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DIVINE
LIFE
ON
EARTH
A FUTURE
SPIRIT-BASED
COLLECTIVE EXISTENCE |
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by
Roy Posner
A new light is dawning
on the world.
Wake up and unite to receive and welcome it. (The
Mother)
Sri Aurobindo,
the Indian sage and seer, said that humans may not be the final
rung on the evolutionary scale. That we might witness the emergence of a
new species, one that is above and beyond the present human race as we
know it. Sri Aurobindo believed that if we could make the ascent to
overcome our limiting nature, if we could further rediscover the hidden
spirit in life, if we could come in contact and open ourselves to
the spiritual Force,
then we can change life as we know it. He invited us to take a journey
on a path from our current human functioning to a vastly different
superfunctioning that opens the doors to infinite accomplishment,
success, and happiness in life.
Sri Aurobindo's view of
society and the emergence of a spirit-oriented future existence can be
explained as follows:
Beyond the physical-based
social life of early man (marked by survival, fear, subservience, etc.),
the vital-based social life of the past five hundred years (emerging
through trade, travel, discovery, adventure, and the fulfillment of the
individual needs, wants, and desires), and the currently emerging
mental-based age (indicated by freedom, individuality, democracy,
education, rationality, technology, and the common man) is the
possibility of the emergence of a spirit-based age and collective
existence.
In this highest form of
social or collective life, the domination of the ordinary mind -- of
surface preoccupation, of partial knowledge, as well as the lower
physical and vital life is replaced with a mind and life dominated by
the spirit.
Thus, the first necessity
for the emergence of a evolutionary divinized life on earth is the
realization amongst a good number of individuals of the Spirit, the
divine reality above and within one's self.
The divinized or gnostic
being lives a spiritual existence in an integral way; integral in his
own being, and integral and one with the world around him. He has
integrated and elevated the physical, vital/emotional, and mental planes
of his existence to its greatest heights and fulfillment by finding the
spirit within himself and applying and elevating these planes of life
with the spiritual. He also discovers that the spirit is everywhere in
the world and in every other person, eliminating the separation between
himself and life and himself and others around him. In other words he is
whole and integrated individually and universally.
"To be in the being of all
and to include all in one's being, to be conscious of the consciousness
of all, to be integrated in force with the universal force, to carry all
action and experience in oneself and feel it as one's own action and
experience, to feel all selves as one's own self, to feel all delight of
being as one's own delight of being is a necessary condition of the
integral divine living." --Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine
In addition to integrating
the planes and sublevels of one's being (individualization), and
becoming one with others and the world around is (universalization), the
individuals who will we the harbingers of this divine life will also be
united with the transcendent Divine. These individuals will have found
the transcendent spirit within, the spiritual force, God, the Divine in
the cosmos, and feel, know, act with complete reference to its divine
force, power, knowledge, and bliss.
In this context a number of individuals, integrated individually,
universally, and transcendently, can work together, near or apart, aware
or unaware of one another, to create a new common life, superior to the
present individual and common existence. A critical mass of such
"gnostic individuals" could create the foundation of a new social life
and order; a divine life on earth.
Then what of this divine
life? What would its focus, attributes, and tendencies be? For one there
would be an inescapable law of unity, mutuality, and harmony.
"...a greater identity of
being and consciousness between individual and individual unified in
their spiritual substance, feeling themselves to be self and self of one
self-existence, acting in a greater unitarian force of knowledge, a
greater power of being. There must be an inner and direct mutual
knowledge, based upon a consciousness of oneness and identity, a
consciousness of each other's being, thought, feeling, inner and outer
movements ...." -- Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine
The current vital and mental
constructions of life would be replaced by gnostic individuals who live
beyond the vicissitudes of human thought and the push and pull of the
forces of Nature. Humanity in the current age does not have the depth of
inner knowledge to understand the infinite forces that are involved in
the emerging world, (e.g. what can create the greater good of the
community). His limiting mind-sense and the limiting mind-sense of the
collective hasn't the integral vision and knowledge and force of action
to deal with the evolving society. We have created a civilization which
has become too big for our limited mental capacities and understanding
and our limiting ego, which narrows the truth to our own needs and
desires. The current unfolding and limited blossoming of life on earth
is bound by the limiting vital animal and passion nature, and the narrow
opening to the full truth which is the human mind.
A life of unity, mutuality,
and harmony alone, emerging from individuals who are in integral
relationship with themselves, others, and the transcendent spirit, can
deal with the overwhelming needs of the collective life. Science,
economic development, democracy, religion, and other institutions and
ideas and ideals are alone incapable of addressing the evolutionary
needs of the emerging collective life. If the gnostic beings help
establish this integral, unifying gnostic consciousness on earth, it
would provide a far greater power and knowledge than mental man has for
understanding and acting on the needs of the emerging collective.
Thus it is likely that much
that is normal in human life would likely disappear. Mental ideals,
systems, would dissolve as a new harmony is create founded on a much
wider basis of inner knowledge. Political strife would disappear in a
divine atmosphere of unity. Life and body would not completely preoccupy
us as it does now in our current existence. A great diversity and
freedom of self-expression, based on a spiritual core of being, would
emerge. The one rule of this divine life would be the self expression of
the spirit, of the divine, in all aspects of life.
"..an existence without
the reactions of success and frustration, vital joy and grief, peril and
passion, pleasure and pain, the vicissitudes and uncertainties if fate
and struggle and battle and endeavor, a joy of novelty and surprise and
creation projecting itself into the unknown ... The gnostic
manifestation of life would be more full and fruitful and its interest
more vivid than the creative interest of the Ignorance; it would be a
greater and happier constant miracle." --Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine
For additional thoughts on the emerging
spirituality in society, click
here
RELATED TOPICS
-
For a detailed description of the qualities of the gnostic
(supramentalized) individuals and the gnostic divine life on
earth they would pioneer as explained by Sri Aurobindo in his opus
The Life Divine, click
here.
-
For
a description of the four stages of social development of mankind,
click here.
-
To learn about the
creation of the universe, and how humanity emerged out of this
creation and the purpose and possibility of our life on earth., click
here.
-
For a more extensive examination of the
qualities that a spiritualized, evolutionary individual
can have, please click
here.
-
To
go to our subsite on New Meanings of the Life and Teachings of Sri
Aurobindo and The Mother, click
here.
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