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Human Choice During Times of Transition

March 31, 2001

Sri Aurobindo says that Nature, having exhausted all its efforts to unite India territorially, resorted to the device of foreign invasion. We are unaware of the devices Nature had employed until then, as we do not have that global vision that penetrates Time. We see civilisation moved from central Asia to Greece and from there to Rome. The spearhead of advancing humanity continued to move to Europe, to England, to USA and to Japan. This can only be understood as the receptivity of a segment of humanity becoming  exhausted and the Force moving to a more conducive spot, which, in the context of the latest developments, admits of a greater advance. The points of life once closed to the Force do not seem to have opened ever again except when Japan threatened USA with her imports, and US rose to the occasion by resilience.

Whether it is Bengal, which was faced with a famine once and communal carnage again, but failed to ask for His help, or whether it is the devotees forgetting to invoke His blessings, the rule so far witnessed seems to be that, "once closed, closed forever." Of course, we do understand the other side of the evolution where, this denial changes into a new possibility of continued growth. He who shuts out grace in one area opens in a wider area apparently opposite to the first and appearing to be negative.  When a sadhak on a property refuses to work and idles away his time, he does shut out the grace to convert itself into higher income. But the grace abides. It raises the market value of the property abnormally. He, who had Mother's darshan and enormously prospered in his inner domestic life and outer material life, finds his receptivity exhausted, starts worshiping a vital being, ruins himself until he destroys himself. But the darshan and the force only waited for the field to clear the vital forces or weaken them to reappear as a surge of progress in the next generation. The question raised above is what is the choice at such moments for one who is in the same field, either as an observer or participant. 

  1. Should he desert the field and people who have exhausted their receptivity, with an understanding that the Force will emerge elsewhere? Or,
  2. Should he persist with them in some fashion? And is there one?  Mother has said on these occasions She has increased the dose of grace and postponed the fall as long as She could and then abandoned.  When She ‘abandons' She does not really abandon, but waits for them to call Her and even when they do not again ever call Her, She works in their unformed parts until She is overtly rejected. When She is rejected, in effect, those who reject perish. Even when they perish, is not the Force acting in a wider plane, if not for their benefit, but to the benefit of a wider population?

The question is, is there not an attitude at all times that will be according to Her and end in the vision of the marvel? If so, is there a choice to be effected by one who observes or participates? What is that choice?

India was not united in spite of the unification of the foreign rule for 100 years. She is still divided. We see her spirituality extending her influence beyond her borders. A bright boy who has turned truant can fare better even if he loses his education. If his truancy continues and he destroys his career by dissipation, we may consider that his lessons will be of use later to his soul or to those around him. If a nation becomes corrupt, we may hope it will quickly outgrow corruption compelled by the advancing needs of the population to which corruption is a bar. How are we to understand Mother's view about ashram and Auroville, the institutions She founded?

To say that saving the truant by another or by himself or his walking into the society for a wider experience are two possible options is no answer. The participating observer needs to act, to make his choice. Is his role limited to acquiring greater clarity? Suppose he too is responsible, how can he discharge his responsibility?

Surely each time he gains in clarity, it helps avoid the catastrophe. Should he persist in gaining greater clarity each time? The observer, whether it is Mother or another, can bring Herself to accept the course the other is pursuing, but I am sure they will not accept the consequences of their choice. A man or an organisation, wilfully ruining himself by idleness, vengeance, betrayal, assertion, faces the consequences of his own act. What is the role of the observer? Is he to continue to observe with increasing clarity?

Mother has said She had learnt to be pleasant to all such cases. It means She accepted on Herself the consequences of their acts. The observer accepts in his surface mind the subliminal joy the other seeks. Only when they too realise on their surface the same thing, the Marvel will reveal itself. Is it true that the observer's surface can see the Marvel even when the other does not see?

Conquering the seven Ignorances calls for going below the surface, rising again, seeking the knowledge of the soul in its Non-Becoming, dissolving the ego and the practical ignorance. He calls this the conscious method of spiritual evolution.

In the face of a situation of continued truancy and dissipation, the choice to be effected may send one to the depth, but will it reveal the marvel of the other soul consciously evolving?

If the vision of the Marvel awaits below the surface, the answer will be satisfactory. Mother and Sri Aurobindo have not spoken in that strain. Is there NOT a choice for us?



story | by Dr. Radut