Sri Aurobindo and Hegel on the Involution-Evolution of Absolute Spirit

Sri Aurobindo and Hegel on the Involution-Evolution of Absolute SpiritAuthor(s): Steve OdinSource: Philosophy East and West, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 179-191Published by: University of Hawai'i PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1399139 .Accessed: 09/08/2013 21:25

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Steve Odin Sri Aurobindo and Hegel on the involution-evolution of Absolute Spirit

Kant ignited a revolution in philosophy with his doctrine of transcendental idealism, which asserted that consciousness is not only receptive in character, but also "constitutive" of its experiential contents, accomplished through an a priori threefold synthesis in sensation, imagination and cognition. Kant proceeded to argue that the a priori of a prioris, the transcendental act underlying all acts, and the ultimate precondition for all experiential synthesis, is the "original unity of apperception," or unified self-consciousness, the "I think" which accompanies each act of experience. This original unity of self- consciousness, continued Kant, is not your or my consciousness, but "consciousness in general," a transcendental, objective and impersonal consciousness, which is itself presupposed by the empirical, subjective and individual ego.

Hegel later appropriated this notion of an impersonal unity of self- consciousness, which was for Kant a purely logical principle, and transformed it into the supreme metaphysical category of the highest generality at the base of actuality, reifying it as the "Absolute Spirit," or God, a self-positing universal consciousness which entirely creates and projects its own experiential contents, only to reabsorb them again as a self-mediated identity-in-difference. Hegel's category of the Absolute was itself derived as the culminating product of his dialectical process, which functions to sublate (aufheben) all abstract opposites, that is, to overcome all one-sided thought determinations while yet preserving them as ideal moments of a concrete totality. Epistemologically, the notion of the Absolute represented for Hegel the unification of the knowing subject with the object known, making possible a true knowledge of "things- in-themselves," a knowledge which Kant had denied. And theologically, the notion of the Absolute represented a philosophical explication of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which involves, according to Hegel's interpretation, the self-differentiated identification of nature and God or man and the divine, as propounded by such Christian mystics as Meister Eckhart and Jakob Boehme.

The twentieth-century Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo, who has framed his own full-scale metaphysical synthesis, appropriated Hegel's notion of an Absolute Spirit and employed it to radically restructure the architectonic framework of the ancient Hindu Vedanta system in contemporary terms. However, before considering this functional resemblance between Sri Aurobindo's doctrine of the Absolute to that of Hegel's, first some of the central distinctions between their respective doctrines must be grasped. Sri Aurobindo first critiques the Hegelian concept of the Absolute conceived as a totalistic system of dialectical reason, what F. H. Bradley has called the "bloodless ballet of categories." Sri Aurobindo's concept of the Absolute is not the deduced product of a dialectical logic, as is Hegel's, but is rather a

Steve Odin is doing postdoctoral research in the Center for Religious Studies at SUNY, Stony Brook. Philosophy East and West 31, no. 2 (April, 1981). by The University Press of Hawaii. All rights reserved.


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descriptive generalization of what he terms "superconscient" phases of awareness as experienced through systematic yogic concentration (dhdrand), medi- tation (dhyana) and contemplation (samddhi). Sri Aurobindo agrees with Hegel that the Absolute is a self-positing universal consciousness, but argues against the latter's identification of consciousness with reason or mind; rather the Absolute is to be comprehended as an effulgent "supramental" mode of awareness, which through a process of "involution" descends through a multiple succession of experiential stages-from the Supermind, to Overmind, Intuitivemind, Illuminedmind, and Highermind, finally focusing into the physical mind itself, characterized by ego-attachment and noesis-noema duality, with its finite modes of intellectual apprehension. Sri Aurobindo's conception of the Absolute is thus closer in nature to the Absolute described by F. H. Bradley in terms of the "Felt Totality" as an undivided "supra- rational" whole of sentient feeling or an indivisible continuum of experiential immediacy existing anterior to or beyond the subject-object division of cognitional awareness.

Furthermore, Sri Aurobindo diverges from the Hegelian Absolute on purely axiological grounds. He commends the Hegelian concept of the Absolute as the identity of Being (Sat) and Consciousness (Cit) provided that "Con- sciousness' be regarded as a radiant and intuitive supramental awareness as opposed to reason; yet he adds to this a third element, identifying Being and Consciousness with Supreme Bliss (Ananda). Here, Sri Aurobindo has adopted the ancient Vedantic concept of the ultimate reality as Saccidananda or Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, which he refers to as "the culminating idea of the Vedic Seers" and "the highest positive expression of Reality."' Thus, Sri Aurobindo argues that all phenomena, being particularized manifes- tations of the Absolute as Saccidananda, must exhibit three general elements, the ontological, the epistemological and the axiological, or the existential, logical, and aesthetic-value, aspects, corresponding to Sat, Cit, and Ananda respectively. This doctrine is at once reminiscent of the categoreal scheme constructed by the American philosopher Charles S. Peirce, which asserts that all phenomena exhibit three irreducible and interlocked generic elements, these being denoted by the categories of Firstness (aesthetic value), Secondness (existence), and Thirdness (logical structure). Peirce made a thoroughgoing critique of the history of Western philosophy, arguing that all speculative systems were constructed upon the basis of one or two of these categories, but prior to his own scheme, none had framed reality in terms of all three essential categories in their interlocked togetherness. Operating on similar premises regarding the tripartite structure of reality, Sri Aurobindo criticizes the notion of the Absolute as merely Sat and Cit, arguing that it must include the Ananda or aesthetic-value aspect as well. Thus in his text, The Meeting of East and West in Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy, S. K. Maitra, one of India's leading exponents of Sri Aurobindo's doctrines, has made the general criticism of


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Western philosophy that "it should have made a tripartite division of the aspects of reality into an existential, logical and value aspect, as is done in Indian philosophy." 2 Maitra proceeds:

We thus arrive at the standard Indian conception of reality as Sacciddnanda, Sat expressing the existential aspect, Cit the logical aspect and Ananda the value aspect.

If I am asked, what is the greatest single achievement of Indian philosophy? I will unhesitatingly point to the description of reality as Saccidananda.... It is the only correct description of it from the standpoint of Value.3

To conclude, then, whereas Hegel conceives of the Absolute as dialectical intellection, Sri Aurobindo formulates it in in terms of a radiant and ecstatic supramental awareness, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. Yet, Sri Aurobindo has, in fact, incorporated the essential structure of Hegel's concept of the Absolute, which is precisely the Absolute as living "Spirit."

Hegel had proclaimed: "The Absolute is Mind (Spirit)-this is the supreme definition of the Absolute. To find this definition and to grasp its meaning is, one may say, the ultimate purpose of all education and all philosophy." 4

What, then, does the Absolute as "Spirit" refer to in the precise, technical sense assigned to it by Hegel and later by Sri Aurobindo? Spirit is the dynamic threefold process of the Absolute as a self-realizing universal consciousness which undergoes a cycle of "separation and return" or self-differentiation and self-reconciliation. Hence, speaking of the Absolute as God, Hegel writes: "God as living Spirit distinguishes Himself from Himself... and in this Other remains identical with Himself." S

Hegel criticized the notion of the Absolute as a static oneness as characterized by Parmenides, Spinoza, Judaism, or the Indian Vedanta philosophy, arguing that it is an attenuated abstraction from the concrete activity of living Spirit, which is a triadic process of passing over into otherness and the subsequent restoration of primordial unity, now enriched by the moment of difference. The Absolute, asserts Hegel, must be comprehended in the three moments in which it posits itself: "These moments are: eternal Being in and with itself, the form of Universality; the form of manifestation or appearance, that of particularization, Being for another; the form of the return from appearance ...."

Hegel denotes the three moments in the unfolding of universal reason as the Idea, Nature, and Spirit, respectively. The Idea represents "God in His eternity before the creation of the world."7 In the Idea, God is said to be absorbed in the "ether" of His inner life as pure self-thinking thought. The Idea is then in the second moment projected outward and objectified as material nature, as an "unconscious" system of intelligence, which subsequently undergoes a dialectical self-development, ending in a return to full consciousness of itself as the eternal Absolute. Due to the second moment of Spirit, the moment of creation or appearance, which is intrinsic to its nature as


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dialectical reason, the Being of the Absolute cannot be thought of as an inert stasis, but must rather be conceived as a self-revealing, self-manifesting consciousness, or as Heidegger would later say, as a Being which "comes to presence" through an emergent-blossoming or radiation outward into lucid Openness. World creation, therefore, is not something arbitrary but something belonging to the very structure of God. Yet the Absolute is not only to be grasped as an eternal creator, as passing outside itself, but also a real evolution and return to self. Hegel writes:

If God is defined merely as the Creator, His activity is taken only as a going outside of itself as a material producing, without any return into itself. God is indeed more than this. He is ... the mediation of Himself with Himself.8

The brilliance of Hegel's theology lies in the manner in which he has articulated the importance of the moment of self-mediation and the positing of an apparent "otherness" in the life of Spirit; for God's self-mediation is exactly that very self-revelation by means of which He reflects Himself to Himself, by which He knows Himself: "God beholds Himself in what is differentiated; and when in His other, He is united merely with Himself... He beholds only Himself in His Other." 9 Hegel's doctrine that God can recognize Himself only in His other led him to construct a subtle and profound social- political dimension of thought wherein Spirit multiplies itself into an inter- subjective community of individuals who achieve higher stages of self- realization precisely through their mutual recognition of each other. Finally, Hegel propounds that God's reflection of Himself in His other, which is that very same act whereby He returns to Himself, alone constitutes the very "depths" of God:

[T]his return [of God] to itself and this searching into the other are essentially coincident; for mere immediacy, [mere] substantial Being, does not imply anything deep. It is the real return into self [through searching into otherness] which alone makes the depths of God.10

The Absolute as Spirit, defined as a triune activity of positing otherness while retaining identity with itself, cannot be conceived in static terms, but only in dynamic, evolutionary terms, as a "progressive self-manifestation" and continuous self-development of dialectical reason, which objectifies itself in nature and history, including its institutionalized embodiment in the social- political structures of the state, achieving at last a consummate self-realization in and through the consciousness of man, by means of artistic, religious, and speculative activity. And herein lies the essential meaning of Hegel's celebrated doctrine that the Absolute must be conceived not only as abstract substance but as concrete "subject" as well. For only by passing over into unconscious nature and by a subsequent return to full consciousness, in and through the self-consciousness of man, who is the "vehicle" of Spirit, can the Absolute


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itself become a living "subject." In one of his most exalted passages Hegel writes:

To know what God as spirit is-to apprehend this accurately and distinctly in thoughts-requires careful and thorough speculation. It includes, in its fore- front, the propositions: God is God only so far as he knows himself: his self- knowledge is, further, a self-consciousness in man and man's knowledge of God, which proceeds to man's self-knowledge in God.11

Furthermore, it is Christianity alone, claims Hegel, which has comprehended this threefold ontological structure of the Absolute with its "symbolic picture of God as a Holy Trinity."12 Here, God the Father, the universal, projects outward and objectifies His Idea as God the Son, the particular (the continuum of nature culminating in man), and returns to the Father through the Holy Spirit, the individual (man's self-consciousness and consciousness of God, as well as God's consciousness of Himself in and through man).

However, it must be emphasized here that Hegel, in fact, posits a doctrine of the "double trinity," including both "preworldly" and "worldly" trinitarian structures. In the Idea, in the ether of pure reason, prior to world creation, the entire trinitarian circle of separation and reunion has already transpired, or is always happening in God's atemporal act of thought; thus, Spirit's self- revelation and self-realization are, in this sense, fully independent of the world which it creates. Yet, aside from this preworldly logical trinity there is also occurring an actual historical and temporal trinitarian play, whereby God virtually has passed over into nature such as to embody and concretize His eternal Idea. Hence, the triune process of positing and abolishing otherness must neither be dissolved into a timeless trinity of sheer thought, nor reduced to a forever unfinished historical trinity, for both the logical and historical triads must be retained in the comprehensive Hegelian doctrine of the double trinity.

On the basis of the preceding discussion, Hegel's conception of the Absolute as living Spirit can now be concentrated into the following speculative propositions: God as Spirit differentiates Himself from Himself, posits an other, and His activity consists in overcoming this difference, abolishing this other; for God becomes God only by returning to Himself out of alienation. And God is only God when He knows Himself; and He knows Himself only in and through the self-consciousness of man. For God becomes man in order to become God. It is precisely this notion of the Absolute as a dynamic activity of self-differentiation and the reconciliation of this, which Sri Aurobindo has adopted in order to restructure the architectonic scaffolding of the ancient Vedanta system into evolutionary terms, to which the discussion shall now turn.

The static concept of SaccidSnanda-Brahman as a sheer Oneness which is propounded by Sankara in his Advaita (nondual) Vedanta is subjected to


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relentless critique by Sri Aurobindo, who now reframes the Vedantic ontology in terms of living Spirit, a dynamic triune process of "self-diffusion" and "self- absorption," which he terms the "involution-evolution" of Existence- Consciousness Force-Bliss Absolute. This dynamic involutional-evolutional structure of Spirit is philosophically grounded upon a revolutionary category which Sri Aurobindo has introduced into the Vedantic framework, namely, the "Supermind," which he also terms the Creatrix, the Real-Idea (a Hegelian term) or TIvara, the World Creator. Supermind is the integral, creative consciousness which functions as the intermediary between Saccidananda and the world and is considered to be the self-extension of the Absolute into space and time. In Sri Aurobindo's Neo-Vedantic ontology, the Absolute includes within itself both a dynamic and static pole, and is regarded as Brahman- Sakti. Brahman is static Consciousness, whereas the concept of Sakti, adopted from the Hindu Tantric philosophy, denotes vibrant creative vitality and joyous self-manifesting power. The "Supermined" represents this ecstatic Sakti dimension of Brahman, and may be regarded as Saccidananda itself in its dynamic creative aspect.

By virtue of the power of Supermind, Saccidananda undergoes involution and evolution, or descent and ascent. Cosmologically, involution signifies world creation, the self-projection of Spirit into inconscient matter (prakriti), which is in fact "veiled Spirit" and "secret God" 13; whereas evolution is the reverse of creation, the return voyage of Spirit back into itself. Psychologically, involution denotes the descent of the soul into the various "vehicles" of increasing density, corporeality or inconscience, these being the physical, vital, mental and supramental stages of the psyche. These stratified vehicles cor- respond basically to the "sheaths" (kosas) of traditional Vedanta, but unlike the later, the Neo-Vedantic theory does not regard them as "coverings" functioning only to eclipse the light of pure Consciousness but as "channels" or "instruments" in and through which universal Spirit creatively manifests itself or expresses its inner psychic radiance and bliss.

The Neo-Vedantic cosmology of Sri Aurobindo maintains that the involutional-evolutional movement of Saccidananda, which is animated by the Supramental Creatrix, stratifies itself in terms of a septunary ontological spectrum referred to as the "Sevenfold Chord of Being" which includes the "lower hemisphere" of Matter-Life-Mind, the intermediary principle of Supermind and the "higher hemisphere" of Sat-Cit-Ananda. Through the mechanism of involution, Saccidananda projects itself outward into inconscient nature, whereas it subsequently undergoes a process of spiritual self- development through the emergent evolutionary phases of Matter, Life, Mind, Supermind, finally becoming reabsorbed into Saccidananda in the consummate self-consciousness of samadhi or Yogic contemplation. Sri Aurobindo expresses his doctrine of the Sevenfold Chord as follows:


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The Divine descends from the pure Existence through the play of Consciousness-Force and Bliss and the creative medium of Supermind into cosmic being; we ascend from matter through developing life, mind and the illuminating medium of Supermind towards the divine Saccidananda. The knot between the two, the higher and the lower hemispheres, is where mind and Supermind meet.14

Sri Aurobindo's theory of the Sevenfold Chord of Being diverges radically from the traditional Vedantic ontology of Safikara in several significant respects. Whereas Sankara viewed world creation to be merely vyavahdrika (conventional reality) and mayd (cosmic illusion), to be dissolved upon realization of the ultimate reality (paramarthika) as static Brahman, Sri Aurobindo regards it as fully real. And whereas Sankara regards the world to be a delusory "superimposition" (adhyasa) of names and forms upon Saccidananda, Sri Aurobindo maintains that it represents a real "transformation" (parinama) of Consciousness-Force (Cit-Sakti). Furthermore, the lower hemisphere is not viewed by Sri Aurobindo as an axiologically vacuous phantasm, as the "illusionists" argue, but is instead regarded as a panoramic continuum of aesthetic-value experience, manifesting the plenary creativeness and delight of Brahman-Sakti, as the Tantrics maintain. The aesthetic-value intrinsic to terrestrial world-existence is ultimately grounded in the fact that the cosmos is itself the involution-evolution of Ananda or Mahasukha, the Supreme Bliss. Claiming the textual authority of the Vedas for his radical value-centric cosmology, Sri Aurobindo here quotes the Taittiriya Upanisad as proclaiming: "From Delight all beings arise, by Delight they exist and grow, to Delight they return." 15

It should be clarified here, however, that although the Neo-Vedanta attri- butes full reality and value to world existence, it does recognize the manner in which the world is said to be 'illusory" or ephemeral, but makes the crucial distinction between the "higher" mdyd and the "lower" mdyd, arguing that the illusionists have recognized only the "lower" aspect. Whereas the lower maya denotes a "separative consciousness," the deceptive perception of an exterior universe of independent materiality, the higher maya represents the illumined supramental experience of all phenomena as the inexhaustible play of creative Consciousness, the integral vision of "all in each" and "each in all," or the "mutual inclusiveness" between all actualities in the cosmos.16 Sri Aurobindo's speculative notion of "mutual inclusion" or "all in all" at the supramental level of consciousness is at once reminiscent of the microcosmic-macrocosmic cosmology of the Hua Yen Buddhists who adhere to the "interpenetration of particular and particular" or the "mutual containedness" and "nonobstruc- tion" between the many and the one in the realm of Consciousness-only. Again, the concept of "higher" mayd is similar to A. N. Whitehead's process cosmology, which describes a plenum of interfused unit-events composed of


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aesthetic feeling or emotional intensity, which arise out of vectorial prehen- sions (feeling transmissions) and creative synthesis (the fusion of manyness into oneness), such that "everything is everywhere at all times." It is only such a microcosmic-macrocosmic continuum of mutually inclusive aesthetic ex- periences, arising out of ecstatic creativity and permeated throughout with immediacy of value, which is regarded as real by Sri Aurobindo in his doctrine of the higher maya.

Furthermore, Sri Aurobindo's distinction between the higher and lower mdyd reflects his doctrine of the three "poises" of the Absolute, the Transcendent, the Universal and the Individual poises.'7 At the transcendent poise of Spirit, the level of Saccidananda, the stage of sheer unity, all phenomena and creation are fully transcended; at the universal poise, the level of Supermind, the stage of unity-in-diversity, all events occur simultaneously; whereas at the individual poise, the level of ordinary mind, the stage of sheer diversity, events unfold in the historical mode of serial succession. Thus, in the integral vision of Supermind in the creative play of its higher maya, "all is one" and "one is all," such that the totality of events-past, present, and future-are seen in a simultaneous, multidimensional form, as opposed to the linear and temporal perception of phenomena experienced by ordinary mind steeped in the ignorance (avidya) of its lower maya. Sri Aurobindo therefore posits a theory of two "poises" which function similarly to the Hegelian doctrine of the "double trinity," wherein the whole cycle of involution- evolution is occurring at once in the integral and holistic superconscious state, while being concurrently worked out in historical, temporal, and linear terms in the lower hemisphere of matter, life, and mind.

At this point certain aspects of Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary scheme should be considered in its relation to Hegel's. Both philosophers similarly envision world creation as the progressive self-manifestation and evolutionary ascent of a universal consciousness in its journey toward self-realization. Yet, as opposed to the deterministic and continuous dialectical unfolding of Absolute Reason by the mechanism of thesis-antithesis-synthesis, or affirmation- negation-integration, Sri Aurobindo argues for a creative, emergent mode of evolution. Unlike the Hegelian scheme, involution-evolution or creation and return are not necessary moments of Spirit determined strictly by its intrinsic logical structure; nor is the course of evolution itself a mechanistic unfolding of a preexistent logical pattern. Rather, involution-evolution occurs only due to the cosmic ltld, that is, the creative play or spontaneous self-expressiveness emerging from the plenary delight of Brahman-Sakti. Sri Aurobindo describes the Vedantic notion of Illd as follows:

[I]f we look at World-Existence rather in its relation to the self-delight of eternally existing being, we may regard, describe and realise it as Lila, the play, the child's joy ... perpetually inexhaustible, creating and re-creating Himself


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in Himself for the sheer bliss of that self-creation, of that self-representation, Himself the play, Himself the player, Himself the playground. '

In that world-existence which is regarded by Neo-Vedanta as cosmic Ila, or the "ecstatic dance of Shiva," the consequent evolutionary unfolding of Absolute Spirit cannot be predetermined or mechanistic in nature, but must instead be characterized by the elements of spontaneousness, adventure, experi- mentation, emergent novelty, unpredictability, and sheer chance, as in the "creative" evolution of Henri Bergson, the "emergent" evolution of Samuel Alexander, or the "tychistic" evolution of Charles Peirce. Consequently, Sri Aurobindo criticizes the Hegelian notion of a "continuous" evolution which describes the unbroken development of reason from the lowest to the highest categories, arguing that such a view has erroneously presupposed that the present achievement of evolution, mind, or reason is itself the governing principle as well as the culminating phase of the whole evolutionary process, as opposed to merely one out of a series of emergent gradations. Moreover, he argues that the "continuous" view of evolution is forced to envisage all futural development as a mere extension or continuation of reason, ad infinitum. In opposition to the doctrine of "continuous" evolution, Sri Aurobindo's "emergent" evolution, a theory initially propounded by Lloyd Morgan and Samuel Alexander, asserts that entirely new evolutionary principles will descend into the cosmic scheme as radically different from mind as mind itself is to life or life to matter. In his doctrine of emergent evolution, Sri Aurobindo endeavors to pioneer and map-out the uncharted phases of evolutionary development which will arise in futural epochs. The emergent evolutionary phases which will supercede the level of mentation are termed by Sri Aurobindo the Highermind, Illuminedmind, Intuitivemind, Overmind, and Supermind which is the final experiential stage prior to the realization of Saccidananda. Sri Aurobindo emphasizes that this futuristic scheme of stratified evolutionary principles is not merely an inductive inference or conjecture made upon the basis of previous patterns of evolution, but is grounded firmly upon a radical empiricism and stands as a descriptive generalization of yogically induced states of consciousness, or as it were, superconsciousness. This is in accordance with Sri Aurobindo's reformulation of "Yoga," which he defines as "ac- celerated" or "compressed" evolution, whereby the whole course of futural evolutionary advancement, with its emergent highermental, illuminative, intuitional, overmental and superconscient grades, can be concentrated into the span of a single life.

Finally, Sri Aurobindo's central evolutionary category must be considered in its relation to that of Hegel's, this being the principle of "integration" in the first case, and "sublation" (aufheben) in the second. It is through the principle of integration that Sri Aurobindo's radical innovation over traditional Vedanta and Eastern philosophy, in general, can most clearly be perceived.


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The Neo-Vedantic theory of "integration" maintains that in the course of terrestrial evolution, such higher "emergent" principles as Intuition, Overmind, and Supermind will not be merely additions to the cosmic scheme of gradations but will function to "raise up" the lower principles such as mind, life, and matter, leading to the eventual metamorphosis of world existence. Whereas the Yoga of traditional Advaita Vedanta has, in concordance with its illusionist interpretation of world existence, advocated a renunciation and abandonment of the lower hemisphere in order to become wholly absorbed into Saccidananda, the "integral" (purna) Yoga of Sri Aurobindo's Neo- Vedanta endeavors to, as it were, "bring down" from above the supramental radiance and bliss of Saccidananda into matter, life, and mind, leading to the integral transformation, divinization, and the perfection of the entire lower hemisphere.

Similarly, the governing mechanism in Hegel's dialectical evolution of Absolute Reason is the principle of "sublation" or Aufhebung. Hegel explains that the German term "auJheben" contains within itself three interrelated meanings, these being: (i) to overcome (abstract polarities), (ii) to preserve (to retain all one-sided polarities as ideal moments of a concrete whole), and (iii) to "raise up." Hence, in the dialectical evolution of reason, one-sided thought determinations are not merely superceded, but also preserved and raised up by the higher, richer, more comprehensive categories. This function of the preservation and raising up of the lower evolutionary principles by the higher is precisely the purport of Sri Aurobindo's concept of "integration" or "integral transformation."

This, then, is the final meaning of Sri Aurobindo's concept of the Absolute as living Spirit. The Absolute is not merely a static oneness, but a triple process of involution-evolution, or separation and return. As a double trinitarian play, the Absolute bears within itself two phases of involution- evolution, an atemporal process at the integral supramental poise, and a historical, linear process at the cosmic poise of world existence. The historical self-unfolding of Spirit at the cosmic level is not predetermined, mechanistic, or purely continuous, but is an emergent process which is being perpetually animated and restructured by new evolutionary principles descending from the supramental planes. Involution-evolution are not necessary activities in the life of Spirit dictated by an intrinsic rational structure but are instead products of the cosmic lild, the ecstatic creative self-expression of Spirit in its divine play. Furthermore, this involutional-evolutional process is not a vacuous, meaning- less activity, but is value-centric in character, axiologically grounded in Ananda or infinite Bliss, which is the aesthetic-value principle underlying the cosmos. The telos of this involutional-evolutional process is not only a static self-realization as in the traditional Vedanta, but is moreover an impulse toward the total self-revelation, self-manifestation, and self-embodiment of Spirit on all levels of the Sevenfold Chord of Being. In accordance with the


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principle of "integration," matter, life, and mind are not abandoned or merely superceded by the arrival of superconscient phases of reality but are simultaneously preserved, raised up, and radically transformed by the inner psychic radiance and bliss of Saccidananda. Through the "integral" Yoga which involves the three central Yogas of Love, Works, and Knowledge (or bhakti-, karman-, and jndna-yoga), as well as an intense, ever mounting "aspiration" on all levels of the Sevenfold Chord at once, the individual is transfigured into a soul-channel or dynamic instrument for the universal consciousness, engaged in a "superconscient life action," whereby the body, vital, mind and supermind have all become effective vehicles for the creative manifestation of Absolute Spirit, aimed toward the establishment of a utopian "life divine" on earth. In that this historical self-manifestation of Spirit is governed throughout by the principle of integral transformation, all the emergent values of terrestrial life- experience are preserved and transfigured within its fold, not only the spiritual, aesthetic, and psychological values associated with traditional Yogas but the material, economic, technological, political, and social values as well. In the end, it is precisely this profound social-historical dimension of Sri Aurobindo's concept of the Absolute as living Spirit which bears within itself the true mark of Hegel's monumental Weltanschauung.

CONCLUSION

In evaluating the signifigance of Sri Aurobindo's work from a Western standpoint, it must be said that he has accomplished a landmark speculative synthesis of transcultural categories in his bold reconstruction of Vedantic thought in terms of Hegel's dynamic model of reality. By incorporating Hegel's modernistic historical and evolutionary perspective, while yet preserving the basic insights of the Vedanta, Sri Aurobindo has endeavored to remove what has perhaps been the greatest shortcoming of traditional Hindu thought, this being its ahistorical world-vision and its utter disengagement from the richness of social-technological life. Yet, while introducing Hegel's historicism into his speculative scheme, Sri Aurobindo has successfully avoided the former's mechanistic and deterministic evolutionism through the inclusion of a radical "process" dimension of thought which allows for a genuine creative advance and emergent novelty in the self-unfolding of living Spirit. However, Sri Aurobindo's theory that "involution" is itself the logical precondition for the occurrence of "evolution" has a definite explanatory advantage over such contemporary process doctrines of evolution as those expounded by Bergson, Dewey, or Whitehead, whose evolutionary schemes are entirely devoid of both an Arche and a Telos, an omission which seems unsatisfactory in any interpretive theory of evolution. Nor can most process cosmologies, lacking a doctrine of "involution," properly explain how advanced life-forms can possibly emerge from the lower life-forms (notwithstanding Whitehead's doctrine of "ingression"). Whereas Hegel was the first to clearly articulate the


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involutional-evolutional structure of reality, it can be argued that he has failed to adequately provide an explanation concerning the purpose of this cosmological process, offering only an epistemological explanation based on the necessity for self-reflection in the course of Spirit's coming to knowledge of itself. Yet, such an explanation is based upon Hegel's highly one-sided intellectualist bias which does not adequately interpret the vitalistic and emotive dimensions of the originary life-world in the concreteness of its aesthetic immediacy. Here Sri Aurobindo has gone beyond the Hegelian perspective by axiologically grounding the involutional-evolutional activity of Spirit in mahasukha (ultimate pleasure) and ananda (supreme bliss), a move which renders the entire cosmological process a free and expressive activity rather than one springing from privation and necessity, notions which do not cohere with the concept of an "Absolute."

In the context of a carefully developed Absolute Idealism, Sri Aurobindo fully acknowledges transindividual or suprapersonal domains of experience; yet at the same moment he confers full integrity to the individual and personal domains. For according to the fundamental doctrine of Neo-Vedanta, namely, the doctrine of "integral transformation," the underlying telos of terrestrial world-evolution lies precisely in the radical psychic metamorphosis of the personal pole through an assimilation of the contents of the transpersonal or superconscient pole of experience (an approach which has received strong confirmation in the depth-psychology elaborated by C. G. Jung). This is in general concordance with Tantric philosophy, which, unlike many Eastern doctrines, does not seek to "annihilate" the ahamtkaira (the "ego" or "self- image") but rather to completely "transform" it from a mundane state into the transcendent structure of a God-image. It is indeed only such a life- affirming, value-centric, and transformative vision of reality which acknowledges both the personal and transpersonal as well as the static and dynamic poles of reality which can actually be applied toward the achievement of spiritual perfection in the complexity of modern technological society. Due to the comprehensiveness of Sri Aurobindo's world hypothesis as an interpretive and explanatory speculative scheme, it has performed the great service of reinstating Absolute Idealism as a plausible philosophical alternative in the contemporary world. This comprehensive character achieved by Sri Aurobindo's philosophy is in the end the direct consequence of its recognition that sensation and intellection are only several bands out of a whole spectrum of perceptual faculties, which includes intuitional, illuminative, and supramental modalities of awareness that function to disclose entirely new forms of experiential data, data which it is imperative to assess if we are to complete our concept of reality.


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NOTES

1. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine (India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry, 1973), p. 34.

2. S. K. Maitra, The Meeting of the East and West in Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy (India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry, 1968), p. 8.

3. Ibid., pp. 8-9. 4. G. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of Mind, trans. William Wallace (Oxford: Clarendon Press,

1971), Section 384, p. 18. 5. G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, trans. by E. B. Speirs and J.

Sanderson (New York: Humanities Press) Vol. 3, p. 69 6. Ibid., p. 2 7. Ibid., p. 1 8. Ibid., p. 176 9. G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, op cit., p. 18

10. Ibid., p. 225 11. G. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of Mind, op cit., Section 564, p. 298 12. G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, op cit., p. 11 13. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, op cit., p. 4 14. Ibid., p. 264 15. Ibid., p. 91 16. Ibid., pp. 371, 372: also see p. 115 17. Ibid., p. 145 18. Ibid., pp. 102, 103


Article Contentsp. [179]p. 180p. 181p. 182p. 183p. 184p. 185p. 186p. 187p. 188p. 189p. 190p. 191

Issue Table of ContentsPhilosophy East and West, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 121-255Front Matter [pp. 121-121]Opposites as Complements: Reflections on the Significance of Tao [pp. 123-140]Early Greek Philosophy and Mdhyamika [pp. 141-164]Naturalistic Ethics in a Chinese Context: Chang Tsai's Contribution [pp. 165-177]Sri Aurobindo and Hegel on the Involution-Evolution of Absolute Spirit [pp. 179-191]Wu-wei in "The Art of Rulership" Chapter of Huai Nan Tzu: Its Sources and Philosophical Orientation [pp. 193-213]Error and Truth: Classical Indian Theories [pp. 215-224]Feature Review ArticleReview: untitled [pp. 225-238]

Book ReviewsReview: untitled [p. 239]Review: untitled [p. 240]Review: untitled [pp. 241-244]Review: untitled [pp. 244-245]Review: untitled [pp. 246-248]Review: untitled [pp. 248-250]

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Sri Aurobindo and Hegel on the Involution-Evolution of Absolute Spirit

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