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Progress and Development of Physical, Vital, Mental, Psychic and Spiritual Elements in Our Earthly Lives · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We all recognize the pattern. We are born, we grow, develop,
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  reach mature adulthood, carry out our productive activities.
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  Later, as we age, various elements of our bodies, our life
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  energies and our minds begin to decline, until eventually the
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  deterioration creates a break that leads to death and
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  decomposition of the body, with the life energy and the mental
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  being likewise returning to their native elements.
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  This pattern is modified by what we may call the will to progress
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  at any level. Many people who have lived
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  productive lives in the external society and economic structure
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  reach a point where they retire ostensibly to enjoy their golden
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  years without the pressure of a job.
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  Of course, many others simply do not have the financial
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  wherewithal or security to retire at peace, so they work as
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  long as they are able to or as long as they can keep a job as
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  they age and the normal issues begin to arise in their health
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  and energies. What we frequently see, however,
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  is that once the impetus of work is removed, many people lose the
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  interest and will for progress. They use their time for watching
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  television, undertaking recreational activities without
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  pressure, or other activities that do not involve further self
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  development. They have developed their skill
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  sets to hold down a job. Once that is no longer in the
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  picture, they do not generally appreciate the need to go
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  further. Some people, however, recognize
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  that development of the body, the life force, the emotional
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  being, the mind, and the psychic being is something that is
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  actually independent of and not directly related to their
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  position in society. There are people who take up
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  advanced bodily conditioning, mental training or spiritual
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  practices who continue these far beyond their time of employment.
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  Life in the world for these people is an opportunity for
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  continuous and progressive growth and development on a
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  number of levels for purposes outside the needs of their
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  external personality. A disciple asks.
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  But for those who are not conscious of their psychic, the
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  mother replies quote, they are compelled to progress whether
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  they want it or not. The psychic being itself
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  progresses in them, and they are not conscious of it, but they
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  themselves are compelled to progress, that is to say, they
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  follow a curve, they follow an ascent.
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  In life. It is the same progress as that
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  of the growing child. There comes a time when it is at
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  the summit of its growth, and then, unless it changes the
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  plane of progress, unless the purely physical progress turns
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  into a mental progress, a psychic progress, a spiritual
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  progress, it goes down the curve and then there will be a
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  decomposition and it will not exist any longer.
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  It is just because progress is not constant and perpetual in
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  the physical world that there is a growth, an apogee, A decline,
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  and a decomposition. For anything that does not
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  advance falls back. All that does not progress
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  regresses. So this is just what happens
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  physically. The physical world has not
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  learned how to progress indefinitely.
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  It arrives at a certain point, then it is either tired of
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  progressing or is not capable of progressing in the present
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  Constitution. But in any case, it stops
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  progressing and after a time decomposes.
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  Those who lead a purely physical life reach a kind of summit,
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  then they slide down very quickly.
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  But now with the general collective human progress, there
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  is behind the physical progress a vital progress and a mental
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  progress, so that the mental progress can go on for a very
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  long time, even after the physical progress has come to a
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  stop. And through this mental progress
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  1 keeps up a kind of ascent, long after the physical has
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  ceased to progress. And then there are those who do
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  yoga, who become conscious of their psychic being, are united
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  with it, participate in its life.
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  These indeed progress till the last breath of their life, and
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  they do not stop. Even after death, when they have
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  left their body, under the plea that the body cannot last any
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  longer, they continue to progress.
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  It is the incapacity of the body to transform itself, to continue
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  progressing that causes it to regress and in the end become
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  more and more open to the inner disequilibrium, until one day
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  that becomes strong enough to bring about a total imbalance
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  and it can no longer regain its balance and health.
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  It is only in the pure spiritual life, that which is outside all
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  physical and terrestrial existence, including the mental,
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  that there is no progress. You reach a static state and are
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  outside all movements of progress, but at the same time
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  you are outside the manifestation.
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  Also, when you reach that state, you no longer belong to the
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  manifestation, you go out of the manifested world.
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  One must go out of the manifested world in order to go
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  out of all progress, because the two are identical.
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  Manifestation means progress and progress means manifestation.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the
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  psychic being soul, its nature, mission and evolution.
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  Section 3. Growth and Development of the
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  Psychic, pages 90 to 92.