The New Race 1

Should the human race continue for ever to be as it is now, or as it has been continuing to be, since the coming of the Homo Sapiens on earth?     Indeed, in culture and in civilization, Man is growing more and more, getting refined and trained and reformed more and more. He is growing thoughts and mental constructions and also in physical-vital-mental habits and activities. But internally — from the inner viewpoint — the progress is small.     Sri Aurobindo has said: In a certain sense, we are nothing but a complex mass of mental, nervous and physical habits held together by a few ruling ideas, desires and associations — an amalgam of many small self-repeating forces, with a few major vibrations. [Synthesis of Yoga, Chapter 20]     To almost all human beings, 'unconscious' ego is the major truth, and their existence revolves around the ego.  Ego shadows and covers the Soul within, and the cover of culture and civilization erects a beautiful and almost impenetrable construction around the Psychic hidden within, in such a way that it is imprisoned. And the lower vital and the gross physical further darkens the prison further.     We live, from the morning to the next morning, for satisfying our physical, vital and mental needs and cravings, following some opinions, some ideas, some limitations, some partial and limited understandings, without successfully trying to surpass our limitations, our shortcomings, our ignorance. We follow our political views and create enemies and enmity. We follow religions and create divisions and sub-divisions in mankind and fierce clashes and fights among the religious groups. Misunderstandings, enmity, intolerance, jealousy, apathy, hatred, envy, hostility, anger, cruelty, fierceness, pride, vanity, greed, lust, and the arrogance and importance of ego — these are the movements of the lower nature which has been predominant in man, individually and socially. These movements have been continuing in Man, since the inception of the human history. And all these are due to the animal background of Man.     However, in spite of all these weaknesses, Man has a yearning to live and manifest Truth, Wisdom, Love, Joy, Wideness, Freedom, Unselfishness, Compassion and Purity. And he has also a yearning  for conquest of Ignorance, Darkness and Inertia,  conquest of Lust, Greed and Anger, conquest of all hostility, enmity and cruelty. Man has a yearning for and an Aspiration for conquest of all these weaknesses and all these traits of the animal background. He aspires to touch, realize, live and manifest the Sublime influences which he meets sometimes, from the Highest Consciousness and Existence and from his own Innermost Being. He aspires to surpass himself and grow into a Higher Being.     That is because Man has a Divine possibility in him: to surpass the inherent animal nature in him and to manifest the innermost Divinity seated in him and to ascend to the Highest Divine Consciousness and Existence is the human Destiny. Man, as said by Sri Aurobindo, is a transitional being. He has to prepare and mould himself through a Sadhana, so that the Divine Possibility realizes Itself. Evolution progresses in Time and the present human manifestation is only a temporary phase, with a Golden Promise and Possibility.     Sri Aurobindo has said: There are two main things to be secured as the foundations of sadhana -the opening of the psychic being and the realisation of the Self above. For the opening of the psychic being, concentration on the Mother and self-offering to her are the direct way for the self-realisation, peace and silence of the mind are the first condition. Afterwards one begins to feel release, freedom, wideness, to live in a consciousness silent, tranquil, untouched by any or all things, existing everywhere and in all, one with or united with the Divine. [Letters on Yoga]     The Mother is there to guide us ever. She has said: In the depths of your consciousness is the psychic being, the temple of the Divine within you. This is the centre round which should come about the unification of all these divergent parts, all these contradictory movements of your being. Once you have got the consciousness of the psychic being and its aspiration, these doubts and difficulties can be destroyed. It takes more or less time, but you will surely succeed in the end. Once you have turned to the Divine, saying, "I want to be yours", and the Divine has said, "Yes", the whole world cannot keep you from it. When the central being has made its surrender, the chief difficulty has disappeared. The outer being is like a crust. In ordinary people the crust is so hard and thick that they are not so conscious of the Divine within them. If once, even for a moment only, the inner being has said, "I am here and I am yours", then it is as though a bridge has been built little by little the crust becomes thinner and thinner until the two parts are wholly joined and the inner and the outer become one. -THE MOTHER ( Vol.3, p. 7)   So, Man has to prepare himself, by conquering all the lower animal traits in him. And he has to realize in himself the Divine seated in his innermost being. He has to unveil the Psychic Being — which is his real self. And he has to transform himself, his outer nature and personality, in accordance with the Psychic Consciousness and Light and Force. That is the first Step towards the New Race.    [Continued]   Barindranath Chaki 22-03-2010   [Published simultaneously in ASPIRATION and All choice.]   Barindranath Chaki   Please visit   ASPIRATION  The New Horizon  All choice  The New Platform  Barin Chaki

The New Race

Undoubtedly, India is the oldest civilization that is still living. And it will live on, as the very essence of India’s message is to lead the World, lead the humanity towards the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Realization.

But what will lead the humanity and the World to the grand and brilliant Future is not the geographical India, nor the historical India, as it is known externally, but the very true inner Spirit of India.

India has the Message: Thou art That, tattvamasi. The Divine — Sat-chit-ananda [Sachchidananda], Existence-Consciousness-Bliss — is within each of us, the human beings. Indeed, the Divine is everywhere, in all things. All that is, is God. Sarvam khalvidam brahma. The Divine is the only thing that exists, in essence and That has become the Many. He is the Supreme and He (or She, as you like it) is in all. He is in all and He is All. These are not merely words or simple ideas, but the expressions of Truth.

But it is a latent Truth. In the present level of Consciousness the human beings are in, this Idea may seem to be a Hope only, or a lofty Imagination, or a Dream, or for some, a “so-called” Truth, something, practically “meaningless”. And to some, where the height and depth of imagination and thinking is not sufficient and who live only amid what senses give us, this may even seem to be some sort of joke. Indeed, I received such a comment in some of my writings!

The Task before each human being, truly, is to realize this Truth, within his or her inner Consciousness, in a Consciousness deeper than our presently active consciousness, within the heart-centre (of course, not the physical heart).

That is the Message, or the beginning of the Message, that India is to give the World.

OOOOO

Tattvamasi or Thou art That is Vedic Truth. And that is also the Message of Sri Aurobindo. The Vedic truth is there on earth since, at least, last twelve thousand years, as some scholars have said. It may even be earlier.

The Idea of “Tattvamasi” is in India since then, and some persons have lived to realize this Truth, but they have taken the Path of Moksha. For some, the Realization was of a “Nothing” that is beyond all and they have taught was about Nirvāna.

But the majority of the people lived and remained in the ordinary external consciousness, and even if some of them had borne with them the Idea of “Tattvamasi”, they did not do much to realize the Truth and progress with it. There were some spiritual Masters who tried their best to lead the people to the Realization, but the people remained in semi-darkness, as usual.

But the ordinary human consciousness has continued to live with Mind, partly enlightened with Reason and Ethics and half-open Love, and they continued to live with animal passions and ignorance and upheavals and activities moved by blind forces.

OOOOO

Human Aspiration, in spite of all the Ignorance and Darkness and Denseness, cannot be satisfied fully with the opening of the Psychic Being. Of course, the Psychic Opening is a must for the human beings. That is the Gate of the Divine Becoming. But that is not all. Man has to go further and transmute his nature, following the Nature’s deepest and highest indications and urges, which follow the Will of the Supreme towards His own Manifestations — on the Way of the Next Evolution. The Psychic is then liberated from the Darkness and Denseness and Inertia and Ignorance, but those will still continue in the human being, in the human body and the lower vital and the ignorant mind, even after the Psychic Opening! Sadhana or spiritual discipline may have a great control and mastery over all these elements in the human existence, but they remain as they originally are. The body must be purified and liberated from Tamas; the vital being must be purified and liberated from Tamas and Rajas; the human mind should not only be purified and protected from Tamas and Rajas, but must also be transmuted to go beyond all its present limitations and blind habits, including the limitations of thought and reason. The form of body-life-mind must be freed from Ego and its tentacles and must be attuned to the Psychic Consciousness and transmuted by Its Consciousness and Light and Force and Joy.

OOOOO

According to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Moksha or Nirvana is not the Task before us, though that may come on our way. We need not or should not return to the Origin. Nor should we continue as the ordinary human beings, immersed in the clay and mud of Darkness, Ignorance, Inertia, in the blind animal nature and activities, in the lower vital passions and movements, in the atmosphere of jealousy, hatred, betrayal, enmity, clashes and feuds. Man has a long march ahead to be taken up, so that the new Supramental Race reigns upon earth. The Goal, as taught by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, is to evolve into a New Being, the Supramental Being, as the New Consciousness, the Supramental Consciousness, has already descended on earth and has been active by now.

The human beings have emerged with the mental consciousness and he ought to realize and live and manifest the higher realms of the principle of Mind, from the plane of the Higher Mind to the highest mental principle of the Overmind. And then, he has to progressively march ahead towards the Supramental.

OOOOO

In the Way of living, as taught by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, the Realization of the Psychic being is the beginning, but that is not the end. As it has been said, Man has to surpass himself, but not into Moksha or Nirvana, not into the Origin that was there before the beginning of the evolutionary process of becoming. As Sri Aurobindo has said, Man is transitional being. He is neither the Goal nor the highest height of Evolution. Evolution began with the emergence of Matter and will continue till the Sachchidananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the Supreme, manifests itself physically into a collectivity of the Divine Beings, into the Divine Race, the New Race.

After the Realization of the Psychic, after the Realization that I am He, Man has to change his Mind and Life and Body with the Psychic Light and Consciousness and Force. Not only he has to transmute his outer mind and life and body, but also the inner mind and life and body shall have to be changed. This is what Sri Aurobindo labels as the Psychic Transformation, which is the first step of the Triple Transformation needed for the Ascent of Man into the Supramental Being.

As it has said earlier, after the Psychic Transformation, there begins the journey through the different levels of the principle of Mind — the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the Intuitive Mind and the Overmind. Man has to ascend these heights of the higher levels of Mind, which far above the present ordinary human mind.

However, thereafter, Man has to surpass the principle of Mind altogether and ascend to the still higher realm of Consciousness and Force, the Supermind. Having ascended the Supramental Consciousness, Man reaches the final stage of his Journey, whereby he can fulfill the Task of the Supernature in the new and the next step of Evolution on earth.


[Continued]

Barindranath Chaki

11-03-2010


[Published simultaneously in ASPIRATION and All choice.]

Barindranath Chaki