Lecture XIV
Chap. 27. The Sevenfold
Chord of Being Chap. 28. Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Māyā
The relation between Matter and the Omnipresent Reality operating as Supermind is made clear in the three chapters that have preceded. They explain why a cosmic existence has manifested out of Transcendent Satchidananda whose nature is infinite existence, consciousness and bliss. The world could have been an infinity of figures without any fixed order or relation. But we find it is not so. The reason is that the Satchidananda acts first as Supermind. Therefore cosmic law is not to be imposed from outside, it acts from inside as automatic development, or rather as self-development as it happens in the case of a seed. In the seed the truth of its being is involved and the result is determined by the potentiality. It is the result of the working out of the Real-Idea.
Supermind as Real-Idea has two aspects, the comprehensive and the apprehensive. The comprehensive aspect knows all as One, and all things as the One in his manifold aspects. The apprehensive aspect knows all things separately as object of its knowledge,—each is apprehended separately from All, yet without loosing connection with the All. In the first the concentration is on the Oneness, in the second the concentration is on the Eachness. This Supermind in its descent has created the triple world of Mind, Life and Matter.
We have seen in previous chapters that even in the world of Matter, based upon what appears to be the principle of Inconsciece, there is a rising scale of manifestation from Matter to Life, from Life to Mind. Therefore, we can see that in the evolutionary world the law that is now operating
Page 244
cannot be absolute because only the Infinite is Absolute.
When the Infinite manifests itself the potentialities are endless; therefore they cannot be determined. The form and the course of evolution cannot be fixed down to a rigid formula. Infinite would not be infinite if it had not complete freedom to assume manifold finiteness. Absolute must have, therefore, boundless capacity of self-determination. And in this movement of self-determination of the Supermind, Life and Matter are also needed. They act in the human consciousness as forces of ignorance, in the triplicity of body, life and mind. But looked at from the point of view of the Supermind the three are needed; Mind is needed in order to create a self-diffusion of the Supermind in the universal, or to create infinite centres. Without determining or limiting action, there would not be any cosmos, without limiting or determining action we would not have a world of the One and the many. And Mind makes this limiting determination for the infinite, therefore, it is necessary. Only, it is a subordinate term of the Supermind and so is Life and so is Matter, Matter is a world of substance in which everything seems to be divided and it brings the substance of the original Infinite, Brahman, into materiality, the final point of subdivision, the final point of finiteness. The second thing that follows from this is that the cosmos presents to us one front and we see the world as world of Matter. We see another plane, Life. We see a third plane, Mind. Now each seems to present one front and it represents a front only, one side, of this principle substance but that is only an appearance, because in the one substance all the others are also included; in each principle all the others are included.
In the 28th Chapter, we take up the subject of the Overmind, which is related to the two terms, Supermind and Mind. The Overmind is an intermediate term between Mind and Supermind. The question is how did this lapse
Page 245
into ignorance of Mind, Life and Body take place from the Truth-Consciousness, from the Supermind ? Truth-Consciousness is the first projection from the nature of the Divine Being, from the Satchidananda. How did it lapse into Mind ? This lapse is not yet explained. Mind, being the consciousness of division, is the basis of ignorance. Supermind being based on the infinite consciousness, existence and bliss is founded on Truth, is based on Reality. How did this division then come into indivisible Supermind ? That is the question. What was the action by which this lapse took place ?
Let us conceive of the Supermind, the Truth-Consciousness, as the sun. Now if that is the sun, the rays of the sun disperse all around. You know that there is the corona of the sun; corona is the surrounding area of light which surrounds the body of the sun. When there is a total eclipse of the sun, you see the corona, the lighted region around the circumference of the sun. Now imagine this region going further and further, the Light travelling further. The sun is the body of Truth-Consciousness,—it is the symbol of the Supra-mind. The corona of the sun is the Overmind, the further projection of the Truth-Consciousness. The Light working in the corona is the Overmind. It is from there that the mind arises at a certain stage. A dispersal of Light takes place through mind, it goes into the Inconscient and completely disappears. The Light in the Overmind goes on penetrating further and further and it comes into the Inconscient. In the Inconscient, all the Light is absorbed and it becomes a dark shadow. That is a rough picture of the descent of the Supermind from Truth-Consciousness to the Inconscience. Now how does Mind come into existence from the Supermind ? What is the gradation of the descent? Sri Aurobindo explains that first there is the powerful aura or corona of the sunlight of the Supermind which is Overmind that is in
Page 246
contact with the body of the sun. But as it proceeds further, and further and disperses, Mind comes into being. Man, the being in mind, feels that the Light is proceeding from him, —he is not conscious of the source. Man feels, being in the mind, that it is he who is projecting the Light from himself. There is some truth in that feeling but really speaking, in the process of creation the descent took place from Supermind to Overmind and further into the region of division. There is no complete darkness yet. The first region is Mind and then Life, and then Matter and below Matter you find all the Light is absorbed and a darkness is thrown back like a shadow of the Light. We therefore feel that there is no consciousness in Matter—the Light of consciousness is completely absorbed there. One can take the shading of an electric lamp as an analogy. One can put one shade and then a second shade and a third shade till the light of the lamp is completely covered and one cannot see any light. After the first shade—if it is transparent, the light is seen. That would be something like the Overmind. Mind is a power of ignorance and division. It is seeking for the truth, groping, reaching only mental constructions. When mind tries to ascend, it reaches only mental constructions, and representations and sometimes bright but shadowy photographs of the Reality. And this Mind is subjected to the limitations of body and life, it is not free when it operates in the body and life. Body limits its operation, so does life. One sees that the operation of the mind, even the freest mind in its own right, is limited.
But there are occasions when mind tries to reach beyond itself, to overpass the barrier so to say. When mind tries to overpass the limits, it is trying, in fact, to enter the Overmind region which is in contact with the Truth-Consciousness. There is a region in which mind comes in contact with the Overmind. It is when mind first opens to this region that it is able to experience Intuition, Inspiration, and impersonal
Page 247
Cosmic Consciousness. The phenomenon of genius, people having extraordinary power over subjects, or Revelation, intuitive perception or intuitive discernment and number of such mystical experiences belong to the intervention of this higher region. Mystical experience in which one knows things without any process of reasoning is an indication that there is the connecting region between mind and Overmind being the first step toward creation of mind. So the light of the Supermind, moving toward creation of the mind, passes through an intermediate stage called the Overmind.
The ascent from mind to the Supermind cannot be sudden. Sri Aurobindo found in his Yogic experience that the mind cannot ascend directly to the Supramental consciousness. It is, too big, too long a jump. To get into Supermind directly from mind would be too sudden and too much of a change for man to manage, to bear. And he found that there is the necessary intermediary status just as the space Scientists have to have an intermediate station in space before they can launch to the moon. Overmind is such an intermediate level of consciousness for the human spirit when it moves from mind towards Supermind. Mind while ascending to the Overmind experiences the working of some new faculties Intuition, Inspiration, then Revelation, etc. When it reaches the Overmind then it is able to enter and make an approach to the Truth-Consciousness. There is a constant stream of mutual communication between Overmind and Supermind. The ascending consciousness of man is able to contact the Supermind through the descending step of the Overmind. Supermind, as the Truth-Consciousness has number of gradations and some of them are supraconscient to mind. Just as mind cannot communicate with the animal, easily, unless it trains itself—though they are known to each other in a certain way, and there is an interchange between them—still mind is not able to know the operation of animal consciousness.
Page 248
The same thing happens to the mind trying to know the Supermind. As mind does not know what is below, it does not know what is above.
The transition from Supermind to Matter takes place in stages : Supermind, Overmind, Mind, Life, Matter. If mind wants to ascend back, it can do so by a double movement, the first movement is inwards : that is, the mind turns inward. When it turns inward, it goes into the subliminal, and the veil between the external and internal is rent. When the veil is rent, then the consciousness opens out into a vast static silent Self and begins to communicate with the Oneself which is in all.
The Second movement is that of a dynamic descent of light, knowledge, power etc. The Higher Consciousness descends after rending of the veil. So by a descent of Light, Power and Knowledge from above, or by an inward turn opening to the self, the universal consciousness, one knows the subliminal parts of one's own being and subliminal movement of universal nature.
In the transition from mind to the Supermind one first comes to the movement of what Sri Aurobindo calls the Higher Mind. The next higher layer will be that of the Illumined Mind; the third layer will be Intuitive Mind. The fourth will be Overmind, and Overmind directly puts one in contact with the Supermind. The movement of ascent from mind often begins by stopping all mental activity,— there is no thinking. In the Higher Mind, one does not reason as he does in the mind. The action of the Higher Mind is like coming down of knowledge-light rather than darkness trying to pierce upwards into light. "We are aware of a sealike downpour of a spontaneous knowledge which assumes the nature of Thought but has different character from the process of thought to which we are accustomed."—The Life Divine. This downpour of illumination
Page 249
assumes the nature of thought when it comes to the mind. Higher Mind does not ratiocinate, does not think, does not proceed from no-knowledge to acquiring knowledge. In the Higher Mind knowledge comes down. That is its nature. There is no labour of speculation, no difficulty of thinking. Sri Aurobindo explains by giving an analogy. If you take sun as the aspect of the truth, the Higher Mind would be like steady sunshine coming down all the time. The next would be the Illumined Mind which has the constant light of the Overmind. "If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth—we may compare the energy of the Illumined Mind to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming Sun-stuff"— as if the body of the sun was throwing out lightnings and the constant operation of solar lightning full of power and knowledge combined was at work all the time. In the third stage, one reaches Intuitive Consciousness. The Intuitive Consciousness or the level of Intuition is not the same as the action of intuition in the man's nature. It is true, intuition works in the mind, it works in the vital being, it can work in the body. But that is not the Intuitive Consciousness. It is intuition coming down in the nature of man. In fact, many people come to know many things by intuition in ordinary life. They just simply have the knowledge. That is the operation of this plane of Intuitive being penetrating into the mind or into the life or into the physical consciousness. Those who constantly, or occasionally, get intuitions are not the persons who have risen to the Intuitive consciousness. Intuitive level is an independent level of consciousness, above mind, which can be steadily attained,—in which one can constandy live just as one lives in the mind if one developes the faculty. Intuition does work in the normal nature of man in the form of intellectual suggestion, or it lights up a region of knowledge, or gives guidance in action, by a voice. It also works when man is faced with a number of possibilities out
Page 250
of which he has to make a choice—particularly when the pros and cons in favour of them are equal. Intuition then works as intuitive discrimination and makes the correct choice. It is possible to establish oneself in the intuitive consciousness so that all inner and outer activities are done intuitively. The faculty of Intuition acts unerringly because it is in contact with the Truth-Consciousness, its thought proceeds from the Truth, its sensation is charged with Truth. It is like lightning constantly playing on the half-darkness of human mind. Intuition may be compared to the edge of the Sun of knowledge.
Above these levels is the Overmind consciousness and there one finds that the Overmind consciousness is not individual. The first thing one realizes is that it is no one man's consciousness. It is global. So far as intuitive consciousness is concerned one may say that it is working in him. One might feel that one is there all the time in the intuitive plane. But in the Overmind one feels a vast, cosmic expansion of consciousness. It feels as if light is covering the whole world, the sunlight is holding the whole world within its light. The infinite cosmic consciousness is there and it covers the whole lower hemipshere of knowledge and ignorance made of mind, life and body. This Overmind connects the Supermind with the lower creation of mind, life, and matter. Sri Aurobindo says that the Overmind acts as a veil covering with its wings the whole triple creation of mind, life and matter. It veils also the face of the higher worlds from the sight of the lower. In one sense, it brings the Light to the lower, in another sense it encloses the Light of the Higher consciousness. It is said in the Ishopanishad that, "Face of the truth is covered by the golden lid". Overmind can be said to be the 'golden lid', for, it is light which covers the whole cosmos and glows like a cosmic eagle covering with its wings of light the whole triplicity of the Mind, Life
Page 251
and Matter. So from below, from mind, one sees the light of the Overmind first, not the light of the Supermind with which it is connected. In a sense it screens one off from the Higher Light.
For Supermind it acts as a step of descent, and is a necessary convenient step; for mind it is the necessary step of ascent. Thus it divides the two worlds—the world of Truth and that of Ignorance. Between the two Overmind "intervenes with its flood of infinite possibilities."
What is the nature of this Overmind consciousness? It is a plane of Infinite possibilities, and all possibilities are given equal chance of self realization in it. In the Supermind, all determinations are certainties, but here you have a field of infinite possibilities. Overmind becomes therefore an obstacle to our seeking because when we enter it we see infinite possibilities. It is likely that the great Shankaracharya came in contact with this Overmind plane and seeing it full of infinite potentialities and possibilities concluded that the Higher Nature also was Maya, illusory. Perhaps he thought that there was no decisive Self-determination of the Truth-consciousness at work in the world. The mistake was to feel that Overmind was the Highest plane of consciousness. There is a plane of Supermind above the Overmind the highest action of which is the "Categorical imperative of the Divine." The world is not left to chance and merely to a play of infinite possibilities. Through the play of possibilities a definite, decisive movement is acting all the time. Of all the possibilities, there are some that are approved and sanctioned by a supreme Truth-Consciousness. Only, they are allowed to materialise. In the world we live in all the potentialities are given a trial;—in fact they make up the play of the complex of forces which is the world. Many results in our world are results of this complex play of infinite possibilities. But the final and definite result is the choice of the Supermind. Just
Page 252
as at one end, Matter is determinative,—quantitatively and qualitatively, so at the other end Surpermind is categorical. Matter has a kind of omnipotency of its own. The same is true at the other end of the Spirit. There also determination works out which is the result of the Omniscience. Matter at the lowest end is decisive, though apparently inconscient yet seems charged with knowledge and will,—with a kind of omnipotence. At the highest rung in the evolutionary ladder of the Spirit, the Supermind is the plane of definite determination working out the Divine will and knowledge.
Overmind is a delegate of the Supramental consciousness, —it is delegate of the Supermind to the Ignorance,—to Mind and a delegate of Ignorance to the Higher Consciousness. "It is by projection of this Luminous overmind corona that the diffusion of the diminished Light in the ignorance and the throwing of the contrary shadow which swallows up in itself all the Light, the inconscient, became at all possible." By the gradual shading of the light of the Overmind corona, the phenomena of Inconscience becomes a possibility and a certainty. If you take Supermind and Overmind, you will see that the two have an agreement and a difference. Supermind is the chord of essential Truth of being, it holds essential Truth: in the Overmind the integrality of the Truth is absent. Truth is present but the integrality of the truth is not present. In the Supermind the essential truth is completely held, Truth of the total, that is to say, of the One and the Many, is held together in complete clarity. Here it uses the individual self-determination of all, self-determination—you have established a relation without being limited by any of the determinations; so a number of self-determinations are at work at the same time. In the Supermind the total is held together in perfect Unity which allows free interpenetration of One and Many. The One and the Many basing themselves on the Infinite have a free interchange
Page 253
and mixing. In the Supramental Truth Consciousness, total and individual determinations are held together. In All and the One, the One and the Many are held tgether, in clarity, "in complete incomparable Unity," and "yet close in interpenetration," free and full consciousness allowed to each other. The total One is free and full; each is again free and full in the Supermind. In the Overmind the integrality is not present though it is aware of the Truth; Overmind has consciousness of the infinity and integrality behind, but uses individual determination without being limited; in the Overmind each aspect, each power is given an independent action to realise itself, which acquires a separate importance. Each potentiality becomes separately important. For instance, take Purusha-Prakriti. In the Supermind, Purusha-Prakriti are one, they are "a single truth, two aspected." The two aspects are the subjective and the objective aspects. They are one in the Supermind. In the Overmind, Purusha and Prakriti are present; they are not completely divided but each is separate and deals with the other. It is not unity on which they are proceeding. The basis of independence is given to Purusha as well as Prakriti; they are able to deal with each other; they know each other; can have relation with each other but they are not two aspects of one entity, inseparable in their essence. In the Supermind the Real-Idea covers the whole thing, it is one and total. Whereas, in the Overmind, millions of possibilities are released into action and each empowered to create its own world, capable of relation and interplay, can communicate with the other, but is charged with an idea or force to realize itself. In the Supermind, for instance, democracy would not go against equality. In the Overmind the two powers work independently for a separate self-realisation.
And in mind they develop "irreconcilable differences." In the Supermind the basis of democracy and the basis of
Page 254
equality are not in contradiction. But in the Overmind, the idea of democracy and that of equality, each is allowed to work out separately.
Sri Aurobindo did not write about the Overmind in the monthly magazine, Arya, in which The Life Divine appeared in its first form. There he wrote about the Interpretative, the Representative and the Imperative Supermind. Later on when the working of the Higher Power became more precise he found that between Mind and Supermind an intermediary plane, the Overmind, is indispensable as a halting place for the ascending soul from Ignorance and for the descending Divine from the Supermind.
Once when he was asked about the Overmind and its nature he said it has not the Truth-consciousness of the Supermind though it retains the back-ground of the One. Overmind is like a bundle containing seeds—thousands and millions of them, but the bundle is one. If the million seeds are let out they naturally tend to divide, each becoming something separate from others. Overmind holds the potentiality of division within itself; the Real-Idea of the Supramind gets broken into many of its sides, its aspects and each tends to become independent. In the Supermind the force and consciousness are one but in the Overmind the force and consciousness become divided into million forces and centres of consciousness. What to the mind is contrary become in the Overmind, complementary. In the mind, matter, or life, or thought or idea each is separate and excludes the rest. In the lower ignorance, mind does not know life, life does not know mind. So, there is a complete division between the mind, life and matter, in the ignorance.
Whereas in the Overmind consciousness there is no exclusiveness because each knows the other. Overmind therefore is the principle of cosmic truth; all dynamism as well as separate dynamisms are present in it. Its comprehension
Page 255
is global rather than integral, inclusive rather than synthetic. It includes everything without the principle of integration, without bringing it into an organization conforming to the central Truth. Its totalities are global wholes, not organized, integrated wholes. For instance, all religions would be true in the Overmind, because they are the expressions of religious impulse which is one. Each would be necessary to the whole, in the Overmind. Overmind can be said therefore to be a play of all possibilities of knowledge and power that makes ignorance possible, because among the possibilities there are those that tend towards ignorance. In one sense it makes ignorance possible and, when it goes further and further from the central truth, it leads to the fragmentation in the Inconscient and the one total Truth is concealed by this fragmentation : One is concealed in the Inconscient. The separation is there even in matter, and yet underlying this separation, there is Oneness. That is what renders possible our dealing with matter on the basis that matter is One. In spite of all elements and atoms being completely divided and separate, the unity is there; this underlying oneness drives toward harmony. The underlying oneness on each plane makes for harmony. So that even when fragmentation and division has taken place, the division is not allowed to isolate things completely from each other. On the contrary, division is made to seek and realise the harmony and unity because unity is there as the basis. The Oneness is coming together. The drive of unity is there visible. The harmony at the root of existence, the underlying harmony is trying to come to the surface. Between Supermind and Overmind, the dividing veil is transparent. Overmind depends upon the Supermind for whatever force, knowledge, power, or potentiality it receives. And when it comes to the mind, the veil becomes thicker, there each thing becomes completely separate. Still in mind, the ignorance is not
Page 256
complete, because division is not carried out to the last limit. Mind is capable of unities and conceptions of wholes in which many finites are included. Therefore complete division comes when the substance sinks into the inconscience of matter. Because mind is not completely ignorant, it becomes possible in mind to organize some kind of right relations between elements and things. Mind has limited knowledge which one can call ignorance but it is not totally false knowledge or complete error. There is no basis for affirming that mind is a power that deals with complete falsehood, that it is to be rejected in spirutal life. Sri Aurobindo shows how mind becomes only a shade of the higher light. It is a distortion or a sort of intervention or veil, rather than something which is contrary to the original Reality. It does not create something contrary to the original Reality. And when it descends into Matter it is not an illusion.
And Overmind communicates with the organized mind through intuition, through intimations of the mind. Mind's effort to universalise itself, is rewarded by the Overmind, by giving it first knowledge of the One, and its application in power. Mind is able to go further and further toward the Light. Thus the complete separation even in Matter does not make the whole process illusory. Overmind, through intuition and other activities in the mind, puts the flashes of Light into the Lower parts and they do come through the ignorant consciousness even of mind; only, they are intermittent. Even now, Intuition, Overmind and Supermind are working; their action in the present constitution of man is concealed and the problem for man is to make its action conscious. So the ascent from Mind to the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, to Overmind and Supremind seems to be the rungs of the ladder to reach the Truth-Consciousness. That is the problem and it can be
Page 257
solved by rending the veil, by going inside, or by possibility of the descent of the Higher consciousness into the present constitution of man.
Questions and Answers
Q : You spoke about two processes for rending the Veil, What are they?
A : One is by going within—that is, withdrawing the consciousness from outside and entering the inner mind, inner vital being and other subliminal parts. The second process is by allowing the Higher Power to descend into oneself.
Q : There are so many persons who speak about the All, the One as the Real and rest is relegated to either illusion or unreality.
A : The Planes of the Overmind and Supermind are not easily reached by spiritual aspirants. There are experiences that are mental, others come to the vital—and they may be striking—powerful and true as far as they go. But the Universal consciousness, the Overmind and the Supermind are not attained easily.
Q : You spoke about the ideas that are mutually irreconcilable in Mind. How are they experienced in Overmind and in the Supermind?
A : It is difficult to convey the experience to the mind. One evening Sri Aurobindo gave an idea as follows : "Take absolute passivity and absolute activity. In mind they are not at all reconcilable. In the Overmind both can meet together and each is allowed independent action to realise itself. They co-exist in the Overmind. In the Supermind they are one."
There are so many ways of Yoga and so many experiences
Page 258
possible that one cannot generalise from one type. Many people declare themselves "incarnations" on the basis of their realisation.
Q : I met two people during the course of a day and they told me they are incarnations of Jesus.
A : That is what happens. There are so many "incarnations" in India !
Q : What would be all religions in the Supermind ? You said that in the Overmind all religions would be true.
A : In the Supermind the very origin of all religions will be known. It may be in the form of a symbol that the knowledge may come. For example, in the Veda the symbol is that of Fire. This Fire symbolises the Divine Will. In man it becomes the Fire of aspiration for the Divine, aspiration for the Truth—which is the root of all religions.
Q : The higher you go the more intense the vibrations that are felt.
A : Yes, not only more intense but wider also. It is a double process of intensity and wideness at the same time.
Q : When a person receives illumination is that the working of the Overmind?
A : Not in all cases. It might be only Intuition; it might be the Illumined Mind, it might be the Higher Mind. Overmind is very rare. Some operation of Overmind one may feel, but not the Overmind itself—Overmind itself is overwhelmingly wide.
Q : Are there different stages of illumintion ? A : Yes, from mind you go to Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the Intuitive Mind and the Overmind. That's
Page 259
how you generally progress. But it may not go regularly in that order. There are many complex movements.
Q : Is cosmic consciousness Overmind?
A : It is cosmic in the sense that it is cosmic connected with the Light and has not lost contact with the Light. Cosmic consciousness when it becomes mental, becomes a double play of knowledge and ignorance, light and darkness. The mental universe is a double play of light and darkness. But the Overmind is connected always with the Supermind and therefore the Light is not lost in the Overmind. Cosmic mind allows any number of world forces to act. It will allow democracy and dictatorship, or capitalism and communism to work at the same time. From the struggle of forces in life the intended result is worked out.
Q : I was thinking about this book by Dr. Bucke. You probably know it: "Cosmic consciousness."
A: Yes.
Q : Bucke speaks about many people who have had this experince of Light. I was just wondering if that experience of Light was what you are calling Cosmic.
A : I have the record of a talk about it in the Evening talks. Kindly refer to the book for Sri Aurobindo's comments. He refused to admit bis generalization that the experience of cosmic consciousness must be of one type and that it must be for a short duration only, that it cannot last for long. In fact, it can be made a permanent part of one's consciousness. But it is true that many persons had the experience of cosmic consciousness. But the generalizations which he makes from that are not all right.
Page 260
Q : Are the questions in "The Evening Talks" by different disciples ?
A : Yes, their names are given in a list at the beginning.
Q : Purani, are you going to tell us sometime more about your personal experience, not personal but your experiences with Sri Aurobindo.
A : Yes, I can. Sometime.
Q : Who was Shankaracharya ?
A: He came after the Buddhistic period in India in the 8th Century. He was born in South India, and was precocious even from his childhood. That is the traditional story. At the age of 8 or 9 he had already acquired full knowledge of the Sanskrit Scriptures. He died at 32. Before that he had revolutionized the whole Philosophical thought of India. He travelled from North to South and across the country from West to East. He organized the Monism of Vedanta. According to the Shankar's school of Monism the Infinite Reality is the ultimate truth and the world is a secondary reality, i.e. a reality of the second order. Therefore, the purpose of this creation is to rise to and merge into the Infinite. Except merging in the Brahman he did not posit any positive fulfilment on earth. But he did not advocate, according to my study, the doctrine of non-existence of the world. The world that man lives in is an illusion, he says, and the purpose of its illusions is to make man rise to the Reality, that's all.
The weak points in his thesis are two or three. One is he admitted God also as responsible for creation. Now the purpose of the human individual is to merge into the Absolute. There is a sort of a contradiction here, because if God is there in between, how is the individual to merge into the Absolute without the intervention of God ? And if God
Page 261
carries on the management of the universe then there must be sanction for the world in the Reality, in the Absolute. Shankara accepted God, probably, to explain the creation of the universe and that of individual being. According to him, the Brahman, the Infinite, could not have created the world; there is no impulse in the Infinite to create, the Absolute does not want to create anything. Then how did the universe comeinto being ? Somehow, indescribably, Maya, the power of illusion projected itself on the Absolute and so, God-Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent came into being in the Higher Maya. He is there to manage this illusion. But the purpose of life in the World is that man must get out of the Maya and merge again into the Absolute. Now that makes also the purpose of the manifestation of the world futile. Thirdly, it does not explain, the phenomenon of Avatarhood, the Incarnations. If the world is an illusion, why should the Divine incarnate in it and try to save it? An illusion does not need to be saved, it is to be liquidated. Why should the Avatar come and confirm man into life, if life were an illusion ? The position of God in Shankara's philosophy seems to be a weak point. Sri Aurobindo's outlook gives you the correct basis of God's place in the universe because God is not anything else but the organisation of that infinite Self-existence, Conscious-force and Delight taking up the role of the Creator or the Truth-Consciousness. That is God.
Sri Aurobindo is also a monist in a more correct sense. That is to say, he does not admit a duality by the backdoor like Shankara. Shankara posits the One, Infinite Brahman but admits Maya to explain the creation of the universe. Sri Aurobindo affirms, like Shankara, the existence of an Omnipresent Reality which is Infinite Existence-Consciousness-Bliss—Satchidananda. But he explains the creation of the Universe by the action of the Consciousness Power
Page 262
the Chit-Shakti—in the One. The first projection of this self-conscious Power is Satya Loka, the world of Truth-Consciousness, the Supramental world. Then there takes place a graded descent creating various planes of universal existence—like the Overmental, the Mental, the Vital, the Material and the Conscient and the Inconscient. These worlds then rise from the Inconscient, step by step again covering the ladder of existence reaching at last the other extreme of the Spirit and its eternity.
This vision gives not only an explanation of the creation of universe from the One, Omnipresent Reality but endows life on earth with a tremendous significance. The world becomes holy because it is the abode of the Supreme; life is "soul's opportunity to make it divine." Sri Aurobindo's is the most consistently rational philosophy based on the Spirit as the ultimate Reality.
Q: I grant it is an all-organic synthesis in the respect that explains life and the necessity of ascending from our plane to higher planes. It is very difficult to conceive of the higher planes — I think we have to believe in them—that is, believe in their existence, and the need of rising to them. It is all so removed from our ordinary comprehension.
A. No. It is not a question of believing anything irrational. Our belief is founded on a more positive evidence within ourselves. Leave the Supermind aside, the aspiration for the Supermind aside—unless you want to explain the whole universe to yourself on the basis of the Spirit or God. But if you do not want to bother yourself you say "Well, let me leave aside as it is too high." Then you can try to find it in the form of your aspiration for perfection, some kind of higher status of consciousness than what you are in. If you are religious-minded you will say that you want to realize God. If you have an ethical
Page 263
basis you will say I want to realize Truth. If you are social minded you will say I want to improve society, or create perfect collective life. You will say I want to have self-control or I want to have peace etc. All that is an operation of the Supreme here. It is That which is working here in man and not allowing him to rest satisfied with what he is now. And he will not be allowed to be satisfied until he makes an effort. So the short way is to answer the demand of the Supermind by making the effort. Then the whole of it will be supporting you. That is something wonderful. That is what Sri Aurobindo and Mother say, that you are not alone when you have kindled the flame in your heart, the Fire of aspiration for perfection. Then you will be supported and you will help in creating here a new world based on Truth, based on the Light. Then Life will move around, not money but Truth, around Perfection, which is necessary and very badly needed. That is the one thing that is lacking in the whole progress of man. Man does not think of perfection at all. He thinks of acquisition and finding more means of making himself comfortable till he becomes a slave of what he creates, and he keeps on creating more and more.
Q: One very helpful method is to try to see the Truth for oneself in oneself.
A. Yes. Begin with yourself. If you want to change the world, begin by changing yourself. That is all. Begin with yourself and all the world will begin to change from one end. You build perfection brick by brick and the whole edifice will come in time. If one does not begin nothing can happen.
Page 264
Home
Disciples
Purani
Books
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.