The Fundamental Concepts of Sri Aurobindo

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The Fundamental Concepts of Sri Aurobindo
K.SrinivasDepartment of Philosophy, School of
Humanities, Pondicherry University,Puducherry-605
014,India
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• Sri Aurobindo ( 1872-1950) is one of the most
  influential contemporary Indian philosophers and
  mystics.
• According to G.H. Langley Sri Aurobindo is
  both a poet and speculative thinker . The same is
  true of Rabindranath Tagore, but the thought of
  Sri Aurobindo appears to me more comprehensive
  and systematic than that of Tagore.

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• Sri Aurobindo Indian Poet, Philosopher, Mystic (
  Royal India, Pakisthan, Ceylone Society, David
  Marlowe Ltd).
• His original name was Arabinda Akryod Ghose
• The philosophy of Sri Aurobindo is known as
  integral philosophy for it combines physical,
  vital and mental elements into one single whole.

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• Most of his important writings appeared in his
  journal The Arya between 1914-20. These writings
  of Sri Aurobindo were published later in the form
  of books with some revisions. They are The
  Essays on the Gita Synthesis of Yoga The Human
  Cycle The Ideal of Human Unity The Life Divine
  Two Volumes of Collected Poems and Savitri.

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• It consists of twenty seven thousand lines.
• His writings express a steady vision with regard
  to the evolution of the world, and of man,
  through different stages, points to the divine
  destiny of man.
• A harmonious and integral culture of physical,
  vital, and mental potentialities of

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• man lead him to super-human level to realize the
  sublime truth (sat-cit-ananda) .
• Aurobindos Views on Evolution
• The problem of evolution has attracted the
  attention of philosophers and scientists alike.
  Several theories of evolution have been advanced
  by them.
• Even before the scientists have advanced

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• their theories of evolution the philosophers in
  the East and the West have advanced their
  theories.
• For instance it is mentioned in the Taittiriya
  Upanishad In the beginning all this Universe
  was Non-existent and unmanifest from which
  manifest existence was born. Itself created
  itself, non other created it. Therefore, they say
  of it the

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• Well and beautifully made.
• Similarly, one of the orthodox systems of Indian
  philosophy, Samkhya talks about evolution. The
  proximity of Prakriti, the primordial substance,
  to Purusha, the consciousness, disturbs the
  equilibrium of the gunas (sattva,rajas, and
  tamas) which results in evolution.

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• Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, made a
  significant contribution to the theory of
  evolution. As a biologist he attributed
  evolutionary changes to natural causes. He held
  that evolution of life started from the
  primordial soft mass of living matter, and it is
  a gradual process beginning with plants to
  animals with sensitivity, and to man.

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• The mechanistic theorists of evolution held that
  life has arisen from inorganic matter controlled
  by natural laws. The modern evolutionists like
  Lamark, Darwin, and De Vries made significant
  contributions to the theory of evolution.
• Bergson in the West advanced creative evolution,
  and Sri Aurobindo spiritual evolution.

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• In his The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo discusses at
  length his spiritual theory of evolution.
  According to him There seems to be no reason
  why Life should not evolve out of material
  elements or Mind out of living forms, unless we
  accept the Vedantic solution that life is already
  involved in matter and mind in life. Most of
  the modern evolutionists ignored

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• this point. The principle of evolution towards
  Spirit, Light and Knowledge loses all its
  significance unless it is assumed that the Spirit
  itself has involved in matter, darkness and
  ignorance. In other words, evolution necessarily
  involves involution. This is what is known as
  ascent by descent. Sri Aurobindo attacks both
  materialist and idealist theories.

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• There is self contradiction in materialism for
  it cannot explain how unconscious principle
  evolves into life and consciousness from it. Both
  Darwin and Spenser spoke of adaptation between
  an individual and his environment, but human
  individual cannot accept his environment as fixed
  and determined forever. Similarly, idealist
  theories held

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• that reason is the highest stage of evolution. If
  it were so, then there is no evolution beyond
  reason. Contrary to these views Sri Auroindo
  advocates evolution in terms of spiritualistic
  and humanistic principles. The spirit is the
  Supreme Reality. It is the source of creation and
  evolution, and also the end of realization. The
  Spirit evolves out of

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• matter since it is already implicit in it. The
  Supreme Reality is both stable and dynamic. It is
  an integration of Being and becoming. The reality
  of the world is due to the manifestation of the
  Divine Unity into the world. The higher involves
  itself in the lower in order to evolve out of it.
  Sri Aurobindos evolution centres around his
  concept of Consciousness-Force which is

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• active. He calls it Life-Force or Divine Sakti.
  It is the power behind all the creation. The
  Supreme Reality is the one without the second.
  Both Spirit and matter are real as there is
  Brahman in them. It is both immanent and
  transcendent. According to Sri Aurobindo The
  ascent to the divine Life is the human journey,
  the work of works, the acceptable sacrifice.

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• The descent or the involution is self-concealing
  while the ascent or the evolution is the
  self-unvealing of the Reality. There are
  successive levels of desceding journey of
  Reality. There are several stages through which
  Reality gradually veils itself. Similarly, there
  is a progressive development in the ascending
  journey. The revelation of the unveiling of

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• the Reality has to cross many steps leading to
  total realization. There are in fact, three
  important stages of evolution, namely, of matter,
  of life, and of mind. At present we are in the
  mental plane. Without the downward march of
  involution there is no evolution. It follows the
  same patter of descent from mind to life, and
  from life to matter.

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• The salient feature of Sri Aurobinds evolution
  is that it solves the puzzle. The puzzle is that
  how does life arise out of lifeless matter? The
  Conscious-Force is there in matter in a dormant
  from. I other words, matter is nothing but Spirit
  in a different form. The inert matter is
  potentially endowed with Conscious-Force.

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• The descent starts from Truth and reaches matter
  through Conscious-Force, bliss, super-mind, mind,
  psyche, and life. The order of the ascent would
  be just reverse. The order is as follows matter
  to life, life to psyche, psyche to mind, mind to
  higher mind, higher mind to illumined mind,
  illumined mind to intuitive mind, intuitive mind
  to over mind ad over mind to Truth

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• the Super-mind. To quote Sri Aurobindo here
  For each successive level of descent to the
  Divine is to man a stage in the ascent each veil
  that hides the unknown god becomes for the
  God-lover and God-seeker an instrument for His
  unveiling. Why is that there is a process of
  involution and evolution? He calls it a game or
  Lila of God. But a game has a

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• has an object to be achieved. What is achieved
  in the process of evolution is a triple process
  of heightening, widening and integration. This
  is the most original contribution of Sri
  Aurobindo. The process of heightening takes us
  from lower levels of existence to higher levels
  and to the highest level. The process of widening
  a new quality is acquired. Thus something

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• new emerges. In the process of integration the
  lower forms of existence get integrated with the
  higher forms. To quote Sri Aurobindo here Our
  mental, physical, vital existence need not be
  destroyed by our self-exceeding , nor they
  lessened and impaired by being spiritualized
  they can and do become much richer, greater, more
  powerful and

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• more perfect. The triple process of evolution
  leads to cosmic salvation. But what is the role
  of individual in the process of evolution? The
  role of individual cannot be ignored. The
  evolution can be hastened by individual effort.
  The transformation can be hastened by spiritul
  awakening. This is the essence of spiritual

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• evolution. Sri Aurobindos evolution can be
  called purposive for it goes back to the level of
  matter. This is unavoidable. At the same time it
  is treated as emergent for the supra-mental
  consciousness is a sudden and uncertain
  occurence. Also the effect is already there in
  the cause. Thus he subscribes to satkaryavada.

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• Social Philosophy
• Sri Aurobindo advocated karmayoga. The
  Bhagavadgita advocates the philosophy of action.
  As humans we cannot remain idle for all the
  births human birth is more precious. To act is to
  act in accordance with dharma. Therefore one
  should not shirk ones responsibilities as a
  citizen of the society.

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• It is mistake to think that the spiritual
  philosophy has no relevance to society. Often we
  think that spiritualists, metaphysicians and
  mystics have no role to play in social
  reconstruction. We need to segregate religion and
  spirituality first of all. To be spiritual does
  not mean to be religious. The former is only a
  doctrinaire and denomination interested in
  spreading

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• a belief system of its own , and the latter is
  a kind of disposition, a disciplined way of life
  through which one can attain spiritual awakening.
  In this sense to be spiritual is to be symbol of
  purity.
• Like any other social philosopher, Sri Aurobindo
  tries to analyze the basic human nature, ad the
  place, status, and role of man in society.

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• Mans being has inner and outer dimensions. The
  inner being is represented by the spiritual
  element and the outer the materialistic. They are
  integrated into one single being. Both these
  components have to be given equal importance for
  a total development of human personality. The
  control over inner being is to prepare oneself
  for the new ss

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• society or social order. He observes The
  erring race of human beings dream always of
  perfecting their environment by the machinery of
  government and society but it is only by the
  perfection of the soul within that the outer
  environment can be perfected. Sri Aurobindo
  says that there is no historical evidence to show
  that there is man without society.

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• Man and society are interdependent. They are
  the self-expressions of the Supreme Reality. The
  entire universe, humankind, and society are all
  manifestations that single Reality. Every
  individual is born in a society and needs the
  support of society for developing his/her
  physical, mental, and vital being. There should
  be perfect equilibrium among these three aspects

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• that are responsible for healthy human
  development. The concept of unity is very
  important in showing the relationship between man
  and society. The question of unity arises only
  when there is diversity. Te polarity between
  these concepts need not be over emphasized for
  they are not antithetical to each other. The rich
  diversity that we see in society certainly

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• allows unity. Of course men are often driven by
  intellectual urges and impulses that make them
  act selfishly. This is the starting point of all
  social evils. To contain these social evils
  governments and states use their discretion in
  framing laws and rules. Do they really work? Thus
  the government machinery is used as an external
  force. The genuine unity lies in

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• the very nature of Spirit. The social cohesion
  achieved through external means is only
  temporary. It becomes permanent only when it is
  achieved through spiritual means. The primary
  objective of all social, political, and other
  human organizations is to help each other to
  evolve suramental consciousness.