Sri Aurobindo: Encyclopedia II - Sri Aurobindo - Aurobindo's evolutionary philosophy

Sri Aurobindo - Aurobindo's evolutionary philosophy

These philosophical and cosmological themes are applied to Sri Aurobindo's vision of cosmic and human evolution. He argues that mankind as an entity is not the last rung in the evolutionary scale, but can evolve spiritually beyond its current limitations, moving out of an essential Ignorance born of creation, to a future state of Supramental existence. This would be a Divine Life on Earth characterised by knowledge, truth, substance and energy of supramental consciousness. (Life Divine bk II, ch 27-8)

There are interesting parallels between Sri Aurobindo's vision and that of Teilhard de Chardin (see e.g. K.D. Sethna 1973 Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Aurobindo - a focus on fundamentals)

Sri Aurobindo - Involution

Sri Aurobindo's cosmology (described in his opus The Life Divine) explains the cosmos as coming about through the Absolute dividing into Existence, i.e. it existed; Consciousness-Force, i.e. It is a force and it is conscious of its existence; and Delight, i.e. it delights in the awareness of Its existence. This triune extended to a fourth aspect, the Supramental power that enabled the Consciousness Force to divide into an essential energy at rest. This is the plane of Life. That energy/life then moved, taking shape first as matter, then animus of life, then mind (predominantly in man). In other words, the supramental is the power that organized the spirit into the forms of creation. It divides the Conscious-Force so that it could take shape as individual forms of creation. All existence is thus forms of the original Force/Energy.

Process of Creation -- The process of creation of the universe is the very same process by which an individual and any collective entity in the cosmos develops, grows, and evolves.

Purpose is Delight of Being -- The universe created a universe in order to extend its own delight into the details of creation. When we discover our higher nature, that discovery results in the delight for which the Absolute enabled the cosmos.

Ignorance to Knowledge Enables Delight -- The universe was born of ignorant forms. In discovering the highest consciousness, one moves from Ignorance to Knowledge, experiencing the delight of being for which the universe was created.

Reason for Ignorance -- All forms were born of an inconscience, unconsciousness, and Ignorance. It was so because it allowed for the greatest multiplicity and possibility of forms, which would enable the greatest possibility for delight in discovery of its highest nature.

Sri Aurobindo - Evolution

The process of the universe emerging from the Absolute is referred in The Life Divine as involution. The subsequent process of life emerging from matter and mind from life is evolution. Each level that emerges in the evolution (matter, then the vital, then the mind) is already involved in the previous level, including the spirit in the deepest part of each. (The planes of Spirit/Supermind, Mind, and Life emerged in the descent of the Involution from out of the Conscious-Force, and then were involved, i.e. hidden in the evolution, where they reemerge in the universe after matter is created, through the emergence of animus of life and then mind and then spirit/supermind.)

The process of the evolution is to unfold in the universe the involved planes, and do so at levels of perfection and ultimate possibility, culminating in the supramentalization, spiritualization of everything in creation. It is also to reunite the Consciousness (lost in the Involution) with the (unconscious) Force (which is there in creation) by bringing the Spiritual Being into the Becomings of life, enabling a Divine life on earth, at each point aided by the supramental unifying action.

This evolution occurs on a number of levels:

• Evolution of the Individual -- This is described as a dual movement; inward, away from the surface consciousness and into the depths, culminating in the Psychic Being (the personal evolving soul); and then upward to higher levels of spiritual mind (Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, and Overmind), culminating in the final stage of supramentalisation.

• Evolution of Collectives of Society -- By opening to the higher consciousness, man facilitates the evolution and transformation of organizations and collectives he is related to. In this way, he enables the mental and spiritual transformation of society, a movement upward from its current predominantly vital status.

• Evolution of Life on Earth -- A divine life on earth, in which the collective is peopled with individuals who have attained these ultimate stages of development is the basis for a collective divine life on earth. This fulfills the Divine Intent, the evolutionary purpose of earthly existence.

• Evolution of the Universe -- In reaching his ultimate potential, Man not only serves the evolutionary goals of the Individual, but also of the Universe, as well as the Transcendent Reality. The universe is thus seen as evolving through man to Its own spiritual fulfillment.

Sri Aurobindo - Other points

• The Essential Ignorance -- The Ignorance born of creation serves as great a purpose as the Knowledge, as does the Negative with the Positive, and the Evil with the Good. Both sides of these dualities serves Nature's purpose of evolution.
• Overcoming Ignorance -- By discovering the depths, down to the subliminal being and eventually the evolving soul (the Psychic Being) one overcomes ego and separateness, and hence the essential Ignorance of Man born of creation. It culminates when one's consciousness opens to the light of the cosmic planes, culminating in a opening to the supramental. At that point Integral Knowledge and Consciousness replaces the Ignorance born of creation.
• Nature, Soul, and Evolution -- Life divides into Nature and Soul -- i.e., Prakriti and Purusha. Normally life evolves through the slow difficult path of Nature. Life/Nature evolves through contradictory opposites to create ever-greater complexities and higher harmonies. (From the perspective of higher consciousness these are seen as complementary, necessary opposites.) When man rises in consciousness, he enables life to evolve through Soul, i.e. without division and duality. When man discovers his own soul, Soul evolution is enabled for the earth.
• The Being in the Becoming -- The Rishi connected with Spirit and arrived at Moksha/liberation. He became one with the Being. The householder only knows the becoming of life, lost in finiteness, ego, and time. Sri Aurobindo’s Third Way, or Third Dimension is to bring the spiritual Being into the Becoming moments of our lives.
• The Vision of Brahman -- The contradiction between the Spirit and Life is resolved through higher consciousness, in which they are unitary rather than separate. This is the vision of the oneness and unity of Brahman in the form of the unity of the Creator and Creation, of the One and the Many, of Being and Becoming.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Aurobindo's evolutionary philosophy", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki