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Four conceptions of Existence
There are four main theories with their four different conceptions of truth of existence:
(a) "The supracosmic
(b) The cosmic and terrestrial
(c) The supra-terrestrial or other-worldly, and
(d) The integral or synthetic or composite" (Ibid)
The last viewpoint which is integral tries to reconcile the earlier three view-points. "In this last category would fall our view of existence here as a Becoming with the Divine Being for its origin and its object, a progressive manifestation, a spiritual evolution with the supracosmic for its source and support, the other-worldly for a condition and connecting-link and the cosmic and terrestrial for its field, and with the human mind and life for its nodus and turning-point of release towards a higher and a highest perfection". (Ibid) We have to see how the first three theories depart from the integralising view of life and how far they fit into the structure.
The Supracosmic view
In the supracosmic view, the Supreme Reality alone exists and everything else is illusory, non-existent or a meaningless interlude. The only thing to attain is a Nirvana which is a self-annulment of the individual and the universal in an Absolute. Buddhists proclaim this idea which is actually Vedantic in origin. But there is a fallacy in this argument. The individual can get absorbed into the Absolute if both are inter-related realities. If the individual or the cosmic existence is illusory or unreal, it cannot get self-annulled into the Absolute-it would be a contraindication. (Ibid, pg.668) But this dichotomy is a phenomenon of Ignorance permitted by the Absolute.
However there is still a space for the Becoming in the supracosmic view. In the Vedanta, the Becoming is accepted as a reality but with a rider. There is a truth in the Becoming, in the right law of life and in the resultant hedonism but once these values are fulfilled, the soul has to return into is self-annulation in the Absolute. The individual and the universe of course persists and comes back in the manifestation as "the will to become is eternal". (Ibid, pg.669) Yet the individual is not absolute but considered to be a "temporary becoming of the Being" (Ibid) and that is considered to be of sufficient value. One can accept this but the question still remains on the stress, demand and value put on the individual's salvation and perfection which appears too great to be dismissed with a flicker.
The Cosmic and Terrestrial view
The cosmic-terrestrial view is exactly opposite where the Becoming -the cosmic existence is the only reality. God if it exists is an eternal Becoming or else it is Nature which is a perennial becoming. (Ibid, pg.670) Man may be mortal or the earth may bear life for a variable period till it comes to an end one day with the universe shrinking into a seed-state of its Energy but the principle of Becoming remains eternal. The individual may persist as a psychic entity in Time and get reincarnated without any after-life elsewhere and thus may move towards perfection but this is too over-stretched an idea unless one opts for a supraterrestrial view of existence.
In the cosmic-terrestrial view there are two choices available -either a passive acceptance of human mortality or an active dealing with individual or collective life regarding the aims of life. Indeed, we can proceed to actualize the maximum potentials of collective life but the individual person is also alone capable of exceeding oneself. This activity of the collective life and individual life which can lead to gigantic proportions is independent of the phenomenon of death. Humanity has developed thought and will and to follow them intelligently is "the natural law and best rule of human life". (Ibid, pg.671)
The Supra-terrestrial view
The supraterrestrial view accepts the mortality of human life but perceives the immortality of the soul within man behind the mortality of human life. "A belief in the immortality, the eternal persistence of the individual human spirit apart from the body is the keyword of this conception of life". (Ibid, pg.672) That implies a belief in a higher plane of existence for the disembodied spirit cannot have an abiding place in a material world. It appears that the true home of the human being is beyond and that the earth-life is just an episode of his immortality -a deviation from a celestial into a material existence.
But what is the origin and end of this deviation? Certain theories posit that the human being is born primarily in a material body where a newly born divine soul is breathed in. There are theories which believe that this life is a solitary episode from where the soul departs to a life of endless bliss or endless misery depending on his good or bad deeds. Or that one has to pursue the rest of one's existence when the soul has shaken off the material matrix at death. One may also suppose a pre-terrestrial existence of the soul, its fall into matter and its re-ascension into a celestial being. But all these views do not provide a sufficient base for the creation of a material universe.
It is also believed that a solitary life reaches its original glory through a succession of worlds while the material universe is an interlude or a scene of spiritual exile. And finally there is the Indian conception of the world as a divine Lila or play of the Divine Being in a world of inferior Nature. The soul of man takes part in the Lila through many births but reaches at last the proper plane of the Divine Being to enjoy an eternal communion. This concept is a more rational theory of the creative process and gives a more meaningful view of the spiritual adventure than other theories.
There are three characteristics in all these varying theories:
(a) The belief that the individual spirit is immortal;
(b) The idea of the human spirit's earth-sojourn as a temporary passage and its departure into a heaven beyond as its proper habitation; and
(c) The development of the ethical and spiritual being as the means of ascent and the one proper pre-occupation in the material world. (Ibid, pg.673)
The supracosmic view, the cosmic-terrestrial view and the supra-terrestrial are three fundamental ways of mentally seeing our existence. In reality however only a few can regard anyone of these motives as the leading one and instead consider a confused amalgam of two or more as pointing out the truth. However the human being is preoccupied with his material existence, with the pursuit of his bodily, vital and mental aims and their perfection and Nature takes care that these aims should be addressed and not neglected "for they fall within the method and stages of the divine plan in us." (Ibid.pg.674)
Despite the materialistic preoccupation, there are at times intuition of a beyond --- the idea of a soul or spirit that surpasses the mind, vital and body-the supra-terrestrial view. At times there are eras in which the supra-terrestrial view acts strongly. (Ibid, pg.675) There arises a resistance that then ignores our evolutionary projection which gives credence to a certain divine disposition in our nature.
As our knowledge deepens, we perceive that the terrestrial and supra-terrestrial are not the only terms of the being, there is too a supracosmic perspective. Human life is overburdened by the unreality of cosmic existence, the cruelty of earth and aimless repetition of births in the body. The ordinary human being has to continue life with these anomalies but the exceptional man rebels and abandons all for a spiritual life. There have been periods and countries where this ascetic trend dominated and the ordinary folk continued to live a life with an underlying belief in its unreality. This has resulted in missing out the Divine joy in all-existence, a failure in collective self-development and an absence of "a noble embrace of the battle and the labour". (Ibid, pg.676) This is a sign of some insufficiency in the perspective of the Supracosmic Reality.
A failed attempt at synthesis
That insufficiency can be corrected if we give a legitimate value to each part of our composite being leading to their synthesis or integration along an evolutionary perspective. Such a synthesis was attempted in India with four legitimate motives of being:
(a) An acceptance of the claims of the vital, physical and emotional being by a period of education:
(b) An acceptance of the claims of the ethical and religious being through a period of normal living to satisfy human desires under the moderating rule of the ethical and religious perspectives;
(c) An acceptance of man's spiritual longing for the beyond through a period of withdrawal and spiritual preparation; and
(d) An acceptance of man's ultimate release from a mundane existence through a period of renunciation of life and release into the spirit. (Ibid, pg.676-677)
Obviously one life-time would be too short a period to integrate these movements and so the Indian tradition gave allowance for a complete evolution spanning several life-times until one is fit for spiritual liberation. This synthesis raised the tone of human life but ultimately collapsed with two movements. The first movement was an exaggerated impulse for renunciation. The second movement was a normal life of desires with an ethical or religious colouring. Either one opts out of life-fulfilment or is left with the ego and its satisfactions. "Life is split into the spiritual and the mundane and there can only be an abrupt transition, not a harmony or reconciliation of these parts of our nature". (Ibid, pg.677)
An integral, synthetic or composite view
A spiritual evolution that heralds an unfolding of the Being within from birth to birth is the link needed to reconcile life and spirit. A complete solution occurs when the lower consciousness of mind, life and body is transformed by the supramentalising action of the higher spiritual consciousness. This high aim has been missed by the terrestrial ideal. Our present mind is a partial unfolding of consciousness. We have to acknowledge that there are powers beyond the Mind of which our Nature is capable and the ultimate supramental transformation is a reality. (Ibid, pg.678)
We need to open up to the higher spiritual consciousness which is universal and transcendent and sports a higher knowledge, a deeper power and an exclusive intensity of love, joy and beauty. Our being seeks them and shutting them out is to deprive them of the highest consummation possible. There is another alternative of a colourless and valueless spiritual existence that excludes whatever the Divine manifests in the being. It leaves evolution without purpose and the whole being is plunged into a meaningless curve of Ignorance. It has only escape from life as an issue, not the fulfilment of life. The intermediary system of supra-terrestrial perspective does not allow to proceed to the highest realization above and ignores the hints of the highest consciousness in the material universe. What is needed is an integration, a large relation of unity to restore the balance and to accommodate the links in the steps of evolutionary Nature. (Ibid, pg.679)
In the phenomenon of integration, the supracosmic Reality stands as the supreme Truth of Being. But the supracosmic is simultaneously cosmic -it is also the cosmic being, the cosmic consciousness, the cosmic will and life. We need to universalize ourselves to realize this or else we would be incomplete. The individual loses himself in the supreme heights by rejecting the All; by including the cosmic consciousness he recovers the Transcendence to fulfil it. The individual soul must awaken to universality and transcendence. "A realized unity of the transcendent, the universal and the individual is an indispensable condition for the fullness of the self-expressing spirit: for the universe is the field of its totality of self-expression, while it is through the individual that the evolutionary self-unfolding here comes to its acme." (Ibid)
There are higher planes of consciousness, there is the supra-terrestrial existence, but they are not the only habitation of the perfected soul. There are non-evolutionary worlds which are unchanging in nature and do not hold the total sense of the Spirit's self-expression in the cosmos. The earth on the other hand is not a mundane and undivine plane and holds a divine possibility of the Spirit's self-expression through an evolutionary movement. Moreover it contains the possibilities of all the other worlds in it, "unrealised but realisable". (Ibid, pg.680) Besides it holds the manifold diversity of the self-achieving spirit.
While it is possible for the soul to ascend to higher planes of consciousness beyond the earth, it is more important that these higher powers should manifest and develop in the earth; "the embodiment of the soul is the means for that embodiment". (Ibid) Our terrestrial being is a becoming of the One Reality which must embody in itself these higher powers. Our present appearance is veiled and partial but to limit ourselves to an imperfect humanity is to exclude our divine potentialities. The individual can use the world divinely only when he has entered into the higher planes of being and can see and live in the Eternal.
Involution and Evolution
An integration of this kind is only possible due to a spiritual evolution where there is an unfolding of all the superconscient possibilities that have become involved in the Inconscience through a process of concealment and self-limitation through involution that preceded the evolutionary movement. The phenomenon of involution produced non-evolutionary worlds which exist each in its own perfection, "but within the limits of a stationary world-formula". (Ibid, pg.681) During the opposite process of evolution, the spirit undertakes an adventure of self-recovery through self-unfoldment. "A complete involution of all that the Spirit is and its evolutionary self-unfolding are the double term of our material existence". (Ibid)
There are three stages of the cycle of the spirit's progressive self-expression in life:
(a) An involution of the spirit in the Inconscience is the beginning;
(b) An evolution in Ignorance with the play of possibilities of a partially developing knowledge in the middle with our imperfection producing a transitional state; and
(c) A consummation in a deployment of the spirit's self-knowledge and self-power of its divine being and consciousness the culmination. (Ibid)
"The two stages that have already their play seem at first sight to deny the possibility of the later consummating stage of the cycle, but logically they imply its emergence; for if the inconscience has evolved consciousness, the partial consciousness already reached must surely evolve into complete consciousness. It is a perfected and divinized life for which the earth-nature is seeking, and this seeking is a sign of the Divine Will in Nature." (Ibid, pg.682)
Date of Update:
31-Aug-25
- By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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