|
CHAPTER XI The Reason as Governor of Life
REASON using the
intelligent will for the ordering of the inner and the outer life is
undoubtedly the highest developed faculty of man at his present point of
evolution; it is the sovereign, because the governing and self-governing
faculty in the complexities of our human existence. Man is distinguished from
other terrestrial creatures by his capacity for seeking after a rule of life, a
rule of his being and his works, a principle of order and self-development,
which is not the first instinctive, original, mechanically self-operative rule
of his natural existence. The principle he looks to is neither the unchanging, unprogressive order of the fixed natural type, nor in its process of change the
mechanical evolution we see in the lower life, an evolution which operates in
the mass rather than in the individual, imperceptibly to the knowledge of that
which is being evolved and without its conscious co-operation. He seeks for an
intelligent rule of which he himself shall be the governor and master or at
least a partially free administrator. He can conceive a progressive order by
which he shall be able to evolve and develop his capacities far beyond their
original limits and workings; he can initiate an intelligent evolution which he
himself shall determine or at least be in it a conscious instrument, more, a
co-operating and constantly consulted party. The rest of terrestrial existence
is helplessly enslaved and tyrannised over by its nature, but the instinct of
man when he finds his manhood is to be master of his nature and free. Page – 94
this change a
momentous self-discovery intervenes; there appears something that is hidden in
matter and in the first disposition of life and has not clearly emerged in the
animal in spite of its possession of a mind; there appears the presence of the
Soul in things which at first was concealed in its own natural and outward
workings, absorbed and on the surface at least self-oblivious. Afterwards it
becomes, as in the animal, conscious to a certain degree on the surface, but is
still helplessly given up to the course of its natural workings and, not
understanding, cannot govern itself and its movements. But finally in man it
turns its consciousness upon itself, seeks to know, endeavours to govern in the
individual the workings of his nature and through the individual and the
combined reason and energy of many individuals to govern too as far as possible
the workings of Nature in mankind and in things. This turning of the consciousness
upon itself and on things, which man represents, has been the great crisis, a
pro- longed and developing crisis, in the terrestrial evolution of the soul in
Nature. There have been others before it in the past of the earth, such as that
which brought about the appearance of the conscious life of the animal; there
must surely be another in its future in which a higher spiritual and
supramental conscious- ness shall emerge and be turned upon the works of the
mind. But at present it is this which is at work; a self-conscious soul in
mind, mental being,
manomaya pursa,
struggles
to arrive at some intelligent ordering of its self and life and some
indefinite, perhaps infinite development of the powers and potentialities of
the human instrument. Page – 95 study and understand it disinterestedly, analyse its
processes, disengage its principles. None of the other powers and faculties of
the living being can do this; for each exists for its own action, is confined
by the work it is doing, is unable to see beyond it, around it, into it as the
reason can; the principle of knowledge inherent within each force is involved
and carried along in the action of the force, helps to shape it, but is also
itself limited by its own formulations. It exists for the fulfilment of the
action, not for knowledge, or for knowledge only as part of the action.
Moreover, it is concerned only with the particular action or working of the
moment and does not look back reflectively or forward intelligently or at other
actions and forces with a power of clear co-ordination. No doubt, the other
evolved powers of the living being, as for instance the instinct whether animal
or human, - the latter inferior precisely
because it is disturbed by the questionings and seekings of reason, - carry in
themselves their own force of past experience, of instinctive self-adaptation,
all of which is really accumulated knowledge, and they hold sometimes this
store so firmly that they are transmitted as a sure inheritance from generation
to generation. But all this, just because it is instinctive, not turned upon
itself reflectively, is of great use indeed to life for the conduct of its
operations, but of none - so long as it
is not taken up by the reason - for the particular purpose man has in view, a
new order of the dealings of the soul in Nature, a free, rational,
intelligently co-ordinating, intelligently self-observing, intelligently
experimenting mastery of the workings
of force by the conscious spirit. Page – 96 the hidden truths behind it. It is the servant and yet
the master of all utilities; and it can, putting away all utilities, seek
disinterestedly Truth for its own sake and by finding it reveal a whole world
of new possible utilities. Therefore it is a sovereign power by which man has
become possessed of himself, student and master of his own forces, the godhead
on which the other godheads in him have leaned for help in their ascent; it has
been the Prometheus of the mythical parable, the helper, instructor, elevating
friend, civiliser of mankind. Page – 97 reason. Life has greater powers in it which must be
given a freer play; for it is they alone that evolve and create. On the other
hand, it is felt that reason is too analytical, too arbitrary, that it
falsifies life by its distinctions and set classifications and the fixed rules
based upon them and that there is some profounder and larger power of
knowledge, intuition or another, which is more deeply in the secrets of
existence. This larger intimate power is more one with the depths and sources
of existence and more able to give us the indivisible truths of life, its root
realities and to work them out, not in an artificial and mechanical spirit but
with a divination of the secret Will in existence and in a free -
harmony
with its large, subtle and infinite methods. In fact, what the growing subjectivism of the human
mind is beginning obscurely to see is that the one sovereign godhead is the
soul itself which may use reason for one of its ministers, but cannot subject
itself to its own intellectuality without limiting its potentialities and
artificialising its conduct of existence. Page – 98 or actually contradicts or seriously modifies them, - except in so far as life itself compels or cautions him to accept modifications for the time being or ignore their necessity at his peril. It is in such limits that man's reason normally acts. He follows most commonly some interest or set of interests; he tramples down or through or ignores or pushes aside all truth of life and existence, truth of ethics, truth of beauty, truth of reason, truth of spirit which conflicts with his chosen opinions and interests; if he recognises these foreign elements, it is nominally, not in practice, or else with a distortion, a glossing which nullifies their consequences, perverts their spirit or whittles down their significance. It is this subjection to the interests, needs, instincts, passions, prejudices, traditional ideas and opinions of the ordinary mind1 which constitutes
the irrationality of human existence.
1 The ordinary mind in man is not truly the thinking mind proper, it is a life-mind, a vital mind as we may call it, which has learned to think and even to reason but for its own ends and on its own lines, not on those of a true mind of knowledge. Page-99
because they can only succeed by compromises and pacts with the
inferior, irrational life of man which diminish their validity and tarnish
their light and glory. Often indeed their triumph is convicted of unreality,
and doubt and disillusionment fall on the faith and enthusiasm which brought
victory to their side. But even were it not so, the ideas themselves are
partial and insufficient; not only have they a very partial triumph, but if
their success were complete, it would still disappoint, because they are not
the whole truth of life and therefore cannot securely govern and perfect life.
Life escapes from the formulas and systems which our reason labours to impose
on it; it proclaims itself too complex, too full of infinite potentialities to
be tyrannised over by the arbitrary intellect of man. But behind all this continuity of failure there has persisted a faith that the reason of man would end in triumphing over its difficulties, that it would purify and enlarge itself, become sufficient to its work and at last subject rebellious life to its control. For, apart from the stumbling action of the world, there Page – 100 has been a labour of the individual thinker in man and this has achieved a higher quality and risen to a loftier and clearer atmosphere above the general human thought-levels. Here there has been the work of a reason that seeks always after knowledge and strives patiently to find out truth for itself, without bias, without the interference of distorting interests, to study everything, to analyse everything, to know the principle and process of everything. Philosophy, Science, learning, the reasoned arts, all the age long labour of the critical reason in man have been the result of this effort. In the modern era under the impulsion of Science this effort assumed enormous proportions and claimed for a time to examine successfully and lay down finally the true principle and the sufficient rule of process not only for all the activities of Nature, but for all the activities of man. It has done great things, but it has not been in the end a success. The human mind is beginning to perceive that it has left the heart of almost every problem untouched and illumined only outsides and a certain range of processes. There has been a great and ordered classification and mechanisation, a great discovery and practical result of increasing knowledge, but only on the physical surface of things. Vast abysses of Truth lie below in which are concealed the real springs, the mysterious powers and secretly decisive influences of existence. It is a question whether the intellectual reason will ever be able to give us an adequate account of these deeper and greater things or subject them to the intelligent will as it has succeeded in explaining and canalising, though still imperfectly, yet with much show of triumphant result, the forces of physical Nature. But these other powers are much larger, subtler, deeper down, more hidden, elusive and variable than those of physical Nature. The whole difficulty of the reason in trying to govern our existence is that because of its own inherent limitations it is unable to deal with life in its complexity or in its integral movements; it is compelled to break it up into parts, to make more or less artificial classifications, to build systems with limited data which are contradicted, upset or have to be continually modified by other data, to work out a selection of regulated potentialities which is broken down by the bursting of a new wave of yet un- Page-101 regulated potentialities. It would almost appear even that there are two worlds, the world of ideas proper to the intellect and the world of life which escapes from the full control of the reason, and that to bridge adequately the gulf between these two domains is beyond the power and province of the reason and the intelligent will. It would seem that these can only create either a series of more or less empirical compromises or else a series of arbitrary and practically inapplicable or only partially applicable systems. The reason of man struggling with life becomes either an empiric or a doctrinaire.
Reason can indeed make itself a mere
servant of life; it can limit itself to the work the average normal man demands
from it, content to furnish means and justifications for the interests,
passions, prejudices of man and clothe them with a misleading garb of
rationality or at most supply them with their own secure and enlightened order
or with rules of caution and self-restraint sufficient to prevent their more
egregious stumbles and most unpleasant consequences. But this is obviously to
abdicate its throne or its highest office and to betray the hope with which man
set forth on his journey. It may again determine to found itself securely on
the facts of life, disinterestedly indeed, that is to say, with a dispassionate
critical observation of its principles and processes, but with a prudent
resolve not to venture too much forward into the unknown or elevate itself far
beyond the immediate realities of our apparent or phenomenal existence. But
here again it abdicates; either it becomes a mere critic and observer or else,
so far as it tries to lay down laws, it does so within very narrow limits of
immediate potentiality and it renounces man's drift towards higher
possibilities, his saving gift of idealism. In this limited use of the reason
subjected to the rule of an immediate, an apparent vital and physical
practicality man cannot rest long satisfied. For his nature pushes him towards
the heights; it demands a constant effort of self-transcendence and the
impulsion towards things unachieved and even immediately impossible. Page- 102 hold of that other knowledge which our instincts and impulses carry within themselves and which, however imperfect, obscure and limited, is still a hidden action of the universal Knowledge- Will inherent in existence that creates and directs all things according to their nature. True, even Science and Philosophy are never entirely dispassionate and disinterested. They fall into subjection to the tyranny of their own ideas, their partial systems, their hasty generalisations and by the innate drive of man towards practice they seek to impose these upon the life. But even so they enter into a world either of abstract ideas or of ideals or of rigid laws from which the complexity of life escapes. The idealist, the thinker, the philosopher, the poet and artist, even the moralist, all those who live much in ideas, when they come to grapple at close quarters with practical life, seem to find them- selves something at a loss and are constantly defeated in their endeavour to govern life by their ideas. They exercise a powerful influence, but it is indirectly, more by throwing their ideas into Life which does with them what the secret Will in it chooses than by a direct and successfully ordered action. Not that the pure empiric, the practical man really succeeds any better by his direct action; for that too is taken by the secret Will in life and turned to quite other ends than the practical man had intended. On the contrary, ideals and idealists are necessary; ideals are the savour and sap of life, idealists the most powerful diviners and assistants of its purposes. But reduce your ideal to a system and it at once begins to fail; apply your general laws and fixed ideas systematically as the doctrinaire would do, and Life very soon breaks through or writhes out of their hold or transforms your system, even while it nominally exists, into something the originator would not recognise and would repudiate perhaps as the very contradiction of the principles which he sought to eternise. The root of the difficulty is this that at the very basis of all our life and existence, internal and external, there is something on which the intellect can never lay a controlling hold, the Absolute, the Infinite. Behind everything in life there is an Absolute, which that thing is seeking after in its own way; everything finite is striving to express an infinite which it feels to be its real truth. Moreover, it is not only each class, each type, each tendency Page-103 in Nature that is thus impelled to strive after its own secret truth in its own way, but each individual brings in his own variations. Thus there is not only an Absolute, an Infinite in itself which governs its own expression in many forms and tendencies, but there is also a principle of infinite potentiality and variation quite baffling to the reasoning intelligence; for the reason deals successfully only with the settled and the finite. In man this difficulty reaches its acme. For not only is man- kind unlimited in potentiality; not only is each of its powers and tendencies seeking after its own absolute in its own way and therefore naturally restless under any rigid control by the reason; but in each man their degrees, methods, combinations vary, each man belongs not only to the common humanity, but to the Infinite in himself and is therefore unique. It is because this is the reality of our existence that the intellectual reason and the intelligent will cannot deal with life as its sovereign, even though they may be at present our supreme instruments and may have been in our evolution supremely important and helpful. The reason can govern, but only as a minister, imperfectly, or as a general arbiter and giver of suggestions which are not really supreme commands, or as one channel of the sovereign authority, because that hidden Power acts at present not directly but through many agents and messengers. The real sovereign is another than the reasoning intelligence. Man's impulse to be free, master of Nature in himself and his environment cannot be really fulfilled until his self-consciousness has grown beyond the rational mentality, become aware of the true sovereign and either identified itself with him or entered into constant communion with his supreme will and knowledge Page-104 |