The Destiny of the Body

Chapter XI

The Conquest

The Spirit's tops and Nature's base shall draw

Near to the secret of their separate truth

And know each other as one deity.

The Spirit shall look out through Matter's gaze

And Matter shall reveal the Spirit's face.

Then man and superman shall be at one

And all the earth become a single life.

(Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book XI, Canto I, p. 709)

A manifestation of the Supermind and its truth-consciousness is...inevitable; it must happen in this world sooner or later. But it has two aspects, a descent from above, an ascent from below, a self-revelation of the Spirit, an evolution in Nature.

(Sri Aurobindo, The Supramental Manifestation, p. 80)

As the psychic change has to call in the spiritual to complete it, so the first spiritual change has to call in the supramental transformation to complete it.... This then must be the nature of the third and final transformation which finishes the passage of the soul through the Ignorance and bases its consciousness, its life, its power and form of manifestation on a complete and completely effective self-knowledge.... So must be created the supramental and spiritual being as the first unveiled manifestation of the truth of the Self and Spirit in the material universe.

(Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, pp. 917-18)

We have almost come to the end of our long dissertation on how to remedy the spiritual penury of our waking physical existence. Not an escape or at the least a quietistic withdrawal from the world-consciousness, but rather the integral and victorious embracing of the life of action and creation and the divine transfiguration of the whole of our existence, is what we have placed before us as our goal.

But a further point remains to be elucidated here. A well-established

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line of spiritual experience shows that whenever our soul gets involved in action, it loses hold and becomes nescient of its immobile, passive and so-called true status, whereas a withdrawal from dynamism and an involution into passivity makes it totally oblivious of its active status which thus appears to be just a false superimposition upon the freedom and bliss of the soul.

Now, if this experience is the only or the ultimate experience possible, then we have perforce to admit that an active life cannot be compatible with the conscious experience and enjoyment of the soul-status. But fortunately this is not so. This alternation in the nescience of the active and the passive statuses occurs because it is only a part of our being and not the totality of it that shifts its centre and makes the alternative movements. But in reality there are not two distinct and separate statuses: there is instead only a unique dual status, a status that embraces at the same time both the aspects, the static one and the dynamic one.

We have already spoken of the active Brahman and the passive Brahman, but there are not two independent realities, one immobile, the other mobile. "The Reality is neither an eternal passivity of immobile Being nor an eternal activity of Being in movement, nor is It an alternation in Time between these two things. Neither in fact is the sole absolute truth of Brahman's reality.... There is not a passive Brahman and an active Brahman, but one Brahman, an Existence which reserves Its Tapas in what we call passivity and gives Itself in what we call Its activity. For the purposes of action, there are two poles of one being or a double power necessary for creation.... Brahman does not pass alternately from passivity to activity and back to passivity by cessation of Its dynamic force of being.... Integral Brahman possesses both the passivity and the activity simultaneously and does not pass alternately from one to the other as from a sleep to a waking."¹

The analogy of sleep and waking is a very apt one here. For, what we normally find is that in our waking state we forget about our sleep status and while in the sleep-state we become oblivious of our waking existence. But this is so only because a small part of our being makes the transition and oscillates between the two states of awareness. And since this part cannot embrace the totality of our existence, it becomes nescient of one or the other of the two statuses, depending on its particular station at the time. But

¹ The Life Divine, pp. 574, 575, 576. (Italics ours)

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through a proper self-discipline one can so widen the scope of one's conscious discernment that one has no more to make this abrupt and all-forgetting change-over, but can instead hold both the states in a single uninterrupted gaze.

It is the same thing with the experience of Brahman. Action and creation need not and should not externalise the consciousness and make one lose the silent freedom of the passive Brahman, nor should the experience of the immobile Brahman be incompatible with the free possession of its mobile status. This apparent incapability arises from the fact that ordinarily we identify ourselves with only a part of the totality of our consciousness — the mental or at its highest the spiritual-mental part of it — and seek to realise the Divine through this limited part alone.

And since this is just a part and not the integral consciousness, it cannot simultaneously embrace both the aspects. Thus dynamis obliterates the self of status from its awareness and passivity loosens its hold on the self of action. When this passivity becomes entire, our mind-consciousness falls asleep, so to say, enters into the trance-state of Samadhi or else is liberated into a spiritual silence. But evidently this is not the line which we would like to follow. For "though it is a liberation from the ignorance of the partial being in its flux of action, it is earned by putting on a luminous nescience of the dynamic Reality or a luminous separation from it: the spiritual mental being remains self-absorbed in a silent essential status of existence and becomes either incapable of active consciousness or repugnant to all activity."¹

But our goal is the integral fulfilment of our integral existence, the integral and simultaneous possession of both the static and dynamic aspects of the Divine, as is the case with Sachchidananda Himself. But this is possible only if we possess the integral consciousness. And this integral consciousness comes only with the attainment of the supramental Gnosis. For, as we have mentioned before, this Gnosis is a twofold Truth-Consciousness, an inherent and integral self-knowledge and at the same time an intimate and integral consciousness of the manifestation. As a matter of fact, Supermind is none other than Sachchidananda's power of self-awareness and world-awareness, and thus the dynamically integral liberation and fulfilment that we are seeking after can be achieved only in and through this supramental Vijñāna.

¹ The Life Divine, p. 574.

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We have seen how to retain the consciousness of the passive Brahman while at the same time participating in the consciousness of the active aspect of It. But that does not automatically signify that our nature-part as distinct from our inner soul-existence will also get transformed and be moulded in the image of the Divine. But this is what we precisely need for the fulfilment of our goal. For it is not merely the liberation of our soul, but the liberation and the divine transfiguration of the whole of our Nature, prakṛti-mukti, prakṛti-rūpāntara, enabling the establishment of a Life Divine upon earth, that is the total content of our aim. Let us n6w proceed to show how this Prakriti-Mukti and Prakriti-Rupantara can be integrally achieved through the Supermind.

But what is meant by soul or by Nature, by Purusha and his Prakriti ? Any relatively profound psycho-spiritual inquiry makes us aware of two elements of our being, a soul and a Nature. Purusha or soul, individual or universal, is the observing and experiencing conscious existence seemingly inactive but in relation with its becoming, while Prakriti or Nature, again individual or universal, is the principle and the powers of the becoming, appearing as "an executive Force or an energy of Process which is seen to constitute, drive and guide all conceivable activities and to create a myriad forms visible to us and invisible and use them as stable supports for its incessant flux of action and creation."¹

Apparently, Purusha and Prakriti seem to be two different and distinct Principles. Not only that: in the ordinary status of conscious existence, the action and influence of Prakriti seem to be deleterious to the progress of the soul. As a matter of fact, as Sri Aurobindo has so beautifully put it, the whole problem of life resolves itself into this one question:

"What are we to do with this soul and nature set face to face with each other, this Nature, this personal and cosmic activity, which tries to impress itself upon the soul, to possess, control, determine it, and this soul which feels that in some mysterious way it has freedom, a control over itself, a responsibility for what it is and does, and tries therefore to turn upon Nature, its own and the world's, and to control, possess, enjoy, or even, it may be, reject and escape from her?"²

¹ The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 113.

² Ibid., p. 410.

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It is because of this apparent tendency of the Purusha to get involved and self-lost in the obscuring action of Prakriti that the self-recovering soul feels a sort of aloof detachment if not total repugnance for the play of Nature and seeks to stand back from it and destroy all earthward tendencies so that it may securely possess its static infinity.

But this antagonism between Soul and Nature is more apparent than real. For in reality, they are not distinct and different Principles; the trenchant duality is fictitious, they represent in fact, the Two-in-One or rather the One-in-Two. Thus,

"There are two who are One and play in many worlds:

In Knowledge and Ignorance they have spoken and met

And light and darkness are their eye's interchange.

⁂

Thus have they made their play with us for roles:

Author and actor with himself as scene,

He moves there as the Soul, as Nature she.

⁂

This whole wide world is only he and she."¹

Thus, the Purusha-Prakriti duality, although separate in appearance, is in fact inseparable. "Wherever there is Prakriti, there is Purusha; wherever there is Purusha, there is Prakriti. Even in his inactivity he holds in himself all her force and energies ready for projection; even in the drive of her action she carries with her all his observing and mandatory consciousness as the whole support and sense of her creative purpose."²

But why is this so ? Because, in their essential nature and original aspect, Purusha and Prakriti arise from the being of divine Sachchidananda. As a matter of fact, "Self-conscious existence is the essential nature of the Being; that is Sat or Purusha: the Power of self-aware existence, whether drawn into itself or acting in the works of its consciousness and force, its knowledge and its

¹ Savitri, Book I, Canto IV, p. 61.

² The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 114.

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will, Chit and Tapas, Chit and its Shakti, — that is Prakriti. Delight of being, Ananda, is the eternal truth of the union of this conscious being and its conscious force whether absorbed in itself or else deployed in the inseparable duality of its two aspects, unrolling the worlds and viewing them, acting in them and upholding the action, executing works and giving the sanction without which the force of Nature cannot act, executing and controlling the knowledge and the will and knowing and controlling the determinations of the knowledge-force and will-force, ministering to the enjoyment and enjoying, — the Soul possessor, observor, knower, lord of Nature, Nature expressing the being, executing the will, satisfying the self-knowledge, ministering to the delight of being of the soul. There we have, founded on the very nature of being, the supreme and the universal relation of Prakriti with Purusha. The absolute joy of the soul in itself and, based upon that, the absolute joy of the soul in Nature are the divine fulfilment of the relation."¹

Thus the apparent duality vanishes and the Two-in-One reveals Himself or Herself in the divine Sachchidananda, the Sat-Chit-Ananda, for Sat is the Being, the Purusha, Chit is the conscious executive force or Prakriti and Ananda is the halo and aroma of their indissoluble union.

But this essential unity and union of Purusha and Prakriti are not overtly realised on the lower planes of existence, the lower planes of manifestation of the Spirit. The true intrinsic relation has been perverted there and a pragmatic division and separation with all their undesirable consequences have developed alongside.

After all, what is a plane of consciousness, a plane of existence ? A plane is nothing else than 'a general settled poise or world of relations' between Purusha and Prakriti, between the Soul and Nature. Now with the progressive involution or self-concealment of Sachchidananda, has ensued the progressive self-hiding of Soul and Nature, one from the other, the result being that the self-possession and the world-possession, svarājya and sāmrājya, have become difficult to achieve at the same time. Now, depending on the nature of the dominant cosmic Principle and power of being around which the Soul and the Nature decide to weave their game of hide and seek, we have different planes of consciousness and existence. Thus we have, in ascending order, a material plane,

¹ The Synthesis of Yoga, pp. 415-16. (Italics ours)

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a life-plane and the planes of mind.

But even on the highest range of spiritual-mind planes, the absolute harmony of the union of Purusha-Prakriti is not fully recovered. Thus even though the separate liberation and static release of the soul become feasible there, the latter cannot freely possess Nature, become its conscious Lord and transform it into an effective and flawless instrument of divine manifestation.

For that we have to reach the plane of supermind, the vijñāna or gnosis of Sachchidananda, which is "not only the concentrated consciousness of the infinite Essence, [but] also and at the same time an infinite knowledge of the myriad play of the Infinite.¹ ...In the gnosis the dualism of Purusha and Prakriti, Soul and Nature,...disappears in their biune unity, the dynamic mystery of the occult Supreme. The Truth-being is the Hara-Gauri of the Indian iconological symbol (the biune body of the Lord and his Spouse, Ishwara and Shakti, the right half male, the left half female); it is the double Power masculine-feminine born from and supported by the supreme Shakti of the Supreme."²

But even then a last point remains. For, we do not want to withdraw from the material plane of existence into the Supermind's self-existent realm: we want instead the supramental union of Soul and Nature in the very bosom of the physically embodied existence here upon earth. Thus, what is essential for the fulfilment of our objective is not merely the ascent into the supramental Gnosis but the eventual transforming descent of its Consciousness-Force into our entire being and nature and a concomitant or subsequent emergence of the concealed Supermind at present involved here below. This influx from above and the unveiling from below will between them "remove what is left of the nature of the

¹ The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 458.

² Ibid., pp. 480-81.

cf.:

"There he beheld in their mighty union's poise

The figure of the deathless Two-in-One,

A single being in two bodies clasped,

A diarchy of two united souls.

Seated absorbed in deep creative joy;

Their trance of being sustained the mobile world.

Behind them in a morning dusk One stood

Who brought them forth from the Unknowable."

(Savitri, Book II, Canto XIV, p. 295)

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Ignorance. The rule of the Inconscient will disappear: for the Inconscience will be changed by the outburst of the greater secret Consciousness within it, the hidden Light, into what it always was in reality, a sea of the secret Superconscience".¹

The supramental being, the gnostic soul, the Vijñānamaya Puruṣa, thus appearing in earth-existence will be the first unveiled manifestation of Sachchidananda in the material universe. Not a self-oblivion in the Infinite, but an integral self-possession and world-possession in the Infinite will be its characteristic movement. It will be the first to participate in world-action "not only in the freedom, but in the power and sovereignty of the Eternal. For it receives the fullness, it has the sense of plenitude of the Godhead in its action; it shares the free, splendid and royal march of the Infinite, is a vessel of the original knowledge, the immaculate power, the inviolable bliss, transmutes all life into the eternal Light and the eternal Fire and the eternal Wine of the nectar. It possesses the infinite of the Self and it possesses the infinite of Nature .... The gnostic soul is the child, but the King-child; here is the royal and eternal childhood whose toys are the worlds and all universal Nature is the miraculous garden of the play that tires never.... This biune being of Purusha-Prakriti is as if a flaming Sun and body of divine Light self-carried in its orbit by its own inner consciousness and power at one with the universe, at one with a supreme Transcendence. Its madness is a wise madness of Ananda, the incalculable ecstasy of a supreme consciousness and power vibrating with an infinite sense of freedom and intensity in its divine life-movements... —a dance this also, a whirl of mighty energies, but the Master of the dance holds the hands of His energies and keeps them to the rhythmic order, the self-traced harmonic circles of His Rasa-Lila."²

Thus, with the supramental transformation of our being and nature, this earthly life will flower into the Life divine and our waking physical existence will be a divinised existence of integral consciousness and dynamis. Neither will one then have to plunge into the superconscient trance-state in order to experience the Absoute Existence or Non-Existence, nor to content oneself with the Jivanmukti-status waiting all the while for the final release in Videha-Mukti. Because, then

¹ The Life Divine, p. 968.

² The Synthesis of Yoga, pp. 480-82.

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Nature shall live to manifest secret God,

The Spirit shall take up the human play,

This earthly life become the life divine.¹

In the words of the Mother:

"In the supramental creation there will be no more...what men now call gods.

"These great divine beings themselves will be able to participate in the new creation, but for that they must put on what we may call the supramental substance on earth. And if there are some who choose to remain in their world, as they are, if they do decide not to manifest themselves physically, their relation with the other beings of the supramental world on earth will be a relation of friends, of collaborators, of equal to equal, because the highest divine essence will have manifested in the beings of the new supramental world on earth.

"When the physical substance will be supramentalised, to be born on earth in a body will not be a cause of inferiority, rather the contrary, there will be gained a plenitude which could not be obtained otherwise".²

But the question is: when is this divine Supermind going to descend into the earth-existence or the involved Supermind going to emerge? The answer is that it is no longer a question of when in the future, it is already an established fact. The divine Supermind has descended in the year 1956 and a new world is already born, although not yet manifest to the gross physical consciousness of man. The Mother who along with Sri Aurobindo has 'luminously laboured' for decades for the descent of the Supermind has Herself vouchsafed us this assurance:

"The greatest thing that can ever be, the most marvellous thing since the beginning of creation, the miracle has happened".³

"The manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise but a living fact, a reality. It is at work here, and one day will come when the most blind, the most unconscious, even the most unwilling shall be obliged to recognise it."⁴

¹ Savitri, Book XI, Canto I, p. 711.

²Towards February 29, 1960: Some Statements by the Mother (Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1960), p. 16. (Italics ours)

³Ibid., p. 18.

⁴ Ibid., p. 9.

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Only, the involved Supermind has not yet emerged. "The emergence is for the future, but, of course, now it is merely a question of time: the process is natural and inevitable."¹ *

End of Part Two

¹ Towards February 29, 1960: Some Statements bp the Mother (Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1960), p. 1.

* Readers wishing to know more about the supramental descent and the course of its manifestation as it is being actually elaborated may consult the above booklet priced at Re. 1/- and follow the writings of the Mother that have been serialised in the Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education (Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India).

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