With AI and limiting humans to grow in a wide and a true way, sometimes there is a feeling that we are falling into a pit, something similar to what Duryodhana did, or is it just that I am catching an insight based on fear and ignorance? For the best of everything and everyone, how can humanity take the luminous path guided by the divine forces?
The description of the two paths through which humanity moves is best described (and in a most practical way) in the 16th Chapter of the Gita, the Devasuri Sampada. Sri Aurobindo describes it in great detail in Essays on the Gita as well as in its essence in an essay on the Superman. The main difference is that the dark path or the downward path, is the path of an increasing self-centeredness. It is a life lived for one’s own little ego-self, driven by pleasures and for the satisfaction of desires. It is a life driven by greed and lust and ambition, a life of anger and fear, a life lived for the pack by the herd instinct rather than by truth and nobility and courage. On the other hand, a life moving along the path of the gods, the luminous upward path, is a life moved by high idealism and aspiration rather than ambition. It is a life dedicated to the good of all creatures, a life of benevolence, sacrifice and the renunciation of the desire-self. At its highest, it is a life lived for God in oneself and for God in all. Truth and Unity and universal Good are the goals of the luminous path, love and harmony are its motive powers, peace and joy are its strong foundations as one moves along the way, wisdom, love and strength are the wealth one acquires as one moves along this upward path.
If one looks cross-sectionally at humanity, then in all ages of mankind, one will find that those taking to the luminous path are few, far fewer than those who are living in darkness. Of course, the multiplication of the means at one’s disposal to do good or evil has perhaps increased manifold in the times we live in. Technological advancement with tools such as AI has placed in the hands of humanity the capacity to do much harm. And indeed, man has used it thus so far by multiplying the means to satisfy his lust for pleasure and comfort rather than to engage in good. An excessive dependence on outer tools and the race for money for acquiring them has turned man’s own life into a machine, leaving little time to pause and reflect and contemplate and wonder. It has taken away the spur of spiritual evolution by diminishing the liberating power of a discerning thought into fixed formulas of life or else a complete licentiousness mistaken for freedom. Seen thus, the picture does look dismal.
However, as Sri Aurobindo reminds us, instead of looking at life in a static way of humanity divided into two camps, we can look at it longitudinally from an evolutionary perspective. He reminds us that it is not that humanity is permanently divided into two opposite camps, – that may be the truth of the moment, the deeper truth is that there is a constant pressure upon humanity to shift towards the luminous path. Man is an asura by birth, but he also has in him, however obscure it may seem for the present moment, a spiritual entity pushing him secretly towards conversion from the asuric towards a godlike nature. The security of his spiritual destiny lies in feeding this inmost flame where the script of his luminous future is safe. The only problem is that whether man will give himself time to complete his spiritual evolution or else destroy the earth before the critical leap towards the future. My own intuition and faith, as well as several indications suggest that the crossover is assured and imminent this time and hence the crisis is also acute. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have also assured us that there will be no falling back, a complete collapse into the darkness, pralaya, this time. Rather, the chaos and the confusion will become the breeding ground for the New Creation. For the moment, we see the breakdown of all the old structures, both good and bad and hence the dismay. But behind this destruction of old forms, this crash of the old world and its values, we can perceive, if we will, the angst of a new creation, the fire of oestrus germinating the seed and pushing it to split open and release its energies towards the future. This future is not yet visible, but if one pays attention, one can hear its whispers in the thought and imagination of the young reflecting the angst of an Age. Yes, these may still be few, but what is needed is not absolute numbers but a critical tipping point of this evolutionary type to tilt the balance definitively in favour of the Light. Perhaps the tipping point is not as far as our outer mind perceives. In any case for us, the only thing to do is to keep pressing towards the luminous possibility with faith and aspiration for who knows when the hour will arrive for the chick to emerge from the hard shell and the lotus seeds hidden in the mud and mire of human nature to burst forth out of the darkness into which they are cast into the light and wideness for which they are destined.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
