In the context of rural India or in certain classes, this seems very evident, as they live a longer life owing to what we call as the lack of modern-day stressors…. Yet, there is also a certain kind of observable longevity in Western countries, who are presumably under a lot of stressors and tensions because of the fast-paced life they are living. I am unable to understand this dichotomy.
[The Three Steps of Nature: https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-three-steps-of-nature#p7]
Sri Aurobindo is speaking largely of an earlier humanity that was not touched by modern mind and its ways of life. That humanity is hardly found anywhere now, neither in rural India nor perhaps among the Negroid. But wherever present and if allowed to live uncorrupted by the ‘modern education’, it does admirably well.
As to the longer average age in the Western world, it is partly due to the cleaner, controlled environment as well as the use of medicines to contain serious diseases. It is not natural health that Sri Aurobindo is referring to here, a state when mankind was closer to nature, but a life prolonged by artificial measures such as air conditioning and medicines. The sign is its proclivity to collapse readily in natural conditions. At the same time, most animals untouched by the vagaries of the mental world will live their natural lifespan unless they fall prey. A simple humanity of this kind did exist unburdened by the mind, celebrated in tales such as those of Tarzan. It still thrived in villages a century back or so, before these studies were undertaken. But now the modern mind and its fears have reached everywhere and while longevity is no doubt increased, it is doubtful if there is an increase in natural health.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
