Thoughts and Aphorisms 10A

10. My soul knows that it is immortal. But you take a dead body to pieces and cry triumphantly, “Where is your soul and where is your immortality?”

(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)

The vision and experience of soul alone can lead us to Truth.
And we have seen earlier what the soul is. The Supreme is the Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, as I have earlier told. He exists. He is eternal Existence, and seems even to go beyond and become Non-Existence, beyond the understanding of any manifested existence. As Sri Aurobindo has rendered from Taittiriyopanishad, “In the beginning all this was the Non-being. It was thence that Being was born.” He has further stated: “But, still, there is the absolute withdrawal, there is the Non-being. Out of the Non-Being, says the ancient Scripture, Being appeared.” [The Life Divine: Reality Omnipresent]

The possibility of Non-Being may lead one to reason that the ultimate reality is, therefore, a state where there is no manifestation, no universe, and ultimate truth leads one to Nihil, Nirvana. The question arises, as Sri Aurobindo puts it, “… does not the Non-Being, at least, as primal state and sole constant reality, negate and reject all possibility of a real universe?” And this may lead to the confirmation of the stand of certain schools of thought that Nirvana or a similar solution is the correct and only Way.

Sri Aurobindo has also answered this question. He says: “Non-being is only a word.” He says that the concepts of an absolute non-existence and of the infinite Self of Being are both the ideative formations of Mind. He says further: “We erect a fiction of nothingness, in order to overpass, by the method of total exclusion, all that we can know and consciously are.”
Thus, Existence is the Ultimate truth — Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.

In the Universal mode, He is the Creator of the Universes, and is one with them and also above them. He is the Manifestation, and also He is the One who manifests. The entire Manifestation is He. It is His Leela, His Play. He is both beyond it, and within it, and in each atom, each living being.

And Individuality is also an aspect of the Manifestation that Existence-Consciousness has become. The Supreme Consciousness has manifested Himself in and through all the individual beings. The Existence-Consciousness became many, and each of the many is a Soul. The Soul is the individual aspect of Manifestation. A soul, which is termed the atman in Sanskrit, is a part and portion of the Supreme Consciousness, the Divine — a part who is one with the Whole, who can be the Whole also, who can unite with the Whole.

The Soul is originally and can become, through Realization, One with the Supreme Consciousness. It is thus, in truth, immortal and eternal, beyond Death. The body, which is subject to death, is an evolutionary condition and is subject to Transformation and change.

[Continued]
Barin Chaki
28-04-2008
Written earlier and published in Sulekha (http://www.barinchaki.sulekha.com/) on
04-04-2008.

Thoughts and Aphorisms 9

9. What the soul sees and has experienced, that it knows; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion.

(Thoughts and Aphorisms: SriAurobindo)

The vision and experience of soul is alone the true and real knowledge. Whatever is other than what the soul has seen and experienced is only an appearance. It is something that appears, a phenomenon, a semblance, a purely external and superficial aspect of a thing — as opposed to something as it is in itself, independent of the mental reasoning and judgment and discrimination. That which is not as per the vision or experience of soul is a prejudice, which may be an opinion, idea or judgment formed without sufficient knowledge or examination of the facts, a sort of a preconceived preference or idea .

Thus, according to Sri Aurobindo, whatever is seen or understood by the ordinary mind is not real knowledge. Truth is seen and experienced by soul alone. Soul alone knows Truth, the ordinary mind or the vital consciousness does not know.

What is soul, as defined by Sri Aurobindo?

The Ultimate Reality is the Infinite and One Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, whom we name as the Brahman, the Divine, and God etc. He has three aspects, the Transcendental, the Universal and the Individual.

In the Transcendental mode, He is above all manifestation, above all the Universes, all the worlds. He is the Supreme Divine, the One, Indivisible, Infinite, Pure, and bears the eternal consciousness in Him, above all Time and Space.
The Supreme Divine is the Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, as I have already told. He is, He is Existence, eternal existence, and can even become Non-Existence, beyond the apprehension of any manifested existence.

In the Universal mode, He is one with the Universes, though also above them and is their Creator. He is the Manifestation; He is the One who manifests. It is His Will that is manifested. The entire Manifestation is He, and it is His Leela, Play. He is both beyond it, and within it, and in each atom, each living being.

And He is also the Individual, Personal God. All the Avatars are but His Individual Manifestations. The Supreme is with His Creative Force, the Mahashakti, whom we call the Divine Mother. They are One and Indivisible, and yet They are Two in Manifestation and even above Manifestation. It is the Will of the Supreme that created the Manifestation. In words, it may be said that he thought, in the Upanishadic language: “Ekoham, bahu syama.” [I am alone, and shall become many.] The Existence-Consciousness became many, countlessly many, and each of the many is a Soul. A soul, or the atman in Sanskrit, is a part and portion of the Supreme Consciousness, the Divine — a part who is one with the Whole, who can be the Whole also, who can unite with the Whole.

In all living beings, there is a soul, who resides in the background, not easily known or realized. The soul presides over the living being, but somewhat inactively, in the background. The Soul does not generally participate in the Evolution. In the Evolution from the animals to the human beings there has been no active role of the Soul, though the Divine Will was ever active. However, in Man, there is an active part or aspect of the Soul, which is termed by Sri Aurobindo as the Psychic Being, which participates in the Evolution of Man, in the onward journey of the human being on the Path of Evolution into the higher beings, the supramental beings, towards the Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness, the next phase of the Evolution. The Psychic is not present in any other living beings.

Sri Aurobindo adopted the term “psychic being” for the following reason: “The word soul is very vaguely used in English- as it often refers to the whole non-physical consciousness including even the vital with all its desires and passions. That is why the word psychic being has to be used so as to distinguish this divine portion from the instrumental parts of the nature.”

The Presence of the psychic being in man is the Promise that one day a new and higher Divine race shall emerge on earth and shall form the crown of the Evolution, shall be the apex of the Manifestation. The psychic being is a special term and it should not be confused with the other uses of the word in general. In spite of the Presence of the psychic being, human beings are in general not yet conscious of his Goal, of his higher possibilities, of the Higher Existence on earth. But there are persons, who are becoming conscious, maybe in an imperfect way, incomplete way, but they are being conscious, growing towards the New Becoming.

OOOOO

Truth is revealed, Knowledge is revealed, only when the Psychic is unveiled. Though Soul or the Psychic is the most essential element in Man, it is mostly veiled and closed and dormant in the majority of human beings. But it has to be unveiled. The Soul has to come to the front. And then only Truth will be seen and experienced.

The Mother was asked the question : ‘How do we know what the soul sees?’ She gave us the answer : “Obviously there is only one solution : to become conscious of one’s soul.” In other words, the psychic being has to be unveiled.

Prior to unveiling of the psychic being, whatever we think we know, whatever we have learnt and whatever has come to us through observation, reasoning or intellectual speculation or understanding, all that is but a relative knowledge. When we have the question in our mind as to whether we have known our soul, that very question indicates that we have not yet become conscious of our soul, we have not yet realized the soul. When we are conscious of our soul, as The Mother has said, we have no more any such question in our mind. When we have the realization of the soul, when we have the psychic experience, we positively know it and we do not ask any question about it.

The Mother says :
And that experience can neither be counterfeited nor imagined; you cannot pretend to be in contact with your soul — it is something which cannot be contrived or counterfeited. When the soul governs your life, you know it with absolute certainty and no longer ask any questions.

Until and unless we have known the soul, and until and unless the soul or the psychic being takes up the governance of our life and existence and consciousness, we cannot really proceed further in life, and we continue to grope in darkness or twilight, as the case may be.

We have seen what the vital being [life] and the mental being [mind] can give us : half-knowledge, uncertainties, constant debates, chaos and disorder and indiscipline, differences and conflicts and wars, enmities and jealousy and violence. We have so many theories and speculations and ways — but the Knowledge is not there, the Way is lost.

If the New Race has to be here, the first requirement is that some persons must have the psychic unveiling.

Barin Chaki
18-04-2008
Written earlier and published in Sulekha (http://www.barinchaki.sulekha.com/) on 1-11-2007.

Thoughts and Aphorisms 8

8. Either do not give the name of knowledge to your beliefs only and of error, ignorance or charlatanism to the beliefs of others; or do not rail at the dogmas of the sects and their intolerance.

(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)

All that we believe in the name of our religions or sects, we regard that as Knowledge. What others believe, we think that to be an error or a dogma. Sri Aurobindo points out to us that this is wrong. We need not or should not criticize or find fault with others’ beliefs or religious faiths. This very act of ours, the human beings, the practice of mocking at and criticizing others’ beliefs, finding fault with others’ beliefs, have led to conflicts and wars between religions.
We should ever be in search of Truth, if we want to go beyond these conflicts and beyond these beliefs. We should be directly in touch of Truth, NOT by reason and logic and rational philosophy, NOT through beliefs only, but through direct spiritual knowledge, through spiritual wisdom, though Intuition and Identity, as we have discussed earlier.
As long as we are limited in the level of mind, of reason and beliefs, we shall have to stop being dogmatic and calling others dogmatic.
However, insofar as the religions are concerned, we shall have step beyond them, NOT by criticizing them, but simply by passing ahead in the Adventure of Consciousness. Our known continents are there. But we shall have to take up Adventures to find out new continents, within our inner Consciousness. We shall have to go beyond ourselves to reach and enter the Higher Planes of Consciousness, in search of Truth, to go beyond the mental and intellectual conflict and wars.

OOOOO

In Sri Aurobindo’s style of expression, one can say: Religion was the helper; religion is the bar. Religion helped men, in the earlier stages, in mastering the inborn beast in him, to channelize one’s physical, vital and even mental energy, one’s life-force towards a creative and constructive aim, the aim of knowing and reaching the Ultimate Truth, the Supreme and the Source and Origin of all beings and the Universe, to surpass the Ego and selfishness and all darkness and ignorance, to be in search of the Supreme.

Sri Aurobindo has said:
“Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased in man the light of beauty, the largeness and height of his life, his aim at a many-sided perfection; Christianity gave him some vision of divine love and charity; Buddhism has shown him a noble way to be wiser, gentler, purer; Judaism and Islam how to be religiously faithful in action and zealously devoted to God; Hinduism has opened to him the largest and profoundest spiritual possibilities. A great thing would be done if all these God-visions could embrace and cast themselves into each other; but intellectual dogma and cult-egoism stand in the way.”

Evolution — to transcend beyond the narrow and limited religious ideas, practices and dogmas that stand against the Truth. Religions have helped us in raising ourselves beyond the animal consciousness, beyond the lower physical and vital consciousness and the limited and unenlightened consciousness of the cave-man. Religions, as we understand and practise them, the backgrounds they have with them, and the differences and battles that have originated from them, cannot lead us to the supramental manifestation and transformation. We need not stamp ourselves with the narrowness and limitations that we have given to these beliefs and creeds and dogmas that we have made of what we have termed as religions.

Sri Aurobindo has further said:
“All religions have saved a number of souls, but none yet has been able to spiritualise mankind. For that there is needed not cult and creed, but a sustained all comprehending effort at spiritual self-evolution.”

Each sect and creed and religion regard their belief to be the only Truth, whereas other beliefs are stated to be errors and dogmas. The Mother has said :
“The dogmas of sects and intolerance of religions come from the fact that sects and religions consider their beliefs alone to be knowledge, and beliefs of others to be error, ignorance and charlatanism.”

The Mother has further said:
“In a general and almost absolute way anything that shocks you in other people is the very thing you carry in yourself in a more or less veiled, more or less hidden form, though perhaps in a slightly different guise which allows you to delude yourself. And what in you seems to be inoffensive enough, becomes monstrous as soon as you see it in yourself.”

OOOOO

The Mother said on April 29, 1953:
“Otherwise [if people sought for the truth], there would be no religion : there would be masters and disciples, people with a higher teaching and an exceptional experience. That would be fine. But as soon as the master is gone, what happens is that the knowledge he gave is turned into a religion. Rigid dogmas are established, religious rules are born, and all you can do is bow before the Table of the Law…. Luckily for all of you [children here], you have no religion. And I hope you will never have any, because that is closing the door on progress.”

Let us see what Sri Aurobindo has further told us in this connection :
“How much stupidity and hatred men succeed in packing up decorously and labeling ‘Religion’!
The quarrels or religious sects are like the disputing of pots, which shall be alone allowed to hold the immortalizing nectar. Let them dispute, but the thing for us is to get at the nectar in whatever pot and attain immortality.”

Sri Aurobindo said in connection with the Ashram : “The Ashram is not a religious association. Those who are here come from all religions and some are of no religion. There is no creed or set of dogmas, no governing religious body; there are only the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and certain psychological practices of concentration and meditation, etc. for the enlarging of the consciousness, receptivity to the Truth, mastery over the desires, the discovery of the divine self and consciousness concealed within each human being, a higher evolution of the nature.”

He has also said: “We are not a party or a church or religion.”

Sri Aurobindo has also stated : “I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion, new or old.”

He has stated further: “Churches and creeds have, for example, stood violently in the way of philosophy and science, burned a Giordano Bruno, imprisoned a Galileo, and so generally mis-conducted themselves in this matter that philosophy and science had in self-defense to turn upon Religion and rend her to pieces in order to get a free field for their legitimate development.”

The Mother stated, in connection with Ashram:“Here we do not have religion.”

OOOOO

The Mother’s had answered to a question related to religion:
“Q. Sweet Mother, what is the difference between Yoga and religion?
The Mother: Ah! My child. It is as though you were asking me the difference between a dog and cat.”

The Mother had further stated on religion:
( A note to a visiting Western woman who wanted to teach in a “religious school.”)
One must not confuse a religious teaching with a spiritual teaching. Religious teaching belongs to the past and arrests progress, while spiritual teaching is the teaching of the future. It enlightens the consciousness and prepares it for the future realization.
Spiritual teaching is above religions and strives towards a total truth. It teaches us to come into direct contact with the Divine.

OOOOO

The Mother has said that the Age of Religions is over. With reference to Auroville, She has specifically said that “Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.”

Placed below the oft-quoted declaration of the Mother relating to Auroville:

Auroville and the Religions

We want the Truth.
For most men, it is what they want that they label as truth.
The Aurovillians must want the Truth whatever it may be.
Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine
but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.
It is only in experience that there can be knowledge of the Truth.
No one ought to speak of the Divine unless he has had experience of the Divine.
Get experience of the Divine, and then alone will you have the right to speak of it.
The objective study of religions will be a part of
the historical study of the development of human consciousness.
Religions make up part of the history of mankind and it is in this guise
that they will be studied at Auroville - not as beliefs to which one ought
or ought not to adhere, but as part of a process in the development
of human consciousness which should lead man towards his superior realization.

PROGRAMME

Research through experience of the
Supreme Truth
A life divine
But
NO RELIGIONS
Our research will not be a search effected by mystic means. It is in life.

OOOOO

Whatever is true of Auroville, in The Mother’s view, is true with relation to the whole world. The same Truth of ‘No Religions’ is applicable to all sincere followers of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Whatever may be the Religions theoretically, we the human beings have made them means of difference and hatred and violent conflicts and battles, instaed of being the means of reaching the Truth.

Barin Chaki
04-04-2008

[Published earlier in Sulekha on 11-10-2007.]

A Response

Dear friend,

One thing is certain here, we will conquer death and go beyond it in the New World, where the Supramental will be and is being manifested.

The hope is that the human consciousness, in the Next Evolution, will have the constant dwelling in the Divine Consciousness. The Divine will fulfill the Vedic prayer: Lead me from Untruth to Truth, Lead me from Darkness to Light, Lead me from Death to Immortality.

The Divine will fulfill the Vedic prayer: Lead me from Untruth to Truth, Lead me from Darkness to Light, Lead me from Death to Immortality.



[This was my humble response to my friend in Orkut, LIGHT CANDLES INSTEAD OF CURSING DARKNESS, quoted to me from Swami Sivananda, while giving some drops of light :

One thing is certain here, everybody dies;One thing is certain here, life is uncertain;One thing is certain here, God-realisationAlone will make you immortal and happy.Therefore attain God-realisation nowThrough purity, devotion and meditation.-Swami Sivananda ]

Barin Chaki
18-02-2008

The Withdrawal 1

My soul unhorizoned widens to measureless sight,
My body is God’s happy living tool,
My spirit a vast Sun of deathless light.
[Sri Aurobindo]

They say that Sri Aurobindo passed away on 5th December 1950. Even, it is said that it was His withdrawal. Did He really pass away, away from us, from the Humanity and the World? Did He pass into ignominy and ignorance and Darkness, into Death? Did He really withdraw Himself from the Mankind, from His Work of the Supramental Manifestation and Transformation?
In 1956, one of my teachers, son of one who closely knew Sri Aurobindo and remained in the Ashram, asked me the question: why did He die? At that time, I could not explain the matter or meet the challenge thrown to me. But the question lived in me and forced me to find the answer in course of time.

Majority of the people, now and then, took it and believed and knew it as a great withdrawal of a great Person, of a great Divine Person, who endeavored to cause descent of the Supermind and Manifestation of the Supramental Consciousness and Force. Indeed, the very event was beyond human words. Sri Aurobindo’s “Withdrawal” was a necessity for the Supramental Descent on earth.

Prior to that, Sri Aurobindo was ill. His illness continued and it caused a deep concern in the Ashram. Dr Nirodbaran and Dr Sanyal looked after his treatment. The illness prolonged. The Mother told Dr Sanyal: “He is fully conscious within, but he is losing concern in himself.” Champaklal, however, asked Sri Aurobindo : “Are you not using your Force?” The Master replied : “No.” Dr Nirodbaran asked then: “if you don’t use you Force, how is the disease to be cured?” The reply was: “Can’t explain, you won’t understand.”

The reply, if possible for us, to the human question about the Withdrawal would have also been—“You won’t understand.”

As K D Sethna puts it, Sri Aurobindo was both a Pilgrim of Day and also of Night. He went to the Highest height of Consciousness and, as well, he went to the lowest of the planes of Darkness and Inconscience, in order to kindle the Light there and accelerate the Transformation of the Earth and the mankind. He had to combat with Death, so that in due course, in the Next Evolution, Death comes to an end.

I made an assignation with the Night;
In the abyss was fixed our rendezvous:
In my breast carrying God’s deathless light
I came her dark and dangerous heart to woo.
I left the glory of the illumined Mind
And the calm rapture of the divinised soul
And travelled through a vastness dim and blind
To the grey shore where her ignorant waters roll.
I walk by the chill wave through the dull slime
And still that weary journeying knows no end;
Lost is the lustrous godhead beyond Time,
There comes no voice of the celestial Friend,

And yet I know my footprints’ track shall be
A pathway towards Immortality.

[A Pilgrim of Night : Sri Aurobindo]


The Mother wrote on 9th December, which is for the mankind the mantra of rejuvenation and of starting anew from the stupefaction that resulted from His “Withdrawal”:

“To THEE who hast been the material envelope of our Master,to THEE our infinite gratitude. Before THEE who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, before THEE who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us,before THEE we bow down and implore that we may never forget, even for a moment, all we owe to THEE.”

As everybody knows, this has been inscribed on the Samadhi. This inscription has been addressed to “the material envelope” of Sri Aurobindo, but not to Sri Aurobindo himself.
Sri Aurobindo is a Being and a Consciousness and a Force that cannot die. His coming to earth was, and is, a Hope for the Earth and the Mankind, a Promise by the Supreme for the conquest of Ignorance and Darkness and Death on earth, a Dream to be fulfilled.

Sri Aurobindo did never leave us. His Presence is always with us here on earth. His “Withdrawal” was simply the act of leaving the body. The Mother wrote on 7th December 1950:
“Lord, this morning Thou hast given me the assurance that Thou wouldst stay with us until Thy work is achieved, not only as a consciousness which guides and illumines but also as a dynamic Presence in action. In unmistaken terms Thou hast promised that all of Thyself would remain here and not leave the earth atmosphere until earth is transformed. Grant that we may be worthy of this Presence and henceforth everything in us be concentrated to the fulfilment of Thy sublime work.”

The Mother has even said that "Sri Aurobindo has come to announce to the world the beauty of the future that will be realized. He has come to bring not a hope but the certainty of the splendour towards which the world is moving. The world is not an unfortunate accident: it is a miracle moving towards its expression."

Thus, Sri Aurobindo is not only a Hope, He stands for a certitude — the certainty that through further Evolution and Progress, there will come the conquest of Ignorance and Darkness and Death. He embraced Death, so that Death and Darkness and Ignorance shall be conquered on earth. The Dream which Sri Aurobindo has bought for us is positively a Future Reality.

He dies that the world may be new-born and live.
[Savitri]

He is a turning point in the Evolution, in the Next Evolution. With his Descent on earth, the New Evolution has begun. He came to earth and is here to change the Earth and bring in Joy and Life and Light and conquer Death. He made a supreme sacrifice and left His Body, so that the Way is open to conquer Ignorance and Darkness and Death on earth.

He who has found his identity with God
Pays with his body’s death his soul’s vast light.
His knowledge immortal triumphs by his death.

[Savitri]

Sri Aurobindo’s sacrifice has been sufficiently and greatly fruitful, as The Mother continued His Work, which is also Her Work, and then there was the Supramental Descent on earth on the 29th February 1956. And then began the Supramental Manifestation on earth. The Mother walked into the New Body on 17-11-1973. [Ref: The Transition— The Seventeenth November, by Barin Chaki]. There has been some progress, in the meantime, in the transition from Man to Superman. The Mother has said on 15 April 1972 :
The transition from man to the supramental being is accomplished through the overman. There may be a few overman - there are - who will actually make that transition. [Mother’s Agenda]


Barin Chaki
8-12-2007

Reference: The Withdrawal by Barin Chaki

Written on 5th December 2007
and revised on 7th and 8th .

Thoughts and Aphorisms 7

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 22-09-2007 )

In Thoughts and Aphorisms Sri Aurobindo has used the term ‘knowledge’ in a limited sense — knowledge arrived at by use of reason and the senses. It is not used to mean direct knowledge
by identity, spontaneous knowledge by intuition. It is a movement from darkness and ignorance towards the Light and Truth and understanding, but it is indeed half-knowledge, a reasoned
acceptance of the appearances which are really false. Thus what we, the human beings, generally call knowledge is not really knowledge but some false appearances which Reason has
accepted as true and real, but is not truly so. We observe whatever is or happens around us or within us and then try to classify and interpret by using logic that is somewhat superficial and is not enlightened in a true sense. We may think that whatever we see, touch or feel, by using our senses, is true, but that is not so. Because we see, touch or feel them, they appear to us through
the media of senses, and that is the reason why they are only appearances, conditioned by the senses and interpreted by Reason through some strenuous way. The senses are the veils, and Reason sees and knows through the veils and interprets by groping.

The Mother says: “Wisdom looks behind the veil of false appearances and sees the reality behind it.”

The Mother says again: “And Sri Aurobindo emphasizes that when one defines something through the superficial, outer knowledge, it is always in opposition to something else; it is always by means of a contrast that one explains what one sees, feels or touches— and one does not understand.” If we superficially see, touch or feel something and do not understand it, we are not then led to a true Knowledge, we are then at this side of the veil.

But generally, ordinarily, we cannot reach what Sri Aurobindo calls Wisdom. Appearances will always be there before us, until we go beyond the senses and Reason, until we surpass the limits of the ordinary mind, until we cross over the nature-borne ignorance. Remaining bound by Reason and the observation through senses, we cannot have the Wisdom through Intuition and Identity. We need a New Experience — of surpassing the limits of the ordinary consciousness. Till that moment, "when we want to understand something you continue to look, to observe, to touch, to taste and feel, because you believe there are no means of observation."
[On Thoughts and Aphorisms by The Mother]


And through these means you can only know whatever is there in the outer world or whatever is concerned and connected with the outer world. You cannot be aware of the Higher Consciousness or of the higher planes of existence through these present means of observation.
You shall have to use at best the logical means of deduction and induction — and continue to grope in the darkness. We shall have to surpass the ordinary mind, the mind of rational
observation. We shall have to pass behind the veil of Ignorance and Darkness and sensory appearances. And for that we shall have to go WITHIN. That is the first step, The Mother says.

[Continued]

Barin Chaki
25-11-2007

Written on 20-09-2007.

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

Discussions on Thoughts and Aphorisms 6

Thoughts and Aphorisms 6

6. Late, I learned that when reason died, then Wisdom was born; before that liberation, I had only knowledge.

(Thoughts and Aphorisms: Sri Aurobindo)

Earlier, we have seen that Sri Aurobindo has spoken of two allied powers in Man: Knowledge and Wisdom. And also, Sri Aurobindo has said that Knowledge is arrived through a distorted medium — the mind that arrives at the conclusion by groping. Wisdom is seen through the Divine Vision in the awakened person, when the person goes beyond the ordinary mental consciousness, beyond mind, and even the higher mind, towards the Overmind, and finally to the Supermind.

In this connection, it may be said that by Knowledge, Sri Aurobindo means ordinary knowledge, not Knowledge by identity. In this regard, The Mother says: “As for the knowledge of which Sri Aurobindo speaks here, it is ordinary knowledge, it is Knowledge by identity; it is knowledge that can be acquired by the intellect through thought, through ordinary means.”

Reason liberates us from the sensory perceptions and limited sensory knowledge. Reason has saved us and saves us from ignorance and superstitions. But we have seen earlier that Inspiration and Intuition, true Intuition, can give us Wisdom, which cannot be attained by Reason. Reason has its limits too. We have seen also that Sri Aurobindo has said that Inspiration exceeds reason, as reason exceeds the knowledge given by the senses.

In this regard, The Mother says: Reason must no longer be the summit and the master.

This does not mean that we should discard Reason. Reason need not disappear. Reason had and has its use and usefulness for Man and his progress and advancement. For a very long time Reason has helped us, has been indispensable for us, has remained the master. Otherwise, in the words of The Mother, one would have been “the plaything of one’s impulses, one’s fancies, and one’s more or less disordered imaginings” and one would have been also far away “not merely from wisdom but also from the knowledge needed for conducting oneself acceptably.” Reason should continue to serve its utility and purpose and to fulfill its legitimate role in the human progress. But when we have successfully managed to control ourselves and our existence, with the help of reason, we shall have then to surpass reason, not by discarding and trampling it, but by using it as a stepping stone for a higher consciousness, for Wisdom. We will then be successful in liberating ourselves from our ordinary life, ordinary mind and life, ordinary thought and vision of things. When the question of further evolution of the human race towards the supramental race comes, reason has to yield the summit to Inspiration, to the genuine Intuition, to the higher consciousness, ranging from the higher mind to the Overmind and then to Supermind.

And this higher evolution does not depend upon our choice. The Evolution will come and is on the process, as the Supermind has already descended and is working. This is the Truth.

As we know, The Mother has said —

The choice is imperative: Truth or Abyss.

If we do not accept the Truth, we will have to accept Abyss — fall and destruction. The Supernature will seek to bring in the supramental race by other means, by direct intervention. This is what The Master and The Mother have told us.

OOOO

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
12-07-2007

Discussions on Thoughts and Aphorisms 5

5. If mankind could but see though in a glimpse of fleeting experience what infinite enjoyments, what perfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what wide calms of our being lie waiting for us in the tracts which our animal evolution has not yet conquered, they would leave all & never rest till they had gained these treasures. But the way is narrow, the doors are hard to force, and fear, distrust & scepticism are there, sentinels of Nature, to forbid the turning away of our feet from her ordinary pastures.

(Thoughts and Aphorisms : Sri Aurobindo)


This evolution of ours — the human evolution — is but an animal evolution. Man is defined as a rational animal, though mostly and most of the time, human beings are more or less found to be irrational or infra-rational.

Humans, or human beings, are bipedal apes belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for "wise man" or "knowing man") under the family Hominidae (known as the great apes). [Wikipedia Encyclopedia]

And Man appears to be bound to this animal evolution, to this half-animal, half-conscious being.. He is born, and then after spending some time, he dies. The Mother says : “And … in the final analysis, the destiny of each individual is the same : you are born, you live — more or less satisfactorily — and you die; then you wait for a certain length of time, and again you are born, you live — more or less satisfactorily — and again you die, and so on indefinitely, until you have enough of it.”

In spite of all agonies, woes and sufferings, all difficulties, disturbances, diseases and death, all shortcomings and imperfections, all divisions, strife, battles and wars, all hatred, cruelty and homicide, Man is glued to this sort of half-animal sorrowful existence, closing his eyes and brain and heart, his visions and understanding and knowledge, his aspirations and thoughts and unwilling to see or try beyond it.

Leaders of the humanity — though very few they are — have tried to inspire and lead humanity beyond the situation, but the progress of mankind is too slow to go beyond.

Nature — or rather Supernature — wants Man to transcend the situation, but she wants in a different way, in her own Way. Man has to transcend himself and progress ahead in the New Evolution, the Next Evolution. beyond this animal evolution.

OOOO

According to Sri Aurobindo, there are ‘infinite enjoyments’ — endless joys and Ananda, not sensuous dissipations or egoistic satisfactions, ‘perfect forces’, ‘luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge’ and wide calms of our being’ — wide and limitless peace and calm, which is inherent in our true existence, inner and higher existence — beyond our so-called normal existence.

Sri Aurobindo says that these treasures of Joy, Force, Light and Peace have not yet been conquered in the present animal evolution of the human beings.

But if any human being happens to have the glimpse of these treasures of enjoyments and forces and spontaneous knowledge and calm and peace, then they would forsake everything and never take rest, so that they attain these treasures.

In this regard, the Mother says, ‘… if you had a total vision, however brief, you would not be able to resist the temptation of making the effort to realize it. But in fact, the total vision is exceptional, and that is why Sri Aurobindo says to us : ' "If mankind only…" '

OOOO

The Way is narrow, says Sri Aurobindo. The door is very hard, very difficult to be opened. And there are the guards of Nature : fear, distrust and scepticism. If one conquers all these obstructions from Nature, then only the glimpse is possible and effective.

The Mother says that only then, those who are ready, who are undoubtedly meant for the Realization, will have the great glimpse of the total vision of what is there beyond this animal evolution of the human beings. But these three obstacles of fear, distrust and scepticism has to be conquered. Men are fearful of leaving this present ‘rut’ of the ‘animal evolution’ — mainly because he does not know anything better and safer than and anything beyond this ‘rut’, which is also so woeful and sorrowful to him.

The Mother asks : “The fear of what? Fear of coming out of the rut? Fear of being free? Fear of no longer being a prisoner?”

The Mother also speaks about the people questioning the invaluable treasures of the higher existence and evolution: “…then you become wary, you wonder if it is reasonable, if it is true, if all that is not an illusion, if you are not just imagining things, if there is really any substance to it………”

These obstacles of fear, distrust and skepticism, of fearful doubt and mistrust, rooted in the animal aspect of our being, stand in the way. Once conquered, there will be Infinite Joy and Force and Light and Peace.

Regarding conquering these obstacles, the Mother further says:
“But I repeat, it is not fine to sit one fine day, watch yourself be, and struggle with these things inside you once for and all. You have to do it and do it again and again and continue in a way which seems almost endless, to be sure that you have got rid of it all. In reality, you are perhaps never truly rid of it, but there comes a time when inside yourself, you are so different that you can no longer be touched by these things.”

Further She says that a time comes, “when the Light is so strong that all darkness vanishes.”

In order to conquer these obstacles, this is the endeavour, the tapasyā, the sādhanā that is needed. After the endeavour is successful, the door is open and we enter the new vistas, where we begin the New Evolution.

As Sri Aurobindo has said in ‘The Mother’ (Chapter—2), the Divine is the Sādhaka and the Sādhanā. But He also says : “But so long as the lower nature is active, the personal effort of the Sādhaka remains necessary.” And as we are more or less acquainted with it, He further says : “The personal effort required is a triple labour of aspiration, rejection and surrender.”

Insofar as rejection is concerned, we are required to reject not only mind’s ideas and other shortcomings thereof, or the vital nature’s desires and demands or other movements, but also we shall have to endeavour for the “rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda may establish itself in a body growing always more divine…”

Thus, fear, distrust and scepticism have to go.

The Mother finally says :
“… I wish that you may all have these experiences yourselves. And for that faith, confidence, much humaneness and great goodwill are needed.

“Open, aspire, and … wait. It will surely come, the Grace is there.”


Barin Chaki
12-05-2007

Discussions on Thoughts and Aphorisms 4

4. I am not a Jnani, for I have no knowledge except what God gives me for His work. How am I to know whether what I see be reason or folly? Nay, it is neither; for the thing seen is simply true & neither folly nor reason.

[Thoughts and Aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo]



Sri Aurobindo says here that He is not a Jnani, that He is not a follower of the path of Knowledge. He says that He is here on earth for the Work given to Him by the Divine. He knows what God gives Him to know. And What He knows here is neither the result of reason, nor is it folly or ignorance. He sees only Truth, above reason or ignorance.

The ignorant Mind seeks knowledge, through reason. When you are in Ignorance, you seek Light and Truth, but the first instrument you have with you is reason. You try to use reason to come out of darkness. But does reason lead you to Light and Truth, to Knowledge. Sri Aurobindo tells us that “reason trembles” and it cannot directly lead you to Truth.

The Mother says : “So … the knowledge, as it can be grasped by the human mind, is necessarily knowledge in ignorance, one could almost say a knowledge in ignorance.”

The Seeker of Knowledge will then have to transcend mind and seek direct Knowledge, though Intuition and then Identification.

But Sri Aurobindo was not the One who had to pass from Ignorance to Knowledge, from Darkness to Light. He came with a Divine Work, as an Avatar of the Supreme — to ascend the Supramental Consciousness, a level of consciousness far beyond Mind, a plane of existence and consciousness not realized or manifested till His incarnation, and to bring on earth the Knowledge and Wisdom of the supramental consciousness and force, and then to bring down the Supramental consciousness to the physical level. He was a Person who had the experience of Nirvana only in three days! It generally takes a whole life’s tapasyā to have this experience, even for the blessed few!

Sri Aurobindo was and is here on earth to bring in the Next Evolution — the Supramental Manifestation on earth. And He had all the Knowledge