Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy And Yoga - Some Aspects

THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE—AND THEIR ONLY

SOLUTION

The problems of life are age-old problems. They have so far defied any solution by mental, moral and material means. Science and technology have no doubt extended the boundaries of knowledge but they have left the fundamental problems of life untouched. That is why although scientific achievement has culminated in landing man on the moon, a feat deemed impossible even in early sixties, science has done nothing to change the basic nature of man, his possessive, acquisitive and domineering instincts, his predatory habits, his bellicosity and distrust of fellowmen and, last but not least, his incapacity to control his own nature, the passions, lusts, greed's and desires that dominate him to the end of his life.

What at the best Science has achieved is the improvement of man's material life, the many comforts and amenities it has placed at his disposal in his personal, group and social existence. It has, at the same time, because of man's incapacity to control his own primitive nature, brought him face to face with the dangers of fratricidal wars threatening the annihilation, if not of the whole, of a large and the most advanced section of the human race. Science has placed in his hands such lethal weapons, conventional, nuclear, chemical and bacteriological, as when used on a global scale, may easily bring about the collapse of civilisation and a return to barbarism in course of a few months if not of weeks. And this it no mere speculation but

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almost a certainty if he fails to bring his erring and animal instincts which govern his relations with his kind into some sort of immediate control. At one end we are going to conquer the moon by our latest scientific and technological knowledge and at the other we are threatened with death and destruction for want of elementary control over our own selves.

Reason, it has been said, is what distinguishes man from animal but this reason turns traitor the moment our so-called self-interest is involved. This interest is not merely material ; it is ideological also. Problems of life have always defied the powers, of mind and reason because they are only half-lights and vitiated by our conflicting notions of self-interest. This accounts for the present cold war which more than once has brought the world to the brink of a hot war between Western Democracy and East-European Communism. Throughout the ages, man on the whole has remained the same ignorant, crude, selfish, narrow and rapacious creature in spite of his vaunted civilisation and enlightenment and the progress of his mental and moral life. Morality is born out of mind which is ever-changing, restless and unstable ; and mental ideas, unlike the eternal verities, are subject to constant changes. Morality, on account of the resistance of the recalcitrant life nature, does not touch the roots of existence which is always one though different in the manifestation, in names and forms. "Existence," declares the Veda, "is One ; sages call it by different names."

Physically, vitally and mentally men are distinct and different from one another. This is the case all over the world ; no two beings and things are the same.

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But what lies at the base of all these differences in humanity is the one, immutable and eternal Spirit of which mind, life and body are the ever-changing and perishable surface instruments. And it is the life of the Spirit which is unchanging, one and the same everywhere in spite of the differences of race, religion, climate, culture, tradition and history of the various peoples that inhabit the earth,—the life of the Spirit pure, true and perfect in its knowledge, will and workings, that we have to discover if we are to survive as a race.

Real spiritual light comes to man when he is able to stand completely detached from his mental, vital and physical existence and transcend the limitations on knowledge imposed by an ignorant and only half enlightened mind. But a certain mental growth and development in the right direction is necessary as a preliminary condition and it is to live in the mind and be the mental witness of the activities of mind, life and body without being in any way identified with them. Blessed are those who can do it. they have become masters of their nature—are no more its slaves. The ordinary mortal, however intellectual he may be, cannot differentiate in action between his body-mind-life complex, which he calls himself, and the Spirit within which is his real self. This failure to distinguish our true being from its surface instruments lies at the root of all our failures to tackle human problems. Ordinarily it is the vital being or the desire-self in us that rules and governs our conduct. It is the dominance of the crude, ignorant, selfish and dangerous vital nature of man that is at the base of all our troubles and difficulties, perturbations and upheavals both individual and collective ; for the vital in us is not concerned

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with truth, right or justice. It seeks self-affirmation, life-growth and satisfaction of all its desires and impulses. "It tries," says Sri Aurobindo, "to dominate the mind and get from it by dictation a sanction and order of execution for its own will of self-affirmation, a verdict of right and truth and good for its own vital assertions, impulses and actions. It is concerned with self-justification in order that it may have room for full self-affirmation. But if it can get the assent of the mind, it is quite ready to ignore all these standards and set up only one standard, the satisfaction, growth, strength and greatness of the vital Ego." This attitude of the vital is what we generally find in the case of politicians, statesmen and military chiefs whose minds are carried away by and subjected to the demands and insistences of their desire-selves, and thence follow all the clashes, .conflicts and wars between the nations.

No amount of mental and moral teaching, preaching and practice can bring about a change of the human vital nature. Since the time of the Buddha, non-violence has been preached. The emperor Asoka banned all wars and killings in his dominion but human nature has not changed. The frantic efforts made by statesmen and politicians after the First World War did not in the least succeed in bringing about any change of human nature in the direction of peace, amity, concord and harmony. If anything, the conditions deteriorated to such an extent that they not only brought about the Second World War on a more massive and international scale but are even now threatening the existence of human race by the spread of nuclear and thermo-nuclear armaments. Unless therefore this vital nature of man is changed, there appears

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no hope for human survival. And that change can come only by self-knowledge, by a change of our present half-enlightened mental consciousness into a spiritual and supramental Truth-consciousness or All-knowledge, All-power, All-bliss. A change of consciousness alone can bring about a change of human nature—from the ignorant separative .consciousness of the mind to the illumined Unitarian consciousness of the Spirit.

If the phenomena of life have to be seriously probed, we have to go deep down below the surface of existence. On the surface we find constant changes going on every moment both in ourselves and in our environment. In the field of science and technology specially, changes have been rapid and remarkable during the last thirty years or so. The whole world is brought amazingly close together by the discoveries in the methods of transport and communication so that it is no longer possible to live a life of isolation from the rest of the world as in the days of yore. Many of us feel a nostalgia for the past when life was not so busy and hectic in the mere pursuit of living and men and women had leisure for a life of peace, quiet and contentment favorable to the life of the Spirit. What we have to do in our age of speed and science is to find our moorings and secure a basis in the stable and the eternal Spirit and allow ourselves on this basis to participate in all the changes in and around us. Then only can we have real self-knowledge and the peace and happiness which are wholly dependent on it. However much we may try, peace in outer life is impossible without inner self-finding. To run after the satisfaction of the senses in the pursuit of happiness is like running

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after a mirage. The source of all knowledge, peace and happiness lies within ourselves and not outside. This is the first lesson that we have to learn if we are to progress in life, and not end it where we began, like the animals, in sheer ignorance.

Life is a constant struggle for existence, survival, growth, expansion and perfection. Because of its many imperfections and shortcomings there is no such thing as smooth sailing in it till we reach the Perfect, the Unchanging and the Eternal. It is an ever-changing and ceaseless drama full of strange and unforeseen turns and vicissitudes of fortune. All life ends in death, some partly fulfilled and the rest in hopeless failure. But whatever the differences in the approach as to the ways and means, the ultimate goal of life is the same for all. It is an eternal quest for knowledge, power, peace, harmony, joy and happiness. Only our self-ignorance diverts us from the true path of self-fulfilment by leading us to various by-paths and tangles which only delay the journey and ultimate arrival at the goal. The only rational and supra-rational solution of the problems of life therefore is a change of Consciousness followed by a change of Nature. There is no other way.

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