The Destiny of the Body

Chapter XI

The Ascending Scale of Energy

One thing one does not escape and that is the wasting of the material tissues of the body, its flesh and substance. Conceivably, if a practicable way and means could only be found, this last invincible obstacle too might be overcome and the body maintained by an interchange of its forces with the forces of material Nature, giving to her her need from the individual and taking from her directly the sustaining energies of her universal existence. Conceivably, one might rediscover and reestablish at the summit of the evolution of life the phenomenon we see at its base, the power to draw from all around it the means of sustenance and self-renewal. Or else the evolved being might acquire the greater power to draw down those means from above rather than draw them up or pull them in from the environment around, all about it and below it. But until something like this is achieved or made possible we have to go back to food and the established material forces of Nature.

(Sri Aurobindo, The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth, p. 52)

"Do you think I get all this energy from my frugal meals?

Of course not, one can draw infinite energy from the universe

when needed!"¹

(The Mother)

The body is the vehicle, vāhana, of the Spirit; it is the indispensable means and instrument for the latter's self-manifestation in this world of evolutionary becoming. But this Becoming is in its nature an infinite play of Force or Shakti, a 'measureless Movement in Time and Space'. Phenomenally, there is nothing stable or stationary there. All that appears to be stable or inert, passive or immobile, is in reality 'a block of movement' maintained in its covert and unceasing motion by the dynamic play of Energy that so affects our limited vision as to create the illusion of an apparent immobility.

¹ Quoted by Dr. Prabhat Sanyal in "A Call from Pondicherry", p. 9.

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It is no doubt true that behind all this movement, supporting all this Becoming, there is the fundamental reality of the moveless and immutable, Timeless and Spaceless pure Existent. But the movement, the becoming, the energy in action are also eternal facts of existence. These 'two fundamental facts of pure existence and of world-existence, a fact of Being, a fact of Becoming'¹ are not contradictory and mutually cancellative, as our Mind basing itself on finite reason would like us to believe. The integral spiritual vision bears testimony to the truth that "the Absolute...takes its eternal poise in the one and the stable and whirls round itself infinitely, inconceivably, securely in the moving and the multitudinous. World-existence is the ecstatic dance of Shiva which multiplies the body of the God numberlessly to the view: it leaves that white existence precisely where and what it was, ever is and ever will be; its sole absolute object is the joy of the dancing".²

Thus phenomenally every formation in this world of eternal Becoming is in constant movement overt or involved: and the apparent stability is no more than an error of perspective. And embodied life forms no exception to this general rule Both psychologically and physiologically life represents a ceaseless dynamis, a movement with a forward and upward orientation. Psychologically, in the inimitable words of The Mother: "The moment you cease to advance, you fall back. From the moment you are satisfied and aspire no longer, you begin to die. Life is movement, life is effort; it is marching forward, scaling the mountain, climbing towards future revelations and realisations. Nothing is more dangerous than wanting to rest. It is in action, in effort, in forward march that you must find rest."³

Physiologically too, a living body, in spite of its deceptive stability on the surface, is in a ceaseless dynamic flux, and must be so for ever, whatever be its status or degree of development already attained or to be attained in future. For it cannot expect to abrogate the universally valid principle of Becoming.

Hence arises the body's need for a constant source of supply of energy. And this energy-need will always be there if the body has to serve as the effective instrument for the Spirit's dynamic self-unfolding in the universe. The whole question then turns round

^{1 2} The Life Divine, p. 78.

³ The Mother, Bulletin, Vol. IX, No. 2, p. 93.

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the nature of the energy in demand and the nature of its possible sources of supply.

We have noted before that in the evolutionary elaboration of life so far, Nature has so arranged that all heterotrophic organisms including man must have their sources of energy in material aliments and that too in the form of organic foodstuffs derived from other organisms. Indeed, the animal body stores all the energy that it needs for its synthetic processes and for the performance of muscular work, in 'high energy' phosphate compounds, notably in what has come to be known as ATP (adenosine triphosphate). This ATP that acts as the energy pool is the main carrier of chemical energy within the organism and is produced in its turn by the animal body from ingested organic aliments, through a complex chain of operations mediated by a whole series of enzymes.

But ATP is not the only possible source of energy for living organisms. The autotrophes, and in particular all green plants, do not depend upon ATP as their principal energy-source. Through a process known as photo-synthesis, green plants can directly tap the energy of sunlight, convert it into chemical energy and thus transform simple inorganic materials like water and carbon dioxide into energy-rich organic matter. Green plants are thus free from the necessity of organic aliments.

A closer look at the phenomenon of life so far elaborated upon earth shows however that all life, directly or indirectly, depends for its existence upon this one and unique source of energy: the energy radiated by the sun. For it is this solar energy that is transmitted in stages through the plants to the herbivores and through the latter to the carnivores, and "were there no green plants to function as solar energy converters, practically all life on earth would cease."¹

So it is not so much the organic material aliments as the solar energy that is in the last analysis the sustainer of life. And this fact opens the possibility of an ultimate victory, even in the case of man's body, over the necessity for material alimentation. For, so far as energy-need is concerned, once we admit the possibility of the emergence of a new body-chemistry and of new physiological functioning, attendant upon the supramental change of

¹ Arthur W. Galston, The Life of the Green Plant, p. 1.

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consciousness,¹ there is no theoretical bar to the New Body manifesting the capability of directly absorbing and utilising the physical energy that is all around us in the universe.

But the New Body need not limit itself to the tapping of "the energies accumulated in the material and earthly world and [drawing] freely from this inexhaustible source."² Apart from the fact that "these material energies are obscure and half incon-scient",³ physical energy is not the only modality of Energy as modem science would like us to believe. Physical energy is rather the lowest derivative form of the universally operative Energy that rises on an ascending scale of potency and subtlety. Indeed, even under the existing conditions of life, it is not the physical energy that is the real sustainer of the living body: for, this energy is neither primal in nature nor independent in action. It is rather the universal life-energy, the Prana of the Upanishads, that is the prime governor and support of all embodied existence, although on the frontal plane it may sometimes be constrained to act through the modified form of physical energy.

Modern science, concerning itself only with the gross external opertions of Nature, fails to recognise the existence or effectivity of a Prana-Shakti as distinct from the physical manifestation of energy. For, in the very nature of its field of investigation and of the means adopted, physical analysis can reveal to us only the 'external signs and symbols' of the operation of Shakti. But, as the ancient Wisdom points out, the true foundation is above while the branchings are downward, ūrdhvavudhna nīchīna-śākha (Rig-Veda), ūrdhvamūlamadhaḥśākham (Gita), so that to know the essential truth of things as distinguished from their phenomenal appearances, one has to probe upward and inward instead of remaining content only with surface scrutiny.

Now, helped by this inner and deeper vision of things, when we reflect upon the world of forms and upon its ceaseless dynamic movement, we make the following significant discoveries:

(i) Behind every action of physical energy and supporting it, there lies always a Pranic Shakti, the universal Life-Energy that is "not physical in itself; ... not material energy, but rather a different principle supporting Matter and involved in it."⁴

¹ See the discussion in Chapter X.

^{2 3} Words of the Mother, p. 203.

⁴ Sri Aurobindo, Kena Upanishad, p. 84.

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(ii)This universal Prana, "supports and occupies all forms and without it no physical form could have come into be ng or could remain in being."¹

(iii)This Prana-Shakti is the real motive power behind the action of even physical forces. "No material forces could exist or act without it, for from it they derive their energy and movement and they are its vehicles."² It is the universal Prana that "in various forms sustains or drives material energy in all physical things from the electron and atom and gas up through the metal, plant, animal, physical man."³

(iv)Thus all material aspects are only fields and forms of this Prana which "is in itself a pure energy, their cause and not their result."⁴ Even in the functioning of our body it is this Pranic Shakti that is the essential "condition of all action, even of the most apparently inanimate physical action."⁵

(v)This universal Life-Energy is not only active within ourselves, in our body; it is at the same time "freely available in the world and in any quantity."⁶ As a matter of fact, because of the prevailing imperfect organisation of our physical system, it is only a very limited amount of this Energy that can be active in our body. But in its own nature, it is illimitable in scope and immense in effectivity. This limitless ocean of Shakti is all "around us and above, one with the same energy in us, and [we] can draw it in and down to aggrandise our normal action or call upon and get it to pour into us."⁷ And if we only know how to open ourselves to the uninterrupted play of this universal Pranic Energy, how to "assimilate that energy, assimilate it directly, then there is no limit to [our] energy.... [We] can take it in and absorb as much as we are capable of it."⁸ It will then sustain all our physical energies and maintain the functionings of our bodily life with a far greater and effective power than any that our present body-bound energy can command.

It is then in the direct and unlimited tapping of this Life-Energy

^{1 2} Sri Aurobindo, Kena Upanishad, p. 84.

³The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 837.

⁴Kena Upanishad, p. 84.

⁵ The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 704.

⁶ The Mother as quoted by Nolini Kanta Gupta in The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo (Part Eight), p. 97.

⁷ The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 727.

⁸ Nolini Kanta Gupta, op. cit., pp. 96-97.

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that our evolving body can expect to find the second way of obviating the necessity of material aliments.

But even this Prana or Life-Energy is not the primal or self-existent power. This too, in its turn, is an inferior derivative form of a far higher Force in action, that 'guides, drives, controls and uses' this Life-Energy and yokes it to the many workings of existence. But what is the nature of this supreme Energy, this Life of the Life-Force, ko devaḥ?

The real and ultimate upholder of the Manifestation, of which the Pranic Shakti is but an agent and intermediary, is the supremely conscious universal Energy of existence, the Tapas or Chit-Shakti of the Divine Sachchidananda. It is "nothing but infinite force in action of the supreme conscious Being in His own illumined self. The self-existent is luminously aware of Himself and full of His own delight; and that self-awareness is a timeless self-possession which in action reveals itself as a force of infinite consciousness omnipotent as well as omniscient, for it exists between two poles, one of eternal stillness and pure identity, the other of eternal energy and identity of All with itself, the stillness eternally supporting the energy. That is the true existence, the Life from which our life proceeds."¹

If only we can open ourselves, even in our bodily system, to the action of this supreme Consciousness-Force, we shall never have any dearth of energy for the functioning of our life-processes. In the words of The Mother:

"[It] is a source of energy which, once discovered, never dries up, whatever the circumstances and the physical conditions in life. It is the energy that can be described as spiritual, that which is received not from below, from the depths of inconscience, but from above, from the supreme origin of men and the universe, from the all-powerful and eternal splendours of the superconscious. It is there, everywhere around us, penetrating everything." ²

And the Mother assures us that once we allow ourselves to be made the channels of this supreme creative energy and acquire "the power to draw at will and in all circumstances from the limitless source of [this] omnipotent energy in its luminous purity, ... fatigue, exhaustion, illness, age and even death become mere

¹ Sri Aurobindo, Kena Upanishad, p. 89. ² Words of the Mother, p. 204.

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obstacles on the way which a steady will is sure to surmount."¹

It is then in the opening up of our physical system to the unimpeded action of this ultimate Source of all energies that we can expect to discover the most perfect and adequate means of meeting our body's energy-needs and thus liberate ourselves integrally from the binding necessity of gathering energy from the crude source of material aliments.

But unfortunately there is a snag in the above procedure and the problem is not so easy of solution as it appears at first view. For as we have found in Chapter VII, it is not enough for our purpose to be subjectively open and receptive; this openness and receptivity must be made integrally operative in our very physical system. But the whole trouble comes from the fact that in the evolutionary elaboration of life upon earth Nature has provided us with a body whose capacity for opening to, and power of assimilation of, the superior forms of Energy is extremely poor and imperfect in scope. The bodily instrument in its present organisation or status is all but shut to any direct operation of these supra-physical energies. It is still the raw and unbaked earthen vessel, ataptatanu in the Vedic image, and apt to get agitated, upset and broken under the impact of any great inrush of the higher or the highest Energy. And this fact has imposed an almost insuperable limitation on the availability and use of the universal Shakti for the purposes of our physical functionings.

This limitation is bound to subsist, whatever may be the level or intensity of our inner illumination and spiritual realisation, unless and until the problem is tackled at its basal station, that is to say, to have the very physical system get transfigured.

But precisely this will be one of the results of the supramental transformation of our earthly existence. It will suffuse the very cells of the body with the Light and Power of Supermind, transmute its stuff and transfigure its functionings and make of the New Body 'a dynamic constant eddy' and 'a vibrant station of storage and communication' for the Chit-Shakti to stream in and act.

But even when the problem of energy-needs of the body is thus tackled and finds its proper solution, the problem of material alimentation is only half resolved. For there still remains the

¹ Words of the Mother, p. 205.

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question of the substantial stuff of the body. How can our material body maintain its integrity if there is no absorption of a regular supply of material aliments from outside? Let us seek for an answer to this crucial question.

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