The Ascent of Sight in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri

Fifth Element:

Eye the Organ of Vision:

In our normal daily experience we proceed on the assumption that our physical eye is the only possible organ of vision and all sight has to depend on the proper employment of this physical eye. But this assumption too is not true to fact. Being governed by the overpowering experience of our physical mind we easily suppose that the fundamental thing in any "seeing operation" is the impression made by an external object on the physical organ of sight and that the only business of our mind which happens to be the present central principle of our consciousness is to receive the physical impression produced and its nervous translation and thus be aware of the object in question. But this account errs on many counts.

The physical eye belonging to the physical body is meant only for a limited range of physical sight. But we have bodies other than the physical one: the subtle body {suksma satire) and the causal body (kārana sarìra), and these bodies have their corresponding "eyes". Our total being is not constituted of the gross material sheath (annamaya kosa) alone which is all that is visible and sensible to us. It is prāncakosātmaka, made up of four more sheaths: a vital sheath (prānamaya kosa), a mental sheath (manomaya

kosa), a "knowledge" sheath (vijnānamaya kosa) and a "bliss" sheath (ānandamaya kosa). Each of these subtler sheaths possesses its own faculty of vision. In fact, what we can see with our "mortal" physical eye is an infinitesimal portion of the multilayered multidimensional world of cosmic manifestation. All that exists in all possible worlds -yes, all without exception - is accessible to the sight of a corresponding eye and, what is most notable, all these different "eyes" are already there in the different planes of consciousness of every human being, although now hidden and dormant behind the thick veils of ignorance. If we can once awaken these various faculties of sight, there is no limit to the extent and splendour of the inexhaustible fields of visions that will open up before us.

Page 22