Sohail Inayatullah’s ”Rethinking Science and Culture: P.R. Sarkar’s Reconstruction of Science and Society,” Originally published in Situating Sarkar: Tantra, Macrohistory and Alternative Futures (Maleny and Ananda Nagar, Gurukul Publications, 1999).
I came across an article by Sohail Inayatullah on KurzweilAI.net, a portal that “features the big thoughts of today’s big thinkers examining the confluence of accelerating revolutions that are shaping our future world, and the inside story on new technological and social realities from the pioneers actively working in these arenas” [1]. I’d never heard of the scholar, so after some digging I found his passions to intersect mine at several significant loci.
Inayatullah introduced me to the philosophies of P.R. Sarkar, and a few passages resonate.
According to Inayatullah, Sarkar believes that “future humans will be more creative, not caught in the physical world. Rather they will use their energy for new discoveries, for new inventions and for spiritual pursuits. Indeed, these new humans will be averse to the material world, particularly of family ties. But this type of discourse, the creation of humans, normally is considered obscene from the humanistic (religious or spiritual) viewpoint. But for Sarkar it is evolutionary. Eventually humans will co-create the real, the physical universe along with Prakrti (Nature) (in Sarkar’s cosmology Consciousness and Nature, Prakrti, are unified but it is the latter that performs the activity of the universe, Consciousness silently observes). An individual mind, having evolved through different former lives, chooses a brain in a newly developing fetus through which it can manifest its previously unfulfilled desires, no the other way around” (Inayatullah, 1).
What’s provocative here (other than the fact that “the other way around” may have thrown me for a loop) is that the brain/fetus analogy is quite reminiscent of Marvin Minsky’s brain/computer interface, in that it represents a downloadable intelligence or essence that can create life within inorganic spaces, to give consciousness to the mechanism, so to speak. It’s a theory that may have once been abstruse, but now resonates through many artifacts of modern culture and society; it has indeed become a commonplace. If you have trouble with this concept, think about how we assign human characteristics to machines (cars, computers, toasters). If the desire is strong enough, it’s only a matter of time before those assigned characteristics are made real through automation, animation, general machanical function. We want to relate to machines. But more importantly, we want our machines to relate to us. “For Sarkar there is creation and then through struggle and desire there is evolution from less developed life forms to human life forms. There is no reasion why this evolution should not continue to new life forms (however created)” (Inayatullah, 2).
PROUT (the acronym for Progressive Utilization Theory, represents a socio-economic philosophy that synthesizes the physical, mental and spiritual dimensions of human nature) is an organization whose goal is to “provide guidance for the evolution of a truly progressive human society” [2]. So, a thin slice of Sarkar for those of us who can use the background: The following was taken from PROUT.org:
“Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar lived from 1921 to 1990. A renaissance man and a master of Tantrik Yoga, he dedicated his life to the all-around development of human beings — physically, mentally, and spiritually. He also proposed an extensive and practical ideology that fosters this development in a balanced manner with all life systems. Mr. Sarkar’s ideology, which he called Ananda Marga (the Path of Bliss) integrates the spiritual science of yoga with a dynamic social philosophy he called Neo-Humanism…His social ideas integrate a theory of evolution, history and social dynamics. They also address the questions of civilization and culture and the importance of art and literature in society” [3].
“…Since embedded in his theory is divinity, structure and agency, it is not unproblematic that humans consciously (using the mythos of the spiritual) participate in the creation of the ‘natural.’ In his theory of social change the divine exists as an attracting force, as a place of individual perfection. But there is also the social (the stages of history) and there is individual agency. For Sarkar, humans can and must change the world, they must make the world where the standard of living is so high that the spiritual can be easily accessible. However since the inexpressible (absolute Consciousness) cannot be expressed in language and since the natural is ultimately a social construct, humans can change and evolve with nature…” (Inayatullah, 3).
a few links to P.R. Sarkar:
Thoughts of PR Sarkar (weblog)
Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar on Wikipedia
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