Humanity Shows the Capacity But Not Necessarily the Full Development of the Intellectual Powers :

To,


All Members,




There can be a debate about whether the mental capacity in humanity is something newly evolved by Nature for the first time, or whether in fact it is a capacity that has had previously high attainment, later degenerated, and now must be re-established. We see that Nature’s progress often occurs in fits and starts. A leap forward is made, and then there may be a retrogressive movement in reaction, which calls back the farthest stage of advancement, but works to solidify and broaden the establishment of the principle, as a platform for later taking up the capacity and extending, expanding and increasing it. From our vantage point, while we see the true intellectual capacity developed unequally, we also note that the general ability is widespread and when given the proper opportunity through education and societal support, can blossom forth in just about any individual who has a fit and sound physical, vital and mental organization of the physical instruments to support it.

Sri Aurobindo points out: “The savage is perhaps not so much the first forefather of civilised man as the degenerate descendant of a previous civilisation. For if the actuality of intellectual achievement is unevenly distributed, the capacity is spread everywhere.”

“Even in the mass men seem to need, in favourable circumstances, only a few generations to cover ground that ought apparently to be measured in terms of milleniums.”

The conclusion he draws: “Either, then, man by his privilege as a mental being is exempt from the full burden of the tardy laws of evolution or else he already represents and with helpful conditions and in the right stimulating atmosphere can always display a high level of material capacity for the activities of the intellectual life. It is not mental incapacity, but the long rejection or seclusion from opportunity and withdrawal of the awakening impulse that creates the savage. Barbarism is an intermediate sleep, not an original darkness.”

When we look around at modern society, we see that as people long isolated from the rest of humanity through distance, for instance, are exposed to modern life and education, they quickly catch up to those who have developed capacities through generations. At the same time, we see even in the midst of the developed world, a large number of people who reject the intellectual endeavor and who thereby fail to keep up with the more advanced segments of society in this regard. Whether we regard this as an historical instance of degeneration and re-development, or as Nature providing a capacity that then needs a fertile soil and the adherence of the human will power for activation, we still find that humanity as a whole has the capability, but not necessarily the solid development of the intellect that represents the unique opportunity of the human birthright.

Sri Aurobindo