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In
fact, chapter X is a very important chapter having ‘momentous
logical consequences’ (using Sri Aurobindo’s own words). While
elaborating Chit-Shakti or Consciousness-Force, Sri Aurobindo lays
down:
(a)
The foundation of
‘consciousness’ as a credible multidisciplinary subject, and
(b) The
foundation of a consciousness based psychology (referred here as
Integral Yoga psychology.)
This
chapter also provides a definition of consciousness that would be
equally relevant to the different types of consciousness
researchers—psychologists, physicists, mathematicians, and
metaphysicians.
CONSCIOUSNESS
At the
scientific level, there are two major approaches in consciousness
research. The first approach starts from neurophysiology and extends
to psychology. The second approach starts from the physicist’s level
of matter-energy and uses different models to understand both the
physical and non-physical qualia of consciousness. Both the
approaches have helped to throw some light on how consciousness acts
but both have failed to reveal the true nature of consciousness.
The
neurophysiological approach studied three dimensions of
consciousness:
(a))
The
sleep-wakefulness dimension
(b)
The
lucidity-obfuscation-stupor-coma dimension
(c)
The altered states
of consciousness
The
limitations of these approaches were previsioned in the second
decade of the last century when Sri Aurobindo wrote that our
ordinary understanding of a ‘mental waking consciousness’ when one
is ‘not asleep, stunned or otherwise deprived of his physical and
superficial methods of sensation’ (The Life Divine, pg 94) was too
limited to be generalized and too simplified to be relevant.
Actually, data from research of these three dimensions have resulted
in such intriguing observations that our hypotheses of consciousness
need constant reconstructions. Sleep cannot be today considered as
‘unconscious’ .In fact, sleep is now considered to be an active
physiological process and not a mere failure of arousal and is
clearly separable from stupor (a situation where a subject can only
be ‘aroused’ by vigorous and continuous external stimulation) and
coma (a situation where a subject elicits no response to any
external stimulus or inner biological need). As sleep is not a
failure of arousal, it is not surprising that we experience a rich
and variegated dream-life that reveals the personal and collective
unconscious. Dreams also at times carry future premonitions though
we are not sure how they occur. In contrast to sleep, stupor and
coma are states where the ‘arousal’ mechanism seems to fail and may
ultimately lead to death. Yet, stupor and coma may not be as dry and
colourless as they externally appear. The reporting of large number
of NDE (Near Death Experiences) cases raises many interesting
issues. Due to advanced resuscitation techniques available today, it
is possible to bring back to life subjects who where at the verge of
death or ‘technically dead’ for a few moments. A commonality in the
reported experiences of these subjects is emerging which usually
include having a life-review, traversing a tunnel, encountering a
Being of Light, and rarely getting premonitions of the future. What
is more important for psychiatry is that these subjects are often
reported to have lasting personality changes after being
resuscitated. Besides, one may also infer that folklore concepts of
‘Judgment Day’ and ‘angels’ may have arisen from suprasensorial
experiences similar to experiences of NDE subjects. A purely
mechanistic view-point would dismiss the NDE as a mere organic
happening (a temporal lobe phenomenon or something allied or a
hallucination) but that does not rule out the interesting fact that
a subject in stupor or coma whose ‘arousal’ mechanism is inhibited
is still capable of a colourful inner experience that can even
result in personality changes once the arousal mechanism is
facilitated again. If the NDE is considered something akin to a
dream, then also we are left intrigued. If dreams or allied
phenomena occur both during sleep (where there is no failure of
‘arousal’) and during coma (where there is a failure of ‘arousal’),
then how do we explain the origin of dreams? Do dreams arise from a
pre-existing world of dreams that uses the brain as an instrument
for expression (just as many mathematicians believe that there is a
pre-existing world of numbers which they go on discovering)? Indeed,
the whole spectrum of ‘NDE’ experience suggests that in between
‘coma’ and ‘death’, a portion of the individual’s consciousness gets
dissociated and traverses ranges of the universal consciousness of
which we are not ordinarily aware. The NDE phenomenon raises another
question: can a non-material principle of one’s being traverse
subtle ranges of consciousness even after brain death? At present
our scientific knowledge is too limited to even speculate on this
proposition. Yet, it is interesting to note that subjects undergoing
anesthesia often report ‘Out of Body Experiences’ (OBE) where a
portion of their consciousness seems to get dissociated so that they
can report ‘visualizing’ surgical operations being conducted on
their own bodies or events that occur at a distance.
Another interesting area of consciousness research is the zone of
altered states of consciousness. This is not a homogenous zone but
seems to reveal that mystical experience can be indicative of a
different type of consciousness. Thus, experiments have shown that
subjects practicing meditation (like Raj yoga) have certain EEG
changes (usually an increase of slow –alpha waves in the frontal and
central regions of the brain) along with reduced metabolism. Such
physiological changes are not seen in trance states induced through
hypnosis, ritualistic dancing and revivalist meetings. Physiological
changes during meditation have distinctive characteristics which are
different from the neurovascular changes (probably endorphin
mediated) accompanying rituals like instances where subjects neither
feel pain nor bleed even when they inflict harm on themselves
(piercing one’s own tongue or cheek, walking unscathed through fire,
lying on a bed of thorns or allied phenomena seen in different
cultures).Recently it has been demonstrated that after a month of
regular meditative practices, there is an increase in myelination
(the protective fatty insulation surrounding nerve fibres) as well
as increase in axon density (signifying greater number of brain
signaling connections) in the anterior cingulated cortex of the
brain that regulates behaviour. This finding could suggest new
healing pathways for several mental disorders.
The
study of altered states of consciousness as well as the
sleep-wakefulness dimension and states of stupor and coma have given
excellent data but have failed to explain the real essence of
consciousness. Perhaps that can never be understood unless we accept
the Yogic viewpoint ‘that there is something in us which is
conscious when we sleep, when we are stunned or drugged or in a
swoon, in all apparently unconscious states of our physical being.
Not only so, but we may now be sure that the old thinkers were right
when they declared that even in our waking state what we call then
our consciousness is only a small selection from our entire
conscious being. It is a superficies, it is not even the whole of
our mentality. Behind it, much vaster than it, there is a subliminal
or subconscient mind which is the greater part of ourselves and
contains heights and profundities which no man has yet measured or
fathomed. This knowledge gives us a starting-point for the true
science of Force and its workings; it delivers us definitely from
circumscription by the material and from the illusion of the
obvious’. (Ibid, pg 94)
So
long, we were focusing on the ‘states’ of consciousness modulated
through the ascending reticular system that can be in a state of
‘arousal’ or ‘inarousal’. Neurophysiology also studies the
‘contents’ of consciousness like sensations, emotions, images,
memories, and ideas. The content of consciousness depends upon
structures in the brain, lesions of which can diminish the content
while the state of consciousness may or may not be changed. Thus, in
the case of a brain tumour, there might be an emotional change (a
change in ‘content’) and the subject may later lapse into coma ( a
change in ‘state’).In a case of dementia, there might be a
diminution of the ‘content’ of consciousness with shrinking of
memory and emotional blunting while the ‘state’ of consciousness or
arousal remains normal. It is very surprising that even after total
bilateral destruction of the cerebral hemispheres, sleeping and
waking can still occur in some subjects.
Sri
Aurobindo states the Yogic viewpoint: Materialism indeed insists
that , whatever the extension of consciousness, it is a material
phenomenon inseparable from our physical organs and not their
utiliser but their result. This orthodox contention, however, is no
longer able to hold the field against the tide of increasing
knowledge. Its explanations are becoming more and more inadequate
and strained. It is becoming always clearer that not only does the
capacity of our total consciousness far exceed that of our organs,
the senses, the nerves, the brain, but that even for our ordinary
thought and consciousness these organs are only their habitual
instruments and not their generators. Consciousness uses the brain
which its upward strivings have produced, brain has not produced nor
does it use the consciousness. There are even abnormal instances
which go to prove that our organs are not entirely indispensable
instruments,- that the heart-beats are not absolutely essential of
life, any more than is breathing, nor the organized brain-cells to
thought. Our physical organism no more causes or explains thought
and consciousness than the construction of an engine causes or
explains the motive-power of steam or electricity. The force is
anterior, not the physical instrument’.(Ibid,pg.94-95)
The
scientists who use the matter-energy approach to understand
consciousness also work through different models - physical,
biological, quantum, information processing, computational and other
allied models.
It is claimed that all these approaches have
understood the basic workings of consciousness except one area-how
can consciousness with its ‘richness’ and ‘variety’ emerge from
matter that is inert, inconscient, colourless and dull?
Sri
Aurobindo points out that one cannot explain the appearance of
consciousness out of inanimate matter unless one accepts a Being
behind who applies the force and also becomes matter. (Sri
Aurobindo, Evening Talks, January 8th, 1940, pg. 701) It
is this being who has been experientially perceived as
Sachchidananda—a ‘Pure Existent’ who is also Chit or ‘Pure
Consciousness’.
The
problem is how we relate Chit or pure consciousness to the diverse
phenomena that science groups under the umbrella of ‘consciousness
studies’.
Integration of spiritual and materialistic traditions
Science studies ‘consciousness’ in terms of ‘matter-energy’ or as
neurophysiological processes. When spirituality studies
consciousness, it uses an intuitive, experiential approach resulting
in an absolutist, subjective realization that is not dependent on
any objective validation. It is in this way that the spiritual
paradigm perceived consciousness as Chit or the ‘pure’ essence of
Reality.
Thus,
spirituality deals with the essence of Reality or Chit that is
beyond manifestation. Science deals with the phenomena of
consciousness in existence, within the manifestation. As science and
spirituality are dealing with two different paradigms of Reality, is
there any necessity to integrate them?
The
problem arises because both science and spirituality use the same
term ‘consciousness’ to describe their versions of Reality. It might
have been simpler if they had used different terms!
The
problem persists because Sri Aurobindo is an Integralist. It is his
mission to integrate science and spirituality. He is not bothered
about the apparent irreconcilability of science and spirituality for
He views all problems of existence as problems of harmony.
Sri Aurobindo has therefore to integrate
(a) Chit or Pure
Consciousness that does not need any attribute and is often
described as Purusha,
(b) The phenomena of
consciousness that works through matter-energy—phenomena that
science studies and which spirituality groups under ‘Nature’ or
‘Prakriti’.
Sri
Aurobindo solves this problem by incorporating ‘Energy’ or ‘Force’
in the very substance of Chit—by placing ‘Force’ as an in-built
mechanism within the matrix of Chit. Thus Chit is not merely chit
but Chit-Shakti or Conscious-Force.
Sri
Aurobindo describes ‘CHIT’ to be ‘the universal conscious stuff of
existence’ that is manifested in many poises. There is the poise of
the mental self-awareness in human beings where the pure action of
Chit gets limited; there is the poise of a still limited
consciousness in terrestrial forms below the level of human beings
in the scale of evolution while at the level of matter, Chit gets so
limited that it appears to be inconscient. There are also higher
poises (experienced by Yogis and mystics) where Chit can manifest
with greater potentialities than in ordinary mentality.
The
manifestation of ‘Chit’ automatically implies that there is an
‘energy’ or ‘force’ at work.
Thus, in the Aurobindonian
perspective, consciousness is simultaneously the self-awareness
inherent in existence and the conscious-force that builds the
universe. Awareness by itself is not enough as there must be a will
or ‘Force’ or ‘Executive Energy’ that makes the consciousness
effective.
As
Conscious Force, consciousness is impregnated with and expressive of
purpose and meaning at all levels. Thus it is nuclear energy at the
level of matter, life in plants, instinct in insects and animals,
mental intelligence, will and feeling in human beings, and powers
higher than the mind (viz. intuition, revelation) in mystics and
yogis.
The Dilemna of
Movement
The
concept of Chit-Shakti that signifies a movement towards creation
initiated in the bosom of an immobile Consciousness brings another dilemna, which Sri Aurobindo has to solve too. Spiritual experience
has perceived an ABSOLUTE EXISTENCE BEYOND ALL MANIFESTATION WHICH
IS NOT COMPELLED TO MOVE. HOW DOES THIS MOVEMENT ALIEN TO THE
ETERNAL REPOSE OF CONSCIOUSNESS COME TO TAKE PLACE IN IT?
Sri
Aurobindo answers: Force is ‘inherent’ in existence and has the
alternative potentiality of being at rest or in motion, When it is
at rest, ‘it exists none the less and is not abolished, diminished
or in any way essentially altered’ (Ibid, pg 92). This double
potentiality ‘must translate itself either as an alternative rhythm
of rest and movement succeeding each other in Time or else as an
eternal self-concentration of Force in immutable existence with a
superficial play of movement, change and formation like the rising
and falling of waves on the surface of the ocean. And this
superficial play – we are necessarily speaking in an adequate images
– may be either coeval with the self-concentration and itself also
eternal or it may begin and end in Time and be resumed by a sort of
constant rhythm; it is then not eternal in continuity but eternal in
recurrence. (Ibid)
Excerpts from the Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle, Second Chapter
(Translated by Sri Aurobindo)
II.2.8. This that wakes in the sleepers creating desire upon desire,
this Purusha, Him they call the Bright One, Him Brahman, Him
Immortality, and in Him are all the worlds established: none goes
beyond Him.
This
is That thou sleekest.
II.2.13.The One Eternal in the transient, the One consciousness in
many conscious beings, who being One orders the desires of many: the
calm and strong who behold Him in their self as in a mirror, theirs
is eternal peace and ‘tis not for others.
Date of Update:
19-Jun-12
- By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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