The New Horizon
Never stop striving towards Perfection.
On Thoughts and Aphorisms
Around 1913, Sri Aurobindo wrote 552 aphorisms in a notebook. In 1915 - 1916 he published ten of them in the monthly review Arya. They form part of Thoughts and Glimpses. Of the 542 aphorisms, two are classed as additional aphorisms. The remaining 540 aphorisms form the book Thoughts and Aphorisms. The aphorisms were written in nine groups, three of them are headed as Jnana, three as Karma and three as Bhakti.
The Mother has written commentaries on Thoughts and Aphorisms. Hence any other attempt by any other person may seem unnecessary. Yet it appears a necessary step to bring these enlightened and enlightening thoughts to discussions, so that the Light may touch us. Hence, we begin these exegeses.
In the present discussions, aphorisms have been numbered as per the commentaries of The Mother in On Thoughts and Aphorisms [ Volume 10, Collected Works of The Mother, Centenary Edition ].
Thoughts and Aphorisms 1
1. There are two allied powers in man; knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is so much of the truth seen in a distorted medium as the mind arrives at by groping, wisdom what the eye of divine vision sees in the spirit. (Sri Aurobindo)
Both Knowledge and Wisdom are allied powers in Man, and both are fighting Ignorance. However Knowledge belongs to Mind, and Wisdom belongs to Spirit, or the Divine Consciousness. Man and Mind is in ignorance, surrounded by Darkness and Ignorance. But the evolutionary spirit in Man, in Mind, questions the manifested existence around, wants to know the Reality, know Truth. But Mind gropes in darkness, advances through senses and the Reason. Mind wants to know and obtains knowledge through a great effort. But it is not complete, not final, and is rather distorted, due to the medium through which this knowledge is obtained.
The mental consciousness is the distorted medium, though it may be an essential medium for Man for raising himself from darkness and ignorance. We know that mind gropes through darkness, in order to know. We commit mistakes and by the method of trial and error and experiments come a workable knowledge.
The Mother says : “... this is not the true knowledge, but only a mental aspect of knowledge; whereas Wisdom does not at all belong to the mind, which is altogether incapable of obtaining it, because, in fact, it doesn’t even know what it is.”
Wisdom, thus, does not belong to the ordinary mental plane. It belongs to the Spirit. Wisdom comes with the spiritual consciousness.
When Man unveils his psychic being, and then advances through the different layers of the Superconscient planes — from the Higher Mind to the Overmind — and when Man touches and ascends the Supramental Plane, Wisdom grows in him, and guides him.
But we should always remember that Knowledge and Wisdom are allied powers, both necessary for him in his journey of life.
Thoughts and Aphorisms 2
2. Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge; it exceeds reason more perfectly than reason exceeds the knowledge of the senses.
Before going into the discussion, let us see what the Mother has told regarding words and their use and meaning, especially when used by Sri Aurobindo, and definitely by the Mother herself.
She says:
“There are dictionary definitions, which are the ordinary explanations of the words as they are commonly understood. These do not make you think. What Sri Aurobindo says, however, is said in order to break up the usual conception, to bring you in touch with a deeper truth.”(The Mother)
Let us see what the dictionary meaning of the word Inspiration is.
(Free Dictionary) :
inspiration
1.
a. Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity.
b. The condition of being so stimulated.
2. An agency, such as a person or work of art, that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action or invention.
3. Something, such as a sudden creative act or idea, that is inspired.
4. The quality of inspiring or exalting: a painting full of inspiration....
5. The act of drawing in, especially the inhalation of air into the lungs.
There are other dictionaries, which may be referred to. But more or less the same meanings are conveyed.
Let us see what Sri Aurobindo says here. According to Him, Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge.
We have discussed about Knowledge in Aphorism 1. We have seen that Knowledge is not and different from and lesser than Wisdom. But that is one use of the word by Sri Aurobindo. Here, in the present aphorism the word Knowledge has a different meaning.
In the first aphorism, he was speaking of knowledge as sought by the ordinary human consciousness, through mental effort and development, through reason ; but here, in the present aphorism, He is speaking of “the essential Knowledge, the Supramental divine knowledge, Knowledge by identity.” (The Mother)
The Supramental divine knowledge is vast and immense, beyond the reach of the ordinary human mind. Only the rare people have been able to touch It so far. What comes to us as Inspiration, as Sri Aurobindo says, is ‘a slender river of brightness’ from this vast immense knowledge. It is a slender river, a tiny little stream. Or Inspiration may come to you as a few driops of light falling from the Supramental vastness, which gives you an impression that “you have reached infinite domains and risen very high above the ordinary human condition.”
(The Mother)
Inspiration comes to us generally through the psychic being, the psychic consciousness, the psychic opening. That is the minimum range of consciousness required. Later on, when we transcend the ordinary mental plane and reach the higher planes of the Higher Mind, the Intuitive Mind and Overmind, and then from Overmind to Supermind, we can then receive Inspirations directly.
The Mother says, “Reason is certainly at the apex of the human mental activity.” But if we want the true Knowledge and Wisdom, we shall have to cross the borders of the ordinary mind, by unveiling the psychic being and ascending through the superconscient planes from the higher mind to Overmind and then to the Supramental Light and Consciousness. The only we can hope for reaching the real and true Aim and Purpose of the human life — the transformation of the human consciousness and being into the Supramental consciousness and being.
Thus, Man has to transform himself. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have spoken of the Triple Transformation: psychic, spiritual, and then supramental.
In the first phase of this transformation, the psychic being has to come forward and take the lead of the whole being and its transformation. The psychic is the active aspect of the soul. The soul is generally inactive in the animals, and they do not have any psychic being. It is only the human being who has the psychic being, as Sri Aurobindo says.
For explaining the term “psychic being” Sri Aurobindo has stated as follows:
“The word soul is very vaguely used in English- as it often refers to the whole non-physical consciousness including even the vital with all its desires and passions. That is why the word psychic being has to be used so as to distinguish this divine portion from the instrumental parts of the nature.”
For the unveiling of the psychic being and for turning towards the Divine Consciousness, Man has to follow integrally the three ways of knowledge, of the heart or of love, and of the will or of action, seeking Truth, Beauty and Goodness [in Sanskrit satyam, sundaram and shivam].
These three ways of Knowledge, Love and Action, followed concurrently and in a combined manner, have a most powerful effect.
To transform himself and to receive the Inspiration, the Mother has shown us the best Way :
“When one opens oneself to the supramental regions, one puts oneself in the right state for receiving constant inspirations. Until then the best method is to silence the mind as much as possible, to turn it upwards and to remain in a state of silent and attentive receptivity. The more one is able to establish a silent and pefect calm in the mind, the more one becomes capable of receiving inspirations.” (The Mother)
Silence is therefore the golden Way.
In the second part of the Aphorism, it is said that reason is higher than the knowledge of the senses, but Inspiration is still higher. Inspiration belongs to realm of Light, the growing Light, whereas senses belong to Darkness and Ignorance, and reason seeks to go out of Darkness and Ignorance.
Barin Chaki
On Thoughts and Aphorisms 3
3. When I speak, the reason says, "This will I say"; but God takes the word out of my mouth and the lips say something else at which reason trembles.
[Thoughts and Aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo]
Obviously, here Sri Aurobindo is speaking himself. People, who are in limited consciousness, whose consciousness is mixed with “lower impulses, unreasonable emotions and vital reactions,” cannot say that this will be applicable to them, as The Mother says.
Ordinarily, sometimes we use our reason calmly, in peace and quietude and some concentration, and reach a decision to say something. But when we start speaking, we are influenced by our lower impulses, irrational emotions and vital reactions, and we utter something that should not be said.
But what Sri Aurobindo says here, is just the opposite. In case of an ordinary person, lower impulses, excitement and passion take hold of the mouth which speaks something different and lower and contrary to what reason decided.
But with regard to the phenomenon, of which Sri Aurobindo is speaking, an Inspiration comes from above, with a light and a knowledge, greater than the light and knowledge attained through reason. And it makes one speak something which is beyond reason, beyond what is known and decided by reason, something that is beyond the capacity of “the most enlightened reason”.
Sri Aurobindo says that “reason trembles.” Reason trembles, because the higher Truth that comes from a higher region is beyond its comprehension and expectation and acceptance. The inspirations and revelations which come from above are always more advanced than whatever is understood and accepted by reason.
What man finds today to be reasonable may not have been accepted by reason in the past, as The Mother says. All revelations and inspirations, that come today to the Consciousness, higher and open, may seem today mysterious.
It may seem paradoxical, unexpected and revolutionary. And reason may tremble today. But in the Future, it will become a reasonable knowledge.
Truth is something which is ever progressive, moving, always being transformed and changed. Truth always leads us forward and reveals us to the relativity of all the manifestations in the world. The world is always progressing towards a higher Truth, a greater Truth.
The Supramental Manifestation is now the highest Truth, but still now this is not understood by the humanity. The ordinary human reason trembles before this highest Truth. But time will come and is sure to come when the majority of the human race shall understand accept It.
As Sri Aurobindo and The Mother say, the Unmanifest will manifest tomorrow.
Barin Chaki
Thoughts and Aphorisms 4
4. I am not a Jnani, for I have no knowledge except what God gives me for His work. How am I to know whether what I see be reason or folly? Nay, it is neither; for the thing seen is simply true & neither folly nor reason.
Sri Aurobindo says here that He is not a Jnani, that He is not a follower of the path of Knowledge. He says that He is here on earth for the Work given to Him by the Divine. He knows what God gives Him to know. And What He knows here is neither the result of reason, nor is it folly or ignorance. He sees only Truth, above reason or ignorance.
The Mother says : “So … the knowledge, as it can be grasped by the human mind, is necessarily knowledge in ignorance, one could almost say a knowledge in ignorance.”
The Seeker of Knowledge will then have to transcend mind and seek direct Knowledge, though Intuition and then Identification.
But Sri Aurobindo was not the One who had to pass from Ignorance to Knowledge, from Darkness to Light. He came with a Divine Work, as an Avatar of the Supreme — to ascend the Supramental Consciousness, a level of consciousness far beyond Mind, a plane of existence and consciousness not realized or manifested till His incarnation, and to bring on earth the Knowledge and Wisdom of the supramental consciousness and force, and then to bring down the Supramental consciousness to the physical level. He was a Person who had the experience of Nirvana only in three days! It generally takes a whole life’s tapasyâ to have this experience, even for the blessed few!
Sri Aurobindo was and is here on earth to bring in the Next Evolution — the Supramental Manifestation on earth. And He had all the Knowledge for this greatest Work — obviously, the Knowledge was not an outcome of the trembling reason, not an intellectual knowledge, though it was explained by Him to us intellectually, so that we will try to understand.
Sri Aurobindo had a silent Mind, a serene and peaceful and still consciousness. He did not have the need of accumulating intellectual knowledge, with a struggle against ignorance and darkness. The Mother says : “The mind is silent, the brain is still, everything is clear, quiet, calm ; and at the right moment, by a divine Grace a drop of light falls into the consciousness and what needs to be known is known.”
What must be known comes directly from the supreme, as a drop of light, a ray of Truth, and it is beyond reason and folly.
Thoughts and Aphorisms 5
5. If mankind could but see though in a glimpse of fleeting experience what infinite enjoyments, what perfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what wide calms of our being lie waiting for us in the tracts which our animal evolution has not yet conquered, they would leave all & never rest till they had gained these treasures. But the way is narrow, the doors are hard to force, and fear, distrust & scepticism are there, sentinels of Nature, to forbid the turning away of our feet from her ordinary pastures.
(Thoughts and Aphorisms : Sri Aurobindo)
This evolution of ours — the human evolution — is but an animal evolution. Man is defined as a rational animal, though mostly and most of the time, human beings are more or less found to be irrational or infra-rational.
Humans, or human beings, are bipedal apes belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for "wise man" or "knowing man") under the family Hominidae (known as the great apes). [Wikipedia Encyclopedia]
And Man appears to be bound to this animal evolution, to this half-animal, half-conscious being.. He is born, and then after spending some time, he dies. The Mother says : “And … in the final analysis, the destiny of each individual is the same : you are born, you live — more or less satisfactorily — and you die; then you wait for a certain length of time, and again you are born, you live — more or less satisfactorily — and again you die, and so on indefinitely, until you have enough of it.”
In spite of all agonies, woes and sufferings, all difficulties, disturbances, diseases and death, all shortcomings and imperfections, all divisions, strife, battles and wars, all hatred, cruelty and homicide, Man is glued to this sort of half-animal sorrowful existence, closing his eyes and brain and heart, his visions and understanding and knowledge, his aspirations and thoughts and unwilling to see or try beyond it.
Leaders of the humanity — though very few they are — have tried to inspire and lead humanity beyond the situation, but the progress of mankind is too slow to go beyond.
Nature — or rather Supernature — wants Man to transcend the situation, but she wants in a different way, in her own Way. Man has to transcend himself and progress ahead in the New Evolution, the Next Evolution. beyond this animal evolution.
According to Sri Aurobindo, there are ‘infinite enjoyments’ — endless joys and Ananda, not sensuous dissipations or egoistic satisfactions, ‘perfect forces’, ‘luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge’ and wide calms of our being’ — wide and limitless peace and calm, which is inherent in our true existence, inner and higher existence — beyond our so-called normal existence.
Sri Aurobindo says that these treasures of Joy, Force, Light and Peace have not yet been conquered in the present animal evolution of the human beings.
But if any human being happens to have the glimpse of these treasures of enjoyments and forces and spontaneous knowledge and calm and peace, then they would forsake everything and never take rest, so that they attain these treasures.
In this regard, the Mother says, ‘… if you had a total vision, however brief, you would not be able to resist the temptation of making the effort to realize it. But in fact, the total vision is exceptional, and that is why Sri Aurobindo says to us :”If mankind only…” ’
The Way is narrow, says Sri Aurobindo. The door is very hard, very difficult to be opened. And there are the guards of Nature : fear, distrust and scepticism. If one conquers all these obstructions from Nature, then only the glimpse is possible and effective.
The Mother says that only then, those who are ready, who are undoubtedly meant for the Realization, will have the great glimpse of the total vision of what is there beyond this animal evolution of the human beings.
But these three obstacles of fear, distrust and scepticism has to be conquered. Men are fearful of leaving this present ‘rut’ of the ‘animal evolution’ — mainly because he does not know anything better and safer than and anything beyond this ‘rut’, which is also so woeful and sorrowful to him.
The Mother asks : “The fear of what? Fear of coming out of the rut? Fear of being free? Fear of no longer being a prisoner?”
The Mother also speaks about the people questioning the invaluable treasures of the higher existence and evolution: “…then you become wary, you wonder if it is reasonable, if it is true, if all that is not an illusion, if you are not just imagining things, if there is really any substance to it………”
These obstacles of fear, distrust and skepticism, of fearful doubt and mistrust, rooted in the animal aspect of our being, stand in the way. Once conquered, there will be Infinite Joy and Force and Light and Peace.
Regarding conquering these obstacles, the Mother further says:
“But I repeat, it is not fine to sit one fine day, watch yourself be, and struggle with these things inside you once for and all. You have to do it and do it again and again and continue in a way which seems almost endless, to be sure that you have got rid of it all. In reality, you are perhaps never truly rid of it, but there comes a time when inside yourself, you are so different that you can no longer be touched by these things.”
Further She says that a time comes, “when the Light is so strong that all darkness vanishes.”
In order to conquer these obstacles, this is the endeavour, the tapasyâ, the sâdhanâ that is needed. After the endeavour is successful, the door is open and we enter the new vistas, where we begin the New Evolution.
As Sri Aurobindo has said in ‘The Mother’ (Chapter—2), the Divine is the Sâdhaka and the Sâdhanâ. But He also says : “But so long as the lower nature is active, the personal effort of the Sâdhaka remains necessary.” And as we are more or less acquainted with it, He further says : “The personal effort required is a triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender.”
Insofar as rejection is concerned, we are required to reject not only mind’s ideas and other shortcomings thereof, or the vital nature’s desires and demands or other movements, but also we shall have to endeavour for the “rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda may establish itself in a body growing always more divine…”
Thus, fear, distrust and scepticism have to go.
The Mother finally says :
“… I wish that you may all have these experiences yourselves. And for that faith, confidence, much humaneness and great goodwill are needed.
“Open, aspire, and … wait. It will surely come, the Grace is there.”
Thoughts and Aphorisms 6
6. Late, I learned that when reason died, then Wisdom was born; before that liberation, I had only knowledge.
(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)
Earlier, we have seen that Sri Aurobindo has spoken of two allied powers in Man: Knowledge and Wisdom. And also, Sri Aurobindo has said that Knowledge is arrived through a distorted medium — the mind that arrives at the conclusion by groping. Wisdom is seen through the Divine Vision in the awakened person, when the person goes beyond the ordinary mental consciousness, beyond mind, and even the higher mind, towards the Overmind, and finally to the Supermind.
In this connection, it may be said that by Knowledge, Sri Aurobindo means ordinary knowledge, not Knowledge by identity. In this regard, The Mother says:
As for the knowledge of which Sri Aurobindo speaks here, it is ordinary knowledge, it is Knowledge by identity; it is knowledge that can be acquired by the intellect through thought, through ordinary means.
Reason liberates us from the sensory perceptions and limited sensory knowledge. Reason has saved us and saves us from ignorance and superstitions. But we have seen earlier that Inspiration and Intuition, true Intuition, can give us Wisdom, which cannot be attained by Reason. Reason has its limits too. We have seen also that Sri Aurobindo has said that Inspiration exceeds reason, as reason exceeds the knowledge given by the senses.
In this regard, The Mother says:
Reason must no longer be the summit and the master.
This does not mean that we should discard Reason. Reason need not disappear. Reason had and has its use and usefulness for Man and his progress and advancement. For a very long time Reason has helped us, has been indispensable for us, has remained the master. Otherwise, in the words of The Mother, one would have been “the plaything of one’s impulses, one’s fancies, and one’s more or less disordered imaginings” and one would have been also far away “not merely from wisdom but also from the knowledge needed for conducting oneself acceptably.” Reason should continue to serve its utility and purpose and to fulfill its legitimate role in the human progress. But when we have successfully managed to control ourselves and our existence, with the help of reason, we shall have then to surpass reason, not by discarding and trampling it, but by using it as a stepping stone for a higher consciousness, for Wisdom. We will then be successful in liberating ourselves from our ordinary life, ordinary mind and life, ordinary thought and vision of things. When the question of further evolution of the human race towards the supramental race comes, reason has to yield the summit to Inspiration, to the genuine Intuition, to the higher consciousness, ranging from the higher mind to the Overmind and then to Supermind.
And this higher evolution does not depend upon our choice. The Evolution will come and is on the process, as the Supermind has already descended and is working. This is the Truth.
As we know, The Mother has said —
The choice is imperative: Truth or Abyss.
If we do not accept the Truth, we will have to accept Abyss — fall and destruction. The Supernature will seek to bring in the supramental race by other means, by direct intervention. This is what The Master and The Mother have told us.
[Continued]
10-07-2007
We have seen that as said by Sri Aurobindo, Reason had to die for Wisdom to be born. And The Mother has said that Reason must no longer be the summit and the master. Reason’s death gives us liberation, a freedom, which can give us Wisdom.
However, in surpassing Reason, in abandoning Reason, we have to be very cautious and conscious.
The Mother says :
…do not be in a hurry to abandon reason in the conviction that you will attain to Wisdom, because you must be ready for Wisdom; otherwise, by abandoning Reason you run a great risk of falling into unreason, which is rather dangerous.
Those, who imagine that they can make progress in sadhana without sufficient and rigorous self-control, have been warned by The Master and The Mother. Their false belief of self-sufficiency will lead them to “a dangerous imbalance” and all passions and desires which are suppressed, repressed, hidden or secret in our darkness, will come out in the open. And we will have the erroneous belief we are freed and liberated from “ordinary conventions and ordinary reason.”
You can attain liberation and freedom, The Mother says, only when you rise and ascend to an altitude, a height above the human passions and desires. We shall have to rise above our selfish attitudes and desires and impulses and passions. This can be done a rigorous self-mastery, resulting into an ascension into the higher levels of Mind and consciousness, above our ordinary mind. You can be free and liberated only when you attained to a higher selfless consciousness, above all passions and desires and impulses.
But those, who are very reasonable and believe firmly in the ordinary social laws of morality, cannot say they are really wise, for, The Mother says, their wisdom is an illusion and it lacks the profundity of Truth. Truth is far above ordinary social and moral laws.
However, one cannot ordinarily break or ignore these social and moral laws or rules or conventions, or despise them. For doing that, we must be above them.
The Mother says :
“One who would break the law must be above the law. One who would ignore conventions must be above conventions. One who would despise all rules must be above all rules.”
And our aim and motive should not be a personal, egoistic freedom and liberation, for satisfaction of our desires and ambition, for the sake of glorifying and aggrandizing our egoistic personality. One should not have a feeling of superiority, with contempt for others. One need not think that one is above the people and above law.
The Mother says : “Be on your guard, when you feel yourself superior and look down on others ironically…”
Sri Aurobindo speaks of a true Wisdom, where there is nothing higher or lower, where there is no egoistic superiority. There is hierarchy of consciousness, of nearness and surrender to the Supreme.
Ordinary human consciousness, ordinary human reason, ordinary human knowledge cannot understand this hierarchy. For understanding this, ego has to disappear. When the true Wisdom ushers in, ego disappears, as the soul is awakened.
The Mother says :
Only the awakened soul recognizes the awakened soul, and then the sense of superiority disappears completely.
For this to happen, what is required of us is a total surrender to the Divine, the Supreme — as is said by The Master and The Mother.
12-07-2007
Barin Chaki
16-02-2009
Thoughts and Aphorisms 7
7. What men call knowledge, is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees. Reason divides, fixes details & contrasts them; Wisdom unifies, marries contrasts in a single harmony.
(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)
In Thoughts and Aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo has used the term ‘knowledge’ in a limited sense — knowledge arrived at by use of reason and the senses. It is not used to mean direct knowledge by identity, spontaneous knowledge by intuition. It is a movement from darkness and ignorance towards the Light and Truth and understanding, but it is indeed half-knowledge, a reasoned acceptance of the appearances which are really false. Thus what we, the human beings, generally call knowledge is not really knowledge but some false appearances which Reason has
accepted as true and real, but is not truly so. We observe whatever is or happens around us or within us and then try to classify and interpret by using logic that is somewhat superficial and is not enlightened in a true sense. We may think that whatever we see, touch or feel, by using our senses, is true, but that is not so. Because we see, touch or feel them, they appear to us through the media of senses, and that is the reason why they are only appearances, conditioned by the senses and interpreted by Reason through some strenuous way. The senses are the veils, and Reason sees and knows through the veils and interprets by groping. The Mother says: “Wisdom looks behind the veil of false appearances and sees the reality behind it.”
The Mother
and do not understand it, we are not then led to a true Knowledge, we are then at this side of the veil.
But generally, ordinarily, we cannot reach what Sri Aurobindo calls Wisdom. Appearances will always be there before us, until we go beyond the senses and Reason, until we surpass the limits of the ordinary mind, until we cross over the nature-borne ignorance. Remaining bound by Reason and the observation through senses, we cannot have the Wisdom through Intuition and Identity. We need a New Experience — of surpassing the limits of the ordinary consciousness. Till that moment, "when we want to understand something you continue to look, to observe, to touch, to taste and feel, because you believe there are no means of observation."
[On Thoughts and Aphorisms by The Mother]
And through these means you can only know whatever is there in the outer world or whatever is concerned and connected with the outer world. You cannot be aware of the Higher Consciousness or of the higher planes of existence through these present means of observation. You shall have to use at best the logical means of deduction and induction — and continue to grope in the darkness.
We shall have to surpass the ordinary mind, the mind of rational observation. We shall have to pass behind the veil of Ignorance and Darkness and sensory appearances. And for that we shall have to go WITHIN. That is the first step, The Mother says.
Barin Chaki
Thoughts and Aphorisms 8
8. Either do not give the name of knowledge to your beliefs only and of error, ignorance or charlatanism to the beliefs of others; or do not rail at the dogmas of the sects and their intolerance.
(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)
All that we believe in the name of our religions or sects, we regard that as Knowledge. What others believe, we think that to be an error or a dogma. Sri Aurobindo points out to us that this is wrong. We need not or should not criticize or find fault with others’ beliefs or religious faiths. This very act of ours, the human beings, the practice of mocking at and criticizing others’ beliefs, finding fault with others’ beliefs, have led to conflicts and wars between religions.
We should ever be in search of Truth, if we want to go beyond these conflicts and beyond these beliefs. We should be directly in touch of Truth, NOT by reason and logic and rational philosophy, NOT through beliefs only, but through direct spiritual knowledge, through spiritual wisdom, though Intuition and Identity, as we have discussed earlier.
As long as we are limited in the level of mind, of reason and beliefs, we shall have to stop being dogmatic and calling others dogmatic.
However, insofar as the religions are concerned, we shall have step beyond them, NOT by criticizing them, but simply by passing ahead in the Adventure of Consciousness. Our known continents are there. But we shall have to take up Adventures to find out new continents, within our inner Consciousness. We shall have to go beyond ourselves to reach and enter the Higher Planes of Consciousness, in search of Truth, to go beyond the mental and intellectual conflict and wars.
OOOOO
In Sri Aurobindo’s style of expression, one can say: Religion was the helper; religion is the bar. Religion helped men, in the earlier stages, in mastering the inborn beast in him, to channelize one’s physical, vital and even mental energy, one’s life-force towards a creative and constructive aim, the aim of knowing and reaching the Ultimate Truth, the Supreme and the Source and Origin of all beings and the Universe, to surpass the Ego and selfishness and all darkness and ignorance, to be in search of the Supreme.
Sri Aurobindo has said:
“Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased in man the light of beauty, the largeness and height of his life, his aim at a many-sided perfection; Christianity gave him some vision of divine love and charity; Buddhism has shown him a noble way to be wiser, gentler, purer; Judaism and Islam how to be religiously faithful in action and zealously devoted to God; Hinduism has opened to him the largest and profoundest spiritual possibilities. A great thing would be done if all these God-visions could embrace and cast themselves into each other; but intellectual dogma and cult-egoism stand in the way.”
Evolution — to transcend beyond the narrow and limited religious ideas, practices and dogmas that stand against the Truth. Religions have helped us in raising ourselves beyond the animal consciousness, beyond the lower physical and vital consciousness and the limited and unenlightened consciousness of the cave-man. Religions, as we understand and practise them, the backgrounds they have with them, and the differences and battles that have originated from them, cannot lead us to the supramental manifestation and transformation. We need not stamp ourselves with the narrowness and limitations that we have given to these beliefs and creeds and dogmas that we have made of what we have termed as religions.
Sri Aurobindo has further said:
“All religions have saved a number of souls, but none yet has been able to spiritualise mankind. For that there is needed not cult and creed, but a sustained all comprehending effort at spiritual self-evolution.”
Each sect and creed and religion regard their belief to be the only Truth, whereas other beliefs are stated to be errors and dogmas. The Mother has said :
“The dogmas of sects and intolerance of religions come from the fact that sects and religions consider their beliefs alone to be knowledge, and beliefs of others to be error, ignorance and charlatanism.”
The Mother has further said:
“In a general and almost absolute way anything that shocks you in other people is the very thing you carry in yourself in a more or less veiled, more or less hidden form, though perhaps in a slightly different guise which allows you to delude yourself. And what in you seems to be inoffensive enough, becomes monstrous as soon as you see it in yourself.”
The Mother said on
“Otherwise [if people sought for the truth], there would be no religion : there would be masters and disciples, people with a higher teaching and an exceptional experience. That would be fine. But as soon as the master is gone, what happens is that the knowledge he gave is turned into a religion. Rigid dogmas are established, religious rules are born, and all you can do is bow before the Table of the Law…. Luckily for all of you [children here], you have no religion. And I hope you will never have any, because that is closing the door on progress.”
Let us see what Sri Aurobindo has further told us in this connection :
“How much stupidity and hatred men succeed in packing up decorously and labeling ‘Religion’!
The quarrels or religious sects are like the disputing of pots, which shall be alone allowed to hold the immortalizing nectar. Let them dispute, but the thing for us is to get at the nectar in whatever pot and attain immortality.”
Sri Aurobindo said in connection with the Ashram: “The Ashram is not a religious association. Those who are here come from all religions and some are of no religion. There is no creed or set of dogmas, no governing religious body; there are only the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and certain psychological practices of concentration and meditation, etc. for the enlarging of the consciousness, receptivity to the Truth, mastery over the desires, the discovery of the divine self and consciousness concealed within each human being, a higher evolution of the nature.”
He has also said: “We are not a party or a church or religion.”
Sri Aurobindo has also stated: “I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion, new or old.”
He has stated further: “Churches and creeds have, for example, stood violently in the way of philosophy and science, burned a Giordano Bruno, imprisoned a Galileo, and so generally mis-conducted themselves in this matter that philosophy and science had in self-defense to turn upon Religion and rend her to pieces in order to get a free field for their legitimate development.”
The Mother stated, in connection with Ashram: “Here we do not have religion.”
The Mother’s had answered to a question related to religion:
“Q. Sweet Mother, what is the difference between Yoga and religion?
The Mother: Ah! My child. It is as though you were asking me the difference between a dog and cat.”
The Mother had further stated on religion:
( A note to a visiting Western woman who wanted to teach in a “religious school.”)
One must not confuse a religious teaching with a spiritual teaching. Religious teaching belongs to the past and arrests progress, while spiritual teaching is the teaching of the future. It enlightens the consciousness and prepares it for the future realization.
Spiritual teaching is above religions and strives towards a total truth. It teaches us to come into direct contact with the Divine.
The Mother has said that the Age of Religions is over. With reference to Auroville, She has specifically said that “Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.”
There is placed below the oft-quoted declaration of the Mother relating to Auroville:
Auroville and the Religions
We want the Truth.
For most men, it is what they want that they label as truth.
The Aurovillians must want the Truth whatever it may be.
Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine
but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.
It is only in experience that there can be knowledge of the Truth.
No one ought to speak of the Divine unless he has had experience of the Divine.
Get experience of the Divine, and then alone will you have the right to speak of it.
The objective study of religions will be a part of
the historical study of the development of human consciousness.
Religions make up part of the history of mankind and it is in this guise
that they will be studied at Auroville - not as beliefs to which one ought
or ought not to adhere, but as part of a process in the development
of human consciousness which should lead man towards his superior realization.
PROGRAMME
Research through experience of the
Supreme Truth
A life divine
But
NO RELIGIONS
Our research will not be a search effected by mystic means. It is in life.
Whatever is true of Auroville, in The Mother’s view, is true with relation to the whole world. The same Truth of ‘No Religions’ is applicable to all sincere followers of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Whatever may be the Religions theoretically, we the human beings have made them means of difference and hatred and violent conflicts and battles, instead of being the means of reaching the Truth.
[Continued]
Barin Chaki
Thoughts and Aphorisms 9
9. 9. What the soul sees and has experienced, that it knows; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion.
(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)
The vision and experience of soul is alone the true and real knowledge. Whatever is other than what the soul has seen and experienced is only an appearance. It is something that appears, a phenomenon, a semblance, a purely external and superficial aspect of a thing — as opposed to something as it is in itself, independent of the mental reasoning and judgment and discrimination. That which is not as per the vision or experience of soul is a prejudice, which may be an opinion, idea or judgment formed without sufficient knowledge or examination of the facts, a sort of a preconceived preference or idea.
Thus, according to Sri Aurobindo, whatever is seen or understood by the ordinary mind is not real knowledge. Truth is seen and experienced by soul alone. Soul alone knows Truth, the ordinary mind or the vital consciousness does not know.
What is soul, as defined by Sri Aurobindo?
The Ultimate Reality is the Infinite and One Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, whom we name as the Brahman, the Divine, and God etc. He has three aspects, the Transcendental, the Universal and the Individual.
In the Transcendental mode, He is above all manifestation, above all the Universes, all the worlds. He is the Supreme Divine, the One, Indivisible, Infinite, Pure, and bears the eternal consciousness in Him, above all Time and Space.
The Supreme Divine is the Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, as I have already told. He is, He is Existence, eternal existence, and can even become Non-Existence, beyond the apprehension of any manifested existence.
In the Universal mode, He is one with the Universes, though also above them and is their Creator. He is the Manifestation; He is the One who manifests. It is His Will that is manifested. The entire Manifestation is He, and it is His Leela, Play. He is both beyond it, and within it, and in each atom, each living being.
And He is also the Individual, Personal God. All the Avatars are but His Individual Manifestations.
The Supreme is with His Creative Force, the Mahashakti, whom we call the Divine Mother. They are One and Indivisible, and yet They are Two in Manifestation and even above Manifestation.
It is the Will of the Supreme that created the Manifestation. In words, it may be said that he thought, in the Upanishadic language: “Ekoham, bahu syama.” [I am alone, and shall become many.] The Existence-Consciousness became many, countlessly many, and each of the many is a Soul. A soul, or the atman in Sanskrit, is a part and portion of the Supreme Consciousness, the Divine — a part who is one with the Whole, who can be the Whole also, who can unite with the Whole.
In all living beings, there is a soul, who resides in the background, not easily known or realized. The soul presides over the living being, but somewhat inactively, in the background. The Soul does not generally participate in the Evolution. In the Evolution from the animals to the human beings there has been no active role of the Soul, though the Divine Will was ever active. However, in Man, there is an active part or aspect of the Soul, which is termed by Sri Aurobindo as the Psychic Being, which participates in the Evolution of Man, in the onward journey of the human being on the Path of Evolution into the higher beings, the supramental beings, towards the Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness, the next phase of the Evolution. The Psychic is not present in any other living beings.
Sri Aurobindo adopted the term “psychic being” for the following reason: “The word soul is very vaguely used in English- as it often refers to the whole non-physical consciousness including even the vital with all its desires and passions. That is why the word psychic being has to be used so as to distinguish this divine portion from the instrumental parts of the nature.”
The Presence of the psychic being in man is the Promise that one day a new and higher Divine race shall emerge on earth and shall form the crown of the Evolution, shall be the apex of the Manifestation. The psychic being is a special term and it should not be confused with the other uses of the word in general. In spite of the Presence of the psychic being, human beings are in general not yet conscious of his Goal, of his higher possibilities, of the Higher Existence on earth. But there are persons, who are becoming conscious, maybe in an imperfect way, incomplete way, but they are being conscious, growing towards the New Becoming.
Truth is revealed, Knowledge is revealed, only when the Psychic is unveiled. Though Soul or the Psychic is the most essential element in Man, it is mostly veiled and closed and dormant in the majority of human beings. But it has to be unveiled. The Soul has to come to the front. And then only Truth will be seen and experienced.
The Mother was asked the question : ‘How do we know what the soul sees?’ She gave us the answer : “Obviously there is only one solution : to become conscious of one’s soul.” In other words, the psychic being has to be unveiled.
Prior to unveiling of the psychic being, whatever we think we know, whatever we have learnt and whatever has come to us through observation, reasoning or intellectual speculation or understanding, all that is but a relative knowledge. When we have the question in our mind as to whether we have known our soul, that very question indicates that we have not yet become conscious of our soul, we have not yet realized the soul. When we are conscious of our soul, as The mother has said, we have no more any such question in our mind. When we have the realization of the soul, when we have the psychic experience, we positively know it and we do not ask any question about it.
The Mother says :
And that experience can neither be counterfeited nor imagined; you cannot pretend to be in contact with your soul — it is something which cannot be contrived or counterfeited. When the soul governs your life, you know it with absolute certainty and no longer ask any questions.
Until and unless we have known the soul, and until and unless the soul or the psychic being takes up the governance of our life and existence and consciousness, we cannot really proceed further in life, and we continue to grope in darkness or twilight, as the case may be.
We have seen what the vital being [life] and the mental being [mind] can give us : half-knowledge, uncertainties, constant debates, chaos and disorder and indiscipline, differences and conflicts and wars, enmities and jealousy and violence. We have so many theories and speculations and ways — but the Knowledge is not there, the Way is lost.
If the New Race has to be here, the first requirement is that some persons must have the psychic unveiling.
Barin Chaki
Thoughts and Aphorisms 10
10. My soul knows that it is immortal. But you take a dead body to pieces and cry triumphantly, “Where is your soul and where is your immortality?”
(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)
The vision and experience of soul alone can lead us to Truth.
And we have seen earlier what the soul is. The Supreme is the Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, as I have earlier told. He exists. He is eternal Existence, and seems even to go beyond and become Non-Existence, beyond the understanding of any manifested existence. As Sri Aurobindo has rendered from Taittiriyopanishad, “In the beginning all this was the Non-being. It was thence that Being was born.” He has further stated: “But, still, there is the absolute withdrawal, there is the Non-being. Out of the Non-Being, says the ancient Scripture, Being appeared.” [The Life Divine: Reality Omnipresent]
The possibility of Non-Being may lead one to reason that the ultimate reality is, therefore, a state where there is no manifestation, no universe, and ultimate truth leads one to Nihil, Nirvana. The question arises, as Sri Aurobindo puts it, “… does not the Non-Being, at least, as primal state and sole constant reality, negate and reject all possibility of a real universe?” And this may lead to the confirmation of the stand of certain schools of thought that Nirvana or a similar solution is the correct and only Way.
Sri Aurobindo has also answered this question. He says: “Non-being is only a word.” He says that the concepts of an absolute non-existence and of the infinite Self of Being are both the ideative formations of Mind. He says further: “We erect a fiction of nothingness, in order to overpass, by the method of total exclusion, all that we can know and consciously are.”
Thus, Existence is the Ultimate truth — Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.
In the Universal mode, He is the Creator of the Universes, and is one with them and also above them. He is the Manifestation, and also He is the One who manifests. The entire Manifestation is He. It is His Leela, His Play. He is both beyond it, and within it, and in each atom, each living being.
And Individuality is also an aspect of the Manifestation that Existence-Consciousness has become. The Supreme Consciousness has manifested Himself in and through all the individual beings. The Existence-Consciousness became many, and each of the many is a Soul. The Soul is the individual aspect of Manifestation. A soul, which is termed the atman in Sanskrit, is a part and portion of the Supreme Consciousness, the Divine — a part who is one with the Whole, who can be the Whole also, who can unite with the Whole.
The Soul is originally and can become, through Realization, One with the Supreme Consciousness. It is thus, in truth, immortal and eternal, beyond Death. The body, which is subject to death, is an evolutionary condition and is subject to Transformation and change.
[Continued]
Barin Chaki
When we perceive Death, we question about the existence of soul and immortality. Doubt darkens our mind, and disbelief sets in. One cannot find the Soul by dissecting the dead body. One cannot find the Soul through the senses or through emotions or passions or through the deduction and induction of logic and reason. One has to rise above the senses and the emotions and reason and ascend to the higher range of Consciousness. Even, as we know, life is not there in a dead body — but we can conclude that there is life in a living body. Similarly, when the Soul departs, the body is dead, and the soul cannot be found there. Through the tenets of the physical sciences, through the use of a purely physical and “scientific” consciousness, you cannot reach the Soul. The Mother says: “So when you imagine that you can know the secrets of Nature and still remain in a purely physical consciousness, you are entirely deceived. And this habit of demanding concrete material proofs before accepting the reality of something is one of the most glaring effects of ignorance.” One has to rise above doubt and disbelief. To rise above doubt and ignorance and the sense and the ordinary physical consciousness — that is the Way. According to Sri Aurobindo, the eternal Origin is the Pure Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sat-Chit-Ananda, whom we may call the Divine, the Supreme, the All-Existence, or in any other suitable name. And the Divine All-Existence is also involved and omnipresent in the vast material cosmos, which is but the Manifestation of All-Existence Himself. The Divine has become the Manifestation, but has remained “hidden” behind the actual phenomenon of things. Substance or Matter is the initial Form of this Manifestation. In this Manifestation, the Divine has become the Many. Or rather, All-Existence has also manifested His individual aspect and has expressed Himself as the Many, through the manifold expressions of Life and Mind. Each living being has a Soul — to express the matter in the ordinary human language. But in Reality, each soul has or may have a living body, and the soul has remained “hidden” and taken the masks of Matter and Life and Mind. Soul is, however, independent of Life and Matter and Mind. It may not have a body, and it may not also have any participation in the Manifestation, though that is to be the ultimate aim for the ultimate fulfilment. A formless spirit became the soul of form. [Savitri : Book II: Canto XIV] The Soul is eternally an individual expression of the Divine — the One is also the Many: the Many are also the One. The Manifestation of the living beings and the human beings has been a matter of Evolution on earth. And in course of Evolution, through the Supramental Manifestation, the inherent immortality of the Soul — of the Psychic Being, as Sri Aurobindo puts it — will be expressed through and in the Supramental Body also. All earth shall be the Spirit's manifest home, All then shall change, a magic order come [Savitri : Book XI: Canto I] Barin Chaki
All there was soul or made of sheer soul-stuff;
A sky of soul covered a deep soul-ground.
All here was known by a spiritual sense:
Thought was not there but a knowledge near and one
Seized on all things by a moved identity,
A sympathy of self with other selves,
The touch of consciousness on consciousness
And being's look on being with inmost gaze
And heart laid bare to heart without walls of speech
And the unanimity of seeing minds
In myriad forms luminous with the one God.
Life was not there, but an impassioned force,
Finer than fineness, deeper than the deeps,
Felt as a subtle and spiritual power,
A quivering out from soul to answering soul,
A mystic movement, a close influence,
A free and happy and intense approach
Of being to being with no screen or check,
Without which life and love could never have been.
Body was not there, for bodies were needed not,
The soul itself was its own deathless form
And met at once the touch of other souls
Close, blissful, concrete, wonderfully true.
Hidden no more by the body and the life,
Hidden no more by the mind's ignorance;
An unerring Hand shall shape event and act.
The Spirit's eyes shall look through Nature's eyes,
The Spirit's force shall occupy Nature's force.
This world shall be God's visible garden-house,
The earth shall be a field and camp of God,
Man shall forget consent to mortality
And his embodied frail impermanence.
Overtopping this mechanical universe.
A mightier race shall inhabit the mortal's world.
On Nature's luminous tops, on the Spirit's ground,
The superman shall reign as king of life,
Make earth almost the mate and peer of heaven,
And lead towards God and truth man's ignorant heart
And lift towards godhead his mortality.
Thoughts and Aphorisms 11
11. Immortality is not the survival of the mental personality after death, though that also is true, but the waking possession of the unborn and deathless Self of which body is only an instrument and a shadow.
(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)
The human being has a body and a vital being, to be mastered and governed by a mental being. The vital being animates the physical being, and is the source of all passions and emotions and sentiments. But the mental being is able to fully control and govern the body only in rare cases — where the mental being is formed, organized and individualized, having a personality.
Every human being, as he is now, does not necessarily have a personality. In this connection, The Mother says: “In the great mass of human beings the mind is something fluid which has no organization of its own, and therefore it is not a personality. And as long as the mind is like that, fluid, unorganized, with no cohesive of its own and without personality, it cannot survive. ”
A fluid and unorganized mind can not then survive the death of the physical body. The mental being then is dissolved in the mental region, and the physical body gets dissolved in the physical substance.
What our mind generally is?
We may see what Sri Aurobindo says:
Our mind is a house haunted by the slain past,
Ideas soon mummified, ghosts of old truths,
God's spontaneities tied with formal strings
And packed into drawers of reason's trim bureau,
A grave of great lost opportunities,
Or an office for misuse of soul and life
And all the waste man makes of heaven's gifts
And all his squanderings of Nature's store,
A stage for the comedy of Ignorance.
[Savitri : Book II: Canto XIII]
But when there is a mental being with a personality, it can survive the death of the physical body and it can continue life after life, birth after birth.
Let us keep in mind that here the word personality has been used in a special sense — to have a personality, the mental being must have to stand erect without depending on the body and the vital being, with a full control over them.
As The Mother says, in the mental atmosphere on earth, there are independent mental personalities, who have continued their existence, independently, even after the physical existence, the body, is no more there. When the soul re-incarnates, the mental personality also re-incarnates, “carrying with it the memories of the previous lives.”
However, as Sri Aurobindo has stated, the continuity of the mental personality is not really what Immortality is, though it is an effect and an accompaniment of Immortality.
Immortality relates to the essential being of each individual human being, which is not different from the universal Self. To realize and live the conscious existence of that essential individual being, which has no beginning and no end, is what Immortality is.
Let us listen to the Call from Sri Aurobindo:
"Why camest thou to this dumb deathbound earth,
This ignorant life beneath indifferent skies
Tied like a sacrifice on the altar of Time,
O spirit, O immortal energy,
If 'twas to nurse grief in a helpless heart
Or with hard tearless eyes await thy doom?
Arise, O soul, and vanquish Time and Death."
[Savitri: Book VII: Canto II]
Barin Chaki
[Continued from the previous discussion]
The Person behind each appearance that is named a human being is the unborn and the deathless Self. We have seen in the previous discussions that The Supreme Being Himself has manifested as the Universe, as the Cosmic Reality, revealing His Universal aspect, and has also manifested as the Individual Beings in His Universal aspect. And He is the Transcendental Being, above and beyond all Manifestation — besides the Universal and Individual Aspects.
The deathless Self or the Soul is the individual aspect of Manifestation and is termed the atman in Sanskrit. It is a part and portion of the Supreme Consciousness, the Divine — a part who is one with the Whole, who can be the Whole also, who can unite with the Whole. The Soul is originally and can become, through Realization, One with the Supreme Consciousness. It is, in reality, One with the Supreme and with Universe. But ordinarily, the human does not know this, has not realized this. It is thus, in truth, immortal and eternal, beyond Death.
The body is subject to death, but it is an evolutionary condition of the Being that is born and is subject to Transformation and change. In the urge of Manifestation as the Many, the Supreme, That is the Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the sat-chit-ananda, has taken up the body, the physical being, besides the vital and the mental being. As discussed earlier, the physical, vital and mental beings are the masks taken up by the Soul from the planes of Matter, Life and Mind.
Generally, according to the old philosophical thought, the word Soul was regarded as eternal and ever-conscious, but was regarded as inactive and passive. It was regarded to be a witness that never interfered. However, in Man, there is an active part or aspect of the Soul, which is termed by Sri Aurobindo as the Psychic Being, which participates in the Evolution of Man, in the onward journey of the human being on the Path of Evolution into the higher beings, the supramental beings, towards the Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness, the next phase of the Evolution. The Psychic is not present in any other living beings. The psychic being is not present even in an Asura or in a Devata, as both of them are non-evolutionary beings. To evolve beyond their present status, both an Asura and a Devata will have to take birth as a human being, as held by Sri Aurobindo.
Sri Aurobindo adopted the term “psychic being” for the word soul is vaguely used:
The word soul is very vaguely used in English- as it often refers to the whole non-physical consciousness including even the vital with all its desires and passions. That is why the word psychic being has to be used so as to distinguish this divine portion from the instrumental parts of the nature.
Thus, in the human who is an evolutionary being, the Soul is to be understood as the psychic being.
We should have a clear understanding of the difference between the soul or, rather, the psychic being and the pure Atman, which is the self or the spirit. The pure self is unborn and does not pass through death or birth. It is not limited or affected or bound by body, mind or life, or even by Nature, and it is independent of them, though it supports them. However, it should also be remembered that the Spirit has become the Manifestation in Nature, from which have emerged and evolved the body and the life and the mind.
The soul or the psychic being participates in the process and procedure of birth and death, though it is neither born nor ever dead, as it is immortal and eternal. In the process, it moves from the earth plane to other planes and comes back again to earth-existence, as said by Sri Aurobindo. The soul moves with the evolutionary progression through several lives, from the existence of a cell to the stage of a human being, supporting the Evolution and development of the physical being, the vital being and the mental being in the human existence and consciousness. It continues its support of the further evolution beyond Mind. And all this is done behind the veil.
When the true spiritual life begins, it is no more behind the veil. Indeed, to begin the true spiritual life, the psychic being has to be unveiled. This is the first step in the process of Transformation — in the Way of the Triple Transformation. The psychic being, when unveiled, takes up the further evolution of the Individual, towards the higher Evolution of planes beyond Mind and of the Supramental Consciousness. It gradually brings a change unto the mental personality also, which is then immortalized. The mental personality then survives after death, for it accompanies the unveiled psychic being.
As Sri Aurobindo has said, in the due course of the Supramental Transformation, the physical body will be changed and it will no more have the necessity of a death, for it can then cure and create the necessary cells, and obviously it will then be different from what the present human body is.
The deathless Self will then transmute the mortal body as a perfect and deathless instrument, which will no more remain a shadow.
Whenever the psychic being takes a new birth, it aims at having a further progress on the Way, developing and perfecting the mental, vital and physical beings, its total personality, the basis of which should be a progressively perfecting body. Until and unless the physical principle in our personality is perfect and prepared to receive the new light, the new consciousness, the new life, the rebirth will be there, and the death will continue. Only an attainment of the physical immortality can this process of rebirth will come to an end for an individual or for a collectivity of individuals.
In this connection The Mother has said:
But usually, when one speaks of immortality, people think of physical immortality — it goes without saying that this has not yet been realised.
Sri Aurobindo says that it is possible and even that it will happen, but he lays down one condition: the body must be supramentalised, it must have some of the qualities of the supra mental being, which are qualities of plasticity and constant transformation. And when Sri Aurobindo writes that the body is “only an instrument and a shadow”, he is speaking of the body as it is now and will probably continue to be for a long time to come. It is only the instrument of the Self, a very inadequate expression of this Self, and a shadow — a shadow, some thing vague and obscure in comparison with the light and precision of the eternal Self. [Vol.10, Collective Works of The Mother]
Regarding the descent of the soul, or the psychic being, The Mother has said:
Its descent into the physical body is necessarily a descent into darkness, ignorance, unconsciousness; and for a very long time it must labour simply to bring a little consciousness into the material substance of the body, before it can make use of it for the experience it has come for. So, if we cultivate the body by a clear-sighted and rational method, at the same time we are helping the growth of the soul, its progress and enlightenment. [Vol.10, Collective Works of The Mother]
The Mother has further said that by physical culture, we can infuse consciousness into the cells of the body. And this is of a great importance, as by this the body can control and perfect itself, and it adds to the action of the psychic being that has entered the body.
Thus, that is the Way, stepping into which the humanity, or at least a willing portion of it, can progress towards the attainment of the deathless body, which shall no more be a shadow, but an expression of the Divine.
Barin Chaki
Thoughts and Aphorisms 12
12. They proved to me by convincing reasons that God did not exist, and I believed them. Afterwards I saw God, for He came and embraced me. And now which am I to believe, the reasonings of others or my own experience ?
Thoughts and Aphorisms [Sri Aurobindo]
In the history of human thinking, reason has sometimes tried to prove the non-existence of God. And that is what Sri Aurobindo has referred to in this Aphorism. As we know some schools of thinkers have tried to lead us to conclude that God does not exist. There are some atheists, some non-believers, and also some are there who reason that God is beyond human reason — which can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God.
Human mind can prove and disprove anything. The Mother has said in this regard: “You can prove anything with the mind. When you know how to use it and have mastered reasoning and deduction, you can prove anything.”
Indeed, Mind can prove something — as a thesis — and disprove it also and prove its opposite — as an antithesis — and therefore, it is better to turn towards the synthesis. Synthesis is the best approach of Mind towards Truth.
Mind, through Reason, can approach Truth in the way of synthesis. But Mind, untouched by any higher Consciousness, untouched by the Realization of the Supreme Truth, cannot reach the Troth of Reality through Reason.
Sri Aurobindo speaks of God having to come to Him and embracing Him. Sri Aurobindo saw God as God came to Him and embraced Him.
In simple words, He has spoken of the Supreme experience of
This experience, this Realization, is something that reasoning Mind, as such, cannot reach — but when there is this Realization, this Embrace by a Consciousness, higher than any Plane in the mental system, namely the Supramental Consciousness, then obviously Mind is touched and even transformed. And Mind moves, not only by thesis and antithesis, but by Synthesis. One of the earliest and greatest examples thereof is The Synthesis of Yoga. Through a Synthesis, originated from the Highest Consciousness, the transformed Mind reached the Idea: All life is Yoga.
Some “others” may still continue with the rational conclusion that there is no God, or any other similar conclusion of the incomplete and imperfect consciousness of the ordinary mind. Though the Person, who is embraced by the Divine, knows that the external differences between him and the “others” are but superficial and not real, not fundamental, still the “others” may have no such Realization and Experience and they may continue with their rational journey. They may not accept the Truth unveiled and realized by the Person embraced by the Divine. But the Person having the Divine Realization is firm and confirmed in the authenticity of the Truth reached.
If you move one step towards the Divine, He then comes down towards you with more steps. For, your transformation is part of the Divine’s Work. When you are transformed, it is then a step of progress in the Divine’s Work. But if we are not sincere and true to ourselves, the Experience will be far away.
But even if one is a non-believer, if the Divine wants, one will have the Realization, the Experience. The Mother has said:
“Someone has asked me, ‘How is it possible for God to reveal Himself to an unbeliever?’ That is very funny; because if it pleases God to reveal Himself to an unbeliever, I don’t see what would prevent Him from doing so!”
It is indeed our task to evolve beyond reason so that we may not for ever grope in our half-darkness (and half-light) and in our uncertainties and probabilities and in the deductions and inductions of our never-sure logical endeavors.
To be illogical is no wisdom. But to be logical at the cost of the Real Truth and at the cost of the Realization is also no wisdom.
Barindranath Chaki
Sri Aurobindo
The Mother
The Mother 1
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