He envisages the emergence of a new humanity beyond the present stage of evolution. Sri Aurobindo wrote, Not individuals only, but in time the race also in a general rule of being and living, if not in all its members, can have hope, if it develops a sufficient will, to rise beyond the imperfections of our present very undivine nature and to ascend at least to a superior humanity, to rise nearer, even if it cannot absolutely reach a divine manhood or supermanhood. This development is the destiny of humanity as a whole, but it must be realized individually. As the veil rends, the mind recovers its divine light in the all-comprehending Supermind. The knot of the two, the higher and lower hemispheres, is where mind and Supermind meet, separated by a veil. The Divine descends from pure existence to cosmic being through the creative medium of Supermind, and we ascend from matter towards the Divine being through a developing life, soul, and mind in the illuminating medium of Supermind. Sri Aurobindo held that there is both a physical evolution and a spiritual evolution, and therefore a double process. In fact the growth of consciousness is the supreme secret of life, the master key to earthly evolution.” Gupta, “is that man is growing and has to grow in consciousness till he reaches the complete and perfect consciousness, not only in his individual, but in his collective, that is to say, social life. “The sum and substance of all he says,” writes K. The concept of evolution is central to Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy. His greatest literary achievement, Savitiri (1950), is a blank verse spiritual poem of about 24,000 lines that he labored on for more than 20 years. Much shorter, The Mother (1928) is a guide to the practice of Integral Yoga. From his studies he produced his most important work, the lengthy The Life Divine (1940). Philosophy and Hindu teaching now absorbed his energies. On his release from prison, Sri Aubobindo settled in Pondicherry, a French colony in South India, where he was safe from the British. It is this religion that I am raising up before the world, it is this that I have perfected … When you go forth, speak to your nation that it is for the Sanātana Dharma (‘Holy Teaching’) that they arise … I am giving them freedom for the service of the world … It is for the Dharma that India exists.”

While studying the Bhagavad Gita, he heard a Divine voice saying, “Something has been shown to you in this year of seclusion, something about which you had your doubts and it is the truth of the Hindu religion. It was in prison that he had the spiritual experience that shaped the rest of his life. He joined a group known as Extremists and in 1908 was imprisoned by the British on suspicion of planning an armed revolt. Soon after his return from England, where he was educated, he took part in the campaign against the partition of Bengal.

In 1940, in the midst of the Second World War and the struggle for Indian independence, Aurobindo published Life Divine with its optimistic vision of a new humanity beyond the present stage of evolution.Īt first he hoped to achieve change by political activism. Such is the case with Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950). And yet there are those who look past the present state and envision something greater emerging. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.During times of violence and war, it can seem like humanity is on a downward slide. Delhi: The Mother’s Institute of Research. Sri Aurobindo or the adventure of consciousness (M. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.

Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Mind and cosmos: Why the materialist neo-darwinian conception of nature is almost certainly false. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.ĭescartes, R. New York: Dover Publications.Ĭhalmers, D.

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