Aurobindonian Ontology: Salient Peculiarities :: Supernatural Mind Psychology Essays

Aurobindonian Ontology Salient PeculiaritiesABSTRACT Aurobindo envisages a cosmic salvation via an forever open-ended, eternally optimistic, and forward-looking ontology. The purpose of humankind is to go beyond its present form of ordinary (mental) consciousness until it attains the Supermind. Aurobindo says this can be done by a technique he calls Integral Yoga that enables humankind to purposefully cooperate with the cosmic evolutionary urge and thereby rise from the present mental stage to the supramental stage. some other peculiarity of Aurobindos ontology is his concept of Brahman. It negates illusionism and gives his metaphysical scheme a religious dimension. There is no room in his system for any adversary, anti-Divine or morning star as an independent entity. Thus, evil and suffering also stand accounted for. Peculiarities of this order make him the very first and, so far, the only ontologist claiming a preordained divination of the universe. Aurobindo Ghose (1872 - 1950) was bizarre as a man of learning . His knowledge of the world was encyclopaedic. The Wisdom he derived from it was astonishing in being synthesising, comprehensive and interpretative. Hence his familiarity with the scientific - materialistic nature of the West as also with the spirituality of the East. From 1901 onwards, especially from 1908 , he turned to the study and practice of yoga after unravelling the secret of the Veda, the Upanisads, the Bhagavadgita and other sacred literary works of India. Factors like this account for the distinctive nature of the Integral philosophy and Yoga and ontology he has propounded. The most outstanding peculiarity of Aurobindonian ontology is its synthesising integrality leading to holism. It harmonises the western theories of evolution and life sciences with the transcendental spiritual theories of the Absolute as revealed in the Veda. On account of this , spiritual evolution or the evolution of consciousness becomes the sheet anchor of A urobindos ontological argument.Consciousness for Aurobindo, is a rich and complex term. He believes that consciousness is inherent as much in seemingly inert matter as in plant, animal, human and suprahuman life. It participates in the various levels of being in various ways. The Spirit or Sachchidananda which means the highest level of being, consciousness, and bliss is nothing but the Absolute. Therefore , Aurobindonian ontological argument emerges from his hierarchical view of consciousness or Spirit. Accordingly Sachchidananda or the Divine is at the transcendent summit. The Supermind mediates Sachchidananda to the multiplicity of the world.