THE HUMAN ASPIRATION
SYNOPSIS
- Ever since the awakening in the thinking process of Man he always aspired for the highest – perfection of himself, God-realisation, Pure Truth, Bliss and Immortality. His aspiration never diminished despite the contrary doubts and scepticism he had to face as witnessed by the earliest human wisdom. Though he has conquered the externalities of nature, he always comes back to his original longings.
- These ideals seem to be quite abnormal to the material intellect of man. A few attain them by their revolutionary efforts. Majority march towards them by the slow evolutionary process.
- The goals of Nature in terrestrial manifestation are: replacing human consciousness by Divine Consciousness, limited mind by vastness of Supermind, Bliss in the place of transitory happiness and suffering, Infinite freedom not bound by our mechanical necessities, freedom from death. Human intellect seems to have reached its maximum possibilities. It questions the validity of these ideals as opposed to the reality. Yet the Nature gives her seal of approval by the very same opposition.
- Problems of life are essentially problems of harmony. Disharmony arises due to our perception of unresolved discord and our failure to discover the unity. An individual with an awakened consciousness always aims to resolve the discord and bring about harmony than a person with a utilitarian mind who is satisfied with a temporary and rough compromise.
- Nature always seeks harmony. At the levels of matter, life and mind harmony is ensured. Paradoxically greater the discord among the irreconcilable elements stronger is the tendency towards harmony and order.
- Nature over the course of time have reconciled some of the opposites: Firstly, inactive matter with an active life. Body (matter) is made to support more and more the life force. Finally, an immortal body supported by life and mind would be the crown of its achievement.
- Secondly conscious mind versus the less conscious life parts. Various yogic practices over the years have rendered the body to become more conscious. The physical body of the present-day man has become more conscious over the years than the primitive man.
- The final achievement would be, the body possessing the Truth and Light on its own, independent of mind, i.e. body is fully transformed by Supermind. Thus, reconciliation is the fundamental method of Nature and a process by which higher and higher opposites are reconciled.
- Life is involved in Matter; Mind in Life. This is Vedantic Truth. Evolution brings out what is involved. Going by the same logic mind will evolve itself into higher states of consciousness which are presently veiled by mind.
- As evolution progresses new faculties which are at rudimentary stage, will fully develop. As animal is a living laboratory working out man, so is man a living and thinking laboratory working out superman. Man is placed at an ever-ascending scale in evolution. This has to continue. To realise God within and without is his most legitimate aim.
- There are eternal paradoxes and eternal truths like Man’s possibility to Divine Life, Immortality of body, Consciousness which is One and yet present as Many, Transcendent Being rendering itself to Time and Space.
- In all these, the higher truths realisable by the lower terms justify themselves to human reason and instinct. Yet they are beyond logic. Attempts to dissuade Man in pursuing them met only with failure, with mankind returning to them with vehemence. Man’s hunger for higher truths gave rise to mysticisms and new religions.
- To deny a truth because its outward workings are not visible to us is a kind of obscurantism. Here, we do not deny the truth offered by Nature, rather we revolt against the secret will of the Divine Mother. It is but rational for the human race to accept what is offered by Her in Her attempt to lead us towards light of reason and self-guiding will from our present state of obscurity and blindness.
- Man, even as of now, is gifted with higher light of illumined intuition. However, such faculties are hidden in him. Rarely does he get a glimpse of them like the occasional display of lights in the Northern Skies (aurora borealis in North Pole).
- Yet Man need not loose heart. He can always aspire to enlarge such faculties. His mind is only a form and veil. Through the splendours of that light lies his path of progressive self-enlargement. It will lead humanity to its state of ultimate resting-place i.e. Man becoming Divine.