range of the human intellect. That is why his words are aglow with a supernal light and his thoughts are charged with a supernal force. They carry with them a living and potent vibration which one never finds in the writings of even the world's greatest philosophical intellects. It is for this reason that to speak of Sri Aurobindo as a philosopher in the usual sense of the word is rather inappropriate. For philosophy in the usual sense is a creation of the speculative mind ranging in abstract ideas; even the greatest philosophical geniuses do not go beyond the range of the human intellect and therefore cannot overcome the limitations inherent in it. But Sri Aurobindo, being a supreme Yogi, far transcends these limitations and having at his command a concrete and living realisation of the eternal truths of the Spirit, has no need to labour with the abstract speculations of the intellectual mind. To speak of Sri Aurobindo therefore as a "philosopher" is quite inadequate. However, since he has presented his perceptions derived from his spiritual realisations in intellectual terms we may call him so, without however forgetting the immense gulf that divides him from even the greatest philosophical thinkers of the world.
(2)
The keystone of the whole structure of Sri Aurobindo's social philosophy is his subjective view of the nature of society. According to him, a society or a community is not merely a collection of individuals or a structure of their relationships, as most of the modern social thinkers maintain; in its essential reality it is a conscious being, a self with a real existence of its own independent of the individuals of which it is constituted. To understandully this view of society we must relate it to the central concept of his whole philosophic system which he calls "The Omnipresent Reality" and of which he has given a complete explanation in The Life Divine. Here we quote only a short relevant passage: "There is a Reality, a truth of all existence which is greater and more abiding than all its formations and manifestations; to find that truth and Page-192 Reality and live in it, achieve the most perfect manifestation and formation possible of it, must be the secret of perfection whether of individual or communal being. This Reality is there within each thing and gives to each of its formations its power of being and value of being. The universe is a manifestation of the Reality, and there is a truth of the universal existence, a Power of cosmic being, an all-self or world-spirit. Humanity is a formation or manifestation of the Reality in the universe, and there is a truth, and self of humanity, a human spirit, a destiny of human life. The community is a formation of the Reality, a manifestation of the spirit of man, and there is a truth, a self, a power of the collective being. The individual is a formation of the Reality, and there is a truth of the individual, an individual self, soul or spirit that expresses itself through the individual mind, life and body*and can express itself too in something that goes beyond mind, life and body, something even that goes beyond humanity."1 It is evident from this passage that in Sri Aurobindo's view the community or society has a real self of its own, a truth of its being, as much as the individual, humanity and the whole universe have. Like them it is a living power of the eternal Reality in its cosmic manifestation. Sri Aurobindo draws a close parallel between the nature of the society and the nature of the individual man. "The society or nation", he says, "is, even in its greater complexity, a larger, a composite,individual, the collective Man."2 As "the individual is not merely the ephemeral physical creature, a form of mind and body that aggregates and dissolves, but a being, a living power of the eternal Truth, a self-manifesting-spirit", so too the community "is a being, a living power of the eternal Trujh, a self-manifestation of the cosmic Spirit, and it is there to express and fulfil in its own way and to the degree of its capacities the special truth and power and meaning of the cosmic Spirit that is within it."3 We may also add that Sri Aurobindo does not conceive of this real self of society as only an impersonal spirit but also as a personal being, a living godhead which from behind the veil of the external communal life guides and shapes its evolutionary development and leads it to its eventual destiny. As the eternal Reality in its supreme aspect is not merely an impersonal Existence but also a Supreme Person, Ishwara or God, so also in each of its manifestations, individual, communal or universal it is not only an impersonal spirit but a conscious living person, a godhead. It is for this reason that Sri Aurobindo maintains that the soul of each nation-society is a living being, a deity presiding over its historical development through
Page-193 the ages and leading it to its ultimate perfection. This is his idea of the nation-soul which he made the pivot of the whole nationalist movement in India when he was its leader. The vibrant terms in which he spoke and wrote about the nation-soul of India as the divine Shakti, Mother India, had a tremendous impact upon the national mind during that period because for him it was not merely a symbolic fiction, as it is for the modern historians and political thinkers, but a living spiritual presence and power. We may recall his own words: "Mother India is not a piece of earth; she is a Power, a Godhead, for all nations have such a Devi supporting their separate existence and keeping it in being. Such beings are as real and more permanently real than the men they influence, but they belong to a higher plane, are part of the cosmic consciousness and being and act here on earth by shaping the human consciousness on which they exercise their influence."1 This is Sri Aurobindo's subjective view of the society parallel to his subjective view of the individual. But he also maintains that as the individual, though in his essential reality is a soul or spirit, yet has a phenomenal external being composed of a developing mind, life and body which are the instruments of his soul, so also the community, though in its essential reality is a group-soul or spirit, yet has an external organic being made up of a developing communal mind, life and body, which are the instruments of the group-soul for the expression of its potentialities. "The nation or society," Sri Aurobindo says, "like the individual, has a body, an organic life, a moral and aesthetic temperament, a developing mind and soul behind all these signs and powers for the sake of which they exist."2 Hence to understand fully Sri Aurobindo's view of the nature of society we have to take into account both these aspects of the social being its soul or spiritual self which is its essential reality and its external instrumental being which is a means and a medium of the progressive manifestation and expression of the potentialities of its group-soul in evolution. And we have also to note that in the earlier stages of its evolutionary development the communal soul, like the soul of the individual, remains mostly veiled and it is the outer instrumental ego-self of the community with its interests and ambitions and passions that dominates and governs the communal life and consciousness. The organised State, according to Sri Aurobindo, is the embodiment not of the soul of the nation but of its communal ego and its interests and ambitions. It is very necessary to keep in view this distinction between the outer
Page-194 ego-self of the community and its true soul because an indiscriminate identification of the two is bound to lead to the same gross errors and dangerous consequences as those which result from the mistaken identification of the outer ego-self of the individual with his true soul. The communal ego, like the ego of the individual, is a formation of ignorant Nature and in its evolutionary development is subject to the same limitations, perversions and falsehoods as the individual ego is. In extreme cases, it may even, like the individual, be possessed by dark Asuric forces and bring ruin and disaster not only upon itself but also upon other communities. Instances of such possession are not wanting in human history and in recent times there have been such glaring examples of them that Sri Aurobindo has repeatedly warned against the misleading and dangerous tendency to confuse the true soul of the nation with its communal ego, as represented by the State. To quote one such warning: "The communal ego is idealised as the soul of the nation, the race, the community; but this is a colossal and may turn out to be a fatal error ... this obscure collective being is not the soul or self of the community; it is a life-force that rises from the subconscient and, if denied the light of guidance by the reason, can be driven only by dark massive forces which are powerful but dangerous for the race because they are alien to the conscious evolution of which man is the trustee and bearer."1 Some exponents of what is known as the Idealistic Theory of the State in Western political philosophy, notably Hegel and his followers, have put forward a view of the Nation-State which is a clear example of the false representation of the collective ego of the nation as its true soul. The State, which is nothing else but the organised collective ego of the nation, is glorified by them as a super-individual omnipotent divine entity with absolute authority to command unquestioning obedience and worship of the individuals. This conception of the State has exerted an enormous influence in the recent political life of Europe and has powerfully encouraged the growth of various types of totalitarian regimes which have been mainly responsible for plunging the world into the two great wars. Sri Aurobindo has thoroughly exposed the fallacy of this idea of the State in his writings, especially in The Human Cycle and The Ideal of Human Unity.
(3)
Of all the problems of social philosophy, the problem of social evolution has received the most systematic and elaborate treatment at Sri
Page-195 Aurobindo's hands. The Human Cycle, one of his major works, is devoted to a comprehensive exposition of this problem and the main issues relevant to it. We have to note that his theory of the evolution of society is based upon and derived from his general theory of evolution which applies equally to the individual man, to the community, to the whole of humanity, as well as to the entire terrestrial existence. It is the same upward movement from the material base to the spiritual summit which works itself out by progressive cycles in the whole cosmos as well as in the more restricted spheres of individual and communal existence. Sri Aurobindo has fully elaborated his general theory of evolution in The Life Divine, especially in its last eleven chapters. The Human Cycle is an application of the same theory to the sphere of social life. Sri Aurobindo's theory of social evolution, like his more general theory of terrestrial evolution, is a spiritual theory and must be clearly distinguished from the scientific theory of social evolution held by modern social thinkers. The modern theory of evolution as a rational scientific concept is of comparatively recent origin. It emerged during the 17th and the 18th centuries and its most significant developments took place in the 19th century in the field of Biology, in the work of Darwin. Herbert Spencer, the British sociologist and philosopher, who was very much impressed by Darwin's theory, applied it with some modifications to the development of human society and culture. It was accepted by other social thinkers of the period and was very widely held as a scientifically valid interpretation of social and cultural change. This theory came to be known as the linear theory because it assumed that social and cultural change occurs everywhere in a straight upward line by gradual, uniform and successive stages. It also assumed that social evolution was necessarily a movement of social progress, a continuous advancement from lower to higher forms. Sri Aurobindo's spiritual theory of social evolution is fundamentally different from this modern scientific theory even though he admits its limited value. Here we may note some main points of difference. The scientific theory confines itself only to the objective external form and organisation of society which, beginning from a simple and rudimentary structure and function, develops into a more and more complex and intricate system by the process of differentiation and integration. The process here is similar to that of the growth of biological organisms from the initial unicellular to the more advanced multicellular structures. The validity of this theory in so far as it applies to the external organic system of Page-196 society is fully admitted by Sri Aurobindo, but its limitation, according to him, is that it takes no account of the more important inner subjective development of society which consists in the emergence of higher and higher levels of communal self and its consciousness. Evolution, in Sri Aurobindo's view, is essentially a graded ascent of the consciousness from the lowest physical, through the vital and the mental, to the highest spiritual and supramental levels. The evolution of external physical form and structure is intended to be only a means or an instrumental mould for the embodiment and expression of the growing inner self and consciousness. Higher and higher grades of consciousness as they emerge in evolution require more and more complex, subtle and intricate organic structures to manifest their potentialities and it is in order to provide this need that the evolution of the external forms takes place. For Sri Aurobindo it is the inner subjective development of consciousness that is the essential aim and significance of the evolutionary process; the development of the outer forms is only a secondary and subordinate means. This truth which is obvious in the evolution of the individual being is equally true in the evolution of the society or community. According to Sri Aurobindo, consciousness is the determining factor, the essential cause of the progressive movement of evolution through successive stages. It is the key that unravels the secret sense and significance of the whole historical development of mankind from the earliest primitive to the most advanced cultures and civilisations. And, for the same reason, it will also determine the emergence of the future social order. The future society, Sri Aurobindo maintains, will arrive only as a result of the emergence of a new level of consciousness in the life of humanity. Whatever new forms of outer social life will arise will only be its external expressions. This is the fundamental difference between Sri Aurobindo's subjective theory and the modern scientific theory of evolution. Useful as the scientific theory is, it explains only the outer aspect of social evolution which is of secondary and subordinate importance. It does not reveal to us the real meaning and significance of social evolution nor its determining cause. Sri Aurobindo does not consider the scientific theory to be wrong but insufficient and inconclusive. For him the principal factor of evolution, as in the individual so in the community, is the ascension of consciousness from its lowest to the highest level. From this fundamental difference between Sri Aurobindo's spiritual theory and the modern scientific theory, all other differences follow as logical corrolaries. Page-197
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Since the evolution of the social or communal consciousness is the basic determinant of the evolution of society, the successive stages through which that evolution proceeds are also, according to Sri Aurobindo, determined by the ascending grades through which that consciousness evolves. In The Human Cycle Sri Aurobindo has traced the whole cycle of social evolution first through a sequence of five stages, named symbolic, typal, conventional, individualist or rational and subjective; then through another sequence of three stages, named barbarism, culture and spirituality; and finally through one more sequence of three stages, named the infra-rational, the rational and the suprarational. All these sequences are based upon a psychological criterion derived from his subjective concept in which the self or the consciousness is the determining factor. A passage from The Human Cycle, which explains the last sequence of three stages, will make this clear: "There are necessarily three stages of the social evolution or, generally, of the human evolution in both individual and society. Our evolution starts with an infrarational stage in which men have not yet learned to refer their life and action in its principles and its forms to the judgment of the clarified intelligence; for they still act principally out of their instincts, impulses, spontaneous ideas, vital intuitions or else obey a customary response to desire, need and circumstance, it is these things that are canalised or crystallised in their social institutions. Man proceeds by various stages out of these beginnings towards a rational age in which his intelligent will more or less developed becomes the judge, arbiter and presiding motive of his thought, feeling and action, the moulder, destroyer and re-creator of his leading ideas, aims and intuitions. Finally, if our analysis and forecast are correct, the human evolution must move through a subjective towards a suprarational or spiritual age in which he will develop progressively a greater spiritual, supra-intellectual and intuitive, perhaps in the end a more than intuitive, a gnostic consciousness. He will be able to perceive a higher divine end, a divine sanction, a divine light of guidance for all he seeks to be, think, feel and do, and able, too, more and more to obey and live in this larger light and power."1 In the same way the stages of barbarism and civilisation or culture, which Sri Aurobindo elaborately discusses in The Human Cycle, are also based on a subjective psychological criterion and therefore have quite a different meaning than that which the social scientists, cultural anthropologists and historians who adopt an objective external criterion, attach to
Page-198 it. "Barbarism", in Sri Aurobindo's view, "is the state of society in which man is almost entirely preoccupied with his life and body, his economic and physical existence ... and has few means and little inclination to develop his mentality, while civilisation is the more evolved state of society in which to a sufficient social and economic organisation is added the activity of the mental life in most, if not all of its parts."1 "Not to live principally in the activities of the sense-mind, but in the activities of knowledge and reason and a wide intellectual curiosity, the activities of the cultivated aesthetic being, the activities of the enlightened will which make for character and high ethical ideals and a large human action, not to be governed by our lower or our average mentality but by truth and beauty and the self-ruling will is the ideal of a true culture and the beginning of an accomplished humanity."2 Barbarism and culture are here distinguished not on the criterion of the economic development or social organisation but on the basis of the developing consciousness of the communal self. So long as the consciousness of the community remains at the level of the physical and the vital self, predominantly governed by its instincts, impulses and customary habits, it must remain essentially a barbarian society whatever may be its outer appearances. It is only when it ascends beyond that level into the light of the mental self, and governs its life by the ideals and values of the mind that it becomes a truly cultured society. Barbarism and culture are thus characteristics of the ascending levels of consciousness in evolution rather than of the external economic, political or social institutional organisation. The external institutional organisation is only a reflection or an expression of the inner psychological state of the society. As that inner state progresses on the upward curve of the evolutionary cycle, it manifests or expresses itself in progressive forms of external social life. Ascension of consciousness is thus the key-factor determining the whole course of social evolution through its successive stages. Since culture in its true sense is a characteristic of the developed idealistic mind, Sri Aurobindo refuses to apply that term to individuals and communities which develop merely the external paraphernalia of civilised life but in their inner consciousness remain still at the level of barbarian mentality and are ruled by its tendencies and propensities. This pseudo-civilised type, individual and communal, was called "Philistine" by Matthew Arnold and others in the last century and Sri Aurobindo finds this term quite appropriate to describe the modern man who, according to him, is not truly cultured at all in spite of the plethora of material amenities of civilised life which he has produced with the help of scientific techno-
Page-199 logy. He is not altogether the earlier physical barbarian because he has developed reason and science, and yet since he has put them at the service of his lower physical and vital nature, Sri Aurobindo calls him the mental barbarian or the civilised barbarian. To put it in his own words: "The Philistine is in fact the modern civilised barbarian; he is often the half-civi-lised physical and vital barbarian by his unintelligent attachment to the life of the body, the life of the vital needs and impulses and the ideal of the merely domestic and economic human animal; but essentially and commonly he is the mental barbarian, the average sensational man."1 It is the mentality of this Philistine that rules the modern world and its typical attitude is the spirit of commercialism which has penetrated and influenced all the spheres of modern life. The excessive preponderance of the utilitarian and the economic value and the consequent vulgarisation and debasement of all the higher values in culture, religion, art, poetry, philosophy, etc. is due to this commercial spirit which at present overrides all others. The psychological or subjective criterion adopted by Sri Aurobindo for the demarcation of the successive stages of social evolution has a greater validity than any external objective criterion because it is based on the inevitable inner development of human consciousness and not upon any outward accidental forms or circumstances. The historians and the cultural anthropologists speak of the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age followed by the Ages of Iron, Steel, Electricity etc., or of the economic stages of hunting, pastoralism, agriculture and industry; but these ages or stages depend upon outer accidental factors which are not inevitable in human evolution. On the contrary, the psychological stages marked by Sri Aurobindo are inevitable because they are related to the inherent nature of man's subjective being. As he himself has pointedly observed: "These stages or periods are much more inevitable in the psychological evolution of mankind than the Stone and other Ages marked out by Science in his instrumental culture, for they depend not on outward means or accidents, but on the very nature of his being."2
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Another point of difference between the scientific theory of social evolution and Sri Aurobindo's theory is in regard to the pattern and character of evolutionary change. According to the scientific theory social evolution follows a linear pattern and proceeds by uniform, gradual
Page-200 and progressive adjustments from lower to higher forms. Sri Aurobindo, however, maintains that the movement of evolutionary progress is not in a continuously advancing straight line but in a series of spirals or cycles in which periods of advance alternate with periods of decline but eventually the curve of progress is^esumed at a higher level. "The cycles of evolution", he says, "tend always upward, but they are cycles and do not ascend in a straight line. The process therefore gives the impression of a series of ascents and descents, but what is essential in the gains of the evolution is kept or, even if eclipsed for a time, re-emerges in new forms suitable to the new ages."1 The periods of decline which alternate with the periods of progress in this cyclic rhythm are not altogether periods of deterioration or fall but fruitful periods in which some necessary elements of perfection lacking in the earlier stages are worked out and in the new upward curve of progress are combined with previous gains to realise a higher perfection. "Even in failure", says Sri Aurobindo, "there is a preparation for success: our nights carry in them the secret of a greater dawn. This is a frequent experience in our individual progress, but the human collectivity also moves in much the same manner."2 Sri Aurobindo is thus a firm believer in human progress even though that progress occurs in an undulating rhythm marked by fluctuations and oscillations and not in a straight upward direction. It is for this reason that he does not take a pessimistic view of the modern civilisation even though he is fully aware of its serious imperfections and deep-seated maladies. He is not disheartened by its negative side, nor does he prophesy, like many modern social thinkers, that it is swiftly moving towards a cataclysmic self-destruction. To him it is only a passing phase, a temporary downward curve of a progressive cyclic evolution which, in spite of its imperfections, has some very important contribution to make to the forward march of humanity. We may emphasize this point by quoting his own words: "An unbiassed view will prefer to regard this age of civilisation as an evolutionary stage, an imperfect but important turn of the human advance. It is then possible to see that great gains have been made which are of the utmost value to an ultimate perfection, even if they have been made at a great price. There is not only a greater generalisation of knowledge and the more thorough use of intellectual power and activity in multiple fields. There is not only the advance of Science and its application to the conquest of our environment, an immense apparatus of means, vast utilisations, endless minute conveniences, an irresistible machinery, a tireless exploitation of
Page-201 forces. There is too a certain development of powerful if not high-pitched ideals and there is an attempt, however external and imperfect, to bring them to bear upon the working of human society as a whole. Much has been diminished or lost, but it can be recovered, eventually, if not with ease. Once restored to its true movement, the inner life of man will find that it has gained in materials, in power of plasticity, in a new kind of depth and wideness. And we shall have acquired a salutary habit of many-sided thoroughness and a sincere endeavour to shape the outer collective life into an adequate image of our highest ideals. Temporary diminutions will not count before the greater inner expansion that is likely to succeed this age of external turmoil and outward-looking endeavour."1 Sri Aurobindo's evaluation of modern civilisation is thus not unduly pessimistic even though he is fully cognisant of its glaring shortcomings. He looks at both its positive and negative aspects as transitional phases of a cyclic development in which both contribute towards an eventual progress. For the same reason Sri Aurobindo does not entertain any misgivings about India's future even though, more than anyone else, he is fully conscious of the deterioration and decline that have overtaken Indian life after the glorious achievements of its ancient culture. Taking a long-range view of the evolutionary cycle of its historical development, he knows that this deterioration is only a transitional curve of decline and he is convinced that it will be followed by an upward curve of progress in which India will rise to yet greater heights of glory than it did in its ancient past. As he maintains, "The decline of our past culture may even be regarded as a needed waning and dying of old forms to make way not only for a new, but, if we will that it should be so, a greater and more perfect creation."2
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But the most significant difference between the scientific theory and Sri Aurobindo's theory of evolution is in regard to the future development of man and society. The scientific theory, which concerns itself with only the external forms, considers man to be the final product of evolution and does not envisage the emergence in future of any type superior to the human species. To the scientist the human mind is the summit of the evolutionary ladder and any ascension beyond it is to him inconceivable. But to Sri Aurobindo man is only a transitional type and his rational mind is only an intermediate grade and not the last term of the evolutionary process. As man has emerged out of the animal and with the power of his intellectual
Page-202 capacity made achievements in his own life and in the world around him which were impossible to the animal, so a new being, as or even more superior to man than man is to the animal, is destined to emerge in the next evolutionary stage, who with the power of his higher spiritual and supramental consciousness will radically transform the nature and life-conditions of the present man and manifest here on earth new possibilities which to his limited view seem like impossible dreams. Has not evolutionary nature several times made possible what would have seemed impossible before it was realised? To the lumbering primeval ape the emergence of man out of him and all that man has achieved on earth would have seemed an impossible miracle, but that has not prevented evolutionary Nature from making that miracle real and actual. According to Sri Aurobindo, the present man's attitude towards his evolutionary future is much the same as that of this ape. To quote his own words: "It is not very easy for the customary mind of man, always attached to its past and present associations, to conceive of an existence still human, yet radically changed in what are now our fixed circumstances. We are in respect to our possible higher evolution much in the position of the original Ape of the Darwinian theory. It would have been impossible for that Ape leading his instinctive arboreal life in primeval forests to conceive that there would be one day an animal on the earth who would use a new faculty called reason upon the materials of his inner and outer existence, who would dominate by that power his instincts and habits, change the circumstances of his physical life, build for himself houses of stone, manipulate Nature's forces, sail the seas, ride the air, develop codes of conduct, evolve conscious methods for his mental and spiritual development. And if such a conception had been possible for the Ape-mind, it would still have been difficult for him to imagine that by any progress of Nature or long effort of Will and tendency he himself could develop into that animal. Man, because he has acquired reason and still more because he has indulged his power of imagination and intuition, is able to conceive an existence higher than his own...but he finds the same difficulty in accepting its practical realisation here for his ultimate aim as would the ancestral Ape if called upon to believe himself as the future Man."1 Sri Aurobindo therefore refuses to admit the argument which considers any farther evolution of man as an impossible dream. To him such an evolution to a superior status is not only possible but inevitable. The same evolutionary nisus which has produced man out of the animal must inexorably press forward and create out of him a new species of being embodying a level of consciousness higher than the rational mind and establishing
Page-203 its rule upon earth which will fulfil all the dreams of perfection which humanity has been till now entertaining without success. That higher principle of consciousness which is now pressing to emerge and establish itself on earth is called by Sri Aurobindo the Supermind or Gnosis. The consciousness of the Supermind is so radically different from that of mind and its action so far exceeds the mental action that it is hardly possible to form any precise intellectual idea of its characteristic power and functionings. "In the gnostic change", says Sri Aurobindo, "the evolution crosses a line beyond which there is a supreme and radical reversal of consciousness and the standards and forms of mental cognition are no longer sufficient: it is difficult for mental thought to understand or describe supramental nature."1 When the supramental principle fully emerges and establishes itself securely in the earth-nature, it will create a new type of being whom Sri Aurobindo calls the gnostic being. As more and more of these gnostic beings arise they will form a new type of society the gnostic society living a divine life. This will create a new age in the human cycle the Supramental Age in which the Divine Truth-Consciousness will openly and directly rule the world and the life of humanity. Thus will be established the Kingdom of God upon earth for which humanity in its highest and deepest aspirations has always been yearning through the long millenniums of its history. But Sri Aurobindo very firmly points out that this new age in the cyclic evolution of humanity cannot be created by any change of the external conditions of life. The external conditions are only a reflection of the inner consciousness and it is only when that inner consciousness is radically transformed that the external life and its conditions can also change. To try to change human life without such a radical inner change is, as he repeatedly points out, a vain chimera. The Kingdom of God without can be securely founded only on the Kingdom of God within man's heart.
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Before we conclude this very brief outline of some of the main ideas of Sri Aurobindo's social philosophy, it is necessary to mention that Sri Aurobindo was not merely an Utopian philosopher projecting before us beautiful visions of man's perfect life in a future Golden Age. All through the ages philosophers and poets have produced several such Utopias, but none of them have fulfilled in concrete result even a fraction of the promise
Page-204 they have held out before the yearning eyes of humanity. We cannot overemphasize the point that Sri Aurobindo does not belong to this tribe of ineffective Utopian visionaries. It was Marx who said, "Philosophers have sought to interpret the world; what matters, however, is to change it." Even though Sri Aurobindo's interpretation of the world is spiritual and therefore diametrically opposed to Marx's materialistic interpretation of it, he is in entire agreement with Marx that, more important than merely explaining the world is the task of changing it from its present imperfect condition to its future perfect state. Though on one side of his nature Sri Aurobindo was an idealistic visionary, he was also on another side of it a dynamic Yogi, who was never satisfied until he successfully translated his vision into concrete fact. Therefore ever since it became clear to his inner vision that the only lasting solution of all the persistent maladies of the world, and the only sure means of fulfilling all the age-long dreams and aspirations of humanity for a perfect life, lay in establishing the Supramental Truth-Consciousness on earth, he withdrew from all other activity however important it might otherwise be, and single-pointedly devoted himself to the task of bringing down the Supermind on earth. Not satisfied with merely explaining what was indispensably needed for changing the world, he bent all his energies for actually effectuating that change by means and methods that are far beyond the human mind to understand. So deeply was he concerned about humanity's fate at the present critical juncture that he sacrificed everything, finally even his body, in that herculean labour. And that labour still continues with a greater earnestness and urgency, for he is still concentrated upon it, even though imperceptibly to our human eyes. Some future historian will perhaps tell us how by his insistent invisible universal action he has fashioned and released the'most potent irresistible formative force of history which will reach out to the four corners of the earth and visibly change human destiny. Page-205 Sri Aurobindo9s Integral Knowledge* Pierre R. Etevenon OR Sri Aurobindo "Mind is only a middle term of consciousness, the mental being can only be a transitional being".1Up to now, the scientific approach has been based on the analytical and reasoning faculties of the mind, building theories and making new experiments. Specialization is tremendously increasing and synthesis seems a most difficult goal to achieve. In each specialised field, some scientists are becoming aware of their limitations. If Mind is limited, we should find these limits by checking the basic principles which are the roots of our contemporary scientific understandings of matter, man and humanity. Moreover, Sri Aurobindo says: "If his mind is capable of opening to what exceeds it, then there is no reason why man himself should not arrive at Supermind and supermanhood or at least lend his mentality, life and body to an evolution of that greater term of the spirit manifesting in nature."2 At present, the concept of a new evolutionary step of humanity, a new "consciousness III or IV", has been spread widely over the world, specially among the youth, and in reviews like Journal of Humanistic Psychology, the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology", etc. Then if science has to change, can we foresee the coming inner changes in the scientists of the future? Let us examine the foundations of our major scientific fields:
IN PHYSICAL SCIENCES The present universe has been measured but many contradictory theoretical models are proposed such as the "bingbang theory" where the universe should have been created 10 billion years ago or the perpetually expanding universe. In the new cosmological model of Everest and Wheeler3, the "geo-metro-dynamics theory", which includes in its broad scope the Einsteinian
Page-206 relativity theory, there is no time any more in the newly postulated "hyper-space". It is then impossible to speak of births and deaths, for there is only movements of energies and forces dynamically in action always and everywhere. Moreover, in this last model, the microcosm being far below the range of the electron's diameter is such that, matter seems unpredictable and submitted to unknowable fluctuations. In the universe, the ultimate collapse of a star is the mysterious "black hole". Here, the density of the matter may become infinite, whereas the volume becomes like the shape of an orange and then collapses again, becoming much less than an electron elementary particle. At this subquantic, sub-particular level, matter cannot be defined any longer, only fluctuation remains in the unknown. Can these postulated fluctuations be interpreted as the Spirit's action in matter, for Sri Aurobindo4 tells us that "Matter is not the only force, not the only substance. For Life and Mind and What is beyond Mind are also forces that are substances, but of another kind and degree. Spirit is the original fore-substance; all these others are kinds and derivations of the force of Spirit, degrees and modifications of the substance of Spirit. Matter too is nothing but a power and degree of the Spirit; Matter too is substance of the Eternal". Furthermore, in physics nowadays, some consider that there is no isolated system in the world because of the Mach principle (1893): "To every local action, corresponds a reaction of the universe." And the great Indian scientist, Narlikar5 thinks that causes and effects are no more directly separable in time and space, even for atoms, men or galaxies. This seems a trend towards unity for the cosmos and its laws.
IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES We know even less than in Physics and Chemistry or in cosmology. For instance the 50 trillions of cells in one human body are containing a quantity of information which has been evaluated as big as that of the messages included in the 30 million books published since Gutenberg's discovery.6 Who can pretend to know or describe all these messages? We deal in biology with universes of communication of much greater order than in the physical universe. Paul Weiss7, is a leading biologist at Rockefeller University, and he has advocated with many others since Plato the idea that "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts". If the angle is not only two crossing lines, a living body is more than the sum of its cells. Freedom appears together with inter-relations, separativeness and Page-207 differentiation between sub-cellular components, cells, organs, functions, individuals and societies. It is a similar process to that of language formation from basic sounds, phonemes, words, phrases up to discourses. How can we describe now the evolution of man's brain? 200 million years ago, India was close to Madagascar and Australia, as part of a unique continent, Pangea, where the monstrous reptiles were the dominant species. Their brains were very rudimentary but they possessed the power to regenerate their tissues when injured, like the lizards in our times. When the Pangea broke into pieces, India became an island moving on the unique ocean and crushed Asia. The shock generated the Himalaya chain. The huge reptiles being only capable of basic instincts and reflexes to feed themselves and to reproduce, disappeared in this cataclysm and the survivors were mainly rats, horses and other mammals. A new brain appeared then, able to react quickly, to express fear and attack, curiosity and love, to mould vital feelings and emotions. But the faculty of regenerating cells disappeared. Then 4 million years ago, thoughts occurred like glimpses in our human ancestors, a new brain developed progressively, man stood erect with two creative hands, but he forgot his unity with nature, with his feelings, That is why P. D. Mac Lean and Arthur Koestler8 are saying that our brain is made of three parts, one fitted into the other, like a crocodile in a horse and the horse in a locomotive, each one fighting against the other. We are artificially separated from our environment because of the cortical monstrous growth of our so-called rational thinking. What do we know now of the future evolution of the brain ? Looking at our brain's three major components: the mental-cortical external envelope (the locomotive), the vital-emotional limbic brain (the horse), and the physical lower brain (the crocodile), can we suggest that a new integration between these three parts may be one of the achievements of the yogic growth of conciousness and of the future of the brain's development? Brain waves of yogis have been recorded by Elmer Green9 and others, and we have made ourselves such studies and published a paper very recently.10 During deep meditation, a yogi's brain-waves appear similar to slow waves of the sleep-stage. Nevertheless, the meditators are truly awake in a special sense and they experience an oceanic feeling of unity, being altogether themselves and the cosmic universe11. They may present also a hyper-aroused cortical activity. It appears that a yogi or a zen meditator has different brain-waves patterns when compared with normal subjects, mental patients, or people taking drugs such as hallucinogenic compounds12. Page-208 May we suggest that the last adventure of mankind is the adventure of consciousness. Presently, in the mental apogea of the computer's time, in the iron age, man is in struggle with his repressed feelings and his inhibited or aggressive impulsions.
IN SOCIAL SCIENCE AS WELL AS IN ECOLOGY There is also an upgoing progression which seems to emerge. T. Oniga,13 from the "Institute Nacional de Technologia" in Brazil, admits that, confronted with the threat of humanity's destruction, the real solution will be obtained by acting on the factors conditioning the evolution of humanity. For Gregory Bateson14, eminent anthropologist and ecologist from Hawaii University, we need to postulate a greater Mind, immanent in the individual as well as in the society and the universe. Man and mankind are not closed systems but in permanent interaction with the universe and distinctions between body and mind, outer or inner thinking are monstrous and dangerous for the survival of humanity. As we see now, more and more the physical world as well as the biological and social sciences are faced with new and unsolved critical problems. IN LOGIC Can we gain more certitudes about our present status of knowledge ? An American logician Gunther15 has built a general multi-valuate logic for describing the reality with a greater accuracy. In his logic the first component is the unity, the ontological value, the being; then a two-valued logic occurs, similar to our well-known Aristotelian logic, the computer's language; then a third logic for being, thought and time-description. After, comes a fourth-valued logic which is necessary for describing the subject of the thinking process, etc.... When Gunther applied his logic to the discourse of the universe, he found two tendencies in the evolution of the universe: one called the ema-native tendency like a divine determinism similar to the theogony of Scottus Erigena which reveals everything already contained potentially in the germ-seed of the world's manifestation. The other tendency being the evolutive drive. This appears very similar to the involution-evolution process described since 1914 by Sri Aurobindo. Gunther, in his multivariate and polythematic logic, writes that "Sub- Page-209 jectivity is both the still image of the world as well as the live process of making an image; and what we call a personal ego constitutes itself in the triadic relation between environment, image and image-making." Similarly, Sri Aurobindo16 wrote, 50 years before Gunther: "In fact, subjectivity and objectivity are not independent realities, they depend upon each other; they are the Being, through consciousness looking at itself as subject on the object, and the same Being offering itself to its own consciousness as object to the subject." Modern logicians and scientists are considering like Sri Aurobindo that the "objectivity principle" ruling sciences since Aristotle, Descartes and Newton is not any longer sufficient for integration and unity of new experiments and results. At this point we approach the concept of integral knowledge and how to reach it, which implies also how a scientist will have to change himself.
SRI AUROBINDO'S INTEGRAL KNOWLEDGE "An integral knowledge demands an exploration, an unveiling of all the possible domains of consciousness and experience. For there are subjective domains of our being which lie behind the obvious surface; these have to be fathomed and whatever is ascertained must be admitted within the scope of the total reality. An inner range of spiritual experience is one very great domain of human consciousness; it has to be entered into up to its deepest depths and its vastest reaches..."17 "An integral knowledge then must be a knowledge of the truth of all sides of existence both separately and in relation of each to all and the relation of all to the truth of the Spirit..."18 "But this is not an intellectual knowledge which can be learned and completed in our present mould of consciousness; it must be an experience, a becoming, a change of consciousness, a change of being. This brings in the evolutionary character of the Becoming and the fact that our mental ignorance is only a stage in our evolution. The integral knowledge, then, can only come by an evolution of our being and our nature, and that would seem to signify a slow process in Time such as has accompanied the other evolutionary transformations. But as against that inference there is the fact that the evolution has now become conscious and its method and steps need not be altogether of the same character as when it was subconscious in its process. The integral knowledge, since it must result from a change Page-210 of consciousness, can be gained by a process in which our will and endeavour have a part, in which they can discover and apply their own steps and method: its growth in us can proceed by a conscious self-transformation. It is necessary then to see what is likely to be the principle of this new process of evolution and what are the movements of the integral knowledge that must necessarily emerge in it, or, in other words, what is the nature of the consciousness that must be the base of the life divine and how that life may be expected to be formed or to form itself, to materialise or, as one might say to 'realise'."19
REFERENCES 1. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Birth Centenary Library, Pondicherry 1972, Vol. 19, 847. 2. Ibid., 847. 3. J. A. Wheeler, Our Universe, the Known and the Unknown. Amer. Scientist, 1968, 56, 1, 1-20. 4. Sri Aurobindo, Evolution, Birth Centenary Library, Pondicherry, 1972, Vol. 17, 15. 5. J. V. Narlikar, The Interaction of Laboratory, Science and Astronomy, Amer. Scientist, 1970, 58, 3, 290-297. 6. T. Oniga, Cybernetique et organisation sociale, Cybernetica, 1972, 15, 2, 91-109. 7. P. Weiss, One plus one does not equal two, pp. 801-821 in The Neurosciences, The Rock-feller University Press, N.Y., 1967. 8. P. D. Mac Lean in "Beyond Reductionism" A. Koestler, J. Smithies, Ed. Hutchinson, London, 1969. 9. E. and A. M. Green, E. D. Walter, Voluntary Control of integral States: Psychological and Physiological, J. Transpersonal Psychol. 1970, 2, 1, 1-28. 10. J. G. Henrotte, P. Etevenon, G. Verdeaux, Les etats de conscience modifies voloytaire-ment, La Recherche 1972, 29, 3; 1100-1103. 11. R. Fischer, A Cartography of the Ecstatic and Meditative States, Science, 1971,174, 897-904. 12. As in 10 above. 13. As in 6 above. 14. G. Bateson, Form Substance and Difference, p. 461 in "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" Ballantine Books Inc., N. Y., 1972. 15. G. Gunther, Time, timeless-logic and self-referential systems (p. 396-406), and The Logical Structure of Evolution and Emanation (p. 874-890) in Ann. N. Y. Acad. Science, 1967, 138, 2. 16. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Birth Centenary Library, Pondicherry, 1972, Vol., 19, 648. 17. Ibid., 651. 18. Ibid., 653. 19. Ibid., 655-6. Page-211 Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga* R. R. Diwakar ''ALL life is Yoga'', and ''Yoga is conscious evolution'', these two simple and short sentences may be said to sum up the whole thought and teaching of Sri Aurobindo the Mahayogi. He called his yoga 'integral' and it was a step which was an advance over other Yogas which were and are current among the seekers of the summit or the Everest of human consciousness. Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is 'integral' in more senses than one. It demands of the aspirant, even as a first step, a total dedication and surrender (samarpana) to the Supreme Being, the Purushottama, of one's own self and being, with all one's aspirations, powers and faculties, so that the Life Divine may begin here and now. It is also 'integral' in the sense that his Yoga does not aim at an isolated escape of the human soul from the body-life-mind triune in which it is imprisoned today, but its purpose is to divinise them too by the transforming power of the descending Supramental force. Perfection of the individual, that is, soul-body-life-mind, is not enough in the eyes of Sri Aurobindo. The emancipation of the whole of humanity is the aim: how else can the Divine Will be said to have been fulfilled? Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is 'integral', again, in its aim at awakening 'the spirit in matter', since there is not and cannot be an eternal dichotomy between Spirit and Matter. Matter is Energy to scientists, and to Sri Aurobindo Matter is the "Sleep" of the Spirit. In either case, Matter is not matter as it is perceived by our senses and the mind, but it is something quite different in reality. Both the scientists and the spiritualists demolish Matter as it presents itself to the common and normal man. Both are searching for what is behind and beyond Matter. The scientist in his laboratory has found Energy or power-to-move, and he is stuck there and is peeping at Metaphysics, if that can give any solution. The spiritualist is seeking in his own consciousness (his laboratory) the secret, and finds by intuition that Intelligent Energy of the nature of consciousness (or spirit) is at work.
Page-212 There are philosophers who spin out a systematic and logical theory of all that exists, and are satisfied with its logical presentation. There are other philosophers who are keen on applying their philosophy to their own lives and seek to find the path through certain disciplines to attain the highest condition of human consciousness and existence according to their own theory. Sri Aurobindo never wrote his autobiography, and made fun of those who wrote his biographies. He said that his life was not lived on the surface like that of men of action. But being a man full of humour, autobiographical bits peep through his vast correspondence, and the innumerable conversations with a baffling variety of people he had come across, and the numerous followers who had sought his guidance almost continuously. When some one referred to his philosophy, he protested and said that he was never a philosopher and never wrote any! In a sense this is true, as he never wrote any philosophy as such and his philosophy is not the result of any deliberate attempt to write out a philosophy. As he proceeded with his spiritual Sadhana or practices and disciplines, he perceived certain truths: experienced particular conditions of consciousness, penetrated beyond the multiple veils of psychic phenomena and found himself in the presence of the eternally evolving Spiritual Person in His infinite power and superabundant joyful play. The laws which he perceived to be operating in the Divine Play have been sought to be expressed in what may be called Sri Aurobindo's philosophy. The total process which Sri Aurobindo followed all along in trying to experience within his own consciousness and all round, the instant and constant presence of the Purushottama, the Supreme Person, may be called his Yoga. Yoga is the science and art of engineering and tuning all the faculties and forces in oneself for eternal communion of individual self with the Universal Self, and of living in that ecstatic delight of integral union. Yoga means both the spiritual discipline and the attainment. In that sense, Sri Aurobindo was more a Yogi, a Mahayogi, than a philosopher, and more a path-finder to Poorna Yoga or Integral Yoga than the follower of any of the different schools of Yoga in existence. Sri Aurobindo's Poorna Yoga discards nothing, and accepts everything as coming from the Supreme Purusha; all evil is but a negative aspect of good, darkness is want of light and has no positive content. Everything, every atom, every being is on an eternal march or spiritual evolution, without beginning without end. How can eternity end and infinity conclude its course? It is this kind of perception which when matured, complete, and perfect will show the way for the realisation of the eternal pilgrimage of the Page-213 human soul to the Supreme Purusha and His constant presence in everything and everywhere. Sri Aurobindo began his practice of Yoga in 1905. At first, gathering into it the essential elements of spiritual experience that are gained by the paths of divine communion and spiritual realisation followed till now in India, he passed on in search of a more complete experience uniting and harmonising the two modes of existence, Spirit and Matter. Most ways of Yoga are paths to the Beyond leading to the Spirit and, in the end, away from life; Sri Aurobindo's Yoga rises to the Spirit to re-descend with its gains, bringing the light and power and bliss of the Spirit into life to transform it. Man's present existence in the material world is in his view and vision of things, a life in the Ignorance with the Inconscient as its base; but even in its darkness and nescience there are involved the presence and possibilities of the Divine. The created world is not a mistake or a vanity and illusion of the soul returning to heaven or Nirvana, but the scene of a spiritual evolution by which, out of this material inconscience, is to be manifested progressively the Divine Consciousness in things. Mind is the highest term yet reached in the evolution, but it is not the highest of which it is capable. There is above it a Supermind or eternal Truth-Consciousness which is in its nature the self-existent Knowledge harmoniously manifesting the play of its forms and forces. It is only by the descent of this Supermind that the perfection dreamed of by all that is highest in humanity can come. It is Our mind and intellectual functioning are not enough, nor are they adequate instruments for knowing the Truth (na medhaya na bahuna srutena). They are only lower means which can give a partial view of things and that too not with certainty. Sri Aurobindo believed that intuition is a far more reliable instrument since it is identified with the totality of one's being. It perceives the truth by identity and by entering the very centre of things and not by perambulating round the periphery. He saw that evolution is a fact, not only of biology and life, but also of the whole cosmos. Cosmic evolution is a fact whether we are aware of it or not. This evolution is a natural sequence of the willed involution of the Supreme Being. It is a vertical movement in a spiral. It is an upward journey, and so far as humanity is concerned, it is acceleration. It is upward in the sense that it is taking us to heights of consciousness. But it is to be achieved not Page-214 by an outward or forward movement but by an inner and penetrating movement into the deeper recesses of the spiritual consciousness and beyond the physical, vital, and mental dimensions. Men and women who are today bound in the cycle of body-life-mind, may or may not wish it, may or may not perceive it. But the whole of humanity today is in the grip of the evolutionary urge. The very obvious inner and universal urge in man for a higher, better, more beautiful, peaceful, joyful life here on earth is a distinct indication of the evolutionary movement. Normally this urge is somewhat instinctive. It is only in the case of some evolved souls that the urge enters the dimension of the conscious mind, and such souls begin deliberate and studied efforts to accelerate the process of evolution towards a higher and nobler humanity. It does not need any special mention that man alone is capable of conscious efforts in the direction of expediting evolution. Man is not only conscious of his consciousness and its wide and deep range and power but he is also self-conscious. He is not only self-conscious but is conscious of that self-consciousness. He has also developed a power of discrimination between good and evil, between right and wrong, between what is beneficial to him and what is not. That is his conscience. It is this development which devolves on him the responsibility of participating in his own evolution which is already on. It has never stopped and it cannot stop. Man's problem is to know the laws of this evolution and try to expedite the consummation. It is this awareness which is the seed of Yoga, and therefore it is that Sri Aurobindo says that "All Life is Yoga"; in fact, the whole of the cosmos itself is in a process of unconscious yoga. Further, Sri Aurobindo has added that "Yoga" is conscious evolution, so far as man, the awakened man, is concerned. The evolutionary urge in man is universal. It may be said to be the root cause of all religious striving. The individual soul is found yearning after a vague uplifting in all the primitive as well as the later religions The human soul seeks identity with the universal soul or the Oversoul, as the great American writer Emerson has called it. From the geo-sphere through the bio-sphere, man has now come to life in the psycho-sphere, not by chance or by accident, but by the inherent urge in the being itself. Whether it is the Arhathood of the Jains, the Nirvana of the Buddhists, the Kingdom of Heaven of the Christians, the Jannat of the Muslims, the one common aspiration that runs through the mind of all those who strive after these highest states of human consciousness is to free the self or the soul from the bondage of the lower dimensions of body-life-mind and make it the denizen of the world of spirit, full of unmixed joy and eternal bliss. The ancient Upanishadic Rishis have described this aspiration, this Page-215 basic evolutionary urge in the form of a prayer "Lead me from falsehood and appearance to the Reality behind and beyond; lead me from this darkness of ignorance and wrong notions to the light of knowledge and illumination; and lead me from this transitoriness, this temporary existence and death, to life immortal". The Rishi of the Taittiriya Upanishad, while discussing the five dimensions of the human consciousness, describes them as physical, vital, mental, supramental, and blissful. This built-in aspiration, when once awakened, takes possession of the conscious being of man. But it has to become a reality and an unbroken constant experience, an ecstasy for which there is no parallel and no comparable joy of unitive living. What is required for this kind of attainment, for the aspiration to be converted into an achievement, is an inspired will and a dominant determination to be one with the Supreme Being, who is the be-all and end-all of everything that is, was, or will be. This conscious will to achieve the spiritual end is the beginning of all yogic endeavour. Yoga in this sense is both the spiritual discipline necessary for union with the Divine or Supreme Being, and the state of unitive consciousness. The person who has attained the yogic poise is called yogarudha one who rides the vehicle of yoga. One who has attained Yoga, is the yogi. The word Yoga (and all that it connotes) is Sanskrit in origin.1 Certain connotations have developed around it in India on account of the spiritual experiments carried on in that name, and some exercises practised as Yoga, and some states of consciousness attained during the ages by yogis through various kinds of spiritual disciplines. The word and the disciplines practised are not, however, the monopoly or the privilege of any particular religion or denomination in India. No school of philosophy or metaphysics owns the word as its own. No particular God or Goddess is supposed to be the source of this great science and art. Though it has come down from Vedic times, it is not hierarchical in its tradition. In fact, it is more widely known in the Agamic tradition which can be said to be non-hierarchical and far more liberal and oriented on the principles of competence (Adhikar) rather than birth, caste, age or sex. In the growth, development and advance of this science of spirituality, numerous people must have contributed both by carrying on experiments, handing down the tradition and writing about them. One may be called too old if one says that the science and art of Yoga is still in the process of growing in India, and persons like Sri Aurobindo may be said to have contributed to it. His Integral Yoga is certainly a contribution of a substantial nature. To the expressions, 'All Life is Yoga' and 'the Cosmos itself is in Yoga',
Page-216 I may add that the whole of humanity itself is practising Yoga, in spite of the varieties of religion which human beings profess and practise all over the world, in spite of the varied spiritual disciplines they follow, even in spite of the denial of God by the atheists and scientists. The essence of Yoga is the perception of something, some power, some truth higher, more beautiful and nobler and more powerful than oneself and one's ego, and the endeavour to know it, to realise it, to possess it, to be one with it. The attunement of the human consciousness with the endeavour to know the truth and be the truth, is Yoga. Viewed from this point of view, humanity in its early promptings to seek the truth of the inner world, and even^Ihe tribal and other people who follow that kind of discipline today, may be said to be following the path of Yoga. Let it be known that Yoga is not a religion with a set ritual or doctrine with a dogma. That is left to the realm of faith or belief, of religion, of the kind of relationship an individual or a group or an institution wishes to establish with God or truth, be it the truth of the world outside or the truth of consciousness or of the inner world. Once that is there, Yoga steps in with its deep knowledge of the inner life of man, of consciousness, of the psyche, of the several experiments made so far, and guides the aspirant from step to step. The science and art of Yoga consists in knowing the laws of human consciousness and the psyche, and in the scientific development and engineering of the whole being of man with all its faculties and powers, for the attainment of identity and unitive life with the highest perception which the particular human being might have had. "As the approach, so the response," says Sri Krishna in the Gita. If one scans the history of what are called the religious, the spiritual, or the mystic experiences of mankind in general and such experiences of individual seekers of truth and aspirants of union with the Divine, we will find that some kind of Yoga, or Yogic practices, are involved. The aspirants may not have known the theory or significance or details of the particular Yoga they followed or practised. Viewing those practices and disciplines from this distance of time and in the perspective of our present knowledge of multifold Yoga as developed in India, we will recognise that there was in all cases one kind of Yoga or another which can be identified in terms of Indian Yoga systems. This means that, independent of Indian Yoga, there were allied or similar practices by seekers of spiritual ideals all over the world. This is not the place where we can go into the details of the Yogas practised in countries other than India and by peoples belonging to different faiths. Suffice it to say that predominantly it was Bhaktiyoga or Yoga of Devotion, Jnanayoga or Yoga of Knowledge, and Karmayoga Page-217 or Yoga of action or works, as Sri Aurobindo has called it, which seem to have been practised by them. What happened in India was that the Vedic tradition as well as the pre-Aryan tradition mingled with each other and a common tradition developed without any ethnic or other overtones. It is a synthesis, rather than a mosaic or a composite. If the Pashupati (the conqueror of the animal in man) depicted on the Mohen-jo-Daro seal is the poise of a yogi seated in the lotus-pose (Padmasana), then that may be taken as the-earliest visual representation of a human being in meditation in the yogic style. There are several statues of the Buddha in the lotus-pose meditating on the Eternal Truth. His,statue in Bhoomi Sparsha Mudra, when he sat determined to have Sambodhi (illumination) under the Bo-tree in Buddha Gaya, is a favourite of all artists. The description of the aim of meditation in the Katha Upanishad by an analogy of the archer shooting at the bull's eye, the arrow being fixed in the target, is a vivid and expressive one. The Indian aspirants must have perceived that, though a human being is an integrated personality, consisting of body-life-mind, he could try to reach and achieve the highest state of consciousness, not merely by developing only one of his faculties or powers such as the intellect or the emotions, but there could be as many ways as there were distinct faculties and powers. They must have made several experiments with exercises of different types till they arrived at the several Yogas now in vogue. All of them were systematised, and apart from tradition; there were also texts for these Yogas. The aim of every Yoga was the union of the individual soul or the totality of his own consciousness with the universal soul, but the means could be by the development and discipline of the different faculties and powers of man, one at a time. The main Yogas now known, and those which have a tradition behind them and also Gurus as well as texts, may be mentioned as (a) Hathayoga, (b) Rajyoga, (c) Jnanayoga, (d) Bhaktiyoga, (e) Karmayoga, (f) Mantra-yoga, (g) Layayoga, (h) Tantrayoga, and so on. It is not possible to describe all these Yogas here. But it may be remembered that no Yoga is exclusive, since when one Yoga is practised, all other faculties also come into partial play. A human being is a total integral being, and all the faculties and powers are but indivisible parts of a single being, co-existing and coordinating with each other as a single entity. There is a protoplasmic unity of being in the individual, and it is only our mind that looks upon the faculties and powers as separate for the time being, for the purpose either of action or thinking or understanding. In Hathayoga, for instance, it is mainly the physical body and the Page-218 vital forces or the life-forces which are utilised for the purpose of attaining the ecstasy of union. The nervous system, the endocrine glands, also play their part. The Nauli, Dhauti and other Kriyas are meant for purifying the body and making it a cleaner, healthier instrument. The idea is to arouse the Kundalini to meet the centre of consciousness in the brain which would result in the highest ecstasy of union. In Rajyoga, the aim is the same but the instrument is the consciousness which is sought to be emptied of all its contents, so that there remains pure and simple consciousness as in the case of Ramana Maharshi, samit eva avasista. What remained was pure consciousness bereft of its activities, modifications and tribulations. The choiceless awareness of J. Krishnamurti is near such a state of consciousness. In Karmayoga, though outwardly a man may be busy performing a number of actions, be it by hand, by brain, by any of his faculties, his consciousness is attuned with the Supreme Being, and his actions, even his breath is not only dedicated to the Supreme Being but is felt and experienced as a part and parcel of Divine activity. Thus the aim of each Yoga is the poise of unitive experience (samadhi) with the Supreme. The particular kind of ecstatic blissful experience is 'svarupe avasthdnam' "to be poised and established in one's own pure consciousness without any ripple of thought or experience". That reflects Reality itself. Though the yogas use different faculties as instruments, the whole process and procedure and technique is common to all yogas. For instance, whether it is the physical body and the vital powers which are used as instruments, or the ideating mind, or as in Bhakti, the emotional power of man, or the will and the power to act, in eachcase, yama and niyama are necessary. They purify the body, the vital powers, and the mind. They subdue the egoistic tendencies and curb the wayward desires and passions. Thus purification of the power and the faculty used is the first step. Next is the conservation of that power by stopping all waste and undue use of that power. The third step is control of that faculty and power, so that one can wield it for the purposes for which one wants to use it. The fourth step is concentration of that power for union of the individual soul with the Universal Soul. The last step is complete surrender (Samarpana) of the whole being to the Supreme Power for being guided by that Power in unitive living. These steps are common to all the yogas, and they have to be more or less in the sequence mentioned above. Now to Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. We have seen that all kinds of prayers, askesis, tapas, worship, Page-219 meditation, devotion involve some kind of Yoga. Yoga in general has been the path of those who have been attracted by spiritual, religious, or mystical life. It is a search for identity and realisation of identity by the individual soul with the Supreme Spirit. Experience of a high type of non-sensual ecstasy is the sign and symbol of the achievement of that identity. Then it is no longer our ordinary consciousness loaded with dualities and contradictions and conflicts with body-life-mind entanglements which is at work but a kind of superconsciousness that takes over. There is then no 'other' to be conscious of and therefore it is one continuum of joy abounding, without fear, but full of love. Sri Aurobindo began his search into the realm of the spirit with Pra-nayama or Breath-Control. But he soon found that, while it gave him highly intellectual results, there was no progress in spirituality. His first ecstasy came in the form of an infinite inward calm and a blank awareness without any object, while meditating with the help of Bhaskar Lele. The realisation that 'all is Vasudeo' the Supreme Being, (Vasudevah sarvam) came to him when he was practising meditation in the Alipore Jail while on trial in the Maniktola Bomb Case in 1908. It was in 1914, after retirement to Pondicherry in 1910, that he began to write simultaneously for the monthly magazine Arya, on the Gita, Veda, Synthesis of Yoga, and so on. It was then that he developed the thesis for Integral Yoga. Though essentially the same in its aim, it has distinctive features of its own and differs from other Yogas in its intensiveness and the intended end-result. The difference of Integral Yoga from other current Yogas and its distinctness stems from Sri Aurobindo's philosophy and his interpretation of the whole cosmic phenomena as a result of his spiritual experiences. The Supreme Being, the Purushottama, is the absolute reality beyond all dualities, even of matter and spirit, not to say of good and evil, pain and pleasure, etc. The negatives such as evil, pain, etc. have no real positive existence as such. They are there to be overcome in the course of evolving eternally in a spiral. If at all he is to be described by words, Sat-Chit-Ananda would be the spelling for our understanding him in terms of human consciousness. Cosmic phenomena, including man, is the Divine play. Evolution is but a sequence of involution. Man as a self-conscious human being should participate in this evolution through Integral Yoga. Integral Yoga begins where other yogas end, by a total surrender of one's self to the Divine. This Yoga leads one to identity of oneself with the Supreme, but not for absorption and as an escape, but for entering the field again for transformation and transmutation of even matter itself, so that it becomes a finer vehicle of the coming man, who would be able to live the Life Divine here and now. A person practising Integral Yoga would Page-220 lend himself to be led by the divine evolutionary urge that is inherent. What he has to do is to remove the obstacle of the ego and all its subtle ramifications and become the channel of Divine Light or of the Illumination. Duty, dedication, sacrifice, service would be words too inadequate to describe the poise of an Integral yogi, because there would be no one left to do all those things. They will simply be done, and at the most the yogi would be a witness of the whole Divine Play. Page-221 |