International Education, Auroville and the Ideal of Human Unity - an Introductory Presentation by Rod
Author: Rod Hemsell
International Education, Auroville
and the Ideal of Human Unity – an Introductory Presentation by Rod
(Sept. 15, 2007)
Welcome to the first seminar of
the University of Human Unity. I would like to start with a few
reflections. A few days ago when Vladimir and I sat down to propose a
series of possible presentations, I mentioned it that it seemed
unfortunate that we didn’t have someone like Doudou Dienne who
represents an international perspective. That experience and that
degree of attunement with the global community, it seemed to me would
be a real asset in our sociology segment. We were looking at the
sociology segment because for some reason it was the first in the
list. So Vladimir jumped to the conclusion that I should take that
role at this meeting. It was very random, and quite impossible. And
that’s how I happen to be sitting here today, having prepared an
introductory presentation in the field of sociology.
We
will be reflecting upon, during the course of these seminars –
maybe – how we can become a living example of what Sri Aurobindo
has envisioned in The Ideal Law of Social Development. We are
an international society. We represent not only our respective social
and cultural backgrounds, but we also represent educational efforts
that are distinct, that are organized, and that are different. We
constitute a diverse, international group of educators who have
already been engaged in developing an approach to learning. And we
are attempting now to launch an endeavor to create a platform for
higher learning that would be free, that would manifest a high degree
of freedom to learn, to explore, and to discover, and that would also
manifest a high degree of unity of intention, unity in our aspiration
and our goal to arrive at an integral, comprehensive and universal
understanding. (You’ll remember where those terms come from, I
suppose.)
And I think what would be especially
unique about this endeavor – at least I hope this would constitute
one of its unique features - is that in creating this platform
for higher learning and integral knowledge we would not be
presupposing a fixed body of knowledge that is to be offered to
students. Because I think that if our intention is to discover
something along the lines of the ideal law of social development and
Higher Mind in the ascent towards Supermind, we must realize that
there is the possibility of discovering new knowledge, and in fact it
is a necessity. One of the unique features of this university of
human unity would be its freedom to discover new knowledge, and a new
consciousness. Manifesting this degree of freedom and unity that will
enable us to discover and embody higher knowledge and methods of
learning – and an integral knowledge, would I think constitute our
purpose, the purpose of this group in this endeavor.
That
discovery and research would also be a continual discovery of who we
are. We are that freedom, and unity, and possibility of integral
knowledge. The only knowledge that we have is knowledge of the self,
our self – what we are. Even the external world, which goes from
our chromosomes to the North Pole, is what we are. The integration of
the silent, absolute, unmanifest, immobile self, with that vast
threefold world of the physical, the vital, and the mental, would be
the scope of our knowledge, understanding and research, it would be
an unlimited field of discovery. Therefore we have proposed, very
tentatively, a paradigm, an integral learning paradigm, which will
evolve. But the idea and inspiration is to open a field of discovery
that would include all our faculties of learning and all the field
that is to be discovered and understood, which constitutes the
self.
The evolving paradigm for integral learning
that we have been exploring for some time is the paradigm of the
unfolding self in its faculties of mind, and spirit, and sight, and
hearing, speech and life force and body. And for me it can include
everything and it can constitute a way of beginning to understand the
ways in which the social, the cultural, the theoretical, the creative
consciousness and material envelope, the linguistic, the
psychological and the physical aspects of our world, are one
continuous expression of the principles of conscious existence. The
faculty of sight, for example, is embodied in all the structures of
life. Seeing is a way of knowing all of that which we are. One of
those things that we are is our cultural expressions, all of the
principles and structures based upon the principles of harmony and
order, which are known through the faculties of sound, sight,
creative speech, theoretical understanding, our psychological and
physiological processes.
The idea of evolving such
an integral paradigm is simply to search for an understanding that is
universal. It’s a universal consciousness that we wish to discover
in us and in the world, and to be resonant with, and to participate
in a process of communicating about, creating within, and supporting
the discovery of that integral self. There are people all over the
world who are ready to enter into this process of research and
discovery.
The vision of the Mother to create in the
Ashram an international university was a way of inviting humanity
into this field of discovery. The transfer of that idea to Auroville
and to the international zone, was a way of inviting humanity into
this field of discovery. But up to now that has not manifested. That
strategy for bringing humanity into this field of discovery in a very
dynamic way as a laboratory of evolution has not materialized. And I
find it interesting to note that at the end of The Ideal of Human
Unity, Sri Aurobindo does not hold out much hope for this humanity
discovering that unity. He says in fact that the vital need and urge
for the realization of unity didn’t exist, humanity didn’t really
feel the need for unity, at that time of writing. There was not a
vital need for the realization of its unity. And he also says that
the spirit of the religion of humanity that would be a key for moving
in the direction of unity, was not any longer a particularly strong
living sentiment. The sentiment of the religion of humanity which had
been alive at an earlier time he found to have waned. And what
was especially missing he said was the spirit of brotherhood, of love
and oneness. At the end of the Ideal of Human Unity, he finds this
lacking.
But today the situation has changed
somewhat. One thing that he did not foresee, that he did not mention
at all, except in terms of general principles, is something that is
becoming a global awareness of need, and that is the prospect in the
next twenty five years of human civilization undergoing quite a
radical catastrophic change because of the environment, because of
what human beings are doing to the environment. And so this vital
need for cooperation, for understanding and unity, is now growing
quite strong. It has already led to numerous international, global
conferences and changes of laws and shifts in perspective, just in
the last few years, regarding our physical self. In the field of
evolutionary biology, the idea of the extended phenotype is also
quite living today in science - that we are not just these
organisms. These organisms are the product of a vast field of
interconnected, coevolutionary development that has been going on for
three billion years. So there seems to be a need and a readiness
today, because of circumstances and because of what Sri Aurobindo
clearly identified as the inner urge of Nature, to take a leap
towards unity. If we can yoke our inner understanding and aspiration
to create this platform for integral knowledge with that global need,
then we have a possibility of really being an asset to the earth,
really becoming a laboratory for evolution of consciousness, really
inviting into this field a humanity that needs to discover its unity
and needs to experience a convergence of will towards a next kind of
society.
In the ascent towards Supermind, that
universalization of consciousness and that will to create from that
consciousness is a necessary stage. It is where we have to go. And so
this attempt that we are making seems to demonstrate that we feel
that urge. It is not new. It was there with the creation of the
International University Center, it was there with the vision of the
International Zone, and it was there with CIRRHU – this old page
from the Auroville website clearly expresses this inspiration. It’s
a spirit; it’s a ghost; it’s both a spirit and a ghost. And it is
haunting us and it is also enlivening us. And so this opportunity
that we have now to begin to explore diverse approaches to knowledge
-because the University of Humanity is a path of knowledge –
devotion and work no doubt, but definitely it is an opening towards
the possibility of new knowledge which can be effective in the world.
If we can explore very systematically and dynamically, through our
various approaches, ways to create this platform and open it to
humanity, and ways to support research and an active discovery that
is necessary on the earth today, we can, on the basis of what
Auroville has already become, grow into a university that offers and
opens pathways to discovery that will be meaningful – to us as we
move along that path and to all of those who will come into it. So
that’s my invocation for the commencement of this first series of
seminars.