A Higher Faculty of Knowledge Than the Reason Is Required If There is a Higher Purpose to Our Existence
I am presently immersed in studying some of the works of Aurobindo. This passage from The Human Cycle, recently posted on the Aurobindo Studies website, is one of those places where Aurobindo raises the fourfold Godhead or fourfold Atman. It is excerpted from a broader context, though, where Aurobindo critiques how it has been implemented or mirrored in society, particularly in and as the Indian caste system. This is also something we find in Rosenstock-Huessy’s “cross of reality” model. I will comment on this later, after this quote from Aurobindo has had a chance to sink in.
Humanity has devised three basic lines of understanding regarding the meaning of life and existence. One of these posits there is no significance, that life is essentially something that developed by some kind of cosmic chance and we live, make the best of our existence and then we die without a trace. A second line holds that whether this is a testing ground for some further advancement or simply the entirety of existence, our purpose and goal is to develop and perfect our faculties of mind, life and body and then extend that to the perfection of the societal order. The third line holds that there is in fact a consciousness that has created the universe and which is systematically unfolding and developing, and that the human reason is a fulcrum between inconscience and habitual, instinctual action of consciousness and a higher range that is able to experience and understand…
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2 responses to “A Higher Faculty of Knowledge Than the Reason Is Required If There is a Higher Purpose to Our Existence”
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The Chrysalis 
Another interesting thing about The Human Cycle (something I’ve already brought to McGilchrist’s attention) is that Aurobindo frequently discusses the relationship between “the sovereign” and “the minister”. This parallels McGilchrist’s “master” and “emissary” relation described in his book The Master and His Emissary.
I agree. There is a good idea from esoteric wisdom. The universe is an aesthetic entity to be appreciated before being sought to be intelligible. I was reading Aurobindo’s ideas about good and evil. Good reading.