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The Involution of Consciousness Precedes the Evolution of Consciousness · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We speak about the universal manifestation either as some
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  kind of creation by Fiat of an all powerful God who simply made
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  everything the way it is and said it is good, or else as an
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  evolution of life out of matter and mind out of life in an
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  ascending scale of consciousness and eventually self-awareness.
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  We rarely consider the implications of either of these
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  approaches to the source and origination of our existence.
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  The Creator God, manifesting everything as it is and should
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  be, creates a universe that is unable to grow and evolve as
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  that would imply that the initial creation was neither
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  perfect nor finished. How can a perfect creation be
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  made more perfect? Those who follow this belief
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  system try to deny evolution, the fossil record, and the
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  development that has taken place over time with the belief that
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  accepting the truth of evolution somehow diminishes the power of
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  God. There is a potential solution
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  that implies both divine creation of the universe and an
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  evolutionary development if we look on the initial creation as
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  a seed of what would eventually develop, just as an oak tree can
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  grow out of an acorn in our own experience.
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  If we then turn our attention to the people who believe in
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  evolution of forms, they do not quite get to the point of
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  acknowledging that the evolution had to come from somewhere.
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  It may or may not have been the result of an all powerful
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  creator God, which many evolution based views tend to
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  reject. Believing that somehow belief in
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  a creator God will diminish the facts of evolution itself or
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  else they do not get to the first causes or the fact that
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  nothing can evolve that was not previously involved.
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  We come back once again to the material basis holding within
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  itself involved the later development and growth of
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  consciousness through simple life forms, more complex life
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  forms, mental expression, the development of the higher
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  reason, and eventually yet further manifestations of
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  consciousness as the evolution continues.
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  Those who believe in evolution out of matter may hold that it
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  occurred purely as a random development of the moving of
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  chemical and physical forces, but this begs the question of
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  how anything can evolve that was not implied, and how that
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  implied development came about in the 1st place.
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  Where did the matter come from that led to these random
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  evolutionary developments? There is no answer from those
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  who believe in random chance creating consciousness out of
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  inconscient matter. Srioro Bindo explains that
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  nothing can evolve that is not previously involved.
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  He references the Veda and Upanishads to show that matter
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  is the condensed form of consciousness and energy that
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  solidifies consciousness into form, and that just as energy
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  can be liberated out of matter, as Einstein so famously pointed
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  out in his equation E equals MC squared, so also consciousness
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  eventually is liberated out of matter in the process of
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  evolution. The first 'cause is the
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  universal consciousness, that itself is the container and the
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  contained, the doer and the deed, the knowledge and the
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  known, the intelligence that descends into the material
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  creation and then develops the play of consciousness that we
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  experience from our own limited perspective.
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  Shriorbindo writes in his epic poem Savitri, a legend and a
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  symbol quote. This seed self sown in the
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  indeterminate, forfeits its glory of divinity, concealing
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  the omnipotence of its force, concealing the omniscience of
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  its soul, an agent of its own transcendent will.
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  It merges knowledge in the inconsiant deep, accepting
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  error, sorrow, death and pain. It pays the ransom of the
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  ignorant night, redeeming by its substance Nature's fall.
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  End Quote. Book 3 Canto 3 reference Sri
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  Aurobindo and the Mother, the psychic being soul, its nature,
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  mission and evolution. Section 2.
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  Role, function and action of the Psychic.
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  Page 46.