Human Reasoning Does Not Easily Validate the Possibility of a Divine Life on Earth

The logical intellect is a poor judge of future possibility of development. It is rooted in the material consciousness and bases its determinations on what it can see, experience or infer from what it perceives. The mind, in general, could not foresee, in the stage of animal mind, the development of the self-aware human being. The developed human mind, up until just a few centuries ago, dismissed the idea that the earth revolved around the sun, or that man would walk on the moon. Visionaries like Nikola Tesla were dismissed by many as spinning fictional ideas that had no reality. Today, of course, we rely on wireless transmission of communications that resulted from his imaginary dreams… The intelligent power of reasoning certainly could not easily foresee or accept the idea that we could delve into the hidden secrets of Matter and create explosive power of energy far beyond anything previously experienced; nor that humanity would one day be making changes to the genetic code of plants and animals to change their present, and their future generations, for specific characteristics.

When this same power of reasoning looks at the idea of the supramental manifestation, it also cannot easily conceive of its reality. It takes a longer view of evolution to note the “unexpected” changes that occurred when Life manifested in Matter, when animal Mind manifested in Life and when the self-aware power of the reasoning intelligence itself appeared in animal mind. Certainly none of these changes could be seen or predicted based on the “current” reality of the time, but nevertheless, through the course of time, they have all come about. Based on this trend line, and the failure of the logical intelligence to foresee these things, a current failure to accept the next phase of evolution and its impacts is both to be expected, and eventually, as the event occurs, dismissed.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “We have supposed not only the descent of the supermind upon the earth but its embodiment in a supramental race with all its natural consequences and a new total action in which the new humanity would find its complete development and assured place in the new order. But it is clear that all this could only come as a result of the evolution which is already taking place upon earth extending far beyond its present bounds and passing into a radically new movement governed by a new principle in which mind and man would be subordinate elements and no longer mind the utmost achievement or man the head or leader. The evolution we see around us at present is not of that kind and, it might be said, shows few signs of such possibility, so few that the reason, at present our only sure guide, has no right to hazard belief in it. Earth, the earth we see, with its life deeply immersed and founded in inconscience and ignorance, is not built for such a development or capable of holding such an advent; its materiality and limitations condemn it to be permanently the field of a far inferior order. It may be said too that for such an order there must be a place somewhere and even if supermind is not a mere unwarranted speculation and is a concrete reality, there is no need and no place for its embodying itself here. Mind, as marking the full play of the knowledge possible to the ignorance, must have its field somewhere and to keep the earth as its natural field would best serve the economy of cosmic Nature. A materialistic philosophy would admit of no possibility of a divine life in Matter; but even a philosophy admitting a soul or spirit or a spiritual terminus of the evolutionary movement here could very well deny the capacity of earth for a divine life: a divine existence could only be achieved by a departure from earth and the body. Even if cosmic existence is not an illusion or Maya, a divine or a completely spiritual being is likely to be possible only in another less material world or only in the pure spirit. At any rate, to the normal human reason the odds seem to be heavily against any early materialisation on earth of anything divine.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind in Evolution, pp. 83-84

Advertisement

A First Step in the Transformative Evolution on Earth

We can envision multiple potential future developments in the evolutionary process on earth. One of these involves the manifestation of an entirely new level of consciousness, the supramental, and its creation of a new species, which we may call homo supramentalis for the sake of differentiation, to embody this consciousness and carry out its role. Another one involves the pressure or influence of the supramental to uplift, widen and perfect the action of the mental consciousness. In this latter case, several options also arise. There could be a complete conversion of our current mental consciousness to shift its focus, source and response to the supramental pressure rather than to its current vital and physical fixation. This could encompass all of humanity. Alternatively, there could be such a shift and action that impacts just a leading edge of advanced individuals in the society, who would then be tasked with helping to inform and guide the rest of the human population, and hopefully, at least some expansion of the mental powers within the remaining segment of humanity.

The easiest line of understanding from our current perspective, based on straight-line extrapolation, would be for the mind to continue its progress and development, increasing in subtlety and power, reaching towards a perfection that would primarily impact leading minds while leaving the rest of humanity virtually untouched for the most part. This is a view we get from a review of several thousand years of human history. Neither would we, with this view, expect any kind of radical shift to a new principle of consciousness, nor would we expect the mass of humanity to take up the greater future potential of the mind when they have to a great degree not even taken up the currently available potential. Yet, if we look at the evolutionary process over a longer period of time, we see that the animal mind could not have envisioned the fast (in evolutionary terms) development of mankind and the greater powers of reasoning intelligence and logical intellect that we have used to transform life on the planet. Thus, the absence of imagination in this regard is not necessarily an indicator of the truth of the matter.

There is no doubt, as we can see in today’s world, that a new spirit of understanding based on oneness is beginning to impact the collective understanding of humanity. Climate change, pollution and the impacts of human population on the planet’s sutaining ability, global pandemics, potential nuclear disasters all provide impetus to spur on the change in consciousness that has been growing silently for some time. When we see the images of the vastness of the universe, land on the moon and look back at earth, and the iconic photograph of the earth seen from space, we recognise that a new understanding of the unity of all life on earth is beginning to dawn. Instant communication, world travel and mass media begin to bring all humanity together in ways never before considered. We thus can see a broad influence of a new consciousness already at work, perhaps providing the foundation for at least the idea of the supramental consciousness guiding the leading development of humanity while concurrently exerting its influence on the way the rest of humanity responds.

This still leaves open the possibility of a completely new species emerging to embody the supramental consciousness in its fullness.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “A new humanity would then be a race of mental beings on the earth and in the earthly body, but delivered from its present conditions in the reign of the cosmic Ignorance so far as to be possessed of a perfected mind, a mind of light which could even be a subordinate action of the supermind or Truth-Consciousness, and in any case capable of the full possibilities of mind acting as a recipient of that truth and at least a secondary action of it in thought and life. It could even be a part of what could be described as a divine life upon earth and at least the beginnings of an evolution in the Knowledge and no longer entirely or predominantly in the Ignorance. How far this would go, whether it would eventually embrace the whole of humanity or only an advanced portion of it, would depend upon the intention in the evolution itself, on the intention in whatever cosmic or transcendent Will is guiding the movements of the universe.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind in Evolution, pg. 83

A Mind of Light

A radical transformation of the mind can act as the lynch-pin of the supramental action on earth. The mind currently is wedded to the material and vital consciousness and does their bidding. If a shift in focus can be accomplished, whereby the mind realizes its subordinate and secondary status to the supermind, and finds its direction from there, it could become an instrument of progress, a “mind of light”. Using its power of influence and action on the vital and material planes, it could act to infuse the higher light into these levels, thus changing the way we respond, and the way our bodies respond to the evolutionary impetus.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “This is the possibility we have to examine. If it is destined to fulfill itself, if man is not doomed to remain always as a vassal of the Ignorance, the disabilities of the human mind on which we have dwelt are not such as must remain irredeemably in possession and binding for ever. It could develop higher means and instrumentalities, pass over the last borders of the Ignorance into a higher knowledge, grow too strong to be held back by the animal nature. There would be a liberated mind escaping from ignorance into light, aware of its affiliation to Supermind, a natural agent of Supermind and capable of bringing down the supramental influence into the lower reaches of being, a creator in the light, a discoverer in the depths, an illuminant in the darkness, helping perhaps to penetrate even the Inconscient with the rays of a secret Superconscience. There would be a new mental being not only capable of standing enlightened in the radiance of the Supermind but able to climb consciously towards it and into it, training life and body to reflect and hold something of the supramental light, power and bliss, aspiring to release the secret divinity into self-finding and self-fulfilment and self-poise, aspiring towards the ascension to the divine consciousness, able to receive and bear the descent of the divine light and power, fitting itself to be a a vessel of the divine Life.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind and Humanity, pp. 81-82

Can Humanity Be Transformed Through the Advent of the Supramental Consciousness?

The crux of the issue, the unknown future direction for humanity, is whether the next evolutionary stage, which Sri Aurobindo terms the supramental manifestation, will end up creating a new species or subspecies to embody that principle of consciousness, or whether it is intended to utterly transform humanity in its entirety. Either way, the new power of consciousness must have an enormous influence on all life on earth. The question here is whether humanity, as we know it, will remain as an evolutionary rung in the ladder, or whether the rung will be occupied instead by a fully supramentalised form of humanity.

Evolution does not take place overnight. Even with the active and conscious participation of humanity, the change required will certainly mean hundreds of years, at a minimum, of conscientious effort. When we look around us today, we see humanity on the brink of its own destruction, and the urgency of the situation is such that it is propelling massive effort of seeking for solutions, material, vital, emotional, mental, and spiritual. As long as humanity bases its action on ignorance, ego and self-aggrandisement, the imbalances will continue to be created and accentuated. How do 7.5 or 8 billion individuals, or even more at such future time, leave behind the desire-soul and shift to an inner status of spiritual oneness and the harmonious relationship to one another and the environment that is needed to solve the urgent existential crisis we are facing in today’s world? If individuals begin to take on the characteristics of the supramental consciousness and thereby begin to influence the direction of humanity, will this be sufficient to eventually overcome the inertia of the present line of action of humanity and bring about an eventual complete transformation?

Sri Aurobindo notes: “But Supermind alone has the truth-consciousness in full and, if this comes down and intervenes, mind, life and body too can attain to the full power of the truth in them and their full possibility of perfection. This, no doubt, would not take place at once, but an evolutionary progress towards it could begin and grow with increasing rapidity towards its fullness. All men might not reach that fullness till a later time, but still the human mind could come to stand perfected in the Light and a new humanity take its place as part of the new order.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind and Humanity, pg. 81

The Working of the Secret Consciousness Hidden in Matter

When we gaze into the atomic structure of the physical world, we marvel at both the power and organization we witness. As we expand our view to the physical world, then to the galaxies and universes, we see the same organized intelligence operating a system of what we call “laws” of physics, “laws” of thermodynamics, “laws” of the conservation of energy. Everything operates automatically and precisely and humanity has studied and applied these laws in the development of the technologies that have driven human civilization and progress in the material world. We harness the electro-magnetic spectrum, we employ the principles of aerodynamics, we rely on the action of gravity, the conversion of matter into energy and the regularity of all these processes. The physical body of each living being follows its own rules of birth, growth, decay and death, and hidden within the cells of the body we find and employ the “laws” of genetics and the secret encoding that turns the acorn infallibly into the oak tree.

These are all signs of the intelligence involved in Matter and, while not overtly self-conscious, it clearly acts with a precision and attention to detail that far exceeds the best that we can contrive with our mental powers.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “It should be noted, however, that even at the bottom of the involutionary descent, in the blind eclipse of consciousness in Matter, in the very field of the working of the Inconscient there are signs of the labour of an infallible force, the drive of a secret consciousness and its promptings, as if the Inconscient itself were secretly informed or impelled by a Power with a direct and absolute knowledge; its acts of creation are infinitely surer than the workings of our human consciousness at its best or the normal workings of the Life-power. Matter, or rather the Energy in Matter seems to have a more certain knowledge, a more infallible operation of its own and its mechanism once set going can be trusted for the most part to do its work accurately and well. It is so that man is able, taking hold of a material energy, to mechanise it for his own ends and trust it under proper conditions to do for him his work. The self-creating life-power, amazingly abundant in its invention and fantasy, yet seems to be more capable of flaw, aberration and failure; it is as if its greater consciousness carried in it a greater capacity for error. Yet it is sure enough ordinarily in its workings: but as consciousness increases in the forms and operations of life, and most when mind enters in, disturbances also increase as if the increase of consciousness brought with it not only richer possibilities but more possibilities of stumbling, error, flaw and failure. In mind, in man, we seem to reach the height of this antinomy, the greatest, highest, widest reach and achievements of consciousness, the greatest amount of uncertainty, defect, failure and error. This, we may conjecture, may be because in inconscient Nature there is a truth of energy at work which follows infallibly its own law, an energy which can walk blindfold without stumbling because the automatic law of the truth is within it, operating surely without swerving or mistaken when there is no external intervention or interference. But in all normally automatic processes of existence there is this law: even the body has an unexpressed knowledge of its own, a just instinct in its action within certain limits and this when not interfered with by life’s desires and mind’s errors can work with a certain accuracy and sureness.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind and Humanity, pp. 80-81

The Nature of the Mind

When we explore the mind, we can appreciate the powers that it has in its native operation, powers of observation, classification, differentiation, analysis, deduction, extrapolation, imagination, combining and developing ways and means of action in the world. We also note the limits placed on these powers by the mechanisms that interface with the mind, such as the sense organs and the physical structure of the brain and nervous system. We draw conclusions based on what we experience through our senses, but not only do we not always get complete and accurate information, but it is easy to misinterpret based on the standpoint from which we start our review and the fundamental assumptions we use as a basis for our determinations. The influence of the vital nature adds another aspect by injecting bias, based on desire and striving, into the actions of the mind. A mature mind can recognize the limitations thus placed on its action and this has led to attempts, both through the yogic processes of the East or the scientific methods of the West, to overcome these limitations, so we have a sound basis for accepting and relying on the determinations of the mind when it is put into action. If mind were originally a power based in Matter and Life, as is commonly assumed, it would not be possible to fully escape these limits. On the other hand, if mind is a power of a yet higher consciousness, descended into Life and Matter, we can expect that the limitations are temporary and due to the interaction with these principles. Thus, transcendence of reliance on the instrumentality of Matter and Life as a basis for the mind’s action can bring about true knowledge and right action, direct understanding rather than the reflected and derivative forms of knowledge that come through the outer means provided by the physical and vital structures.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “Mind as we know it, as a power of consciousness quite distinct from Supermind, no longer a power devolved from it, connected with it and dependent on it, but practically divorced from its luminous origin, is marked by several characteristics which we conceive to be the very signs of its nature: but some of these belong to Supermind also and the difference is in the way and scope of their action, not in their stuff or in their principle. The difference is that mind is not a power of whole knowledge and only when it begins to pass beyond itself a power of direct knowledge: it receives rays of the truth but does not live in the sun; it sees as through glasses and its knowledge is coloured by its instruments, it cannot see with the naked eye or look straight at the sun. It is not possible for mind to take its stand in the solar centre or anywhere in the radiant body or even on the shining circumference of the orb of perfect truth and acquire or share in its privilege of infallible or absolute knowledge. It would be only if it had already drawn near to the light of Supermind that it could live anywhere near this sun in the full splendour of its rays, in something of the full and direct blaze of Truth, and the human mind even at its highest is far from that; it can only live at most in a limited circle, in some narrow beginnings of pure insight, a direct vision and it would take long for it, even in surpassing itself, to reach to an imitative and fragmentary reflection of a dream of the limited omniscience and omnipotence which is the privilege of a delegated divinity, of the god, or a demiurge. It is a power for creation, but either tentative and uncertain and succeeding by good chance or the favour of circumstance or else, if assured by some force of practical ability or genius, subject to flaw or pent within unescapable limits. Its highest knowledge is often abstract, lacking in a concrete grasp; it has to use expedients and unsure means of arrival, to rely upon reasoning, argumentation and debate, inferences, divinations, set methods of inductive or deductive logic, succeeding only if it is given correct and complete data and even then liable to reach on the same data different results and varying consequences; it has to use means and accept results of a method which is hazardous even when making a claim to certitude and of which there would be no need if it had a direct or supra-intellectual knowledge. It is not necessary to push the description further; all this is the very nature of our terrestrial ignorance and its shadow hangs on even to the thought and vision of the sage and the seer and can be escaped only if the principle of a truth-conscious supramental knowledge descends and takes up the governance of the earth-nature.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind and Humanity, pp. 79-80

Humanity in a Supramental Future

Whenever a new principle of consciousness has manifested in the world, whether Life in a world of Matter, or Mind in a world of Life and Matter, major modifications have taken place. We can expect no less from the manifestation of the supramental consciousness. The question then arises as to whether a segment of humanity, prepared and ready to assimilate and express the supramental consciousness, will wind up carrying this evolution forward while the bulk of humanity remains rooted in the current mental-vital-physical consciousness that characterizes human existence today; or, whether all of humanity would wind up being transformed and take on a new position, role and power of action in the cosmic evolutionary process. In the first instance, we would of course expect the existing status of humanity to be modified simply by interaction with and influence by the supramental consciousness. In the latter instance, we see a complete transformation and thus, the mental powers become fully subordinated to the action of the Supermind.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “How far this would go, whether the whole of humanity would be touched or only a part of it ready for the change, would depend on what was intended or possible in the continued order of the universe. If the old evolutionary principle and order must be preserved, then only a section of the race would pass onward, the rest would keep the old human position, level and function in the ascending order. But even so there must be a passage or bridge between the two levels or orders of being by which the evolution would make its transition from one to the other; the mind would there be capable of contact with and modification by the supramental truth and thus would be the means of the soul’s passing on upward: there must be a status of mind capable of receiving and growing in the Light towards Supermind though not reaching it; through that, as even now happens in a lesser degree through a dimmer medium, the lustre of a greater truth would send down its rays for the liberation and uplift of the soul in the ignorance. Supermind is here veiled behind a curtain and, though not organised for its own characteristic action, it is the true cause of all creation here, the power for the growth of truth and knowledge and the ascension of the soul towards the hidden Reality. But in a world where Supermind has made its appearance, it could hardly be a separate factor isolated from the rest, it would inevitably not only create superman but change and uplift man. A total change of the mental principle, such as has been suggested, cannot be ruled out as impossible.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind and Humanity, pp. 78-79

The Mind May Be Transformed to an Instrument of Light If It Overcomes the Limitations of Working Through Life and Matter

What we perceive as the nature of the mind is conditioned by our long history and observation of mental action in the material world, limited by the obstructions of the physical being and the promptings of desire that arise out of the vital being. Philosophers, sages, psychologists and yogis have spent an enormous amount of effort to understand how and why these limitations exist, and how to overcome them. Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras provides very detailed understanding of the operations of sensation, perception, understanding, concentration and, in particular, methods to still the mind’s incessant activity so that it may escape the framework of the physical sensations and vital demands to reflect the wider truth of the Spirit.

Sri Aurobindo, viewing the Supermind as the source of mind, rather than accepting the commonly held view that mind arose out of matter and life and thus is irrevocably bound by their limits, recognises that with the advent of the supramental manifestation, the action and powers of the mind can begin to reflect their true source and become, rather than a force striving in darkness for some form of light, an expressive power of action of the supermind in its action of creating the multiplicity while holding the awareness of oneness. In Sri Aurobindo’s view, the evolution of consciousness can only occur if the power was previously involved, which implies that the supramental action is the original source of mind, and the ultimate cause of further involution of mind and life in physical matter, which is then the ultimate repository, or “seed” if you will of what must later break forth and grow when the time and conditions are ripe.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “It should be noted, however, that a world or plane of mind need not be a reign of ignorance where falsity, error or nescience must have a place; it may be only a voluntary self-limitation of knowledge. It could be a world where all possibilities capable of being determined by mind could manifest themselves in the successions of Time and find a true form and field of their action, the expressive figure of themselves, their capacity of self-development, self-realisation of a kind, self-discovery. This is actually what we meet when we follow in psychic experience the line of descent by which the involution takes place which ends in Matter and the creation of the material universe. What we see here is not the planes or worlds of the descent in which mind and life can keep something of their truth and something of the light of the spirit, something of their true and real being; here we see an original inconscience and a struggle of life and mind and spirit to evolve out of the material inconscience and in a resultant ignorance to find themselves and grow towards their full capacity and highest existence. If mind succeeds in that endeavour there is no reason why it should not recover its true character and be once more a principle and power of Light and even in its own way aid in the workings of a true and complete knowledge. At its highest it might pass out of its limitations into the supramental truth and become part and function of the supramental knowledge or at the least serve for a minor work of differentiation in the consensus of that knowledge: in the lower degree below Supermind it might be a mental gnosis, a spiritual or spiritualised perception, feeling, activity, sense which could do the works of knowledge and not of ignorance. Even at a still lower level it could be an increasingly luminous passage leading from light to light, from truth to truth and no longer a circling int he mazes of half-truth and half-nescience. This would not be possible in a world where untransformed mind or human mind burdened with its hampering disabilities, as it is now, will still be the leader or the evolution’s highest achievement, but with Supermind for the leading and dominant power this might well happen, and might even be regarded as one result and an almost inevitable result of its descent into the human world and its touch on the mind of humanity.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind and Humanity, pp. 77-78

Shifting the Basis of Mental Action to the Supramental Standpoint of Oneness Creating the Multiplicity

We speak of sunrise and sunset. We look at the seasons as illustrations of the sun’s position in relation to the earth. All of this is the mental viewpoint of the separated individual trying to make sense of our everyday perceptions. Further review shows us that we are not the center of the universe, and that the earth revolves around the sun and spins on its own axis creating the daily and seasonal changes we observe. Throughout history, mankind has looked on Nature as something separate and other than us, something to be exploited and utilized for our satisfaction, without concern for the greater role and significance of Nature and the need for a balance to be achieved. Today we are learning, through science, and through our own increasing perception and suffering, that we are part of Nature and not separate from it, and that dislocations in the natural world lead to dislocations in our lives.

The mind is an instrument that primarily focuses on distinguishing differences, separating things into distinct and separate units and treating them as if they are each independent entities, rather than understanding that this is a fragmented view of reality. This is due to the evolution of mind from its involved status in Matter and Life. Yet if we shift our standpoint to recognize the larger reality as the basis for the entire manifestation, including the action of the mind, we can understand that in fact, it is the action of the supramental consciousness that is the foundation. The ancient texts tell us that the roots of the world-action are “above” and the branches and leaves below. Once we reorient the action of mind to start from the basis of Oneness, we begin to understand that the differentiating power of the mind is intended to serve a sequential evolutionary action based on the intention of the divine in manifestation and that the supermind provides the key to both the manifestation and the mind’s true function within that manifestation.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “This is essentially the change which can be contemplated as a result of the new evolutionary order, and it would mean a considerable extension of the evolutionary field itself and will answer the question as to the result on humanity of the advent of Supermind into the earth-nature.”

“If mind in its origin from Supermind is itself a power of Supermind, a principle of Light and a power of Light or a force for Knowledge specialised in its action for a subordinate purpose, yet it assumes a different aspect when in the working out of this purpose it separates itself more and more from the supramental light, from the immediate power and supporting illumination of the supramental principle. It is as it departs more and more in this direction from its own highest truth that it becomes a creator or parent of ignorance and is or seems to be the highest power in a world of ignorance; it becomes itself subject to ignorance and seems only to arrive at a partial and imperfect knowledge. The reason of this decline is that it is used by the Supermind principally for the work of differentiation which is necessary if there is to be a creation and a universe. In the Supermind itself, in all its creation there is this differentiating power, the manifestation of the One in the Many and the Many in the One; but the One is never forgotten or lost in its multiplicity which always consciously depends upon and never takes precedence over the eternal oneness. In the mind, on the contrary, the differentiation, the multiplicity does take precedence and the conscious sense of the universal oneness is lost and the separated unit seems to exist for itself and by itself as a sufficient self-conscious integer or in inanimate objects as the inconscient integer.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind and Humanity, pg. 77

The Nature of the Mind Under the Impulsion of the Supramental Manifestation

We generally experience and judge our perceptions and relationships based on the framework established by the mental consciousness expressing itself in a living, physical being, with the limitations that each of these levels creates based on its own nature. Until we escape this frame and can look at it from outside or above, we expect that everything that occurs must continue along the lines of our current limited experience. Thus, we declare the impossibility of forms and means of perception, understanding and response that go outside this existing framework. Until just a few short centuries ago, humanity believed, for the most part, that everything occurred and revolved around our existence on earth. When we exceeded the frame of our earth-centric, self-centered view and became aware of the earth as part of a much larger solar system, revolving around the sun, which itself was moving in an enormous Milky Way galaxy, which was a small part of the entire universal creation, it became possible for us to envision other possibilities for the future.

When the mind develops, it takes on more and more powers of understanding and action. We do not ask the child’s mind to comprehend the universe, or even advanced scientific or mathematical information. The immaturity of the mind of the child does not signal a defect, but rather, simply shows the systematic developmental process that blossoms in a mature mind capable of advanced logic, reasoning and self-reflection.

Sri Aurobindo clarifies that the mental development we currently experience, with its limitations and weaknesses, represents a transitional stage and that as further powers of mind develop, and as we exceed the mind with the manifestation of a next phase of evolution to the supermind, the additional light and force of that level will be sure to provide the mind itself with expanded reach and functionality.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “It is difficult for us to conceive in theory or admit as a practical possibility the transformation of the human mentality I have suggested as a change that would naturally take place under the lead of the supramental Truth-consciousness, because our notions about mind are rooted in an experience of human mentality in a world which starts from inconscience and proceeds through a first almost complete nescience and a slowly lessening ignorance towards a high degree but always incomplete scope and imperfect method of only partially equipped knowledge which does not serve fully the needs of a consciousness always pushing towards its own still immeasurably distant absolute. The visible imperfections and limitations of mind in the present stage of its evolution here we take as part of its very nature; but in fact the boundaries in which it is still penned are only temporary limits and measures of its still incomplete evolutionary advance; its defects of methods and means are faults of its immaturity and not proper to the constitution of its being; its achievement, although extraordinary under the hampering conditions of the mental being weighed down by its instrumentation in an earthly body, is far below and not beyond what will be possible to it in its illumined future. For mind is not in its very nature an inventor of errors, a father of lies bound down to a capacity of falsehood, wedded to its own mistakes and the leader of a stumbling life as it too largely is at present owing to our human shortcomings: it is in its origin a principle of light, an instrument put forth from the Supermind and, though set to work within limits and even set to create limits, yet the limits are luminous borders for a special working, voluntary and purposive bounds, a surface of the finite ever extending itself under the eye of infinity. It is this character of Mind that will reveal itself under the touch of Supermind and make human mentality an adjunct and a minor instrumentation of the supramental knowledge. It will even be possible for the mind no longer limited by the intellect to become capable of a sort of mental gnosis, a luminous reproduction of the Truth in a diminished working, extending the power of the Light not only to its own but to lower levels of consciousness in their climb towards self-transcendence. Overmind, Intuition, Illumined Mind and what I have called Higher Mind, these and other levels of a spiritualised and liberated mentality, will be able to reflect in the uplifted human mind and its purified and exalted feeling and force of life and action something of their powers and prepare the ascent of the soul to their own plateaus and peaks of an ascending existence.”

Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind and Humanity, pp. 76-77