Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s9.t9: Aurobindo
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s9.t9
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Aurobindo
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Aurobindo Ghose (1872 ~ 1950), Indian modern philosopher and the early Indian national independence movement leader, was born in an honourable family in the suburb of Calcutta, with Brahmin caste. His grandfather was a knowledgeable scholar, his father was a famous doctor in local and his maternal grandfather La Narayan Bose was a famous scholar and enlightenment thinker. At the age of seven, Aurobindo Ghose went to UK to study, at first he studied at the tutor’s home, and then was enrolled in the St. Paul’s School in London and King’s College of Cambridge University studying literature. He had a good command of Latin, Greek, English, French, German and other languages and read a lot of Western classical and modern masterpieces of philosophy and literature. When Aurobindo Ghose was in Cambridge University, he once participated in an Indian student organisation with patriotic thoughts, and was influenced deeply by the ideology of Hindu nationalism. In 1893, Aurobindo Ghose returned to India and was appointed as a professor by the University of Baroda to teach English and French literature, later he was promoted to be the vice president. During his teaching career, he actively participated in the activities of the Congress Party, and wrote articles criticising the moderate improvement route proposed by the leaders of the Congress Party. In 1905, when India’s national independence movement reached a climax, Aurobindo Ghose resolutely resigned from his professorship in University of Baroda and returned to his hometown - Calcutta, where he actively led the people of Bangladesh in the “anti-separation struggle”. He organised demonstrations of patriotic masses, carried out Swadeshi movement, founded the patriotic newspaper *Salute to our Motherland* to publicise radical nationalism ideology, and became the chief leader in Bengal National Movement and the leader of radicals in the Congress Party. During 1907 ~ 1908, Aurobindo Ghose was arrested and imprisoned twice by the colonial authorities. In 1910, he migrated to Pondicherry which was in
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Sri Aurobindo
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India’s southeast seashore and reigned by French. During 1914 ~ 1922, he sponsored the English monthly *Aryan* in Pondicherry; in 1926, he founded the Aurobindo *ashram*. Aurobindo Ghose lived in Pondicherry for 40 years from 1910 until his death in 1950. Here, Aurobindo was divorced from the mass’s struggle against the British, began to devote himself to writing scholarly works, and contributed plenty of works on philosophy, yoga, social development, literature and culture. He created the famous New Vedanta Doctrine - Integral Vedanta and Integral Yoga, and trained many disciples in the monastery, through them vigorously promoted his doctrines of spiritual evolution and social evolution to India and even the world, thus his ideology was widely spread.
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Aurobindo occupies an important position in the history of Indian modern philosophy. He was famous for his “Integral Vedanta” philosophy (also known as the “Spiritual Evolution”) in the world. Here the meaning of “integral” is “comprehensive”, the so-called “Integral Vedanta” was in the succession of the “tat tvam asi” principle of Advaita in ancient Vedanta, Aurobindo at the same time integrated a variety of Vedanta doctrines together, eliminated the differences between them and reconciled the essence in a whole. In addition, he also reconciled various opposite concepts in the ancient Vedanta philosophy, such as the Bráhman and the world, one and more, clear and avidya etc., so they become the different grades or levels of the highest noumenon Bráhman. From the perspective of modern philosophy, people also call “Integral Vedanta” the “Spiritual Evolution.” Since Darwin’s theory of biological evolution was published in the mid-19th century, the world has witnessed a variety of evolutionary theories to explain the development laws of nature and human society. Aurobindo’s “Spiritual Evolution” was a product of this trend. Although he had absorbed some elements of Darwin’s theory of evolution, he thought this doctrine was ill-structured as it only explained the phenomena “existing on the ground”, without mentioning the existence in “heaven” and “eternal”. Therefore, Aurobindo tried to use the highest spiritual noumenon - the Bráhman of India Vedanta philosophy, through the “spiritual evolution” approach to link up the existences “on the ground” and existences in the “eternal heaven”, thus integrated the natural phenomena and supernatural phenomena in a whole. The fundamental characteristic of Aurobindo’s philosophy is, it’s based on the inheritance of ancient Vedanta philosophy, absorbs a lot of contents from Western philosophy and modern science, and reconciles the Eastern and Western philosophy, materialism and idealism, religion and science together.
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Spiritual Evolution
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Aurobindo’s “spiritual evolution” (ie “Integral Vedanta”) argues that Bráhman, the highest noumenon of the universe is a supernatural spiritual entity and is called “Bráhman”, also known as the “cosmic spirit” or “cosmic consciousness.” Bráhman transcends time, space, quantity and quality, is a spiritual entity unspeakable. Bráhman is the basis of the universe, the origin of everything in the world. All the phenomena in the world, tangible or intangible, animate or inanimate, rational or non-rational are originated from this entity, exist in this entity and return to this entity. In his view, everything in the world is the manifestation of Bráhman, and the manifestations of Bráhman; Bráhman is not only the origins of everything, but also the final destination of all things, that is, that everything will finally return to Bráhman.
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*Aurobindo family: Aurobindo Ghose (front row, 1st from right) with parents and siblings, 1879*
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In the process of analysing the universe evolution, Aurobindo regarded Bráhman as a “cosmic spirit” (briefly referred to as “Spirit”), this “spirit” is divided into five levels or grades, from the senior to the lower level the sequence is Bráhman, super mind, mind, life and matter. Matter, life and mind belong to the natural world (the phenomenal world), while the super mind and Bráhman belong to super nature (noumenon level). Matter refers to various inorganic matters, ie all inanimate phenomena, which belongs to the lowest form of the “spirit”. Life means all living phenomena, such as plants, animals and so on. Mind refers to the psychological and mental activity of human being; it represents human beings with thinking ability. In Aurobindo’s view, the natural evolution seems that, life is evolved from matter and human beings are evolved from life. As the highest level of “spirit”, Bráhman belongs to the supernatural; it is not only the origin of everything, but also the end of the evolution, the highest and the most satisfactory state of everything. Super mind, refers to a special spirit or consciousness transcending human being’s thinking ability (actually, it refers to some kind of mystical states of consciousness reached by those who had a long yoga practice). The super mind can connect with people’s mind on one hand; it also can be interlinked with Bráhman of the highest spiritual level, so it becomes a bridge connecting the nature and the supernatural world. How to connect the natural world to the super nature through evolution? Aurobindo believes there are two processes of the universe evolution: first through the media of supermind, Bráhman descends or appears as all things in the world, then through the super mind, all things of the world evolve up to be Bráhman. The descending of Bráhman is from higher level to lower level one by one, first Bráhman descends to mind from super mind, then from mind down to life, finally from life down to matter. The descending process is a self-deny for Bráhman, as it’s a process from the pure spirit state differentiated to all things in the world. In the nature, Bráhman is covered with a variety of substances appearing and become the “potential consciousness” or “potential spirit” with wrapping shell. This “potential spirit” is hidden among all things and has a strong demand for restoring of its true existing, thus promote everything to evolve to the pure spirit state. The rising or evolution of all things is opposite to the descending of Bráhman, but it’s also from one level to the higher level one by one. The evolution starts from the matter, life is evolved from the matter, mind is evolved from life, and then super mind is evolved from mind, finally through the media of super mind evolved to Bráhman, which is reaching the highest spiritual level.
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In Aurobindo’s view, the evolution of the whole world is the self-descending and self-rising of the spiritual entity Bráhman, which is the process from the pure spirit state transformed to be matter, then from matter restored to pure spirit state. Aurobindo’s description of the process of Bráhman’s descending to the nature is quite similar to the process of “absolute spirit” transforming from a logical phase to the natural phase in Hegel’s philosophy. For Hegel, the “absolute spirit” is externalised or transformed to be nature, in nature the “absolute spirit” wears the material covering set by itself, and becomes the thought or concept with a wrapping shell, it is hidden behind a natural matter but manipulates the change and development of natural phenomena. For Aurobindo, Bráhman, as a “cosmic spirit”,
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*Statue of Sri Aurobindo*
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descends from higher level to lower level one by one to the natural world, also puts on the coverings of matter, life and mind in the nature and becomes a “potential consciousness” with a wrapping shell. It is hidden in the nature but promotes and controls the development and changes of all things.
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Aurobindo designed this evolution model of the world to provide the theoretical basis for spiritual evolution of human beings, and ultimately to find a way to get rid of sufferings and obtain unlimited freedom and happiness. He believed that the evolution of the universe had not stopped after humans appeared on the planet; humans with the “mind” still had to evolve to be humans with “super-mind”. In his view, since all things are the manifestations of Bráhman, then human is not an exception; human is also the manifestation of Bráhman. Thus Bráhman is also hidden in the existence of human in the form of “potential consciousness”, and become the
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*Sri Aurobindo presiding over a meeting of the Nationalists, 1907*
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spiritual essence of human. Although the bodies between people are different, the inner spiritual nature is the same. This spiritual nature has the features of unity, harmony, love and joy. The reason why man is selfish, painful and split is because of his ignorance, failure in recognising and revealing his inner, unified spiritual nature. The evolution of man is through the introspective and intuitive yoga ways to make his life and the others lives, even the whole social life reach a unity and harmony, such a man is called “superman” or “spiritualised man”. The existence of a “superman” is still isolated and his perfection could not be guaranteed. Therefore, he must use his own wisdom and strength to help and inspire others to have spiritual evolution. It’s like using the first torch to light the second torch, the second one to light the third one, and so on, thus to realise the whole human being’s spiritual evolution. At that time, people will get rid of the shackles of ignorance, consider himself and others same in essence, people will coordinate with each other based on the same spirit and live equally and harmoniously. There will be an ideal state in the world without pain, only blessings, joys, harmony and perfectness. Aurobindo called this state as “divine life”.
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Integral Yoga
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To realise the spiritual evolution of man, Aurobindo also proposed “Integral Yoga” theory. He believed that although there were many kinds of Indian traditional yoga, none of them were perfect, as they all emphasised the aspect of improving the body, while ignored the other aspects. For example, Hathayoga focused only on the physical practice, Raja Yoga focused on inhibition of man’s psychological activity, Jnana Yoga emphasised the importance of increasing knowledge, Karma Yoga emphasised the importance of selfless acts while Bhakti Yoga emphasised the importance of the devotional attitudes and feelings toward God. Though the wide variety of yoga focused on the different aspects, they pursued the same targets and results, that is, to combine the internal human spirit with Bráhman to realise spiritual liberation. Therefore, Aurobindo argued that the various yoga should be integrated, absorbed the essence of every kind of yoga and created a new yoga, which is “Integral Yoga.” His integral yoga is, based on the principle of realising man’s spiritual evolution, specifically, through a variety of yoga practice, to wake up the internal soul or spiritual nature of man, give full play of the role of spiritual nature to realise the progressively spiritual evolution of man’s body, life and mind, and ultimately realise the man’s overall transformation, and become a man with “super-mind consciousness”. When everyone has a “super-mind consciousness”,
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*Aurobindo Ghose’s home in London, 1884–1887*
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the relationship between individuals and between groups will be in harmony, they will respect each other and live harmoniously, the whole society will become a “holy family.”
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Social Evolution
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Aurobindo’s social evolution theory is the extension and application of his “spiritual evolution” philosophy in history field. His view of history is individual-centered and believes that the individual is the basis of society and the components of a society, state or society is a community composed of countless individuals. Therefore, the evolution of the state and society is same as the individual evolution (behind the state and society there’s also a “spiritual nature”), that is, through the way of self-improvement to enable the inner spiritual nature be fully revealed. He believes that despite historical development is affected by the economic factors, but in the final analysis it is decided by human’s rationality. Accordance to the development level of human rationality, he divided the human history into five stages: symbolic era, typical era, agreement era, individualistic and spiritual era. He predicted that the ultimate goal of social development is the spiritualised age or spiritualised society. In the spiritualised society, people will realise the unity on the basis of a common spirit and live a harmonious and satisfying life; the unity between countries based on the same spirit will be achieved as well, different nations will respect each other and interact equally and harmoniously. At that time, the dream of uniting the human beings will be realised.
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English Heritage blue plaque at Aurobindo Ghose's home in London.
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In order to promote the social development, Aurobindo proposed a “social development law”. In his view, society is composed by the three timeless factors of individuals, nations, and human, the evolution of a society must make sure these three factors are satisfactorily developed. For individuals concerned, it is through the internal free development to perfect their personality, at the same time respect and help others to gain same development. For the countries concerned, it is also through its internal free development to perfect itself, and respect and help other countries to develop. For humankind, it will take full advantages of the free development and achievements of all individuals, countries and social groups, and continue to evolve upward, until human unity is realised. His “social development law”, in essence, is a further development of his “spiritual evolution” doctrine. His so-called “improve ourselves through internal free development” in fact, is introspecting “soul” and experiencing the “spirit”, it’s a process of revealing the potential spirit of nature. He believes that social evolution, firstly is to gain self-perfection through the internal development of the individuals and the countries composing the society, then try to help and promote the others or other countries to perfect. On this basis, between individuals and between countries, the real unity and good coordination will be achieved on the same spiritual basis; the whole society will become a “holy family.”
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Chinese studies on Aurobindo
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Aurobindo’s spiritual evolution theory and social evolution theory exerted great influences not only in India but also in the world. Many Philosophy Departments of European and American Universities open lectures on the Aurobindo’s philosophy. In 1960s, the Philosophy Departments in Chinese universities also began to study and teach Aurobindo’s philosophy. Huang Xinchuan from Department of Philosophy in Peking University set courses for graduate students on Aurobindo’s philosophy, later he incorporated the relevant lecture notes into *India Modern Philosophy* (1989). The book introduces Aurobindo’s life and biography, and expounded
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'Indian Modern Philosophy', Huang Xinchuan (front cover)
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his philosophy and social thought. In 1980s, Xu Fancheng, who went to India to study and practiced many years in Aurobindo monastery, returned to China and was specialised in the research work on Aurobindo philosophy. He translated a lot of books related with Aurobindo’s philosophy and yoga, which included the Aurobindo’s representative philosophical masterpiece *The Life Divine* (1984), *On Yoga* (1988), *Integral Yoga* (2005), *Yoga Basics* (2005), *Yoga Proverbs* (2005), *Yoga Letter Set* (2005) and so on. The translation of these writings made Aurobindo’s philosophy and yoga thought widely spread in China. In addition, Chinese scholars also studied Aurobindo philosophy. Zhu Mingzhong has published many papers and books related with Aurobindo's philosophy, such as Aurobindo's Social Darwinism (Philosophical Researches 1983 No. 3), Aurobindo's Spiritual Evolution Philosophy (*Social Science Front Bimonthly* 1983 No. 2), monograph *Aurobindo Ghose* (1994), *Master Essentials - Aurobindo* (2009) and so on.
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Aurobindo's main works include *The Life Divine*, *Social Darwinism*, *Ideal of Human Unity*, *Foundation of Indian Culture*, *Superman*, *Revealing of Super Mind in the World*, *On Yoga*, *Integral Yoga* and *Yoga Basics* and so on.
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(Zhu Mingzhong)
Cites (2)
- Chāndogyopaniṣad — Sanskrit
- Haṭhayoga — Sanskrit