Discussions on Thoughts and Aphorisms

Around 1913, Sri Aurobindo wrote 552 aphorisms in a notebook. In 1915 - 1916 he published ten of them in the monthly review Arya. They form part of Thoughts and Glimpses. Of the 542 aphorisms, two are classed as additional aphorisms. The remaining 540 aphorisms form the book Thoughts and Aphorisms. The aphorisms were written in nine groups, three of them are headed as Jnana, three as Karma and three as Bhakti.

The Mother has written commentaries on Thoughts and Aphorisms. Hence any other attempt by any other person may seem unnecessary. Yet it appears a necessary step to bring these enlightened and enlightening thoughts to discussion, so that the Light may touch us.

Hence, we begin these discussions.

1. There are two allied powers in man; knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is so much of the truth seen in a distorted medium as the mind arrives at by groping, wisdom what the eye of divine vision sees in the spirit. (Sri Aurobindo)

Both Knowledge and Wisdom are allied powers in Man, and both are fighting Ignorance. However Knowledge belongs to Mind, and Wisdom belongs to Spirit, or the Divine Consciousness. Man and Mind is in ignorance, surrounded by Darkness and Ignorance. But the evolutionary spirit in Man, in Mind, questions the manifested existence around, wants to know the Reality, know Truth. But Mind gropes in darkness, advances through senses and the Reason. Mind wants to know and obtains knowledge through a great effort. But it is not complete, not final, and is rather distorted, due to the medium through which this knowledge is obtained.
The mental consciousness is the distorted medium, though it may be an essential medium for Man for raising himself from darkness and ignorance. We know that mind gropes through darkness, in order to know. We commit mistakes and by the method of trial and error and experiments come a workable knowledge.

The Mother says : “... this is not the true knowledge, but only a mental aspect of knowledge; whereas Wisdom does not at all belong to the mind, which is altogether incapable of obtaining it, because, in fact, it doesn’t even know what it is.”

Wisdom, thus, does not belong to the ordinary mental plane. It belongs to the Spirit. Wisdom comes with the spiritual consciousness.

When Man unveils his psychic being, and then advances through the different layers of the Superconscient planes — from the Higher Mind to the Overmind — and when Man touches and ascends the Supramental Plane, Wisdom grows in him, and guides him.
But we should always remember that Knowledge and Wisdom are allied powers, both necessary for him in his journey of life.

Barin Chaki
20-02-2007