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The Tension of the Current State of Human Existence · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Everywhere we turn we see mounting crises.
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  The news reports are dire. Climate disasters are
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  increasing. We are poisoned daily by toxic
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  substances in our food, water and the very air we breathe on a
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  day-to-day level. We are struggling in a world
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  that seems to be impossible to understand, with change that is
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  impacting every aspect of our lives.
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  New technologies come along that need to be mastered simply to
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  survive. We find it harder to maintain a
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  balance in our lives and we struggle to understand how to
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  make ends meet and at the same time pursue our personal goals
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  and aspirations. We see wars breaking out, we see
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  mass migrations, and our media are constantly instilling fear
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  in us with the warnings of imminent disaster.
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  We have developed weapons of such magnitude that we can
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  destroy our planet many times over.
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  Researchers have developed a doomsday clock and this set ever
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  closer to midnight. Clearly, we have reached a point
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  of extreme tension where we stand on the brink of a
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  precipice and we are pressured to find a way out.
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  Many give up and turn to dissipation, drugs and alcohol,
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  mindless entertainment, or simple avoidance.
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  Yet these solutions are simply attempts to cope with the
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  issues, not solve them. Those who recognize and try to
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  solve these problems are caught in gridlock as the proposed
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  solutions come into conflict between different groups of
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  stakeholders. Our economic and political
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  solutions simply are either not working or cannot be
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  implemented. The interlocking crises limit
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  our options, as a fix in One Direction seems to have
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  unintended consequences in another.
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  All of this points to a method of nature that creates an
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  ultimate contradiction or conflict in order to push
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  towards a new form of progress. The proverb necessity is the
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  mother of invention reminds us that what we are seeing is not
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  simply an existential threat, but an opportunity.
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  We have the opportunity to abandon old ways of seeing and
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  acting. We have the opportunity to leave
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  behind the framing of our situation that prevents us from
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  seeing the solutions. We have the opportunity to step
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  outside of our narrow approach to things and begin to see and
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  respond from a new, higher level of consciousness.
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  We see the signs around us. A photograph taken from outer
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  space looking back at the Earth provided us a clue.
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  We are all part of an incredible, interactive,
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  interdependent environment. We are symbiotic to the other
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  species on the planet, and we cannot simply continue our old
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  ways of conquering and destroying when in fact those
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  old ways are harbingers of our own extinction.
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  It is time for a leap into the future through the development
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  of a new vision, a new understanding, a new
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  consciousness, the mother observes.
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  Quote. One thing seems obvious.
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  Humanity has reached a certain state of general tension,
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  tension and effort, inaction even in daily life, with such an
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  excessive hyperactivity, so widespread a trepidation, that
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  mankind as a whole seems to have come to a point where it must
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  either breakthrough the resistance and emerge into a new
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  consciousness, or else fall back into an abyss of darkness and
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  inertia. This tension is so complete and
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  so widespread that something obviously has to break.
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  It cannot go on in this way. We may take it as a sure sign of
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  the infusion into matter of a new principle of force,
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  consciousness, power, which by its very pressure is producing
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  this acute state. Outwardly we could expect the
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  old methods used by nature when she wants to bring about an
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  upheaval. But there is a new
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  characteristic, which of course, is only visible in an elite.
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  But even this elite is fairly widespread.
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  It is not localized. At one point at one place in the
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  world. We find traces of it in all
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  countries all over the world. The will to find a new, higher
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  progressive solution and effort to rise towards a vaster, more
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  comprehensive perfection. End Quote reference Shriyuro
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  bindo and the mother. The hidden forces of life
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  Chapter 6. Hidden Worlds and Evolutionary
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  Forces, pages 152 to 153.