Part I

This article is at pains to explain the knotty points in The Life Divine through a discussion. It is meant for those who are familiar with the Book. Below is a sketchy summary of the BOOK, The Life Divine and the aim of the discussion in life, especially the family and the school.  

The Rishis of ancient India discovered God is not a person but an Eternal Infinite known as Brahman (the Absolute of the West), which reveals to us as Sachchidananda as well as its opposite, Asat. This is beyond the reach of Man, as when he attains to it, he does not return. For the same reason, it is ineffable. Man can reach it only in Samadhi and when he returns from there, he does not bring back with him any memory. If he does, it refuses to go into words. On the other hand, there is the world full of woes. They knew this whole world is Brahman, but never knew how the one emerged out of the other. As God and the world are facts of experience, we have to accept the existence of both. Both being irreconcilable opposites, we can choose either of them, not both. Man chooses life, the Rishi chooses God. The Rishi has perfected his science of yoga so perfectly in innumerable lives that on any line one reaches God, which is known as moksha. He separates the soul from the being of four parts - body, life, mind, spirit - and takes it to its origin.

The ordinary man chooses life and passes through the four asramas at the end of which he seeks sannyasa. While in life his religion and philosophy have taught him about karma, values, duties, and dharma so that he may one day prepare to be a sannyasi. He finds the philosophic teachings and his practical life agree at many points but are at variance at many other points. Each man, community and nationality works out a practical philosophy as a working hypothesis. This can be stated in detail in about 100 statements or briefly in 15 or 20 statements.

Sri Aurobindo who took to yoga to win India’s freedom was in jail in 1910. Swami Vivekananda appeared before him for fifteen days and insisted that the thing Sri Aurobindo was seeking was not the true one and showed the Supramental world - Vignanamayaloka - to be true. Working on those lines, Sri Aurobindo attained to Supermind and saw that world moving down to earth to transform it. It is a world of Truth consciousness, Light, Power, and Love devoid of the distortions of pain, suffering, desire and death of our human world. He understood that twelve yogis who could reach the Supermind would be able to make it descend on earth. In the absence of it, HE and later SHE withdrew to work from the subtle plane. Should the Supermind descend on earth, death will be abolished along with all types of suffering, pain, evil, and darkness. Man will evolve to a Supramental Being who will have the form of man but not the internal organs of heart, liver, stomach, lungs, etc. as he would not eat or breathe. His energy will be drawn from the universe. His thought will have instantaneous effectivity. Sri Aurobindo tried to accomplish this in thirty years which would normally take 30,000 years. The Life of the Supramental Being HE calls ‘Divine Life’ and it is explained in the book The Life Divine. To evolve into the Supramental Being is the end of the goal of which the beginning is what I call Mother’s Life.

The development of products occurs on two lines. 1) the vehicle starts from the horse, the bullock cart and goes up to the plane. Here the quality vastly changes at every step of change; 2) A super computer has its smaller versions and comes down to the PC and a calculator. Here the quality of the computer remains intact all along the line but its use, scope, size, and price vary. Yogic life or Mother’s Life is such a miniature of Divine Life. At the human level Mother’s life draws upon the Supramental Force that has descended into the subtle plane of the earth in 1956. One who follows the principles of Mother draws upon that infinite force so that the finite human life will flower into infinite Mother’s life. Its least character is Luck that has no failure and at most it makes the incidence of grace frequent. Below I give the tenets of human life and Mother’s life followed by the traditional spiritual beliefs accompanied in bold letters of what Sri Aurobindo offers. As the principles of life are based on the theory of yoga, the latter is important. In the main body of the article, the principles are explained in a discussion. A special attempt is made to make those theories relevant to family and school. The cardinal aspects of it are freedom, freshness, self-discipline, inner life, personal growth, unfailing success in place of the traditional authority, dullness, external discipline, outer life, alternating success and failure.

1. Anything in life is limited - resources, energy, material, etc. The most characteristic of it is longevity.

In Mother’s life, nothing is limited unless we put a limit on it. One can decide the length of his own life.

2. The ruling power of life is falsehood.

Truth rules, truth alone rules.

3. Man is subjected to his past karma.

No karma need bind him if he is willing to give up those habits through which karma has a hold on man.

4. Status, wealth, power matter.

What matters is consciousness and that alone.

5. External social life and movements of Nature are beyond the control of man.

The outer reflects the inner. All life outside is under man’s control.

6. A certain amount of violence, cruelty, and injustice is inevitable.

Mother’s life is full of compassion and justice.

7. Waste of material, energy, and Time is a part of life.

There is no waste, real waste as Nature accomplishes several things at one stroke, giving the appearance of waste.

8. Blood is thicker than water.

There is something thicker than blood.

9. Success and failure alternate.

This is a life of unfailing success.

10. Human nature will not change.

To transcend nature is our aim.

11. Money, property, women lead to crime.

They lead to stronger affinities.

12. Scarcity of one thing or another is inescapable.

Abundance is the rule. Scarcity is what we create.

13. Man is selfish and mean.

Self-giving and generosity are the rule.

14. Destiny rules.

Man fixes his life.

15. Love, romance, friendship, loyalty are ephemeral.

They are the only lasting values of life.

16. Ideals are not practical.

The greater the ideal, the more practical it is.

17. A sound mind in a sound body.

Mind rules the body.

18. Education means degree.

Neither degree nor knowledge is complete education. Education is the experience of the mind.

19. We have to do as others in the society do.

It is not the society, nor even conscience that we have to follow. We must follow the soul.

20. Every man born should work with his hands and body.

Work must be done by the mind or the soul through the body.

Though an endless list of common beliefs can be written, the central idea is human life is warped, distorted, and suffering is an essential part of it. Mother’s life is fresh, LIVE, and expansive, delight and cheerfulness are part of it, while suffering and failure are not. The theoretical basis of these conclusions is the yogic principles of Sri Aurobindo whose main ideas are given below against the traditional spiritual experience.

1)      Attaining moksha is the highest human goal.

Not moksha but transformation is the goal.

2)      Asana, pranayama, dhyana, Samadhi are the instruments.

Physical methods will not be of use. Only surrender is the method.

3)      Jivatma should reach Paramatma.

Jivatma is itself Paramatma.

4)      Time is exceeded by Timelessness.

Both are exceeded by the simultaneous integrality of Time-eternity and Timeless-eternity.

5)      Our soul is immutable. It is Jivatma.

Our soul evolves into Brahman. It is the psychic being. The psychic being is the evolving deputy of Jivatma.

6)      Man is ruled by Time that is past, present and future.

Man is greater than Time. His Time is ever-present.

7)      Man is the highest creation of God.

Man is not final. Supramental Being is the next species.

8)      Mind has created the world. Or ego has created the world.

Supermind has created the world, not mind or ego.

9)      Contradictions are a feature of life.

Contradictions are complementaries.

10)  Spirit is different from Matter.

They are one.

11)  God has created the universe as His Lila.

God seeks Delight in Self-discovery in creation in which HE has hidden himself.

12)  To know God is knowledge. To know the world is Ignorance.

Knowledge becomes Ignorance, the highest product of creation.

13)  We cannot know how the One became the Many.

We can know it. One and the Many are part of Brahman.

14)  Life is evil.

Life is a creative specialisation of the Force.

15)  We cannot know the process of creation.

Self-creation by the Infinite Being creating form out of its force is the process of creation.

16)  Sat is different from Chit is different from Ananda.

All of them are one. The world and Sachchidananda are one.

17)  The tradition does not define Spirit, Supermind, Mind, Life or Matter.

Sri Aurobindo defines all of them.

18)  Evil is the opposite of good and we have to live with it.

There is a self-existent Good against which no evil exists.

19)  Rebirth is there for man to overcome his Karma.

Rebirth is necessary for the evolution of the soul.

20)  Life is to be shunned to attain to Spirit.

Life is to evolve into Spirit. It must not be shunned.

21)  Any work has its own Time. Time has to come.

We can make Time come. No time is required for work.

22)  The Spirit is inside.

The whole universe and the Transcendent are inside.

23)  Matter moves Spirit.

Spirit moves Matter.

An Exhaustive List of Details - Facts in

The Life Divine

• We assume God as Eternal, Infinite, and Omnipresent Reality.
• There HE is the One without a second.
• HE seeks Delight.
• Discovery is Delight.
• The greatest of Delights is the delight of Self-discovery.
• Self-discovery is at its height when one forgets oneself.
• In pursuit of that Self-discovery, God the Eternal and Infinite has hidden Himself in Himself, that is, he became the very opposite of what HE is, the finite, Time, in an inconscient form.
• This process is involution.
• His Self-discovery is evolution.
• God is known as Brahman in India and the Absolute in Europe.
• So creation, which is involution, is the Absolute becoming Existence.
• The very first step in creation is the Absolute becoming Existence.
• The Absolute is a whole, characterised by unity.
• The Absolute is absolute, not capable of qualities.
• The Absolute becoming the relative creates dualities such as Existence and Non-Existence.
• The Absolute, when it becomes the relative, does not cease to be the Absolute at all. It remains the Absolute throughout. Never for a moment is it other than what it is. Only in appearance is it relative, dual, divided.
• At each stage of involution, it is absolute in its primal stage but relative in its further involution which is extension. For example, Existence is Absolute Existence but it puts out four extensions. In its absolute state, Existence is called Transcendent.
• It extends as Sat-Chit-Ananda,
  again it objectively extends as Truth,
  and its third extension is Time and Space,
  while it splits into three aspects of Atma, Purusha, Ishwara.
  (Atma is also called Brahman)
• Each of them divides into lower and higher parts as Supreme Brahman, and Brahman; Purushothama and Purusha; Parameswara and Ishwara.
• Their three powers are known as Maya, Prakriti and Ishwara.
• Man seeing from mind sees Atma, from Overmind Purusha, and from Supermind Ishwara.
• Maya is conceptively creative, Prakriti is dynamically executive, and Ishwara is both conceptively creative and dynamically executive.
• When Sat (Existence) objectivises itself, it splits into subjective Sat and objective Satyam (Truth). That experience of Sat is Spirit. It is the substance, the Spiritual substance, the only substance by which the Cosmos, Universe and the world are made.
• Sat extends and each stage of involution extends. Often the extended stage is called Nature. Sat is Existence as well as Existent, a Being.
• Sat - Chit - Ananda are the subjective states of which Satyam -Jnanam - Anantam are objective states. (Truth - Knowledge - Infinity)
• These objective states together are also called Truth-Consciousness as well as Supermind.
• Sat and Asat are Existence and Non-Existence.
  Chit and achit are Consciousness and Inconscience.
  Ananda and Nirananda are Bliss and Insensibility.
• The three powers of creation are Self-Conception, Self-limitation, Self-absorption.
• The Consciousness of the Absolute is Maya.
• Supermind is the creator.
• Sat creates the Cosmos by a vibration of itself known as Real-Idea. Real-Idea is a vibration of the Being Sat.
• The plane of Sat-Chit-Ananda has its manifest and unmanifest parts.
• Sat creates in Supermind through Real-Idea in the planes of Time and Space.
• Supermind has two halves — comprehending Supermind and apprehending Supermind. They split. Mind is created in between.
• Comprehending Supermind is Timeless, Spaceless unmanifest. Apprehending Supermind is in manifestation, in Time and Space.
• Mind which is the result of a cleavage of Supermind is an instrument of division. It divides continuously until the atomic stage is arrived at. Mind divides NOT the Being, but the Force that issued out of it.
• The Force issues out of the consciousness (Chit) and is known as Consciousness - Force. This is the point of Mother’s birth.
• Mind, a dividing instrument, looks at the Spiritual substance through its own senses.
• Mind has consciousness and will.
• Consciousness working on will releases Energy.
• That plane of Energy is known as Life.
• Life is created by the consciousness working on will during which process some of the consciousness is lost. When all consciousness is lost, life becomes matter.
• Matter is life and mind involved as well as Supermind.
• The involved forces must evolve.
• Matter is form containing the energy of life - the force.
• Involution is a process of inversion in which
  Sat becomes Matter
  Chit becomes Life
  Ananda becomes Psychic
  Supermind becomes Mind.
• Sat is called by Sri Aurobindo Self-Conscious Being.
• Sat is the immutable Being.
  Ananda is the creative sensation of Sat and therefore the Psychic Being.
• Sat inverts itself into Matter in its substance.
  Sat in its sensation of consciousness becomes Ananda (Bliss).
  Sat in its creative sensation becomes the Psychic Being.
  Therefore, Matter is Delight of existence.
• The involution of Sat into Matter is reversed as evolution of Matter, the Delight of existence tempting the hidden consciousness to discover the secret godhead of Sat.
• Evolution is possible as all the planes from Sat to Matter are of the same substance — the Spiritual substance.
• Chapter 28 is written separately. Here ends the argument of the first book.

Construction of the BOOK.

Book I of 28 Chapters	Omnipresent Reality converts Itself into the Universe.
Book II of 2 parts each containing 14 chapters	The Infinite Consciousness becomes Ignorance making Spiritual Evolution possible.
Part I of Book II	Knowledge becomes Ignorance.
Part II of Book II	Ignorance having evolved into knowledge permits the Spirit to evolve out of it. This is Spiritual evolution.

Argument

BOOK - I

The Omnipresent Reality decides to become the Universe and that is creation. Sachchidananda is that creation. Sachchidananda is that Omnipresent Reality described in Book I, chapters 9-12. For that conversion, the Absolute uses the power of its consciousness, Maya — chapter 13. Supermind is the instrument of creation. Its creative process is chapter 14. Its consciousness is chapter 15 and the three poises it takes for that purpose is chapter 16. Then appear Soul, Mind, Life and Matter. Chapter 17 is Divine Soul, 18 is Mind and Supermind, 19-22 are Life and 23 Psychic Being. Chapters 24 and 25 are Matter. Chapter 26 gives the principle of evolution, 27 the process and 28 the special process of Overmind. There are eight chapters before Sat. The first chapter begins with Man’s aspiration and 2, 3, and 4 speak of the contradiction he sees between Spirit and Matter and how they are reconciled. Chapters 5 and 6 raise and resolve the contradictions between Subconscient and Superconscient as well as the Individual and the Universe. The origin of all these contradictions, ego, is chapter 7. Chapter 8 only says reason devoid of senses is intuition, a finding of Vedanta.

BOOK II - Part 1

The second stage of transition that is involution is the conversion of knowledge into Ignorance and its evolution back to knowledge of which the first stage is Omnipresent Reality becoming Infinite consciousness.

Chapter I	Knowledge of the whole is determined into Ignorance of the infinitesimal parts by Supermind. That determinism is really the determinism of Sachchidananda and the Absolute.
Chapter II	That Absolute is a whole when it is the Absolute or when it changes into the relative or form, finite, movement, manifestation or Time. It is the mind of partial vision that sees the parts of the Absolute and mistakes them for the whole and starts discussions.
Chapter III	As the Supermind takes three poises of God, Jivatma and ego, the Absolute is described here as ego, Purusha and the Transcendent, all of which are the same and seen inside.
Chapter IV	Creation unfolds itself as dualities, one of which is positive and negative. There is nothing negative. To know the negative as positive is to know the Absolute.
Chapter V and VI	These were also written in 1940 maybe to offer a fuller explanation to the Mayavadins. They say there is no illusion but what they see as illusion is really Ignorance. Both the analogies they offer — snake as rope and hallucination — won’t hold.
Chapter VII	For the first time here HE comes to the process of self-absorption in detail in the context of creation of Ignorance. This chapter explains the seven levels of Self-absorption to create 7 Ignorances which is further elaborated in the Chapter ‘Boundaries of Ignorance’.
Chapter VIII and IX	These two chapters are on memory. The idea here is Self-Consciousness seeking Self-experience in Ignorance becomes the Ego which is served by memory to relate it to the past.
Chapter X	To appreciate Ignorance fully, one needs to know the stages of knowledge which are four.
Chapter XI	Boundaries of Ignorance.
Chapter XII	Ignorance begins when the Mind forgets its origin Supermind.
Chapter XIII	The highest product of creation is Ignorance which reaches its perfection in the Surface Mind through exclusive concentration.
Chapter XIV	Ignorance reaches its logical conclusion of evil when the simple contrary turns perversely into evil.

BOOK II — Part 2

Chapter I	Either Jivatma or Paramatma is considered so far as God by Mind. To the higher vision of Supermind, Brahman that includes both is Reality.
Chapter II	No view of Life is acceptable if any part is excluded, even if it is the Transcendent.
Chapter III	To elaborate the theme of chapter 5 of Book I, HE says Man is to unite God and Nature in himself.
Chapter IV	That unity needs new forms, an ascent and integration with the high.
Chapter V	The 7 Ignorances explained earlier should be converted into seven knowledges.
Chapter VI, VII and VIII	Now that the Spirit has become a whole, it begins to evolve through rebirth.
Chapter IX	The evolving inner Spirit compels the body consciousness too to evolve to house the grown Spirit.
Chapter X	One can now offer his findings to others and become a Spiritual Man.
Chapter XI	The Spiritual Man faces triple transformation.
Chapter XII	The dark substance of the physical can only be transformed by the luminous Substance above.
Chapter XIII	The Supramental Being is born.
Chapter XIV	Man, discovering himself to be Supermind (and not mind) that is conscious, full, universal, powerful, inward, surrenders seeking transformation which results in a Life Divine that can either be simple or luxurious. Hereafter evolution is from knowledge to greater knowledge.

• Suppose several devotees who have studied The Life Divine with abiding interest but still feel there is much uncovered ground join together in a discussion, each can enlighten others on points that are clear to them. If understanding every argument is the first sufficient reward, the participants here may largely qualify. If they must hold the entire essence of The Life Divine simultaneously in the mind as a single entity and as a possession of spiritual knowledge in the mental plane, none of the participants may fully qualify. Below as I imagine such a discussion, their exchanges are denoted as questions from someone and answers from any other person are shown as answers. No single questioner is there, nor is there a single person answering all the time.

Q-        I have always found that a discussion on The Life Divine with anyone is enlightening. I seem to understand my own previous understanding better when I speak to others or listen to them.

A-        In speaking our own view to another, we tend to see their point of view a little and that is the source of enlightenment. Even to get to know all the terms He uses takes more than a few readings. Our tendency is to approach the book as a lay general reader. We forget it is philosophy of the highest watermark and it explains the YOGA of God in terms of the created universe.

Q-        If you have cleared some doubts on any of His terminology, I should like to hear them.

A-        Initially during my several readings, I never paid attention to the word ‘Spirit’. I took it for granted. In the chapter on Matter, He mentions that He had explained Mind, Life and Spirit earlier. Of course, I read those chapters and felt I understood them as I read, but it never came to my mind what Mind or Life was. A thought suddenly struck me: where does HE explain Spirit? It became a search. It took some time for me to discover the answer, that as Truth is the objective status of Sat or Existence, Spirit is the experience of that Existence in objectifying Truth. To conceive of Spirit as the experience of Sat and to know that experience is the Substance out of which the universe is created was almost a revelation to me after five or six readings of the Book.

Q-        Then how can you differentiate the Spirit from the Soul?

A-        Sri Aurobindo says both are the same. What is Spirit in Transcendence is Soul in the Cosmos.

Q-        HE says everyone does not have a soul. HE also says there is no one in whom the Spirit is not there. It is confusing.

A-        Because the whole world is made by the Spirit, every man is made of Spirit. As soul is the growing spiritual entity in man’s life, not all people have a developed Spirit which is soul.

Q-        Is there a difference between Being and Spirit?

A-        The very first creation in manifestation we call Sachchidananda. Its first aspect is Sat or Existence. The personal aspect of that Existence is the Existent, a being. Sri Aurobindo calls it Self-Conscious Being, Being for short. Spirit is the experience of that Being in objectifying itself. In us that Being is the Soul. Where the difference between Spirit and Being is not technically relevant, they are used interchangeably.

Q-        These linguistic significances with their attendant spiritual import are better explained as they arise. I have one important question. Why does the second book open with Cosmic Determinants?

A-        HE concludes the Book with ‘Divine Life’, which opens saying ‘It is not Mind but the Supermind’ that man represents. Our position is Mind created the world or Ego created the world; Karma is inescapable; death is inevitable; life is full of dualities, etc., etc. These are all positions or perceptions of the Mind. HE takes just the opposite positions, in which who created the world assumes importance. Therefore HE opens the second book with Cosmic Determinants and declares the world is created by the Supermind.

Q-        If this is so, how do the subsequent chapters justify the sequence?

A-        The first part of Book II explains how ignorance became knowledge. Looked at from that view, it will explain itself.

Q-        Can anyone explain it?

A-        Chapter 13 is about the creation of Ignorance on the surface mind where it becomes complete ignorance.
Chapter - 12, Origin of Ignorance.
Chapter - 11, Boundaries of Ignorance.
Chapter - 10, four levels of knowledge.
After explaining in Chapter 7 how knowledge becomes Ignorance, HE goes through these stages.
Chapter 8 & 9 are about Self-consciousness of Ignorance by Self-Experience becoming Ego. They explain how ego is a centrally coordinating intelligence of Ignorance.

Q-        You have missed Chapter 14. Why?

A-        The high point of Ignorance is when it becomes evil.

Q-        That is interesting to conceive. Quite a philosophical conception.

A-        In the 2nd chapter of Book II, HE continues the argument with which HE ended the 1st chapter that there is a Reality. The first chapter explains that Reality is a whole. The third chapter further explains that the whole contains the Transcendent and the universal and they are included in the Individual.

Q-        That was not the view of the Rishis because their instrument was mind. The Rishis have denied reality to the Individual. The crux of Sri Aurobindo’s revelation lies there.

A-        The basic themes or ideas of Sri Aurobindo basically differ from the tradition in 7 or 8 ways or you can express it in 20 or 30 ways. Each chapter in its own way touches upon them, often all of them.

Q-        I know some of them; I would like to know all of them.

A-        As we said earlier about words, instead of making a list of them, if we take them up as and when they arise, the discussion will not lapse into an academic one.

Q-        In another fashion, I see Him doing it with Ignorance. His whole new basis is well described because of His new explanation of Ignorance.

A-        It is not merely a new way of explanation but a new and fuller perception of creation.

Q-        Such an important central issue in His philosophy He avoids in the entire first book. Even in the second book He comes to it only after 6 chapters.

A-        Until then, HE explains the expressions of Ignorance. He does so about ego too. As He explained Spirit, Mind, Vital, Matter and Supermind, treating each in a separate chapter or in a few chapters, He does not explain the constitution of Ego. In the chapter on Ego He tells us how to overcome it. In the chapter on Matter, He clearly implies the formation of ego but does not dwell on it.

Q-        Is there a secret about ego?

A-        Creation is in Force that issues out of Consciousness. Being and Consciousness are indivisible. Force is divisible. Mind divides the Force to create life and matter. It creates ego too.

Q-        He says it is ego which facilitates the One becoming the Many. The Spiritual Force becomes material force by the mind’s perception. The mind divides that material force into atoms. As they are atoms of the material force, they cannot be resolved into spiritual force, which has its unatomic extension. The durable material force resisting division beyond the stage of atom is the physical ego.

A-        Here He distinguishes Matter from the status of Matter. The status of Matter has Unity, Matter does not have that unity.

Q-        Yes, I remember it is a point that always eludes me.

A-        Matter in Becoming has to act. For action, there must be movement. In unity that movement is not possible.

Q-        That makes it clear. As the world is a world of action and movement, there must be separation. Without separation, there is unity and status.

A-        In the earlier paragraph, HE says mind that divides also aggregates into several aggregates. All these aggregations are parts of the whole of Being. The moment they become a separate aggregate, that separation becomes real in its view.

Q-        So the ego is formed. To overcome that appearance of separation is for the knowledge to emerge out of Ignorance. We know of the married son conceiving of himself as a separate entity while he is really part of the family.

A-        Family is a concept, a value, an emotion which can never be divided. The Being is like the family. The newly married son needs to be independent for him to develop his creative, productive capacities.

Q-        When he is part of a joint family, all decisions are taken by the father. His capacities do not develop. It is necessary for him to go away, and if he remembers while away that he is part of the family, it enriches the family.

A-        This dividing function is of the Cosmic mind. That is why when ego dissolves, the Cosmic Self reveals.

Q-        Cosmic Ignorance is beyond Temporal Ignorance. Does it mean Cosmos is first created and Time and Space follow?

A-        It looks so. To substantiate it, I have no reference.

Q-        Can we say ego is in Time, Purusha is in the Timelessness and the Psychic is in the simultaneous Time?

A-        Yes. I think to understand every chapter in terms of these three dimensions is essential.

Q-        Of course. In a sense each chapter is conceived on that basis. In the last chapter, HE says this yoga can only be done inside and quotes the Upanishads in His support.

A-        The knowledge of this third dimension is not an essential aspect of the Upanishads though they had access to it often and used it at their own level. The instantaneous miraculousness belongs to the inner world. That comes in a chapter before.

Q-        The speed of this yoga is faster than light and it is inside. It is perhaps an INSIDE which includes the outside.

A-        It is that aspect which makes for integrality.

Q-        Perhaps there are two insides, one where the Purusha resides and the other, an all-inclusive one, where the Psychic resides. This theme pervades the whole book.

A-        To know conflict, form, movement, manifestation, etc. in this sense is essential to understand the Book.

Q-        The chapter ‘Evolution of Man’ follows rebirth, does not precede. What does it mean?

A-        To us man is what we know ourselves to be — one who dies. It is the animal that dies or animal-like man who needs to seek another body to continue his experiencing.

Q-        So, Sri Aurobindo does not consider us to be human beings.

A-        Man is evolved, according to Him, when his spiritual evolution continues in the same body.

Q-        Does he mean only immortal man is man?

A-        For us, spiritual man is one who is awake in his Spirit whom we call Jivanmukta. To him he is not yet a man. Only when he need not shed his body for his spiritual growth, i.e., when he attains immortality on earth, does he become MAN.

Q-        What then does HE mean by Spiritual man?

A-        Spiritual Man, according to Him, is one who can help others to find their own Spirit after himself finding it. Where does the third dimension come here?

Q-        When man goes inside, the spiritual evolution he pursued in several bodies is transferred to his own body. It means the universe is transferred inside.

A-        Do we understand the three dimensions as
Human life is lived largely outside.
The Rishi goes inside to find his soul.
The third dimension finds the psychic
and takes the Universe inside.

Q-        Let us look at it this way. Spiritual man is one who helps others find the Spirit. This is a tall order. Imagine a genius, rich man, or politician in high position trying to make others geniuses, rich or powerful. It is inconceivable. Spirit is out of the question. Presently God is not doing it! God in man can, He says, do it. It means God evolving in Man is greater than what we presently know as God. After the chapter ‘Triple Transformation’ before the end there are two chapters. It is not clear how those chapters are there?

A-        You may remember that in the chapter you speak of - ‘Triple Transformation’ - before arriving at the Supramental Transformation the distance and stages He traverses. It is a long route of spiritual labour. He goes through the stages of
The Psychic emerging in the mind from the ego.
The passages of inner mind and subliminal mind.
The vital psychic; the physical psychic.
Above, the psychic needs to pass through the states of Silence, Light, Intuition and Knowledge.
As He says elsewhere, it is a considerable territory on which one has to wage a continuous war. Thus the chapter ends. It is not the birth of the Supramental Being or the complete conquest of the plane of Supermind.

Q-        Now, I remember He is abridging 30,000 years. Fifty years ago the Britisher left. We find him everywhere effectively. His investment in India tops the list of foreign investments and the British population here has increased.

A-        That is true. It leads us to the subject of transition. Usually when we speak of transition it is in the horizontal plane. Indian freedom itself is in a large sense such a transition. This is in the vertical plane crossing four planes in between, above the golden lid involving a transformation of not just the human being, but the entire lower hemisphere.

Q-        Is there any cardinal point there that strikes you?

A-        Two are there. One we discussed earlier.

1.      The luminous imperative overcoming the dark imperative.

2.      The outer shifting to the inner, thus bringing the whole of cosmos spiritually inside.

The slow evolution in Time by this shift reaches or overreaches the speed of Light. God’s aim in creation is Joy where Bliss that is objectless changes into Delight that comes to stay in the objects. To maximise it, He inverted Himself into His very opposite so that emerging from there He will experience the greatest ecstasy. Hence the dark imperative of the Inconscience below inviting the bright luminosity of Superconscience above. The innumerable stages that precede it are not only important but difficult to comprehend.

Q-     ‘Our unity with the world being is the Consciousness of the Self’ is a statement that             requires explanation.

A-        If we go to the first principles, anything explains itself. The difficulty here can be solved if we try to understand the first of the 3 powers of creation, Self-conception.

Q-        This is the power of Maya.

A-        The question is what is Maya?

Q-        Maya is the consciousness of the Absolute.

A-        What then do we mean by consciousness?

Q-        Sri Aurobindo uses consciousness in the sense of Nature.

A-        HE calls Supermind as Nature of Sachchidananda.

Q-        Somewhere it is said consciousness is the Nature of Being.

A-        Is it the next stage known as Nature or consciousness?

Q-        Then Nature and consciousness are synonymous.

A-        The Self-conception creates several extensions of Sat.

Q-        They are four.

A-        Are they four or five?

Q-        1 . Sat - Chit - Ananda

2 . Brahman - Purusha - Ishwara.

3 . Time and Space.

4 . The Cosmic extension where the One becomes the Many.

5 . The subjective and objective extension of Truth.

6 . The being becomes Substance while Sat objectivises itself, as the experiencing

     of the Being is Spirit.

A-        How does this extension occur?

Q-        By will or Self-conception.

A-        He says Maya is conceptively creative.

Q-        We take consciousness for granted and Ananda too for granted. Can we not ask the question what it is to be conscious?

A-        If we go inversely from Supermind, let us say when Sat wants to comprehend itself, Sat becomes its Nature Supermind or its Truth becomes conscious of itself.

Q-        The question arises as to what is Truth.

A-        What one objectively comprehends of himself is his Truth.

Q-        On the lines of describing Supermind as Sat comprehending itself, can we not say Ananda is its (Sat’s) sensing Itself and consciousness is Sat being conscious of Itself?

A-        If we take the position that Brahman needs nothing, but it can choose to be anything and that is its absoluteness, we can extend that absoluteness to Sat — in fact to everything — and say —