Abstract

The paper delves into the nature and origin of ideas, words, meanings, speech, and language from the perspective of Indian mystics and philosophers Abhinavagupta and Sri Aurobindo. To provide historical context, we begin with the Eastern viewpoint, starting with the Vedic interpretation, which posits that the source of all speech is the transcendent sound, known as the ‘Word’. Later, Abhinavagupta delineates the genesis of words as a four-level process within consciousness, where mystic sounds gradually acquire concreteness in the form of human language. In the 20th century, Sri Aurobindo extended Abhinavagupta’s framework, envisioning all words as stemming from mind-impressions elicited by seed-sounds bearing psychological qualities. Moreover, according to Sri Aurobindo, the universe and its natural phenomena represent the expression of a creative transcendental Real-Idea, which serves as the foundation for all meanings, signs, words, and human language and Nature itself. Language, therefore, becomes an instrument for the expression of divine consciousness in manifestation. Finally, it is shown how the integration of Western and Eastern philosophies into a synthetic framework that unifies the diverse positions opens interesting venues that could reconcile many apparent inconsistencies within modern philosophy and science, especially in the philosophy of language, evolutionary linguistics, cognitive sciences, neuroscience, and AI.