{"id":3497,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:57","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3497"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:57","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:57","slug":"08-the-objective-and-subjective-views-of-life-vol-the-human-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/the-human-cycle\/08-the-objective-and-subjective-views-of-life-vol-the-human-cycle","title":{"rendered":"-08_The Objective and Subjective views of life.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\nCHAPTER VI<\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nTHE OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE
\nVIEWS OF LIFE<\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HE<\/b> principle of individualism is the liberty of the human being regarded as a separate existence to develop himself
\nand fulfil his life, satisfy his mental tendencies, emotional and
\nvital needs and physical being according to his own desire governed by his reason; it admits no other limit to this right and this
\nliberty except the obligation to respect the same individual liberty and right in others. The balance of this liberty and this obligation is the principle which the individualistic age adopted in
\nits remodeling of society; it adopted in effect a harmony of compromises between rights and duties, liberty and law, permissions
\nand restraints as the scheme both of the personal life and the life
\nof the society. Equally, in the life of nations the individualistic
\nage made liberty the ideal and strove though with less success
\nthan in its own proper sphere to affirm a mutual respect for each
\nother’s freedom as the proper conduct of nations to one another.
\nIn this idea of life, as with the individual, so with the nation,
\neach has the inherent right to manage its own affairs freely or,
\nif it wills, to mismanage them freely and not to be interfered with
\nin its rights and liberties so long as it does not interfere with the rights and liberties of other nations. As a matter of fact, the egoism
\nof individual and nation does not wish to abide within these bounds; therefore the social law of the nation has been called <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 59<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nin to enforce the violated principle as between man and man and
\nit has been sought to develop international law in the same way
\nand with the same object. The influence of these ideas is still
\npowerful. In the recent European struggle the liberty of nations
\nwas set forth as the ideal for which the war was being waged\u2014in
\ndefiance of the patent fact that it had come about by nothing
\nbetter than a clash of interests. The development of international law into an effective force which will restrain the egoism
\nof nations as the social law restrains the egoism of individuals,
\nis the solution which still attracts and seems the most practicable to most when they seek to deal with the difficulties of the
\nfuture.* <\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe growth of modern Science has meanwhile created new
\nideas and tendencies, on one side an exaggerated individualism
\nor rather vitalistic egoism, on the other the quite opposite ideal
\nof collectivism. Science investigating life discovered that the root
\nnature of all living is a struggle to take the best advantage of the
\nenvironment for self-preservation, self-fulfilment, self-aggrandisement. Human thought seizing in its usual arbitrary and trenchant fashion upon this aspect of modem knowledge has founded
\non it theories of a novel kind which erect into a gospel the right
\nfor each to live his own life not merely by utilising others, but
\neven at the expense of others. The first object of life in this view
\nis for the individual to survive as long as he may, to become
\nstrong, efficient, powerful, to dominate his environment and his
\nfellows and to raise himself on this strenuous and egoistic line to his full
\nstature of capacity and reap his full measure of enjoyment. Philosophies like Nietzsche’s, certain forms of Anarchism,
\n\u2014not the idealistic Anarchism of the thinker which is rather the
\nold individualism of the ideal reason carried to its logical conclusion,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n* No longer perhaps now, except with a dwindling minority\u2014now that
\nthe League o\u00a3 Nations constantly misused or hampered from its true functioning
\nby the egoism and insincerity of its greater members has collapsed into
\nimpotence and failure. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 60<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\u2014certain forms too of Imperialism have been largely influenced and strengthened by this type of ideas, though not actually
\ncreated by them. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nOn the other hand. Science investigating life has equally
\ndiscovered that not only is the individual life best secured and
\nmade efficient by association with others and subjection to a law
\nof communal self-development rather than by aggressive self-affirmation, but that actually what Nature seeks to preserve is
\nnot the individual but the type and that in her scale of values
\nthe pack, herd, hive or swarm takes precedence over the individual animal or insect and the human group over the individual
\nhuman being. Therefore in the true law and nature of things the
\nindividual should live for all and constantly subordinate and
\nsacrifice himself to the growth, efficiency and progress of the race
\nrather than live for his own self-fulfilment and subordinate
\nthe race-life to his own needs. Modem collectivism derives its
\nvictorious strength from the impression made upon human
\nthought by this opposite aspect of modern knowledge. We have seen how the German
\nmind took up both these ideas and combined them on the basis of the present facts of human life: it
\naffirmed the entire subordination of the individual to the community, nation or state; it affirmed on the other hand with equal
\nforce the egoistic self-assertion of the individual nation as against
\nothers or against any group or all the groups of nations which
\nconstitute the totality of the human race. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nBut behind this conflict between the idea of a nationalistic
\nand imperialistic egoism and the old individualistic doctrine of
\nindividual and national liberty and separateness, there is striving
\nto arise a new idea of human universalism or collectivism for the
\nrace which, if it succeeds in becoming a power, is likely to overcome the ideal of national separatism and liberty as it has overcome within the society itself the ideal of individual freedom
\nand separate self-fulfilment. This new idea demands of the nation<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 61<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthat it shall subordinate, if not merge and sacrifice, its free
\nseparateness to the life of a larger collectivity, whether that of an
\nimperialistic group or of a continental or cultural unity, as in the
\nidea of a united Europe, or the total united life of the human race. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe principle of subjectivism entering into human thought
\nand action, while necessarily it must make a great difference in
\nthe view-point, the motive-power and the character of our living,
\ndoes not at first appear to make any difference in its factors. Subjectivism and objectivism start from the same data, the individual
\nand the collectivity, the complex nature of each with its various
\npowers of the mind, life and body and the search for the law of
\ntheir self-fulfilment and harmony. But objectivism proceeding
\nby the analytical reason takes an external and mechanical view
\nof the whole problem. It looks at the world as a thing, an object,
\na process to be studied by an observing reason which places itself abstractly
\noutside the elements and the sum of what it has to consider and observes it thus from outside as one would an intricate
\nmechanism. The laws of this process are considered as so many
\nmechanical rules or settled forces acting upon the individual or
\nthe group which, when they have been observed and distinguished by the reason, have by one’s will or by some will to be
\norganised and applied fully much as Science applies the laws it
\ndiscovers. These laws or rules have to be imposed on the individual by his own
\nabstract reason and will isolated as a ruling authority from his other parts or by the reason and will of other
\nindividuals or of the group, and they have to be imposed on the
\ngroup itself either by its own collective reason and will embodied
\nin some machinery of control which the mind considers as something apart from the life of the group or by the reason and will of
\nsome other group external to it or of which it is in some way a
\npart. So the State is viewed in modem political thought as an
\nentity in itself, as if it were something apart from the community
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 62<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nand its individuals, something which has the right to impose
\nitself on them and control them in the fulfilment of some idea of
\nright, good or interest which is inflicted on them by a restraining
\nand fashioning power rather than developed in them and by
\nthem as a thing towards which their self and nature are impelled
\nto grow. Life is to be managed, harmonised, perfected by an
\nadjustment, a manipulation, a machinery through which it is
\npassed and by which it is shaped. A law outside oneself,\u2014outside
\neven when it is discovered or determined by the individual reason and accepted or enforced by the individual will,\u2014this is the
\ngoverning idea of objectivism; a mechanical process of management, ordering, perfection, this is its conception of practice. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nSubjectivism proceeds from within and regards everything
\nfrom the point of view of a containing and developing self-consciousness. The law here is within ourselves; life is a self-creating
\nprocess, a growth and development at first subconscious, then
\nhalf-conscious and at last more and more fully conscious of that
\nwhich we are potentially and hold within ourselves; the principle
\nof its progress is an increasing self-recognition, self-realisation
\nand a resultant self-shaping. Reason and will are only effective
\nmovements of the self, reason a process in self-recognition, will a
\nforce for self-affirmation and self-shaping. Moreover, reason and
\nintellectual will are only a part of the means by which we recognise and realise ourselves. Subjectivism tends to take a large and
\ncomplex view of our nature and being and to recognise many
\npowers of knowledge, many forces of effectuation. Even, we see it in its first movement away from the external and objective
\nmethod discount and belittle the importance of the work of the
\nreason and assert the supremacy of the life-impulse or the essential Will-to-be in opposition to the claims of the intellect or else
\naffirm some deeper power of knowledge, called nowadays the intuition, which sees things in the whole, in their truth, in their
\nprofundities and harmonies while intellectual reason breaks up, <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 63<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nfalsifies, affirms superficial appearances and harmonises only by a
\nmechanical adjustment. But substantially we can see that what
\nis meant by this intuition is the self-consciousness feeling, perceiving, grasping in its substance and aspects rather than analysing in its mechanism its own truth and nature and powers. The
\nwhole impulse of subjectivism is to get at the self, to live in the
\nself, to see by the self, to live out the truth of the self internally
\nand externally but always from an internal initiation and centre. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nBut still there is the question of the truth of the self, what
\nit is, where is its real abiding-place; and here subjectivism has to
\ndeal with the same factors as the objective view of life and existence. We may concentrate on the individual life and consciousness as the self and regard its power, freedom, increasing light
\nand satisfaction and joy as the object of living and thus arrive at a
\nsubjective individualism. We may on the other hand lay stress
\non the group consciousness, the collective self; we may see man
\nonly as an expression of this group-self necessarily incomplete
\nin his individual or separate being, complete only by that larger
\nentity, and we may wish to subordinate the life of the individual man to the
\ngrowing power, efficiency, knowledge, happiness, self-fulfillment of the race or even sacrifice it and consider it as nothing except in so far as it lends itself to the life and growth of the
\ncommunity or the kind. We may claim to exercise a righteous
\noppression on the individual and teach him intellectually and
\npractically that he has no claim to exist, no right to fulfil himself
\nexcept in his relations to the collectivity. These alone then are
\nto determine his thought, action and existence and the claim
\nof the individual to have a law of his own being, a law of his own
\nnature which he has a right to fulfil and his demand for freedom of thought
\ninvolving necessarily the freedom to err and for freedom of action involving necessarily the freedom to stumble and
\nsin may be regarded as an insolence and a chimera. The collective
\nself-consciousness will then have the right to invade at every <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 64<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\npoint the life of the individual, to refuse to it all privacy and
\napartness, all self-concentration and isolation, all independence
\nand self-guidance and determine everything for it by what it conceives to be the best thought and highest will and rightly dominant feeling, tendency, sense of need, desire for self-satisfaction
\nof the collectivity. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nBut also we may enlarge the idea of the self and, as objective
\nScience sees a universal force of Nature which is the one reality
\nand of which everything is the process, we may come subjectively
\nto the realisation of a universal Being or Existence which fulfils
\nitself in the world and the individual and the group with an impartial regard for all as equal powers of its self-manifestation.
\nThis is obviously the self-knowledge which is most likely to be
\nright, since it most comprehensively embraces and accounts for
\nthe various aspects of the world-process and the eternal tendencies of humanity. In this view neither the separate growth of the
\nindividual nor the all-absorbing growth of the group can be the
\nideal, but an equal, simultaneous and, as far as may be, parallel
\ndevelopment of both, in which each helps to fulfil the other.
\nEach being has his own truth of independent self-realisation and
\nhis truth of self-realisation in the life of others and should feel,
\ndesire, help, participate more and more, as he grows in largeness and power, in
\nthe harmonious and natural growth of all the individual selves and all the collective selves of the one universal
\nBeing. These two, when properly viewed, would not be separate,
\nopposite or really conflicting lines of tendency, but the same impulse of the one common existence, companion movements separating only to return upon each other in a richer and larger unity
\nand mutual consequence. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nSimilarly, the subjective search for the self may, like the
\nobjective, lean preponderantly to identification with the conscious physical life, because the body is or seems to be the frame
\nand determinant here of the mental and vital movements and <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 65<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ncapacities. <\/b> Or it may identify itself with the vital being, the
\nlife-soul in us and its emotions, desires, impulses, seekings for power
\nand growth and egoistic fulfilment. Or it may rise to a conception
\nof man as a mental and moral being, exalt to the first place his
\ninner growth, power and perfection, individual and collective,
\nand set it before us as the true aim of our existence. A sort of
\nsubjective materialism, pragmatic and outward-going, is a possible standpoint; but in this the subjective tendency cannot long
\nlinger. For its natural impulse is to go always inward and it only
\nbegins to feel itself and have satisfaction of itself when it gets
\nto the full conscious life within and feels all its power, joy and
\nforceful potentiality pressing for fulfilment. Man at this stage
\nregards himself as a profound, vital Will-to-be which uses body
\nas its instrument and to which the powers of mind are servants
\nand ministers. This is the cast of that vitalism which in various
\nstriking forms has played recently so great a part and still exercises a considerable influence on human thought. Beyond it we
\nget to a subjective idealism now beginning to emerge and become
\nprominent, which seeks the fulfilment of man in the satisfaction
\nof his inmost religious, aesthetic, intuitive, his highest intellectual and ethical, his deepest sympathetic and emotional nature
\nand, regarding this as the fullness of our being and the whole object of our
\nbeing, tries to subject to it the physical and vital existence. These come to be considered rather as a possible symbol
\nand instrument of the subjective life flowing out into forms than
\nas having any value in themselves. A certain tendency to mysticism, occultism and the search for a self independent of the life
\nand the body accompanies this new movement\u2014new to modern
\nlife after the reign of individualism and objective intellectualism
\n\u2014and emphasises its real trend and character. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nBut here also it is possible for subjectivism to go beyond and
\nto discover the true Self as something greater even than mind.
\nMind, life and body then become merely an instrumentation for
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 66<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe increasing expression of this Self in the world,\u2014instruments
\nnot equal in their hierarchy, but equal in their necessity to the
\nwhole, so that their complete perfection and harmony and unity
\nas elements of our self-expression become essential to the true
\naim of our living. And yet that aim would not be to perfect life,
\nbody and mind in themselves, but to develop them so as to make
\na fit basis and fit instruments for the revelation in our inner and
\nouter life of the luminous Self, the secret Godhead who is one
\nand yet various in all of us, in every being and existence, thing
\nand creature. The ideal of human existence personal and social
\nwould be its progressive transformation into a conscious out-flowering of the joy, power, love, light, beauty of the transcendent
\nand universal Spirit. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 67<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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