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The Potential for Transformation of the Human Body · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We can look at the idea of a transformation of the body from
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  several viewpoints. 1 viewpoint accepts the basic current
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  structure and function of the body and simply enhances,
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  protects, extends the life and capacity, or removes limitations
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  and failures to which the body is currently prone.
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  Many scientific researchers are following ideas of developing an
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  ideal diet and lifestyle regimen, or working toward
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  increasing the body's current capacity for regeneration of
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  cells to extend to full scale organ replacement, or developing
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  microscopic nanobots that would correct body biochemistry and
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  fix anything that goes out of the normal range.
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  This is not so much a program for transformation as one of
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  simply enhancing functionality that we already have.
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  A somewhat more radical approach is to recognize that
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  evolutionary change over long periods of time already
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  undertakes to revise organ systems and functionality.
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  When animals first emerge from the oceans, for instance, they
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  eventually wound up replacing gills with lungs for purpose of
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  oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange.
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  Webbing on feet and hands was changed into fully independent
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  fingers and toes, and eventually the development of the opposable
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  thumb. Genetic changes induced by
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  varying environmental conditions led to adjustments of skin
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  colour to adapt to more or less intense sunlight.
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  Adaptations in lung capacity, heart function, and endurance
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  resulted from other environmental conditions.
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  There is, however, another line of development that may
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  incorporate capacities we see in nature, but which are not active
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  or no longer active in human beings, or which represent
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  entirely new developments of a truly transformative nature.
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  Plants, for instance, have the capacity of direct conversion of
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  the energy of the sun into matter and biological energy,
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  taking up elements from the earth and using them as building
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  blocks for the plant structures. We may ask ourselves whether
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  such capacities may be incorporated into some future
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  human species, such that we no longer need to eat food and
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  manage all the organ systems related to eating, digesting,
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  and illuminating waste materials.
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  In order to build the body and operate it effectively, the
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  human body maintained some amount of regenerative capacity.
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  Some other species, however, have virtually complete
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  regeneration capabilities. We could envision biochemical or
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  genetic processes that would open up complete regeneration
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  capacity for the human being, ensuring virtual biological
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  immortality. The system of chakras represents
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  an energetic approach to life that may be a harbinger of such
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  a change. Under such a system, we could
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  foresee the elimination of virtually all organ systems that
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  relate to digestion from a future humanity.
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  There are many possible directions for the future
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  evolution of the human body, and not all of it needs to be looked
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  at in terms of the time scale of past evolution.
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  With the advent of new powers of consciousness, there is no
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  reason to believe that changes need to occur over time spans of
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  hundreds of thousands or millions of years.
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  Srioro Bindo writes in The Mind of Light quote Perfection is the
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  true aim of all culture, the spiritual and psychic, the
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  mental, the vital, and it must be the aim of our physical
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  culture also. If our seeking is for a total
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  perfection of the being, the physical part of it cannot be
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  left aside, for the body is the material basis.
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  The body is the instrument which we have to use.
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  Shariram Kalu Dharmasad Nam, says the old Sanskrit adage.
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  The body is the means of fulfilment of Dharma, and Dharma
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  means every ideal which we can propose to ourselves and the law
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  of its working out and its action.
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  A total perfection is the ultimate aim which we set before
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  us. For our ideal is the divine life
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  which we wish to create here, the life of the Spirit fulfilled
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  on earth, life accomplishing its own spiritual transformation
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  even here on earth in the conditions of the material
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  universe. That cannot be unless the body
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  too undergoes a transformation, unless its action and
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  functioning attained to a supreme capacity and the
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  perfection which is possible to it or which can be made
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  possible. End Quote.
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  A disciple asks Mother, how can the functioning of the body
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  attain to a supreme capacity? The Mother responds quote
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  precisely by transformation. This implies a total
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  transformation. Sri Arrobindo speaks about it
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  later in what follows. For the moment, our body is
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  simply a doubtful improvement on the animal body, for if we have
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  gained from a certain point of view, we have lost from another.
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  It is certain that from the point of view of purely physical
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  capacities, many animals are superior to us, unless by a
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  special culture and transformation we succeed in
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  really transforming our capacities.
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  It could be said that from the point of view of strength and
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  muscular power, a tiger or a lion is far superior to us.
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  From the point of view of agility, a monkey is far
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  superior to us. And, for instance, a bird can
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  travel without needing any exterior mechanism or plane,
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  which is not yet possible for us, and so on.
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  And we are bound by the animal necessities of the functioning
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  of our organs. So long as we depend, for
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  instance, on material food, on absorbing matter in such a crude
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  form, we shall be quite inferior animals.
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  Therefore, I don't want to anticipate what we are going to
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  read, but all this purely animal functioning of our body, all
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  this part which is exactly the same as in animal life, that we
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  depend for life on the circulation of the blood, and to
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  have blood we need to eat and so on and all that.
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  This implies these are terrible limitations and bondages.
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  As long as material life depends on that, it is obvious that we
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  won't be able to divinize our life.
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  So we must assume that animality in the human being should be
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  replaced by another source of life.
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  And this is quite conceivable. Not only conceivable, but
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  partially realizable. And this is obviously the aim we
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  ought to set before ourselves if we want to transform matter and
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  make it capable of expressing divine qualities.
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  End Quote. Reference Srioro Bindu and the
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  Mother Powers within Chapter 16 body pages 1:28 to 1:30.