Part Three. Writings from the Arya (1914 1921
Arguments to The Life Divine
Chapter XXI. The Ascent of
Life
ARGUMENT
The development of Life starts from an original status
of division, subconscious will and inert subjection to mechanical forces. This
is the type of material existence. The terms of the second status which we
recognise as vitality, are death, hunger and conscious desire, sense of limited
capacity and the struggle for survival and mastery. This is the basis of the
Darwinian conception of Life, the struggle for life and the survival of the
fittest. But this struggle involves a third status whose preparation is marked
by the emergence of the conscious principle of love. The third status
contradicts the others in appearance, but really fulfils them. Life begins with
division and aggregation based on the refusal of the atom, the first principle
of ego and individuality to accept death and fusion by dissolution. This gives a
firm basis for the creation of aggregate forms to be occupied by vital and
mental individualities. In the next stage we have the general principle of death
and dissolution by which the individual form fuses itself in its elements into
other lives. This principle of constant fusion and interchange is the law of
Life and extends into vital and mental existence as well as the physical. The
two principles of individual persistence and mutual fusion have to be harmonised
and this can only be done by the emergence and full development of mind which
alone is subtle enough to persist in individual consciousness beyond all fusion
and dissolution of forms. Here the union and harmony of the persistent
individual and the persistent aggregate life become possible. Love is the
power by which this union and harmony are worked out; for love exists by the
persistence of the individual and his conscious acceptance of the necessity and
desire of interchange and self-giving. Its growth means the emergence of Mind
imposing its law on the material existence, for Mind does not need to devour in order to possess and grow; it increases by giving and confirms
itself by fusion with others. Subconscious will in the atom becomes hunger and
conscious desire in the vital being. Love is the transfiguration of desire, a
desire of possessing others but also of self-giving; at first subject to hunger
and the desire of possession it reveals its own true law by an equal or greater
joy in self-giving. The inert subjection of the will in the atom to the
not-self becomes in the vital being the sense of limited capacity and the
struggle for possession and mastery. In the third status the not-self is
recognised as a greater self and subjection to its law and need freely accepted;
at the same time the individual by making the aggregate life and all it has to
give his own, fulfils his impulse of possession. This is the Minds
reconciliation of the two conflicting principles which we find at the root of
all existence. But the true and perfect reconciliation can only come by
passing beyond Mind and founding all the operations of life on the essential
freedom and unity of the spirit.
in order to possess and grow; it increases by giving and confirms
itself by fusion with others. Subconscious will in the atom becomes hunger and
conscious desire in the vital being. Love is the transfiguration of desire, a
desire of possessing others but also of self-giving; at first subject to hunger
and the desire of possession it reveals its own true law by an equal or greater
joy in self-giving. The inert subjection of the will in the atom to the
not-self becomes in the vital being the sense of limited capacity and the
struggle for possession and mastery. In the third status the not-self is
recognised as a greater self and subjection to its law and need freely accepted;
at the same time the individual by making the aggregate life and all it has to
give his own, fulfils his impulse of possession. This is the Minds
reconciliation of the two conflicting principles which we find at the root of
all existence. But the true and perfect reconciliation can only come by
passing beyond Mind and founding all the operations of life on the essential
freedom and unity of the spirit.