God means traditionally one
who grants our prayers. Only those temples that answer to this description are
popular. This is an important aspect of worship but not in philosophy or yoga. The
Life Divine was mainly addressed to the European intellect to give an
outline or sketches of a new human discovery of the eternal godhead. The result
was like the book of Copernicus on his system read by one whose ocular evidence
was the sun goes around the earth. The Realities The
Life Divine tries to describe are in a plane of Mind that Man does not
know. Hence, the reputation of the Book as “unintelligible”.
Charles Darwin who is the ruling deity of the evolutionary theory
whose book was purchased by an anxious public on the day of its publication to
the last copy, knocked his head against this phenomenon which remains
unaddressed till today. His theory was of the evolution of the form while
evolution is of the consciousness. Hence the unexplained gaps
in the transformation of one species to another. The parts of a whole
together do not make up the whole, as one cardinal element of how the parts
should come together is missing. Life has evolved. Social life too has
evolved. Scholars study the details of the parts such as population, migration,
economy, war, government, etc. The
conception that the society is a whole is still not apparent. Hence phenomena
of life such as terrorism, hippie movement, etc. constantly throw a surprise.
Such surprises were always there in every period.
The institution of marriage
held sacred for ages is being dissolved but what the woman represents to man
remains a mystery. In a higher plane of
life which is truly a plane of spirit in life, there are no mysteries,
nor unanswered questions. Philosophy has not solved the question of creation or
the principle of determinism. Sri Aurobindo who could do such a lofty yoga as
Rajya yoga in three days found the basis of Indian spirituality inadequate. He
moved to an adequate basis in Supermind, apparently guided by Swami Vivekananda
in the subtle plane.
Any satisfactory
comprehension of the Book demands a full understanding of this conception of
the whole which occurs in all His chapters. Issuing out of this basic
conception dealt from a dozen perspectives in the chapter ‘Brahman, Purusha,
Ishwara’, there are 770 subordinate principles spread over 56 chapters. One of
them is Oneness is not One. In all, there are 1452 valid ideas explained
in 1452 paragraphs. The aim of this article is to present such ideas in their
totality so that the reader of The Life Divine will not meet with one
obstacle in the Book. Whether that totality can also be simplicity is the
question. Some near analogies, if not apt examples can bring such simplicity in
some measure. As these intricate phenomena are already half buried in our life,
such an attempt may yield the expected result in some measure.
The example of parts and
whole can be taken up for examination.
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Apparently, this is
contradictory. Common sense dictates that when all the parts of a whole are put
together, it must make up the whole. But, experience can be otherwise. A
machine is made up of 275 parts. We can dismantle it into individual parts. In
bringing them back together, we assume that it is assembled back into the same
old machine. Well, we can collect all the 275 individual parts in a basket. And
that will not make the machine. The machine has a form. The parts fit into each
other in the pattern of that form. The parts are physical. The
Philosophy speaks of good as
the opposite of evil. This is simplicity itself. When philosophy goes further
and speaks of GOOD that is not the opposite of evil, our intellect is
confounded. It is called ‘Self-Existent Good’ and it is said in the higher
consciousness of the higher world there is no evil, only the good. We call it
GOOD. It looks irrational. We can concede the existence of a higher GOOD in a
higher world, but we clearly see our sense of appreciation is left behind. We
are told that it is a world of Light which is not the opposite of darkness, a
world of joy that is not the opposite of pain. We are offered a world of
conceptions we are not used to. They are Truth, Unity, Goodness, Knowledge,
Power, Beauty, Love, Joy, Purity, Silence and Peace. The intellect is hard put
but it is not utterly impossible for it to accept it. Then we come to infinity
which is the opposite of finite. What about Infinity that is Self-Existent and
not the opposite of the finite? He calls Infinity the boundless finite and describes
it as Infinity that retains its infinite character in the plane of finite Time.
Here is a rich field of confusion. Brahman is the Absolute. It is the Infinite
that is Eternal. Brahman is without attributes of form or force. We are told
that because it is without attributes, it is capable of creating anything and
everything on earth. The comprehension of our intellect comes to an end.
The subject matter of The Life Divine lies beyond this finite world. It
is my pious hope to clear this confusion as much as possible, as He has given
us several leads in the Book. In the measure this confusion is cleared, the
Book will reveal itself to the reader.
The ancients discovered
Brahman. It was the ultimate discovery of the human mind. It still remains so.
To them, Brahman was Ineffable, Immutable, Akshara
Brahman. It was Infinity and Eternity. It was featureless. They said it was
incapable of determinism and therefore declared that the world was created by
Mind. Sri Aurobindo too had this experience, early in His yogic life. But He
could go beyond and see that all the above is only one side of Brahman. To
Him, Brahman was mutable too. It was an Infinity that could take on features.
It could determine though It is beyond any
determinism. This experience of His too was another side of Brahman. In
reality, Brahman was capable of both these statuses of being immutable as well
as mutable. As the Rishis saw Brahman was Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, He
too saw, but His experience discovered the fullness that Brahman was. He then
saw that He had moved from Mind to Supermind. The Rishis even in Vedic times
knew of the existence of Supermind but had not risen to that plane to
possess it as a human faculty. To Him, Mind was not the end. It could rise into
what HE called Supermind. Man is not the end, the
Supramental Being is the next species. Mind that is in Time can move to the
plane of Timelessness. But Supermind is in a plane where Time and Timelessness
co-exist. He called it simultaneous integrality of Time eternity and Timeless
eternity. It is this plane that perceives the fullness of Brahman.
He explains in the latter chapters of the Book that Mind is a partial
instrument. It was created for dividing things. It can see only a part of a
whole and therefore Mind saw only one aspect of the Brahman and mistook it as
the whole. To Him, Mind has a range. He calls it spiritual range of Mind. Our
mind is a power of Ignorance which to arrive at an understanding resorts to
thought devoid of sense impressions, though all its impressions reach it
through the five senses. This is the human mind, the lowest level of Mind. This
exists on the surface being in Time and is possessed by the ego as a finite.
Above this surface mind lies the Higher Mind of Silence of the Muni, the
Illumined Mind of the Rishi, the Intuitive Mind of the yogi and the Overmind of
the gods. Below our surface mind is the Inner Mind that is in Timelessness and
beyond it is the subliminal Mind that spreads all over the universe and beyond.
It is a plane of Mind where the Superconscient and the subconscient meet. The
psychic Being, the evolving part of the Immutable Soul is hidden in a cave in
the subliminal mind. To understand the full range of Mind from the subliminal
to the Supermind, their scope, the instruments they use, the popular
terminology given to them, etc. will clear much of the confusion generally
created.
As the Rishis found the
Brahman passive, inactive, immutable, so they saw the Spirit, the inner
subjective experience of Existence, inactive and incapable of movement or
change or growth. To Sri Aurobindo, again, this too is a partial experience of
the dividing Mind. He found the Spirit capable of movement as well as a
moveless static status. In His fuller vision, He was able to see the Spirit in
a greater role in evolution that is preceded by involution. He had this fuller
vision because He had a fuller instrument of Supermind that the ancients never
possessed. This enabled Him to declare a few things:
1.
All the yogas so far done, He said, were yogas of
the surface mind.
2.
They were the yogic realisations of the ego.
3.
His basis is ego is to be dissolved,
the surface is to be crossed to initiate Purna Yoga.
This preliminary effort can
be followed by a summary exposition of the various chapters or at least various
sections of the text. The first of our exercises can be the three dimensions of
existence. In His phraseology, we find the following concepts either exactly in
these words or in phrases that mean as much. They are:
·
Silent activity
Sound of Silence
Noise
of Silent Stillness.
·
Movement of Stillness
Movement of
Status – Sthanu
·
Divided Unity
·
Self-multiplied Identical
·
Form of the formless
·
Dark light
·
Matter that is Spirit
·
Universal Individual
·
Subtle concreteness
·
Infinity of the infinitesimal
·
Part is great than the whole
·
The Inner that includes the outer
·
Determinism of the Indeterminable
·
Ascent in the descent
·
Descent in the ascent
·
Steadied lightning in the sky
·
The Eternal Individual
·
Ignorance that is greater than knowledge
·
The evolving soul
·
Freedom is the final law and the last consummation
·
Freedom that is free to lose its freedom – freedom
in fetters
·
Knowledge that is work
·
The Undivine Divine
·
Memory of the future
·
Imagination that brings the future into the present
·
The ever-present moment
·
The moment of eternity
·
The point of infinity
·
The One that is the Many
All these concepts express
one cardinal spiritual fact which is the idea of Infinity that never decreases
or increases by subtraction or addition. That concept clears the mental
horizon. Sri Aurobindo extends it to our human life which I term as practical
concept of infinity. A full appreciation of infinity and its practical
expressions will remove all the vestiges of lack of clarity.
These three statuses belong
to three dimensions of Time. They are 1) Human time in ignorance of the lower
hemisphere, 2) Timelessness of the higher worlds and 3) Simultaneous Time which
is yet to be born on earth. The successive and processive action of Time is
what we know. Any work of ours needs a certain
duration and is punctuated by precise processes each succeeding the other. No
work of ours is instantaneous. The Rishi lives in Timelessness while in Samadhi
and is capable of invoking that dimension if he chooses. The seed he sows can
sprout into a tree at once. Timelessness dispenses with the long duration Time
needs but it does not dispense with the successive stages. In the Simultaneous
Time, work in Time is done with the speed of Timelessness, abolishing space and
Time. It does not need the process of successiveness. Successiveness becomes
simultaneous there. In this transition, there are other casualties such as
evil and karma. It is a world free of evil, death, karma, waste, punishment,
ethics, pain, failure, etc., etc., all these phenomena are creations of ego in
the plane of Time made possible by the divisive action of Mind. It is a perfect
creation in the field of ignorance for the everlasting enjoyment of what He
calls “Taste of Ignorance”.
The world knows of the
higher hemisphere of Light and Love and the lower hemisphere of darkness and
pain as planes of Timelessness and Time. The new spiritual experience of Sri
Aurobindo is the new world not yet manifested seen by the new faculty of Man,
Supermind. This new world includes both world and rejects none. Only that it
raises both to a new greater height that is of fullness, wholeness,
integrality, universality, etc. He describes this world in the last chapter
“The Divine Life”. Non-perception of this new higher dimension in all our
existence leads to unintelligibility of the Book The
Life Divine. I hope to spotlight this aspect repeatedly by laying emphasis
on these 29 phrases listed above. The principle is the same but the phenomena
are different. Nor are they confined to these 29 items. In truth, it
embraces every item of life however insignificant it really is. In my
varied writings over two decades I have been speaking of these phenomena not so
much in their aspects of theory, as in their practical manifestations such as
prayers, yield:
·
Final results in the beginning;
·
solutions to our problems defying laws of the
government, laws of life and laws of Nature;
·
results almost resembling materialisation;
·
benefits unimaginable as well as inconceivable, as
copious ground water in a desert;
·
universal results for individual acts;
·
impacts on human nature so as to make it turn around
180 degrees, as the Americans are fond of saying;
·
infinite results for finite actions;
·
Divine JOY for acts that are
apparently anti-divine.
We know the silence of the
mouth, the silence of thought, the silence of mind, the silence of Being, the silence that arises by the absence of thought. He
adds the Silence that arises out of the absence of activity and calls it
Silence and goes on to say there is a Silence behind silence. Having said that
much, He declares Silence sustains activity. Theoretically, the activity needs
a base in consciousness. It is of Silence. Anyone who has made substantial
progress in yoga, He says, knows that enormous energy wells out of such
Silence. We know Silence is the opposite of noise, thought, speech, etc. It is
true. It is equally true that all activities well out of Silence. So
there is a silence with a small ‘s’ which is the
opposite of noise, thought, speech, etc. And there is a Silence with a capital
‘S’ which includes silence and its opposite. This world is seen only by the
Supramental Time vision and exists in the plane of Time called Simultaneous
integrality of Time-eternity and Timeless eternity.
We know of silence often in
meditation, on Darsan days, our own birthdays. Sometimes, for no reason, we
see the Silence deepening and taking possession of our whole being. Surely
this is the Silence of the third dimension of Time. It is Supramental Silence
which is the beginning of the birth of Supramental love. This Silence makes the
activity powerful, instantaneous in producing results. This is the gift of Sri
Aurobindo to humanity.
Of infinity it is said that
it never moves but is always ahead of you. It is a movement ahead of us
while it never stirs. In Sanskrit it is called sthanu. Sri Aurobindo
cites the running train in which we sit. Watching the telegraph posts outside,
the posts seem to run while the train gives the feeling it is still. When the
spokes of a fast rotating wheel move faster than our persistence of vision, we
feel the discontinuous spokes as a continuous disc. Existence is moving at a
speed greater than light all the time giving the appearance of stillness. When
two trains run on parallel lines, we feel both are still. Their movement is
unperceived by our consciousness.
Unity and division are
opposite concepts as well as opposite realities. When aspects are divided, the
object is not. One who occupies three posts has three powers, not three
persons. The One is divided by the dividing mind into the Many. To the Mind,
they are distinctly separate, disparate, but Supermind sees no division of
substance. It only perceives division of consciousness. The father is a brother
and is also a son to his father. He has three different relations, not three
different persons. In philosophic language, we say there is the unity that is
the opposite of diversity and there is the self-existing UNITY which has no
opposing phenomenon. In the cinema the film is not a continuous movement. The
film catches in distinctly separate plates different ‘stills’. Run on the wheel
at a certain speed, the screen produces the original movement. In the film,
there is the division. Neither on the screen nor in real life is there
division. Unity is real which is capable of appearing divided as well as
united.
This is similar to the One
and the Many. We speak. Our speech is one, but its expressions are many. With
different people we speak differently, but all is SPEECH. One speech expresses
itself as several conversations. The words are many but the speech is one. Man
is One, but he varies as American, Canadian, Indian, Chinese or Japanese. The
multiplying number of varieties does not rob Man of his character of being
human. A road is a phenomenon. And there is an infinite variety of roads. Such
a rule applies to all phenomena of the world. The oneness is impersonal. The
individual particularity is one form of the variety. The Upanishads said, “This
boy, this girl, this tree are all Brahman”.
We know they are opposite
phenomena, but we miss seeing the fact that formlessness is the parent of Form.
It is the formless state that enables the form to arise. Gold is formless. The
jewel’s form issues out of the formless gold. So, formlessness contains the
form as well as its opposite. In a higher sense, formlessness is the higher
dimension in simultaneous Time that contains form and formless ness. The tree
has a form. The mud gives birth to the form of the tree and in that sense it is
its opposite. In a higher sense, Mother earth, which
we call mud and dirt contains the form of the tree as well as the formlessness
out of which the form of the tree issues. Speech has a form, but not mere sound.
Hence we can say,
Speech x
sound, as
well as
Sound is the source
of speech and its opposite.
To us, darkness is absence
of light. The spiritual truth about darkness is it is greater denser light.
Even the physicist says the dark surface absorbs all the light without
reflecting even a part of it. Mother says before spiritual light sunlight is pitch dark and before spiritual darkness our darkness is as
bright as
Chapter 2 of the first book
is Materialist Denial. The main argument here is Matter is the robe of the
Spirit. Moving from intellect to consciousness, one sees Matter is a vibration
of energy. He also, at that level, finds the Spirit is a vibration of energy.
This occurs at the plane of cosmic consciousness. Hence Matter and Spirit are
reconciled here. Further He explains here in this chapter how Matter and Spirit
are reconciled in the transcendental consciousness.
We know the Man, the
citizen. He is confined to his own experience. Man extending his personality to
society and life becomes vastly more informed and his knowledge then is
universal. Both are conceivable. Man never loses his individuality. Having
acquired universality Man’s individuality asserts now at the level of
universality. The individuality he
lost in becoming universal he now endeavours to restore at the level of
universality. He is the universal Individual, viswamanava.
We move in evolution from
ego to the transcendent Eternal via the World Purusha. The Eternal, please
note, is not the unevolving Spirit, the Immutable Spirit. It is evolving,
called the evolving Spirit, the Psychic Being.
Iron is strong, concrete.
New alloys are formed for greater strength. When a stronger material emerges,
it is found to be light. A famous metallurgist said that the stronger a metal
is, the lighter it is. A metal rod beats the flesh and inflicts a severe wound.
Mantra is subtle. It too can inflict a wound. One can cure the wound in the
flesh, not what is caused by the subtle mantra. As the evolution proceeds,
concrete material becomes subtle material. The subtlety includes the
concreteness at its higher level. Mantra can be harmful as well as
beneficial. A boon is given in words. Its power is greater than material
benefits, vastly.
What Sri Aurobindo offers to
the world is a
He who sees this new
dimension in Time, Being, Consciousness, Ananda, Supermind, Mind, Life and
Matter will have no single argument in this Book unintelligible. These points
are the knots. Breaking these knots, the first major victory will be won in
comprehending this Book. As said earlier, the other 1452 and 770 minor ideas
are minor obstacles. Most of them will lend themselves to be solved by a good
mental academic education. Others draw their difficulties from their relating
to this higher dimension. Here I hope to handle some typical instances and hope
to clear the way. I do not have in view handling every single difficulty.
This new dimension of life
is reached by a new attitude, a new motive. They fashion themselves as
strategies of understanding in reading and strategies in living in life. Grow
by giving is one such. The physical vital man is possessive. He grows by
taking. At the plane of Mind, growth demands giving. In Spirit, all growth is
only by giving. Surely for a possessive physical man, this presents a
difficulty. Even after giving up property, the mind refuses to give up its
possessiveness. It is felt more in possessing a woman or man as wife or
husband. Unless the society overcomes it, the individual is unable to do so. This
book is meant for those individuals who have acquired this new dimension of
thought and would prepare the society for that wider mission. These
obstacles arising as mental phenomena stand in the way of comprehending these
arguments. This article aims at clearing such impediments at the theoretical
level, explaining them philosophically.
The infinitesimal is the
finite and is the opposite of the infinite. The mind is baffled at the thought
of the infinity of the infinitesimal. The finite is in Time. The infinite is in
timelessness. In the next higher plane of Simultaneous Time, the
infinitesimal itself is the infinite. Theory says that the infinite
converted itself into the infinitesimal. Or what is infinitesimal on the
surface is really the infinite behind the surface.
To us, the inner and the
outer are apart and are opposites. In theory, there is only inner and no outer.
In the higher third dimension, the Inner includes the outer. That is why the
inner is able to move the outer.
Determinism of
the Indeterminable.
We can determine our acts.
We cannot determine other acts. In the first chapter of the II Book ‘Cosmic
Determinants’, He proves what is indeterminate to us is really cosmic
determinants. The argument is extended to Sachchidananda and the Absolute. Thus,
He proves His thesis that anything in this world is determined by the Brahman,
the Absolute, while it is considered as indeterminable.
Tradition finds the
Immutable Brahman incapable of any determinism. He goes further on to say the
Brahman is Immutable a well as Mutable, as it chooses. What the tradition knows
is the partial Brahman. The Fullness of Brahman is beyond and is capable of
anything. We cannot attribute any incapacity to It. He
meets the logic of the tradition saying that Brahman is not capable of
determinism but is incapable of being limited or controlled by any other
determinism. Hence in the title of the chapter, He calls it ‘Indeterminable’.
This is the self-existing Infinity as against the infinity that is the opposite
of the finite. Sri Aurobindo describes this infinity as ‘boundless finite’ and
offers a theoretical explanation: Infinity is there in all planes,
only that it takes on different hues in different planes. In a nation,
the political WILL of the people is crystalised in the plane of political
administration that is the government as constitution. In the legislature, that
constitution becomes law while in the administration it becomes rule. In the
various departments, the same undergoes another conversion and it is G.O.,
government order. Further down, it is procedure, custom, usage. The political
will of the people and their constitution is met as G.O. and rules. The
invisible determinism of the Indeterminable is the same as our own decision in
ordinary activities. Thus the determinism and indeterminable
are of the same plane.
Man rising from his body to
the Spirit via his vital and mental is ascent. He says when we reach the Supermind, it descends on all the planes of our being. It
acts at every stage. When Man ascends from his body to his vital, his vital
descends on his body and the descent is continued till the body is saturated
with the vital. This occurs at all stages. In 1926, the Overmind descended into
Sri Aurobindo down to His very cells. Thus it was called Siddhi Day. Even
though He touched the Supermind in 1910, it took sixteen years for the Overmind
to descend into Him. In the ascent, body is the lowest and Supermind is the
highest. In the descent, Supermind begins and the descent is consummated at the
body, thus making the Body the highest in the descent. Note as the descent
occurs, each plane ascends. It is called ascent in the descent. What Mother
called True Physical, baffling our comprehension, is the Physical that has
received the Supramental force. There is the gross physical and subtle physical.
Both are primary. The Physical becomes True when the
Supermind descends and the subtle Physical matures into the causal plane.
In our life, lightning is
for a fraction of a second. In the Third dimension of Time, there will be
lightning steadied in the sky. It is a world of Marvel. There is no darkness
there. We must be able to conceive of it. This is not the higher world of the
cosmos. It is in the second dimension. This world I speak of is in the
Simultaneous Time.
We know our ego to be ourselves. In dissolving the ego, we find we are
not dissolved. Only the ignorance of the ego is dissolved. When the dissolution
of the ego is complete, we find the Purusha there. It is the world Purusha. The
world Purusha individualises the world experience in us. It is done outside.
Inside the same process reveals the Transcendent in us. That is, world Purusha
outside is the Transcendent Purusha inside.
·
Ego is in Time, on the surface in ignorance.
·
Purusha is in Timelessness in the inner mind which
is subtle and not spiritual, where ignorance remains.
·
The Eternal, the Transcendent Purusha is inside in
the subliminal, in the simultaneous Time.
Ignorance is a limitation of knowledge. For it to become perfect, it
needs to be confined in scope. So a limited surface is created inverting the
subliminal where Ignorance is made perfect by the combined action of mind,
Time, ego, making it finite. As Ignorance is a later product than knowledge, it
is greater than knowledge.
The Evolving Soul
This is a concept unknown to
the tradition in whose perception the Soul is ineffable, immutable, without
beginning or end. It is infinite. This is only one side of the soul. In a
fuller view of the Supermind, Soul is seen in its fullness as the Spirit in a Being in creation. Sri Aurobindo calls His yoga the Yoga of
Spiritual evolution. In His theory of creation, we find the Brahman becoming
the world and emerging out of it. Spirit is only an intermediary term between
Sat and Truth. The Prakriti too has a spirit involved in it. As the
Prakriti moves, the hidden spirit there evolves. It is the Psychic Being. This
creates the new dimension of Time known as simultaneous Time. This is called
the evolving Soul, evolving into Sat and Brahman. Sri Aurobindo repeatedly says
what issued out of Brahman as involution must return to Brahman through
evolution. So far, involution alone was known. Evolution is a process and plane
which Sri Aurobindo experienced for the first time.
The freedom tradition knows
is a freedom that stops short of the ultimate goal. To it, Sri Aurobindo
adds one more dimension of a Freedom to lose its freedom. No one can deny
the Absolute this freedom. It is by losing this freedom that the Absolute
becomes the cosmos.
Allied to this conception is
the determinism of the Absolute. While the tradition says the Absolute cannot
determine because it is without attributes, Sri Aurobindo says the Absolute is
beyond determinism in the sense that no determinism can control the Absolute.
It is incapable of being determined by anything else.
Knowledge is of the mind,
work is of the body. Knowledge by itself will NOT be able to move work. There is
a knowledge of the body indicated by No. 7 in our
chart. Mental knowledge is in No. 1. If No. 1 reaches No. 7, knowledge of Mind
becomes knowledge of work which means work moves. To win an election, to
accomplish a project in the office or at home, this knowledge can be used. For
that, the very first step is the conception of the
The Theory is mental
knowledge becomes perfect and moves into the 3rd dimension of Time
when it becomes knowledge of the physical which is work.
Brahman is a whole, creation is a whole, the infinite is a whole, the
finite is a whole and everything is a whole. The divine and undivine are the
divisions of the Mind. There is no real division Our
body is a whole. Our being is a whole. There is no division in any of them. It
has parts that are dirty which produce excrements. To us, they are undesirable,
but they are indispensable for the existence of the body. The sewage of the
town, the criminals of the society are unwanted for our mental understanding,
but to a completer understanding they are essential. The undivine is in Time,
the Divine is in Timelessness, the whole of life that is existence is in
simultaneous time. This explanation answers incidentally the question of evil.
It is almost a metaphor.
Only when we conceive of the whole of which the future is a part, does its
memory come into the picture.
Sri Aurobindo defines
imagination as the formulation of future possibility. Such a formulation makes
its possibility greater. It is to bring the future into the present. The
present maturing into ever-present takes the past and future into its immediate
Present. This is to upgrade Time into Simultaneous Time.
As in the ever-present, the
entire eternity is compressed into one point called MOMENT. Similarly, the
entire space is abridged into one point.
The above powerfully touches
upon some points of the mystery, if not clearing them entirely. Basic
familiarity with these thoughts will lessen the difficulties in comprehending
the Book. Sri Aravindam is beyond Moksha. It is a condition attained by
sacrificing Moksha. Asceticism shuns life. It considers life as its enemy. Sri
Aravindam can be called transformation. He who seeks Moksha has no
transformation. The human being is made up of four parts of which Spirit is the
highest. The Spirit being the most refined finds itself burdened by the other
darker parts. So tapas and yoga sought a way to separate the noblest
part from the others and offer it freedom into the domains of the original Spirit,
the Superconscient. By this, our best part is released and other parts remain
in ignorance that is darkness. Transformation has another philosophy. All the
parts of our being are fundamentally made up of Spirit out of which evolved the
physical, vital and mental parts. Should we continue that evolution, SPIRIT too
will emerge out of Mind and later vital and physical parts.
This is evolution. Brahman that created the world has not stipulated
moksha for its best part, but expected to emerge out of ignorance by evolution
to its original status, thus giving it the joy it has sought in creation. This
was the divine intention. So transformation gives up moksha which is attained
by giving up life.
Having fashioned a new
philosophy, He sought new terminology too. It is necessary for the reader to
familiarise himself with all the terms of His philosophy. Self, Soul, being,
Spirit is one such set of words. Our basis is the Absolute became the world.
The Absolute became Sat, Existence, who became the Existent, Sat Purusha. The
Existent created the world by objectifying itself, its subjective part being
the Spirit and the objective part being the Truth. Cosmos above and the
world below were created by the Spirit. Everything in it is Spirit. The Spirit
in the universe is Spiritual substance. Knowledge and the Mind its instrument
are the extension of the Existence. Viewed by the Mind through its senses, the
Spiritual substance appears to be material substance out of which Matter is
created by the divisive action of Mind. It is this secret of creation that Mind
could not see and only the Supermind could see. In the chapter on Matter there
is a brilliant exposition of this process and an able summary of it in the last
para of that chapter. It is given below:
·
There is a self-extension of being. It is
conceptive.
Rather, there is
a conceptive self-extension of the being.
·
It works itself out in the universe as substance.
This substance is the object of consciousness.
·
This substance is represented by cosmic Mind and
Life in their creative action. It is represented by atomic division and
aggregation.
·
The result is called Matter.
·
This Matter is Being or Brahman.
Mind and Life too
are Brahman likewise.
They are all
Brahman in their self-creative action.
·
It is a form of the force of conscious Being.
It is a form
given by the Mind.
That form is
realised by Life.
·
Matter holds within it its own reality
consciousness.
It is concealed
from itself.
That reality of
consciousness is involved and absorbed in the result of its own self-formation.
Its own
self-formation conceals, involves, absorbs the reality
of its consciousness.
This is the
reason for its self-oblivion.
·
Matter is brute and void of sense to our view.
It has a secret
experience of the consciousness hidden within it.
Matter is the
delight of being offering itself to this secret consciousness.
It offers itself
as an object of sensation.
It does so in
order to tempt this hidden godhead out of its secrecy.
·
Matter is Being manifest as
substance.
It is force of being
cast into form.
The form is a
figured self-representation of the secret self-consciousness.
It is delight
offering itself to its own consciousness as an object.
Matter thus is
Sachchidananda.
·
Matter is Sachchidananda.
It is
Sachchidananda represented to His own mental experience.
Matter is a
formal basis of objective knowledge, action and delight of existence.
In the above we see Sat
becomes Matter by a process of objectification and Matter again becomes Sat by evolution. In returning to the original status,
Matter raises the level of Sat by evolution and takes it to the third dimension
of Time. Thus the self-discovery of Sat that was lost in Matter leads to a
generation of greater joy which was the object of creation.
Objectification splits the
One into two and creates a play of one against the other. Self-forgetfulness of
the whole while in each status – subjective and objective – enables the play.
The play raises both sides to a higher dimension creating a higher joy.
This is variously described
in various places in the Book. Mind being partial can understand each of these
facets well. Of course, Mind cannot put all of them together at once. It can
try. Such an attempt is likely to merge
all these phases and reveal the central process which is a supramental vision.
1)
Divine Maya rendering the essential truth of a
static being into the ordered truth of an active being is the first step in
creation.
This is otherwise
described as 'all in all' changing into all in each and each in all.
2)
One becoming the Many is spoken of as a process of
creation.
Sri Aurobindo says this is the process of the One splitting into two, the inner subjective and the outer
objective, called objectification.
3)
Being extending into substance, Mind and Life creating Matter out of that substance in the universal
by their atomic division and aggregation resulting in Matter.
Consciousness and Force
separating to give birth to life.
Consciousness issuing force of form and form
resulting in Matter is another version.
4)
The 8 reversals.
5)
Objectification.
6)
Existence becoming Spirit and Truth in the inner and
outer.
7)
Consciousness becoming Time and Space in the inner
and outer.
8)
Spirit creating Time and Space by looking at itself
and looking at its movements.
9)
Supermind splitting into comprehending and
apprehending Supermind.
10)
Mind creating Matter by looking at the Spiritual
substance through its senses.
11)
Self-conception, Self-limitation and self-absorption
creating Superconscient and Inconscient.
12)
Sat changing into Sat, Chit and Ananda.
13)
Sat becoming Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara and Maya,
Prakriti, Ishwara.
14)
Knowledge becoming Ignorance.
15)
He is the player, He is the Play and He is the
Playground.
If all these statements are
taken together simultaneously, we get the whole of the Process of creation. It
means the firmaments of Mind would give way revealing the horizons of
Supermind. How ready
one's mind is for this opening can be seen in many ways. It is a fact life that is gross
flashes across the subtle regions to knock at the doors of the causal --
Supermind. Every event, thought, sensation, and movement will show, but I wish
to mention only one.
·
Of a sudden the pages of The Life Divine will
read like the most interesting novel.
·
What was heavy earlier will now become heavy laden
will spiritual sweetness. Sweetness is the Love that acquired knowledge.
·
The unspoken argument of surrender that surrender is
the only desirable human movement will reveal itself through each word read.
·
The Life Divine will be a revelation of the Absolute godhead.
Spirit,
Self, Soul, Being
-
Spirit is the substance by which the creation is
made. It is the subjective state of Existence. Its objective state of Truth is
the Spirit's way of outer existence.
-
The unformed pervasive Spirit is the creative
material. It takes forms. That form can be at all levels - Spirit, mind, vital,
body. We call the Spiritual form as Soul. That form which is common to all
parts of the human existence is Being.
-
The Soul outside cosmos in the transcendence is
Self.
He says the subliminal is
formed where the superconscient and the subconscient meet. The superconscient
comes into existence when the consciousness self-absorbs and totally
disappears. Its counterpart is the Inconscient. The subconscient is the evolved
Inconscience. Mind exists between the superconscient and the subconscient. It
is the entire mind, spreading all over the universe. This He calls the
subliminal mind. This wide subliminal mind is narrowed by mind, time, ego, finite and reversed to seal it from the wideness to
make Ignorance perfect. So, in the surface mind a reversal is necessary to get
away from its ignorance. Such a reversal
is in order at all further levels. Such levels are 4 and it can be subdivided
in 8 as each level splits into consciousness above and substance below. Surface
mind, Inner mind, Subliminal mind, Psychic Being are
these four levels. Even after the Supermind descended into His physical, he
felt or said that it was only in His physical consciousness and not in the
physical substance. It was given to Mother to receive the Supermind into Her
physical substance. It was a constant burning inside to Her.
It can be explained somewhat
to offer clear indication, not a final precise definition or description.
|
1) |
Surface mind-consciousness |
Quarrel of husband and wife. Hate is love |
Contradictions are complements. Obstacles are opportunities. |
|
2) |
Surface mind-Substance |
Defeat is the steppingstone to victory. No one who has not lost money can become wealthy. Recovery from
typhoid restores an invalid part. |
The wives of Socrates and Lincoln expressed their love through
broomsticks and chamber pots. |
|
3) |
Inner mind-consciousness |
Gross sense knowledge becomes subtle. Man's thoughts and speech are opposite. |
Akalya enjoyed Indra and became one of the 5 chaste women in
scripture. |
|
4) |
Inner mind-Substance |
Ego becomes manomaya Purusha, thinking becomes silent. Time become Timeless. |
Nalayaini stopped the motion of the Sun. |
|
5) |
Subliminal consciousness. |
World becomes the universe. Timelessness becomes simultaneous Time. |
Anusuya turned the Tirumurthis into children. |
|
6) |
Subliminal substance |
Pain turns to ananda, Subconscient, Superconscient. |
|
|
7) |
Psychic Being Consciousness |
Bliss into delight. Ego and manomaya Purusha evolve into psychic
being. |
Gopi's love for |
|
8) |
Psychic Being Substance |
Evil and pain dissolve creating the Marvel. Subconscient and
Superconscient meet in Mind. |
Desire that the tiger should eat him. |
To see these eight reversals
in one's own life is a great yogic knowledge. To see all these eight expression
in one SINGLE event is consummate knowledge.
Yoga
of Self-Perfection
Synthesis of yoga is divided
into four parts of which the last part is the Yoga of Self-Perfection of 25
chapters divided into 9 sections.
1)
Principle of Integral Yoga
2)
Intuition
3)
Yo yas shraddhaha sa yeva saha
4)
Purification of Nature
5)
Purification of Mind
6)
Perfection
7)
Equality
8)
Faith
9)
Supermind.
Purified Mind and Nature
following the principle of this yoga through Intuition can realise the power
of, "You can become what you aspire for". That leads to perfection
and equality. Action by faith on the basis of equality by such a perfected
being will realise the Supermind. He explains the nature, gradation, thought
process, knowledge, sense and the Time Vision of Supermind in seven chapters.
Raja Yoga purifies the Mind
and uses it as an instrument of liberation. Purified mind leads to the purified
mental soul manomaya Purusha which, being part of jivatma, realises it
becoming a Jivanmukta. A still higher stage of liberation is the Jivatma
dissolving in Paramatma.
Hatha yoga does the same
thing through Annamaya Purusha, Jivatma and Paramatma. Karma yoga
achieves the same end through Pranamaya Purusha. The triple path uses the
faculties of knowledge, devotion and work for the same end. It is Tantra which
synthesises all these
yogas after a fashion not only for liberation but for the enjoyment of life.
Tantra considers Man as soul in the body and starts the yoga from the body, hence they employ physical methods of asanas
and pranayama. To Sri Aurobindo, the method is to start from the highest
point of human evolution; hence Man is a soul in the Mind, not the unevolving
manomaya Purusha, but the evolving soul, the psychic being. Therefore the
physical methods of asanas and pranayamas are discarded. Here the
method must be purely mental or spiritual -- psycho-spiritual. The method in
view is surrender.
This yoga's basis is dissolution
of ego. When the ego is dissolved, the Purusha is revealed. Further, it becomes
the universal Purusha, and the transcendent Purusha. It goes still further
because we want that transcendent Purusha to enjoy itself in life. For that is
not enough to have surrendered the ego. The swabhava, the nature too
must be surrendered. The Life then lived by the Eternal in us is the divine
life.
This is achieved by a Mind
purified of the ego and a Nature purified of dualities if the action is
initiated in Faith and executed on the basis of equality by a perfected soul.
The normal view is Man is
made of 4 parts of body, vital, mind and Spirit. At death the body decomposes
and enters into earth. The vital is a spirit that can trouble men. In all
religions there are rituals that propitiate this 'spirit' so that it goes away
from the human world and usually disintegrates in 7 to 15 days. Hence the
funeral rituals fall in this period in varying measures. The 'spirit' of the
man who destroyed himself is not thus propitiated and roams about the place of
self-destruction. His mental ideas go into the stock of universal thoughts. His
soul retires from the human world and awaits rebirth. Only in the case of the
Rishi or Yogi, it rises into the Superconscient and dissolves.
Sri Aurobindo propounds
another theory. It has two parts -- one theoretical and the other in life. In
life He says.
·
All things in the world are made of Spirit -- the
subjective part of existence -- called spiritual substance.
·
Mind looking at this spiritual substance through its
senses sees it as material substance. Out of that material substance our body,
vital, and mind are made.
·
The substance of
body, vital, mind has in it Spirit indwelling waiting to emerge by evolution.
·
So the inner spirit in mind evolves as mental
psychic being, in the vital as vital psychic and in the body as physical
psychic.
·
This physical psychic is the Supramental Being which
completes the evolution.
The other side is.
·
We find ourselves as ego.
·
Ego dissolving discovers itself as Purusha. It is
really world Purusha.
·
The world Purusha is outside us giving us the world
experience in our individual life -- individualisation.
·
The same world Purusha and world experience are
inside.
·
Seen inside, it is the Transcendent and Transcendent
life.
·
We see this Transcendent in our individual soul, jivatma.
·
The Transcendent is the Eternal. The individual is jivatma.
·
Hence the Eternal is the Individual.
The Transcendent has become
the Individual, first becoming the Universal.
Mind is born when Supermind
splits into two -- comprehending and apprehending Supermind. This Mind is
called Divine Mind. It is incapable of seeing the universe as a whole, but is
capable of seeing both alternately. It chooses NOT to see both but only one
side. Seeing the comprehending Supermind alone, it becomes the Rishi who lives
in Timelessness. Seeing the apprehending Supermind above, it sees Time. That
Mind which chooses to see only
Man is in Time. He scarcely
understands creation or its process. When it is explained to him by Sri
Aurobindo, he understands it as a process of successive steps because he is in
Time. Nor is the Rishi gifted to understand Sri Aurobindo's explanation any
better than we do, as he too is not in the dimension of time in which creation
exists - it exists in Simultaneous Time. The process of creation is
instantaneous, though successive steps may be built into it. Hence the difficulty to the human mind, the creature mind, to
comprehend either the creation or its process. It is a masterly comprehension
to 'subdivide' this integral simultaneous process of His vision and present it
to the human intellect as 15 or 25 facets. To know these several processes itself is great. But it requires an ability to give up the
·
The creature mind conceives all the facets of the
process of creation one at a time.
·
The divine mind is able to understand all of them in
toto.
·
It is the Supermind that lets these aspects
integrate themselves into the intensity of Reality when the taste of ignorance
tends to change into taste of knowledge -- an
evolutionary turn of the self-forgetful Brahman recovering its loss.
The Brahman that forgot
itself is infinite. The Brahman that remains outside the oblivion is infinite.
The infinite whole contains infinite parts each of which is infinite it its own
plane. Grace is the act of the one outside reminding the one that is lost in
itself. Supergrace is the response of the lost sheep. To bring in the seven
stages of ignorance in the Existence of Brahman and witness it passing into the
practical ignorance needs far more than the human comprehension of mental time.
The comprehension demanded includes the comprehending and apprehending
Supermind. Involution lets the process unroll itself in Timelessness, evolution
pressurises the processes to come together in Time. At the point both -- they
always meet at every moment – meet, Simultaneous Time emerges resulting in the
Supramental revelation. Perhaps it yields the Narayana Darsan Sri
Aurobindo had in the Alipore Jail. That may be the first touch in a quick
ascent. Between that and the commencement of the descent of Supermind which He
expected in 1934 -- it really came in 1956 -- the distance is great. Whether
the Supermind descended even into His consciousness some time after the descent
of the Overmind in 1926, I am unable to say. It is probable that it did in
1934, the original date fixed.
Sat is called
Sachchidanandam because Sat is Chit and Sat is
anandam. Our bases are,
·
The Absolute is absolutely free, not under any other
influences, because there is nothing but Absolute.
·
The Absolute
became creation. It is not as if the Absolute created the world.
·
The Absolute is Eternal and
Infinite. It is the self-existing Eternal and Self-existing Infinite, nor the
infinite that is the opposite of the finite.
·
It created the universe in quest of Joy, at its own
maximum, the maximum of it being one of self-discovery when it loses itself
into itself.
·
At no point is it
under any outside obligation. All through it is by self-choice.
·
Throughout the creation down to Matter and the
Inconscient, the Absolute remains Absolute retaining
its absoluteness. What changes is the form, not the content.
·
The first step of creation is perceived as Sat as well as Asat. In fact, both are one. Only the
perceiving mind by its dividing faculty sees them as two. They are really one.
As so far creation was followed by this divisive mind and was taken as Sat, let
us start from here.
·
Sat is Existence. It can be Existent too.
·
As Brahman was under no obligation to create, Sat is
under no compulsion to be
chit, but it chooses to be chit. Similarly, chit chooses to be
ananda. Sat is Existence. It simply exists. It is not conscious of itself and
has no need to be conscious of its existence. Thus Existence becomes
consciousness. Consciousness chooses to experience itself. Its experiencing
itself is ananda.
·
Its objective status is Supermind.
(Sri Aurobindo
uses nature, objectivity, consciousness to denote the next stage in the chain.
Thus Supermind is called the objective status of Sachchidananda as well as nature
of Sachchidananda.)
·
Supermind splits itself into comprehending Supermind
and apprehending Supermind. Between them the Mind is born. Mind is the last
stage of creation.
The above is not a
successive process. It is really simultaneous. More than being simultaneous, it is a single process or rather a
process of
A man conceives of an
institution, say a school or college or a company. It is obvious that this
conception is he and not separate from him. He goes through several steps such
as taking partners, appointing managers, starting an office, founding a company
consisting of building, machinery which produces and sells. It is not equally
obvious that the company, the partners, his manager, the building, the
production, sales, profits are all the
·
My thoughts are me, nothing but my personality.
·
My acts are also similarly me.
·
The game I play with another is me and the other
player is also my extended being.
·
The executioner who hangs the convict must know both
are one.
·
The convict finding the executioner as himself and
vice versa is the spiritual truth of oneness behind it.
·
Man can extend his personality to the world.
·
To know the entire universe is Brahman is to know
the oneness of Brahman with his creation.
·
The division is a phenomenal appearance, the oneness
is the reality.
·
Human ego sees them different. It is in conception,
perfection and sensation they are different, as it humanly i.e. egoistically
sees.
·
The Divine soul
divinely conceives, perceives, senses that all beings are Self, all beings are
in the Self and all beings find the Self in them. The first is oneness, the
next is oneness in difference and the last is the individuality of the
Soul-forms.
The oneness of creation is
the basis; the difference of phenomena is appearance. The one is infinite. When
the Supermind splits into two, the infinity of the One
changes into Time and Space. One can conceive of Time and Space, but the One
and its infinity defy conception. The One is beyond conception. It chooses to
conceive. To conceive it becomes conscious. Consciousness conceiving is an
inner process. Thus Time comes into existence. The inner Time, by
objectification, becomes outer space, as space is the field that holds the
figures or objects Time conceives. At this crucial point of creation, He speaks
of three changes.
This is the crux of the
process of creation, at least one of the cruxes.
Tradition says Brahma has created the world. Brahma being a god of the
Overmind, it means Mind has created the world. Sri Aurobindo says it is not
true and it is Supermind that creates the world. The tradition finds Brahman
passive, immobile, Silent, Immutable. Hence it is incapable of action or any
creation. So tradition conceived that Brahman is incapable of determining what
should be what or which form should be assigned to which object. That led them
to fix on Mind as the creator. To Sri Aurobindo Mind is
an instrument of creation and the last rung of it. In the chapter on Cosmic
Determinants His views on creation are detailed. They are,
─
There is a view that the world is created by chance.
─
There is another opposite view that the world is
created by Necessity, as there is found in this world an iron order.
─
There is a third view that an extra cosmic God has
created this universe.
─
Sri Aurobindo postulates that God became the world.
─
To Him Chance and Necessity contradict each other
and we should look for a view which reconciles both.
─
He is unable to accept the Extra Cosmic god as it
does not adequately answer the presence of evil.
─
To him God is Infinite consciousness.
He is in search
of delight.
Such delight lies
in self-discovery.
Hence God chooses
to hide and discover Himself.
As there is
nothing other than God, He can only hide into Himself.
His hiding into
Himself is called creation.
His discovering
Himself is called evolution.
He being Infinite
consciousness, His hiding into Himself will naturally be a reversal of His
becoming finite in conscience.
The Infinite emerging from the finite is a vast process making
us believe that events are chance occurrences.
The Being has
powers, truths and principles.
So, the evolution
passes through those powers and truths.
Each such power
is well ordered and governed by fixed laws.
This answers the
presence of Necessity amidst chance.
Hence His
hypothesis is proved.
─
The evolution starts with substance and proceeds in
consciousness.
Quantity, number
and design belong to substance.
Quality and
property belong to consciousness.
That explains why
material substances like genes and chromosomes carry psychological
prosperities.
Creation is a
process of creating forms.
Forms are made
out of force that merge out of consciousness.
It is the
Infinite that emerges out of the finite.
The infinite
chooses that form into which it should emerge.
This form
contains the force as if it is compressed into it.
The force is
compressed into form in creation.
The hidden force
emerging out of that form is evolution.
This requires a
rhythm and process.
[The seed in the
basket does not sprout. It sprouts when it is buried in the soil and watered.
This is the rhythm and process].
Elsewhere He
talks of the subjective consciousness and objective matter and says the former
governs the latter.
Above we see the
inner -- the mind -- decides.
The outer obeys
the inner determinism.
This leads us to
the argument that Mind dominates Matter.
Thus the argument
of creation is proved from below – Matter onwards.
It is worthwhile
to prove it from above.
Life exists above
Matter.
Life is in a turmoil and there is no use to discover any law in that
plane.
Next comes the Mind.
Mind is
overburdened by running thoughts.
Only by yogic
Silence can we discover in Mind anything worthwhile.
Yogic Silence
reveals in Mind its highest reach, the Overmind.
The two great
powers of Overmind are Nirguna and Saguna.
Following
Nirguna, we end up in the Supreme Absolute unable to determine.
Following Saguna,
we end up in the Divine Absolute.
We know creation
is a whole as Brahman is a whole.
Overmind presents
no whole and therefore there is no answer there.
So, in quest of
an answer, we move to the Supermind.
Here infinite Being is in full evidence.
It is not a Being
Self-existent in the sense it is shut up inside itself.
A Being will
naturally have powers and truths.
These powers and
truths do find an expression.
They are
expressed by their fundamental spiritual determinants.
They seem to us
as knowledge, power and joy.
The infinite
being gives them its own form and power which is called Swarupa and Swabhava.
This, He says, is
the complete process of creation.
This creation is
made by Supermind.
It is as well to
say it is done by Sachchidananda.
Thus the argument
ends in The Absolute creates.
Our theme is nothing that is there in the universe and the world
escapes being created by the Absolute.
This is the title of the second chapter in Book II. The full title
includes their powers Maya, Prakriti, Shakti. The theme of the BOOK is the
oneness, wholeness, integrality of Brahman, the Absolute in its status,
creation and evolution. This spiritual fact was not known to humanity till Sri
Aurobindo propounded it in The Life Divine. In elaborating this theme
and emphasising the unity of Existence, He brings out the following facts.
In declaring so,
He only asks us to move from our plane of Time to the plane of Brahman that is the plane of simultaneous
integrality.
Many exist in Time.
One exists in Timelessness
That which
includes the One and the Many exists in the third dimension of Time. This is
called evolution, particularly spiritual evolution. It radically departs
from the tradition that believes that Spirit is immutable and has no beginning
and no end. He explains the Spirit is the subjective status of existence while
Truth is its objective state. By evolution the Spirit reaches Existence and the
Absolute.
Process
of creation described in the chapters between The Divine Maya and The Divine Soul
I have listed the various parts of the Process of creation. These list out the independent facets that can be discerned
in time. Theory can give us the insight into the other facets of it in
Timelessness. But that dimension where its truth exists, the dimension of Simultaneous
integrality will always elude us. Should we use the enumeration of these
processes a little more carefully and provide for the comprehension of that elusive dimensions, we will see insights growing into
us. Following their lead, we will land in the necessary intuition for a fuller
grasp of these expressions. Such an effort will help reduce the incomprehension
of the Book. Let me illustrate through some partial analogies.
─
Any act of ours gains our full attention in the most
external form of it. The rest of it is taken for granted. A little thought will
reveal the hidden background. There are several such backgrounds. If we
persist we will reach the final secret, the Simultaneous integrality of Time. Such
backgrounds exist in the horizontal and vertical planes.
─
In writing a letter we are aware of the contents of
the letter, the courtesy the phrasing requires, the
possible response of the receiver. We are fully aware of them. The pen, paper,
stamp, post office, etc. that are part of the communication process are
implicit and taken for granted. Expanding horizontally, the pen, paper, etc.,
were created by a society of a million dimensions exercising themselves in a
million ways for their own existence. And we draw upon their service a little.
We are totally unaware of this fact, though on serious consideration it will be
self-evident.
By no stretch of imagination
can we ever know that the thoughts we are expressing are no thoughts of ours,
but only the tether end of a universal thought to which we give our version. It
is one vertical version of the extending dimension. This single dimension
further extends to our complete mind and fuller being till it embraces the
universe and existence.
·
When He says the infinite is in the finite, He means
this.
·
Should we look at the process of creation detailed
in these 5 chapters from this point of view and wait on it to reveal the extra
dimension, it is quite likely one will get a glimpse of it.
While we are negotiating a
sale we certainly know all our thoughts, but we do not know similar thoughts of
the other person. Further, there are in us subtle ideas we do not know and
similarly in the other persons. Professionally experienced negotiators know
most of them, but not all. Beyond these lie circumstances which no human being
can foresee such as cultivable land turning into house plots by a decision made
by a builder after our sale or during the process of our sale without our
knowledge. Such facts lie in the subtle, causal planes hidden from our sight.
The third dimension He shows us lies beyond the subtle plane entirely in the
causal plane. Still there are hints and inklings in the writing that to a
careful reader will distantly indicate such openings. One such example is seen
in the Self-conception of the Absolute.
─
The Self-conception of the Absolute creates Sat.
─
It is done by Maya, the consciousness of the
Absolute.
─
At the same time, Supermind which is the objective
status of Sachchidananda comes into existence to divide Sat into chit and
ananda. As mind is born when Supermind splits, Supermind is born when the
Absolute self-conceives generating Maya.
─
Sat becoming Atma, Purusha, Ishwara is another
occasion.
─
The births of Spirit, Time, and Mind are such
occasions of evolutionary secrets.
─
What we know as creation is the One becoming the
Many changing the all in all into each in all and all in each.
─
All these and many more are points creative of fresh
planes of existence where we have to specially look for the emergence or
existence of the third dimension of existence.
─
We perceive its existence when we move from Mind to
the mental psychic. It is a move away from ego into the Individual that
reveals the Eternal inside us. The human journeying through the universal to
the transcendental is thus described. It is actually done by moving from the
surface mind to the subliminal mind via the inner mind. It is noteworthy that
all these movements are simultaneous. We can think of a dozen but in reality,
every facet of existence is covered without exception, making for totality. Its
totality is integrality. It is a plane where the Spirit evolves. We are in
ignorance and knowledge emerges from it at the physical, vital, mental levels
so that mental knowledge grows into spiritual intelligence before becoming
Supramental intuition. The passage is thinking – understanding – Silence –
light – intuition - partial knowledge - Total knowledge. It is a knowledge that
takes one to the Divine Soul that is always in the Presence of the Absolute.
Sachchidananda is the origin of the Spirit in the sense that the Spirit
is only the experience of Sachchidananda or its subjective status. So all the
aspects of Sat, Chit, Ananda are in that sense aspects of Spirit. Sat emerges
as unity, Truth and goodness, Chit as knowledge and power, Ananda as Beauty,
Love and Joy. Purity that entirely depends on the Divine is a natural
characteristic of the Spirit. Silence, Peace, Infinity,
Eternity are its own innate traits. Yogic aspirants seek usually one of
them. Mostly it is Silence. Spirit reveals itself when all these 12 or 13
traits converge in one.
The normal tendency which is apparently essential in trying to secure
one trait, say Silence, is one tends to move away from others, as only
concentration will help achieve. Acquiring one automatically brings others
partially. The tendency to focus on one is a trait of the plane of Time.
Non-focussing is similarly the aspect of Timelessness. Active opening to all
other traits is an invitation to the fullness of the Spirit. It is mind's
tendency to carve out one faculty for concentration. It makes for separation
and rigidity. Overmind is in Timelessness. It does not close its borders with a
vengeance as ignorant Mind does, unless it begins to act vigorously. The
quiescence of Timelessness has a native capacity not to seal its borders. In
Supermind there is an active going out to all other aspects and a forging of
relationships in harmony to initiate an intense play, Lila. In keeping the
outskirts of a faculty or trait open, one endeavours to reach out of the
creature mind to its origin, the Supermind, via the Divine Mind.
Consecration that brings in the atmosphere conducive to spiritual
evolution does so by shedding the rigid walls of the ego. Incidentally it
relaxes the hold of Mind, Time, surface and the finite on the Person enabling
the emergence of the Purusha. Spiritual aspects acquired through
consecration and not through concentration bring in the fullness of the Spirit.
Brought in thus, Spirit is poised for evolution. Concentration is for partial
goals; consecration is for the totality that is integral.
The Eternal and the Individual
In the terminology of our tradition, the Individual is Jivatma, and the
Eternal is Paramatma. Sri Aurobindo avoids using those terms. In the popular
experience, an orphanage is called ashram. Illiterate people usually mistake
spiritual ashrams to be a refuge for orphans. Again in colloquial language, any
Brahmin is called Swami. The word Swami denotes a Brahmin by birth. Also it
denotes with a vengeance the mendicant or even the beggar in ochre robes. Still
no one mistakes "Swami Vivekananda” or “Ramalinga Swami" to mean a
Brahmin or a beggar. It is all right in popular writings. In serious
philosophical inquiries, it is better to avoid serious misconceptions by loose
terminology.
·
Jivatma of the tradition has according to them no
immortality while Sri Aurobindo's Individual is both eternal and immortal.
·
The Sat Purusha of the tradition is the Akshara
Brahman which is only a part of the Absolute. So, He does not employ the
traditional terms and resorts to His own terms.
Even if this concept is mentioned earlier, maybe more than once, its
repetition here is significant as here the Individual and the Eternal are in their own territory or context. Every concept of Sri
Aurobindo must be viewed in His own context and be comprehended in the
significance He attaches to the terms. Otherwise one will create an original
confusion rich in many facets. The ego on the surface mind is often
mistaken for the individual Soul. He even says till now all spiritual
realisations are realisations of the Ego and on the surface. His own yoga goes
beyond the surface mind as well as the inner mind to the subliminal mind. The
Psychic Being dwells in the subliminal cave. His yoga is one by the Psychic
Being in the subliminal mind. In this context, the Eternal and the Individual
have different definitions.
─
We are aware of the ego as ourselves.
─
His yoga needs the dissolution of the Ego.
─
The dissolution of the Ego does not lead to the disappearance
of the Individual, meaning Ego is not the Individual.
─
The Individual remains as Purusha.
─
It is the World-Purusha.
─
The World-Purusha individualises the world
experience in each Individual thus fulfilling the individual in the universe
and the universe in the individual.
─
Transforming the World-Purusha inside we discern He
is the Transcendent Purusha, the Eternal, the Self-Conscious Being.
─
Thus the Eternal is the Individual.
The Divine & The Undivine
To us deva and asura; good and evil; world and heaven, etc. are stark
realities. To Sri Aurobindo such divisions are only apparent and not real. This conception of His flies in the face of all that is central to
our traditional philosophy and all traditional beliefs. One who desires
to familiarise himself with the tenets of His yoga must severely part company
with those of the tradition. The above is the title of a chapter. It
essentially says,
1) Creation is a
single integral whole and is the external appearance, a phenomenon, of the
Absolute retaining His absoluteness essentially. The whole world is Divine.
2) The Divine and
the Undivine is an artificial division valid only to human perception and that
too only as long as man is imprisoned in his ego.
3) Ego is a
limitation by division that was essential to evolution till Man became
conscious. The ego that was a help so far became a bar after Man became
conscious.
4) Man cannot
experience the full intensity of the Divine till he experiences the undivine.
It is the purpose served by the undivine.
5) Man has no
business to shun a part of the universe which the Divine does not shun.
6) Giving up the
evil means the Good too is given up.
Buddha, Shankara, Sri Aurobindo
It is a truism of
yoga that
─
Buddha refused to inquire what Existence is, and
─
Shankara who opened a way
out, refused to take a further step.
Such men, in the words of Sri Aurobindo – Shankara, the greatest
intellect born, Buddha, a mightier soul than he – stopped their inquiry in the middle. He
says do not stop, go to the very end, as it will come
back with a greater and fuller vehemence, as we see in their cases.
─
Buddha saw ego was the impediment.
─
He devised an inquiry that dissolved ego.
─
Buddhists till today are devoid of any trace of ego.
─
As he succeeded with ego, he extended the argument
to Self and said Self will dissolve by human enquiry.
Hence there is no god, he said.
─
Ego is created by Mind and Mind by a changed
attitude can dissolve it.
Self was there before Mind ever existed.
How can Mind get rid of ego?
─
Shankara's realisation of the Supreme went beyond
Buddha's yoga.
─
Starting in the resplendent presence of the Eternal
Self, Shankara saw the world as Maya and declared it.
─
He could have, says Sri Aurobindo, gone beyond Maya
and discovered it was Ignorance. He refused to do so. Sri Aurobindo did so.
─
Shankara, finding the world Maya, advocated shunning
it.
─
Sri Aurobindo, finding the world enveloped by
Ignorance, asked us to emerge out of it into knowledge and said it was
evolution. It is only spiritual evolution.
Knowledge and Ignorance
Philosophy of yoga is to know what knowledge is of that system . Each system distinguishes itself by the knowledge
it has of knowledge. Vedas and Upanishads have explained existence mainly
through knowledge. Their definition of knowledge differs. Existence has a chain
of 8 or 12 dualities, all objective statuses of Sachchidananda – Truth, Unity,
Knowledge, Will, Beauty, Love, Joy and a few more. Both the Vedas and the
Upanishads insist on explaining Existence only through knowledge. Sri Aurobindo
too resorts to it. To explain through Truth or Delight is possible, but, I
feel, as Man's supreme instrument is Mind, the seat of his knowledge, all
systems have chosen knowledge and Ignorance for this purpose. Sri Aurobindo does not employ either system
but goes on to create a new one. Nor does He use citti or vidya
for knowledge, but calls it knowledge in English.
─
To the Vedas to know God is citti, knowledge.
Not to know God is acitti,
Ignorance.
─
To the Upanishads to know God is vidya,
knowledge
And to know the world is Avidya,
Ignorance.
─
To Sri Aurobindo knowledge limits itself voluntarily
to become Ignorance. It does so in seven stages by forgetting, the central
power of that stage, viz. Absolute, Self, Universe, Timelessness,
circumconscient, unity of our being and the next step to be taken just then.
Creation is a whole and a unity. The Vedas and Upanishads have started
with a definition of knowledge that prevented that unity. The Veda’s definition
starts with God and ends with God. It has no place for the world. It can never
hope to describe the creation of the world. The Upanishads separate God and
world under the heads of knowledge and Ignorance providing no meeting ground.
Sri Aurobindo takes knowledge as a continuum from God to the world.
Ignorance being a self-limitation does not interfere with the scheme. Hence his
scheme can explain the creation in terms of knowledge that unites God with the
world. After all, Ignorance is a kind of knowledge.
Ignorance comes into existence by losing each plane of existence in
succession. It does so in seven stages and He calls it seven-fold ignorance.
Then there is the evolutionary need to perfect it. It is done by creating the
surface mind out of the subliminal mind and inverting it as a kind of sealing.
At that stage, Sri Aurobindo calls ignorance greater than knowledge, as it is
the final product.
Error, Mistake, Falsehood, Evil
Nowhere in the philosophic literature is there a description of evil,
much less a solution to it. To Him, evil is the result of the simple contrary
becoming a perverse complexity. Ego divides Man from the universe. This
division turns the vision inwards creating selfishness. The very separation
from the whole creates fear in the separated ego. Ego acts in self-defence
protectively. This separation by division lies at the root of the creation of
evil. When Man outgrows this separation, evil dissolves. There was a time when
the ego served an evolutionary role. Now that that period is over, the ego has
become a bar.
Reality and Integral Knowledge
Neither the One nor the Many is the Reality, but that which includes
both, the Brahman, is the Reality. Such a Reality cannot be known by the Mind
which can see only a part. Integrality is a concept generally not met with in
life except in our subconscious existence and experience. We know of
cooperation and coordination between parts. Integrality exceeds totality,
whole, completeness, etc. in that each part is essentially and effectively
related in its constitution and functioning with the other parts. The best
example is the human body. Any act of ours like walking affects every part and
functioning of ours and is made possible by their cooperation. It rests on
harmony, not mere cooperation. A knowledge that is capable of knowing such an
integrated existence is integrated knowledge. For such a
knowledge to dawn on us, the one major condition is the dissolution of
the separate ego.
Theories of Life
Terrestrial, cosmic,
supracosmic, synthetic lives are known. We accept synthetic life. Ours being a
synthesis of the whole, we cannot accept a life that excludes transcendence. Hence our preference of synthetic life. An integral
knowledge gains in significance only when it is expressed in such a synthetic
life. It must be expressed through that. The soul in the Becoming arrives at
self-knowledge and immortality when it knows the Supreme and the Absolute and
possesses the nature of the Infinite and Eternal. This is the aim of our
existence. Immortality is to have the knowledge of the Soul in the Non-birth
and Non-becoming. This was a Vedic realisation. Integral knowledge is to
know the Reality that is
·
Surrender of the human being, consciousness, power
and delight to those of the Divine Being. For that, the surrender of the Soul
is not enough. The human nature must be surrendered to the Divine Nature so as
to make surrender complete and integral.
Our aim is total and
integral. Such an aim cannot exclude anything of creation. So Transcendence
cannot be excluded from this life. The dualistic theories affirm God but deny
the unity of God and the soul. Vedanta accepts Becoming as Brahman but the
immortality of the Individual is not accepted. This is a yoga
of spiritual evolution. Man is the centre of that evolution who becomes
universal and later Transcendent in his inner life. It is he who is the link
needed for the reconciliation of life and Spirit.
·
As the vision of Vedanta does not include the
Eternity of the Individual, it stops short of our ideal. Lacking the instrument
of Supermind somewhere, they are bound to fail.
In the earlier chapter,
‘Destiny of the Individual’, the theme of uniting the subconscient and the
superconscient falling to the lot of man and not to the animal or god was
stated. In a greater elaboration of that theme which is the process of spirit
evolving out of knowledge and its involved status Ignorance, this chapter opens
with the beginning of beginnings that,
Ignorance is the
first formulation of consciousness in life.
From here, Man has to grow
into Sachchidananda. He does so by mastering the environment, becoming complete
in his being. Becoming complete in his being is done by spiritual evolution.
It is a process discussed earlier where the Individual becomes the Eternal. It
starts with exceeding the ego and passing through the stage known as Vedic
Immortality.
·
His Being presents itself to Man as God, Man and
Nature.
·
His own attempt to arrive at God through the
individual (Moksha). Man loses himself in the indefinable, does not integrally
grow into the Infinite.
·
Man initially seeks Power and later knowledge as his
own formulation is closer to the will.
·
In our progress for self-knowledge, we discover That by which all is known. He discovers his Being which is
one with the self-conscious Being which is a reflection of That.
·
Conscious unity of God, Man and Nature in his own
consciousness is a sure foundation of that knowledge.
In the first book, what He
said was in involution. The same thing here is amplified in evolution. The
first speaks of theory and the goal. The second speaks of how the Spirit evokes
out of the fullness of creation when the subconscient and Superconscient unite.
It is important for us to know that they unite in
There are eight planes and seven intervening
zones. Each zone represents one ignorance in
involution and one knowledge corresponding to it in evolution.
·
When there is no ignorance, one must be able to know
what to do next. That will come only when the final ignorance is abolished.
·
There is a crux for all these ignorances which is a
knot. It rests in the constitutional ignorance which is created by the parts of
the being standing separate from each other. To unite mind, emotions, body
and Spirit is the first step to abolish it. This is not enough as the power
of determinism lies in their subtle parts. That can be reached only when we
know
·
The psychological worlds are worlds in Time. Hence
the temporal ignorance gains in significance. One must not be imprisoned in
Time. It would normally mean to move into Timelessness. To Sri Aurobindo, that
is not enough. He wants us to rise to the plane of Simultaneous integrality.
Releasing from the stranglehold of Time, one is universalised as ego and begins
to dissolve. The dissolution of ego directly helps the cosmic ignorance to
disappear. As the cosmic ignorance rose by the Many mistaking themselves as
ego, it is so.
·
The values of the Absolute at this stage will take
one to the Absolute removing the original ignorance. Now he would know what
to do next, i.e. the practical ignorance finally and permanently disappears.
Ignorance is in Time. Knowledge is in Timelessness. It is in the third
dimension knowledge emerges from ego. When a problem is solved for us or a
Mother’s opportunity moves toward us, first we are moved by the Force to the
third dimension of Time.
·
To know that is to solve the problem. To be aware of
it is to let the opportunity that comes reach fruition. Those symptoms are:
o
All pervading Silence
o
A bubbling inner cheerfulness that is irresistible.
o
An unquestioning Mind.
o
An attitude that considers everyone an angel.
o
An inner expansiveness that instantly changes the
outer circumstances.
o
In an instant, the entire circumstances will change
in our favour.
o
One can see the entire atmosphere charged.
o
Of a sudden, what was defying our understanding so
far will reveal itself readily.
o
The outer and inner atmosphere will coalesce into
one.
o
To those who look for the third dimension, it will
reveal a little.
The Evolutionary
Process -- Ascent and Integration.
-
To evolve forms of Matter, subtle, intricate, complex is the necessary physical foundation.
What we call evolution, is evolution of forms.
Without forms there is no creation.
An upward
evolutionary progress from grade to grade is the emerging curve. Transformation
of what has risen and integration of it at the higher level is the 3rd part.
-
It is not Matter, Life or Mind that is the creative
evolutionary Power, but it is the Supermind.
-
Evolution is not one of predictable steps with a
well-mastered process but a miracle of metamorphosis.
·
Evolution is from the finite to the infinite.
·
Hence the scope is infinite which appears as chance.
·
Evolution moves
from the gross physical plane of one level to the gross physical plane of the
next higher level through the subtle, causal planes that intervene. Hence it has the
appearance of metamorphosis and miracles.
-
Man gazes down to raise up the lower. Ascent and
integration are the aims.
-
Inner mind which can open to the heights of the
range of spiritual mind and the occult spirit within,
provides the double opening, the secret
of new evolution.
·
Swami Vivekananda showed Him the Supermind as the
thing, but did not tell him HOW to reach there.
He says it took
ten years to find the path after He had the Supramental vision of Narayana darsan.
To go up, one has
to go down to the inner mind. It is this inner mind which opens to 1) the
spiritual mental range above, 2) Nirvana, and 3) the subliminal where the
psychic dwells in its cave.
Sri Aurobindo
calls this going down to go up as the occult secret and the secret link to the
Supermind.
The Mind to reach
the Supermind should reverse itself and that reversal is expressed in going
down to go above.
There is NO single upward movement without such a
reversal or a similar one.
Reversal is an
inescapable, indispensable process in this spiritual evolution.
-
The whole concentration will be shifted from below
upwards and from without inwards.
·
The outer becoming inner is another type of
reversal.
Such reversals
conquer Time and Space.
·
Mother laughs at the phrase 'reversal of
consciousness' and jokes that the poet in Him indulges in such things. To Her it is one single evolutionary journey and there is no
reversal!
Karma, Rebirth, order of the
worlds
·
As human memory does not go before birth and after
death, rebirth is always unknown and baffling.
·
To the Buddhist and the Mayavadin, rebirth is
unnecessary to their philosophy.
·
In the Vedanta rebirth is not inevitable, as it is a
mere Lila of the Lord.
·
In Sri Aurobindo's theory of the Spirit involving in
creation and evolving out of it, rebirth assumes significance and becomes
inevitable.
·
The Individual's increasing consciousness becomes
important ONLY if the Self as the Individual no less than the Self of the
Cosmic Being or the Spirit are both powers of the Eternal.
·
When the individual is ego or has no immortality or
is found incidental, his role is something that can be bypassed.
·
Sri Aurobindo describes the Individual as the
Transcendent Purusha which he reaches through the World-Purusha. Then the
significance of the Individual is consummate.
·
Involution started with unity, and lost it by the
dividing mind. The goal of evolution is to recover that unity. Unity of Sat
must be recovered in the body which is the inverted status of Sat. At that
point, the play is exhausted.
·
Rebirth is inevitable as the unity is to be
recovered in the body.
·
Self-expression and Self-experience are sought by
the soul by birth.
·
Karma will not bind the spiritual being unless the
idea of the immutability of the soul is accepted as final. It is the idea of
the physical mind.
Man and Evolution
-
Birth is the machinery of the outward evolution of
form and the inner evolution of consciousness.
-
Man does not have the potentials for evolution as
the ape had.
·
In the case of the ape and mind, it is only a
further development of mind while the form remained intact.
·
The Supramental being will not be born of a woman, he will not have organs of digestion, respiration,
etc. For such a transformation, Man has no physical potential. But, he can
exceed himself and that impulse is there in him.
-
Evolution needs the earlier type to develop the form
to its utmost capacity.
-
Reversal:
In rebirth the
soul changes the body to house the higher consciousness it attained. Now the
consciousness of the body itself is changed to house the higher consciousness.
This compels the body to evolve in spite of its physicality.
-
Discovery of the separate soul is the discovery of
the Purusha.
The Spirit
emerges when the inferior powers perfect themselves.
For the
transformation of Ignorance into knowledge, spiritual intelligence is of
importance.
To discover the
spiritual being in himself and to help others to
achieve it is his real service.
The Triple Transformation
-
The psychic emerges.
Complete
emergence of the soul means direct contact with the Spiritual Reality.
Further
transformation is completed by the release of the Supramental principle in the
lower nature.
The Ascent Towards Supermind
-
An inner awareness, the emergence of the psychic are the first necessities.
His Purusha
becomes conscious master of Prakriti in the universal working of it.
-
The blind imperative Necessity of Inconscience is
met by the luminous necessity of Supermind.
The Gnostic
Being.
-
Supermind puts out Overmind. It enters into the
Truth in ignorance.
Individualises
universe and Transcendence.
Reverses
outer into inner.
Mental
seeking by identity.
Life is for the
Eternal.
Matter reveals
the Spirit.
Power
of inner to control the outer, to change pain into Ananda.
Supermind's
Aspiration
becomes ecstasy and vision, energy and eternal Ananda.
Outer action can
be controlled and transformed (by Personality). Personality is supported by
Impersonality.
Person emerges as
Purusha.
Nature's
automation is replaced by supernature's will.
Knowledge and
will, order and freedom co-exist.
Infinite
works out finites.
Universe works
out individualities.
Self is possessed
of Truth, not seeks.
All-inclusive
self, not selfishness.
Instrument is
enriched.
Inherent
self-knowledge and intimate world knowledge.
There are grades
in creation. Untransformed humanity will be there.
Further evolution
will be in knowledge and in harmony.
The Divine Life
-
We must discover and realise the inner reality.
Supermind is that
inner reality.
That is attained
by inner growth and inner perfection.
Nature endeavours
to be fully, i.e., conscious, forceful, delightful, universal by an occult
process.
Spiritual process
is inner process of becoming divine Reality and its self-creation.
Dynamic Unity founds and governs divine life.
Inner
completeness of being achieves it through spiritual self-knowledge and world
knowledge.
Mind rises above
life; Spirit rises to master matter.
Spontaneous
unity of beings around a gnostic being.
Only intuition
can achieve it, not rationality.
Individual is the
key. Freedom of the soul and perfection for the nature are conditions.
Full emergence of
the Spirit and Transformation are inevitable.
Life and body
cease to tyrannise.
A self-realised
being, a spiritual self with mastery over instruments is the supermanhood.
Dualities are
based on inconscience. It is over now, as taste of ignorance is over.
New creation is
self-creation of infinite in infinite forms in knowledge, raising inexhaustible
rasa, making life a constant miracle, resulting in fullness of being and
life. Evolution of life returns to the Absolute in consummation of the effort.
Sri Aurobindo gives the
analogy of pearl and diamond to illustrate individuality, commonalty and
essentiality.
·
There was a time when
·
Knowing the individual use-value -- social value,
psychological value -- of pearl or diamond, we use them with pride. To develop
that sense and see the individuality of pearl and diamond, man has to develop a
society and acquire a psychological value for the possession of a pearl or a
diamond. Since the advent of Man on earth, it took this long for him to arrive
at it.
Sri Aurobindo
names it as INDIVIDUALITY of
·
Next is commonalty. Now science knows that pearl and
diamonds are made up of the same atoms. His own mental development and his
creation of scientific study has enabled him to know
the PROCESS by which a pearl or a diamond is constituted. This is to know their
commonalty. Knowing their commonalty, we now make them.
The physical man
rising to the vital man
has known the
individuality of pearl and
diamond. He began to use
them.
·
The vital Man has grown to become the mental man.
His developed
·
Beyond lies their
essentiality. The essence of a pearl or a diamond is Brahman. One who has
realised Brahman in himself knows their essentiality. He can take a pearl in
his hand and transmute it into a diamond.
Copernicus mentally
understood the motion of sun and earth and developed a mental argument to
explain to us his understanding. Neither he nor we see the earth moving around
the Sun. We conceive, but yet do not perceive. For us to perceive we have to
move from the human consciousness to cosmic consciousness. Stationing oneself in cosmic consciousness, one can
·
Creation has been a MARVEL from its beginning
·
Man perceives the creation with his best instrument.
As the primitive man was not able to see the value of a pearl or a diamond we
are not able to
·
As his own capacities began to grow, he extricated
himself from physical drudgery and bodily pain. Mental knowledge and scientific
study came to his help. He has conquered pain to a great extent, was able to
prolong life. In a large measure he gave up military conflicts and the need to
die on the battlefield. He still sees evil as his seeing is vital essentially.
He has brought himself to value the oppressed man, the invalid, has some unconscious
subtle perception of their evolutionary value and honours them accordingly. He
now can make a pearl or a diamond, but is yet not able to create native
spiritual joy by his mental process. He could bring his soul to enjoy the
ecstasy of identifying with God in his meditations which Sri Aurobindo calls
unconscious. Yet, he is alien to that bliss in his waking consciousness.
·
He knows pearl and diamond are essentially Brahman,
but has not yet developed the capacity to transmute one into the other as he
has not yet realised the Integral Brahman that is whole -- not the passive
Brahman that is partial
The Life Divine offers Man that
insight, if not that full intuition.
Holding the basis of the Book -- Omnipresent Reality becoming the
universe to enjoy the Self-discovery through Spiritual evolution -- while
reading each chapter, he will see the lightning steadied in the sky of Sri
Aravindam peeping at him in flashes or glimpses. This article aims at bringing
such insights to the fore. To know of the new dimension of existence Sri
Aurobindo shows us in His basic tenets in each chapter is a valuable mental
exercise in that direction. Essentially, it emerges in about 30 major ideas of
His. This article handles most of them. In a smaller way we see them in 700 philosophic
truths. Each of the 1452 paragraphs clearly brings them out in a small way but
significantly.
·
As He says, ceasing to reason we discover knowledge
seated on the throne.
The arguments, examples,
illustrations, descriptions in this article are aimed at appreciating the
thirty major ideas, 770 smaller ones and 1452 small significances. Let me
repeat some of those illustrating one from each category.
·
The Surface being is the soul's adventure in Time.
It contains several truths
fully and specially valid for Him. 1). The
constitution of the surface as a reversed subliminal mind and narrowed within
the confines of Mind, Time, ego and the finite. The Soul, for the adventure of
Self-discovery to realise the greatest possible JOY, perfects ignorance on the
surface by making the field small and reversing the subliminal being. When
ignorance is thus perfected, it enjoys emerging out of it realising its goal --
the Joy of Self-discovery. To the Soul it is an adventure, made possible by
time on the surface being. This is one such statement. I would take it as one
of the 770 minor ideas. Taking it as one of the thirty major ideas may not be wrong.
The sum of the parts brought
together in some fashion does not equal the whole, as the whole is greater than
their sum. This is fully explained in the text. Of course it is one of the 770
minor ideas.
The ideal of humanity cannot
be achieved by a state or an institution but can only be realised by the
Individual is one of the 1452 tiny ideas.
The nomad settled down in a
village, evolved leadership for his physical protection and enjoyed the
security offered by the leader. The leader soon claimed divine right and
created a dynasty. Man, little realising that it was he who gave the king the
power is still worshiping the Royal Dynasty long after 50% of the world
population enjoys democracy. In Asian nations, the President or Prime Minister
is still treated as the absolute monarch. The
voter still is unable to conceive that he too can become the candidate. Man
is vital politically, and is yet to become mental. Sri Aurobindo offers the
vital man, because his mental faculties have reached in some Rishis’ maturity,
the opportunity to exceed his mentality which has not struck roots in his
consciousness.
In Savitri we can see
how He ascended the stairs of consciousness. We can read in The Synthesis
how we too can ascend. In The Life Divine we can prepare our mental
instrument for the evolutionary adventure.
1)
How Shankara came by Illusion?
2)
Why did Buddha refuse to inquire into Existence?
3)
The link in thought between the higher and lower
Maya.
4)
The Infinity
mathematics does not know now.
5)
The reality of the uniqueness created by the
Overmind.
6)
Transitions from Pranamaya Purusha to Manomaya
Purusha and the Supramental Purusha.
7)
Relation between Maya, Supermind, objectification,
consciousness, nature.
8)
Matter is delight
of existence offering itself to its own consciousness as object of sensation.
9)
How the Rishis have come to realise that Mind
created the cosmos?
10)
Why was the immortality of the Jivatma unseen? (It
is the view of the physical mind of the soul as immutable)
11)
Agnosticism, illusion, Absolute and the fullness of
the Absolute.
12)
Mind is the formal basis for Sachchidananda to
represent itself to Himself as Matter.
13)
The two mysteries of Life.
14)
Memory and the inverse creation of the Surface
Being.
15)
Why doesn’t the scientist know Matter as the
Sannyasi saw the Spirit?
16)
To perceive the absence of waste in Life.
17)
To see in our own life the process of creation.
18)
Insight – intuition – integral experience.
a.
Intellect seeing Simultaneous Time from Time is
Insight.
b. Emotions
perceiving Simultaneous Time from Timelessness is Intuition.
c.
Body sensing the Simultaneous Time from Time and
Timelessness is integral experience.
19)
The inevitability of the occult secret of rising to
the Spiritual ranges of mind by going in to the inner mind.
20)
The evolutionary significance of Surrender as an
all-inclusive method.
21)
The presence of substance and consciousness and
their relation to surrender of being and surrender of Nature.
22)
The existence of the Divine Soul, its
characteristics, its enjoyment of God and other souls.
23)
The sequence of resistances of Matter through
ignorance, inertia, division.
24)
The theory behind instantaneous miraculousness. It
is the reversal of objectification.
25)
The Ideal that pre-exists.
26)
The ORIGIN of ego, its constitution and functioning.
27)
The need to carry the inquiry to the end.
28)
The Marvel is not to be created by the evolving
29)
The JOY the Divine seeks is not only in evolution
but also in involution.
30)
As we rise from below, each plane loses a certain
capacity. As we descend, each plane acquires a further capacity. The shedding
and acquiring are joys.
31)
Capacity of Brahman to create a new joy for itself.
32)
To perceive the occult imperatives, if not sense,
between the nexus of possibilities and resultant actualities. To conceive it is
indispensable.
33)
To know one cannot teach another anything and
appreciate its spiritual reality. And then to go beyond that and conceive or
perceive or sense a little that that infinitesimal gives way to evolutionary
aspiration.
34)
The inevitability of the Supramental transformation.
35)
Comprehensive preciseness makes for integrality
where all parts are aware of their wholeness.
36)
The free will of fate.
37)
Capacity of Freedom to lose itself as a means of
Supreme delight.
38)
Action of Mind and Spirit in Matter is swiftest and
leads to NO action, thus making NO action the greatest of actions.
39)
How does the One without a second reconcile with All
is Brahman. What made the Rishis of the Upanishadic period give up the unity
enjoyed by the Vedic Rishis?
The sannyasi who saw his
Spirit more fully than the materialist has known his matter, has NOT seen the
fullness of the Absolute. What allows the scientist to miss the fullness of
Matter?
40)
How does one move to the transcendent consciousness
from cosmic consciousness? How do we reach the cosmic consciousness?
41)
The response of the universal instinct to stopping
the Inquiry in the middle.
42)
The idea that the subconscient and the
Superconscient must be united.
43)
The concept that the Individual is universal and
transcendental maturing a perception in social life.
44)
We are not obliged to respond with the sensation of
pain. It is the instinct of the body to reject death. The conception that man
is moral and ethical but not life becoming a perception.
45)
The mental sensation of being free from sense
impressions and feeling rational.
46)
The Reality of the illusion of quantity and quality.
That infinity of Time and
Space are real.
That there is an infinity beyond Time.
The truth of sthanu.
Existence is infinite.
Being is real, Becoming is
real.
47)
The Force is the function of Being,
not independent.
48)
Sachchidananda is trying to express objectless
Ananda through objects.
49)
Static joy becoming active joy.
50)
The key and lock for the creation.
Divine Maya is the consciousness of the
Absolute.
Maya assigns the office of division to Mind.
51)
Divine Maya, Truth-consciousness, Supermind,
Real-Idea, vibration of the Being. Common aspects and differences.
52)
The impersonal psychological truth of the Divine
Consciousness.
The equable and
unequal concentrations that divide the spiritual determinant into three, such
as knower, knowledge and known.
53)
Why does the Supermind take three poises?
54)
The difference between the Divine Soul and the human
soul.
55)
Mind is the last stage of creation.
What about the creation of
life and matter?
56)
Life will persist even after the abolition of the
universe.
57)
Death makes life immortal.
58)
Manomaya Purusha is not the Spirit.
59)
Strife creates love.
60)
Force and consciousness will not unite until the
consciousness is universalised.
61)
Why can there be 7 or 8 or even 10 or 12 planes?
62)
Why is the psychic placed below life and not above
life in the scale?
63)
The rationale of going in to rise above.
64)
The Infinite’s self-conception of the significant
form.
How is His hypothesis
proved?
65)
Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara, Maya, Prakriti, Shakti
are one.
The relationship between
Self-conception, Self-limitation, Self-absorption and Maya, Prakriti, Ishwara,
The double
opening, the secret of the new evolution.
Conceptively creative Maya,
dynamically executive Prakriti are merged in Shakti which is both
simultaneously.
Simultaneous
integrality of Time eternity and Timeless eternity.
66)
'It is Time that created this world.'
The law of contradictions
cannot be taken to the end.
The Absolute is the
relative; the relative is the Absolute.
67)
The Evil cannot be refused without giving up good
also.
It is the experience of the
negative that enables one to fully enjoy the positive.
68)
The Self-experience of Self-consciousness in
Ignorance is ego.
Direct contact with the
Spirit is to know Nature and Spirit on the Surface as well as below.
69)
Ignorance is made perfect on the surface being.
The surface being is an
inversion of the subliminal mind.
The Psychic Being is in the
subliminal cave.
70)
The simple contrary becomes complex perversity.
71)
Neither the One nor the Many is the ultimate
Reality.
72)
The very fact that there is unity and division
presupposes something that is inclusive of both.
73)
To conceive of the difference between Mental knowledge and Integral knowledge.
74)
Trying to explain to oneself the difference between
human life and synthetic life.
75)
What does it mean to unite the subconscient and the
superconscient?
76)
To conceive of actions when the unity of the
subconscient and the superconscient begin to ascend, form, integrate.
77)
To perceive one move at each level of ignorance
dissolving.
78)
Distinguish in conception, perception, sensation the
immortality in terms of Non-birth and Non-Becoming.
79)
If the physical mind believes in the immutability of
the soul what are the beliefs of the vital, mental, spiritual minds.
80)
The points of transition: 1) when the body begins to evolve, 2) when
one is able to extend
help to another in a similar realisation.
81)
Conceive of the simultaneous movement of the Psychic
upwards and downwards.
82)
How does the shift inside bring about instantaneous
miraculousness?
83)
Explain to yourself the fullness of being in
becoming universal, forceful, conscious, perceptive of
delight.
84)
How does surrender become indispensable for
transformation?
85)
Why are simplicity and luxury based on an equal
footing?
86)
Conceive of the Taste of Ignorance and Taste of
Knowledge.
87)
Is there a Soul-mark in that transition?
88)
Taste of Ignorance is physical, Taste of Knowledge
can be mental as well as spiritual and Supramental.