The Future Evolution of Man

MANOJ DAS

When the shy Darwin was challenged by Bishop Wilberforce to confess whether it was on his grandpa’s side or on his grandma’s that his ape ancestry came in, Thomas Huxley, known as Darwin’s bull-dog, silenced the bishop declaring that he would surely prefer an ape ancestor to one who “not content with success in his own sphere of activity, plunges into scientific questions with which he had no real acquaintance, only to obscure them by an aimless rhetoric...and skilled appeals to religious prejudice.”

We do not know how ably Darwin was defended in a Cali­fornia court a few years ago where a citizen sued a teacher for his telling the former’s son that the boy had descended from a monkey!

Darwin, of course, was remarkably humble by the logic of his own discovery. “Can the mind of man, which has I fully believe, been developed from a mind as that possessed by the lowest animals, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions? I cannot pretend to throw the least light on such abtruse’ problems,” he admitted.

A ban on Darwin’s theory (“the law of higgledy-piggledy” according to astronomer Herschel) was only recently lifted from the schools of Tennessee. If it has taken a long time for the Tennessee authorities to see the point in the definition of man as “an animal that throws peanuts to his ancestors,” there are still many nations and institutions who feel scandalised over Darwin’s reading of their origin for reasons that are of course not scientific.

The concept of evolution, however, has become a conviction in our time whether we accept Darwin’s theories of the transmission of characteristics and selection or not, or whether we agree to be considered as primates, with the gorilla and the chimpanzee as our closest kin or not.

Surprisingly, a scientific supposition like the Evolution has a support in some of the most ancient Indian myths and mystic parables. The doctrine of Dashavatar or the Ten Incarnations of Vishnu is of unmistakable significance. The first nine in this series are Matsya (Fish). Kurma (Tortoise), Varaha (Boar), Narasimha Vamana (Dwarf), Parasurama, Rama, Balarama and Krishna. Ac­cording to another list, the last three in this line of the incarnations are Rama, Krishna and Buddha.

Although each incarnation has a legend behind it, one cannot fail to note an evolutionary significance in the series.

It begins with the Fish, symbolic of the manifestation of life in the water. The Tortoise indicates the extension of the animal life to the land.

The Boar stands for a new manifestation of force. Narasimha or the Man-lion is the transition from animal to man. The Vamana or the Dwarf is the primeval man, the dwarfness symbolising the infancy of the species.

Parasurama is the fully developed man, capable of wielding a Parasu or an axe, the weapon standing for his mastery over the external nature. Rama represents the ethical and moral power, the capacity for mastery over one’s own nature.

Krishna stands for spiritual wisdom, supported in his actions by Balarma. The Buddha chalks out the way to Nirvana for those who are unwilling to continue in the process of birth and death.

The tenth incarnation is promised. Known as Kalki. He is to put an end to the barbaric elements in man and to lead humanity towards a glorious future of spiritual perfection.

This reveals the futuristic vision imbedded in the myth and its faith in the destiny of man.

Evolution, indeed, is a vast subject, speaking both scientifically and spiritually. The scope of this article will be limited to the concept’s relevance to our psychological well-being and consequently to our physical well-being.

Can human mind accept evolution without any irrefutable scientific proof at his disposal or any spiritual realisation that needs no external proof? Yes, when by evolution we mean not just the development of new species, but a growth in consciousness, a gradual recognition of the need to be good. An objective look at the whole history will establish one to be truthful and just. It is a slow process. Love of truth and justice may be more easily discernible in individuals through the ages, but its gradual triumph over the collectivity too is undeniable. There was nothing improper in openly paying the voters and buying votes in the early Raman democracy. Some people perhaps still indulge in such transactions, but they do so in secrecy. There was nothing absurd in King x of the Arabian Nights marrying a damsel at twilight and beheading her by dawn. Neither part of the activity will be possible today. We have come miles away from priding on burning witches and holding slave­markets. True democracy or true socialism may still be ideals far off from realisation, but they have come to stay and get realised. Even pretensions to certain ideals are signs of the ultimate victory of the ideals.

These are signs of moral evolution of man. But in another faculty he seems to have evolved far more speedily and dangerously. That is in his faculty of mind – in intelligence, to be precise. There was a time when man dreamt of superior intelligence as blessing. It is high time we transcend this delusion. Intelligence is only a small part of the consciousness in its totality and by itself it makes a man neither noble nor happy. It is nearly always at the mercy of some other element of consciousness, call it passion or ambition or ideological mission. One can pledge one’s brilliant intelligence to fools or dangerous foes of humanity. Look at some of the scientists of our time. They are far superior to the political leaders of their countries when it comes to intelligence. Yet they are conducting themselves in no better fashion than the jinn at Aladdin’s command, in this case a hose of bad Aladdins. They go on inventing and polishing ever-novel machines of death and destruction. If they do so out of their own inspiration, they are wicked, if in response to the instruction of their bosses, they are nincompoops, their intelli­gence notwithstanding.

The efforts to delegate intelligence to machines too are well-­known, though the consequences of such efforts are yet to be appreciated. Herbert Dreyfus, a well-known American computer ­specialist, observed that no computer can equal a human being in intelligence. For example, he said, no computer can play chess as good as even an average chess-player. Even two years had not passed when a graduate student named Richard Greenblutt made a chess-playing computer and challenged Dreyfus, to a mach against it. Dreyfus accepted the challenge and was defeated in the match.

The true danger, indeed, lies not in the computer throwing man out of his earth like a new generation of Roman gods throwing out old, but in two other areas. As Donn Parker, the computer security expert at Stanford Research Institute fears, World War III may be fought not with missiles and bombs, but with computers. A sabotage of the computer-controlled defence, banking and other sophisticated systems of a country would plunge it into a chaos that would be synonymous of destruction. Parker cites an instance. “A small clerical error in calculation of the MIA (amount of money in circulation) cost stock traders 65 billion dollars.” He asks, “What might happen if computerized Government economic figures were tampered with deliberately?”

It is important to note that “intelligent computers” are now being employed to guard and help operating nuclear power plants. It is not difficult to imagine the shape of things to come once the enemy has been able to implant a bee in any such intelligent com­puter’s bannet!

The danger in the other area – the human psychology – is perhaps more formidable. We know of a couple of brilliant civili­zations waning away for excessive dependence on slaves. But, slaves, after all, were human beings and they prospered when their masters declined. There is nothing human in the relation between man and his robot-slave.

It is a one-way traffic without an emotional response. If one commands a human agency, there is always the possibility of the agency reacting with reluctance when the command is wrong or immoral. The reaction cannot but have its impact, even if not perceptible, and the total transaction is at the natural plane of consciousness. But the coldness with which the robot can carry out the orders of his human master has something sinister about it. Man is the absolute master – and helplessly so. The absoluteness is a kind of curse. The total lack of emotion at the receiving end can slowly render man equally cold. And that coldness is not going to remain confined to his behaviour with the computers alone. It will have a deadly influence on his other relationships – political, social and personal.

Apart from the impact of such technological developments on the mind and behaviour of man, the other development that had a devastating effect, though no proper psychological survey has been made of the effect, is the threat held out by the nuclear arsenals to wipe out life from the earth. Continuous dangling of this Sword of Damocles on the civilisation’s head has bred a cynicism of hitherto unknown gravity. What is the value of culture, ethics, philosophy and all the glorious endeavours of man spread over millenniums when a few power-mad fellows can put an end to everything or at least main civilisations beyond repair and degrade man beyond redemption in the twinkling of an eye by simply mani­pulating a few switch-boards? This is the question that lies beneath the overwhelming phenomenon of despair and dejection characte­rising human behaviour today – including the latest brand of drug­-induced nihilism.

Indeed a perilous pessimism has invaded human consciousness and its signs are too numerous to be enlisted. All sensible people realise that a chasm has been created between the material and technological situation man has created through his intelligence on one hand and his capacity to handle it on the other hand. A stark paradox stares at us in every walk of life. We have political and social theories galore but nothing seems to be the answer to the crisis.

Well-meaning savants have come out with radical theories to lead man out of the predicament which include positive eugenics, limiting the right of “fathering” a future generation to select band of talents. If not anything else, such theories highlight the disgust some intellectuals have developed in the present condition of huma­nity the continuation of which seems purposeless to them.

The disgust takes the form of a positive thinking in a pragma­tist like Bertrand Russell when he says:

“It is difficult to believe that Omnipotence needed so vast a setting for so small and transitory a result. Apart from the minute­ness and brevity of the human species, I cannot feel that it is a worthy climax to such an enormous prelude.”

Julian Huxley was even more positive: “...a vast New World of uncharted possibilities awaits its Columbus...The human race, in fact, is surrounded by a large area of unrealised possibilities. The human species can if it wishes, transcend itself...Human destiny is to participate in the creative process of development, whereby the universe as a whole can realise more of its potentiali­ties in richer and greater fulfilments.”

What seems to be no more than wishful thinking, though so poignant, in these celebrated thinkers, is put forth as an assurance by Sri Aurobindo, “the last great seer”.

No simpler summary of Sri Aurobindo’s vision and Yoga can be made than the one by the Mother:

“There is an ascending evolution in nature which goes from the stone to the plant, from the plant to the animal, from the animal to man. Because man is, for the moment, the last rung at the summit of the ascending evolution, he considers himself as the final stage in this ascension and believes there can be nothing on earth superior to him. In that he is mistaken. In his physical nature he is yet almost wholly an animal, a thinking and speaking animal but still an animal in his material habits and instincts. Undoubtedly, nature cannot be satisfied with such an imperfect result; she en­deavours to bring out a being who will be to man what man is to animal, a being who will remain a man in its external form, and yet whose consciousness will rise far above the mental and its slavery to ignorance.

“Sri Aurobindo came upon earth to earth to teach this truth to men. He told them that man is only a transitional being living in a mental consciousness, but with the possibility of acquiring a new consciousness, Truth-consciousness, and capable of living a life perfectly harmonious, good and beautiful, happy and fully conscious. During the whole of his life upon earth, Sri Aurobindo gave all his time to establish in himself this consciousness he called supramental, and to help those gathered around him to realise it.”

So, Sri Aurobindo visualises man as an evolving being – pro­gressively growing in his consciousness. This growth will be a growth from darkness to light, darkness in this case standing for the mani­fold manifestation of ignorance – suffering included. About suf­fering, it may be relevant to quote a few words here from a letter of Sri Aurobindo written to a seeker: “Life here is an evolution and the soul grows by experience, working out by it this or that in the nature, and if there is suffering, it is for the purpose of that working out, not as a judgment inflicted by God or Cosmic Law on the errors or stumblings which are inevitable in the ignorance.”

Ignorance keeps us under its thrall through uncountable tricks. It can even put on the mask of luminous wisdom!

The more one is attached to the world, the more is one vulnerable to the octopus-hold of ignorance. Illusory attractions and raise values dominate every sphere and aspect of life. Hence, the age-old mystic prescription: Renounce the world and the life if you wish to find the Reality, the Truth.

No doubt, the world as we see it, the life as we live it, are experiences which are a queer mixture of joy and sorrow, hope and frustration, pleasure and suffering, love and death. No wonder that such conditions should be disgusting to the seekers truth and lovers of perfection. Their recoil from such a bizarre situation and their dedicating themselves to some “other-worldly” pursuits are, of course, understandable.

But can such a stand be entirely satisfactory? Don’t we feel, at times, that such a recoil could not be a true answer to the enigma or the world? If the world, if the realities of our life, are basically false, what business had the Creator to create them at all? What about the efforts those great minds – poets, philosophers, artists, builders, and scientists of various disciplines – mystics apart ­to enrich the human existence, to create the beautiful and to strive for perfection? Are all their urges and aspirations meaningless?

Surely, the Creator ought to have a scheme behind his crea­tion! Despite its present state of bewildering contradictions, the world could be moving towards a certain fulfilment!

This vision of fulfilment is the vision of Sri Aurobindo. He tells us that one need not renounce the world and life to find the Truth. The world and the life are the Divine’s creation and are not his antonyms. The Divine is in the process of revealing him­self in this creation of his – and that is the purpose of the evolu­tionary nisus in operation.

O Lord my God Save my Life

In fact, Sri Aurobindo’s vision of evolution embraces another significant process, that of involution. “The Spirit which manifests itself here in a body, must be involved from the beginning in the whole of matter and in every knot, formation and particle of matter.”

According to Sri Aurobindo a fulfilment is awaiting man; a day will come when the world will be the Spirit’s manifest home The answer to the puzzle of life is not its rejection, but its ful­filment – to use the right term from Sri Aurobindo’s vocabulary ­its transformation.

We know that ego is at the root of most of our problems and sufferings. Yet, ego was an indispensable step in the evolutionary process. “The formation of a mental and vital ego tied to the body - sense was the first great labour of the cosmic life in its progressive evolution; for this was the means it found for creating out of the matter a conscious individual.” But this ego, once the helper, is now the bar against man’s progress and it must be transcended. Sri Aurobindo explains elaborately how in myriad ways Nature teaches man to break out of his shell of ego.

We have seen how a certain process of Yoga is inherent in Nature itself. The very story of evolution is the story of a great voyage – a journey from a total ignorance towards knowledge, from an unconscious state towards an ever increasing degree of con­sciousness. But a time had come, when, with this natural process of Yoga, man’s conscious collaboration was called for. This col­laboration will pave the way for a rapid realisation of the future in store for him. Man, of course, is free to prolong the situation that prevails, but the predicament in which he is, placed today, the crisis that he is facing in every walk of life, cannot be solved unless he aspired to grow farther in his consciousness. In fact, Sri Aurobindo stated that the crisis mankind is experiencing, today is an evolutionary crisis. We can conclude that it is just not possible to get over the crisis with any remedy that falls short of a readiness to rise above the limitations that are the characteristics of mind.

The highly developed mind of today, left to itself, might undo all that it has achieved. Mind must be tackled by a superior power­–agnostic consciousness. Sri Aurobindo terms it the Supramental. His Yoga was directed towards paving the way for this consciousness to take hold of human life.

Is Sri Aurobindo’s vision of the future of man just a hope, just a possibility? The Mother says, “What Sri Aurobindo repre­sents in the world’s history is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a decisive action direct from the Supreme.”

It seems to be matter of time. Though we cannot say what length of time, there is reason to think that the process of evolution in the future will be more speedy that it has been so far. As George G. Simpson says in The Meaning of Evolution:

“Evolution is a cumulative process and in it, as usual in such processes, there is an effect of acceleration. Early stages were aeon  long and slow almost beyond imagination. They built a basis on which, finally, more rapid evolution occurred.”

Does this vision of the future evolution of man imply a change in our attitude to issues and problems that be set us? It does3. So far we have looked at man as he is, not as he will be. All our panacea for his ills, methods of dealing with him in his normal as well as abnormal states, have been formulated with a view of him as he is at the moment. Once we realize that the basic force in operation in him is the evolutionary nisus inherent in him, that more than his body, mind and life which appear to constitute him, there is the soul or the psychic being in him, we understand him better. Since it is the soul which will dominate the gnostic being of the future, the future psychology has to take note of the soul’s evolutionary demands. Once we know that through different kinds of experiences the soul is striving to lead man towards a certain goal, a new dimension opens up in our diagnosis of man’s problems. Most of the problems, the physical and mental traumas included, migbt be owing their origin to this chequercd evolutionary push in man.

Even the gigantic strides the human intelligence has taken, at the cost of man’s security, has its justification. The mind had to thoroughly exhaust its possibilities before the manifestation of a new consciousness.

Humanity’s “earliest formula of Wisdom promises to be its last – God, Light, Freedom and Immortality.” Man in his evolution is destined to realise these propositions. A faith in this itself is a step in evolution.