Thoughts and Aphorisms 19-20

19. When I had the dividing reason, I shrank from many things; after I had lost it in sight, I hunted through the world for the ugly and the repellent, but I could no longer find them. 20. God had opened my eyes; for I saw the nobility of the vulgar, the attractiveness of the repellent, the perfection of the maimed and the beauty of the hideous.   [Sri Aurobindo: Thoughts and Aphorisms]    In the normal human consciousness, reason is mainly analytical. It divides, creating 'opposites' : good and bad, virtue and sin, beautiful and ugly, and so on. In every realm of thinking, normally these opposites come into play. Only in some highly rational thinking, there may be attempts of synthesis. Surpassing thesis and antithesis, there is synthesis. But by a purely rational approach, man cannot experience the synthesis, he can only have an idea of the synthesis, a probability, or a future possibility. To have a true synthesis, Man has to transcend mind.   As long as Man lives with a dividing reason, he sees the ugly and the repellent. And he shrinks from them, hates them, avoids them. But when Man transcends the mind, he grows into a different Man, one with a higher consciousness, when nothing is ugly to him any more, nothing is repellent, for he sees the Divine in everything. Even behind what Man thought or found to be ugly or repellent, he then finds the Divine, the All-beautiful. Behind everything and the world and even behind himself, he finds the principle of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sachchidananda, the Supreme Divine, which the principle of the Supreme Beauty, as The Mother has expressed.   Man in the ordinary consciousness has an Aspiration for Perfection, in spite of the fact that he finds himself to be surrounded by imperfection. But this very urge for Perfection often impels him to shrink from what he finds to be ugly or what repels him. Whatever is short of Perfection, that may offend his Aspiration and he may avoid it or evade from it, shrink from it. But when mind is transcended, he finds the Divine within and everywhere — and the ugly is no more in his sight and nothing repels him. For, when "Sarvam khalvidam Brahma" [All is indeed Brahman], what is then ugly and what is that repels?   OOOOO   Even if there is lot of imperfection in all respects presently on earth, things will certainly change, even when a group, a small collectivity, will become successful in realizing and manifesting the Divine Consciousness on earth. And such will be result of the Supramental Manifestation, even in the beginning stage. Then, the outer imperfection and ugliness and all that repels will be transformed, with a Divine expression. The Supramental Consciousness will enlighten the entire earth, and there will be the Supramental Light touching "the roads of mind" as foreseen by Sri Aurobindo.   A divine harmony shall be earth's law, Beauty and joy remould her way to live: Even the body shall remember God, Nature shall draw back from mortality And Spirit's fires shall guide the earth's blind force; Knowledge shall bring into the aspirant Thought A high proximity to Truth and God. The supermind shall claim the world for Light And thrill with love of God the enamoured heart And place Light's crown on Nature's lifted head And found Light's reign on her unshaking base. A greater truth than earth's shall roof-in earth And shed its sunlight on the roads of mind; A power infallible shall lead the thought, A seeing Puissance govern life and act, In earthly hearts kindle the Immortal's fire. A soul shall wake in the Inconscient's house; The mind shall be God-vision's tabernacle, The body intuition's instrument, And life a channel for God's visible power. All earth shall be the Spirit's manifest home, Hidden no more by the body and the life, Hidden no more by the mind's ignorance; An unerring Hand shall shape event and act.                             [Sri Aurobindo: Savitri : Bk XI, Co I]   Barindranath Chaki 27-09-2009 [Simultaneously published in Sulekha, All choice and ASPIRATION Barindranath Chaki 27-09-2009