MATTER

Sri Aurobindo is the first to explain the mystery of Matter. He says that Matter is Sat. Sat becomes Matter. Matter is as real and as divine as anything else, manifest or unmanifest. Matter is Sachchidananda. The difference is that Sachchidananda is self-conscious, but in matter the spirit is involved and self-absorbed so that it is not conscious on the surface. Self-absorption is one of the great powers of the Divine, the capacity to turn in upon itself, to lose itself in self-absorption. Sachchidananda is the self-absorption of the divine in its unmanifest superconscient splendor. Matter is the self-absorption of the divine as inconscient self-oblivion. The Divine directs its infinite force and turns it in upon itself and concentrates away from the surface, plunging within itself into self-oblivion, like a stork burying its head in the sand. That is Matter. We say that matter is inconscient because we do not see any sign of conscious awareness on the surface. It does not move. It does not respond to stimulation. But the consciousness is there nevertheless, because the consciousness of the One can never be destroyed, it can only be concealed.

What is that consciousness, which is also force, doing? It is revolving around itself, focused on itself, entirely turned inward, like the eternal serpent that has swallowed its own tail. There is no sign of consciousness or force on the surface. When we look at a stone, we see only solid, immobile, unresponsive form. However, science has discovered that the apparently solid stone actually consists of millions of atoms whirling about at high speed in all directions. Each of these atoms in turn appears to be a solid object from a distance, but on closer examination it is found to consist of elementary particles spinning around the atomic nucleus at high speed. The sense of solidity and immobility is only an illusion. The atom is laden with enormous energy. Consciousness is concealed in the Inconscient, but it expresses first as Energy rather than as Consciousness. The properties of minerals and plants, including their curative powers, are expressions of that buried consciousness.

Matter is laden with consciousness that is unable to communicate and not observable by mind, which can know only the surface of things. But when we reach Supermind, we discover that matter is only form of Sachchidananda. Matter is the way in which we experience Sachchidananda, or Sachchidananda experiences itself, when it presents itself to the mind through the senses. In Supermind we are able to perceive the consciousness and force of Sachchidananda expressing in and as the form of matter. In reality, there is nothing but Spirit. Spirit presenting itself to its own self-experience through the instrumentation of the mind and senses appears to itself as Matter.