Wednesday, 27 May 2026

Evolution and sakshi bhava

sākṣi bhāva, I think,
is misunderstood -
it is not just passive observation. [1]

Instead it is "objective" [2] 
witnessing
of external and internal events
so as to allow the inner instruments
to learn optimally from them and 
become better,
be transformed,
easily,
effort-less-ly
(sāttvik-ally).

To be precise,
if the 
inner instruments or
inner processes --
egoic activity,
thinking-emoting activity, and
discriminating activity 
(ahaṁkāra, manas, buddhi) --
change,
haven't one's 
behaviour and responses 
also changed?

There is an exact parallel 
in the Montessori method -
a "prepared environment"
for evoking 
effort-less learning
from or within children, 
within students put into 
such an environment.

Humans and
human children, particularly,
have a natural
abstractive or 
generalising or
pattern recognizing ability,
mathematical ability,
spatial ability,
task completion ability.

For the prepared environment 
to work, 
the teacher or facilitator must
- explain/demo a task
  from beginning to end,
- allow the students to 
  choose, do, and 
  repeat a task
  until they are 
  satisfied or satiated, and
- keep them engaged
  in multiple tasks 
  throughout the school day.

Their brains will be happy and
function optimally!

Similarly with sākṣi bhāva,
as applied to human adults.

The entire endeavour is to
remove encrustations,
untwist twisted pathways,
speed up or reset energy flows,
to restore adult human faculties
to a 
process or 
posture or
attitude of
optimal
learning,
integrating, and
negating or potentising.

Why?

Say, from 
a particular potential 
can manifest 
a certain quality.

From a greater 
potential or potency 
can manifest 
a better quality and 
possibly greater quantity.

And vice versa from a lesser potency.

Evolution in simple terms is
being able to do
more and more
with less and less.

(C.f. Babuji's
"more and more of less and less"!)

Evolutionarily,
more output or
better output
with lesser input.

But keep in mind that
input to, and
output from,
a biological system
will not be the same.

A mango tree's output is
oxygen and mangoes, not
water, carbon dioxide, or manure!

And if a mango tree 
can sustain multiple grafts 
of different types of mangoes?

Multiple mango varieties are output.

Again, this 
more potent mango sapling
is the result of 
sākṣi bhāva by humans,
not just as 
observation alone,
but also by learning and
experimenting and
doing -
marketing, selling, 
training, supporting, etc.

In this case, another being 
--a mango tree-- 
has evolved or 
has been made to evolve 
as a result of 
human evolution 
by learning.

Thus natural evolution 
is supported.

In sum, 
change or evolution occurs 
relentlessly, daily, 
in Nature, 
not just as 
a one-way straight curve, 
but in cycles.

And sākṣi bhāva is also actively, 
if effort-less-ly and sāttvik-ally,
evolutionary - transformative, and 
not just a mindless, passive, 
tamasik activity or 
even a mindlessly frenetic 
rajasik activity.

NOTES

[1] Nor is it defeatist fatalism,
       passively submitting to lett
       some other being totally 
       control your life.

[2] By letting go of "meta" activity, 
       egoic activity, 
       a subjective activity,
       an inner and inward activity,
       paradoxically becomes 
       an objective activity,
       usually an outer and outward activity.
       activity.