{"id":138,"date":"2013-07-13T01:26:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=138"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:26:09","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:09","slug":"27-evolution-vol-16-the-supramental-manifestation-volume-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/16-the-supramental-manifestation-volume-16\/27-evolution-vol-16-the-supramental-manifestation-volume-16","title":{"rendered":"-27_Evolution.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nEvolution<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/h1>\n

\n
\n                      <\/span>W<\/span><\/b>HAT
\nin its principle and scope is the force of evolution and how does it work out in
\nthe world . <\/span>The theory of evolution has been the key-note of the thought of the
\nnineteenth century. It has not only affected all its science and its
\nthought-attitude, but powerfully influenced its moral temperament, its politics
\nand its society. Without it there could not have been that entire victory of the
\nmaterialistic notion of life and the universe which has been the general
\ncharacteristic of the age that is now passing, <\/span>\u2014
\na victory which for a time even claimed to be definitive, <\/span>\u2014
\nnor such important corollary effects of this great change as the failure of the
\nreligious spirit and the breaking-up of religious beliefs. In society and
\npolitics it has led to the substitution of the evolutionary for the moral idea
\nof progress and the consequent materialisation of social ideas and social
\nprogress, the victory of the economic man over the idealist. The scientific
\ndogma of heredity, the theory of the recent emergence of the thinking human
\nanimal, the popular notion of the all- pervading struggle for life and the aid
\nit has given to an exaggerated development of the competitive instinct, the idea
\nof the social organism and the aid it has given to the contrary development of
\neconomic socialism and the increasing victory of the organised State or
\ncommunity over the free individual,<\/span> \u2014
\nall <\/span>these are outflowings from
\nthe same source.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n\t\t<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>The materialistic view of the world is now rapidly collapsing and with it
\nthe materialistic statement of the evolution theory must disappear. Modern
\nEuropean thought progresses with a vertiginous rapidity. If it is Teutonic in
\nits fidelity of observation and its tendency to laborious systematisation, it
\nhas also another side, Celtic-Hellenic, a side of suppleness, mobility,
\nreadiness for rapid change, insatiable curiosity. It does not allow the same
\nthought, the same system to exercise for very long a secure empire; it is in
\nhaste to question, to challenge, to reject, to remould, to discover new and
\nopposite truths, to venture upon<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-225<\/font><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

other
\nexperiments. At present this spirit of questioning has not attacked the
\nevolution theory at its centre, but it is visibly preparing to give it a new
\nform and meaning.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>The general idea of evolution was the filiation of each successive form
\nor state of things to that which preceded it, its appearance by process of
\nout-bringing or deploying of some possibility prepared and even necessitated by
\nprevious states and previous tendencies. Not only does a form contain the seed
\nof the form that reproduces it, but also the seed of the possible new form that
\nvaries from it. By successive progression a world- system evolves out of the
\nnebula, a habitable planet appears in an uninhabitable system, protoplasmic life
\nemerges by some yet unknown process out of Matter, the more developed grows out
\nof the less developed organism. The fish is the descendant of the insect, the
\nbiped and quadruped trace back to the fish, man is a quadruped of the genus Ape
\nwho has learned to walk erect on two legs and has divested himself of
\ncharacteristics unsuited to his new mode of life and progression. Force in
\nMatter is the unconscious Goddess who has worked these miracles by her inherent
\nprinciple of natural adaptation and in the organism by the additional machinery
\nof heredity; by natural selection those species which reproduce new
\ncharacteristics developed by adaptation to the environment and favourable to
\nsurvival, tend to propagate themselves and remain; others fall back in the race
\nof life and disappear.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>Such were once the salient ideas; but some of them and not the least
\nimportant are now questioned. The idea of the struggle for life tends to be
\nmodified and even denied; it is asserted that, at least as popularly understood,
\nit formed no real part of Darwinism. This modification is a concession to
\nreviving moralistic and idealistic tendencies which seek for a principle of love
\nas well as a principle of egoism in the roots of life. Equally important are the
\nconclusions arrived at by investigators into the phenomena of heredity that
\nacquired characteristics are not handed down to the posterity and the theory
\nthat it is chiefly predispositions that are inherited; for by this modification
\nthe process of evolution begins to wear a less material and mechanical aspect;
\nits source and the seat of its motive-power are shifted to that<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-226<\/font><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

which
\nis least material, most psychical in Matter. Finally, the first idea of a slow
\nand gradual evolution is being challenged by a new theory of evolution through
\nsudden and rapid outbursts; and again we pass from the sense of an obvious
\nsuperficial machinery and all sufficient material necessity to profundities
\nwhose mystery is yet to be fathomed.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>In themselves, indeed, these modifications would not be radical. Their
\nimportance lies in their synchronism with a great resurgence, in new forms, of
\nold ideas that had been submerged by the materialistic wave. Theories of
\nvitalism, idealistic tendencies of thought, which were supposed to have been
\nslain by the march of physical Science, now arise, dispute the field and find
\ntheir account in every change of scientific generalisation which at all opens
\nthe way to their own expansion and reassertion. In what respects then is it
\nlikely that the evolution theory will be found deficient by the wider and more
\ncomplex thought of the future and compelled to undergo essential changes?<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>In the first place, the materialistic theory of evolution starts from the
\nSankhya position that all world is a development out of indeterminate Matter by
\nNature-Force, but it excludes the Silent Cause of the Sankhyas, the Purusha or
\nobservant and reflective Soul. Hence it conceives the world as a sort of
\nautomatic machine which has somehow happened. No intelligent cause, no aim, no raison
\nd<\/i>\u2019<\/span>\u00eatre, <\/span><\/i>but
\nsimply an automatic deployment, combination, self-adaptation of means to end
\nwithout any knowledge or intention in the adaptation. This is the first paradox
\nof the theory and its justification must be crushing and conclusive if it is to
\nbe<\/span> <\/span>finally
\naccepted by the human mind.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>Again, Force in indeterminate Matter without any Conscious-Soul being all
\nthe beginning and all the material of things, Mind, Life and Consciousness can
\nonly be developments out of Matter and even only operations of Matter. They
\ncannot be at all things in themselves, different from Matter or in the last
\ndegree independent of it. This is the second paradox and the point at which the
\ntheory has eventually failed to establish itself. More and more the march of
\nknowledge leads towards the view that the three are different forms of Force,
\neach with its own characteristics and proper method of action, each reacting
\nupon<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-227<\/font><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

the
\nother and enriching its forms by the contact.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>An idea has even begun to dawn that there is not a single creation, but a
\ntriple,<\/span> \u2014 material, vital and
\nmental; it may be regarded as a composite of three worlds, as it were,
\ninterpenetrating each other. We are led back to the old Vedic idea of the triple
\nworld in which we live. And we may reasonably forecast that when its operations
\nare examined from this new standpoint, the old Vedic knowledge will be justified
\nthat it is one Law and Truth acting in all, but very differently formulated
\naccording to the medium in which the work proceeds and its dominant principle.
\nThe same gods exist on all the planes and maintain the same essential laws, but
\nwith a different aspect and mode of working and to ever wider results.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>If this be the truth, then the action of evolution must be other than has
\nbeen supposed. For example, the evolution of Life in Matter must have been
\nproduced and governed not by a material principle, but by a Life-principle
\nworking in and upon the conditions of Matter and applying to it its own laws,
\nimpulses, necessities. This idea of a mighty Life, other than the material
\nprinciple, working in it and upon it has begun to dominate the advanced thought
\nof Europe. The other idea of a still mightier Mind working in Life and upon it
\nhas not yet made sufficient way because the investigation of the laws of Mind is
\nstill in its groping infancy.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>Again, the materialist theory supposes a rigid chain of material
\nnecessity; each previous condition is a co-ordination of so many manifest forces
\nand conditions; each resulting condi<\/span>tion
\nis its manifest result. All mystery,<\/span> all<\/span>
\nelement of the incal<\/span>culable
\ndisappears. If we can completely analyse the previous conditions and discover
\ntheir general law, we can be sure of the subsequent result, as in the case of an
\neclipse or an earthquake. For all is manifestation which is the logical result
\nof a previous manifestation.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>Once more the conclusion is too simple and trenchant; the world is more
\ncomplex. Besides the manifest causes there are those that are unmanifest or
\nlatent and not subject to our analysis. This element increases as we climb the
\nladder of existence; its scope is greater in Life than in Matter, freer in Mind
\nthan in<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-228<\/font><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Life.
\nEuropean thought already tends to posit behind all manifest activity an
\nUnmanifest called according to intellectual predilection either the Inconscient
\nor the Subconscient which contains more and, in a way unseizable to us, knows
\nmore and can see more than the surface existence. Out of this Unmanifest the
\nmanifest constantly emerges.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>Again we return towards an ancient truth already known to the Vedic
\nsages,<\/span> \u2014 the idea of an
\ninconscient or subconscient ocean of being, the ocean of the heart of things out
\nof which the worlds form themselves. But the Veda posits also a governing and
\noriginating superconscient which accounts for the appearance of a hidden
\nconsciousness and knowledge pervading the operations of Evolution and which
\nconstitutes the self-acting Law and Truth behind them.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>The theory of materialistic evolution led naturally to the idea of a slow
\nand gradual progression in a straight line. It admits reversions, atavisms,
\nloops and zigzags of reaction deflecting the straight line, but these must
\nnecessarily be subordinate, hardly visible if we calculate by ages rather than
\nby shorter periods of time. Here too, fuller knowledge disturbs the received
\nnotions. In the history of man everything seems now to point to alternations of
\na serious character, ages of progression, ages of recoil, the whole constituting
\nan evolution that is cyclic rather than in one straight line. A theory of cycles
\nof human civilisation has been advanced, we may yet arrive at the theory of
\ncycles of human evolution, the kalpas <\/i>and manvantaras <\/i>of the Hindu
\ntheory. If its affirmation of cycles of world-existence is farther off from
\naffirmation, it is because they must be so vast in their periods as to escape
\nnot only all our means of observation, but all our means of deduction or
\ndefinite inference.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>Instead of slow, steady, minute gradations it is now suggested that new
\nsteps in evolution are rather effected by rapid and sudden outbursts, outbreaks,
\nas it were, of manifestation from the unmanifest. Shall we say that Nature
\npreparing slowly behind the veil, working a little backwards, working a little
\nforwards, one day arrives at the combination of outward things which makes it
\npossible for her to throw her new idea into a realised formation, suddenly, with
\nviolence, with a glorious<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-229<\/font><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

dawning,
\nwith a grandiose stride? And that would explain the economy of her relapses and
\nher reappearances of things long dead. She aims at a certain immediate result
\nand to arrive at it more quickly and entirely she sacrifices many of her
\nmanifestations and throws them back into the latent, the unmanifest, the
\nsubconscient. But she has not finished with them; she will need them at another
\nstage for a farther result. Therefore she brings them forward again and they
\nreappear in new forms and other combinations and act towards new ends. So
\nevolution advances.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>And her material means? Not the struggle for life only. The real law, it
\nis now suggested, is rather mutual help or at least mutual accommodation.
\nStruggle exists, mutual destruction exists, but as a subordinate movement, a red
\nminor chord, and only becomes acute when the movement of mutual accommodation
\nfails and elbow-room has to be made for a fresh attempt, a new combination.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>The propagation of acquired characteristics by heredity was too hastily
\nand completely asserted; it is now perhaps in danger of being too summarily
\ndenied. Not Matter alone, but Life and Mind working upon Matter help to
\ndetermine evolution. Heredity is only a material shadow of soul-reproduction, of
\nthe rebirth of Life and Mind into new forms. Ordinarily, as a constant factor or
\nbasis, there is the reproduction of that which was already evolved; for new
\ncharacteristics to be propagated in the species they must have been accepted,
\nreceived, sanctioned in the vital and mental worlds; then only can they be
\nautomatically self-reproduced from the material seed. Otherwise they are private
\nand personal acquisitions and are returned into the State exchequer, the
\ntreasury of the subconscient, and do not go to the family estate. When the
\nmind-world and life-world are ready, they are poured out freely on fit
\nrecipients. This is the reason why it is predisposition that is chiefly
\ninherited. The psychical and vital force in the material principle is first
\nimpressed; when that has been done on a sufficient scale, it is ready for a
\ngeneral new departure and an altered heredity appears.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n            
\n <\/span>Thus the whole view of Evolution begins to change. Instead of a
\n mechanical, gradual, rigid evolution out of indeterminate<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-230<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Matter
\nby Nature-Force we move towards the perception of a conscious, supple, flexible,
\nintensely surprising and constantly dramatic evolution by a superconscient
\nKnowledge which reveals things in Matter, Life and Mind out of the unfathomable
\nInconscient from which they rise.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-231<\/font><\/span>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evolution                       WHAT in its principle and scope is the force of evolution and how does it work out in the world . The theory of evolution…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-16-the-supramental-manifestation-volume-16","wpcat-5-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","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=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}