March 13, 02
q The Life Divine describes the
descent of The Absolute and the ascent of Matter to it.
q If something is explained, it must be
intelligible.
q Apart from the linguistic barrier,
there is a genuine lack of comprehension even among those whose mother tongue is English. It
is the barrier of intellectuality.
q If intellectuality is a barrier to
comprehend The Life Divine, below that there are a few levels of incomprehension of life.
q Irrelevant though it is, considering
them will make our gradation, if not scale, complete.
q The true physical man who is a hulk can
comprehend only physical movements. To him the life intensities are a closed book.
q The energetic vital man, who is
incapable of conceiving an idea, is truly vital. All ideas are non-existent to him.
q Insight and intuition are lost to the
intellectual.
q It must be possible for us to see that
for anyone in each of these categories the other three are inaccessible or at least
unintelligible as the ones in each of these planes appreciate their own plane.
q Before explaining all the other planes,
I wish one sees the distinction between these four planes clearly.
q The above deals with comprehension.
q The distinctions between the gross,
subtle, causal plane are not so much to be comprehended as to be felt or perceived, The
Life Divine too can be fully received in these planes.
Comprehension:
Plane of Matter Things
must be presented not as ideas, but finished results
that are tangible and usable. The
form must be precipitated in Matter.
Life Plane
Energetic emotional expression is needed for communication either as an inspiring
message or vulgar abuse-Energy forcefully delivered.
Mind
Intelligible idea.
Higher Mind
Silent observation or reception of the situation.
Illumined Mind
Idea becomes vision.
Intuitive Mind
Direct communication without the intermediaries of energy, idea, silence or light.
Supermind
Has the knowledge, needs no communication.
q The gross plane includes matter and
life and partly mind as empirical facts are gross ideas.
q The spiritual range belongs to the
subtle plane.
q The causal plane is of the Supermind.
q The Life Divine can be
comprehended by the Mind, its intellectuality if it does not insist on being closed.
q The Higher Mind is largely mind with a
good dose of insights that can open up intuition.
q The Illumined Mind comprehends the same
thing as Mind or Higher mind, only that it will do so through visions. It has a greater
opening to intuition.
q The Intuitive Mind can fully comprehend
The Life Divine if only it does not insist on its incomprehension.
q Supermind needs no knowledge, as it
possesses it.
The Three Poises:
1) Time takes the three poises of Time,
Timelessness and the simultaneous integrality and Timeless eternity. This can be said of
Form, Finite, Silence, Personal, The Many, The Multiple, Manifest, etc. Time is in the
gross plane, Timelessness in the subtle plane and The Simultaneity in the causal plane.
q The Book contains arguments at all the
three levels of intellectuality, intuition and integral experience corresponding to the
three planes of Time.
q The eight planes of Matter, Psychic,
Life, Mind, Supermind, Ananda, Consciousness and Existence split into consciousness and
substance. We can assign facts, arguments, explanations, descriptions, formulas, laws,
etc. to all these sixteen planes making our subdivisions clearer and precise. It all
depends upon the patience of the student of yoga. He can aspire for a scholar-yogi or a
yogi-scholar. Let us start with the three planes mentioned above and refer to arguments as
they rise and assign them to various planes.
q In the first chapter, His extending the
Vedantic position on evolution to Supermind is logical and therefore will be self-evident
to the mental intellect.
q In the same chapter, His reference to
the abandoned intellectual query coming back more vehemently cannot have the same
intellectual relevance. It needs an insight to perceive particularly as the argument moves
into the subtle plane.
q Another argument in the end of the same
chapter says the universal instinct will not endorse the attitude of the intellect. This
is beyond subtlety and needs intuition bordering on integral experience to see its
validity.
q Reconciliation of Matter and Spirit in
cosmic consciousness in the plane of energy is beyond mind and intellect. It lies in the
subtle plane fully. Comprehension of this fact is a spiritual experience in the subtle
plane, not to be had by reading.
q Reading through the Book and allotting
the arguments to different planes is eminently possible, but that will be interesting, it
will not move us from where we are.
q These are arguments limited to each
plane and also in any arguments the three levels can be seen.
q The several examples cited here must
enable one to make a complete list of such arguments. That is a first useful step.
q That reading by itself cannot move one
from plane to plane is a cardinal fact. Moving to another plane is a spiritual experience
brought about by concentration and consecration.
q All-inclusive concentration
Ø moves the centre of thinking above the
head.
Ø moves the centre of being behind the
heart.
Ø moves the mind on the surface to inner
mind and finally to the subliminal.
Ø opens the psychic in the mind.
Ø fills the surface mind with Silence,
pushing it a little towards the Higher Mind.
Ø moves the past a little way, as figures
before ones mind.
Ø moves subtle symptoms copiously.
Ø moves Life Response.
Ø dissolves problems on hand
Ø moves comprehension powerfully for a
short while to intuition, fully opening the mind to insight, generating lightning flashes
of the vision of Supermind.
Ø weakens the ego rendering it less
aggressive.
Ø enables one to have a vague glimpse of
God in everyone.
Ø enables our mind to know anothers
mind.
The part of it that must be well
understood is experiences need practice. This article is about the levels of comprehension
that may appear to be real experiences while it is not.
q Having said All is Brahman,
to say Maya creates illusion is untenable. His explanation that Brahman cannot be
compelled by anything else is intellectual and can be so comprehended. The argument,
rather the power of idea in that argument can give a perceptive or spiritually sensitive
person the experience of the causal plane or at least the subtle plane for a split second.
It all depends upon whether one insists on the ultimate value of the intellect or not.
q The anthill and solar system are equal
to Brahman, receive the full Brahman in them is a very clear mental argument. This too has
the power to open us to the other two higher planes.
q Contradictions are complements is an
antithesis to mentality as it is a subtle truth. Insight helps us in comprehending it.
q Matter is Delight of existence fully
belongs to the causal plane, but intellectually the argument on p.239 is not
incomprehensible.
q When the dividing Mind no longer can
divide, it starts aggregation. This is certainly beyond the realm of human intelligence.
The logic that division and aggregation are the same process in the opposite direction is
beyond us. (p.166, The Life Divine).
q One may start with the intellectual
argument, but viewed against the argument of the whole chapter, it reveals more. Seen in
the context of other chapters, especially in the wider context of the whole BOOK, more and
more will reveal.
q Discussing ones favourite
arguments in this light is a welcome beginning for this purpose.
q Infinity is a clear concept in
Mathematics and metaphysics. To understand infinity by perception and sensation is to
know it in the vital and physical which means
Ø The past is present.
Ø The material resources are
inexhaustible.
Ø There is no enmity or failure etc.
Ø The negative that is more organized as
negative by attention can start growing positive by withdrawing attention.
Ø In the subtle plane prayer now can
accomplish what was completed a few days ago.
q You become someone towards whom
others do not feel competition or jealously. No two people who are normally rivals
exhibit that rivalry with respect to their relations with you. In this occurrence, you see
the translation of the idea of non-ego into vital reality. To study each idea as to how it
translates into vital realism or physical fact and vice versa is a helpful necessary
exercise here.
q The first touches of the Spirit have
been explained under all-inclusive concentration. One such is explained in Her Prayer on
December 28, 1929. A peace that is not in death, a power which no king possessed, a joy no
experience can give, is the Touch.
q Sincerity:
This is an essential concept for
Mother. We are sincere to others, to ourselves. As we rise, sincerity is demanded to
objectivity, to Silence, Light, Knowledge. At the Supermind, sincerity is to other souls
in us and to God from whom we issue. Sincerity to Truth is best understood when we know
Truth is the objective status of Existence. What is the sincerity to Truth we are now
incapable of ? Not speaking one lie today is truth for us, but our whole consciousness
in the vital is false. Our attachment to others, thus, is full of falsehood. When we
detach ourselves from others, again, it does not become true, as a thief who does not
steal does not cease to be a thief. His consciousness is one of stealing. In our present
human condition to know the extent of our falsehood or insincerity is a measure of
sincerity. A certain substantial endeavour towards sincerity shows itself,
Ø by the sudden absence of many traits of
our low consciousness such as clumsiness, lapses, employment of slang, coarse desires,
etc.
Ø Progress towards sincerity is shown by
their permanent absence.
q In the whole first book of 28 chapters
where He explains the creation of Supermind, Mind, Life and Matter, He says there is no
Ignorance. Ignorance is needed for this creation and therefore He shows how it is
created. To follow that argument and SEE in practice where we are and how each of the
seven ignorances expresses itself, is a step which will lead us on almost all the lines of
progress so far laid out. There is no chapter where one such theme is not mooted.
I mention a few others below.
v Absolute is relative.
v One and the Man.
v Quantity and Quality are illusions.
v Non-Being is a word.
v Matter is subconscient will.
v Reality is a whole.
v The occult process is unseen by us.
v Nothing is undivine.
v Mind rules Matter.
v Mind is the result of division.
v There is no pain, no karma.
v Involution is in dualities.
v Life responds to what you are, not what
you do.