Philosophy and Spiritualism of Sri

Aurobindo
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The Philosophy and Spiritualism of Sri Aurobindo is a theory of evolution detailed in Sri
Aurobindo's "The Life Divine". It argues that humankind is not the last rung in the evolutionary
scale, but can evolve spiritually to a future state of supramental existence. This further
evolutionary step would lead to a divine life on Earth characterized by a supramental or truth-
consciousness, and a transformed and divinised life and material form.[1]

Contents
[hide]
• 1 Evolutionary Philosophy
○ 1.1 Involution
○ 1.2 Evolution
○ 1.3 The Omnipresent Reality (Brahman)
○ 1.4 The Triple Transformation of the Individual
○ 1.5 The Evolving Soul (Psychic Being)
○ 1.6 Supramental Existence
○ 1.7 Social Evolution
• 2 Integral Yoga
• 3 Analysis of Indian culture
• 4 Interpretation of the Vedas
• 5 References
• 6 See also
Evolutionary Philosophy
Involution
Sri Aurobindo speaks of two movements: that of involution of consciousness from an
omnipresent Reality to creation, and an evolution from creation onward.
The process by which the Energy of creation emerged from a timeless, spaceless, ineffable,
immutable Reality, Sri Aurobindo refers to as the Involution. In that process the Reality extended
itself to Being/Existence (Sat), Consciousness (that generated a Force) - Chit; and Delight
(Ananda)-- self enjoyment in existing and being conscious. Through the action of a fourth
dimension, Supermind (i.e. Truth Consciousness), the Force (Chit) of Sat-Chit-Ananda was
divided into Knowledge and Will, eventually formulating as an invisible Energy that would
become the source of creation. Through its own willful self-absorption of consciousness, the
universe would begin as Inconscient material existence.
Evolution
The process of conscious existence emerging out of the Inconscient is referred as evolution.
Initially, it emerges gradually in the stages of matter, life, and mind. First matter evolves from
simple to complex forms, then life emerges in matter and evolves from simple to complex forms,
finally mind emerges in life and evolves from rudimentary to higher forms of thought and
reason. As each new principle emerges, the previous stages remain but are integrated into the
higher principle. Humanity represents the stage of development of mind in complex material
forms of life. The higher development of mind in the mass of humanity is not yet a secure
possession. Reason and intellect still do not dominate the life of most human beings; rather, mind
tends to be turned to the purposes of the life principle, which is focused on self-preservation,
self-assertion, and satisfaction of personal need and desire. But evolution does not cease with the
establishment of reason and intellect; beyond mind are higher levels of a spiritual and
supramental consciousness which in the nature of things must also emerge. This higher evolution
is described as a dual movement; inward, away from the surface consciousness and into the
depths, culminating in the realization of the Psychic Being (the personal evolving soul); and then
upward to higher levels of spiritual mind (Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, and
Overmind), culminating in the final stage of supramentalisation. Whereas these higher levels of
consciousness have been attained in particular individuals, they must eventually emerge more
universally as general stages in the evolution. When they do emerge, there will come the
embodiment of a new species on earth that will be once again united in consciousness with
Sachchidananda.
The Omnipresent Reality (Brahman)

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A central tenet of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy is that the Truth of existence is an omnipresent
Reality that both transcends the manifested universe and is inherent in it. This Reality, referred to
as Brahman, is an Absolute: it is not limited by any mental conception or duality, whether
personal or impersonal, existent or nonexistent, formless or manifested in form, timeless or
extended in time, spaceless or extended in space. It is simultaneously all of these but is bound by
none of them. It is at once the universe, each individual being and thing in the universe, and the
Transcendent beyond the universe. In its highest manifested poise, its nature may be described as
Sachchidananda—infinite existence, infinite consciousness, and infinite delight or bliss—a triune
principle in which the three are united in a single Reality. In other words, it is a fully conscious
and blissful infinite existence. The importance of this concept for humanity lies in its implication
that Brahman is our deepest and secret Reality, it is our true Self, and it is possible to recover this
Reality of our being by removing the veil of ignorance that hides it from us and imprisons us in a
false identification with an apparently divided and limited egoistic movement on the surface of
our being. This is the metaphysical basis for Sri Aurobindo's yoga, the discipline given to
consciously unite our phenomenal existence and life with our essential Reality.
How has the absolute Brahman, Sachchidananda, become what we see here around us—this
world of inconscient matter, struggling life, ignorance, limitation, conflict, suffering, death, and
evil? In answering this question, Sri Aurobindo explains that the Absolute is not bound—not
bound to its infinite existence, not bound to its infinite consciousness and the force inherent in
that consciousness, not bound to its infinite bliss. Second, he explains that by definition Brahman
is capable of manifesting within its absolute existence innumerable, limited, even distorted and
contrary forms of its being. We may further deduce that an infinitely extended, infinitely diverse
manifestation, replete with objects and beings ranging from the most unconscious, the most vile,
to the most conscious, the most beautiful, the most divine, would be perfectly consistent with an
existence that was Absolute.
But how does the Brahman do this? Through what Sri Aurobindo describes as the principle of
exclusive concentration. This principle is best explained through the example of our own ability
to narrow our conscious awareness on a particular idea or perception, putting behind in the
background of our focused awareness the rest of our conscious existence. When an author
concentrates in writing a story—developing the characters, the scene, the action—their own
personal identity becomes for the moment lost to their conscious awareness. Their consciousness
enters into the story and identifies with it. They do not cease to be what he or she is, or lose their
knowledge of identity, but practically their awareness is narrowed and identified at a point. This
ability to focus awareness and put into the background all else is inherent in consciousness. It is
through a similar process that the One and Infinite Being becomes the many, apparently separate,
individual beings and things we see manifested in the universe. The separation is in appearance
only, for in truth all individuals are constituted by the One, are That in their Reality, for there is
nothing outside the Absolute. They are forms and appearances of its Being, expressions of its
Consciousness, movements of its Delight.
According to Sri Aurobindo, for our world in particular—there are other worlds that follow a
different process—there is taking place a gradual awakening of consciousness over time, an
evolution of consciousness. Through its principle of exclusive concentration, the One became
matter, losing all conscious awareness in the form of inanimate matter. From this base it is
progressively awakening through the life of the plant, the beginnings of mind in the animal, the
full emergence of mind in humanity, and is now stirring to awaken fully through the emergence
of a greater consciousness than mind, the Supermind, in which the fullness of the undivided
consciousness and infinite delight of the One will be manifest in individualities embodied here
on earth. This evolution of consciousness, from the worm to the god, is the central process, aim,
and significance of our existence.
There is the further question of why the Absolute would manifest in this way, and in particular,
why pain, suffering, evil would be allowed to exist. For there is no shifting of responsibility
possible here, there is nothing or no one outside the Absolute. It is a complex problem and there
are various sides to the answer that Sri Aurobindo provides; here it is possible only to suggest the
outlines of the solution. One point that Sri Aurobindo emphasizes is that it is the Brahman who
thus suffers, it is not imposed on someone or something outside the Brahman. A second point he
makes is that limitation and ignorance are inherent consequences of the plunge of the Absolute
consciousness into the inconscience and its slow evolutionary awakening—pain, suffering, and
evil developed as consequences or corollaries of limitation and ignorance. A third point is that
while pain, suffering, and evil are abhorrent to our limited ethical sensibilities, they also may
serve a purpose in the larger scheme of the evolutionary process. That is, they may be the spurs
needed to drive a dense and ignorant emerging consciousness towards its own fullness and
ultimate release into the infinite and eternal, into the truth and delight of the divine existence.
Furthermore, the end of the process, hidden from our narrow view, of a divine existence on earth,
may carry within it the justification for the hard conditions of its gradual manifestation in time.
The Triple Transformation of the Individual
Sri Aurobindo's argues that Man is born an ignorant, divided, conflicted being; a product of the
original inconscience (i.e. unconsciousness,) inherent in Matter that he evolved out of. As a
result, he does not know the nature of Reality, including its source and purpose; his own nature,
including the parts and integration of his being; what purpose he serves, and what his individual
and spiritual potential is, amongst others. In addition, he experiences life through division and
conflict, including his relationship with others, and his divided view of spirit and life.
To overcome these limitations, Man must embark on a process of self-discovery in which he
uncovers his Divine nature. To that end, he undertakes a three-step process, which he calls the
Triple Transformation. It is described in Book II, Chapter 25 of his opus The Life Divine.
(1) Psychic Transformation -- The first of the three stages is a movement within, away from the
surface of life, to the depths, culminating in the discovery of his Psychic Being (the evolving
soul). From that experience, he sees the oneness and unity of creation, and the harmony of all
opposites experienced in life. As a result, he begins to shed his essential Ignorance born of
creation. He also experiences his true individual nature, shedding his ego and sense of
separateness from other and life. He also begins to glean his true individual purpose, as well as
his universal and transcendent purpose in life. He comes in touch with an inner Guide that
constantly indicates what actions to take and what to avoid. As a result of connecting to the
transcendent divine, he experiences a deep pleasure and bliss, causing him to want to surrender
to the Divine Will and Intent.
(2) Spiritual Transformation -- As a result of making the psychic change, his mind expands and
he experiences knowledge not through the hard churning of thought, but through light, intuition,
and revelation of knowledge, culminating in supramental perception. Light enters from the
heights and begins to transmute various parts of his being.
(3) Supramental transformation -- After making the psychic and spiritual change, he makes the
supramental and most radical change. Sri Aurobindo says the mind cannot easily perceive this
possibility, as it goes beyond past spiritual principles and experiences. It is basically a complete
transformation of the mind, the heart, the emotions, and the physical body. Consciousness and
Force are reintegrated in the being that were lost in the involution of consciousness from an
infinite Reality that began in creation as matter. He also has ultimate knowledge that is matched
by a power for its effectuation. Thus, Knowledge and Will become fused and one. Whatever he
perceives is able to manifest as a reality, reflecting that same power in the original Reality and
Being from out of which the universe manifest. At that point, he has the Vision of Brahman that
perceives the integral unity of spirit and Life. That spirit is the source of life, and that life is a
manifestation of spirit in an ongoing, endless, integral process. The supramental transformation
culminates in the change in the very cells of the body, ushering in a new form of human, devoid
of the functioning it now exhibits, replaced by their spiritual equivalents. It is the ultimate
transformational change. At that point, a Gnostic being is fully realized, as is a collective, Divine
Life on earth.
The Evolving Soul (Psychic Being)
Sri Aurobindo indicated that his greatest discovery was the existence of a Psychic Being (i.e. an
Evolving Soul) within that is the essence of our spiritual selves. If we forge our way into the
deepest parts of our being the Subliminal realm, we will come upon a Personal Evolving Soul.
From this Psychic Being we can overcome the limits of consciousness of the individual human.
From there we perceive our true nature and essence; we become more aware of our
surroundings; we become one with others and life; we experience an inner Guide that influences
to move in the right direction and catches our negative propensities as they arise on the surface;
we come in touch with our universal nature; we come in touch with the transcendent reality and
spiritual Force; we overcome the limits of time, bringing timelessness into time; and evoke the
powers of the Infinite into this finite existence, to name several. Also when we plunge within and
touch the evolving soul, we move up in consciousness above mind to spiritual mind of
illumination, intuition, revelation, and (supramental) truth consciousness. It should also be noted
that this psychic entity is itself evolving, as it enters the person’s whose experience it believes it
can benefit from, extracts the essence of that person’s experience, and then moves on to the next
birth until it is fulfilled in its journey through space and time. The connection to the evolving
soul is thus the key to the evolution from this the human side, as from there we overcome the
inherent Ignorance, division, dualities, and suffering of Man, enabling him to fulfill his human
aspiration of God, freedom, joy, and immortality. (From the spiritual side, it is the descending
Supramental Force that enables the progress of life to its ultimate capacity. The two together, the
connection to the Psychic Being and the surrender to the descending (supramental) Force are the
keys to the evolution and transformation of the individual, humanity, and life in the universe.)
Supramental Existence
Sri Aurobindo's vision of the future includes the appearance of what we may a call a new
species, the supramental being, a divine being which would be as different and superior to
present humanity as humanity is to the animal. It would have a consciousness different in kind
than the mind of the human, a different status and quality and functioning. Even the physical
form of this being would be different, more luminous and flexible and adaptable, entirely
conscious and harmonious. Between this supramental being and humanity, there would be
transitional beings, who would be human in birth and form, but whose consciousness would
approach that of the supramental being. These transitional beings would appear prior to that of
the full supramental being, and would constitute an intermediate stage in the earth evolution,
through which the soul would pass in its growth towards its divine manifestation as the
supramental being in the earth nature.
Thus, an important part of Sri Aurobindo's future vision is the elucidation of the transitional
being and the supramental being. Although it is frequently mentioned in his writings that the
supramental consciousness is impossible to describe in mental terms, he has nevertheless
provided clear indications of its general nature and capacities. These have been described at
length in Sri Aurobindo’s books The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, The Supramental
Manifestation Upon Earth, and Savitri. Mother's Agenda, which is a 13 volume edited
transcription of the Mother’s conversations with a disciple called Satprem between the years
1951 and 1973, also has much information on the nature of the new species and its emergence.
The descriptions made of the nature of the transitional and supramental beings are dazzling,
above ordinary conceptions of human possibility. We may give as an example, which touches
upon a defining characteristic, this sentence from Sri Aurobindo's chapter “The Gnostic Being”
in The Life Divine: “A complete self-knowledge in all things and at all moments is the gift of the
supramental gnosis and with it a complete self-mastery, not merely in the sense of control of
Nature but in the sense of a power of perfect self-expression in Nature.” [2]
Another interesting aspect of the vision is the manner and sequence of processes through which
the supramental being will make its appearance in the earth nature. Again, these processes were
not specified in exact detail, and in many cases they were presented as possibilities or
probabilities rather than as certainties, but Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have been given very
interesting suggestions and outlines of the scenario. Sri Aurobindo indicates that “there will be
established on earth a gnostic Consciousness and Power which will shape a race of gnostic
spiritual beings and take up into itself all of earth-nature that is ready for this new
transformation. It will also receive into itself from above, progressively, from its own domain of
perfect light and power and beauty all that is ready to descend from that domain into the
terrestrial being.”[3] He further indicates that “The creation of a supramental being, nature, life on
earth, will not be the sole result of this evolution; it will also carry with it the consummation of
the steps that have led up to it; for it will confirm in possession of terrestrial birth the Overmind,
the Intuition and the other gradations of the spiritual nature-force and establish a race of gnostic
beings and a hierarchy, a shining ladder of ascending degrees and successive constituent
formations of the gnostic light and power in earth nature.”[4] In other words, there would be
established ascending levels of transitional beings, manifesting the levels of consciousness and
expressive nature intermediate between the ordinary human and the supramental levels.
Sri Aurobindo indicates that even all of nature might be affected by the appearance of the
supramental light and force:
"A dominant principle of harmony would impose itself on the life of the Ignorance; the discord,
the blind seeking, the clash of struggle, the abnormal vicissitudes of exaggeration and depression
and unsteady balance of the unseeing forces at work in their mixture and conflict, would feel the
influence and yield place to a more orderly pace and harmonic steps of the development of
being, a more revealing arrangement of progressing life and consciousness, a better life-order. A
freer play of intuition and sympathy and understanding would enter into human life, a clearer
sense of the truth of self and things and a more enlightened dealing with the opportunities and
difficulties of existence."[5].
The development of human society and world culture is another important aspect of Sri
Aurobindo's future vision. In his book The Human Cycle, Sri Aurobindo described the various
stages of the development of human society which have led to the present subjective age that is
beginning, and the possibilities of a future spiritual age. This spiritual age would be characterized
by the dominance of a spiritual ideal and trend in world culture.
It is in the acceptance of the spiritual ideal and a sincere turning of the being towards its
manifestation—first by individuals, then by “a great number of individuals,” and finally by the
community—that marks the advent of the spiritual age. This turn must start with individuals,
only afterwards can it become established more generally in the social order. But this turn
towards the spirit and soul as the effective leader and master of the mind, life, and physical
existence must be true and sincere, there must be a genuine shift from the mental and vital ego to
the divine. This true change of standpoint from the ego to the spirit is difficult to establish even
in the individual; for the society, for the mass of humanity, it is an even greater difficulty. As this
change becomes effectively realised first in individuals, through them it must be powerfully
communicated to the society as a whole as an uplifting ideal, not as something that is imposed.
Then gradually it will become accepted and assimilated into segments of the society, and from
there permeate throughout the society and become generalized. The signs of this turning in the
society would become evident in all its aims and activities and institutions. It “would make the
revealing and finding of the divine Self in man the whole first aim of all its activities, its
education, its knowledge, its science, its ethics, its art, its economical and political structure... It
would embrace all knowledge in its scope, but would make the whole trend and aim and the
permeating spirit not mere worldly efficiency, but this self-developing and self-finding.”[6]
Social Evolution
Sri Aurobindo's spiritual vision extended beyond the perfection and transformation of the
individual; it included within its scope the evolution and transformation of human society. In
both the individual and in society, the soul and spirit is at first hidden and occult. This hye argues
influences the direction and course of development from behind, but allowing nature to follow its
gradual, zigzagging, and conflict-ridden course. Afterwards, as mind develops and becomes
more dominant over obscure impulses, the ego-centered drives of vital nature. This results in a
more objective, enlightened perception and approach towards human existence and the potential
developments that become possible. At the highest stage of mental development he argues that a
greater possibility and principle becomes apparent, which is spiritual and supramental in nature.
At this point a true solution to humanity's problems becomes visible in the context of a radical
transformation of human life, into a form of divine existence.
In The Human Cycle, Sri Aurobindo describes the stages of development of human society,
illustrating with a perceptive analysis of historical and political developments and trends, and
outlining a future ideal society towards which he says it is moving. Starting from Lamprecht's
theory that societies pass through several distinct psychological stages of development—
symbolic, typal and conventional, individualist, and subjective—Sri Aurobindo expresses his
view of historical and sociological development in the light of his own theory of spiritual
evolution. After taking a passing glance at the symbolic, typal, and conventional stages in Indian
and European history, Sri Aurobindo focuses on the individualistic and the beginning subjective
stages of modern societies. He then presents a more detailed picture of a future spiritual stage in
which he indicates all the others will find their meaning and towards which they unconsciously
move.
The symbolic stage is illustrated by the ancient Vedic age, in which “the religious institution of
sacrifice governs the whole society and all its hours and moments, and the ritual of the sacrifice
is at every turn and in every detail, as even a cursory study of the Brahmanas and Upanishads
ought to show us, mystically symbolic.” The typal stage is characterized by a dominance of
psychological and ethical concerns and motives; all else, including spiritual and religious
concerns, are subordinate to these. In Indian society, it was best expressed in the ideal and
concept of Dharma, the upholding of tradition and the fulfillment of one's social position and
responsibility. In the conventional stage, the outward expressions of the ideal overshadow the
ideal itself, such that customs, outward signs and symbols become ends in themselves, and their
inner spirit and significance becomes eclipsed. In its early phase, the spirit and inner significance
of the social institutions still live and thrive within well-developed structures, but afterwards the
institutions become more and more formalized and artificial, and their inner purpose and
significance become obscured. In Indian society, this is illustrated with the growing rigidity of
the caste system in which the society was organized, with its increasing emphasis on custom,
heredity, and ritual.
Sri Aurobindo explains that “the individualistic age of human society comes as a result of the
corruption and failure of the conventional, as a revolt against the reign of the petrified typal
figure.” He illustrates the occurrence of this stage in Europe beginning with its revolt of reason
against the Church and fixed authority and its continuation and blossoming with the growth of
scientific inquiry. Through science, a new basis of principles and laws could be discovered and
established that were open to scrutiny and logical analysis and reasoning. There were also
established the democratic ideals that all individuals had the right to develop to the full stature of
their capabilities, and that the individual was not simply a social unit with a social function, but
also had unique individual needs, possibilities, and tendencies which should be allowed freedom
and opportunity for development. As a part of the revolt against traditional authority, there
developed in some regions another intellectual philosophy and political movement, apparently in
contradiction to individualism, of the supremacy of the society as a whole over the individual.
Sri Aurobindo also analyses the strengths and limitations of this viewpoint, and its relations and
opposition to the democratic ideal.
The subjective age comes as an outgrowth of the individualistic and rational questioning of the
conventional institutions and structures of society. The individualistic age culminates in a new
intellectual foundation and development in all the spheres of life, but this rational view of the
world and the self can only go so far, it cannot reach into the depths of the being. Nevertheless,
its questioning spirit, its search for truth leads it beyond its own capabilities, leads it to search for
a deeper foundation and a more complete understanding of the mysteries and subtleties of self
and world. The subjective age begins when society begins to search for the deeper truths of its
existence below the surfaces which the reason has explored and explained in an ordered, but
limited sense. He explains that examples of this tendency are already apparent. In education,
there is the trend to understand the psychology of the growing child and to base systems of
teaching upon this basis. In criminal justice, there is an effort to understand the psychology of the
criminal, and to strive to educate and rehabilitate rather than simply punish or isolate. In societies
and groupings of people, there is a growing tendency to regard them as living and growing
organisms with their own soul and inner tendencies, which must be fostered, developed, and
perfected.
According to Sri Aurobindo, the present subjective age, with its inward turn towards the essential
truth of the self and of things, opens the possibility of a true spiritual age. He explains that the
subjective age could conceivably stop short of becoming spiritual. He says that a true spiritual
age will come only if the idea becomes strong in the intellectual life of humanity that the Spirit is
the true Reality standing behind our physical existence, and that to realise the Spirit and express
it outwardly in mental, vital, and physical terms is the real meaning and aim of human existence.
Sri Aurobindo argues that there is a deeper spiritual Reality that is the true Self of both the
individual and the society, and it is only by identifying ourselves with it, rather than the limited
and superficial individual or social ego, that the individual and social existence find their true
center and their proper relation with one another. In a spiritual age, therefore, he says that society
would “make the revealing and finding of the divine Self in man the whole first aim of all its
activities, its education, its knowledge, its science, its ethics, its art, its economical and political
structure.”
Integral Yoga
Main article: Integral Yoga
In The Synthesis of Yoga, and in his voluminous correspondence with his disciples collected
under the title Letters on Yoga, Sri Aurobindo laid out the psychological principles and practices
of the Integral Yoga or Poorna Yoga. The aim of Integral yoga is to enable the individual who
undertakes it the attainment of a conscious identity with the Divine, the true Self, and to
transform the mind, life, and body so they would become fit instruments for a divine life on
earth[7].
Analysis of Indian culture
In Renaissance in India (earlier called The Foundations of Indian Culture),[citation needed] Sri
Aurobindo examines the nature of Indian civilization and culture, he looked at its central
motivating tendencies and how these are expressed in its religion, spirituality, art, literature, and
politics. The first section of the book provides a general defense of Indian culture from
disparaging criticism due to the misunderstanding of a foreign perspective, and its possible
destruction due to the aggressive expansion and infiltration of Western culture. This section is
interesting in the light it sheds on the nature of both Eastern and Western civilizations, how they
have developed over the centuries, how they have influenced each other throughout the ages, and
the nature and significance of these exchanges in the recent period. The principle tenet of the
exposition is that India has been and is one of the greatest civilizations of the world, one that
stands apart from all others in its central emphasis, or rather its whole foundation, based on
spirituality, and that on its survival depends the future of the human race—whether it shall be a
spiritual outflowering of the divine in man, or a rational, economically driven, and mechanized
association of peoples.
After an overall view of the culture, we are taken on a more detailed tour of each of the primary
components of Indian culture, beginning with its religion and spirituality, the heart and soul of
Indian culture, and the basis for all its various manifestations. Sri Aurobindo quickly takes the
reader to the core of the matter:
"The fundamental idea of all Indian religion is one common to the highest human thinking
everywhere. The supreme truth of all that is a Being or an existence beyond the mental and
physical appearances we contact here. Beyond mind, life and body there is a Spirit and Self
containing all that is finite and infinite, surpassing all that is relative, a supreme Absolute,
originating and supporting all that is transient, a one Eternal... This Truth was to be lived and
even to be made the governing idea of thought and life and action... All life and thought are in
the end a means of progress towards self-realisation and God-realisation." (p. 125)
But Sri Aurobindo does not simply reveal the essence of Indian religion and spirituality, he sets
this in the context of its religious and spiritual traditions, examines its development through the
ages, and puts it into relief and contrast with European religion. We are shown how the spiritual
essence was already present in the Vedas, the world's oldest spiritual scriptures, though much of
these sacred teachings were couched in a veiled symbolic language accessible only to the initiate.
Subsequently, the Upanishads revealed the same essential teachings to the masses in a
philosophical language, and still later, the various multifaceted spiritual approaches to the
Infinite were developed in epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, with the core spiritual
teaching placed in the latter's episode of the Bhagavad Gita, as well as through many other
religious movements and spiritual teachings.
In The Foundations of Indian Culture, Sri Aurobindo next examines the nature and qualities of
Indian art, concentrating on its architecture, sculpture, and painting. His focus is on revealing the
essence of Indian art, its foundation in spirituality, its rich complexity, its depiction and
expression of the Divine and the inner worlds and the soul of mankind. As he puts it, “Indian
architecture, painting, sculpture are not only intimately one in inspiration with the central things
in Indian philosophy, religion, Yoga, culture, but a specially intense expression of their
significance... They have been very largely a hieratic aesthetic script of India's spiritual,
contemplative and religious experience.” Sri Aurobindo reveals an extraordinary knowledge and
appreciation of Indian art. At the same time, he is sensitive to cultural differences in
understanding and appreciation, and is carefully instructive in considering the differences in
European and Indian art, and in the aesthetic sensibilities that are likely to arise from these
differences. As a result, this section of his book gives the Western reader the essential keys to
enter into a deeper appreciation of Indian art, while giving the Indian, who may be influenced
more or less strongly by Western cultural pressures, a better understanding and firmer confidence
in India's artistic traditions.
In the chapters on Indian literature, we are shown again the fundamental spiritual basis of Indian
culture, as the earliest and greatest formative works of Indian literature are spiritual and
religious. We are given introductions to the Vedas, the Upanishads, the great Epics of the
Mahabharata and Ramayana, the later classical age of ancient literature including the poetry of
Kalidasa, various philosophical writings of the Middle Ages, the religious poetry of the Puranas,
the yogic and spiritual texts of the Tantras, Vaishnava poetry, and others. Here we are given only
a taste of the spiritual substance of this sacred literature and some appreciation of the tremendous
influence it had upon the development of Indian spirituality and culture. Sri Aurobindo further
developed his exposition of the most important spiritual texts — Vedas, Upanishads, and
Bhagavad Gita (an episode in the Mahabharata) — in separate books: The Secret of the Veda,
Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Upanishads, and Essays on the Gita. In The Foundations of
Indian Culture we are given a wonderful overview of this literature, enabling the reader to
appreciate the nature of each body of work while at the same achieving a sense of the overall
breadth and the development over time of the literature as a whole.
In The Foundations of Indian Culture, Sri Aurobindo also examines the Indian polity, the
development of India's administrative and governing structures set in their historical context.
Here as in the other aspects of Indian culture, we find a fundamental basis in spirituality, and a
sophisticated, intuitive, and humane development. We are shown in considerable detail and with
an obvious mastery of facts, the arrangement and workings of the governing structures from
ancient times to the present. A central tenet of the system was its focus on the upholding of
Dharma, the duty and right rule of action for individuals of varying positions in the society,
including the king. The governing structures developed organically, from the extended family, to
the clan and villages, to associations among smaller grouping, to larger grouping within
kingdoms. Power and legislative authority was distributed throughout the system, and included
civic and general assemblies that represented a cross-section of the peoples. The monarch was in
effect a constitutional monarch that could be removed due to mismanagement or abuse of power
through the assemblies. We are shown how the system eventually broke down under foreign
invasion and influence. We are led to the admission that in an important sense the political
system failed in that it was unable to achieve a unity of the all the Indian subcontinent, a difficult
endeavor in any case, nor could it sufficiently protect its peoples from foreign military invasion
and subjugation. Interestingly, this failure is ascribed in part to the inner and spiritual basis of
Indian culture and polity, which is inconsistent with a superimposed, artificial administrative
structure, which would have been easier to establish. He argues that this inner basis of India's
unity, reflected most directly in her spirituality and religion but also in the other fields of culture,
has remained intact throughout the millennia, despite India's frequent and enduring foreign
occupations.
Interpretation of the Vedas
One of the most significant contributions of Sri Aurobindo was his setting forth an esoteric
meaning of the Vedas. The Vedas were considered by some to be composed by a barbaric culture
worshiping violent Gods. Sri Aurobindo felt that this was due to non-grasping of vedic
symbolism, both by Occidental and Oriental scholars.
Sri Aurobindo believed there was a hidden spiritual meaning in the Vedas. He viewed the Rig
Veda as a spiritual text written in a symbolic language in which the outer meaning was
concerned with ritualistic sacrifices to the gods, and the inner meaning, which was revealed only
to initiates, was concerned with an inner spiritual knowledge and practice, the aim of which was
to unite in consciousness with the Divine.
In this conception, Indra is the God of Mind lording over the Indriyas, that is, the senses (sight,
touch, hearing, taste etc.). Vayu represents air, but in its esoteric sense means Prana, or the life
force. So when the Rig Veda says “Call Indra and Vayu to drink Soma Rasa” the inner meaning
is to use mind through the senses and life force to receive divine bliss (Soma means wine of
Gods, but in several texts also means divine bliss, as in Right-handed Tantra). Agni, the God of
the sacrificial fire in the outer sense, is the flame of the spiritual will to overcome the obstacles to
unite with the Divine. So the sacrifice of the Vedas could mean sacrificing ones ego to the
internal Agni, the spiritual fire.
Sri Aurobindo's theory of the inner spiritual significance of the Vedas originally appeared
serially in the journal Arya between 1914 and 1920, but was later published in book form as
“The Secret of the Veda." Another book, "Hymns to the Mystic Fire," is Sri Aurobindo's
translation of the spiritual sense of many of the verses of the Rig Veda.
References
1. ^ The Life Divine bk II, ch 27-8
2. ^ The Life Divine, p. 973
3. ^ The Life Divine, p. 967
4. ^ The Life Divine, p. 968
5. ^ The Life Divine, p. 969
6. ^ The Human Cycle, p. 256
7. ^ Letters on Yoga, p. 505

See also
Spirituality portal

• Esoteric cosmology
• Plane (cosmology)
• Hindu idealism
• Involution (esoterism)
• Metaphysical cosmology
• Religious cosmology
• Evolution (philosophy)
 • Rumi's evolution
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Response to Ken Wilber's

Integral Theory of Consciousness
Garry Jacobs
There is much to appreciate in Wilber's model. His greatest contribution is not original conceptions, but an
original effort to unite various strands of human knowledge into a comprehensive view of the evolution of
consciousness in the universe.
His four quadrant model (subjective-individual, objective-individual, subjective-collective, objective-collective)
is a useful way of examining parallel developments in the fields of subjective consciousness and social change.
The four quadrants closely correspond with Sri Aurobindo's use of subjective, objective, individual and
collective and his fundamental distinction between Consciousness and Form—the two subjective quadrants
represent consciousness; the two objective ones represent external forms.[1]
Although he calls his approach an 'integral' theory, it appears more like a summation or a best a synthesis, rather
than a true integration. He stresses that true knowledge of any holon involves knowledge in all four quadrants.
He points out that developmental stages in each quadrant correspond with parallel developments in the other
three. Therefore, he argues we cannot understand consciousness by exclusive focus on any one of the four. Nor
can we adequately interpret phenomenon from any of the four quadrants solely as expressions of developments in
that quadrant. This approach has the appeal of placing different approaches to consciousness in a wider
perspective and curbing attempts to explain everything by one set of narrow concepts, which is especially
characteristic of the positivist-empiricist approach. For example, on this basis he is able to strongly reject the
view of biological scientists that consciousness can be wholly explained in terms of brain development.
Consciousness
Wilber adopts a hierarchical, evolutionary model of consciousness based on Sri Aurobindo's ascending planes of
consciousness from matter to satchitananda.[2] He also accepts the common view of many Eastern spiritual
traditions that each of these planes, including even matter, possesses inherent consciousness.
Wilber describes consciousness as a summation of changes in all four fields and suggests that its evolution is
dependent on all four fields. But this model, just like those he criticizes, does not actually define what
consciousness is. Nor does it explain the fundamental (essential) relationship between the four quadrants, i.e. By
what process do they evolve? At what level and in what manner are they integrated? How is evolution in each
quadrant related to the others? What is the power that governs this evolution? What is the design or intention tha
determines its direction? He says they are all based on and manifestations of Spirit, but says nothing about the
manner or degree to which Spirit determines their evolution or manifests through them.
According to Sri Aurobindo, Consciousness exists outside the four quadrants and manifests or expresses in them
It cannot be adequately explained as the sum of the parts. In Sri Aurobindo's terms, the four quadrants are merely
the fields created by consciousness for its self-expression. Consciousness is not limited by the four.
Consciousness is not forced to depend for its development on any of the four. It manifests in all four, equally or
unequally according to its own choice, because it manifests in everything. The four evolve in parallel because
they are all external expressions of the evolution of the same underlying movement, the emergence of
consciousness in matter.
Wilber charts the discernible stages of evolution but omits reference to the process that drives that evolution. His
list of 20 tenets are characteristic patterns that do not reveal cause or process. Wilber sees the result, not the
process that leads to the result. According to Sri Aurobindo, by a process of involution the one Consciousness
creates many forms of force with individual centers of apparent existence in which that consciousness is
involved. The interaction and contact between these forms of force releases progressively more of the
consciousness inherent in them and brings that potential to the surface. In fact he says it is a 'conscious will'
acting even in apparently inconscient and subconscious forces that brings about the right combination of contacts
for the evolution to take place.[3] The emergence of consciousness leads to the development of higher order
forms capable of manifesting more of the latent potential concealed within each form.
Wilber's construct provides a useful way to think about the individual and the world, but what does it tell us
about action and reaction in the world? To Sri Aurobindo, the life around us is an integral part of us. Oneness is
not just a mathematical conception or a reality to be experienced on the spiritual heights. It expresses at every
moment. Everything that comes to us from life is an expression of that oneness and is precisely determined by
what we are inside. To Sri Aurobindo, the involution and the evolution is not just a logical necessity to explain
facts. They are a miracle unfolding every moment. Each necessary stage of our evolutionary progress has been
anticipated and provided for by the prior involution. When we are confronted by a stupid man (involved
consciousness) or a perverse hostile society (involved force), it is precisely the external pressure needed to
awaken consciousness or release force in us. Involution and evolution are living processes of One living being.
Holons and Holarchy
Wilber perceptively emphasized the emergence of wider, more inclusive perspectives (holons, holarchies,
worldviews) as a natural evolutionary process. Truth evolves by becoming more inclusive. This perspective is th
antithesis of reductionism that tries to break down all wholes into their smallest constituent parts, thereby
assigning greatest truth value to the part and minimizing the reality of the whole.
Holons and holarchy are wonderful and very pleasing concepts. They so obviously fit the nature of the material
world and social organizations that it is very tempting to accept without too much scrutiny that they accurately
describe the subjective worlds of individuals and collectives as well. But it is not clear that they do. The
evolution of material and biological forms from atom to molecule to cell to organism is neat and irrefutable. Each
is a whole in itself. Each forms a distinct part of all the larger holons of which it is a part. In each case it retains
its original character but contributes to the emergence of new characteristics that are not apparent at the lower
level.
But when we look at the holons listed in the subjective individual quadrant, the relationship seems slightly
different. It is true that in the emergence of life there is a progressive emergence of sensations, impulses,
emotions, sense-based thoughts, abstract concepts, etc. It is also true that to an extent the lower holons form a
base or 'cause' for the emergence of the higher. Physical sensations feed impulses and give rise to sense thoughts
But is there any real sense in which we can say that sensations are parts of thoughts or thoughts are larger wholes
that include or (in Wilber's term) 'enfold' sensations and impulses? This is as reductionist as a biological
description of consciousness as nervous impulses in the brain. The emergence of thought may be stimulated by
sense data, but it can also arise internally, independent of sense data-- in fact, that is Sri Aurobindo's description
of pure thought. Thought does not consist of sensation, impulse and emotion as its constituent parts. Yes, there is
a progressive hierarchy of subjective elements of consciousness, but the part-whole analogy seems to break
down. Holons are a nice way of looking at things, a typical mental way of dividing and aggregating reality. But
as such they are not reality and it is dangerous to try to fit all reality into that mold.
But Wilber's model is even more precise about the role of subjective holons. He says that a person's
consciousness can be characterized as consisting of three levels of subjective individual consciousness and even
provides a normal distribution curve for the distribution of consciousness!—a predominant holon (50%), and the
holons directly above and below it (25% each). Does he actually mean that the person who lives in the thought
mind ceases to have sensations, impulses, and feelings or that a brilliant thinker or even a realized sage cannot
have uncontrollable vital urges?
Sri Aurobindo's view is that these are separate, distinct and relatively independent centers of consciousness in
humanity. It is true that one or several centers may be more developed and dominant than the others. That is the
basis for our typology of nine or 16 levels. But all the centers exist in everyone and the move to higher centers
does not necessarily diminish the role of the lower except in the measure it sublimates or transforms it.
The important point is that Wilber's model is replete with implicit assumptions and worldviews like those he
condemns. Each of these assumptions deserves to be made explicit and examined rather than just taken for
granted as obvious or self-evidently valid.
Quadrants
Wilber's model can be a useful way to depict the interactions between the individual and collective in social
development theory. Our thesis is that all social development depends on the subconscious preparedness and will
of the collective (subjective-collective) which expresses as aspiration and creative thinking (subjective-
individual) and fresh external initiative (objective-individual) by pioneering individuals. The behavior of the
pioneer is imitated by others in his social context, accepted, supported, organized and institutionalized by society
(objective-collective). Eventually the new behavior becomes incorporated in the cultural values of the society
(subjective collective) and is internalized in the value system of individual members of the society (subjective-
individual). Wilber's quadrants makes it possible to express this process quite clearly, though I have not read any
similar use of it in his writings.
Wilber condemns the tendency to collapse reality into a single quadrant. But he then procedes to categorize—
collapse?—major theories and theorists into specific quadrants they focus on, lending the impression that he is
the first to look at all four quadrants are parts of a single reality. For instance, he places Sri Aurobindo as a
theorist in the subjective-individual quadrant, ignoring the fact that Sri Aurobindo thought and wrote extensively
about the interaction between evolution of subjective consciousness (interior individual) and the transformation
of material substance (exterior individual), the subjective existence of society (interior collective) and objective
(exterior collective) social and political evolution of humanity. It is likely that some other theorists have been
similarly collapsed.
This raises the more fundamental issue of the equality of the quadrants. Wilber treats them all as equals. This
may be an advance from most theoretical perspectives and it is fully in keeping with our postmodern romance
with equality. Inequality, like hierarchy, has become a dirty word. But what precisely is the rationale for
regarding the quadrants as equals? Even if we accept that all four quadrants represent aspects of reality, it does
not follow that they are equal aspects or that some are not subordinate to others. This is precisely the type of
thinking that Wilber condemns in the positivists. Would he equally condemn it in the subjectivists? If so, how
does he justify his objections other than by the fact that inequality is not balanced, fair or sufficiently open-
minded? But whoever said reality has to justify itself to the mind's quest for neat mental models.
Sri Aurobindo's view is that the objective is real. It is a projection and manifestation of the subjective. But the
subjective is the true determinant, not the objective. Would Wilber condemn this view? If so, what rationale basi
has he presented for doing so?
Does a four quadrant model really integrate objective and subjective, individual and collective perspectives of
reality? Wilber's approach appears more additive than integrative. He does not explain the precise relationship
between the quadrants or the process by which they mutually interact and develop in parallel with one another.
For example, in discussing the rise of modernity he does not specifically correlate it with an evolutionary stage in
individual consciousness or biology. He indicates correlations at some points, but not causal relationships.
In Sri Aurobindo's view, the inner drives the development of the outer. The evolution of biological forms
(exterior individual quadrant) is only a result and expression of the inner evolution of consciousness (interior
individual quadrant) within the form that presses for development of more complex organizations capable of
reflecting and giving expression to it, i.e. the inner drives the outer. Wilber might argue that the physical form
limits the development of subjective consciousness and therefore it is an equal partner in evolution of higher
consciousness. But Sri Aurobindo would disagree. He would say that if the inner consciousness chooses to
evolve, it will evolve the necessary changes in external biology required for that manifestation, as Mother
describes in the Agenda. Actually, the development of inner consciousness is not limited by the external
development of the form in its ascent to higher planes of consciousness at all. It is only when we want to
transform the human consciousness, rather than rise out of it, that the structure of the current biological form
needs to change.
Similarly, Sri Aurobindo says that the subjective development of the collective drives and determines its
objective development. They too are not equal partners. The subconscious collective preparedness determines the
emergence of consciousness in the individual which in turn leads to the evolution of social forms. Modernity,
which is marked by the Renaissance, Reformation, industrial and democratic revolutions, is the result of a
transition from the vital to mental phase in the human collective. Mind has existed as an individual possession fo
millennium, but the emergence of mind as a collective endowment is relative recent and is still in an early stage
of development. The progress associated with modernity is an external manifestation of the emergence and large
scale application of mental consciousness to address problems of life. Wilber associates modernity with
rationality. But actually science and modernity are much more the expression of the physical mind (level 3 of 9)
than the pure rational thinking mind (level 1).
But the greatest limitation of Wilber's four quadrants is the danger that we may mistake them for something real!
The reality he is categorizing and pigeonholing into four quadrants is a single, indivisible whole. Mind's attempt
to capture it in clear abstract terms gives us a sense of security and satisfaction, but not real knowledge. Thought
and language require the use of divided concepts and opposites for their self-expression. But whereas Sri
Aurobindo constantly reminds us that any such division of reality is only perceptual (being is indivisible), Wilbe
seems to really believe in the separate existence of these four. That seems a step backward from what even
science has discovered since Einstein – that even such apparent divisions as matter, energy, space and time are
inseparable manifestations of a single reality.
Reality tests
Wilber postulates that all four quadrants share three common tests for knowledge, which he terms injunction,
apprehension and confirmation (i.e. method of taking evidence, observation of results, and validation of results).
His distinction between narrow or superficial science (sensory) and broad or deep science (sensory, mental and
spiritual) and his insistence that all three can be approached by the same common tests is helpful because it
broadens the field of phenomenon that can be studied scientifically. This view acknowledges that subjective
experience is a valid field for science but that it can only be fully studied by resort to appropriate subjective
methods, which he states may require in some instances a change in the consciousness of the observer. This is
precisely Sri Aurobindo's view that spiritual experience can be systematically repeated and scientifically
validated, but only by subjective rather than objective methods.
Wilber also insists that standards for judgment vary from quadrant to quadrant. He terms those standards truth
(exterior individual), truthfulness (interior individual), justness or cultural meaning (interior collective) and
functional fit (exterior collective). This formulation avoids inappropriate application of standards from one
quadrant to another, which is his purpose. But it also seems to mis-state or oversimplify the nature of knowledge
Wilber identifies 'truth' with scientific proof, which in fact is often just an observation of external phenomenon o
experimentally validated concepts. But in what sense can we say that scientific fact is true? He identifies
truthfulness or sincerity with subjective individual experience, implying that it is motive and intention rather than
substantial reality that is being judged. He implies that subjective reality is only relative. Our experience of it
may be relative to our level of consciousness or perspective, but that is also true of the external quadrants. The
truth of individual consciousness is not just a function of intention or sincerity. It is a function of the height,
plane or level of consciousness from which it is experienced.
The same problem occurs in the collective quadrants. The criterion of functional fit seems to suit the social
quadrant. The criteria for the cultural quadrant of justness, cultural meaning, mutual understanding and rightness
do not seem as adequate. Is this the only basis for the subjective collective existence? What about common
universal values? Sri Aurobindo argues that nations have souls just as individuals do. If soul is the fundamental
reality of the collective, it cannot be limited to any ethical standards or to mere symbolic understanding. Sri
Aurobindo even describes the rise of nationalism in Germany during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries as a
bold advance of the subconscious social collective from materialistic individualism to true subjectivism, an
advance that went terribly awry due to the assertion of the nation's ego rather than its soul, but which points the
way for more positive expressions in the future.
In sum, Wilber's effort to define distinct criteria for judging reality in the four quadrants is admirable but not
fully satisfying.
Ego & Evolution
Wilber explains psychological development as an evolution of consciousness from greater to less levels of
egocentricity—physiocentric (inability to differentiated subject and object), biocentric (inability to differentiate
one's subjective emotions from those of others), egocentric (emergence of one's own identity distinct from
others), ethnocentric (capacity to accept roles and identities valid for your group), world centric (capacity to
accept validity of different roles and identities for each individual).
This progression up the subjective individual holorachy is a useful way of describing one aspect of conscious
development related to the formation and eventual dissolution of ego. The approach treats development of
consciousness as a cognitive process. The individual has to change his understanding, self-conception and self-
identity. But when taken as a comprehensive description of human personality and its development, the approach
is naive and simplistic. It shares the character of most Western psychology that fails to perceive the depths and
complexity of human personality.
Sri Aurobindo would agree with a general cognitive progression from egocentric to non-egocentric awareness as
one aspect of human development, but his view of human psychology is much more complex.
1. Personality consists of at least three distinct parts, mental, vital and physical, which can be
further subdivided into their components. Each of these three parts develops individually
and in relation to the other three. A high level of conceptual development of the mental
part can coexist with a highly egocentric attitude in the vital part or a lack of consciousness
of the external world in the physical. Even a person with a world-centric mental identity can
be intensely selfish or subconsciously oblivious of others vitally and physically.
2. Wilber argues that personality can become integrated at the level of vision-logic, which
gives mind a global perspective. It is a mental principle of vision and integration. Sri
Aurobindo would argue that mind is incapable of such integration because the vital and
physical are subconscious. Mind has only limited power to permeate their depths or mold
them to its conceptions. What Wilber seems to have in mind is only a mental integration
that transcends the worldview of polar opposites, but this is very different from integration
of personality. The three centers of human consciousness cannot be integrated at the
 mental level or by the mental power. The integration of the three centers into a cohesive
personality is only possible when a fourth center emerges which lies truly outside the ego
but is still a center of individual consciousness, the psychic center. Sri Aurobindo's concept
of the psychic is totally new. He calls it the Being in the Becoming, that portion of the Spirit
that is actually evolving through manifestation. Spiritual evolution for him means not just
that spirit evolves out of the world of matter but that the Spirit is itself evolving, acquiring
new manifest capacities.
3. All three centers are formations of the ego. The ego cannot be transcended by a wider
mental conception because ego is itself a product of mind, i.e. the identification of the
consciousness with the particular viewpoint of an individual formation. The cognitive
development Wilber describes may make a person more civilized, cultured, enlightened,
productive or unselfish, but it does not naturally lead to abolition of ego.
4. Wilber's view equates consciousness with conception. Conception is a way of thinking or
looking or being aware of self and world. Consciousness is the very stuff of existence. A
mentally undeveloped person of narrow mental awareness may have a purity of emotion
that is psychic or spiritual in character.
5. Spiritual paths which rise above mind and reject the limitations of mental ego can lead to
liberation, but they do so by withdrawal from human personality, not by dissolving the ego
of the personality formation. When such a person returns from spiritual experience to life in
mind and the body, they return to an egocentric position of consciousness, though it may
be weakened by their higher experience.
6. Wilber regards the unconscious as primarily the result of pathologies occurring during the
development process by a process of omission or repression. For Sri Aurobindo, the entire
development process occurs on the basis of an unconscious foundation of subconscious life
and inconscient matter. Human pathologies do not just arise in an otherwise perfect
consciousness due to malformations. They arise because the very stuff from which we
evolve is filled with impurities arising from our subconscious animal and ancestral origins.
Consciousness grows like a small flame in a dark dirty room and sweeps larger and larger
portions clean as it grows in brightness and intensity. Yet from a deeper perspective, even
this dirt and darkness is only form and consciousness of Spirit necessary for the evolution.
7. Wilber's approach neglects not only the subconscious, but also the subliminal
consciousness.

Universal life & mind

Wilber accepts the existence of vital energy or prana, but asserts that it cannot be validly separated from the
body-mind experience in which it occurs, i.e. it does not have any independent existence. In other words, vital
energy is energy of body-mind. Probably he would maintain the same is true of mind (i.e. it cannot be adequately
explained in terms of the brain, but it cannot exist independent of the brain). Sri Aurobindo states on the contrary
that the vital and mental planes of consciousness exist prior to the evolution of body and mind in animals and
man. They are created as universal planes of consciousness during the involution from satchitananda through
supermind to matter. They also exist independent of body-mind and interact with it. All truths discoverable by
science already exist as knowledge in the universal mental planes. The forces that move life exist in the universa
life planes.
According to Sru Aurobindo, what we call vital energy in man is only an expression of the universal force of life
which manifests as physical energy in matter (electricity, gravitation, nuclear force, etc.) and nervous and
emotional energy in all living beings. According to him, there is only one life force that creates and sustains
countless forms. Accepting Wilber's definition, science would never discover the existence of life as a universal
rather than an individual force. It would always see the individual life as an aspect of the individual form, of the
ego. Wilber believes in non-ego experience, but only at levels above mind where the consciousness rises above
the development of the body-mind. This would probably also exclude the possibility of transforming mind and
vital and physical, since they must first be universalized by the disillusion of ego before they can be transformed
Of more immediate practical importance, the existence of a universal life plane is the source of all phenomenon
that fall under the heading "life response". By restricting vital energy to the body and the ego, Wilber must reject
the possibility (which all great literature and spirituality affirms) that our inner consciousness corresponds to and
evokes responses from the wider life around us. That would only be possible if our inner life is a portion of and
one with the universal life.
Wilber does not reject but seems to downplay the significance of extrasensory experiences (psi). But if proven,
telepathy, clairvoyance and the like would prove that consciousness is not only hierarchical as Wilber says (e.g.
existing on many different planes) but also that it is essentially independent of forms such as the brain in the
upper right quadrant of his model. The brain functions like a radio receiver to pick up signals from the universal
mind planes. The radio waves (i.e. the ideas, thoughts, truths, beauty perceived by great thinkers and artists) exis
independent of the receiver.
Wilber is skeptical about quantum approaches to consciousness which are based on the thesis that consciousness
is capable of interacting with and altering the 'real world' at the subatomic or intracellular level. Yet Mother's
cellular experiences reported in Agenda confirm that consciousness can and does act at least at the level of the
individual cell. According to Sri Aurobindo even the atom has ego. All force, even the superstring vibration, is a
expression of involved consciousness. More importantly, Wilber's objection to quantum approaches points out a
basic dichotomy in his thinking between 'real' or external world and subjective experience. Whereas Sri
Aurobindo rejects this schizophrenic view and unifies the subjective and objective, the individual and the
collective, as various expressions of one Self-Conscious Being.
Transcendence and Transformation
Self-transcendence is a basic tenet of Wilber's approach. Each holon transcends and includes or enfolds those tha
came before it. In this sense each holon is 'built' of subcomponent parts which are lower holons on the holarchy.
For Sri Aurobindo this is a decidedly mentalized view of reality, mentalized because mind sees by division and
aggregation. While he would agree that higher states of consciousness emerge out of lower ones, it is not by an
additive effect, a quantitative building process that forms a greater whole. The emergence of higher holons may
be true, but what creates the higher planes is the emergence of higher levels of consciousness, which are not in
any true sense combinations or additions of smaller component parts, although their external forms may be so
constituted.
Transcendence is the key operative concept of traditional other-worldly spirituality. He introduces the concepts
of ascent and descent, but descent for him is only to accept the world as a manifestation of Spirit in a spirit of
Compassion, not to transform it. Wilber equates Descent with the materialist's affirmation of the physical world.
For Sri Aurobindo the key operative is transformation, i.e. the emergence of higher planes of consciousness
descending to transform the nature of the lower planes to enable them to embody and manifest the higher
consciousness. Although Wilber frequently uses the word 'transform', he does not elude to a real process of
changing the lower. His preoccupation is with replacing the lower with the higher. In Sri Aurobindo's view, that
which is replaced or brushed aside remains exactly what it was before, even if the center of consciousness has
risen above and no longer takes note of it. Wilber adopts the Buddhist view that great souls stand on the
borderline of existence working until all souls have made the great escape. That may liberate the individual soul
from ignorance but it will never change the world.
More profoundly, Wilber conceives that the liberation of consciousness comes from rising above and that the
world naturally changes when one has done this. Since all is Spirit, there is nothing really to change. But for Sri
Aurobindo, it is not just human consciousness that should rise above and discover its spirituality, it is the animal
and material consciousness in man, in his lower being, that should also be transformed to experience itself as
Spirit. That ultimately requires a transformation of Matter itself, not just of human beings and human
consciousness.
Social Development
Wilber's description of the evolution of social consciousness from the biological stage (marked by physical
domination of the strongest, e.g. the male) to ethnocentric stage (marked by domination of myths and belief
systems and of religious groups and races over each other) to world-centric stage (marked by the shift to reason
and world-centric standards of fairness and justice) corresponds closely to the progression we have described in
social development theory from physical to vital to mental phases. The main difference is our emphasis on the
vitally dynamic and expansive nature of society during the middle phase.
Wilber's view that science, morals and consciousness (the Big Three) each has its own truth and a valid
contribution to make is similar to Sri Aurobindo's statement on the rightful role of science, philosophy,
spirituality in the pursuit of knowledge. But Sri Aurobindo argued that the competition between the three
branches has existed for millennium and the tendency of one, now science, to try to eclipse and usurp the role of
the other two is not new. In ancient Greece, philosophy dominated. In the Middle Ages, religion. Now science.
Overall assessment
In summary, Wilber has done an impressive job of mentally synthesizing many different strands of current
thought within a coherent intellectual framework. He places different perspectives in a wider context in which
each assumes its rightful place and significance as a valid perspective of a greater whole. His model is clear and
logical.
Where Wilber particularly disappoints is in his effort to apply the same mental formulas to subjective life and
spiritual phenomenon that he applies to matter and social systems. Here dualisms, dialectics, quadrants and tenet
are inadequate to describe the complexity, subtlety and creativity of the processes and their results.
Although he incorporates higher spiritual planes in his model and seems to make Spirit the real basis, the model
itself is strictly a mental formulation. He points out the limitation of worldviews that seek to describe reality by
dividing it into parts, which is a characteristic action of mind. To counter it, he tries to aggregate disparate
worldviews into a single larger framework, which is another characteristic action of mind. Mind knows by
division and aggregation. But neither one nor the other nor a combination of the two can truly create an
integrated whole.
What is lacking in Wilber's approach is not clarity or rationality. It is life, power and spirituality. His mental
model fails as all mental models must in providing insights into the vital creativity and miraculous workings of
life. Life becomes a flat, two dimensional force like electromagnetism. His view does not recognize life is a
conscious universal power with a character and personality of its own that is constantly interacting with every
individual at every moment to effect results that lie beyond the vision and imagination of mind and ego. The
evolution of consciousness he refers to is not a mechanical or even a dialectic process—it is the Becoming of a
living universal Being taking delight in the complexity, apparent struggle and progressive unfolding of its
creative manifestation.
So too, Wilber's discussion of spirituality is pure mental abstraction—colorless, odorless and lifeless—as flat and
hollow as the flatland he seeks to escape. It is conceptual not spiritual. His idea of an Emptiness from which
everything emerges, of which everything is made and to which everything returns reveals nothing of the
Conscious Being and Intention that supports and becomes manifestation. He portrays a ladder from original
Emptiness to ultimate Emptiness which signifies nothing except continuity. He advocates transcendence of ego
but gives no indication of what exists beyond ego other than a vast impersonality.
Wilber has artfully exposed the limitations of empirical science as a means of knowledge. Yet he seeks to
substitute mental philosophy and cosmology in its place. The act of naming Spirit and enumerating spiritual
planes is as much an attempt to collapse higher reality into a mental framework as the biologists effort to explain
mind in terms of brain.
The limitations of a neat, linear progressive mental approach can be illustrated by contrasting mental logic with
spiritual reality, with what Sri Aurobindo terms the logic of the Infinite.
1. Mental logic states that the whole is equal to or greater than the sum of its parts. Spiritual
logic states that even the smallest part can be greater than the whole because each part is
a manifestation of the Infinite. Each finite is itself the whole Infinite.
2. Mental logic states that the whole or higher holon is more inclusive and more powerful than
the part or lower holon. Spiritual logic states that even the smallest part can change the
nature of the whole. Therefore, one Gorbachev can change the whole world.
3. Mental logic states that there is a hierarchy from lower to higher planes of consciousness.
Spiritual logic states that the highest manifestation occurs in what is now the lowest plane.
Matter is the lowest wrung on the ladder of consciousness, but matter divinized becomes
the highest.
The limitations of Wilber's approach will be evident not just for those seeking a roadmap for spiritual experience
but even more so for those seeking guidance for the understanding and resolution of life problems. Though he
may describe and explain historical trends such as the role of women, the model provides little insight applicable
to issues facing humanity—abolition of war and poverty, stagnation in Japan, chaos in Russia, barbarism in
Yugoslavia, the future of science, challenges facing business, potentials for Indian development, etc. It fails
equally when applied to the life of the individual in family or in work. It fails because it is not a real
representation of life or reality but only a mental model.
NOTES
1. The four could be relabeled psychological (graded range of conscious individual experience
—vital, mental and spiritual), biological (graded evolution of material life forms), cultural
(cultural in its inner sense as representing the progressive development of the collective's
subconscious experience—its aspirations, perceptions, beliefs, group identity, governing
ideas, values—rather than its external forms of behavior and tradition), and social
(increasing complexity and effectiveness of social and cultural forms e.g. activities,
customs, systems and social organization, i.e. social development).
2. Except that he has combined several distinct planes (Absolute, Satchitananda, and
Supermind; Intuitive Mind and Overmind; psychic and Illumined Mind)
3. External conflict, strife and competition are some of nature's mechanisms for releasing this
consciousness during the physical and vital stages. Cooperation is the characteristic
mechanism of the mental stage.

http://www.integralworld.net/jacobs.html

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The Evolution of Consciousness
Teilhard and Sri Aurobindo compared
Teilhard and Aurobindo both see evolution as a collective and teleological progression through particular levels:
Matter, Life and Mind, or Inorganic Earth, Biosphere, and Noosphere. These stages are almost exactly
equivalent to the three evolutionary stages, or three codes, as described by scientific writers like Erich Jantsch
and Rush W. Dozier.
Both Teilhard and Aurobindo agree that this evolution is not yet complete (and the other two mentioned authors
would not disagree, even if they have not elucidated these future stages). "Mankind is still embryonic," says
Teilhard [The Future of Man, p.280]. And according to Aurobindo, "He cannot be the last term of this
evolution. He is too imperfect an expression of the Spirit [The Life Divine (10th ed.), , p.1009]. Teilhard sugges
that perhaps man is "the bud from which something more complicated and more centred than man himself should
emerge" [The Vision of the Past, p.229]. While Aurobindo states more decisively that the line of evolution
cannot stop where man is now, but must go "beyond its present term in him or else beyond him if he himself has
not the force to go forwards." [The Life Divine (10th ed.), , pp.249-50]
Thus, like Aurobindo, Teilhard claims that a "privelaged axis" is discernable in evolution, in the development of
greatre complexity, greater consciousness, and development of the nervous system and the brain. [Beatrice
Bruteau, Evolution towards Divinity, p.154]
Previous spiritual paths, such as yoga and meditation, have always been individual efforts. But now we have
something different. Both Teilhard and Aurobindo see this next spiritual-evolutionary step as not an indivvidual
but a collective one. Thus Teilhard conceives of - to quote from the summary of Beatrice Bruteau -
"something like a community of individual reflectios uniting themselve in "a single unanimous
reflection" [The Phenomenon of Man, p.251]. Multiplicity will...be preserved in this final unity
[Writings in time of War, p.113]; as each person "looses himself" in the great One, he will actually
find in it all the perfections of his own individuality [Hymn of the Universe, p.26]. the ultimate
state of the world must be a system whose unity coincides with a paroxysm of harmonised
complexity." [The Phenomenon of Man, p.262]."
Beatrice Bruteau, Evolution toward Divinity - Teilhard de Chardin and the Hindu Traditions, p.35
(Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, Ill, 1974)

In Teilhard's vision Humanity as a whole is the powerful reality in which all the thoughts of individuals are
steeped, and by which they are guided to form from their linked multiplicity a single spirit of the earth" [Human
Energy, p.118]. Likewise according to Sri Aurobindo: "It is our spiritual destiny to manifest and become this
supernature, for it is the nature of our unevolved, whole being." [The Life Divine (10th ed.), , p.1231]
According to Teilhard,
"The organisation of human energy, taken as a whole...pushes us towards the ultimate formation,
over and above each personal element, of a common soul of humanity"
[Human Energy, p.137]

or in other words
"a harmonised collectivity of consciousnesses equivalent to a sort of super-consciousness." [The
Phenomenon of Man, p.251]
Likewise, according to Sri Aurobindo
"...The individual must be the instrument and first field of the transformation; but an isolated
individual transformation is not enough...."
[The Life Divine (10th ed.), , p.962]

Sri Aurobindo and Teilhard De Chardin agree that the change must be collective, not simply individual. Yet this
collectivity would not negate individual differences and uniqueness,
"for the law of the Supermind is unity fulfilled in diversity, and therefore there would be an infinite
diversity in the manifstation of the gnostic (supramental) cnsciousness although that
consciousness would still be one in its basis..." [The Life Divine (10th ed.), , p.971]
There are indeed a number of interesting parallels between Aurobindo's and Teilhard's teachings. Not only are
they quite similiar as far as their respective cosmologies go, but both men developed their philosophies at the
same time. M. Andrè Monostier observes that:
"during the First World War, while the corporal stretcher-bearer Teilhard de Chardin was
composing inside the trenches of his regient the broad outlines of Le Phénomène humain and Le
Milieu divin, 10,000 kilometres away the Indian revolutionary leader Sri Aurobindo was developing
in the same way in the pages of the monthly review Arya the essential ideas of his magnum opus,
The Life Divine (10th ed.), ."
["Teilhard de Chardin: His Spiritual-Scientific Thought and its Meeting-Point with Sri Aurobindo",
Mother India, Monthly Review of Culture (Pondicherry), March 1966]

Yet there is still a very real difference of consciousness between the two men, although the Indian writer K.D.
Sethna is perhaps being too harsh when he states:
"Sri Aurobindo had already attained the direct spiritual experience of the fundamental realities he
was expounding intellectually in his journal....Teilhard, even in his maturity, was not putting into
intellectual language the results of any comparable inner compassing of hidden truths. All that he
had to go upon was a number of vivid intuitions and intense feelings in boyhood and a vibrant
spiritual sense in subsequent years. Surely, these...are of great value.....But they are still worlds
apart from the realisation of a master of the via mystica, a supreme Yogi."
[K. D. Sethna, Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Aurobindo - a Focus of Fundamentals, p.100, (Bharatiya
Vidya Prakasan, Varanasi, 1973)]

Teilhard's writings show through and through a deep mystical awareness, as the following passage shows:
"Christ invests himself organically with the very majesty of his creation. And it is in no way
metaphorical to say that man finds himself capable of experiencing and discovering his God in the
whole length, breadth and depth of the world in movement. To be able to say literally to God that
one loves him, not only with all one's body, all one's heart and all one's soul, but with every fibre
of the unifying universe--that is a prayer than can only be made in space-time." (The Phenomenon
of Man, 1955, p. 297)
If this is not a mystical utterance (albeit with a strong and pantheistic slant), I don't know what is.
The more significant point is that Teilhard, working within the framework of the dualistic Christian religion, had
conceptual restrictions placed upon him that Aurobindo, who was coming from the much more ecumenical
Indian spiritual culture, was blessedly free of. This difference in religious mileu led to very real doctrinal
differences in the teachings of these two great Visionaries, despite the obvious and striking similarities that are
there.
An important difference, Sethna points out, between the Aurobindonian and the Teilhardian conceptions of the
divine culmination of evolution is that unlike Aurobindo, Teilhard "...puts the realm of perfection still beyond the
earth" in a transcendent Omega-Christ principle, and thus "stops short of what the evolution or unfoldment of the
Divine hidden in matter should logically reach - a new ceation here which would correspond in all essential term
to the epiphany that already exists in the Divine beyond." This would seem to be due to his religious
conservatism, so that even in his magnum opus, The Phenomenon of Man, Teilhard tried to make his vision
compatable with Roman Catholicism, and in some other works this tendency is more pronunced. "A somewhat
elastic Roman Catholicism which would not exclude his mystico-scientific weltanschauung of evolution...would
wholly satisfy him. He wants to retain the old form as much as possible for his novel substance; otherwise he
could not remain a devout Jesuit in spite of the Church's suspician of his philosophy." [K. D. Sethna, Teilhard de
Chardin and Sri Aurobindo - a Focus of Fundamentals, pp.36-7,
And certainly,
"Inasmuch as Teilhard conceives of this realisation in an evolutionary light he is an Aurobindonian
and helps to a lay a new foundation for individual mystical effort; his philosophy, like Sri
Aurobindo's, makes this effort an urge of universal nature itself, a possibility and even an
inevitabiity of earth-history....But the cosmic Self - ...Christianly felt as the supreme conscious
Centre towards...which the multiplicity of human personal centres converge in a rapture of
collective love - ...no matter how evolutionised, does not imply the tremendous radical
transformation of man...which the Supermind as understood by Sri Aurobindo must effect: this
transformation includes a complete literal divinising of the most material being of man. For the
Aurobindonian Supermind is much more than a hyperpersonal world-unity: it holds in itself the
original truth of all the terms worked out in evolutionary nature, including every body in which life
and mind emerge and manifest..."
[K. D. Sethna, Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Aurobindo - a Focus of Fundamentals, pp.34-5,
(Bharatiya Vidya Prakasan, Varanasi, 1973)]

It is not my intention here to claim one of these great visionaries is superior to the other. Both contributed much
of insight and understanding to how the universe and evolution works. Sri Aurobindo as a master Yogi provides
a greater emphasis and description of yogic and spiritual states of consciousness. Teilhard as a scientist as well
as mystic maps out the stages of the earth's collective evolution - through inorganic to biosphere to noosphere
and then beyond. Taking what each offers in conjunction gives us a magnificant vision of the development of
consciousness and the mighty arrow of evolution.
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Sri Aurobindo
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Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo (Aurobindo Ghosh) in 1916.

Date of birth 15 August 1872(1872-08-15)

Place of birth Calcutta (now Kolkata), India

 Birth name Aurobindo Akroyd Ghosh

Date of passing 5 December 1950(1950-12-05)

away (aged 78)

Place of death Pondicherry (now Puducherry),

French India

Quotation The Spirit shall look out through

Matter's gaze.
And Matter shall reveal the Spirit's
face.[1]

v·d·e

Sri Aurobindo (Bengali: শী অরিবন (অরিবন োঘোষ) Sri Ôrobindo) (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15
August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi,
guru, and poet.[2][3] He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a
duration became one of its most important leaders,[4] before developing his own vision of human
progress and spiritual evolution.
Central theme of Sri Aurobindo's vision is the evolution of human life into life divine. He writes:
"Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next
approaching achievement in the earth evolution. It is inevitable because it is at once the intention
of the inner spirit and the logic of nature's process."
Sri Aurobindo synthesized Eastern and Western philosophy, religion, literature, and psychology
in writings. Aurobindo was the first Indian to create a major literary corpus in English.[5] His
works include philosophy; poetry; translations of and commentaries on the Vedas, Upanishads,
and the Gita; plays; literary, social, political, and historical criticism; devotional works; spiritual
journals and three volumes of letters. His principal philosophical writings are The Life Divine
and The Synthesis of Yoga, while his principal poetic work is Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol.

Contents
[hide]
• 1 Biography
○ 1.1 Early life
○ 1.2 England
○ 1.3 Baroda
○ 1.4 Calcutta
○ 1.5 Conversion from politics to spirituality
 ○ 1.6 Pondicherry
• 2 The Mother
• 3 Philosophy and spiritual vision
○ 3.1 Evolutionary philosophy
 3.1.1 Process of creation and evolution
 3.1.2 Involution
 3.1.3 Evolution
 3.1.4 Brahman
 3.1.5 Triple transformation of the individual
 3.1.6 Evolving soul (psychic being)
 3.1.7 Supramental existence
 3.1.8 Philosophy of social evolution
○ 3.2 Integral Yoga
○ 3.3 Analysis of Indian culture
○ 3.4 Interpretation of the Vedas
• 4 Poetry
○ 4.1 Savitri
○ 4.2 The Future Poetry
• 5 Followers of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother
○ 5.1 Organisations and institutes
○ 5.2 Journals
• 6 Influence
• 7 Quotations
• 8 Partial bibliography
• 9 See also
• 10 References
• 11 Further reading
• 12 External links

[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta, India, to Dr. Krishna Dhan Ghose, District Surgeon of
Rangapur, Bengal, and Swarnalata Devi, the daughter of Brahmo religious and social reformer,
Rajnarayan Basu.[6] Dr. Ghose chose the middle name Akroyd to honour his friend Annette
Akroyd.[7]
Aurobindo spent his first five years at Rangapur, where his father had been posted since October
1871. Dr. Ghose, who had previously lived in Britain and studied medicine at King's College,
Aberdeen, was determined that his children should have an English education and upbringing
free of any Indian influences. In 1877, he therefore sent the young Aurobindo and two elder
siblings - Manmohan and Benoybhusan - to the Loreto Convent school in Darjeeling.
[edit] England
Aurobindo spent two years at Loreto convent. In 1879, Aurobindo and his two elder brothers
were taken to Manchester, England for a European education. The brothers were placed in the
care of a Rev. and Mrs. Drewett. Rev. Drewett was an Anglican clergyman whom Dr. Ghose
knew through his British friends at Rangapur. The Drewetts tutored the Ghose brothers privately.
The Drewetts had been asked to keep the tuitions completely secular and to make no mention of
India or its culture.
In 1884, Aurobindo joined St Paul's School. Here he learned Greek and Latin, spending the last
three years reading literature, especially English poetry. Dr. K.D. Ghose had aspired that his sons
should pass the prestigious Indian Civil Service, but in 1889 it appeared that of the three
brothers, only young Aurobindo had the chance of fulfilling his father's aspirations, his brothers
having already decided their future careers. To become an ICS official, students were required to
pass the difficult competitive examination, as well as study at an English university for two years
under probation. With his limited financial resources, the only option Aurobindo had was to
secure a scholarship at an English university, which he did by passing the scholarship
examinations of King's College, Cambridge University. He stood first at the examination.[8] He
also passed the written examination of ICS after a few months, where he was ranked 11th out of
250 competitors.[9] He spent the next two years at the King's College.[10]
By the end of two years of probation, Aurobindo became convinced that he did not want to serve
the British, he therefore failed to present himself at the horse riding examination for ICS, and
was disqualified for the Service. At this time, the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad III
was travelling England. James Cotton, brother of Sir Henry Cotton, for some time Lt. Governor
of Bengal and Secretary of the South Kensington Liberal Club, who knew Aurobindo and his
father secured for him a service in Baroda State Service and arranged a meeting between him and
the prince. He left England for India, arriving there in February, 1893.[11] In India Aurobindo's
father who was waiting to receive his son was misinformed by his agents from Bombay (now
Mumbai) that the ship on which Aurobindo had been travelling had sunk off the coast of
Portugal. Dr. Ghose who was by this time frail due to ill-health could not bear this shock and
died.[12]
[edit] Baroda
In Baroda, Aurobindo joined the state service, working first in the Survey and Settlements
department, later moving to the Department of Revenue and then to the Secretariat, writing
speeches for the Gaekwad.[13] At Baroda, Aurobindo engaged in a deep study of Indian culture,
teaching himself Sanskrit, Hindi and Bengali, all things that his education in England had
withheld from him. Because of the lack of punctuality at work resulting from his preoccupation
with these other pursuits, Aurobindo was transferred to the Baroda College as a teacher of
French, where he became popular because of his unconventional teaching style. He was later
promoted to the post of Vice-Principal.[13] He published the first of his collections of poetry, The
Rishi from Baroda.[14] He also started taking active interest in the politics of India's freedom
struggle against British rule, working behind the scenes as his position at the Baroda State barred
him from overt political activity. He linked up with resistance groups in Bengal and Madhya
Pradesh, while travelling to these states. He established contact with Lokmanya Tilak and Sister
Nivedita. He also arranged for the military training of Jatindra Nath Banerjee (Niralamba
Swami) in the Baroda army and then dispatched him to organise the resistance groups in Bengal.
He was invited by K.G. Deshpande who was in charge of the weekly Induprakash and a friend
from his days in Cambridge to write about the political situation. Aurobindo started writing a
series of impassioned articles under the title New Lamps for the Old pouring vitriol on the
Congress for its moderate policy.[15] He wrote:
"Our actual enemy is not any force exterior to ourselves, but our own crying weaknesses, our
cowardice, our selfishness, our hypocrisy, our purblind sentimentalism"
further adding:
"I say, of the Congress, then, this, - that its aims are mistaken, that the spirit in which it proceeds
towards their accomplishment is not a spirit of sincerity and whole-heartedness, and that the
methods it has chosen are not the right methods, and the leaders in whom it trusts, not the right
sort of men to be leaders; - in brief, that we are at present the blind led, if not by the blind, at any
rate by the one-eyed."
The Congress which practised more mild and moderate criticism itself, reacted in a way which
frightened the editors of the paper who asked Aurobindo to write about cultural themes instead
of Politics. Aurobindo lost interest in these writings and the series was discontinued.[13]
Aurobindo's activities in Baroda also included a regimen of yogic exercises and meditation, but
these were minor in comparison to the work he would take up in his later life. By 1904 he was
doing yogic practices for five-six hours everyday [12]
[edit] Calcutta
Main article: Aurobindo's politics
Aurobindo used to take many excursions to Bengal, at first in a bid to re-establish links with his
parents' families and his other Bengali relatives, including his cousin Sarojini and brother Barin,
and later increasingly in a bid to establish resistance groups across Bengal. But he formally
shifted to Calcutta (now Kolkata) only in 1906 after the announcement of Partition of Bengal.
During his visit to Calcutta in 1901 he married Mrinalini, daughter of Bhupal Chandra Bose, a
senior official in Government service. Sri Aurobindo was then 28; the bride Mrinalini, 14.
Marrying off daughters at a very young age was very common in 19th century Bengali families.
[16]

In Bengal with Barin's help he established contacts with revolutionaries, inspiring radicals like
Bagha Jatin, Jatin Banerjee, Surendranath Tagore. He helped establish a series of youth clubs
with the aim of imparting a martial and spiritual training to the youth of Bengal. He helped found
the Anushilan Samiti of Calcutta in 1902. When the Partition of Bengal was announced, there
was a public outpouring against the British rule in India. Aurobindo attended the Benares session
of Congress in December 1905 as an observer, and witnessing the intensity of people's feelings
decided to throw himself into the thick of politics.[12] He joined the National Council of
Education and met Subodh Chandra Mullick who quickly became a supporter of Aurobindo's
views. Mullick donated a large sum to found a National College and stipulated that Aurobindo
should become its first principal. Aurobindo also started writing for Bande Mataram, as a
consequence of which, his popularity as a leading voice of the hardline group soared. His arrest
and acquittal for printing seditious material in Bande Mataram consolidated his position as the
leader of aggressive nationalists. His call for complete political independence was considered
extremely radical at the time and frequently caused friction in Congress. In 1907 at Surat session
of Congress where moderates and hardliners had a major showdown, he led the hardliners along
with Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The Congress split after this session.[17] In 1907–1908 Aurobindo
travelled extensively to Pune, Bombay and Baroda to firm up support for the nationalist cause,
giving speeches and meeting various groups. He was arrested again in May 1908 in connection
with the Alipore Bomb Case. He was acquitted in the ensuing trial and released after a year of
isolated incarceration. Once out of the prison he started two new publications, Karmayogin in
English and Dharma in Bengali. He also delivered the Uttarpara Speech s:Uttarpara Speech
hinting at the transformation of his focus to spiritual matters . The British persecution continued
because of his writings in his new journals and in April 1910 Aurobindo signalling his retirement
from politics, moved to Pondicherry.
[edit] Conversion from politics to spirituality

Sri Aurobindo and The

Mother

Books
Collected Works · Life
Divine · Synthesis of Yoga ·
Savitri · Agenda ·

Teachings
Involution/Involution ·
Evolution · Integral education ·
Integral psychology · Integral
yoga · Intermediate zone ·
Supermind

Places
Matrimandir · Pondicherry

Communities
Sri Aurobindo Ashram ·
Auroville

Disciples
Champaklal · N.K.Gupta ·
Amal Kiran · Nirodbaran ·
Pavitra · M.P.Pandit · Pranab ·
A.B.Purani · D.K.Roy ·
Satprem · Indra Sen · Kapali
 Shastri

Journals and Forums

Arya · Mother India ·
Collaboration
Aurobindo's conversion from political action to spirituality occurred gradually. Aurobindo had
been influenced by Bankim's Anandamath. In this novel, the story follows a monk who fights the
soldiers of the British East India Company. When in Baroda, Aurobindo and Barin had
considered the plan of a national uprising of nationalist sannyasis against the empire.[18] Later
when Aurobindo got involved with Congress and Bande Mataram, Barin had continued to meet
patriotic youngsters for recruitment for such a plan. In 1907, Barin introduced Aurobindo to
Vishnu Bhaskar Lele, a Maharashtrian yogi.
Aurobindo had been engaged in yogic discipline for years, but disturbances to his progress
following the recent events surrounding the Congress had put him in the need of consulting a
yogi. After attending the Surat session of the Congress in 1907, Aurobindo met Lele in Baroda.
This meeting led him to retire for three days in seclusion where, following Lele's instruction,
Aurobindo had his first major experience, called nirvana - a state of complete mental silence free
of any thought or mental activity.[19] Later, while awaiting trial as a prisoner in Alipore Central
Jail in Calcutta Aurobindo had a number of mystical experiences. In his letters, Sri Aurobindo
mentions that while in jail as under-trial, spirit of Swami Vivekananda visited him for two weeks
and spoke about the higher planes of consciousness leading to supermind[citation needed]. Sri
Aurobindo later said that while imprisoned he saw the convicts, jailers, policemen, the prison
bars, the trees, the judge, the lawyers as different forms of one godhead, Krishna[citation needed].
The trial ("Alipore Bomb Case, 1908") lasted for one full year, but eventually Sri Aurobindo was
acquitted. His Defence Counsel was Chiitaranjan Das. On acquittal, Sri Aurobindo was invited to
deliver a speech at Uttarpara where he first spoke of some of his experiences in jail. Afterwards
Aurobindo started two new weekly papers: the Karmayogin in English and the Dharma in
Bengali. However, it appeared that the British government would not tolerate his nationalist
program as then Viceroy and Governor-General of India Lord Minto wrote about him: "I can
only repeat that he is the most dangerous man we have to reckon with." The British considered
the possibilities of a retrial or deportation, but objections from Lord Minto, or the Bengal
government at different instances prevented immediate execution of such plans.
When informed that he was sought again by the police, he was guided to the French territory
Chandernagore where he halted for a few days. On April 4, 1910, he finally landed in the French
colony of Pondicherry.
[edit] Pondicherry
In Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo completely dedicated himself to his spiritual and philosophical
pursuits. In 1914, after four years of concentrated yoga, Sri Aurobindo was proposed to express
his vision in intellectual terms. This resulted in the launch of Arya, a 64 page monthly review.
For the next six and a half years this became the vehicle for most of his most important writings,
which appeared in serialised form. These included The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga,
Essays on The Gita, The Secret of The Veda, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Upanishads, The
Renaissance in India, War and Self-determination, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human
Unity, and The Future Poetry. Many years later, Sri Aurobindo revised some of these works
before they were published in book form. It was about his prose writing of this period that Times
Literary Supplement, London wrote on 8 July 1944, "Sri Aurobindo is the most significant and
perhaps the most interesting.... He is a new type of thinker, one who combines in his vision the
alacrity of the West with the illumination of the East.He is a yogi who writes as though he were
standing among the stars, with the constellations for his companions."
For some time afterwards, Sri Aurobindo's main literary output was his voluminous
correspondence with his disciples. His letters, most of which were written in the 1930s,
numbered in the several thousands. Many were brief comments made in the margins of his
disciple's notebooks in answer to their questions and reports of their spiritual practice—others
extended to several pages of carefully composed explanations of practical aspects of his
teachings. These were later collected and published in book form in three volumes of Letters on
Yoga. In the late 1930s, Sri Aurobindo resumed work on a poem he had started earlier—he
continued to expand and revise this poem for the rest of his life. It became perhaps his greatest
literary achievement, Savitri, an epic spiritual poem in blank verse of approximately 24,000
lines. During World War II, he supported the allies, even donating money to the British
Government, describing Hitler as a dark and oppressive force.
On August 15, 1947, on his 75th birthday, when India achieved political independence, a
message was asked from Sri Aurobindo. In his message, which was read out on the All India
Radio, Sri Aurobindo dwelt briefly on the five dreams he has cherished all his life and which, he
noted, were on the way to being fulfilled. Sri Aurobindo died on December 5, 1950, after a short
illness.
[edit] The Mother
Main article: Mirra Alfassa
Sri Aurobindo's close spiritual collaborator, Mirra Richard (b. Alfassa), came to be known as
The Mother simply because Sri Aurobindo started to call her by this name. On being asked by
why he called her the Mother, Sri Aurobindo wrote an essay called The Mother in order to shed
light on the person of Mirra.
Mirra was born in Paris on February 21, 1878, to Turkish and Egyptian parents. Involved in the
cultural and spiritual life of Paris, she counted among her friends Alexandra David-Neel. She
went to Pondicherry on March 29, 1914, finally settling there in 1920. Sri Aurobindo considered
her his spiritual equal and collaborator. After November 24, 1926, when Sri Aurobindo retired
into seclusion, he left it to her to plan, run and build Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the community of
disciples that had gathered around them. Some time later when families with children joined the
ashram, she established and supervised the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education
which, with its pilot experiments in the field of education. When Sri Aurobindo died in 1950, the
Mother continued their spiritual work and directed the Ashram and guided their disciples. In the
mid-1960s she personally guided the founding of Auroville, an international township endorsed
by UNESCO to further human unity near the town of Pondicherry, which was to be a place
"where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above
all creeds, all politics and all nationalities." It was inaugurated in 1968 in a ceremony in which
representatives of 121 nations and all the states of India placed a handful of their soil in an urn
near the center of the city. Auroville continues to develop and currently has approximately 2100
members from 43 countries, though the majority consists of Indians, French, and Germans. The
Mother also played an active role in the merger of the French pockets in India and, according to
Sri Aurobindo's wish, helped to make Pondicherry a seat of cultural exchange between India and
France. The Mother stayed in Pondicherry until her death on November 17, 1973. Her later
years, including her myriad of metaphysical and occult experiences, and her attempt at the
transformation at the cellular level of her body, are captured in her 13-volume personal log
known as Mother's Agenda.
[edit] Philosophy and spiritual vision
Main article: Philosophy and Spiritualism of Sri Aurobindo
One of Sri Aurobindo's main philosophical achievements was to introduce the concept of
evolution into Vedantic thought. Samkhya philosophy had already proposed such a notion
centuries earlier, but Aurobindo rejected the materialistic tendencies of both Darwinism and
Samkhya, and proposed an evolution of spirit along with that of matter, and that the evolution of
matter was a result of the former.
He describes the limitation of the Mayavada of Advaita Vedanta, and solves the problem of the
linkage between the ineffable Brahman or Absolute and the world of multiplicity by positing a
hitherto unknown and unexplored level of consciousness, which he called The Supermind. The
supermind is the active principle present in the transcendent Satchidananda as well in the roots of
evolution: a unitary level of which our individual minds and bodies are minuscule subdivisions.
Sri Aurobindo rejected a major conception of Indian philosophy that says that the World is a
Maya (illusion) and that living as a renunciate was the only way out. He says that it is possible,
not only to transcend human nature but also to transform it and to live in the world as a free and
evolved human being with a new consciousness and a new nature which could spontaneously
perceive truth of things, and proceed in all matters on the basis of inner oneness, love and light.
[edit] Evolutionary philosophy
Sri Aurobindo argues that humankind is not the last rung in the evolutionary scale, but can
evolve spiritually beyond its current limitations to a state of spiritual and supramental existence.
This evolutionary existence he called a "Divine life on Earth", characterized by a spiritualized,
supramental, truth-consciousness-oriented humanity.[20]
[edit] Process of creation and evolution
He speaks of two central movements in the process of creation: an involution of consciousness
from an original omnipresent Reality, manifesting a universe of forms, including matter; and an
evolution of those material forms in creation upward toward life, mind, and spirit, reconnecting
to their spiritual source. It is also a process of evolution.
[edit] Involution
The process by which the Energy of creation emerged from a timeless, spaceless, ineffable,
immutable Reality, Sri Aurobindo refers to as the Involution. In that process the Reality extended
itself to Being/Existence (Sat), Consciousness, that generated a Force - (Chit); and Bliss
(Ananda)-- self enjoyment in existing and being conscious. Through the action of a fourth
dimension, Supermind (i.e. Truth Consciousness), the Force (Chit) of Sat-Chit-Ananda was
divided into Knowledge and Will, eventually formulating as an invisible Energy that would
become the source of creation. Through its own willful self-absorption of consciousness, the
universe would begin as Inconscient material existence from out of that Energy.
[edit] Evolution
The process of existence emerging out of the Inconscient is referred as evolution. Initially, it
emerges gradually in the stages of matter, life, and mind. First matter evolves from simple to
complex forms, then life emerges in matter and evolves from simple to complex forms, finally
mind emerges in life and evolves from rudimentary to higher forms of thought and reason. As
each new principle emerges, the previous stages remain but are integrated into the higher
principle. Humanity represents the stage of development of mind in complex material forms of
life.
The higher development of mind in the mass of humanity is not yet a secure possession. Reason
and intellect still do not dominate the life of most human beings; rather, mind tends to be turned
to the purposes of the life principle, which is focused on self-preservation, self-assertion, and
satisfaction of personal need and desire. But evolution does not cease with the establishment of
reason and intellect; beyond mind are higher levels of a spiritual and supramental consciousness
which in the nature of things must also emerge. This higher evolution is described as a dual
movement; inward, away from the surface consciousness and into the depths, culminating in the
realization of the Psychic Being (the personal evolving soul); and then upward to higher levels of
spiritual mind Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, and Overmind), culminating in the
final stage of supramentalisation. Whereas these higher levels of consciousness have been
attained in particular individuals, they must eventually emerge more universally as general stages
in the evolution. When they do emerge, there will come the embodiment of a new species on
earth that will be once again united in consciousness with Sachchidananda.
[edit] Brahman
A central tenet of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy is that the Truth of existence is an omnipresent
Reality that both transcends the manifested universe and is inherent in it. This Reality, referred to
as Brahman, is an Absolute: it is not limited by any mental conception or duality, whether
personal or impersonal, existent or nonexistent, formless or manifested in form, timeless or
extended in time, spaceless or extended in space.
It is simultaneously all of these but is bound by none of them. It is at once the universe, each
individual being and thing in the universe, and the Transcendent beyond the universe. In its
highest manifested poise, its nature may be described as Sachchidananda—infinite existence,
infinite consciousness, and infinite delight or bliss; a triune principle in which the three are
united in a single Reality. In other words, it is a fully conscious and blissful infinite existence.
The importance of this concept for humanity lies in its implication that Brahman is the deepest
and secret Reality of humans, it is their true Self, and it is possible to recover this Reality of their
being by removing the veil of ignorance that hides it from them and imprisons them in a false
identification with an apparently divided and limited egoistic movement on the surface of the
being. This is the metaphysical basis for Sri Aurobindo's yoga, the discipline given to
consciously unite humans' life with their essential Reality.
[edit] Triple transformation of the individual
Sri Aurobindo's argues that Man is born an ignorant, divided, conflicted being; a product of the
original inconscience (i.e. unconsciousness,) inherent in Matter that he evolved out of. As a
result, he does not know the nature of Reality, including its source and purpose; his own nature,
including the parts and integration of his being; what purpose he serves, and what his individual
and spiritual potential is, amongst others. In addition, man experiences life through division and
conflict, including his relationship with others, and his divided view of spirit and life.
To overcome these limitations, Man must embark on a process of self-discovery in which he
uncovers his Divine nature. To that end, he undertakes a three-step process, which he calls the
Triple Transformation.[21]
(1) Psychic Transformation -- The first of the three stages is a movement within, away from the
surface of life, to the depths, culminating in the discovery of his psychic being (the evolving
soul). From that experience, he sees the oneness and unity of creation, and the harmony of all
opposites experienced in life.
(2) Spiritual Transformation -- As a result of making the psychic change, his mind expands and
he experiences knowledge not through the hard churning of thought, but through light, intuition,
and revelation of knowledge, culminating in supramental perception. Light enters from the
heights and begins to transmute various parts of his being.
(3) Supramental transformation -- After making the psychic and spiritual change, he makes the
supramental and most radical change. It is basically a complete transformation of the mind, the
heart, the emotions, and the physical body.
[edit] Evolving soul (psychic being)
Sri Aurobindo laid utmost stress on finding and living in the psychic being (i.e. an evolving soul)
within which is the essence of our individual being. If we forge our way into the deepest parts of
our being, we will come upon a personal evolving soul. Writes he: If the psychic entity had been
from the beginning unveiled and known to its ministers, not a secluded King in a screened
chamber, the human evolution would have been a rapid soul-outflowering, not the difficult,
chequered and disfigured development it now is; but the veil is thick and we know not the secret
Light within us, the light in the hidden crypt of the heart’s innermost sanctuary." (The Life
Divine, Chapter XXV.) It should also be noted that this psychic entity is itself evolving: it
extracts the essence of life and then moves on to the next birth until it is fulfilled in its journey
through space and time. The connection to the evolving soul is thus the key to the evolution from
this the human side, as from there we overcome the inherent Ignorance, division, dualities, and
suffering of Man, enabling him to fulfill his human aspiration of God, freedom, joy, and
immortality. (From the spiritual side, it is the descending Supramental Force that enables the
progress of life to its ultimate capacity. The two together, the connection to the psychic being
and the surrender to the descending (supramental) Force are the keys to the evolution and
transformation of the individual, humanity, and life in the universe.)
[edit] Supramental existence
Sri Aurobindo's vision of the future includes the appearance of what may be called a new
species, the supramental being, a divine being which would be as different and superior to
present humanity as humanity is to the animal. It would have a consciousness different in kind
than the mind of the human, a different status and quality and functioning. Even the physical
form of this being would be different, more luminous and flexible and adaptable, entirely
conscious and harmonious. Between this supramental being and humanity, there would be
transitional beings, who would be human in birth and form, but whose consciousness would
approach that of the supramental being. These transitional beings would appear prior to that of
the full supramental being, and would constitute an intermediate stage in the Earth's evolution,
through which the soul would pass in its growth towards its divine manifestation as the
supramental being in the earth nature.
• Supermind (Integral thought)
[edit] Philosophy of social evolution
Sri Aurobindo's spiritual vision extended beyond the perfection and transformation of the
individual; it included within its scope the evolution and transformation of human society. In
both the individual and in society, the soul and spirit is at first hidden and occult. This, he argues,
influences the direction and course of development from behind, but allowing nature to follow its
gradual, zigzagging, and conflict-ridden course. Afterwards, as mind develops and becomes
more dominant over obscure impulses, the ego-centered drives of vital nature. This results in a
more objective, enlightened perception and approach towards human existence and the potential
developments that become possible. At the highest stage of mental development he argues that a
greater possibility and principle becomes apparent, which is spiritual and supramental in nature.
At this point a true solution to humanity's problems becomes visible in the context of a radical
transformation of human life, into a form of divine existence.
[edit] Integral Yoga
Main article: Integral Yoga
In The Synthesis of Yoga, and in his voluminous correspondence with his disciples collected
under the title Letters on Yoga, Sri Aurobindo laid out the psychological principles and practices
of the Integral Yoga or Poorna Yoga. The aim of Integral yoga is to enable the individual who
undertakes it the attainment of a conscious identity with the Divine, the true Self, and to
transform the mind, life, and body so they would become fit instruments for a divine life on
earth.[22]
[edit] Analysis of Indian culture
In Renaissance in India (earlier called The Foundations of Indian Culture),[citation needed] Sri
Aurobindo examines the nature of Indian civilization and culture. He looked at its central
motivating tendencies and how these are expressed in its religion, spirituality, art, literature, and
politics. The first section of the book provides a general defense of Indian culture from
disparaging criticism due to the misunderstanding of a foreign perspective, and its possible
destruction due to the aggressive expansion and infiltration of Western culture. This section is
interesting in the light it sheds on the nature of both Eastern and Western civilizations, how they
have developed over the centuries, how they have influenced each other throughout the ages, and
the nature and significance of these exchanges in the recent period. The principle tenet of the
exposition is that India has been and is one of the greatest civilizations of the world, one that
stands apart from all others in its central emphasis, or rather its whole foundation, based on
spirituality, and that on its survival depends the future of the human race—whether it shall be a
spiritual outflowering of the divine in man, or a rational, economically driven, and mechanized
association of peoples.
[edit] Interpretation of the Vedas
One of the most significant contributions of Sri Aurobindo was his setting forth an esoteric
meaning of the Vedas. The Vedas were considered by some to be composed by a barbaric culture
worshiping violent Gods. Sri Aurobindo felt that this was due to non-grasping of vedic
symbolism, both by Occidental and Oriental scholars.
Sri Aurobindo believed there was a hidden spiritual meaning in the Vedas. He viewed the Rig
Veda as a spiritual text written in a symbolic language in which the outer meaning was
concerned with ritualistic sacrifices to the gods, and the inner meaning, which was revealed only
to initiates, was concerned with an inner spiritual knowledge and practice, the aim of which was
to unite in consciousness with the Divine.
In this conception, Indra is the God of Mind lording over the Indriyas, that is, the senses (sight,
touch, hearing, taste etc.). Vayu represents air, but in its esoteric sense means Prana, or the life
force. So when the Rig Veda says "Call Indra and Vayu to drink Soma Rasa" the inner meaning
is to use mind through the senses and life force to receive divine bliss (Soma means wine of
Gods, but in several texts also means divine bliss, as in Right-handed Tantra). Agni, the God of
the sacrificial fire in the outer sense, is the flame of the spiritual will to overcome the obstacles to
unite with the Divine. So the sacrifice of the Vedas could mean sacrificing ones ego to the
internal Agni, the spiritual fire.
Sri Aurobindo's theory of the inner spiritual significance of the Vedas originally appeared
serially in the journal Arya between 1914 and 1920, but was later published in book form as
"The Secret of the Veda." Another book, "Hymns to the Mystic Fire", is Sri Aurobindo's
translation of the spiritual sense of many of the verses of the Rig Veda.
[edit] Poetry
Sri Aurobindo not only expressed his spiritual thought and vision in intricate metaphysical
reasoning and in phenomenological terms, but also in poetry. He started writing poetry as a
young student, and continued until late in his life. The theme of his poetry changed with the
projects that he undertook. It ranged from revolutionary homages to mystic philosophy. Sri
Aurobindo wrote in classical style.
[edit] Savitri
Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol is Sri Aurobindo's epic poem in 12 books, 24,000 lines about an
individual who overcomes the ignorance, suffering, and death in the world through Her spiritual
quest, setting the stage for the emergence of a new, Divine life on earth. It is loosely based on the
ancient Indian tale of 'Savitri and Satyavan' from the Mahabharata.
"Savitri" is the longest poem of English iiterature written outside the English-speaking countries
of Europe and America.
The Mother said of Savitri:

[edit] The Future Poetry

In Sri Aurobindo's theory of poetry, written under the title The Future Poetry, he writes about the
significance that art and culture have for the spiritual evolution of mankind. He believed that a
new, deep, and intuitive poetry could be a powerful aid to the change of consciousness and the
life required to achieve the spiritual destiny of mankind which he envisioned. Unlike philosophy
or psychology, poetry could make the reality of the Spirit living to the imagination and reveal its
beauty and delight and captivate the deeper soul of humanity to its acceptance. It is perhaps in
Sri Aurobindo's own poetry, particularly in his epic poem Savitri, that we find the fullest and
most powerful statement of his spiritual thought and vision.
[edit] Followers of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother
The following authors/ organizations trace their intellectual heritage back to, or have in some
measure been influenced by, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.
• Sisir Kumar Maitra (1887-1963) was an academic philosopher who wrote widely
on Sri Aurobindo and Western philosophy. He wrote the essay 'Sri Aurobindo and
Spengler: Comparison between the Integral and the Pluralistic Philosophy of
History' in the 1958 symposium compendium, 'The Integral Philosophy of Sri
Aurobindo.'
 • Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) was an Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher who
emigrated to the U.S. in 1964. An author, composer, artist and athlete, he was
perhaps best known for holding public events on the theme of inner peace and
world harmony (such as concerts, meditations, and races). In 1944, he joined his
brothers and sisters at Sri Aurobindo's ashram. He has written many books about
Sri Aurobindo.
• Nolini Kanta Gupta (1889 - 1983) was one of Sri Aurobindo's senior disciples,
and wrote extensively on philosophy, mysticism, and spiritual evolution in the
light of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's teachings.
• Indra Sen (1903-1994) was another disciple of Sri Aurobindo who, although little-
known in the West, was the first to articulate integral psychology and integral
philosophy, in the 1940s and 1950s. A compilation of his papers came out under
the title, Integral Psychology in 1986.
• Ram Shankar Misra was a scholar of Indian religious and philosophical thought
and author of The Integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo (publ. 1957), a
philosophical commentary on Sri Aurobindo's work.
• Sri Anirvan (1896-1978) translated "The Life Divine" in Bengali and "Savitri"
into Bengali in "Divya Jeevan Prasanga", published by Sri Aurobindo
Pathamandir,1948-51.
• Satprem (1923 - 2007) was a French author and an important disciple of The
Mother who published Mother's Agenda (ed.1982), Sri Aurobindo or the
Adventure of Consciousness (2000), On the Way to Supermanhood (2002) and
more.
• Pavitra (1894 - 1969) was one of the very early disciples of Sri Aurobindo and
The Mother. Born as Philippe Barbier Saint-Hilaire in Paris. Pavitra left some
very interesting memoirs of his conversations with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
in 1925 and 1926, which were published as Conversations avec Pavitra.
[edit] Organisations and institutes
• Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research, located in Pondicherry, India,
provides online advanced degree programmes (e.g., MA, M.Phil., and Ph.D.) in
Sri Aurobindo Studies. It works in collaboration with Indira Gandhi National
Open University which grants the degrees. It also publishes books related to the
thought and vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, holds conferences, and sells
CDs of talks by Ananda Reddy, its Director, on Sri Aurobindo's various major
works.
• World Union - A non-profit, non-political organisation founded on 26 November
1958 in Pondicherry, fired by the Third Dream of Sri Aurobindo; also publishes a
quarterly journal with the same title. A.B. Patel was the driving force and for
many years, M.P. Pandit was the leading light.
• The Integral Life Foundation P.O.Box 239 Waterford CT. 06385 USA has
published several books by Amal Kiran.
[edit] Journals
 • Mother India is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram's originally fortnightly, now monthly,
cultural review. It was started in 1949, the founding editor being K. D. Sethna
(Amal Kiran), who continues as editor for over fifty years.
• Collaboration is a journal dedicated to the spiritual and evolutionary vision of Sri
Aurobindo and The Mother. Content includes articles, essays, poetry, and art.
Topics range across the theory and practice of Integral Yoga, Sri Aurobindo's
philosophy and metaphysics, developments in the international township of
Auroville, activities of various centers and announcements and reports about
various conferences related to the Integral Yoga.
[edit] Influence
Sri Aurobindo's influence has been wide-ranging. In India, Gurusaday Dutt ICS and Charu
Chandra Dutt ICS were influenced by him. S. K. Maitra, Anilbaran Roy and D. P.
Chattopadhyaya commented on Sri Aurobindo's work. Writers on esotericism and traditional
wisdom, such as Mircea Eliade, Paul Brunton, and Rene Guenon, all saw him as an authentic
representative of the Indian spiritual tradition.[23]
Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg[24] were among those who were inspired by Sri
Aurobindo, who worked on the newly formed American Academy of Asian Studies in San
Francisco. Soon after, Chaudhuri and his wife Bina established the Cultural Integration
Fellowship, from which later emerged the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Karlheinz Stockhausen became heavily inspired by the writings of Satprem about Sri Aurobindo
during a week in May 1968, a time of which the composer was undergoing a personal crisis and
had found Aurobindos philosophies were relevant to his feelings at the time. After this
experience, Stockhausen's music took a completely different turn, focusing on mysticism, that
was to continue right up until the end of his career.
Sri Aurobindo's ideas about the further evolution of human capabilities influenced the thinking
of Michael Murphy [25] – and indirectly, the human potential movement, through Murphy's
writings. The American philosopher Ken Wilber has been strongly influenced by Sri Aurobindo's
thought, and has integrated some of its key ideas with other spiritual traditions and modern
intellectual trends,[26] although his interpretation has been criticised by Rod Hemsell[27] and
others. New Age writer Andrew Harvey also looks to Sri Aurobindo as a major inspiration.
Cultural historian William Irwin Thompson is also heavily influenced by Sri Aurobindo and the
Mother.
The Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the spiritual community that grew up around him and was organized
and directed by the Mother, continues to operate with slightly more than 2000 members and a
similar number of nonmembers who live nearby and are associated with the Ashram's activities.
The experimental international city of Auroville, founded by the Mother and based on Sri
Aurobindo's ideals, is located about 10 km from the Ashram; it has approximately 2000 members
from around the world, and an international base of support groups called Auroville
International.
[edit] Quotations

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sri Aurobindo

—
[edit] Partial bibliography
• Bases of Yoga, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-77-9
• Bhagavad Gita and Its Message, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-
78-7
• Dictionary of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga, (compiled by M.P. Pandit), Lotus Press, Twin Lakes,
Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-74-4
• Essays on the Gita, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-914955-18-7
• The Future Evolution of Man, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-940985-55-1
• The Human Cycle: The Psychology of Social Development, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes,
Wisconsin ISBN 0-914955-44-6
• Hymns to the Mystic Fire, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-914955-22-5
• The Ideal of Human Unity, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-914955-43-8
• The Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Practice, Lotus Press, Twin
Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-76-0
• The Life Divine, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-61-2
• The Mind of Light, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-940985-70-5
• The Mother, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-79-5
• Rebirth and Karma, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-63-9
• Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-
80-9
• Secret of the Veda, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-914955-19-5
• Sri Aurobindo Primary Works Set 12 vol. US Edition, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes,
Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-93-0
• Sri Aurobindo Selected Writings Software CD ROM, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin
ISBN 0-914955-88-8
• The Synthesis of Yoga, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-65-5
• The Upanishads, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-914955-23-3
• Vedic Symbolism, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin ISBN 0-941524-30-2
• The Essential Aurobindo - Writings of Sri Aurobindo ISBN 978-0-9701097-2-9
• The Powers Within, Lotus Press. ISBN 978-0-941524-96-4
• Human Cycle, Ideal of Human Unity, War and Self Determination by Aurobindo, Lotus
Press. ISBN 81-7058-014-5
• Hour of God by Sri Aurobindo, Lotus Press. ISBN 81-7058-217-2
[edit] See also
 Poetry
portal

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Sri Aurobindo

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sri Aurobindo

• Arya (journal)
• Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo
• Integral movement
• Integral psychology
• Integral yoga
• Sri Aurobindo Memorial School
• Indian English Literature
• Indian Writing in English
[edit] References
1. ^ Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Book XI: The Book of Everlasting Day, Canto I: The Eternal Day: The
Soul's Choice and The Supreme Consummation, p 709
2. ^ Ghose A., McDermott, R.A. - Essential Aurobindo, SteinerBooks (1994) ISBN 0-940262-22-3.
3. ^ Heehs, P., The Lives of Sri Aurobindo, 2008, New York: Columbia University Press ISBN 978-0-231-
14098-0
4. ^ The lives of Sri Aurobindo, Peter Heehs, ISBN 0-231-14098-3, Introduction
5. ^ Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, A history of Indian literature in English 116 [1]
6. ^ Aravinda means "lotus" in Sanskrit. Aurobindo spelled his name Aravinda while in England, as Aravind
or Arvind while in Baroda, and as Aurobindo when he moved to Bengal. Ghose is pronounced and often
written as "Ghosh", and Aurobindo's name often appears as "Arabindo Ghosh" in British records).
7. ^ The lives of Sri Aurobindo, Peter Heehs, Page 3
8. ^ The Lives of Sri Aurobindo, Peter Heehs. Page 19
9. ^ The Lives of Sri Aurobindo, Peter Heehs. Page 20
10. ^ Ghose, Aravinda Acroyd in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10
vols, 1922–1958.
11. ^ [2]
12. ^ a b c Sri Aurobindo for all ages. Nirodbaran
13. ^ a b c http://www.sriaurobindosociety.org.in/sriauro/aurolife.htm#1893
14. ^ http://intyoga.online.fr/rishi.htm
15. ^ http://www.aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/01/0002_e.htm
 16. ^ The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. Peter Heehs. Page 53
17. ^ "The great ideological split" The Hindu]
18. ^ Bhawani Mandir, Sri Aurobindo
19. ^ Peter Heehs. The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. Pg 143
20. ^ The Life Divine bk II, ch 27-8
21. ^ Book II, Chapter 25, The Life Divine
22. ^ Letters on Yoga, p. 505
23. ^ Peter Heehs, The Lives of Sri Aurobindo p.381
24. ^ Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, The integral philosophy of Sri Aurobindo: a
commemorative symposium, Allen & Unwin, 1960
25. ^ Jeffrey John Kripal, Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion, University of Chicago Press, 2007
ISBN 0-226-45369-3, ISBN 978-0-226-45369-9 575 pages pp.61ff.
26. ^ References to Sri Aurobindo are widely scattered throughout Wilber's works, beginning with The Atman
Project, but there is no systematic coverage. The tables at the back of The Atman Project and Integral
Psychology, and in Integral Spirituality correlate stages of consciousness according to many different
psychologies and spiritual teachings, including Sri Aurobindo's (image)
27. ^ Rod Hemsell, "Ken Wilber and Sri Aurobindo: A Critical Perspective" Jan. 2002. This essay has been
reproduced a number of times.

[edit] Further reading

• Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar', Sri Aurobindo: Meri Drishti Mein, Lokbharti Prakashan, New
Delhi, 2008.
• Heehs, Peter, The Lives of Sri Aurobindo p. 381, Columbia University Press, 2008
• Kumari, Shyam, How they came to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (4 volumes), Sri
Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Stories and experiences of Sri Aurobindo's and
Mother's disciples.[Full citation needed]
• ____________ Vignettes of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (3 volumes), Sri Aurobindo
Ashram, Pondicherry. Hundreds of brief stories of the Masters' interactions with their
disciples in each volume.[Full citation needed]
• ____________ Musings on the Mother's Prayers and Meditations (3 volumes), Sri
Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. The author's reflections on each of the Mother's
published "Prayers and Meditations."[Full citation needed]
• Nahar, Sujata (Ed.) India's rebirth - A selection from Sri Aurobindo's writings, talks and
speeches, 3rd edition, 2000, Hermanville, France: Institut de Recherches Évolutives.
(http://www.voi.org/books).
• Satprem, Sri Aurobindo, or the Adventure of Consciousness 1968, Pondicherry, India: Sri
Aurobindo Ashram Press. Exposition of the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and the
techniques of Integral Yoga.
• van Vrekhem, Georges: Beyond Man - The Life and Work of Sri Aurobindo and The
Mother, HarperCollins Publishers India, New Delhi 1999, ISBN 81-7223-327-2.
• _________ Hitler and his God - The Background to the Hitler phenomenon, Rupa & Co,
New Delhi 2006.
 • _________The Mother - The Story of Her Life, HarperCollins Publishers India, New
Delhi 2000, ISBN 81-7223-416-3
• _________ Overman – The intermediary between the human and the supramental
being, Rupa & Co, New Delhi 2001, ISBN 81-7167-594-8.
• _________ Patterns of the Present – From The perspective of Sri Aurobindo and The
Mother, Rupa & Co, New Delhi 2001, ISBN 81-7167-768-1.
• Prithwindra Mukherjee, Sri Aurobindo, "Biographies", Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, 2000
• Richard Kitaeff, "Sri Aurobindo", in Nouvelles Clés, n°62, pp. 58–61.
[edit] External links
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• Moscow Sri Aurobindo Center of Integral Yoga

• The Integral Yoga community in Russia
• The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
• Sri Aurobindo Society
• Symbolism in the Poetry of Sri Aurobindo-By Syamala Kallury
• New Insights into the Life and Teachings of Sri Aurobindo & The Mother site.
• The english Version of the writings as PDF.
• Sri Aurobindo Information.
• Biography of Sri Aurobindo.
• Sri Aurobindo, his work in the occult.
• Speech given by Dr. Shivajirao Bhosale on Yogi Arvind (Sri Aurobindo) in Marathi.

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 Consciousness in Matter

Materialism indeed insists that, whatever the extension of consciousness, it is a

material phenomenon inseparable from our physical organs and not their utiliser
but their result. This orthodox contention, however, is no longer able to hold the
field against the tide of increasing knowledge. Its explanations are becoming more
and more inadequate and strained. It is becoming always clearer that not only does
the capacity of our total consciousness far exceed that of our organs, the senses, the
nerves, the brain, but that even for our ordinary thought and consciousness these
organs are only their habitual instruments and not their generators. Consciousness
uses the brain which its upward strivings have produced, brain has not produced
nor does it use the consciousness. There are even abnormal instances which go to
prove that our organs are not entirely indispensable instruments, -that the heart-
beats are not absolutely essential to life, any more than is breathing, nor the
organised brain-cells to thought. Our physical organism no more causes or explains
thought and consciousness than the construction of an engine causes or explains the
motive-power of steam or electricity. The force is anterior, not the physical
instrument.
Momentous logical consequences follow. In the first place we may ask whether,
since even mental consciousness exists where we see inanimation and inertia, it is
not possible that even in material objects a universal subconscient mind is present
although unable to act or communicate itself to its surfaces for want of organs. Is
the material state an emptiness of consciousness, or is it not rather only a sleep of
consciousness -even though from the point of view of evolution an original and not
an intermediate sleep? And by sleep the human example teaches us that we mean
not a suspension of consciousness, but its gathering inward away from conscious
physical response to the impacts of external things. And is not this what all
existence is that has not yet developed means of outward communication with the
external physical world? Is there not a Conscious Soul, a Purusha who wakes for
ever even in all that sleeps?
We may go farther. When we speak of subconscious mind, we should mean by the
phrase a thing not different from the outer mentality , but only acting below the
surface, unknown to the waking man, in the same sense if perhaps with a deeper
plunge and a larger scope. But the phenomena of the subliminal self far exceed the
limits of any such definition. It includes an action not only immensely superior in
capacity , but quite different in kind from what we know as mentality in our waking
self. We have therefore aright to suppose that there is a superconscient in us as well
as a subconscient, a range of conscious faculties and therefore an organisation of
consciousness which rise high above that psychological stratum to which we give the
name of mentality .And since the subliminal self in us thus rises in superconscience
above mentality , may it not also sink in subconscience below mentality? Are there
not in us and in the world forms of consciousness which are submental, to which we
can give the name of vital and physical consciousness? If so, we must suppose in the
plant and the metal also a force to which we can give the name of consciousness
although it is not the human or animal mentality for which we have hitherto
preserved the monopoly of that description.
 Perfect Surrender
(Significance given by The Mother )

Sri Aurobindo came to tell the world of the beauty of the future that must be realised.
He came to give not a hope but a certitude of the splendour towards which the world
moves. The world is not an unfortunate accident, it is a marvel which moves towards
its expression.
The world needs the certitude of the beauty of the future. And Sri Aurobindo has given
that assurance.
- The Mother
27 November 1971
All extracts and quotations from the written works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and the
Photographs of
the Mother and Sri Aurobindo are copyright Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry -605002 India.

home | authors | subjects | events | Consciousness and Its Transformation

The following article is based on a presentation made during the Second International Conference on Integral
Psychology, held at Pondicherry (India), 4-7 January 2001. The text has been published in:
Cornelissen, Matthijs (Ed.) (2001) Consciousness and Its Transformation, Pondicherry: SAICE
Sri Aurobindo's metaphysical psychology
A brief introduction

Arabinda Basu

Sri Aurobindo was a yogi and a mystic. He has said that the materials of his spiritual
philosophy were provided by experiences obtained by practice of yoga. This is equally, if not
more, true of the system of his metaphysical psychology. Some people who have no or little
idea of yoga may wonder what yoga has to do with psychology or at the most they may
think that breath control, sitting or lying in particular ways or trying to make the mind quiet
by meditation or other means is yoga. In fact these are specialised methods of yoga but not
its essence.
According to Sri Aurobindo, yoga has the same relation with the inner being and nature
of man as science has with the forces of external nature like steam or electricity. Yoga, he
says, is scientific in that its methods are observation of and experiment with the states,
forces, functions of our subjective, that is, inner being and nature. Yoga is both science and
art. It is a science because it knows by experience what man is inwardly and it is an art
because it can apply that knowledge to change man’s inner being and nature. Yoga is known
as a means of attaining spiritual liberation, mukti or moksha. While that is true, it must be
clearly understood that by the practice of yoga, it is possible to know the essential nature of
our being, our true self. And yoga discovers the nature of our real self as consciousness. And
this is where yoga and psychology meet. Indeed yoga is according to Sri Aurobindo practical
psychology.
In expounding his experience-concept of Consciousness, Sri Aurobindo in a letter first
states what it is not. On this fundamental point of his psychological system, I would like to
quote his own words because they are precise and yet carry a wealth of suggestions and
their nuances are difficult to convey in other terms. “Consciousness”, he writes, is not to my
experience, a phenomenon dependent on the reactions of personality to the forces of Nature
and amounting to no more than a seeing or interpretation of these reactions. If that were so,
then when the personality becomes silent and immobile and gives no reactions, as there
would be no seeing or interpretative action, there would therefore be no consciousness. That
contradicts some of the fundamental experiences of yoga, e.g. a silent and immobile
consciousness infinitely spread out, not dependent on the personality but impersonal and
universal, not seeing and interpreting contacts but motionlessly self-aware, not dependent
on the reactions, but persistent in itself even when no reactions take place. The subjective
personality itself is only a formation of consciousness which is a power inherent, not in the
activity of the temporary manifested personality, but in the being, the Self or Purusha. (Sri
Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, pp. 233-34)
 Several things stand out in this passage which need to be understood clearly. There is no
time to give any elaborate explanation of them. But I would like to mention a few salient
points which it is essential to grasp for the understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s metaphysical
psychology. First, consciousness is not a phenomenon; it does not depend on the reactions
of the personality to stimulus from outside or on mental activities. When the mind falls silent
and ceases to function, consciousness abides. It is true that ordinary people cannot silence
their minds. On the other hand, its experience is not very uncommon. Many people have the
experience of a still mind though they do not fall into the state of unconsciousness.
Secondly, consciousness is immobile, i.e., not in its essence activity. In the same letter from
which a paragraph has been quoted above, Sri Aurobindo says that consciousness is not
only a power of knowledge of self and things, it is or has a dynamic and creative energy. It is
free to act or not to act and free in action and inaction. Thirdly, it is universal, spread
throughout the cosmos. It is difficult for ordinary people to conceive or imagine the nature of
consciousness because it is mistakenly identified with the individual, which is only a
formation of consciousness. Fourthly, consciousness is the Self, Atman, the Purusha, the
cosmic Soul. Those who are familiar with Vedantic thought may wonder that the Self and the
Soul are being mentioned in terms of consciousness. Sri Aurobindo has even said that God is
a manifestation of Consciousness. To elaborate on this aspect of Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual
philosophy will take us into deep metaphysics. Suffice it to say now that consciousness,
though indeterminable, has the power of self-determination, and its primary self-
determinations are the Self, the Soul, God or the Lord. Thus consciousness is the ultimate
Reality, it is inherent in existence, it is Existence or sat. Finally, consciousness is self-
luminous, sva-prakasa. It is not revealed by anything other than itself; indeed it is in the
Light of Consciousness that everything is revealed and known. Consciousness is
Consciousness-Force. The Conscious Force hierarchically arranges itself on many levels, on
each of which it appears progressively less conscious and less forceful. According to Sri
Aurobindo, there are seven principal levels of which Matter is the lowest. He speaks of the
Inconscient from which Matter is formed by the completely involved and hidden and to all
intents and purposes lost conscious force in it. In Matter consciousness is physical which is
the base of the vital and mental consciousness. Mind itself has more than one layer of which
the subconscious is now recognised in psychology. The subliminal mind is another level of
mind (of consciousness also). The difference between the subconscious and the subliminal is
this that the former while conscious in essence is not actually so and hovers between the
unconscious and the physical consciousness, the latter is conscious though not fully so.
Though the subliminal has a good deal of knowledge in it, it is capable of errors and
mistakes.
Sri Aurobindo cites a most remarkable example of the “subconscious consciousness”. I
use this paradoxical phrase advisedly for the subconscious is also a formation of
consciousness though below our surface mind. An uneducated maidservant was employed in
the household of a professor of Hebrew of which language she knew not a word. But as she
went on doing her daily chores, she used to hear willy-nilly the ringing tones of the
professor’s recitation of Hebrew poetry. And the servant could repeat the verses verbatim.
How could she do it? Her conscious mind did not understand or remember a word of what
she used to hear, besides, she was using her conscious mind to do her job as best as she
could.
The purpose of writing about the subconscious and the subliminal is to show that they
are levels of consciousness. The fact that consciousness is not apparently present in the
former and though the latter is conscious in itself, our mind does not know it is so, owing to
one of the fundamental principles of the metaphysical psychology, viz., consciousness has
the power to self-limit itself and appear as less conscious than it is in its essence.
 What is metaphysics and what is psychology? “Metaphysics”, writes Sri Aurobindo, “deals
with the ultimate cause of things and all that is behind the world of phenomena. As regards
mind and consciousness, it asks what they are and how they come into existence, what is
their relation to Matter, Life etc. Psychology deals with mind and consciousness and tries to
find out not so much their ultimate nature and relations as their actual workings and the rule
and law of these workings.” (Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, p. 1281) Further he says,
“Psychology is the science of consciousness and its status and operations in Nature and, if
that can be glimpsed or experienced, its status and operations beyond what we know as
Nature.” (Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine and Human, p. 316) This latter idea of psychology will
push it to the borders of metaphysical or Vedantic or Yogic psychology. Sri Aurobindo quite
clearly reserves the term psychology to the levels of mind and vital in contrast with what
pertains to the spiritual soul for which he employs the term psychic. In The Human Cycle he
has written that there is the beginning of a perception that there are behind the economic
motives and causes of social and historical development profound psychological, even
perhaps soul factors, where also he distinguishes the psychological from the psychic. (Sri
Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, p. 5)
It will be a mistake to think that because Sri Aurobindo has such a metaphysical
experience-concept of consciousness, he has neglected to deal with the phenomenal aspect
of consciousness. He has dealt with human psychology in great detail. Not only that, the
material theory of consciousness has engaged his close attention and he has given an
objective, dispassionate critique of it. He has described that theory accurately, accepted
what is true in it, but also shown where it falls short of accounting for the appearance of
intelligence from non-intelligent matter. Needless to say, he rejects the identification of
mind and brain which is the thesis of “physiological psychology”, a phrase he has employed
in his writings on psychology. Incidentally, it is both interesting and instructive to note that
he acknowledges that if the brain is damaged, the operations of consciousness are
hampered which uses the brain as an instrument. He says consciousness is involved in the
brain and that is why conscious activities are accompanied by activities of the brain cells.
The materialist hypothesis as regards consciousness, says Sri Aurobindo, is it must be a
result of energy in Matter; Matter’s reaction or reflex to itself in itself, consciousness is only
a response of organised chemical substance which is itself inconscient. There is some
sensitiveness of cell and nerve which becomes aware. But this awareness, according to Sri
Aurobindo is inexplicable. “But such an explanation”, he says, may account,—if we admit
this impossible magic, of the conscious response of an inconscient to the inconscient,—for
sense and reflex action become absurd if we try to explain by it thought and will, the
imagination of the poet, the attention of the scientist, the reasoning of the philosopher. Call
it mechanical cerebration, if you will, but no mere mechanism of grey stuff of brain can
explain these things; a gland cannot write Hamlet or pulp of brain work out a system of
metaphysics. There is no parity, kinship or visible equation between the alleged cause or
agent on the one side and on the other the effect and its observable process. There is a gulf
here that cannot be bridged by any stress of forcible affirmation or crossed by any stride of
inference or violent leap or argumentative reason. (Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine and Human,
p. 275)
Sri Aurobindo further says that there may be connection of consciousness and an
inconscient substance, there may be mutual interpretation, they may act on each other,
“but they are and remain things opposite, incommensurate with each other, fundamentally
diverse.” (ibid.) To say that an observing and active consciousness emerges as a character
of an eternal Inconscience is to indulge in a self-contradictory affirmation.
 As far as I know, Sri Aurobindo has not described his system of psychology as “integral
psychology”. He has employed the very suggestive phrase “complete psychology”, which he
says “must be a complex of the science of mind, its operations and its relations to life and
body with intuitive and experimental knowledge of the nature of mind and its relations to
supermind and spirit.” (Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine and Human, p. 305) We have said
before that “consciousness is itself found to be not essentially a process,—although in mind
it appears as a process, but the very nature of the self-existent being. Being or the Self of
things can only be known by metaphysical—not necessarily intellectual—knowledge. This
self-knowledge has two inseparable aspects, a psychological knowledge of the process of
Being, a metaphysical knowledge of its principles and essentiality.” (Sri Aurobindo, Essays
Divine and Human, p. 306)
“Vedantic psychology explores the idea and intuition of a higher reality than mind.” (Sri
Aurobindo, Essays Divine and Human, p. 311) “Yogic psychology”, he says, is “an
examination of the nature and movements of consciousness as they are revealed to us by
the processes and results of Yoga”. (Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine and Human, p. 322)
The metaphysical reality is not the subject matter of psychology. Let us be very clear
that yoga is practised by something in our nature as human beings. It may discover in us
unknown means of knowledge, action and enjoyment and instrument of the direct
knowledge of the Self. Thus Vedantic psychology and yogic psychology are significant
descriptions of Sri Aurobindo’s psychological system in one aspect. But it is not clear what
integral psychology is meant to integrate.
Sri Aurobindo has said as pointed out above, that metaphysics deals with the
fundamental principles of existence and life and in the final analysis it aims at knowing the
ultimate Reality. Since yoga is applied psychology aiming at connecting psychological truths
with metaphysical principles, its final goal is the Divine. Sri Aurobindo never tires of pointing
out that the Divine is the object of the yoga. It is not to be a superman or a great yogi. These
aims may be realised in the course of yoga’s progress towards the Divine. But what is to be
noted especially is that Sri Aurobindo’s view, shall we say vision, of the Divine is much more
complex than is found in the earlier yogas. The reason why is that these other visions are
partial and the consequent realisations of God according to them are of one or more than
one aspects of God but they do not have the integral experience of the Supreme. Sri
Aurobindo is definitely of the view that the realisations of the Divine obtained by the partial
yogas are not integral owing to the fact that they are achieved by levels of consciousness
which do not harbour the integral knowledge. This is why he insists that the seeker must
arise to the level of vijnana, the Supermind in his English terminology because it is that level
of consciousness which has inherent in it the integral knowledge.
A brief review of the different yogas current in India for thousands of years can
demonstrate the truth of Sri Aurobindo’s contention regarding the partial character of those
spiritual disciplines. Without trying to trace the history of yoga right from the time of the
Veda, I will only refer to the five disciplines still current in India and widely practised. It is
also noted that these yogas select one or the other of the principles of Nature instead of
taking the whole of life which is the instrument of the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo.
Hatha yoga for example takes the principle of life in the nervous system as its means. It
may arrive at the knowledge of God but, in point of fact, its practices are so complicated and
take such a long time and at the same time have to be disconnected with life in general,
that it cannot be of any use directly to the goal of the yoga of Sri Aurobindo which is the
radical transformation of all Nature down to the physical as a means of integral union with
the Divine on all planes of existence.
Raja yoga takes mind as the instrument of its discipline. It is a very effective practice and
is consummated by the separation of unconscious Prakriti which evolves as the world and all
that is in it from Purusha, the pure conscious Soul. Raja yoga does not know of an overall
reality like Brahman of the Vedanta.
 Karma yoga takes the Will as its chief instrument of spiritual discipline. It starts with
giving up the desire of fruits of action followed by the perception that the egoistic self is not
the doer at all, combined with the perception that universal Nature is the real actor. It ends
with surrender of fruits, actions, the ego, all of this to the Supreme Master of Will which
brings about the closest possible union with the Divine, the Purushottama, visate
tadanantaram.
Jnana yoga utilises the purified intelligence as the chief means for realisation of identity
with Brahman which results in reducing the world into an utter unreality. This again is
another great yoga the fruit of which, identity with Brahman, is one of the results that can
be achieved by the integral yoga. Though Sri Aurobindo believes in the world as a self-
manifestation of the dynamic Absolute, it is to be noted that he emphatically says that it is
necessary for an integral yogin to have knowledge at a certain stage of the progress of yoga
that the world is unreal. Otherwise, he says, there is great possibility that there would be
some attachment to something in the world.
Bhakti yoga’s chief instrument is the heart, the emotional being, and it aims at turning
all human emotions towards the Divine who is most prominently looked upon and
experienced as the Beloved to whom complete adoration is due.
There is another great spiritual tradition in India, namely the Tantra. Though it has
monistic and dualistic schools, and is also practically divided into Shaiva and Shakta ways of
sadhana, all these schools and disciplines within its fold stress Shakti, Conscious Force. Like
Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy Tantric schools believe in the descent and ascent of
consciousness. The former is the process of Shiva or Shakti manifesting Himself or Herself as
the world through thirty six tattvas or levels of consciousness down to the physical, and the
latter is the process of the return of consciousness involved in matter back to its original
self-existent, free status. Both Shaiva and Shakta Tantra hold that the ultimate experience is
Shiva’s or Shakti’s self-knowledge as identical with everything including the physical body.
However it abandons the body as untransformed and does not envisage the transformation
of Nature in all its levels including the physical. Kshenaraja is the author of an introductory
monograph on Pratyabhijna philosophy which is Shaiva Tantrik and has many features in
common with Sri Aurobindo’s doctrine of the integral Brahman. Kshenaraja concludes his
book by saying that one who knows the true essence of the universal categories which is
Shiva is liberated-while-alive but “truly becomes Parama-Shiva the supreme Reality only on
the fall of the body.”
The integral yoga is integral because it has seen the possibility of a new self-discovery of
the Divine in and as completely spiritualised Matter by the supramental Knowledge-Will. And
Sri Aurobindo is emphatic that the actualisation of this possibility is inevitable. It is the
express purpose “to make Matter aware of God” and to enable it “to remember God.”

Return to Top
 What Consciousness Is

Consciousness is a reality inherent in existence. It is there even when it is not active

on the surface, but silent and immobile; it is there even when it is invisible on the
surface, not reacting on outward things or sensible to them, but withdrawn and
either active or inactive within; it is there even when it seems to us to be quite
absent and the being to our view unconscious and inanimate.
SABCL
Vol 22 page 234

Consciousness is a fundamental thing, the fundamental thing in existence -it is the

energy , the motion, the movement of consciousness that creates the universe and
all that is in it -not only the macrocosm but the microcosm is nothing but
consciousness arranging itself. For instance, when consciousness in its movement
or rather a certain stress of movement forgets itself in the action it becomes an
apparently "unconscious" energy; when it forgets itself in the form it becomes the
electron, the atom, the material object. In reality it is still consciousness that works
in the energy and determines the form and the evolution of form. When it wants to
liberate itself, slowly, evolutionarily, out of Matter, but still in the form, it emerges
as life, as animal, as man and it can go on evolving itself still farther out of its
involution and become something more than mere man.
SABCL
Vol 22 236-37

Ordinarily we mean by it [consciousness] our first obvious idea of a mental waking

consciousness such as is possessed by the human being during the major part of his
bodily existence, when he is not asleep, stunned or otherwise deprived of his
physical and superfical methods of sensation. In this sense it is plain enough that
consciousness is the exception and not the rule in the order of the material universe.
We ourselves do not always possess it. But this vulgar and shallow idea of the nature
of consciousness, though it still colours our ordinary thought and associations, must
now definitely disappear out of philosophical thinking. For we know that there is
something in us which is conscious when we sleep, when we are stunned or drugged
or in a swoon, in all apparently unconscious states of our physical being Necessarily,
in such a view, the word consciousness changes its meaning. It is no longer
synonymous with mentality but indicates a self-aware force of existence of which
mentality is a middle term; below mentality it sinks into vital and material
movements which are for us subconscient; above, it rises into the supramental
which is for us the superconscient. But in all it is one and the same thing organising
itself differently. This is ...the Indian conception of Chit which, as energy , creates
the worlds.

SABCL
Vol 18 page 85-88

Consciousness is not only power of awareness of self and things, it is or has also
adynamic and creative energy .It can determine its own reactions or abstain from
reactions; it can not only answer to forces, but create or put out from itself forces.
Consciousness is Chit but also Chit Shakti.
SABCL
 Vol 22 page 234

...the origin, the continent, the initial and the ultimate reality of all that is in the
cosmos is the triune principle of transcendent and infinite Existence, Consciousness
and Bliss which is the nature of divine being. Consciousness has two aspects,
illuminating and effective, state and power of self-awareness and state and power of
self- force, by which being possesses itself whether in its static condition or in its
dynamic movement; for in its creative action it knows by omnipotent self-
consciousness all that is latent within it and produces and governs the universe of
its potentialities by an omniscient self-energy .
SABCL
Vol 18 page 262

...to the Infinite Consciousness both the static and the dynamic are possible; these
are two of its statuses and both can be present simultaneously in the universal
awareness, the one witnessing the other and supporting it or not looking at it and
yet automatically supporting it; or the silence and status may be there penetrating
the activity or throwing it up like an ocean immobile below throwing up a mobility
of waves on its surface. This is also the reason why it is possible for us in certain
conditions of our being to be aware of several different states of consciousness at the
same time. There is a state of being experienced in Yoga in which we become a
double consciousness, one on the surface, small, active, ignorant, swayed by
thoughts and feelings, grief and joy and all kinds of reactions, the other within calm,
vast, equal, observing the surface being with an immovable detachment or
indulgence or, it may be, acting upon its agitation to quiet, enlarge, transform it.
SABCL
Vol 18
 Love for the Divine
(Significance given by The Mother )

We must not be bewildered by appearances. Sri Aurobindo has not left us. Sri
Aurobindo is here, as living and as present as ever and it is left to us to realise his work
with all the sincerity, eagerness and concentration necessary.
- The Mother
15 December 1950
All extracts and quotations from the written works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and the
Photographs of
the Mother and Sri Aurobindo are copyright Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry -605002 India.
 Modes of Consciousness

Chit, the divine Consciousness, is not our mental self- awareness; that we shall find
to be only a form, a lower and limited mode or movement. As we progress and
awaken to the soul in us and things, we shall realise that there is a consciousness
also in the plant, in the metal, in the atom, in electricity , in everything that belongs
to physical nature; we shall find even that it is not really in all respects a lower or
more limited mode than the mental, on the contrary it is in many "inanimate" forms
more intense, rapid, poignant, though less evolved towards the surface. But this
also, this consciousness of vital and physical Nature is, compared with Chit, a lower
and therefore a limited form, mode and movement. These lower modes of
consciousness are the conscious- stuff of inferior planes in one indivisible existence.
In ourselves also there is in our subconscious being an action which is precisely that
of the "inanimate" physical Nature whence has been constituted the basis of our
physical being, another which is that of plant-life, and another which is that of the
lower animal creation around us. All these are so much dominated and conditioned
by the thinking and reasoning conscious-being in us that we have no real awareness
of these lower planes; we are unable to perceive in their own terms what these parts
of us are doing, and receive it very imperfectly in the terms and values of the
thinking and reasoning mind. Still we know well enough that there is an animal in
us as well as that which is charateristically human, - something which is a creature
of conscious instinct and impulse, not reflective or rational, as well as that which
turns back in thought and will on its experience, meets it from above with the light
and force of a higher plane and to some degree controls, uses and modifies it. But
the animal in man is only the head of our subhuman being; below it there is much
that is also sub-animal and merely vital, much that acts by an instinct and impulse
of which the constituting consciousness is withdrawn behind the surface. Below this
sub-animal being, there is at a further depth the subvital. When we advance in that
ultra- normal self-knowledge and experience which Yoga brings with it, we become
aware that the body too has a consciousness of its own; it has habits, impulses,
instincts, an inert yet effective will which differs from that of the rest of our being
and can resist it and condition its effectiveness. Much of the struggle in our being is
due to this composite existence and the interaction of these varied and
heterogeneous planes on each other. For man here is the result of an evolution and
contains in himself the whole of that evolution up from the merely physical and
subvital conscious being to the mental creature which at the top he is.
But this evolution is really a manifestation and just as we have in us these
subnormal selves and subhuman planes, so are there in us above our mental being
supernormal and superhuman planes. There Chit as the universal conscious-stuff of
existence takes other poises, moves out in other modes, on other principles and by
other faculties of action. There is above the mind, as the old Vedic sages discovered,
a truth-plane, a plane of self- luminous, self-effective Idea, which can be turned in
light and force upon our mind, reason, sentiments, impulses, sensations and use
and control them in the sense of the real Truth of things just as we turn our mental
reason and will upon our sense-experience and animal nature to use and control
them in the sense of our rational and moral perceptions. There there is no seeking,
but rather natural possession; no conflict or separation between will and reason,
instinct and impulse, desire and experience, idea and reality , but all are in
harmony, concomitant, mutually effective, unified in their origin, in their
development and in their effectuation. But beyond this plane and attainable through
it are others in which the very Chit itself becomes revealed, Chit the elemental
origin and primal completeness of all this varied consciousness which is here used
for various formation and experience. There will and knowledge and sensation and
all the rest of our faculties, powers, modes of experience are not merely
harmonious, concomitant, unified, but are one being of consciousness and power of
consciousness. It is this Chit which modifies itself so as to become on the Truth-
plane the supermind, on the mental plane the mental reason, will, emotion,
sensation, on the lower planes the vital or physical instincts, impulses, habits of an
obscure force not in superficially conscious possession of itself. All is Chit because
all is Sat; all is various movement of the original Consciousness because all is
various movement of the original Being.
When we find, see or know Chit, we find also that its essence is Ananda or
delight of self-existence.

SABCL
Vol 20 page 371-73
 Detailed Surrender
(Significance given by The Mother )

Sri Aurobindo is in the subtle physical, you can meet him when you sleep, if you know
how to go there.
- The Mother
13 August 1964
All extracts and quotations from the written works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and the
Photographs of
the Mother and Sri Aurobindo are copyright Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry -605002 India.
 If There Were No Consciousness

...consciousness is the one thing by which we ...know at all that world exists or can
inquire into its truth and its meaning. If consciousness has no reality and no value,
then there is nothing by which we can know the truth, - one explanation of things
has then as little value as the other, neither can be claimed as the truth.
Essays Divine and Human
page 297

It is consciousness that raises the problem it has to solve; without it there would be
no riddle and no solution. Being and its energy would then fulfil themselves in form
and motion and in cessation of form and motion without any self-awareness and
without any enjoyment or fruition of their form and motion. Existence would be a
fact without significance, the universe an inanimate machine turning for ever -or for
a time, -without any reason or issue in its turning. For it to have any significance
there must be either a Mind or some other kind of Awareness that observes it,
originates it perhaps, has joy in its turning, works out something by the turning of
the machine for its own satisfaction or dissatisfaction; or there must be a
consciousness that emerges by the turning and reveals being and energy to
themselves and leads them to some kind of fulfilment. Even if it is only a temporary
consciousness that emerges, yet that must be the one significant fact of being, the
one thing that lights up its movements, makes it aware of itself, raises it to
something that is more than a mere dead or blank self- existence, a One or a Many
that is yet worth no more than a zero.
Essays Divine and Human
286-87.
 Remembrance of Sri Aurobindo
(Significance given by The Mother )

All extracts and quotations from the written works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and the
Photographs of
the Mother and Sri Aurobindo are copyright Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry -605002 India.
The best homage we can pay to Sri Aurobindo is to prepare for the advent of the Supramental race . -
The Mother