Passing Thoughts
Sri Aurobindo
The Harmony of Virtue
Early Cultural Writings — 1890-1910
Section Nine
Passing Thoughts
Passing Thoughts1
Acara – vicāra – Viveka – Jñānam
Acara
Ācāra — is a mould in which the thing itself rests and feels stable, it is not the thing itself. It is this sense of stability, which is the greater2 value of ācāra; it gives the thing itself the śraddhā, that3 it is meant to abide. It is a conservative force, it helps to preserve things as they are. But it is also a danger and a hindrance4, when change becomes necessary. Conservative forces are either sattwic or tamasic. ācāra with knowledge, observance full of the spirit of the thing itself, is sattwic and preserves the thing itself; ācāra without knowledge, looking to the letter of custom and observance, disregarding the spirit, is tamasic and destroys the thing itself. Intelligent observance and custom are always ready to change, when it is needed5, for they know themselves to be important, but not essential; whereas ignorant6 observance prefers7 to rot rather than change. Tamasic ācāra must be broken8 that the thing itself may be preserved. But if it is broken to pieces by anger or9 prejudice, the thing itself is likely to withdraw from us. It must be loosened and split asunder by the heat of knowledge. The present mould of Hinduism has to be broken and replaced by10 knowledge and Yoga and not11 by the European spirit12.
Vicāra
The use13 of vicāra is urgent in times of transition.
Revolutionary periods14 generate a sort of minds15 who are avicārī, without perception and deliberation, the mind which clings fiercely to the old, because it is old, and that which16 runs violently after the new, because it is new.
Between them rises the self-styled moderate man, who says, “Let us have something of the old and something of the new.”
He is17 no less an avicārī18 than the extremes19.
He swears by moderation as a formula and a fetish and runs after an impossible reconciliation.
It was this kind of thought which Christ had in view, when he said, “You cannot put new wine into old bottles.”
Vicāra never sets up a formula, never prejudges, but questions everything, weighs everything.
When20 a man says — alter your notions and habits on the lines of 
European enlightenment21, vicāra answers: “Let me consider it22.
Why should I assume Europe to be enlightened, India barbarous?
It is possible that Europe23 may be the real barbarian24, Indian knowledge the true enlightened one25, I must see.”
On the other hand, if a man says, “Be an Indian and do as the Indians,” vicāra replies, “I am not sure that I must26 do as the Indians to be27 an Indian.
It may be that the present men of the country have become something which the Indians28 were never29 intended to be.
I must see what Indians have been in the various epochs of our civilisation and find out what is eternal in it30 and what is temporary.
It may be31 that Europeans32 have certain things really Indian, which we have lost.
It is good to be Indian, but to be Indian because of knowledge, not because of prejudice.”
Hinduism itself is based on vicāra, viveka and jñānam, deciding what ācāra is best33 for the preservation of human society and the fulfilment of our individual and associated manhood.
Viveka
Indian vicāra guides itself by viveka.
Vichara, by itself questions and considers, weighs, examines and ponders and so arrives at certain perceptions and conclusions, by which it guides itself.
This is European vicāra and its supreme example is Socrates.
The danger of vicāra is, that if it does not start with certain premises and assumptions, it will end in absolute34 uncertainty of the academic philosophers, who could not be35 sure whether they existed or not.
On the other hand if it starts with premises and assumptions, there is danger36 of these37 premises and assumptions being erroneous and vitiating the conclusions38.
For this reason modern science insists on all the premises being thoroughly proved before the vicāra commences and its method of proof is experiment.
Modern science39 is an application of this principle of experiment to politics, society and every human belief and institution.
This is a rather dangerous business.
In the process of experiment, you may get an explosion, which may40 blow society out of existence and bring a premature end to the experiment.
Moreover you may easily think a premise proved, when it is not.
Science has had to abandon notion after notion, which it thought were based41 on unshakably proved42 premises.
Nothing was thought more certainly proved than that the process of breathing was necessary to life.
But we know in India 
that a man can live without breathing.
The principle of proof by experiment was known to the ancient Indians, but just as the Europeans, dissatisfied with vicāra, progressed beyond it to vicāra guided by experiment, so the Indians, dissatisfied with experiment progressed beyond it to vicāra and experiment, guided by Viveka, intuition43 and inspired judgment, gained by a previous purification of the organs of thought and knowledge.
The modern Indians have lost this guide and are compelled to rely on āptavākyam or authority, the recorded opinions of men who had viveka, or traditions and customs founded on an ancient enlightenment.
This is unsatisfactory, because we do not know that we have the opinions correctly recorded44 or that the traditions and customs have not been distorted by time and error.
We must recover and go back to the fountain-head.
Jñānam
There are four operations in the Indian method of knowledge. First, the inquirer purifies his intellect by stilling45 of passions46, emotions47 and prejudgments48 and old saṃskāras or associations. Secondly, he subjects received knowledge to a rigid scrutiny by sceptical vicāra, separating opinion from ascertained truth, mere conclusions from facts. Even the facts he takes as only provisionally true and is prepared to find his whole knowledge to be erroneous, misapplied or made up of half-truths. Thirdly, he experiments to get49 upalabdhi or personal experience. Fourthly, he again uses vicāra in order to ascertain how far his experiment50 really carries him and what he is or is not justified in concluding from it. Lastly, he turns the light of the viśuddha buddhi on the subject and by inspired discrimination arrives at jñānam. The conclusions of viveka51 he does not question, because he knows by experience that it is a fine and accurate instrument. Only he is on his guard against mistaking vicāra for viveka, and is always prepared to balance and amplify his conclusions by fresh truth52 he had not considered and to find that there is another side to truth than the one with which he is familiar. He does not like the European scientists53, wed himself to previous generalisations and theories or consider every fresh enlargement of knowledge an imposture54.
Circa 1910
Later edition of this work: The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo.- Set in 37 volumes.- Volume 1.- Early Cultural Writings (1890 — 1910).- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2003.- 784 p.
1 First published in The Standard Bearer, 26 September 1920
2 2003 ed.: great
3 2003 ed.: the faith that
4 2003 ed.: and hindrance
5 2003 ed.: when change is needed
6 2003 ed.: Ignorant
7 2003 ed.: observance and custom consider themselves the thing itself, rage against the hand that touches them and prefer
8 2003 ed.: achar is a rotten mould which has often to be broken to pieces in order that
9 2003 ed.: and
10 2003 ed.: but by
11 2003 ed.: not
12 2003 ed.: European spirit, and it is an Indian and not an English mould that must replace it.
13 2003 ed.: need
14 2003 ed.: times
15 2003 ed.: two sorts of mind
16 2003 ed.: and the mind which
17 2003 ed.: The moderate man is
18 2003 ed.: less avichari
19 2003 ed.: the men of extremes
20 2003 ed.: If
21 2003 ed.: enlightened Europe
22 2003 ed.: that
23 2003 ed.: the people of Europe
24 2003 ed.: barbarians
25 2003 ed.: enlightenment
26 2003 ed.: ought to
27 2003 ed.: Indians in order to be
28 2003 ed.: something Indians
29 2003 ed.: not
30 2003 ed.: the civilisation
31 2003 ed.: may even be
32 2003 ed.: that the Europeans
33 2003 ed.: is the best
34 2003 ed.: in the absolute
35 2003 ed.: not even be
36 2003 ed.: is a danger
37 2003 ed.: the
38 2003 ed.: conclusion
39 2003 ed.: European progress
40 2003 ed.: will
41 2003 ed.: thought based
42 2003 ed.: proven
43 2003 ed.: intuitive
44 2003 ed.: correctly or completely recorded
45 2003 ed.: by the stilling
46 2003 ed.: passion
47 2003 ed.: emotion
48 2003 ed.: prejudgment
49 2003 ed.: experiments in order to get
50 2003 ed.: experience
51 2003 ed.: of the vivek
52 2003 ed.: truths
53 2003 ed.: scientist
54 2003 ed.: knowledge on new lines charlatanry and imposture.