SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION TO SUPER-MANHOOD
(Compilation for a Discourse by N.R. Srinivasan,
December 2017)
Hindu
scriptures say that the human birth is rare. Unlike the animals and other
beings, a human being is endowed with superior intelligence which can not only
think but also ratiocinate. It is only in the human embodiment one can strive
for and gain spiritual enfoldment. Sri Sankara in his Viveka Choodaamani writes
that for all living creatures, a human birth is indeed rare; much more
difficult it is to attain fully matured manhood; rarer than this is a saatvic
attitude in life. According to modern theory of evolution Darwin and others
have unanimously accepted man as the precious and highly evolved being in the
world. The biologists also say that man is very much evolved in the anatomical
structure and in his physiological functions and also to a large extent evolved
in his faculties of feelings and thinking. Modern scientific research has shown in its
conclusion that in man his physical form has reached its perfection as a
biological structure. We have no more tails to drop, nor do we need to wait
patiently for the development of a pair of horns! None of the rare creations
have surpassed the perfection of normal human creation. As far as the physical
structure is concerned, Nature has fulfilled herself in the human frame. All
modern scientists stop here not knowing the meaning and purpose of Nature’s
laborious and exacting purpose.
We
humans came to our current place and status through the process of evolution.
Why creationists do not embrace the concept of evolution of Intelligent Design
since it is not only based on reliable science, but is also not inconsistent
with the belief of Christianity that God created the world and its contents in
six-days of process. But the Bible never defined a day as 24 hours long. We
confuse it with our concept of current 24 hours. Hinduism is silent on the time aspect but indicates
Brahmas one day and night is very long. This could easily represent a time span
of billion years (2 Mahayugas or 960 million years). Science estimates that
human evolution has been a 6-million-year process. A spiritual being that
provides the building blocks and set into motion a complex process for such an
incredible event as the evolution of all living things including humankind
would be consistent with power and glory of what we call and know, as Brahman
or God. Knowing our limitations Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is silent on the time
it took for such an evolution while Bible defined it as six days of God.
Before
going into the spiritual aspect let us summarize our scientific knowledge of
human genes which we call is the perfect among animates. A recent study by
researchers from the University of North Carolina and University of California
noted that different forms of happiness were associated with different gene
expression profiles. This study gives scope to think about the entire process
of human evolution and how we continue to evolve in a quite progressive manner
which forms the subject matter of this spiritual discourse.
The
researchers found that those Individuals whose response indicated happiness
based on a sense of a higher purpose and service to others (benevolent acts)
had profiles that increased the level of antibody-producing gene expression and
lower levels of pro inflammatory expression, all of which serve to control
immune system. They found those
individuals whose answers to questions indicated happiness based primarily on
consuming and acquiring things (hedonistic) had a high level of unhealthy gene
profiles, which increase the development of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular
disease, as well as promoting increased inflammation throughout the body.
This
study supports a theoretical concept of improved survival of those with a more
altruistic life-style. It also suggests that humans continue to evolve in a way
that over a very long period of time may actually result in a world of true
peace and harmony. Our genes can tell the difference between a purpose-driven
life and a shallower one even when our conscious minds cannot. This study also
suggests that the process of evolution that began millions of years ago is
still active and in progress and that we are hopefully evolving to a more
peaceful and caring species. Our rishis based these on the journey of the soul
over millions of years of innumerable births and how it is in our hands to
modify it and end the journey for attaining eternal bliss in another world of
Bliss.
In
their discussions, the ancient Rishis of Vedic days are not in any way
contradicting what modern scientific research has shown in its conclusion that
in man his physical form has reached its perfection as a biological structure.
This they proclaimed much earlier than modern scientists. But, the daring
Rishis had taken up, as it were, what nature has left half done and in the
process left a blazing trail of glorious discoveries. In the Upanishads we find
the Hindu Rishis tracing beautifully the divine path by which the evolved man
can reach the culmination of evolution in the Supreme-hood.
Modern
scientists measure evolution in terms of the development of physiological
equipments and the availability of intelligence in the specimen. Eastern
philosophers accept the different state of beings, but their measuring rod for
the estimation of evolution is not the physical or mental development.
According to our ancient Rishis, the standard of measurement is the amount of
Awareness manifested in a thing or being.
From
modern science we know two important facts. A) Matter is an expression of
energy B) This energy vibrates at different frequencies in different types of
matter. Yet in a stone there is a mere expression of existence of Truth but no
awareness or intelligence as such. This state our Rishis called Achit or
non-sentient. A piece of rock does not seem to feel bothered by the pouring
rain or snow, insulting kick by a mule, nor it feels in anyway honored because
a king has chosen to dine over it. It is totally unaware of the external
conditions, the place or the treatment it receives etc. This is the same with
all the mineral kingdom.
But
leaving the mineral kingdom, when we enter the vegetable kingdom, we find that,
compared to the stone, there is certain degree of awareness manifested in the
life of plants. A plant is aware of the external conditions of humidity or the
condition of the soil. When there is dearth of moisture, the plants dry up.
When water is supplied, they react to the external conditions and absorbing the
same seem to revive and smile forth into liveliness and new born charm. Plants
react to the seasons and their corresponding conditions. Thus when we
sympathetically observe mineral life and plant life, we find to our complete
satisfaction that there is certain degree of awareness in the plant life.
Again,
when we look at the animal kingdom we find a greater amount of Consciousness
manifested compared to the plant life. An animal not only reacts to the
external environment, but also seems to feel, though blindly and perhaps to a
limited extent, the conditions of its own mind and intellect. Not only do the
animals find their own satisfaction in mere food and shelter, but they also
have their own love pre-occupations with their mates, as well as with their new
born kids. Birds and animals seem to feel an instinctive responsibility for
tending and nourishing their own babies.
As
a contrast to this, in the plant kingdom the mother plant has no sympathy at
all with its own young seedlings at its foot. There seems to be a bitter competition
in the plant kingdom for survival, while in the animal kingdom, at least during
early stages, there seems to be a greater amount of consideration, sympathy,
tolerance and even love.
Birds
and animals create for themselves fit and proper shelter during the changing
climatic conditions. Thus, birds and fish living in the upper regions of a
river start moving down as winter approaches; birds move into the higher
valleys as the summer sets in the plains. Jungle wild animals move from place
to place seeking better caves, safer dens, healthy environments etc. Thus, it
is obvious animal kingdom exhibit a greater amount of awareness of the external
condition as well as, to an extent at least, of the internal mental feelings, compared to the plant life. The
awareness is also varied and different in different species.
Of
all the beings, human being seems to be aware most intensely of the external
world and the internal state of the mind. Everyone will agree that it is the
mind that makes all the difference not only as between the happiness and misery
or virtue and vice but also between animal existence and divine life and bliss
for mankind. If the mind is trained to concentrate on God it will gradually
lose all taste for fleeting pleasures of the world and develop a taste for Permanent
Bliss. This intensity of consciousness again, no doubt, has been perceptibly
different from man to man, but there had always been a rare few who had been
more sensitive not only to their outer life but also to patterns of their
thoughts, feelings and ideas.
Therefore,
to our ancient seers, the theory of evolution was a story of enfoldment of the
Consciousness through more and more refined equipment. In this view, the one
great plan of Nature expressed from stone to man seems to be the complete
enfoldment of Consciousness, the one continuous golden view of growth and
development running through all manifestations. The ground aim of life should
be therefore to complete this process. There is at every stage a greater
expression of Consciousness from the lowest evolutes to the members of the most
highly developed. To our Rishis, to realize ‘That in itself’, if it is
possible, would be the perfect, the dynamic and divine goal of existence.
It
takes countless number of years for an organism to evolve from one given form
of existence into another higher form of life. Research findings by a group of
scientists in California
reveals, that a little bug was the ancestor of every creature to-day. They name
it LUCA. LUCA constituted only a single cell, like a bacterium, but its
descendants comprise modern humans, animals, plants, fungus and invisible
microbes. Max Bernstein of NASA says “All contemporary life is descendant from
a single last common ancestor that had a biochemistry closely related to
cotemporary biochemistry”. Some
researchers think LUCA stored its genes in strings of DNA. Others think it used
more primitive storage medium called RNA. All organisms from LUCA on down share
a few hundreds or thousands basic genes that enable them to eat, grow and reproduce.
LUCA has set the stage for 4 billion years of evolution.
According
to our Puranas, time lapsed in mean solar years since the beginning of present
creation up-to 2000 A.D. is 1,955,885,102 years. The ancient Rishis observed
that this countless time consuming evolutionary achievement can take place
only, when in the flood of time, the different circumstances have rubbed down
and polished the imperfect beings into the shape and beauty of the perfect,
like the thinking of any of the modern day naturalists. Naturally, therefore,
it becomes quite clear to everyone that one should have taken an indefinitely
large number of lives in different manifestations to become a rational being of
the subtlest potentialities as seen in man.
This
is so because in all the lower strata of existence, evolution is not a
conscious development on the part of the evolutes but an involuntary upward
thrust received by it from the course of nature, which is a programmed one. But
having become man with an evolved mind and intellect, he is, to an extent free
from Nature, in evolving himself. Man alone, of all the species of the living
kingdoms, can hasten his own evolution by intelligently managing his own way,
and means of living in harmony with the natural schemes of things around him.
Hence, the human life is considered as most precious compared to other living
beings.
Man
alone has developed intellect with highly evolved capacity to reason out
logically, to discriminate correctly the present happenings in the light of the
wisdom gathered by the past generations from their own lived experiences. Man
alone can bring the light of the entire past experience in recognizing, even
though dimly, the direction in which he is moving, and therefore, the
destinations he will be reaching in the fields of future. With the help of
these faculties man can recognize the weaknesses in him realize the
imperfections in him and become deeply aware of the sorrows and tragedies of
his own limited existence. Of all the living creatures, man alone can gain here
the glimpses of Perfection that he can attain and in the irrepressible
enchantment of which he can fight against the weaknesses of his flesh, the
wanderings of mind and the brutalities of his intellect. Therefore, according
to the Rishis of our Upanishads the human embodiment with its discriminative
powers, rational intellect and loving heart is almost a gate-way to walk out of
the limitations of the present state of evolution. No doubt, at this moment, he
is helpless victim of the saboteurs within himself which tie him strongly to
the animal in himself. At the same time there is in him enchanting tune of an
unearthly harmony which goads him to walk on unknown path to reach an equally
unknown goal. But this song of the Soul (Aatma
Geetaa) can be heard and lived by one, who has, by careful methods of
intelligence application, learnt to live an integrated life.
That
is why even among men who have developed mental and intellectual capacities, it
is only a rare few that seriously take up the study of the Science of
Enfoldment, which the Hindus call Vedanta, found in scriptures. Again, all
those who study scriptures do not live up-to the scripture but they feel
themselves fulfilled in a mere understanding of its contents. It therefore
becomes clear that even among such men only a rare few can ever reach the goal
of evolution and come to discover their Divine Nature of Perfection.
Srutis
declare that a rare few in the history of the world are necessarily such men of
perfection. This is because the entire human kingdom is, indeed, a very
negligible proportion of the total kingdom of sentient (chit) creatures of the
world. And even in the human community, it is not that all have the
sufficiently developed and integrated instruments of rational thinking and
divine emotions, which are needed for hastening one’s own evolution.
We
can find a variety of human beings who are as indifferent, as ignorant and
totally unaware of external circumstances and environment, similar to the
insentient mineral world. The Consciousness or awareness of the world in such
people is vague and indistinct if not nothing, and they are an embodiment of
colossal lethargy and inertia, having no pangs of life. Such men are safely
classified as Stone-men.
Some
humans are little more evolved than inert Stone-men, who are still
predominantly lethargic. They prefer to remain where they are and their
reaction to the world is confined to the basic necessities for their existence.
But the rudiments of discrimination seem to have emerged out in them and they
are able to distinguish between sunlight and darkness, food and poison, and
endeavor to obtain what they need. Emotion is, however, basically lacking in them in as much as a mother of
this type may not allow even her own children to grow under her when the latter
comes in the way of her quest for food and water. On a careful study and
observation of mankind, we can thus find among them a definite variety whose
life imitates that of a plant. Such men steeped in inertia react only to
exaggerated happenings. They can never exert to do anything constructive. They
exercise discrimination only when experiences are repeated and substantial and
they lack the emotion or feeling for others. Such men fall under the category
of Plant-men.
Animals
as we have seen earlier are more evolved than the “Plant-men”. The faculty of
intellectual discrimination has appreciably grown among some animals as
compared to the plant kingdom and their reactions to the environments have
naturally improved. They move from place to place in quest of food and shelter
and they do not perish like the plant if food is not available in their
location. Emotions and feelings are found to have developed in the animals;
they care, not only for themselves but also for their off-springs.
Similarly,
among men there are “Animal-men” who are desire-ridden, passionate and ego-centric.
Their intellectual discrimination is limited. Being always extroverted, they
constantly engage themselves in fighting, procuring and aggrandizing for the
enjoyments of themselves and their kith and kin. In fact, the biggest
cross-section of human beings belongs to this category and their activities are
mainly guided by feelings and impulses rather than by discrimination and
understanding.
A
human being has the maximum capacity for emotion and his feelings can embrace
the entire universe. Also the faculty of intellectual discrimination in man
knows no bounds, and not only can he discriminate extrovertly in the realm of
the gross world, but can also delve into the subjective layers of his own
personality until he reaches the recesses of the spiritual core in himself.
This is the fourth variety of man the chief d’oeuvre of creation. Those who do
not make use of this great capacity inherent in them belong to the aforesaid
three categories, though they are labeled as MEN. Therefore, only those rare
few ‘men’ who develop a Universal Love and constantly engage themselves in
activities under the guidance of their superior intellect are to be called “Man-men” and they alone can claim the
prestige, dignity and glory of God-hood or Self-hood in this very life itself.
All
religions of the world, in their fundamental rituals, provide sufficient
techniques for evolving the “Animal-man” to the “Man-man” stage. Vedanta gives
certain scientific techniques to grow out of “man-man” stage to evolve as a “Super-man”. In the Vedanta practices
of discrimination, detachment and meditation, we have a total scheme by
adopting which an individual can hasten consciously his own evolution from the “Man-man” stage to the “Super-manhood”.
Upanishads
insist that procuring and hoarding, eating and indulging, breeding and dying
are all perhaps the sole program in the life of less evolved beings, but man’s
goal in life is to spring up to top rung in the ladder of evolution. By this
the aspirant is led to the discovery of Supreme Being in his own soul or Self.
This is called spiritual enlightenment
by which the Self enjoys the experiences of Divine Bliss within. The urgency
with which the teachers of our
Upanishads want to snatch this rare human birth and put into full use in
reaching the goal of evolution rings clearly at various places in the
Upanishads when they use terms such as “even here”, “right today”, “here and
now in the world itself” etc.
In
Kathopanishad, we see the teacher, Lord Yama, explaining to his disciple,
Nachiketas, how realization of the Self while in the human embodiment is much
more sacred, compared to the possibilities of realization in other different
planes of existence. To quote Purusha sooktam, “Tamevam Vidwan Amrita Iha Bhavati”, meaning: “He is the ONE by realizing whom the realized
masters become immortal, even in this
life”.
In Brahmaloka, the Sruti explains, the
knowledge of Self can be certainly be most clear. Sruti is emphatic in her
assertion that Self-realization in the world of the Cosmic Mind is the
clearest. But we should note that this Plane of Consciousness is very difficult
to be reached, for, this is the lot given to such ego-centers who have come to
join the required merits through the Yoga of both Karma and Upaasana. The great
Rishis could achieve this by reason of their high degree of purity of mind,
austerities, incisive intelligence and discrimination. They could claim “Vedahametam Purusham mahaantam” meaning,
“I know Him; I have experienced the Supreme Being”, to quote Purushasooktam
again. Even in our times saints like Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Ramakrishna
Paramahasmsa, Ramana Maharshi and few others could attain such a goal of
evolution being in constant touch with the Supreme spirit. The one having thus
reached Brahmaloka, according to the scriptures, remain there enjoying for long
the subtlest joys of that world until at last, ultimately guided by the Creator
Himself, attains Immortality, when the Plane of Consciousness gets folded back
into the Absolute. This process of Self-realization is termed as Karma Mukti,
meaning liberation by stages.
Kind mother Sruti is therefore pouring
out her anxious love in a clear warning to her grown-up children, that in this
birth alone should we attempt and gain a degree of success in totally cutting
ourselves away from our bondages and shackles. Freedom is the birthright of men. To seek and
achieve it, he has taken his incarnation. After thousands of lives in various embodiments,
after shedding due tears, the All-kind Lord has given us the rarest chance to
be born as men. Hence, the loving warning in the Mantra of Kena Upanishad (II-5):
“If one knows (That Brahman) here, in
this world, then the true end of all human aspirations is gained. If one knows
not (That) here, great is the destruction. The wise, seeing the one Atman in
all beings rise from sense-life and become Immortal”
However it should be noted here that
built upon similar Sruti statements, we have two schools of thought amongst
Vedantins: one claiming that perfection cannot be achieved unless one leaves
his physical body in death and the other arguing in a different line and coming
to altogether different conclusion that Sruti declarations point out that Godhood
can be reached even while living as a man in this mortal world. The former
accepts therefore, only “Videha Mukti” while the latter recognizes the state of
“Jeevan Mukti”. Of these two, Sankaracharya is a champion of the latter view,
emphatically asserting that the man can rise to Godhood and live the Divine
Perfection even while he is in this body. Self- realization is here and now, as
the old Sanskrit saying goes: “atyutkataihi
punyapaapaihi ihaiva phalamasnute”-meaning,
“One gets the punishment for his committed sins or the reward for his good
deeds here in this very world”.
This lecture has been prepared by N.R. Srinivasan
for Vedanta Class at Sri Ganesha Temple, abridged and edited from the following
publications:
- Swami Chinmayananda, Vedanta, the Science of Life, Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Mumbai.
- Ed. Viswanathan, Am I a Hindu? Roopa & Co., New Delhi.
- S. Balakrishnan, Sankara on Bhakti, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai.
- Dr. N.S. Anantha Rangacharya, Selections from Upanishads, Bangalore.
- Prof. V. Lakshmikantham, The Origin of Human Past, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, India
APPENDIX
The Supramental
Evolution
(Sri Aurobindo’s Letters)
Posted
by The Editor | Sep 22, 2011 | IndiaDivine.Org
There have been times when the seeking
for spiritual attainment was, at least in certain civilizations, more intense
and widespread than now or rather than it has been in the world in general
during the past few centuries. For now the curve seems to be the beginning of a
new turn of seeking which takes its start from what was achieved in the past
and projects itself towards a greater future. But always, even in the age of
the Vedas or in Egypt, the spiritual achievement or the occult knowledge was
confined to a few, it was not spread in the whole mass of humanity. The mass of
humanity evolves slowly, containing in itself all stages of the evolution from
the material and the vital man to the mental man. A small minority has pushed
beyond the barriers, opening the doors to occult and spiritual knowledge and
preparing the ascent of the evolution beyond mental man into spiritual and
supra-mental being.
Sometimes this minority has exercised
an enormous influence as in Vedic India, Egypt or, according to tradition, in
Atlantis, and determined the civilization of the race, giving it a strong stamp
of the spiritual or the occult; sometimes they have stood apart in their secret
schools or orders, not directly influencing a civilization which was sunk in
material ignorance or in chaos and darkness or in the hard external
enlightenment which rejects spiritual knowledge.
The cycles of evolution 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. The creation has
descended all the degrees of being from the Super-mind to Matter and in each
degree it has created a world, reign, plane or order proper to that degree. In
the creating of the material world there was a plunge of this descending
Consciousness into an apparent In-conscience and an emergence of it out of that
In-conscience, degree by degree, until it recovers its highest spiritual and
supra-mental summits and manifests their powers here in Matter. But even in the In-conscience there is a
secret Consciousness which works, one may say, by an involved and hidden
Intuition proper to itself. In each stage of Matter, in each stage of Life,
this Intuition assumes a working proper to that stage and acts from behind the
veil, supporting and enforcing the immediate necessities of the creative Force.
There is an Intuition in Matter which
holds the action of the material world from the electron to the sun and planets
and their contents. There is an Intuition in Life which similarly supports and
guides the play and development of Life in Matter till it is ready for the
mental evolution of which man is the vehicle. In man also the creation follows
the same upward process,—the Intuition within develops according to the stage
he has reached in his progress. Even the precise intellect of the scientist,
who is inclined to deny the separate existence or the superiority of Intuition,
yet cannot really move forward unless there is behind him a mental Intuition,
which enables him to take a forward step or to divine what has to be done.
Intuition therefore is present at the beginning of things and in their middle
as well as at their consummation.
But Intuition takes its proper form
only when one goes beyond the mental into the spiritual domain, for there only
it comes fully forward from behind the veil and reveals its true and complete
nature. Along with the mental evolution of man there has been going forward the
early process of another evolution which prepares the spiritual and supra-mental
being.
This has had two lines, one the
discovery of the occult forces secret in Nature and of the hidden planes and
worlds concealed from us by the world of Matter and the other the discovery of
man’s soul and spiritual self. If the tradition of Atlantis is correct, it is
that of a progress which went to the extreme of occult knowledge, but could go
no farther. In the India of Vedic times we have the record left of the other
line of achievement, that of spiritual self-discovery; occult knowledge was
there but kept subordinate. We may say that here in India the reign of Intuition
came first, intellectual Mind developing afterwards in the later philosophy and
science. But in fact the mass of men at the time, it is quite evident, lived
entirely on the material plane, worshipped the Godheads of material Nature,
sought from them entirely material objects. The effort of the Vedic mystics
revealed to them the things behind through a power of inner sight and hearing
and experience which was confined to a limited number of seers and sages and
kept carefully secret from the mass of humanity—secrecy was always insisted on
by the mystic. We may very well attribute this flowering of Intuition on the
spiritual plane to a rapid re-emergence of essential gains brought down from a
previous cycle. If we analyze the spiritual history of India we shall find that
after reaching this height there was a descent which attempted to take up each
lower degree of the already evolved consciousness and link it to the spiritual
at the summit. The Vedic age was followed by a great outburst of intellect and
philosophy which yet took spiritual truth as its basis and tried to reach it
anew, not through a direct Intuition or occult process as did the Vedic seers,
but by the power of the mind’s reflective, speculative, logical thought; at the
same time processes of yoga were developed which used the thinking mind as a
means of arriving at spiritual realization, spiritualizing this mind itself at
the same time. Then followed, an era of development of philosophies and yoga
processes. These used more and more the emotional and aesthetic being
as the means of spiritual realization and spiritualized the emotional level in
man through the heart and feeling. This was accompanied by Tantric and other
processes which took up the mental will, the life-will, the will of sensations
and made them at once the instruments and the field of spiritualization. In the
Hathayoga and the various attempts at divinization of the body there is also a
line of endeavor which attempted to arrive at the same achievement with regard
to living Matter; but this still awaits the discovery of the true
characteristic method and power of Spirit in the body. We may say therefore
that the universal Consciousness after its descent into Matter has conducted
the evolution there along two lines, one of ascent to the discovery of the Self
and Spirit, the other of descent through the already evolved levels of mind,
life and body so as to bring down the spiritual consciousness into these also
and to fulfil thereby some secret intention in the creation of the material
universe. Our yoga is in its principle a taking up and summarizing and completing
of this process, an endeavor to rise to the highest possible supra-mental level
and bring down its consciousness and power into mind, life and body.
The condition of present-day
materialistic civilization with an externalized intellect and life-endeavor, that
you find so painful, is an episode--but one which was perhaps inevitable. For
if the spiritualization of the mind, life and body is the thing to be achieved,
the conscious presence of the Spirit even in the physical consciousness and
material body, an age which puts Matter and the physical life in the forefront
and devotes itself to the effort of the intellect to discover the truth of
material existence, had perhaps to come. On one side, by materializing
everything up to the intellect itself it has created the extreme difficulty of
which you speak for the spiritual seeker, but, on the other hand, it has given
the life in Matter an importance which the spirituality of the past was
inclined to deny to it. In a way it has made the spiritualization of it a
necessity for spiritual seeking and so aided the descent movement of the
evolving spiritual consciousness in the earth-nature.
More than that we cannot claim for it;
its conscious effect has been rather to stifle and almost extinguish the
spiritual element in humanity; it is only by the divine use of the pressure of
contraries and an intervention from above that there will be the spiritual
outcome.
LETTER II
All the phases of human history may be
regarded as a working out of the earth-consciousness in which each phase has
its place and significance, so this materialistic intellectual phase had to
come and has had, no doubt, its purpose and significance. One may also hold
that one of its issues was as an experiment to see how far and whither the
human consciousness would go through an intellectual and external control of
Nature with physical and intellectual means only and without the intervention
of any higher consciousness and knowledge—or that it may help by resistance to
draw the spiritual consciousness that is growing behind all vicissitudes to
attempt the control of Matter and turn it towards the Divine, as the Tantriks
and Vaishnavas tried to do with the emotional and lower vital nature, not
contenting themselves with the Vedantic turning of the mind towards the
Supreme.
But it is difficult to go farther than
that or to hold that this materialism is itself a spiritual thing or that the
dark, confused and violent state of contemporary Europe was an indispensable
preparation for the descent of the Spirit. This darkness and violence which
seems bent on destroying such light of mental idealism and desire of harmony as
had succeeded in establishing itself in the mind of humanity, is obviously due
to a descent of fierce and dark vital Powers which seek to possess the human
world for their own, not for a spiritual purpose. It is true that such a
precipitation of Asuric (demonic) forces from the darker vital worlds has been
predicted by some occultists as the one first result of the pressure of the
Divine descent on their vital domain, but it was regarded as a circumstance of
the battle, not as something helping towards the Divine Victory. The churning
of Matter by the attempt of human intellect to conquer material Nature and use
it for its purpose may break something of the passivity and inertia, but it is
done for material ends, in a rajasic spirit, with a denial of spirituality as
its mental basis. Such an attempt may end, seems to be ending indeed, in chaos
and disintegration, while the new attempts at creation and reintegration seem
to combine the obscure rigidity of material Nature with a resurgence of the
barbaric brutality and violence of a half-animal vital Nature. How are the
spiritual forces to deal with all that or make use of such a churning of the
energies of the material universe? The way of the Spirit is the way of peace
and light and harmony; if it has to battle, it is precisely because of the
presence of such forces which seek either to extinguish or to prevent the
spiritual light. In the spiritual change inertia has to be replaced by the
divine peace and calm, the rajasic troubled energy by a tranquil and potent,
pure and liberated dynamics, while the mind must be kept plastic for the
workings of a higher Light of Knowledge. How will the activity of Materialism
lend itself to that change?
Materialism can hardly be spiritual in
its basis, because its basic method is just the opposite of the spiritual way
of doing things. The spiritual works from within outward, the way of
materialism is to work from out inwards. It makes the inner a result of the
outer, fundamentally a phenomenon of Matter and it works upon that view of
things. It seeks to “perfect” humanity by outward means and one of its main
efforts is to construct a perfect social machine which will train and oblige
men to be what they ought to be. The loss of the ego in the Divine is the
spiritual ideal; here it is replaced by the immolation of the individual to the
military and industrial State. Where is there any spirituality in all that?
Spirituality can only come by opening of the mind, vital and physical to the
inmost soul, to the higher Self, to the Divine, and their subordination to the
spiritual forces and instrumentation as channels of the inner Light, the higher
Knowledge and Power. Other things, mental, aesthetic, vital, are often misnamed
`spirituality’, but they lack the essential character without which the word
loses its true significance.
LETTER III
What is meant here is the Divine in its
essential manifestation which reveals itself to us as Light and Consciousness,
Power, Love and Beauty. But in its actual cosmic manifestation the Supreme,
being the Infinite and not bound by any limitation, can manifest in Itself, in
its consciousness of innumerable possibilities, something that seems to be the
opposite of itself, something in which there can be Darkness, In-conscience,
Inertia, Insensibility, Disharmony and Disintegration.
It is this that we see at the basis of
the material world and speak of nowadays as the In-conscient—the Inconscient
Ocean of the Rigveda in which the One was hidden and arose in the form of this
universe —or, as it is sometimes called, the non-being, Asat. The Ignorance
which is the characteristic of our mind and life is the result of this origin
in the Inconscience. Moreover, in the evolution out of inconscient existence
there rise up naturally powers and beings which are interested in the
maintenance of all negations of the Divine, error and unconsciousness, pain,
suffering, obscurity, death, weakness, illness, disharmony, evil. Hence, the
perversion of the manifestation here is its inability to reveal the true essence of
the Divine. Yet in this very base of this evolution all that is divine is there
involved and pressing to evolve, Light, Consciousness, Power, Perfection,
Beauty and Love. For in the Inconscient itself and behind the perversions of
the Ignorance the Divine Consciousness lies concealed and works and must more
and more appear, throwing off in the end its disguises. That is why it is said
that the world is called to express the Divine.
Your statement about the supra-mental
evolution is correct except that it does not follow that humanity as a whole
will become supra-mental. What is more likely to happen is that the
supra-mental principle will be established in the evolution by the descent just
as the mental principle was established by the appearance of thinking Mind and
Man in earthly life. There will be a race of supra-mental beings on the earth
just as now there is a race of mental beings. Man himself will find a greater
possibility of rising to the planes intermediary between his mind and
super-mind and making their powers effective in his life, which will mean a
great change in humanity on earth, but it is not likely that the mental stage
will disappear from the ascending ladder and, if so, the continued existence of
a mental race will be necessary so as to form a stage between the vital and the
supra-mental in the evolutionary movement of the Spirit. Such a descent of
higher beings as you suggest may be envisaged as a part of the process of the
change. But the main part of the change will be the appearance of the
supra-mental being and the organization of a supra-mental nature here, as a
mental being has appeared and a mental nature organized itself during the last
stage of the evolution. I prefer nowadays not to speak of the descent of the
higher beings because my experience is that it leads to a vain and often egoistic
romanticism which distracts the attention from the real work, that of the
realization of the Divine and the transformation of the nature.
LETTER IV
What we are doing, if and when we
succeed, will be a beginning, not a completion. It is the foundation of a new
consciousness on earth—a consciousness with infinite possibilities of
manifestation. The eternal progression is in the manifestation and beyond it
there is no progression.
If the redemption of the soul from the
physical vesture be the object, then there is no need of supra-mentalization.
Spiritual Mukti and Nirvana are sufficient. If the object is to rise to
supraphysical planes, then also there is no need of supramentalization. One can
enter into some heaven above by devotion to the Lord of that heaven. But that
is no progression. The other worlds are typical worlds, each fixed in its own
kind and type and law. Evolution takes place on the earth and therefore the
earth is the proper field for progression. The beings of the other worlds do
not progress from one world to another. They remain fixed to their own type.
The purely monistic Vedantist says, all is Brahman, life is a dream, an
unreality, only Brahman exists. One has Nirvana or Mukti, then one lives only
till the body falls—after that there is no such thing as life.
They do not believe in transformation,
because mind, life and body are ignorance, an illusion—the only reality is the
featureless relation-less Self or Brahman. Life is a thing of relations; in the
pure Self, all life and relations disappear. What would be the use or the
possibility of transforming an illusion that can never be anything else
(however transformed) than an illusion? There is no such thing for them as a
“Nirvanic life”. It is only some yogas that aim at a transformation of any kind
except that of ignorance into knowledge. The idea varies, —sometimes a divine
knowledge or power or else a divine purity or an ethical perfection or a divine
love. What has to be overcome is the opposition of the Ignorance that does not
want the transformation of the nature. If that can be overcome, then old
spiritual ideas will not form an obstacle.
It is not intended to supra-mentalize
humanity at large, but to establish the principle of the supra-mental
consciousness in the earth-evolution. If that is done, all that is needed will
be evolved by the supra-mental Power itself. It is not therefore important that
the mission should be widespread. What is important is that the thing should be
done at all in however small a number; that is the only difficulty.
If the transformation of the body is
complete, that means no subjection to death—it does not mean that one will be
bound to keep the same body for all time. One creates a new body for one-self
when one wants to change, but how it will be done cannot be said now. The
present method is by physical birth—some occultists suppose that a time will
come when that will not be necessary—but the question must be left for the
supra-mental evolution to decide.
The questions about the super-mind cannot
be answered profitably now. Super-mind cannot be described in terms that the
mind will understand, because the terms will be mental and mind will understand
them in a mental way and mental sense and miss their true import. It would
therefore be a waste of time and energy which should be devoted to the
preliminary work—psychicization and spiritualization of the being and nature
without which no supra-mentalization is possible. Let the whole dynamic nature
led by the psychic make itself full of the dynamic spiritual light, peace,
purity, knowledge, force; let it afterwards get experience of the intermediate
spiritual planes and know, feel and act in their sense; then it will be
possible to speak last of the supra-mental transformation.
[With this Hindu Reflections completes its posting of all discourses by N.R. Srinivasan that will remain permanently on the blog <nrsrini.blogspot.com> I thank you for your patience in going through this huge blog unique in its theme of Universal Oneness and the appreciations sent from time to time. Wish you all a Happy Prosperous Peaceful Spiritual New Year 2018 and progress onward! You will however receive my quarterly reporting on "Thoughts of the Day". Hope you have been benefited as well as enjoyed my discourses though I am not a Spiritual Guru of saffron robes or Religious Pundit of Rudrakshi or Tulasi Malas!]