Context for the Theory

October 31, 1998

Main Ideas of this paper:

• Describe in our words where the economist is in the scale of KNOWLEDGE.
• Construction of that scale in Sri Aurobindo's words in three tiers of physical, vital, mental.
• Explanation of the evolution of supramental being and man's present physical life in terms of that scale.
• Explain in terms of theory of creation that man's present highest enjoyment of sex is form meeting form generating sensation and resulting in childbirth, an act in the physical plane.
• Show our goal of abundant life is one step higher than man's present physical life of enjoyment and a penultimate step to the Supramental being.
• In all mastery such as writing, there is an ascent of knowledge to the mind and a descent of skill to the body.
• This ascent of knowledge is always preceded by a context, a whole, an aim, and a use.
• Such a context for the present physical man is preservation of the species by reproduction. As man has achieved it, so man should achieve the next goal of happiness and success (vital). We concentrate only on this point or level.

Man has collectively achieved in his subconscious the ability to preserve the species and reduced it to a physical skill in his body. This is a physical achievement and our theory is moving up for a vital achievement of endless happiness and ever-increasing success. Our aim here is to focus on the economists' position and our position and bring out the difference and show the path of transition through the five distinguishing features of

• Man becoming a slave of his instrument;
• Shifting to the centre of MAN;
• From knowledge of experience to knowledge of essence, etc.

   Before doing so, we shall also try to put it in the context of creation. Conscious Being puts forth Force and compresses it into a Form in its pursuit of perfect Form. Form meeting Form gives rise to sensation of Ananda in the supramental plane which is enjoyed by the divine soul. The same type of enjoyment on earth is in ignorance. Even in Ignorance man keeps to the type. The Form in Ignorance is the human body. It seeks sensation in meeting another human body (male and female) which is the highest human enjoyment that results in childbirth. The context for this physical act is preservation of the species physically. Hence, childbirth is important. Sri Aurobindo keeps this type and speaks of the emergence of the supramental being.

   Sri Aurobindo raises the human aim of preserving the species physically to supramental level (of the birth of supramental being) by transforming the physical substance. He reached up to the transformation of physical consciousness. Mother tried further and howled.

   Higher than the present physical life of man and below the evolving of the supramental being, there are several levels of higher life in progress. They are the mental and vital life. We can include the spiritual ranges of mind too. Of these many levels, I choose for action the vital life.  

   When achieved, that vital life will be one of happiness and unfailing success. The economist meets us there. His position is that natural and other resources are limited, progress will create problems, the future is uncertain, the development of human life is unpredictable, each new success generates a failure or even danger, and capital is not enough for development. Our position is the opposite.

   We assert that man's physical perfection of preserving the species is achieved by,

• subconscious experience over long millennia;
• the individual has perfected the collective achievement and possesses it;
• the physical body and its experience;
• it had a context of the whole, an aim, a use, etc. of the preservation of the species;
• physical self-defence and procreation are its twin individual strategies;
• That individual defence has horizontally extended to global self-defence through two world wars;
• Man does have the knowledge required for this purpose sub-consciously;
• To move one step higher to our plane, he needs to acquire that knowledge in the vital and consciously.

These twin objects are our endeavour. To achieve this knowledge vitally, the mind must acquire it first as a concept in the ascent and give it to the vital in the descent. All mastery so far is conscious mastery. To become conscious, it is obvious the knowledge must first reach the mind. To acquire mastery it must go down to the subconscious in the vital. The economist is also pursuing the same goal, but according to us, he is hampered by five distortions. The context the economist needs is the context of human happiness and unfailing success. It is a context of the whole, not of a part.

Context of two types:

• I. An institution drifts away from its ideal, moves away from its context and becomes a laughing stock or an organisation of self-seekers. Without the context reestablishing itself, there is no hope for the organisation. This is not the context I am speaking of.
• II. The second type of context is a whole whose parts its members are grappling with. It resembles an aim, a goal or even a use value. In 1904 when Indians were petitioning the British Govt. for better government, for mercy, for justice, Sri Aurobindo came on the scene and said all those endeavours are either parts or wrong approaches and the real context is the Freedom Struggle. Till this context became established in the minds of the Congress men in 1930, complete independence was not even asked for.

The Russian example may not fully serve the purpose and may even confuse, but I see my point there, if not powerfully. What are the Russians seeking for? Their goal is a prosperous nation. Their means are market economy. But they forget the context they are in and the context in which prosperity and markets can play a role. Their own nation is an amorphous population relieved of state economy and people everywhere (mafia) trying to make the most of it. Prosperity did not come in such conditions to other countries, nor did markets flourish. For markets to flourish, there must be law and order which they do not have. They are in a social context where law and order must be first established. Without that, there is no context for anything.

   In 1947 India was neither Eastern nor Western. It was a poor country laden with top heavy administration and very highly beneficial Western institutions but not with a manpower of integrity. Indian planners did not fully take this context into account when the Planning Commission was constituted. C. Subramaniam took the context of the country when he launched the Green Revolution. If this is helpful, what is the context I am asking the economists to take note of and what is the context they must build towards?

• i) The context they are now in includes the 5 distinguishing deficiencies.
• ii) The context they must build up should reverse all these five deficiencies and then ask, what are we looking for? The answer is abolition of poverty, pollution, drugs, violence, crime, disease, illiteracy etc. This is not a sufficient answer. If it is, then Asian countries must go the way of the Western nations and perhaps meet with the crisis. Well, we can say we can steer clear of the crisis taking precautions. This is not the answer, because Asia has the prosperity or poverty level of Europe or USA of 1800 or 1900 and all the modern technology and information. We cannot travel the same path, nor do we want to repeat the errors the West is anxious to get rid of.

THEN

            We are looking for a new context.

            What is it?

It is a context not of abolishing poverty, but a context of ushering in plenty, not through the Western method but by their corrected versions.

Context of several levels:

Explanation of the vital context. What is given above can still be watered down as follows, the significance remaining the same.

N.B. (*)  For this, trade must be global, velocity of money should increase, anachronisms of all types should be abolished, as many marriages as computer and telecom should be promoted, food must be in abundance, employment guaranteed, Russia transformed, theory must be established, Man is to be installed in the centre and World Army be created.