to the Lunar Society. He was impressed by two Indian
theories.
1) Theory of Metempsychosis or
Rebirth
2) Theory of the Ten
Incarnations
Evolution states that Life began from the sea and
that our primordial ancestors were aquatic.
The Ten Incarnations Theory (
Dasa Avataras ) is allegorical and symbolic. Life came from the sea ( Matsya
Avatara ) and the unicellular amoeba evolved and evolved, into plants, into apes
and then into man. Man then becomes Enlightened ( The Buddha ) and this is the
Goal of Life, Self Actualisation ( parama purushartha = moksha )
.
Regarding, Metempsychosis. Aurobindo averred “It is illogical to assume
that Plato and the Hottentot and the fortunate child of the Rishies and the
saints have to realise in this very birth their eternal future. ” So for the
Evolution of Consciousness, which is behind the Evolution of the Species, there
have to be many lives.
The East India Company, via Sir Erasmsus Darwin,
took these two theories to the Western world. Sir Eramsus Darwin evolved a new
theory out of it – The Theory of Evolution.
Later on, his grandson,
Charles Darwin, established this theory in the scientific world, as the Law of
Evolution, in his Origin of the Species !