Finding Auroville

Over the past few posts, while discussing the topics of sociological intelligence and sociological imagination and the yogas of bhakti, jnana and karma, I made use of the terms intellectual humanism and spiritual humanism. These are simply the renaming of Sri Aurobindo’s terms intellectual religion of humanity and spiritual religion of humanity. I find intellectual and spiritual humanism to be a useful condensation and simplification of the terms that Sri Aurobindo has used, while still retaining the original meaning of his terms as well as updating the terms to better fit a more contemporary lexicon. In this post I’ll briefly discuss these terms and their usefulness, and the linkages between humanism and “religion of humanity”.

It is in the last two chapters of The Ideal of Human Unity that Sri Aurobindo discusses the concept of the religion of humanity. He uses the word “religion” in that phrase not in the usual sense of ritualistic or idolatrous practices, but to connote the idea that the striving for humanity as a united, harmonious and egalitarian collective must become the sacred aim of humankind. He traces the idea of the religion of humanity to the rationalist thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment/Age of Reason in Europe:

The religion of humanity was mind-born in the eighteenth century, the manasa putra [mind-born child] of the rationalist thinkers who brought it forward as a substitute for the formal spiritualism of ecclesiastical Christianity. It tried to give itself a body in Positivism, which was an attempt to formulate the dogmas of this religion, but on too heavily and severely rationalistic a basis for acceptance even by an Age of Reason.
Humanitarianism has been its most prominent emotional result. Philanthropy, social service and other kindred activities have been its outward expression of good works. Democracy, socialism, pacificism are to a great extent its by-products or at least owe much of their vigour to its inner presence.

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The aim of the religion of humanity was formulated in the eighteenth century by a sort of primal intuition; that aim was and it is still to re-create human society in the image of three kindred ideas, liberty, equality and fraternity.

The Religion of Humanity, The Ideal of Human Unity

It is quite evident here that Sri Aurobindo has borrowed the term “religion of humanity” from the French philosopher Auguste Comte, who developed a literal Religion of Humanity in the first half of the 19th century, which included secular rituals and practices, as part of the philosophy of Positivism that he developed. Sri Aurobindo of course uses the phrase not in its original sense of a religious practice but broadens it into a concept.

This connection actually creates a direct link between the phrase “religion of humanity” and the broader philosophy of Humanism, since Auguste Comte and Positivism are a part of the history of the development of Humanism.

Sri Aurobindo describes the intellectual religion of humanity in a somewhat abstract manner as below:

Man must be sacred to man regardless of all distinctions of race, creed, colour, nationality, status, political or social advancement. The body of man is to be respected, made immune from violence and outrage, fortified by science against disease and preventable death. The life of man is to be held sacred, preserved, strengthened, ennobled, uplifted. The heart of man is to be held sacred also, given scope, protected from
violation, from suppression, from mechanisation, freed from belittling influences. The mind of man is to be released from all bonds, allowed freedom and range and opportunity, given all its means of self-training and self-development and organised in the play of its powers for the service of humanity. And all this too is not to be held as an abstract or pious sentiment, but given full and practical recognition in the persons of men and nations and mankind. This, speaking largely, is the idea and spirit of the intellectual religion of humanity.

The Religion of Humanity, The Ideal of Human Unity

The intellectual religion of humanity seeks to create a world where individuals are equal and united, individual freedoms are encouraged, and individual development and growth is supported, all ultimately for the service of humanity. The intellectual, organizational and material resources of humanity are to be put to the service of the equitable development of humanity. The intellectual religion of humanity represents the intellectual/mental human aspiration to create a better world. This is the sattwic attribute of humanity, looking to make a better world within material nature using mental reasoning, without seeking for any kind of solution beyond material nature. This intellectual religion of humanity is therefore very similar to the philosophy of humanism. Humanism and the intellectual religion of humanity both have similar goals: unity, egalitarianism and peace, the betterment of humanity as a whole, freedom and diversity for the individual, the pursuit of happiness for the individual and the collective, the rejection of morality and ethics that arise from religious doctrine or social convention etc. In earlier posts we had created linkages between the intellectual religion of humanity and progressive thought. In a similar vein, the intellectual religion of humanity has linkages with the philosophy of humanism as described above. The term intellectual humanism can then replace the intellectual religion of humanity, since both have very similar connotations. Of course intellectual humanism can also be said to simply be humanism, since humanism also seeks solutions via the human intellect in the material world. It is the term spiritual humanism that is the more unique concept.

While continuing to discuss the religion of humanity, Sri Aurobindo introduces the idea that the turn towards spirituality will be the decisive process that will ultimately lead to the fulfillment of the aims of the religion of humanity/humanism. From the Age of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, he takes us back another three thousand years or so to Vedic times and the germination of the idea that the return to the spirit within us will lead to the salvation of the individual as well as of humanity:

[It] must be the aim of the religion of humanity, as it must be the earthly aim of all human religion, love, mutual recognition of human brotherhood, a living sense of human oneness and practice of human oneness in thought, feeling and life, the ideal which was expressed first some thousands of years ago in the ancient Vedic hymn and must always remain the highest injunction of the Spirit within us to human life upon earth. Till that is brought about, the religion of humanity remains unaccomplished.

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… it is the awakening of the soul in man and the attempt to get him to live from his soul and not from his ego which is the inner meaning of religion, and it is that to which the religion of humanity also must arrive
before it can fulfil itself in the life of the race.

The Religion of Humanity, The Ideal of Human Unity

… while it is possible to construct a precarious and quite mechanical unity by political and administrative means, the unity of the human race, even if achieved, can only be secured and can only be made real if the religion of humanity, which is at present the highest active ideal of mankind, spiritualises itself and becomes the general inner law of human life.

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A [spiritual] religion of humanity means the growing realisation that there is a secret Spirit, a divine Reality, in which we are all one, that humanity is its highest present vehicle on earth, that the human race and the human being are the means by which it will progressively reveal itself here. It implies a growing attempt to live out this knowledge and bring about a kingdom of this divine Spirit upon earth. By its growth within us oneness with our fellow-men will become the leading principle of all our life, not merely a principle of cooperation but a deeper brotherhood, a real and an inner sense of unity and equality and a common life.

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A spiritual oneness which would create a psychological oneness not dependent upon any intellectual or outward uniformity and compel a oneness of life not bound up with its mechanical means of unification, but ready always to enrich its secure unity by a free inner variation and a freely varied outer self-expression, this would be the basis for a higher type of human existence.

Summary and Conclusion, The Ideal of Human Unity

It is the spiritualization of humanity, the dissolution of individual and collective egos, that will lead to the fulfillment of the aims that the intellectual religion of humanity has mentally conceptualized. Therefore, as Sri Aurobindo says, it is the spiritualization of the religion of humanity, the spiritual religion of humanity, that is the key to solving the problems of humanity. This spiritual religion of humanity can also be called spiritual humanism.

As noted in the previous post, to be able to get to the spiritualization of the individual and of humanity, we need to pass through intellectual humanism. We need to move from the self-centered tamasic and rajasic tendencies to the purer mental sattwic qualities that seek to create a better world through action in the material world. Then, once we are in that sattwic mode of intellectual humanistic thinking, if we continue to aspire and act towards the goals of humanism, and do not instead curtail our life goals for the sake of material achievements or convenience, and if we continue to contemplate on the reasons why we are always thwarted in our attempts to achieve these humanistic goals, we will ultimately come to the conclusion that it is the vital ego that always sabotages these attempts. And it is through the process of the dissolution of the vital ego that these goals will be achieved. This is how, or is at least one of the ways how, we reach the understanding that the spiritualization of the individual is the inevitable path towards the attainment of a united and harmonious humanity. In this way, we have to pass through intellectual humanism to get to spiritual humanism.

A first necessary step upward is to aspire to a higher nature and a higher law, to obey a better rule than the rule of desire, to perceive and worship a nobler godhead than the ego or than any magnified image of the ego, to become a right thinker and a right doer. This too is not in itself enough; for even the sattwic man is subject to the bewilderment of the gunas, because he is still governed by wish and disliking, iccha-dvesa. He moves within the circle of the forms of Nature and has not the highest, not the transcendental and integral knowledge. Still by the constant upward aspiration in his ethical aim he in the end gets rid of the obscuration of sin which is the obscuration of rajasic desire and passion and acquires a purified nature capable of deliverance from the rule of the triple Maya. By virtue alone man cannot attain to the highest, but by virtue he can develop a first capacity for attaining to it, adhikara. For the crude rajasic or the dull tamasic ego is difficult to shake off and put below us; the sattwic ego is less difficult and at last, when it sufficiently subtilises and enlightens itself, becomes even easy to transcend, transmute or annihilate.

The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge, Essays on the Gita

Spiritual humanism, or the spiritual religion of humanity, is this realization that it is only through the spiritualization of the self and of humanity that we can attain to the aims and goals set forth by the humanistic tendency of the intellect. Humanism will never succeed until it moves up to and works through spiritual humanism. We need to act in the material world for the betterment of humanity, but we need to act from the space of complete selflessness and desirelessness that the pursuit of spirituality brings about.

The biggest caveat in using the term spiritual humanism is that humanism is mostly considered to be rational, secular, non-religious and non-theological. Humanism as a broad philosophy tries to find harmony and unity in humanity through solutions within the intellectual and material realm, through things such as changes in societal management and governance. It looks for solutions within material nature, and does not believe in changes that rely on any kind of supernatural understanding. It does not believe in changes brought about by supernatural faith and devotion. In this context the term spiritual humanism would be a kind of contradiction.

There are numerous examples of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother explaining that Integral Yoga is very far from religion as a ritualistic practice. While this is very much true, the fact remains that in Yoga and Integral Yoga, the supernatural nature of the Divine is a central tenet. In order to move away from identifying with our material selves and material nature, we have to believe in a supernatural force, energy or entity to then identify with instead. So why then is the term spiritual humanism useful?

Firstly, let us consider the source of ethics and morality. In Humanism, ethics and morality are not based on any religious dogma or doctrines. Instead, ethics and morality come from intellectual rationality and secular emotions that aim for equality, peace and unity amongst humanity. It is a rational and secular urge and striving for a better world that drive moral and ethical behavior. In Integral Yoga also, ethics and morality do not come from dogma, doctrine nor even devotion. In fact, ethics and morality, either secular or religious, are in a way rendered completely redundant, because the source of immorality and unethical behavior, which is the vital ego, is removed. The very reason why a person would behave immorally and unethically is eliminated. So not only do morality and ethics in Integral Yoga not come from forced doctrine and dogma, these issues are eradicated from the root and made redundant.

The aspect of devotion is central to Integral Yoga, but it is not a devotion to an external deity that is meant to be feared or venerated. Nor are there any sacrosanct rules and laws laid down by the religion created around that deity. In Integral Yoga, devotion is a complete surrender of the self to the Divine that resides within the individual, and is also universal and transcendent. The process of surrender involves an elimination of the control of the self by the vital ego, which is the source of all negative thought and action. The vital ego as the emotive source of action is progressively replaced by an immaterial source of selfless and desireless positivity, which is the ananda of the Divine. The tapping into this unending source of selfless and desireless positivity brings about an empowerment of the individual in the material world, and this empowerment is the source of devotion and surrender that the individual feels towards the Divine. This empowerment comes from the dissolution of all the negativity and material heaviness associated with identification with the material self. The actions of the individual in material nature are then not defined by their vital ego or any kind of self-centered motive, but are rather empowered actions fueled by the fundamentally selfless and desireless motive to bring about the betterment of humanity. This selfless and desireless positivity and motive for action are the key to changing humanity. This is the key that Humanism perpetually seeks in vain within the material nature of humanity, but cannot find it because it is revealed only when the individual sheds their material identity. And this is why humanism will have to embrace spirituality if it is to realize the goals that it sets for humanity. It is only spiritual humanism, the spiritualization of humanism, that can bring this about. In the debates surrounding Humanism, the source of ethical and moral behavior seems to be a central issue. Integral Yoga deals with this very issue decisively at the root.

Let’s situate humanism in the wider context of Integral Yoga. The way I see it, Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga can be said to operate at two different levels. At the core of both these levels is the idea of the dissolution of the ego and the transformation of consciousness. Of course Sri Aurobindo himself has not made this distinction between two levels of Integral Yoga as far as I have read, but it can be a useful distinction to make when discussing the present and future of humanity.

The first level deals with changes in how humanity interacts with itself in the material world. This is the level of Integral Yoga that states that the dissolution of the ego will bring about a fundamental movement towards a more harmonious, united and egalitarian human collective. This change and shift will occur when human action will not be dictated by the vital ego, at both the individual and collective levels, but instead will be a completely selfless and desireless action directed by the Divine consciousness that is approachable via the Divine presence in each individual person. This fundamentally selfless and desireless action and interaction of humans will lead to a fundamental harmonious change in how humanity interacts with itself and with material nature.

The second level concerns itself with what will happen once this fundamental change in individual and collective human action and interaction has occurred to a meaningful level. It focuses on the details of the movement of humans from mental beings towards the supramental consciousness. The supramental exists beyond the mental and material aspects of humanity, and is a part of the spiritual consciousness of the Divine. It deals with how this movement will affect humans at the physical, vital and mental levels, will redirect the path of human evolution, and will move humanity back towards the Divine consciousness that it has emerged from.

The focus of this blog on the most part has been at the first level, dealing with the sociological and psychological changes that will occur in the human collective as it moves towards the divine, as opposed to the evolutionary consequences that will be the outcome of substantial progress along that path.

When we discuss aspects such as intellectual humanism and spiritual humanism, we continue to focus on this first level. This is the level at which spirituality and Integral Yoga interact with intellectual, sociological, psychological and philosophical aspects such as humanism, progressive though and the sattwic qualities of humanity. This first level can be seen as being a preparatory stage for the second level, but for now, and indeed precisely because it is the preparatory level, it is the one that we need to focus on. We need to focus on the psychological and sociological changes that will be brought about by the spiritualization of the individual and the collective, before we attend to what will occur later as a consequence of these changes.

The change in human psychology and sociology that will be brought about with the dissolution of the ego and the movement towards the Divine consciousness will occur because of the outpouring onto humanity of the fundamentally selfless and desireless joy, love, compassion and positivity that is the ananda of the Divine consciousness. So another way of conceptualizing the first, preparatory level of Integral Yoga is to look at it as the preliminary stage of the outpouring of this ananda, and assessing the changes that will occur in humanity because of this outpouring. When we talk about the spiritualization of humanity as being the key to the attainment of the goals of intellectual humanism, it will be caused by the repercussions of this outpouring of ananda onto humanity. The difference between spiritual humanism and intellectual humanism then is this ananda acting on humanity and causing the selfless and desireless action that will lead to a collective unity, harmony, peace and egalitarianism. This universal ananda will take the place of the comparatively insignificant material and vital joys that humanity keeps running after and for which we keep fighting and competing with each other in myriad ways. With the spread of this universal ananda, this fighting, competing and chasing will end, leading towards harmony. This is the first level or stage of Integral Yoga that we need to be focused on for now, and after this level has been attained to an extent, we can move on to the next level. When, through the spread of the ananda of the Divine, the goals of humanism as the current mental intellect of humanity can conceive them have been attained, we can move on to goals that are currently beyond the capacity of the current mental intellect of humanity to conceive and comprehend.

In this first level of Integral Yoga, humans are transitional beings between vital animalistic nature and the spiritual consciousness of the Divine. In this transition, the mental faculty of humans is the bridge that will carry humanity from the vital to the spiritual. The mental faculty itself has sattwic aspirations for a more harmonious human existence. In this blog we have used terms such as progressive thought, sattwic qualities, the intellectual religion of humanity, humanism and intellectual humanism to denote this mental aspiration. This mental aspiration could be considered to be a prefiguration of the spiritualization that will lead to true harmony in humanity. Humanism is one of the philosophical frameworks that the human intellect has created to try to situate and achieve this mental sattwic aspiration. In its reaction against the ills of organized and ritualistic religion, which are a severe corruption of the spiritualistic tendencies of humanity, Humanism has sought to create secular, rational and non-theological sources of ethics and morality that exist wholly within material nature, as means to achieve the unity, harmony and egalitarianism in human society that the mental sattwic aspires towards. However, as has been mentioned so many times in this blog, the vital ego that exists as part of material human nature will never allow the goals of this aspiration to be realized. It is only by the dissolution of the ego and detachment from the material self and material nature, which is taught by Yoga and Integral Yoga, that these goals can be realized. The process of the dissolution of the ego is not a religious or theological teaching, but a psychological and sociological Truth of humanity. It is the inevitable direction in which humanity is heading. But for this psychological and sociological Truth to be understood, a belief in and surrender to the supernatural Divine is essential. The supernatural Divine is part of the Truth of existence.

The term spiritual humanism bridges the gap between the humanistic, sattwic mental aspiration for a harmonious humanity and the spiritual consciousness that will allow this aspiration to be realized. As such it is a central term in the first level of Integral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo used the term spiritual religion of humanity instead, but that is more difficult to understand and explain. Spiritual humanism is more understandable in the current context, and connotes all that has been discussed above in this post.