Developing external power through the use of technology has several unexpected or unintended consequences. One of these, of course, is to give us powers of observation and action that were not available to us through the normal progression of physical, vital and mental development. In order to develop such external powers, a corresponding inner development is of course also required, as it requires a power of insight, intuition, imagination, perseverance, reasoning, etc. Thus, the development of any external power has a corresponding inner movement associated with it.

At the same time we tend to become reliant on these external powers and in some cases, the acuity and natural capacity is left to atrophy or erode. For example, with the development of calculators, and the development of powers of AI in our phones and computers, much of humanity has stopped trying to do mathematical calculation mentally. The prodigious feats of mental math are very much lost to most of us, as we find it easier to simply ask our computer or phone to tell us the answer. It can be reasoned that by taking away what is essentially a basic and time consuming task we are freeing up our concentration and mental capacity to take on more interesting or expansive tasks. At least, we have the opportunity to do so, even if we fail to exercise it.

Dr. Dalal cites a particular instance, the development tools to enhance visual power with the corresponding weakening of the eyesight. There may be a general correspondence between the two, but not a causal relationship. The microscope and the telescope provide visual powers into areas that humanity was previously unable to fully explore, but it is not the use of these things which has resulted in the erosion of eyesight in the youth. There are different factors that cause the diminution of eyesight, such as increased UV ray exposure due to weakening of the ozone protective layer, new forms of radiation, new demands being made on the visual sense, including the use of computer monitors, television sets and mobile phones, as well as increased demands for the use of the organs of sight for fine detail as our lives become more complex and a greater demand is placed on focusing the eyesight. The two events occur at a similar time in our evolutionary cycle, but may be coincidental to one another.

Similarly, the rise of auto-immune diseases can be seen to take place side by side with our increased ability to prevent or treat disease conditions through development of pharmaceutical drugs or through surgery, and advanced therapies that rely for instance on laser technology, radiation or other means. In some cases, there may be a direct causative relationship due to unintended (or known, but unavoidable) consequences of the treatment modality on the body. Such is the case with the use of chemotherapy for instance, which is known to have serious ‘side-effects’ but is nevertheless the best tool available to modern medicine to treat certain forms of cancers. In other cases, we may again find coincidence but not causality. Causality may be due to the vast increase in toxic substances in the earth, air and water, the contamination of our environment, our increased use of radiation in the world, including the residual effects of the nuclear weapons testing that occurred in many parts of the world and which has left behind residual effects and radioactive energy; as well as the increased exposure to UV radiation from the sun due to the aforementioned weakening of the ozone layer, the development of synthetically developed foods and the increased reliance on factory farming, which uses growth hormones, antibiotics and other chemical additives to create our modern, dramatically deficient food supply, which provides in many cases less bio-active nutrition, while promoting obesity and dysfunction of various internal organs. The climate change that humanity has created as a result of the industrial revolution also has, as one of its impacts, increasing both the range and potency of various diseases and disease vectors, and our modern world-wide mobility enhances the potential for the spread of pandemic diseases. Add to this the increase in stress with the enhanced speed of modern life and the demands made on people, and we have a recipe for weakening immune response that correlates in time with the increased technologies to treat disease, but is not necessarily causatively related.

The development of external powers has both its advantages and its disadvantages in terms of our inner development. The challenge is to recognise that all external power must proceed from and be controlled by a corresponding growth in the inner power, and that is the area of development we are called upon to understand and undertake at the present time.

It is also likely that as the evolution takes place, we begin to place less reliance on the external physical senses. The development of external powers of observation based on technology corresponds to an inner development of consciousness that can, and eventually must, provide new methods of observation and understanding.

Dr. Dalal writes: “Power can be derived from external things or from our own being. For example, power for fighting illness can come from the use of external means such as medicines, or it can be summoned from within in the body’s innate power of resistance. Until now, humanity in its efforts for gaining more and more power has endeavoured to obtain power in different areas predominantly from without through technological and scientific developments. Development of the powers within us has received far less attention, so that internal power has not only lagged far behind external power but has also deteriorated in some respects. Thus whereas great strides have been made in combatting disease with the aid of external means, namely more powerful drugs and more advanced technology, there is an increasing prevalence of diseases related to the body’s own immune system, such as cancer, arthritis, AIDS and others, indicating a deterioration of the body’s own natural mechanisms of healing.”

“Apropos of the decrease in personal power that has resulted with the increase in technology, Joseph C. Pierce writes in his book, The Bond of Power (Dutton, 1981):

“We have long spoken of our technological devices as ‘extensions’ of our personal power…. In practice, though, every technological achievement really undermines, erodes, even replaces in one way or another, our ability it ‘extends and enhances.’ “

“As an example, Pierce states that whereas we have extended our powers of aided vision through technological devices such as the telescope and the microscope, our own visual power has deteriorated. Thus, in Texas, in 1900, about twelve percent of children at the age of eight had short-sightedness. In 1962, even at the age of six, approximately eighty percent of the children were found to have short-sightedness.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Introduction, pp. xiii-xiv

Author's Bio: 

Santosh has been studying Sri Aurobindo's writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and podcast located at https://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky
He is author of 20 books and is editor-in-chief at Lotus Press. He is president of Institute for Wholistic Education, a non-profit focused on integrating spirituality into daily life.
Video presentations, interviews and podcast episodes are all available on the YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@santoshkrinsky871
More information about Sri Aurobindo can be found at www.aurobindo.net
The US editions and links to e-book editions of Sri Aurobindo’s writings can be found at Lotus Press www.lotuspress.com