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9. Theory of Creation - Science

All thinkers set about understanding Life and aim at knowing how the world was created. The Bible attempted it. We have its explanation of creation. Another attempt gave the explanation that God made Man as the potter makes his pots and breathed life into him. There is no rationally valid Theory of Creation. Whether a theory is universally accepted or not, it must be rationally justifiable. Logic and Reason are the two most profound instruments of Man. Therefore, rational validity of a theory is essential. Science too attempted it. As with others, it has no explanation for evil in life. Two explanations are advanced. One is chance. The other is Necessity. Sri Aurobindo came up with another hypothesis that meets all these three objections. Then Life proves that His hypothesis is valid. It has been given to the world for the past eighty years. The world does not seem to have noticed it. His hypothesis and the arguments with which He proved it can be stated in their essentials. I may be partially repeating my earlier writings.

  • God is a Conscious Being.
  • He is Infinite and Eternal.
  • He seeks delight.
  • Discovery yields delight.
  • Self-discovery offers the maximum Delight. God seeks it.
  • He created the Universe in pursuit of that Delight.
  • He became the finite, inconscient Universe so that He might evolve back to His original status, thus enjoying Delight in the process.
  • His becoming the inert universe involves the inversion of Being into inconscient Matter. Infinite into Finite. Eternity into Time.
  • He has created no evil or pain, but only delight.
  • The inversion occurs at all points of Sachchidananda as Light into Darkness. Knowledge into Ignorance. Ananda into Pain. Truth into Falsehood.
  • In the process of the above inversion, Mind gets created.

Mind is a dividing Instrument. That division creates the separative ego. The ego suffers pain, evil, etc. There is no evil or pain in creation.

  • Emerging out of the ego is the part of Man, the most enlightened member of evolution.
  • Evil is thus answered.
  • Chance and Necessity argue in opposite directions, leaving us a Mystery.
  • Sri Aurobindo's position of the Infinite emerging out of the finite, enjoying infinite variations, answers chance.
  • The Truths and Powers of that Being demand a fixed order. Hence the Necessity we see in creation. If His hypothesis is thus proved, the other questions this assumption raises must now be answered.
  • The first question is about the several determinisms we see. Who determines them?
  • We see material objects like genes carry psychological traits. How can we explain it?
  • As God Self-conceived to create this universe, Sri Aurobindo explains logically that this determinism is by Self-conception.
  • Explaining how consciousness issues out of substance, Sri Aurobindo says that answers the second question*Substance is material, consciousness carries qualities.As consciousness emerges out of

* I am deliberately not giving here all the explanations of Sri Aurobindo in The Life Divine.

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material substance, properties and qualities emerge out of material genes.

The above arguments meet the obstacles faced by Vedanta, the Materialist, and the Scientist. Whether His position is accepted or not, it will be right if His Theory of Creation is discussed by all those who seek an answer. Science is the ruling thought now. They have not considered the role of mysticism in Science. Now that Science has become the Establishment, we cannot seek any favour from it, much less a course of suicide. It will be like Martin Luther waiting for the approval of the Roman Catholic Church for his doctrine. As the inheritors of Indian Spirituality, we should establish His Theory. Our Society's attempt to apply this Theory to Social Evolution as well as Individual happiness is one such endeavour. Let us more thoroughly examine how valid our applications are. They need to be justified in theory and in practice. For practice, I propose an experiment later. To validate this Theory of Social Evolution, we can examine the history of the world and some current events. Fiction is the creation of the imagination. History is of physical occurrences. Hence fiction carries a greater authority. We can conduct our search in all these domains.

Our assumption is the Infinite is emerging out of the finite. If this is true, the individual who applies this LAW must witness an infinite expansion of his activities.

  • Man is created finite.
  • His work expands infinitely when this law finds expression in his life.

In our rural project, we witnessed a thousand-fold rise in the income of the farmer. In another case of an American businessman, his project expanded 700 times. In the case of a water diviner cited earlier, thirty years of work came to him in one year. These events show the infinite expansion in life when this Force is called in. These are measurable aspects of life. The innumerable characteristics of life that are not measurable carry other aspects. In our work of over forty years, we have seen all those characteristics precisely finding play in any work. More than trying to explain what is not explainable, I propose an experiment where the devotee can experience all these. The facts will speak. Even when he feels these laws are true, the devotee will not be able to explain them, but he will be more than convinced.

The Losing Concern

There are companies that make little or no profits. Sometimes they earn pitifully low profits. In such companies these methods raise the level of profits meteorically. There are other companies which are marginally losing. Himalayan work there reduces the loss. To make them earn any profit is a near impossibility. When they do make profits, it is far out of proportion to the effort undertaken.

  • The Company that makes a little profit is POSITIVE and therefore readily responds to efforts of raising profits.
  • That Company which is losing, however marginally, remains NEGATIVE in character. For it to earn any profit, we have to change the character of the company from negative to positive.

In a country, travelling any distance is possible. To travel from Madras to Trichy or to Delhi only requires the travel expenses. When I have to travel three miles and those three miles are across the border of Pakistan, I need a passport and a visa from Pakistan. There enters a non-travelling factor, a political factor which has nothing to do with the experience of travelling. We have seen this character in companies. The change from Finite to Infinite is such a change of character of life. This Force achieves that too, though results are not dramatic there.

The theory embraces all such characteristics. A detailed consideration of the Theory explains all aspects of society in terms of that Theory. Before this Theory or outside this Theory such phenomena remained unexplained, a mystery. I shall cite some from the individual or a collective life.

  • Wars are followed by a vast expansion of life's progress.
  • Help to another person, especially unsolicited, inevitably makes the receiver hostile to the giver of help.
  • Presence of jealousy in the society.
  • Between family members or friends, especially between siblings, there is greater jealousy where there should be appreciation.
  • Good people are often poor.
  • Dogs, known for their gratitude, turn vicious when they taste the blood of the master.
  • Human ingratitude is widely prevalent.
  • Often we see the rogue is rewarded, not the pious man.
  • Romance dies at marriage.
  • Anyone who is successful instantaneously becomes selfish, instead of being helpful to others.
  • Historically, sons murdering their fathers or brothers for the throne was very common.
  • Man loves the tyrant.
  • Power leads to self-destruction.
  • No saint has been popular in his birthplace. Most of them were ostracized or crucified.
  • Great successes remain isolated. No one comes forward to imitate them.
  • Power corrupts.
  • Jesus who brought Love was murdered by his own people.
  • Man, whose defects are apparent, refuses to see them himself, Selfish unconsciousness.
  • Double standard is universal.
  • Falsehood is vastly popular. Truth is unpopular.
  • Good news never travels. Bad news travels fast.
  • Man begins to hate a confidant.
  • Life is full of various contradictions.

This Theory can fully resolve all the unsolved problems of science, if applied with knowledge. It can solve all the existing problems of human life. In the past when such problems were solved, they were solved by one law of this Theory. This Theory rises to the occasion that a Law must be true whatever the result - success or failure.

Consider this problem of science - whatever it produces has a deleterious aspect. Can this Theory suggest a solution? Is there a way in which the scientist will discover things which will be only positive and not give birth to negative consequences? Yes.

  • Car is a wonderful invention. But it creates pollution.
  • Atomic energy is a marvel. But the atom bomb can annihilate life.

All the discoveries of science are discoveries of Mind. The physical Mind creates the technologies out of the theories and discoveries of the thinking Mind. Both of them are partial. When a part creates something, at once or simultaneously the rest creates the opposite. Hence the negative consequences. Move from the part of the Mind to the whole of it - the Psychic Being. When you are in the Psychic you are in the center of the whole. Discoveries from there will be only beneficial. The Psychic carries the vital and physical sensations too. Even the mental Psychic has both these sensations. When a discovery is thought of, or a principle of it is considered, the accompanying sensation will indicate whether it is good or bad. Oppenheimer was sorry that he contributed to the discovery of the atom bomb. "Had I known that this discovery would lead to this disaster, I would not have worked for it," was the substance of his later comment. By acting for the whole, acting from the center of the whole - the psychic being - even in the beginning, his sensations would have warned him.

The Theory speaks of the society as a single whole. The Individual is the conscious pioneer of the subconscious whole of the society. Only the ego is a part, a separated part, not the Individual or his psychic. That individual is subtle. He is a conscious Individual. He is conscious of the society. Any consequence that would negatively affect the society later will be indicated even at the very beginning by the Psychic Being. Thus, no scientist will ever discover anything that is harmful. Such scientists can also suggest all the methods needed to neutralize pollution. In the case of science, we can say that a future disaster can be avoided by the scientist moving to the psychic.

In politics, it is not one politician that decides. It is a whole body, the government, the Parliament, the people. How can this theory be helpful there? The Theory says that the citizen, as he is, is a lone individual. He has no power over the society as a person. But the Individual who moves to the Psychic Being is no such lone individual. He is a pioneer. He represents consciously the subconscious aspiration of the society. When one man moves consciously to his Psychic Being, the entire society subconsciously moves to their psychic consciousness. One man opposing disharmony - the war - will be heartily endorsed by the entire community. He will thus be effective.

Philosophy of Science

Science is a part of knowledge. Philosophy is the knowledge of the whole. Science has to base itself on philosophy. It has to announce its philosophy and justify it. The government that floats any scheme cannot declare that this scheme is undertaken for the sake of the scheme. It has to tell us why this scheme is floated and how it is beneficial or relevant to the society.

  • A scheme is a scheme of the society.
  • Science is a branch of Philosophy.

Science is not free to pursue science for its sake. It is a part of the whole. It has to explain how it is relevant to philosophy. It has to declare its philosophy. We do not know what the philosophy of science is. We know science has consciously divorced itself from philosophy. In that measure, it is a retrogressive step. It becomes irrelevant to the society. Science is a part of the society and is its servant. Science cannot part company with philosophy and survive. Its survival cannot be relevant to Existence; nor can it be rational. Science is discovering Matter through the instrumentation of Mind.

  • Science must define Matter as well as Mind.
  • Science has not known Memory in its terms.
  • Memory is only one faculty of Mind.
  • If science has not defined Mind till now, it must at least aim at defining Mind at a later date.
  • If there are other definitions of Matter and Mind, science must not ignore them or refuse them out of hand.
  • Sri Aurobindo has defined Spirit, Mind, Life and Body. Either these definitions must be discussed or science needs to come out with its own definitions.
  • Science has not yet come out with a Theory of Creation that is comprehensive.
  • To explain the tree from the seed and the seed from the tree is a circular argument. That way the process of the growth of the tree or the production of the seed is explained. Sri Aurobindo says it explains nothing. He says this explains nothing and adds the Cosmos explains both and God explains the Cosmos.
  • That which permits prejudgements cannot claim to be science.
  • Pronouncing on Reason, Sri Aurobindo says reason relies on a camouflaged intuition for its conclusions. Also, He says reason comes to harvest what Intuition has discovered.
  • Science bases itself on objectivity. In that case, science owes us a definition of subjectivity and objectivity.
  • That branch of knowledge which ignores any phenomenon, even one, cannot be a complete whole, much less an integrated whole. Science cannot be science as long as she ignores anything.
  • More subtle and more powerful is a statement of His on the subtle plane. A metallurgist claims the more subtle a metal is, the more powerful it is. Science that declares that gross material plane is all must explain this phenomenon.
  • Insight and Intuition are known phenomena. They deserve no apology. Science must pronounce on them.
  • Where there is a power, that power is not its own. It is the power of something else. Sri Aurobindo tells us where that power issues from. Science must give its answer or deny that idea and declare a power can be on its own.
  • Sri Aurobindo said there is no waste in Nature. It is an idea for serious consideration.
  • He argues and proves rationally that force is anterior to the instrument. If this is conceded, momentous questions of logic arise. Such important issues must be faced.
  • No aspiration of knowledge can ignore subtle and causal planes.
  • Infinity is an age-old concept fully involved in our mathematics. Can infinity confine itself? Or can we have INFINITY confined? What about Infinity on the physical, material plane?
  • Why should enquiry stop at some point, perhaps at an inconvenient point?
  • Science should certainly offer a definition of the Truth it is seeking and distinguish that Truth from FACT.
  • Technology can be social and utilitarian. Science should not impose that limitation on itself. It should be logical and rational. The assumptions on which scientific inquiry is carried on must be so.
  • Even if science is not capable of solving every problem we face, she must have an explanation for each one of them.
  • Science is the essence of existence, not a mere process of its constitution. Process leads to utility. Essence is knowledge. Science must go beyond the process to essence.
  • Time and Space also deserve their attention.
  • They consider the law of contradictions to the end. Even parallel lines meet at infinity. Why persist in the law of contradictions? Why not try to reconcile them?
  • Energy is not the end. It has an origin too.
  • Try to explain the world as a place of Harmony and Truth.
  • Science takes itself for granted. Instead she must come out in the open and plead her case.

As the Vedas were split into knowledge and ritual, the field of science splits into theoretical scientists and men of scientific technology. This is an important distinction, and necessary too. We are just now concerned with the former. He has the option of either becoming a Mind that embraces cosmic knowledge or an efficient technician who insists on his partial knowledge. The secret of yoga in life, the clue to enter into earthly paradise, the key for everlasting luck lies there. God gives the option. Man makes his choice.

  • Destiny is choice.
  • God gives total Freedom.
  • Man exercises the choice in Freedom.
  • The choice exercised in his favour is destiny.
  • The choice exercised as God intends is evolution.
  • Luck is Man accepting the choice of his evolution.

The Future

Science is of a part, is partial. Spirit is a whole. Science can become a part of the Spirit. Spirit can never become a part of science.

  • The Future is not for partial Science.
  • The Future belongs to the whole, to Spirituality that is of the whole.
  • Hatha yoga has scientific precision in the subtle plane.
  • Science cannot claim in any of its parts or work a similar spiritual fullness.
  • If it does, it does so in punctuality, orderliness, cleanliness, classification and systematization. That is what Sri Aurobindo says the Westerner has discovered - Brahman in Matter.
  • Punctuality has a few levels.
  • Punctuality of the part
  • Punctuality for punctuality's sake
  • Punctuality of the whole.

To do one's own work punctually is punctuality of the part. When it degenerates into a fad or fetish, one follows it for its own sake. When punctuality of the whole is taken into consideration

  • the punctuality of all the parts is automatically taken care of more precisely than before;
  • one may have to disregard punctuality of any kind and pay attention to the supreme need of the whole. It may be observance in the breach. It is at that level one gets into the Spirit of anything, here punctuality.

There was a time when excellent ideas were casually considered. No one would come forward to credit an idea. At most, it would be approved or appreciated. To pay for an idea is alien to European or Indian culture. Only in USA that became a principle. Culture frowns on money value. What is valued is work, physical work, especially technical work. The old cultural values of the world which frowned on paying for an idea, gradually evolved into a custom of NOT valuing an idea for an idea's sake. In any study, it is well known that the point of transition from empirical studies to study of a law is a breakthrough. Once a law is discovered, the unorganised that was floundering all over producing little or no results, is on the royal road wasting no time and producing results all the way along. There is no study which is not governed by a law or minor theory or at least assumptions. It was the practical mind in Peter Drucker that said there is nothing more practical than a good theory.

  • People estimate the population thousands of years ago not empirically, but on the assumption of their productive capacity.
  • Knowledge of the theory of planetary motion helped discover two more unknown planets.
  • Farmers look for water springs under an anthill. The capacity to relate one phenomenon with the other gives birth to a rudimentary theory.
  • Observation of facts, observation of relationship between any two facts, and observation of results repeating exactly in the same fashion, lead to the discovery of a theory.
  • The discovery of a fixed ratio between the length of the pendulum and the square of the period of its oscillation is the discovery of a law valid in a limited context.
  • All the governments are looking for clues in national development. They know roads are helpful, and education accelerates development. Savings has a role to play, population is a determinant and so on. Economics has developed so many theories, all valid in a localized context.
  • In a company we know people, capital, technology, market, and organisation matter. But to declare that productivity is at the peak when all of them are balanced is to discover a theory.
  • Neither economics nor management has come out with a Theory that can grant these subjects the status of science.
  • Science is a field of many theories or laws, but basically they remain empirical. Empiricism will not grant any branch of knowledge the status of a science, even though the world has conceded it in practice. Such a recognition has no validity in the field of Reason.

Our position is that the spiritually awakened man is in a position to make every subject a science. Science as we know it can rise to the genuine status of a real science. As Sri Aurobindo has expounded the Theory of Creation, its extension to all other subjects is now possible. Our Society* has attempted it in the field of management and social evolution.

  • Discovery of a Theory changes a collection of disparate individuals and tendencies into an organised society.
  • Theory of Creation enables one to become a spearhead of the evolution of earth.
  • The first can hasten social progress.
  • The second can hasten the advent of the next species, viz. the Supramental Being.
  • I have concentrated on finding a FORMULA for the endless success of the Individual. I call it the formula for LUCK.
  • This formula can be rationally explained. One has several works on hand. This formula can be extended to enable all his works to be a success and win the title of ‘Unfailing Success'. To start with, let me narrow it down to all major decisions. One can be happy if he can bring about in all his major works - wedding, employment, promotion, admission, new venture, etc., - a success, an unfailing success. That can be ensured if all the outer factors and inner urges are positive. Before the commencement of an act, if these two conditions are fulfilled, the work is sure to be a success. Any extension is for the future.

The four quadrants below represent four states of a person. I now confine myself to the first quadrant only. Quadrant I is (+,+) meaning all the inner urges and outer factors are positive. Quadrant II is (+, -) the inner is positive and the outer is negative. The III is (- , -) a quadrant where both are negative. The IV is (-, +) the inner is negative and the outer is positive. Work started in each of these conditions will meet with the results described below.

 


* The Mothers Service Society, Pondicherry

II

+,-

 

I

+,+

 

 

-,-

III

 

-, +

IV

  • I. Unfailing success
  • II. Difficult to begin but will end in a success.
  • III. Cannot begin, but if begun will fail.
  • IV. Make a good start but end in a failure

We can start with Quadrant I and be successful. Later the conditions of the second, third and fourth Quadrants can first be moved to Quadrant I and then the work started. The same formula can be further used to refine the results by subdividing Quadrant I into four quadrants similar to the original one as follows:

II

 

 

I

(2)

(1)

(3)

(4)

 

 

 

III

 

 

IV

 

This rational formula can be taken to its logical conclusion of making all works we initiate into unfailing successes. Beyond speaking of the principle, let me not stretch my point here. What is rational above lends itself to be rendered in spiritual terms. It can be explained as,

  • We act on impulse. It will meet with poor success.
  • We think and plan. It will yield greater success.
  • We can pour our emotions into our planning and enjoy a far greater success.
  • We can base our emotionalized PLANNING on our experience. It can give unfailing success appropriate to our idea and experience. It will be the highest human result.
  • Instead we can cease to think and plan, suspend our emotions, disregard our experience and wait upon the inner Spiritual IMPULSE and let it do the work. The results will be better than the human BEST. This is called consecration.
  • There are further stages, which may not serve our purpose here. What consecration begins surrender completes. My formula is
    1. Consecration for the householder
    2. Surrender for the yogi.

Comments

I was literally crying on

I was literally crying on reading . With Mother and Sri Aurobindo appa's blessing  my soul does "Shashtanga Namaskaram" to Thavathiru Karmayogi Swamigal. really want to find a new english word to pay my respect to Sri karmayogi adigal. This soul has grown from its early age till now by reading "Malarntha Jeeviyam" my only lighthouse in my turmoils. I deeply dedicate my soul-stirring gratitude to "Ayya" {means appa too}.



book | by Dr. Radut