The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo - Part 10

Series One

Section One

I

Cycles of Creation

The present cycle of creation has for its goal the advent of the Supermind, the coming of a supramental race of beings.

The world, it seems, moves in cycles. There are periods of creation with a hiatus or a gap in between of dissolution. Present day science too speaks of the universe proceeding in pulsations, that is to say, alternate expansion and contraction. Indian mythology speaks of alternate 'Pralaya' and 'Srishti'. The Indian system speaks also of 'Maha-pralaya', utter dissolution or 'Yoga-nidra' of the Supreme. In other words, there are periods when the universe retires altogether into its origin and when it comes out it manifests itself in an entirely new way. In a given creation between two major dissolutions, 'Maha-pralaya', that is to say, in a major cycle, there are minor cycles (epicycles) marked by minor dissolutions, 'Khandapralaya'.

The present major cycle aims, as I have said, at the manifestation of the Supermind and the installation of the supramental race. The cycle started, one does not know when, billions of years ago perhaps, but the principle of the creation seems to be clear enough. It has matter for its base, earth as its centre and man as its dynamic agent. For all we know there may be, there are other principles-and modalities of creation. One may well conceive of air,

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for example, as the basis of creation and some other heavenly body, an airy globe in a far-off galaxy, for example, being the basis of creation and an airy creature as the vehicle for the play based upon that principle. Even fire may be the basic principle of another creation and salamander-like beings its natural inhabitants. There may be quite other principles or modes of creation conceivable or inconceivable by the human mind. However, we speak now of the present terrestrial creation of which we human beings are representative participants.

The present cycle, the great cycle that is to say, has, as I have said, for its ultimate motive and purpose the advent and reign of the Supermind. But this proceeds through stages, each stage forming a minor or lesser cycle. The stages of these cycles are the different degrees of what is called evolution. The evolution starts upon the basis of an apparently simple substance and goes on unfolding gradually an inherent complexity. As we know, the different cycles of evolution in the past were at the outset a purely material universe of inorganic elements, then came the cycle of organic combinations, then the manifestation of life and next the mind and at present the mind at its peak capacity, which means the advent of the strange creature that has a miraculous destiny to accomplish. And that is to bring forth out of him the achievement and fulfilment of the next cycle. For the mind is there to bring forth, to usher in the Supermind and man is there as the laboratory and the vanguard as well of the Supermind.

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At the present time the human consciousness in general has been so prepared and its dwelling and playfield the earth-consciousness made ready to such a degree that it has been possible for the still secreted higher perfection to enter into the arena. The evolution, the growth has been a gradual expression and revelation of the light, the consciousness in a higher and higher degree of purity and potency through an encasement hard and resistant at first but gradually yielding to the impact of the higher status and even transforming itself so as to become its instrument and embodiment. We speak of the present situation, we are concerned with man and what he is to grow into or bring out of himself. Here also there seem to be stages or cycles of creation leading to the final achievement. The whole burden of the present endeavour is how to transcend, transform or modify the animalhood which is the basis of humanity even now and in and through which man is growing and seeking to manifest and incarnate his superior potencies. Man's supramental destiny means that he totally outgrows the animal, outgrows even his manhood in so far as it is merely human; for he has to incorporate the principle of the supramental which wholly transcends the mental.

The first step in this momentous movement has been taken, the first act achieved, for the supramental is now here established in the earth's atmosphere and is already percolating into general human consciousness. It is no longer a far-off object residing away in its own home, its higher transcendent status, but a concrete reality as

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something like earth's own. It is at work in this material envelope, this animal encasing of humanity and is vigorously transforming, demolishing and building, preparing the new structure.

The embodiment of the supramental, the supramental consciousness in its supramental body is indeed even now rather a far-off event. But the beginning of a supramen-talised humanity, a section of it as the spearhead is quite a possibility in a comparatively near future. A race of elite in whom the grosser elements of humanhood, its physical animality and mentality have been purified of their dross, refined into something of the pure luminous reflection of the higher consciousness—that is the immediate end for which the new force seems to be labouring. And the consequence too of this achievement is expected to be also very considerable. The whole human race or even a majority of it is not likely to be transfigured into the élite, the race of the pioneers just referred to. The advent or the preparation of such a body will in its turn naturally influence the rest of mankind and act so effectively and largely that the human race in general will put on a different aspect, the aspect of a humanity not of the Kaliyuga but of the Satyayuga. That is what the general human mind has been aspiring for and calling "Ramarajya". A humanity with a radiant mind, a purified, generous, un-egoistic, yet creative vital and a physical consciousness enjoying, revealing, building forms of true beauty seems to be a nearer and intermediary probability—and animal-born humanity retaining its normal animal structure, still

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out-growing its grosser movements and instincts, controlling and guiding, modifying and utilising them to higher purposes (Pashupati) may well be a happy stage towards the final appearance of the supramental race wholly transcending the frame of animality, born and existing in the purely supramental way.

A supramentalised material universe or rather physical earth may itself put on a different, a radiant appearance and also the beings and creatures of the other levels of life and physical existence may also undergo a sea-change, but of that nothing need be or can be previewed at present.

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