A Greater Psychology

7

Sri Aurobindo on Human Development: a Transpersonal Perspective

A study based on a survey of definitions of Transpersonal Psychology published in the literature between 1968 and 1991 identified five themes which occur most frequently in the forty definitions yielded by the survey.¹ The authors of the study (Denise H. Lajoie & S. I. Shapiro) state the themes as follows:

1. States of consciousness.

2. Highest or ultimate potential.

3. Beyond ego or personal self.

4. Transcendence.

5. Spiritual.

A few of the forty definitions are given below (some only in part) to illustrate the above-mentioned themes:

Many definitions of transpersonal psychology exist. Some common features in them include the following ideas: that a transcendent reality underlies and binds together all phenomena, that individuals can experience directly this reality related to the spiritual dimension of human life, that doing so involves expansion of consciousness beyond ordinary conceptual boundaries and ego awareness.... ² (Transpersonal Psychology Interest Group, 1982, p. 1.)

The main features of the transpersonal approach include: a focus on the whole person, including body, intellect, emotions and spirit; an interest in states of consciousness, including an assumption that waking consciousness is not the highest or most satisfying state; an interest in ultimate values and principles.... ³(R. Frager)

Transpersonal psychology investigates the evolution of consciousness and experiences which lie beyond the personal, including the

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highest visions, goals and aspirations of human beings.⁴ (Institute of Transpersonal Psychology)

Transpersonal psychology is the study of human nature and development that proceeds on the assumption that human beings possess potentialities that surpass the limits of the normally developed ego. It is an enquiry that presupposes that the ego, as ordinarily constituted, can be transcended and that a higher, transegoic plane or stage of life is possible.⁵ (M. Washburn)

What truly defines the transpersonal orientation is a model of the human psyche that recognizes the importance of the spiritual or cosmic dimensions and the potential for consciousness evolution.⁶ (S. Grof)

As will be apparent in the presentation that follows, Sri Aurobindo's integral view of human growth incorporates all the five themes just mentioned, and weaves them around a central concept — the evolution of consciousness — which is found in two of the definitions quoted above.

Sri Aurobindo deals with the human being in relation to the Reality as a whole, and speaks of human development in the context of the evolution of the universe, viewed essentially as the evolution of consciousness.

The Nature of Reality and Evolution of Consciousness

Sri Aurobindo's experience confirms the perennial spiritual realisation of the seers of all times that behind the manifold, ever-changing and evanescent appearances of the universe there is an abiding Reality which has been conceived variously as God, Brahman, the Divine, or the Cosmic Buddha, the fundamental triune aspects of which are expressed in the Vedantic concept of Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss). All things and creatures are united in the One Reality, though they appear to be separate and divided to mental consciousness which is

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an ignorance-consciousness. Through a process of involution, the One Existence and Consciousness is plunged in the universe into its opposite — the Inconscient, the seeming total absence of consciousness. Evolution is the process by which the Supreme Consciousness liberates itself from Inconscience, resulting in the manifestation of progressively higher levels of consciousness. The scientific theory of physical evolution, states Sri Aurobindo, deals only with the outward and visible machinery of a process which is fundamentally a spiritual evolution, an evolution of consciousness. The first emergence from the Inconscient is Matter. Matter is not inert substance as it appears to be, but a form of consciousness which is closest to Inconscience.⁷ Life or vital consciousness is the second emergence in the evolutionary process. Mind, the highest level of consciousness which has evolved up to now in the collectivity, has been the third step of the release from Inconscience. Evolution has not come to an end with the appearance of mind; it awaits a release into higher, spiritual levels of consciousness of which there are many gradations, ranging from Higher Mind through Illumined Mind, Intuition and Overmind up to Supermind. The present-day trends towards spiritual growth are the sign that the human race is preparing for the next evolutionary leap — the emergence of the spiritual and supramental being. The structural-hierarchical aspect of Wilber's model of development reflects Sri Aurobindo's concept of the evolutionary gradations of consciousness from Inconscience to the Supreme Consciousness.

Sri Aurobindo's concept of Supermind has been misconstrued by some as representing a superior level of the Mind principle. But in Sri Aurobindo's experience, Supermind, unlike the other higher gradations of mind just mentioned, is not a superior level of mind but an altogether different evolutionary principle transcending mind.

The supermind is an entirely different consciousness not only from the spiritualised Mind, but from the planes above spiritualised

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Mind which intervene between it and the supramental plane. Once one passes beyond overmind to supermind, one enters into a consciousness to which the norms of the other planes do not at all apply and in which the same Truth, e.g. Sachchidananda and truth of this universe, is seen in quite a different way and has a different dynamic consequence. This necessarily results from the fact that supermind has an indivisible knowledge, while overmind proceeds by union in division and Mind by division taking division as the first fact, for that is the natural process of knowledge.⁸

The supramental being, therefore, is not a Nietzschean edition of the human being magnified into a spiritual colossus, but a new evolutionary species as different from the human being as the human being differs from the animal.

The Purpose, Goal and Dynamics of Evolution

In the Vedantic concept of the One Reality as Sat-Chit-Ananda, Chit (Consciousness) is not only the power of awareness of self and things but is also the dynamic and creative Energy — Chit-Shakti (Consciousness-Force). It is this Energy of consciousness that creates the universe and all that is in it, and is thus the one dynamism behind all evolution. The urge towards growth and evolution, inherent in the whole universe, is the inner driving of the Consciousness-Force, the progressive manifestation of the Spirit being the innate intention behind evolution.

Even in the Inconscient there seems to be at least an urge of inherent necessity producing the evolution of forms and in the forms a developing Consciousness, and it may well be held that this urge is the evolutionary will of a secret Conscious-Being and its push of progressive manifestation the evidence of an innate intention in the evolution...; the teleology, the element of purpose in the nisus is the translation of self-operative Truth of Being into terms of self-effective Will-Power of that Being, and, if consciousness is there, such a Will-Power must also be there and the translation is normal

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and inevitable. Truth of Being inevitably fulfilling itself would be the fundamental fact of the evolution, but Will and its purpose must be there as part of the instrumentation,... ⁹

To fulfil the evolutionary intent, spiritual growth needs to be a double movement of ascent and descent; the individual consciousness must ascend to progressively higher levels of consciousness and then must bring down the dynamism of the higher levels into the mental, vital and physical consciousness so as to transform these lower levels. The aim of the spiritual disciplines of the past generally stopped short at ascent to the highest level of consciousness and attainment of liberation.

Liberation is indeed an indispensable step and the initial goal of spiritual development, but the farther goal of evolution, states Sri Aurobindo, is transformation — a concept which, like that of Supermind, has not been adequately grasped by some scholars.

I use transformation in a special sense, a change of consciousness radical and complete and of a certain specific kind which is so conceived as to bring about a strong and assured step forward in the spiritual evolution of the being of a greater and higher kind and of a larger sweep and completeness than what took place when a mentalised being first appeared in a vital and material animal world.¹⁰

What I mean by the spiritual transformation is something dynamic (not merely liberation of the Self or realisation of the One which can very well be attained without any descent). It is a putting on of the spiritual consciousness, dynamic as well as static, in every part of the being down to the subconscient.... It means a bringing down of the Divine Consciousness static and dynamic into all these parts and the entire replacement of the present consciousness by that. This we find unveiled and unmixed above mind, life and body. It is a matter of the undeniable experience of many that this can descend and it is my experience that nothing short of its full

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descent can thoroughly remove the veil and mixture and effect the full spiritual transformation.¹¹

As stated earlier, the dynamic power behind all evolution is the Consciousness-Force of the Cosmic Spirit. At each stage, evolution takes place by the double process of the upsurging of the Consciousness-Force from its involution in the Inconscience and a descent of the Consciousness-Force pressing from the planes of consciousness above seeking for manifestation. It is the pressure of the Consciousness-Force from the plane of Life above the material universe that assisted the emergence of life from Matter in which life already lay involved. It is a pressure from the Mind-plane that helped the emergence of mind which was already there involved in Life and Matter. It is the pressure of the spiritual worlds above Mind which is now preparing the manifestation of the Spirit yet slumbering in Mind, Life and Matter. The growing urge towards spiritual growth in humanity today is the push of the Consciousness-Force towards the next higher rung of evolution.

Prior to the appearance of the human being, evolution from Matter to Life and from Life to Mind was effected by the Consciousness-Force without a conscious will in the plant and the animal. The human being, endowed with mind and conscious will, can now aid and consciously collaborate in the evolutionary process. The aim of all systems of yoga or spiritual growth is to bring about conscious evolution towards a principle above Mind.

The past has been the history of a slow and difficult subconscious working with effects on the surface, — it has been an unconscious evolution; the present is a middle stage, an uncertain spiral in which the human intelligence is used by the secret evolutionary Force of being and participates in its action without being fully taken into confidence, — it is an evolution slowly becoming conscious of itself; the future must be a more and more conscious evolution of the spiritual being until it is

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fully delivered into a self-aware action by the emergent gnostic principle.¹²

An important dynamic in the evolution of spiritual consciousness stems from the strife which takes place as the forces of the higher planes of consciousness encounter the opposition and resistance of the energies of the lower levels of consciousness which one is attempting to outgrow.

...these higher forces are not in their descent immediately all-powerful as they would naturally be in their own plane of action and in their own medium. In the evolution in Matter they have to enter into a foreign and inferior medium and work upon it; they encounter there the incapacities of our mind and life and body, meet with the unreceptiveness or blind refusal of the Ignorance, experience the negation and obstruction of the Inconscience.... There is thus ready-formed a power of resistance which opposes or minimises the effects of the descending Light... and it is therefore that in a world of Ignorance all is achieved not only through a complexus but through a collision and struggle and intermixture of Forces.¹³

The strife of forces is all the more severe if the attempt is towards not only the liberation from the lower consciousness but its transformation.

The Process of Evolution

The movement of evolution towards "a progressive self-manifestation of the Spirit in a material universe"¹⁴ is characterised by a triple process: first, an evolution of increasingly more complex forms of Matter which can embody and express increasingly greater powers of consciousness; this is the physical aspect of evolution; secondly, after the emergence of Mind, a spiritual evolution consisting in an ascent towards progressively higher gradations of consciousness above the ordinary mind; thirdly,

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an integration of what has already evolved into each successive higher level of consciousness so as to bring about a total change of the whole being and nature.

In the evolution of consciousness as well as the evolution of physical forms, there are apparent gaps or "missing links" between successive stages of development which seem to be radically different. The transition from one definitive stage to the next appears to be a sudden transformation rather than a gradual passage. These leaps in the evolutionary process are due to the fact that at each definitive stage of evolution there is a rise of consciousness to another quite different principle of being, resulting in a reversal of consciousness.

Such a reversal has been made in each radical transition of Nature: Life-Force emerging turns upon Matter, imposes a vital content on the operations of material Energy while it develops also its own new movements and operations; Life-Mind emerges in Life-Force and Matter and imposes its content of consciousness on their operations while it develops also its own action and faculties; a new greater emergence and reversal, the emergence of humanity, is in line with Nature's precedents....¹⁵

In order to accomplish the leap beyond mind, it is necessary to grow inwards and enter the consciousness of the inner being and discover the inner Person behind the outer personality, or to grow upwards and ascend to the higher planes above the mind. Only thus can a radical change be brought about in human consciousness, transforming the human being from a mental into a spiritual being.

...if we can live thus deeper within and put out steadily the inner forces into the outer instrumentation or raise ourselves to dwell on higher and wider levels and bring their powers to bear on physical existence... there could begin a heightening of our force of conscious being so as to create a new principle of consciousness....¹⁶

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Ego and Human Development

All transpersonal views of human growth regard ego development as a necessary stage prior to ego-transcendence. In Wilber's words: "...it is... ridiculous to speak of realizing the transpersonal until the personal has been formed."¹⁷ The differences lie in the concepts of the ego and of the ego-transcendent state. Regarding the ego and its evolutionary significance Sri Aurobindo states:

...Nature invented the ego that the individual might disengage himself from the inconscience or subconscience of the mass and become an independent living mind, life-power, soul, spirit, coordinating himself with the world around him but not drowned in it.... For the individual is indeed part of the cosmic being, but he is also something more, he is a soul that has descended from the Transcendence. This he cannot manifest at once, because he is too near to the cosmic Inconscience, not near enough to the original Superconscience; he has to find himself as the mental and vital ego before he can find himself as the soul or spirit.¹⁸

According to Sri Aurobindo, the ego is not fundamentally real in itself but a temporary formation devised by the Consciousness-Force to hold together its action in the body, life and mind in order to aid in centralising the experiences of the outer consciousness, giving one a sense of a separate individuality which is mistaken for one's true self. The ego, which is felt as the "I", is thus a physical, vital and mental formation. It disappears when the true self is discovered.

However, Sri Aurobindo's experience, like that of many other sages in the past, affirms that behind the illusory individuality of the ego is the true spiritual Individual. Unlike the ego which feels itself to be separate from the rest of the universe, the true spiritual individual is one with the cosmic and transcendent Reality.

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...what do we mean by the individual? What we usually call by that name is a natural ego... but the individual self or soul is not this ego. The individual soul is the spiritual being which is sometimes described as an eternal portion of the Divine, but can also be described as the Divine himself supporting his manifestation as the Many. This is the true spiritual individual which appears in its complete truth when we get rid of the ego and our false separative sense of individuality, realise our oneness with the transcendent and cosmic Divine and with all beings.¹⁹

Therefore, according to Sri Aurobindo, liberation from the ego and its consequent extinction does not necessarily lead to a loss of individuality. The sense of individuality disappears only if, with the extinction of the ego, the true spiritual individual chooses to merge into the transcendent Reality, as occurs in the experience of Nirvana. But instead of choosing merger into the One, the spiritual individual can choose to continue existence in the cosmic manifestation — as the Buddha is said to have done²⁰ — to further the cosmic evolutionary process.

...the liberation and transcendence need not necessarily impose a disappearance, a sheer dissolving out from the manifestation; it can prepare a liberation into action of the highest Knowledge and an intensity of Power that can transform the world and fulfil the evolutionary urge.²¹

...the liberated soul extends its perception of unity horizontally as well as vertically. Its unity with the transcendent One is incomplete without its unity with the cosmic Many. And the lateral unity translates itself by a multiplication, a reproduction of its own liberated state at other points in the Multiplicity.... ²²

The idea of individual progress beyond the state of liberation has been beautifully expressed by Wilber: "That [coming to rest in God] is not the end of the story, but the beginning of post-Enlightenment unfolding as the sage enters the market-place with open hands."²³

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Notes and References

1. Denise H. Lajoie & S.I. Shapiro, "Definitions of transpersonal psychology: The first twenty-three years", The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology,Vol. 24 (1992), No.l, pp. 71-98.

2. quoted in ibid., p. 84.

3. quoted in ibid.

4. quoted in ibid., p. 86.

5. quoted in ibid., p. 87.

6. quoted in ibid., p. 85.

7. "Matter is jada [inert, inconscient] only in appearance. As even modern Science admits, Matter is only energy in action, and, as we know in India, energy is force of consciousness in action." Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (hereafter SABCL), (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1970-75), Vol. 22, p. 222.

8. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL Vol. 22, pp. 240-41.

9. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL Vol. 19, p. 834.

10. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL Vol. 22, p. 98.

11. Ibid., pp. 115-16.

12. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL Vol. 19, p. 707.

13. Ibid., pp. 941-42.

14. Ibid., p. 706.

15. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL Vol. 19, p. 839.

16. Ibid., pp. 722-23.

17. Ken Wilber, "A Developmental Model of Consciousness" in Roger N. Walsh and Frances Vaughan (Eds.), Beyond Ego: Transpersonal Dimensions in Psychology (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1980), pp. 110-11.

18. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL Vol. 19, p. 694.

19. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL Vol. 22, pp. 46-47.

20. "Is it not altogether a legend", asks Sri Aurobindo by way of a rhetorical question, "which says of the Buddha that as he stood on the threshold of Nirvana, of the Non-Being, his soul turned back and took the vow never to make the irrevocable crossing so long a there was a single being upon earth undelivered from the knot

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of the suffering, from the bondage of the ego?" — Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL Vol. 18, p. 40.

21. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL Vol. 22, p. 30.

22. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL Vol. 18, p. 40.

23. Ken Wilber, The Eye of Spirit (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1997), p. 228.

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