Law of Karma

SR No.: 007009
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nirmala Jha
Publisher: Capital Pubishing House Delhi
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 168
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 27

Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo
17
Aurobindo's views regarding immortality is in line with the Indian tradition but his explanation differs from that of others. He points out that immortality of the soul may be viewed under three aspects viz., Psychic Iinmortality, Spiritual Immortality and Material Immortality. Firstly, there is something in man which survives death, and carries him from birth to birth. This very death-defying element in man is called Psychic Being by him. It is the highest representative in man. The persistence of psychic being in time through birth and rebirth is called psychic immortality. Christian thought rejects the notion of pre-existence of the soul but it believes in post-existence. Plato believes in pre-existence but he constructs this pre-existence in terms of some sort of celestial existence. In European Philosophy, there are a few thinkers like Dr, McTaggart, who believe both in the pre-existence and post-existence of the soul. McTaggart maintains that every iadividual soul is an eternal self-subsistent spirit, which is timeless also. “Individual self's self-expression in and through the time process, which is a phenomenon, should assume the form of a vastly long chain of repeated births occupying the whole of time":34 That is to say, the timelessness of spirit, when it is perceived in terms of time, is bound to assume the form of immortal existence through a long succession of births. The empirical self slowly advances through this succession of births towards the all-embracing timeless perception that belongs to the transcendental self.
Aurobindo also points out that being, as the spark of Divine, guides the individual through a long succession of births towards the realization of the transcendental self. This may be called the centre of Divine Shakti. So, immortality in the sense of continuation of existence throughout time factor belongs to the psychic being. This is what may be called psychic immortality.
Sri Aurobindo's explanation of the psychic being is similar to some extent with the view of Dr. C.D. Broad. Dr. Broad maintains that after death, the psychic factor continues to exist which is capable of being united with other suitable organism. It carries modifications due to experiences. “What happons after death is not the survival of the person or the