Sri Aurobindo, Agnosticism, and the Unknowable

Abstract

Many readers of Sri Aurobindo consider him a theist and many of his writings seem to support this view, but it does not do justice to the complexity of his position. He was a theist who wrote on the value of atheism, a gnostic who understood the utility of agnosticism. As a young man in England, he rejected religion and adopted the agnostic position. He also became interested in the idea of the “Unknowable,” a term popularized by Herbert Spencer and much discussed in philosophical circles at that time. Some linked the idea of the Unknowable to philosophical agnosticism, the view that certain knowledge of things beyond the reach of the senses is impossible. Sri Aurobindo wrote about the Unknowable and agnosticism in some of his exegetic and philosophical works. He discussed the idea of the unknowability of the Brahman in commentaries on the Upanishads. In The Life Divine, he wrote about the Unknowable and about philosophical agnosticism, saying that “a certain kind of Agnosticism is the final truth of all knowledge.” The only way to get beyond this was to rise to gnosis or supermind. For those who have not yet reached those levels of consciousness, agnosticism may be the only honest intellectual standpoint.