"Supramental Consciousness and Human Evolution"
* * *
Q. What can be done about the mindset of ageing? The Mother said that progress makes us young; if we stop to progress we age.
A. Yes, that's the key she gave even in the Charter of Auroville: that this is a space for an unending progress, this is the guideline she has given for overcoming aging itself. So, in whichever parts of our being the consciousness stops progressing, it tends to regress, and that's aging.
There is no such thing as status quo in spiritual terms; because the whole universe is changing…God is growing up in the world. Therefore, if you stay status quo and the Universe grows, you are actually effectively regressing. The only way to stay status quo is to keep growing. There is either growth or there is regression, there is nothing in-between.
Unfortunately, after a certain point - and often it's the social mindset, especially after our formal education - we think now we have what we need, we don't need to learn more, and that's what starts the gradual decline. But, being here and knowing this with the background we have been given by the Mother, it should be possible for us to continue to learn.
Life is our school. Auroville is the biggest learning centre in the world. If we take it in that spirit and bring that learning process into all parts of our being…that means not only a mental intellectual learning and study….whatever form it takes…whatever is interesting for you, it doesn't matter… develop mental skills continuously.
Second, on the vital level… developing the life-force…making it more conscious…developing it through skill and in activities, and then to develop the physical consciousness.
With the physical consciousness, there is an additional difficulty. If the body is brought up to a certain degree of awareness and then neglected, it lapses back very quickly, and it's difficult to get it back again to the earlier level. Knowing that, don't allow it to lapse. Work on the parts of the body which you find least conscious and develop them. Again, the process is simple: direct your mental awareness to that part. It's as simple as that. Then, imprint it and become more conscious of the substance there. You can also assist it by other processes like activities, games, skills of those parts of the body. Often it is the lower parts, the legs which are least conscious, and it is from the toes upwards that the unconsciousness creeps up. Becoming conscious of these parts through contact, through massage, through various other activities... we know all the methods. I think it's all there….it's just that we have to spend a little time on all these three parts.
Through all this, even as you develop consciousness on all three parts, to open that consciousness from each of these three towards the Higher, towards the Spiritual, towards the Supramental, towards the Divine Mother. By such opening, she infuses there something, which you could not do on your own, which is the greatness of the yogic process. Otherwise, if it's just a question of human effort, we can only go so far, we cannot make that great leap on our own. We can however create the necessary conditions in which the great leap can take place in us.
Someone asked the Mother, "Mother, how do we make ourselves supramental?" She took it with a sharp retort, "Oh, just try, try to make yourselves supramental - you will never succeed." The monkey cannot think himself into intellectuality. The Supramental can enter within us and supramentalise us. We can only create the necessary circumstances of receptivity.
So again, going back to the little booklet - 'The Mother', "Three things you must have," Sri Aurobindo says, "consciousness, plasticity and surrender." As you become more conscious, the plasticity increases, and that will be a sign, both in the physical, in the vital, in the mental, of the loosening up the rigidities and widening. And these are assisted most easily by the surrender itself in all these three parts. If you take the Charter of Auroville as the program of your life, you will find everything is there in it to guide us through, in our yoga. It's an extraordinary document.
Q. 2. How do you see genetics, sciences, cybernetics and virtual reality, as being part of this physical change?
A. The sudden knowledge that science has of Matter and the mastery of Matter by material process, is something which is new and is part of the gift of the new step in evolution. While in the past, we have had even greater mastery of Matter, it was through occult means, including for example, in some of the alchemical traditions the transformation of base metal into gold. It involved occult means, not the mastery of material processes.
This is the first time that the consciousness of human mind has descended in its understanding of Matter to this degree. Its mastery of Matter to this degree by material process is of course guided by the mind - by the intellect. But this itself was possible because there is the Higher Consciousness which says, "Ok, now I am going to give you this knowledge", including the knowledge of the physiological minuteness of genetics, through which we will get a certain mastery of even the biological processes.
Still, while it will give us a practical ability to heal the body, it will not overcome the degeneration which is a habit of the tissue, and that can only be overcome by Spiritual Consciousness. While we may have practical health, perhaps one can even conceive now - as discussed in science fiction - to extend lifespan.
We are designed to live for 140 years; that's the estimate…but suppose even if we extend it by 140 or 200 years; but the mind dulls, the mind becomes rigid, the mind becomes bored, what a poor life it will be. It’s not the biological conquest which will be the solution, but the change in psychology. The mind itself must remain young and the cells not just replace themselves, but learn to submit to the Higher Consciousness.
So, though technology will provide a support from below up to a point of making a comfortable and receptive base, the final change will be by the Higher Consciousness which only can make the decisive change.
Q. 3. The Mother said in 1962 to Satprem, "I will come back to finish my Agenda in 50 years". It is 2012. When will she come?
A. We have to accept it in that spirit but not bind ourselves to a fixed date. Also, everything depends on us; it can happen even sooner if we allow ourselves to participate. If we resist, it will take longer.
Regarding the Centre of Education in the Ashram, she said, "I have no doubt that one day it will be the greatest centre of learning in the world. It may take 50 years or 100 years. I may not be there physically, you may doubt my presence, but I will be there and this will happen."
She said it fifty years ago. We are nowhere near that because we didn't make the necessary effort. In fact, we went through a phase of complete - I would say - stopping of effort to try out new things; maybe it was a period of consolidation we had to pass through and for something new to emerge. But it all depends finally on our own receptivity, individually and collectively. As far as the collective change is concerned, well, it's for the mass to choose, made up of individuals.
