Sri Aurobindo and the Theories of Evolution

The work presents the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo from the stand-point of evolution and shows by an exhaustive comparison with other theories of evolution, both Eastern and Western, how his view of evolution may be looked upon as the consummation and fulfillment of all previous theories, for it contains elements which are absolutely new and which have no parallel in any one of the other theories, whether Eastern of Western. For instance, the great idea of transformation, which is one of the main pivots round which the whole theory moves, is altogether a new idea and has completely revolutionized the whole conception of evolution. And, out of this have sprung two great conceptions of his – the conception of integral Yoga and that of the destiny of man. The conception of integral Yoga is a direct offshoot of the principle of transformation, and the destiny of man as conceived by him, is also one of its corollaries, as without it man would have had no place in the higher reaches of evolution and would have been thrown out like a sucked lemon, as is done for instance, in Alexander’s evolutionary theory. There have no doubt been some works dealing with Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution, but none treats it as exhaustively, as has been done by me, and from the comparative and critical standpoint….