truth

TRUTH.

The nature of truth and the human capacity to have it, to retain it, and to achieve more of it are topics that have occupied philosophers at least since the moment when the goddess told parmenides that she would teach him all things, both the unshaken heart of well rounded truth and the opinion of immortals in which there is no true reliance.

aristotle provides a robust and substantial account of truth which displays and explains truth as a fundamental ineliminable datum for philosophical enquiry

Sri Aurobindo sees evolution primarily as an ongoing evolution of consciousness. He holds that the human mind is much too imperfect a type of consciousness to be the final resting point of nature, and that just as life developed out of matter, and mind out of life, a still higher form of consciousness is bound to develop out of the mind. For his evolutionary ontology of consciousness, Aurobindo bases himself on the Veda¯ntic view of consciousness, which says that

consciousness is pervasive throughout reality and that it manifests as a range of ever-higher gradations of consciousness and being. In matter, consciousness is fully engrossed in its own existence and shows itself only as matter’s habit of form and its tendency to obey fixed laws. In plant and animal life, consciousness begins to emancipate a little, there are the first signs of exchange, of giving and taking, of feelings, drives, and emotions. In the human mind we see a further emancipation of consciousness in the first appearance of an ability to ‘‘play with ideas in one’s mind’’ and to rise above the immediate situation. The mind is characteristically the plane

of objective, generalized statements, ideas, thoughts, intelligence, and so on. But the mind is also an inveterate divider, making distinctions between subject and object, I and thou, things and

other things. Within the Vedic tradition, the ordinary human mentality is considered to be only the most primitive form of mental consciousness, the most ego-bound, the most dependent on the

physical senses. Above it there is the unitary Higher Mind of self-revealed wisdom, the Illumined Mind where truths are seen rather than thought, the plane of the Intuitive Mind where truth is

inevitable and perfect, and finally the cosmic Overmind, the mind of the Gods, comprehensive, all-encompassing. But in all these mental planes, however far beyond our ordinary mentality,

there is still a trace of division, the possibility of discord and disharmony. One has to rise beyond all of them to find a truly Gnostic consciousness, intrinsically harmonious, perfect, one with the divine consciousness that upholds the universe.

Many spiritual traditions have claimed that it is possible to connect or even merge with an absolute consciousness beyond mind, but, according to Aurobindo, it is at this moment for the first time becoming possible to let a supramental consciousness enter into one’s being and transform it in every respect. The comprehensive, supramental transformation of all aspects of human nature is the central theme of Aurobindo’s work. While at present this can be done only to a limited extent, and at the cost of a tremendous individual effort, he predicts that eventually the supramental consciousness will become as much an intrinsic, ‘‘natural’’ part of earthly life as our ordinary mentality is now.

In this chapter a comparison is drawn between Aurobindo’s evolutionary conceptualization of consciousness and the concepts of consciousness more commonly encountered in contemporary

consciousness studies. A number of ontological and epistemological questions arising out of this comparison are discussed. A short indication is given of the ‘‘inner gestures’’ that can help to put

an individual on the path toward the ultimate transformation of consciousness and being, which Aurobindo proposes.
To be continued.