Lecture VI
Chap. 10. Conscious Force
Chap. 11. Delight of Existence : the Problem
We were discussing a universal or an infinite,—existing in its unlimited or infinite power, infinite force,—and the nature of this force. All that exists is surcharged with a force, whether that force is conscious or unconscious. We found that the rhythms of the force that is working cast themselves into an ordered movement. There must be a consciousness behind, because if we grant that the force is conscious, then only the question why, the aim purpose, fulfilment can, arise. An unconscious force can have no purpose, no end, no fulfilment. It could not necessarily cast itself into harmonious rhythms of self-expression if it was absolutely, definitely unconscious. When we look at it from the point of view of our mind and senses, the whole universal existence, which is independent of man, far vaster than man, appears to be apparently unconscious; but if we study the movement of the force that is at work, we find that the force seems to cast itself into rhythms of movement. One rhythm creates the material world, another creates the plant world, a third creates the insect world, a fourth creates the animal world, a fifth creates the human world. So that it seems as if it were casting itself into rhythms cognizable by the mind which gives to us the intuition that it must be conscious, or something conscious must be behind it. It could not have been an unconscious force working out according to certain rhythms, and if it is a conscious force, then we can seek for the why, wherefore, purpose, fulfilment. One need not try to find what is good, or right, or true, because these are not relevant to the working of an unconscious force, which need not bother about
Page 83
whether the consciousness that has arisen out of the inconscient, the human, seeks a truth or untruth, etc. That would be the rise of something positive out of something negative. But if we suppose that existence is conscious being or force, the question of why can arise.
Then we find, as we first saw in the 4th chapter, that there is a conscious subjective Purusha at work in the whole universal existence which is the Infinite—the 'I' itself at work. Just as the human individual is secondary to the universal in which he exists, the whole universal existence of which human existence is a part, is a part of an 'I', an infinite Self, of which the universe and the individual are terms of Self-expression. When we accept the Force as being conscious, immediately the intuition and the presence of the Infinite subjective Being, the Self of the cosmos, comes into our acceptance. We accept that it is a conscious Being, an independent entity of existence who is the witness, the seer; who is perhaps the supporter also of the whole movement. This becomes a possible assumption. If existence is conscious it has freedom to manifest or not to manifest; either to take up the process of creation and self-manifestation or to hold itself back. Why does it cast itself into this universal rhythm ? Why does the One, the Self, the Purusha, One who watches and is independent of this cosmic movement of conscious force cast Itself into these rhythms ? The freedom to manifest or not, must be inherent in this Being. When It holds Itself back from movement it does not mean that it has lost all the power of movement. It holds the power back. That is to say the movement of cosmos or creation becomes potential. It does not cease to exist. The power to manifest the rhythms of cosmic existence do not cease because they are not projected from the Self of the Being. The Infinite Conscious Being can either hold the power of expression in repose or passivity as potential,
Page 84
or can activate and throw Itself out into movement. Both are possible. Therefore, even if one finds that it is holding Itself back, force is always inherent in existence. Power will always be there wherever there is existence, whether manifested or not. Then we can say there is a conscious Force that is manifesting, a consciousness is working.
Now what kind of consciousness is it that is working in the universal, infinite force ? Is it a mental consciousness, a Mind that is at work ?
The mental consciousness, however wide, cannot be the creator of the movement of the cosmos. The universe cannot be the product of a Mind, however wide, however universal, however great the dimensions one may give to it, because mind by its very definition has subtle limitations which cannot go with the qualities and powers which we see in this creation. If it is a mental consciousness that is the creator, then in the creation, mental consciousness would have been present. But we find that in the inconscient, the mental consciousness is not present. And what is present is not of the mental type, of the mental nature. The consciousness that is manifesting itself in infinite universal existence is a consciousness—but not a mental, not an intellectual consciousness, because if it were mental the element of mentality would be present in all the rhythms which it casts out from itself. Because it is not so, the nature of that infinite consciousness which is the essential and inherent power of infinite existence must be other than mental consciousness. That seems to be almost axiomatic. Mental consciousness, therefore, is not the rule of the material universe. We know that something in us is conscious when we sleep, when mind is not active. If the nature of that consciousness were only mental, we would retain our mental consciousness all through. But there are conditions in which the mind is in abeyance and still man is conscious. The nature of the consciousness
Page 85
is not necessarily mental or intellectual. Our waking state is only a selection from the whole range of our conscious being. When we say "waking state", it is not all-pervading. This is what we were discussing the other evening when we were talking about psychology—that man's psychological being is like an iceberg. Perhaps four-fifth of it is below the surface in the subconscient, the inconscient, and one-fifth is visible in the waking consciousness. This one-fifth is largely governed by that which is below. So the waking consciousness cannot be taken as its characteristic, or as the whole of man's possible consciousness. The materialistic outlook is that however vast the consciousness may be extended it is inseparable from physical organs; it is, in fact, the result of physical organs; and one becomes conscious by the use of the physical organs. Because one has eyes, therefore one has sight. Having the physical organism for expression, the waking consciousness attaches itself to this material organism, never realizing that there is consciousness that is free from this organized material unit or organism which it is using. Consciousness is there and is using the physical organs. Because you have the 'I', therefore you have sight. The materialist forgets that consciousness is not a result of the brain, but consciousness is using the brain. Brain is only an instrument for transmission of thought, for acceptance of consciousness and decision by the consciousness of whether the sensation that is received is acceptable or unacceptable, pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad. Just as a typewriter that is being used is not the creator of what is typed, senses are not the creators of sensation. This is important to note : consciousness is using the brain, the brain is not producing consciousness. Sri Aurobindo gives a very fine argument: the engine does not cause or explain the the motive power. It is only a machanism for the working of a power. Power is independent of the motor, of the engine,
Page 86
and the engine is only mechanical device created for the operation of the power. The engine does not cause or explain the motive power either of steam or of electricity.
In the same way, the human organism does not explain the conscious-power which is working in the organism. It is only for some use, as the engine is for some use by a power. The physical, the nervous, the mental organism that is given to man is only for use by a Conscious Power. It is not that because the engine is there that the power comes into it. No. It may not come into it; that is what we call death. The engine is there but the power is not there. The material state is the emptiness of consciousness or the sleep of consciousness. We say consciousness is all-pervading, yet in matter we do not see any consciousness. But just as in a man who is asleep the consciousness is there within him, in the same way in matter also the consciousness is present but it is in trance, masked, hidden. It could be said that it is asleep or gathering itself into a sort of apparent unconsciousness; and physical impact brings out the consciousness that is there. In the whole operation of this energy which is replete with consciousness there are various states of this consciousness : Conscient, superconscient, subconscient, and subliminal states; so that the consciousness which is operative, active, or creative, has not just one aspect of its expression, one mode of manifestation. It can be, to the human mind, superconscient. It can be to the human consciousness something conscious or subconscious. It can be subliminal. So, there are various states of consciousness—and they operate. The subliminal state is able to act independently of human senses. No outer sense-instrument is needed to convey thought or impulse to someone else. Telepathy, hypnotism, faith-cures, and scores of other phenomena show that consciousness can act directly without the intervention or use of organized instruments of
Page 87
sensation and perception. And this Conscious Force has not just one rhythm. It is not necessarily mental nor necessarily bound to the waking condition. First, this is seen in a nutshell in man, but on a large scale, in the cosmos in the whole working of this energy. In plant life, and even in the metal there is a consciousness which, to our mind is subconscient, but still is present; a nervous system which corresponds to the nervous response of the waking organism of either man or animal. In the animal the consciousness is not mentally conscient as in man, but is vitally conscious.
So this cosmic consciousness or universal consciousness, which is the power of an infinite existence, works on several levels in the cosmos; they are all present in man, in a condensed, tabloid form. The Unconscious, subconscious, subliminal, vital, mental, are all there; man is the representative of the cosmos. He is the microcosm. All the cosmic energies are present in a rudimentary form, in seed forms, in the human individual. But also, one can see that this conscious power or force is operating in the plant, in the metal, and in the animal. Sometimes, even in man, it works in compartmental or tight divisions. His mind often does not know what his vital being is doing. There is a novel by R. L. Stevenson, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", that is based on, the perception of the double personality where the same consciousness is working in one part quite unknown to another part. Not that this happens in every case, but there are cases in which the same consciousness is operating on one level unknown to another level in the same organism. This illustrates how multiple are the hierarchical steps in which this consciousness works out whatever purpose it has. We are only trying to prove that Consciousness is not only mental. It is independent of mind and has several levels on which it manifests itself. So Consciousness is there as a common element in man, in animal, in plant, and in
Page 88
matter. This Shakti-energy creates the world.
Consciousness always implies knowledge, self-knowledge It must know. So, when we say that this operation is of a conscious-force or conscious-energy, we grant that it has intelligence, it must have self-knowledge. It must therefore be charged with purposefulness. It must know its purpose because of self knowledge. It knows the purpose because it knows itself, therefore, it knows the direction of the movement. This is seen in the working of plant life. The energy that is working in the plant seems as if it is conscious of the purpose. That is why the seed invariably produces the tree which it must produce. We see it working in the animals, in an instinct where the purpose of the organism is known. So Consciousness, implies intelligence, self-knowledge, self-awareness which, therefore knows well the direction.
The animal, for instance, finds its food by instinct. It knows danger by instinct and protects itself. It knows what is a pleasant and what is an unpleasant experience. We see this knowledge of direction in the vast belt of its expression in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. There may appear to be a great waste in what this energy is doing; for, in order to produce one change in colour or design or in the organism it takes hundreds of years, and kills thousands and millions of beings before it brings about the change. To this idea of waste Sri Aurobindo replies by saying that it is a mental view of the working of that Consciousness; one must identify oneself with that consciousness to know whether there is waste. It may be waste from the human point of view—but is that view enough ? He puts it very finely in poetic form, in Savitri, when he says "...prodigal of her rich divinity". The Divine power that is working, this Conscious Force, this Shakti, that is working at her task in the cosmos, is prodigal of its divinity. "She wastes eternity on a beat of time". She can afford to waste eternity on every beat of time. That
Page 89
is the richness and the plenitude of the Supreme Power of which we are speaking. He says that when we say waste, it is a human way of looking at the vast processes in which human values have a relative, if any, place. What is waste to the human mind, may not be waste to the Supreme.
We have seen that there is an intelligence and self-knowledge and purpose at work in the working of this world-force, and therefore this force is conscious. Why does it move in the cosmic manifestation, in the world of process ? The object of the movement is the emergence of potentialities that are in it, and these potentialities are infinite and unlimited. Therefore, the movement will be everlasting for all eternity.
We have dealt with the aspects of pure existence, its aspects of infinity, and its aspects of power, of energy. Now we want to understand : Why is this movement ? Why does the Conscious-Power take up the task of bringing out the potentialities at all ? That is the problem which he divides into two chapters. We have established the existence of the Omnipresent Reality. A Reality is working everywhere. There is Existence-Being. We say the plant is, stone is, hill is, river is —it means—they exist. So there is an infinite existence. Behind all this existence there is an omnipresent Reality. This is what we have established that it is an Infinite Being charged with an Infinite Consciousness.
Why does this Omnipresent Reality throw itself out in the forms of this creation ? Why this movement of emergence of potentialities of the consciousness into worlds of forms ? Is there a compulsion of something irresistible ? But we have assumed that it is free. There cannot be any compulsion. Then why does this movement take place at all ? Sri Aurobindo says that the only reason that we can mentally think of is "delight". Is this movement a result of bare existence of a crude inconscient force ? No, it does not seem so, because the evidence is not there. It is not a question of man's
Page 90
likes or dislikes. We have seen that it is not bare existence, because all existence is always full of consciousness. There cannot be existence without consciousness; nor consciousness without existence. It is not an inconscient and crude force, for we have seen by now that it is a conscious force. So that it is conscious existence which is bliss, the aspect of delight. It is possible to divide the three and put them into compartments, but that would be amenta! way of looking at the infinite Truth. The human mind says : Sat is being; consciousness is Chit Shakti; delight is Anahda, but it is triune in its operation. It is indivisible trinity. It is a trinity in which you cannot think of consciousness without delight, of delight without being, or consciousness without delight and being. It is one and indivisible Reality which manifests itself as being, consciousness, and bliss.
When we say that conscious existence is absolute, what do we mean by that absoluteness ? Those who do not want to explain the cosmos in this way will always say that their idea is that there is conscious existence and conscious being at work but it is Absolute, and in the Absolute there cannot be any possibility of creation. Sri Aurobindo asks: what does one mean by the Absolute ? There can be, in the Absolute illimitable bliss of conscious existence. If we negate every positive element in the Absolute, then the Absolute will be almost a void or zero. If nothing can exist in the Absolute then the very Absolute ceases to be absolute. It becomes something relative. Absolute is that which is free from the limitations of all relativities. It is not negation of relativities, but transcendence of relativities. All the relativities are included in the Absolute, yet the Absolute remains the absolute because it is not limited by the relativities which it manifests, or which it holds within itself. It cannot be said that it has nothing in it. It has everything and is more than all it holds. That is the, real meaning of Absolute.
Page 91
Delight is, when you experience your self-existence, free from any movement. It is a sort of a stillness in which you have the Delight of the Supreme Self-existence. It is said that Delight can, or should be always connected with stilless, with holding back from movement, with mounting into self-existence only, into consciousness only, not into movement. That is one outlook that has been given by some schools of thought and philosophy. But to move forth and enjoy this infinite movement and variation of Self can also be the object of Delight. Delight need not be withdrawal into the pure Being and Consciousness and stillness; delight can also be in the act of loosing forth into unlimitedness, unlimited movement of variation, of self-delight. The self-delight can move out into, can throw itself forth into, can pour itself into, unlimited creation,—creation of objects, creation of its own field of expression for the sake of play of this Delight. Satchidananda can enjoy the Delight of variation because all things are, in their ultimate constitution, that Infinite Being, Consciousness and Bliss.
Then two questions always come to the human mind. If this is a play of Delight, and Delight is the cause of the infinite existence and consciousness throwing itself out into an unlimited play of self-expression and variation, how is it that in the world there is pain ? How is that in the creation there is evil ? These two questions of pain and evil always come as difficult of explanation on the basis of an infinite bliss that is at work in infinite consciousness and existence. This pain is felt by the emotional and sensational consciousness of man and animals and beings, and the problem of evil is ethical, moral, it is concerned with right and wrong, good and bad, true and false. In our world of pain there is no delight, this is evident. But the sum of pleasure far exceeds the sum of pain in the cosmos, otherwise life would not continue. If the sum of pain were greater man would begin
Page 92
to commit suicide, which he does not do, in spite of whatever befalls him.
Pain is there, and the basis of the Buddhistic outlook on man's problems revolves round the problem of pain. Buddha gave up his royal position and went out, simply to solve the problem of how to make man free from pain. It is evident that Buddha was overpowered by the aspect of pain in life. There is an exaggeration in his perception of the place of pain in the human scheme of things. It makes such an effect on the human being that he is turned from the purpose of self-fulfilment. If one looks at pain through a microscope it would look very big, and that is what Buddhism seems to have done. It forgets how much pleasure and delight also are there. Pain alone does not exist.
These aspects which exaggerate one aspect of the whole creation can give a lop-sided reading of the ultimate purpose. One must have balance. One of the greatest things which Sri Aurobindo's outlook gives to anybody who has an intellectual seeking is a panoramic view of the whole cosmos. Not only of what is, but what can be, and what can be for the next 1000 or 2000 years. What he says is not necessarily possible for man to achieve today, but it is certain that man will have to attempt it in 500 years or 1000 years. In that scheme there is nothing that is exaggerated. There is pain, there is pleasure, there is ignorance, there is superconscient, and there is that Conscious-Force and Existence and Delight. One can open to all that and give expansion of movement of That in its working out. That is the solution. So nothing is outwardly changed and yet everything is so radically altered in values that there is a complete revaluation. Once you have opened to that Consciousness, though the universe remains externally the same, the evaluation has changed the whole thing radically. It becomes a play of delight and bliss. Do not look at it as if it were only a field of fresh pain in which
Page 93
man was submitted to unmerited suffering.
The Vedic Rishis never overrated the place of pain in human life. They always said "śatam jīvema śaradaḥ" —"Let us live a hundred winters, the life that is given to us by the gods". How ? The hymn says "Looking up at the Sun of divine illumination, trying to reach the Solar Light, worshipping the Sun of illumination, let us live a hundred winters. Let us hear something happy and harmonious through our ears; let us see things beautiful with our eyes, keeping our bodies in good health, let us enjoy the span of one hundred winters given to us by the gods." Thar is the Vedic outlook. It never overlooked pain, but also it never exaggerated it; and it put before man the more positive purpose even as the Upanishads did. All the beings that one sees, all the existences, are born from bliss and delight. In delight they remain and to delight they return. That is the outlook of the Upanishads. Only when Buddha came on the scene of the cultural life of the world was this exaggeration of the temporary aspect of pain raised to a permanent world-view which in actual life became a little lop-sided.
The Life Divine now emphasizes that the sum of pleasure far exceeds the sum of pain in existence. We do not see joy. Blissis not seen. Sri Aurobindo says that there are three aspects of it. It can be active, it can be passive, it can be on the surface, or it can be underlying. Most often this delight of existence is underlying, and men take it for granted never thinking that to exist is an act of Delight. When a man has good health he never feels "I am in good health." Only when he gets ill he feels that he is not in good health, he feels pain. The positive aspect is taken for granted. Man never thinks of his health as something positive. Pain is a negative element. Even when it comes it is never accepted as natural. And this all-pervading bliss is such that man does not feel it. It is like the air that we breathe. No one thinks of air at all, but our life
Page 94
depends upon it. It is everywhere all the time, and it supports life. Yet man is never conscious of it. It is the same in regard to the bliss which is all-pervading and no one knows it. Man knows only when there is a breach of it, when there is pain.
There are three conditions : Pain, pleasure, and neutral indifference. Neutral indifference is a state in which one does not feel the existence of the all-pervading delight. Man always feels the underlying presence which is there. Pain is always, to man's consciousness, a temporary and contrary occurance to that delight. Pain is never accepted as a welcome guest; the attitude is "It must go." No living creature thinks of pain as a necessary or desirable element to be continued. Pleasure is normally taken for granted. Pain affects us more intensely because it is abnormal to our very constitution and being. It is experienced as an outrage on our very existence. Existence should be without pain. This we take for granted. That is why people exaggerate this aspect, and so did Buddha.
Now the question is—why is there pain at all ? Why should there be suffering and pain at all in the scheme of an Omnipresent Reality which is Infinite Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss ? How could That which is the author of existence, God Almighty, create pain and evil ? In the Sanskrit language they say that when you give a God omnipotence and if you also ascribe to him creation of, or make him responsible for, suffering and pain, then He is both partial and cruel. He is less than the human being, because some human beings are not cruel and are very strict in their judgement, so they are very impartial. Well, in that case God would be less than His own creation.
Who created pain, whence was pain created, why was pain created ? In trying to answer these questions, Sri Aurobindo says that one must forget the idea of God as an Extra-cosmic Being, somebody who is away from the Cosmos which He has created, like the potter who has created a pot and is not in the
Page 95
pot and all the imperfections of the pot are there because of his inability to create a perfect one, or because he has deliberately created the pot like that. That idea is wrong. To believe in a God who is extra-cosmic, away from the creation which He has brought into existence, would not lead one to a correct solution of this question. When one has pain one says, "God has made me suffer," is it not ? Or, "He has made man subject to pain." But when one knows that it is the Omnipresent Reality that is this world, one says "How is it that He has inflicted pain on Himself?"
The problem is not why God is subjecting us to pain, but why does an Infinite Being, Consciousness, and Bliss, which is the world Becoming, inflict upon Himself, what we as human beings feel as pain and suffering ? That is the correct way of putting the question. Then, he says, there is some answer possible. Therefore the God of this world is not a moral God, He is superior to moral considerations and values of man. No rational explanation is possible on that basis. Therefore we accept "all is He" and it is He who bears the evil and suffering. That will partly explain the phenomenon of incarnation. Why does the Divine incarnate in the human? Because He bears the load first as an Infinite Being-Consciousness-Bliss, and as the load is here in man as pain and suffering, He comes down into the human in order to show how to bear it, how to overcome it. This opens a door to a part of the explanation of the phenomenon of incarnation; but just now, we are not concerned with that. We are only busy with the problem of explaining how this sole Infinite Existence-Consciousness-Bliss admitted into itself that which is pain, not bliss, not delight. Because all delight must be all good. How did evil come into that all good, how can it persist in life ?
The second point, we have to make clear to our mind, is that the world we live in is not an ethical world, just as God is
Page 96
not an extra-cosmic person who is away from the cosmos. Look back on the cosmos and you will see that there is no ethics below the human range. Even in the human range ethics is relative. Ethics for the human being is only a temporary stage to be passed through, but ethics is not the aim. A world of force, yes, if you like. Sri Aurobindo says : We should not try to read an ethical meaning into this world, for we will not get a true answer. Man reads himself into the world and therefore wants to find ethical values and this prevents him from seeing the solution of the problem. For instance, material Nature is not ethical. Electricity comes and strikes, there are no ethical considerations. The tornado arises and destroys, Earthquakes and storms come, they are not moved by ethical considerations at all. It is only force which acts. It either creates or destroys. Anybody who is clear-minded can see that if there is purpose in these it is not ethical. The whole animal world is non-ethical. The tiger is not blamed for killing the deer. If it didn't kill it would die, so it is pressed to do what it does. Sri Aurobindo shows how the basis of the cosmos is not at all subject to the ideas of ethics; therefore, to give to the whole an ethical meaning would be an exaggeration.
Ethics generally springs from recoil. Ethics begins in the primary stage, from fear and recoil. The victim fears the aggressor, then feels that this aggression is bad. That is how it begins, as a result of recoil of the nervous system and fear. Self-expression and self-development is a play of conscious force of existence which is light. Man is helped in his process of self-expression and self-development not only by ethics, but also by that which is non-ethical. Ethics is only a stage in man's evolution. The urge of this Truth-consciousness is toward self-expression, and that is common to all the stages. The first urge toward self-expression is non-ethical, infra-ethical, anti-ethical. It is below ethics, then it is
Page 97
anti-ethical, then ethical. It is only a means by which it struggles out of the lower harmony; the consciousness developing out of the animal level into man goes through the infra-ethical, anti-ethical and ethical stages in order that this lower harmony of sensation, impulse, desire, ego, selfishness, can be turned into a little higher harmony. It is not that the world has to become all ethical, but that man is helped out of his lower harmony by ethics. He struggles out of the lower harmony and universality based upon inconscience—, a life of discord, toward a higher harmony, based upon Oneness, a conscious perception of aims and ideals. Therefore the solution of the problem is not ethical, because ethics is only a temporary stage in the growth of man toward a condition which can be called supra-ethical.
The world has three layers as we see it : Infra-ethical, ethical, supra-ethical. Man has to outgrow the infra-ethical by organizing the ethical. What is infra-ethical in man is a lower harmony which puts him on a par with animals, with the inconscient world and with impulses, with what you call elemental movements of life-force, desires, instincts. From that infra-ethical stage, man, by the evolution of ethics, works out a higher harmony, but then he must prepare for the supra-ethical ascension, supra-ethical development toward the higher than ethical harmony.
One must also realise that pleasure and pain attach themselves to mental and vital consciousness through the instrumentality of the nerves. They are limited by the capacity of the nervous being. They are, therefore, relative. But true delight does not belong to the mental consciousness. It comes from the Omnipresent Reality,—the supernal Satchidananda —and may be felt in the mental, the vital and even the physical consciousness. It is self-existent in its nature, not dependent on anything external like pleasure and pain.
When man seeks happiness or pleasure he is really seeking
Page 98
this all-pervading delight. The pleasure that objects give is temporary, whereas the delight is independent of objects and conditions. This seeking of true delight is covered in the ordinary man under the cover of impulses, desires and passions. It drives the man to seek possession. But one has to reject all desires in order to attain the true delight. It is when the being is purified of the dross of these lower elements that all sensation and feeling can become channels for the essential delight of existence. Such a transformation of nature alone can make life on earth attain its divine fulfilment.
The artistic temperament can open itself more easily to this universal delight. To the artist the flower is no longer an insignificant thing, a thing of beauty for a few hours only. It is the expression of Nature's delight.
Questions and Answers
Q: Will the evolution of the trees and everything etc. go beyond what they are, then ?
A : Yes, it might go. It can, one day, and even now when the consciousness rises to the supra-conscient; then trees will cease to be what they are now. They will become very conscious expressions of some universal truth of being, consciousness and delight. Not only that, but you can also have a communication with them—then you know what they mean. One of the Mother's prayers is very fine, in which she says that when she was in Japan, she saw that the trees were rising up because they wanted to open themselves to the higher Light. They were trying to aspire to the Light, and it was the expression of their aspiration that this upward movement signified in the vegetable world.
Q: I think that in childhood we all experience this delight so much that we don't know whether we are in this body or not.
Page 99
It is so marvellous. And we lose that. I had it so powerfully that I would wake up in the morning before anyone was awake. I would see great vistas of light, and I thought this was normal. Then I lost it.
A : You can get back either the vision itself or the result of the vision by the change of the consciousness. The vision is only a promise and it shows what you can experience, and if you are capable you can make the experience normal. Vision is not something abnormal. It may seen abnormal when it comes, but it is a signpost pointing to the place up to which you can march, and if you can march upto that then the result of the vision can become constant. So it can become a state of consciousness afterwards.
Q : Doesn't this very vision sometimes bring on an acceleration of our unfoldment? I also lost it, but isn't it partly because we have these oppositions in our natures ?
A : No. It is not only that. The consciousness is there and the aspiration is here. Now, that which is working knows the aspiration and it gives a promise. You can say it unfolds a pilgrimage. It is a path of pilgrimage. It puts before you the stage here, and then the stage is covered over. You have then to walk and walk, and make your way to that stage. That is the meaning of it. It has happened in many cases. In the spiritual life, a very high state is revealed to the aspirant, almost at the beginning, sometimes, when he has just opened, because he is very sincere at the time. All his difficulties are there in his nature but the best part of him is out. And when the being opens, then the Light also comes and responds; it immediately points out to him the stage and shows "Here, this is possible." Then that is covered over. What he has to do then is to struggle with his nature, character, purify it, widen it, enlighten it, put the experience as the first priority of life and pursue it sincerely. Then he will
Page 100
realise that which was revealed to him. Then a further stage will be revealed, if necessary. It is like that.
Q: I had an experience once. It was an explanation of the principle of pain and pleasure. I had been on an outing and was very susceptible to Poison-Ivy. I was completely covered with the rash. I was waiting for some people to bring me some medicine, so spent half the day in great desire to scratch this, but I knew I shouldn't. Hot water breaks the little blisters, the medicine is applied, then the rash dries up. I went to take my shower, and had the water very hot. When I started to step in, I drew back—the water was very hot and the heat caused pain. But at the same moment I realized that the heat that I felt as pain was the same sensation that I received from scratching. When I realized this, I stepped into the hot water and received the relief that I wanted to get all day long by scratching. The hot water that just an instant before I had felt as pain was now pleasure.
A : It is relative. This is a scale that can move upward or move down. It is a scale because it is limited by the capacity of sensation and perception and emotion. When the consciousness is widened out into the higher range or higher plane, then the scale changes. Then even this limited apparatus of mind and self is used by that vast and infinite Consciousness only as an indication, so that when you touch an object through the sense, you know that it is only an excuse for That to work, and show that it is not in the object but behind it. If you analyse, you will see that man is not able to maintain the vibration of the Delight that is given to him. For instance: taste. Certain kinds of food give delight which is only a part of that Infinite Delight, and if he can get into that, then this taste that comes will be only a symbol, a little point for representing, just a little sample; but what is really at work is That, and every taste will become equally accept-
Page 101
able, equally enjoyable. The limitations of taste, the preferences will go; everything will have the Universal taste in it. I remember an incident in Sri Aurobindo's life. The youngmen who lived with him had gone out to see a fire-walking ceremony in a village nearby. A youngster, K. Amrita, was left in charge and told to see that at midday Sri Aurobindo got his lunch and other routine. He completely forgot about it. He began to read a book and was absorbed in it. So he went on reading till the time for food was past. But it never occurred to Sri Aurobindo to ask whether his food was ready. He went on walking and meditating all the time. Then suddenly about 3 o'clock Amrita remembered. "Oh, the food, I forgot." Sri Aurobindo said "It is all right." When he was told "Food is ready", Sri Aurobindo came and took his food as usual. Once there was no salt in the curry, and everybody went on eating, including Sri Aurobindo. Sombebody then remarked, "In the curry there is no salt." Sri Aurobindo said, "In the curry there is no salt." They were surprised. Why did he not say in the beginning that there was no salt ? He said, afterwards explaining the experience "Without salt there is a taste in it, and with salt there is a taste in it." One can take equal delight in both. There is no point in saying it must be only this way. When one sees the working of spiritual truth like that one learns a great deal.
Q : One of our English poets said, "We look before and after and pine for what is not. Our sincerest laughter with some pain is fraught."
A : Yes, that is Shelley. How do you get Delight from the tragic ? The enjoyment of the tragic, for instance, is the instance in point to show that the universal Delight is felt even in sorrow, in the tragic. One does not go through any suffering, but one gets the enjoyment and delight of that
Page 102
suffering and then one knows that the tragic is not only suffering, it is delight. Otherwise people would not go to see a tragic drama. That is why art is a great ally of spiritual life. Art opens to the aspect of beauty of that Infinite Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss which is a very, very, great expression of it, the highest of it, so to say; but the modern artists do not see it. They never see beauty. They get wedded to intellectual theory, then go to the subconscient and want to express in art the lower elements of human consciousness and think they are creating something very original, marvellous, and wonderful, because nobody did it before. That is where they get away from the path. The true artists go straight to the perception of beauty in their seeking for the satisfaction of the artistic impulse, and I think they are on a very straight path for spiritual life also, because that is what spiritual life stands for.
Q: Isn't our attitude toward suffering also a means for growth ?
A : Suffering, if rightly taken, certainly tends to growth. It gives a good formation to the inner being, and if it is rightly taken and reacted to correctly, from the spiritual point of view, then it is a great gain.
Q: Does this refer to aspiration ?
A : To an understanding of life, first of all. Very great understanding of life comes when you realise that it is only a way of reaction to certain circumstances. To the human consciousness it means that conditions must change. By suffering, one is very often trying to exert will or pressure on the environment or circumstances to change them.
Page 103
Q : Thomas Hardy said it is not the life that matters, it is the courage.
A : The attitude. When a man takes it egoistically on himself, then the pressure of suffering is the greatest. When he can look upon it impersonally and try to learn from it, the pressure of it is minimum and his effect upon the circumstances is maximum. When a man puts himself in his ego and takes the whole burden of suffering, the pressure of the conditions that have created the suffering have the greatest effect on him. If he can look upon it impersonally and ask himself "What have I to learn from it ?", then the pressure of the circumstances that have created the suffering becomes less and his effect upon the environment becomes maximum. Probably it tends to change it also. When he becomes impersonal the pressure becomes so effective sometimes that conditions do change. The suffering was there to bring about certain change in him and when he has learnt the lesson probably the circumstances will also change. Sri Aurobindo would say, "Don't invite pain or suffering for you will get enough of it without inviting it". That also is perversity, according to him, to indulge in suffering.
There are people who take delight in it. That is wrong. That is a distortion of the true attitude. The true attitude is to be equal. If it comes, you accept it without too much personal reaction and try to learn, be impersonal, with equanimity and equality; not going under, and not running after it. Then one gets the maximum spiritual benefit and also the highest possible outer comfort. I am sure about it because forces immediately act.
Q: Zen Buddhism...Isn't that also another way of distorting? A : Yes, Zen Buddhism is a limited approach to man's fulfilment. It is a solution, but a very limited solution, because
Page 104
of its attitude, so far as the current Zen Buddhism is concerned; I don't know what is its origin, but current Buddhism is more or less overburdened by a sort of nihilistic outlook—and also a justification of the present as the only possible thing to be attained.
Q : In my experience with people who have been interested in Buddhism, it is the fact of meditation that apeals to them. In this active world it is something they have not thought of before,—serenity, and relaxation. That is one of the things that appeals.
A : That is only a washback from the outer activity to get back into something. But the whole question is how to bring into this activity, into life, something of the Divine. This is another problem. How to bring the divinity that is in each one into expression in life, whether passive or active, whether in meditation or in action. To divide life into meditation and action is artificial from Sri Aurobindo's point of view. Life is one and indivisible and the aspiration for higher life or spirituality must also pervade life. Life must become a field, first, for attaining to this Higher Consciousness, and after it is attained, for expressing it in life. That is what the Gita says, that when one is in the stage of the aspirant, he uses life as a ladder to rise to the Higher Consciousness. When he has risen to the top, then he uses it to bring it down into life.
Q : Which is exactly what one of the wisest men I have ever known, a Zen Master in San Francisco, says. His teaching of Zen may be a little different than the book teaching, but he is a true Master, and this is exactly what he teaches. He says you climb up the mountain, but you have to walk down again. He teaches the interdependency of life, he says you never do anything alone, you are always a part of all things. And
Page 105
meditation—although you sit for meditation, you are meditating also when you are apart.
A : Yes, you have to learn to meditate also when you are active, when you are in life. Keep the attitude of aspiration and surrender and rejection in life and then you are meditating. Meditating is not only taking up inactive posture of the body, or becoming inert in mind. Meditation is also an active process to be carried out in life. Aspiration, whatever you are doing, rejection of ignorant movement, and surrender to the higher Truth, when you carry this out in life it is meditation. It will certainly become a very powerful and efficient means for growth.
Q : Even suffering, he says, must be accepted.
A : Yes, in your consciousness, that is all. You do not accept it in the sense that it is desirable, but as something that has come to contribute to your rise, or give you development, to give you some knowledge, some understanding, and some growth. You get the growth out of it, and do not give too much importance to it, neither invite it or react powerfully to it by egoistic recoil.
Page 106
Home
Disciples
Purani
Books
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.