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Impersonal and Personal Aspects of Consciousness in the Universal Manifestation · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Our understanding of existence is very much rooted in our own
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  anthropocentric view of things. We generally recognize the
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  awareness we hold within ourselves, and viewing other
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  beings and forms in our visible environs, we either attribute to
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  them no consciousness, or at best lower forms or development
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  of consciousness for anything that exists outside the range of
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  perception provided by our senses.
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  We only admit existence when we find a way to capture and
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  measure those things, and we treat them as purely physical,
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  material actions of the universal energy, without any
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  form of consciousness whatsoever.
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  This view, however, is being challenged both by the
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  experience of Rishis, sages and shaman, who are able to
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  experience the consciousness of other forms and beings, and who
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  are able to understand the unity of the universal creation, and
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  who thereby recognize that consciousness permeates all
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  existence, albeit in forms or powers different than those that
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  are specific to human consciousness.
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  Modern science is now starting to recognize the pervasiveness
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  of consciousness as well. Once scientists recognized that
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  matter is a form of energy, it was a relatively small step to
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  begin to recognize that energy is a form of consciousness.
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  This is the current revolution in understanding that scientists
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  are awakening into. Yet our conception of
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  consciousness at this level remains quite uncertain,
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  diffused, and impersonal. We attribute personality to our
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  own individuality, but fail to recognize that there may be in
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  fact are other beings who have personal awareness and who act
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  as a conscious self directing force within the larger
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  manifestation. The entire evolution of
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  consciousness is an obvious process of increasing
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  self-awareness. Therefore, in stages beyond that
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  of the human development, we would expect greater
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  self-awareness and a greater sense of autonomy.
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  Beings who represent higher stages of the evolution of
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  consciousness would necessarily be expressions of greater powers
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  of personal awareness than our human status.
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  While consciousness is involved in matter and the early life
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  forms, and thus does not appear to exhibit the characteristics
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  of personality, it may be also be that we simply do not
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  perceive what may nevertheless be present.
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  Researchers of the plant Kingdom report entire networks of
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  communication between trees in a forest, for instance, and
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  expressions of pain, or at least reactions of stress as far as we
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  are able to measure and interpret in trees when they
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  experience the pain or suffering of another tree in their
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  network. Similarly, expressions of grief
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  at the death of a member of a tribe of elephants is a well
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  documented phenomenon, implying once again individuality and a
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  perception of relation that occurs between separate
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  conscious beings. This leads us to the idea that
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  there may be consciously active beings who act to support human
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  development, as well as consciously active beings who
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  are hostile to human development or who want to take advantage of
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  human beings. There is a long history and
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  human development of encounters with angels or demons, beings
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  who exist on another level but whose action intersects with
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  human life on certain levels or in particular circumstances.
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  For good. Or I'll Do we live in a
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  mechanical universe as the only conscious beings?
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  Or is there a supreme conscious being who creates, organizes,
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  contains, and constitutes the entire universal existence?
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  Just as we can view light as either a wave or a particle?
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  Is it not possible to see the universe from both an impersonal
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  and a personal aspect? Shriorogindo notes quote.
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  The forces are conscious. There are, besides
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  individualized beings who represent the forces or use
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  them, the wall between consciousness and force,
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  Impersonality and personality becomes much thinner when one
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  goes behind the veil of matter. If one looks at a working from
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  the side of impersonal force, one sees a force or energy at
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  work acting for a purpose or with a result.
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  If one looks from the side of being, one sees a being
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  possessing, guiding, and using, or else representative of and
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  used by a conscious force as its instrument of spirit,
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  specialized action and expression.
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  You speak of the wave, but in modern science it has been found
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  that if you look at the movement of energy, it appears on one
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  side to be a wave and act as a wave, on the other as a mass of
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  particles, and to act as a mass of particles each acting in its
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  own way. It is somewhat the same
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  principle here. End Quote Reference Shrioro,
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  Bindu and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter 4,
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  Cosmic and Universal Forces, pages 83 to 84.