Page 24 - NAMAH-Apr-2020

Namah Vol. 28, Issue 1, 24th April 2020

The psychological dimension of these domains and dimensions, and not
exclude forces of which we are ordinarily only
The psychological dimension of a consciousness partially aware, or to a large extent unaware.
perspective should be a search to understand It should also not exclude forces of which
‘oneself’ in psychological terms, as distinct some people are aware and others not.
from the attempt to understand ‘awareness’
in physical terms. In psychological parlance, In fact, among the most important contributions
‘oneself’ may refer to a variety of constructs: of Aurobindonian thought to psychology
for some it is the ego perceived as an organiser is the detailed and methodical exploration
of the ‘psyche’, for others it may be a ‘self’ of the inner ranges of the being that stand
that is conceived as an independent centre behind the surface personality and are
for initiative and action and experienced as normally inaccessible. It can be judiciously
continuous in time and space, or it may be said that a psychological perspective based
a central principle which is again connected on the consciousness perspective of Sri
to a deeper spiritual Reality, or independent Aurobindo’s vision is relevant only when
of it or a projection of it. Many psychological the surface personality is exceeded in the
theories find it difficult to define the ‘self’, and inner ranges of the being, where the ego is
the effort becomes more complicated if the replaced by a fourth-dimensional principle.
personal self is conceived to be a projection The discordant parts of the being can be then
either of a wider cosmic Self or an even higher integrated around this deeper ego-surpassing
transcendental Self. For if the self exceeds the soul-principle (the psychic being) to make
limitations of the person, it becomes not only the human receptacle fit for a transformative
universal but somewhat omnipresent, which journey.
makes it difficult to be discerned in perceptual
terms. In that case, this larger scope of self The social dimension
needs to be probed not through scientific
experiments but by deeper introspective The human being is not only an individual
methods that traverse the inner ranges of being but is also a social being. Indeed, the
consciousness. Latin term ‘conscious’, from which the term
consciousness was derived, had in its inception
Also, the ’self’ is influenced by diverse forces a social connotation as it meant mutually shared
that one may or may not be aware of in the knowledge. Our socio-cultural transactions
waking state. Those forces that we are not reveal another aspect of consciousness that is
ordinarily aware of have been termed as manifested in social norms, cultural traditions,
‘unconscious’ in psychology, and studied economic motives, anthropological perspectives
both in the individual and in the collective and in ethical, political and aesthetic values.
sense. Some of the forces that one is unaware The relationship between the individual and
of in the waking state have also been studied the collectivity remains complex, more so as
throughout the ages by occultists and they interpenetrate each other. Moreover, the
shamans, and in contemporary science by collectivity is not merely a physical aggregate;
parapsychologists. A consciousness-based it has non-physical aspects as well, which are
approach to psychology needs to include all necessary to understand. Phenomena like

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