Part V
the very act of coming into contact wins the person. It is physical emotion that honours touch. One is at the other end; this is at the lowest physical base.
A- I would like to know all about Romance, why it is the universal mark of excellence in human living.
Q- To explain is easy. Even the article on it, short though it is, gives all you need. Let us wait for the right context, not now. Even this principle No. 5 can explain Romance in the sense that man without losing his identity with his own inner Brahman should reach the Brahman in the other person.
A- Discovering the Brahman in the woman is Romance for man.
Q- It needs to be explained in detail. This will not be satisfactory.
A- No. 10 is sifting the reason from the sense.
Q- Though this is known in
A- The preservation of orthodoxy is perversely following it. I wonder why Western philosophy has thus pronounced on intuition, but they have achieved OBJECTIVITY as far as facts are concerned and where their emotions are untouched.
Q- Their objectivity in science and history is commendable. Ours cannot excel. The world should emulate it.
A- The frontiers of their objectivity are unconsciousness in science and subjectivity in history.
Q- Please explain.
A- Science is knowledge, not even the quest for knowledge but the organisation of knowledge. Knowledge is the mental essence of the physical acts and vital energies in movement. Knowledge is that which by knowing, everything else is known. Essential knowledge is knowledge, not the process which is utility. Science is described as the field of study to know the nature of the universe. This is to be unconscious of what science is.
Q- Their sense of objectivity is subjective. They can write any number of books exclusively on Russian Revolution without mentioning Lenin or Stalin.
A- To them the world was Europe, and is now
Q- An objective truth becomes an object of Romance when it is given the subjective emotion.
A- Does it go to the third dimension that way?
Q- Romance is the adventure of the unattainable when what is sought is the whole by the part.
A- Is not woman part too?
Q- The partial man seeks the partial woman because he knows it is she who will make a whole of him responding to him from that aspect of hers. She alone can put up that side in herself by which his aspect of fullness meets her to become richer by an integration of their souls in their becoming.
A- Why?
Q- The underlying part of the Absolute, the opposite, rises to meet the other part to bring forth the same underlying part in him, so that the real whole will emerge in both.
A- They meet in their third dimensions. This is the same as principle No. 5 of Sat and Asat meeting in Brahman.
Q- The woman alone serves that role for man. Till they reach the Absolute, it remains unattainable. Hence the Romance.
A- Where does the sweetness come from?
Q- Sweetness is the sensation of love that has knowledge.
A- Love is the delight of the complement. Is the knowledge the fact that he knows her to be his instrument?
Q- Romance is human relationship. Let us look at all of them.
1. Parents’ relation with children is physical.
2. Friendship is vital.
3. Mental relationship is that which is formed around an ideal.
4. Spiritual relationship is with the guru.
Wife is physical, vital, and social. It is a fully social vital relationship essentially making physical relationship possible. It never or rarely rises to the mind. One must be clear that marriage is a social institution and Romance is an adventure in the third dimension beyond the ranges of spirit. There should be no mistaking it.
A- In a country where marriage is no longer a viable institution, Romance rules the day in film and fiction. Where does that energy come from?
Q- Evolution.
A- The energy we witness in war, market, mountaineering or any walk of life is a pale insignificant version of Romantic charm.
Q- Romance is out and out charm.
A- Romance is irresistible sweetness, charm and attraction.
Q- All come from the evolutionary urge.
A- Other avenues of evolution do not have this.
Q- Creation began with the opposite dualities of Sat and Asat. Man and woman symbolise that duality.
A- Integration is the climax of evolution.
Q- Nothing integrates so fully as man with woman.
A- So the charm and sweet attraction of Romance issues out of the sensation - delight - the union gives at its peak of integration of consciousness.
Q- That is symbolised by Ishwara-Shakti.
A- Maybe this is not all, though it is of exceeding interest.
Q- The gratitude of the body thrills.
A- Yes, it is the beginning of ecstasy.
Q- HE places Love two places before ecstasy.
A- They also use rapture.
Q- We also know that Peace is above ecstasy as the latter is active.
A- Even in the third dimension, the active movement is subordinated to a static base.
Q- Only the body’s gratitude thrills, not the mental’s.
A- The thrill is for a moment. If it becomes permanent, it becomes intolerable even though it is ecstatic. Another version of it is unflinching rapture.
Q- If the above are the contours of the idea of Romance, it is culminated in the feminine principle in man rising to meet the masculine principle of God.
A- That I have read. Of course, the distance from the thrill to that culmination is great.
Q- The woman continues to be the complement throughout.
A- As the aspects of any principle are infinite, its culmination arrives at the universality of these principles.
Q- Whether it is electricity or words or plastic, they find use in a million fields before they fulfil themselves.
A- What about loyalty and chastity?
Q- They are the greatest ideals of human life. We have long parted with human life and are in zones millions of miles away from human greatness.
A- So, the extraordinary charm of Romance is from its divine character of universal attitude and infinite dimension.
Q- It is true of all human emotions. It is easy to see it in Romance.
A- Romance originates in the body but is not coarse like hunger. It goes to the mind, crosses to the Spirit and spills over into the third dimension of evolution. It does not cease till the two sides - masculine and feminine, positive and negative - really become complements integrating the initial strands and launching on the grand final integration of each cell with every other cell’s existence, as in a massive automated machine or factory.
Q- Writers instinctively - unconsciously - touch the right chords of such integration of two strands far apart and are implicitly appreciated. That is the maximum of awareness of this theme. They are the points of Life Response.
A- Can we say Romance is the spirit of evolution or the spirit of Spiritual evolution?
Q- That is a good description.
A- In all Nature or life, there is the dull routine part and the lively part. Now we speak of a third dimension of infinite energy, which is an evolutionary part. Romance is of that.
Q- Exactly. We generally use that term for a man’s attraction for a woman.
A- Not only man feels it most in Romance, but that is the line along which his own yoga is fulfilled.
Q- Yes.
A- I am tempted to say that the greatest of Romances is the act of creation where Brahman challenged Himself by losing himself and trying to discover Himself.
Q- Where does Romance come?
A- In the sense of reaching the unattainable. Here one more dimension is Brahman creates the unattainable. A greater element of the adventure is HE can always know what is lost and HE refrains from knowing it.
Q- Conceived thus, it is great Romance.
A- In a social or psychological set up, don’t you see the same element in man?
Q- The social authority, at least in
A- Bereft of social authority, the psychological is always mutilated.
Q- This man is below average. I talk of those who are above the line. Woman is legally and socially free in the
A- Suppose both are psychologically FREE, then begins the divine Romance of consciousness playing with consciousness.
Q- Without actual examples, this will be abstract. Even the psychological authority of man voluntarily submitted will go unappreciated and unnoticed if men do not have personal experience.
A- As far as I am concerned, the discussion is vastly helpful. I am able to see the Romance of Life in a greater measure.
Q- Romance is the Eternal Emerging in the Ephemeral
- Romance never dies. It cannot die. It has never died in the history of man.
- The Eternal seeks the Eternal eternally. It is Romance.
- The seeking is the adventure. Attaining is fulfilment.
- The seeking is an eternal flame that knows no death. Attaining is a fulfilment that leads to higher seeking. It gives higher life to the unattainable. Death is nowhere on the agenda. Neither decay nor diminishing intensity is permissible here.
- The Eternal extends itself into the ephemeral.
- The Eternal does so, so that the ephemeral can acquire eternity.
- The strength, rather the infinite strength of the ephemeral is so great that it ardently sets to work to convert the Eternal into the ephemeral. Mostly it succeeds, or thinks it succeeds.
- The Eternal never dies; it withdraws temporarily.
- The Eternal eternally presents itself to the ephemeral for its valid acceptance. That is why Romance rears its head all the time at all ages. It knows no death.
- Man misses no opportunity to be false, to falsify anything. The greater the Truth, the more vehement is his effort at falsification.
- When he utterly fails, he falsely announces a victory to falsehood. Thus an ideal gets organised.
- Organisation is death. Romance is said to die when it is organised into marriage. What dies is not Romance, it is the dead organisation that gives life to its death.
- Romance cannot die, it has never died. It emerges to give life to death and dead habits. They smother Romance to death and triumphantly announce their own death as the death of Romance.
Q- No. 11 is to see the ocean of energy.
A- I wish to talk on this chapter itself outlining the ideas, showing the link between them, commenting on His introduction, highlighting the other major ideas of this chapter, its significance to the next, etc. Whether it is welcome, I do not know.
Q- It is a fine approach. Studying one chapter like that is illuminating and leads to better comprehension of the other chapters. As it is philosophy, I am not sure of anyone’s attention. Well, try your luck.
A- The tradition is to declare what the sages had seen. Here, HE tries to put it in an argument readers can understand.
Q- Which do you mean?
A- You agree that HE does not demand acceptance.
Q- That HE never does.
A- HE saw the ocean, but how can HE show it to us?
Q- I don’t remember. How does HE do it?
A- In Chapter 28 of the first book HE mentions that there are links between the Supermind and us. He uses one such link. Westerners know of the poet’s vision, especially the vision of Wordsworth - it is spoken of in Synthesis. It is an egoless vision. There HE starts. The ocean is seen by a vision of the unegoistic.
Q- Otherwise, this idea will be a non-starter. No one will accept His vision and will say the ‘so-called vision’.
A- The vision seen is immense if the ego is put aside. But having seen the vision, the ego comes back. Its first thought is how to use it. When it finds the ocean is of no use to it, it just turns away.
Q- HIS explaining infinity and its characteristics is because man goes away from it. To convince man that the infinity is understandable, HE launches on a long explanation.
A- Ego stands in the way of seeing the Real. The Real reveals itself not as it is, but in a form we can see. The Absolute is the Reality. It is seen not as Being or one of its aspects, but as energy. The Being has three aspects of Atma, Purusha, and Ishwara. We don’t see any of them. What we see is the energy of Prakriti.
Q- I never thought of it. Now that you speak of it, it strikes me.
A- The Cosmic Self - the Purusha - is revealed when the ego dissolves. Now that the ego only withdraws for a second, it is not Purusha that is seen but Prakriti, rather Prakriti in its form of energy.
Q- It is quite interesting that the ego thinks of using it.
A- It is equally striking that the ego goes its own way, when it finds the ocean is not available for use.
Q- It is exactly the same response we give to our opportunities.
A- Before saying we must shed our ego and allow the ocean to run our life, Sri Aurobindo offers an explanation of what infinity is. It is equal in the small and the big.
Q- It never occurs to us why it should be equal in both.
A- As the small and big are in themselves infinity, infinity expresses in both equally.
Q- It is a philosophical, mathematical concept. HE puts it to us as a concept of life.
A- Getting at this Truth is one essential basis for understanding The Life Divine.
Q- He extends it to affirmations and negations, thus making everything in creation equal intrinsically. Quantity, Quality, and Character are beside the point before this equality.
A- One implication is man is equal to the ocean. Realisation of this equality helps to remove the separation of ego.
Q- That the ego is separate is seen, but the ego is not condemned to be separate unless it chooses and insists on it.
A- Only the poet and the artist in the West have glimpsed this Truth. So, HE introduces the mind of the Western thinker to the concept of infinity through this. I am not sure whether there are other introductions. It would be meaningful to locate such points and develop them.
Q- Even before HE presents Sat, the Self-Conscious Being, HE is at pains to show WE are that Self-Conscious Being by implication. He pleads for unity in the words of asking us to allow our lives to be ruled by the ocean of energy.
A- HE makes two things clear.
1. Man is infinity closed to himself.
2. It is only by his own choice, maybe wilful.
Q- The argument with which HE ends the BOOK, Taste of Ignorance is not over, is brought before us in clear precise terms.
A- One basic concept of Spirituality is Status and Movement, presented generally as Silence and Activity. Here we are shown that this infinite movement is nothing but an aspect of eternal stillness - Sthanu - which is infinite in its nature.
Q- On p. 74 HE puts before us the ever-present truth that everything is infinite by the simplest of arguments that there is no beginning or end.
A- Earlier I was at a loss to illustrate the integration of small aspects far apart in an automatic machine or in a story. That is the truth of nature, of creation which the mind is perverse enough not to see. To shut it out of its view, the mind creates a false note (apasvaram). To show us that grandeur, HE changes the false note created by an English word ineffugible into ineffugable and then discloses the great secret that the Infinity imposes itself upon the appearances of the finite by its ineffugable Self-existence.
Q- Perhaps life in the gross plane is full of such perversions and when reversed opens into the subtle plane. A clumsy waddle of walk changing into graceful gait changes the atmosphere, even as a coarse loud voice does so giving place to a sweet, soft, low whisper. This word is not in the language, but is HIS creation.
A- Suppose one can recognise this quality of HIS writings, he would enter the higher regions. In 1909 or 1910 the House of Commons discussed Sri Aurobindo’s pamphlet as to whether it was seditious or not. The then obscure MP who appreciated the high prose of Sri Aurobindo later became the Prime Minister.
Q- So, an act has so many aspects that can raise us.
A- We know it from several ways. Intuition in the act is involved is a statement. As it is involved, the act is done several times to reveal the intuition. The act gives the intended result when the intuition is explicit.
Q- Here lies the answer, clue, secret, and formula for luck.
A- Yes, when an act gives the expected result, man never stops acting. If he is a trader, his market expands, if a student his rank rises, etc.
Q- Here the trader sets his limit to trade. He does not stray into family prestige, popularity, or politics.
A- One is vertical and this is horizontal. Together they go to build the pyramid of his personality.
Q- Conversely, to know the intuition is to get the result.
A- A formula for that is simple,
— Avoid love of folly; or do the right thing.
— Do it intelligently.
98 % of work will yield result. Call Mother and it will be 100 %.
Q- Luck is right intelligent work with Mother’s Blessings.
A- People who are known to be lucky do only 40 or 50 % of the work right. Why then is it not done?
Q- Let us not worry about those who do not want luck. In our school the children can be taught this formula and they can inherit luck from the school.
A- How to do it in the class?
Q- That is not complicated. A detailed training can be drawn up if the teacher learns this 80 %.
A- The culprit is the diversion.
Q- The diversion comes from the irresistible immediate result egged on by ego which is known as values.
A- Teach the right values.
Q- What are they?
A- Whatever you know to be right.
Q- The formula for luck is simple to explain, difficult to follow.
A- The difficulty is removed by a hundred ways, all small ways.
Q- Make a beginning. It will work.
A- Go through the 70 principles and the other ideas of life and understand the highest theory. Start work from the bottom.
Q- If you want, you will be a success, says the Gita.
A- Let us come back to the chapter.
Q- Having explained infinity, HE says, it is the infinity of Time and adds there is an Infinity beyond Time and Timelessness.
A- That is the Supreme infinity of Vedic immortality. Please repeat it.
Q- Infinity, as everything else, exists on all planes from Matter and Sat. Form, Knowledge, Silence too exist on all planes in varying ways.
A- Please illustrate through Silence.
Q- In the mind Silence is absence of thought, in the mouth it is absence of speech. Absence of energy is silence in the vital, shedding of movements is Silence in the physical.
A- Please go ahead, this is enough.
Q- The infinity of Sat before it extends into Sachchidananda, Truth, Time or Atma is the Supreme infinity.
A- Having said all this, Sri Aurobindo says all this is what reason tells us. We have the direct insight which is intuition. Looking directly into existence, we look beyond the ocean of energy into existence itself as duration which is Becoming, which is the frontal appearance of Being.
Q- I remember. HE pleads for us to accept both and declares that to know their relation is wisdom. The figure of the white existence of Shiva and the dance of Kali is scintillating.
A- At one stroke, to undo the scientist and the Rishis, HE raises the question whether the Force is independent or a power of Being.
Q- So the main points of the chapter are:
· Ego moves to disclose energy in an ocean.
· Ego desires appropriation of the power.
· The power is too big, it is infinity.
· Infinity is infinity everywhere.
· It defies quantity and quality.
· It is the same in negation and affirmation.
· Man too is that infinity.
· Man disregards that.
· Infinity needs man.
· Infinity can take up man’s life.
· Behind the ocean of movement is Sthanu, stability.
· This is the infinity of Time and Space.
· Beyond is Infinity and Eternity.
· All this is what reason tells us.
· We can see directly, disregarding reason.
· We see Being and Becoming.
· Of course, behind the intellect there is intuition.
· Integral experience includes both.
· Let us accept Being and Becoming and know their relationship.
· Let us ask whether the Becoming is a power of Being.
The last question is positively answered in the next chapter and thus HE establishes HIS theme of Unity, discounting that Becoming is inert which is the basis of materialism and science. Man at every stage insists on the division. At every stage, Sri Aurobindo pleads for unity. Man would accept either the Being or Becoming. He wants us to accept both. Reason is what takes man away from unity. Sri Aurobindo proves the infinite unity through reason and shows the higher method too. The part, the ego, always wants to remain a part. The All seeks it at every step. Ego constantly breaks the link. The All restores it constantly.
One can understand without stretching very much all these 70 principles in any chapter and here too. I am not taking it up here.
Q- No. 16 is Ananda expressed in objects.
A- An object expresses a form. When we put it to use, it expresses a use being an instrument. It is a partial expression. Expressing Ananda, the object expresses its all.
Q- Shakespeare can be read as a story, we can learn English from it, or it can be used to put a play on boards. To read Shakespeare as a creative piece of literature is its best use.
A- A piece of land is used to stack hay, for cultivation or sold as a house plot. But selling it to an industry will be to put it to the best financial results.
Q- The third dimension emerges in the objects expressing Ananda. Sachchidananda tries to express the objectless Ananda in the objects in its descent.
A- A beautiful lady who desired to marry Bernard Shaw said their child could combine her beauty and his genius. Shaw replied that it could be in the reverse. The parent is not the determinant. But Sachchidananda can choose to express Ananda in the objects. Sri Aurobindo says man goes after the objects, and misses Ananda. In fact, he gets pain.
Q- In a school the aim is to express the efficiency of the school in the child. The very best the school can do is to let the child express his own inner spiritual best which can be genius, if not more. To look at each of these 70 statements from one’s own work point of view will be a spiritual exercise.
A- No. 18 is to move to the subtle and causal planes.
Q- Yoga means asana, etc. What do we do here is a common question. We reply we should consecrate which is next to impossible. In the early days of the Ashram, this question loomed large and someone asked Sri Aurobindo about the oldest disciple and said the general feeling was he was not doing yoga. Sri Aurobindo replied by a question that if he was not doing yoga, who else was doing it?
A- So, the question is how do we know we are doing yoga? And one answer is we should be moving to the subtle and causal planes.
Q- He says the first siddhi is to know the subliminal moves the surface which means the subtle plane opens. Many people have subtle vision. Only that one is unable to distinguish between the subtle vital and subtle spiritual. What is difficult to distinguish is the spiritual is expansive and elevating while the vital is muddy, dark and impure. Seeing Mother in dreams is to get the Darshan in the subtle plane.
A- One who is known for dishonesty acts honestly. This is transformation and necessarily in the causal plane. The man gets the result of honesty, unable to see the atmosphere is purer than the purity of spirit.
Q- Someone took exalted passages of English literature and some passages of abuse and showed the language varied accordingly. It is a subtle knowledge to be able to perceive the difference which can’t easily be explained.
A- Causal can be detected in some ways:
1. If this is the first act of its kind in the world;
2. If any transformation is involved;
3. When things precipitate at once - they must be good things;
4. When the part sees the whole or appreciates the opposite point of view.
Q- Lord Mountbatten came to
A- No. 19 is we create what we want — tatasthu. Maya is the consciousness of the Absolute. It creates by Self-conception. It creates what it wants. Looking at what we do and removing the social, psychological predilections, it must be easily seen that we create what we want.
Q- There will be a spiritual revolution if only man knows what he wants. Or if he wants what he really needs. Elsewhere, in showing that ultimately the decision is ours, we have cleared the main difficulty about this argument. It will be a BOON if man is conscious of this power of his.
A- Consciousness splitting into knower, knowledge and known is 20.
Q- Creation is possible only when there is movement, play, division. Unity does not permit a universe. The three poises of Supermind are God, Jiva, Ego. God is the knower forever. Consciousness does not actually divide, but concentrates in three ways.
A- This happens all along the way.
1. Sat splits into three — Sat, Chit, Ananda.
2. Sat itself splits into Atma, Purusha, Ishwara.
3. Consciousness does so into knowledge and power.
4. Ananda is found as Beauty, Love and Joy.
5. Each of the 8 or 12 spiritual determinants divides into three as knower,
6. knowledge and known or Lover, Love and Beloved.
7. Supermind too takes three poises as said above.
Q- No. 22 is the Upanishadic formula.
· God is in all - is the basis of our oneness with all.
· All is in God.
· All is in each.
· Each is in all.
Mind saw that each is in all and is not able to see all in ourselves. This is how spiritual selfishness developed.
A- No.26 — Incapacity for exertion becomes capacity. The divided parts that are incapable of uniting exerting themselves to do so, evolve the hidden psychic and thus rise. What we consider an incapacity is an occasion for the Nature to exert to secure exertion. Such an exertion brings in capacity. As we take failure as an occasion for a greater success, here incapacity is portrayed.
Q- No.27 is Life taking the bodily sensation to the mind.
A- Here a few points are to be noted.
1. This process integrates mind and body.
2. It brings the body under the control of the mind.
3. It explains the evolutionary role of life.
4. Here is the process of ascent.
5. Sensation is the thought of the body and thought is the
6. mental sensation and therefore one changes into another.
Q- The ancients shunned life saying it is evil. Sri Aurobindo says Life is a specialisation of Force and here HE gives an explanation of that Force working for the ascent of evolution.
A- The idea that thought originates in the body is thus described.
Q- So, Silence will mature or will be saturated when the thought shed at the mental level is dissolved at its roots in the body.
A- Yes. Before any act originated there was Silence. Therefore, Silence and for a similar reason Peace are called God.
Q- Does Existence become reabsorbed into the Absolute through the intermediate stage of Silence?
A- I do not remember reading anything like that, but the two statements,
1. Silence sustains activity and
2. Silence behind Silence
taken together give credence to your description.
Q- I think this comes under the idea that each level of ascent generates a descent on all the parts below to saturation.
A- It is a cardinal principle of HIS. It endorses the idea of a whole. The ascent by itself is part. The ascent taken together with the descent is a whole.
Q- Such a whole is built gradually at each stage of ascent. Here the descent is from mind to matter.
A- No. 29 is Ananda inverts into the psychic being.
· The inversion is HIS own idea.
· It is part of the process of creation.
· It is self-absorption.
· The psychic is HIS own creation in Yoga.
· It is this that makes Matter Delight of existence.
· By taking the psychic on, HE extends the seven planes of the ancients to eight and quotes their idea that it could be ten or twelve.
· The idea of static Bliss converting into active Delight belongs to this plane.
Q- The four above invert into four below. This is No. 3. This is in combination with No. 29. Mind sees the four above and four below. It is incapable of seeing all the eight together. Mind, the highest instrument of the Rishis saw all the eight, not at once and understood each one of them. It needs the Supermind to see all of them at once simultaneously. It is a vision of the whole. That vision can see the lower four are the inversion of the higher four.
A- The uneducated, informed, common man who knows of the Parliament and the Government may not clearly know that the government is created by the Parliament. He may know both, but may not know politics enough to know how one is created by the other.
Q- To know both is different from knowing that both belong to a single whole.
A- The common man knows someone is arrested by the police. He may not know that the police cannot arrest anyone without a warrant issued by the magistrate.
Q- No. 31 says evolution is possible as all the eight planes are of the same substance. I wonder why Sri Aurobindo makes this statement.
A- We know that transition from one walk of life is not possible from another walk of life. Once specialisation emerges, it is not generally possible to shift from one subject to another. An IAS officer cannot be a politician but he can become a governor as the governor’s post belongs to the administration.
Q- We eat rice and vegetables and drink milk. As all belong to the same type of substance, they are digested by our system. Sri Aurobindo raises this question on behalf of the reader and answers it. To one who may doubt the possibility of evolution, he says evolution has no obstacle as all the planes are of the same substance. Sri Aurobindo often raises questions on our behalf and answers them. The pity is, those questions do not arise in our minds.
A- When Sri Aurobindo declares the Spirit moves Matter, the inner moves the outer, we accept it. Someone has asked how and why.
Q- The outer is the Becoming; the inner is the Being. The Being of the Becoming includes the outer as well as the inner and is centred in the inner. Sri Aurobindo means by Spirit the evolving Spirit. Obviously Matter which is the outer is moved by the Spirit which is the Being of the Becoming.
A- In Silent Will we see the phenomenon of the inner moving the outer. The why is answered by “as the inner includes the outer, it is so moved”.
Q- The inner here is the supramental to which there is no outer, as it is the One. The Supermind feels the outer objects as itself and finds them inside its own person.
A- How do we get that power?
Q- We speak out an instruction. Sometimes it is not carried out. When we shift to the inner and exercise Silent Will, it is done. This is to shift from oral instruction to silent mental instruction. It is the surface mind of running thoughts. The Silence of the mind is the Silence in the inner mind where dwells the Purusha. Silence here is powerful as it is mental silence.
A- Thoughts originate not in the mind but in the body.
Q- Silence can move from the mind to the vital and finally to the body. It is the silence of the physical which is more powerful than the silence of the mind or vital.
A- To reach that Silence, one should cross the inner mind and enter the subliminal mind. Thoughts from there will move the outer matter.
Q- In work, when work stalls, we at once move to a deeper layer and move the non-moving work. When work does not move, we can move inside and learn to move the same work from a deeper point. Such a practice will raise all opportunities as well as all obstacles and will make continuous learning possible.
A- Moving the outer from the inner can be explained from the points of view of several chapters. To consider it from as many points of view as possible helps. The following chapters are relevant.
| Chapter I | Contradictions. |
| Chapter II | Matter and Spirit are one. |
| Chapter IV | There is ONE and only one. |
| Chapter V and VI | Reconciling vertically and horizontally. |
| Chapter XXVIII | Harmony in the fibre of our being. |
| Chapter 56 | Most momentous discovery of man. |
It is true that this theme can be explained from the point of view of each of the 70 principles we listed. What is necessary is to understand the import.
Q- You have not mentioned the three dimensions of Time.
A- Yes. It is also important. The Brahman becomes the Being. The Being changes into Becoming. All the time the Brahman is there always. The Being is Brahman, the Becoming is the Brahman. To see the Becoming as Being is perfect sight. You can say Becoming is Matter, Being is Spirit and Being of the Becoming is the Brahman that includes Being and Becoming. By centring inside in the Brahman, one can move Matter that is Becoming. It is the Spirit moving Matter.
Q- Putting it several ways raises the comprehension by varying repetition. I have found that greater appreciation of The Life Divine emerges when we consider ONE idea there in the light of every other idea of the book.
A- Does it make for integration of knowledge? Can you illustrate?
Q- We can take the above one - inner and outer - and see how it integrates with almost each idea of the Book. Some six are mentioned above. Time is not there in the list. The Eternal is the Individual also is not there. Let me hear how Time fits into the theme of the inner moving the outer?
A- HE gives three dimensions of Time. We can assign other characteristics to them. Time - Becoming - Outer. Timelessness - Being - Inner. Simultaneous Time - Being of the Becoming. This is the 3rd dimension of Time that is inner, which includes the outer. Man in Time moving to the 3rd dimension of Time can move the outer by the inner.
Q- Can you repeat it for the Eternal and the Individual?
A- Ego shedding itself emerges as Purusha. This is world Purusha individualising the world-experience in the individual. One can see that external world-experience inside and its Being or Purusha is the Transcendent.
Time is Ego.
Timelessness - the world Purusha.
Simultaneous Time - Transcendent Self.
The Transcendent Self, the inner, can move the outer ego.
Q- No. 32 — the world is created by the Supermind, not mind.
A- This is the chapter on ‘Cosmic Determinants’. They are an answer to the tradition, scientists and the materialists.
Q- I know the chapter well, but would like to hear the gist again. If the significance can be brought out, it is good.
A- I II Mind created the world. Supermind created the world. Karma rules. There is no Karma. We cannot explain creation. We can explain the process of creation. Death is inevitable. Death is not inevitable. Spirit is immutable. Spirit evolves. Moksha is the goal. Transformation is the goal. Shun life. Accept Life.
Q- Summarise the chapter.
A-
1. Chance and order simultaneously present is the cosmic paradox.
2. God becoming the world answers, resolving the mystery.
3. Evil in the world is unexplained.
4. Evil is not in creation. It is only for the ego.
5. The Infinite creates by Self-conception a Form that carries the Force of existence which evolves through a rhythm and a process in appropriate circumstances.
6. Force evolving out of Form is Matter emerging out of Mind, i.e., Mind dominates over Matter.
7. So, the clue must be discovered in Mind.
8. Mind is noisy. Yogic Silence is necessary.
9. Individual Mind could not have created, but a mind that is universal could have created the world.
10. Overmind has NO unity.
11. Supermind has unity. Therefore, it could have created the world.
Q- Explain the significances of the main arguments.
A- The scientist, the Vedantin, the materialist see the world as finite. They see the world by the Mind. So, they see either chance or order - one at a time. They cannot see both as part of a single whole. Supermind can do it. It sees life infinite. There is no mystery any longer. It is natural to think that the world is created as a workman creates an object. Mind can only see so. To the Supermind, God and world are ONE. Sri Aurobindo hypothesizes that God became the world.
Q- How does evil disappear?
A- It does NOT disappear. It is explained differently. God, who seeks Delight hides into Himself and separates himself as ego from Himself. This separation causes pain and creates evil. Coming out of ego, there is no evil, no pain. Pain is pain of separation.
Q- Well, is not that pain REAL? How can we say there is no suffering created in the world?
A- Even that pain is only for the surface, not the subliminal. Only the subliminal is the real being, not the surface.
Q- The joy of the subliminal appears to be pain on the surface. It is only an appearance.
A- Can we say the pain is for the Ignorance?
Q- We can say that. One who wants to enjoy Ignorance enjoys it as pain.
A- No. 33 is The Reality is ONE, mind sees it as Many, mistaking the parts or aspects for the whole. The nation is a whole, the political parties see only their own interests and see them as the whole interest of the nation. Thus, they create problems that are non-existent. Families do so. In an office, severe competition is often set up between various sections. To go back to an earlier analogy, what is the idea of the parts of the bodies contending with each other ignoring the fact that all are parts of a single body.
Q- The Supermind sees the world as one, without problems and a marvel. The mind sees the same world in misery and wants to improve its conditions.
A- Christians want to save souls from going to hell. Indians want to initiate people into spirituality.
Q- No knowledge is valid if it is not self-knowledge.
A- Can we say Jesus, Buddha and
Q- Nothing is in vain. Each has its place in the scheme of things. Each man or movement when it exhausts itself will discover there is a better method.
A- Our answer must be rational and practical.
Q- Each man exerts himself according to his best light, which is a way of life.
A- I am a devotee. How shall I act?
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