{"id":1249,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1249"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:34","slug":"11-man-and-the-evolution-vol-19-the-life-divine-volume-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/19-the-life-divine-volume-19\/11-man-and-the-evolution-vol-19-the-life-divine-volume-19","title":{"rendered":"-11_Man and the Evolution.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n
\nC<\/font>HAPTER
\n<\/font>XXIII<\/font><\/span> <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span>Man and the Evolution<\/font><\/span>  <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe one Godhead
\nsecret in all beings, all-pervading, the inner Self <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nof all, presiding over all
\naction, witness, conscious knower<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n and absolute… the One in control over the
\nmany who are passive<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n to Nature, fashions one seed in many ways.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/font><\/span>Swetaswatara<\/span><\/span><\/font> Upanishad.1<\/sup><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nThe Godhead
\nmoves in this Field modifying each web of things<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n separately in many ways….
\nOne, he presides over all wombs and<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n natures; himself the womb of all, he is
\nthat which brings to ripe-<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n ness the  <\/span>nature
\nof the being and he gives to all who have to be<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n matured their result of
\ndevelopment and appoints all qualities to<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n their workings.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nSwetaswatara<\/font><\/span><\/span> Upanishad.2<\/sup><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nHe fashions one
\nform of things in many ways.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nKatha<\/font><\/span><\/span> Upanishad.3<\/sup><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nWho has
\nperceived this truth occult, that the Child gives being to<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n the Mothers by the
\nworkings of his nature? An offspring from the<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n lap of many Waters, he comes
\nforth from them a seer possessed of<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n his whole law of nature. Manifested, he
\ngrows in the lap of their <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\ncrookednesses<\/font><\/span> and becomes
\nhigh, beautiful and glorious.<\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nRig Veda.4<\/sup><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nFrom the
\nnon-being to true being, from the darkness to the Light,<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n from death to
\nImmortality.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nBrihadaranyaka<\/font><\/span><\/span> Upanishad.<\/font>5<\/font><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span>     A<\/font><\/b><\/span> spiritual evolution, an evolution of
\nconsciousness in Matter in a constant developing self-formation till the form
\ncan reveal the indwelling Spirit, is then the keynote, the central significant
\nmotive of the terrestrial existence. This significance is concealed at the
\noutset by the involution of the Spirit, the Divine Reality, in a dense material
\nInconscience<\/span>; a veil of Inconscience<\/span>,
\na veil of insensibility of Matter hides the universal Consciousness-Force which
\nworks within it, so that the Energy, which is the first form the Force of
\ncreation assumes in the physical universe, appears to be itself inconscient<\/span> and yet does the works of a vast occult
\nIntelligence. The<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\n         1<\/font><\/span><\/sup> VI. 11, 12.         2<\/sup>
\nV. 3-5.         3<\/sup> II. 2. 12.      <\/span>    4<\/sup>
\n<\/span>I.<\/span> 95. 4, 5.         5<\/sup>
\n<\/span>I.<\/span><\/font> 3. 28.<\/font><\/span> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n824<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

obscure mysterious creatrix<\/span>
\nends indeed by delivering the secret consciousness out of its thick and
\ntenebrous prison; but she delivers it slowly, little by little, in minute
\ninfinitesimal drops, in thin jets, in small vibrant concretions of energy and
\nsubstance, of life, of mind, as if that were all she could get out through the
\ncrass obstacle, the dull reluctant medium of an inconscient<\/span>
\nstuff of existence. At first she houses herself in forms of Matter which appear
\nto be altogether unconscious, then struggles towards mentality in the guise of
\nliving Matter and attains to it imperfectly in the conscious animal. This
\nconsciousness is at first rudimentary, mostly a half subconscious or just
\nconscious instinct; it develops slowly till in more organised<\/span>
\nforms of living Matter it reaches its climax of intelligence and exceeds itself
\nin Man, the thinking animal who develops into the reasoning mental being but
\ncarries along with him even at his highest elevation the mould of original animality<\/span>, the dead weight of subconscience<\/span>
\nof body, the downward pull of gravitation towards the original Inertia and
\nNescience, the control of an inconscient<\/span> material
\nNature over his conscious evolution, its power for limitation, its law of
\ndifficult development, its immense force for retardation and frustration. This
\ncontrol by the original Inconscience<\/span> over the
\nconsciousness emerging from it takes the general shape of a mentality
\nstruggling towards knowledge but itself, in what seems to be its fundamental nature,
\nan Ignorance. Thus hampered and burdened, mental man has still to evolve out of
\nhimself the fully conscious being, a divine manhood or a spiritual and supramental<\/span> supermanhood<\/span> which
\nshall be the next product of the evolution. That transition will mark the
\npassage from the evolution in the Ignorance to a greater evolution in the
\nKnowledge, founded and proceeding in the light of the Superconscient<\/span>
\nand no longer in the darkness of the Ignorance and Inconscience<\/span>.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This terrestrial
\nevolutionary working of Nature from Matter to Mind and beyond it has a double
\nprocess: there is an outward visible process of physical evolution with birth
\nas its machinery,\u2014for each evolved form of body housing its own evolved power
\nof consciousness is maintained and kept in continuity by heredity; there is, at
\nthe same time, an invisible process of soul evolution <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n825<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 with rebirth into ascending grades of form and
\nconsciousness as its machinery. The first by itself would mean only a cosmic evolution;
\nfor the individual would be a quickly perishing instrument, and the race, a
\nmore abiding collective formulation, would be the real step in the progressive
\nmanifestation of the cosmic Inhabitant, the universal Spirit: rebirth is an indispensable
\ncondition for any long duration and evolution of the individual being in the
\nearth-existence. Each grade of cosmic manifestation, each type of form that can
\nhouse the indwelling Spirit, is turned by rebirth into a means for the individual
\nsoul, the psychic entity, to manifest more and more of its concealed consciousness;
\neach life becomes a step in a victory over Matter by a greater progression of
\nconsciousness in it which shall make eventually Matter itself a means for the
\nfull manifestation of the Spirit. <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>But
\nthis account of the process and meaning of the terrestrial creation is at every
\npoint exposed to challenge in the mind<\/span><\/p>\n

of man himself, because the evolution is still
\nhalf-way on its journey, is still in the Ignorance, is still seeking in the
\nmind a half-evolved humanity for its own purpose and significance. It is
\npossible to challenge the theory of evolution on the ground that it is
\ninsufficiently founded and that it is superfluous as an explanation of the
\nprocess of terrestrial existence. It is open to doubt, even if evolution is
\ngranted, whether man has the capacity to develop into a higher evolutionary
\nbeing. It is open also to doubt whether the evolution is likely to go any
\nfarther than it has gone already or whether a supramental<\/span>
\nevolution, the appearance of a consummated Truth-Consciousness, a being of
\nKnowledge, is at all probable in the fundamental Ignorance of the earthly
\nNature. Another construction neither teleological nor evolutionary can be put
\non the workings of the Spirit in the manifestation here, and it may be as well
\nbefore proceeding farther to formulate succinctly the line of thinking which makes
\nsuch a construction possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Admitting that the
\ncreation is a manifestation of the Timeless Eternal in a Time Eternity,
\nadmitting that there are the seven grades of Consciousness and that the
\nmaterial Inconscience<\/span> has been laid down as a basis
\nfor the reascent<\/span> of the Spirit, admitting
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n826<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\nthat rebirth is a fact, a part of the
\nterrestrial order, still a spiritual evolution of the individual being is not
\nan inevitable consequence of any of these admissions or even of all of them
\ntogether. It is possible to take another view of the spiritual significance and
\nthe inner process of terrestrial existence. If each thing created is a form of
\nthe manifest Divine Existence, each is divine in itself by the spiritual
\npresence within it, whatever its appearance, its figure or character in Nature.
\nIn each form of manifestation the Divine takes the delight of existence and
\nthere is no need of change or progress within it. Whatever ordered display or
\nhierarchy of actualised<\/span> possibilities is necessitated
\nby the nature of the Infinite Being, is sufficiently provided for by the
\nnumberless variation, the teeming multitude of forms, types of consciousness,
\nnatures that we see everywhere around us. There is no teleological purpose in
\ncreation and there cannot be, for all is there in the Infinite: the Divine has
\nnothing that he needs to gain or that he has not; if there is creation and
\nmanifestation, it is for the delight of creation, of manifestation, not for any
\npurpose. There is then no reason for an evolutionary movement with a
\nculmination to be reached or an aim to be worked out and effectuated or a drive
\ntowards ultimate perfection. <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact we see that the
\nprinciples of creation are permanent and unchanging: each type of being remains
\nitself and does not try nor has any need to become other than itself; granting
\nthat some types of existence disappear and others come into being, it is
\nbecause the Consciousness-Force in the universe withdraws its life-delight from
\nthose that perish and turns to create others for its pleasure. But each type of
\nlife, while it lasts, has its own pattern and remains faithful with whatever minor
\nvariations to that pattern: it is bound to its own consciousness and cannot get
\naway from it into other-consciousness; limited by its own nature, it cannot
\ntransgress these boundaries and pass into other-nature. If the
\nConsciousness-Force of the Infinite has manifested Life after manifesting
\nMatter and Mind after manifesting Life, it does not follow that it will proceed
\nto manifest Supermind<\/span> as the next terrestrial
\ncreation. For Mind and Supermind<\/span> belong to quite
\ndifferent hemispheres, Mind to the lower status of the Ignorance, Supermind<\/span> to the higher status
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n827<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 of the Divine Knowledge. This world is a world
\nof the Ignorance and intended to be that only; there need be no intention to bring
\ndown the powers of the higher hemisphere into the lower half of existence or to
\nmanifest their concealed presence there; for, if they are at all existent here,
\nit is in an occult incommunicable immanence and only to maintain the creation,
\nnot to perfect it. Man is the summit of this ignorant creation; he has reached
\nthe utmost consciousness and knowledge of which it is capable: if he tries to
\ngo farther, he will only revolve in larger cycles of his own mentality. For
\nthat is the curve of his existence here, a finite circling which carries the
\nMind in its revolutions and returns always to the point from which it started;
\nMind cannot go outside its own cycle,\u2014all idea of a straight line of movement
\nor of progress reaching infinitely upward or sidewise into the Infinite is a
\ndelusion. If the soul of man is to go beyond humanity, to reach either a supramental<\/span> or a still higher status, it must pass out of
\nthis cosmic existence, either to a plane or world of Bliss and Knowledge or
\ninto the unmanifest<\/span> Eternal and Infinite. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is true that Science
\nnow affirms an evolutionary terrestrial existence: but if the facts with which  <\/span>Science deals are reliable, the generalisations<\/span> it hazards are short-lived; it holds them
\nfor some decades or some centuries, then passes to  <\/span>another generalisation<\/span>,
\nanother theory of things. This happens even in physical Science where the facts
\nare solidly ascertainable and verifiable by experiment: in psychology,\u2014which is
\nrelevant here, for the evolution of consciousness comes into the picture,\u2014its
\ninstability is still greater; it passes there from one theory to another before
\nthe first is well-founded; indeed, several conflicting theories hold the field
\ntogether. No firm metaphysical building can be erected upon these shifting quicksands<\/span>. Heredity, upon which Science builds its concept
\nof life-evolution, is certainly a power, a machinery for keeping a type of
\nspecies in unchanged being: the demonstration that it is also an instrument for
\npersistent and progressive variation is very questionable; its tendency is
\nconservative rather than evolutionary,\u2014it seems to accept with difficulty the
\nnew character that the Life-Force attempts to force upon it. All the facts show
\nthat a type can vary within its own specification of nature, but there is
\nnothing to show that it <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n828<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

can go beyond it. It has not yet been really
\nestablished that ape-kind developed into man; for it would rather seem that a type
\nresembling the ape, but always characteristic of itself and not of apehood<\/span>, developed within its own tendencies of nature and
\nbecame what we know as man, the present human being. It is not even established
\nthat inferior races of man developed out of themselves the superior races;
\nthose of an inferior organisation<\/span> and capacity
\nperished, but it has not been shown that they left behind the human races of
\ntoday as their descendants: but still such a development within the type is imaginable.
\nThe progress of Nature from Matter to Life, from Life to Mind, may be conceded:
\nbut there is no proof yet that Matter developed into Life or Life-energy into
\nMind-energy; all that can be conceded is that Life has manifested in Matter, Mind
\nin living Matter. For there is no sufficient proof that any vegetable species
\ndeveloped into an animal existence or that any organisation<\/span>
\nof inanimate Matter developed into a living organism. Even if it be discovered
\nhereafter that under certain chemical or other conditions Life makes its
\nappearance, all that will be established by this coincidence is that in certain
\nphysical circumstances Life manifests, not that certain chemical conditions are
\nconstituents of Life, are its elements or are the evolutionary cause of a
\ntransformation of inanimate into animate Matter. Here as elsewhere each grade
\nof being exists in itself and by itself, is manifested according to its own
\ncharacter by its own proper energy, and the gradations above or below it are
\nnot origins and resultant sequences but only degrees in the continuous scale of
\nearth-nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

If it be asked, how then
\ndid all these various gradations and types of being come into existence, it can
\nbe answered that, fundamentally, they were manifested in Matter by the
\nConsciousness-Force in it, by the power of the Real-Idea building its own
\nsignificant forms and types for the indwelling Spirit’s cosmic existence: the
\npractical or physical method might vary considerably in different grades or
\nstages, although a basic similarity of line may be visible; the creative Power
\nmight use not one but many processes or set many forces to act together. In
\nMatter the process is a creation of infinitesimals charged with <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n829<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

an immense energy, their association by design
\nand number, the manifestation of larger infinitesimals on that primary basis, the
\ngrouping and association of these together to found the appearance of sensible
\nobjects, earth, water, minerals, metals, the whole material kingdom. In Life
\nalso the Consciousness-Force begins with infinitesimal forms of vegetable life
\nand infinitesimal animalcules; it creates an original plasm<\/span>
\nand multiplies it, creates the living cell as a unit, creates other kinds of minute
\nbiological apparatus like the seed or the gene, uses always the same method of
\ngrouping and association so as to build by a various operation various living
\norganisms. A constant creation of types is visible, but that is no indubitable
\nproof of evolution. The types are sometimes distant from each other, sometimes
\nclosely similar, sometimes identical in basis but different in detail; all are
\npatterns, and such a variation in patterns with an identical rudimentary basis
\nfor all is the sign of a conscious Force playing with its own Idea and
\ndeveloping by it all kinds of possibilities of creation. Animal species in
\ncoming into birth may begin with a like rudimentary embryonic or fundamental
\npattern for all, it may follow out up to a stage certain similarities of development
\non some or all of its lines; there may too be species that are twy<\/span>-natured, amphibious, intermediate between one type and
\nanother: but all this need not mean that the types developed one from another
\nin an evolutionary series. Other forces than hereditary variation have been at
\nwork in bringing about the appearance of new characteristics; there are
\nphysical forces such as food, light-rays and others that we are only beginning
\nto know, there are surely others which we do not yet know; there are at work
\ninvisible life-forces and obscure psychological forces. For these subtler
\npowers have to be admitted even in the physical evolutionary theory to account
\nfor natural selection; if the occult or subconscious energy in some types
\nanswers to the need of the environment, in others remains unresponsive and
\nunable to survive, this is clearly the sign of a varying life-energy and
\npsychology, of a consciousness and a force other than the physical at work
\nmaking for variation in Nature. The problem of the method of operation is still
\ntoo full of obscure and nknown<\/span> factors for any at
\npresent possible structure of theory to be definitive. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n830<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Man is a type among many
\ntypes so constructed, one pattern among the multitude of patterns in the
\nmanifestation in Matter. He is the most complex that has been created, the
\nrichest in content of consciousness and the curious ingeniousness of his
\nbuilding; he is the head of the earthly creation, but he does not exceed it.
\nEven as others, so he too has his own native law, limits, special kind of
\nexistence, svabh<\/span>\\=ava<\/span>, svadharma<\/span>; within those limits he can extend and develop,
\nbut he cannot go outside them. If there is a perfection to which he has to
\narrive, it must be a perfection in his own kind, within his own law of
\nbeing,\u2014the full play of it, but by observation of its mode and measure, not by
\ntranscendence. To exceed himself, to grow into the superman, to put on the
\nnature and capacities of a god would be a contradiction of his self-law,
\nimpracticable and impossible. Each form and way of being has its own
\nappropriate way of the delight of being; to seek through the mind the mastery
\nand use and enjoyment of the environment of which he is capable is rightly man
\nthe mental being’s objective: but to look beyond, to run after an ulterior
\nobject or aim of existence, to aspire to surpass the mental stature is to bring
\nin a teleological element into existence which is not visible in the cosmic
\nstructure. If a supramental<\/span> being is to appear in the
\nterrestrial creation, it must be a new and independent manifestation; just as
\nLife and Mind have manifested in Matter, so Supermind<\/span>
\nmust manifest there and the secret Conscious-Energy must create the necessary
\npatterns for this new grade of its potencies. But there is no sign of any such
\nintention in the operations of Nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

But if a superior
\ncreation is intended, then, certainly, it is not out of man that the new grade,
\ntype or pattern can develop; for in that case there would be some race or kind
\nor make of human beings that has already the material of the superman in it,
\njust as the peculiar animal being that developed into humanity had the
\nessential elements of human nature already potential or present in it: there is
\nno such race, kind or type, at most there are only spiritualised<\/span>
\nmental beings who are seeking to escape out of the terrestrial creation. If by
\nany occult law of Nature such a human development of the supramental<\/span>
\nbeing is intended, it could only be by a few in humanity detaching
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n831<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

themselves from the race so as to become a first
\nfoundation for this new pattern of being. There is no reason to suppose that
\nthe whole race could develop this perfection; it cannot be a possibility generalised<\/span> in the human creature.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

If indeed man has
\nevolved in Nature out of the animal, yet now we see that no other animal type
\nshows any signs of an evolution beyond itself; if then there was this
\nevolutionary stress in the animal kingdom, it must have sunk back into quiescence
\nas soon as the object was fulfilled by man’s appearance: so too if there is any
\nsuch stress for a new step in evolution, for self-exceeding, it is likely to
\nsubside into quiescence as soon as its object is fulfilled by the supramental<\/span> being’s appearance. But there is no such stress
\nin reality: the idea of human progress itself is very probably an illusion, for
\nthere is no sign that man, once emerged from the animal stage, has radically
\nprogressed during his race-history; at most he has advanced in knowledge of the
\nphysical world, in Science, in the handling of his surroundings, in his purely
\nexternal and utilitarian use of the secret laws of Nature. But otherwise he is
\nwhat he always was in the early beginnings of civilisation<\/span>:
\nhe continues to manifest the same capacities, the same qualities and defects,
\nthe same efforts, blunders, achievements, frustrations. If progress there has
\nbeen, it is in a circle, at most perhaps in a widening circle. Man today is not
\nwiser than the ancient seers and sages and thinkers, not more spiritual than
\nthe great seekers of old, the first mighty mystics, not superior in arts and
\ncrafts to the ancient artists and craftsmen; the old races that have
\ndisappeared showed as potent an intrinsic originality, invention, capacity of
\ndealing with life and, if modern man in this respect has gone a little farther,
\nnot by any essential progress but in degree, scope, abundance, it is because he
\nhas inherited the achievements of his forerunners. Nothing warrants the idea
\nthat he will ever hew his way out of the half-knowledge half-ignorance which is
\nthe stamp of his kind, or, even if he develops a higher knowledge, that he can
\nbreak out of the utmost boundary of the mental circle. 
       It is tempting and not
\nillogical to regard rebirth as the potential means of a spiritual evolution,
\nthe factor that makes <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n832<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

it possible, but still it is not certain,
\ngranting rebirth to be a fact, that this is its significance. All the ancient
\ntheories about reincarnation supposed it to be a constant transmigration of the
\nsoul from animal to human, but also from human to animal bodies: the Indian
\nidea added the explanation of Karma, of a return for good or evil done, of a
\nresult of past will and effort; but there was no suggestion of a progressive
\nevolution from type to higher type, still less of birth into a kind of being
\nthat has never yet existed but has still to evolve in the future. If evolution
\nthere is, then man is the last stage, because through him there can be the
\nrejection of terrestrial or embodied life and an escape into some heaven or
\nNirvana. That was the end envisaged by the ancient theories and, since this is
\nfundamentally and unchangeably a world of Ignorance,\u2014even if all cosmic
\nexistence is not in its nature a state of Ignorance,\u2014that escape is likely to
\nbe the true end of the cycle. <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>This
\nis a line of reasoning that has a considerable cogency and importance, and it
\nwas necessary to state it, even if too briefly for its importance, in order to
\nmeet it. For although some of its propositions are valid, its view of things is
\nnot complete and its cogency is not conclusive. And first we may without much
\ndifficulty get rid of the objection to the teleological element which the idea
\nof a predetermined evolution from inconscience<\/span> to superconscience<\/span>, the development of a rising order of
\nbeings with a culminating transition from the life of the Ignorance to a life
\nin the Knowledge, brings into the structure of the terrestrial existence. The
\nobjection to a teleological cosmos can be based on two very different grounds,\u2014a
\nscientific reasoning proceeding on the assumption that all is the work of an inconscient<\/span> Energy which acts automatically by mechanical
\nprocesses and can have no element of purpose in it, and a metaphysical
\nreasoning which proceeds on the perception that the Infinite and Universal has
\neverything in it already, that it cannot have something unaccomplished to accomplish,
\nsomething to add to itself, to work out, to realise<\/span>,
\nand there can therefore be in it no element of progress, no original or emergent
\npurpose. <\/span><\/p>\n

The scientific or
\nmaterialist objection cannot maintain its <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n833<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

validity if there is a secret Consciousness in
\nor behind the apparently inconscient<\/span> Energy in
\nMatter. Even in the Inconscient<\/span> there seems to be at
\nleast an urge of inherent necessity producing the evolution of forms and in the
\nforms a developing Consciousness, and it may well be held that this urge is the
\nevolutionary will of a secret Conscious-Being and its push of progressive
\nmanifestation the evidence of an innate intention in the evolution. This is a
\nteleological element and it is not irrational to admit it: for the conscious or
\neven the inconscient<\/span> nisus arises from a truth of
\nconscious-being that has become dynamic and set out to fulfil<\/span>
\nitself in an automatic process of material Nature; the teleology, the element
\nof purpose in the nisus is the translation of self-operative Truth of Being
\ninto terms of self-effective Will-Power of that Being, and, if consciousness is
\nthere, such a Will-Power must also be there and the translation is normal and
\ninevitable. Truth of Being inevitably fulfilling itself would be the
\nfundamental fact of the evolution, but Will and its purpose must be there as
\npart of the instrumentation, as an element in the operative principle.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

The metaphysical
\nobjection is more serious; for it seems self-evident that the Absolute can have
\nno purpose in manifestation except the delight of manifestation itself: an
\nevolutionary movement in Matter as part of the manifestation must fall within
\nthis universal statement; it can be there only for the delight of the
\nunfolding, the progressive execution, the objectless seried<\/span>
\nself-revelation. A universal totality may also be considered as something
\ncomplete in itself; as a totality, it has nothing to gain or to add to its
\nfullness of being. But here the material world is not an integral totality, it
\nis part of a whole, a grade in a gradation; it may admit in it, therefore, not
\nonly the presence of undeveloped immaterial principles or powers belonging to
\nthe whole that are involved within its Matter, but also a descent into it of
\nthe same powers from the higher gradations of the system to deliver their
\nkindred movements here from the strictness of a material limitation. A manifestation
\nof the greater powers of Existence till the whole being itself is manifest in
\nthe material world in the terms of a higher, a spiritual creation, may be
\nconsidered as the teleology
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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of the evolution. This teleology does not bring
\nin any factor that does not belong to the totality; it proposes only the realisation<\/span> of the totality in the part. There can be no
\nobjection to the admission of a teleological factor in a part movement of the
\nuniversal totality, if the purpose,\u2014not a purpose in the human sense, but the
\nurge of an intrinsic Truth-necessity conscious in the will of the indwelling
\nSpirit,\u2014is the perfect manifestation there of all the possibilities inherent in
\nthe total movement. All exists here, no doubt, for the delight of existence,
\nall is a game or Lila; but a game too carries within itself an object to be
\naccomplished and without the fulfilment<\/span> of that
\nobject would have no completeness of significance. A drama without denouement
\nmay be an artistic possibility,\u2014existing only for the pleasure of watching the
\ncharacters and the pleasure in problems posed without a solution or with a
\nforever suspended dubious balance of solution; the drama of the earth evolution
\nmight conceivably be of that character, but an intended or inherently
\npredetermined denouement is also and more convincingly possible. Ananda<\/span> is the secret principle of all being and the support
\nof all activity of being: but Ananda<\/span> does not exclude
\na delight in the working out of a Truth inherent in being, immanent in the
\nForce or Will of being, upheld in the hidden self-awareness of its
\nConsciousness-Force which is the dynamic and executive agent of all its
\nactivities and the knower of their significance. <\/span><\/p>\n

A theory of spiritual
\nevolution is not identical with a scientific theory of form-evolution and
\nphysical life-evolution; it must stand on its own inherent justification: it
\nmay accept the scientific account of physical evolution as a support or an element,
\nbut the support is not indispensable. The scientific theory is concerned only
\nwith the outward and visible machinery and process, with the detail of Nature’s
\nexecution, with the physical development of things in Matter and the law of development
\nof Life and Mind in Matter; its account of the process may have to be
\nconsiderably changed or may be dropped altogether in the light of new
\ndiscovery, but that will not affect the self-evident fact of a spiritual
\nevolution, an evolution of Consciousness, a progression of the soul’s
\nmanifestation in material
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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existence. In its outward aspects this is what
\nthe theory of evolution comes to,\u2014there is in the scale of terrestrial
\nexistence a development of forms, of bodies, a progressively complex and
\ncompetent organisation<\/span> of Matter, of Life in Matter,
\nof Consciousness in living Matter; in this scale, the better organised<\/span> the form, the more it is capable of housing a
\nbetter organised<\/span>, a more complex and capable, a more
\ndeveloped or evolved Life and Consciousness. Once the evolutionary hypothesis
\nis put forward and the facts supporting it are marshalled<\/span>,
\nthis aspect of the terrestrial existence becomes so striking as to appear
\nindisputable. The precise machinery by which this is done or the exact
\ngenealogy or chronological succession of types of being is a secondary, though
\nin itself an interesting and important question; the development of one form of
\nlife out of a precedent less evolved form, natural selection, the struggle for
\nlife, the survival of acquired characteristics may or may not be accepted, but
\nthe fact of a successive creation with a developing plan in it is the one conclusion
\nwhich is of primary consequence. Another self-evident conclusion is that there
\nis a graduated necessary succession in the evolution, first the evolution of
\nMatter, next the evolution of Life in Matter, then the evolution of Mind in living
\nMatter, and in this last stage an animal evolution followed by a human
\nevolution. The first three terms of the succession are too evident to be
\ndisputable. It may be debated whether there was a succession of man to animal
\nor a simultaneous initial development, man outstripping the animal in
\nMind-evolution; a theory has even been put forward that man was not the last,
\nbut the first and eldest of the animal species. This priority of man is an
\nancient conception, but it was not universal; it is born of the sense of the
\nclear supremacy of man among earthly creatures, the dignity of this supremacy seeming
\nto demand a priority of birth: but in evolutionary fact the superior is not
\nprior but posterior in appearance, the less developed precedes the more
\ndeveloped and prepares it. <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the idea of the
\npriority of the lower forms of Life is not altogether absent in ancient
\nthinking. Apart from mythical accounts of creation, we find already in ancient
\nand mediaeval <\/span><\/p>\n

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thought in <\/span>India<\/span> utterances that favour<\/span> the priority of the animal over man in the time
\nsuccession in a sense that agrees with the modern evolutionary conception. An
\nUpanishad declares that the Self or Spirit after deciding on life-creation
\nfirst formed animal kinds like the cow and horse, but the gods,\u2014who are in the
\nthought of the Upanishads powers of Consciousness and powers of Nature,\u2014found
\nthem to be insufficient vehicles, and the Spirit finally created the form of
\nman which the gods saw to be excellently made and sufficient and they entered
\ninto it for their cosmic functions. This is a clear parable of the creation of
\nmore and more developed forms till one was found that was capable of housing a
\ndeveloped consciousness. In the Puranas<\/span> it is stated
\nthat the tamasic<\/span> animal creation was the first in
\ntime. Tamas<\/span> is the Indian word for the principle of inertia
\nof consciousness and force: a consciousness dull and sluggish and incompetent
\nin its play is said to be tamasic<\/span>; a force, a Life-energy
\nthat is indolent and limited in its capacity, bound to a narrow range of
\ninstinctive impulses, not developing, not seeking farther, not urged to a
\ngreater kinetic action or a more luminously conscious action, would be assigned
\nto the same category. The animal, in whom there is this less developed force of
\nconsciousness, is prior in creation; the more developed human consciousness, in
\nwhich there is a greater force of kinetic Mind-energy and light of perception,
\nis a later creation. The Tantra<\/span> speaks of a soul
\nfallen from its status passing through many lacs<\/span> of
\nbirths in plant and animal forms before it can reach the human level and be
\nready for salvation. Here, again, there is implied the conception of vegetable
\nand animal life-forms as the lower steps of a ladder, humanity as the last or
\nculminating development of the conscious being, the form which the soul has to
\ninhabit in order to be capable of the spiritual motive and a spiritual issue
\nout of mentality, life and physicality. This is indeed the normal conception,
\nand it recommends itself so strongly both to reason and intuition that it
\nhardly needs debate,\u2014the conclusion is almost unescapable.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

It is against this
\nbackground of a developing evolutionary process that we have to look at man,
\nhis origin and first  <\/span>appearance, his
\nstatus in the manifestation. There are here two <\/span><\/p>\n

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possibilities; either there was the sudden
\nappearance of a human body and consciousness in the earth-nature, an abrupt creation
\nor independent automatic manifestation of reasoning mentality in the material
\nworld intervening upon a previous similar manifestation of subconscious
\nlife-forms and of living conscious bodies in Matter, or else there was an
\nevolution of humanity out of animal being, slow perhaps in its preparation and
\nin its stages of development, but with strong leaps of change at the decisive
\npoints of the transition. The latter theory offers no difficulty: for it is
\ncertain that changes of characteristics in the type, though not of the fundamental
\ntype itself, can be brought about in species or genus,\u2014indeed this has already
\nbeen done by man himself and its possibilities are being strikingly worked out
\non a small scale by experimental Science,\u2014and it may fairly be assumed that the
\nsecretly conscious Energy in Nature could effect large-scale operations of the
\nkind and bring about considerable and decisive developments by means of its own
\ncreative conventions. The necessary condition for the change from the normal
\nanimal to the human character of existence would be a development of the physical
\norganisation<\/span> which would capacitate a rapid
\nprogression, a reversal or turnover of the consciousness, a reaching to a new
\nheight and a looking down from it at the lower stages, a heightening and widening
\nof capacity which would enable the being to take up the old animal faculties
\nwith a larger and more plastic, a human intelligence, and at the same time or
\nlater to develop greater and subtler powers proper to the new type of being,
\npowers of reason, reflection, complex observation, organised<\/span>
\ninvention, thought and discovery. If there is an emergent Consciousness-Force,
\nthere would be no difficulty in the transition, the instrument being provided,
\nexcept the difficulty of the obstruction and resistance of the material Inconscience<\/span>. The animal has already some of the
\ncorresponding qualities on a limited scale, for action only, in a rudimentary organization
\ncrude and simple, with a very inferior scope and plasticity, a narrower and
\nmore casual command of the faculty; but especially the working of these
\nfaculties is more mechanical, less deliberate, marked with the character of an
\nautomatism of Nature-Energy driving an operation of <\/span><\/p>\n

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primitive consciousness and not, as in man, of a
\nconscious Energy observing and to a great extent directing and governing and
\ndeliberately changing or modifying its own operations. Other animal habits of
\nconsciousness are not fundamentally different from man’s; all he had to do was
\nto develop and enlarge them on a higher mental level and wherever possible, to mentalise<\/span>, refine, subtilise<\/span>,\u2014in
\nbrief, to bring to them the enlightenment of his new understanding and
\nintellectual capacity and a power of reasoned control denied to the animal.
\nThis change or reversal once effected, the power of the human mind to work upon
\nitself and things, create, know, speculate, would develop in the course of his
\nevolution, even if, as is conceivable, they were at the beginning small in
\nscope, nearer to the animal, still comparatively simple and crude in their action.
\nSuch a reversal has been made in each radical transition of Nature: Life-Force
\nemerging turns upon Matter, imposes a vital content on the operations of
\nmaterial Energy while it develops also its own new movements and operations; Life-Mind
\nemerges in Life-Force and Matter and imposes its content of consciousness on
\ntheir operations while it develops also its own action and faculties; a new
\ngreater emergence and reversal, the emergence of humanity, is in line with
\nNature’s precedents; it would be a new application of the general principle.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

This theory is therefore
\neasy to accept: its working is intelligible. But the other hypothesis presents
\nconsiderable difficulties. On the side of consciousness the new manifestation,
\nthe human, could be accounted for by an upsurge of concealed Consciousness from
\nthe involution in universal Nature. But in that case it must have had some
\nmaterial form already existent for its vehicle of emergence, the vehicle being
\nadapted by the force of the emergence itself to the needs of a new inner
\ncreation; or else a rapid divergence from previous physical types or patterns
\nmay have brought a new being into existence. But whichever the hypothesis
\naccepted, this means an evolutionary process,\u2014there is only a difference in the
\nmethod and machinery of the divergence or transition. Or there may have been,
\non the contrary, not an upsurgence<\/span> but a descent of
\nmentality from a Mind-plane above us, perhaps the descent of a soul or mental
\nbeing into terrestrial Nature. The difficulty would then be the appearance of
\nthe <\/span><\/p>\n

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human body, too complex and difficult an organ
\nto have been suddenly created or manifested; for such a miraculous speed of
\nprocess, though quite possible on a supraphysical<\/span>
\nplane of being, does not seem to figure among the normal possibles<\/span>
\nor potentials of the material Energy. It could only happen there by an
\nintervention of a supraphysical<\/span> force or law of
\nNature or by a creator Mind acting with full power and directly on Matter. An
\naction of a supraphysical<\/span> Force and a creator may be conceded
\nin every new appearance in Matter; each such appearance is at bottom a miracle
\noperated by a secret Consciousness supported by a veiled Mind-Energy or
\nLife-Energy: but the action is nowhere seen to be direct, overt, self-sufficient;
\nit is always superimposed on an already realised<\/span>
\nphysical basis and acts by an extension of some established process of Nature.
\nIt is more conceivable that there was an opening of some existing body to a supraphysical<\/span> influx so that it was transformed into a new
\nbody; but no such event can lightly be assumed to have taken place in the past
\nhistory of material Nature: in order to happen it would seem to need either the
\nconscious intervention of an invisible mental being to form the body he
\nintended to inhabit or else a previous development of a mental being in Matter
\nitself who would be already able to receive a supraphysical<\/span>
\npower and impose it on the rigid and narrow formulas of his physical existence.
\nOtherwise we must suppose that there was a pre-existent body already so much
\nevolved as to be fitted for the reception of a vast mental influx or capable of
\na pliable response to the descent into it of a mental being. But this would
\nsuppose a previous evolution of mind in body to the point at which such a
\nreceptivity would be possible. It is quite conceivable that such an evolution
\nfrom below and such a descent from above co-operated in the appearance of
\nhumanity in earth-nature. The secret psychical entity already there in the
\nanimal might have itself called down the mental being, the Mind-Purusha<\/span>, into the realm of living Matter in order to take
\nup the vital-mental energy already at work and lift it into a higher mentality.
\nBut this would still be a process of evolution, the higher plane only
\nintervening to assist the appearance and enlargement of its own principle in
\nterrestrial Nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

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           Next, it may be conceded that each type or
\npattern of consciousness and being in the body, once established, has to be faithful
\nto the law of being of that type, to its own design and rule of nature. But it
\nmay also very well be that part of the law of the human type is its impulse
\ntowards self-exceeding, that the means for a conscious transition has been
\nprovided for among the spiritual powers of man; the possession of such a
\ncapacity may be a part of the plan on which the creative Energy has built him.
\nIt may be conceded that what man has up till now principally done is to act
\nwithin the circle of his nature, on a spiral of nature-movement, sometimes
\ndescending, sometimes ascending,\u2014there has been no straight line of progress,
\nno indisputable, fundamental or radical exceeding of his past nature: what he
\nhas done is to sharpen, subtilise<\/span>, make a more and
\nmore complex and plastic use of his capacities. It cannot truly be said that
\nthere has been no such thing as human progress since man’s appearance or even
\nin his recent ascertainable history; for however great the ancients, however
\nsupreme some of their achievements and creations, however impressive their
\npowers of spirituality, of intellect or of character, there has been in later
\ndevelopments an increasing subtlety, complexity, manifold development of
\nknowledge and possibility in man’s achievements, in his politics, society,
\nlife, science, metaphysics, knowledge of all kinds, art, literature; even in
\nhis spiritual endeavour<\/span>, less surprisingly lofty and
\nless massive in power of spirituality than that of the ancients, there has been
\nthis increasing subtlety, plasticity, sounding of depths, extension of seeking.
\nThere have been falls from a high type of culture, a sharp temporary descent
\ninto a certain obscurantism, cessations of the spiritual urge, plunges into a
\nbarbaric natural materialism; but these are temporary phenomena, at worst a
\ndownward curve of the spiral of progress. This progress has not indeed carried
\nthe race beyond itself, into a self-exceeding, a transformation of the mental
\nbeing. But that was not to be expected; for the action of evolutionary Nature
\nin a type of being and consciousness is first to develop the type to its utmost
\ncapacity by just such a subtilisation<\/span> and increasing
\ncomplexity till it is ready for her bursting of the shell, the ripened decisive
\nemergence, reversal, turning over of consciousness on itself that constitutes a <\/span><\/p>\n

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new stage in the evolution. If it be supposed
\nthat her next step is the spiritual and supramental<\/span>
\nbeing, the stress of spirituality in the race may be taken as a sign that that
\nis Nature’s intention, the sign too of the capacity of man to operate in
\nhimself or aid her to operate the transition. If the appearance in animal being
\nof a type similar in some respects to the ape-kind but already from the
\nbeginning endowed with the elements of humanity was the method of the human
\nevolution, the appearance in the human being of a spiritual type resembling
\nmental-animal humanity but already with the stamp of the spiritual aspiration
\non it would be the obvious method of Nature for the evolutionary production of
\nthe spiritual and supramental<\/span> being. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is pertinently
\nsuggested that if such an evolutionary culmination is intended and man is to be
\nits medium, it will only be a few especially evolved human beings who will form
\nthe new type and move towards the new life; that once done, the rest of
\nhumanity will sink back from a spiritual aspiration no longer necessary for
\nNature’s purpose and remain quiescent in its normal status. It can equally be
\nreasoned that the human gradation must be preserved if there is really an
\nascent of the soul by reincarnation through the evolutionary degrees towards
\nthe spiritual summit; for otherwise the most necessary of all the intermediate
\nsteps will be lacking. It must be conceded at once that there is not the least
\nprobability or possibility of the whole human race rising in a block to the supramental<\/span> level; what is suggested is nothing so
\nrevolutionary and astonishing, but only the capacity in the human mentality,
\nwhen it has reached a certain level or a certain point of stress of the evolutionary
\nimpetus, to press towards a higher plane of consciousness and its embodiment in
\nthe being. The being will necessarily undergo by this embodiment a change from
\nthe normal constitution of its nature, a change certainly of its mental and
\nemotional and sensational constitution and also to a great extent of the
\nbody-consciousness and the physical conditioning of our life and energies; but
\nthe change of consciousness will be the chief factor, the initial movement, the
\nphysical modification will be a subordinate factor, a consequence. This
\ntransmutation of the consciousness will always remain possible to the human
\nbeing when the flame of <\/span><\/p>\n

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the soul, the psychic kindling, becomes potent
\nin heart and mind and the nature is ready. The spiritual aspiration is innate
\nin man; for he is, unlike the animal, aware of imperfection and limitation and
\nfeels that there is something to be attained beyond what he now is: this urge
\ntowards self-exceeding is not likely ever to die out totally in the race. The
\nhuman mental status will be always there, but it will be there not only as a
\ndegree in the scale of rebirth, but as an open step towards the spiritual and supramental<\/span> status. <\/span><\/p>\n

It must be observed that
\nthe appearance of human mind and body on the earth marks a crucial step, a
\ndecisive change in the course and process of the evolution; it is not merely a
\ncontinuation of the old lines. Up till this advent of a developed thinking mind
\nin Matter evolution had been effected, not by the self-aware aspiration,
\nintention, will or seeking of the living being, but subconsciously or
\nsubliminally by the automatic operation of Nature. This was so because the
\nevolution began from the Inconscience<\/span> and the secret
\nConsciousness had not emerged sufficiently from it to operate through the
\nself-aware participating individual will of its living creature. But in man the
\nnecessary change has been made,\u2014the being has become  <\/span>awake and aware of himself; there has been
\nmade manifest in Mind its will to develop, to grow in knowledge, to deepen the inner
\nand widen the outer existence, to increase the capacities of the nature. Man
\nhas seen that there can be a higher status of consciousness than his own; the
\nevolutionary oestrus<\/span> is there in his parts of mind
\nand life, the aspiration to exceed himself is delivered and articulate within
\nhim: he has become conscious of a soul, discovered the Self and Spirit. In him,
\nthen, the substitution of a conscious for a subconscious evolution has become
\nconceivable and practicable, and it may well be concluded that the aspiration,
\nthe urge, the persistent endeavour<\/span> in him is a sure
\nsign of Nature’s will for a higher way to fulfilment<\/span>,
\nthe emergence of a greater status. <\/span><\/p>\n

       In the previous stages
\nof the evolution Nature’s first care and effort had to be directed towards a
\nchange in the physical <\/span>organisation<\/span><\/span>, for only so could
\nthere be a change of consciousness; this was a necessity imposed by the
\ninsufficiency of the
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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force of consciousness already in formation to
\neffect a change in the body. But in man a reversal is possible, indeed inevitable;
\nfor it is through his consciousness, through its transmutation and no longer
\nthrough a new bodily organism as a first instrumentation that the evolution can
\nand must be effected. In the inner reality of things a change of consciousness was
\nalways the major fact, the evolution has always had a spiritual significance
\nand the physical change was only instrumental; but this relation was concealed
\nby the first abnormal balance of the two factors, the body of the external Inconscience<\/span> outweighing and obscuring in importance the
\nspiritual element, the conscious being. But once the balance has been righted,
\nit is no longer the change of body that must precede the change of
\nconsciousness; the consciousness itself by its mutation will necessitate and
\noperate whatever mutation is needed for the body. It has to be noted that the
\nhuman mind has already shown a capacity to aid Nature in the evolution of new
\ntypes of plant and animal; it has created new forms of its environment,
\ndeveloped by knowledge and discipline considerable changes in its own
\nmentality. It is not an impossibility that man should aid Nature consciously
\nalso in his own spiritual and physical evolution and transformation. The urge
\nto it is already there and partly effective, though still incompletely
\nunderstood and accepted by the surface mentality; but one day it may
\nunderstand, go deeper within itself and discover the means, the secret energy,
\nthe intended operation of the Consciousness-Force within which is the hidden
\nreality of what we call Nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

All these are
\nconclusions that can be arrived at even from the observation of the outward
\nphenomena of Nature’s progression, her surface evolution of being and of
\nconsciousness in the physical birth and the body. But there is the other, the
\ninvisible factor; there is rebirth, the progress of the soul by ascent from
\ngrade to grade of the evolving existence, and in the grades to higher and
\nhigher types of bodily and mental instrumentation. In this progression the
\npsychic entity is still veiled, even in man the conscious mental being, by its
\ninstruments, by mind and life and body; it is unable to manifest fully, held
\nback from coming to the front where it can stand out as the master of its
\nnature, obliged to submit to a certain determination by the <\/span><\/p>\n

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instruments, to a domination of Purusha<\/span> by Prakriti<\/span>. But in man
\nthe psychic part of the personality is able to develop with a much greater
\nrapidity than in the inferior creation, and a time can arrive when the
\nsoul-entity is close to the point at which it will emerge from behind the veil
\ninto the open and become the master of its instrumentation in Nature. But this
\nwill mean that the secret indwelling spirit, the Daemon, the Godhead within is
\non the point of emergence; and, when it emerges, it can hardly be doubted that
\nits demand will be, as indeed it already is in the Mind itself when it
\nundergoes the inner psychic influence, for a diviner, a more spiritual
\nexistence. In the nature of the earth-life where the Mind is an instrument of
\nthe Ignorance, this can only be effected by a change of consciousness, a
\ntransition from a foundation in Ignorance to a foundation in Knowledge, from
\nthe mental to a supramental<\/span> consciousness, a supramental<\/span> instrumentation of Nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is no conclusive
\nvalidity in the reasoning that because this is a world of Ignorance, such a
\ntransformation can only be achieved by a passage to a heaven beyond or cannot
\nbe achieved at all and the demand of the psychic entity is itself ignorant and
\nmust be replaced by a merger of the soul in the Absolute. This conclusion could
\nonly be solely valid if Ignorance were the whole meaning, substance and power
\nof the world-manifestation or if there were no element in World-Nature itself
\nthrough which there could be an exceeding of the ignorant mentality that still
\nburdens our present status of being. But the Ignorance is only a portion of
\nthis World-Nature; it is not the whole of it, not the original power or
\ncreator: it is in its higher origin a self-limiting Knowledge and even in its
\nlower origin, its emergence out of the sheer material Inconscience<\/span>,
\nit is a suppressed Consciousness labouring<\/span> to find,
\nto recover itself, to manifest Knowledge, which is its true character, as the
\nfoundation of existence. In universal Mind itself there are ranges above our
\nmentality which are instruments of the cosmic truth-cognition, and into these
\nthe mental being can surely rise; for already it rises towards them in supernormal
\nconditions or receives from them without yet knowing or possessing them
\nintuitions, spiritual intimations, large influxes of illumination or spiritual
\ncapacity. All these
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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ranges are conscious of what is beyond them, and
\nthe highest of them is directly open to the Supermind<\/span>,
\naware of the Truth-Consciousness which exceeds it. Moreover, in the evolving
\nbeing itself, those greater powers of consciousness are here, supporting
\nMind-truth, underlying its action which screens them; this Supermind<\/span>
\nand those Truth-powers uphold Nature by their secret presence: even, truth of
\nMind is their result, a diminished operation, a representation in partial
\nfigures. It is, therefore, not only natural but seems inevitable that these
\nhigher powers of Existence should manifest here in Mind as Mind itself has
\nmanifested in Life and Matter. <\/span><\/p>\n

Man’s urge towards
\nspirituality is the inner driving of the spirit within him towards emergence,
\nthe insistence of the Consciousness-Force of the being towards the next step of
\nits manifestation. It is true that the spiritual urge has been largely other-worldly
\nor turned at its extreme towards a spiritual negation and self-annihilation of
\nthe mental individual; but this is only one side of its tendency maintained and
\nmade dominant by the necessity of passing out of the kingdom of the fundamental
\nInconscience<\/span>, overcoming the obstacle of the body,
\ncasting away the obscure vital, getting rid of the ignorant mentality, the
\nnecessity to attain first and foremost, by a rejection of all these impediments
\nto spiritual being, to a spiritual status. The other, the dynamic side of the
\nspiritual urge has not been absent,\u2014the aspiration to a spiritual mastery and mutation
\nof Nature, to a spiritual perfection of the being, a divinisation<\/span>
\nof the mind, the heart and the very body: there has even been the dream or a
\npsychic prevision of a fulfilment<\/span> exceeding the
\nindividual transformation, a new earth and heaven, a city of God, a divine
\ndescent upon earth, a reign of the spiritually perfect, a kingdom of God not
\nonly within us but outside, in a collective human life. However obscure may
\nhave been some of the forms taken by this aspiration, the indication they contain
\nof the urge of the occult spiritual being within to emergence in earth-nature
\nis unmistakable.<\/span>
        If a spiritual unfolding
\non earth is the hidden truth of our birth into Matter, if it is fundamentally
\nan evolution of consciousness that has been  taking place in Nature, then man as
\nhe<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPage
\n846<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

is cannot be the last term of that evolution: he
\nis too imperfect an expression of the Spirit, Mind itself a too limited form
\nand instrumentation; Mind is only a middle term of consciousness, the mental
\nbeing can only be a transitional being. If, then, man is incapable of exceeding
\nmentality, he must be surpassed and Supermind<\/span> and
\nsuperman must manifest and take the lead of the creation. But if his mind is
\ncapable of opening to what exceeds it, then there is no reason why man himself
\nshould not arrive at Supermind<\/span> and supermanhood<\/span> or at least lend his mentality, life and body
\nto an evolution of that greater term of the Spirit manifesting in Nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n847<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER XXIII   Man and the Evolution     The one Godhead secret in all beings, all-pervading, the inner Self of all, presiding over all action, witness,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-19-the-life-divine-volume-19","wpcat-27-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}