A further ascent of life, in the next stage, is characterised by an instinctive capacity to react to external stimuli for the purpose of self-preservation, as may be usually seen in plant life or in the lower species of living bodies, such as the insect or the earthworm, whose life can with difficulty be called a life of consciousness at all in the proper sense of the term. A further push of the urge of life manifests itself as a deliberate tendency to self-preservation, which may be said to be the crudest form of personal selfishness, whose intention is merely to preserve oneself as a physical individual even at the cost of other such individuals, even if it may mean the death of others for the preservation of one’s own life. Rudimentary forms of this tendency can be seen in the vegetable kingdom and in the wild life of animals.

Life’s urge is incomplete without the pressure towards self-reproduction which goes hand in hand with the desire to preserve one’s individuality. The great drama of empirical life, in any level of its manifestation in the phenomenal realms, may be summed up in the impetuous activity of the twin forces of self-preservation and self-reproduction. Like the right hand and the left hand of a single person, these two forces press forward parallelly to fulfil the great purpose of the diversifying nature. In man, the crowning phase of the evolving species, self-consciousness, intellect and reason reveal themselves.

But, man is also an animal, though a social one, and he cannot be said to be free from the urges of the lower biological stages through which he has passed to come to the human level. Strictly speaking, human nature, as distinguished from the animal, in its pure and simple form, should be regarded as that special prerogative and character which considers other individuals as equivalent to one’s own self, both in weakness and in strength, in one’s present needs and future aspirations—a character that may be called humane. But the man of the world does not represent in himself this form of unadulterated humanity, as might be expected from his being the much esteemed homo sapiens. Human nature, as it is revealed in personal life and public activity, is mixed up with the features of the lower levels. This is the glory of man as well as his foible. An analysis of the biological and psychological structure of the human individual would show that he can sleep like a brute, be selfish like a beast, yield to passions with demoniacal pleasure, and assert his ego in as intolerable a manner as could be conceived. Not only this, there is that dangerous operative faculty in man called the intellect which can act as a double-edged sword, cutting both ways. It is this strange feature of the human understanding that employs a weapon as its trump card in the form of a ‘rationalisation’ of the passions, urges and instincts of the lower nature. For instance: “If I get angry, I do it for a righteous cause. If I exhibit an inordinate love or attachment to anyone, it is a ‘Platonic’ sympathy of love that I manifest in a divine manner. If I wreak revenge on someone, it is in the interest of justice and fair play, for the purpose of social peace and common good. If I attack another, it is for self-defense, which is obviously a justifiable reason. The defective, the ugly and the erroneous are engendered by factors outside, beyond one’s control, while one honestly tries to be reasonable, just, serviceful and good in a harmonious manner.” Apart from these blatant forms of self-justification and rationalisation of instincts, there are several other generalised shapes of the ‘defence mechanisms’ of the mind, employed for the preservation of the psycho-physical organism and for its perpetuation through the species.

The ‘self-consciousness of man’ is the principle of the ego and individuality. Researches in psychology have revealed that living beings below the human level lack self-consciousness in the intensity in which it blossoms itself in man. It is this specific reason which explains the incapacity of the sub-human species to conduct logical processes of induction and deduction in daily affairs, remember the past and anticipate the future in a mathematical and logical form, as man does. But, this special endowment raising man above the subhuman level, also at the same time, acts as a serious obstacle to leading a harmonious life with other people, especially. For, self-consciousness is often blended with egoism of an autocratic nature, which refuses to give due credit to people around and delights in affirming its supremacy over others. Metaphysicians explain that egoism is an unfortunate product of a mutual superimposition between consciousness and the principle of individuality, which on the one side lifts up the banner of the indisputable supremacy of consciousness, and the separatist tendency of individuality on the other.

The psycho-biological organism is afflicted with hunger and thirst, heat and cold, fatigue and sleep. These concomitants of the organic individuality persist in all living beings, right up to the human level, so that, in respect of these characteristics of the organism, man is one with the lower species. The cause of these instinctive reactions of the body-mind-complex is obviously a type of self-consciousness, latent or patent, which cuts off the individual from the cosmic forces of Nature. It should follow from this understanding of the reason behind these natural sufferings of the individual that the greater the intensity of one’s self-consciousness the more also is the suffering and the pain, and the lesser the intensity thereof the greater is the sense of freedom from the pain of dependence on externals. The psycho-physical nature of man as an individual or an isolated unit would be enough explanation of the nature of the ‘original sin’ due to which the angelic Adam was exiled from the Garden of Eden. This is the story of the ‘Paradise Lost’, that fateful epic of the ‘primordial fall’ occasioned by the soul’s revolt against the Absolute.

The greed for name, fame, power and authority is an essential part of the ego of man, such that these may be regarded as the ingredients of human nature in general. The urge of the ego for standing above others in all possible aspects is a subtle artifice contrived by the distorted consciousness in affirming its universal subjectivity and lordship through the media of space, time and objectivity. Hence, the ego, with its craze for fame, power and authority, may be rightly regarded as a disease of consciousness which struggles under the delirium of an illusion that it is pursuing a praiseworthy end while, in fact, in the manifestation of such desires, it is only exhibiting a headlong rush towards the precipice of bondage and sorrow. Side by side, the phenomenon of death pursues the individual like a shadow, and freedom from this unfortunate end-result of all human endeavour does not become possible until individuality itself is retrieved from the basic error of the false notion that it is even possible to conceive such a thing as one’s separation from the Absolute. Death is inseparably connected with rebirth, and is a natural corollary of one’s involvement in the complex of space-time-objectivity. It is the fear of death that compels one to protect oneself against external attack, internal disharmony and the insecurity characteristic of the unknown future that is awaiting everyone in the history of evolution.

Self-consciousness does not end with itself as a final achievement in the evolutionary process but manifests difficulties of an unforeseen nature. The affirmation of individuality is simultaneous with the perception of other persons and things as objects to oneself. And this phenomenon is perhaps the most difficult one to understand; for, the perception of an object by a subject is not merely a bare ‘awareness’ of something outside the subject but it involves a positive ‘judgment’ which the subject passes upon the object. This judgment is always a decree proclaimed under the auspices of the fundamental laws framed by the constitution of the subject itself, according to its own structure, aims and objects. This judgment would imply that all change and error, disharmony and discrepancy should be attributed to the object rather than the subject, because the subject cannot see these defects in itself, it being the vehicle of that supernal consciousness which can brook no rival, disorder, ugliness or defect of any kind. Thus, the very act of the perception of an object implies an opposition with the object, explaining perhaps why two persons cannot be friends for all time to come. For permanent friendship between two persons would require an unchangeable affinity of character between the subject and the object, which should be an utter impossibility, for the subject can never become the object, nor the object the subject. This ‘cold war’ between the perceiving centre and the perceived form outside remains in a state of imperceptible ebullition of condition until it breaks out into an actual war wherein the subject decides upon the destruction of the object; for the existence of the object is a perpetual violation of and a threat to the independence and supremacy of the subject. Humanity does not need a better commentary on itself.

But how is this possible? Can anyone harbour in one’s bosom a desire to annihilate the other and be at peace with oneself? Naturally, the answer is a ‘no’. But, then, what happens to the impossibility of the subject to tolerate the presence of the object, for reasons well-known? The subject strikes a via media and reconciles itself with the only possible course left: destroy not the ‘object’ itself, but the ‘independence’ of the object, by making it either a part of the very being of the subject, as in love, or subservient to the subject, as in the exercise of power and authority. Where this cultured attitude of a psychological compromise which calls for a shrewd adjustment of oneself with others is lacking in individuals of a baser nature, in whom the lower levels of life have still an upper hand, the intolerance of the presence of the object which defies one’s personal cravings may even precipitate into a desire for the physical destruction of the object. Here we have the true ‘phenomenon of man’, wherein are hidden the seeds of mankind’s strife and of human restlessness, so glaringly seen in present-day society.