"Supramental Consciousness and Human Evolution"
Therefore, the life forms in Auroville will also be diverse; even their organisation will undergo a series of possibilities, evolving as the consciousness of the people evolves. So, the Mother gave no rules, no regulations or laws, but fundamental spiritual principles around which these organisational structures could freely flow to reflect the needs of each moment.
These two centres were established on the earth, both to become containers, receptacles, focal points for the direct action, for an increasingly direct action of the Supramental Consciousness, and to become the promise of fulfillment in the whole world, for the future of humanity. This gives us a broad perspective of the work that they did to establish the Supramental Consciousness on the earth.
When the early sadhaks came to the Ashram; they came with various ideas… sometimes having read fragments, sometimes having heard some things, but always with an inner opening and conviction that they were committed to this effort. Many of them came with the expectation that because of the Supramental Yoga, and as the result of the Supramental Yoga, they would become immortal, that death would be overcome immediately. Even today, people come to Auroville thinking, “Oh! Here, the practical human unity will be easily achieved and we will live in harmony forever...” They are right in the perception, but their perception, to be translated, undergoes certain stages.
They come with the idea of a perfect world, a perfect harmony, a collectivity of humanity which shares ideals to such a degree that they will constantly be in harmony as far as that ideal is concerned, and the frictions would be minimised. These expectations were often followed by disappointments, as they are even today. The first death in the Ashram was a shock to the community, “Oh! Death is still possible…” Of course, the doubts come up: “Is this for real?” But the inner conviction being present, it survives the doubts.
Sri Aurobindo wrote in detail about the nature of the transition. It helps to clear these doubts, for those who had read and who still read it today. The first thing which he points out is, the evolutionary transition is gradual. Otherwise, it would not be an evolution. If it is a jump from here to there, with a gap in between, it is not an evolution. Evolution means the new has to immerge from within the old, in continuity. Of course, it can be drastically different in consciousness. Therefore, in order to be an evolution, the process of emergence has to be continuous. That means there is a passage of gradual change.
On this first point, we may need to make an observation. There is a comment made by Osho (Rajneesh) in one of his books. He (Osho) has a tendency to criticise other teachers whom he does not agree with, and I believe, there is only one reference to Sri Aurobindo where he says: “Be careful of Sri Aurobindo, he can convince you about anything with his logic.” But then, the point of criticism that he brings in is this: he says that Sri Aurobindo has claimed that once the Supermind is established and one person is transformed, the whole of humanity will be transformed. And he adds, “Obviously that’s irrational.”
But that was a wrong statement, a wrong projection of Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo, in fact, has very clear statements in his letters, saying that, “These are silly ideas. How can one person’s transformation change the rest of humanity? Each one will have to go through his own process of transformation.” Therefore, one person’s transformation certainly can make it easier for the others, but it doesn’t mean it will happen automatically! So, this is the necessity of gradual change; it is not a sudden change in which the whole world changes in one go.
The second point Sri Aurobindo makes is that: the transition involves a struggle. The struggle itself is inevitable, because Nature has built up in her own evolutionary process the means to retain the realisations of the past - to hold on - to create a stable base and a persistent base. That very base becomes the resistance for the new step.
He also explains how - when the Overmental Consciousness begins the division - it freely allows all the possibilities and pushes each one to its extreme of actualisation. Therefore, in practice, in the divided consciousness of the manifest world, every single force has a right to exist, to persist and to ensure that it does everything possible to continue to persist.
So, given a particular situation, there are perhaps half a dozen possibilities that could actualise through this situation; each one of them has a right to exist, a right to persist and attempt to manifest against the others. And that’s why the nature of this world is one of conflicting, struggling forces out of which something emerges, by a kind of a mix, either one overwhelming the other or finding a compromise, or whatever be the form it takes, but always a mix of possibilities struggling to emerge. This struggle, he says, has three components. He uses these words: “the right of persistence”, “the right of recurrence” and “the right of resistance”. These are three things which prevent the natural, rapid change.
The first is “persistence” - which we have discussed - every force has a right to persist. Second, if a force is defeated, it lapses, subsides or goes into quiescence, or hides in a seed form in the Subconscious or Inconscient. Then, it has a right to recur. If it gets a new chance, it will come up. This is the right given to that force in order to ensure that every possibility can come up in every way. So, even though the Supramental Consciousness may descend, the old consciousness in mind, vital or physical has the right to persist first, and thereby oppose the Supermind. If the Supermind overwhelms and replaces its working to whatever degree, and the old consciousness subsides, it has the right to recur and come up again, to try to destabilise the Supramental Consciousness that is still establishing, and through it all, the right to continue to resist, because every possibility must have the right to continue, it must have the right to resist.
There is a flux of various forces and possibilities in the mental consciousness which resist the descent of the Supermind. And the mind itself, he says, being the most conscious, self-aware is the most open, most flexible to receive the Supramental. But, as one goes lower into the vital, the instinctive movements of the life-force are even duller, more unconscious. So, the resistance, the recurrence, the persistence are still greater. Then, going down into the physical which is not conscious - the Inconscient, the resistance can be even more formidable.
That is why; it is not the Overmental which is already the principle of division but, the direct Supermind which can finally overcome the physical. Until then, of course, everything else can be transformed to almost any degree. But the lower parts will be unstable until the physical itself is overcome. So, the nature of the transition is gradual. It is also a struggle because things have the right to persist, to recur and to resist.
