Indian
Philosphy
by
Brahmasrii
Dr K C Varadachari
3The doctrine of parallelism affirmed by
Spinoza here undergoes a modification, for matter through mind alone reaches up
to the Spirit, but mind cannot reach or lead matter unless it unifies itself
with the Spirit. Transformation of Nature or matter in any manner is possible
only when Spirit descends in some biological manner into both. It seems however
more easy for mind to respond to Spirit than matter.
It is necessary to extinguish the Unconscious of man has
been stirred deeply to the foundations. This is a cosmic Yoga; a churning
process of civilizations making them yield whatever treasures life underneath
the waters of the Unconscious, stilled by surface automatisms. This is the
cause of great upheavals in every direction. All racial and geographical
conflicts which till now were covered by a veneer of religious tolerance have
been thrown up for solution or extinguishment. That is why despite all talks of
intellectual co-operation and cultural understandings the greatest of fanatical
war is being waged, for it is now the cosmic universal values that are set
against the private and instinctive and unconscious values of the old age. The
Unconscious has become conscious and is stirring fiercely and ruthlessly the
primitive elemental values. Our intellect must either rise to the occasion or
perish. The serpent-poison has at long last been exuded and like primeval fire
it is burning everything that is before it. The present war, the fourth within
a century and a half, has the characteristics of elemental cosmic fury.4
4 The puranic story of the “Churning of the
Ocean” by the Gods of Light and Powers of Darkness may be seen to be an
archetypal
this fire of the unconscious, this poison that is
terrible to life-cosmic. And this can be done only by a consciousness poised on
the infinite and eternal values of Universal Divine Life, beneficent,
transforming and radical.5 Imperialistic aims either individual or
racial or national have no place in that consciousness and have no value for
that Consciousness.
act of the wars on the planes of evolution.
‘Poison, Purity and Perfection are the three stages at every step of the
ascent. But it is also to be noted that the whole process is engineered by the
descent of a super-power than that available which makes for all these
reactivities.
Thus
mind has to enter into its own celestial cave and worship at the altar of
Spirit. It has to invoke itself to take a direct hand in its transformation
from the private company of instinct to the universal company of intellect and
rationality. It has to become supermind, more than mind and intellect and
instinct. By such a path it would be able to release the Unconscious of its
violence and fury and make it capable of universal beneficence. The Unconscious
has in it the supreme capability to resonate with the Conscious, and as such
the super-conscious must be more and more made to
5 Siva is the beneficent power who could drink
the poison and the nectar equally. Such is the nature of the Supermind.
occupy the field of consciousness so that we may be in
tune with the beneficence of the Supermind and invoke or instigate the harmonic
rhythms in the Unconsciousness which today typify the material nature. This is
what I mean by the ‘leading up of the Matter through its own route with the
help of the mind that has gone into its own recesses and unified itself with
the Spirit Transcendent!6
Thus
a descent of the superconscious or supermind or Spirit into the intellect of
the modern man must be achieved or else an ascent into the states of the
Supermind must be made by the mind. But we have seen that any radical
transformation of the private and possessive into the universal and integral
could only be done by a force transcending the mind, which is universal and
integral in its very nature. The first flush of the descent of such a
super-consciousness may be such as to produce all sorts of conflicts or to
throw up all the biological memory of the individual so that the new tenement
may be fit for a permanent residing of the higher consciousness or it may even
entail in some
6 See Note 3
cases total giving up of terrestrial or material being
itself through a total immergence in Absolute Spirit (Saccidananda). The first
paragraphs of this address will reveal that the descent of higher universal
forces was not by any means accidental but purposive and providential and
necessary for the next step in Divine Evolution and therefore the last of the
alternatives would appear to be not specially the goal of the historical
Process of Evolution.
Thus
we are confronted with a new cultural impulse, a new pattern of society and
individual, a new dimension in the psychic organization and a new biological
mutation. Unlike previous epochs in known history it is universal and integral
and the drive of the inner Spirit of man has been two pronged or many-pronged.
Old religions and traditions have to undergo and are undergoing transformations
suited to the new age that is emerging and the new race with its genius for
symbolic interpretation on psychological and spiritual lines will transform the
meaning of these religions in such as to present fundamental truths of Spirit
which is unity and multiplicity, perfection and creation, Intelligence and
power, revolutionary and
beneficent. Our old cultures may have to pass if they
cannot adjust themselves to this new force which is multi-dimensional and
multi-planal and integral.
A
cosmic or ecumenic age is upon us, and a divine nature alone will be able to
fulfil its demands. Our entire being has to be sublimated, transformed and
transcended. It is not enough to become universally-minded in some respects;
materially, for it cannot be secure for ever without a new education that makes
men think and feel and sense universally, globally and divinely, for that is
the characteristic of beneficence in all our undertaking. The fundamental goal
of man is universal delight and universal happiness and fulfilment. Universal
Truths are impersonal, and may or may not be beneficent, even like universal
power which may act, impersonally, imperially, and ruthlessly. What is
necessary is the universal goodness and love what transforms the brute and
exalts the truth and makes for beneficence in all activities. This is the inner
secret of Divine transcendence. From love is born truth, and from truth power.
But love is here not impersonal but more than personal.
It is the secret unity of the One with its many, that makes it pour itself,
lose itself and find itself in the many. It is the sacrifice, the Yajna, the
perpetual Yoga of the Divine Nature to be and to express itself in universal
and divine terms on all planes and existences which hang together in It and by
It, and are held together as their Substans and Truth.
In
the cosmic terms of space-time-causal nexus it is the glory of that One, the
true infinite, to manifest His supreme transcendence in the many of his eternal
Nature. Such is the Lila, that it can only imperil false infinites and not true
Infinity. Perfection can yet be possible in terms of these conditions and under
these conditions there can be what is called a pulsation of infinite dynamism
which will integrate symbolically with the Whole and the transcendent find thus
form oneness or identity or more truly resonate in perfect union. To sound the
one is to tune the other. Such a creativity on the part of the individual
integral being will make it continuous with the entire reality in and through
the Divine Nature and man would have ceased to be the intellectual private
creature he is and become a divine
being with super-senses (samjnana), super-knowledge
(vijnana), super-power (prajnana), and Ananda (super-feeling).7
This
is the future of mankind. To become organic with the integral Divine, limbs and
organs or instruments or vehicles of the Divine Universal in action,
transformed in every fibre of being so as to respond to and resonate imperfect
unison with, the universal Super-personal Divine One. Such is identity in
nature (Brahma-sampatti) possible to the individual, so much so the
Divine would have transformed utterly the human into His own nature, for His
own beneficent dynamism and enjoyment and Being.
7 cf. Synthesis of Yoga: Sri Aurobindo
(chapters on these topics) in the “Arya” (1915 – 1921)
A careful reader of the works of H.P.B. would clearly perceive that the
Masters of Wisdom are really aiming at the emergence of a New Race whose
faculties would be almost characterized by the Vijnana or Gnostic consciousness
or Buddhi.
HUMAN
RIGHTS-REFLECTIONS ON CULTURE
It
is undoubtedly a glorious day when the United Nations Organisation asserted that
human beings everywhere have 'rights' which have to be recognized and enforced
everywhere. That it has become necessary to enforce this in every country and
in every form of Government is a significant fact.
This
has become necessary owing to the cynical treatment meted out by governments
both of the left and the right, demogocal and exploitative. Colonialism has
been the main cause of creating two types of men, the ruled and rulers.
Imperialism is but a dignified name for the mercantile colonism. Expansionism
is a third form of this principle of classification of mankind. That this might
be psychologically and biologically justified has been recognized; and it may
conveniently be argued that just as children cannot govern themselves
and just as sick men cannot be left unprotected,
protective custody has been left to the doctors of politics. This the wise men
either self appointed and self-styled or really so had undertaken in many ways
to enforce. Surely society has both these kinds of men. The aim is to cultivate
all men to the sense of their individuality and health. Crime, their and
anti-social activities undoubtedly stem out of lack of education. Primarily
then men have the right of growth to their full individuality or reason, and
all such that help the process of growth to this rational individualism. Thus a
state's primary duty being education of all men, both intelligent and the
healthy and the unintelligent and the unhealthy, the power to educate becomes a
matter of deepest concern. Human nature unfortunately is not simply reason; it
has a good slice of the forces that have built life, competition, survival,
possession need for happiness. But needs have a tendency to turn into greeds
because of the peculiar instinct of gathering for future use or provision for
the future and the rainy day and lean harvests. Therein is introduced the
principle of individual survival and competition and the instinct to gain
advantage over the future is sought to achieve by
every means, fair or foul. It is precisely this fear of
the future that turns needs into greeds. As against this principle of
individual planning for his own future, a right it may be claimed, natural and
innate, there is enforced the recognition of equal rights of other individuals.
Thus we are confronted with the problem of reconciling the rights of all or
surrendering the rights of some for the welfare of some others. This latter
alternative it is that has led to the competitive machinery of civilization,
and this has naturally been possible at the expense of members of one's own
clan or tribe or in many cases at the expense of other clans and tribes,
nationalities and communities. The process is not therefore limited to any one
field, as it encroaches on all fields. This naturalness of man has time and
again been the basic fact of loss of human freedom and the fathering of rights
of some at the expense of others, less fortunate, less mighty and less
intelligent.
Thanks
to the realization that all men are equal and because of that new sense of recognition
of openness of nature in all peoples of the world and in all strata of society,
primitive or advanced, it has become possible to speak of a real brotherhood. A
host of
valiant figure of humanity and wisdom saw that political
and economic prosperity usually go with a kind of exploitation. Unless
political and economic life of persons to be ordered on the basis of
recognition of rights of all equally human nature will be forced to go the
whole way through a competitive psychology which was suitable to a different
kind of words. The recognition of human rights became urgent at the social
pattern of life turned from primitive agrarian, nomadic and exploitative,
scientific and technological. The contents of rights might have change or
additional rights may have come into being and certain have to be abridged or
expanded. Man has begun to realize that rights of life work, occupation,
defence, education, speech, possession, leisure, and enjoyment are all
necessary for establishing his dignity as an individual. Self-determination
then is the right that man demands, both individually and socially. This is the
freedom. Are there limits to this self determination. Obviously there are in so
far as this self-determination should not encroach on others' self-determination.
Nor can the self-determination of an institution encroach on the basic
self-determination of each individual. The clash of
freedoms or rights is the problem of the modern society.
Rights
are not however a modern discovery. Individuals always have fought for freedom
from fear, from insecurity, from dominance, for being oneself even in the
minority, for all these have been considered be necessary for one's sense of
existence. Ancient Indian thought rightly then held that men must have the right
to property or that is the meaning of power to dispose of what one earns and
acquires or makes as one likes, not merely to be a trustee for another men must
have the right enjoy one's life or pursue certain desires which are considered
to be natural, in other words, to acquire and enjoy these which are not
necessities as such for life but which make life pleasant. These have varied
from time to time but on the whole man has sought pleasures and objects of
pleasures. Here again is the recognition not merely of hedonism as the good but
that participates in the good. The right to equal treatment before society or
in societal affairs, independent of property qualifications, is again the
original freedom for freedom for equality in the eyes of the law. This has
become indeed the first important right through history for the inequal
treatment of human beings in respect of
property, or pleasures has become a basic cry for
justice. This enforcement of equality in social matters is not certainly in the
interests so much of the society or state but certainly a recognition of the
conscience of man. That other factors have blurred this recognition showed that
man's conscience always reveals this sense of justice, expressed as sympathy or
lawfulness or dharma. The final right of man is to freedom in respect of his
spiritual destiny, it becomes a factor in the recognition of the trans-social
nature of every human being. This trans-social nature of man is considered to
be spiritual and includes the element of striving towards the attainment of
fuller meaning of one's existence. The four purusharthas then, reveal that
man's natural right is fourfold and it is the business of Human Society or it's
Rules or powers to make for these four freedoms. That men may close one or two
or even three or all the four of these freedoms is again a matter of freedom.
An open society then cannot shut out any one person or a body of persons from
pursuing and getting the best in each. But as it can be seen, this recognizes
the metaphysical right to be free and individual and the metaphysical truth of
pluralism.
However individualistic and pluralistic the above view
might be, the ancient aim has been to recognize that in respect of society the
freedom or right are not to be entirely separated from the fact of brotherhood
or social identity-of interest between members which makes the exercise of a
right conditional on the possibility of equal exercise of other's rights or
freedoms. This is a Dharma or law or the expression of justice. Social rights
then demand firstly an obligation to respect other's rights and indeed the
framework of these rights get concrete sanction and reality in the context of
societal organisation. Secondly there is always in the social context an
attempt to hedge in this right or rights by imposing the obligation to exercise
these rights. Being natural they will be exercised; but if any element of
coercion in any manner either as duty or obligation be entertained it is clear
that rights turn out to be not freedoms but otherwise. It is this element that
is sought to be carefully avoided by those who see that rights cannot be made
to be exercised and one cannot be compelled to be free, under peril of making
them cynical as in Hegelian theory or dictatorial parental government.
Integral education even in the best sense cannot re
enforced. Persuasion by shewing the consequences of partial choices in respect
of exercise of rights and failure to grow up to realise the full meaning of the
human personality and individuality alone can help the vigilance that is
necessary to preserve the rights. Otherwise bare rights as demands and
privileges to exist in a particular manner remain to burden the conscience of
the individuals and the society. There is no easy method by which men must be
made to recognize their individual destiny or their trans-societal nature in
society and it is not a wise way to shew that individuals are just societal and
their rights exist only in and for the society as such.
Rights
of human beings as individuals however have been fought for, though in each
case one had to fight against one's own rules who did not have the vision or
capacity to liberate men from their servitude. Wars have hardly been fought for
the individual liberty, or for the realization of his perfection. They have
been fought for property through plunder, pleasures through reduction and rape,
and have established slavery of the conquered rather than freedom. The recent
world wars
however have ostensibly for the rights of small nations
and for the rights of oppressed peoples. Man is coming to his own thanks to the
work done by the revolutionaries of the earlier centuries. However the
individuals who have carried our these wars and the leaders who are governing
the nation have not quite abjured the ways of war. It is surely to Gandhiji who
had seen more clearly than the Christian nations that we owe a new technique of
persuasion and conquest of men to ideas is taking place. It is surely again, a
great idea to resolve to settle all differences at every level by means of
consultation and discussion, by exchange cordially of opinions and to have
given this a forum. The United Nations organization can be said to be the first
concrete realisation of the idea of Reason. Here again it is not like a debating
society and so on which lead to dialectical solutions. It is deep concern for
the ordinary human being and his intrinsic value, whatever his present
condition in the social and national and racial context may be, that has made
and will make that organization a true conscience of human growth and destiny
all the world over. It is again a great recognition that this concept of human
rights is indivisible, and
wherever there is the negation of this, there is already
a great possibility of that disease becoming rampant. There is thus, great
truth in our discovering thanks to the unification of mankind that the
pluralism of the individuals does not fact entail their indivisibility. Not
merely man cannot suffer abridgment of his own freedom he becomes the champion
and fighter or the same freedom from abridgment of others rights as well. This
concept of indivisibility is essential for the realization of human unity. A
Government which therefore suffers the abridgment of the right of any one of
its citizens indeed is under a grave responsibility to restore that to him or
else persuade him to see that such an abridgment is lost in so far as it has
entailed a transgression or trespass into other person's rights. Mankind has to
be educated, persuaded, both by press and practice of its leaders to see that
theirs is a right way of exercising a right and wrong way of exercising it and
raising the conscience of each person to the perception of justice or dharma. A
dharma rajya then can succeed in these democratic only by the members of the
society being cultivated in the knowledge of equality and brotherhood. A
spiritual education can
reveal the axiom of equality in a better way than other
positive sciences. But then what with the divergences in the notion of our
individual destiny or salvation, here or beyond, we are hardly in a position to
deliver the goods.
Great
civilizations it is seen, express an idea. Our modern age is also said to be
the age of ideology. Communism is said to be an ideological movement as a
counter attack against Absolutism. The pluralistic note of communism very early
was given up in favour of class patterns of organization which alone grant
power to coerce. Indeed communism speaks about its liberating mission. However
it can only end up in making liberty a mockery- at least the means do not show
any sign of leading up to the end. Any return to ancient patterns of thought
cannot throw up a galvanizing idea that will create a new society, instead of a
new social class, that is about similar with earlier patterns of the past. New
names do not alter our difficulties, though they may be intended to deceive.
The new idea that man has to realise and make as his guide in his social and
individual life so as to evolve to higher levels of his own existence -
whatever that might be must then spring up from the hearts of saints of
mankind, rather than from the heads of its philosophers.
For it is indeed significant that the great political leaders of the U.N.O have
always appealed to the significant words of the great spiritual leaders of
mankind Christ, Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed and Lord Krishna. Again we turn to
the eternal message delivered in diverse parts of the globe that was distant to
them but so very closely brought together by science to throw up a deep and
significant message for man so that he may evolve into a universal man, a true
citizen of the free world, and proclaim the oneness of mankind and his freedom.
MEANING
OF HISTORY
Is there meaning for or in
History?
Is
it discernable in the mere march of events or facts or is it something that a
mind prone to generalisations like science sees in this march of events: A
science of History would perhaps help to reveal the meaning of History. The
meaning of science for most lies in its discoveries of laws which help
prediction about the future. There are many who deny this scientific
determinism in History. Science in physical life is possible-perhaps with the
help of statistical probabilities even other natural sciences could progress; in
the field where matter is like money and power (artha sastra) the
sciences could progress very well. But it is very doubtful whether in the
fields of psychology that deal with spiritual activities, of ends that
transcend the terrestrial scheme even though COMPLETE
operating in the context of this terrestrial scheme there
can be any science in the sense of physical and natural sciences.
Let
us note that Aristotle in the West classically stated the types of causes which
operate on the events of every day. He listed four types of causes: the
material, the formal, the efficient and the final. Science most often deals
with the first and is content to observe and deal with the uniformity of causes
and effects, their identities and similarities. The second, formal cause is of
the form of ideas, patterns of making which are not in matter but are
introduced into it and this is done in a mechanical conception by an agent in
whose mind the forms are in clear form. The potter knows what form of pot he
wants and gives this form to matter (silver or brass or clay). The form is the
idea which is introduced into the scheme. In our own conceptions a plan is the
idea which has to be executed in the material of the people. Thus an
intellectual being capable of having ideas introduces or works this form into
matter very much like a jeweller. But in organic life where the idea is
unconsciously held it is seen to manifest itself in terms of adaptation of the
environment to man’s needs
or life's needs, even if this need be just survival. The
inner movement towards having a different form in order to survive is the life.
This same formal force operates through the efficient causality of life in the
lives of social groups leading up to the concept of mobility (social and cultural).
Natural mobility is the efficient causality operating in and through diverse
instrumentations, organic and inorganic, and this is the third kind of
causality that Aristotle mentioned. In Nyaya we call this causality nimitta
karana. But nimitta is also an ambiguous word; it suggests also the
reason for occasion for causality or causal activity. This brings us to the
final causes or goals for which the idea is devised, matter shaped and modified
continuously and new tools improvised to bring about the desired forms suitable
to fulfilling the ends or goals of man.
The
proper understanding of these four causes which in fact are all necessary for
any explanation or meaning of any emergence or result is a basic necessity. If
we can show that History, that is the march of humanity through the ages
starting with its emergence from a lower level being to the present day, has a
goal, that goal would throw light on the progress
of movement down the ages: if we cannot see this or
discern this goal in and through the process we can hardly speak of any
progress at all for progress is a relative term, meaningful in terms of its
approach towards the realization of the goal. In fact the word
evolution itself is a relative concept dependent upon the goal of life--quite arbitrarily
it is held that evolution is a process by which homogeneity leads up to
heterogeneity-the unicellular organism becomes a multi-cellular
organism--diversity leads to the fullness of unity whilst yet maintaining the
unity in a different form than oneness, is said to be a fair enough
description. So too the Monolithic society of the family with unity and
identities of blood gets diversified so much as to attain the goal of a
pluralistic democratic society. Every attempt at paternalistic government by
Dictatorship is a regressive feature which is rejected by the evolutionary
nisus, Thus we can find that history to be meaningful must have a glimpse of
the human destiny or else it can be but a serious catalogue of events which
have nothing to link them up except chronology, or time. But even time begins
with us with an event: a group of planets in a particular house (e.g. astagrahakuta)
or the
Birth or Death of a great individual (Krsna or Rama or
Buddha or Christ or Mohammed or any other) or a great catastrophe like the
Flood. Thus its impact on humanity in the shaping of man’s terrestrial
activities is a notable date. But by itself either one should trace history as
an unfolding of that idea through time and give an appraisal or historical
judgment about its realisation or progress or it should discover how that idea
finds its impediments and halts and diversions and collapse.
A
philosopher of history could proceed to see in the large canvas of centuries
how the Idea however conceived at the beginning by humanity as a whole or in a
segment of it flows out inevitably and is determined by a suprahuman elan
towards its realization in the homo sapiens and homo faber. But
what is less realized is that this process or movement is motivated towards a
goal that is incapable of being discerned in the process according to some, and
capable of being discerned by others. Those who discern it are those who see
life as a whole and steadily, sub specie eterni-- they can be called the
Rsis (tri-kalajnas) and Platonists or Utopians if you please. The
others are those who see little purpose and their realizations but cannot see a
goal of History as a whole.
The
two kinds of philosophers of History can be called the Platonic and the
Bergsonian. The former holds the goal to be the Realisation of the Ultimate
Idea - Harmony and all Beatitude and Society (Sangha), but the latter holds
that the future is open, unpredictable, immense novelty deriving its new shapes
by that ever present inexhaustible spiritual mobility. The future is for ever
bringing forth novelty (navo navo bhavati). Bergson in fact contends that the
impulse towards unity that philosophers discern in history, as the goal of
mankind, is not at the end but at the beginning itself. One unitary force or
elan winds its way up and down creating matter, life and mind and urging itself
on towards the shaping of the gods or supermen. Thus a philosophy of history
based on the theory of a sub specie eterni vision (kranta darsana)
is not correct and leads to such pessimistic views of history as that of
Spengler and others. But this Bergsonian theory lacks the spirit of Real idea
which in fact dimly, unconsciously, subconsciously urges the life itself
towards its enhancement and transformation even up to the point of its own
decease (death). That the infinite
versatility and creative inventiveness and planning of
Spirit is available for it in freedom shows that freedom itself exhibits itself
in and through all the self-determinations that it makes.
It
was Van Hartmann who held that for our human mentality the process of history
is irrational and works through much violent dissipation of energies and
absolutely ceaseless bunglings. It is part of chance play and adaptation
vigilant towards new situations. There is obviously nothing uniform in nature,
a success in one sphere is no guarantee it would help success elsewhere or else
whence. History being an irrational endeavour to seek scientific law or
philosophic meaning in it is meaningless. The irrational qua irrational is
meaningless. George Trevalyn therefore refused to think that history is
meaningful. In fact a scientist of history would refuse to consider final
causes and devote himself to discovering just those uniformities which recur
again and again. Such a view that might emerge if one were partially scientific
in so far as the final causes are ruled out as in the consideration of natural
sciences - might lead to a statement of a theory of eternal recurrence. In fact
the survey by Professor
Toynbee of the rise and fall of civilizations would give
the first impression that there is continuous recurrence in history as fact:
indeed one seems to recall Caesar in Napoleon, and Alexander in others. History
repeats itself. There is the large cycle of the order of birth, growth and
decline and death; and another civilization is born elsewhere not always on the
ashes of the former repeating the same curve of evolution and decline – and
committing the same mistakes. There were always the ages of growth and
enthusiasm and decline of morals and increase of cupidity and hedonism. Though
many might have forgotten the historian Freud. He almost in the same terms as
Hayek (the author of Roads to Serfdom) enumerated the parallels between
the ancient Roman Empire and the British Empire
(vide his Life of Caesar Julius). One seems to be seeing the same
phenomenon over again even in one’s own lifetime, and a sense of reminiscence
seems to grasp our thought and makes us deeply moved by pessimism. Even the
graphic histories of Gibbon and Carlyle are just deep penetrative insights into
this truth of eternal recurrence. In fact Ouspensky claimed that this
recurrence is a fact that makes it
rather pessimistic. But he himself pointed out that there
are certain circumstances that lead to the breaking up of this cycle of eternal
recurrence at each level of being.
I
think that the element of transcendence over this cycle of existence, punar-janma-jara-marana,
has been the most important concept of Indian thought. They found that in the
Itihasas and Puranas this eternal cycle is prevalent at all levels. No one
transcends his level of being, as a materialist, or hedonist or politician
unless he is able to get a new force introduced into his consciousness by way
of a spiritual initiation that leads to his abandonment of the old goals. This
theory of eternal recurrence is also known in Buddhism as the law of dependent
causation, pratitya samutpada - this being that arises in a chain. We
can well discern the principle of Rake’s progress in this chain. This is the
general law of life at each level. This chain is available even in respect of
cosmic events like rain as the Vedas have enunciated. Even the gods are not
free from the deterministic chain, but they have the capacity to pass from one
chain to another. Conceive of a spiral and a circle concentric and the
transition from one to the other by a leap, but it is leap secured by an upward
pull
rather than a push from below. Ouspensky showed by a
diagram that in the ordinary circle that goes round – the going in one
direction results in finding oneself moving in the opposite direction – though
subjectively yet moving in the same direction. Thus when man thinks that he is
progressing, others would find him moving in the opposite direction. It is doubtless
true that this is the law of degeneration or regression or retrograde movement
in all circular orbits. Seizing this principle Professor Toynbee assumed that
the uplift of several civilizations is by a shift of the orbit from one to
another higher up spiralling above the lower and in one sense apparently
reflecting the stages of the lower. The March of Civilizations has been
achieved along with the recurrence but developing a new meaning because of the
introduction of new values however subtle. But as most people can grasp the
lower rather than the higher, there happens the fact of considering that one is
higher when in fact one is lower, and vice versa - that one is yet in the lower
cycle or circle or orbit when actually one is in the higher level.
The
new world has always the characteristic of being new because of the
introduction of a higher
consciousness. In our Indian tradition, this introduction
of a higher level consciousness takes place by the descent of the Divine
Consciousness to that level and lifting up creatures from their lower circular
orbit and giving them or placing them in a higher evolutionary orbit. This
shift of orbit is not automatic movement but a conscious or super-conscious
function which may be called the Deity. Professor Alexander almost suggested
this emergence of the Deity in his magnum opus Space, Time and Deity.
The higher elevation of the evolutionary species has been rendered possible by
the descent of the avataras of different level consciousnesses, such as,
the matsya, kurma, varaha, narasimha, Vamana, Parasurama; Kakutsa, Rama and
Krsna (Bala-Rama) and so on. This shift of levels is a phenomenon of
utmost historical evolution not only of animals and other life but of humanity
as well. The four ages of humanity, the four asramas, the four castes and the
quadruples of Indian thought really must be interpreted in terms of the orbits
and key points of orbits where a passage could open up to the higher or would
open up then. The secret of this ascending ladder to terrains higher is a
closed one to those who have not
arrived at the fitness for the evolutionary ascent as
well: wherever men have refused to see beyond or become aware of the terrible
determinism that stalks all cyclic movements depending upon repetitive adaptive
behaviour (pratitya-samutpada). Nature is a field of freedom as well as
necessity. Human history is a series of attempts to develop and integrate its
freedom and as such it moves forwards through all martyrdom towards the
realization of freedom. History in fact seen from one point of view and that is
the legitimate and spiritual point of view is the great and glorious revelation
and assertion of freedom in all facets of existence, in society, culture, art
and music and it reveals itself as the creativity at the back of spirituality.
There can hardly be any spirituality or spirit without this manifest creativity
of freedom; a freedom that uses destruction itself for a new creation when it
cannot break through recalcitrant nature. One shapes a bangle by melting gold
since the nugget cannot itself be turned into a bangle and so also man himself
will be broken and moulded into, a higher type by the Visvakarma if he refuses
to move. It is stated in a Pauranika story that when some gods refused
to
incarnate they were made to take birth at a lower level
and assist a higher evolution in those with whom their lots were cast. Nobody
can resist the call of freedom and a freedom for all and it is an eternal
process and therefore just as every rose at every dawn and its blossoming is
beautiful the inward surge for real in the intensity of that hour, so too
freedom in each individual heart demands the making of history of the eternal
which freedom alone can envisage if it can. Since our freedom is only an
expression not of our creativity but an ecstasy of getting our of the wheel of
becoming, the orbit of the lower order values and existence, it does not fully
comprehend that this freedom is but a possibility for creative being though it
may turn out in lesser men a curse leading one into deeper darknesses than the
previous. Spiritual History as Berdyeav averred is basically internal, and so
does Sri Aurobindo hold it: it is that which grows in freedom and is nourished
by it: it not only tries to keep up its freedom by creative activity but
proceeds to expand the frontiers of freedom for all because of the oneness of
Reality. All histories are parts of one Universal history as man understands it
and comprehends it. In fact spiritual history might be
asserted to be trans-historical or ahistorical. But it is
not so. There is no antithesis between the historical and the transcendental
spiritual. The historical in a sense may be said to be the external expression
of the internal spiritual. The quality of the spiritual is not entirely absent
from the historical: in fact there are moments in history when the quality of
spirit, as seen in the efflorescent periods of creative art and inventiveness
and appearance of geniuses or heroes, is present in all its parts. The
degradation of historical significance arises from the weakening of the
spiritual through the mechanisation and materialisation of spirit. This
weakening process has to be constantly or vigilantly arrested and reversed: but
it is a fact that this has been done in previous epochs only by heroes and
geniuses, avataras and rsis seized with cosmic purpose and
spirituality. In our own time the birth of the great men (mahatmas) of
global perceptions, and insights and urges of penetrating spirituality, e.g.,
Mahatma Gandhi, Svami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, and others less known but not
less significant to human evolution has signalized the advent of a new age,
opening up new dimensions of spirituality. But it would be foolish to
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
0 comments:
Post a Comment