Dec. 12, 2002
v Language
is a mental organisation in vital life.
v Language
is considered here preeminently as organisation.
v Prior
stages of organisation are force, energy and aspiration.
v Here the
aspiration is to relate by communication of thought and feelings, which comes
out of the gregarious nature of man.
v Man is
gregarious because he is essentially collective. He is spiritually one body
which separated into many individuals for the sake of play.
v The play
is between Being and Being, Consciousness and Consciousness and Ananda and
Ananda.
v Being is
the body, Consciousness is feeling as well as thought. Ananda is Joy.
v Language
essentially communicates thoughts and feelings.
v The
energy behind language is the energy of aspiration to relate by communication.
v This
energy is released at first as sound, rather shouting.
v The
sound and shouts are sparked by the sight of another person or hearing of some
sound or the touch of men or animals.
v Every
act of man makes every part of the exercise in co-ordination. The growth of
brain, nervous systems, and jawbones to make speech possible are the zone of
anthropologists.
v To know
language as an ORGANISATION as it exists today and how it grew to create
great poets is our own field. Knowing this that well and seeing the structural
adjustments in our physiognomy and anatomy is to be comprehensive and integral.
v The
energy for the creation of the language and its growth directly issues out of
the social aspiration to relate with each other. The field taken in narrow
confines is vast, immeasurably vast when traced on two lines. 1. widening human
relationships in trade, travel, war, politics, etc. 2. intensifying intimacy in
the family, work and personality.
v Society
in all these segments is growing in multi-dimensions. Energy thus released is
the energy for our consideration.
v We have
to be selective, if we are to be realistic which makes our idea a random
journey over scattered domains.
v As
elsewhere, any such exercise will do well to dwell on what is to be avoided
rather than what is to be sought after.
v Energy
is released by every part of the being, through every part of the body.
v The
physical man WORKS, moving the body. His language will be confined to
objects and HARD, crude, brutal movements. House, tree, water, stone are
objects. Come, go, push, get out, strike are expressive of movements. It is
natural that this man thinks with his body. It is equally natural that in the
writings of modern man this element lingers. It happens when an idea or
emotion is expressed as a fact or by its factual part. No linguistic
progress can ever be made if in one's language this element persists.
v Language
moved from being a dialect to slang to good conversation and written language
before becoming excellent in its idiom. The great writers have employed various
ways by which they utterly weaned themselves from the above two aspects of the
language. Thus grammar was born. Hence the importance of grammar. In any work
like this where we seek growth at the higher end to express perfect ideas –
Real-Idea – the very first necessity in a finished document is its
flawlessness.
v Mastery
of language is Mastery of life is demonstrated so often. We seek
Mastery as well as Perfection. We seek to express HIS thoughts, all of
which are Real-Ideas.
v Perfection
in language is indicated by the tone that tunes in. It may
be high or low but there must be harmony in the tone.
v It is a
study by itself to learn to distinguish between the language of the body, vital
and mind. It will be a great exercise to learn to write one in terms of the
other. As this is the area of our present concern as well as knowing how
writers take the language to greater flights as evidenced in their writings, it
is worthwhile carrying on our study in this area.
v The
scope of this study is divided into two 1. Thought, 2. Expression. Thought
falls under the categories of Logic and Reason but a more attractive area is
the generalisation called Abstraction.
Logic is the
right relationship between ideas.
To qualify
for being logical, this is an essential condition.
It too can be subdivided into logic of the
intellect and that of life. Of course, we can add Logic of the Infinite, Logic
of Matter, etc.
For us
the logic that opens the insight and intuition is good.
Reason means
an explanation that is based on something that is.
That
every argument is reasonable is necessary. Though logic and reason have
overlapping characteristics, they are distinctly different. To reconcile
them, making logic reasonable and reason logical is mental exercise of the
intellect.
v Should
one learn to arrange his arguments as above, he can turn to any chapter in The
Life Divine and study that from this point of view. In the chapter on
Conscious-Force He sets out to argue that the Force is conscious. In the
previous chapter in the very last para He raises this question where Force is
independent or a power of the Being. In an important sense, this question is a
cornerstone of His philosophy. While the Upanishads, the materialist and the scientist
argue Force is force, Sri Aurobindo postulates that the Force is a power of
Being and therefore it is conscious. Hence HE called the chapter
Conscious-Force. His arguments are as follows.
Phenomena resolve into material force.
Matter is the creation of material force.
The five elements of the Indian thinkers are the five
extensions of Matter.
There are five corresponding senses to apprehend them.
Consciousness is created by things coming into
contact with Soul which alone is conscious.
Force meeting Force creates Form.
Form meeting Form creates sensation which is consciousness
for us.
Force is inherent in Existence.
Movement releases Force out of Existence.
Force can be conscious or unconscious.
Let us acquire another conception of consciousness which
is awake in things that are asleep.
Thus consciousness is in plants, minerals and matter.
Force is anterior to the instrument.
We do see purpose and intelligence in Nature.
Therefore it is conscious.
To all these arguments, HE adds a crown in the form
of an explanation of waste. There is NO waste in Nature as would be
demanded in a conscious-force.
v Sri
Aurobindo raises the questions of why the force and after answering it again
raises the further question of how it arises. He can as well simply say that
birds have an intuition which is conscious. HE actually takes us through
every step of logic, not necessary for our understanding, but important for
logical consistency. Such a logical consistency is what we need. At least,
in writing about His philosophy we can resort to His own logic. See, at every
step HE takes care to begin His arguments on the basis of what is known
to keep pace with reason. In The Pure Existent HE starts with the poet's
vision to which we all can relate.
v Let us
turn to the language part. Here we need a language suited to philosophy. In the
book on Internet we do need a logical, reasonable language but NOT
philosophical. It should be a language suited to those who can take interest in
a book on the Internet. Before that let us think about the various facets of
language as we have witnessed in some writers like Jane Austen, Churchill or
Martin Gilbert.
v Jane
Austen writes fiction. Her language has the benefit of the human emotion to
elevate itself. Churchill's is history where he finds occasions to make his
language expressive by his own eloquence. Martin tries neither but concentrates
on facts. Mathew Arnold speaks of national glow of thought bringing in the
brilliance of mental growth in the life of the collective. Shakespeare makes the
language speak by making the personal experience a universal expression,
putting the human phenomenon into the divine context, speaking the wonder of
the individual elegance in the negative terms of the otherwise dull phenomenon
of life or giving a humourous turn to human cupidity. Language has divine
universality as well as Supreme infinite scope to render the commonplace event
a sparkling miraculous moment. Here as elsewhere language has infinite
scope, endless brilliance, and boundless energy. The secret lies in expressing
the infinity of expressiveness in the finite garb. Picking out the greatness in
these words is highlighted when we consider side by side what the normal
expression is.
·
Age does not wither nor custom stale her infinite charms.
·
More observed in the breach than in the observance.
·
Whoever loved that loved not at first sight.
·
Leave her to her conscience.
·
It is invitation enough.
·
Received no inconsiderable pleasure.
·
Overcome by an immeasurable embarrassment.
·
Mixture of strange quick parts.
·
His amiable composure slid away from him.
·
Courtly bow.
·
That, gentleman, is the advantage of being in the secret.
·
Distinct disadvantage.
v We know
language is creative of creative phrases. It is not realised with equal
readiness that language is creative of life or even thought. Mantra is the
highest expression of language because it expresses spiritual power. But what
is generally missed is the WORD itself creates POWER. When the
immutable moves to be mutably creative it chooses to pass through three stages.
At one stage, it becomes OM holding the entire creation in those two
letters. Spelling it as AUM Sri Aurobindo says the letters express in
turn the Transcendental, Universal and the Individual.
v One who
tries to raise his thoughts by means of language makes the language
expressively creative. All great writers resort to it. To collect such
expressions and study the process it has gone through and compare it with the
commonplace version will be of interest.
v Readers
of Sri Aurobindo have the unique advantage of knowing the process of creation,
the highest in the higher hemisphere. It is not given to others to see that
process in ordinary events and render language divinely expressive. The
Divine Delight emerges in that sound.
v Music
blends words and voice and has touched the celestial heights. It enables voice
to reach heaven when it blends with words. To reach heaven is made more
possible when the aspect allies with another. Integral yoga aims at ALL
aspects integrating in supramental harmony to bring heaven on earth.
v Shakespeare
spoke of truths of life in his creative words. The thought element there is the
idea of life, not pure conceptual thought. Sri Aurobindo in His overmental
poetry of Savitri gave utterance to Supramental truths of life at the overmental
level.
v Conceptual
thought of theory is dry. Language that stirs from inside language or her words
enliven the dry words with divine thinking. Development is not a programme but
is a process is a phrase where the static programme moves into its essential
process. Theoretically, ALL the concepts of this theory can thus be made
alive. It is alive to the writer, not to the reader. For the reader to
capture the flavour of the thought the process should enter into his mental
process of vital enthusiasm and reemerge as the poetry of a prosaic mind. The
amplitude is ample. The scope is supramental.
v We may
say that what cannot be reached by the logic of thought can be reached by the
poetry of language. One can be inspired to do so. He can also train himself to
the task. To reach the final stage of intuition that is revelation one needs to
start with suggestion and pass through discrimination and inspiration. The
revelation to the winter is great. Should it reveal to the reader it becomes
phenomenal. A great painter – a character in Browning's poetry – declared that
he could draw one more line in Raphael's paintings and make them immortal.
Discriminating readers often meet with an awkward line in an otherwise great
writing. By removal of the offending word or replacing it or rearranging the
order of words, the awkwardness changes into awesome beauty. We see often
alliteration adorns. The same trick offends. To be able to convert the offence
into an adornment is the prerogative of the inner potential of the future
writer.
v The life
of the inner accumulating creative energy of the enlivening language should be
saturated with lived experience. Normally in great minds this is over a
lifetime. Centred in Mother, it can be less. Two things ensure its outcome.
They are but one expressed as two parts.
1. Self-forgetful
enjoyment of the process of saturating the inner mind of intense experience.
2. Incapacity
of Timeless patience to consider results.
v One
man's perfection can still save the world if that is perfect perfection. The
world knows thousands of men who have scaled the heights of fame by virtue of
possessing ONE skill in perfection. In this book on Internet, such an
endeavour can be in
1. Pure
thought of the theory of Internet.
2. Language
that touches the development sensitivity of the reader interested in Internet.
3. The mere
joy of writing.
4. Rendering
the writing a token act.
v All the
developmental accomplishments of the world are physical. Earning enormous
wealth is the vital culmination of a mental idea. Language can offer that
result at the lower end of the vital or the higher end of the mind or take the
endeavour to its spiritual supramental super excellence.
v One sure
indication of its certain achievement is the inner joy that is ever increasing.
Of course, the public reception of it is another sure indication either at the
lower level of popularity or the higher level of greatness unknown to the
world. It can combine both. When the ignorant person picks holes at the crux of
writing, is the surest indication of its linguistic success.