In the words of Cornelissen
: ‘Of course, not everyone accepts the pervasiveness of
consciousness. McGinn, for example, agrees that the genesis of non-spatial
consciousness out of an unconscious physical brain is not understandable, but
leaves the unsolved riddle right there. About our inability to grasp the nature
of non-spatial consciousness, he says apologetically, “It must not be
forgotten that knowledge is the product of a biological organ whose
architecture is fashioned by evolution for brutely pragmatic purposes” and in a
footnote: “we too are Flatlanders of a sort: we tend to take the
space of our experience as the only space there is or could be” (McGinn, 1995, p.
230). In harmony with his pessimistic view of our human possibilities for
understanding reality, McGinn does not accept panpsychism. In the quoted
article he still agrees that some form of panpsychism is the only way out of
the conundrum of Chalmers’ “hard problem,” but in his later The Mysterious
Flame, he denies that it could do even that (McGinn,
1999, pp. 95-104).
For his
evolutionary ontology of consciousness, Sri Aurobindo bases himself on the Vedāntic view of
consciousness, which says that consciousness is pervasive throughout reality
and that it manifests as a range of ever-higher gradations of consciousness and
being. In matter, consciousness is fully engrossed in its own existence and
shows itself only as matter’s habit of form and its tendency to obey fixed
laws. In plant and animal life, consciousness begins to emancipate a little,
there are the first signs of exchange, of giving and taking, of feelings,
drives and emotions. In the human mind we see a further emancipation of
consciousness in the first appearance of an ability to “play with ideas in
one’s mind” and to rise above the immediate situation. The
mind is characteristically the plane of objective, generalized statements,
ideas, thoughts, intelligence, etc. But the mind is also an inveterate divider,
making distinctions between subject and object, I and thou, things and other
things.’ Within the Vedic tradition, the ordinary human mentality
is considered to be only the most primitive form of mental consciousness, most
ego-bound, most dependent on the physical senses. Above it there is the unitary
Higher Mind of self-revealed wisdom, the Illumined Mind where truths are seen
rather than thought, the plane of the Intuitive Mind where truth is inevitable
and perfect, and finally the cosmic Overmind, the mind of the Gods,
comprehensive, all-encompassing. But in all these mental planes, however far
beyond our ordinary mentality, there is still a trace of division, the
possibility of discord and disharmony. One has to rise beyond all of them to
find a truly Gnostic consciousness, intrinsically harmonious, perfect, one with
the divine consciousness that upholds the universe.
Many
spiritual traditions have claimed that it is possible to connect or even merge
with an absolute consciousness beyond mind, but, according to Sri Aurobindo, it
is at this moment for the first time becoming possible to let a supramental
consciousness enter into one’s being and transform it in every respect. The
comprehensive, supramental transformation of all aspects of human nature is the
central theme of Sri Aurobindo’s work. While at present this can be done only to a
limited extent, and at the cost of a tremendous individual effort, he predicts
that eventually the supramental consciousness will become as much an intrinsic,
“natural” part of earthly life as our ordinary mentality is
now.
(R. M.
Matthijs Cornelissen )
As Cornelissen
puts it : ‘These, then, are three of the main elements that
characterize Sri Aurobindo’s writings: the urge for progress toward ever
greater freedom and perfection, the idea that the forces at work in the
individual are concentrated reflections of similar forces at work in the large
and leisurely movements of Nature, and the notion of consciousness as the
fundamental reality. These three ideas come together in Sri Aurobindo’s concept of an
ongoing evolution of consciousness,
In the
Vedic ontology, from which Sri Aurobindo derived his concept of consciousness,
consciousness is not only seen as individualized awareness. It is the very
essence of everything in existence and as such not only the source of
individuation and the sense of self, but also a formative energy:
Consciousness is not only power of awareness of
self and things, it is or has also a dynamic 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, awareness but also conscious force.
— Sri Aurobindo 1991, p. 234
Consciousness
is moreover not considered as a simple yes/no phenomenon that is either there
or not, but as manifesting in a hierarchy ranging from the seeming
obliviousness of matter below, to the seemingly superconscient Spirit above.
All three aspects of consciousness – its cosmic nature, its energy aspect, and its ability to
differentiate itself into varying forms and degrees – combine to
produce the processes of involution and evolution of consciousness that have
given to our world its particular character:
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 … 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.
— op. cit., pp. 236-7
References: ( To be
done )
Sri Aurobindo and the Ideal of Human Unity’ by Sri
Kireet Joshi, from “Philosophy
and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays”, 2003, pp. 111-135
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,
Sri Aurobindo: The Human Cycle, Centenary Edition, Volume 15,
Sri Aurobindo: The Life Divine,
Sri Aurobindo: The Ideal of Human
Unity, Centenary
Edition, Volume 15,
Sri Aurobindo , The Renaissance in India and other
essays,(The Foundations of Indian Culture ) Nolini Kanta Gupta, The March of Civilizations, The
Nation Soul, The Creative soul and other essays.
Cornelissen, R. M. Matthijs (2004). Sri Aurobindo's
Evolutionary Ontology of Consciousness. Sri Aurobindo, The Mother,
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