The Reason as Governor of Life
REASON using the
intelligent will for the ordering of the inner and the outer life is
undoubtedly the highest developed faculty of man at his present point of
evolution; it is the sovereign, because the governing and self-governing
faculty in the complexities of our human existence. Man is distinguished from
other terrestrial creatures by his capacity for seeking after a rule of life, a
rule of his being and his works, a principle of order and self-development,
which is not the first instinctive, original, mechanically self-operative rule
of his natural existence. The principle he looks to is neither the unchanging, unprogressive order of the fixed natural type, nor in its process of change the
mechanical evolution we see in the lower life, an evolution which operates in
the mass rather than in the individual, imperceptibly to the knowledge of that
which is being evolved and without its conscious co-operation. He seeks for an
intelligent rule of which he himself shall be the governor and master or at
least a partially free administrator. He can conceive a progressive order by
which he shall be able to evolve and develop his capacities far beyond their
original limits and workings; he can initiate an intelligent evolution which he
himself shall determine or at least be in it a conscious instrument, more, a
co-operating and constantly consulted party. The rest of terrestrial existence
is helplessly enslaved and tyrannised over by its nature, but the instinct of
man when he finds his manhood is to be master of his nature and free.
No doubt all is work of Nature and
this too is Nature; it proceeds from the principle of being which constitutes
his humanity and by the processes which that principle permits and which are
natural to it. But still it is a second kind of Nature, a stage of being in
which Nature becomes self-conscious in the individual, tries to know, modify,
alter and develop, utilise, consciously experiment with her self and her
potentialities. In
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this change a
momentous self-discovery intervenes; there appears something that is hidden in
matter and in the first disposition of life and has not clearly emerged in the
animal in spite of its possession of a mind; there appears the presence of the
Soul in things which at first was concealed in its own natural and outward
workings, absorbed and on the surface at least self-oblivious. Afterwards it
becomes, as in the animal, conscious to a certain degree on the surface, but is
still helplessly given up to the course of its natural workings and, not
understanding, cannot govern itself and its movements. But finally in man it
turns its consciousness upon itself, seeks to know, endeavours to govern in the
individual the workings of his nature and through the individual and the
combined reason and energy of many individuals to govern too as far as possible
the workings of Nature in mankind and in things. This turning of the consciousness
upon itself and on things, which man represents, has been the great crisis, a
pro- longed and developing crisis, in the terrestrial evolution of the soul in
Nature. There have been others before it in the past of the earth, such as that
which brought about the appearance of the conscious life of the animal; there
must surely be another in its future in which a higher spiritual and
supramental conscious- ness shall emerge and be turned upon the works of the
mind. But at present it is this which is at work; a self-conscious soul in
mind, mental being,
manomaya pursa,
struggles
to arrive at some intelligent ordering of its self and life and some
indefinite, perhaps infinite development of the powers and potentialities of
the human instrument.
The intellectual reason is not
man's only means of knowledge. All action, all perception, all aesthesis and
sensation, all impulse and will, all imagination and creation imply a
universal, many-sided force of knowledge at work and each form or power of this
knowledge has within its own distinct nature and law its own principle of order
and arrangement,. its logic proper to itself, and need not follow, still less
be identical with the law of nature, order and arrangement which the
intellectual reason would assign to it or itself follow if it had control of
all these movements. But the intellect has this advantage over the others that
it can disengage itself from the work, stand back from it to
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study and understand it disinterestedly, analyse its
processes, disengage its principles. None of the other powers and faculties of
the living being can do this; for each exists for its own action, is confined
by the work it is doing, is unable to see beyond it, around it, into it as the
reason can; the principle of knowledge inherent within each force is involved
and carried along in the action of the force, helps to shape it, but is also
itself limited by its own formulations. It exists for the fulfilment of the
action, not for knowledge, or for knowledge only as part of the action.
Moreover, it is concerned only with the particular action or working of the
moment and does not look back reflectively or forward intelligently or at other
actions and forces with a power of clear co-ordination. No doubt, the other
evolved powers of the living being, as for instance the instinct whether animal
or human, - the latter inferior precisely
because it is disturbed by the questionings and seekings of reason, - carry in
themselves their own force of past experience, of instinctive self-adaptation,
all of which is really accumulated knowledge, and they hold sometimes this
store so firmly that they are transmitted as a sure inheritance from generation
to generation. But all this, just because it is instinctive, not turned upon
itself reflectively, is of great use indeed to life for the conduct of its
operations, but of none - so long as it
is not taken up by the reason - for the particular purpose man has in view, a
new order of the dealings of the soul in Nature, a free, rational,
intelligently co-ordinating, intelligently self-observing, intelligently
experimenting mastery of the workings
of force by the conscious spirit.
Reason, on the other hand, exists
for the sake of knowledge, can prevent itself from being carried away by the
action, can stand back from it, intelligently study, accept, refuse, modify,
alter, improve, combine and recombine the workings and capacities of the forces
in operation, can repress here, indulge there, strive towards an intelligent,
intelligible, willed and organised perfection. Reason is science, it is
conscious art, it is invention. It is observation and can seize and arrange
truth of facts; it is speculation and can extricate and forecast truth of
potentiality. It is the idea and its fulfilment, the ideal and its bringing to
fruition. It can look through the immediate appearance and unveil
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the hidden truths behind it. It is the servant and yet
the master of all utilities; and it can, putting away all utilities, seek
disinterestedly Truth for its own sake and by finding it reveal a whole world
of new possible utilities. Therefore it is a sovereign power by which man has
become possessed of himself, student and master of his own forces, the godhead
on which the other godheads in him have leaned for help in their ascent; it has
been the Prometheus of the mythical parable, the helper, instructor, elevating
friend, civiliser of mankind.
Recently, however, there has been a
very noticeable revolt of the human mind against this sovereignty of the
intellect, a dissatisfaction, as we might say, of the reason with itself and
its own limitations and an inclination to give greater freedom and a larger
importance to other powers of our nature. The sovereignty of the reason in man
has been always indeed imperfect, in fact, a troubled, struggling, resisted and
often defeated rule; but still it has been recognised by the best intelligence
of the race as the authority and law-giver. Its only widely acknowledged rival
has been faith. Religion alone has been strongly successful in its claim that
reason must be silent before it or at least that there are fields to which it
cannot extend itself and where faith alone ought to be heard; but for a time
even Religion has had to forego or abate its absolute pretension and to submit
to the sovereignty of the intellect. Life, imagination, emotion, the ethical
and the aesthetic need have often claimed to exist for their own sake and to
follow their own bent, practically they have often enforced their claim, but
they have still been obliged in general to work under the inquisition and
partial control of reason and to refer to it as arbiter and judge. Now,
however, the thinking mind of the race has become more disposed to question itself
and to ask whether existence is not too large, profound, complex and mysterious
a thing to be entirely seized and governed by the powers of the intellect.
Vaguely it is felt that there is some greater god- head than the reason.
To some this godhead is Life itself
or a secret Will in life; they claim that this must rule and that the
intelligence is only useful in so far as it serves that and that Life must not
be repressed, minimised and mechanised by the arbitrary control of
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reason. Life has greater powers in it which must be
given a freer play; for it is they alone that evolve and create. On the other
hand, it is felt that reason is too analytical, too arbitrary, that it
falsifies life by its distinctions and set classifications and the fixed rules
based upon them and that there is some profounder and larger power of
knowledge, intuition or another, which is more deeply in the secrets of
existence. This larger intimate power is more one with the depths and sources
of existence and more able to give us the indivisible truths of life, its root
realities and to work them out, not in an artificial and mechanical spirit but
with a divination of the secret Will in existence and in a free -
harmony
with its large, subtle and infinite methods. In fact, what the growing subjectivism of the human
mind is beginning obscurely to see is that the one sovereign godhead is the
soul itself which may use reason for one of its ministers, but cannot subject
itself to its own intellectuality without limiting its potentialities and
artificialising its conduct of existence.
The highest power of reason,
because its pure and characteristic power, is the disinterested seeking after
true knowledge. When knowledge is pursued for its own sake, then alone are we
likely to arrive at true knowledge. Afterwards we may utilise that knowledge
for various ends; but if from the beginning we have only particular ends in
view, then we limit our intellectual gain, limit our view of things, distort
the truth because we cast it into the mould of some particular idea or utility
and ignore or deny all that conflicts with that utility or that set idea. By so
doing we may indeed make the reason act with great immediate power within the
limits of the idea or the utility we have in view, just as instinct in the
animal acts with great power within certain limits, for a certain end, yet
finds itself helpless outside those limits. It is so indeed that the ordinary
man uses his reason- as the animal uses his hereditary, transmitted instinct – with an absorbed devotion of it to the
securing of some particular utility or with a useful but hardly luminous
application of a customary and transmitted reasoning to the necessary practical
interests of his life. Even the thinking man ordinarily limits his reason to
the working out of certain preferred ideas; he ignores or denies all that is
not useful to these or does not assist or justify
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or actually contradicts or seriously modifies them, - except in so far as life itself compels or
cautions him to accept modifications for the time being or ignore their
necessity at his peril. It is in such limits that man's reason normally acts.
He follows most commonly some interest or set of interests; he tramples down or
through or ignores or pushes aside all truth of life and existence, truth of
ethics, truth of beauty, truth of reason, truth of spirit which conflicts with
his chosen opinions and interests; if he recognises these foreign elements, it
is nominally, not in practice, or else with a distortion, a glossing which
nullifies their consequences, perverts their spirit or whittles down their
significance. It is this subjection to the interests, needs, instincts,
passions, prejudices, traditional ideas and opinions of the ordinary mind1
which constitutes
the irrationality of human existence.
But even the man who is capable of
governing his life by ideas, who recognises, that is to say, that it ought to
express clearly conceived truths and principles of his being or of all being
and tries to find out or to know from others what these are, is not often
capable of the highest, the free and disinterested use of his rational mind. As
others are subject to the tyranny of their interests, prejudices, instincts or
passions, so he is subjected to the tyranny of ideas. Indeed, he turns these
ideas into interests, obscures them with his prejudices and passions and is
unable to think freely about them, unable to distinguish their limits or the
relation to them of other, different and opposite ideas and the equal right of
these also to existence. Thus, as we constantly see, individuals, masses of
men, whole generations are- carried away by
certain ethical, religious, aesthetic, political ideas or a set of
ideas, espouse them with passion, pursue them as interests, seek to make them a
system and lasting rule of life and are swept away in the drive of their action
and do not really use the free and disinterested reason for the right knowledge
of existence and for its right and sane government. The ideas are to a certain
extent fulfilled, they triumph for a time, but their very success brings
disappointment and disillusionment. This happens, first,
1
The ordinary mind in man is not
truly the thinking mind proper, it is a life-mind, a vital mind as we may call
it, which has learned to think and even to reason but for its own ends and on
its own lines, not on those of a true mind of knowledge.
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because they can only succeed by compromises and pacts with the
inferior, irrational life of man which diminish their validity and tarnish
their light and glory. Often indeed their triumph is convicted of unreality,
and doubt and disillusionment fall on the faith and enthusiasm which brought
victory to their side. But even were it not so, the ideas themselves are
partial and insufficient; not only have they a very partial triumph, but if
their success were complete, it would still disappoint, because they are not
the whole truth of life and therefore cannot securely govern and perfect life.
Life escapes from the formulas and systems which our reason labours to impose
on it; it proclaims itself too complex, too full of infinite potentialities to
be tyrannised over by the arbitrary intellect of man.
This is the cause why all human
systems have failed in the end; for they have never been anything but a partial
and confused application of reason to life. Moreover, even where they have been
most clear and rational, these systems have pretended that their ideas were the
whole truth of life and tried so to apply them. This they could not be, and
life in the end has broken or undermined them and passed on to its own large
incalculable movement. Mankind, thus using its reason as an aid and
justification for its interests and passions, thus obeying the drive of a partial,
a mixed and imperfect rationality towards action, thus striving to govern the
complex totalities of life by partial truths, has stumbled on from experiment
to experiment, always believing that it is about to grasp the crown, always
finding that it has fulfilled as yet little or nothing of what it has to
accomplish. Compelled by nature to apply reason to life, yet possessing only a
partial rationality limited in itself and confused by the siege of the lower
members, it could do nothing else. For the limited imperfect human reason has
no self-sufficient light of its own; it is obliged to proceed by observation,
by experiment, by action, through errors and stumblings to a larger experience.
But behind
all this continuity of failure there has persisted a faith that the reason of
man would end in triumphing over its difficulties, that it would purify and
enlarge itself, become sufficient to its work and at last subject rebellious
life to its control. For, apart from the stumbling action of the world, there
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has
been a labour of the individual thinker in man and this has achieved a higher
quality and risen to a loftier and clearer atmosphere above the general human
thought-levels. Here there has been the work of a reason that seeks always
after knowledge and strives patiently to find out truth for itself, without
bias, without the interference of distorting interests, to study everything, to
analyse everything, to know the principle and process of everything.
Philosophy, Science, learning, the reasoned arts, all the age long labour of the
critical reason in man have been the result of this effort. In the modern era
under the impulsion of Science this effort assumed enormous proportions and
claimed for a time to examine successfully and lay down finally the true
principle and the sufficient rule of process not only for all the activities of
Nature, but for all the activities of man. It has done great things, but it has
not been in the end a success. The human mind is beginning to perceive that it has
left the heart of almost every problem untouched and illumined only outsides
and a certain range of processes. There has been a great and ordered
classification and mechanisation, a great discovery and practical result of
increasing knowledge, but only on the physical surface of things. Vast abysses
of Truth lie below in which are concealed the real springs, the mysterious
powers and secretly decisive influences of existence. It is a question whether
the intellectual reason will ever be able to give us an adequate account of
these deeper and greater things or subject them to the intelligent will as it
has succeeded in explaining and canalising, though still imperfectly, yet with
much show of triumphant result, the forces of physical Nature. But these other
powers are much larger, subtler, deeper down, more hidden, elusive and variable
than those of physical Nature.
The
whole difficulty of the reason in trying to govern our existence is that
because of its own inherent limitations it is unable to deal with life in its
complexity or in its integral movements; it is compelled to break it up into
parts, to make more or less artificial classifications, to build systems with
limited data which are contradicted, upset or have to be continually modified
by other data, to work out a selection of regulated potentialities which is
broken down by the bursting of a new wave of yet un-
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regulated
potentialities. It would almost appear even that there are two worlds, the
world of ideas proper to the intellect and the world of life which escapes from
the full control of the reason, and that to bridge adequately the gulf between
these two domains
is beyond the power and province of the reason and the intelligent will. It
would seem that these can only create either a series of more or less empirical
compromises or else a series of arbitrary and practically inapplicable or only
partially applicable systems. The reason of man struggling with life becomes
either an empiric or a doctrinaire.
Reason can indeed make itself a mere
servant of life; it can limit itself to the work the average normal man demands
from it, content to furnish means and justifications for the interests,
passions, prejudices of man and clothe them with a misleading garb of
rationality or at most supply them with their own secure and enlightened order
or with rules of caution and self-restraint sufficient to prevent their more
egregious stumbles and most unpleasant consequences. But this is obviously to
abdicate its throne or its highest office and to betray the hope with which man
set forth on his journey. It may again determine to found itself securely on
the facts of life, disinterestedly indeed, that is to say, with a dispassionate
critical observation of its principles and processes, but with a prudent
resolve not to venture too much forward into the unknown or elevate itself far
beyond the immediate realities of our apparent or phenomenal existence. But
here again it abdicates; either it becomes a mere critic and observer or else,
so far as it tries to lay down laws, it does so within very narrow limits of
immediate potentiality and it renounces man's drift towards higher
possibilities, his saving gift of idealism. In this limited use of the reason
subjected to the rule of an immediate, an apparent vital and physical
practicality man cannot rest long satisfied. For his nature pushes him towards
the heights; it demands a constant effort of self-transcendence and the
impulsion towards things unachieved and even immediately impossible.
On the other hand, when it attempts
a higher action reason separates itself to an elevation where it loses from
life. Its very attempt at a disinterested and dispassionate knowledge carries
it to an elevation where it loses
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hold of that other knowledge which our instincts and impulses
carry
within themselves and which,
however imperfect, obscure and limited,
is still a hidden action of the universal Knowledge- Will inherent in existence
that creates and directs all things according to their nature. True, even
Science and Philosophy are never entirely dispassionate and disinterested. They
fall into subjection to the tyranny of their own ideas, their partial systems,
their hasty generalisations and by the innate drive of man towards practice
they seek to impose these upon the life. But even so they enter into a world
either of abstract ideas or of ideals or of rigid laws from which the
complexity of life escapes. The idealist, the thinker, the philosopher, the
poet and artist, even the moralist, all those who live much in ideas, when they
come to grapple at close quarters with practical life, seem to find them-
selves something at a loss and are constantly defeated in their endeavour to
govern life by their ideas. They exercise a powerful influence, but it is
indirectly, more by throwing their ideas into Life which does with them what
the secret Will in it chooses than by a direct and successfully ordered action.
Not that the pure empiric, the practical man really succeeds any better by his
direct action; for that too is taken by the secret Will in life and turned to
quite other ends than the practical man had intended. On the contrary, ideals
and idealists are necessary; ideals are the savour and sap of life, idealists
the most powerful diviners and assistants of its purposes. But reduce your
ideal to a system and it at once begins to fail; apply your general laws and
fixed ideas systematically as the doctrinaire would do, and Life very soon breaks
through or writhes out of their hold or transforms your system, even
while it nominally exists, into something the
originator would not recognise and would repudiate perhaps as the
very contradiction of the principles which he sought to eternise.
The root of the difficulty is this that
at the very basis of all our life and existence, internal and external, there is something on which the intellect
can never lay a controlling hold, the Absolute, the Infinite. Behind everything
in life there is an Absolute, which that thing is seeking after in its own way;
everything finite is striving to express an infinite which it feels to be its
real truth. Moreover, it is not only each class, each type, each tendency
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in Nature that is
thus impelled to strive after its own secret truth in its own way, but each
individual brings in his own variations. Thus there is not only an Absolute, an
Infinite in itself which governs its own expression in many forms and
tendencies, but there is also a principle of infinite potentiality and
variation quite baffling to the reasoning intelligence; for the reason deals
successfully only with the settled and the finite. In man this difficulty
reaches its acme. For not only is man- kind unlimited in potentiality; not only
is each of its powers and tendencies seeking after its own absolute in its own
way and therefore naturally restless under any rigid control by the reason; but
in each man their degrees, methods, combinations vary, each man belongs not
only to the common humanity, but to the Infinite in himself and is therefore
unique. It is because this is the reality of our existence that the
intellectual reason and the intelligent will cannot deal with life as its
sovereign, even though they may be at present our supreme instruments and may
have been in our evolution supremely important and helpful. The reason can
govern, but only as a minister, imperfectly, or as a general arbiter and giver
of suggestions which are not really supreme commands, or as one channel of the
sovereign authority, because that hidden Power acts at present not directly but
through many agents and messengers. The real sovereign is another than the
reasoning intelligence. Man's impulse to be free, master of Nature in himself
and his environment cannot be really fulfilled until his self-consciousness has
grown beyond the rational mentality, become aware of the true sovereign and
either identified itself with him or entered into constant communion with his
supreme will and knowledge
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