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The Emerging Spirituality in Society

 		Knowledge Base
by Roy Posner and MSS

We have made vast progress through technology. As society opens to the spirit she will enable possibilities undreamed of even by science and technology. A new spirit-based society based on the profound experiences of pioneers of consciousness is a real possibility.


SPIRIT-BASED LIFE ON EARTH
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Overview

The Nexus between Mental Man and a Supramental, Divine Existence

We humans are not the final rung in earth's evolution, as there will be a higher form; one Sri Aurobindo calls the "supramental being." These individuals will live in a unity consciousness, and be an intermediary to the full supramental realization and a Divine life on earth.

That change in consciousness began with the human mind that has created new forms of the environment, and has mentality through greater knowledge and insight. The next step then is to go deeper, and perceive the spirit, the Conscious-Force in all things, and bring it to the surface of life. In this transitional, intermediary stage to an ultimate, divine existence, our physical bodies and nature will continue to be essentially the same as now, even as we are inwardly transformed to a higher, infinitely more conscious supernature. In that process, Man will also become conscious of the potential of a new supramental existence, even as he lives in the old physical form.

Meanwhile, life around him will be of a different quality, one that is far beyond his present mental life and existence. Says the Mother: "It seems -- it is even certain -- that the very substance which will constitute this intermediate world that is already being built up, is richer, more powerful, more luminous, more resistant, with certain subtler, more penetrating new qualities, and an innate capacity for universality .. and removes the sensation of division one has with .. the ordinary mental substance."

In this way, this infinitely conscious being will be the intermediary, the nexus and bridge to an ultimate supramental, spiritual existence and Divine Life on earth.

 

Our Aspiration for Higher Consciousness and a New World

The goal we seek to achieve is the continuous evolution of consciousness for the individual and humanity as a whole, which will be the harbinger of a spirit-oriented future existence, culminating in what Sri Aurobindo calls a Divine Life on Earth.

We can make this real by aspiring for this New World and for our own highest possibility; by continually rejecting the limiting and wanting parts of our being; and by opening and surrendering to the spiritual Force that has the power to set right, to divinize all aspects of life. In this way this next stage of human evolution will be ushered in. The New World will be born. 

 

How to Make the Transition to the Next Species

A new, divine existence awaits us. But how to make the transition to this new existence? Will the spiritual Force, Supermind transform and transmute us? Will there be a spontaneous unfolding of the new form? Sri Aurobindo suggested he would come back as the supramental being. The Mother tried to make the physical transformation to the New Species. The new existence is a radical change from the current Man, as the current man was from the ape.

  

Changing Human Life

For there to be change in human life, there needs to be a corresponding change in human nature.

 

A New, Consciousness-based Social Existence

Perhaps social network sites like Facebook are indicators of the very beginnings of a movement of deeper connection and relationships amongst people. As we evolve in individual consciousness, there is a corresponding progress in social consciousness taking place; itself a forerunner of profound soul associations between individuals.

As we begin to realize the Oneness of life, a deep sense of harmony with others begins to take shape. Through this spiritual progression, we not only perceive our own True Self and evolving Soul, but perceive the same in others. As a result, we begin to value others as much as ourselves; sense ourselves extended in the people we interact with; and they in ourselves. As we connect with make this powerful connection, we experience perpetual, person-to-person ecstasy.

Just now our online social associations are mostly at the vital level -- of stimulation, thrill, petty attachment, and ego, with only the smallest hint of a higher and deeper connection. As we move from vital relationships to soul connection, we come in touch with our heart center, which releases affection, humility, and self-givingness; we connect with a deeper Truths source whose knowledge we humbly share with others;  we experience a commonality of will and action that leads to unprecedented accomplishment and deep inner fulfillment. As a result of this integral associations, a new, spirit-based social consciousness begins to take root; one that has never existed before on earth.

This new, consciousness-based social existence will be an indicator of a new stage of humanity; a harbinger of a new species based on shared experience of the Spirit, the divine Reality -- expressing though its varying attributes of Oneness, Harmony, Goodness, Knowledge, Truth, Creativity, Beauty, Love, Delight, Timelessness, and Infinity.

 

Conscious Evolution of Spiritual Followers to Create new Humanity, Divine Life

Followers of the Spirit must convert our ordinary life, social life into a life of conscious evolution life to bring about a decided change in humanity and an eventual Divine life on earth.

Spirit-based Life on Earth
Evolved individuals centered in the spirit will usher in a spirit-based life on earth.

New Divine Life on Earth
 Human growth in consciousness can usher in a new divine life on earth. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Higher Nature and Spirit-based Life on Earth
When we discover our higher nature we take an essential step to creating a spirit-based life on earth.

New Spirit-based Society
As humans evolve beyond their higher mental capacities they enter the plane of the spirit. If enough individuals gain the skills, knowledge, and powers of the spiritual plane, then there is also the possibility of a new spiritual-based society.

Collective Spiritual Life
When a number of spiritualized evolutionary individuals appear, they can come together and form a collative existence that is the beginnings of what Sri Aurobindo calls a divine life on earth.

A New World Emerging
There is a new world emerging from the old. There is a new consciousness being born on earth that has never existed before. People are en masse becoming aware of the subtle unfoldings of life. Many are coming to understand the phenomena of ''Life Response" and ''The Secret." They express the fact that we can instantly change the conditions of life around ourselves from within. E.g., you change an attitude, or aspire for something intensely, and then within days, hours, minutes, even seconds good fortune arrives on its own.

This is being accompanied by another movement: the psychological development of the individual. As we become more self-aware, as we shed out negative propensities, as we embrace higher human values, we begin to change and evolve our nature.

Then there are the pioneers who are opening to the spiritual Force, which brings the conditions of life under control, while evoking results that are dynamically creative and unprecedented in quality.

All of these are steps on the road to the spiritual awakening of humanity. It is the promise of a New World emerging from the old.

 

The Integral View of Spirit and Life Emerging in the World

The source teachings of the great religions of the world are available to each of us without having to follow that teacher exclusively. Jesus brought Love to the world, but we can follow the path of true Self-givingness without following Christianity. We can perceive that attachment, possessiveness, ignorance, and ego are essential causes of suffering, something Buddha professed, without having to follow the religion that arose after his passing. We can surrender to the True Self within and the Divine Reality above in the activities of life without having to follow Krishna who professed that profound teaching in his time and are several of the central precepts of Hinduism. We can embrace the fact that evolution is constantly occurring in life without exclusively becoming proponents of the works and principles of Darwin.

Thus in the modern era, we can take the integral approach to understanding the nature of the Reality. E.g., new spiritual teachers and evolutionary thinkers are taking the wisdom of the past and putting it into a modern context -- creating more dynamic, integral insights into the nature of existence. Because we have made great advances in our mentality in the past hundred years or so, we are able to perceive the variety of truths from all time and traditions, as well as new, modern insights, and integrate them in new holistic and uniquely perceptive integral views of Reality.

That is one reason that the current era is often referred to as 'The New Age.' It is a dynamic period in which we are able to develop a fresh, new perspective of existence, including the knowledge gleaned from multiple cultures; the various paths of wisdoms from a variety of traditions; the vast array of material, psychological, and spiritual insights from around the world; and meld them into a comprehensive view of existence. Interestingly, it includes new, unprecedented insight into the true nature, flow, and workings of life. For example, the recent interest in the principle of the Law of Attraction and the phenomenon of Life Response are merely the first wave of insights into how higher levels of consciousness can evoke instances of sudden good fortune. Of course, such laws and phenomena are not new at all -- as they were expressed in ancient traditions, such as the Indian Vedas and Upanishads thousands of years ago -- yet they are now being integrated into a modern context, giving them added dynamism and power.

The Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo drew on most if not all of the great spiritual precepts to come with an integral view that harmonizes such perceived dualities as spirit and matter, science and faith, and evolution and determination. Writing from the deepest poise of intuitive, spiritualized mind, he had the vision of the integral view of existence. He then formulated an evolutionary, spiritual philosophy that was unprecedented in human history. He also had all of the essential experiences of the past masters and the ancient wisdom, and in a spontaneous expression of spiritual insight, developed his dynamic, unprecedented integral view of existence. He would then go on to describe a future humanity in which we would transcend our current human functioning, ushering in a new, divine life on earth.  

There are many signs that we are moving towards this new integral view of life. We see nations forging closer political and economic ties and alliances; we see the embracing of one another's cultures; we see the communications of a plethora of beliefs and spiritual teachings over the Internet; we see a society more open to new ideas that go beyond one's traditional culture. This cross-pollination of wisdom and personal experience is enriching the world and every individual in it.

While many focus on the technological means of communicating the wisdom, the all-important knowledge itself is formulating into a new, integral, evolutionary, consciousness-oriented view of life. It is surely a sign of humanity's progress -- which I believe is in fact a New Awakening. It is also an expression of Sri Aurobindo's great precept of ''Unity in Diversity;" that as we move towards ever-greater levels of human unity, we absorb an ever-expanding diversity of views and precepts about the nature of existence. As a result, an integral view of life begins to emerge that is infinitely profound, comprehensive, and dynamic.


Emergence of Integral Existence in the World

There is less than 1% of 1% who are familiar with the ideas of integral existence -- i.e. of the oneness of spirit and matter. In each of the givens field of life -- from science to law to business to education -- there is this near total unfamiliarity.

The best we see is the adoption of human values -- i.e. spiritual skills --, which ennobles the activities of organizations and individuals. Integrating spirit and matter directly is left to the very few.

Some religious people are rising out of their limited view to adopt these newer wider precepts of an integral view, so are people of the so-called New Age movement. In India, it is in the very body of its citizenry but awaits the material success for the spirit in its integral, dynamic form to come to the surface.

However, life is full of surprises. For every Bush there is an Obama, but even he too must transcend his own limitations and limited views. Cross-pollination of cultures will bring out the integral understanding. That will take some time. It must move through its economic and cultural stages, before it can begin to move to integration of spiritual precepts. (Just now we are still bogged down in limits of religion; but that is being transcended as well.)

This integral movement rises from the unseen elements of society and percolates up. Sometimes, it pushes down from a pioneer, such as a Deepak Chopra in the West. Behind the scenes is a Sri Karmayogi who is in tune with the evolutionary movements of life; who is an instrument of it intellectually and spiritually. Thus, from behind the scenes the New World is slowly being born.

And yet it can accelerate at any moment in time. Who will be the instrument of that speedup of socio-spiritual consciousness?

It all begins with ourselves. We first move toward becoming realized beings, and then out of that a community is born that is a basis of a Higher Life. Sri Aurobindo explains it plainly in the last chapter of The Life Divine. He also says that as Individual realized beings we become an instrument of the Universal (including the societal), which is itself carrying out the will of the Transcendent Divine.

 

 

 

Life Divine ... Here on Earth

People go about their lives. When we reach a state of desperation, we exercise our faith; otherwise, spirit is a distant dream. Faith works more often than not, depending on the intensity and surrounding circumstances. The result is even impacted by the yearning and status of our evolving soul.

The other way we relate to the Divine is through death. When someone we know passes from this earth, we imagine a heaven where they reside in a bodiless state, but similar to life as we know it. Who can say what the truth is. On the other hand, we rarely consider the possibility of a Divine life on earth.

For millennia, we related to spirit as something ''up there", or ''out there", or beyond the beyond; a release into an eternity, or as the ancient Rishis experienced, a merging into the transcendence. The possibility that it is ''right here" was rarely considered. In addition, there was no compulsion to bring that spiritual power down into the details of our lives, because life was considered if anything a barrier to connecting to spirit.

Now that is no longer the case, as every individual can find fulfillment in his or her work, indicating that there is less time to commune with the divine apart from life. Now if we want to experience the Grace and Power, we have ample opportunity to practice it while fully engaging in the details of our lives. It is right here now; all we have to do is open to it. In fact, more and more we are compelled to do so because the human mind alone can no longer resolve the ever more complex problems of the world. Spirit can however because it is capable of moving in multiple directions simultaneously attracting instantaneous positive results -- abridging space and time, and defying normal causality and possibility. In that way, it is the ultimate Problem Solver.

The end result of this movement is that we are all moving to a new stage of human development and consciousness. First, we have arrived at the first great point in our ascent: to mentality and rationality, which is an enormous development and sign of human progress. This has particularly been the case in the last 50 years. Then we move higher to the next pinnacle of consciousness and discover and utilize the power of the spiritual Force that is there in the atmosphere -- especially so in recent decades. We then apply that Power to the details of life, perfecting and divinizing it. As more and more individuals take to this approach, we see the first signs of a new type of existence emerging; a first glimmer of a new spirit-influenced and oriented society. It is the ultimate destination in our ascent to the Heights as a species.

This is indeed a radical departure in spiritual history. It is no longer a life of spirit apart from life, or a Death Divine of eternal comfort in the afterlife, but the emerging of Divine Life right here on earth. In the interim, we are taking intermediary steps to raise our consciousness. Higher attitudes, purifying and perfecting our behavior, emerging higher personal values, a mind that embraces all sides of an issue, and the ability to open to the spiritual Force are several of the bridging steps to the collective emergence of the spirit. They are not movements apart from life, but taken here in preparation for something new and unique in human history -- a Divine Life; but here -- on earth.

 

Chopra, Tolle, and the Emerging Integral Spirituality

Today we see ever-increasing cross-pollination of ideas moving across a variety fields, enhancing each of them and creating new possibilities and vistas for the individual and society. This movement also occurs in the realm of the practical application of spirit in daily life. Older, fixed, traditional, hard-line religious views of God are being cast aside by the educated and disaffected, and are being replaced by deeper truth about the nature of life and Spirit, and how those insights can be practically used by the average person.

Two popular thinkers who have captured this synthetic, integral view are Deepak Chopra, who carries forward the ancient wisdom of India, and Eckhart Tolle, who has synthesized the Buddhist tenets with the teachings of more modern Indian sages.

In addition to a scientific bent, Deepak Chopra's teachings are deeply rooted in the Indian spiritual tradition of Vedanta. In essence, he says that if we move our reference to a deeper poise within -- through meditation, concentration, prayer or other methods -- we raise our consciousness and thereby open to a universal realm where we experience intuitions of knowledge, vast creativity, life synchronicities, profound oneness, love, communion with the transcendent being, and deep joy and delight in being alive.

Eckhart Tolle's teachings emphasize the ways we can become truly mindful and alive by keeping ourselves focused on the moment at hand.  He tells us that there are factors that distract us from the present experience of life -- including preoccupation with the past, desire for something in the future, allures of the outer life, and the negative influence of the human ego. In particular, Tolle indicates that it is the feeding of our ego that is the source of inner and outer conflict, which in effect deflects us from the needs of the Now.

I find it interesting that Chopra expresses his affection for Tolle's spiritual bestseller 'The Power of Now' on the book's front cover. It is Tolle's mindfulness of the present and the serenity and stillness that follow that can be seen as providing the foundation for the profound consciousness experiences described by Chopra. By being rooted in the present moment (which parallels being stationed in the stillness of inner self), one is able to open to the non-local, universal domain where one experiences intuition, love, creativity, synchronicity, attraction, oneness, transcendence, and blissful delight.

These two teachings along with the Power of Attraction as described by the book 'The Secret' -- i.e. the capacity to quickly attract the object of our desire -- have begun to coalesce into a modern, dynamic, practical method of applying Spirit in life. Together they begin to form an integral view of the nature of consciousness and our infinite human potential.

Interestingly, this integral approach to personal and spiritual fulfillment has precedence; for the Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo has combined and integrated these modern approaches into an all-encompassing teaching. After embracing and extending the profound Vedantic view and that of the Eternal Now, he adds to the mix a Spiritual Force that is descending into the earth's atmosphere that we can open that instantly resolves problems, rights the conditions of life, and brings about instant good fortune. Being the Force that created the universe, we can use that power to evolve all parts of our being, enabling the evolution and transformation of our nature. Sri Aurobindo then concludes that we will begin to see the arrival of a number of spiritualized individuals, who will usher in a new stage of humanity, culminating in what he calls a ''Divine Life on Earth." Through this integral, evolutionary process, he has devised a method for humanity to come out of its Ignorance and suffering, and fulfill its infinite potential.

 

New Evolutionary Being and Collective Life on Earth
Eventually this individual can become the ultimate evolutionary personality and being. He become a transformed gnostic individual, filled with the Divine aspects and powers, living life for a Divine Purpose and Unfolding in creation. He acts with a spiritual orientation and purpose, bringing this spirit to bear in all activities in life. He is infinitely creative, dynamic, releasing the infinite potential of life into every moment by bringing he Being, the Spirit into the Becoming of every moment of our existence.

If a number of such divine-like humans emerge, then there is the possibility of the development of a community of such individuals, living within the greater community of society. Such individuals may come together to help form a new social and collective order and existence, culminating in the possibility of the emergence of a divine life on earth.

Sri Aurobindo's Vision of Future Life on Earth
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.

Old Ways Disappear in New Divine Life
In a new divine life on earth, the old ways of life would disappear, such as mental idols, constructed principles and systems, conflicting ideals. There would be an end of war, political strife and all the negative that issues from it. Life and body would no longer dominate nine tenths of our existence for their satisfaction. There would be the end of the reactions to success and frustration, vital joy and grief, peril and passion, pleasure and pain, the vicissitudes and uncertainties of fate and struggle. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Humanity Fulfilling the Purpose of Creation
 Humans fulfill the purpose of creation when we find our higher nature; when we perceive spirit in our lives, fulfilling the purpose for which the Divine manifest a universe -- delight of being. 

Purpose of Human Life is to Become Divine
The purpose of human life is to become Divine. To have the joy, the delight that we are the Divine. (Paraphrase of The Mother)

Bringing the Sweetness of the Spirit to the Surface of Life
When one has been cooped up in a home or cabin for days because of cloudy, gloomy weather, and then one emerges into the bright warm sunlight of a new day, the change is exhilarating. Now imagine if we were to emerge into an even greater place, where our current sun-dappled relatively-happy existence would seem like something cold, soulless, distant, and without meaning. It is the emergence from our current life into the spiritual life.

When an American friend of mine who expatriated to India 30 years ago to live in a spiritual community returned to the US, she found the place not only utterly alien but devoid of any spiritual feeling. As she rode the ever-widening highways of the San Francisco Bay Area and toured the region she was raised in, she felt an icyness and un-soulfulness in the atmosphere, lacking richness and sweetness and deep connectedness to a Higher Reality that she felt in the spiritual community of her adopted homeland. And this is one of the urban regions often most associated with happiness and joy in America. Imagine then how she would feel in other locales.

We cannot imagine this greater existence, because we only know and breathe in what surrounds us. We feel the atmosphere in our surroundings and believe that is the reality of life. We cannot imagine an entire society rooted in soulfulness, depth, sweetness, richness, and the deepest of sincere values. Some believe that is in fact the reality of things in the rural areas of the world. However, once you punctuate the surface, you see that there often resides an environment of profound ignorance, falsehood, and intolerance. When we go to our churches and temples, we may be moved by the spirit, only to be overwhelmed by the harsh reality that permeates the world that we reenter. If we bring the spirit into life after such experiences, we may be able to infuse our surroundings with a richer power, but that only lasts awhile.

How then can we permeate the atmosphere with a deeper consciousness? While we cannot immediately change the society, we can connect to the deepest depths inside ourselves, and carry around that feeling everywhere we go. Then as we look out into the world, we will feel the sweetness there, which really does exist below the surface of things. Except we will experience it on the surface, even as others do not.

After a while, others can take to this approach, and bring down the spiritual power to the point that the outer atmosphere is as sweet as it is in the subtle plane below the surface. Then we can begin to create a new type of life on earth. Then wherever we travel across this wide planet, we will not just be happy because of the sunshine or the beautiful mountains and terrain, but because the world around us is suffused by something more substantial, by a quality that cannot be described, even though it can be felt. Then we will know that humanity has taken a great step, for they have brought to the surface the deepest spiritual secrets and feelings of life.

ARTICLE: The Life Divine on Earth
The ultimate destiny for humanity is a spiritual-based, divine life on earth.

Divine Life on Earth, not Heaven
We shouldn't aspire for a spiritual, divine life in the next life, but in this life; in the cosmos, universe we live in.

ARTICLE: Destiny Of Humanity

Sri Aurobindo's and a Divine Life on Earth

 

 

Spiritual Stage of Life on Earth

Emergence of the Spiritual Age & Divine Life on Earth
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 -- gradually wanes and is replaced with a mind and life dominated by the spirit. This transition to this age begins when a good number of individuals take to a higher orientation of consciousness, including an opening to the logic, rationality, and intuitions of knowledge, as well as an opening to the spiritual Force in the atmosphere, as well as a connection to the spirit through our Soul and True Self. As a result of that supra-mental orientation, one develops the capacity to move life outside one's self from within; one takes to the highest of human and spiritual values; one endeavors to purify, perfect, and elevate of planes of our being -- physical, vital, and mental; and one continually makes the deep soul to soul connection with others. As a result, a new spirit-oriented life on earth begins to emerge. When a critical mass of such pioneering spirit-oriented individuals forms,  a collective life oriented around the spirit can emerge throughout the society -- culminating in a divine life on earth.

 

Spiritual Stage of Life

Humanity is gradually moving from the mental to the spiritual stage of life on earth.

 

Spiritual Stage of Human Evolution

There is a spiritual stage beyond the [current] mental [of human evolution]. As we begin to emerge through the mental stage, we perceive that even the power of mind cannot be the ultimate salvation for humanity; for after all the faculties of mind as we have said are decidedly limited. So there begins to develop a longing for a unity of awareness and perception that mind cannot hold; an openness to greater truths, greater insights, spiritual knowledge and vision. To an understanding that our individual will, the collective will, and the Divine will are all bound together.

At some point individuals who have experienced the inner life of the spirit, who have begun to transform themselves to a higher physical, vital, and physical existence, who have experience the spirit in action in life, who have felt and opened themselves to a greater spiritual power to effect life, become the harbingers of a new collective life, a new divine life on earth. This is the vision that Sri Aurobindo envisioned beyond the mental stage that we are only just emerging into just now.

 

The Development of a Mental and Spiritual-oriented Humanity

A thousand years ago man was physical. His life was elementary. He survived. Today he has multiplied his comforts, enjoyment, reach, mastery a hundred or even a thousand-fold. The progress in one millennium has been phenomenal. This occurred because man moved from being physical to being mental. Though he has not yet acquired a fully formed mental life, a rational life, certainly he has moved away from the physical to the vital life. Both body and vitality accept the guidance of the mind, at least in material matters. Thus, we can say that man today is mental.

If this phenomenal expansion was the result of moving from the physical to the mental, moving from mind to the Spirit can bring another phenomenal expansion of similar magnitude. Today's life will further expand in its richness, inner peace, outer security, harmony and, especially, in Prosperity a thousand-fold. (MSS)

 

The Evolutionary Spirituality that is Now Emerging

Europeans look out on the world and are proud of their rich heritage, even as they are oblivious to the deep culture and spiritual insights of the East. Currently the Europeans observe the sudden dramatic emergence of Americans, and the rise of the Eastern economic powers, and semi-consciously begin to question their long-held belief that they above all others have been the civilizing force of history. Likewise, the Americans look out at the emerging East, and wonder what is in store from these titanic economic and cultural powers, just at a time she thought she was the unstoppable cultural and economic leader in the world.

From our current perch in history, we can trace the march of progress of civilization. As we know, it began in Africa, and then essentially moved in two directions -- to the East, where spirit and culture was born, and north to the Middle East, where religion was born. From out of the religion wing eventually emerged the rational thought and democracy of Greece, its practical application through the rules and organizational structures of the Roman Empire; the culture of the Renaissance and Enlightenment; and the economic expansion of the British Empire, which continues today through the material and cultural influence of the America dynamo. The Middle East and Africa meanwhile have remained poor and neglected. Through tragedy and suffering, the world now seeks to resolve the stagnant problems of the troubled areas. Meanwhile, the profound ancient wisdom of the East has remained unknown to a good part of the world -- even buried in its essence in its founding country, India.

Why then has the profoundest understanding of the spirit ever known, that of ancient India, remained dormant and unknown? The simple answer is that civilization was not ready for the ancient wisdom of the Vedas, the Upanishads, and of the Rishis who intensely communed with the Divine Reality up to 7,000 years ago. Civilization had to first evolve through several stages before she was ready to this greatest of all spiritual knowledge and experiences to be broadcast and adopted by the rest of the world. In addition, the ancient spiritual realizations themselves had to evolve.

Though great beyond measure, the spiritual  realizations of the ancient Rishis were in one sense a static one. I.e. though the spiritual seekers had found a direct connection to the Divine reality, that blissful liberation took place outside of life; not within it. Thus, a new, more comprehensive spiritual realization and knowledge was necessary if it were to spread far and wide -- one that combined their deep realizations with the aspiration of modern Man.

Fortunately, in the first half of the 20th century, one individual, the Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo had those very realizations and spiritual perceptions, as he was able to integrate that profoundest of ancient wisdom with modern evolutionary understanding. By showing how spirit is not just a liberating element that one can dissolve into to discover ultimate happiness and bliss, but that it can be brought into the details of life, in order to elevate and perfect it, Sri Aurobindo made the great synthesis between the spiritual wisdom of the past and the evolutionary aspirations of a modern society.

Thus, after a 7000-year sleep, the great spiritual wisdom of India has begun to take on a new tone and direction, allowing a more dynamic East, and a materially-exhausted West to embrace it. In essence, Nature has waited these millennia so that the world could first make the necessary evolutionary progress -- emotionally, psychologically, and mentally -- before it could embrace this new, dynamic evolutionary view of the spirit. Now that a solid base of material prosperity has been established in the world, now that Nature's course has passed beyond the ages of oppression by church and king, now that she has discovered democracy, developed a modicum of culture, and has begun to nurture true individuality, the peoples of the world seem ready to embrace the evolutionary spiritual teachings and realizations of sages like Sri Aurobindo and others in the emerging New Age. 

 

Values and the Spirit

Values are increasingly spreading around the world. E.g., the book 'In Search of Excellence' from 25 years ago called for the empowerment of the employee in business. New values like respect for the individual and tolerance were advocated and embraced in many organizations. These social reflect our own personal values, which are similar. E.g., I value the community, the input of others, etc.

Values are higher forms of mental consciousness on the way toward supramental consciousness, and opening to Spirit.

In 'The Life Divine,' Sri Aurobindo describes what he calls ''comic determinants," which are forces, powers, and truths intended by the Divine to spread throughout the universe in creation. For us it takes form as the spiritual aspects of Beingness, Oneness, Knowledge, Power, Love, Beauty, Creativity, Bliss, and several others. When we embrace values, we are actually taking to one or more of these spiritual aspects. E.g. if I am a manager who is seeks to gain he inputs of others, this value reflects Oneness (between the individuals), and somewhat Knowledge and Love. In that way, every value can be seen in terms of these spiritual aspects. (Some time ago, I did a study connecting human values and these spiritual qualities in terms of percentages.)

Each time we embrace a human value, we take a subtle step toward one or more aspects of the spirit.

 

The End of Suffering and the Spiritual Evolution of Man

The great spiritual teachers and avatars in history have confronted the issue of suffering in a variety of ways. Krishna who was to his followers God incarnate said that suffering was part of the Divine plan -- i.e. it served a useful purpose in creation. Buddha was shocked by suffering and death, and saw life as impermanent as a result. He therefore sought a way out of this state by moving within where he found permanence in the eternal-like bliss of Nirvana. Jesus said the way out of suffering was Love. However, the church turned him into an icon of suffering -- i.e. that he suffered for our sins so that we could live in life after death heaven without suffering.

Each of the insights of these great beings are profound; yet each inherently are lacking in something. Krishna has the most profound view, though suffering and pain still remains unsolved. Buddha addressed suffering head-on, but found no solution other than being detached from it in silent bliss within. Jesus' followers twisted his message; that the end of suffering could only be found in heaven, not on earth.

The Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo agrees that suffering is part of the Divine plan -- i.e. it creates more diversity/multiplicity through which Divine action can unfold. But he also acknowledged that we needed to overcome, abolish suffering, disease, and death in life once and for all. He said that this was accomplished by bringing the Spirit into the becomings of life; by opening ourselves to the spiritual Force which would overcome all human limitation, including suffering and death.

As he indicated, this Force is the Creator power that enabled a universe to emerge from a Divine Source and Reality, and it also available to us to overcome the limitations of life, including disease, suffering, and death. When we open to that Power, they begin to quickly give way. Sri Aurobindo thus brings the evolutionary spiritual process of Creation to bear to overcome the limitations of humanity, ushering in a new stage of life on earth. He links consciousness and spirit to the modern evolutionary evolution to overcome suffering in life. He asks us to bring the spiritual Force and Being into the becomings of our life to transform humanity.

Other

The Force Seeking Man Since 1956
Since 1956 when the Force descended on earth, God seeking Man more than Man seeking God has become a greater reality. We see no God, we see only how prosperous we are. Prosperity is the God for the householder. The Force came down on earth in 1956 but began to act through the governments in 1967. From then onwards its action is more and more pronounced. Just now Man is surrounded by a plethora of social opportunities. Psychologically it is greater. (MSS)

The Negative Life that Has Now Become Potential Positive Can Be Invoked through Spirit
Life was NEGATIVE in Shakespeare's time. Therefore, his best works were tragedies. After 1956 when the Supramental Force has descended into the subtle atmosphere of the earth, life has become positive in potential. The positive nature of life is not there on its surface as a Power of Life for us to readily draw upon. One who invokes the Spirit converts the potential into actual power. (MSS, slight modification)

 

Development and Evolution of Spirit in Society through India

The Emergence of Spirit in India
The fertile conditions of a riverbed civilization led the early Aryans on a quest for God which resulted in the religions of Islam, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism which survive till today. Hinduism too as well as Buddhism owes their origin to settlers from Mesopotamia.

The religious basis combined with material prosperity led the Indian to think about creation, its origin and process all of which sum up as Spirituality. They discovered the Brahman, the five elements, the origin of creation as energy and its predecessor Spirit and a method for the human soul to reach its spiritual origins. Those findings are true today and no other part of the world has excelled those findings or even equaled them. (MSS)

Nature Develops Spirit in India, then Moved On
In India Nature developed the Spirit, i.e. the Spirit in Man. India recognized that Man's best part is the Spirit and devised various ways to attain it and release it for liberation. Having discovered the Spirit, Nature moved away and worked at various places for the development of various other parts. [E.g. mind in Greece, individuality in Europe, science and technology currently in US].

During that period there was the necessity to preserve the treasure of Spirit discovered during the period of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Gita. It is nature's irony that the best has to be preserved by the worst, even as the treasure of gold is saved in a forest under thorny bushes and protected by vital spirits. Indian Spirit had to be preserved in an atmosphere of poverty by a top dressing of Falsehoods. (MSS, extracted)

[Now that Nature has passed into science, technology, individuality, etc., it is ready to embrace the spirit that India knows; however not quite on its old basis, but through the further spiritual development of the Force of the Supermind that is now available to all.]

Development of Spirit in India
-In India Nature developed the Spirit. By Spirit, I mean the Spirit in Man as one part of his being. It is the best part. India recognized that Man's best part is the Spirit and devised various ways to attain it and release it for moksha.

-Having discovered the Spirit, Nature moved away [from India] and worked at various places [around the world] for the development of various other parts. (MSS)

 

 

Nature's Course for India
India is a land of rishis; that her sons carry the spiritual light in her body in the depths of her being. Sri Aurobindo says that it is that spirit that is the source of her greatness; but it has been lost over the millennia, and needs to be regained. If she can accomplish this, she will not only emerge out of her poverty, but she will fulfill her role as the Guru of the world. How did India some to her current condition, and how can she reemerge in prosperity to fulfill her spiritual destiny?

Spirit developed and reached Its penultimate peak in India. However, Nature -- which is, along with Soul/Spirit, the instrument of the Divine -- did not want Spirit's further development there. For Her own reasons, Nature moved elsewhere, as She set about developing Mind, Vital, Science, Organisation, Technology in other parts of the world. Now that Nature has completed this round of development outside India's borders, She has now come back to India to complete the work of development of the Spirit on earth. In addition, because India has fallen into great poverty, Nature has come to resolve that difficulty as well. (Based on MSS)

 

The Evolution of Spirit in India
100,000 years ago, Man emerged from the savannahs of Africa and entered two landmasses; the Middle East and Europe (the "western wave"), and that of the East, including India and China. The Western wave out of Africa mainly took to religion at first, while the Eastern wave took to spirituality. The Western wave of religion eventually shed some of its falsehood, evolved into rationality, democracy, freedom, individuality, science, technology, and the modern material world as we see in Europe, the USA, and elsewhere. The Eastern wave developed culture, emotion, and the Spirit. Of course, each of the two developed some of the capacities of the other -- e.g. religion developed in India, and there were strains of the Spirit in the West.

My goal here is to trace the Eastern movement that enabled the flowering of Spirit. It originated in the period of the naturalistic life of the Vedas in India. There people connected to the Spirit through the natural forces of the physical world. In the stone, in elemental and environmental forces, individuals felt a connection to an ultimate spiritual Reality. Life was physical then and their connection to that Reality expressed through physical forms of nature, as well as the worship of Gods. Mind and higher emotions had not yet developed to interfere with their pure Divine reverence through physical means. Still, it was a great development in the spiritual history of man -- unprecedented until that time.

And yet, people perceived that life was indeed full of suffering in life, pain, falsehood, negativity, and evil. Since these issues were raised in the subconscious of society, the avatar -- i.e. one who furthers the evolution -- Buddha came along in India and took to a very different path. He abandoned the aspiration and search for an ultimate Reality, indicating that it could not be known, and instead focused on the causes of evil and suffering in the world. He saw that if we move out of ego, all such negativity ceases. By meditating and reaching the timeless, spaceless Void one realizes the state of Nirvana, where ego, separation, and desire ceases, which, in turn, eliminates all suffering. It was a profound insight and another great development in the history of the Spirit.

Over time Mind developed, and there resumed the attempt to commune with the ultimate Spiritual reality through this newly evolved faculty. As a result, the period of the Upanishads was ushered in. During that time there was a group of individuals who had a deep urge to connect with and experience the Supreme -- i.e. the ultimate transcendent Reality. They began to see that Reality in three aspects; as Existence -- i.e. as pure Spiritual Being; as a Consciousness that that had become aware of its own Existence, and as a result generated a Force that that became the energy out of which the universe would emerge; and as Delight, taking infinite pleasure in being conscious of Its own Existence. (This is expressed by the three attributes of Sat-Chit-Ananda; i.e. Existence, Consciousness-Force, Delight.) This is roughly equivalent to the fact that I exist as an individual; I am conscious of my existence -- which in turn energizes me; and I delight in being conscious of who I am. These ecstatic devotees -- known as the Rishis -- had the spontaneous experience of the Spirit, and saw how it could be brought into the details experiences of one's life. They perceived the spiritual Being emerging into the becomings of life; knew the integration of Spirit and Matter; thus had a vision of that ultimate Reality, which they called ''Brahman." In effect, the Rishis of that time were likely the greatest spiritual aspirants of the ancient world.

Though they ecstatically experienced the Spirit by communing with the transcendent Reality, it was left to the Bhagavad-Gita to address aspects the Rishis had not considered. While Rishis were more focused on pure transcendence and connection to the spiritual Reality, the Gita addressed the specific methods that would enable an individual to spiritually progress -- i.e. grow, evolve, and be transformed. By connecting to the Soul within, one not only begins the process of a change out of our lower nature -- e.g. sensing a oneness with others, controlling negative behaviors, taking to higher emotions, etc. -- but one comes in touch with the same transcendent Reality that the Rishis experienced earlier. Now there was a path of individual progress through Soul, opening the way to the transcendent spiritual Reality. Our ultimate purpose then was to find our individual Soul, discover and surrender to the Supreme, and carry out and fulfill the Divine Intent on earth. Through service of works, true knowledge of the ways of life, and surrender to the Supreme Intent, one not only evolves, but fulfills one's ultimate purpose on earth. These are several of the lessons offered by the avatar Krishna to the warrior Arjuna at the battle of Kurukshetera, as explained in the Gita.

And yet, it has been left to modern India, in particular, through the spiritual insights of Vivekananda and then Sri Aurobindo to perceive the wider and all-encompassing spiritual picture. Drawing on the Rishis' upanishadic ecstatic spiritual experience and the Gita's methods of yogic progress, Sri Aurobindo put it all in an evolutionary context. He gave us the wider knowledge of the creation and unfolding of the universe, as well as the course of human destiny. He described the involution of life -- i.e. how the universe came about from a Divine source -- and the evolution of life from matter to spirit through individual transformation, culminating in a Divine life on earth. He traced the cause of Ignorance back to the involution of Spirit, showed the way back to Integral Knowledge through Soul connection and surrender to the descending spiritual Force that would aid in the individual's transformation. In this way, he provided a more integral view of the Spirit, embracing the evolutionary principles of modern life. (Based on MSS)

 

The Vedic Discovery of Spirit and Beyond
In the period of the Vedas the Rishis discovered the Spirit. Also they lived in unison with Nature. It was a life of the whole or whole life. The physical Man discovering the Spirit, living in unity with the environment of Nature, though it is of a spiritual fullness, was the victory of the first step -- the physical life, the life in the Body. The wholeness of primitive times could not last. The joint family of the last century of thirty or forty members was a life of unity. But it was the unity of an agricultural family, mostly of uneducated simple people of primary emotions living on their land. As agriculture moves to manufacture, rural life gives place to urban living, illiterate goodness exchanges itself with educated individuality, and joint family is no longer a reality. As civilisation marches ahead, joint family disappears and gives place to the nuclear family. Even its life is no longer certain. The Vedas have two parts, one seeking knowledge and the other preserving the sacredness of the rituals. A split arose there. Those who followed knowledge were the Rishis of the Vedanta. Those who preserved the rituals became the purohits.

Sri Aurobindo pleads for the restoration of unity lost at that time. He says the unity is to be restored above in the Supramental plane. The original cleavage between the Rishis and the purohits was followed by the dichotomy of the sannyasin and the householder. Then it became the contradiction between the sannyasin who denied Matter any reality and the Materialist who discovered the secrets of the universe and denied any reality to the Spirit. This is so because the instrument of the Rishi or sannyasin was Mind that could perceive only a part of the Reality. The scientist did one better by insisting on his physical mind, a part of the Mind that is already a part. Supermind is the right complete instrument that can see the whole Reality of Brahman in the cosmos as well as in our human life. Sri Aurobindo, who discovered the Supermind guided by Vivekananda, asks us to receive the descending Force of the Supermind so that we may be raised to its own native plane. There the unity lost after the Vedic period can be restored in its fullness. It will be a unity that transcends life and Mind. The world energies are in the process of building up that unity, not according to any mental formula intelligible to us, but in terms of a Life that transcends rationality. It is a life that is intelligible to Intuition, accessible to insight. It eludes intellectual enquiries. (MSS)

 

Buddha's Way Out of the Darkness
Perhaps the greatest conception of Reality ever devised by Man began in India thousands of years ago. While religion took root in the Middle East, it was in India that a course was blazed to know the true nature of the infinite Reality/Spirit and the process by which the universe emerged from a divine Source.

In the earliest years, the Indians of the ancient Vedic period worshipped natural forces as a means of communing with the one Infinite consciousness. In essence, they perceived the ultimate Reality through the instrument of material forces and Gods. Sophisticated thinking and refined emotions had not yet developed, and so their relationship with Spirit was predominantly physical. Many years passed, and Mind began to develop, allowing for a profounder conception of the Reality beyond this world. This is the era of the spiritual explorations of the Indian mystics known as the Rishis. Through their higher mental and spiritual power, they were able to conceive of and commune with an ultimate Being and Consciousness, losing themselves in the pleasure of their transcendent experiences. They collectively communed with and realized an Ultimate Existence as no group had done before.

And yet despite these vast spiritual successes, humanity was not yet satisfied with these experiences, for it still had still not grappled with the greatest of human dilemmas: the cause of strife and suffering in the world. And so around 2600 years ago, Buddha's great mission began when he set out to discover and resolve the reason for pain and death. Which brings me to a startling experience I had the other day.

On New Years, I went for a little drive to relax and air myself out. For some reason, I ended up on the 30-mile long busy thoroughfare known as the 'El Camino Real,' which traverses two dozen towns on the San Francisco peninsula. It is a street of commerce and business that seems to go on forever.

At one point, as I ''floated" down the endless wide boulevard in my car, a rather existential feeling came over me. I thought about the difficulties, stresses, and failures of life, as well as the reality and finality of physical death. I then thought about how important Buddha was in addressing these issues. Then one by one, I thought through the essence of His teachings. I recalled that after being raised in a sheltered existence as a prince, he discovered that there was suffering outside his palace. He then came to understand the impermanence of things; that not only was life itself ephemeral because it comes to an end, but all apparently good things that come to us are easily taken away -- whether wealth, material objects, our mate, our children, family, friends, and so forth.  He then realized that it was our attachment to these transitory phenomena that was the cause of our suffering. Our attachment to that which is temporary and ephemeral was the root of all pain and strife in the world.

Continuing these intense thoughts and feelings, I then recalled that Buddha devised a way out of the dilemma. That if we could still our thoughts, feelings, and passions, we would come to a state of serenity, release our attachment, and thereby free ourselves from the pain of impermanence. In fact, we would move to its opposite; to an intense pleasure and bliss that is beyond anything in this world. Gautama Buddha called this state ''Nirvana," and realized it full in his being.

As each of these thoughts came to mind, I felt it with great intensity. They reached a crescendo when I realized that Buddha had worked out a way to loosen the knot of the world. Then finally, after five minutes, the experience stopped. I then once more became conscious of life around me, as I continued to drive/float down the long and winding commercial boulevard.

When I then focused my gaze ahead, I immediately noticed a banner hanging down from a light pole that I was just passing under. When I craned my neck to look a little closer, I saw that it was advertisement for an upcoming art event, and in the center of it was a large picture of the head of a great golden Buddha with a beatific smile. I was thunderstruck. I then beamed in amazement that this object had appeared above me at the very instant I commenced my intense inner experience of His way out of suffering.

The response pierced my being, and I cried out in wonder. The intensity of my thoughts and feelings on this subject had attracted an emanation of one individual who dared to address humanity's most compelling issue. There above me was the visage of the man who discovered a Stillness and Being within, forging a new path out of the Darkness.

Also See the Foundations of Indian Spirituality


 

Conditions Required of Society and the Individual for the Spiritual Stage to Emerge

General

Conditions for Mankind's Spiritualization
If mankind is to be spiritualized, it must first in the mass cease to be material or the vital man and become the psychic and the true mental man. (Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle)

Individual Development for New Spirit-based Existence
For human life to be transformed into Divine Life, the ego should be replaced by the soul, the thoughts of mind by the connection to the spirit, the attachment of the heart by divine love, the excitement of the vital (emotions) by the delight of the spirit, the habitual efficiency of the body by the unfettered power of the gods, death by immortality, etc. All expressions of darkness and falsehood must be replaced by expressions of light and truth.

Sri Aurobindo's Method of Enabling a New Divine Life on Earth
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 this Truth Consciousness (the very same consciousness that was instrumental in the creation of the universe), then we can change life as we know it; change our own lives, change the lives of the community, the society, and life on earth. 

If we learn how to open to this Force, we can begin to live in an astounding new way, a way that has no precedence in human history; where every conceivable problem could be solved; where all our life activities and circumstances play out in perfect harmony, in perfect execution; where all of life cooperates; and where we gain access to infinite possibilities for creation, accomplishment, success, and joy. 

Things that we perceived as limited in scope -- whether a business transaction, scientific research, a research project, or a great work of art -- are now seen and understood to have infinite scope. Past limitations turn into great multiples and infinities. Our perceptions of quantity and quality change, our perceptions of space and time become different, the nature of cause and effect is altered.

Sri Aurobindo on the Spiritual Evolution of Society (from his book The Life Divine)

  • Sri Aurobindo pointed to this spiritual age, where humans have evolved beyond their current limited capacities, ushering in a new type of individual, centered in the spirit, with infinite capacities for knowledge, accomplishment, and delight. Eventually such individuals would be harbingers of a new type of being, culminating in a new divine life on earth.

  • Current Basis of Life Inadequate: "Man has created a system of civilization which has become too big for his limited mental capacity and understanding and his still more limited spiritual and moral capacity to utilise and manage, a too dangerous servant of his blundering ego and its appetites."

  • The blossoming of the world is currently supported by a limiting ego, vital, etc., when it needs a wider, deeper truth -- to enable it to harmonize.

  • "A life of unity, mutuality and harmony born of a deeper and wider truth of our being is the only truth of life that can successfully replace the imperfect mental constructions of the past ..."

  • A scientific formula, a perfected economic society, a democratic existence, varying structure of governance is not enough to create a perfected society.

  • Religion has not changed human life and society.

  • Only a total spiritual direction can transform the race; only a full emergence of soul, of supramental Supernature can bring about this evolutionary miracle. This can only occur as a result of a radical change in the mature of the individual.

 

The True Spiritual Individual

The Emergence of the True Individual in Society
Today America rules the world as Great Britain did till the world war. Greece, Rome, and France had such eminence in their time. We see Greece had it on the strength of a culture that enabled it to flower Mind. Rome ruled Europe because of her law. France dominated Europe by her Freedom. Britain's eminence was made possible by her trade. North America dominates the world because the Individual is emerging there in the physical plane. Maybe the Americans are aware of their military, political strength and abundant wealth and do not really see the emerging Individual. That is the route social evolution has chosen. Army, wealth, political power, etc. are the results of the emerging Individual, not vice versa. In the twenty-first century, the Individual will certainly emerge and it will be credited as the century of the Individual. Emerging at the physical level, he ushers in prosperous plenty. At the vital level, he will be the harbinger of Peace expressed as international law and order. At the mental level, the emerging individual will establish the rule of Rationality, abolishing all kinds of superstition, which our present life abounds in. At that level, he will be a psychological individual and his goals will be psychological growth and ethical standards. The real individual is truly spiritual. He will accomplish things from inside and not move in the outer life. (MSS)

21st Century of the Spiritually Free Individual
The 20th Century was called the century of the common man. The 21st Century will be the century of the spiritually free individual. (MSS)

The Cause of the Times, and the Cause of the Emerging Spiritual Individual of the 21st Century
 In each period MAN is after something  --  survival, territorial integrity, living standards, patriotism, honour of the sacred soil, etc. That is the God of that period. All the other things are lip service. Capitalism, socialism, communism are beside the point for the masses, if the God of that period is not honoured. Russia stood for communism. The popular idea was America swore by capitalism. Abolish the visa requirements and allow free immigration as the USA did in the 16th and 17th centuries, and regardless of 'isms', populations would move towards a land of prosperity in a great exodus.

Rising standard of living was the God of the 20th century and it will be so until Asia and Africa become prosperous.  There are times when Man is willing to die for his religion or to defend his nation. It is true. A greater truth is the dominant wave of the century or the period or the age. It is something that compels. Man's dominant urges find themselves subservient to that cause.

No more is Man bound by isms, religions, national pride, etc. He wants to raise his standard.  The cause of a period is called the evolutionary tide. Nothing can stem that tide while it is on the ascendant.

It is my personal view that the 21st century will espouse another greater cause. It will not be a cause of patriotism, honour, religion, race or anything that has actuated Man up until now. It will be the cause of the emerging Spiritual Individual. He will value his freedom, his own personal views, his own prerogative to protect his individuality. It is not social individualism or psychological independence, but the INDIVIDUALITY of his Spiritual Being. (MSS, extracted)

 

The Invisible Movement of Rights in History, & the Emergence of Spiritual MAN in the 21st Century
There is an invisible movement in the air all over the world which espouses the Rights of the oppressed. Now it is the Blacks who are in favour, next it is the women. The street children get their turn. The poor suddenly come into the favour of the world and the whole world sings the chorus of the Right to Food, Right to water, Right to Peace, etc. All types of Rights have emerged as the target for the awakened world. It is a balm to the hearts of idealists and visionaries the world over as the have-nots, downtrodden, the oppressed and the invalids have now their share of the limelight. The UN is the spearhead for most of these movements. The world is awakened enough in her conscience that the world opinion readily swings to this call. This development is imperceptible but unmistakable. I see behind all these urges that MAN is emerging as someone to be counted hereafter. The Spirit in MAN seeks expression, peeps out from its hiding place. The symptoms are well-defined. He who seeks expression is no longer the social man, but the Spiritual Individual. The 21st century will be his century. (MSS)

One's Spirit Connecting to Society's Spirit Enables Boom
When a writer or the leader or other skilled individual has touched the Spirit in his own inspiration in his field, it touches the Spirit of the population also. This individual Spirit calling the social Spirit creates a live ever-increasing movement, a boom, e.g. of sales or popularity.

Anyone who is patient enough to invoke the Spirit in his own life, who acts on his own faith in Spirit rather than his own individual capacities to succeed, will witness such a boom in his own life. How far it will rise depends upon how far he is in tune with the Spirit of the Times.

With the spiritual Force ever-increasing in the atmosphere, this phenomenon of interrelated Spirit is ever-more likely to burst out into boom. (Paraphrase of MSS)

See Thought on the Nature of the True Spiritual Individual

 

Other

Realization of the Divine Life
Sri Aurobindo said it would take 30,000 years for people to experience and realize concretely in their lives what he has written left to the whims of Nature. Still he himself said that we could perhaps do it 30 years or 300 if we took up human transformation seriously.

Sri Aurobindo's Vision of Rapid Evolution of Humanity
Sri Aurobindo believed that we can abridge 30,000 years of human evolution into 300 or even 30 years if we consciously evolve our nature, and aspire for and open to the spiritual Force. In that process we open to the infinite potentials of life; which can enable stunning new developments in technology, in products, in any work, institution, social entity, or field of life. When we bring in the spirit in our lives we literally bring in the same infinite powers that created the universe. By opening to the Force the infinite potential for accomplishment, success, and joy defies our wildest imagination.

New Insights into the Life & Teachings of Sri Aurobindo Site

Also see Thoughts on the Evolution of Society

Thoughts on the Evolution in World History, and Current History and Affairs

The Vital, Mental, and Spiritual Frontiers of Life to be Organized
Life consists of matter, the animus of life, mind, and spirit. In society we are moving well along towards the organization of matter, which enables infinite possibilities in the of the physical realm as seen in machines inventions, technology, roads, infrastructure, shelter, life sciences, medicines, etc. The US is of course in the vanguard here.

And yet the rest of life beyond the physical matter remains unorganized. There is pain, suffering falsehood, ignorance, evil, conflict, contradiction, disharmony, hate, desire, attachment, and on and on. This reflects as poverty, war, disease, famine, and many other social ills. This is the vital realm of humanity unorganized. It is the next frontier beyond the organization of matter that we have now been passing through. Such organization inevitable requires the organization of thought, ranging from logical thought to thought that comes as light, illumination, vision, revelation, inspiration, and intuition from spiritual descent, that will be necessary to help organize the vital life.

The subtle vital, mental, and spiritual existence remains for all intensive purposes a frontier unexplored. The mental capacities of certain citizens and the deeper spiritual truths of India, now more well-rounded through its acceptance of evolutionary theory, can help the material-oriented US and West, and inevitably the rest of the world, exploit the new opportunities to organize life within across borders of the new frontiers of our vital, mental, and spiritual existence.

 

Reconciling Material Prosperity and Spiritual Realization in the World
-The world fulfils itself by relating the two ends of Material Prosperity and Spiritual realization. It is its destiny.

-The spiritual realization of India which was at one point partial has become whole in recent decades as a result of the evolutionary realizations of individuals such as Sri Aurobindo that took India beyond her static spiritual wisdom.

-The practical organization of the US is currently physical which enables material prosperity. However, the practical organization of the US must rise from its physical basis to a spiritual basis.

-One or more individuals, by living a life that includes both, can build the bridge between, reconcile the two worlds of material prosperity and spiritual realization. Such individuals can then develop their shortest method into The Formula of life, which the whole world can then readily follow, fulfilling its purpose and destiny. (Paraphrase of MSS)

 

The Next "Leaders of the World" Will Use the Spiritual Power in Life
Over a period of a hundred years, the world looked up to London as its capital. The Britisher had conquered several nations and established an empire on which, it was said, the sun never set. It was political power. To be precise, it was military power. Today the USA plays that role. This is because she is an economic power. Of course, behind it lies the political and military power.

It is true that neither military might nor economics can lead the world forever. That is not given to money or the sword. That privilege is given to the Mind. Science is of the Mind when it is seeking after the whole or the ultimate cause. When science branches off at the utilitarian level, Science becomes efficient technology.

The future leadership of the world is not even for the Mind. It goes to the Spirit. Whoever goes after the Spirit will qualify for the leadership of the world. There is a further step. It is not the partial Spirit that seeks to shun life; it is the Spirit that emerges in Life to enrich life spiritually. Material welfare is highly desirable, but a partial aim. Any partial aim will have the other side that troubles. No partial goal can any longer serve the world. The world needs a whole aim or an aim of the whole which will not have side effects or negative fallout. That goal is the Spirit in life, which makes life Life. The leadership of the world will go to those that provide this whole aim. (MSS, modified) 

[India could well qualify in this way, as it knows the spirit; if it can apply the spirit to life (in an original way); as could others like the USA if it learns true applied spirit. We also see in this discussion a movement from Britain's military power which is physical, to the economic power which is vital, to the potential of the power born of mind, and spirit beyond mind. Thus we see an ascending scale from the past, in the present, and to a future leadership. The world has moved fro the physical to the vital to the current beginnings of the mental stage to a future spiritual stage. -Editor]

Western Mind, Individualization, and Loss of the Divine
Developing one's capacities is great, including one's individuality and personal values and skills. Yet, ironically developing such capacities increasingly makes man forget the Divine Spirit. To lose faith in the Divine and shift that faith to oneself is in essence Westernization of the Mind. All the values that issue from that mind-set are values that can make the human personality dry, even rotten. We should understand that man is man because the Divine Spirit dwells in him. Man cut off from those springs of Spirit is a bundle of flesh and a basket of skills worth throwing away. Let him instead find the spirit, even as he develops his capacities. In that way he will move from the Westernization of Mind to the Universalization of Spirit. (Based on a thought of MSS)

Accomplishing Infinitely by Acting on the Universe Contained Inside Ourselves
For 10,000 years we lived our lives based on our perception of physical space and measured time, which the Internet now threatens to abridge to a considerable degree. And yet the deeper inner consciousness of an individual can contain the entire universe within himself at any moment, negating space and time altogether. E.g. he can take actions from those depths, using that Force, enabling life to instantly respond up to an infinite degree from anywhere on earth within seconds. Even the Internet is a scratch of the surface compared to the accomplishment and joy that can emanate from this timeless, spaceless, infinite existence that we can contain from within.

Untitled
Eventually the human race will evolve to a new way of functioning, rooted in this truth, Supramental consciousness in all aspects of our being; in our bodies, our emotions, and our minds.

Pioneers Living in Supramental Consciousness Enabling Divine Life on Earth
The ultimate pioneers of consciousness can go onto supramental heights rooted in this truth consciousness. Such a way of knowing can open the doors to a new way of living, to enable the emergence of a new type of evolutionary individual, and a new divine collective life on earth.

Nature of Supramental Individual
There would be a transformation of the current mental, vital, and physical aspects that make up the individual to a higher functioning. "... to convert our twilit obscure physical mentality into the plenary supramental illumination, to build peace and a self-existent bliss where there is only a stress of transitory satisfactions besieged by physical pain and emotional suffering, to establish an infinite freedom in the world which presents itself as a group of mechanical necessities, to discover and realize the immortal life in a body subjected to death and constant mutation, -- this is offered to us as the manifestation of God in Matter and the goal of Nature in her terrestrial evolution."  For a more extensive examination of the qualities that a spiritualized, evolutionary individual could have, please click here.

Bridging Material Prosperity and Spiritual Realization in the Hour of God
It has been said that the Hour of God is here. On earth it is fulfilled by relating the two ends of Material Prosperity and Spiritual Realization. One person can join these two ends, and through his experience present the Formula of Life for all the world to take up, enabling the rapid fulfillment of this auspicious time for Man. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Supramental Transformation of Body
The supramental transformation of the physical body will come at the latter stages of the supramental transformation. The Mother attempted the supramental transformation of her body. Sri Aurobindo said he would return in a supramental body.


"THE FORCE" MOVING IN THE WORLD
(top)

The Force
The Force is an extension of the spiritual Reality that has descended into the earth's consciousness to enable it further evolution. It is not only the instrument that enabled the universe out of a Divine source, but it is the power that will aid the evolution of humanity in its evolution from its unconsciousness to its ultimate spiritual destiny.

See Thoughts on the Role of the Supramental Force in Creation

The Force
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother worked to bring the spiritual Force -- i.e. the supramental truth consciousness -- into the earth's atmosphere. It would serve to further the evolution of life on earth.

The Availability of the Force and the Next Stage of Human Evolution
Just as there are great events in history, there are great events in spiritual history. The most well known are marked by the coming of great spiritual personalities. They usually arrive on the scene when society needs to make a decided progress, even evolution. E.g., Jesus brought a new level of Love into the world at a time when that aspect of life was subconsciously desired by the community. Likewise, Buddha revealed the cause of suffering in life, and showed the way out of it, when that was required by that society. Similarly, Krishna revealed the divinity that resided in our souls, and the transcendent spiritual reality that we can embrace in the details of our lives when that society was ready for that progress.

Since "spiritual history" does not stop, such revelations of divine personalities continue in the modern era. Recently two such personalities arrived in India at the same time in the form of Sri Aurobindo and his partner The Mother. The former is considered the greatest spiritual figure of the last hundred years in the East, in that not only did he introduces the world to an evolutionary spiritual view of life, but participated in bringing down a new spiritual Force into the earth's atmosphere.

Therefore, now when one opens to the Divine, there is a greater power of effectivity in life than had ever existed before. In the past only the greatest of spiritual personalities could bring down spiritual powers into life, such as Oneness, Love, Truth, Beauty, Infinity, Bliss, etc. Now that power is available to anyone -- as that Force has penetrated fully into the atmosphere of the earth. Any person at any time can open to it, and elicit instances of sudden good fortune. Events around one's life will begin to appear miraculous-like, as the Force tends to attract vast results in no time at all. E.g. oppressive neighbor will suddenly move away; lost jewelry will suddenly be found; financial distress will quickly be overcome; income opportunities will appear out of nowhere; solutions to confounding problems will suddenly reveal itself, a threat to a country's border will suddenly evaporate, persistent power outages will permanently cease, and so forth.

One only has to open to that Force before engaging in any act, and sudden good fortune will come one's way. One has only to offer any problem or difficulty one has in life to that Force, and it will quickly evaporate and resolve it. One has only to offer one's aspiration for accomplishment to the Power, and it will be achieved in relatively little time; and in most unexpected ways. Even if one has little faith, the Force will still move the life around one's self if one makes the slightest effort to open oneself to its Power because it is now so active in the earth's atmosphere.

That Force and Power is ultimately there to usher in the next evolutionary stage for humanity. In the last fifty years, we have begun to see the emergence of rational mentality in Man. And yet despite that benefit, it is still a limited capacity, requiring a higher spiritualized dimension for life to unfold with its maximum potential. Through the Force, we can truly begin to see the power of the Spirit to move life around us, even as we have begun to see how rational and insightful mind has brought great awareness and change to humanity in recent decades. Now we are ready to move forward, from mental man to the Spiritual Individual; one who continually draws on the Force to bring about instantaneous miraculousness in our lives.

The Force Seeking Man Since 1956
Since 1956 when the Force descended on earth, God seeking Man more than Man seeking God has become a greater reality. We see no God, we see only how prosperous we are. Prosperity is the God for the householder. The Force came down on earth in 1956 but began to act through the governments in 1967. From then onwards its action is more and more pronounced. Just now Man is surrounded by a plethora of social opportunities. Psychologically it is greater. (MSS)

Indicator of Force in World
The speed of the resolution of problems in the world is an indicator of the (Divine) Force in action. The sudden, miraculous end of the Soviet system through Gorbachev is an example. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Action of the Force in Shaping Spiritual and Similar Movements
-It is the descending Force that is making all spiritual and similar movements possible -- from the hippies to The Secret to Life Response to the environmental movement and to every other form of human unity emerging in the world. It is this Force that we are unconsciously opening to and expressing through our own individual and collective creative capacities that is enabling the further evolution of life on earth.

-The Force is thus serving the universal and transcendent needs through the action of the individual and various collectives.

The Negative Life that Has Now Become Potential Positive Can Be Invoked through Spirit
Life was NEGATIVE in Shakespeare's time. Therefore, his best works were tragedies. After 1956 when the Supramental Force has descended into the subtle atmosphere of the earth, life has become positive in potential. The positive nature of life is not there on its surface as a Power of Life for us to readily draw upon. One who invokes the Spirit converts the potential into actual power. (MSS, slight modification)

The Great Result We Now Receive from a Good Act Taken
The Divine Mother said that life since WWII (especially since 1956) has now changed. For a small GOOD act, life gives you a very big award. It is a radical change in the way of life. We now see it in the lives of so many people. For a small, good act there is a great reward, as people rise meteorically. She also says for a small slip, one crashes down. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Supramental Force and Life Response
By opening to the (supramental) Force that is powerfully there in the atmosphere since 1956, and applying it in the details of life, one will be able to experience instantaneous miraculousness of life response; enabling the infinite to rush into the finite in terms of material abundance, rich social existence, true insight and knowledge, joy and delight of being, etc.

The Power and Force that is Moving the World
There is an irresistible Power, that is a Will that expresses a Vision, directing everything; the world, national events, relations between nations, terrestrial circumstances, things, people, everything. It is all powerful, irresistible, and acting regardless of our movements on the surface and the hubbub of our lives. It is a Force and Power of perfect harmony, in which each thing is in its place; where It organizes everything perfectly. (Paraphrase of the Mother; from the Agenda, Volume 7; July 6, 9 1966)

Resolution of Great Social Problems by One Individual availing the Force
Mankind aspires for a pollution-free world. While the disposal of nuclear waste is no mean accomplishment, plans are afoot to set up four hundred nuclear power projects in Asia in the coming decade. Some people in such movements are anxious to get rid of such dangerous moves. One man's perfection can save the world is what Sri Aurobindo laid down. Whatever the problem, if one man in any such field can aspire for that Force to come into his own Perfect Work, that problem will be solved for the world, be it poverty or unemployment or radioactive fallout. This is the spiritual possibility the Force has made available to all men since 1956. When people succeed in such ventures, Mother says it is not announced by the beat of drums. (MSS) 

See Entries on "The Great Secret" of Opening to the Force; i.e. Consecration

The Advent of the Supramental Force in Life
After 1926 Sri Aurobindo was engaged in the yogic adventure of raising his being to the supramental world, and bringing the power of that world into the earth through the instrumentation of his own body. He accomplished this feat fully before 1950. His yoga was realized. The highest aspect and realization of the Divine had been reached. Now the Truth Consciousness, the Supramental Force was ready to move from its origin, descend on earth, abolish death and suffering, transform life on earth, and enable a new divine life on earth.

Sri Aurobindo saw at this point that the transformation of the earth presupposed one other condition. When he left the blue light of the overmind, he envisioned the Golden Light of the supramental world. If the Golden Light were to remain on earth forever after the descent, he saw that it would require about ten followers to fully have the Supramental Consciousness. In other words even if power of Supermind descended through the accomplishment of Sri Aurobindo, that light could not remain on earth without other's collaboration. Unfortunately no one was able to help him in his attempt to bring down the Truth consciousness further. 

He thus spoke to The Mother and said one of them had to leave the earth and continue the yoga from the subtle plane [the non-material plane] to expedite the Advent of the Supramental Consciousness and Force on earth. The Mother offered to go; i.e. to leave her body. However Sri Aurobindo showed her that the unique constitution of her body could enable her to accomplish the supramental transformation at the physical level. Thereafter he decided to withdraw, and continue his work from the subtle plane.

In 1950, he had offered his own body to the descending supramental light as a fit receptacle. At the time he left his body, the Golden Light invaded it and remained there for three full days. All the other yogic powers he had gathered within, he deposited in The Mother before he withdrew from his body. In six years, Sri Aurobindo's work prepared the Earth Consciousness as a whole to receive the supramental force, power and light. 

In 1956, Sri Aurobindo's work from the subtle plane bore fruit. During the meditation in the playground on February 29, 1956, The Mother saw Her subtle body enlarging to the size of the universe and becoming golden. Before her appeared a massive golden door and beside her was an equally massive golden hammer. With one blow The Mother smashed the door, the curtain between earth and the golden supramental realms. Floods of living light of golden color poured down onto earth. Earth had thus realized the Supermind, the Supramental Truth Consciousness.

Instantaneously, the inertia of the earth rose up in equally great floods and swallowed up the descending Force and Grace. 

Following this great event, Divine Love descended on earth in 1962. The Supramental Force advanced further in 1967 by manifesting itself in the earth consciousness. At that point The Mother saw that the consciousness was now available to any of the governments of the world. Again on January 1st, 1969 the Force further evolved and became an individualized Superman consciousness and appeared before The Mother. 

The Mother says that since its advent in 1956, the Force is effectively determining the course of earthly events. The diffusion of the Cuban crisis and simultaneous inexplicable withdrawal of the Chinese from the Indian border when invasion was immanent occurred because of the presence of this Force. She also says children born after 1962 have greater receptivity to this Force. (Paraphrase of MSS)  

Descent of the Force
Sri Aurobindo and The Mother had experiences in which they perceived the Supramental, truth consciousness was becoming more firmly fixed in the universe. In 1956, 1962, and in others years that followed she experienced the first firm descent of the Supramental consciousness, the Force, into the earthly realm, into human consciousness, into her own body, and in other ways.

Descent of the Force
In 1956 on February 29th, while Mother was in meditation at the playground with all the sadhaks [spiritual aspirants, followers], She saw a golden door and a golden hammer. She broke that door with the hammer. A Golden Light, the Supramental Light, flooded the earth. Up rose the earth's tamas [resistance, inertia] and swallowed the descending Force. (MSS)

Descent of the Force into Earth's Atmosphere
The Mother, the partner of Sri Aurobindo, said that this Power, this supramental Power and Force had vastly increased in intensity on the earth since 1956. Small efforts of opening to and using this Power (i.e. consecrating all of our events in our lives) will create enormous results, defying normal notions of cause and effect, and space and time. We have the Power before us; thus we should avail of that Opportunity. It is in that way the Hour of God, where we are given the opportunity in this golden moment to seize it.

See Entries from Mother's Agenda from 1956 on Descent of Supramental Force

Sri Aurobindo's Method of Enabling a New Divine Life on Earth
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 this Truth Consciousness (the very same consciousness that was instrumental in the creation of the universe), then we can change life as we know it; change our own lives, change the lives of the community, the society, and life on earth. 

If we learn how to open to this Force, we can begin to live in an astounding new way, a way that has no precedence in human history; where every conceivable problem could be solved; where all our life activities and circumstances play out in perfect harmony, in perfect execution; where all of life cooperates; and where we gain access to infinite possibilities for creation, accomplishment, success, and joy. 

Things that we perceived as limited in scope -- whether a business transaction, scientific research, a research project, or a great work of art -- are now seen and understood to have infinite scope. Past limitations turn into great multiples and infinities. Our perceptions of quantity and quality change, our perceptions of space and time become different, the nature of cause and effect is altered.

 

The Descent of the Supermind
The descent of the Supermind [the supramental truth consciousness] is a long process, or at least a process with a long preparation, and one can only say that the work is going on sometimes with a strong pressure for completion, sometimes retarded by the things that rise from below and have to be dealt with before further progress can be made. The process is a spiritual evolutionary process, concentrated into a brief period - it could be done otherwise (by what men would regard as a miraculous intervention) only if the human mind were more flexible and less attached to its ignorance than it is. As we envisage it, it must manifest in a few first and then spread, but it is not likely to overpower the earth in a moment.

It is not advisable to discuss too much what it will do and how it will do it, because these are things the Supermind itself will fix, acting out of that Divine Truth in it, and the mind must not try to fix for it grooves in which it will run. Naturally, the release from subconscient ignorance and from disease, duration of life at will, and a change in the functionings of the body must be among the ultimate elements of a supramental change; but the details of these things must be left for the supramental Energy to work out according to the truth of its own nature. (Sri Aurobindo)

The Force Compels World Unity
The Divine Force is compelling the world toward world unity. World unity is a movement toward greater and greater connectedness, oneness, which is a property of spirit. The evolutionary spiritual Force is the power and spirit behind the movement of globalization.

Utilizing Creative Action of the Force in World Scene
The opening to the Force and its Creative Action enabled the stalemate of the Cold War to dissolve through the personality of one individual, Gorbachev. It can be invoked again to enable Its Creative Action to overcome obstacles of the post Cold War period. But that will likely require another such individual in power to be the instrument.

Evolution Due to Its Aspirations, Spiritual Determinants, Evolutionary Intention
The social life of the collective is continuous evolving under pressure of its own aspiration to manifest greater powers of life. It is also evolving under the influence of higher-level spiritual determinants working behind the scenes to express higher powers of consciousness. This evolutionary intention expresses subconsciously as the will of the society. This collective will expresses through the actions of individual members of the society pursuing their own interests and aspirations. (MSS)

Force Moving through US and India
The Force is moving through technology in the US. Rather than moving directly from spirit-oriented India, the Force has taken an unexpected path, moving through the emerging subtle technology of Internet in the US, which extends in collaborative service work with India, where the Force returns to meet its true earthly Source. Then together these two nations can enable the infinite to emerge in the finite, not just in the material plane, but in all planes.

Movement of Force in US and India
The reason the Force has moved through the US rather than directly from its source India to the world is that the US needs to brings its practical organization, including the infinite attracting Internet, to energize, focus, and make practically real the lessons of spirit.

The Force Driving Technology
The Supramental Force of 1956 is organising itself and taking possession of Technology as well as social, subtle organisation, having moved from the governments it possessed in 1967. (MSS)

One's Spirit Connecting to Society's Spirit Enables Boom
When a writer or the leader or other skilled individual has touched the Spirit in his own inspiration in his field, it touches the Spirit of the population also. This individual Spirit calling the social Spirit creates a live ever-increasing movement, a boom, e.g. of sales or popularity.

Anyone who is patient enough to invoke the Spirit in his own life, who acts on his own faith in Spirit rather than his own individual capacities to succeed, will witness such a boom in his own life. How far it will rise depends upon how far he is in tune with the Spirit of the Times.

With the spiritual Force ever-increasing in the atmosphere, this phenomenon of interrelated Spirit is ever-more likely to burst out into boom. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Also See Thoughts on the Supramental Plane We Can Rise To
 

LIMITATIONS OF RELIGION  vs. SPIRITUALITY
(top)
 

Beyond Religion to Spirituality | Misperceiving the Part for the Whole

Orthodoxy, Dogma, Ritual, Superstition | Religious Fundamentalism | Other
 


Beyond Religion to Spirituality
(main)

End of Religion
Religion, which has helped civilize society, has now outlived its time, and is destined to be replaced by the rationality of the mind and a purer spirituality.

Religion vs. Spirituality
Religion is many following the inspiration of one enlightened person. Spirituality is each one seeking his own illumination. (MSS)

Spiritual vs. Religious Life
Spiritual life is one's own inner experience. Religious life is following other's spiritual experience, as adopted by us.

Emulate Religious Leaders Lives
Religion has given us great prophets to follow. In the future instead of being followers of people of spirit, we will become spiritual ourselves.

Spirituality vs. Religion
A key step in the evolution of the individual is the movement away from the rituals of religion to having spiritual experiences, and living the Spirit directly. Religion is a collective following of the experiences and realizations of one great individual. Spirituality, or living one's life rooted in Spirit, is to have such experiences one's self. It is even more than that: Whereas religion is to overemphasize one ray of the truth, claiming it is the whole truth, spirituality is to experience the Divine reality and to humble one's self to its Vastness and Infinite Scope.

Shallow Religions & Proselytizing
The shallower the religion or spiritual teaching, the more it tends to proselytize.

Nature's Four Ways to the Inner Life
The course of Nature has followed four ways to open up our inner lives -- through religion, occultism, spiritual thought, and inner spiritual realization. Only the last is decisive. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Religion vs. Spirituality
 -First, an individual has a profound realization of the spirit. (E.g. Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna, etc.)

-That individual brings a new level of spiritual evolution into society. (E.g. Jesus of Love, Buddha of suffering and salvation.)

-A religion then adopts and then expands in the social sphere on the realization of the pioneering spiritual founder, i.e. the Avatar.

-The followers of the religion are compelled to follow the precepts of the founder.

-Religion develops ritual, dogma, and superstition to organize the founder's experiences in ways to develop and maintain its organization. After some benefit, it creates an institution of Darkness out of the spiritual realization of Light of the founder.

-Spirituality is to one's self have the spiritual experience. Within a religion it can said to be to have the experience of that founder. Instead, the religion advocates worshipping the founder through the methodologies advocated by the religious institution. Anachronistic tendencies and Darkness begins to move in. Its actions lead to actions that are false, bordering on evil. (Some aspects or individuals remain in the light.)

-Even the Avatar, religious founder, though great, only expresses one or several rays of the truth; nothing near the whole truth of the Spirit.

-True, integral realization of the spirit is to connect to the spirit in all its aspects; Knowledge, Truth, Love, Beauty, Oneness, Peace, and Bliss, etc. It is beyond religion. It is even beyond the experience of one ray/aspect of the spirit.

-Religion has passed its time. It has for the most part become an anachronisms. Spirituality is now fully available for Man in the present for his full realization.

-Each person can know the Divine, become It, and bring It fully into the Becomings of life, thereby divinizing all life on earth.   

Going Beyond Old Religious Superstition to Soul Awakening
When people are well educated, liberated from ordinary superstition, they may awake a little in their souls, but still cling to prayers and rituals, forgetting that the deity that grants so many prayers is no longer capable of playing a role in their lives, as their souls are now awakened ... Thus the awakened soul is not inimical to the deity. When the quality of worship degenerates to superstitious rituals, the ORIGINAL deity installed there leaves, and his place is occupied by vital [darker, less pure] spirits whose touch is enjoyed by one's own superstition.  (MSS, slightly modified)

Full Embodiment of Spirit Beyond Religion
The origins of religion are not ritual and pious rules, but of the experience and realization of spirit in one or more of its aspects. The ongoing religion itself is the many followers trying to live the experience of the originator, which may be a great, but is only a part realization of the multi-dimensional aspects of spirit. The true spiritual person will try to live in his life the integral spirituality experiencing and eventually embodying all of the spiritual attributes of Knowledge, Truth, Love, Beauty, Oneness, Peace, and Bliss. This emergence of the spiritual man is a serious goal of the 21st century.

Availability of Spirituality for this Who Have the Call, the Aspiration for It
-Religious worship is for all. Spirituality is for those who have the call.

-There was a time when spirituality was meant for one who could go to the forest, sleep on a bed of nails, etc. Now since 1956 when the Force descended, the right to enjoy a higher spirituality is waiting at the door of everyone, provided he has aspiration. By aspiration it means the aspiration of the Soul. (MSS)

Religion and Spirituality
The time of religion is coming to an end. It has served its purpose. Now it is an anachronism. The time of spirit is at hand.

Religion vs. Spirituality
We rarely ask ourselves the question, ''What is Spirituality?" because it is our understanding that we know it, an obvious fact. What we know as spirituality is worship, a religious ritual.

Those who are in it know the ritual has no life or reality, much less an inner spiritual elevation that is expansive and makes us feel we are born anew. It is not as if we do not know it.

Replace Religion with Spiritual Life
We replace religion with spiritual life, which is truer and both deeper and higher, that is to say, closer to the Divine. For the Divine is in all things, but we are not conscious of it. (The Mother)

Spread of Religion Temporarily Meet Emotional Needs of Individuals
While the Roman Empire united the nations of the world in the sense in that it brought a modicum of order and law to its far-flung subjects, it did not fulfill the emotional needs of individuals. That was left to compassion that was fundamental to the teachings of Christianity. (Later on the new religion and its leadership became a new form of tyranny.) Today many have turned to Islam because of the inability of society to meet its emotional needs, particularly as that society has failed to provide fundamental economic security. The same is true for the spread of Christianity among the poorer nations of the world today. As people are educated to past tyrannies, there is an abandonment of these religious traditions, opening the doorway to the possibility of a new spirituality replacing the superstitions and limitations of religion. Europe and the US demonstrates such propensities. The East, in particular India, already has Spirit in in the very fiber of its being. Unfortunately, it has been hidden, and needs to be recalled from these depths to the surface functionings of life.

Spiritual vs. Life Security
-Man does not seek the security in the Divine. He seeks that security in his family, friends, and society.
-Beyond the family, society, and ethics lies spiritual security, the knowledge that one is a Spirit inside. (MSS)

On Religion
Religion in its most exalted forms of spirituality focuses on inner spiritual experience to reveal that reality directly to the consciousness of the spiritual seeker. In its more mundane forms, it provides a set of tenets to govern human behavior in a manner that appears most conducive to social harmony and moral development.

On Religion
If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. (Sri Aurobindo)

Subjectivity of a Philosophy, Religion
Subjectivity is to understand the world from our point of view. Detaching ourselves from our own understanding, looking at things as they are, is objectivity.

Youth accepting a new philosophy or religion and embracing it will find that creed is the ultimate TRUTH in the world. It is mental subjectivity. (MSS, extracted) [The Spiritual view, on the other hand is true objectivity]

"God" vs. Spirit
In Europe, the word God has acquired an undesirable reputation because of fanatic propaganda in the nineteenth century. Religious people will not appreciate the word Spirit replacing the word God. But Soul is not a word that is in disfavour. (MSS)

MSS Articles on Religion
 Religion in Politics 

 

Misperceiving the Part for the Whole
(main)

On Religion
All religions have some truth in them, but none has the whole truth; all are created in time and finally decline and perish. (Sri Aurobindo)

Religion and Ignorance
Despite its enormous contributions in times past to the civility and consciousness of man, each religion is essentially living in Ignorance, because Ignorance is to see only one side of the myriad of truths that make up the whole.

Each Religion Know the Part, not the Whole
Each religion knows but one ray of the ultimate spiritual truth. Together they may move us closer to the whole truth; though the Whole Truth includes and transcends them all. 

God for Whole of Creation
God gives Himself to His whole creation; no one religion holds the monopoly of His Grace. (The Mother)

Transformation, Not Suffering as Salvation
Some religions see suffering as a means to salvation, in which one is rewarded in heaven. Sri Aurobindo says that it is not the suffering that is the key to life, but the personal an spiritual transformation of humanity as the way to a new life. Also that new life is not a heaven in the afterlife, but a new divine life on earth.

Religious Dogma that Does Not Know the Whole
Religion is dogma in that it takes its own limited understanding; it's own rituals as the whole truth; when it is in fact a part that has become its essential Ignorance. When believed in that Ignorance becomes Falsehood. When that Falsehood is acted upon it can become and has become Evil. The many-sided perception of and experience of Spirit itself must emerge from the dogma, superstition, and falsehood of religion.

On Exclusivity of Religion
We call religion any concept of the world or the universe which is presented as the exclusive Truth in which one must have an absolute faith, generally because this Truth is declared to be the result of a revelation. Most of the religions affirm the existence of a God and the rules to follow to obey Him, but there are also Godless religions, such as socio-political organisations which, in the name of an Ideal or the State, claim the same right to be obeyed

Man's right is a free pursuit of the Truth with the liberty to approach it in his own way. But each one must know that his discovery is good for him alone and it is not to be enforced upon others. (The Mother)

See Thoughts on Science Also Misperceiving the Part for the Whole

 

Orthodoxy, Dogma, Ritual, Superstition
 (main)

Orthodoxy, Dogma, Ritual, Superstition
 (topic)

Roots of Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy all over the world is the vital reinforcement of physical rituals and ceremonies. (MSS) 

Religion and Ego
Religious doctrine, morality, and ritual is mostly individualized or collective ego.

Going Beyond Old Religious Superstition to Soul Awakening
When people are well educated, liberated from ordinary superstition, they may awake a little in their souls, but still cling to prayers and rituals, forgetting that the deity that grants so many prayers is no longer capable of playing a role in their lives, as their souls are now awakened ... Thus the awakened soul is not inimical to the deity. When the quality of worship degenerates to superstitious rituals, the ORIGINAL deity installed there leaves, and his place is occupied by vital [darker, less pure] spirits whose touch is enjoyed by one's own superstition.  (MSS, slightly modified)

Falsehood of (Religious) Rituals
Rituals of every kind are organised falsehood in the subtle plane with the darkness strengthened. (MSS)

Limitations of Religion and Science
How can religion ever know spirit when it is tethered to a thousand superstitions? And how can science ever know the true Truth when it accepts only material evidence, and denies the Unseen?

Not Admitting of Evolution
Those who believe there is a heaven and hell and only a single life on earth understand our life to be typal, not admitting evolution. (MSS)

Jesus' Teachings and Its Misreading

I don't believe Jesus believed that we will be saved only through Jesus. Only a church, i.e. religion, would say such a thing; one that is divorced from its spiritual source. The suppressed gnostic Gospels of Thomas, if it is real, indicates that Jesus believed that the Kingdom of God lies within - i.e. that we can find the Divine within ourselves, which is radical departure from the Church belief of the last 2000 years. The gospel of Thomas also indicates (through their omission) the absence of Heaven and Hell, no Resurrection, no dying for our sins, etc.

We must thus distinguish the Christ from Christianity. For more on this compelling topic, please see Deepak Chopra's new book on the three Jesuses.

Sri Aurobindo indicated that Jesus brought a level of divine Love to the world that had never existed before.

 

On the Greatness and Limits of Jesus' Understanding

Here is a response to a reader who questioned my statement " ... that even Jesus Christ himself...lacked the strength and power to overcome those who sought to destroy him."

I have considered what you have said and appreciate your point of view. It is more than lack of strength and power that Jesus lacked, but the access to the truth of the situation he found himself in when betrayed. I.e. He did not have the truth power and knowledge to overcome circumstance. His knowledge was partial and incomplete; otherwise he would have avoided death.

(In that light, the idea of Him dying for our sins, or that one must suffer to find the Spirit, or that his suffering is necessary for connecting with the Spirit are inventions of propagated at least in part by the church. There is no real spiritual truth in such positions; they may even be expression of darkness.)

Still Jesus was the first one to bring Love to humanity, and for that his ancient message has now travelled around the world to hundreds of millions. But as great as it was, his message and teaching is only one ray amongst many others who have had profound, and infinitely varied spiritual experience.

In fact, now individuals of the world are having many such experiences, and more; integrating many facets of those who came before, and in certain instances exceeding them. As the spiritual experience shifts to the common man, a great variety of realization occurs that integrates various facets of the Spirit simultaneously.

 

Buddha's Teachings and Its Misreading

As I understand Buddha, he led a sheltered life living in royalty, and then came to see that there was suffering in the world -- death, disease, decay --, which shocked him to no end. From there he perceived that all was impermanence, and searched for a way out it -- perhaps seeking permanence. He found it though meditation that shed attachment to the material life, which led to emptiness within, which along with other experience triggered enlightenment (nirvana). The main precepts that came out of his experience were not to be attached to the allures of this world; to free one's self of desire, want, and mental perturbation. His goal was to discover the negation of attachment, which he did, which led to peace and then nirvana, which was followed by a deep compassion for others.

Well, if he advocated non-attachment to the trappings of the material world, why do they then make endless statues of him? It is completely at odds with his teachings. Also, how did his religious wisdom lead to the development of religious ritual, including a Buddha greeting the dead in Heaven, or followers equating him with God, and other such religious precepts? He was not moving along those lines. Rather he asked fundamental questions about life that had never been addressed before -- including why is there suffering in the world and how can we overcome it. He then looked within in an effort to resolve them.

These inquiries were unprecedented in spiritual history -- a necessary stage in the spiritual development of Man.  As avatar -- i.e. one who brings a new spiritual perspective to meet the needs of that time -- he helped bring our understanding forward.

Like Jesus, the socialization of Buddha's experience is a case of religion being separated from its spiritual inspiration and source. 

 

The Pantheon of the Indian Gods and Beyond 

We can perceive three essential aspects and movements of life: things are created anew; they are protected and preserved; and they cease to be when their consciousness can no longer sustain themselves. These three aspects of existence are represented by the three primal deities of the Indian pantheon; the God Brahma is responsible for creation, creating anew; Vishnu preserves and protects what exists; and Siva destroys that which is no longer needed.

For example, when a Hindu family goes into a temple, they may seek the birth of a child by worshiping the representation of Brahma; the good health of an existing child through Vishnu; and ridding themselves of wrong attitude and ignorance through Siva. Because these powers are alive in the hearts and minds of the worshipers, it energizes these Gods, who have do in fact have power to bestow their gifts. This is far different than the Greek Gods, which have long been dormant.

And yet today worshiping such ancient deities and primal forces are being overpassed for direct spiritual experience by each individual person. The new way in these times of increasing freedom and individuality is to have direct experience of the Spirit in its varied forms -- from the soul within to the transcendent reality without.

In India this approach was actually advocated long ago by Lord Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu) as narrated in the Bhagavad Gita. There he instructed the great warrior Arjuna that what matters most in life is connecting to and perceiving the Divine Reality. Through that personal spiritual experience, one comes to know the great truths of life, including the right handling of one's own inner and outer battles. In that regard, Arjuna succeeded royally, winning the battle at Kurekshetra against evil enemies that were of his own blood.  His direct spiritual experience of the Divine, not simply praying to a God or deity, fostered his success.

This approach has taken another leap forward in modern times through the teachings of seer and sage Sri Aurobindo, who through a complex and powerful metaphysics and yoga (method of conscious transformation) has married the spiritual wisdom of ancient India to the profound modern truth of evolution. When we overcome our limited nature, discover our true selves, connect with our evolving soul within, and open to the spiritual Force in the atmosphere, we evolve ourselves, and become pioneers for a new humanity.

Though the Gods, representing profound ancient truths, were once worth worshiping, we can now become true spiritual individuals by personally experiencing the spirit in all its dimensions. Peace, harmony, wisdom, overcoming time and space, creativity, beauty, love, and deep delight are all qualities we can realize in our daily lives. This is our destiny in the 21st century; to become true spiritual individuals who can embody spirit in any of its aspects, each in our own unique way.

On Heaven and Hell
Sri Aurobindo never postulated a hell. Mother says if there is a hell, God is there even in hell. She could not pardon those who had invented the idea of hell. It is said that even in the church at the level of the Cardinals, it is known that no hell exists, and the idea of its existence is only for public consumption.  (MSS)

What Christmas Really Is
It's [Christmas] the festival of Light: Christmas is the festival of the return of the Light -- it's much older than Christianity! -- when the days were beginning to grow longer. (The Mother)

Fundamentalism that Dissolves with Prosperity
 Wherever life opens prosperity, religion goes to the background. Equally, the rising enlightenment of the mind prevents religion from having an intoxicating hold on it that leads to rabid fanatical behaviour. (MSS)

COMMENTS:
-We know that whenever rabid fundamentalists confront prosperity, their reason d'etre diminishes and eventually disappears. That by the way is true for the zealots of ALL major religions.
-Prosperity does not overcome spirituality however. Those who are taking to the deepest truths of life that come through spirit are supported by financial well being. In fact, prosperity is a great support for spiritual progress in life. It is even one of its goals.
-Of course, as the mind becomes more rational, thoughtful, insightful, it leaves religious fundamentalism behind. If that mind is inquisitive and determined to grow further, then it moves to the spirit, which is certainly beyond religious dogma, ritual, and superstition, even beyond religions best qualities.
-In fact above rational mind that generates thought-based conclusions, is the more subtle form of insight through direct illumination and intuitions of knowledge; which moves one directly to the true truth of things. It is a step on the road to continually having the multi-sided knowledge of an issue, -- as opposed to the narrow, one-sided, exclusive, ego-supported ordinary functioning of mind, even rational mind -- which is an indicator of the spiritual dimension of Knowledge. Other dimensions include the experience of Oneness, Peace, Delight, Truth, Power, Goodness, Beauty, Love, Infinity, Etc.

"God" vs. Spirit
In Europe, the word God has acquired an undesirable reputation because of fanatic propaganda in the nineteenth century. Religious people will not appreciate the word Spirit replacing the word God. But Soul is not a word that is in disfavour. (MSS)

Ignorance Misperceives Scientific Concepts as God in Earlier Times
In the literature of the earlier centuries, we see God figures so often as HE was a member of our life. What we know now as an action of gravity, chemistry, medicine,  mathematics, etc. they attributed to God, ignorant of all of them.

Also See Thoughts on Anachronisms (and other negatives) in Society

Also See Additional Thoughts on Superstition


 

Religious Fundamentalism
 (main)

End to Fundamentalism through Prosperity

Fundamentalism as Indicator of End of Religion
Religious fundamentalism is the frontal edge showing that religion has served its purpose and whose time is coming to an end. Spirituality and the direct experience of the spirit by Man will replace it.

Prosperity and End of Religion
Wherever life opens prosperity, religion goes to the background. Equally, the rising enlightenment of the mind prevents religion from having an intoxicating hold on it that leads to rabid fanatical behaviour. (MSS)

Religious Fundamentalism and Poverty
Religious fundamentalism and its violence has its root causes in poverty. Therefore, devising strategies to overcome poverty and implementing them in full can eliminate rapid religious fundamentalism.

Prosperity that Ends Fundamentalism
Prosperity dissolves human perversity. Fundamentalism goes to the rear, the dollar sign ($) beckons. (MSS)

Remedy for Religious Based Terrorism is Prosperity
Religion is the opium of the masses not when they are educated or prosperous. Hence the remedy for [religious-based] terrorism lies in opening up the avenues of economic betterment. (MSS)

Cause and Solution to Radical Religious Fundamentalism

Religious fundamentalism that has turned to anger has reared its ugly head. As a result, people want to know how to resolve the problem. On one side, the angry bomb throwers and planters sense that they have been treated shabbily over the years; while the other side perceives fanatics resorting to the evil of violence. Is there any common ground to solve these conflicting views? I believe there is, and it is quite simple actually.

Let's consider the evolution of society. It originated in Africa, and spread North and to the East. Religion first emerged in the Middle East. Then thinking and mentality arose in Greece, and ordered society followed in Rome. Many years later, global trade developed, the Renaissance took shape, followed by the rise of democracy, particularly in England, and freedom blossomed through revolution and war in France. Several centuries after, super-prosperity emerged through the practical organization and mass production in the virgin soil of the United States. In the interim -- actually over the course of thousands of years -- spirituality and culture emerged in the East, particularly in India. Now Asia is rising rapidly to material prosperity once only enjoyed by the West.

In the course of history, the nations of the Middle East and the Arab world were overpassed and forgotten, while the rest of the world continued its evolutionary progress, leaving her destitute. Also, with parched soil, the Middle East could produce little of value, until the relatively recent discovery of the natural resource of oil. Over centuries -- particularly in recent times -- the Middle Eastern denizens became discouraged, looking to hold onto any creed in the face of a society that had failed them. A number turned toward virulent fundamentalism; not so much to express their religious feelings, but to (subconsciously) express their material frustration that the world had left them behind.

This violent strain is actually a recent phenomenon, accelerating in the last several decades. In a world of "Rising Expectations" -- where every individual can learn through the media that the rest of the world is prospering -- it is easy to feel left out, and therefore one is apt to turn bitter and destructive. In the absence of other alternatives, fundamentalist religion filled the vacuum.

So what is the answer? It is said that the solution to any problem can be found in the cause. Poverty and lack of opportunity is the source of the discontent, the cause of extreme religious fundamentalism and its ensuing violence. Overcoming poverty then is the solution, and is one course that must be taken to overcome the problem.

Let us then hear about initiatives that attempt to bring these citizens into material well-being like the rest of the world. Saber-rattling alone will NEVER solve this problem. These people need good jobs, need to experience real opportunity, so that they can taste the material abundance known by the West and now emerging in the East. Absorbed in success, they will have little energy to engage in rabid religious fundamentalism, let alone the dogma and superstition of religion. They can then fully join the rest of humanity in the world's ongoing, progressive pursuit of progress and world unity

Fundamentalism that Dissolves with Prosperity
 Wherever life opens prosperity, religion goes to the background. Equally, the rising enlightenment of the mind prevents religion from having an intoxicating hold on it that leads to rabid fanatical behaviour. (MSS)

COMMENTS:
-We know that whenever rabid fundamentalists confront prosperity, their reason d'etre diminishes and eventually disappears. That by the way is true for the zealots of ALL major religions.
-Prosperity does not overcome spirituality however. Those who are taking to the deepest truths of life that come through spirit are supported by financial well being. In fact, prosperity is a great support for spiritual progress in life. It is even one of its goals.
-Of course, as the mind becomes more rational, thoughtful, insightful, it leaves religious fundamentalism behind. If that mind is inquisitive and determined to grow further, then it moves to the spirit, which is certainly beyond religious dogma, ritual, and superstition, even beyond religions best qualities.
-In fact above rational mind that generates thought-based conclusions, is the more subtle form of insight through direct illumination and intuitions of knowledge; which moves one directly to the true truth of things. It is a step on the road to continually having the multi-sided knowledge of an issue, -- as opposed to the narrow, one-sided, exclusive, ego-supported ordinary functioning of mind, even rational mind -- which is an indicator of the spiritual dimension of Knowledge. Other dimensions include the experience of Oneness, Peace, Delight, Truth, Power, Goodness, Beauty, Love, Infinity, Etc.

Western Prosperity as Lure out of Religious Conservatism
The prosperous Western life is too strong a lure to be resisted by the conservative religious followers of the East. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Religious Superstition Ended by Prosperity and Education
 In the absence of prosperity and education, religion does havoc to the mind through the instrumentation of superstition.

Pious Antagonism Suggests a New Discovery
When a religious group or other pious entity assert that the latest scientific development is the work of some dark force, it is often an indicator of the rightness of the new discovery, and its great emergence in some form for the benefit of humanity sometime in the near or distant future.

End of Hold of Religion Behind Terrorism through Prosperity, Education, & Enlightened Mind
After the end of the Cold War, we see ferocious animosities focused at precise undefined points in the shape of terrorist explosions. Presently the world is finding it difficult to come by a satisfying answer to this phenomenon.

Marx's description of religion as the opium of the masses deserves consideration here.

Opium intoxicates in usual doses, destroys in overdoses. What is a usual dose of a drug to a cultivated mind is an overdose to a superstitious mind. Idealism for a great mind is fanaticism for a small mind.

Culture is the best ingredient of Mind that makes it level headed or great. It is education that prepares the mind to receive culture. Man thinks of education when his stomach is full. Hunger prevents one from seeking education.

Physical threat and insecurity can drive man so hard, that he even overlooks the claims of a half-filled stomach.

Superstition forms and takes hold of people at all levels of insufficiency. There is a 'proper' superstition to each level of maturity or immaturity.

Superstition makes men fanatics. After the end of the World War, as well as the Cold War, there appears no valid reason for fighting.

Still, isolated intense fights, or rather attacks are there all the time. In the absence of prosperity and education, religion does havoc to the mind through the instrumentation of superstition.

Therefore, we see the power of Marx's observation. It is a historical fact that wherever life opens prosperity, religion goes to the background. Equally, the rising enlightenment of the mind prevents religion from having an intoxicating hold on it that leads to rabid fanatical behaviour.

We also see in those hotbeds of internecine conflicts - Palestine, Kashmir, Ireland - there is mass migration seeking better economic life, disregarding religious persuasions.

Religion is the opium of the masses not when they are educated or prosperous. Hence the remedy for terrorism lies in opening up the avenues of economic betterment. (MSS)

Superstition, Fanaticism, and Religion
Superstition forms and takes hold of people at all levels of insufficiency. There is a 'proper' superstition to each level of maturity or immaturity.

Superstition makes men fanatics. After the end of the World War, as well as the Cold War, there appears no valid reason for fighting.

Still, isolated intense fights, or rather attacks are there all the time. In the absence of prosperity and education, religion does havoc to the mind through the instrumentation of superstition.

Thoughts on Terrorism

 

End of Fundamentalism -- Other

US's Practical Internal Harmony of Several Cultures as Model to End to Fundamentalism
The supreme need of several cultures having to live together brought the US a practical harmony in its existence.

Nature's experiment that has been brought several cultures together in the US is a direct antidote to fundamentalism. (Paraphrase of MSS) 

Religious Fundamentalism, New Tolerance
On the surface it appears that there is a rise in religious intolerance and fundamentalism in the world. Actually on closer examination we are seeing a far greater tolerance for other religions and thought and a rising secularism in the worldly. The religious intolerance and fundamentalism we view is to a great extent only a frightened or frustrated reaction to the rapid modernization and secularism of society around the world and the breakdown of traditional distinctions and ancient prejudices that have divided humanity into hostile or warring groups in past centuries.

Groups Get Along in US Because of Vast Economic Opportunity
 The reason all of the varying groups get along in the US is because of great economic opportunity that exists there. Any man from any group can reach the top very quickly through hard work and perseverance. Without that opportunity the groups might very well be at each other's throats.

 

Other
(main)

Science and Religion

Limitation of Religion and Science

Religion is dogma in that it takes its own limited understanding; it's own rituals as the whole truth; when it is in fact a part that has become its essential Ignorance. When believed in that Ignorance becomes Falsehood. When that Falsehood is acted upon it can become and has become Evil. The many-sided perception of and experience of Spirit itself must emerge from the dogma, superstition, and falsehood of religion.

Science was born when mind looked out through a higher rationality at the limiting ritual, narrow-mindedness, and authoritarianism of religion. However, over time science too became authoritarian in that it subscribed to matter as the Ruler of all the world, as the one and only reality. Like religion it worshipped the part as the whole, taking matter as all of existence; ignoring the whole of life, turning away from the deepest and most profound processes of creation, ignoring the inner psychological state and consciousness of the individual, turning away from the hidden, subtle universal forces and powers, and ultimately casting a cynical eye at the transcendent Divine Spirit. 

Science believes that its knowledge of the surface is the whole of existence, when it is in fact a woeful mini-part of a complex, rich, intricate fabric of a seen and Unseen life and existence. Like religion it is also rooted in an essential Ignorance, whose tenets are subscribed to by its advocates enabling an essential Falsehood, which is then acted upon to create various formulations and products of destruction which become in essence its own form of Evil.

Even as the religions are dying in the wake of their own dogma and superstition, the modern science is limiting our world view to that which is seen on the surface through the instrument of the human senses, or through its agents, the microscope, the telescope and other technologies of measurement; giving us proof of the material surface part, while providing woefully incomplete analysis and insights into the True Nature of the vast, multidimensional Scope of the cosmos. Through its myopic material-only, proof-only, surface-only view science has avoided the Great Truths and Wisdom of life, including the ultimate Knowledge of Spirit, which is the Cosmos' great vehicle for manifestation and unfolding.

 

Science, Religion, and Philosophy
Science focuses primarily and most successfully on physical facts in search for the laws and principles governing the formation of material objects and material forces, though its researches have now taken it to the borderline where the material opens out into more subtler domains of reality. Religion in its most exalted forms of spirituality focuses on inner spiritual experience to reveal that reality directly to the consciousness of the spiritual seeker. In its more mundane forms, it provides a set of tenets to govern human behavior in a manner that appears most conducive to social harmony and moral development. Philosophy focuses on the construction of a rational mental framework for understanding reality. But since mind's linear mode of functioning rarely suffices to embrace the subtle and many-sided complexity of life movements, philosophy normally fails by abstraction to capture the object of its search. (MSS)

Ironies for Religion and Science
What an irony for the religionists; that if we tap into spirit to become far more materially abundant, successful, as well as joyful! What an irony for the scientists that we can know the deepest meanings of the ways of life, the True Physics of the universe, if we spend a little less time with our telescopes, microscopes, and a little more time with the Spirit that is deep within us, that is involved in matter; which if discovered and utilized, will enable us to have material instruments and technologies that are a thousand times better than the ones we have; but will also enable a level of harmony and accord in the world that we can only dream of; enabling us to solve all of the problems of hunger and poverty and misery and want and suffering and pain and death and war and destruction; that will also enable us to resolve the inner psychological pain and need within; that will give us insights into new possibilities of resolution of problems in the world, in our communities, in our companies, in our families, and in our own individual lives.


Mythology

Accepting Mythology of Others
People who accept their own mythologies question the mythologies of others. (MSS)

Mythology and Celebrity
[re: the fame and worshipping of super celebrities long after their death]

It is said that the Gods only have power because people believe in them. Of course, they have power in of themselves, but it is reinforced through people's beliefs. In some places, that belief is gone, while in others it maintains, even if somewhat anachronistically. Thus, the Greek Gods are nearly instinct, including their power, whereas the Hindu Gods somewhat live on.

We can turn any individual into our own God, a projection of our own values. Celebrities have this status. People want to worship something, so they take to what is in their surroundings.

The famous taking on mythic quality is valued by the society. When it is rock music and kung fu, it shows how physical and vital we are; not mental or spiritual.

If the mythology is trivial, then it is indicative of the triviality of society.

Mythology becoming physical reality is falsehood. Mythology is to teach lessons, not be be worshipped and materialized. It is the form becoming the message, forgetting the inherent truth and value beneath.

The Utility of Evil as Expressed in Mythology and Reality

 

Other

Untitled
The static spirit that India has known is fulfilled through Sri Aurobindo's dynamic evolutionary view of existence.

Origins of Zen, Buddhism, and Eastern Mysticism in the West
The UK went to the Middle East and Asia for trade and conquest. It ended up in the conqueror being conquered by the culture of the subject nations. The British Empire was the main reason for the interest of the West now in Zen, Buddhism and Eastern mysticism. (MSS, modified)

The Goddess
God the enforcer of Semitic origins overshadowed the nurturing and strong Goddess (the Divine Mother) of Indo European origin. Now that has begun to reverse.

Our Perceptions of God's Nature
The fact that we anthromorphize God, i.e. explain His attributes in terms of our own, shows we are stuck in our ego-based, physico-vital consciousness, below even rationality and spirit that would certainly reveal a more integral picture of His True Nature.

Intermediary Progressive Religions
 New progressive religions could emerge as stepping stones to the spiritual life that replaces religious life.

Western, Eastern Religion; Integral Knowledge
 Western religions have focused on how to act. Eastern religion has focused on the nature of life. In the future we will have the knowledge of how to act given the nature of life.

Light and Darkness
 What if everything that were happening in the world were really a struggle between unseen forces of Darkness and Light? What if what we accept in our religious beliefs as powers of Light were really powers of Darkness? At the highest level, the Light needs the Darkness to progress, as the Darkness needs the Light to progress.

Untitled
We think that Jesus suffered and died for our sins, and we should worship him for his suffering. But it can be viewed as symbolic of our own suffering; the need to come to grips with the causes of our own difficulties, which we must address through the recognition of our lower propensities, which can be transformed through our higher consciousness and connection to the Divine spirit.
 

MISCELLANEOUS
(top)

Untitled
Material abundance is a basis of an evolutionary spiritual society.

Environmentalism as Shared Religion
Environmentalism of the last thirty years has been our one shared progressive global religion.

Foundations of Culture, and the Spirit that Underlies All
The advances that we have witnessed throughout history, come at each time period as a veritable revelation to the people of that time, which later becomes the very foundation of their culture. We see such great consummations in the arrival of the Greek's intellectual culture, the Roman's love of law, the European scientific enquiry, the British patronage of democracy, and the American's excelling in practical organisation are such consummations. The Indian discovery of the Spirit as the underlying principle for all these expressions, and their reliance on that spiritual approach to shape their daily life, are unique to India. This is the basis of Sri Aurobindo's statement that India would one day become the Guru of the world. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Indian Spirituality
India must find its ancient spirituality, for after all it is the secret guru of the world.

Untitled
The New Age movement has its soul in India, its energy and leadership in the US.

The End of the Cold War and Effective Collective Prayer
There was a great prayer amongst concerned citizens of the world just before the end of the Cold War. It was an invocation for the sake of the collective, not merely for one's own self-concern. It was matched by their understanding of the issues involved and the benefit of solutions of peace for the world. The two together made all the difference. It helped enable the defining response from the Divine Mother.

A Community's Openness to Divine
You can measure a community's relationship with, and openness to the Divine, by the response that comes from a prayer from an individual who has a deep interest and understanding of a problem that is of great concern to the collective.

How Emotion Overcomes Drought
Spiritually rain is grace, WATER is emotion. When the heart is full of emotion, the water supply will be in ever increasing abundance. Centuries ago there was ONE drought in a hundred years. They have gradually increased in frequency. There were 60 in the 20th century. In spiritual parlance, this gradual increase shows man moving away from God and emotionally distancing himself from his creator. The outer occurrence of drought is the reflection of the inner dryness of the heart. If the population desires to restore richness of heart towards their creator, called the Absolute in Europe and Brahman in India, there will be spells of rain in and out of season. (MSS)

Untitled
I saw a child who beamed at me while watching Harry Potter film. I've never seen such a powerful expression of pure happiness and joy in one so young. It is the spiritual emerging in the children of this generation through their enjoyment of magic, which can be a springboard to spirit for children in their maturer years.


ADDITIONAL
 

 

 

To Be Categorized

 

 

Spiritual Evolution of Society

 

Overview

Scale of Change to Next Human Species

The evolution of consciousness from Man to the next species of human as indicated by Sri Aurobindo is as great or greater than the evolution from the ape to Man. The required level of shift of motive, attitude, belief, awareness, knowledge, decision and action -- not to mention vital and physical qualities -- is as great a change as was the shift from the monkey to our present status. The effort it takes to make one small change in our nature will need to me multiplied by hundreds or thousands of times for us to evolve into this new evolutionary Person. We can begin by a constant self-opening to the spirit, and by a vigilant rejection of all parts our lower nature, including our wanting attitudes, fixed habits, and essential ignorance of mind and action. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Our Aspiration for Higher Consciousness and a New World

The goal we seek to achieve is the continuous evolution of consciousness for the individual and humanity as a whole, which will be the harbinger of a spirit-oriented future existence, culminating in what Sri Aurobindo calls a Divine Life on Earth.

We can make this real by aspiring for this New World and for our own highest possibility; by continually rejecting the limiting and wanting parts of our being; and by opening and surrendering to the spiritual Force that has the power to set right, to divinize all aspects of life. In this way, this next stage of human evolution will be ushered in. The New World will be born.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

How to Make the Transition to the Next Species

A new, divine existence awaits us. But how to make the transition to this new existence? Will the spiritual Force, Supermind transform and transmute us? Will there be a spontaneous unfolding of the new form? Sri Aurobindo suggested he would come back as the supramental being. The Mother tried to make the physical transformation to the New Species. The new existence is a radical change from the current Man, as the current man was from the ape.

 

Man's Evolution from Limited to Rational to Spiritual Mentality

Man is evolving from a mentality dominated by sense input and satisfying the needs of the physical and vital being to one engaged in rational thought, where more of the truth of a matter is sought for and ascertained. Beyond that is the capacity to evoke knowledge directly from the universal plane through vision, intuition, revelation, and supramental perception. It is to know the object of knowledge without thought, directly, and in its multiple sides and variations. It is the spiritual dimension of Mind. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

The Nexus between Mental Man and a Supramental, Divine Existence

We humans are not the final rung in earth's evolution, as there will be a higher form; one Sri Aurobindo calls the "supramental being." These individuals will live in a unity consciousness, and be an intermediary to the full supramental realization and a Divine life on earth.

That change in consciousness began with the human mind that has created new forms of the environment, and has mentality through greater knowledge and insight. The next step then is to go deeper, and perceive the spirit, the Conscious-Force in all things, and bring it to the surface of life. In this transitional, intermediary stage to an ultimate, divine existence, our physical bodies and nature will continue to be essentially the same as now, even as we are inwardly transformed to a higher, infinitely more conscious supernature. In that process, Man will also become conscious of the potential of a new supramental existence, even as he lives in the old physical form.

Meanwhile, life around him will be of a different quality, one that is far beyond his present mental life and existence. Says the Mother: "It seems -- it is even certain -- that the very substance which will constitute this intermediate world that is already being built up, is richer, more powerful, more luminous, more resistant, with certain subtler, more penetrating new qualities, and an innate capacity for universality .. and removes the sensation of division one has with .. the ordinary mental substance."

In this way, this infinitely conscious being will be the intermediary, the nexus and bridge to an ultimate supramental, spiritual existence and Divine Life on earth. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Spiritualized Mind to Resolve Life's Problems

We are increasingly becoming rational, mental beings, which is a great, progressive achievement for Man. And yet we are discovering that even such rationality has serious limitations, compelling us to rise to higher still to spiritualized mind of light, intuition, and supra-mental perception, where knowledge and deep truth suddenly appear to us from out of nowhere. Only such spiritual mentality, that garners the object of truth directly in its myriad facets, its wholeness, and essence will give us the knowledge and power to resolve the increasingly difficult problems of life. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

From Individual Soul Discovery to Spirit-based Divine Life on Earth

Sri Aurobindo describes the difference between the spiritual realization of the individual through soul discovery and connection, and the future divine, spirit-based supramental existence on earth:

"What is called "new birth" is the birth into the spiritual life, the spiritual consciousness; it is to carry in one's self something of the spirit, which, individually, through the soul, can begin to rule the life and be the master of existence. But in the supramental world, the spirit will be the master of this entire world and all its manifestations, all its expressions, consciously, spontaneously, naturally." (2009-2011 Q1)

 

A New, Consciousness-based Social Existence

Perhaps social network sites like Facebook are indicators of the very beginnings of a movement of deeper connection and relationships amongst people. As we evolve in individual consciousness, there is a corresponding progress in social consciousness taking place; itself a forerunner of profound soul associations between individuals.

As we begin to realize the Oneness of life, a deep sense of harmony with others begins to take shape. Through this spiritual progression, we not only perceive our own True Self and evolving Soul, but perceive the same in others. As a result, we begin to value others as much as ourselves; sense ourselves extended in the people we interact with; and they in ourselves. As we connect with make this powerful connection, we experience perpetual, person-to-person ecstasy.

Just now our online social associations are mostly at the vital level -- of stimulation, thrill, petty attachment, and ego, with only the smallest hint of a higher and deeper connection. As we move from vital relationships to soul connection, we come in touch with our heart center, which releases affection, humility, and self-givingness; we connect with a deeper Truths source whose knowledge we humbly share with others;  we experience a commonality of will and action that leads to unprecedented accomplishment and deep inner fulfillment. As a result of this integral associations, a new, spirit-based social consciousness begins to take root; one that has never existed before on earth.

This new, consciousness-based social existence will be an indicator of a new stage of humanity; a harbinger of a new species based on shared experience of the Spirit, the divine Reality -- expressing though its varying attributes of Oneness, Harmony, Goodness, Knowledge, Truth, Creativity, Beauty, Love, Delight, Timelessness, and Infinity. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Life Response Living and Our Spiritual Future

Life response living is a stepping stone to the spiritual transformation of humanity and a collective divine life on earth. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

 

Spiritual Force in Society

The Force Transcends Competition

Normally in business, we are in competition with others; which is a good thing, in that it can compel us to strive for greater success. But if each competitor in the same industry or domain has the aspiration and will to succeed, the result would seem to be winners and losers. And yet, if we have aspiration AND we open to the spiritual Force, then success is guaranteed, despite any rivals. In other words, utilization of the Spirit transcends competition.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

The Human Aspirations' Call and the Divine Response

Sri Aurobindo said that the deepest Human Aspiration is for God, Light, love, and Immortality. It is in essence the call from within, from the Soul of humanity that is answered from without through the intervention and descending Grace of the Infinite Divine. The more intense the aspiration, the greater the response. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Our Aspiration for the Divine and the Power of the Descending Grace

It is our aspiration for the Divine that creates the receptivity that enables the Supreme Consciousness and Grace to descend and enter our being. The more intense and deep our aspiration, the more the descending spiritual Power can penetrate, elevating our nature and setting right life's condition. This accelerates the evolution of the individual and the collective, which can become the basis of a new Humanity, culminating in a Divine Life on Earth. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

 

Religion Vs Spirituality

New Age of Direct Spiritual Experience of Individuals

The age of blindly following religious ritual and dogma is coming to an end, replaced by the experience of the Spirit in its myriad of dimensions by individuals around the world. It indicates the divinity of the heavens is descending and enveloping the earth in great variations through the consciousness of evermore aware individuals.

 

Religion vs. Spirituality

Religion Replaced by Spiritual Experience

The age of religion in which we worship the progenitor of a teaching, or where we are focused on ritual, dogma, and gods is coming to an end; and the era of direct spiritual experience, in which we personally know and realize Spirit in its myriad of forms -- from the soul within to the Infinite consciousness without -- has arrived. It is surely the sign of an unprecedented New Age.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

On the Future of Religion

Question: What is the future of the major religions, and in particular the role of Hinduism in moving the human race forward?

Answer: All religions will eventually come to an end, as we have the opportunity to experience the spirit in all its varying qualities and aspects, independent of ritual and dogma. The core essence of these religions is profound, and will remain to a degree, but the outer form of these institutions have outworn their utility, especially for the more sophisticated Modern Man.

Hinduism has extremely profound roots -- in the Vedas, Upanishads, Gita, etc., where the deepest meanings of life and the nature of the Divine spirit in its myriad of aspects are explored. It will have lasting influence in this regard, though new spiritual philosophies will arrive -- actually have already begun to arrive, e.g. in the form of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother -- and will transcend the profound ancient teachings. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Religion to Occult to Spirit

Occultism (psychic ability, connection to subtle realms, true astrology, etc.) brings a greater knowledge than religion (worship, ritual, dogma, superstition, excludes other teachings, etc.), but spiritual philosophy (focus on nature of creation, reality, the spirit in life, etc.) and especially the experience of the Divine within and without (connection with Transcendent and evolving Soul; experiences of oneness, truth, intuition, divine love, bliss, etc.) transcends the occult.

Religion > Occult > Spiritual Philosophy > Spiritual Experience is an ascending scale of evolutionary, transformational connection. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Prosperity and Spirituality

As society prospers, the need for religion decreases. And yet that wealth creates the right support for adaptation of spirituality and spiritual values (of oneness, creativity, delight, love, etc.), which is beyond the religious impulses of doctrine and ritual.

 

Mentality, Religion, and Spirituality

To the degree that Mind develops, religious worship decreases, yet that higher mentality sets the stage for greater spiritual knowledge and more frequent spiritual experience.

And yet, when Mind is transcended, spiritual realization -- i.e. permanent experience of the divine within or without, or inner transmutation of the person -- is very much made possible. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Europe's Abandonment of Christianity

The reason Europe has abandoned Christianity is that religion has failed to answer the deepest questions of life. Their WWII experience was only one of many confirmations. And yet they subconsciously yearn for a richer worldview and deeper spiritual understanding, which is in fact developing in faraway places, though it has yet to reach their shores. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

What Christmas Really Is

"It's [Christmas] the festival of Light: Christmas is the festival of the return of the Light -- it's much older than Christianity! -- when the days were beginning to grow longer." (The Mother) (2009-2011 Q1)

 

From Religion to Rationality to the Spirit

As Man becomes more rational, he sheds religion and its superstitions for reason, which opens him up to wider spheres including intuition, which further opens one to universal planes, and the transcendent Spirit behind it. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

Jesus' Missing Knowledge

Jesus, who brought Love to the world, did not have the strength that comes from the full integral knowledge of life, and as a result experienced retribution and pain. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

 

Avatars & Society's Evolution

The Chosen Few  

Q: Why does the divine choose few persons to accomplish its objective forcefully - e.g. the Mother, Sri Aurobindo, while others need to force themselves to understand divine?

A: Avatars come to earth to bring about the next stage of growth or evolution that the society is ready for. For Christ, the world was ready for divine love. For Buddha, a true understanding of suffering in the context of spirit or being. For Sri Aurobindo to bring about human evolution in a mental age on the way to divine life on earth via knowledge and supramental power.  Mother to enable physical transformation of body to divine body (amongst others), etc.

We can be instruments of the Avatar's teachings, enabling the evolution that Personality came to bring the world. We have travelled with them in past lives. They are very ripe souls. We are somewhat ripe on the way to becoming ripe. We have worked with Them through many births, of which there is a psychic record.

Because we are not realized, we have to force ourselves to know the Divine. They have already worked this out in past lives or between lives. We have miles to grow and cannot give freely of our wisdom because it is not yet mature and full.

And yet we are blessed to be a part of their Mission. What makes it very compelling is that our collaboration with them unfolds for us very freshly, novely, as we discover endless new possibilities in very new social and psychological contexts in the modern world to apply Their Wisdom, and thereby experience Bliss (Delight) in making those discoveries, which uplifts ourselves, others, and the world. (2009-2011 Q1)

 

 

Other

The Book by Garry Jacobs

My colleague Garry Jacobs has just released a powerful new 500 page novel -- The Book --, perhaps the finest work of spirit-oriented fiction of the new century. It is filled with spiritual truths, and breakthrough insights into the nature of consciousness, reality, and the character of life. And yet this is also a magnificent story about how four very different and fascinating individuals work their way through a startling set of circumstance on their way to great accomplishment and profound inner awareness. The ad for the novel says:

"The Book is a spiritual thriller, a journey to self-discovery, an adventure of consciousness, a revelation of occult truths, and a practical guide for highest accomplishment. This novel presents basic principles of Sri Aurobindo's 'The Life Divine', the character of life, and human accomplishment.

Four technocrats armed with a mysterious manuscript, a secret formula and a radically new computer program battle a conspiracy of entrenched reactionary forces in a global struggle to determine humanity's future." (2009-2011 Q1)

 

III

Spirituality

Humanity's Ideal has Echo in Distant Past; and in the Absolute
The integral nature of society or creation is such that any farfetched ideal humanity has had, had its distant mild echo in the past. Our rule is nothing can emerge which is not in the Absolute. That Absolute seems to be peeping at us from the distant past. (MSS)

III

IV

Spirituality

Satchitananda

The Rishis and Satchitananda
Even the Rishis saw only one side of Sachchidananda. (MSS) [Only the Spirit without the creator/dynamic side? i.e. just the Being, but not the Being in the Becoming (i.e. creation)?]

 

 

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