The aim of the Sri Aurobindo Institute for the study of Consciousness, Psychology and Social Development is to explore and develop what an integral, consciousness-centered worldview can contribute to psychology and social development.
Science and technology are providing humanity with an unprecedented ability to satisfy needs and desires, but not with the wisdom to use these new powers well.
The main knowledge systems that humanity has inherited from its past are not well-equipped to handle this issue. Religion and local culture still give many people a sense of belonging and shared values, but they are inherently communal and conservative, and as a result they can stand in the way of progress and a wider human harmony. For some individuals, spirituality gives a sense of inner freedom and fulfilment, but spirituality tends to remain an individual effort with little visible effect on the society at large. Science has unlimited energy, optimism and an undaunted eagerness for progress, but till now its successes have all been in the physical domain, and this leaves us with an inner emptiness, because our lives are not primarily physical. We live in our feelings, our thoughts and relationships, we care for meaning, love, commitment, beauty and simple goodness, things to which science has little to contribute. Its understanding of human nature is too limited and it has not yet made sufficient progress in the subjective domain.
In this situation, there are two unique contributions which the Indian civilisation can make. The first is a genuinely integral understanding of reality in all its complexity. Its earliest formulations can be found in some of the oldest Indian texts like the Rig Veda, the early Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. The "Vedic paradigm" given in these texts functioned like a loving grandmother to the enormous variety of spiritual, philosophical, religious and cultural schools which India later brought forth. Outside India, it has been mainly these later traditions that have made an impact, and there can be no doubt about their value for therapy and self-development. The older, more integral tradition is interesting for a different reason. It is its ability to support and nurture in an impartial (and often surprisingly modern) manner the entire range of human efforts at understanding and improving the world and ourselves, whether religious, cultural, spiritual, or scientific. As science and technology are removing the distances that used to keep people and cultures apart, humanity is much in need of such an integral framework for understanding all aspects of reality, and all the different ways people are dealing with them. In modern times, Sri Aurobindo is the main exponent of the integral Indian tradition.
The second major contribution India can make to modern science consists of effective methods for the rigorous study of consciousness and the subjective domain. Such methods can be found throughout the tradition, but perhaps most distinctly in the various schools of jnanayoga. In this area too, Sri Aurobindo's writings contain a rich source on how they can be used for the future, and especially for the study of consciousness, psychology and social development.
Together these two contributions can help to bring spirituality and a deeper and more effective understanding of psychology within the reach of mainstream science, and with that, create the possibility for a more rounded, more integral development of humanity.
The core objective of the Sri Aurobindo Institute for Consciousness, Psychology and Social Development is then to develop a new science of psychology based on the Indian tradition with its detailed knowledge and know-how about consciousness and its methods for rigorous research in the subjective domain. Combining the depth and beauty of the world's religious, cultural and spiritual traditions with the mental discipline, rigour and rectitude of science, it aspires to develop the integrality, depth, height and wideness of understanding that humanity needs to realise the perfection, truth and bliss towards which it is striving.