Bhagavagd Gita - Session 14- Track 1416

Sri Aurobindo has spoken of the Law of Evolution, which is as follows, – in the first place there is a foundation, on which evolutionary journey can be built. Our foundation is the foundation of matter. The whole evolutionary process is meant for creating, you might say, a Divine Temple. What is the whole world trying to achieve. It is to create a physical temple in which Divine consciousness can vibrate fully, in other words to create the kingdom of God on the earth. What is God? God is Satchitananda. So that Truth, consciousness, knowledge and Delight; all these things should vibrate fully and irresistibly, but on the physical plane, – stabilised. This is the aim of the whole human history. We have to ask this question: How far this temple has been built? And then measure of the progress of man. So, first of all the physical foundation itself has to be secured. When the foundation is sufficiently secured then the forms of that foundation become multiplied, this is the Law of Evolution. Whenever you establish this will happen, even in some small endeavours. You first of all build a factory in the beginning there will be only one central office. Afterwards, when you develop it further, then small offices or organs will begin to grow. This is the second principle. First the foundation, then the multiplication of forms, and multiplication of different kinds of forms and multiplication of different kinds of forms; this is the second stage of development. When this sufficiently arises then there is a movement of ascent. Ascent means a new principle is introduced and the effort moves forward to sustain the ascent. So there is a ascending movement. First was only foundational movement, horizontal movement, then the multiplication of it. The third is ascent; you now try to develop a new principle. As in human history first when the physical foundation was established, second was the development towards the vital, it was a ascent towards the vital development then what happens that once you reach the higher level sufficiently, then there is the principle of integration. Whatever is achieved at the higher level, you bring back on the lower level. In the first place there was only the physical existence, and then came the vital existence in a very powerful way. Then the physical existence was vitalised. In the first place there was only physical foundation. There was an ascent towards the vital, the third stage was vitalising the physical. Why do you try to vitalise the physical? It may seem from the external point of view as if you were moving downwards. If you are not trying to understand the inner meaning, you might say there is a fall. Earlier movement was towards heightening towards the vital, now comes the which is downwards, but downwards for what purpose, not to retain the physical foundation as it were before but to vitalise it. But from the outside point of view, it may look as if it is collapsing. There is a downward movement, after integrating again there is further development of the vital principle in different forms; newer forms of vital existence come into being. When they are sufficiently multiplied, not only multiplied but they are subtilised. When they are greatly deepened, they become more complicated then again there is an ascent as to a higher principle. After the vital the higher principle is the mental, in the mental when you reach first of all a great ascent of the mind, after the mind has reached a great deal of ascent there is a descent to mentalise the physical., to mentalise the vital and then again to bring all the riches of the vitalised mind, vitalised physical and mentalised physical to the higher level. This is where we are today in history.

Question: What do you mean by vitalising the physical?

Answer: Physical is normally inert. Wherever there is a security in a society, it gets satisfied and it does not want to move forward. The principle of inertia sets into it. This you might say is the nature of the physical. When we want to vitalise the physical, then what you do is to goad it. You don’t allow the settling down of inertia, you infuse the physical existence with new dreams, new visions, new energies, new conquests, all kinds of novelties are introduced, so that the physical gets vitalised. This happens in even a small household. Once the household becomes quite settled, routine sets in, daily the same things happen. Then suddenly you find that the children will begin to demand the novelties, guests will come into your household, will bring in new ideas. Sometimes you might even say that since these people have come, my whole routine is ruined, my stability is gone, and my old prosperity is gone. But actually it is from the evolutionary point of view, if these forces had not come in you would have settled down into your inertia, it would have  been even in any case. Why don’t we realise that inertia brings about a collapse ultimately. This has always happened, wherever new ideas are not allowed. Even in a household after sometime, after the resistance to newness, ultimately it collapses. That is why from the evolution’s point of view, when new things come, you must know how to receive the new things. It is true that new things also disturb you, they even ruin tour present status and tranquillity; that is because we do not know how to receive new things. This is what we have to learn from evolution. Physical development is always followed by an invasion of the vital. Even when you want to keep quiet; I am now fully established, my whole thing is wonderfully arranged, I don’t want anything more now, you go on in your routine, everything is arranged for, food is exactly at the right time, dresses are made at the right time, the rooms are very well furnished, everything is routinised, and everything goes clock-work and there is no problem. There is good understanding amongst everybody because everybody in the family shares the same comforts and everybody is happy. But evolution does not want only the stabilisation of the physical; it wants the stabilisation of the physical, vital, mental and the spiritual. Unless you have completed the whole cycle, this kind of collapse will always come about. This being the pattern of history, we have to judge whether we have made progress in one direction or not. If you only see from outside, you will say we build and it gets collapsed again and again. What is the point in this regression? But if you try to understand what is the aim of history? What are the conditions of permanence, real permanence? Real permanence will not come to humanity, the real Ram-Rajya, the real Golden Age, the real Swarna-Yuga, Satya-Yuga. It will not come unless you establish the physical, vital and intellectual and the spiritual are perfectly harmonised.

We have reached a point where mental being, the intellectual is striving and finds that intellectual ideals cannot be established unless we have peace. Now it is realised that you cannot have peace, unless people develop spirituality because peace is not a concept of merely sitting together on the dinning table and have a peaceful meal. Peace means something in which the roots of quarrel are eliminated. In which the force of domination is eliminated, in which the forces of lower pleasures are eliminated then only peace will come. Otherwise, even if you take a good meal together these forces will not be eliminated. You will always have this problem. The essential problem is that today, all the great leaders realise that there is something deeper than the mind there is something subtler than the mind. Take for example the ideal of brother-hood, by some kind of law you can spread the idea of liberty. If somebody suppresses you, you can go to court of Law and say that my freedom is being suppressed and the court may give judgement by which your freedom is restored. But real freedom cannot come to you unless the tendency which exists in human beings to bully you is not eliminated. How much freedom can the court ensure you? If after going home, if there is some bully in your house from where it cannot be thrown out, and for whom you can’t go to the court of Law again and say that he scolds me all the time. Unless this bully is transformed into your real brother, a real friend, you cannot have liberty. Same thing about equality, you can go to the court of Law to enforce that my property and your property be equally divided, that court may do, but if after that encroachment is constantly is going on; even it is small house, you divide equally, even for a small space there are so many quarrels. You bring one new piece of furniture and the problem starts, how to arrange it. How to put it, where is the space for it. All kinds of problems arise and you cannot go to the court of Law that my equal rights are to be restored. It can come about only when there is an internal change in the consciousness of man.