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
Sri Aurobindo Studies 