Progress and Development of Physical, Vital, Mental, Psychic and Spiritual Elements in Our Earthly Lives

We all recognise the pattern. We are born, we grow, develop, reach mature adulthood, carry out our productive activities. Later, as we age, various elements of our bodies, our life-energies and our minds begin to decline, until eventually, the deterioration creates a break that leads to death and decomposition of the body, with the life-energy and the mental being likewise returning to their native elements.

This pattern is modified by what we may call the ‘will to progress’ at any level. Many people who have lived productive lives in the external society and economic structure, reach a point where they retire, ostensibly to enjoy their ‘golden years’ without the pressure of a job. Of course, many others simply do not have the financial wherewithal or security to retire at peace, so they work as long as they are able to, or as long as they can keep a job as they age and the normal issues begin to arise in their health and energies.

What we frequently see, however, is that once the impetus of work is removed, many people lose the interest and will for progress. They use their time for watching television, undertaking recreational activities without pressure, or other activities that do not involve further self-development. They have developed their skill sets to hold down a job. Once that is no longer in the picture, they do not generally appreciate the need to go further.

Some people, however, recognise that development of the body, the life-force, the emotional being, the mind, and the psychic being is something that is actually independent of, and not directly related to their position in society. There are people who take up advanced bodily conditioning, mental training or spiritual practices who continue these far beyond their time of employment. Life in the world, for these people, is an opportunity for continuous and progressive growth and development on a number of levels, for purposes outside the needs of their external personality.

A disciple asks: “But for those who are not conscious of their psychic?”

The Mother replies: “They are compelled to progress whether they want it or not.”

“The psychic being itself progresses in them and they are not conscious of it. But they themselves are compelled to progress. That is to say, they follow a curve. They follow an ascent in life. It is the same progress as that of the growing child; there comes a time when it is at the summit of its growth and then, unless it changes the plane of progress, unless the purely physical progress turns into a mental progress, a psychic progress, a spiritual progress, it goes down the curve and then there will be a decomposition and it will not exist any longer.”

“It is just because progress is not constant and perpetual in the physical world that there is a growth, an apogee, a decline and a decomposition. For anything that does not advance, falls back; all that does not progress, regresses.”

“So this is just what happens physically. The physical world has not learnt how to progress indefinitely; it arrives at a certain point, then it is either tired of progressing or is not capable of progressing in the present constitution, but in any case it stops progressing and after a time decomposes. Those who lead a purely physical life reach a kind of summit, then they slide down very quickly. But now, with the general collective human progress, there is behind the physical progress a vital progress and a mental progress, so that the mental progress can go on for a very long time, even after the physical progress has come to a stop, and through this mental progress one keeps up a kind of ascent long after the physical has ceased to progress.”

“And then there are those who do yoga, who become conscious of their psychic being, are united with it, participate in its life; these, indeed, progress till the last breath of their life. And they do not stop even after death, when they have left their body under the plea that the body cannot last any longer: they continue to progress.”

“It is the incapacity of the body to transform itself, to continue progressing that causes it to regress and in the end become more and more open to the inner disequilibrium until one day that becomes strong enough to bring about a total imbalance and it can no longer regain its balance and health…. It is only in the pure spiritual life — that which is outside all physical and terrestrial existence, including the mental — that there is no progress. You reach a static state and are outside all movements of progress. But at the same time you are outside the manifestation also. When you reach that state, you no longer belong to the manifestation, you go out of the manifested world. One must go out of the manifested world in order to go out of all progress, because the two are identical: manifestation means progress and progress means manifestation.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 3 Growth and Development of the Psychic, pp. 90-92