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Wielding Occam's Razor in a Review of Evolution of Forms and Consciousness and the Significance of the Universal Creation · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  When we observe the evolution of forms and then investigate the
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  evolution of consciousness, that is the secret driving force
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  behind the evolution of forms and which provides meaning to
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  the development of the outer forms.
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  We can try to limit this development to the current phase
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  and simply declare that the human being is the supreme
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  result of this process and thus the evolutionary cycle ends
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  here. Certain religious beliefs hold
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  that mankind is indeed the result of the development,
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  whether they explicitly accept the concept of evolution or not,
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  and is intended to master all of nature for its benefits to human
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  needs. In these religious tenets, God
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  created man in His own image and found the creation good.
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  The need now is to overcome the original mistakes or sins of the
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  first man and woman who somehow disobeyed God's directive in the
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  Garden of Eden. Thus we have the further
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  extension of this concept with the advent of Jesus representing
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  a man embodying a new higher spiritual consciousness of
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  oneness with God who comes to redeem mankind and salvage the
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  future destiny of mankind. Some traditions simply hold that
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  regardless of the external evolutionary cycle, the
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  objective is to find a way to escape the illusory nature of
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  the life we lead and focus our entire attention on the
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  spiritual reality and either escape the illusion or at least
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  recognize it and not be carried away by it.
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  For these traditions, the development of a new
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  evolutionary principle and the forms that can manifest that
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  principle is not either essential or of any concern.
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  The role of the individual is to shift the standpoint out of this
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  external body, life, mind complex and achieve liberation
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  in one form or another. Yet others hold that there may
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  be developments beyond the human, but they occur on other
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  planes or worlds, and once we have completed our process here
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  on earth, we simply move to other realms where a different
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  form of existence pertains. What each of these directions
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  shares is that they tend to minimize the importance and
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  significance of the evolutionary developments of both form and
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  consciousness. The universal machinery is
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  seemingly set up to carry out evolution without any real
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  purpose behind it. Sri Robindo provides another
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  view of the matter. The problem solving principle
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  known as Occam's Razor holds that when there are competing
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  explanations, the simplest 1 tends to be the correct one.
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  In this case, the simplest explanation for the vast
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  machinery of evolution and the development of consciousness is
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  that it indeed has a purpose and is an essential part of the
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  existence within which we live. All the other explanations noted
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  above, as well as others, tend to create a complexity that
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  tries to find a way to overlook or avoid what we experience in
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  the world. If we find a significance to
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  this process and observe the progressions that have taken
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  place, as well as the limitations that are obvious in
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  the mental consciousness, we can easily appreciate that the
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  evolutionary process is not yet completed.
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  Rather, that they're actually signs that the next phase or
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  stage is in the process of revealing itself.
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  And that this next stage will necessarily involve a greater
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  power of consciousness. One which can overcome major
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  limitations in the mental consciousness while helping to
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  achieve a New Balance and harmony in the physical, vital
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  and mental framework of the creation as we experience it
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  today. This natural continuance and
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  progression of the evolutionary process provides the simplest
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  and most straightforward explanation of the universal
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  existence Sriorobendo notes quote.
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  All these are conclusions that can be arrived at even from the
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  observation of the outward phenomena of nature's
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  progression, her surface evolution of being and of
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  consciousness in the physical birth and the body.
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  But there is the other, the invisible factor.
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  There is rebirth, the progress of the soul by ascent from grade
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  to grade of the evolving existence, and in the grades to
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  higher and higher types of bodily and mental
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  instrumentation. In this progression the psychic
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  entity is still veiled even in man.
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  The conscious mental being, by its instruments, by mind and
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  life and body, it is unable to manifest fully, held back from
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  coming to the front, where it can stand out as the master of
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  its nature, obliged to submit to a certain determination by the
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  instruments, to a domination of Purusha by Prakriti.
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  But in man the psychic part of the personality is able to
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  develop with a much greater rapidity than in the inferior
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  creation, and a time can arrive when the sole entity is close to
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  the point at which it will emerge from behind the veil into
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  the open and become the master of its instrumentation in
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  nature. But this will mean that the
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  secret indwelling spirit, the demon, the Godhead within, is on
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  the point of emergence, and when it emerges, it can hardly be
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  doubted that its demand will be, as indeed it already is in the
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  mind itself when it undergoes the inner psychic influence.
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  For a diviner, a more spiritual existence in the nature of the
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  earth life, where the mind is an instrument of the ignorance.
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  This can only be affected by a change of consciousness, a
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  transition from a foundation in ignorance to a foundation in
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  knowledge, from the mental to a supra mental consciousness, A
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  supra mental instrumentation of nature.
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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 Section 3.
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  Growth and Development of the Psychic, page 77.