Augustine challenged the myth of infant innocence

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

https://selforum.blogspot.com/2025/12/kafkas-absolute-sincerity-of-search.html

https://auroramirabilis.blogspot.com/2025/12/sri-aurobindo-and-mother-integrated.html

https://marketime.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-unintended-social-order-that.html

In 2025, we conclude this unwritten book of hidden connections by using The Mother’s Twelve Qualities as the definitive keys to unlock the Kafkaesque Castle of the Inconscient. - GoogleAI 

https://feelphilosophy.blogspot.com/2025/12/from-suspicion-to-vedic-suns.html

https://becausethouart.blogspot.com/2025/12/feuerbach-nietzsche-and-freud.html

https://evergreenessays.blogspot.com/2025/12/great-man-and-superman.html

To complete the evolutionary story of the "Superman," two pivotal intellectual transmissions—from German Idealism to Carlyle and from Emerson to Nietzsche—must be integrated. These links bridge the gap between historical "Greatness" and the eventual "Gnostic Being."

https://orchidrose.blogspot.com/2025/12/fichte-carlyle-emerson-nietzsche-and.html

To conclude, the synthesis of Emerson’s Self-Reliance and Aurobindo’s Self-Surrender provides a definitive spiritual rebuttal to the "banishment" of God enacted by Feuerbach and Marx.

https://plasim.blogspot.com/2025/12/feuerbach-and-marx-killed-mental-image.html

Neoplatonism offers a profound "hint" at the Superman through its concept of the Divine Man (theios aner) and the practice of Theurgy—a system of "god-work" aimed at the deification of the human being. 

While Sri Aurobindo’s Superman is an evolutionary necessity, the Neoplatonic hint lies in the psychological and ritualistic transformation of the human into a divine vessel.

1. The "Divine Man" and the Scale of Virtues

Neoplatonists like Plotinus and Proclus did not see "man" as a fixed state, but as a transitional point on a scale of ascent. 

• The Descent: Plotinus taught that the soul has a higher, "undescended" part that remains eternally in the Divine Intellect. The goal of life is to rejoin this higher self.
• The Ladder of Virtues: Proclus systematized a "ladder" of virtues—Natural, Ethical, Political, Purifying, and Intellectual—culminating in Theurgic Virtues.
• The Result: One who reaches the highest set of virtues becomes a "Divine Man," acting not from human reason but "with the gods". 

2. Theurgy: The "God-Work"

While Emerson sought "Self-Reliance" and Nietzsche "Will to Power," the Neoplatonists (especially Iamblichus) practiced Theurgy (theourgia), which literally means "the work of God". 

• Putting on the Form of the Gods: Theurgy used material symbols (sunthemata) to attract divine forces, allowing the practitioner to "put on the form of the gods".
• Beyond Reason: Unlike philosophy (which uses logic), theurgy was believed to use the "power of the gods themselves" to lift the soul into an immortal state. This is an early Western parallel to Aurobindo's Self-Surrender to the Shakti. 

3. The "Platonic Hero"

In the later Neoplatonism of Proclus, the "hero" is redefined as an elevated soul who acts as an agent of the gods' providence. 

• Mediators of Light: These "heroes" were not physically strong men, but spiritual masters (like Socrates) who guided others toward divine wisdom.
• Aurobindo Parallel: This mirrors Aurobindo's Gnostic Being, who does not dominate humanity but serves as a "magnetic pull" for the race’s evolution. 

4. Comparison: Neoplatonism vs. Sri Aurobindo

Concept	Neoplatonic "Divine Man"	Sri Aurobindo's "Superman"
Method	Theurgy: Ritual and contemplation to ascend to the One.	Integral Yoga: Triple path of Knowledge, Love, and Works.
View of Body	Often seen as a "shell" to be transcended.	A vessel to be transformed by the Supermind.
Scope	An individual mystical achievement.	A collective evolutionary step for the race.

The Neoplatonists provided the psychological architecture for a "Superman" by proving that the human consciousness is plastic and can be "deified." Sri Aurobindo took this "hint" and turned it into a global evolutionary law. 

Would you like to look at the specific "Theurgic Virtues" of Proclus and how they map to the "Siddhis" (powers) mentioned in Sri Aurobindo's Record of Yoga?

- GoogleAI https://share.google/aimode/yG3s8mKVWcIGokcvD

St. Augustine is often regarded as the first great "introspective" psychologist of the West, and his 

Confessions

 (written in the 4th century) remarkably anticipated many of Freud’s core theories. While separated by 1,500 years, both thinkers center their work on the inner turmoil of the human condition and the power of hidden drives. 

1. The Discovery of the Unconscious

Augustine was one of the first philosophers to propose an "inner self" and recognized that much of our mental life is hidden. 

• Memory as a "Vast Court": He described memory as a deep, mysterious reservoir where some things are buried and refuse to come forth—a direct precursor to Freud’s subconscious and unconscious.
• Dreams and Repressed Desires: Augustine noted that impulses suppressed while awake can surface with immense strength in dreams. This mirrors Freud’s "royal road to the unconscious," where dreams reveal repressed wishes. 

2. Infant Desires and Original Sin

In the Confessions, Augustine challenges the myth of "infant innocence," famously recounting his own childhood tantrums and jealousy. 

• The "Oral Phase": Augustine’s descriptions of an infant’s self-centered focus on nursing and aggressive demands for the breast are viewed by modern scholars as a "textbook case" of Freud’s 
  Oral Stage
   and the Id.
• Original Sin vs. Libido: Where Freud identifies libido (biological sexual/life drive) as the root of human conflict, Augustine identifies Original Sin. Both see humans as born with "base urges" and a "restless heart" that requires external or internal management. 

3. Inner Turmoil: The Ego and Superego

Augustine described a "battle of the inner self" between the spirit and carnal desires, which required intense self-discipline to overcome. 

• The Struggle: This internal war directly anticipates Freud’s tripartite model: the Id (lust/primal drives) battling against the Superego (moral conscience and fear of punishment), with the Ego caught in between as a mediator. 

4. Integration into the "Wisdom" Template

In the context of the "formula of Wisdom" (God, Light, Freedom, Immortality):

• Banishment: Augustine represents a stage where the formula is anchored in a struggle against "the darkness" of human nature.
• The Return: Freud later "banished" Augustine’s God but kept the psychological mechanics of the struggle (renaming sin as neurosis).
• Sri Aurobindo’s View: Aurobindo would likely see Augustine as a pioneer of the "psychological depth" needed for transformation, but would argue that Augustine’s focus on "sin" and Freud’s focus on "libido" are both partial views of a deeper Divine Shakti waiting to be liberated from the subconscient. 

Would you like to examine how Augustine’s concept of "Grace" compares to Sri Aurobindo’s concept of the "Divine Mother’s Help" in managing these unconscious drives?

- GoogleAI https://share.google/aimode/DuMjOz2Jz5Ug3SE2X