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Thursday, March 11, 2010

The New Race

Undoubtedly, India is the oldest civilization that is still living. And it will live on, as the very essence of India’s message is to lead the World, lead the humanity towards the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Realization.

But what will lead the humanity and the World to the grand and brilliant Future is not the geographical India, nor the historical India, as it is known externally, but the very true inner Spirit of India.

India has the Message: Thou art That, tattvamasi. The Divine — Sat-chit-ananda [Sachchidananda], Existence-Consciousness-Bliss — is within each of us, the human beings. Indeed, the Divine is everywhere, in all things. All that is, is God. Sarvam khalvidam brahma. The Divine is the only thing that exists, in essence and That has become the Many. He is the Supreme and He (or She, as you like it) is in all. He is in all and He is All. These are not merely words or simple ideas, but the expressions of Truth.

But it is a latent Truth. In the present level of Consciousness the human beings are in, this Idea may seem to be a Hope only, or a lofty Imagination, or a Dream, or for some, a “so-called” Truth, something, practically “meaningless”. And to some, where the height and depth of imagination and thinking is not sufficient and who live only amid what senses give us, this may even seem to be some sort of joke. Indeed, I received such a comment in some of my writings!

The Task before each human being, truly, is to realize this Truth, within his or her inner Consciousness, in a Consciousness deeper than our presently active consciousness, within the heart-centre (of course, not the physical heart).

That is the Message, or the beginning of the Message, that India is to give the World.

OOOOO

Tattvamasi or Thou art That is Vedic Truth. And that is also the Message of Sri Aurobindo. The Vedic truth is there on earth since, at least, last twelve thousand years, as some scholars have said. It may even be earlier.

The Idea of “Tattvamasi” is in India since then, and some persons have lived to realize this Truth, but they have taken the Path of Moksha. For some, the Realization was of a “Nothing” that is beyond all and they have taught was about Nirvāna.

But the majority of the people lived and remained in the ordinary external consciousness, and even if some of them had borne with them the Idea of “Tattvamasi”, they did not do much to realize the Truth and progress with it. There were some spiritual Masters who tried their best to lead the people to the Realization, but the people remained in semi-darkness, as usual.

But the ordinary human consciousness has continued to live with Mind, partly enlightened with Reason and Ethics and half-open Love, and they continued to live with animal passions and ignorance and upheavals and activities moved by blind forces.

OOOOO

Human Aspiration, in spite of all the Ignorance and Darkness and Denseness, cannot be satisfied fully with the opening of the Psychic Being. Of course, the Psychic Opening is a must for the human beings. That is the Gate of the Divine Becoming. But that is not all. Man has to go further and transmute his nature, following the Nature’s deepest and highest indications and urges, which follow the Will of the Supreme towards His own Manifestations — on the Way of the Next Evolution. The Psychic is then liberated from the Darkness and Denseness and Inertia and Ignorance, but those will still continue in the human being, in the human body and the lower vital and the ignorant mind, even after the Psychic Opening! Sadhana or spiritual discipline may have a great control and mastery over all these elements in the human existence, but they remain as they originally are. The body must be purified and liberated from Tamas; the vital being must be purified and liberated from Tamas and Rajas; the human mind should not only be purified and protected from Tamas and Rajas, but must also be transmuted to go beyond all its present limitations and blind habits, including the limitations of thought and reason. The form of body-life-mind must be freed from Ego and its tentacles and must be attuned to the Psychic Consciousness and transmuted by Its Consciousness and Light and Force and Joy.

OOOOO

According to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Moksha or Nirvana is not the Task before us, though that may come on our way. We need not or should not return to the Origin. Nor should we continue as the ordinary human beings, immersed in the clay and mud of Darkness, Ignorance, Inertia, in the blind animal nature and activities, in the lower vital passions and movements, in the atmosphere of jealousy, hatred, betrayal, enmity, clashes and feuds. Man has a long march ahead to be taken up, so that the new Supramental Race reigns upon earth. The Goal, as taught by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, is to evolve into a New Being, the Supramental Being, as the New Consciousness, the Supramental Consciousness, has already descended on earth and has been active by now.

The human beings have emerged with the mental consciousness and he ought to realize and live and manifest the higher realms of the principle of Mind, from the plane of the Higher Mind to the highest mental principle of the Overmind. And then, he has to progressively march ahead towards the Supramental.

OOOOO

In the Way of living, as taught by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, the Realization of the Psychic being is the beginning, but that is not the end. As it has been said, Man has to surpass himself, but not into Moksha or Nirvana, not into the Origin that was there before the beginning of the evolutionary process of becoming. As Sri Aurobindo has said, Man is transitional being. He is neither the Goal nor the highest height of Evolution. Evolution began with the emergence of Matter and will continue till the Sachchidananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, the Supreme, manifests itself physically into a collectivity of the Divine Beings, into the Divine Race, the New Race.

After the Realization of the Psychic, after the Realization that I am He, Man has to change his Mind and Life and Body with the Psychic Light and Consciousness and Force. Not only he has to transmute his outer mind and life and body, but also the inner mind and life and body shall have to be changed. This is what Sri Aurobindo labels as the Psychic Transformation, which is the first step of the Triple Transformation needed for the Ascent of Man into the Supramental Being.

As it has said earlier, after the Psychic Transformation, there begins the journey through the different levels of the principle of Mind — the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the Intuitive Mind and the Overmind. Man has to ascend these heights of the higher levels of Mind, which far above the present ordinary human mind.

However, thereafter, Man has to surpass the principle of Mind altogether and ascend to the still higher realm of Consciousness and Force, the Supermind. Having ascended the Supramental Consciousness, Man reaches the final stage of his Journey, whereby he can fulfill the Task of the Supernature in the new and the next step of Evolution on earth.


[Continued]

Barindranath Chaki

11-03-2010


[Published simultaneously in ASPIRATION and All choice.]

Barindranath Chaki

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