The Character of Life
A Consciousness Approach to Shakespeare
by
Garry Jacobs
Introduction
Modern civilisation has developed as a result and expression of mans evolution as a mental being. In the process, the physical and rational mind of humanity has become a powerful instrument for the observation and comprehension of material phenomena codified as the various branches of physical and biological science. But this unprecedented advancement in the material realm has not been accompanied by a corresponding growth in knowledge of human psychology and the more general field of life events. In fact it seems that with the growth of these mental faculties, man has for a time lost an earlier capacity to see and know life directly through his own vital being. Most scientists approach psychology as a branch of biological science which in effect delegates man to the same treatment as his non-mental ancestors in the animal kingdom. Where psychologists venture beyond these physical limits, they are always on precarious ground and most often end in constructing mental theories with little relevance to living realities. When it comes to a science of life itself, as opposed to a science of matter and material forms of life, science has simply refused to address the topic and has attempted to dismiss it by the premise that life movements are a combination of natural physical determinisms and chance events with no underlying principle of order or harmony.
But
when we turn away from the sphere of modern science, we discover that knowledge of man and
knowledge of life have been perceived and comprehended in great depth and clarity by
mystics and yogis of different countries and historical periods. In Vedic India these
truths were codified as scripture and institutionalised as the social customs of the
community. As man gradually evolved his mental faculties to the fine pitch which they have
now attained, this subtler perception of life and adherence to its laws has been lost in
the same manner as he has lost many of the physical instincts of the animal. But this loss
is merely a temporary one allowing the mind full freedom to develop its own mode of
knowledge. What has been lost can and must be rediscovered through mans further
evolution, no longer as mere vital instinct or subtle vital perception, but as a
refinement of the mental faculties to their highest reach where the pure intellect shades
off into illumined and intuitive vision.
The
entire foundation and body of this knowledge is available in the writings of Sri Aurobindo
and The Mother. They have revealed the basic principles of Consciousness applicable to all
planes of existence and shown how these principles express themselves at each level of the
evolutionary consciousness. Basing ourselves on these principles we shall attempt to shed
some further light on the character of life in its manifold movements and expressions.
To
aid in this endeavour we may have recourse to another source of knowledge concerning the
character of life which if not as pure, systematic, comprehensive and profound as the
knowledge of the ancients, is yet more easily intelligible and acceptable to our modern
minds. That source is the entire written literature of the human race and for our present
purposes the modern literature of the English language. The greatest writers have always
been recognised for their capacity to reveal truths of life as well as truths of spirit
through the style, thought and imagery of their works. Sheer beauty of word, rhythm or
imagination has never been sufficient to make literature great. Always these are combined
with some deeper revealing vision of realities hidden from the outer sense and
intellectual thought.
Of
course, for the present purposes we cannot accept all literature as equally useful. Prose
works appeal primarily to the intellect and aesthetic taste, not the deeper life sense or
soul sense, as their judge. But among prose works there is an infinite gradation within
this limited sphere. We may exclude from consideration those works which portray life
according to a fixed moral or philosophical system of beliefs or ideas, for these mental
constructions interfere with a true portrayal of its character. So also works that are
chiefly subjective and imaginative, no matter how beautiful the expression or true the
portrayal to some other plane of existence. In prose literature we will select authors and
works that portray life in its objective reality, not the mere surface reality of external
beings and movements, but the deeper truths of human behaviour and human nature and the
character of life events in which man participates and by which he is affected. In this
category there is a large group of modern English novelists such as Hardy, Dickens,
Trollope, etc. as well as translations of other Europeans like Hugo and Balzac who possess
profound insights into man and life without penetrating the deeper realities of the
spirit, which are beyond the scope of our present study.
While
prose addresses primarily the intellect, poetry goes beyond the thought-mind and employs
its images and rhythm to evoke sheer vision. Its aim is to make the thing presented living
to the imaginative vision and spiritual sense. Poetry expresses the hidden and infinite
meanings beyond the finite intellectual meaning carried by the word. For revelation of
lifes deepest secrets and for all expression of spiritual truths, poetry is the
supreme artistic medium. As with prose, there is an infinite gradation of types and
quality among the worlds poets. Here we will be concerned neither with the poets of
imagination and subjective emotional experience nor the mystic poets of the Spirit. Our
interest is in the great revealing poets of life among whom Shakespeare is the supreme
example. To quote A.C. Bradley, world-renowned Shakespearean scholar, ...Shakespeare
almost alone among poets seems to create in somewhat the same manner as Nature.1 His portrayal of the minutest details of human
character and life is true to life and it is just because he is truthful in these
smaller things that in greater things we trust him absolutely never to pervert the truth
for the sake of some doctrine or purpose of his own.2
Sri Aurobindo more than confirms this view: ...life itself takes hold of him in
order to recreate itself in his image, and he sits within himself at its heart and pours
out from its impulse a throng of beings, as real in the world he creates as men are in
this other world... It is this sheer creative Ananda of the life-spirit which is
Shakespeare... He is not primarily an artist, a poetical thinker or anything else of the
kind, but a great vital creator and intensely, though within marked limits, a seer of
life.3
These
quotations reveal clearly not only the content but also the method of Shakespeares
revelation of life, and though we cannot expect other writers to compare with his genius,
we can yet understand that which is true to life in their work as a momentary adherence to
the same principles. The great artist of life does not see life through the mind and
mentally translate his vision into understanding and understanding into literature. Rather
he identifies with the force of life and lets it express itself through him. Mind comes in
only to supply the outer form for this revelation, not the substance.
The
task confronting us differs from that of the artist who sees and expresses. Our aim is to
make life intelligible to the intellect and reason, to seek for the underlying order and
purpose and harmony of life which has eluded modern science. For this purpose all life
experience is proper raw material. Mankind possesses extensive records of life in its
written literature and historical records, both of which are suitable for a comprehensive
consideration. Literature focuses attention on the narrower field of the individual man in
society and thereby portrays best the movements of life in their subtlety and detail.
History focuses on the broader field of national and international activity and sees
lifes movements from an evolutionary perspective. Nevertheless, it is always life
that is active regardless of the scale and we must expect the principles applicable on one
level to be relevant to the other as well.
We
will begin with a study of life in literature, drawing our material from the works of
Shakespeare. In doing so our task will compare with that of the literary critics. In the
words of I.A. Richard, Criticism is the endeavour to discriminate between
experiences and evaluate them.4 Only in this
case we shall not be considering the substance of literary work as artistic creation but
as real life events. Our discrimination will be an attempt to identify and distinguish the
various movements of life and our evaluation will be an effort to discover the underlying
principles which describe and explain these movements.
Before
turning to life experiences for validation, we must lay out the broad theoretical outlines
of the science of life based on the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. Life is a
manifest form of spirit existing as a plane of vital consciousness in the gradation of
universal existence. On its own plane the substance of life is force. This force of life
expresses itself on the physical plane on earth as the animating principle of matter which
gives life and movement to inert substance.
Out
of this living matter plants and animals have evolved, culminating in the appearance of
mental man. In man there is a meeting of the three planes of earthly life--material, vital
and mental. Human life is a complex interaction of physical forces, vital forces, higher
vital or emotional forces and mental forces as well as spiritual forces. The field in
which mental and emotional forces grapple with life is the field of human consciousness,
which is the concern of the present study.
Life,
as we have said, is a vibration or group of vibrations more rarefied than matter, which
expresses itself as seeking for enjoyment, possession and expansion, and this force of
life is constantly evolving into higher more complex and more powerful forms. To
understand the character of life in the field of human consciousness, we must discover the
basic principles or laws which describe the way the life force expresses itself and the
nature of its interaction with the other planes.
An
analogy can be made between the laws of life and the laws of physical science. By the laws
of physics (statics and dynamics) man can explain and predict the movement of ocean tides
with very great precision. But 1000 years ago no one would have believed this was possible
nor would they have accepted the existence of these immutable laws. Today the same
precision is not possible for the psychologist because he does not know the laws governing
human behaviour and would deny their very existence as his great ancestors would have
denied the laws of physics. The forces of life are more subtle and rarefied than physical
forces and seemingly incapable of codification. But in actuality the laws of the physical
plane are manifestations of laws on the subtle planes.
To
carry the analogy further: as a number of factors determine physical movements such as
material force, gravitation and friction, so also for life movements the corresponding
factors are force, strength and intensity. What we call force of character or moral force
can be reduced to its component vectors of strength and direction.
Certain
physical phenomena are best explained by the laws of chemical reactions involving changes
in substances and energy levels. These changes are decided by the nature of the
substances, the temperature, pressure and conditions of interaction. The field of life is
parallel to this; only the significant determinants are more numerous and less easily
measured.
The
principles describing the character or psychology of life fall within the category of
natural or universal laws. Yet it is essential to bear in mind that by the term law we do
not mean a fixed invariable rule without conditions or exceptions. Rather the term is used
to indicate a general propensity of nature, a certain habit of behaviour which repeats
itself over and over in the greater and lesser movements of life, subject to a large
number of variables and innumerable exceptions in the form of higher laws of the cosmos
and interventions from other planes. Our attempt is to uncover the chain of causality
concealed beneath the surface of chance, accident, fate and fortune in life without
touching on the more profound depths and wider vistas of cosmic existence. These
principles belong to a middle region between the inmost or supreme Truth of things
and the impartiality of material Nature.5 With
this qualification we may proceed to formulate some of the basic principles of the
psychology of life.
The
principles basic to the psychology of life may be stated:
I.
The Principle of Evolution:
Evolution
is the one eternal dynamic law and hidden process of the earth-nature.
An
evolution of the instruments of the spirit in a medium of Matter is the whole fundamental
significance of the values of the earth-existence. All
its other laws are its values of operation and process; this spiritual evolution
is its own pervading secret sense.
The
history of the earth is first an evolution of organised
forms by the working of material forces.
There
follows on this initial stage an evolution of life in the form and organisation of a hierarchy of living forms
by the working of the liberated life-forces. The next step is an evolution of mind in
living bodies and an organisation of more and more conscious lives by the process of developing mind-forces.6
From
this quotation we understand that the primary law of all earthly life is
evolution--evolution of physical form, evolution of living organisms and groups, evolution
of mind and mental forms. This means that all movements of life have this motive as their
underlying direction and it should be possible to discover the evolutionary nature of
lifes movements.
Secondly,
we see that all the principles or laws which may be formulated to describe the psychology
of life are simply values of operation and process of this basic law. In
identifying lifes characteristic movements this fact of evolution must always be
kept in mind. This being the very broadest principle of life, we may expect it to be most
easily identified in a historical perspective.
II.
The Physical Life:
Though
man is mental he still shares in the traits of his animal ancestors and his life bears the
stamp of that heritage. The characteristic energy of bodily Life is not so much in
progress as in persistence, not so much in individual self-enlargement as in
self-repetition....Self-preservation, self-repetition, self-multiplication are
necessarily, then, the predominant instincts of all material existence.7 These three movements of preservation, repetition and
multiplication apply not only to the animal but can be seen to play a fundamental role in
the life of man and society. Extracted from their physical base we can see that each of
these movements represents a fundamental law of life forces.
III.
Interaction of Life and Mind:
The
quotation on evolution cited above reveals another basic fact of life. The growth of life
into higher, more organised and complex forms is made possible by the development of mind
and minds interaction with life. The characteristic energy of pure mind is
change and the more it acquires elevation and organisation, the more this law of Mind
assumes the aspect of a continual enlargement, improvement and better arrangement of its
gains and so of a continual passage from a smaller and simpler to a larger and more
complex perfection.8 As mind develops, we may
expect life to express this tendency towards increasing size, organisation, complexity and
perfection.
This
principle is quite obvious when applied to the evolution of mental man from the vital
animal and equally so when referred to the evolution of mans social existence toward
more complex and civilised forms. But we must extend it a step further to apply it to the
general character of life movements. In other words, as mind evolves on earth in man, not
only do animal forms, individual behaviour and collective life change, but the very
quality and character of life movements and events changes as well. We shall return to
this point further on.
IV.
The Expression of Life in Man:
In
the field of human consciousness, the most important channel through which life forces
express is the behaviour of the individual man. All life is the play of universal
forces. The individual gives a personal form to these universal forces. But he can choose
whether he shall respond or not to the action of a particular force. Only most people do
not really choose¾they indulge the play of the forces....It is only when one can make
oneself free of them that one can be the true person....9
That is, life forces flow through the channels of mans physical, vital, emotional
and mental character and express as human behaviour. But the resultant expression depends
not only on the nature of the force but also on the nature of the person through which it
passes. In other words, the expression of life forces is a function of human personality.
For
example, the force of anger or rage in the animal is very short-lived and directed toward
whatever is in proximity. Whereas in man the force of anger can flow through the channel
of jealousy which is a perverse mental attitude applied to life. In doing so, the force
gains longer life, the capacity for fine discrimination and initiation of complex actions.
Or it can meet up against a strong idealist will which refuses to give it scope for
expression at all.
Human
personality is composed of innumerable elements of which physical habit and vital traits
are the lower forms, feelings and sentiments, beliefs and understanding the higher. In
normal everyday existence the physical and vital are the customary channels through which
life expresses. The greater proportion of mankind lives almost exclusively in this realm
and gives no higher direction to these forces than that of habitual living. Where heart in
man is developed, the emotions and feelings provide a higher direction through which life
forces are channelled into relationships of personal affection and group loyalty. Where
mind is developed they find a still higher direction and expression. The mental thought,
understanding and idealism gives direction to these forces. The mental will, which is the
highest point in human evolution, commands them into action and is influenced by the
understanding. It is only when these emotional and mental components are mature and active
that we can rightly speak of individual character. In their absence it is only the social
custom or behaviour that expresses. When individual character is refined, unselfish,
idealistic, etc., we have a cultured individual. ...as more organised forms of life
appear, this grows into a life-mind and vital intelligence largely mechanical and
automatic in the beginning and concerned only with practical needs, desires and
impulses....But slowly mind starts its task of disengaging itself; it still works for the
life-instinct, life-need and life-desire, but its own special characters emerge,
observation, invention, device, intention, execution of purpose, while sensation and
impulse add to themselves emotion and bring a subtler and finer affective urge and value
into the crude vital reaction....When human intelligence adds itself to the animal basis,
this basis still remains present and active, but it is largely changed, subtilised and
uplifted by conscious will and intention....10
Even
in a mature character, it is normally the lower channels that are active though the higher
may lend color or refinement to their activity. The higher elements of character usually
come into play only in times of stress or crisis where mans will is fully active to
meet the demands of life. In these situations even the half-developed character of the
lesser man will reveal itself. When the demands of life, the forces to be dealt with, are
beyond the strength and capacities of mans character, we see a disintegration of
personality or inability to act and find man the passive object of forces greater than
himself. Here it is not the mans character that is determinative but the general
conditions in which he is placed. The process of channelling the life forces into higher
and more complex patterns of behaviour is the process by which personality and character
develop in the individual.
To
take the process one step further, we can briefly consider the evolution of man beyond the
mental level. When the mental will becomes fully developed and consents to spiritual
growth, it can do so only by surrendering itself to the Divine Will. By this act it
reverses the process of concentration and expression of life forces through its character
channels onto life. Instead it concentrates the life forces on the Divine and gives up the
prerogative of choice in their expression. By contact with the Divine behind the heart or
above the mind these forces are transformed. In their place a higher spiritual force
descends and expresses through mans personality in life.
V.
The Nature of Life Forces:
Before
proceeding further with the expression of life forces through man we must consider some of
the characteristics which govern their behaviour. The essential quality of these forces is
summed up in the statement, Life is Force and Force is Power and Power is
Will.11 The life forces are powers of effectuation with an intention.
The struggle of limited forces increasing their capacity by that struggle under the
driving impetus of instinctive or conscious desire is therefore the first law of
life.12 These forces interact through struggle
and conflict. The stronger grows by domination over the weaker. It is, moreover, the
nature and claim of any Force in the manifestation to be, to survive, to effectuate itself
wherever possible and as long as possible, and it is therefore that in a world of
Ignorance all is achieved not only through a complexus but through a collision and
struggle and intermixture of Forces.13 The
basic qualities of the bodily life--preservation, repetition and multiplication--are
merely the physical expressions of these tendencies of the life force.
VI.
The Nature of Action:
Human
action is the expression of life forces and it has their character. Each action is in the
nature of a struggle or intermixture of forces. Each act creates and generates a force
which is strengthened by repetition. Each act tends to repeat itself, to multiply and
increase in intensity by repetition. We can imagine life as a virgin forest. Each original
action is like a pioneer forging a new path. Once he has cleared the way, others can
easily follow and make the path more clear and well established as they do so.
The
life of the individual and the society can be similarly viewed. Each act by the individual
generates a force for that act to repeat in himself or in others. If the force behind the
act is strong he continues to repeat it and others follow. If it is weak the act may be
succesfully opposed by other forces and negatively fall back on him. The unspoken word,
the unexpressed will or emotion can also go out as forces and produce their effects.
VII.
The Results of Action:
The
result of an act is determined by the type, quality and intensity of the forces expressed.
...all energies in Nature must have their natural consequence.14
As is the nature of the energies so must be the nature of the results.15 By this statement we do not refer to a moral system
of reward and punishment, an evaluation of each act in terms of good or bad, right or
wrong, etc. Each act has a quality of its own and brings a corresponding result in its own
plane. Ethical and moral results pertain only to acts in their own sphere.
Action
is a resultant of the energy of the being, but this energy is not of one sole kind...there
are inner activities of mind, activities of life, of desire, passion, impulse, character,
activities of the senses and the body, a pursuit of truth and knowledge, a pursuit of
beauty, a pursuit of ethical good or evil, a pursuit of power, love, joy, happiness,
fortune, success, pleasure, life-satisfaction of all kinds, life-enlargement, a pursuit of
individual or collective objects, a pursuit of the health, strength, capacity,
satisfaction of the body...all these differences in the nature of the energy have to be
taken into account and each must have its appropriate consequence.16
The
life forces passing through the channel of human character result in action and the
strength of the action determines the strength of the result. If a man acts in relation to
an inanimate object the strength of his action depends on the strength of his body, the
enthusiasm and energy of his vital available for the action, the interest and
determination of his will to implement and the knowledge of his mind to guide. For
instance, a man digging a pit in the ground may dig faster and deeper if he is hunting for
treasure than if he is a slave labourer. When man acts in relation to other living beings
or other men the factors influencing the intensity of his action become more complex. In
the social life of man there are, in addition to character traits, some other major
determinants of the strength for his action such as health, wealth, position and
education.
VIII.
The Actor and the Results:
Each
being reaps the harvest of his works and deeds, the returns of the action put forth by the
energies of his nature, and those which are not apparent in his present birth must be held
over for a subsequent existence. It is true that the result of the energies and actions of
the individual may accrue not to himself but to others when he is gone; for that we see
constantly happening¾it happens indeed even during a mans lifetime that the fruits
of his energies are reaped by others; but this is because there is a solidarity and a
continuity of life in Nature....17
This
principle states that not only are the results of an action determined by the nature of
its energy but that these results accrue to the human instrument through which these
energies express and also to those related to him either through physical heredity and
proximity, vital association, emotional attachment or mental idealism. For present
purposes, we leave aside the influence of actions from past lives.
IX.
Correspondence of the Inner and Outer Life:
Mans
being, nature, circumstances of life are the result of his own inner and outer activities,
not something fortuitous and inexplicable.18
This principle is an essential key to the mystery of lifes character. The relation
of outer action and inner condition is obvious. But in addition to this there is a direct
relationship between mans inner condition and the movement of life events around
him. Circumstances are, without exception, the objective projection of what is
inside yourself.19 In the context of normal
social man, it means that the outer conditions and events surrounding and impinging on his
existence are a direct expression of his personality and character traits and the
movements which issue out of them. The principle of correspondence dismisses the influence
of chance and fate by revealing what we see as chance in life to be an outgrowth of what
we are inside. It must be understood that this system of correspondence is highly complex
as it is based on the complex activity of mans physical, vital and mental beings
with all their interrelationships.
The
mechanism by which this principle acts is the invisible Forces in Life-Nature that
belong to the same plane of Consciousness-Force as this part of our being, Forces that
move according to the same plan or the same power-motive as our lower vital nature.20 These forces are attracted by corresponding forces or
traits within man and their action on him and his environment reflects the status and
dynamics of his own nature. From this we can understand that there is a deeper truth in
the phrase Character is destiny than that propounded by the psychologists.
Character is the channel for life forces flowing through the individual which directs and
alters them according to its own nature. It is also the determinant of how life forces
outside the individual express themselves in what we normally consider the circumstantial,
fortuitous, accidental movements of life.
X.
Moral Retribution:
In
discussing the principle determining the results of an action (VII), we stated that this
concept does not imply an ethical, moral or religious conception of karma whereby good is
rewarded by prosperity and long life, or evil punished by their opposites. From the
evolutionary view, the appearance of an ethical or religious conscience in man marks the
rudimentary beginnings of man the mental being with its dual sides of will and knowledge.
In animal nature, justice plays no part. The law is survival of the fittest. But man is
moved not only by instinct or impulse. He possesses the capacity to choose, will and act.
He perceives a relationship between the act and what comes back to him. At the level of
consciousness this principle is invariably true. It is the law of Karma. But with the
birth of religion, law and ethics, man sought to simplify the equation and set it to his
immediate needs. Out of this emerges the principle that moral right is rewarded and moral
wrong is punished though in many cases the reverse proved to be the case in the context of
earthly life.
Nevertheless,
there are occasions when life results do appear to follow a law of moral retribution,
where there intervenes a strand of connection or rather interaction between
vital-physical good and ill and ethical good and ill.21
This is possible because mans energies, desires and movements are mixed together in
their working. ...Our vital part does demand substantial and external rewards for
virtue, for knowledge, for every intellectual, aesthetic, moral or physical effort; it
believes firmly in punishment for sin and even for ignorance.22
The demand or belief acts as a channel through which life forces flow fulfilling
mans expectation. Nature takes us as we are and to some extent suits her
movements to our need or our demands on her.23
It is often seen that an individuals sense of guilt or sin is quickly followed by
his downfall or punishment. The result is determined not by an ethical law of nature but
by the individuals own insistance, whether conscious or subconscious, that such a
law be operative.
There
are other occasions when the results of action seem to obey a moral law. It can be
often observed that when a self-assertive vital egoism goes on trampling its way without
restraint or scruple all that opposes its will or desire, it raises a mass of reactions
against itself, reactions of hatred, antagonism, unease in men which may have their result
now or hereafter, and still more formidable adverse reactions in universal Nature...the
very forces that the ego of the strong vital man seized and bent to its purpose rebel and
turn against him, those he had trampled on rise up and receive power for his
downfall.24 When human will misuses the limited forces at its disposal,
the greater forces of life eventually react against it and man receives the adverse
return in the guise of defeat and suffering and failure.25
XI.
The Expression of Life in Society:
As
we have considered the means by which life forces express through the behaviour of the
individual man (IV) we must now examine its counterpart in the human collectivity. As in
the individual this expression is a function of individual personality, so in the
collectivity it is a function of the social character of the group. In its lower forms
this character is the social custom and habit of the people. In its higher forms it is
their civilisation and culture. This social character represents the channels through
which life forces can express themselves in the collective life of the people. Earlier we
have stated that in an unformed man of predominantly physical and vital nature, life
forces are able to flow virtually free from distortion or direction by the human will and
express as general human behaviour. But where mind or heart is well developed, the life
forces flowing through the individual are given direction by the human will and their
expression bears the stamp of individual character. The same principle applies to the
collectivity. For example, in a primitive society the position of leader goes to the most
powerful physical-vital man. If a stronger man kills the leader, the people will naturally
accept the new man without hesitation. The force of life will have its free play without
interference from higher planes. But when a society has developed a civilised moral order,
the annointed king is invested with sovereign respect and his murder will be met with
moral indignation and social outrage. Rather than quickly returning to equilibrium, the
forces of life may enter into prolonged conflict and strife until the outrage has become
subdued or the act been avenged.
XII.
The Expression of Social Character in Life:
Not
only does life express itself through man (IV) but the movements of life in the
environment are determined by the character of the individual (IX). Then we may ask to
what extent the movements of life in society are determined by the character of the
society. Let us examine this principle from an evolutionary perspective.
The
movement of physical elements such as water is fully determined by physical laws. Water
flows according to the principles of gravitation, friction, etc. When we turn to the
animal which is vital, we see a similar determination at the vital-physical level, e.g., reproduction, respiration, digestion, etc.
But at its own level of vital life, there is little coordination among the animals, or
organisation of the life around them. In other words, the vital animal is fully organised
at the next lower level but only partially so on its own level.
Coming
to man, there is the gradual emergence of mind. The power of mind expresses itself by
organising the next lower plane, i.e., the
social life of the group. As mind develops and society matures, becomes civilised, the
life or the society becomes more organised (III). The activities of its members are
subject to social and legal restraints in the form of custom and law. Behaviour is limited
to well-defined grooves expressive of the social character. The instrumentation for this
organised expression is chiefly the social members themselves. Frequently it is conscious
and intentional, e.g., the policeman
apprehending a criminal or the father preaching ethical behaviour to his son. But in many
cases it is subconsciously transmitted through the habits, traditions, sentiments and
values of the social group, e.g., the
reverence of the people for the monarch is an effective bar against rebellion as is the
moral condemnation of adultery.
XIII.
The Law of Correspondence in Social Life:
There
is a correspondence between the inner character of man and the movements of life which
touch on his personal sphere (IX). The same principle holds true for the society except
that in this case the inner being which is reflected in outer life is a
composite of the ideals, thoughts, sentiments, emotions, desires and activities--what we
have called the social character--of the group members in their common social existence.
This character expresses itself through the seemingly chance interactions of
its members and the accidents of physical nature within the society and around
it. It is often in these cases that the true social character of life most clearly reveals
itself.
XIV.
Moral Retribution in Society:
The
concept of moral retribution has been considered earlier (X). Here we need only refer to
one aspect in its larger social context. As an individuals moral, ethical or
religious beliefs may tend to be self-fulfilling, so also the collective beliefs of the
society. Where a particular fear, emotion, attitude or idea is shared in common by the
social group, it becomes an effective channel through which life forces can flow. For
example, we may take the idea of auspicious hours. In some parts of Indian society there
is a very strong belief in the significance of auspicious and inauspicious times of day. A
foreigner may ignore their indications as a mere superstition and never notice any
difficulty. But if a man with this social upbringing suddenly decides to stop referring
his acts to the prescribed time of day, he may find everything going wrong for him. The
channel for this result may be the remnants of belief in the practise in his subconscious
or the social expectation of those around him disapproving of his action. Even when others
are unaware of his activity it may be a response from the deeper layers of character in
the society which have cherished the tradition for thousands of years.
XV.
The Social Atmosphere:
There
remains one other major conception to be mentioned--what is sometimes referred to as the
atmosphere surrounding or pervading a society from time to time, for example
the atmosphere of evil portrayed in the opening scenes of Macbeth. As with individual behaviour and life
events, the sources of atmosphere are not singular. Normally the social atmosphere is an
expression of the social consciousness of the collectivity. But at critical times in the
life of a society there may be abnormal stirrings of deeper tendencies in the subconscious
or subtle-vital consciousness of the community which erupt on the surface as foreign war,
horrible acts of inhumanity or natural calamities.
The
principles outlined above are rough formulations in mental terms of some of the major
characteristics of life events. But it must be kept in mind that the many-sided
dynamic truths of all action and life26 cannot
be perfectly classified, accounted for, tied up in bundles by the precisions of our
logical intelligence in its inveterate search for clear-cut dogmas.27 The art of seeing and knowing life in all its
subtlety and complexity requires more than simply a few principles. But what can only be
suggested by a principle can become living and even familiar when applied to the facts of
life itself. We will now endeavour to do this in reference to life as portrayed by
Shakespeare.
1.
A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy, 2nd
Edition, Macmillan & Co. Ltd., London, 1905, p. 168.
2.
Ibid., p. 195.
3.
Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Centenary
Edition, p. 71.
4.
I.A. Richards, Principles of Criticism, Preface.
5.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, p. 814.
6.
Sri Aurobindo, The Hour of God, p. 14.
7.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 16.
8.
Ibid.
9.
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, p. 318.
10.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, p. 614.
11.
Ibid., p. 191.
12.
Ibid., p. 197.
13.
Ibid., p. 9421.
14.
Ibid., p. 806.
15.
Ibid., p. 807.
16.
Ibid., p. 810.
17.
Ibid., p. 806.
18.
Ibid.
19.
The Mother.
20.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, p. 813.
21.
Ibid.
22.
Ibid.
23.
Ibid.
24.
Ibid., p. 813-4.
25.
Ibid., p. 814.
26.
Sri Aurobindo, The Hour of God, p. 34.
27.
Ibid., p. 36.
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