{"id":473,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=473"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:13","slug":"05-evolution-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17\/05-evolution-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","title":{"rendered":"-05_Evolution.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


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

 <\/p>\n

\n                        A 
\n<\/b> PROGRESSIVE
\n<\/b> evolution of the visible and invisible instruments of the Spirit is the whole law of the
\nearth nature; that too is the fundamental value which underlies all the other values of its existence and its process and gives them
\ntheir significance.<\/p>\n

    Spirit has concealed itself in inconscient matter. It evolves,
\nfor itself  first of all and as if that were its only preoccupation, forms of matter by the working of matter forces. It is only when
\nthis has been sufficiently done, that it thinks of life.<\/p>\n

    And yet a subconscient life and its imprisoned forces
\nwere there all the time in matter and its forces and are there even in its most apparently
\ninanimate forms….<\/p>\n

    Afterwards came an evolution of mind in many forms by
\nthe working of liberated mind-forces. In those life-forces in matter and even in the very substance of matter mind was latent.
\nAn evolution of mind in the living form by a working of liberated mind-forces was the third chapter of the story. The third chapter
\nis not completed, neither will it be the end of the narrative.<\/p>\n

    The evolution of the earth nature is not finished because it
\nhas manifested only three powers out of the seven-fold scale of consciousness that is involved in manifested Nature. It has
\nbrought out from its apparent inconscience only the three powers of Mind and Life and Matter.<\/p>\n

    Mind emerges out of life in matter; it is incapable of manifesting directly in the material form. It is there, but it acts mechanically in the somnambulism of an original force of inconscience
\nand inertia. This and no more is what we mean by the inconscience of Matter; for although consciousness is there, it is
\ninvolved, inorganic, mechanical in its action; it supports the works of Force by its inherent presence, but not by its light of active
\nintelligence. This is why material Nature does the works of a<\/p>\n

Page – 13<\/p>\n

\n

supreme
\nand miraculous intelligence and yet there seems to be no intervention of any
\nindwelling Seer or Thinker.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    Ether
\nand material space are different names for the same thing. Space, in its origin
\nat least if not in its universal character, is an extension of the substance of
\nconsciousness in which motion of energy can take place for the relations of
\nbeing with being or force with force and for the building up of symbolic forms
\non which this interchange can be supported. Ether is space support\u00ading the
\nworks of material energy and the symbolic forms it creates; it is, speaking
\nparadoxically but to the point, immaterial or essential matter.<\/p>\n

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


\nI<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Evolution
\nis the one eternal dynamic law and hidden process of the earth-nature.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    An
\nevolution of the instruments of the spirit in a medium of Matter is the whole
\nfundamental significance of the values of the earth-existence. All its other
\nlaws are its values of operation and process; this spiritual evolution is its
\nown pervading secret sense.
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    The
\nhistory of the earth is first an evolution of organised forms by the working of
\nmaterial forces.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    There
\nfollows on this initial stage an evolution of life in the form and an
\norganisation of a hierarchy of living forms by the working of the liberated
\nlife-forces. The next step is an evolution of mind in living bodies and an
\norganisation of more and more conscious lives by the process of developing
\nmind-forces. But this is not the end; for there are higher powers of
\nconsciousness beyond mind which await their turn and must have their act in the
\ngreat play, their part of the creative Lila.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    Matter,
\nthe medium of all this evolution, is seemingly inconscient and inanimate; but it
\nappears to us so only because we are unable to sense consciousness outside a
\ncertain limited range, a fixed scale or gamut to which we have access. Below us
\nthere are lower ranges to which we are insensible and these we call
\nsubconscience or inconscience. Above us are higher ranges which are, to our
\ninferior nature, an unseizable superconscience.<\/p>\n

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


\nPage
\n– 14<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

    The
\ndifficulty of Matter is not an absolute inconscience, but an obscured
\nconsciousness limited by its own movement \u2014 vaguely, dumbly, blindly
\nself-aware, not really responsive to anything outside its own form and forces.
\nAt its worst it can be called not so much inconscience as nescience. The
\nawakening of a greater and yet greater consciousness in this Nescience is the
\nmiracle of the universe of Matter.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    This
\nnescience of Matter is a veiled, an involved or somnambulist consciousness
\nwhich contains all the latent powers of the Spirit. In every particle, atom,
\nmolecule, cell of Matter there lives hidden and works unknown all the
\nomniscience of the Eternal and all the omnipotence of the Infinite.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    The
\nevolution of forms and powers by which Matter will become more and more
\nconscious until passing beyond form and life and mind it becomes aware, with the
\nsupernal awareness, of the eternal and infinite Spirit in his own highest
\nranges, this is the meaning of earth-existence. The slow self-manifesting birth
\nof God in Matter is the purpose of the terrestrial Lila.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

Matter
\nis at once a force and a substance. Matter is original being, Brahman, made
\nconcrete in atomic division. Matter is original substance-force, Brahman-Shakti,
\nmade active in an obscure involution of the Spirit\u2019s powers in a
\nself-forgetful nescience. Matter-force casts matter-substance, material Shakti
\ncasts Matter Brahman into form expressive of its own most characteristic
\npowers. When that has been done, the physical world is ready for the splendid
\nintrusion of conscious Life into the force-driven inertia of material substance.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    Matter
\nis not the only force, not the only substance. For Life and Mind and what is
\nbeyond Mind are also forces that are substances, but of another kind and degree.
\nSpirit is the original force-substance; all these others are kinds and
\nderivations of the force of Spirit, degrees and modifications of the substance
\nof Spirit. Matter too is nothing but a power and degree of the Spirit; Matter
\ntoo is substance of the Eternal.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    The
\nMatter that we see and sense is only an outermost sheath
\nand crating; behind it are other subtler degrees of
\nphysical
\nsubstance which are less dense with the atomic ne\u00ad<\/p>\n

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


\nPage
\n– 15<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

science,
\nand it is easier for life, mind and other powers to enter into them and operate.
\nIf the finer invisible physical layers or <\/font> <\/span>
\ncouches
\n<\/span><\/i><\/span>did not
\nexist supporting this gross visible physical world, that world could not abide;
\nfor then the fine operations of transmission between Spirit and Matter could
\nnot be executed at all and it is these that render the grosser visible
\noperations possible. The evolution would be impossible; life and mind and
\nbeyondmind would be unable to manifest in the material universe.<\/span><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

    There
\nis not only this material plane of being that we see, there is a physical
\nlife-plane proper to the vital physical operation of Nature. There is a
\nphysical mind-plane proper to a mental physical operation of Nature. There is a
\nphysical supermjnd plane proper to the supramental physical operation of Nature.
\nThere is too a plane of physical spirit-power or infinite physical<\/p>\n

Being- Consciousnes-Fors-Bliss <\/span>proper to the spiritual physical operations
\nof Nature. It is only when we have discovered and separated these planes of
\nNature and of our physical being and analysed the synthesis of their
\ncontributions to the whole play that we shall discover how the evolution of
\nvital, mental and spiritual consciousness became possible in inconscient Matter.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    But
\nthere is more; for beyond these many <\/font><\/span>
\ncouches<\/span> <\/b>
\n<\/span><\/i>of the
\nphysical existence are other supra-physical degrees, many layers of Life, many
\nlayers of Mind, planes of Supermind, of Bliss, of Consciousness-Force and of
\ninfinite Being on which the physical existence depends for its origination and
\nits continuance. It is the higher planes that constantly unfold unseen energies
\nwhich have raised its evolution from the obscurity in which it began to the
\nsplendour of a light of consciousness to which the highest human mind shall only
\nbe the feeble glimmer of a glow-worm fire before the sun in its flaming glories.<\/span><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

    This
\nis the stupendous hierarchy of the grades of consciousness between the
\ndarkest Matter and the most luminous Spirit. Consciousness in Matter has to go
\non climbing to the very top of the series and return with all it has to give us
\nbefore the evolution can utterly fulfil its purpose.<\/p>\n

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

Matter,
\nLife, Mind, Supermind or Gnosis, and beyond these
\nhe
\nquadruple power of a supreme Being-Cosciousness-Force-<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage
\n– 16<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Bliss:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/b>these
\nare the grades of the evolutionary ascent from Inconscience to the
\nSuperconscience.<\/span><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

    Life
\ndoes not wholly come into the earth from outside it; its principle is there
\nalways in material things. But, imprisoned in the apparent inanimate inertia of
\nMatter, it is bound by its movements and unable to manifest its own independent
\nor dominant existence.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    Life
\nis there in the earth, rock, metal, gas, atom, electron and the other more
\nsubtle yet undiscovered forces and particles that constitute material energy and
\nform. It is in everything, but at first a hardly detectable presence, organised.
\nonly to support secretly material energies, processes, formations and
\ntransformations; it is there as an involved power for the building and
\nexpression of form of Matter, not for the expression of Life. It<\/span>
\n<\/b>is not in possession of itself, not self-conscious in the form, not pushed
\ntowards self-manifestation; a helpless tool and instrument, not a free agent,
\nit is a servant of Matter and a slave of the Form, not the master of the house.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    But
\nabove the material world there is a plane of dominant Life that presses down
\nupon this material universe and seeks to pour into it whatever it can of its own
\ntypes, powers, forces, im\u00adpulsions, manifesting creative godheads. When in the
\nmaterial world form is ready, the Gods and the Life-Daemons of this higher plane
\nare attracted to put their creative touch upon Matter. Then there comes a rapid
\nand sudden efflorescence of Life; the plant, the animalcule, the insect, the
\nanimal appear. A life-soul and a life-force with its many and always more
\ncomplex movements are manifested in what seemed once to be inert and inanimate
\nsubstance. Life-souls, life-minds, animal exis\u00adtences are born and evolve; a
\nnew world appears that is born and contained in this world of Matter and yet
\nsurpasses it in its true dynamic nature.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nII<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 Involution
\nof a superconscient Spirit in inconscient Matter
\nis
\nthe secret of this visible and apparent world and the evolution<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage
\n– 17<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

of
\nthis Superconscient out of inconscient Nature is the keyword of the earth\u2019s
\nriddle. Earth-life is the self-chosen habitation of a great Divinity and his
\naeonic will is to change it from a blind prison into his splendid mansion and
\nhigh heaven-reaching temple.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    The
\nnature of the Divinity in the world is the immutable stability of an eternal
\nexistence that puts on superficial mutable forms, the indivisible light of an
\ninfinite consciousness that breaks out into multiform detail and groping of
\nknowledge, the illimitable movement of an omnipotent force that works out its
\nmarvels in self-imposed limits, the calm and ecstasy of an immeasurable Delight
\nthat creates waves and rhythms of the outward-going and inward-drawing
\nintensities of its own all-possessing and self-possessing bliss. This will be
\nthe nature of our own fourfold experience when it will work in us in its
\nunveiled nature; and if that manifestation had been from the beginning there
\nwould have been no problem of terrestrial existence.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    But
\nthis Godhead here, whether within us or outside us in things and forces and
\ncreatures, started from an involution in inconscient Nature and began by the
\nmanifestation of its apparent opposites. In Non-existence, discontinuity and
\nvoid, the appearance of a blind inconscient Force, in the creations of that
\nForce a principle of difficult labour and suffering and pain: out of these
\nopposites the Spirit in Matter has chosen to evolve its might and light and
\ninfinity and beatitude.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nIII<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nBefore there could be any evolution, there must needs be an involution of the
\nDivine.
\nOtherwise there would be not an evolution but a successive creation of things
\nnew, not contained in their antecedents, not their inevitable consequences or
\nprocesses in a sequence, but arbitrarily willed or miraculously conceived by an
\ninexplicable Chance, a stumbling fortunate Force or an external Creator. All
\nthat is to change.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    The
\nlong process of terrestrial formation and creation, the ambiguous miracle of
\nlife, the struggle of mind to appear and<\/p>\n

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


\nPage
\n– 18<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

grow
\nin an apparent vast Ignorance and to reign there as interpreter and creator
\nand master, the intimations of a greater something that passes beyond the
\nfinite marvel of Mind to the infinite marvels of the Spirit, are not a
\nmeaningless and fortuitous passing result of some cosmic Chance with its huge
\ncombination of coincidences; they are not the lucky play of some blind
\nmaterial Force. <\/b>These things are and
\ncan be only because of something eternal and divine that concealed itself in
\nenergy and form of Matter.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    The
\nsecret of the terrestrial evolution is the slow and progressive liberation of
\nthis latent indwelling spirit, the difficult appearance of Something or Someone
\nalready involved with all its potential forces in a first formal basis of
\nsupporting substance, its greater slowly emerging movements locked up in an
\ninitial expressive power of Matter.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    Man
\nthe thinker and seeker could not be here if he were not an embodied portion of
\nan all-conscious Infinite that is superconscient above him but lies also
\nhidden in the inconscience of the material universe.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    Matter
\nis the apparent beginning of the evolution but it is not its end. The
\ndevelopment of form is not the most important or the most significant part of
\nthe evolutionary process; it is one sign of the thing that is being done, but it
\nis not its essence. Material form is only a support and means for the
\nprogressive manifestation of the Spirit.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    If
\nall were chance or play of inconscient or inconsequent Force, there would be no
\nreason why man with all his imperfections should not be the last word of this
\nfeat of unconscious intelligence or this haphazard miracle. It is because the
\nDivine Spirit is there and his manifestation, the meaning of the move\u00adment is
\nthat a new power must emerge in the series that started from Matter. 
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

   
\nThe material universe would be a waste of wonderful desert
\n in Life had not appeared as the first index to some marvelous utility and
\n an ultimate profound and moving significance. But life to by itself would
\n be a movement without sequence to its purposeful initiation or light to
\n its own mystery if in Life  there were not concealed an
\n interpretative at least a seeking power <\/p>\n


\n <\/font><\/span>Page
\n– 19<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

of
\nConsciousness that could turn upon its powers and way to
\ngrasp
\nand direct them towards their own realised issue.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    Because
\nthis infinite Spirit and eternal Divinity is here concealed in the process of
\nmaterial Nature, the evolution of a power beyond Mind is not only possible, but
\ninevitable. If all were result of cosmic Chance there need be no necessity of
\nits appearance, even as there was no necessity for any embarrassing emergence
\nof a stumbling and striving vital Consciousness in the mechanical whirl of
\nMatter. And if all were the works of a mechanical Force, then too mind need
\nnot have unexpectedly appeared as a superior mechanism labouring to deal with
\nNature\u2019s grosser first machine and supermind would be still more a
\nsuperfluity and a luminous insolence. Or, if a limited experimenting external
\nCreator were the inventor of this universe, there would be no reason why he
\nshould not stop short at mind, content with the ingenuity of his labour. But
\nsince the Divinity is involved here and is emerging, it is inevitable that all
\nhis powers or degrees of power should emerge one after the other till the whole
\nglory is embodied and visible.
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage
\n– 20<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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