The Physical Organisation Of The World
March 7, 1992
Behind every work, especially a work that repeats, is an organisation. Unless an organisation of work is there, it is not possible for a work to be done. Surely the repetition of that work requires an organisation in existence.
In that sense the World or even the Earth is an organisation of work. Sri Aurobindo says that Life is fully organised at the level of the physical plane. The birth, growth, reproduction and decay of the species are parts of the Organisation. An Organisation must have its systems and the systems must be coordinated for smooth functioning. All systems and their coordinations follow laws that operate rigorously.
The subconscious animal is only aware of its existence and not the whole of which it is a part. Man is conscious and conscious of a whole of which he is a part. He is conscious of his environment, if not the process by which his existence is related to that of the environment.
As a child is unconscious of the environment of which it is a part, the less conscious human being, the unconscious citizen are unconscious of the world and the society they are part of. They are end users having only use value of the bigger whole.
The uneducated man is unaware of the existence of a government. The primitive man is aware of the immediate surroundings and knows the river on his own banks, not its entire length. It is but right that in 1992 MAN is more fully conscious of the whole of his environment which is Life, Life on Earth.
All the scientific discoveries of the past centuries are in complete possession of the entire knowledge of a part. An energy, a movement, a process, a law, a function, a relation are known fully in all their details. All of them have use values and turn into technologies or offer the theoretical base required for the technology. None of them is the Whole. Philosophy attempted to know the whole. The endeavour of science in that direction is not so great or determined nor was it rewarded with any real measure of success.
Knowledge of the parts can help us function in such a way as to create a conflict with other parts, whereas knowledge of the whole cannot have that consequence.
To have an Ideal of knowing the whole and its Organisation is to attain knowledge while to know the parts is to possess a technology.
The existence of a whole and an Organisation through which it exists and functions must be self-evident as we are in possession of its many parts and also occasionally see the relations between the parts.
We see in the functioning of these parts an ordered sequence, an intimate one-to-one correspondence, works needing a fixed time for completion, the law of cause leading to an effect, the reflection of our inner thoughts in the outer life and a few other things that are the ways of that Organisation.
How can we interest a scientist in the existence of an Organisation and what will inspire him to seek the knowledge of it.
Sri Aurobindo speaks only of the physical organisation to be complete and He aims at the Supramental Organisation in the next stage. It must be possible for us to argue or explain that the knowledge of the whole will make our knowledge of the parts more full and of a higher order. Such a knowledge will at once lead to the abolition of conflicts. One such is the pollution. Pollution is the result of conflict generated in the environment. These arguments may be true, but will not inspire any scientist.
Thought, for Sri Aurobindo, is physical as it issues out of the physical mind. In the physical organisation, thought occupies the apex and a pre-eminent position. It is a determinant of an act. Often it is the determinant. In a work of which physical, vital and mental components are parts, it can be shown that thought has a determining power -- an illustration of the mastery of the mind over matter. Matter, we know, is moved by matter only and not by thought or emotion. In the whole of which we speak, matter, emotion and thoughts are parts. Suppose a work has come to a standstill for any reason, an examination of the interrelations of its parts -- matter, emotion, thoughts -- can reveal the conflicts. If conflicts are removed, a harmony is established. And then focussing on the thought generates mental power. That power moves the work which was at a standstill all these days. As we are trying to illustrate that the knowledge of the whole will help resolve conflicts generated by the technology of the parts, we can as well say that the knowledge of the whole will help remove pollution in the world.
Knowledge of the whole by the environmental scientist who is emotionally identified with his field, will help abolish the pollution. This is a tall claim but the principle can be illustrated in the life of the scientist himself. As a principle, his own life and the life of the world will be affected equally.
Should the scientist be agreeable to an experiment in his own life, we can construct one in his own experience and make him see that his thought moves work and breaks the stagnation of years. Or, from the events of his own life, we can show an example. An example from another area may not carry that conviction.
It may be easy to convince a scientist of this, if he is open-minded enough to acknowledge the present superstition. The scientist’s statement that only an eminent man's words carry conviction is directly superstitious, rather, it is social superstition. The truth of a statement must be evaluated on its own merits, not on the authority of the speaker.
The Singapore ointment that quickly cures burns without leaving a scar was not accepted by the Dutch market after demonstration. Even after a demonstration of comparison of the present treatment and the Singapore one, even after seeing the vast difference, the Dutch market refused to accept the product. This is not rationality but an acceptable social behaviour. The healer who cured half a million people in Germany was jailed by the authorities because he did not have a medical license. This is 14th century behaviour. In a scientist this is not merely unacceptable, but is downright superstitious. USA accepts fast curing Chinese medicines not because they believe in it, but because the profits there are high.
Suppose one genuinely aspires for the Presidency in his country with a motive of service, he can make this experiment in his life. Though a million people may have an eye on the post, those who are seriously pursuing will be only a hundred. If we enumerate the standard requirements of mental capacity, vital strength, physical endurance, inner idealism etc. etc. more than 90 will get eliminated leaving a handful in the field. Maybe one knows all of them in terms of character, behaviour etc. but especially their motives. Assuming all of them have positive motives, is it not possible for the aspirant to have a slightly higher motive than they have? In case he does so, he will end up in that office. This is a physical law to win a competition. This is not true for the Presidency alone, but any small competition for a job, property, negotiation, etc. Given the other ingredients in equal measure, by raising the nobility of motive a little higher than that of the competitor one is entitled to win. Should this experiment be successful, for a scientist it must be easy to see the LAW, not the magnitude of the result.
Maybe it is possible to construct an analogy in physiology for the parts and the whole. The theory that the body cures itself, presently acceptable to scientists, has the implication that one who relates to the body at that level cannot have diseases or can cure any disease by resorting to that power. That illustrates the Power of the Whole over the conflicts of the parts.
At a micro level, we can prove the existence of the whole and the parts and create movements of Life Response.
Man does not know he is a WHOLE human being of four parts -- Spirit, Mind, vital, body -- and he acts only from the part. Discovering the whole MAN is possible for him. And that is analogous to the whole of Life.
We know about opinion. An attitude is the vital accepting the opinion of the mind. Because the mind and vital combine in the attitude, the attitude is powerful over the man. That is why the change of inner attitude leads to outer result
- A scientist should come forward to be rational and be ready to examine a statement on its own merits.
- He must conceive of a whole of which we are parts.
- He must be willing to exercise his mind to know the Organisation of that WHOLE.
- As a scientist, he must set store by minute observation.
- He who says that he will observe only matter and not mind or emotion cannot qualify as a scientist of the whole, or at least will not serve our purpose.
- Suppose his observation leads to the knowledge of the whole, and he is willing to concede that it should have an organisation, it is possible to show him the organisation at the micro-level and its process.
- Process at all levels is the same.
- In the process a prime determinant is the MIND and that mind can acquire mastery over the matter. On that assumption, a devoted environmental scientist, when he discovers the whole and its processes will be able to dissolve the pollution by the power of his thought.
The Physical Urge of the physical organisation: The main force of this organisation is the physical URGE which is really the force that sustains all movements inside and outside. This urge acts through a decision of the physical mind and also through opinions and attitudes. When a work is stalled, it is possible to go behind the appearances to this urge and surrender it. At that point, one handles the Force and everything is under his control. Mind masters matter. A lesser mastery issues out of changing attitudes or decisions. The flow of universal forces in man is seen as this urge. Consecration of that controls the whole being. One who successfully does that succeeds in mastering his environment.
The knot of that urge is there for the ego organisation, the psychic force and the supramental. Sri Aurobindo says that the knot and root of the ego are in the thinking mind. At the psychic is the knot of this urge for the spirit in Prakriti. That centre for the Supermind is the spiritual term in the physical. By our moving to the thinking mind and reversing the urge, ego is dissolved. Centering in the psychic and offering the urge we are psychicised. At the spiritual term of the physical the same supramentalises MAN.