The Process

The birth of Science is mastery of mind over matter. Man's knowledge was originally confined to the knowledge given to him by his senses. Mind did function in earlier millennia, but mainly to make the sense observations keener and to coordinate the data which the senses supplied.

In the history of man, a time came when the Mind began to function on its own, unsupported by the data supplied by the senses. It was thus that the discovery of zero, the Arabic numerals, the pure ideas of Plato and all that serves today as the basis of Science came into being.

Since science came into its own as a pre-eminent branch of knowledge, its quest has hovered around two ideas:

1. The ultimate substance from which matter arises.
2. The PROCESS by which any substance or thing comes into being.

In his magnum opus Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo deals with both of these questions. In the book, he describes the evolution of the next species and how one with the knowledge of the process of creation can initiate himself into it to evolve into a member of the next species.

In Book II, Part I, Chapter I, entitled: "Cosmic Determinations and the Indeterminable", he explains the process (pages 304-5). He illustrates it with the example of the undifferentiated seed growing into the form of a tree. He also explains by this process how genes and chromosomes are able to transmit psychological as well as physical characteristics.

Sri Aurobindo finds that the discovery of the ultimate substance is of greater importance than the discoveries of Galileo and Copernicus. That discovery, he says, was made in ancient India. But the process remained undiscovered until now.

Considering creation from several points of view and dismissing many, he presents the hypothesis of consciousness emerging out of inconscience. This assumption, he says, explains all the unexplained processes and unresolved questions. Then he goes on to explain the process