Guidance from Sri Aurobindo - Volume 1

Supermind and Sachchidananda

The years 1933 to 1935

      When one becomes one with the Divine, would Super mind be still far from him?

      One can become one with the Divine on the mental plane. The Supermind is necessary for manifesting the Divine on earth.

      You have said in your book The Mother: "It is only the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical nature." What do you imply by "opening from below"? Is not "below" still unconscious of the Divine?

      Wherever the Divine is, everything is — it is only concealed, not manifest. The Divine is there below in the inconscience itself, mind and life are concealed in Matter, so is Supermind and Sachchidananda. The below is not something outside the Divine Existence. But as mind manifested in Matter only after the descent of Mind opened it into action, so it is with Supermind. You have not noticed the word "opening" which implies that it was shut in there and concealed.

      You state, "The Divine is there below in the

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inconscience itself." Does this not mean that it is the divine beings themselves who, in order to raise the whole world towards the Truth, have made a great sacrifice and come down upon earth and concealed themselves in Matter, even forgetting their true reality?

      What beings? This is true of the Divine Light and Power itself descending towards the world. But the Divine Consciousness was already there, otherwise the world could not have existed.

      Will not the Supermind be one of the powers commanded by man for realising the Divine upon earth?

      ...You mean manifesting, I suppose. Anyone can realise the Divine— in the sense of being conscious of the Divine.

      Man is a mental being in a body — how can he have command of the Supermind which is far above mind? Even Overmind is far above him.

      As the mind has its corresponding divine plane the vital too must have such a plane of its own. What is that plane?

      Mind — Supermind

      Emotional being (heart)—Ananda

      Main vital — Tapas

      Matter — Sat

      These are the correspondences — but the Supra-mental is a sufficient instrument for divinising the vital.

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      Somebody, while explaining your letter to NB about "consciousness", said that Sat or Existence is Sri Aurobindo and Chit or Consciousness is the Mother. Is this correct?

      ...It is rather a crude way of putting it. Chit and Sat cannot be separated like that.

      He also added that the transcendent is something beyond Sachchidananda.

      People say like that because the transcendental Absolute is not only what to us is existence but also what to us is non-existence. But there is really no such thing as non-existence. So the transcendent can be conceived as transcendent Sat, transcendent Chit, transcendent Ananda.

      Since "the Supermind is the total Truth-consciousness" why is it distinguished as the Supermind? Is not the Sachchidananda also a Truth-consciousness?

      The Sachchidananda is not in itself an active con-sciousness, it is simply pure existence, consciousness and bliss. By a Truth-consciousness is meant — a Knowledge consciousness which is immediately, inherently and directly aware of Truth in manifestation and has not to seek for it like Mind. Sachchidananda is everywhere behind the manifestation and supporting it as well as above it and can be experienced below the Supermind—even in mind and vital it can be experienced.

      In the early days of my sadhana I once had an experience of great stillness in which my consciousness rose upward; at a certain height, it felt the bliss.

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consciousness and existence all together and at the same time. It is said that below the Supermind, Peace and Power, Knowledge and Will, work separately or as separate aspects. Then how is it that my consciousness experienced them together?

      Bliss, Consciousness and Existence together are Sachchidananda and can be experienced anywhere.

      That is quite a different thing from Bliss, Consciousness and Existence. These below the Supermind are separate aspects and even if they work together work by association, not by an inherent oneness. Don't confuse different things with each other.

      You said that Sachchidananda can be experienced anywhere, even below the Supermind. Does its tri-unity remain the same below the Supermind, or does it appear there only in diversity, e.g. as Consciousness or as Existence or as Ananda, but not all the three together as they are above?

      One can have them together or realise pure Existence, pure Consciousness, pure Ananda separately.

      I am told that everything is in the Supermind — that everything is the Will of Sachchidananda or its expression; but to say so is not enough to give us an idea of the Supermind. I would like to know the real difference between them.

      The Will of Sachchidananda can act under different conditions in the Knowledge or the Ignorance. The Supermind is the Truth-Consciousness, the Knowledge, and the Will there works out spontaneously the unmixed Knowledge — whereas below the Supermind it

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allows the forces to play in quite another way and supports them or intervenes according to the need of the play in the Ignorance.

      Am I right in saying that the Will of Sachchidananda can act in the Knowledge as well as in the Ignorance, while that of the Supermind can act only in Knowledge — below the Supermind Sachchidananda allowing the force to play according to the need of the Ignorance. Am I right about the Supermind's action?

      Not "can act" only, but "acts". All its native action is the action of the Knowledge; if it comes down it brings down the action of Knowledge. If it acts from above only, then it is no longer a pure supramental action, but mixed.

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