{"id":77,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:42","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=77"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:42","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:42","slug":"42-the-process-of-evollution-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03\/42-the-process-of-evollution-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-42_The Process of Evollution.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nThe Process of Evolution<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HE <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b>end of a stage of evolution is usually
\nmarked by a powerful recrudescence of all that has to go out of
\nthe evolution. It is a principle of Nature that in order to get rid
\nof any powerful tendency or deep-seated association in humanity, whether in the mass or in the individual, it has first to be
\nexhausted by bhoga<\/i> or enjoyment, afterwards to be dominated
\nand weakened by nigraha<\/i> or control and, finally, when it is weak,
\nto be got rid of by samyama<\/i>, rejection or self-dissociation. The
\ndifference between nigraha<\/i> and samyama<\/i> is that in the first process
\nthere is a violent struggle to put down, coerce and, if possible, crush the tendency, the reality of which is not questioned,
\nbut in the second process it is envisaged as a dead or dying force,
\nits occasional return marked with disgust, then with impatience,
\nfinally with indifference as a mere ghost, vestige or faint echo of
\nthat which was once real but is now void of significance. Such a
\nreturn is part of the process of Nature for getting rid of this
\nundesirable and disappearing quantity.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nSamyama<\/i> is unseasonable and would be fruitless when a
\nforce, quality or tendency is in its infancy or vigour, before it
\nhas had the enjoyment and full activity which is its due. When
\nonce a thing is born, it must have its youth, growth, enjoyment,
\nlife and final decay and death; when once an impetus has been
\ngiven by Prakriti to her creation, she insists that the velocity shall
\nspend itself by natural exhaustion before it shall cease. To arrest
\nthe growth or speed unseasonably by force is nigraha<\/i>, which can
\nbe effective for a time but not in perpetuity. It is said in the Gita
\nthat all things are ruled by their nature, to their nature they
\nreturn and nigraha<\/i> or repression is fruitless. What happens then
\nis that the thing untimely slain by violence is not really dead, but
\nwithdraws for a time into the Prakriti which sent it forth, gathers an immense
\nforce and returns with extraordinary violence ravening for the rightful enjoyment which it was denied. We see this
\nin the attempts we make to get rid of our evil samskāras<\/i> or asso-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 347<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nciations when we first tread the path of Yoga. If anger is a powerful
\nelement in our nature, we may put it down for a time by sheer
\nforce and call it self-control, but eventually unsatisfied Nature
\nwill get the better of us and the passion return upon us with astonishing force at an unexpected moment. There are only two
\nways by which we can effectively get the better of the passion
\nwhich seeks to enslave us. One is by substitution, replacing it
\nwhenever it rises by the opposite quality, anger by thoughts of
\nforgiveness, love or forbearance, lust by meditation on purity,
\npride by thoughts of humility and our own defects or nothingness; this is the method of Rajayoga but it is a difficult, slow and
\nuncertain method; for both the ancient traditions and the
\nmodern experience of Yoga show that men who had attained for
\nlong years the highest self-mastery, have been suddenly surprised by a violent return of the thing they thought dead or for
\never subject. Still, this substitution, slow though it be, is one of
\nthe commonest methods of Nature and it is largely by this means,
\noften unconsciously or half-consciously used, that the character
\nof a man changes and develops from life to life or even in the
\nbounds of a single life-time. It does not destroy things in their
\nseed and the seed which is not reduced to ashes by Yoga is always
\ncapable of sprouting again and growing into the complete and
\nmighty tree. The second method is to give bhoga<\/i> or enjoyment
\nto the passion so as to get rid of it quickly. When it is satiated
\nand surfeited by excessive enjoyment, it becomes weak and spent
\nand a reaction ensues which establishes for a time the opposite
\nforce, tendency or quality. If that moment is seized by the Yogin
\nfor nigraha<\/i>, the nigraha <\/i> so repeated at every suitable opportunity
\nbecomes so far effective as to reduce the strength and vitality of
\nthe vrtti<\/i> sufficiently for the application of the final samyama<\/i>. This
\nmethod of enjoyment and reaction is also a favourite and universal method of Nature, but it is never complete in itself and if
\napplied to permanent forces or qualities, tends to establish a
\nsee-saw of opposite tendencies, extremely useful to the operations
\nof Prakriti but from the point of view of self-mastery useless and
\ninconclusive. It is only when this method is followed up by the
\nuse of samyama<\/i> that it becomes effective. The Yogin regards
\nthe vrtti<\/i> merely as a play of Nature with which he is not con-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 348<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ncerned and of which he is merely the spectator; the anger, lust
\nor pride is not his, it is the universal Mother’s and she works it
\nand stills it for her own purposes. When, however, the vrtti<\/i> is
\nstrong, mastering and unspent, this attitude cannot be maintained
\nin sincerity and to try to hold it intellectually without sincerely
\nfeeling it, is mithyācāra<\/i>, false discipline or hypocrisy. It is only
\nwhen it is somewhat exhausted by repeated enjoyment and coercion that Prakriti or Nature at the command of the soul or
\nPurusha can really deal with her own creation. She deals with it
\nfirst by vairāgya<\/i> in its crudest form of disgust, but this is too violent a feeling to be permanent; yet it leaves its mark behind in a
\ndeep-seated wish to be rid of its cause, which survives the return
\nand temporary reign of the passion. Afterwards its return is
\nviewed with impatience but without any acute feeling of intolerance. Finally, supreme indifference or
\nudāsīnatā<\/i> is gained and
\nthe final going out of the tendency by the ordinary process of
\nNature is watched in the true spirit of the samyamī<\/i> who has the
\nknowledge that he is the witnessing soul and has only to dissociate himself from a phenomenon for it to cease. The highest
\nstage leads either to mukti<\/i> in the form of laya<\/i> or disappearance,
\nthe vrtti<\/i> vanishing altogether and for good, or else in another
\nkind of freedom when the soul knows that it is God’s līlā<\/i> and
\nleaves it to Him whether He shall throw out the tendency or use
\nit for His own purposes. This is the attitude of the Karmayogin
\nwho puts himself in God’s hands and does work for His sake
\nonly, knowing that it is God’s force that works in him. The result
\nof that attitude of self-surrender is that the Lord of all takes
\ncharge and according to the promise of the Gita delivers His
\nservant and lover from all sin and evil, the vrttis<\/i> working in the
\nbodily machine without affecting the soul and working only when
\nHe raises them up for His purposes. This is nirliptatā<\/i>, the state
\nof absolute freedom within the līlā<\/i>.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe law is the same for the mass as for the individual. The
\nprocess of human evolution has been seen by the eye of inspired
\nobservation to be that of working out the tiger and the ape. The
\nforces of cruelty, lust, mischievous destruction, pain-giving,
\nfolly, brutality, ignorance were once rampant in humanity, they had full
\nenjoyment; then by the growth of religion and philo-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 349<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nsophy they began in periods of satiety such as the beginning of
\nthe Christian era in Europe to be partly replaced, partly put
\nunder control. As is the law of such things, they have always
\nreverted again with greater or less virulence and sought with more
\nor less success to re-establish themselves. Finally, in the nineteenth century it seemed for a time as if some of these forces had,
\nfor the time at least, exhausted themselves and the hour for
\nsamyama<\/i> and gradual dismissal from the evolution had really
\narrived. Such hopes always recur and in the end they are likely
\nto bring about their own fulfilment, but before that happens another recoil is inevitable. We see plenty of signs of it in the reeling
\nback into the beast which is in progress in Europe and America
\nbehind the fair outside of Science, progress, civilisation and
\nhumanitarianism, and we are likely to see more signs of it in the
\nera that is coming upon us. A similar law holds in politics and
\nsociety. The political evolution of the human race follows certain lines of which the most recent formula has been given in
\nthe watchwords of the French Revolution, freedom, equality
\nand brotherhood. But the forces of the old world, the forces of
\ndespotism, the forces of traditional privilege and selfish exploitation, the forces of unfraternal strife and passionate self-regarding
\ncompetition are always struggling to reseat themselves on the
\nthrones of the earth. A determined movement of reaction is
\nevident in many parts of the world and nowhere perhaps more
\nthan in England which was once one of the self-styled champions
\nof progress and liberty. The attempt to go back to the old spirit
\nis one of those necessary returns without which it cannot be so
\nutterly exhausted as to be blotted out from the evolution. It
\nrises only to be defeated and crushed again. On the other hand,
\nthe force of the democratic tendency is not a force which is spent
\nbut one which has not yet arrived, not a force which has had the
\ngreater part of its enjoyment but one which is still vigorous, unsatisfied and eager for fulfilment. Every attempt to coerce it
\nin the past reacted eventually on the coercing force and brought
\nback the democratic spirit fierce, hungry and unsatisfied, joining
\nto its fair motto of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" the
\nterrible addition "or Death". It is not likely that the immediate
\nfuture of the democratic tendency will satisfy the utmost dreams<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 350<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nof the lover of liberty who seeks an anarchist freedom, or of the
\nlover of equality who tries to establish a socialistic dead level,
\nor of the lover of fraternity who dreams of a world-embracing
\ncommunism. But some harmonisation of this great ideal is undoubtedly the immediate future of the human race. On the old
\nforces of despotism, inequality and unbridled competition, after
\nthey have been once more overthrown, a process of gradual
\nsamyama<\/i> will be performed by which what has remained of them
\nwill be regarded as the disappearing vestiges of a dead reality
\nand without any further violent coercion be transformed slowly
\nand steadily out of existence.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 351<\/font><\/p>\n

\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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