{"id":90,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:50","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=90"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:50","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:50","slug":"44-yoga-and-human-evolution-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\/44-yoga-and-human-evolution-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-44_Yoga and Human Evolution.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nYoga and Human Evolution<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HE <\/font>
\n<\/b>whole burden of our human progress
\nhas been an attempt to escape from the bondage to the body and
\nthe vital impulses. According to the scientific theory, the human
\nbeing began as the animal, developed through the savage and
\nconsummated in the modern civilized man. The Indian theory is
\ndifferent. God created the world by developing the many out of the One and the
\nmaterial out of the spiritual. From the beginning, the objects which compose the physical world were arranged by Him in their causes, developed under the law of their
\nbeing in the subtle or psychical world and then manifested in the
\ngross or material world. From kārana<\/i> to sūksma<\/i>, from sūksma
\n<\/i>to sthūla<\/i>, and back again, that is the formula. Once manifested
\nin matter, the world proceeds by laws which do not change from
\nage to age, by a regular succession, until it is all withdrawn back
\nagain into the source from which it came. The material goes back
\nto the psychical and the psychical is involved in the cause or seed.
\nIt is again put out when the period of expansion recurs and runs
\nits course on similar lines but with different details till the period
\nof contraction is due. Hinduism regards the world as a recurrent
\nseries of phenomena of which the terms vary but the general
\nformula abides the same. The theory is only acceptable if we
\nrecognise the truth of the conception formulated in the Vishnu
\nPurana of the world as vijn\u00f1ānavijrmbhitāni<\/i>, developed of ideas
\nin the Universal Intelligence which lies at the root of all material
\nphenomena and by its indwelling force shapes the growth of the
\ntree and the evolution of the clod as well as the development of
\nliving creatures and the progress of mankind. Whichever theory
\nwe take, the laws of the material world are not affected. From
\naeon to aeon, from kalpa<\/i> to kalpa<\/i> Narayan manifests himself in an
\never-evolving humanity which grows in experience by a series of expansions and
\ncontractions towards its destined self-realisation in God. That evolution is not denied by the Hindu
\ntheory of yugas<\/i>. Each age in the Hindu system has its own line<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\n\u2013 357<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nof moral and spiritual evolution and the decline of the dharma
\n<\/i>or established law of conduct from the satya<\/i> to the kaliyuga<\/i> is
\nnot in reality a deterioration but a detrition of the outward forms
\nand props of spirituality in order to prepare a deeper spiritual
\nintensity within the heart. In each kaliyuga<\/i> mankind gains some 
\nthing in essential spirituality. Whether we take the modern scientific or the ancient Hindu standpoint the progress of humanity is
\na fact. The wheel of Brahma rotates for ever but it does not turn
\nin the same place; its rotations carry it forward.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe animal is distinguished from man by its enslavement
\nto the body and the vital impulses. Aśanāyā mrtyuh<\/i>, Hunger who
\nis Death, evolved the material world from of old, and it is the
\nphysical hunger and desire and the vital sensations and primary
\nemotions connected with the prāna<\/i> that seek to feed upon the
\nworld in the beast and in the savage man who approximates to
\nthe condition of the beast. Out of this animal state, according
\nto European Science, man rises working out the tiger and the ape
\nby intellectual and moral development in the social condition. If
\nthe beast has to be worked out, it is obvious that the body and
\nthe prāna<\/i> must be conquered, and as that conquest is more or
\nless complete, the man is more or less evolved. The progress of
\nmankind has been placed by many predominatingly in the development of the human intellect, and intellectual development is
\nno doubt essential to self-conquest. The animal and the savage
\nare bound by the body because the ideas of the animal or the
\nideas of the savage are mostly limited to those sensations and
\nassociations which are connected with the body. The development of intellect enables a man to find the deeper self within and
\npartially replace what our philosophy calls the dehātmakabuddhi<\/i>,
\n<\/i>the sum of ideas and sensations which make us think of the body
\nas ourself, by another set of ideas which reach beyond the body,
\nand existing for their own delight and substituting intellectual and
\nmoral satisfaction as the chief objects of life, master, if they cannot entirely silence, the clamour of the lower sensual desires.
\nThat animal ignorance which is engrossed with the cares and the
\npleasures of the body and the vital impulses, emotions and sensations is tāmasika<\/i>, the result of the predominance of the third
\nprinciple of nature which leads to ignorance and inertia. That<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\n\u2013 358<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nis the state of the animal and the lower forms of humanity which
\nare called in the Purana the first or tamasika<\/i> creation. This animal ignorance, the development of the intellect tends to dispel
\nand it assumes therefore an all-important place in human
\nevolution.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nBut it is not only through the intellect that man rises. If the
\nclarified intellect is not supported by purified emotions, the intellect tends to be dominated once more by the body and to put itself
\nat its service and the leadership of the body over the whole man
\nbecomes more dangerous than in the natural state because the
\ninnocence of the natural state is lost. The power of knowledge
\nis placed at the disposal of the senses, sattva<\/i> serves tamas<\/i>, the
\ngod in us becomes the slave of the brute. The disservice which
\nscientific materialism is unintentionally doing the world is to
\nencourage a return to this condition; the suddenly awakened
\nmasses of men, unaccustomed to deal intellectually with ideas,
\nable to grasp the broad attractive innovations of free thought but
\nunable to appreciate its delicate reservations, verge towards that
\nreeling back into the beast, that relapse into barbarism which was
\nthe condition of the Roman Empire at a high stage of material
\ncivilization and intellectual culture and which a distinguished
\nBritish Statesman declared to be the condition to which all Europe approached. The development of the emotions is therefore
\nthe first condition of a sound human evolution. Unless the feelings tend away from the body and the love of others take increasingly the place of the brute love of self, there can be no progress
\nupward. The organisation of human society tends to develop the
\naltruistic element in man which makes for life and battles with
\nand conquers aśanāyā mrtyuh<\/i>. It is therefore not the struggle for
\nlife, or at least not the struggle for our own life, but the struggle
\nfor the life of others which is the most important term in evolution, \u2014 for our children, for our family, for our class, for our
\ncommunity, for our race and nation, for humanity. An everlasting self takes the place of the old narrow self which is confined
\nto our individual mind and body and it is this moral growth
\nwhich society helps and organises.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nSo far there is little essential difference between our own
\nideas of human progress and those of the West, except in this<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\n

\nvital point that the West believes this evolution to be a development of matter and the satisfaction of the reason, the reflective
\nand observing intellect, to be the highest term of our progress.
\nHere it is that our religion parts company with Science. It
\ndeclares the evolution to be a conquest of matter by the recovery
\nof the deeper emotional and intellectual self which was involved
\nin the body and overclouded by the desires of the prāna<\/i>. In the
\nlanguage of the Upanishads the manahkosa<\/i> and the buddhikosa
\n<\/i>are more than the prānakosa<\/i> and annakosa<\/i> and it is to them that
\nman rises in his evolution. Religion further seeks a higher term
\nfor our evolution than the purified emotions or the clarified
\nactivity of the observing and reflecting intellect. The highest
\nterm of evolution is the spirit in which knowledge, love and
\naction, the three-fold dharma<\/i> of humanity, find their fulfilment
\nand end. This is the ātman<\/i> in the ānandakosa<\/i>, and it is by communion and identity of this individual self with the universal self
\nwhich is God that man will become entirely pure, entirely strong,
\nentirely wise and entirely blissful, and the evolution will be
\nfulfilled. The conquest of the body and the vital self by the purification of the emotions and the clarification of the intellect
\nwas the principal work of the past. The purification has been
\ndone by morality and religion, the clarification by science and
\nphilosophy, art, literature and social and political life being the
\nchief media in which these uplifting forces have worked. The
\nconquest of the emotions and the intellect by the spirit is the work
\nof the future. Yoga is the means by which that conquest becomes
\npossible.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIn Yoga the whole past progress of humanity, a progress
\nwhich it holds on a very uncertain base, is rapidly summed up,
\nconfirmed and made an inalienable possession. The body is conquered, not imperfectly as by the ordinary civilised man, but entirely. The vital part is purified and made the instrument of the
\nhigher emotional and intellectual self in its relations with the
\nouter world. The ideas which go outward are replaced by the
\nideas which move within, the baser qualities are worked out of
\nthe system and replaced by those which are higher, the lower
\nemotions are crowded out by the nobler. Finally all ideas and
\nemotions are stilled and by the perfect awakening of the intuitive<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 360<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nreason which places mind in communion with spirit the whole
\nman is ultimately placed at the service of the Infinite. All false
\nself merges into the true self. Man acquires likeness, union or
\nidentification with God. This is Mukti, the state in which humanity thoroughly realises the freedom and immortality which are
\nits eternal goal.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 361<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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