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Law of Karma
mind, but only the persistence of the psychic factor which is a constituent, a less than mental constituent, of the compound mental entity."'35 The psychic factor is said to persist even after the death of the body, but Dr. Broad is silent over the question, whether it also existed before births, and if so, what was its mode of pre-existence ?
Aurobindo here holds that it is possible even for our life and mind, vital and mental personalities, so much developed in the course of evolution that the psychic being does not need to dissolve them and form new personalities for the sake of further progress. The central point is that our life, mind and even body is the result of gradual progress through birth and rebirth.
As to the spiritual immortality, Aurobindo points out that the spirit in all its different aspects as transcendence, universality and individuality-as Brahman, Ishwara and Jivātmanis immortal. The spirit in the sense of being non-temporal, is immortal. This is what may be called Spiritual Immortality. All forms of immortality must essentially flow from the essential nature of the spirit. The psychic being persists through the succession of births, because it is the representative of spirit. When an individual's spiritual evolution reaches its consummation, the psychic being gets united with the Individual self, which is without birth and without death. It is unaffected by evolution also. We can have immortality of our lower nature on the physical plane only to the extent that we allow the spirit to impartits divinity to the lower members of our being. Therefore, everything depends on the intrinsic nature of the spirit in which immortality is inherent.
But Aurobindo is aware of the difficulties inherent in this view. Is there really any immortal spirit that may be said to determine all the component factors of our phenomenal existence? Aurobindo points out that such problems arise only with regard to the analytic reason. .
As to the material immortality, Aurobindo is of the view that it means the full manifestation of the spirit in material conditions. Manifestation here refers to incarnation, “The yital and mental are turned into perfect images of the spirit under the transforming touch of the Supermind."'38
