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From Ignorance to Knowledge
The culmination of this process would signal a radical change of Ignorance into Knowledge, of the basis of inconscience into a basis of complete knowledge. "An evolution in the Inconscience is the beginning, an evolution in the Ignorance is the middle, but the end is a liberation of the spirit into its true consciousness and an evolution in the Knowledge." (Ibid) At first is the foundation of Inconscience which has been formed by the process of involution when the Superconscient descended and got hidden, dormant and involved in the Inconscience. This is the foundation which contains all that has to evolve. It is followed by a gradual emergence of the involved powers upon that foundation in an ascending series. Finally there is the culminating emergence of the highest power as the agent of a supreme manifestation-the emergence of the supramental consciousness.
Evolution signifies a new development at every stage. This development might come from what is already involved in the basic principle of being or substance but not yet manifested; it has then to be modified in accordance to the law of the basic principle. Or else it may come from outside and not native to the basic principle. It is then modified by the basic principle according to the law of its nature. (Ibid, pg.732)
However the new development if originates as an involvement in the basic principle will not only be modified by the basic principle but can also modify itself by its own force. If further it is aided by the descent of its own full force from the Superconscient from where it actually originated, it can enforce its dominance and radically change the consciousness and action of the world into which it emerges. Its power to change the original substance of the evolutionary matrix will depend upon its own potency. It would usually fall short of effecting an entire transformation if it is only an instrumental power. (Ibid)
A deeper occult Reality
The evolution takes place in Matter which is the original substance on whose matrix Life and Mind manifest, transforming it at first into living substance and thereafter into conscious substance, "changing its inertia, immobility and inconscience into a movement of consciousness, feeling and life". (Ibid, pg.733) But Life and Mind are still rooted in Matter and cannot transform Matter. Life and Mind are not the original creative powers, they are a series of intermediary instruments in evolution. Therefore there should be a "deeper occult Reality" (Ibid) yet to reveal itself.
Material energy is inconscient and inanimate but inconscience cannot evolve consciousness and the inanimate cannot evolve Life. There must be an original creative Power that is other than Matter, Life and Mind. It must be a power of the Spirit-a supramental Consciousness-Force. It can modify the energies of Life and Mind through "an occult gnosis, -- an invisible self-knowledge and all-knowledge". (Ibid) An entire transformation is possible through the emergence of "the law of the Spirit". (Ibid, pg.734) For that to be possible the power of the Supermind or gnosis must enter Matter and evolve in Matter. The Inconscience has to be made conscious, the mental being must change to a supramental being. This has to be the culminating action that can transform the Ignorance and its basis of the Inconscience.
The push from below and the lateral input
The Superconscient Spirit came down through a process of involution creating non-evolutionary or typal planes until it reached the Inconscient to become dormant there. When evolution occurs, there are two forces that initiate the process, the evolutionary nisus that acts from below and the force from the corresponding non-evolutionary world or typal world that acts at each grade. Thus when the vital plane manifests, there is a push from below that provides a "material organisation" and a lateral input from the non-evolutionary vital world {"partly by its own status"}. (Ibid) Its effectivity is countered by the Inconscience which tries to be active at every step until one reaches the pinnacle in the supramental status. Thus mind cannot be free and pure because it is restrained by the Inconscient and knowledge has to struggle to emerge from that restraint. Only at the Supramental level the inconscience becomes inactive.
Intervention from above
Evolution proceeds from material forms, travels to vegetable life and to animal life and then to human beings and imperfectly evolved or more evolved spiritual beings but there is a subconscious continuity of the evolutionary process for each new form takes up what was before. True, there are gaps in between but they serve to distinguish one series from another and prevent a fall back from what has already evolved. The evolutionary process proceeds from what gradually comes up from the Inconscience aided by "an intervention from above". (Ibid, pg.735) By whatever way Consciousness which is an occult inhabitant in Matter works its way upwards and has now reached the human being who is transitional in nature. Logically the evolutionary process will proceed to manifest the Supermind and supramental beings. The evolutionary progression has begun in an unconscious manner, it has now reached a middle stage where the human intelligence is used albeit secretly as a participant by the evolutionary Force signifying that the evolution is slowly becoming conscious of itself while the future must be an increasingly conscious evolution till the emergence of supramental beings.
The inner evolution in consciousness
Together with a physical and biological evolution of forms which is the domain of science there runs an inner evolution in consciousness that is difficult to understand. There is a subconscious continuity between the different grades of evolution which despite gaps is somewhat discernible to the scientist. But to the consciousness researcher exploring the inner evolution, it is difficult to penetrate the subconscious (Ibid, pg.736) and thus to assess the minute gradations, especially the gaps on the borders between grade and grade. A study of the inner evolution in consciousness would actually supplement the study of the outer evolution of forms. And despite the subconscious continuity of forms, the passage from one grade to another is striking and appears as a transformation - a new creation.
An Energy of creation
The gulfs between the grades appear deeper but less wide as the evolutionary scale is ascended. (Ibid, pg.737) The gulf appears deeper between the highest plant life and the lowest animal life for the plant life is marked by an unawakened mental consciousness but a presence of vital reactions and sub-mental vital vibrations while the animal life is marked by an awakened mind and a conscious life showing a profound transition. Nevertheless, the continuity of life in plant and animal narrows the gulf but does not fill in the profundity. Between the highest animal and lowest man, the gulf is still deeper but narrower -the gulf between the sense-mind and the intellect which begins to function. Even at that stage, the primitive intellect is capable, though in limits, of ideas, conscious inventions, religious and ethical thought. It is evident a certain Energy of creation, secretly conscious or inconscient, is responsible for the transition between grades of evolution and the transition has been effected by whatever means -biological, physical or psychological. (Ibid, pg.738) This explanation may sound hypothetical but nevertheless, the reason for the radical differences between the grades of evolution can be understood by observing the working of the inner Force and not merely the biological evolution.
The psychological perspective reveals that the difference between the different grades of evolution lies in the continuous ascent of consciousness to another principle of being. The metal is fixed in the inanimate principle of Matter, the plant is fixed on the subconscient principle of life, the animal is fixed and limited on the vital mind and mind-sense while the human being has received into his sense-mind a new principle -the intellect. The intellect is actually a reflection and degradation of the Supermind which is far above the human mentality. The Supermind is itself the Gnosis but the human intellect is agnostic, it attempts to get hold of knowledge. At each grade of the evolutionary hierarchy, the universal being has fixed its action of consciousness on a different principle. (Ibid, pg.739)
An effective transition
Each higher grade does not abandon the lower grades but carries their essence while each lower grade holds the possibilities of the higher grades in its bosom. So outwardly the evolutionary forms might seem to be widely different from each other but inwardly there is an occult continuity of the evolutionary trajectory. The lower grades have to come to a point at which the higher grade can manifest in it and at that time, simultaneously, there is "a pressure from superior plane where the new power is dominant". (Ibid) This phenomenon assures a decisive transition by "a bound or a series of bounds, -- a slow, creeping, imperceptible or even occult action is followed by a run and an evolutionary saltus across the border". (Ibid) The transition from the lower to the higher grade is thus brought out effectively in Nature.
Date of Update:
30-Nov-25
- By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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