The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo - Part 10

III

Consciousness

I spoke of consciousness and dimensions of consciousness. What then is consciousness itself? Well, we may begin by knowing what it is not, what is not consciousness. Not consciousness means the absence of consciousness, otherwise unconsciousness. You are conscious, conscious of things when you are aware, aware of their presence; when you are not aware, when you do not perceive, you are unconscious, you do not have consciousness. It is the difference between being asleep and being awake. When you are asleep things are lost, you become unconscious of them; when you are awake, things reappear and you are conscious of them. The difference is analogous to the difference of night and day. Night in its darkness swallows up things, annihilates them as it were, it is unconsciousness. The day dawning brings for the things and gives their normal concrete form, tangible reality. It is consciousness. So we may say consciousness is light, and unconsciousness darkness. Consciousness is creation— unconsciousness annihilation.

But consciousness has two modes or status. First of all, when consciousness is the consciousness of things, when one is conscious of the existence of objects, this mode may be called objective consciousness, but consciousness may exist in itself without reference to any

Page 128

object of consciousness; the light is there, there is no object to illumine, it is self-luminous. This is consciousness in its essence, its own reality.

This essential consciousness is an unchanging reality existing everywhere in the universe but it expresses itself in different modes and apparent forms, its essential quality does not change but acquires a different colour and vibration in accordance with its degree and level of expression. For example, the body has a consciousness, life-force has a consciousness, mind has a consciousness, and the levels above the mind, each has a consciousness. All these types or modes or, as I have said, dimensions of consciousness are essentially the same consciousness. The vessels are different, their shape and colour differ but they all hold as it were the same transparent, clear water. We all know the different movements of light, seen and unseen; but however much they differ in their vibration, all have the same speed of light. And it is always the same composition, as scientists have taught us a light particle is a fusion of an electron and a positron; even so consciousness is also an invariable entity.

Mother said of love the same thing as I have been saying of consciousness. She says, there is only one love, the divine love and none other. There are various expressions of that love according to the conditions in which it manifests, to the degree or status of being but every where it is the same divine love behind in essence. Because of inadequate expression it becomes blurred or faint and muddy but the living fire is there below the ashes. You have simply

Page 129

to shake off the outer coating to allow the inner reality to shine forth in its own nature.

Love in the mind, love in the heart, love in the vital, love in the physical, love human and animal are not negations of the Divine love, it is not that you have to reject, cut off these so-called inferior formulations of love, these do not necessarily deny or reject the Divine love in their heart of hearts; even there in their true reality, glows the pure Divine love. To reach the Divine love, to enjoy its divine ānanda, it is not necessary to make a bonfire of these earthly goods and go beyond into the transcendent. Even here in this earthly mould the Divine love in its full purity can be established for it is already there behind and needs only earnest evocation.

Consciousness essentially is always and everywhere the same. Its own quality is unvarying but in its expression there is growth and development, an increase in intensity and amplitude. The light that your candle gives and the light that comes from the sun are not different in quality but they differ in expression or manifestation, because of the receptacle, the seat or abode of the light. The Vedic fire was lighted on a sacred altar, that is the seat for the God from where to manifest himself. There was a regular ceremony for the preparation of the seat (Barhi) and the value and the success of the sacrifice depended largely on a proper preparation of the seat. The seat, the basic status also indicates that there is an ascending movement of the sacrifice. The sacrifice symbolises consciousness and radiant energy, mounting and travelling upward and forward;

Page 130

the progress or ascent of consciousness means bringing out its inherent potential strength that is behind and within and placing it in front as power of expression. As I have said, if consciousness in matter is like a light of single candle power, on the level of life it becomes a light of multiple candle power and in the mind this multiple power is again multiplied. In this way the consciousness finally attains its solar incandescence on the highest height of the being.

When we speak of the dimensions of consciousness, it means these different levels or status of ascending, expression. They also form according to the mode of expression each one a world of its own. We may compare the mounting consciousness to a growing tree, it is the same sap-substance that appears at the outset as a seed, then as the seed opens out and develops it appears or throws up a stem or trunk and as it proceeds it throws up branches and higher up leaves and then flowers and fruit. Apparently however different and diverse these formulations, they are but expressions of the same sap-substance in the original seed. Even so an original seed-consciousness is the basis and essential reality of all the forms in the material universe.

It must now be apparent that consciousness is not. merely consciousness, simple awareness, it is also power or energy. The Vedic word is cit-tapas, consciousness-energy. It is one indivisible entity: consciousness is energy. It is not however in the sense as when we say knowledge is power. It does not mean that consciousness.

Page 131

has power or gives power, but conscousness is power. The nearer analogy would be with light-energy. Light, we know today, thanks to modern science, does not merely illumine, it energises, activises, moves things, that is to say, matter and material objects. The ray of light, we know now, acts even more effectively than the surgeon's knife. The inherent quality of light is energy. This energy has been discovered to be electro-magnetic energy, a photon (unit-light or light-unit) is, as we have said, an electro-magnetic quantum. In the same way consciousness is also a vibration of energy. It is the self-impulsion of consciousness. This impulsion need not always go out, cast or spread itself abroad in outward expressions and activities, it may be a stilled self-contained impulsion. It is awareness pregnant with power. Consciousness is luminosity, consciousness is energy, consciousness is also delight. It may be said the very soul of consciousness is a happiness, a gladness absolute and inviolate, the delight which is love in its supreme mode.

Indeed, in the final account, we come back to the supreme mantra formulating the mystery of ultimate reality, given by the ancients that we all know and repeat so often —saccidānanda.

Such then is the ultimate Truth or Reality: there is the Being or pure Existence with its norms or modes or functions or self-formulations as Consciousness-Force and as Delight. This triune entity is absolutely one and the same. "What exists, declares the Vedic Rishi, is one; it is called variously as Light and Infinity and Harmony and Delight.

Page 132