Thoughts ad Aphorisms 13-14

13. They told me, "These things are hallucinations." I inquired what was a hallucination and found that it meant a subjective or a psychical experience which corresponds to no objective or no physical reality. Then I sat and wondered at the miracles of the human reason.
14. Hallucination is the term of Science for those irregular glimpses we still have of truths shut out from us by our preoccupation with matter; coincidence for the curious touches of artistry in the work of that supreme and universal Intelligence which in its conscious being as on a canvas has planned and executed the world.
[Thoughts ad Aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo]

Sri Aurobindo, the Supramental Pioneer, has described that the word “hallucination” as a scientific term refers to some irregular glimpses of truths which are closed and shut out to us, as we are preoccupied with matter. These glimpses of truths are called “hallucinations” by the materialists, the scientists and those who believe that matter is the sole and only reality.

Sri Aurobindo enquired, with His reach in the height and depth of Consciousness, about a hallucination and found that it is subjective and psychic experience about some thing, about some truth, which does not correspond with any objective or any reality which can be sensed by the senses or which can be described as physical.

The meaning of the word “hallucination” in the dictionary is that it is an objectless perception. The meaning of the word as per The Free Dictionary is given below for reference:
1.
a. Perception of visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory experiences without an external stimulus and with a compelling sense of their reality, usually resulting from a mental disorder or as a response to a drug.
b. The objects or events so perceived.
2. A false or mistaken idea; a delusion.

It is also explained there as the experience of seeming to see something that is not really there.

According to Sri Aurobindo, reason, being bound to he experiences of the senses, shuts itself to the various aspects of truths. Many aspects of Truth are not open to “reason” as we have trained and limited our mental consciousness and perception, our reason, accordingly. But the higher aspects of Truth often cross the borders erected by our mind, limited and narrow, and we have the glimpses of Truth. But they are often termed as hallucinations by those who have the limited view and understanding.

Sri Aurobindo sarcastically remarked that “reason” is miraculous, as turns the experiences of aspects of truths as falsehood, naming them as “hallucinations”.

Similarly, as per dictionary, “coincidence” means something that is unconscious and the result of some chance. But in reality, according to Sri Aurobindo, it is a touch by the Supreme Artist, the Divine, That has designed and created this world, ‘planned and executed’ this world. The Supreme as an Artist gives often a curious touch and His Consciousness is the wonderful canvas of the Painter!


Barindranath Chaki
31-05-2009