Peter Russell On 'the Evolution Of Consciousness'.

Here is an article by Peter Russell on the evolution of consciousness.

As per the Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism, man's true identity is his Atman or Self , which is thoughtless awareness. However in the course of evolution and civilization, man lost sight of his primary identity, and became fixated on his secondary identity of the intellect-mind-body complex, which in turn leads to egoism, desires , cravings and aversions, and consequent disharmony and chaos, both within and without.

As Sri Sri Ravi Shankar stated, " The imbalance in the human system is due to the limited nature of the senses and unlimited nature of the desires. "

Russell here traces the evolution of consciousness from unicellular organisms to the present day human being, and points out how man's preoccupation with his secondary identity of the intellect-mind-body complex instead of his primary identity of the Atman or Awareness, is responsible to a large extent for the issues the world is facing at the moment from conflict to wars, global warming and weather irregularities, poverty and famines, growing disparity between the 'haves' and 'have-nots'.

By liberating oneself from this self-centredness of the ego created by identification with the intellect-mind-body complex, man would have a better chance of solving the above issues and act appropriately in accordance with his true needs, thereby creating a peaceful and harmonious self and world around him.

 

A similar article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ( founder of the Art of Living Foundation ) on how the mistaken identification with limited charecterestics of a secondary nature, instead of the primary identity of Awareness, leads to conflicts at the personal and global level.