The Supermind and the Yoga of Works - Part 2

The Supermind and the Yoga of Works

Part 2                                

We must also keep in mind that the supramental change is a difficult, distant and an ultimate stage. It must be regarded as the end of a far-off vista. It can not be and must not be turned into a first aim or a constantly envisaged goal or an immediate objective. Considerable amount of self-conquest and self-exceeding is needed in order for it to come into the view of possibility. It is achieved at the end of many long and trying stages of a difficult self-evolution of the nature. One must first acquire an inner Yogic consciousness. It should replace our ordinary view of things, natural movements and motives of life. One must revolutionise the whole present build of our being. At the next stage we have to go still deeper and discover our veiled psychic entity. Then in the light of this psychic entity and under its government we have to psychicise our inner and outer parts. We have to turn our mind-nature, life-nature, body-nature and all our mental, vital, physical action and states and movements into a conscious instrumentation of the soul.

As a next stage we have to spiritualise the being in its entirety.  This is to be done by a descent of a divine Light, Force, Purity, Knowledge, freedom and wideness. We can do it even concurrently with the earlier stage also. We need to break down the limits of the personal mind, life and physicality. We need to dissolve the ego. We have to enter into the cosmic consciousness. Realise the self. Acquire a spiritualized and universalized mind, heart, life-force and physical consciousness. Only after passing through these processes the passage into supramental consciousness begins to become possible. Even then we have to face a difficult ascent. Each stage of this ascent is a separate arduous achievement. Yoga is a rapid and concentrated conscious evolution of the being. It can effect in a single life what in an unassisted Nature might take centuries and millenniums or many hundreds of lives. However we can not by-pass the stages necessary for the Evolution. Even the greatest rapidity and concentration of the movement cannot swallow up all the stages. It can not reverse natural process and bring the end near to the beginning. In other words, there are no short-cuts. This necessity is easily forgotten by the hasty and ignorant mind and a too eager force. They rush forward to make the Supermind an immediate aim. They expect to pull it down with a pitchfork from its highest heights in the Infinite. This is an absurd expectation. It is also full of danger. There is a danger that the vital desire may very well bring in an action of dark or vehement vital powers. They may hold out before it a promise of immediate fulfilment of its impossible longing. This is likely to result in a plunge into many kinds of self-deception. It will yield to the falsehoods and temptations of the forces of darkness, a hunt for supernormal powers. It will lead into a running away from the Divine to the Asuric nature. It will cause a fatal self-inflation into an unnatural unhuman and undivine bigness of magnified ego.

A large scale disaster out of this folly may not happen if the being is small and if the nature is weak and incapable. However it will still cause a loss of balance, mental unhinging and fall into unreason. It may also cause a vital unhinging and consequent moral aberration. It is also likely to result in a deviation into some kind of morbid abnormality of the nature. It should be particularly noted that in the Path of Integral Yoga the abnormality of any kind is not admitted. This is true even in the case of exalted abnormality. It can still not be admitted as a way to self-fulfilment or spiritual realisation. There should be no disturbance of the poise even when one enters into supernormal and supra-rational experience. The poise must be kept firm right from the summit of the consciousness to its baser levels. The experiencing consciousness must preserve a calm balance, an unfailing clarity and order in its observation. It is a sort of sublimated commonsense, It is an unfailing power of self-criticism as well as of right discrimination, co-ordination and firm vision of things. One must have an constant grasp on facts and a high spiritualized positivism. One can NOT go beyond ordinary nature into supernature by becoming irrational or infra-rational. It has to be done by passing through reason to a greater light of super-reason. This super-reason descends into reason. There it takes up into higher levels even while breaking its own limitations. At this stage the reason is not lost. It only changes and becomes its own true unlimited self. It becomes a coordinating power of the supernature. 

Based on Sri Aurobindo – Synthesis of Yoga

Pg 281 The Supermind and the Yoga of Works

30  May 2013

The Supermind and the Yoga of Works

The Supermind and the Yoga of Works

Part 1

The ultimate aim of the Integral Yoga is the conversion of the whole being into a higher spiritual consciousness and a larger divine existence. This is the vital and indispensable element in its total and ultimate aim. This means that all the individual parts of our being of life as well as all our self and nature must seek the Divine. They must enter into the Infinite and unite with the Eternal. This applies to all our parts of being like will and action, knowledge, our thinking being and our emotional being. However the present nature of man is limited, divided and unequal. Therefore he can not embrace all in one go. It is easiest for him to concentrate in the strongest part of his being. He can then follow a definite line of progress which is proper to his nature. Only rare individuals have the strength to take a large immediate plunge straight into the sea of the Divine Infinity. For most others the path will involve the choosing as a starting point a concentration in thought, or contemplation, or the mind’s one-pointedness. This will eventually lead in the discovery of the eternal reality of the Self in them. While some may find it easy to withdraw into the heart and meet there the Divine, the Eternal. While for some others who are predominantly dynamic and active it will be more suitable to centre themselves in the will and consequently enlarge their being through works. They will have to surrender their will into the infinity of Self and the source of all and get united with it. They will be guided in their works by the secret Divinity within. They will be surrendered to the Lord of the  cosmic action as the master and mover of all their energies of thought, feeling and action. Through this way they will have enlargement of their being into something selfless and universal. This will lead them by works some first stage of fullness of a spiritual status.

One thing is certain. The Path, whatever its starting point, must eventually open up into a vaster dominion. Its result is the totality of integrated knowledge, emotion, will of dynamic action, perfection of the being and the entire nature.

In the supramental consciousness on the level of the supramental existence this integration becomes consummate. At that level knowledge, will, emotion, the perfection of the will and the dynamic nature rise each to its absolute of itself. All rise to their perfect harmony. All rise towards the fusion with each other, to a divine integration and a divine perfection. This is because the Supermind is a Truth-Consciousness. In it the Divine Reality is fully manifested. It no longer works with the instrumentation of the Ignorance. It is a truth of status of being which is absolute. It becomes dynamic in a truth of energy and activity of the being. It is self-existent and perfect. There every movement is a movement of the self-aware truth of Divine Being. Every part is in entire harmony with the whole. In the Truth-Consciousness even the most limited and finite action is a movement of the Eternal and Infinite. It partakes of the inherent absoluteness and perfection of the Eternal and Infinite. An ascent into the supramental Truth raises our spiritual and essential consciousness to that height. At the same time it also brings about a descent of this Light and Truth into all our being and all our parts of nature. All then becomes part of the Divine Truth. It becomes an element and means of the supreme union and oneness. The ultimate aim of Integral Yoga is this ascent and descent.

Thus one essential object of the Yoga is a union with the Divine Reality of our being and all being. It is necessary to keep this in mind. We must remember that our Yoga is not undertaken for the sake of the acquisition of Supermind itself. It is done for the sake of the Divine. We seek Supermind not for its own joy and greatness, but to make the union absolute and complete. Our aim is to feel it, possess it, dynamise it in every possible way of our being. We have to do it in its highest intensities and largest wideness. We have to do it in every range and turn and nook and recess of our nature. It is a mistake to think that the object of a supramental Yoga is to arrive at a mighty magnificence of supermanhood. The object is also not to acquire a divine power and greatness, the self-fulfilment of a magnified individual  personality. This is a tempting thought for many. It is wrong. This is a false and disastrous conception. It is disastrous because it is likely to raise the pride, vanity and ambition of the rajasic vital mind in us. If we do not overpass and overcome this tendency, it will lead to spiritual downfall. It is false because it is an egoistic conception. The first condition of the supramental change is to get rid of ego. It is also most dangerous for the active and dynamic nature of the man of will and works. He can easily be led away by the pursuit of power.

Power comes inevitably by the supramental change. It is a necessary condition for a perfect action. It is the Divine Shakti that comes and takes up the nature and the life. It is the power of the One which acts through the spiritual individual. It is not an aggrandizement of the personal force. It is also not the last crowning fulfilment of the separative mental and vital ego. Self-fulfilment is a natural result of the Yoga. However its aim is not the greatness of the individual. The sole aim is a spiritual perfection. It is a finding of the true self. It is to have union with the Divine by putting on the divine consciousness and nature. All the rest is a constituent detail and attendant circumstance. Ego-centric impulses, ambition, desire of power and greatness, motives of self-assertion are foreign to this greater consciousness. They would become an insuperable bar against any possibility of even a distant approach towards the supramental change. One must lose one’s little lower self to find the greater self. Union with the Divine must be the master motive. Even the discovery of the truth of one’s own being and of all being are only the natural results of that movement. Same with the life in that truth and its greater consciousness and perfection of nature. They are all natural results on the Path. They are the indispensable conditions of its entire consummation. They are part of the central aim only because they are a necessary development and a major consequence.

Based on Sri Aurobindo – Synthesis of Yoga

Pg 279-281 The Supermind and the Yoga of Works

28 May 2013

The Human Aspiration

The Human Aspiration.............................Shrikant Soman...........Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo - Chapter I, pg 3-4


The peak of the human enquiry has always been the same since time immemorial. It does have its ups and downs, moments of skepticism and banishment. But is rebounds with vigour to again reach the height of enquiry. It is also the highest range which the human mind is capable of rising to. It manifests itself in various forms at different times. We can visualize it

• in the divination of Godhead,
•  in the impulse towards perfection,
• in the search after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss,
• in the sense of a secret immortality

The Vedic seers have embodied it in the ancient scriptures. This is metaphorically explained as ‘the ancient dawns of human knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspiration’. We witness this quest in these scriptures as partially reproduced at the beginning of this chapter. Thus we see : “She follows to the goal of those that are passing on beyond, she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that are coming”. (Kutsa Angirasa—Rig Veda)

We also see : “She desires the ancient mornings and fulfils their light” These mystical uttering’s have a profound meaning. It indicates the quest after the higher knowledge as a continuum in time – without beginning and without an end. It also indicates the heights of knowledge scaled in the ancient times are the same heights we are scaling again and again – there is no ‘higher’ height to be scaled. The same quest is taking in different forms and shapes. Therefore it is said : “ She desires the ancient mornings and fulfils their light; projecting forwards her illumination she enters into communion with the rest that are to come “(Kutsa Angirasa—Rig Veda)

 Today we are witnessing an explosion of knowledge, particularly with the proliferation of internet. The human enquiry is taking all directions across the globe with full vigour and interest. Inspite of having a sea of knowledge, we are still not satisfied. We have made great progress in the ‘victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature’. Interestingly, we are still getting drawn by our ancient longing after the True Knowledge hidden behind these externalities of Nature. Inspite of going to great length with our scientific discovery of the microcosm of atoms and electrons and the cellular life and the macrocosm of the stars and planets and galaxies and the cosmos, we are realizing that the earliest formula of knowledge is also its last, and that is : God, Light, Freedom, Immortality. Therefore, we, the modern age humanity, join the vedic seer Rushi Vamdeva in Rigveda, in his invocation : “Become high-uplifted, O Strength, pierce all veils, manifest in us the things of the Godhead. “ (Vamadeva—Rig Veda)

We see here that our normal day to day experience is anything but these deeper revelations of higher and true reality. Our normal experiences of life is full of strife and discord, division, violence and darkness of ignorance and selfish motives. These higher experiences are therefore appearing to be ‘abnormal’ for the humanity at large. We can hope to reach the heights by a revolutionary individual effort, in a direct and speedy manner or by a very slow progress through the normal ‘evolution’ of the humanity.

We can therefore see that the Goal of Nature in her terrestrial evolution is to realise the God in Matter. This is translated as the individual goals of :

• To know, possess and be the divine being in an animal and egoistic consciousness,

Our consciousness is an animal nature full of ego, driven by our vital desires. In this body we have to know, possess and be the divine being.

• to convert our twilit or obscure physical mentality into the plenary supramental illumination,

Our physical mentality is having only half light and is obscure. It is ‘groping’ with only hunches and trial and errors. We are living in the world of half lights and false lights. From this state we have to rise to the plenary supramental illumination.

• to build peace and a self-existent bliss where there is only a stress of transitory satisfactions besieged by physical pain and emotional suffering,

Our satisfaction and happiness is mainly based on physical sensations and emotional egoistic happiness. It is having its inbuilt counterparts of pain and emotional suffering. We have to build peace and a self-existent bliss which is independent of physical and vital sensory and emotional satisfactions.

• to establish an infinite freedom in a world which presents itself as a group of mechanical necessities,

We are living in a world of mechanical necessities. We are slave to our gadgets and equipments like mobile phones, computers, microwave, fridge, car, aeroplane, TV, Music Systems etc. While enjoying these ‘facilities’, inwardly we have to establish an infinite freedom from these ‘apparent’ necessities.

• to discover and realise the immortal life in a body subjected to death and constant mutation

The most visible condition of life as we are witnessing in this material world is sickness, morbidity and death. We have to re-discover and realise the immortality in this very physical body.

From our ordinary intellect, we are tempted to conclude that our present state of the development of our consciousness is whatever we can ever achieve. We may feel that there is a little possibility of having any further progress. If we consider the enormity of the task as mentioned above and the apparent contradiction between what we are today and what is the goal which we want to achieve, then we are tempted to falsely believe that the goals are unrealistic and never to be achieved. They are only day dreaming.

On the other hand, if we peep behind the Natures method of working out her mission, we find ‘that direct opposition appears rather as part of Nature’s profoundest method and the seal of her completest sanction.’ This is the way Nature works. We call it a miracle. The Nature only smiles and says – this is the way I unfold. She says that it is not only possible, but INEVITABLE, in her scheme of things. The sense of freedom a bird has when it soars in the sky has a direct base in the gravity, tending to pull it down. Without gravity, there is no sense of freedom. This is the key to understanding the quest of humanity and its possibility of satisfaction.

The Knot of Matter... Note 1

Life Divine........................................................Shrikant Soman

Ch 25 - The Knot of Matter

Based on Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo

Note 1

In this note we will explore the aspects of : Relation between Matter and Spirit. Are they eternally irreconcilable ? What is the fundamental reality ? The role of Space and Time. Sense perception.

Our experience in the world points towards the dichotomy between matter and spirit. We are also accustomed to believe in this division. However, it is NOT the fundamental reality. In reality, the matter and spirit are one. There is unity at the core and diversity at the periphery – a ‘differentiated unity’ we can say. Oneness is inherent in the manifold manifestations. This is not a stretched unity as a result of ‘compromise of the opposites’. Neither it is a ‘struggle’ towards unity of these eternal dissonances. It is a basic and fundamental truth at the core of all the existences.

We have a pure unity as the foundation of this manifested world. This unity manifests into variety of the worlds. There is a secret Consciousness and Will behind all this manifold manifestations emerging out of the Unity of the Existences. Consciousness - Will is the Master of these diverse manifestations. This worldly manifestation is having Matter at one end of its reality and the Spirit at the other – while both being One at its Core. Spirit is the Soul of Matter, whereas Matter is the Form of Spirit – it depends which way you look, both are the two sides of the same coin.

We are NOT denying the reality of differentiation of existence which we experience in this world. This differentiation is REAL and not false. On this differentiation is founded the ever ascending degrees of the world existence. Substance is nothing else but the conscious existence presenting itself to the sense as object. It is like the head of the snake catching its own tail ! This creates the ‘sense relation’ to the object – or rather can we say a FEELING of sense relation to the object. In other words, this relation of the sense to the conscious existence gives the ‘SOLIDITY’ to our manifested world – taking it beyond the scope of the ‘dream’ state or just an IDEA. In this sense, this world which we perceive is NOT an illusion. It is REAL within a defined framework of SPACE and TIME. The work of world formation and cosmic progression emanates from this equation. Without this sense relation, there will be no manifested World. We should remember that this substance is of various ‘degrees’ of existence. In our mundane life, we are aware of the ‘material’ substance. There are also the substance of the mind, This substance is far more subtler, more flexible and more plastic beyond our experience which is based on physical sense experience. We can become aware of this substance of the mind when we perceive the forms arising out of this substance and the action taking place in this substance – a world of Thoughts. Similarly, there is a substance of the pure dynamic life-energy – the Vital World. This substance is made of such a subtle stuff, it is way beyond finest possibility that the matter and its physically sensible force-currents can achieve. Even the Spirit is also a substance. Of course with our material sense organs we can not directly perceive the spirit as an ‘object’. Nor can we tangibly perceive it (not the mental imagination) through our mental power. Spirit is perceivable in the ‘light of a pure spiritual perceptive knowledge’. This is concept is a little bit difficult to understand at the level of our material world limited to sense and metal faculty of cognition. At this level, the subject becomes its own object. At this level, the One is beyond the dimension of Time and Space. The awareness is beyond the matrix defined by Time and Space. It is a pure spiritually self-conceptive self-extension as the basis and primal substance of all existence. That is why it is said that at this level the subject becomes its own object. It is ‘self-conceptive’ meaning it is aware of itself in its pure form without the need of the ‘instrumentality’ of the ‘sense relation’ as we have explained above. There is no differentiation of ‘subject’ and ‘object’ and the subject taking the cognizance of the object through the instrumentality of the sense in the matrix of Space and Time. The Spirit is ‘Self Aware’ and therefore it is ‘Self Conceptive’. This is in the realm of ‘consciousness’ equivalent to the Time dimension in the physical world. Similarly, the Spirit is ‘self extensive’, meaning it is beyond the limitation of Space. Actually at this level, Space and Time merge into one. Therefore, both these terms of Self Conceptive and Self Extension connote one and the same thing.

Beyond this level of the Spirit, the concept of Substance vanishes. There is no differentiation between subject and the object. It is pure Unity.