Ascent and Descent

Sri Aurobindo says that in the past the Avatars came down to reveal the divinity, not to work for this transformation. Mother and Sri Aurobindo are the first to come to work for the evolution here on earth. They did not come just to show humanity that there is a higher reality. They came to speed up the evolution. They took birth in human bodies to bring the Supramental down into the world. They called the Supramental Force down into matter. They came to do the yoga for humanity. In the tradition, so far man has been seeking the Avatar. This is the first time that the Avatars have come seeking man.

A time can come in the development of a country when the government realizes that the people are not there just to pay taxes, that the government is there to develop the country for its people. That is the big difference between the British Raj and the Indian rule after Independence. During British rule people were only there to support the government. After Independence the government knew it was there to help the people. That is the difference here. Until now, the people were there to seek after the Avatars, but now Mother and Sri Aurobindo have come to seek after man.

Sri Aurobindo speaks of the stages of ascent from human consciousness. The first stage is moving from the mind to the higher mind. The higher mind is the mind of silence. In the mind we know by thought, in the higher mind we know without thought, in silence. Above the higher mind is the illumined mind. In the illumined mind, we know by light, by vision, we SEE the reality. Above the illumined mind is the intuitive mind. This is where we know by intuition, an intuition coming from outside and giving us the knowledge. And finally, in Supermind we know by intuition that comes from inside ourselves, because the whole world is within us. We know by identity. So we bring the psychic forward, and then we rise through the higher mind to the illumined mind to the intuitive mind to the Supermind.

In the traditional yoga, each time we go up a step, we go further away from life and the physical world. But in this yoga, each ascent to a higher plane of consciousness is followed by a descent that brings down the higher power into the lower life. It is a double movement: for every ascent, there is a descent. We rise to the higher and the higher comes down to change the lower. In the final stage, the psychic ascends to the Supramental and at the same time, the psychic descends into matter, bringing the Supramental into matter. When the Supramental force in the psychic transforms matter, the psychic being becomes the Supramental being. So the psychic, that soft, whispering voice behind the heart which can gently guide us now, is destined in the future to become the Supramental being in each of us. That is what we are here for. That is the opportunity we have in every act on the surface of our being, to help that psychic evolve as the spirit in life.

Stages of Ascent