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The vital mind as creator of sense of evil
The duality of good and evil starts with the development of mind in life; "the vital mind, the mind of desire and sensation, is the creator of the sense of evil and of the fact of evil." (Ibid) In animal life there is no duality of sin and virtue and all actions are permissible for preservation of life and satisfaction of life-instincts. The sensational values of good and evil are implicit in pain and pleasure but the moral response in the form of sin and virtue are the creation of the human mind. It can be dealt from four perspectives (Ibid, pg.608):
(a) Infrarational truth, which accepts all things of Nature in an impartial and neutral way and serviceable for the creation, preservation and destruction of life;
(b) The truth of detached reason which is a philosophic and scientific reason that observes and understands everything with a neutral impartiality and considers it futile to judge the activities of the cosmic Energy;
(c) The suprarational truth of spiritual experience that accepts all impartially as consequences of a world of Ignorance and Inconscience or accepts all with calm and compassion as part of divine working. However while it awaits the awakening of a higher consciousness as the sole escape from evil, it is ready to help and intervene when needed;
(d) The middle truth of consciousness "which awakens us to the values of good and evil and the appreciation of their necessity and importance; this awakening...is one of the indispensable steps in the process of evolutionary Nature". (Ibid)
The inner witness
But which part in us awakens us to good and evil? First it is the vital mind that makes the distinction. This mind is firstly sensational and individual; all that is pleasant is good and unpleasant is evil. Secondly, this mind's valuation is utilitarian and social; all that regulates association is good and all that has a contrary effect is evil. But after the vital mind, the thinking mind comes with its own valuation. It strives to find an intellectual basis to this issue, an ideal Law, a law of Karma, an ethical system or Law of God. But it is also felt that behind all these is a real inner witness and all other standards fall short in its front. "The traditional account of this inner witness is conscience, a power of perception in us half mental, half intuitive; but this is something superficial, constructed, unreliable: there is certainly within us, though less easily active, more masked by surface elements, a deeper spiritual sense, the soul's discernment, an inborn light within our nature." (Ibid. pg.609)
It may be argued that if the being becomes aware of sin and evil arising from Ignorance and Inconscience and the relative nature of good and happiness, one can turn towards the Absolute. Or else one can spiritually purify the nature by pursuit of good or according to Buddhist norms, dissolve the ego-complex to be free from personality and suffering.
Growth of the soul
"But also it may be that this awakening is a spiritual necessity of the evolution itself, a step towards the growth of the being out of the Ignorance into the truth of the divine unity and the evolution of a divine consciousness and a divine being. For much more than the mind or life which can turn either to good or to evil, it is the soul-personality, the psychic being, which insists on the distinction, though in a larger sense than the mere moral difference. It is the soul in us which turns always towards Truth, Good and Beauty, because it is by these things that it itself grows in stature; the rest, their opposites, are a necessary part of experience, but have to be outgrown in the spiritual increase of the being....the growth of the soul is a growth out of darkness into light, out of falsehood into truth, out of suffering into its own supreme and universal Ananda." (Ibid, pg.610)
The psychic being carries the essence of the delight of life out of all contacts and happenings which is carried over life to life. It lifts the being out of the divisions of Ignorance towards an integral consciousness.
The soul's perception of good and evil may not match the mind's standards. What is needed is the intervention of a higher law of being in which these values have no more utility. There is a self-law of supreme Truth above all mental standards and a supreme and Universal Good, infinitely plastic with the pure plasticity of the supreme Infinite.
The emergence of the ego
How does evil and falsehood arise during evolution? How do they arise from the terrestrial Inconscience where individuality has not formed and appear in the individual? Sri Aurobindo describes two processes, two determining factors:
(a) In the terrestrial Inconscience where there is no individuality, two things happen. Firstly, there is an underlying occult consciousness and power of inherent knowledge and secondly there is an overlying layer of vital and physical consciousness which is yet indeterminate and ill-formed; through this obscurity the emerging mentality has to force its way by a constructed knowledge as this layer is full of nescience, heavily burdened with the Inconscience of Matter. (Ibid, pg.611)
(b) Next, in the emerging separate individuality that arises from the matrix of un-individualized Inconscience, life has to be affirmed against the principle of inanimate material inertia. There is a constant gravitational pull of that inertia towards disintegration and relapse into the Inconscience. The separate individuality has to also affirm itself against a hostile outside world if it wants to survive.
The result of an emergence of individual consciousness under these conditions is the growth of a self-affirming vital and physical individual, a certain construction of Nature of life and matter supported by a concealed psychic or spiritual true individual for whom Nature is creating this outer means of expression. "As mentality increases, this vital and material individual takes the more developed form of a constantly self-affirming mental, vital and physical ego." (Ibid, pg.611-612) And as the ego is biased and skewed, it facilitates the emergence of evil and falsehood in the terrestrial scheme.
A concealed consciousness
The fact that consciousness with qualia, with colours, variety and a multiple array of forms can arise from Matter which is inert, non-qualia and inconscient is itself an unexplainable miracle and dubbed as the hard problem of consciousness in consciousness research. Knowledge per se is absent and has to be acquired, it is present not as knowledge but as instinctive knowhow at first. Scientists tend to believe that consciousness is an original Inconscience which mechanically records the facts of existence and is manifest through automatic reflex actions. Sri Aurobindo points out that this is not the whole truth for it can account only for observation and mechanical action but the main problem is it does not explain how an unconscious record can turn into a conscious observation. Actually, the evolution of consciousness and knowledge cannot be accounted for unless we admit that there is already a concealed consciousness with an underlying knowledge whose powers emerge little by little during evolution.
The initial sources of knowledge
The individual animal being has to initially rely on two sources of knowledge:
(a) The first is intuition which comes down as instinct that is responsible for survival. This instinct in the animal is thrown up by the Consciousness-Force; it automatically belongs to the race and is imparted at birth to individual members. While the intuition is unerring, the instinct is automatically correct but can blunder if it continues to work mechanically when the need or the necessary circumstances no longer exist.
(b) The second source of knowledge is through surface contact with the outside world and initially works through conscious sensation and surface perception. But this works only because there is a concealed underlying consciousness or else the contact could not have created any perception or reaction. The subliminal consciousness that emerges in response to a stimulus constitutes at first the vital mind in the animal and then during the course of evolution, a thinking intelligence. The concealed or "secret consciousness is rendered into surface sensation and perception, the secret force into surface impulse". (Ibid, pg.613)
If this concealed consciousness came by itself to the surface, we could have a direct knowledge following a direct meeting with subject and object. But this does not happen due to the obstruction of the Inconscience and because the fact that the process of evolutionary growth is slow and tardy. The concealed consciousness has thus to limit itself to imperfect surface renderings.
At first the external knowledge is available to a rudimentary structure capable of a vague sensational perception and a response-impulse. As evolution proceeds, there is developed a life-mind and vital intelligence which works mechanically and acts out the instincts and intuitions from the concealed subliminal consciousness. The mind-movements occur but as subordinates to the vital sense-notation.
Later, the mind starts disengaging itself though it still works for the life-instincts and desires. But it develops its own powers of observation, invention, intention and execution of purpose. It accepts instinct and vital intuition as its support and the intelligence developed becomes an "added superstructure". (Ibid, pg.614)
The emergence of error
The animal thrives on automatic life-instinct and vital intuition which is usually correct as a rule. But in the human being, the human intelligence becomes less intuitive. Indeed the intuition becomes mixed. A mental interpretation of intuition conceals the origin of knowledge that descends from above and lies hidden in the subliminal. Instinct is also deprived of its intuitive character and becomes less veridical. As a result error creeps in. "The emergence of mind in life brings an immense increase of the range and capacity of the evolving consciousness-force; but it also brings an immense increase in the range and capacity of error". (Ibid, pg.615)
If the evolving surface consciousness was always open to intuition, the intervention of error would not have been possible. Intuition descends from the secret Supermind and would result in an emergent Truth-Consciousness. Instinct and intelligence would have served intuition resulting in an infallible working out of things. But this could not happen due to the pressing presence of the Inconscience. The Inconscience has a sinister hold on matter in which life and mind manifest. Actually, a rapid development of Truth-Consciousness is not the intention of evolutionary Nature. An evolution out of Inconscience develops into Ignorance and Ignorance "forms itself into a mixed, modified and partial knowledge before it can be ready for transformation into a higher Truth-Consciousness and Truth-knowledge. Our imperfect mental intelligence is a necessary stage of transition before this higher transformation can be made possible." (Ibid, pg.616)
Date of Update:
28-Feb-25
- By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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