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Paper short abstract:

In Sri Aurobindo's opinion the aesthetics of development and spiritual freedom are interrelated, spiritual freedom is an eternal aspect of the human spirit, which is attained as we ascend beyond the regions of mind.

Paper long abstract:

Aesthetics is the science or study of the beautiful. There is a basic and cardinal difference between Aurobindo's ideas on aesthetics and the term as it is understood conventionally. In an integral perspective the aim of aesthetics is to bring about a transformation in the inner consciousness and outer life of human beings. According to Aurobindo, all arts are parts of the ascent of man, towards the bliss of pure Being; the intense clarity of consciousness which is the lasting value of Aurobindo. The main principle of aesthetic discipline is to replace the less beautiful and harmonious by the more beautiful and harmonious in the inner consciousness as well as in every activity of the outer life.

Art is the medium through which man fulfills his secret urge to translate into the reality of our being, that image of perfection. Aurobindo's plea for rising has been aesthesis to a level of consciousness, i.e. as we ascend beyond the regions of Mind, everything alters. The evolution of human being in regard to the development takes into account the sense of freedom that emerges along with the development of self consciousness. Evolution as conceived by Aurobindo is a great adventure of consciousness in which operation of free will is a necessary component. The higher evolution is described as a dual movement; inward, away from the surface consciousness and into the depths, culminating in the realization of the Psychic Being, and then upward to higher levels of spiritual mind. Whereas these higher levels of consciousness have been attained in particular individuals, they must eventually emerge more universally as general stages in the evolution.

The paper explores Aurobindo's perspective of aesthetic development as associated with higher truth of spiritual thought, spiritual feeling and spiritual sense, including those which relate to spiritual freedom.