Page 45 - NAMAH-Jan-2018

Namah Notes on counselling

develop, breaking all barriers. An individual Aurobindo describes the transvaluation of
poised in the individualistic phase will find ethics, whereby the evolutionary trajectory
a
it difficult to assess Sri Rama who belonged proceeds towards a “supra-ethical (6)”stage.
to an age where individualism had to be However to be in consonance with the supra-
voluntarily, albeit, painfully subdued for ethical phase, one has also to cultivate supra-
establishing ethical codes of conduct. Sri rational faculties. Then only one can be
a
Aurobindo describes Rama’s predicament: creatively free. In other words, one can then
enjoy the freedom to take creative decisions
“In that he was at one with the moral sense of and pursue creative acts.
all the antique races, though at variance with
the later romantic individualistic sentimental Is one free to take a decision of passive euthanasia
morality of the modern man who can afford for a comatose parent? That is an ethical
to have that less stern morality just because dilemma one cannot so easily resolve unless
the ancients sacrificed the individual in order one can take an intuitive (supra-rational)
to make the world safe for the spirit of social poise in consonance with a supra-ethical
order (4).” standard. An intuitive inspiration from a
very high plane of consciousness is a truly
The individualistic phase is based on reason creative movement.
and intellect which initially frees one from
the conventional stereotypes. But at a certain One could argue that such spontaneity of
point in the growth of consciousness one has freedom, that surpasses all societal and ethical
to surpass even reason and intellect which codes, could lead to another chaos and
cannot solve all existential problems of life. Sri anarchy, different from the anarchy of the
Aurobindo has shown that the individualistic infra-ethical phase.
age has to be surpassed by a subjective age
en route to a true spiritual age. At an optimal
point of individualism, one has to turn from
intellectual reason to the truth of the soul
where the wayfarer, “can only know himself
entirely by becoming actively self-conscious
and not merely self-critical, by more and more
living in his soul and acting out of it rather
than floundering on surfaces, by putting
himself into conscious harmony with that
which lies behind his superficial mentality
and psychology and by enlightening his reason
and making dynamic his action through this
deeper light and power to which he thus opens
(5).”

This also means that a time comes when the
ethical codes have to be surpassed too. Sri

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