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"The Ascent of Life"

(Book 1 Chapter XXI)

[SUMMARY]

In this chapter Sri Aurobindo explains three -- actually four -- successive statuses that the forms of life undergo.

• Unconscious Will to Survive -- The first is of force, of dumb inconscient [unconscious] will. It is mere physical energy, subject to mechanical forces. This is reflected in the necessity of the seperative ego, and to survive.

• Ego-Oriented Interchange -- The second status is to break the bounds of one's self toward interaction with others; a compulsion of Nature to begin to fuse ourselves with others. There is death, mutual devouring, desire, and the need to expand, conquer, and possess. This is a movement to the vital proper, away from the physical.

• Mutual Interchange and Harmony -- The third status is the conscious movement towards commonality, mutuality, harmony, etc. It is a movement toward cooperation and mutual help, the associated group, conscious joining and interchange. In its higher aspects it is vitally reflected as the ability to be self giving towards others, and to feel love.
  
  He also indicates than in this third status, there is an increasing predominance of Mind. Mind is of a higher consciousness which does not need to devour to grow. to the degree that Mind is free of the material influence, it will have these positive influences.

• Spiritual Unity with Others, Life -- Sri Aurobindo says that ultimately there is a need to harmonize two principles of life:  the necessity of the will of the seperative ego to survive in its distinctness; and the compulsion imposed upon it by Nature to fuse itself with others.
  
  He says that these will be fused when we reach the fourth status of life, which occurs when the eternal unity of the many [i.e. of the self and others] is realized through the unity and freedom of the spirit.

   

[DETAILS]

-Life is a dark figure of the divine superconsciousness Force whose highest terms are immortality, delight, and omnipotence. [Life out of matter does not have these.]

THE FIRST STATUS OF LIFE

-The first terms of life are division, a force driven subconscient will.

-It is mere physical energy, subject to mechanical forces.

-This is reflected in the necessity of the seperative ego, and to survive.

-This changes as life moves out of the influence of matter, and evolves towards conscious Mind.

 

THE SECOND STATUS OF LIFE

-The second status is to break the bounds of one's self toward interaction with others.

-It is a compulsion of Nature to begin to fuse ourselves with others.

-It is a movement to the vital proper, away from the physical. (the physical basis of the vital ego consents to dissolution.)

-The middle term of life is death and devouring, hunger and conscious desire, to struggle, to expand, to conquer, to possess.

[This is slightly similar to the Darwinian struggle of the survival of the fittest. However Sri Aurobindo says that the Darwinian formula extended too largely the aggressive principle of life, the vital selfishness of the individual, the instinct and process of self-preservation, self-assertion, and aggressive living.]

 

THE THIRD STATUS OF LIFE

-There is also the principle of cooperation and mutual help, the associated group, conscious joining and interchange which are the seeds of love.

-In this third status, there is more and more survival by mutual help, adaptation, interchange, and fusion.

-The third status is the conscious movement towards commonality, mutuality, harmony, etc.

-Interchange, intermixture, and fusion of being with being is the very process of life, a law of its existence.

-As mind evolves, we begin to see that the individual exists by the universal; that there is something beyond himself, a superior something, a Spirit.

-Therefore Life is predestined to a third status. In the ascent of life there is a last term of evolution. It is unity.

 

THE THIRD STATUS AND LOVE

-Association with love is the third status of the individual in Life.

-A law of love, of common help; kindliness, affection, comradeship, unity, self-giving, etc.

-An ego that seeks to meet and include other egos.

-The third status does note eliminate desire of the second status, but rather transforms and uplifts it; for after all love is the desire to give one's self to others.

 

MIND'S ROLE IN THE THIRD STATUS OF LIFE

-This is indicative of the increasing predominance of Mind.

-Mind does not need to devour in order to grow.

-Mind will have this power in proportion that it does not lean on the law of Matter; the material limitation.

-Mind goes upward in its ascent growing towards conscious unity in differentiation [Unity in diversity], Which is the divine law of Existence-Conscious-Force, Delight [Sat-Chit-ananda].

 

HIGHER MIND THAT HARMONIZES THE INDIVUDAL & THE UNIVERSAL

-The original problem of Nature, of Life, is the conflict between two opposites  -- of the individual and the universal.

-The higher principle of Mind can create this harmonization.

 

TWO PRINCIPLES OF LIFE

There are 2 principles in life: the necessity of the will of the seperative ego to survive in its distinctness; and the compulsion imposed upon it by Nature to fuse itself with others. Ultimately these two principles are harmonized; as a true individuality yet fused with others.

 

THE FOURTH STATUS OF LIFE

The resolution of the harmonization of the seperative ego of the individual and the compulsion by Nature to fuse with other cannot come through love or mind and heart alone, but through a fourth status, in which the eternal unity of the many is realized through the unity and freedom of the spirit.

 

OVERCOMING DEATH

-Overcoming death: Only a mental being, supported by the psychic being can persist linking the past to the stream of continuity.

-In the psychic he becomes aware of the persistent memory of continuity [I.e. past lives] and the future lives being created out of this life -- the persistent personality.

-The mental being expressive of soul consciousness becomes the nexus of the persistent individual and collective life.