The Ascent of the Consciousness Beyond the Preoccupation With Material Existence

It is difficult to both understand and appreciate the apparent regression from spiritual heights to a world in which the physical being and material focus reigns supreme and predominates in the entire world to an overwhelming degree. It is likely that the intellectual and then the spiritual development reached a point where it was too rarified and the generality of mankind was unable to adopt it, particularly as they struggled to survive and thrive in difficult external circumstances. We can thus accept that a period of focus on the external, the physical, the material was needed to provide a foundation or basis upon which the next ascent of consciousness could develop, hopefully in a way that ensured that the physical and vital being of man would be able to both participate and appreciate the next stage of development.

In the Taittiriya Upanishad, the seeker first establishes the foundation of the physical level before eventually moving on to appreciate the priority and primacy of the vital, the mental, the supramental and the bliss planes of existence that make up the various levels of the creation. In the modern day, we see scientists delving deep into Matter and discovering that it is really Energy, and then proceeding to discover that Energy is a form of Consciousness. So we see a preparation for the renewal of the upward ascent of the evolution of consciousness, now with an understanding of the roots of Matter and the oneness of the entire creation.

Sri Aurobindo provides a note of confidence that the material focus of the current age will eventually recede as a new spiritual aspiration and urge awakens and takes up the challenge of the ever-evolving conscious existence that is manifesting in the world.

In The Life Divine, he writes: “The earliest preoccupation of man in his awakened thoughts and, as it seems, his inevitable and ultimate preoccupation,—for it survives the longest periods of scepticism and returns after every banishment,—is also the highest which his thought can envisage. It manifests itself in the divination of Godhead, the impulse towards perfection, the search after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss, the sense of a secret immortality. The ancient dawns of human knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspiration; today we see a humanity satiated but not satisfied by victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature preparing to return to its primeval longings. The earliest formula of Wisdom promises to be its last,—God, Light, Freedom, Immortality.”

The Mother notes: “When I read these ancient texts, I really have the impression that from the inner point of view, from the point of view of the true life, we have fallen back terribly and that for the acquisition of a few ingenious mechanisms, a few encouragements to physical laziness, the acquisition of instruments and gadgets that lessen the effort of living, we have renounced the reality of the inner life. It is that sense which has been lost and it needs an effort for you to think of learning the meaning of life, the purpose of existence, the goal towards which we must advance, towards which all life advances, whether you want it or not. One step towards the goal, oh! it needs so much effort to do that. And generally one thinks of it only when the outer circumstances are not pleasant.”

“How far we are from the times when the shepherd, who did not go to school and kept watch over his flock at night under the stars, could read in the stars what was going to happen, commune with something which expressed itself through Nature, and had the sense of the profound beauty and that peace which a simple life gives!”

“It is very unfortunate that one has to give up one thing in order to gain another. When I speak of the inner life, I am far from opposing any modern inventions, far from it, but how much these inventions have made us artificial and stupid! How much we have lost the sense of true beauty, how much we burden ourselves with useless needs!”

“Perhaps the time has come to continue the ascent in the curve of the spiral and now with all that this knowledge of matter has brought us, we shall be able to give to our spiritual progress a more solid basis. Strong with what we have learnt of the secrets of material Nature, we shall be able to join the two extremes and rediscover the supreme Reality in the very heart of the atom.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 1, Looking at Life and Circumstances, pp. 16-17