Modern Sciences and Science of Upanishads on the Future of Humans on Earth

Modern Sciences and Science of Upanishads on the Future of Humans on Earth

  [Compilation for a Discourse to HR Forum by N. R. Srinivasan,  February 2021]

Today, humanity is facing pressing challenges including climate change, combatting epidemics and poverty, confronting food and water shortages in many parts of the world, ensuring sustainable and clean energy production, and protecting the environment. Science is key to addressing these and other challenges and should be supported in all its facets. Investments in science are comparatively small on the macro-economic level, but their impact on the future of humanity is vast. In particular, history shows that fundamental research is a driver of innovation, and accelerator-based particle physics has spawned numerous technological advances that have benefitted society, from the World Wide Web to technologies for medical imaging and cancer treatment. Research at future colliders will boost technological developments in many fields in ways that are unimaginable without the driving force of fundamental science.

It is worth remembering that, 150 years ago, the ape-to-human scenario, “On the Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin struck many as nothing so much as monkey business which is being challenged today. It may seem strange that humans have evolved from fish, but the evidence can be found not just in fossils but also within our own bodies. this goes very well with avatar concept.

Some Predict Human Evolution Is Dead

"Since the advent of settled life, human populations have expanded enormously. Homo sapiens is densely packed across the Earth, and individuals are unprecedentedly mobile. "In this situation, the fixation of any meaningful evolutionary novelties in the human population is highly improbable.  Human beings are just going to have to learn to live with themselves as they are." said Tattler.  The fittest will no longer spearhead evolutionary change, because, thanks to medical advances, the weakest also live on and pass down their genes.

Some others say Humans Will Continue to Evolve

Other scientists see plenty of evidence that human evolution is far from over. A study published+ in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested that women of the future could become shorter and stouter. A team led by Yale University evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns found that, due to ovulatory characteristics, shorter, slightly plumper women tend to have more children than their peers. These physical traits are passed on to their offspring, suggesting natural selection in humans is alive and well.

“Parents could basically choose which sperm and egg to get to meet up to produce a baby based on genetic information about which genes contribute to which physical and mental traits. If the rich and powerful keep the artificial-selection technology to themselves, then you could get that kind of split between a kind of upper-class, dominant population and a lower-class, genetically oppressed population.  You will probably see a rise in average physical attractiveness and health. You will probably get selection for physical traits that tend to be attractive in both males and females—things like height, muscularity, energy levels.

But, what you're facing now is a global pathogen pool of viruses and bacteria that get spread around by air travel to every corner of the Earth, and that's going to increase. We're going to get a lot more epidemic. That will increase the importance of the genetic immune system in human survival and that results in a human species with stronger immune with antibodies” Miller speculated.

Yet another research said Humans will Achieve Electronic Immortality

A philosophy known as transhumanism sees humans taking charge of their evolution and transcending their biological limitations via technology. Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, said Darwinian evolution "is happening on a very slow time scale now relative to other things that are leading to changes in the human condition"—cloning, genetic enhancement, robotics, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology, for starters. Transhumanism raises a spectacular array of possibilities, from super soldiers and new breeds of athletes to immortal beings who, having had their brains scanned atom by atom, transfer their minds to computers.

 "Evolutionary selection could occur in a population of uploads or artificial intelligence just as much as it could in a population of biological organisms," he told National Geographic News. "In fact, it might operate much faster there, because artificial intellects could reproduce much faster." Whereas the current human generational cycle takes some 20 years, a digitalized individual could replicate themselves in seconds or minutes, Bostrom said. Of course copying yourself isn't without complications, Bostrom acknowledges.

[Upanishads suggest that a human being by his own effort turning inwards can attain the status of Brahman the creator. It also describes the degree of happiness as humans gradually evolve. “Let there be a noble youth with wisdom and good learning who is resolute and strong; the happiness he would feel if the whole world and wealth therein belongs to him is the measure of human bliss. Hundred times of this measure of human bliss is the bliss of human Gandharvas; hundred times thereof is the bliss of celestial Gandharvas; hundred times thereof is the bliss of the manes who belong to the eternal world; hundred times thereof is the bliss of devas born in the world of devas; hundred times thereof is the bliss of Karmadevas; hundred times thereof is the bliss of Devas; hundred times thereof is the bliss of Indra; hundred times thereof is the bliss of Brihaspati; hundred times thereof is the bliss of Prajaapati; hundred times thereof is the bliss of Brahma. These thoughts have no doubt inspired scientists to pursue their research towards upgrading of humans and settling in higher planets.]

 New Era of Evolution Awaits on Off-World Predicts Space Research

"Some major new isolating mechanism" would be needed for a new human species to arise, according to John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. If in the far distant future, habitable planets beyond our solar system were colonized by Earth migrants that could provide the necessary isolation for new human species to evolve. But, he added, "if you think about it, a small group of people went on a one-way voyage to [the Americas] 14,000 years ago, and then when new people [Europeans] showed up 500 years ago, they were still the same species."

Now we have genetic samples of complete genomes from humans around the world, geneticists are getting a better understanding of genetic variation and how it’s structured in a human population. We can’t exactly predict how genetic variation will change, but scientists in the field of bioinformatics are looking to demographic trends to give us some idea.

In short, humanity's future could take one of several routes, assuming we do not go extinct:

Stasis. We largely stay as we are now, with minor tweaks, mainly as races merge.

Speciation. A new human species evolves on either this planet or another.

Symbiosis with machines. Integration of machines and human brains produces a collective intelligence that may or may not retain the qualities we now recognize as human.

 ASTRO PHYSICIST ADAM FRANK ON FUTURE OF HUMANS

Adam Frank, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester and the author of “Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth.” writes about “A Physicist’s View of Where We’re Headed about the Future of Humans” reviewing the  work of Michio Kaku.

Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny beyond Earth by Michio Kaku

We almost didn’t have a future. Seventy-five thousand years ago, an apocalyptic volcanic explosion at Lake Toba in present-day Indonesia darkened the skies with ash and toxic smoke. In the ruin that followed, some researchers believe, only a small, ragged band of humans survived. If this is true, then almost everyone on Earth owes his or her own existence to 2,000 or so hardy individuals. It was their progeny who went on to settle the planet and build the civilizations we know today. They gave us a future. But what, over the course of the next 75,000 years, will it be?

The physicist Michio Kaku begins his new book, “The Future of Humanity,” with the near-extinction at Toba because of his explicit concern with human survival into the distant future. While our Twitter-blinkered culture can barely think past the next election cycle, Kaku goes long in this new work. The time -scapes he tours are breathtaking to consider, ranging from the next few centuries to millions of years of continuing human evolution. But prediction, as Yogi Berra once said, is difficult, especially about the future. Kaku believes he has guard-rails that can keep his predictions in check, though: the progress of science and technology. Their sure advance, Kaku believes, allows for the extrapolation of what is possible now to a road map of what we might ultimately become.

Kaku is a techno-optimist, as he has shown in his previous books on the Future of Physics and the Future of the Mind. In his view, there are frontiers of knowledge and capability all around us that we’ve only begun to explore. From space travel to genetic engineering to encounters with advanced alien civilizations, Kaku says that through science and technology few limits exist that can, or should, constrain us. Given enough time, he argues, we might become as the gods.

Kaku opens the discussion as to how humans might become a multi-planet species by quoting Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the self-taught Russian genius who first conceived of rocket-based space travel: “The Earth is our cradle, but we cannot be in our cradle forever.” While the American space program has seemed rudderless for years, an era of New Space, led by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and other high-frontier entrepreneurs, has just begun. They are the ones making tangible accomplishments in lowering the cost of reaching space. (There’s a red Tesla Roadster orbiting Earth as you read this.) The vitality of the New Space movement means, the next 200 years may well see humanity move from just exploring space to actually settling in it.

Kaku maps the path to become a true multi-planet species, beginning with reaching, and then settling, Mars. This includes “terraforming” — the large-scale alteration of Mars’s atmosphere — for the benefit of its new human inhabitants. (It’s worth noting that on one level the climate change we’ve wrought on Earth now represents a kind of unintentional terraforming.) After Mars, Kaku turns to the science of asteroids and comets, since they will likely serve as resources to be mined or outposts of our expansion.

Cosmically speaking, however, the solar system is nothing more than the neighborhood humanity was raised in. Like all good techno-optimists, Kaku believes growing up must mean getting out to the stars. But to make that jump we may need more than new machines. Instead, radically new versions of humanity itself may be the price the stars exact.

 

Even the closest suns are so distant it could take centuries, at best, to reach them. This barrier leads Kaku to consider the ways humans might alter their own design to achieve approximations of immortality. Genetic engineering could allow us to correct the preprogrammed decay hiding inside every cell. Then there are “trans-humanist” dreams of liberating consciousness from its biological wetware. Kaku believes we are all reducible to patterns of connected neurons in our brains. Once it’s possible to fully digitize these “connectomes,” travel via gleaming spaceships might be unnecessary. By encoding our connectomes into laser light we could beam directly from one star system to the other. Once received, our encoded consciousness would be downloaded in different machine, or perhaps biological, bodies at each new location.

 Upanishads say we falsely identify with our body which is the grossest layer. We are actually Self or Atman subtlest part (annamaya-praanamaya-manomaya- Vijnaanamaya-anandamaya-ayam-atma). It is this Jivatman that picks up its past karma as DNA and enters the womb, picks up acquirable karmas and emerges out of the womb forgetting all its past in the cyclic journey of life and death.  It also leaves the earth as subtle Jivatma.

“In Hinduism, intelligence is considered the highest aspect of Nature. It is also the first to manifest. It has a universal aspect, called Mahat which universally functions as a set of laws, processes and principles, and an individualized aspect called buddhi, which manifests in the living beings as the executive functions of the mind, intelligence or the discerning wisdom.

The nature of Self is also pure intelligence. Brahman himself considered pure intelligence (prajnanam Brahma). However, the eternal, indestructible intelligence of the Self is not the same as the intelligence of Nature. The intelligence of the Self is pure, eternal and indestructible while natural intelligence is subject to modifications, decay and destruction. It is also subject to the influence of the triple modes of Nature, namely sattva, rajas and tamas which impart to it dynamism, individuality and predictable patterns of behavior and modalities. If we believe in the physical, mental and spiritual evolution of life upon earth, we can foresee the possibility of a bound soul (jiva) eventually ending up with just one subtle body of intelligence, which may have either the predominance of one of the three modes of Nature or a mixture of all the three. With that the beings will be freed from the physicality and the grossness of their current bodies.” says V. Jayaraman]

You would be right to think this sounds like science fiction or to be skeptical that some of it is even possible. (I’m good with terraforming but doubt that we are nothing but our neurons.) But the strength of Kaku’s writing is knowing which science fiction ideas are worth following. Kaku grounds his readers in science happening right now, while throwing open the windows to imagine where it might lead in a thousand years. In this effort he is particularly adept at drawing from the lexicon of popular science fiction. From Marvel’s “Iron Man” to Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” he uses ideas from our shared cultural warehouse as launch-pads for questions of the deep future.

But is a future of genetically engineered bodies, or of no bodies at all, the kind anyone would want to inherit? Once, as I extolled the virtues of our cosmic future, a nonscientist friend quipped, “I’m not sure I want to be a sexless space orb.” It’s this important question of what we value that Kaku’s optimism fails to fully comprehend.

The future will be shaped not just by what we can do but by what we will want to do. That pivot is what makes the deep future so hard to imagine. At one point Kaku makes the argument that the genetic divergence of people 75,000 years ago to now is so small that even with genetic engineering we won’t be so different as to be inhuman 75,000 years in the future. But this argument misses an essential point about culture and imagination. Seeing the extraordinary cave paintings of Lascaux, for example, it seems clear our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived a dense, rich experience that differs significantly from our own. The remarkable science fiction stories of Cordwainer Smith (a.k.a. Paul Linebarger, a noted East Asia scholar and C.I.A. expert in psychological warfare) are instructive in this regard. The universe of his series “The Rediscovery of Man,” set tens of thousands of years from now, offers a future rich in symbols and dreams, where technology has irrevocably altered the mythic underpinnings of what it means to be human.

It’s also worthwhile to ask whose future we’re talking about. Most of our popular science fiction visions of the future were written by men (and most of them white). From feminist critiques to the alternative lines of Afrofuturism, I’ve spent a lot of time recently wondering what our imagined futures would look like if more kinds of people were encouraged to imagine them.

But these misgivings don’t detract from the book’s pleasures. Kaku does acknowledge many of the issues, ethical and otherwise, the science raises, at least in passing. While those problems are likely to be central to the future, this book is meant to introduce readers unfamiliar with science to the vast horizons it has already opened and where our journeys toward those frontiers might lead.

Kirkus Reviews described Kaku's views as "always optimistic" and that "Kaku delivers a fascinating and scattershot series of scenarios in which humans overcome current obstacles without violating natural laws to travel the universe."   The New York Times praised Kaku for being "adept at drawing from the lexicon of popular science fiction" and noted that "the strength of Kaku’s writing is knowing which science fiction ideas are worth following”

Our understanding of particle physics and cosmology has today reached an unprecedented level of maturity, and this has dramatically changed the targets of research. Although we have equations that describe most observed phenomena, we lack a true understanding of the principles underlying those equations (like Veda mantras) and the physical origin of their many free parameters. Moreover, many of the open questions in the micro-world and the cosmos appear to be closely intertwined. For instance, some of the puzzles encountered in describing the current accelerating expansion of the Universe, and that which presumably took place in its early stages, show intriguing similarities with unexplained aspects related to the Higgs boson (Vedas say Brahman means ever expanding).

The focus of particle physics has thus evolved towards addressing structural questions about space-time, fundamental interactions and the origin of the Universe. Some of these are as old as civilization itself and it is fascinating that we have today reached the maturity and developed the technologies to address them. The urge to seek answers to such questions is part of what defines us as humans. The ambitious task that lies ahead entails global collaboration on a courageous experimental venture, involving high-energy colliders, low-energy precision tests, observational cosmology, cosmic rays, dark-matter searches, gravitational waves, terrestrial and cosmic neutrinos, and much more.

Many different fields will enrich one another by sharing insights and experimental techniques, as the boundaries that used to separate them become increasingly blurred. In this global context, high-energy colliders will continue to be an indispensable and irreplaceable microscope to scrutinize nature at the smallest scales, providing knowledge that cannot be obtained through any other means.

Future Evolution of Man by Sri Aurobindo

Man today is becoming poignantly aware of his power to influence for good or evil his own destiny. At this critical moment when he questions his future, we believe it important to present to the public the most significant passages from those books of Sri Aurobindo which deal with this problem, the future evolution of humanity.

Preface & Summary by P.B. Saint-Hilaire

The quotations contained in this small volume are taken from the three following works:

THE LIFE DIVINE HUMAN CYCLE THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA

At the end of the volume are given a few notes explaining the terms used by Sri Aurobindo and a bibliography.

Chapter (1): The Human Aspiration

Man's highest aspiration - his seeking for perfection, his longing for freedom and mastery, his search after pure truth and unmixed delight - is in flagrant contradiction with his present existence and normal experience.

Such contradiction is part of Nature's general method; it is a sign that she is working towards a greater harmony. The reconciliation is achieved by an evolutionary progress.

Life evolves out of Matter, Mind out of Life, because they are already involved there: Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Mind. May not Mind be a form and veil of a higher power, the Spirit, which would be supra-mental in its nature? Man's highest aspiration would then only indicate the gradual unveiling of the Spirit within, the preparation of a higher life upon earth.

  Chapter (2): The Place of Man in Evolution

An evolution of consciousness is the central motive of terrestrial existence. The evolutionary working of Nature has a double process: an evolution of forms, an evolution of the soul.

Man occupies the crest of the evolutionary wave. With him occurs the passage from an unconscious to a conscious evolution. At each step one receives an intimation of what the following step will be. The nature of the next step is indicated by the deep aspirations awakening in the human race.A change of consciousness is the major fact of the next evolutionary transformation, and the consciousness itself, by its own mutation, will impose and effect any necessary mutation of the body. There is no reason to suppose that this transformation is impossible on earth. In fact, it would give the truest meaning to earthly existence.

Man's urge towards spirituality is an undeniable indication of the inner drive of the Spirit within towards emergence, its insistence towards the next step of its manifestation.

Chapter (3): The Present Evolutionary Crisis

It is often claimed that reason is the highest faculty of man and that it has enabled him to master himself and to master Nature. Has reason really succeeded? When reason applies itself to life and action it becomes partial and passionate and the servant of other forces than the pure truth.

Why does man have faith in reason? Because reason has a legitimate function to fulfil, for which it is perfectly adapted; and this is to justify and illumine for man his various experiences and to give him faith and conviction in holding on to the enlarging of his consciousness.

But reason cannot arrive at any final truth because it can neither get to the root of things nor embrace their totality. It deals with the finite, the separate and has no measure for the all and the infinite.

The limitations of reason become very strikingly apparent when it is confronted with the religious life. What is religion really and essentially and why is it outside the realm of reason? Can religion then be the guide of human life? It is a fact that in ancient time’s society gave a pre-eminent place to religion.

But, on the other hand, humanity - and in particular that portion of humanity which was the standard-bearer of progress - has revolted against the predominance of religion. Very often the accredited religions have opposed progress and sided with the forces of obscurity and oppression. And it has needed a denial, a revolt of the oppressed human mind and heart to correct these errors and set religion right. This would not have been so if religion were the true and sufficient guide of the whole of human life.

If religion has failed, it is because it has confused the essential with the adventitious. True religion is spiritual religion, it is a seeking after God, the opening of the deepest life of the soul to the indwelling Godhead, the eternal Omnipresence. Dogmas, cults, moral codes are aids and props; they may be offered to man but not imposed on him. Moreover, religion often considers spiritual life as made up of renunciation and mortification. Religion thus becomes a force that discourages life and it cannot, therefore, be a true law and guide for life.

In spirituality then, restored to its true sense, we must seek for the directing light and the harmonizing law. On the other hand, modern man has not solved the problem of the relation of the individual to the society. What are their respective roles in the spiritual progress of mankind?

It is wrong to demand that the individual subordinate himself to the collectivity or merge in it, because it is by its most advanced individuals that the collectivity progresses and they can really advance only if they are free. But it is true that as the individual advances spiritually, he finds himself more and more united with the collectivity and the All.

The present evolutionary crisis comes from a disparity between the limited faculties of man - mental, ethical and spiritual - and the technical and economical means at his disposal. Without an inner change man can no longer cope with the gigantic development of the outer life. The exaltation of the collectivity, of the State, only substitutes the collective ego for the individual ego. If humanity is to survive, a radical transformation of human nature is indispensable.

Chapter (4): Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom

Since perfection is progressive, good and evil are shifting quantities and change from time to time their meaning and value. Four main principles successively govern human conduct. The first two are personal need and the good of the collectivity. A conflict is born of the opposition of the two instinctive tendencies which govern human action: the individualist and the gregarious. In order to settle this conflict, a new principle comes in, other and higher than the two conflicting instincts, and aiming both to override and to reconcile them. This third principle is the ethical idealBut conflicts do not subside; they seem rather to multiply. Moral laws are arbitrary and rigid; when applied to life, they are obliged to come to terms with it and end in compromises which deprive them of all power.

Behind the ethical law, which is a false image, a greater truth of a vast consciousness without fetters unveils itself, the supreme law of our divine nature. It determines perfectly our relations with each being and with the totality of the universe, and it also reveals the exact rhythm of the direct expression of the Divine in us. It is the fourth and supreme principle of action, which is at the same time imperative law and absolute freedom.

Chapter (5): The Development of the Spiritual Man

Spirituality is something else than intellectuality; its appearance is the sign that a Power greater than mind is striving to emerge in its turn. Spirituality is a progressive awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a spirit, self, soul which is other than our mind, life and body. It is an inner aspiration to know, to enter into contact and union with the greater Reality beyond, which also pervades the universe and dwells in us, and, as a result of that aspiration, that contact and that union, a turning, a conversion, a birth into a new being.

In her attempt to open up the inner being, Nature has followed four main lines - religion, occultism, spiritual thought and an inner spiritual realization and experience. Only spiritual realization and experience can achieve the change of the mental being into a spiritual being.

Mysticism and spirituality have been criticized from two points of view. These criticisms should be examined before proceeding further:

• I...... The mystic turns away from life.
• II..... Mystical knowledge is purely subjective.

Chapter (6): The Triple Transformation

If the final goal of terrestrial evolution were only to awaken man to the supreme Reality and to release him from ignorance and bondage, so that the liberated soul could find elsewhere a higher state of being or merge into this supreme Reality, the task would be accomplished with the advent of the spiritual man. But there is also in us an aspiration for the mastery of Nature and her transformation, for a greater perfection in the earthly existence itself.

 

To be established permanently, this new order of existence demands a radical change of the entire human nature. In this transformation, there are three phases. The first phase of this transformation can be called psychic: the soul, or psychic being, has to come forward and take the lead of the whole being.

In the course of evolution, the soul, in order to emerge successfully and turn the being towards the supreme Reality, uses three dynamic images of this supreme Reality: Truth, Beauty and Good. Three ways thus open before the seeker.

• 1) The way of the intellect or of knowledge.
• 2) The way of the heart or of emotion.
• 3) The way of the will or of action.

These three ways, combined and followed concurrently, have a most powerful effect.

A shifting of the consciousness, a withdrawal within, become imperative at this stage, in order to reach the central being, the true Soul, and to allow it to become the guide and sovereign of the nature.

Two principal results follow this emergence: first an effective guidance and mastery which unmask and reject all that is false and obscure or all that opposes the divine realization; then, a spontaneous influx of spiritual experiences of all kinds.

The second phase of the transformation may be called spiritual; it is an opening to an Infinity above us, an eternal Presence, a boundless Self, an infinite Existence, an infinity of Consciousness, an infinity of Bliss, an All-Power.

The spiritual change culminates in a permanent ascension from the lower consciousness to the higher consciousness, followed by an effective permanent descent of the higher nature into the lower.

A new consciousness begins to form with new forces of thought and sight, and a power of direct spiritual realization which is more than thought or sight.

To make this new creation permanent and perfect, the very foundation of our nature of ignorance must be transfigured and a greater power, a supra-mental Force must intervene to accomplish that transfiguration. This is the third phase: the supra-mental transformation

Chapter (7): The Ascent towards Supermind

It is difficult to conceive intellectually what the Super-mind is; and to describe it, another language would be needed than the poor abstract counters of the mind.

The transition from mind to Super-mind is a passage from Nature into Super-nature. For that every reason it cannot be achieved by a mere effort of our mind or our unaided aspiration. Over-mind and Super-mind are involved and hidden in the earth-nature; but, in order that they may emerge in us, there is needed a pressure of the same powers already formulated in their full natural force on their own super-conscious planes. The powers of the Super-conscience must descend into us and uplift us and transform our being.

What should be the preparation for the supra-mental transformation? First, an increasing control of the individual over his own nature and a more and more conscious participation in the action of the Super nature. A second condition consists in a conscious obedience, a surrender of our whole being, to the light, the truth and force from above.

A third condition is the unification of the whole being around the true self and the opening of the individual to the cosmic consciousness.

Four steps of ascent lead from the human intelligence to the Super-mind; these are:

• 1) Higher Mind.
• 2) Illumined Mind.
• 3) Intuitive Mind.
• 4) Overmind.

Chapter (8): The Gnostic Being

The difficulty in understanding and describing the supra-mental nature comes from the fact that in its very essence, it is consciousness and power of the Infinite. One can, however, describe in a general way the passage from the Over-mind to the Super-mind and form an idea of the supra-mental existence in its initial step.

The supra-mental or gnostic being will be the perfect consummation of the spiritual man. The law of the Super-mind is unity fulfilled in diversity; unity does not imply uniformity. The supra-mental being will realize the harmony of his individual self with the cosmic Self, of his individual will and action with the cosmic Will and Action.

The transcendence aspect of the spiritual life is indispensable for the freedom of the Spirit; but it will harmonize with the manifested existence and give it an unshakable foundation. For the gnostic being, to act in the world does not signify a lapse from unity.

The gnostic consciousness will proceed towards an integral knowledge. And that will not be a revelation or a delivery of light out of darkness, but of light out of light.

The joy of an intimate self-revealing diversity of the One, the multitudinous union and happy interaction within the One, will give a fully perfected sense to the gnostic life.

Matter will reveal itself as an instrument of the manifestation of Spirit; a new liberated and sovereign acceptance of material Nature will then be possible.

The body will become a faithful and capable instrument, perfectly responsive to the Spirit.

Health, strength, duration, bodily happiness and ease, liberation from suffering, are a part of the physical perfection which the gnostic evolution is called upon to realize.

A vast calm and a deep delight of the gnostic existence rise together in a growing intensity and culminate in an eternal ecstasy. In the universal phenomenon is revealed the eternal Bliss, Ananda.

Two questions remain to be examined, which are important for the human conception of life.

• I. What is the place of personality in the gnostic being? In the gnostic consciousness personality and impersonality are not opposing principles; they are inseparable aspects of one and the same reality. What will be the nature of the gnostic person?
• II. If there is a gnostic personality and if it is in some way responsible for its acts, what is the place of the ethical element in the gnostic nature, what is its perfection and its fulfilment?

The gnostic life will reconcile freedom and order. There will be an entire accord between the free expression of the individual and his obedience to the inherent law of the supreme and universal Truth of things.

All mental standards would disappear because their necessity would cease; the authentic law of identity with the Divine Self would have replaced them.

Chapter (9): The Divine Life upon Earth

To be wholly and integrally conscious of oneself and of all the truth of one's being is what is implied by the perfect emergence of the individual consciousness, and it is that towards which evolution tends. All being is one, and to be fully conscious means to be integrated with the consciousness of all, with the universal self and force and action.

The plenitude of this consciousness can only be attained by realizing the identity of the individual self with the transcendent Self, the supreme Reality. This realization demands a turning of the consciousness inward. The ordinary human consciousness is turned outward and sees the surface of things only. It recoils from entering the inner depths which appear dark and where it is afraid of losing itself. Yet the entry into this obscurity, this void, this silence is only the passage to a greater existence.

Indeed, this inward-turning movement is not an imprisonment in the personal self; it is the first step towards a true universality. The law of the divine life is universality in action, organized by an all-seeing Will, with the sense of the true oneness of all.

New powers of consciousness and new faculties will develop in the gnostic being who will use them in a natural, normal and spontaneous way both for knowledge and for action. The life of gnostic beings might fitly be characterized as a superhuman or divine life. But it must not be confused with past and present ideas of super-manhood.

It would be a misconception to think that a life in the full light of Knowledge would lose its charm and become an insipid monotony. The gnostic manifestation of life would be more full and fruitful and its interest more vivid than the creative interest offered to us by the world.

[I hope this will accomplish the readerto turn to the original works of Aurobindo for an in-depth study.]

--P. B. SAINT-HILAIRE, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India

“Karma is DNA of Our Soul and there is ground for improvement in all of us as science also thinks 

Karma, meaning action, is a Vedic term for explaining the reincarnating soul’s evolution from life to life. Karma is portrayed as the effect of our individual actions, extending from past lives to present and future lives. It is often regarded as a force of determination, like fate or destiny. We speak of a person’s karma catching up with them, ‘what goes around comes around’ or ‘as you sow so shall you reap’, indicating this inescapable result of what we have done. 

Yet if we look deeper, we see that karma reflects the fact that we create our own reality. We fashion ourselves and our environment according to all that we do in life. Karma, therefore, means that we are universal creators, not simply helpless products of external forces. Karma is the underlying process of the ‘self-creating universe’. It indicates that the universe creates itself according to its own inner intentionality. Through the power of karma, we are self-creating beings in a self-creating existence. Even the forces of nature, like time or gravity, which appear beyond our control, are manifestations of an intelligent reality in which we are active participants. However, karma is not under control of the ego or the mind, but is the action of our inner being. 

Modern science recognizes an evolution of form, noting how the bodies of different animals adapt over time, becoming more complex and sophisticated through succeeding generations. It has outlined a physical or bodily evolution from plants and animals to human beings.  Today’s science emphasizes genetics as the main mechanism behind this evolutionary process. It has discovered an underlying ‘genetic code’ behind the vast diversity of life, linking all creatures together in the evolutionary process and even started tinkering or researching Awith it to improve life-style. This marvelous genetic code is simpler, more concise and yet more powerful than any code or data base that the human mind can invent.   

We can contrast this with the view of Yoga, the science of consciousness that arose in India, which recognizes an evolution of consciousness as well as one of form. Yoga neither denies evolution in order to justify a religious view of creation, nor reduces evolution to a blind play of material forces. Yoga teaches that form cannot evolve without consciousness. An inner consciousness brings about evolutionary changes of form, not the form itself, which is no more than a shell. The creatures that we observe in life are the result of an inner consciousness evolving its self-expression through the great movement of time. 

Karma and rebirth are the means of this evolution of consciousness, its underlying modus operandi. Only an intelligence that is reborn can evolve in awareness. Otherwise intelligence would die with the body. 

The reincarnating soul is our ‘karmic being’ as opposed to our human personality that is but its mask. The soul, called Jivatman in Sanskrit, carries our karmic propensities called samskaras from one body to another. 

Vedanta says man is created on earth along with lower beings in a systematic manner and also says man is a perfect being as Self or Atman endowed with Body, Vital life forces, Mind, Intelligence and Bliss sheaths and this Atman is eternal that travels further with its load of Karma 

Our karma, we could say, is the DNA of our reincarnated soul. Just as the body has its particular genetic code, the reincarnating soul has its particular ‘karmic code’. The soul’s karmic code is based upon the life patterns it has created, the habits, tendencies, influences and desires it has set in motion over many births. These karmic tendencies or samskaras like seeds ripen in the soil of our lives, taking root and sprouting according to circumstances. Our soul’s energy is filtered through our karmic potentials, which create the pattern of our lives down to a subconscious and instinctual level. 

For the evolution of our species and for our own growth in consciousness, we must consider both the genetic and karmic codes. We cannot understand ourselves through genetics alone, which is only the code of the body; we must also consider the karmic code, the code of the mind and heart. Note how two children in the same family can share the same genetic pattern, education and environment and yet can have very different lives, characters and spiritual interests. This is because of their differing karmic codes. 

The Vedic astrological birth chart is the best indicator of our karmic code. The pattern of the birth chart is like the ‘DNA of the soul behind the current physical incarnation.  The Vedic astrological chart is probably the most important document we have in life and more important than our genetic code. Yet like our DNA it is a code written in the language of nature and needs to be deciphered by a trained researcher to make sense of its indications. Through the Vedic astrological chart we can understand the greater purpose of our lives, our vulnerabilities and our hidden strengths that help us fulfill our true karmic potential. 

It is imperative that each one of us is aware of our karmic code and learn how to bring out it optimal potential.  To change ourselves it is not enough to alter the genetic code. We must learn how to alter our karmic code. However, to change our karmic code is not much easier than to alter our genetics! It requires that we change the way we live, breathe, see and think, such as Yoga and other Vedic sciences instruct us. 

Our present planetary crisis, our crisis in consciousness, is also a ‘collective karmic crisis’. We are setting in motion long-term negative karmic consequences by our civilization out of harmony with life. Such powerful collective karmas can bring about deep disturbances in the world of nature, including alterations at geological and climatic levels that can go far beyond what our species can control. The coming century looks like an era of karmic rectification for the devastation already wrought by our current spiritually immature civilization. We need the wisdom to take us through this coming fire of collective experience and help minimize its potential destruction as nature once more demands that the soul within us comes to the front. As this was written originally fifteen years ago, the current pandemic is showing our karmic challenges. 

Our individual soul is a karmic center of consciousness that we must face sooner or later. When we die, the only thing that goes with our soul is its karma. The bodily self does not continue but the soul–the sensitive core of awareness within us that allows us to feel happiness or sorrow–goes on to wherever its karma may lead, which we must eventually experience. 

The truly enlightened or Self-realized individual brings higher forces to the Earth from the power of liberated consciousness. That is how individual enlightenment can uplift the entire world, even without any overt external actions. Such individual enlightenment, however, is not the enlightenment of the separate self, which is a contradiction in terms, but that of the soul, our universal being which is inherently one with all. It does not occur through denying or ignoring karma but through reaching a level of action that is no longer external or bound by time. 

While few of us can reach the state of supreme enlightenment, we can bring aspects of enlightenment into our daily lives. We can bring a unitary consciousness into our environment, establishing our relationship with all aspects of the conscious universe from greeting the Sun in the morning to remembering the stars at night. We must respond to the evolutionary message of our karma, which is to take responsibility for our world and look upon all creatures as our own Self. 

According to Yogic thought, the Jivatman or reincarnating individual only takes with it at death its karma and its jnana, the consequences of its actions, which may be good or bad, and the higher knowledge of its true nature as the Self that has been developed.  

There is a karma behind all that we do in life, which we sense but seldom truly evaluate. This extends to our work and finances, which cannot be properly measured by monetary gain. Yet we seldom consider the karmic results of our actions, on both ourselves and others. At a political level, it is not just a matter of votes or electoral gain, but the karmas involved that can affect large groups of people, including entire nations. 

 Our outer knowledge, including the most intricate science and medicine, is only about the external world and cannot reveal the inner reality of the deeper Consciousness within all. It is only the inner Self-knowledge that can truly enlighten us.  

 These are crucial times today in which we must take karmic responsibility for, what we think and do at both individual and collective levels. This includes our own karma as an embodied individual consciousness and the karma of humanity and the planet as a whole that we are part of. If we valued the long-term consequences or legacy of our karma more, and mere outer gains less, there would be more peace and happiness within and around us. 

 Does our karma reflect universal Dharmic values like the Yamas and Niyamas of the Yoga Sutras? Or does our outer ego and desire nature rule over our actions? Surely there is ground for improvement in all of us and how we live. We simply need more awareness and compassion in our daily lives. We must make this a priority, for even our own meditation practice cannot go far” says David Frawley. 

Hindu Thoughts on Future Evolution of all-round super subtle bodies of pure intelligence postulated by Science of Upanishads

“Creation in Hinduism induism His a continuous, cyclical process, in which modifications of Nature and transmigration of souls as microcosms ensure the continuous and progressive evolution of the macrocosm, which it says is also Brihat or ever expanding. Involution of life forms into gross bodies constitute the first phase of the cycle, and their evolution into subtle, or supra fine bodies is the second stage. In the final stage, beings will possess only intelligence bodies. These we learn from the science of Upanishad.

In the first phase of evolution, these bodies become fully manifest in the beings in progressive stages, with their functionality reaching peak levels in humans. In future evolution, they may begin to weaken and disappear.  Nature may gradually remove first the physical gross body (annam) , leaving the beings with the subtle bodies Prana (vital forces of breath) , Manas (mind), Vijnana (intelligence) and Ananda (Bliss). In further evolution, it may also remove the breath and mental bodies, thus leaving the souls with just the intelligence body. In that state, the individual souls will possess only intelligence bodies. Since Intelligence body is an aspect of Nature, they will still experience duality, objectivity and have their own identity and individuality. However, they will be purer and much more powerful. As their lower bodies disappear, so will be the problems associated with them such as mortality, sickness and aging will no longer exist. But today we speak of Internet virus too!

Beings at that level Intelligence may live for thousands of years, without suffering any decay or destruction. Since their bodies will be subatomic and very subtle, they may transcend the limitations of time and space and perceive the subtle worlds as naturally as we perceive the physical objects. They may also gain enormous supernatural powers, as pure intelligent beings, and manifest their will with unimaginable force even though they may not possess any physical bodies. Such a possibility may arise not necessarily through the direct intervention of Nature, but indirectly through the intelligence of humans, for human intelligence is also an aspect of Nature only, and human beings may as well be instruments of Nature according to Nature's design to alter its natural course and create new opportunities and possibilities for the species to evolve. As we create machines to perform our tasks, Nature might have created humans not only to perform its tasks and implement its programs but also speed up its processes and evolutional mechanism. This may be an assumed possibility for the future looking at the   current research in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Biotechnology (like Cloning).  It appears that we are already on the way towards this possibility and we may be already serving its purpose by trying to evolve artificial intelligence and creating robots with extraordinary intelligence.”--Says V. Jayaraman, a Hindu Vedantin of current times conflating with the Japanese physicist Kaku who  believes we are all reducible to patterns of connected neurons ( like Vijnana in Upanishads) in our brains. Once it’s possible to fully digitize these “connectomes,” travel via gleaming spaceships might be unnecessary and our encoded consciousness would be downloaded in different machine, or perhaps biological, bodies at each new location on the earth we live in!

How Artificial Intelligence Will Improve Our Spiritual Life

AI will work to optimize, augment and improve human activities and experiences.  It will save time and it will save lives via health advances and the reduction of risks and of poverty.   It will spur innovation and broaden opportunities, increase the value of human-to-human experiences, augment humans and increase individuals’ overall satisfaction with life. When we think of technology, it usually doesn’t call to mind words like “religion,” “spirituality,” and “morality.”  But as technology extends into every aspect of our lives, it will force us to confront core issues previously left to the purview of religion.   Spirituality encompasses empathetic awareness of his or her connectedness to all humanity. And that’s where today’s technology comes in. No one today would deny that technology is a connector. And the more we are connected, the more empathetic we may become — and therefore more spiritual. Technology doesn’t just provide the Japamala of Rudrakshi or Tulasi beads or let spiritual gurus push their Facebook sermon posts to more followers. It shows us other parts of the world that suffer and who need our help or have lessons to teach us. It provides independently sourced information and opens windows into the lives of strangers, showing those of other faiths as not so different from us. This new connectedness will enhance spirituality worldwide — even among the conservative religious sects still wary of technology. Technology will also enhance spirituality by changing how we spend our time and attention. Both by unburdening us from menial tasks and by restructuring economies, smart automation will increasingly allow us to focus more on our deepest values and transcendent aspects of life.

Whether volunteering to help the less fortunate, going on a mission trip, studying psychology and culture, or other pursuits, universal basic income will accelerate progress in all such spiritually motivated goal. Enhanced social connection, freeing up societal resources, and moral quandaries are probably the easiest cases to make for how technology will promote growth in our spirituality. But the most fascinating — and difficult — issue regards the ultimate nature of ourselves. Spirituality is rooted in the word “spirit,” otherwise known as our souls, selves, or consciousness. Here, too, technology is likely to play a major role this century.

For all these reasons, technology in the coming decades is certain to challenge traditional notions of religion. But what are some of the most imminent changes to spirituality that technology is likely to bring?  For the short term, AI will advance mostly in analytical tasks, working alongside human effort rather than replacing it. Morality may not play much of a role at first — there’s no obvious path to programming something we don’t understand ourselves. But the looming epoch of pervasive AI is already holding a mirror to humanity, promoting soul-searching work by prompting these tough questions.

Maintaining a sense of culture and community work will be critical for  Spirituality promotion to live in peace but not pieces and also provide appropriate relief measures to the suffering and needy.  Modern IT mediums,    FB, Zoom, Webinar etc., make it easy to propagate these morale-raising events,   even during the present pandemonium crisis and social distancing to remain socially connected and provide a sense of connectivity among the global participants. Some of our popular Urban Monks who are often technologists, scientists, engineers and doctors have ave taken keen interest in successfully employing these audio/video mediums in their global missionary work.

Spirituality has changed from the philosophy of Recluse Sanyasis that moved to secluded Ashrams or forests for mediation of the past to Urban Monks of today who altogether brought new dimension to Spirituality in our daily life;

Spirituality need not be confined to forests and caves. As Swami Vivekananda said, it should enter the marketplace, and the field and the factory.  

“If you are lending a helping hand to a poor student, or planting a tree, or researching a creative idea to clean the environment, or nursing a patient in a hospital during this critical coronavirus times, you are in every way serving is that which is given to the right person, in the right way, and at the proper time.”--Sister Nivedita

“To lead the spiritual life it is not necessary to withdraw into the forest, hide oneself in a cave or go to a mountain top. What is needed is the renunciation of false ideas, of identification with the false human personality. It requires renunciation of ego, Abhimana, Ahamkara, renunciation of desire, renunciation of attachment, renunciation of Mamata and Asakti (mine-ness and attachment)”--Swami Chidananda Saraswati.