Aurobindo’s vision of consciousness evolution

Aurobindo’s vision of consciousness evolution

The principle of triple transformation lies at the core of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy of Integral Yoga. As he maps out the psychic, spiritual and supramental dimensions of Consciousness to be awakened in his The Life Divine, Aurobindo integrates many strands of ancient Indic traditions into a unique life-affirming philosophy for the times.

For Aurobindo, life itself was unique, for it gave all the opportunity to understand, open up and realign with Divine consciousness. The seeker has to work on his own nature to become a fit instrument and channel for descent of this Consciousness.

Beyond the mind

The question of consciousness was central to Aurobindo’s philosophy of life and existence. Consciousness was not just a way of knowing reality, but could be looked upon as something which takes the seeker beyond the human mind itself, into a divine, cosmic dimension of reality. Echoing Hegel in his mapping out of the evolution of human consciousness, Aurobindo sees this phenomenal reality as expressing but one dimension of that universal consciousness, and all layers of this consciousness synthesise in the Supermind, the Absolute. Aurobindo then takes it a step further, and visualises the descent of the universal consciousness into the physical body as the next step in evolution.

Consciousness is the Force of Being, as Aurobindo says, and not merely awareness, by which it is possible to “seek the union of our soul of mind with Universal Mind, our soul of life with Universal Life, our soul of body with Universal physical existence, consciously.” Chit-Shakti presents itself to itself through forms and procedures of Nature. And it is this spirit pervading through matter, which Aurobindo urges us to strive to know through experience. To call upon that cosmic consciousness is the true calling of every seeker, Aurobindo wrote, which will in turn give impetus to the evolutionary impulse.

Unique journey

The unique experience of Consciousness which Aurobindo elucidates, is perhaps rooted and mirrored in his own unique life journey as he evolved from a Western paradigm of classical literature, philosophy and consciousness to a Vedantic one; from a passionate political consciousness as he jumped into the national movement centre stage, to finally anchoring himself in the spiritual mission which he saw ordained for himself. All these roles were seen by Aurobindo as part of a larger purpose, which he later was to put together in his exploration of Consciousness. His diverse range of writings, from the poetry of Savitri and the political Bande Matram to the philosophical The Life Divine, mirrored this concept of Consciousness as the Force of Being which pervades each role man plays.

In mapping out the methodology of this new Consciousness, Aurobindo emphasised that the world was a real materialisation of the Absolute Consciousness. Accordingly, this physical world was capable of perfectly expressing absolute knowledge. Aurobindo believed that this would happen one day in the future, as the Divine consciousness descends into the mind-consciousness and into every form of existence, as the next step in the evolutionary blueprint of mankind.