As the supramental power manifests more fully and overtly in the evolutionary process, various questions naturally arise as to the type and extent of the changes it brings about, the resistance it faces from the Mind, Life and Body, and how it can go about impacting all of humanity rather than just specific individuals, and what that would look like.
We see from the long history of spiritual practices around the world, that, for the most part, emphasis was placed on individual realisation and fulfillment, and clearly, this turns out to be the first place that any new development can be observed, as it is the individual progress, and the individual’s specific impact on society, that bring about changes and upgrades to the life of humanity. The next phase which we see in the process is the joining together in cohesive communities of like-minded spiritual seekers, who both support one another, gain mutual benefit in their practice from the community and its protective environment, and which help to create buffers to the wider worldly life practiced by most people and which acts for the spiritual seeker very much as a distraction in most instances.
Resistance occurs at the individual, community and societal level in the physical body, the vital life-force and in the mind. Particular focus of the resistance is the ego-sense which creates the illusion of separateness and isolation and the idea of self-aggrandisement at the expense of the rest of the creation. All of these issues need to be addressed systematically in order to create the opportunity for change and growth.
Sri Aurobindo notes: “It remains to consider what might be the obstacles in the way of this possibility, especially those offered by the nature of the earth-order and its function as a field of a graded evolution in which our humanity is a stage and, it might be argued, its very imperfection an evolutionary necessity, how far could or would Supermind by its presence and government of things overcome this difficulty while respecting the principle of gradation, and whether it could not rectify the wrong and ignorant order imposed by the Ignorance and Inconscience and substitute for it a right gradation in which the perfection and divinisation would be possible. Certainly, the way for the individual would be open; whatever group of human beings aspire as united in an endeavour at a perfect individual and collective living or aspire to the divine life, would be assisted towards the attainment of its aspiration: that at least the Supermind would make its minimum consequence. But the greater possibility is also there and might even be offered to the whole of humanity. This, then, we have to consider, what would the descent of the Supermind mean for mankind and what would be its result or its promise for the whole life and evolutionary future and destiny of the human race?”
Sri Aurobindo, The Mind of Light, Supermind and the Life Divine, pp. 70-71
Sri Aurobindo Studies 