Growth from Individuality to Personality

Unlike the biology of the nineteenth century, biology in this century presents us with an ethical orientation to evolution and calls it psycho-social evolution, which is evolution rising from the organic to the spiritual level. Biology of the last century treated evolution at the human level exactly like evolution at the pre-human levels, where the objective is organic satisfaction, numerical increase, and organic survival. Today’s biology treats these three objectives as secondary so far as man is concerned. At the human stage, something else becomes primary; that primary objective is man growing beyond his organic limitation and achieving fulfilment. Nature has given man the organic capacity to lift his consciousness from its tied-down condition to the genetic system; and he can realize the immense possibilities hidden within himself only when he exercises this capacity; and psycho-social evolution, with its two levels of individuality and personality. This is the first stage in the unfolding of these possibilities.

Nature has provided man with all these capacities in his unique organ, the cerebral system. He does not depend upon nature, therefore, to evolve new organs within him for his survival. The cerebral system can help him to invent any organs he may need outside of himself, faster and more efficiently than what nature can do for him. Nature intends this new versatile organ to be used by him for purposes higher than mere survival or organic satisfactions. What are these higher purposes? They constitute various levels of psycho-social evolution, says biology. This brings modern biology close to the concepts of ethical and moral development of man as upheld by the great world religions, and to what Vedanta calls the spiritual growth of man.

EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume I – Philosophy and Spirituality; 22 – The Science of Raising Consciousness (Pg: 478; ed. 1994)
This was the first lecture in the 17 theme lecture series on Science, Society and the Scientific Attitude at Bangalore University on August 5, 1976.