Internet and Supermind
In the ontology of Aurobindo , the supermind plays an important role as the divine principle which enables the direct and intuitive perception of truth raising mankind from the dualities of life and above the limiting influence of the ego and to enable the soul to experience Sachidananda which is infinite and full of bliss.The supermind enables the soul to discover all other souls as existing within the One divine principle rather than as separate divided entities which is responsible for the conflicts and suffering in the world.Essentially it is the agent that brings about spiritual communism and enables the establishment of harmony and the kingdom of God on earth , the Golden Age , our Satya Yuga.
The supermind according to Aurobindo exists in three poises.The first poise is the one in which we see the unity of everything , as just an expression of the Brahman.The second poise is the one in which we see the one , multiplying to be the many , and the Many reorganizing itself as the one.Here the accent is on the ability of sachidanada to be the One and the Many simultaneously.The third poise or the highest poise is where based on the Brahman and the ability of the One to be the Many and the Many to be One , there is a further individuation and the existence of the separate and distinct individual arising from the Sachidananda , not the divided individual centered in the ego , but the soul centered individal that has risen above all dualities.
The three poises are said to conform to three different philosophies of advaita,vishishta advaita and dvaita.
If we observe the internet especially the world wide web , we see the three poises clearly visible.The reason I have selected the internet is for the simple reason it has a emerged as a very strong binding force of humanity in recent decades.The internet has united humans in a way that was previously inconceivable.It ahs not only brought together people of all nationalities on a common platform but also enabled their communication and interaction , exchange of ideas and sharing of mutual experiences in an unprecedent scale.It transcended national boundaries and has also removed all limitations of the other medias such as newspapers and televison and radio , thus enabling the free interaction of the peoples of the world.
We may say the internet is the first step in creating a global community where people of different nationalities live together and interact freely , which was the dream of Aurobindo and was also the reason why he worked so hard to bring down the supermind from the higher planes.
Firstly we see in the internet all the computers are connected to each other and everyone of them is the same to the other known only by their respective IP addresses.We see in this first poise the internet as a single system , with no individual parts.Even if parts are observed , they are all identical.This is a bird's eye view of the internet from afar , something that most people have , of a one single entity (the internet).This is the advaitic point of view.The sytem dominates the individual parts.In the second poise we become conscious of the many many individual computers making up this single system and yet connected together.This individualist view seamlessly merges and disappears into the System View and once again we see the many individuals arising out of a nebulous single entity , the internet.The One multiplying into Many and the Many becoming one.This would correspond to VA , the orthodox school of thought due to Ramanuja.The third and last view would be when we focus on one single node , with all its individuality , its own unique hardware , OS , software and even its idiosyncracies.Here the individual machine shines in all its unique glory , yet it is part of the internet (the paramadvaita of Madhva) , like the soul immersed in parabrahman , yet distinct from it.The machine also sees other mahcines as part of the same internet and communicates with them.There is identity in essence with other computers , yet there is difference , each machine is unique and has its own address.Yet inspite of the differences , they are all united in Parabrahman(internet) and can be called as parts of parabrahman , yet different.
Just the supermind can exist in all three poises at once and in all places or at different times in different place depending upon the Yogi's own perceptive capabilities , so too the internet exist at all times in all the three poises , its up to the individual to perceive it.