SUPERMIND AS THE CREATOR

Mind formulates ideas, but lacks the capacity to convert all of its ideas into realities because knowledge and will are separate and distinct faculties in mind. Mind may know something but lack the will to realize it or it may will something and lack the knowledge of how to accomplish it. Supermind creates by the Real-Idea that possesses the inherent power to realize itself in manifestation. By Real-Idea, Sri Aurobindo means an idea which has the full power to realize itself. Chit is both knowledge and will. In Supermind, knowledge and will are one and united. Whatever Supermind knows, it has the power to effectuate. Whatever it wills, it possesses the complete knowledge necessary for effectuation. The Real-Idea is a power for accomplishment. That is the force you invoke when you call Mother. Hers is a power that has an inherent capacity to fulfill itself. The Real-Idea is a vibration of Being, Sat, that becomes whatever it wants. When the Self-conscious Being has the Real-Idea of OM, it becomes the vibration of sound in the universe, and then the whole universe emerges out of it.

Sri Aurobindo calls Supermind the Truth-Consciousness. For us, when something is true, we mean it is not a lie. But by Truth, He means much more than that. Once a messenger, Nandini Satpathi, came to Mother with a message from Indira Gandhi, and told Mother the message. Indira had said what she thought was true about a certain political situation. And Mother said, “What is true for Indira and for Nandini is not truth.” For most of us truth is a very relative thing. Most of what we call true is very much bound by culture and values. What one country considers beautiful or desirable is not necessarily so in another country. So also, our standards of truth are relative.

There is a marvelous story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about a brave and honest army captain during the Napoleonic wars. He was a wonderful man who would do absolutely anything that was asked of him by his superior officers. Once Napoleon summoned him and asked him to carry a very important message back to the army post in Paris following a particular route. The captain asked, “If I encounter the enemy, should I choose another route?” Napoleon said he should not disobey instructions under any circumstances. He must only follow this particular route. So the Captain left and found out that the route he was told to follow went right through the middle of enemy territory. The enemy could never imagine one of Napoleon’s soldiers trying to ride right into their midst, so they were unprepared. This man was so brave and so bold that he rode right through the enemy camps. He moved so quickly that before the enemy could do anything about it, he had already gone by. He reached Paris, delivered the message and rode back again to meet Napoleon in the South. When the Emperor saw him, he said, “What are you doing here?” The captain replied, “Your Majesty, I have followed your instructions, I have gone through the route, reached Paris and delivered your message.” Napoleon said, “You fool! I wanted you to be captured! Do you think I would send you right into the midst of the enemy like that if I wanted that message to safely reach Paris? That was a message I wanted the enemy to intercept!” The captain replied, “Your Highness, if you had wanted me to be captured, you should have told me to get captured.” The man was so loyal that he never thought of questioning the Emperor’s motives. And he was so brave that he could not be caught. His blind obedience, unshakeable courage and self-sacrifice carried a power of truth.

Unquestioning obedience is often not a trait that we appreciate today. In World War II if a Japanese pilot was told to go crash his plane into an enemy ship, he did it as an act of heroism. Today we would say it is an inhuman act. Our values have changed. Most of the things that we consider true or valuable today, were not considered so a little while ago, and will not be considered that way a while later. During the 1970s if a young man after passing out of college in India said he wanted to start an industry, his parents would weep. They would want him to take a government job. Truth then meant being a government employee. Today any mother would be proud to say her son is an industrialist. These are all relative truths. The truth we are looking for is something universal that applies to all cultures and to all times. Sri Aurobindo calls that Truth the Supramental Consciousness.