HARVESTING HUMAN GROWTH: CONSCIOUSNESS PERSPECTIVE

HARVESTING HUMAN GROWTH: CONSCIOUSNESS PERSPECTIVE

Ø Role of Consciousness in Human Growth is one of the important subjects that has generated tremendous amount of interest among academicians, scientists, psychologists, neurologists in pursuit of truth behind consciousness.

Ø The word consciousness is understood and spelt differently by materialists and spiritualists. To a materialist, this is just an awareness of our surroundings perceived through our sense organs. The information thus gathered by various sense organs is picked up, integrated and interpreted together with past experiences by the brain resulting in awareness. Thus our awareness has its fulcrum in the functioning of the brain. Thus, for a materialist typically, consciousness is a byproduct of brain.

Ø To a materialist, it is spelt with capital ‘C’ and is the all-pervasive Consciousness Force without which nothing in the universe exists. It is the alpha, the omega and the only truth. It is the Absolute Reality. It is this Consciousness Force that is responsible for all creation in the universe. At the moment it is concealed and veiled by the layers of ignorance.

Ø Appearance of a human being and his growth must have some meaning, some definite purpose in the evolutionary process. We are at cross roads and do not even know whether we are spiritual beings with human experience or human beings with spiritual experience! There should not be any doubt that we are spiritual beings undergoing human experiences in the evolution of consciousness.

Ø  The supreme Consciousness descending from its summit into the matter and emerging out of matter giving rise to life principle and further, mind principle evolving out of life principle is possible only if all these sublime principles are already involved in the previous statuses.

Ø This evolution of consciousness is a slow and steady process. History has shown and science has acknowledged that the growth in Consciousness has always resulted in refined species expressing refined characteristics. Light, knowledge, bliss, dynamism, creativity, beauty, freedom, innovation etc. are the attributes of divine consciousness and these get expressed as we grow in consciousness.

Ø We talked about human beings with a purpose! If so what is the purpose? What is our destiny? Sri Aurobindo records in ‘Savitri’ - The unfelt Self within who is the guide, the unknown Self above who is the goal. Between these two extremes is our journey, the human evolution, the aim of life, the adventure of consciousness and the true human growth. If we need to take up this journey, human growth has to be harvested in the field of Consciousness by unwrapping layers of our ignorance.

Ø This Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient Consciousness appears in every creation and every manifestation. The degree to which it is expressed depends on the location point on the evolutionary scale. Thus, plants are more conscious than stones and animals more than plants. Humans with their discretionary power are more conscious than animals. But then, Man certainly is not the last rung in the evolutionary process. He has a long way to go. However, we see the glimpses of this Consciousness growth in some evolved souls. For example, our Vedic seers had this growth through intense self-purification and concentration. Their experiences reveal to us the secret knowledge of Consciousness growth.

Firstly, the individual turns his entire attention within, focus and concentrate and meditate grows deeper and deeper. He then becomes aware of something that is higher than him, the True Self, the divine spark. This process of turning within and making our true self guide us, is the first step of triple transformation – Pscychisisation.

As we grow deeper and deeper, our consciousness also grow wider and wider. This is the second direction in which Consciousness grows and an individual starts identifying the divine spark in all around him. This leads to the realisation of One in All and All in One - Spiritualisation

As we grow in our consciousness deeper and wider, there shall be vertical growth in the form of ascending aspiration and descending growth giving rise to a realisation that All as One – Supramentalisation.

Ø Do you remember the game ‘Passing the Parcel’ we used to play when we were children? The parcel was a box wrapped with many layers of coloured papers. Children stop passing the parcel when the music stops. Then the boy/girl unwraps one layer of the parcel to find some small gift. When all the layers are unwrapped, the original box with some invaluable gift at the core appears. This is exactly what happens when we unwrap our ignorance layer by layer.

Four Stages of Human Growth:

We have seen above that human growth in the perspective of Consciousness is nothing but the human evolution. There are four stages of human growth we observe.

Ø At macrocosmic level, there was first the Physical Evolution where the formation of the universe took place. Followed by the Chemical Evolution where the gasses, the chemicals, the minerals, the Oxygen etc. filled the universe making it fit for sustaining life. This was followed by Biological Evolution where life evolved out of matter. The last stage here is also the Spiritual Evolution where in the matter participates in the transformation of earth.

Ø At individual level, the first stage of human growth is Physical evolution where in the body that was fit enough to act as foundation to receive the superstructure of Consciousness. In this stage, the human growth is very slow like travelling in a bullock cart.

This was followed by the second stage Emotional or Vital Evolution where the life is governed and dominated by our instinct, desires, hunger, shelter, survival etc. In this stage, the evolution or the human growth progresses faster and can be compared to an automobile instead of bullock cart.

The third stage of human growth is the Mental Evolution, a progress with much higher intensity than the previous two stages. Here the growth is dominated by reason, logic, rationale, learning through science, philosophy, laws, ideals, social organisation etc. Even here we see growth in Consciousness first appears in mundane life sustaining activities and later grows into ethics, compassion, sympathy, empathy and host of other values. The more we grow in our consciousness, the more sensitive we become of our environment. Explaining the growth in mental Consciousness, following are the lines from Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri.

A thought was sown in the unsounded Void,

A sense was born within the darkness’ depths,

A memory quivered in the heart of Time

As if a soul long dead were moved to live:

Next stage in the human growth is the Spiritual Evolution where, the flowering of higher grades of mind takes place. Starting from ordinary mind to higher mind to illumined mind to intuitive mind to overmind, the last in the hierarchy of minds. The human growth here begins with religion, mysticism and yoga. The growth in religion is a stage where consciousness appears as conservative, rational, and systematic and rituals become platform for concentration and meditation. In the next stage, rising above religion, the goal and destiny becomes clearer. All pervasive Consciousness is accepted and rituals do not really matter. In case of Yoga, the growth results in a more specific well laid path for a rapid self-directed evolution towards our final spiritual destiny. Aspiration from below is answered by the grace from above. As we grow in our consciousness, the progress accelerates from bullock cart to automobile to jet.

Factors of Growth:

1]        Becoming Conscious-quintessentially, it means become aware of within and without factors- Parts of our being, our faculties, senses, deep self, etc. In essence, it is gaining mastery over our self. We can manage others only if we have learnt to manage ourselves. Growth of consciousness should also be of outside our body-The surroundings, with scientific temperament, logic and rational thinking. Biggest drawback with human beings is that we try to understand the infinite with finite logic. These two are different dimensions.

2]        Aim of once life. Quality of our aim reflects quality of our character. This also is the ideal we follow. For every human being, the ‘ideal’ concept will change depending on so many internal and external factors. For example, ideal of a religious organisation may be non-violence. This may not be the ideal of military organisation. Ideals have to rise above our ordinary consciousness-our mundane and material interests.     

3]        Concentration or Focus. Concentration is the art of focusing all our energies at one focal point. It may be a task or an ideal or an activity. This minimizes wastage of energy and maximizes self-actualization. As Sri Aurobindo puts it, everything in the universe ultimately resolves into some form of energy. Mental energy, if not focused, will diffuse and shall not be effective. This increase in power of concentration will also come to our rescue in case of multi-tasking. Frequent switching off and switching on are required while we multi-task our activities.

4]        Progress. Here, progress means continuous journey towards our inner and external perfection. In general parlance, it means ‘Continuous improvement’. Outer progress indicates continuous growth in our Skills, professionalism, efficiency, productivity in work and action. Inner progress indicates growth in psychological, spiritual, moral, artistic, cultural realms of our personality. Developing our faculties, integration of our personality, all fall in this sphere.

Here main emphasis shall be on values. Courage, compassion, unbiased thinking, justice, enthusiasm, loyalty, visualization, imagination etc. should become part of our development.

5]        Freedom and Empowerment. This means, freedom to think, to be creative, to be innovative, to take decisions, to learn from experiences, to express without any inhibitions, etc. These are the expressions of our outer freedom. Freedom from inner bondages like negative thoughts, superstitions, greed, selfish motto, jealousy, biased opinions, depression, restlessness, and mechanical thinking etc. also are called for.

6]       Inner and outer wellness. True wellness is an expression of balanced growth. In outside world, productivity, wealth creation, meeting targets, short term goals become predominant. But this can induce stresses in an individual affecting the physical health and performance. Hence there is a need for inner balance.

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Acknowledgement: The above is the gist of talk delivered at Sri Aurobindo Complex, JP Nagar, Bangalore, under SPECTRUM. The tittle and inspiration from Mr. MS Srinivasan, Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry.