The four ashramas are conceived simultaneously at all times

Re: 'In Our Own Image: Humanity's Quest for Divinity via Technology,' by Debashis Chowdhury

by Debashish on Tue 05 Jun 2007 12:48 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link

The "Mahashrama" Cycle is a temporal structure. The prime of human life is enclosed in the Grihastya phase of this structure. This is the period of acquisition and fulfillment of desires - that is, of the satisafaction of the vital ego. The idea of the Integral Yoga is not so much of a temporal structure but of a transformation of life and its activities through a spiritual power. Thus the four ashramas are conceived simultaneously at all times. This is the social ideal of the Sri Auroindo ashram or Auroville, not the Mahashrama temporal structure.

In your comparison of ashram vs. world, you have imposed a Mahasrama structure on these two social formations, but neither of them follow a Mahashrama ideal in its temporal implications. Regarding the enlargement of the human consciousness through Technology - a kosha approach, the danger at present is that unless the human being is allowed a relative degree of social independence from the temporal monopoly of techno-capitalism, human consciousness has no breathing time in the regime of globalization to ascend from its anonymity. The Mahakosha of global technology threatens to supplant the Transcendent at the heart of each individual. DB