Apocalypse now?

Fermi's paradox and two reasons to be hopeful

Today’s post was inspired by Timothy Snyder’s latest, which bears the title How can we be alone in the universe? — The answer is here on earth. It’s short and very much worth your time.

The question is known as the Fermi Paradox. It concerns the apparent contradiction between the (arguably) high probability of intelligent extraterrestrial life and the lack of contact with, or evidence for, its existence.

Snyder’s intriguing answer to the Fermi paradox goes like this: There may well have been technologically advanced civilizations elsewhere in the universe. But for some reason, being technologically advanced goes hand in hand with being socially and/or ethically retarded, which is why technologically advanced civilizations tend to self-destruct. These are his concluding words:

From the people from whom we might expect the best, we get the worst. But all of us are drifting to a world of shamanism. A future in which we survive and explore depends on getting a technological balance right, and on getting social justice right. But that depends on some human recognition of the deeper problems and some human ethical judgements. There is still a bit of time to make these adjustments; not much, though. If we fail, perhaps other intelligent beings will one day ask: How can we be alone in the universe? And a share of the silence is all that will remain of us.

The word “apocalypse” has come to be used popularly as a synonym for catastrophe (although the Greek word apokalypsis, from which it is derived, means revelation). In traditional Indian cosmology, the corresponding concept is pralaya, which refers to the dissolution of the manifested world at the end of a cosmic cycle.

Confronted with the horrific events of last week and the virtual certainty of more horrific events to come, it may not be amiss to offer two hope-inspiring thoughts. The first involves the concept of pralaya, the second concerns the risk of a nuclear conflagration.

In her Agenda, the Mother repeatedly spoke of traditions according to which our universe is the last in a sequence of seven universes:

Traditions tell us that a universe is created, then withdrawn into pralaya, and then a new one comes; and according to them, ours is the seventh universe, and being the seventh universe, it is the one that will not return to pralaya but will go on progressing, without retreat. This is why, in fact, there is in the human being that need for permanence and for an uninterrupted progress—it’s because the time has come. [November 13, 1963]

The subconscient contains the memory of all the previous pralayas, and this memory is what always gives us the impression that everything is going to dissolve, to collapse. But if you look at things in the true light, there can only be a more beautiful manifestation! Théon had told me this was the seventh and last one. Sri Aurobindo (I had told him what Théon said), Sri Aurobindo concurred, for he said, “This one will see the transformation towards the Supermind.” But to reach the Supermind, the mind must shut up! [April 12, 1972]

Max Théon and his wife Alma were accomplished occultists. The Mother spent three months in 1906 and another two months in 1907 at their villa on the outskirts of Tlemcen, Algeria. For more on her eventful visit to the Théons see this post.

In his cosmogony, Théon accounted for the successive pralayas of the different universes by saying that each universe was an aspect of the Supreme manifesting itself: each universe was built upon one aspect of the Supreme, and all, one after the other, were withdrawn into the Supreme. He enumerated all the successively manifested aspects, and what an extraordinarily logical sequence it was!...

[The present one] was supposed to be the universe which would not be withdrawn, which would, so to speak, follow an indefinite progression of Becoming. And this universe is to manifest Equilibrium, not a static but a progressive equilibrium. Equilibrium, as he explains it, is each thing exactly in its place: each vibration, each movement, each form, each activity, each element exactly in its place in relation to the whole. This is quite interesting to me because Sri Aurobindo says the same thing: that nothing is bad, simply things are not in their place....¹

[W]hen each thing, from the most colossal to the most microscopic, is exactly in place, the whole will progressively express the Supreme, without having to be withdrawn and emanated anew. On this also, Sri Aurobindo based the fact that this present creation, this present universe, will be able to manifest the perfection of a divine world—what Sri Aurobindo calls the Supermind. [July 18, 1961]

Over the twelve-year period from 1958 to 1970, the Mother commented on Sri Aurobindo’s Thoughts and Aphorisms, which was written around 1913 during the early part of his stay in Pondicherry. On March 4, 1966, she responded to a question about the following aphorism:

116. The beginning and end of things is a conventional term of our experience; in their true existence these terms have no reality, there is no end and no beginning.

The following English translation of the Mother’s remarks (in French) is from the Collected Works of the Mother.²

What we know as “the eternal Principle”, “the Supreme”, “God”, has neither beginning nor end—we are obliged to say “it is”, but it is not like that, because it is beyond Non-Manifestation and Manifestation; it is something which we are unable to understand and perceive in the Manifestation—and that is what has neither beginning nor end. But constantly and eternally, That is manifested in something that begins and ends. Only there are two ways of “ending”, one which appears to be a destruction, an annihilation, and another which is a transformation; and it would seem that as the Manifestation becomes more perfect, the necessity of destruction diminishes until a time comes when it will disappear and be replaced by a process of progressive transformation. But this is a very human and external way of putting it.

I am fully aware of the inadequacy of words, but through the words you must catch hold of the Thing.... The difficulty for human thought and still more for expression, is that words always carry a sense of beginning.

I have had a perception of this manifestation—a “pulsating” manifestation, one might say, which expands and contracts, expands and contracts.... And there comes a time when there is such an expansion, such a fluidity, plasticity, capacity for change that there is no longer any need for it to be reabsorbed so that it can take a new form; and there will be a progressive transformation. I used to know an occultist [Théon] who said that this is the seventh universal creation, that there have already been six pralayas and that this is the seventh creation, but that this one will be able to transform itself without being reabsorbed—which obviously has no importance whatsoever [!!!] for when one has the eternal consciousness it does not matter whether it is like this or like that. Only in the limited human consciousness is there this kind of ambition or need for something that has no end, because, within, there is what might be called the “memory of eternity” and this memory of eternity aspires for the manifestation to share in this eternity. But if this sense of eternity is active and present, we do not grieve; we do not grieve when we throw away a spoiled garment—we may be attached to it, but even so we do not grieve! It is the same thing: if a universe disappears, it means that it has fully fulfilled its function, it has come to the end of its possibilities and must be replaced by another one….

It is like an artist, but an artist giving shape to himself, making one trial, two trials, three trials, as many as he needs, and then achieving something complete enough in itself and receptive enough to be able to adapt to new manifestations, to the needs of these new manifestations, so that it would not be necessary to draw everything back in, to mix it all up and bring it all out again. But it is nothing more than this, and as I say, a question of choice. After all, the manifestation is made for the delight of objectivisation—the delight or interest or, well... And once what has taken shape is plastic enough, receptive enough, flexible enough and vast enough to be capable of being constantly moulded by the new forces that are manifesting, there is no longer any need to unmake everything in order to remake it....

As soon as one tries to express it (Mother makes a gesture of reversal), everything becomes warped.... But it is certain—this is an observation for general use— it is certain that the human mind, in order to have the urge to act, needs to build a dwelling-place—more or less large, more or less complete, more or less flexible—but it needs a dwelling-place. Only (laughing) it is not that! That distorts everything!

Disciple: Further on, Sri Aurobindo speaks of worlds that have no beginning and no end, and he says that their creation and their destruction is “a play of hide-and-seek with our outward consciousness”...³

It is certainly a very elegant way of saying the same thing I have just said!

What I wanted to ask is whether from the “other side”, the material world continues to be perceived clearly or whether it all evaporates?

This is another experience of these last few days. It came to me with an absolute certitude—although it is very difficult to express—that this so-called “error” of the material world as it is, was indispensable; that is to say, the material mode or way of perceiving, of becoming aware of things, was gained through the “error” of this creation and would not have existed without it, and it is not something that will vanish into non-existence when we gain the true consciousness—it is something that is added in a special way—which was perceived, lived at that moment in the essential Consciousness.

It was like a justification of the creation that has made possible a certain mode of perception—which might be described by the words “precision”, “exactness” in objectivisation —which could not have existed without it. Because when this Consciousness—the perfect Consciousness, the true Consciousness, the Consciousness—was there, present and lived to the exclusion of any other, there was something like a mode of vibration, so to say, a mode of vibration with objective precision and exactness, which could not have existed without this material form of creation....

You see, there was always this great “Why?”—”Why is it like this?” Why is there all this, which brought about everything that the human consciousness interprets as suffering, misery and helplessness and everything, all the horrors of ordinary consciousness—why? Why is it? And so this was the answer: in the true Consciousness there is a mode of vibration, of precision and exactness and clarity in objectivisation, which could not have existed without that, which would not have had any opportunity to manifest. That is certain. That is the answer—the all-powerful answer to the “why”.

It is obvious—obvious—that what we experience as progress, as a progressive manifestation, is not simply a law of the material manifestation as we know it, but the very principle of the eternal Manifestation. To come down to the level of terrestrial thought, one might say that there is no manifestation without progress. But what we call progress, what is “progress” to our consciousness, up there it is... it can be anything, a necessity, whatever you like—there is a kind of absolute that we do not understand, an absolute of being: it is like that because it is like that, that is all. But for our consciousness it is more and more, better and better—and these words are stupid —it is more and more perfect, better and better perceived. That is the very principle of manifestation.

One experience came very fleetingly, but precisely enough to allow one to say, very clumsily, that ... the Non-Manifest has a special flavour because of the Manifest.

All this is just words, but that is all we have. Perhaps one day we shall have words or a language which can say these things properly; it is possible, but it will be always a translation.

There is a level here (pointing to the chest) where something plays with words, with images, with phrases, like this (shimmering, undulating gesture), that makes pretty pictures; it has a power of bringing you into contact with the Thing, which may be greater—at least as great, but perhaps greater—than here (pointing to the forehead), than the metaphysical expression—”metaphysical” is a manner of speaking. Images, that is to say, poetry. Here there is an almost more direct way of access to that inexpressible vibration. I see Sri Aurobindo’s expression in its poetic form, it has a charm and a simplicity—a simplicity and a sweetness and a penetrating charm—which brings you into direct contact much more intimately than all the things of the head.

Beginning December 1951, the Mother took the highest class in French of the Ashram school three times a week. On March 14, 1951, during her class, she spoke of the aforesaid “error of this creation”⁴:

[I]n the Manifestation, perfection consists in having a movement of transformation or an unfolding identical with the divine Movement, the essential Movement; whereas all that belongs to the inconscient or tamasic⁵ creation seeks to preserve exactly the very same existence instead of trying to last through constant transformation.

That is why some thinkers have postulated that the creation was the result of an error. But one finds all possible concepts: perfect creation, then a “fault” which introduced error; the creation itself as a lower movement which must have an end since it had a beginning; then the Vedic concept, as Sri Aurobindo has explained it, of an unfolding or a progressive and infinite discovery—indefinite and infinite—of the All by Himself.... Naturally, all these are human interpretations....

There are Nihilists, Nirvanists, Illusionists; there are all the religions which admit the devil’s intervention under one form or another; then there is the pure Vedism which is the eternal unfolding of the Supreme in a progressive objectification. And according to taste, one places oneself here, another there or elsewhere, with all the nuances between. But according to what Sri Aurobindo has felt to be the most total truth, according to this conception of a progressive universe, one is led to say that at every minute what happens is the best possible for the unfolding of the whole. It is absolutely logical. And I believe that all contradictions can arise only from a more or less pronounced tendency towards this or that, for one position or another. All who admit the intrusion of a “sin” or an “error” and the conflict resulting from it between forces which pull back and those which pull forward, may naturally contest the possibility. But one has to say that for him who is spiritually linked with the supreme Will or the supreme Truth, for him it is necessarily, at every instant, the best that happens for his personal realisation. In all instances it is like that. An unconditional best can be admitted only by one who sees the universe as an unfolding, as the Supreme’s self-awareness of Himself.

To tell you the truth, all these things are of no importance; for that which is, goes in every way entirely and absolutely beyond everything that human consciousness can think about it. It is only when you are no longer human that you know; but as soon as this knowledge is expressed, human limits reimpose themselves and then you cease to know.

This is incontestable. And because of this incapacity, there is a kind of futility also in wanting to reduce the problem altogether to something which human reason can understand....

Only, each one takes a position.... I have all the examples here. I have a sample collection of all attitudes and see very clearly their reactions. I see the same Force—the same one Force—acting in this sample collection and producing naturally different effects; but these “different” effects, to a deeper vision, are very superficial: it is only “It pleases them to think in this way, that’s all, it just pleases them to think thus.” But as a matter of fact, the inner journey, the inner development, the essential vibration is not affected—not at all. One aspires with all his heart for Nirvana, another aspires with all his will for the supramental manifestation, and in both of them the vibratory result is almost the same.... There is a state, a state essentially pragmatic, spiritually pragmatic, in which of all human futilities, the most futile is metaphysics.

The Mother taking a class. Photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson, April 1950

In sum, what I (for one) find hope-inspiring is, first, that this creation will progress without another pralaya (so you may safely forget about the versions that scientific cosmology has thought up, of which there are plenty⁶). And secondly, that there has never been an error, a fall, or an original sin; what looks that way was needed to provide this manifestation with a “precision and exactness and clarity in objectivisation, which could not have existed without that, which would not have had any opportunity to manifest.”

Let’s now move on to the other hope-inspiring thought. In her Agenda dated September 21, 1966, the Mother recounts:

I was looking at the sorry state in which all countries find themselves, the truly painful and dangerous conditions of the earth, and there was a sort of all-embracing vision showing how nations (men taken as nations) have acted and are increasingly acting in a growing Falsehood, and how they have used all their creative power to create such formidable means of destruction, with, at the back of their minds, the really childish notion that the destruction would be so terrible that no one would want to use them. But they don’t know (they ought to know, but they don’t) that things have a consciousness and a force of manifestation, and that all those means of destruction are pressing to be used; and even though men may not want to use them, a force stronger than they will be pushing them to do so.

Then, seeing all this, the imminence of the catastrophe, there was a sort of call or aspiration to bring down something that could at least neutralize that error. And it came, an answer.... I can’t say I heard it with my ears, but it was so clear, so strong and precise that it was indisputable. I am obliged to translate it into words; if I translate it into words, I may say something like this: “That’s why you have created Auroville.”

And with the clear vision that Auroville⁷ was a center of force and creation, with ... (how can I explain?) a seed of truth, and that if it could sprout and develop, the very movement of its growth would be a reaction against the catastrophic consequences of the error of armament....

[I]t was the last hope to react against the imminent catastrophe. If some interest is awakened in all countries for this creation, little by little it will have the power to react against the error they have committed.... So my interest in Auroville has considerably increased since then. Because I have understood that it isn’t just a creation of idealism, but quite a practical phenomenon, in the hope ... in the will, rather, to thwart and counterbalance the effects — the frightful effects —of the psychological error of believing that fear can save you from a danger! Fear attracts the danger much more than it saves you from it. And all these countries, all these governments commit blunder upon blunder because of that fear of the catastrophe....

Disciple: You speak of the imminence of a catastrophe, but still Auroville will take some time to be realized?

No! I am speaking of the countries’ collaboration in creating something. It’s not when Auroville has been completed: it’s the nations’ collaboration in creating something—but creating something founded on the Truth instead of a rivalry in Falsehood’s creation. It’s not when Auroville is ready—when Auroville is ready, it will be one town among all other towns and it’s only its own capacity of truth that will have power, but that ... remains to be seen.

No, the point is a combined interest in building something founded on the Truth. They have had a combined interest (combined without any mutual liking, of course) in creating a power of destruction built on Falsehood; well, Auroville means diverting a little of that force (the quantity is minor, but the quality is superior). It’s truly a hope—it’s founded on a hope—of doing something that can be the beginning of a harmony.

No, it’s right now, right now. The force of propagation is far greater, it’s out of proportion to the transmitting center [Mother], which, on a world scale, is so to say unknown and almost nonexistent. But the center, the power of radiation and propagation is out of proportion, it’s rather remarkable: the response [to Auroville] is everywhere, everywhere; a response from new Africa, a response in France, a response in Russia, a response in America, a response in Canada, and a response in numerous countries, in Italy ... everywhere, everywhere. And not just individuals: groups, tendencies, movements, even in governments.

What’s proving to be the most refractory (and the irony of it is wonderful) is ... the United Nations! Those people are outdated, oh! ... They haven’t yet gone beyond the “materialistic, antireligious movement,” and they made a derogatory remark about the Auroville brochure, saying it was “mystic,” with “religious” tendency. The irony is lovely!

Besides, even quite outwardly, that fight between India and Pakistan⁸ was clearly initiated and driven, that is to say, set in motion by and under the impulsion of the forces of Truth that wanted to create a great “Asian Federation” with the power to counterbalance Red China and its movement. It was a federation that, as a matter of fact, needed the return of Pakistan and all those regions, and which includes Nepal, Tibet, also Burma, and in the south, Ceylon. A great federation with each country having its autonomous development, perfectly free, but which would be united in a common single aspiration for peace and fight against the invasion of forces of dissolution. That was very clear, it was willed—and it’s the intervention of this United Nations that stopped everything.⁹

I am not saying anything officially; because I have said and always repeat that politics is in complete Falsehood, based on Falsehood, and I am not dealing with it, meaning that I am not in politics, I don’t want to be—but that doesn’t stop me from seeing clearly!

1. A key sentence in the introductory chapter of The Life Divine: “For all problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony.” [LD 4]

2. The Mother, On Thoughts and Aphorisms (Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, 2001).

3. The disciple refers to the next aphorism: 117. “Neither is it that I was not before nor thou nor these kings nor that all we shall not be hereafter.” Not only Brahman, but beings & things in Brahman are eternal; their creation and destruction is a play of hide and seek with our outward consciousness. The sentence quoted in this aphorism is from the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, Verse 12.

4. The Mother, Questions and Answers 1951–1952, pp. 214–16 (Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department. 2003).

5. Tamas is one of the three guṇas (modes of nature / fundamental qualities underlying the manifest world). Originally a feature of the Samkhya philosophy, the guṇas have become a key concept in nearly all schools of Hindu philosophy. Tamas is characterized by stasis, obscurity, and inertia; rajas by kinesis, desire, and passion; sattva by equilibrium, harmony, and peace.

6. According to the Big Crunch scenario, the universe will stop expanding and start collapsing into one giant black hole. According to the Big Rip, dark energy will get stronger over time, causing the universe to expand at an ever-increasing rate, eventually ripping itself apart in such a way that even individual atoms will disassemble into unbound elementary particles. According to the Big Freeze, the universe will grow so big that the supply of interstellar gas will be too thin for stars to form: all existing stars will eventually burn out leaving only black holes behind; eventually these too will evaporate leaving nothing behind. According to the Big Bounce, the universe, rather than ending in a big crunch, will rebound, causing another Big Bang, which is equivalent to a potentially never-ending sequence of pralayas. Last but not least, there is the venerable Heat Death, which occurs when the universe has reached a state of maximum entropy.

7. The Inauguration of Auroville, in which 124 nations participated, took place on February 28th, 1968.

8. Mother is referring to the conflict of September 1965, on the occasion of which she had publicly encouraged India to fight to the end.

9. Under United Nations’ pressure, India gave up its advantage over Pakistan and “surrendered” at Tashkent.