Thoughts and Aphorisms 6A

Discussions on Thoughts and Aphorisms

6. Late, I learned that when reason died, then Wisdom was born; before that liberation, I had only knowledge.
7. What men call knowledge is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees. Reason divides, fixes details & contrasts them; Wisdom unifies, marries contrasts in a single harmony.

(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)

(Continued from 12-07-2007 )

We have seen that as said by Sri Aurobindo, Reason had to die for Wisdom to be born. And The Mother has said that Reason must no longer be the summit and the master. Reason’s death gives us liberation, a freedom, which can give us Wisdom.

However, in surpassing Reason, in abandoning Reason, we have to be very cautious and conscious.

The Mother says : “…do not be in a hurry to abandon reason in the conviction that you will attain to Wisdom, because you must be ready for Wisdom; otherwise, by abandoning Reason you run a great risk of falling into unreason, which is rather dangerous.”

Those, who imagine that they can make progress in sadhana without sufficient and rigorous self-control, have been warned by The Master and The Mother. Their false belief of self-sufficiency will lead them to “a dangerous imbalance” and all passions and desires which are suppressed, repressed, hidden or secret in our darkness, will come out in the open. And we will have the erroneous belief we are freed and liberated from “ordinary conventions and ordinary reason.”
You can attain liberation and freedom, The Mother says, only when you rise and ascend to an altitude, a height above the human passions and desires. We shall have to rise above our selfish attitudes and desires and impulses and passions. This can be done a rigorous self-mastery, resulting into an ascension into the higher levels of Mind and consciousness, above our ordinary mind. You can be free and liberated only when you attained to a higher selfless consciousness, above all passions and desires and impulses.

But those, who are very reasonable and believe firmly in the ordinary social laws of morality, cannot say they are really wise, for, The Mother says, their wisdom is an illusion and it lacks the profundity of Truth. Truth is far above ordinary social and moral laws.

However, one cannot ordinarily break or ignore these social and moral laws or rules or conventions, or despise them. For doing that, we must be above them.

The Mother says :
“One who would break the law must be above the law. One who would ignore conventions must be above conventions. One who would despise all rules must be above all rules.”

And our aim and motive should not be a personal, egoistic freedom and liberation, for satisfaction of our desires and ambition, for the sake of glorifying and aggrandizing our egoistic personality. One should not have a feeling of superiority, with contempt for others. One need not think that one is above the people and above law.

The Mother says : “Be on your guard, when you feel yourself superior and look down on others ironically…”

Sri Aurobindo speaks of a true Wisdom, where there is nothing higher or lower, where there is no egoistic superiority. There is hierarchy of consciousness, of nearness and surrender to the Supreme.

Ordinary human consciousness, ordinary human reason, ordinary human knowledge cannot understand this hierarchy. For understanding this, ego has to disappear. When the true Wisdom ushers in, ego disappears, as the soul is awakened.

The Mother says :
"Only the awakened soul recognizes the awakened soul, and then the sense of superiority disappears completely."

For this to happen, what is required of us is a total surrender to the Divine, the Supreme — as is said by The Master and The Mother.

[Continued]
Barin Chaki
23-09-2007