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The normal society treats man essentially as a physical, vital and
mental being. For the life, the mind,
the body are the three terms of
existence with which it has some competence to deal. It develops a
system of mental
growth and efficiency, an intellectual, aesthetic and
moral culture. It evolves the vital side of human life and creates
an
ever-growing system of economic efficiency and vital enjoyment, and
this system becomes more and more rich, cumbrous
and complex as
civilisation develops.
Depressing by its mental and vital overgrowth the natural vigour of
the physical and animal man,
it tries to set the balance right by
systems of physical culture, a cumbrous science of habits and remedies
intended
to cure the ills it has created and as much amelioration as it
can manage of the artificial forms of living that are necessary
to its
social system. In the end, however, experience shows that society tends
to die by its own development, a sure
sign that there is some radical
defect in its system, a certain proof that its idea of man and its
method of development
do not correspond to all the reality of the human
being and to the aim of life which that reality imposes.
-Sri Aurobindo
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