The Metaphysics of Language - Part II

The origin of speech according to Sri Aurobindo

[Here was Part I]

Sri Aurobindo, the Indian mystic and poet about whose vision of “The World as a Real-Idea” I already wrote, followed in Abhinavagupta’s footsteps of “The Four Levels of Language.”

In line with the Vedic tradition, also for Sri Aurobindo, not only is the origin of language to be found in a non-material sound principle but also the origin of all the universe. In his work about the “Kena and other Upanishads,” the title of the fifth chapter, “The Supreme Word,” already speaks volumes. All creation is an expression of the Word. He reverses the usual assumption of modern linguistics, namely that life came first and speech last, and supposes what might be an absurdity for the Darwinian-minded rationale: Speech came first, life followed. A Speech beyond our speech and mind exists, made of expressions of truths that already pre-exists in the infinite, and of which the human language is only a shadow and artificial counterfeit. The symbols or representations expressed by the human language are only lower forms of the things in themselves residing in another Reality. This is more than just a Platonist conception of language and reality because Aurobindo’s ‘forms’ and ‘objects’ are beyond any mental archetype and have to be found in the supramental Real-Idea (see my post mentioned above.)

“… human speech at its highest merely attempts to recover by revelation and inspiration an absolute expression of Truth which already exists in the Infinite above our mental comprehension. Equally, then, must that Word be above our power of mental construction. All creation is expression by the Word; but the form which is expressed is only a symbol or representation of the thing which is.” - Kena and Other Upanishads, Ch. V, p.29.

Every mental figure of an object that the human tries to express with speech is only a far-off and feeble analogy of something residing in another Reality. The Word on the level of that Reality is much more creative than human speech can do. Nevertheless, human speech is still ‘creative’ in the sense that it can create mental images, forms of emotions, impulses of action and movement, sense-properties, etc. A well-known example is the mantra, which, according to Indian mystics, can produce vibrations in our mental and emotional atmosphere, also with potentially beneficial physical effects. Thought-vibrations create thought-forms that correspond to emotional vibrations that can evoke physical actions. As it is well-known emotions can set us pretty much in motion (it might be worth recalling that the word ‘emotion’ comes from the Latin ‘emovere,’ meaning ‘setting in motion.’)

One might see these as mere metaphors, but according to Aurobindo, this is only because the ordinary human consciousness is not aware of the subtle and non-physical processes. But, if we allow ourselves to entertain the idea of a creative vibration of sound at least as a mere hypothesis, we shall begin to understand the original creative Word. The origin of the supreme Word resides in what Aurobindo called the Supermind—the supreme creative Logos—the highest level of the creative consciousness and gnosis of the Absolute acting in the manifestation (see my previous post on the ‘Real-Idea.’)

“Let us suppose a conscious use of the vibrations of sound which will produce corresponding forms or changes of form. But Matter is only, in the ancient view, the lowest of the planes of existence. Let us realize then that a vibration of sound on the material plane presupposes a corresponding vibration on the vital [emotional plane] without which it could not have come into play; that again presupposes a corresponding originative vibration on the mental; the mental presupposes a corresponding originative vibration on the supramental at the very root of things.” - Kena and Other Upanishads, Ch. V, p.31.

The ‘etheric’ sound vibration on the supramental level is expressive of a supreme discernment of a truth in things and, at the same time, is a supreme power casting it, from plane to plane, into physical forms.

Aurobindo’s cosmology goes beyond a simple body-mind dualism or matter-soul dichotomy. There are several different levels of planes of manifestation and parts of being. Without going too much into the details let us summarize it in four levels of existence: the physical plane, the ‘vital’ or life plane, the mental plane, and the supramental plane. In this view, like our bodies are formed out of the cosmic matter, similarly the mind was formed out of the cosmic mind, and life out of the cosmic life. Our ‘mental vibrations’ derive from the supreme cosmic and trans-cosmic 'supramental vibration’ of which they are a distant echo. The first ‘life vibrations’ are an echo of the mind vibrations. While matter vibrations derive from life vibrations.

Of course, this conception might raise eyebrows. How could matter be a veiled form of life? And life a veiled form of mind, while mind a veiled form of superconscious mind?

A closer inspection reveals no contradiction with what modern science tells us. To the contrary. For modern science, it remains a mystery how dead matter could form living organisms. No less mysterious is the fact that living matter could lead to thinking organisms. And nobody knows where those flashes of intuition and deep spiritual insights come from, other than stating dogmatically that it is some unknown brain machinery, and that future science will tell us. However, if we assume that matter already contained in latency all that it had developed during the evolutionary process, things might make much more sense. That’s also the reason why Aurobindo spoke of an ‘involution’ that preceded evolution.

“Matter could not have become animate if the principle of life had not been there constituting Matter and emerging as a phenomenon of life-in-matter; life-in-matter could not have begun to feel, perceive, think, reason, if the principle of mind had not been there behind life and substance, constituting it as its field of operation and emergent in the phenomenon of a thinking life and body: so too spirituality emerging in mind is the sign of a power which itself has founded and constituted life, mind and body and is now emerging as a spiritual being in a living and thinking body.” The Life Divine, p. 885

A nice metaphor for the descent of this supreme vibration into matter could be the analogy with the white light refracted by a prism into its composite colors. The prism doesn’t produce the colored light ray, it only transmits and separates it into its colors. Similarly, the transcendent sound containing the originative supramental vibration of a Truth-Consciousness full of the light of knowledge with a supreme vision and discernment is not produced by our brain. The brain only transmits it, separates it into thought-vibrations in the mind and life vibrations in our ‘life-body’ that we call ‘emotions,’ and, on the physical level, our voice organs emit ‘matter-vibrations’—that is, sound waves—that retain only a pale reflection of light and knowledge of this original sound.

Anyway, there is no need to accept this view in its entirety other than admitting that other levels or planes of consciousness exist. The vision is that of the ‘Word,’ a vibration from a higher plane, a transcendental sound that percolates from plane to plane, from the Absolute down to the most material planes.

How does this relate to the origin of language?

Aurobindo was primarily focused on the origin of language in the context of the Indian continent, but his theory could be considered a general theory of all human languages. First comes the sound as an archetypal expression of a deeper consciousness, and then the idea. It is in stillness that we can feel the unspoken word (Savitri, p.14.) Transcendental sounds exist that are living, creative forces that determine our ideas. Aurobindo’s basic thesis is that the human words composed of vowels, consonants, and phonemes reflect an original ‘root-sound’ or ‘seed-sound’ as the determining unit of language and that are pregnant with an inner meaning, that the mind can capture only vaguely by a process of division and fragmentation.

As in Abhinavagupta’s theory of the four levels of language, also for Aurobindo the supreme vibration descends from plane to plane casting its truth into forms that express it. On our cognitive level made of words, the supreme Word is expressed by ‘seed-sounds’ which carry in them the principles of things and forms in the phenomenal world.

“Human speech is only a secondary expression and at its highest a shadow of the divine Word, of the seed-sounds, the satisfying rhythms, the revealing forms of sound that are the omniscient and omnipotent speech of the eternal Thinker, Harmonist, Creator. The highest inspired speech to which the human mind can attain, the word most unanalysably expressive of supreme truth, the most puissant syllable or mantra can only be its far-off representation.” - Kena and Other Upanishads, Ch. V, p.33.

Thus, words are living growths of sound with certain seed-sounds as their basis. Out of these seed-sounds developed a small number of primitive root-words that, with time passing by, generation after generation, developed into more complex ramifications of words, still maintaining a common seed-sound descendence.

For Aurobindo, the development of language is only secondarily a cultural development. It is the psychological factor that is the primary force determining the birth of language and its path through history. Aurobindo further developed his theory in “The Secret of the Veda”, in the fifth chapter, “The Philological Method of the Veda.” Here we learn that the human language developed first out of emotions, sensations, feelings, and nervous infra-rational thoughts, indicating an object or occurrence. Words were initially expressions of physical and emotional needs having primarily life-preserving functions, that still weren’t developed into a more coherent structure made of fixed symbols of precise intellectual significances expressing the idea of and about objects. In this first state of language, the word was a more living—i.e., sensational or emotional—force with its ‘sense-value’ and ‘sound-sense’, rather than an intellectual idea.

“In their beginnings language-sounds were not used to express what we should call ideas; they were rather the vocal equivalents of certain general sensations and emotion-values. It was the nerves and not the intellect which created speech.” The Secret of the Veda, p. 51.

Only later did the idea become central, with the sound standing for an idea, and even for properties, qualities, and significances that indicated something beyond sensory and material objects. It was the language that conveyed the deep psychological and mystical ideas of the ancient Rishis. The Sanskrit verses of the Vedic sages still reflected a spiritual fullness that modern language can no longer convey.

Initially, each word could have several meanings, and language expressed most general notions, such as light, motion, touch, substance, extension, force, speed, etc. This multiplicity of meanings should not be confused with the modern separative semantics of the modern word, such as “fleet” meaning a number of ships, or meaning “swift”, not suggesting the swiftness of ships. For example, for the ancient Vedic population “vrika” had a general meaning of the “tearing” or “tearer” and, therefore, among many other possible uses, indicated a wolf. But it was not restricted to nouns, it could be used as an adjective, verb, or adverb at once meaning anything that tears, such as a disruptive force, an enemy, a demon, etc. But while the word without a context was meaningless, in all contexts it was suggestive of ‘tearing’ something apart. This kind of use was clearly visible in the Vedic hymns. Words did not indicate objects but rather were laden with a psychological significance (or should we call it ‘energy,’ or ‘vibration,’ or ‘sound’?) that could be applied in a completely different context, yet without creating conceptual ambiguities. For example, “agni” had a general meaning of “strong," “bright,” “force,” or brilliance.” These qualities could indicate a normal fire, a flow of heat, light, or just something giving wealth, while for the worshiper it could signify the god of fire, a vital principle, or an illumined energy which built up the world, etc. Each word could have many different meanings and each object could be expressed by as many as fifty different words. In this sense words were much more flexible living entities. It was a language filled with vibrations that could express deeper truths and where the connection of the human with the trans-human, and the mind with the spirit, were still present.

How could this sudden evolutionary shift that transitioned from a ‘nerve-based speech’ to a ‘spiritual-minded speech’ come about? And why does our contemporary language no longer preserve such original expressive power and flexibility? As far as I’m aware, Aurobindo wasn’t explicit about this aspect in his philological writings but elsewhere spoke of a stage of humankind that modern humans have lost. Humans might have lived in a spiritual state of inspiration that preceded the proverbial fall of man from a state of knowledge to our present state of ignorance.

As a matter of fact, later words and language shifted from the general to the particular, from the vague to the precise, and from the spiritual to the mental. It is when the mind, the intellect, and the analytic reason with its precision and conceptual sharpness intervened. The single words having multiple meanings—something that can still be found in the Sanskrit language—progressively acquired less flexibility and finally contracted to their present outer and concrete significance. The formal distinction between the action, the agent, and the object arose—that is, the difference between subject, object, noun, and verb.

This might look like a great achievement of the mind. The conceptual clarity and precision of science and mathematics with their precise nomenclature, definitions, and axioms is the extreme embodiment of this psychological and cultural process that allowed us to create all the technological marvels and industrial applications of our modern civilization. But this hardening into the rigid forms of the intellect had and continues to have its downside: The modern word lost the power and its creative and formative vibration that the living word of the Vedic Rishis had.

So much for the historical development of language according to Aurobindo. But this still doesn’t tell us much about the psychological and, what I would call the ‘mystical factors’ of the origin of language

Aurobindo’s main theory of the origin and nature of the “Aryan” speech, what we now call the Indo-European languages, he summarized in a booklet he wrote around 1910 to 1915 entitled “The Origins of the Aryan Speech.” His main focus was the study of Sanskrit because it still preserves the original type and structure of an ancient language with its original system of primitive words and roots, i.e., etymons. It has a transparent derivative system of Grammar that no other language can provide. However, Aurobindo’s perfect mastery of English and his knowledge of Latin and Greece allowed him to create a consistent theoretical framework that applies throughout all Indo-European languages.

He warned against the fundamental mistake of jumping to conclusions by analyzing the identity or similarity of words between languages, and, thereby, assuming that this must indicate a common origin. A community of languages with common terms and vocabulary does not necessarily imply a common civilization. It could equally well signal contact and cohabitation with each other in the past, despite their separate linguistic origin. Aurobindo, instead, proposes to start from ‘root-identities’ and ‘root-meanings,’ deriving it from their ‘sound-identities’ and ‘sound-meaning.’ Because, as already pointed out previously, language did not develop from a fixed set of rules and object-oriented words, as the modern intellect would like it to be, but was born out of a sensational-, quality-, and seed-sound-oriented system of utterances that, most importantly, created ‘mind-impressions’ by the sound.

For example, in Latin the words “doleo” (“I grieve”), “dolenter” (“painfully”), “dolor” (“grief” or “pain”) are interconnected. “Dolus” (“fraud”) “dolosus” (“deceitful”), “dolose” (“deceitfully”), are interconnected. “Dolo” (“I hew,” “cut” or “break”), “dolabra” (an axe), are interconnected. However, there is no proof that these three families are interconnected. Aurobindo invites us to realize that what connects them are not the words but rather their common seed-sound. Here: “dol.” “Dol” to grieve, “dol” to deceive, and “dol” to split are one root and not three and form the basis of a family of words. The single root sound “dol” created an original common mind-impression—that is, meaning— in the minds of the first speaking creatures on this planet. It is the mind-impression of the seed sound, which carries with it a particular expression of an emotion, an intention, a sensation, action, or a particular psychological quality that gave meaning to words first. The different significances were developed, not by an intellectual, but by a psychological movement starting from a sound creating an original common mind-impression that conveys a specific psychological state or quality.

In line with the Vedic tradition, Aurobindo categorized the sound’s qualities in the three gunas of tamas (inertia, darkness), rajas (restlessness, passion), and sattva (equanimity, harmony). It is the guna of sound, that creates a particular impression on the mind and that we associate with that sound. This is what became the basis of what we call the ‘meaning of a word.’ It is the original mental impression caused by the vibrations of the seed-sound that is perceived by the mind as a semantic object. It is by looking at the common seed-sound with its guna (like “dol” with its guna of rajas) that leads us to a unified vision of the origin of languages.

Aurobindo made many more examples of this sort, especially in the Sanskrit language, and concluded not only that one root-sound must have had originally one root-meaning but that also that all kindred root-sounds (such as the kinship of “dol” to “dal”, derivative from the simple root-sound “da”) must also be of one family of words. In the modern language these might convey very disparate meanings but still have a common or kindred meaning (carried by the primitive or secondary and teriary root-sound) that goes back to their root-meanings because of their common guna with its natural mind-impression still contains its seed significance.

Thus, the origin of language according to Aurobindo, has not to be found in a common origin of physical sound-forms (letters, phonemes, words) but in the way these vibrations evoke psychological qualities by their mind-impressions in us producing particular ideas of sensation, motion, action, feelings, contact, sound, form, etc.

Aurobindo’s theory of the origin of language is much more articulated than what I described here. The interested reader may resort to his original writings that go much more in-depth. I hope that, nevertheless, to have been able to convey an intuitive understanding of what this is all about. Moreover, Aurobindo’s theory of the origin of language is only a little subset of his mystic experience and spiritual vision resulting from a spiritual discipline he called ‘Integral Yoga,’ which he summed up in other works like the '“Life Divine,” the “Synthesis of Yoga,” and his epic poem “Savitri.” One can appreciate his vision much better in this broader context. Because, ultimately, the conjecture that speech has its origin in a transcendental sound first, has a much broader metaphysical significance and larger implications that go beyond the human language itself. From this integral perspective, all the Universe is a ‘Word.’ In this sense, a stone, a plant, a tree, an animal, and every human are all ‘words’ spoken, or ‘symbols’ or ‘signs’ manifested by a transcendent vibration or sound as well.

How did the Word became flesh? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” says the Bible (John 1:1-51).

This might be more than a biblical metaphor or mere poetry. From the standpoint of the ‘mystic physicist,’ all material forms are ultimately the creation of an ‘ethereal vibration,’ and all life and its agency an expression of a universal Being. And language makes no exception.

Bibliography

The complete collection of writings about his theory of the origin of language can be found in: “Vedic and Philological Studies” by Sri Aurobindo - Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2016.

“The Origins of the Aryan Speech”, by Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2020.

“Kena and other Upanishads”, by Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2001.

“The Secret of the Veda”, by Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1998.

“The Life Divine”, by Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2005.