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The Soul, the Psychic Being and the Evolution of Consciousness · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  In his text On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin outlined
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  the evolution of life forms on Earth.
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  He observed many species and posited that they all developed
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  from a common ancestral past having undergone substantial
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  changes, mutations that supported the success of those
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  forms, and modification that increase the likelihood of
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  survival and reproduction for continuance of the species.
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  This comprehensive overview underpins the theory of
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  evolution. Since that time, substantial
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  research has been done in the field of anthropology, biology,
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  archaeology, genetics, etcetera, to validate the evolution of
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  forms. The changes envisioned here have
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  been documented through carbon dating, review of the fossil
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  record, etcetera, to have stretched across literally
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  hundreds of millions, even billions of years.
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  What Darwin documented, however, does not address the source or
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  purpose of our existence. Rather, it addresses the
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  mechanism, the machinery for the development of external forms.
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  Srioro Bindo describes the inner significance and purpose of all
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  of this machinery as he outlines the evolution of consciousness.
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  Sri Aurobindo's view makes it clear that nothing can evolve
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  that has not previously been involved.
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  This corresponds to the evolution of forms to the extent
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  that the external forms develop based on encoded genetic
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  patterns that guide the development of those forms.
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  This is a recognition of the concept of involution preceding
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  evolution. The question then arises as to
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  how the pattern, the encoding comes to take place and whether
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  it has any significance. This brings us to an
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  understanding of the divine manifestation and the secret
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  sense of all of this machinery in the evolution of
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  consciousness. Srioro Bindo describes the
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  pattern as he shows the evolution of life forms of ever
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  higher capacity and functionality out of the purely
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  material basis and then the development of mind within a
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  segment of the living forms. Sri Robinda recognizes that the
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  mental being, leader of life and body, cannot possibly be the
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  final term of the evolution as the result is incomplete and
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  filled with numerous weaknesses, limitations and incapacities.
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  He therefore calls man a transitional being and describes
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  next stages in the evolution of consciousness to successively
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  manifest more complete, more comprehensive, and more
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  universal stages or gradations. Higher levels of consciousness
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  above the mental grade have powers and capacities far beyond
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  the mental, just as the mind has powers and capacities beyond the
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  vital, and the vital has powers beyond the expressed
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  consciousness at the material level.
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  This evolution of consciousness is easily seen at the macro
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  level on the global scale, but in and of itself it does not
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  provide significance for the individual as opposed to the
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  species as a whole. Human beings, however, with
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  self-awareness and the formation of individuality, reject the
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  idea of the collective. Human species is the sole
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  carrier of purpose. They expect that the individual
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  also has a specific role, purpose and significance.
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  Within the relatively short human lifetime, there seems to
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  be no solution. It is only when the concept of
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  rebirth and the evolution of the psychic being as the carrier of
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  the growth and maturity of the soul come into play that a
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  deeper sense to our existence can be recognized, Sri Orbanda
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  writes quote. The soul, representative of the
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  central being, is a spark of the divine supporting all individual
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  existence in nature. The psychic being is a conscious
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  form of that soul growing in the evolution, in the persistent
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  process that develops first life in matter, mind in life, until
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  finally mind can develop into over mind and over mind into the
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  Super mental truth. The soul supports the nature in
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  its evolution through these grades, but is itself not any of
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  these things. End Quote reference Srioro Bindu
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  and the Mother. The psychic being soul, its
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  nature, mission and evolution. Section 1.
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  Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being, page 15.