Differentiation of the One into Subject, Object & Experience

When Sachchidananda wants to manifest itself in the world as we know it, this process has to be taken further. For in Supermind, each form of the divine knows itself and all other forms to be divine, whereas in the world we live in each separate form feels itself to be separate and divided from all other forms and the world around it. Now when the Divine wants to experience itself as separate, it first divides itself into three parts or aspects. Earlier we said that Sachchidananda gives rise to eight fundamental determinants. In Supermind, these eight determinants each give rise to three aspects or expressions of itself – subjective, objective and the experience or interaction between the two. In the Comprehending Supermind the object of knowledge and subject of knowledge are the same, but the apprehending Supermind creates time and space by splitting it into three so the One as subject can experience itself as object. We have said that Knowledge is the reflection of Chit. In Apprehending Supermind, Knowledge splits into three aspects -- the knower, the object of knowledge, and the act of knowing. Similarly, Will becomes the subject that wills, the object of the will and the act of willing. Beauty becomes the perceiver of beauty, the object of beauty, and the experience of beauty, and so on. 

How One Becomes Many

·        Comprehending Supermind

– Differentiation as subject, object & experience

·        Apprehending Supermind

– Time & Space

– Purusha & Prakriti

– Three Poises

Now, perhaps, you can more fully understand the problem the Divine had in manifesting itself as universe. Love becomes the Lover, the Beloved and the act of Love. We come to the point of loving someone else and thinking they are separate from us. That is in the Ignorance. In reality all are one. How could the Divine create love when there was only Himself? First he had to create the perception of separate things to love and an experience of loving them, all of which are really himself. So love splits up, existence splits up, knowledge splits up. All eight fundamental determinants split up into subject, object and the subject’s experience of the object.

Sat’s very act of Being is an act of Creation. He creates out of himself. In the Parabrahman, there is the Self as subject, the self as object, and the act or experience of self-awareness. This differentiation of one into three for the purposes of manifestation and experience takes place in Supermind. Shakespeare knows that when he looks out through the eyes of Juliet at her lover, Romeo, as the author he does not cease to be Romeo and all the other characters. They are all parts or expressions of his creative imagination, expressions of himself. In identifying with one of his characters, he does not cease to be the others. So too, in Apprehending Supermind the Divine identifies itself with each of the forms created by Real-Idea and imparts its full consciousness to each form. Each is not only part of itself but is in essence inclusive of all the others and the whole Divine. Thus, the Upanishads say that each is in all and all is in each.

The diagrams on the next page illustrate one of the differences between Comprehending and Apprehending Supermind. The diagram on the top depicts forms or Real-Ideas in the Comprehending Supermind, where the consciousness is spread universally and pervades the entire field, including all the forms within it, and holds them all within itself as aspects of itself. This is akin to Shakespeare holding all the characters within his own mental consciousness. The diagram below depicts the same forms, but now individual centers of consciousness appear within each of the forms from which the One looks out on all the other forms and the field around it. This is akin to Shakespeare imagining how life looks through the eyes of each of his characters, while still remaining conscious that they are all forms of his imagination and all essentially belong to one single reality.

In reality, there is only one Being and it can never be divided. It can only appear to be divided. So too, there is only one Consciousness in the universe, the Divine Consciousness. It is only at the level of Force that real division can take place. In Sachchidananda, Consciousness and Force are one, they are Chit. But below that level they begin to separate. The tradition says that in the Ignorance Prakriti runs and does what it wishes unconnected with what the Purusha wants. In Supermind the force of Prakriti is the force of the Purusha. That is Mother, the Shakti of the Ishwara. Mother expresses the conscious intention of the Ishwara in Supermind. She is the force for the creation. That is why we pray to Her. That is why She has the power.