Part VII

 

·        In mind, vital and body there are two levels of consciousness and substance.

·        Ignorance becomes complete when the Mind identifies finally with the physical substance.

·        A further stage is the creation of the surface where Ignorance reaches perfection.

Q-        ‘Life must include the Transcendent’ is No.52.

A-        This is the theme of the second chapter in the second part of the second book. Life is considered as terrestrial, cosmic, extra-cosmic and synthetic. Obviously Sri Aurobindo rejects all views other than the synthetic.

Q-        We see him in the previous chapter expanding the conception of Reality to include One and the Many. He started the BOOK with the irresistible unconscious URGE of man to attain to God and we find Him closing it with SURRENDER that transforms the partial human being into the integral Divine Being, shifting the centre from outside to inside.

A-        The path traversed in these 56 chapters of 2 books of 3 parts can be variously described. HE himself has done it as

1.      The Omnipresent Reality changing into universe in creation and seeking the JOY of evolving back through the simultaneous integrality of Time-eternity and Timeless-eternity.

2.      Infinity and Eternity of Unity throwing itself into finite Time of Multiplicity and recovering it in an evolutionary JOY.

3.      As explained in 1) it is also a movement of Time to the simultaneous integrality.

4.      Sat self-absorbing itself into Matter to become the Delight of self-existence.

5.      Reality losing Itself by seven steps into Ignorance and regaining it by another seven steps achieving the JOY HE was after through Self-discovery.

6.      Process of generation of JOY by the Infinite in Itself through the medium of the Finite.

Q-        Hence the importance of the twin phrases of ‘Practical concept of Infinity’ and ‘Spiritual plane of Infinity’.

A-        The Supreme Infinity of Vedic immortality is denoted by the second phrase. The first is of Sri Aurobindo’s Marvel.

Q-        To express the all-inclusive Reality, must Life be all-inclusive too, not excluding the Transcendent?

A-        In further chapters the thought is developed, 1. to integrate the Superconscient with the subconscient, 2. raising that to be integrated above, and 3. shedding the 7 Ignorances to start evolving.

Q-        Please continue the explanation till the last chapter.

A-        This section is entitled, ‘Knowledge and Spiritual evolution’.

Q-        So far the evolution was in ignorance. Is it not?

A-        When ignorance is transformed into knowledge, evolution has no further need for ignorance as a base.

Q-        How is knowledge related to Spirit?

A-        Knowledge or mind purified is Spirit.

Q-        What then is the process of Jnana yoga?

A-        Purify the mind and from there move into Pure Spirit.

Q-        Oh. I see, Self-Perfection is Self-Purification.

A-        It is the Spirit which became Mind, Life and Matter in involution. By evolution it emerges out.

Q-        So, the Spirit that emerges, evolves? Evolves into what?

A-        Spirit is the experience of Sat which is a manifestation of the Absolute. The Spirit evolves back into its Origin.

Q-        The Origin is the Absolute?

A-        It can be the Absolute or even Sat, the Self-Conscious Being.

Q-        Can we not say the Spirit that emerged in the mind evolves to a similar emergence from the body?

A-        It is right and can be stated in various ways. To be able to see the process of creation and evolution as HE details in these chapters and then summarise them into short versions (He has given one) till we arrive at a full expansion of the Upanishadic idea HE quotes (p.175) is to fully comprehend HIM. Elsewhere HE has His version of it.

Q-        These 14 chapters take us from Reality to realisation of it in Life as Divine Life. I should like one of you to explain it.

A-        Sri Aurobindo, in this section, takes us from the integral knowledge of Reality to its full realisation in life as Divine Life, expressing it first in the theory of life, integrating the upper and lower hemispheres in Man who ascends shedding the 7 ignorances, rather transforming them into corresponding 7 knowledges so that the liberated soul will complete its spiritual evolution in the same body, qualifying him to help others find the same. The further evolution of Spirit down to the physical psychic simultaneously with the ascent to Ishwara till the effort commissions the luminous imperative to handle the dark imperative enabling the birth of Gnostic Being is culminated in Divine Life.

Q-        Now this whole section comes into Mind as a single unit of thought. It is my aspiration to hold the entire Life Divine in the Mind like that.

A-        It is His NAME lovingly articulated by the Silent Self in the Mind.

Q-        It takes the shapes of a golden coloured bust of Sri Aurobindo.

A-        Even to see HIM fully is a yoga of yogic vision.

Q-        The first of the second book can also be so summarised.

A-        Why don’t you try it?

Q-        Ignorance becomes knowledge when Man emerges out of ego, ringing a death knell to evil and seeking the four grades of knowledge till he reaches the knowledge of identity. That knowledge helps him discover the totality of the Reality.

A-        You can as well try to summarise Book I.

Q-        Sachchidananda becoming Mind, Life and Matter is there from chapter 9 to chapter 25. Principle of evolution and the role of Overmind are in chapters 26, 27 and 28. The first 8 chapters are descriptions of conflicts of various types. I wish someone comes up with a summary of the entire BOOK.

A-        HIS is the most concise. Any other summary can only be its expansion. We saw several versions of it. Any can be expanded. The Infinite Eternal of the Origin manifests as Being, Consciousness, Ananda and Supermind to hide into Itself as Mind, Life, Psychic and Matter. Its totality represented by knowledge, in this process, becomes Ignorance which when evolved to its beginning goes on to emerge as Spirit and ends up as Divine Life through triple transformation.

Q-        Numbers 53 to 57 are answered in several ways. Let us take up 58. Rebirth is inevitable if the Spirit is to evolve.

A-        In three chapters Sri Aurobindo pronounces a profound theory of rebirth.

Q-        T. T. Krishnamachari, an orthodox Vaishnavite read it and gave it to Nehru for reading, saying it was a must for him.

A-        Nothing that is there in these three chapters is unknown to the tradition, but HIS philosophy that explains the phenomenon is not only new, it is startling.

Q-        For ages we have equated Spirit with God and proclaimed that it has no origin or end. It is changeless, ineffable, immutable. Now Sri Aurobindo says that the Spirit evolves. It is more than a spiritual revolution.

A-        The significance lies in HIS shifting to Supermind from Mind which expresses as

·        Partial perception of Brahman changes into Brahman that is an integral whole, never for a moment losing its absoluteness or wholeness.

·        Self-existing Infinity as opposed to the infinity which is opposite of the finite.

·        Simultaneous integrality of Time-eternity and Timeless eternity.

·        Karma has no force.

·        Supramental Being is the next species.

All the statements from 59 to 70 have been touched upon earlier in one way or another. They do deserve a longer special treatment. Even our summaries reached their core essentially.

Q-        Of course, we have taken only the central idea of each chapter while each chapter contains easily ten to twenty valuable ideas such as ‘Taste of Ignorance’, ‘No inquiry can be abandoned in the middle’, ‘Overmind exists above the mind of cosmic ignorance’, etc. Our discussing all those ideas similarly will complete the study of the BOOK The Life Divine as a subject of value.

Involution and Evolution

The Infinite, Eternal, featureless Origin of the Absolute desired JOY. Joy is the result of discovery. It is an absolute consciousness. To be conscious gives Joy even to an absolute consciousness. A greater joy is to be conscious of its sensation. Joy is a sensation of Existence which increases with its consciousness. It rises still further in sensing its existence by its being conscious of it. The joy of discovery rises to further heights when it becomes self-discovery. The Absolute Brahman, being an all-pervasive omnipresence permits no hiding place that can lead to discovery. Hence Brahman hides into Itself by a process of Self-absorption. To enable this self-absorption possible, the Absolute limits its action - an act of self-limitation. The Omnipotent Absolute conceives of this option, as there is none else to compel. With a view to enjoying by self-discovery, the Absolute goes into Itself by its own Self-Conception. Going into such a hiding is involution and evolving back to its origin is by spiritual evolution, together forming the entire world of creation.

The unmanifest Absolute outside Time and Space manifests in the dualities of Sat and Asat losing its unity which is beyond mental conception. The act of hiding demands a process of lesser means; hence unity chooses division of dualities. The principle of dualities finds four or five further extensions as differentiation without division - Sat, Chit, Ananda - as objectivity - the subjective Sat becomes the objective Satyam, Truth - as cosmic creation where the One Being changes by division into Many beings, as planes of existence of Time and Space by another subjective-objective extension, as the three aspects of Atma, Purusha, Ishwara intelligible to the Mind, Overmind and Supermind and as the Spiritual Substance of which the world is a creation as the experience of Sat in objectivising Himself. Sachchidananda objectivises itself as Satyam, Jnana, Anantam known as Supermind or its nature or its self-comprehension. These extensions of Sat are the first cosmic exercises in the Brahman trying to hide within Itself. Manifestation of Sat is the beginning of forgetting the Origin, thereby creating the original Ignorance. Assuming the duality of Sat as well as Asat, the Origin lost its unity, being another expression of losing its attributes, if it can be so called.

The process of seeking Ananda, Joy, continues when the Supermind splits into the Timeless comprehending Supermind and the apprehending Supermind in Time. The unity of the nature of Sachchidananda divides into Timeless and Time eternities.

The other ‘attributes’ of the Absolute or at least Sat are Truth, Goodness, Consciousness, Power and Love. The hiding of the Eternal must continue by losing its Truth in falsehood, Goodness in evil, Consciousness in ignorance, Power in inability and Love in insensibility.

The One becoming the Many by the dividing action of the Mind creates Cosmic Ignorance by forgetting the One. The Many imagining an individuality of its own creates the separative Ego which is egoistic Ignorance. The Timeless going into the processive succession of Time is the way in which Temporal Ignorance is created as the Timeless by a self-choice binds itself by Time. Mind that emerged when the Supermind split brings the Being under its greater hold when it is denied access to other worlds than the Mind in Time on the surface being. Consciousness chooses to confine itself into one part of the being, thus creating the constitutional Ignorance of the divided parts of the being. Its power is further abridged. Mind born between the two parts of the Supermind looks at the Spirit through its senses to find the Spiritual Force as Material Force out of which Matter is created by division and aggregation. The insensible Matter loses Love.

So much is covered by Book I of The Life Divine. This is involution. Evolution consists of two parts. One describes the process of creation of Ignorance and how knowledge emerges out of it. The Spirit that emerges out of knowledge evolves through several births and undergoes a transformation till the Supramental Being is born. The Book ends describing his life as Divine Life.

Chapters 1 to 4 of the second book emphasize the totality of the Being which is seen by the human mind variously as parts. The Positive and Negative parts of the Whole Being are mistaken as two parts by the partial mind of man. Brahma, Purusha, Ishwara are three aspects of the One Self-Conscious Being which mind takes as three distinct parts. The Transcendent, Universal and Individual are again three poises of the Being seen by mind as three different parts. The Indian tradition considers that the world is created by Brahman, a god of the Overmind. Others hold that Time created the universe. Chapter I answers the scientists and materialists as well as the Vedantins declaring the universe has been created by God becoming the universe and not by an extra-cosmic God. Here He declares that the mind cannot have created this world of unity in multiplicity, it being an instrument of division. So, seeking the answer in Supermind, HE shows it is the Supermind that created the world.

This part of the Book, apart from describing the wholeness of the Being in four chapters describes the four types of knowledge and how Ignorance is perfected in the surface being. He goes on to show that the Ignorance that is a simple contrary by a perverse turn becomes a complex evil.

The last part of the Book (Book II, Part II) is devoted to the Spiritual Evolution after the knowledge has emerged out of Ignorance. The ignorance of considering either the Jivatma or the Paramatma final is shed when one knows Brahman, which includes both, is the ultimate. The next chapter speaks of life that expresses this Reality, not other versions of it as synthetic life. The unity of the subconscient and the Superconscient is achieved in Man in himself and it is raised to its perfection above by an ascent. This move is completed by the seven Ignorances transforming into seven knowledges. Thus the purified knowledge releases the spirit, which evolves through many births. Thus man is born. His own body which is to be shed when not able to sustain the further evolution of the spirit is itself capable of evolving the spiritual being inside, thus avoiding the necessity of rebirth. The evolved Spirit undergoes transformations at three levels psychic transformation, spiritual transformation and supramental transformation. The Ascent towards Supermind stops when the process meets with the subconscient dark imperative awaiting the descent of the Superconscient. Only its luminous imperative can handle the dark imperative. Thus the Supramental Being is born. His life is Divine Life. Man realising himself as not Mind but Supermind becomes conscious, universal, full, powerful and then moving inwardly, realises the Supermind he is. The only method that can achieve it is transformation which can be reached by surrender.

The first eight chapters of Book I serve as an introduction that draws our attention to the various contradictions in the human being and outside him in the universe and the subconscient. All these originate from ego, the parent of contradictions.