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Involution and Evolution of Consciousness in the Material World of Forms · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We observe the material world around us, and as we study that
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  world we see the development of forms of ever greater complexity
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  and power, of action and intelligence.
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  Charles Darwin described the process of the evolution of
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  forms in his book The Origin of Species.
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  The cause and purpose, however, were never satisfactorily
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  answered. This led to the debate between
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  religion and science, with religion essentially holding
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  that beings were created by God in their present forms and that
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  the idea of evolution of forms was mistaken.
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  Science, meanwhile, built a complex model showing how forms
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  actually evolved and used skeletal history and carbon
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  dating as means to document their position.
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  Each side of the debate, however, left out important
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  aspects and thus no conclusion could be reached.
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  Shiro Window, taking up and expanding on the guidance
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  provided in the Vedic and Upanishadic texts, described the
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  evolution of forms as the result of the pressure of higher powers
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  of consciousness to manifest in this world.
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  These higher powers had their own native worlds or domains,
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  vital domains, mental domains, spiritual domains where they
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  acted in their own direct manner.
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  They created the material universe through a process of
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  increasing density of the vibrations they produced until
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  they took on a solid shape and involved these powers into
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  matter later to evolve out systematically while producing
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  new forms capable of holding and expressing their force of
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  consciousness and power of action effectively, thereby
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  marrying the spiritual aspect with the material aspect in an
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  expressive whole. Matter, therefore, is not the
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  starting point, but is actually the result of the action of
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  powers of consciousness acting on the causal plane.
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  As the higher powers begin to develop in the material forms,
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  they initiate a vibratory pattern that attracts the action
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  of the corresponding force of consciousness from its native
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  domain. This process of aspiration
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  brings about the response and the support from these higher
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  powers and thus makes the evolutionary process possible.
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  The world, in Triorbindo's view, is not a random occurrence
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  developed solely from dead matter through some unknown
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  process of chemical interactions.
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  Rather, it is the expression of consciousness creating and
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  manifesting the entire creation for its own purpose, according
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  to its own sense, Sri Aurobindo writes in his epic poem Savitri,
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  a legend and a symbol quote. Our earth is a fragment and a
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  residue. Her power is packed with the
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  stuff of greater worlds and steeped in their colour lusters
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  dimmed by her drowse. An atavism of higher births is
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  hers. Her sleep is stirred by their
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  buried memories, recalling the lost spheres from which they
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  fell. Unsatisfied forces in her bosom
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  move. They are partners of her greater
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  growing fate and her return to immortality.
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  Srirubindo Zavitri book two canto one and quote a difficult
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  evolution from below called a masked intervention from above.
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  Else this great blind, inconceant universe could never
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  have disclosed its hidden mind, or even in blinkers worked in
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  beast and man, the intelligence that devised the cosmic scheme.
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  Sriorobindo savitri book two canto 4 reference sriorobindo
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  and the Mother. The Hidden Forces of Life,
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  Chapter 6 Hidden Worlds and Evolutionary Forces, page 134.