For verification of this paper, please visit on http://www.socialresearchfoundation.com/anthology.php#8

Both Sri Aurobindo and Fredrick Nietzche are considered philosophical pioneers in eastern and western philosophy respectively. They both proposed a concept of the ‘superman’ which defines man in terms of the transcendent. However, certain fundamental differences between the two render both mostly distinct from each other, while there are also certain similarities between the two which propose similar themes and narratives despite their many differences. Interestingly enough both the thinkers, while being complete opposites of one another, did propose similar ideas on certain topics which come from their own different philosophies but propose the same concept. There to compare and contrast the two, the current research papers will first study both the thinkers’ concepts individually for background and then present a comparative study between the two.

The objective of this paper is to do a comparative study between the transcendent in Nietzche’s and Aurobindo’s Philosophy.

For this paper many books like 'On Himself', 'Renaissance in India and Other Essays on Indian Culture', 'The Life Divine', 'The Mother and Letters on Yoga', 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for all and None', 'Nietzche’s Superman' has been reviewed.

Nietzche and the Superman:

Frederick Nietzche (1844-1900) is known as many things; as a philosophical revolutionary, as a blasphemous who killed god, as an aristocrat who valued individual superiority over the collective good, as a cultural Guru who emphasized ethics more than morality, and a superman whose extensive works on these issues undoubtedly contributed hugely to western philosophy contributed hugely to western philosophy as we know today. His criticisms of culture and religion are derived mainly from his psychoanalytical methodology. Thus, for him the concept of transcendence is highly defined (and often restricted) by the psychological elements of the human mind. Introduced in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, published in four parts between 1883 and 1885. The Superman (Ubermensch), according to Nietzche, goes beyond the average human not by rising above spiritually or physically, but by becoming an ambitious, egotistical, manly and indifferent materialist who sees himself as above the average human being. Needless to say, Nietzche’s Superman is at many levels indicative of the man himself. Nietzche was a proponent of imperialist, aristocratic anti-religious philosophies and a harsh critic of religious sentiment that existed in the European culture. Superman is the ideal that exists. According to Simmel, the Superman is the ultimate evolution of the human mentally. It is merely in thought that this evolution exists: “The Superman is nothing but the crystallization of the thought that man can develop beyond the present stage of his existence- and hence should.” (qtd in Salter, 423). The idea of the ‘superman’ as popularized in the media, characterized by physical strength and superhuman physical abilities or in spiritual traditions by becoming closer to God are both ridiculous for this superman. His superhuman attributes are defined not by physical or spiritual strengths, but very human and materialistic factors which work to aid him becoming like a god towards these things psychologically. This psychological superiority too is not determined by factors like a super-computing mind being able to do things like complex calculations, it is determined by one’s approach towards knowledge of life, not life itself. The Superman makes his own values, and therefore does not need any spiritual guidance. He also knows it is ludicrous for one to expect physical evolution to help achieve greatness. Thus, Nietzche’s superman’s ‘super’ qualities come from ambitions coupled with the necessity of acceptance of limitations, and psychological vigour to do one’s best to fight against it to achieve one’s own, tangible greatness. Unlike the exaggerated greatness which makes uncertain promises of greatness after life.

Sri Aurobindo’s Concepts of Evolutionary Consciousness and the Supermind:

Sri Aurobindo was a freedom revolutionary, poet, spiritual leader, and philosopher. For the major portion of his life, his aim was to help people walk on the path of spirituality. For him, the ultimate truth was the slow but inevitable evolution of human consciousness in the Divine-Consciousness. While the Supermind is one of the stages of evolutionary consciousness, it is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is realized when not only the mental but the physical planes too become one with the ultimate Truth-Consciousness. According to Sri Aurobindo, roughly the evolutionary stages of consciousness are The Inconscient, the Subconscient, the physical proper, the Subtle physical, the Vital Mind, the Higher Mind, the Illuminated Mind, the Intuitive Mind, the Overmind, the Supermind, and the Truth-Consciousness (or the Sacchidananda) (Aurobindo, 1970, 232-277). Of these, the Supermind exists amongst other stages in a perpetually harmonious ongoing process of evolution of consciousness, until everything becomes one with the Truth-Consciousness (which Sri Aurobindo also calls Shakti, Brahma, Sacchidananda and Mother amongst other things).

The Supermind, coming after the Overmind in the evolutionary process, unifies what was separated in the Overmind. The Spiritual Devas (Gods) as aspects of the Truth-Consciousness were scattered in the Overmind, assumed as different experiences. These Gods are essentially the emanations of the Divine Consciousness gone through involution to become cosmic personalities. These are not impersonal entities, however, as they are aspects of the Adya Shakti (The Transcendent Mother), though Sri Aurobindo clarifies that they are capable of disguising themselves amongst the impersonal movements. They are unified in the Supermind, having evolved from the Purusha to the Purushottama:

“But while in the Overmind and the triple world they appear as independent beings, they return in the Supermind into the One and stand there united in a single harmonious action as multiple personalities of the one Person, the divine Purushottama” (454)

Thus for Sri Aurobindo the whole process of transcendence is not about ambition or even rising above the normal. For him, the transcendence is about surrendering oneself to the Divine. Evolution for him is done via a mutual agreement between the Divine and the seeker to let the divine enter into one’s mind.

The Superman and the Supermind: A Comparative Study Both Sri Aurobindo and Nietzche were linguistic masters and both served as professors. The most prominent difference between the thought process of the two comes from their personal and cultural life. Sri Aurobindo, even during his time receiving education in England, was highly influenced by Indian culture and spoke against the materialist western culture. Nietzche, on the other hand, can be seen as the pioneer of a strictly western thought process. Thus both of their concepts of the Superman and the Supermind follow suit. Superman is the ultimate man, ambitious and indifferent to whatever may be in his way. He is also selfish and values individuality over morality. God is not something to be concerned about for him, as the world has enough for him to conquer. Supermind, on the other had, is merely a phase in the great pursuit of the Divine Consciousness. The spiritual evolution of Consciousness is forever ongoing, and as man gets to experience these higher stages of evolution of Consciousness, he becomes a little more familiar with the Divine Consciousness. However, it is not possible for man to become one with the Divine Consciousness in the mortal form.These two concepts are fundamentally opposites in this regard. Nietzche’s anti-religious sentiment itself presents a heavy contradiction with Sri Aurobindo’s highly religious symbolism and preachings. However, both ultimately say somewhat the same things. For Sri Aurobindo, spirituality was not about religion. On the contrary, he said that “too much religion” could have been one of the reasons why India fell into the clutches of the alien (Aurobindo, 1977, 37). Rather, he pointed out the western approach of looking at the word ‘religion’ was the real problem. This might very well have affected Nietzche’s interpretation of the religious. When referring to customs of organized religion, there is no doubt that both Nietzche and Sri Aurobindo were rather dismissive of their importance. Although Sri Aurobindo did emphasized the importance of unity under religion (such as with Bhawani Mandir, a pamphlet in which he asked people to unite and fight for freedom religiously) Ultimately, Nietzche’s Superman was a result of years of meditation in solitude, much like what Sri Aurobindo did with his concept of Integral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo went from a naitonalist revolutionary to a spiritual leader after his year of constant meditation in solitary confinement in Alipore jail.

For Sri Aurobindo, the Supermind is merely a phase in the process of evolution of consciousness. However, it is the second last phase of evolution and the final phase which man can somewhat experience within the mortal self by practicing Internal Yoga (Sri Aurobindo’s method of Yoga practice) and not resisting when the divine wills to enter the seeker’s body. The Superman, on the other hand, came out of a decade of meditation after having transformed from just a man. For Nietzche, this is an ultimatum when it comes to human transcendence. In the opening lines of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he declares:

“Lo, I teach you the Superman! Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Superman SHALL BE the meaning of the earth!” (Nietzche, 11) Yet another major distinction between the two is how one achieves the status of Superman or Supermind. For Nietzche, it is clear that one had to meditate and ponder, not spiritually, or in solitude, and there one must be enough for himself to come to such a status. In other words, the person should be self-chosen and there are usually no outside factors determining the transcendence. “...you that withdraw, you shall one day be a people: out of you, who have chosen themselves, shall arise a chosen people- and out of them the Superman.” (Nietzche, 78). For Sri Aurobindo on the other hand, the experience of the Supermind comes from a mutual agreement between the seeker and the divine. He had repeatedly emphasized the fact that human beings can only fasten the process of evolution of consciousness, and it is ultimately an evitable truth that it is only possible if the divine wills so (Aurobindo, 2012, 26).

However, these differences are most prominently due to their cultural backgrounds and lifestyles. Zarathustra emerges as the Superman after ten years of solitary meditations from the mountains. He is a prophet, who while talking about transcendence, has his philosophy and teachings rooted very much in the cultural norms. He preaches how to conquer the materialist world, not how to go beyond it. However, Sri Aurobindo was not completely beyond the aesthetic world either. In fact, unlike other major spiritual schools like Buddhism, his spirituality does not demand a complete discard of the material world in favour of a spiritual pursuit. Rather for him, aesthetic beauty (and by extension attachment) too is all but a valuable part of the greater spiritual pursuit. For example, he talks about how practicing Integral Yoga helped him gain knowledge about painting and appreciate good art (Aurobindo, 1985, 226-227)

Yet another area where their ideologies are crafted differently yet end up saying the same thing is their approach to the concept of knowledge. Nietzche was a western philosopher whose criticisms came primarily from his psychoanalytical approach. Thus for him, knowledge too was merely a construct of society. He roughly follows the Foucaldian idea of the conception of knowledge. For Nietzche, there is only subjective knowledge which comes from an individual's perspective, as a derivative of their identity. Sri Aurobindo presents a similar theory, however a little more complex. Sri Aurobindo classified knowledge into four stages: Knowledge by Separative Indirect Contact, Knowledge by Separative Indirect Contact, Knowledge by Direct Contact, and Knowledge by Identity (Aurobindo, 2005, 543-44). Of these, knowledge by identity is the ultimate and purest form of knowledge. This knowledge is merely the knowledge of realization of one’s existence in the vast world of Truth-Consciousness. What is generally considered knowledge, i.e. Knowledge by Separative Direct Contact is the most inferior form of knowledge. It is avidya (or non-knowledge)

Both Nietzche and Sri Aurobindo were prominent philosophers of their time. The major difference in their philosophies depends on the nature of the themes. Sri Aurobindo was mainly a spiritual leader and even during his time as a naitonalist in India he was heavily attracted by India’s rich spiritual history and wanted to preserve it from the materialistic western world. Of course, both of these thinkers were more or less complete opposites of each other. However, there are certains things which fundamentally connect the two. Both emphasized the importance of subjective knowledge, both presented their concepts of transcendence in the light of solitary meditation, both individuals were linguistic masters and university professors who emphasized a freedom from the alien. However, it is evident that while Nietzche was a social critic and philosopher, Sri Aurobindo was a spiritual leader first and foremost, and thus it is the respective lives that their philosophies come from. Yet it is interesting to note how these two completely different thinkers coined similar concepts which have so greatly affected the school of philosophy since decades.

1. Aurobindo, Sri. Letters on Yoga, Vol.1.3^rd ed., Lotus Press, 1970
2. On Himself. Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, 1985
3. Renaissance in India and Other Essays on Indian Culture, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1977
4. The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, 2005
5. The Mother and Letters on Yoga, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, 2012
6. Nietzche, Fredrick. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for all and None Translated by Thomas Comman. Fingerprint Classics Edition, Prakash Books India, 2020
7. Salter, William M. “Nietzche’s Superman.” The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, vol. 12, no. 16, 1915, pp. 421-38. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2013575