Introduction to Consciousness

March 26, 2007

Consciousness is that which is conscious of everything that is to be known. Man is more conscious than the animal and the plant, but he does not know what the other man thinks or what to do next. He knows what his senses tell him. That is, he is conscious in his senses or conscious to the extent his senses are aware. For the rest he is unconscious. He does not know what is at a distance or what will come tomorrow. Or, he is not fully aware of all that he has passed through. Particularly he does not know himself before his birth or after his death.

That which created the world is conscious of the entire world and the universe. To be conscious of That is consciousness. It is buried in us and is called Soul in our language. The Theory of Creation says consciousness has created this world by dividing the One into Many. In its own language in the One all is in all. It is made into the Many not by division that causes separation but by differentiation where all is in each and each is in all for the purposes of Lila, Play. God has created this world for the delight of this Play.

Sri Aurobindo has a hypothesis for creation. As against a notion the God created the world, he starts with a hypothesis that God became the world. This he does to meet three of the bases of the tradition.

• 1. Man has to suffer evil. (He wants to show there is no evil in the world.)
• 2. The world is created by Chance.
• 3. The world obeys an iron law of Necessity. (Sri Aurobindo shows that in his hypothesis Chance and Necessity meet in the creation of infinite variety.)

He proves that this hypothesis holds good. To him the world is really a Marvel devoid of Evil, Suffering, and Death. To enhance his Delight, God resorted to the method of Self-discovery hiding Himself in the Ignorance he has created. Ego is the personification of that Ignorance. It is man's ego that sees Evil, but really there is no Evil. He also answers the question of determinism. This is his Theory of creation in brief.

That apart, if we start from the consciousness which created the world, we see this consciousness has two parts of knowledge and will. Will is the force and it is force that accomplishes.

Then the process of accomplishment is Consciousness generates energy which when directed by the will becomes force. Force passing through an organisation becomes Power which produces the results through human skill.

Energy             ─        Force   ─         Power              ─         Results

Aspiration of

consciousness  ─        will      ─      organisation        ─         skill     

Science says there are laws governing the universe. Everything, including Man, is the creation of these laws. Science rules out a role for Man. Eastern philosophy, particularly Indian philosophy virtually says the same in the name of karma. Sri Aurobindo departs from both to say Man is God. He is the determinant. His choice matters. It is noteworthy that The Secret in asking Man to accomplish disregarding the existing situation, accords this privileged position to Man. In that sense, The Secret carries a creative philosophy in tune with the evolutionary philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.