The Soul, the Psychic Being and the Evolution of Consciousness

0:00 In his text On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin outlined the evolution of life forms on Earth. He observed many species and posited that they all developed from a common ancestral past having undergone substantial changes, mutations that supported the success of those forms, and modification that increase the likelihood of survival and reproduction for continuance of the species. This comprehensive overview underpins the theory of evolution. Since that time, substantial research has been done in the field of anthropology, biology, archaeology, genetics, etcetera, to validate the evolution of forms. The changes envisioned here have been documented through carbon dating, review of the fossil record, etcetera, to have stretched across literally hundreds of millions, even billions of years.

1:03 What Darwin documented, however, does not address the source or purpose of our existence. Rather, it addresses the mechanism, the machinery for the development of external forms. Srioro Bindo describes the inner significance and purpose of all of this machinery as he outlines the evolution of consciousness. Sri Aurobindo's view makes it clear that nothing can evolve that has not previously been involved. This corresponds to the evolution of forms to the extent that the external forms develop based on encoded genetic patterns that guide the development of those forms.

1:44 This is a recognition of the concept of involution preceding evolution. The question then arises as to how the pattern, the encoding comes to take place and whether it has any significance. This brings us to an understanding of the divine manifestation and the secret sense of all of this machinery in the evolution of consciousness. Srioro Bindo describes the pattern as he shows the evolution of life forms of ever higher capacity and functionality out of the purely material basis and then the development of mind within a segment of the living forms. Sri Robinda recognizes that the mental being, leader of life and body, cannot possibly be the final term of the evolution as the result is incomplete and filled with numerous weaknesses, limitations and incapacities.

2:48 He therefore calls man a transitional being and describes next stages in the evolution of consciousness to successively manifest more complete, more comprehensive, and more universal stages or gradations. Higher levels of consciousness above the mental grade have powers and capacities far beyond the mental, just as the mind has powers and capacities beyond the vital, and the vital has powers beyond the expressed consciousness at the material level. This evolution of consciousness is easily seen at the macro level on the global scale, but in and of itself it does not provide significance for the individual as opposed to the species as a whole. Human beings, however, with self-awareness and the formation of individuality, reject the idea of the collective. Human species is the sole carrier of purpose. They expect that the individual also has a specific role, purpose and significance.

3:58 Within the relatively short human lifetime, there seems to be no solution. It is only when the concept of rebirth and the evolution of the psychic being as the carrier of the growth and maturity of the soul come into play that a deeper sense to our existence can be recognized, Sri Orbanda writes quote. The soul, representative of the central being, is a spark of the divine supporting all individual existence in nature. The psychic being is a conscious form of that soul growing in the evolution, in the persistent process that develops first life in matter, mind in life, until finally mind can develop into over mind and over mind into the Super mental truth. The soul supports the nature in its evolution through these grades, but is itself not any of these things. End Quote reference Srioro Bindu and the Mother. The psychic being soul, its nature, mission and evolution. Section 1.

5:10 Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being, page 15.