Sri Aurobindo extends memory to reincarnation

 How much the treatment of memory by Bergson and Sri Aurobindo match? - TNM 

While Sri Aurobindo and Henri Bergson share a profound dissatisfaction with mechanistic reason, their treatment of memory matches only partially. Aurobindo views Bergson's insights as accurate descriptions of the "Vital" plane (the life-force), but he considers them incomplete because they lack the spiritual depth of Yogic experience. 

Points of Agreement (The "Match")

• Memory as Non-Physical: Both thinkers reject the materialist view that memories are stored as physical traces in the brain.
• The "Memory Cone": Both describe memory as a stratified "cone" or hierarchy. Bergson’s "pure memory" (the past surviving in its entirety) corresponds to Aurobindo's view that the subliminal and subconscient store every impression of our existence.
• Habit vs. Pure Memory: They agree that our ordinary present is a "contracted" form of memory reduced to habitual automatisms (habit-memory), whereas deeper layers of memory offer greater creative freedom.
• Intuition over Intellect: Both believe that memory and life's duration can only be grasped by Intuition, as the analytic intellect "spatializes" and fragments time. 

Fundamental Divergences

• Vital vs. Spiritual: Aurobindo labels Bergson’s memory and intuition as "Life Intuition"—a lower faculty confined to "Life-in-Matter". He argues Bergson mistook the Consciousness-Force (Chit-Shakti) acting as a vital force for the ultimate spiritual reality.
• The Scope of Memory:
  • Bergson: Focuses on the "pure past" of the current life and its role in biological evolution.
  • Aurobindo: Extends memory to reincarnation. He describes a "psychic memory" that carries the essence of experiences from former lives across time, which Bergson’s vitalism does not account for.
• The Static vs. Dynamic: Bergson views reality as a continuous flux of "Becoming." Aurobindo critiques this as a "partial truth," asserting that memory must also be rooted in a static "Being" or status (the immutable Self) that remains unchanged while observing the flux.
• Imageless Mind: Aurobindo explicitly refutes Bergson's claim that an "imageless mind" (blankness of consciousness) is impossible, stating that this state of inner silence is a foundational achievement in Yoga that Western thinkers often ignore. 

In summary, for Sri Aurobindo, Bergson's treatment of memory is a brilliant but fragmentary contribution that captures the workings of the vital and mental borderlands but fails to cross into the Superconscient. 

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Shouldn't emergence be rethought in the light of Sri Aurobindo? - TNM 

In 2026, scholars increasingly argue that the concept of emergence—the appearance of new, complex properties in a system that cannot be explained by its parts alone—should be radically rethought through Sri Aurobindo’s framework of Involution and Evolution. 

Mainstream emergence theories often struggle with the "hard problem" of how higher qualities like consciousness can arise from "dumb" matter. Aurobindo’s philosophy offers a different ontological starting point: 

1. Consciousness as Primary, Not Derivative

• The Problem: Materialist emergence treats consciousness as a secondary byproduct (epiphenomenon) of complex brain states.
• Aurobindo's Reversal: He posits that Consciousness is the fundamental reality. Matter is not "unconscious" but is consciousness in its most "involved" or dense state. This eliminates the need to explain how "something arises from nothing". 

2. Involution: The Logical Precondition

• The Rule: Aurobindo famously asserted, "What evolves must have been involved".
• The Mechanism: Evolution is not the random creation of newness but the progressive manifestation of what was already present in a hidden state. For life to "emerge" from matter, life must have been "involved" (hidden) in the material essence beforehand. 

3. A Teleological Direction

• Non-Randomness: Unlike Darwinian models that view emergence as directionless or driven by chance, Aurobindo’s model is teleological (goal-oriented).
• The Supramental Goal: The next emergent stage is not merely a better version of the human mind, but the Supermind. This "Supramental Transformation" represents a radical leap beyond mental consciousness into a unified Truth-Consciousness. 

4. Integration vs. Replacement

• Holistic Process: In Western emergence, a higher level often "supersedes" the lower. Aurobindo emphasizes Integration: when a higher principle (like Mind) emerges, it does not discard the lower (Life or Matter) but takes it up and transforms it into a more capable instrument for the spirit. 

5. Practical Implication for 2026

• AI and Systems Theory: Current 2026 academic discourse in fields like Consciousness Studies and Systems Theory uses Aurobindonian logic to suggest that while we can simulate intelligence (AI), true consciousness cannot be engineered from non-conscious components.
• Universal Reverence: Rethinking emergence through Aurobindo shifts our view of matter from "dead resources" to "disguised divinity," offering a spiritual foundation for modern ecological movements. 

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Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra