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<p class="paracenter"><b>Section Four </b>
</p>
<br><hr></p>
<p class="paracenter"><b>XV
</b>
</p>
<br>
<p class="paracenter"><b>THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE </b>
</p>
<p class="paracenter"></p>
<p class="para"> Human language was born out of 
the necessity of intercommunication among human beings living together. The 
necessity naturally related to the physical life and its demands and 
requirements. Man being a mental being sought intercommunication through his 
mind. So mind yoked to the physical demands gave the first form and pattern to 
human speech.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> Language in the beginning must 
have been an echo or a graphic expression of man's sense-bound mind. But as the 
mind developed, became more and more rational and intellectual, language also 
tended to become more and more abstract and intellectualised. Even so at its 
best, language could be the vehicle and embodiment of man's mental and 
intellectual world.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> But man moves on, his mind opens 
on new horizons, his consciousness is not tethered to sense-experiences nor even 
limited to the region of thought and ideation built or grown in accordance with 
the mode and schema of sense-experiences.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> Man began to possess, to acquire 
intuitions and inspirations, that is to say, movements of consciousness that lie 
beyond the frame given by the sense-mind. These new perceptions could naturally 
be expressed with difficulty through what one may call the earth-nurtured or 
earthbound
</p>
<p class="para">
<br>
</p><p class="pageno">Page-59</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">language. The aerial 
luminous character of the mystic consciousness is always said to be beyond 
speech, beyond even mental formulation.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> And yet poets, mystic poets have 
always sought to express themselves, to express something of their experience 
and illumination through the word, the human tongue. It is extremely interesting 
to see how a material, constructed or formed to satisfy the requirements of an 
ordinary physical life is being turned into an instrument for luminous and 
effective communication and expression of other truths and realities in the 
hands of these seer-creators <i>(kavi-kratu</i>&#7717;<i>). </i>
They take the materials from ordinary normal life, familiar objects and happenings but use them as images and allegories putting into them a new sense and a new light. Also they give a new, unfamiliar turn to their utterance, a new syntax, sometimes uncommon construction and novel vocabulary to the language itself so that it has even the appearance of something very irre­gular and twisted and obscure. Indeed obscurity itself in the expression, in the form of the language has often been taken as the very sign of the higher and hidden experience and mumination.</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> The Vedic rishis speak of the 
different levels of speech —the human language is only one form of speech, its 
lowest, in fact the crudest formulation. There are other forms of speech that 
are subtler and subtler as one rises in the scale of consciousness. The highest 
formulation of language, the supreme Word—<i>v</i>&#257;<i>k</i>
—is 'OM'—<i>n</i>&#257;<i>da —</i>&#347;<i>abda-brahma<b>. 
</b> </i>That is the supreme speech-vibration.</p>
<p class="pageno">Page-60</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">the rhythmic articulation of the 
Supreme Consciousness Sachchidananda; the expression there is nearest to 
silence, almost merges into silence.</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> Our human language cannot expect 
to attain that supreme height of felicity of expression but wherever something 
of the vibration has been communicated to it by the magic hand of the creative 
poet, we have the 'mantra', the supreme, the mantric poetry.
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-61</p>
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